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File 132177075255.jpg - (50.60KB , 800x600 , battlequestdis.jpg )
45791 No. 45791 ID: 1a1779

where doing it man

where MAKING THIS HAPEN
Expand all images
>>
No. 45792 ID: 7f4c74

I am enjoying this so much you don't even know.
>>
No. 45793 ID: aebc1f

fanservice, you sell-outs!!
>>
No. 45794 ID: 6f1d54

bisonyes.wav
>>
No. 45795 ID: e79d6a

Ho boy, this is gonna be awesome.
>>
No. 45801 ID: 54af1f

:D
>>
No. 45805 ID: f61b94
File 132181521724.png - (70.03KB , 600x600 , andnowatotallypointlessinterludenobodyaskedfor.png )
45805

Onboard the Senerkaharinole (lit. "Long Word")

"...weird energy signature from that planet. But, uh, there's a slight problem, captain."
"What is it, analyst?"
"Oh. Oh dear. Two groups of readings that don't match anything in the archives."
"And you're sure it's not just another two groups of unusual areeni ships again?"
"Yes sir. Oh. These groups are large. Very large."
"Well. On the one hand, first contact with new species is always important to the Alliance. On the other hand, I do like staying alive."
"Run away again, sir?"
"Yes. Run away again."
>>
No. 45819 ID: 73eb25

Vaejra: How many wrecking bars do you have? Those things are awesome. If you haven't figured it out already we think most tozols not in hiding are dead. Diplomats went genocidal.

A summary of your equipment capabilities would help us a lot.
>>
No. 45832 ID: 1444d5

I managed to scroll down just enough to see the Tozol arrival before having to run out the door, hike across London, and spend several hours lifting and moving I-beams, among other things, by hand with only the aid of a tiny dolly (I blame theatre-types and their lack of planning).
My grin managed to last all the bay there and back again. I don't have an appropriate "you're awesome!" imagemacro to convey this.
>>
No. 45849 ID: a2fa74

>>367060
The Astranians demand total control and the submission of all other species. That is SOP for inter-species interaction as shown by their long history of aggressive wars, slavery, and oppression.

Tozols are immune to psionics, and even a squad of Scellor lack the physical capacity to force themselves on a Tozol. These are concerns of no-to-minimal risk.
>>
No. 45851 ID: b79855
File 132196222613.jpg - (23.23KB , 290x290 , like_bite_does_it.jpg )
45851

>>355619
>Vaejra: How many wrecking bars do you have? Those things are awesome
Eight. Everyone carries one.

>>367105
>Do we have any inflitrator-ey types?
Yes. Eight.
>Or some way to hack into their communications and eavesdrop on what they're doing.
That's my job, and Reya's, but we have many other jobs.

>Please tell me it's the very best kind. >>/questdis/338706
Yes. We call it the Nice Gun.
>>
No. 45857 ID: 6f1d54

>>355651
What sorts of weaponry do you have on-hand at the base, and of those which are the most effective at dealing with armored infantry, and out of the eight of you which weapon does each prefer (we already know that Anak prefers his Nice Gun)?
>>
No. 45870 ID: 869052

...I feel kinda sad having noticed this, but...

>Specialist Kaselir Vrin was deployed to this planet in a hibernation cocoon packed inside her tank destroyer, part of a rushed package to let the squad dig in for the long haul. Not being part of the original unit of pathfinders, she considers herself something of an outsider, even after all these years.
>A Tank Destroyer. Kaselir nicknamed it Syel, after some old girlfriend. It's meant to have a crew of two, but can be operated by one. With so few tozols, it's Kaselir's alone, though Thaen knows how to drive it.

> inside her tank destroyer
> Kaselir nicknamed it Syel, after some old girlfriend.

> her
> girlfriend


Nice to see that space weasels don't have a 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' policy. *inb4 she gets ALL the fanart*
>>
No. 45882 ID: 784dcc

Tozols were created to be ultrasoldiers, weren't they? That would affect their combat readiness negatively.
>>
No. 45887 ID: 1854db

>>355651
Why are there only eight of you after 20 years? Shouldn't you be breeding to bolster your forces even on guard duty?

Or were there four of you initially?
>>
No. 45889 ID: c891d3

>>355687
Well, Baj was born on-world, and Kaselir was apparently a later addition to the squad, but that still leaves six.
>>
No. 45892 ID: 1e3433

>>355682
You don't need to know your fellow soldiers sexual orientation to be combat ready. Unless gays have poor night vision or something, in which case it might be useful to know.
>>
No. 45894 ID: 1444d5
File 132205060494.png - (101.85KB , 1450x1400 , heightmap.png )
45894

So, it turns out creating a heightmap & texture is far easier than simply persuading one of many programs to just apply both to a plane and render it. One of you may have better luck.
>>
No. 45895 ID: 1444d5
File 132205063298.png - (154.38KB , 1450x1400 , nokey.png )
45895

>>355694
>>
No. 45900 ID: 1c429d

>>355692
Actually it's the ones that haven't been pairing off that are suffering vision problems after 20 years of deployment.
>>
No. 45910 ID: 2563d4
File 132208462493.png - (31.13KB , 640x480 , tozols-are-no-strangers-to-love.png )
45910

>>/quest/367515
>>>what're the natural abilities of a fully capable tozol?
>...see infrared, ultraviolet, and energy signatures, hear and analyze radio...

"An antique field transmitter and a copy of Pop Hits of the '80s? What the hell are you---"
"Psyops. Very advanced."
>>
No. 45911 ID: 09ae70

"Will you cut it out with them negative waves?!"
>>
No. 45924 ID: 73eb25
File 132210890650.png - (327B , 16x16 , Battle_Quest_Favicon.png )
45924

>>
No. 45963 ID: da696f

>>355710
now i wont be able to read this quest without the GTA Vice City soundtrack playing in the back of my head.
>>
No. 45980 ID: 2563d4

Just as long as you don't start associating that soundtrack with the whole race. Flashback FM perhaps isn't the best accompaniment to Penji's adventu---

She's on fire
And she burns through the night at the speed of light
She's on fire
With the heat of the beat right beneath her feet
>>
No. 45982 ID: 6f1d54
File 132220935431.png - (116.62KB , 500x497 , ThaenSexEdTalk.png )
45982

>>355687
I'll field that one.

Without going into too much detail on our reproductive processes (I'd need a partner to demonstrate), we simply don't have enough stock for a full-scale breeding program. Normally, a female obtaining the proper nutrients and materials can bring a squealer to term in three months time. However without the best exotics, that time-span can lengthen greatly, as she's forced to synthesize materials from what's available. And on this planet, acquiring even sub-optimal materials is impossible. That's with just the eight of us, mind. We'd need more tozols to make more tozols.

We did however bring along some nutrient rations (Or else Baj wouldn't even be here) and while we probably could have produced another two tozols, that would have completely consumed our reserves. In the event of grievous injuries, or even a centuries-long deployment scenario, we'd be proper fucked.

So, in summary, we we just don't have the necessary resources.

>>355657
While I can't speak for the others, my preferred weapon of choice is a modified repeating plasma rifle I picked up on Malendira. Shame I wasn't able to bring it with me when I was shipped out here.
>>
No. 45996 ID: 806251

I imagine producing terrible, half-assed tozols with grisly birth defects like humans sans folic acid is right out.
>>
No. 46017 ID: 784dcc

Why are tozols so reliant on rare substances to fix themselves and make new ones? Were they created by a civilization at the height of luxury and interstellar mining dominance?
>>
No. 46416 ID: bdb886

>>355817
Maybe said creators wanted to be able to easily control production?
>>
No. 46418 ID: 1444d5

>>355817
Probably just simply functionality. If you want to design a creature that can sprint 150kph, you're not going to design bones made of something silly lime Calcium, right?
>>
No. 46419 ID: 806251

We can totally make a creature with impossible superhuman biology and a natural hyperspatial interdiction field out of everyday matter. No problem. :V
>>
No. 46420 ID: 806251

>>355817
Also, yes, yes they were.
>>
No. 46424 ID: 742d20

>>356218
what are a cheetah's bones made of? cobalt?
>>
No. 46425 ID: 3873fd

>>356224
And they can run at 90km/h all day, all day.
>>
No. 46440 ID: 784dcc

Specific, exotic requirements basically means "I need a supply chain for this".

I suppose the whole Diplomat thing means that the normal intermission resupply opportunity no longer exists, though.
>>
No. 46446 ID: b79855

It doesn't exclusively mean you need a supply chain. They can also be hypothetically obtained by raiding enemy supplies, looting local materials, or recycling a giant pile of RayTech equipment and dead Scellor...

A longer term solution might be to land enough guys (who don't all have to be tozols) to build up local mining and processing infrastructure.
>>
No. 46448 ID: 1444d5
File 132242990532.png - (921.59KB , 1920x1080 , rend.png )
46448

>>355694
>>355695
Not really worth it.
>>
No. 46449 ID: 6f1d54

So hey, question about the actual quest.

What exactly determines when we shift focus onto a different faction?
>>
No. 46450 ID: b79855

>>356248
Sorry I didn't make the elevation more interesting. I questioned both the need and my ability. (Hay let's make a contour map in SAI Painter what a great plan) Does anyone know a good (cheap or free) program I could use for this sort of thing in the future?
>>
No. 46463 ID: da696f

>>356250
I remember I used Autodesk Revit in my architecture class in high school to plot the topography of a build site, and i remember he gave out a site where you could download it for free, although I forget the URL. Also i'm not sure If it can cover the same area without scaling it down.
>>
No. 46466 ID: 1444d5

>>356250
>Sorry I didn't make the elevation more interesting
Ah, that's not what I meant, just that I failed to consider beforehand whether making a 3D version would really serve any purpose. Turns out it's easier to read the 2D version (hence why maps were invented in the first place. Herp-a-derp on my part).

Besides, 'create a heightmap' really meant 'flood-fill the contour lines with shades of grey and hit it a million times with the blur filter', which is why the isolines ended up not actually being iso-.
>Does anyone know a good (cheap or free) program I could use for this sort of thing in the future?
You could try Terragen Classic (http://www.planetside.co.uk/content/view/16/28/), Height Map Editor (http://hme.sourceforge.net/), or Gesesis/Landformer (http://www.geomantics.com/index.htm).
If you're just working in 2D, then drawing the contours by hand is more than sufficient and far, far easier.
>>
No. 46592 ID: 784dcc

>other than as mildly useful weather control device
>mildly useful weather control device
>weather control device
>water-susceptible Raytech
Oops. Opportunity 1 for tozols missed.
>>
No. 46593 ID: b6edd6

>>356392
The tozols don't know about the water thing. (I don't know if the Scellor know about it.)
>>
No. 46595 ID: 84b916

>>356393
I thought astranian shields protected them from that, as long as they were up?
>>
No. 46602 ID: 2563d4

>>356392
I think the whole area is supposed to be some degree of blizzard/snowstorm anyway; it just hasn't entirely come across in the art.
>>
No. 46627 ID: b79855

>>356402
Yeah, I pretty much cocked that up due to not having an easy way to draw snow blowing around.

You'd think drawing white tozols fighting mice in a snowstorm would be easier!
>>
No. 46679 ID: b79855
 

If I were allowed to vote on whether or not to do the psychic attack, I would post this.
>>
No. 46785 ID: 2563d4

>>/quest/370379
It was in fact an entirely (*cough*) serious suggestion, since I can't think of anything that'd cause a puffed-up Astranian to fly into an indignant rage faster than HONK.
>>
No. 46786 ID: f72f26

breast honking is very serious business
>>
No. 46788 ID: 5aae31

>>356586
EXTREMELY.

Also, very Scellor.
>>
No. 46837 ID: 2563d4

I don't really have time to suggest proper, but:
>she is also embarrassed and humiliated - emotions which are alien to scellor within this context
So while having the undermind all stare judgementally might be funny, it's actually unhelpful.

Likewise for remove clothes (I see where you're going with this, etc.) to some extent, plus I'm not sure---metaphors and all---if such an extensive physical action is possible without her just beating Piyerra back. (Which would be catharsic, i.e. undo our work so far!)
>>
No. 46873 ID: 5aae31

>What should be obvious is that not everyone actually WANTS the scellor to win, so people suggesting things that'd put the astranian's back up is to be expected. That said, continue honking them boobs.

Yeah uh... Pot calling the kettle black (and having since deleted my own post) but I think we shouldn't put votes in for factions we don't like trying to screw them up. I honestly thought my own post was going to be one in a sea of "strip her clothes off" even though I thought it was an awful idea, and while I was right, it doesn't make it right for me to post something seconding or thirding (Or Seventhing or whatever in this case) someone else's idea that I think will get the side I don't like in deep shit, or the idea that I personally hope will get them stabbed in the eye. For some reason I thought I'd be the only one to do it, and then I saw Z's post which seemed to suggest otherwise and made me realize "Oh shit, this ain't kosher."

So if you did make a vote intentionally trying to screw over the scellor, please delete it. If you made a vote trying to have fun and be kinda goofy, which the scellor are pretty good at, keep it there. Let's not try to intentionally sabotage opposing sides, it just ruins the fun of this quest.
>>
No. 46876 ID: 2563d4

Quite possibly the "you suggested something different from me, therefore you're trying to sabotage the quest" whining is worse than any attempts at actual sabotage, which at least has a chance to be ignored to death by the authors unless it somehow gets a majority.
>>
No. 46886 ID: 2563d4

Also:
>>/quest/370896
"You should ignore other people's suggestions because they're dumb" is pretty fucking low down on the list of shitty behaviours you can display in a quest thread (along with posting two suggestions to an update in the first place).

Try to at least keep the mad in /dis/ and not shit up the quest thread with 500 posts of hurr before the Astranians even get a turn.
>>
No. 46888 ID: 5aae31

>>356676
I'm just saying if someone did that, like I did, they should probably delete their posts, as it's not cool. I'm not proposing we organize a witch-hunt or anything, the suggestors should be able to moderate themselves on this.
>>
No. 46889 ID: bdb886

oh for fucks sake

we just wanna see psychic titties

this isn't people wanting their favourite fursona space race to win because its their favourite fursona space race, it's just plain "oh man inquest nudity". That's it. Yeeesh. You'd think an experience in Questing would tell you that instead of leaping to the conclusion that there's a god damn conspiracy or some shit.
>>
No. 46890 ID: 20f620

I'm pretty much agreed that it's standard Quest horniness at work. Eh. Gotta adjust and filter for that as it suits you.
>>
No. 46892 ID: f27b6b

Agreed. HornyQuester is DumbQuester. I too have succumbed to this foolishness. Standard ops.
>>
No. 46895 ID: 2563d4

I'm beginning to wonder if people are so desperate to go "tgchan just horny" (you'd never hear me say such a thing etc.) that they've managed to make themselves forget that honking actually worked pretty well. You are controlling a space-slut in the mind of a militant space-nun, and want to establish dominance and piss them off. What, do you think a philosophical debate with cast-iron arguments is going to be the most effective path here?
>>
No. 46897 ID: 784dcc

>>356695
>honking worked pretty well
>The telepathic link remains at its relatively low level.
It was just a sort of meh move. Not a bad move, as it asserted some dominance didn't forfeit the initiative (she's still "disorientated"), but not a very good one either.
>>
No. 46899 ID: b6edd6

>>356695
It only worked at all due to the surprise. Now that we announced our presence, we will no longer have surprise.
>>
No. 46916 ID: 1854db

>>355782
Can Tozols eat their dead to recover rare elements that they would need to reproduce?

What about mining operations?
>>
No. 46917 ID: 5aae31

>>356716
man, that's a really grim idea, but that seems like it would work.
>>
No. 46925 ID: bf6893

>>356717
It seems reasonable that eating your fallen would work, but I doubt that it would be of much good to reproduce right now. The preggers female would still be a normal soldier up until at least a few months into it, but that's not exactly going to help in the current conflict.
>>
No. 46932 ID: 2563d4

>>356699
Yes, because talking would have worked so much better with the element of surprise.

>>356697
>Net positive result
>Meh

Also:
>Removing cloak (as well as snatching knives) increases dominance, strengthens link, and gets us some preliminary intel*

I don't think you lot are just mad because quest are trying to get characters naked. I think you're getting madder because as a strategy it's working.

* ...which, admittedly, we will get in full just as soon as Astranians get a turn :V
>>
No. 46933 ID: ac8176

I'd point out that none of the suggestions said anything about using hostility against her, and that seems like an amazingly flimsy excuse to sort of force the scellor to succeed right here after all those suggestions.

Sure, some said to take the knife, but Piyerra wasn't in any position to do that last update, and how the hell does self hostility strengthen the link when that is a much stronger astranian attribute than scellor?

I mean seriously now, that felt like we were forced into winning based on a loose interpretation of a minority suggestion at best. While stripping her wasn't the best idea, the others wanted to insult her, which she didn't do in favor of going for the knife... which really should have gotten HER cut anyway.
>>
No. 46934 ID: ac8176

>>356733
Using HER hostility/hostility towards herself, rather.
>>
No. 46937 ID: 2563d4

>>356733
>I'd point out that none of the suggestions said anything about using hostility against her
You would, but you'd be wrong~
>>/quest/370675
>the knives or swords would be a great place to start, take them and use them against her. would have her own psyche be attacking her essentially.
>>
No. 46939 ID: b6edd6

>and how the hell does self hostility strengthen the link when that is a much stronger astranian attribute than scellor?
Two things:
1. Piyerra constantly argues with Raddle and is annoyed by his impulsiveness and smugness, which are traditional Scellor traits
2. The Undermind itself (the suggesters) had a massive argument about what to do, with large chunks raging at other parts of itself
>>
No. 46941 ID: 5aae31

>>356739
This seems to be degenerating into emotions that aren't stereotypical rather than emotions/concepts that are alien to either side.
>>
No. 46943 ID: b6edd6

>>356741
I don't get what you are saying. I think it would make sense that the psychic profiles are based mostly on the individuals who are directly involved in the fight.
>>
No. 46945 ID: cfa804

>Situation states that in order for the scellor to succeed, they need to get the commander to start thinking like a scellor and less like an astranian
>Astranian forced to feel self-loathing, something completely alien to scellor
>Scellor gain the advantage

Sure isn't rigged for jukashi's mary sues to prevail
>>
No. 46947 ID: 453e62

>>356745
you do know jukashi and lonelyworld talk to eachother about what could happen. they aren't making things up.
>>
No. 46948 ID: 5aae31

>>356745
I didn't want to say anything but... Yeah. That's certainly a thing.
>>
No. 46954 ID: d94b60
File 132355354039.jpg - (56.93KB , 488x452 , dilbert-sarcasm-supportiveness-difference.jpg )
46954

>>356745

The joke, see, is that the common conception of the scellor has them think of themselves as the bee's knees. So of course self-loathing is "alien". Why wouldn't it be?

This idea is of course entirely true and no scellor would ever have reason to see their species as flawed, especially not a telepath whose job is to deal with non-scellor all the time. Such a scellor definitely wouldn't ever have reason to be annoyed at their own species' lack of regard for how other species behave or think, and they would love the eternal outward cycle of expansion their species engages in to preserve the status quo of easy life for the sentient upper class. The way most scellor deal with their biggest problems by not thinking about them and expecting everything to be all right eventually is an incredible virtue for any species. And it's not like the scellor in their history of aggressive colonialism could ever have done anything bad. Nothing that would be worth remembering or feeling any guilt or shame about, anyway!
>>
No. 46959 ID: 2563d4

>>356745
>Jukashi's mary sues
I must have missed the update where the Space Doobies made planetfall.
>>
No. 46961 ID: b6edd6

>>356759
Of course you missed them. They are just that sneaky.
>>
No. 46972 ID: 5aae31
 

Radde_Calls_Ekia.avi
>>
No. 46973 ID: b738b4

>>356716
The Scellor are in a bit of the same boat as the Tozols; Their populations are both limited by access to rare resources. How much relative to each other we don't know.
We know psykonium can't be created, or at least the way it is isn't known. So recovering what's left of the Scellor dead, and any Scellor gear containing psykonium, would be an important after-action job.
What goes into getting the preferred, or even the substandard, materials that make a tozol are unknown. Undoubtedly it's a very long process of harvesting, mining, refining, processing, and manufacturing, involving rare materials to start with, to make the preferred super-exotics. So scouring the battlefield for tozol bits and bodies to be processed would definitely be easier. Grisly, but easier.
>>
No. 46978 ID: b79855

Tozols are definitely not limited in the same way Scellor are. They're not going to need to invade other species because they've depleted entire solar systems of a special gotta-have-it material.

It's more akin to having a gadget that runs on electricity but being stranded in the middle of nowhere with no electricity. You don't need to align the twelve stones of vorba after retrieving them from annoying element-themed dungeons. You just need an outlet. But you don't have one.

If, say, 100 tozols had landed, instead of 7, with the proper technical skills, they'd have probably set up enough infrastructure by now to get them everything they need to start churning out babies.
>>
No. 46980 ID: 784dcc

sort of a "rare"-earth metal thing where, while not really uncommon, you don't get concentrated deposits?
>>
No. 46982 ID: b79855

Pretty much. Plus there's also sci-fi tech synthesizing stuff.
>>
No. 46984 ID: bf6893

How's this for paranoid?
What little information Piyerra gets out of the Astranian is suspiciously vague, as if she doesn't know her own forces. Seemingly impossible for her to not know. Piyerra remarks that queen bat-bitch might be better at this than she thinks. At the same time, the link gets stronger for no apparent reason.
It's a trap. The astranian commander, Ekia, is no fool. Raddel practically told her that the scellor were going to assault her and prepared for it. That may well be the plan she was discussing when Piyerra arrived. The Astranian that Piyerra's fighting isn't really her. It's a decoy. The information is vague because it's planted there. The link is getting stronger because the real Ekia is strengthening it from psychic concealment, in preparation for her own attack.
Piyerra is expected to come in overconfident, waste her power on a decoy, and then be vulnerable to Ekia's counterstrike.
Someone tell me how I'm wrong, will you?
>>
No. 46985 ID: 5aae31

>>356784
How I wish that were true...

I'm just hoping that trying to shake her faith by trying to take the necklace makes her super duper offended, repel Piyerra and probably injure her somehow.
>>
No. 46986 ID: b6edd6

>>356784
The link increased for a moment, but went back to its previous level when Ekia retaliated with the cloak. Ekia might be a strong psychic, but I don't think she is powerful enough for a mere decoy of hers to be able to hold its own in a fight against a group of linked Scellor.
The false information part might be true though.
>>
No. 46989 ID: 453e62

also the way the psychic connection works is it locked onto HER. to make a decoy would require some INSANE skills and probably another psychic.
>>
No. 46991 ID: 2563d4

>>356786
>The false information part might be true though.
Or it might just be usual Astranian leadership incompetence, and plain old disbelief that they could be that ignorant and indifferent about their forces.
>>
No. 46998 ID: 0d7a83

>>356784
>Signal got stronger for no reason.

>>/quest/371035
>Of course, a sense of racial shame is utterly alien to scellor, so... oh, hold on. The connection has increased. Huh.

I think the joke might be that Radde is so insufferable he's managed to make Piyerra slightly ashamed of the Scellor.
>>
No. 47001 ID: 5aae31
File 132364349433.jpg - (79.76KB , 500x500 , laughing astranians.jpg )
47001

>They thought taking the necklace was a good idea!
>>
No. 47047 ID: b6edd6

(Asking because it is a thing we might know as the Undermind):
Can positive emotions strengthen the link as well, or is it only things like anger that work? This seems like a great opportunity to make our commander feel smug, a traditional Scellor emotion.
>>
No. 47137 ID: d6ae01

Due to the nature of this quest, there are going to be some suggestions that are... counter-productive. Trolling or not, they are legitimate suggestions and will not be deleted.

Have some faith in Jukashi, Testpattern, and LonelyWorld. They'll know which suggestions are serious and which are obvious attempts to help the other side.

So please don't report counter-productive suggestions as trolling. However, do report any and all hostility towards suggesters. I want to ensure this quest remains as friendly as possible.
>>
No. 47138 ID: 5bf190

>>356847

Shared positive emotions would make the connection stronger.
>>
No. 47139 ID: 4183c9

>>356937
>Have some faith in Jukashi, Testpattern, and LonelyWorld.
I don't know, man. They're kinda excessively behind the boob quota. There's only 16 days left in the month, and at this pace... Man, it doesn't look too good.
What if they don't meet the quota? It'll be horrible! You know what happens if they don't! I don't think anyone wants to see that.
>>
No. 47141 ID: 8211e6

>>356937
So, wait, the official position on this is "don't report obviously counter-productive suggestions that you are tacitly advising the authors to just ignore instead?"
>>
No. 47153 ID: 784dcc

>>356938
and shared negative emotions?
>>
No. 47157 ID: 784dcc

Well, if raytech is as water-vulnerable as it was made out to be in crashquest...
>>
No. 47158 ID: 784dcc

also, anti-Astranian, pro-scellor/tozol. allied victory?
>>
No. 47179 ID: d6ae01

Big Possibly Not That Dumb Argument moved to the BDA thread.

Please try to be more civil in here. This quest is going to cause some heated discussions, but we can still try to get along a little bit.
>>
No. 47183 ID: b79855

In case there was any confusion: Metagaming and sabotage are not allowed.

OOC sabotaging via bad suggestions, I mean. Sabotaging things in the quest with explosives and stuff is okay.
>>
No. 47184 ID: 8c0848

>>356983
Nice unenforceable rules you have there. Shame if anything should happen to them.
>>
No. 47186 ID: 5aae31

>>356984
Well it's just gonna be really unfun for all sides if we honestly make attempts to sabotage the other factions. Winning at this quest should come from making your own awesome sandcastle, not kicking over other people's sandcastles.

Yeah, it's unenforceable, but this is a pretty small group, if we discourage it in general hopefully enough will get the idea that the shit ain't cool.
>>
No. 47188 ID: 5aae31

>>356958
Also I'd like to note that there's no such thing as an allied victory here.

The scellor and astranians and tozols all want the artifact. Nobody's going to play nice or split it in two for two sides to take home. This is an all or nothing gambit, you leave with the artifact or you leave/die in failure.

Unless you're the scellor, then you are simply forced to leave with no chance of actually dying, ever.
>>
No. 47191 ID: d60822

>make a quest about factions fighting
>subset groups of /quest/ers are fans of these factions
>factionalization occurs among /quest/ers
Kinda predictable in retrospect.

>>356986
But each faction wants to kick each other's sand castles over.
>>
No. 47193 ID: 784dcc

so we'll never know if tozols have a backdoor installed, ready and waiting for the undermind! D:
>>
No. 47195 ID: 5aae31

>>356991
Well okay, it's not a perfect analogy.

Really, the core problem comes from the characters we play as being enemies when the perspective shifts. It'd probably alleviate a lot of the tension if the factions actually fought characters we don't have control over when the perspective shifts.

Like if we control Tozol Team A and really get attached to them, and then the scellor fight Tozol Team B, the people controlling the tozols won't have the specific Tozols they're following/controlling be the ones in danger of being killed with no way to help them other than sabotaging the current played faction who are not tozols.

Or for the Scellor, if we are playing the astranians and fighting Radde rather than fighting Piyerra, I think that would work too. (Though with Comfybat's popularity, I'm hoping she's the player character myself...)

Yeah, really it's the notion of control over a character being taken away from the players so we can't tell them "No, duck under there!" or "Go for the gun, not the knife you twit!" Even if it doesn't actually effect anything, if we have some responsibility in a character's death it feels better than having someone else control them and they die, even if it's the DM that knows the character best of all, or worse, allow us to blame the players for another faction for killing our character, which is just going to end in drama.

Just my $0.02
>>
No. 47199 ID: e3f578

Just started reading this cool thing.

Honestly I'm just going to suggest creating a form of apathy for battle, like one does when playing the starcraft series, in the case of Fenix. You didn't want to kill him but you did anyway to see the results of the story, that and you couldn't continue if you failed to do so. But the slight apathy is necessary nonetheless to get a good story.

Just try your best in suggestions for each faction, hope your favorite characters survive to the aftermath, and say good game at the end despite the outcome. Lord knows if cool people we liked didn't die at least sometimes there would be no tension or emotional investment, creating a poor reason to even pay attention to the work of fiction. And in here it looks inevitable. This is war you dolts, it's about death. Otherwise, why write about it?
>>
No. 47202 ID: 2563d4

>>356986
>Well it's just gonna be really unfun for all sides if we honestly make attempts to sabotage the other factions.
That's rich coming from someone who just did it.
>>
No. 47207 ID: 73eb25

Ekia, what's it feel like to be a porn star?
>>
No. 47208 ID: 5aae31

>>357002
This quest has a lot less characters than Starcraft though. Sure, there's a bunch of tozols, but we don't know any of them just yet, we only have gotten to know Piyerra for the scellor, and all we have is a few lines of dialog period for Ekia, though we can infer a bit more from her appearance and how she acts than the others.

If you boiled down Starcraft to just Raynor, Infested Kerrigan and Tassadar, and then killed Raynor and Tassadar, that'd be pretty lame. But if there's more characters introduced who are just as awesome as the ones we've seen so far, or characters that are more fleshed out in the case of the tozols, we'll just have to see what happens.

Tassadar is the only "main" character who truly died, and even he went down in a blaze of glory in the ending cinematic. It was a satisfying death, which is a great thing that so few manage to get right.

>>357002
Not following this conversation too closely, are you?
>>
No. 47209 ID: d60822

>>357008
We kind of know Comfybat too, just by virtue of how much fanart she already has.
>>
No. 47210 ID: 5aae31

>>357009
Well no, it's more that she wears robes, is referred to as a ritualist, has tubes coming out of her head and is described as a pscion, is always seen laying down with a glass of wine and seems to have very little patience for the scellor that instantly gives her a lot of personality. We can tell what sort of person she is just by looking at her and hearing a few bits of dialogue. We might not be right just yet, but we can tell a few things.

Basically, LW is excellent at character design, and I personally think Ekia and Fuze are his best in this regard. You can apply the profile test to all of his characters easily, you can look at any of them and gleam a lot of who they are just from their appearance and how they carry themselves, et cetera. Actually, I think the only one who is hard to place when it comes to first-glance appraisal is probably Zane, but she's introduced as a soldier and we learned who she was and what she was like pretty quickly in ITQ/ColonyGuard.

Looking at these characters and getting an idea of who they are is almost impossible for the tozols as we haven't seen them off duty yet, there's a whopping eight of them being introduced at once, they all wear armor and equipment that might not be identical but look very similar from afar, and they're soldiers who act like soldiers. We have some characterization from them, but yeah.

For the scellor, it has literally been Radde and Piyerra and everyone else is offscreen. They look like they dress in pretty average gear for scellor, and while Piyerra has some characterization, there's nothing all that special or engaging about either one of them. They're a pretty standard wacky guy and straight man(woman) pair. While again, there hasn't been a lot of time to get characterization for them down, I do have faith we'll learn more about them and what makes them special in the future, particularly Piyerra.
>>
No. 47211 ID: d60822

>>357010
Damn, you don't need to jump down my throat to defend her.

Personally, LW's characters tend to lack personality by my perception. They look different and have different attributes but don't make it all the way to behaving like people. At least not to me. To be fair, the same is true of damn near everyone's characters.

>implying tozzles ever go off duty
They're a pretty disciplined race.

And I agree with you about the Scellor.
>>
No. 47213 ID: e3f578

>>357008
For Tassadar's death, you were controlling and rooting for that faction at that time. It was also a self-sacrifice rather than a regular battle death. You have to kill Fenix I think, when you're playing Terren or Zerg, I forgot which, at least once in Brood War. Fenix, like Ekia at the current moment, was an enemy, a foe at that point in time. While you were playing as his opponents, you had the responsibility of killing a character that most Starcraft fans liked or came attached to.

I'm talking about long term though, I suspect non-fodder, named character deaths for the Astranian and Scellor factions to come after a climatic moment, likely by the time we've established proper characterization for said character. Tozols, by knowing each and every name and personality of that faction, are all non-fodder characters and the real risk for not really getting to know a character before they likely die come from that faction. At the current moment, early in this quest, the worst deaths we're probably going to get are foot soldiers with weak characterization. The current struggle looks like it just involves information and doesn't look like it could cause a death, so stuff like sabotage or hurt feelings that we're talking seems unnecessary because who gives a shit about the factions for christ's sake. Characters are the meat of the reader's emotions in fiction. Comfybat could make it out of this even if her faction loses, so could the two Scellor's we've met. And if they don't, they could have a great and honorable death.

Tozols are fucked though if they lose in their faction. With just eight of them, it's obviously all or nothing with their goals. Retreat seems like an unlikely option for them to take so a tozol faction loss is their complete and utter annihilation. And speaking about the narrative in general, a great and honorable death for each of them would be too many great and honorable deaths for a single faction. They luckily have guerilla tactics to employ, which I'm betting that tgchan is great at executing these tactics but not countering them and they're hella tough, so we should be able to get them characterized good enough before at least one of them inevitably dies. when playing as Scellor or Astranians, the main focus will be between those two with sporadic tozol conflicts thanks to few tozol numbers.

Apathy for which faction gets the victory in this fight in this quest is necessary for everyone to successfully get along, limit conflicts, enhance the quest's narrative, and, most importantly, keep it fun. When the important character's deaths come, people will just had to deal with it like people did with Fenix. Otherwise, why enjoy narratives structured like StarCraft or BATTLEQUEST with multiple opposing faction choices in the the first place when you won't be able to?
>>
No. 47222 ID: 049dfa

>>357002

See? This is EXACTLY what I was talking about. Getting upset and snippy about an obvious, flagrant joke that nobody expected to be taken seriously. Better bail while you have the chance phil, or you're going to have an aneurism.

>>357013

>implying tozzles can die

>>357008

>tassadar
>truly died
>has continued to appear afterwards
>>
No. 47225 ID: 942aec

>>357022
You kill Fenix twice, both times as the zerg, and while he was liked he wasn't a main character. He was just some guy that was likeable.

But yeah, given that even Starcraft doesn't really kill off it's main characters like this should definitely say something.
>>
No. 47230 ID: e3f578

Man I was just using Starcraft for a comparative example, though apparently a poor example. Still, man, gotta deal with character deaths in this quest anyway when they come. Figured that even though Fenix wasn't a "main" character, his death had emotional impact for the player that had to kill him to move forward as he played Fenix's enemy faction. He's probably alive in another dragoon 2.0 or something now, but killing him each time has emotions and regret involved, relevant emotions similar for when playing a faction opposite to a fan favorite character when playing this quest, should they die! But you may have to kill them! Well, not really, since your not forced to post at all for that moment and help the other side kill your favorite character, but you'll just have to deal with it if questers kill them off! When your favorite faction comes up, post then and kill the fuck out of the other sides with positive suggestions to spite those questers that way!

If Tozols can't die, then the question of who wins was answered the minute the Lieutenant picked up the communication between ComfyBat and Sunglasses and Psy-girl that I can't remember her name. Luckily, a win for them just means getting those two off planet and leaving the tozols alone, so killing comfybat and sunglasses/Psy-Girl isn't necessary for their survival. But that's lame in a narrative, not killing dudes simply because suggesters know them. No tension at all!
>>
No. 47235 ID: 942aec

>>357030
I'm not arguing that we should never kill characters from the other sides, I'm just saying we shouldn't kill the ones we directly control as one faction while playing as another faction.

Like in the Scellor side, we're controlling Piyerra. That would mean that Radde's fair game. In Starcraft you target Rayner a couple times, but he always gets out just before you blow up his base or something.
>>
No. 47249 ID: 2563d4
File 132399186085.png - (41.57KB , 640x480 , i-already-did-arguezol.png )
47249

>>357002
Oh, I'm terribly sorry. I appear to have made a factual error. When I said:
>That's rich coming from someone who just did it.
And mentioned (elsewhere) proxying up, I should, in fact, have written:
>That's rich coming from someone who just did it and got their Porn Mafia buddies to join in.

><Beakie> You'll find that was me, Bitequest and Gnoll

Clearly I was in grave error to assume it was solely Beakie on the absolutely scant evidence that he's been crawling up the walls in #tozol about how he's barely able to stop himself sabotaging the thread.

><LonelyWorld> no sabotaging is not encouraged
><LonelyWorld> but suggesting unwise decisions because they seem more in character is
><Beakie> ...LW that's sabotage
><LonelyWorld> Beakie: maybe it depends on motive
><Beakie> No, LW, please don't tell me that

I'm sorry. I'm just not that great at memorizing the shifting sands of people's IDs.

Where by "sorry" I mean "Well done. You have proved a point that a nice thing put on in public can be shat on by arseholes by being the arseholes in question who shit on it. I hope you're all very proud. I'm sure there's a reason why this doesn't fall afoul of 'just because you don't like a thread doesn't mean you can shit all over it', which I'm sure Godfather Seal (a longtime fan of the rule) will furnish me with very soon, and which probably begins with 'you' and ends in 'mad'."

I kind of make weird typos sometimes, you see.
>>
No. 47250 ID: 4183c9

>>357049
I have two demands. These demands apply to both yourself and everyone else.

The demands are as follows:
1. Stop not having fun.
2. Stop fighting for Stalin.
5. More tits. MORE.

Also note how I meet these demands.
>>
No. 47253 ID: 2563d4
File 132399412298.png - (54.04KB , 640x480 , roz-was-a-scellor.png )
47253

>>357050
A compelling argument.
>>
No. 47254 ID: d60822

Proposed solution: If Beakie or someone else makes a suggestion that's obviously retarded, just don't listen to it.
>>
No. 47260 ID: 25d956

>>357049
Seal didn't do it. I have no idea who made the original comments that I "this"'d because they were at the bottom of the quest and I thought it was funny. Beakie and Gnoll then did the same because I guess they thought it was funny? There was no great master plan to ruin anything.

Nothing seems particularly ruined at this point. Please stop freaking out.
>>
No. 47262 ID: 049dfa

>I'm sure there's a reason why this doesn't fall afoul of 'just because you don't like a thread doesn't mean you can shit all over it'

Yeah, because making a couple of obvious joke suggestions that can't possibly be construed as mean-spirited by any functioning individual doesn't count as 'shitting all over a thread.' Especially when the scellor have a goofy sillytime tone about them to begin with.
>>
No. 47268 ID: cdb8cb

Does it count as sabatoge if you don't care if any of the three win?
>>
No. 47273 ID: 9c7c3b

...I'm just waiting for The Splinter to show up. Then I know who I'll be rooting for.
>>
No. 47276 ID: e3aff6

I am curious; did the plan itself not work or did it just coincide with running out of time?
>>
No. 47277 ID: b79855

I don't really see this as being a big deal. If and when it becomes a problem, I'll start worrying more.

Until then, "Oh no, what if /quest/ starts posting dumb suggestions?" is not my most urgent concern.
>>
No. 47286 ID: 2563d4

>>357073
The problem with Splinter arriving would be that the next update would be a large collection of mushroom clouds and trails from orbital railguns, The End.
>>
No. 47303 ID: f72f26

>>357086
Jukashi, Test and I had a long discussion about nuclear weapons (or their equivalents)

they're existence is ommited for the same reason they are omitted in pretty much any good rts or traditional strategy game,

mainly because it makes things completely impersonal and boring more often then not.
a point you've just illustrated.

so for example if any other races were included (this will not be the case)
their nuclear capabilities would also be ignored.
>>
No. 47308 ID: 1854db

>>357076
We had severely limited time, because they were going to throw up the shield as soon as they could. We ALSO weren't doing very well, so we didn't get much info. If we had gotten the link stronger faster then we might've gotten more, but in the end I think the endeavor was doomed to mediocrity.
>>
No. 47310 ID: cca336

>>357103
b-but nukes are all that Splinter is :<
>>
No. 47314 ID: 1444d5

If you implement nukes, you either end up with a cold-war scenario where nobody can use them without causing a GAME OVER, or you quickly enter into a Lensman Arm Race. I personally like firing superluminal planets into stars as a weapon system, but that sort of progression means you have to either have started with a very large scale laid out, or pull the "no, seriously, these badguys were just pawns of the real badguys!" card out your ass several times.
>>
No. 47321 ID: 1e3433

>>357110
You forgetting the power armor, physical augmentations and hyperspace ammo?
>>
No. 47322 ID: b738b4

>>357108
I suspect many, including me, were gung-ho to bring the Undermind to bear like a cannon and smash the puny Astranian psyker. Then it turned out to not be a battle, in the sense of raw psionic strength verses strength, and we were actually not in such a great position. For an engagement that probably didn't last more than a minute, that we got anything is something.
>>
No. 47323 ID: 9c7c3b

>>357121
Err, yeah.
You know, Splinter probably wouldn't use it's nukes right away. They'd make one base right next to the tower and another on the opposite side of the planet, then drag out the skirmish into a several-month-long siege while digging in and denying access to the tower for all three sides. THEN come the nukes.
>>
No. 47357 ID: 9cb4b3

>"Well, I don't think any astranian's gonna have a sense of justice all that strong. But you, you're a diplomat; fairness and laws and all that are your bag. And you don't approve of war either, do you? So you go in there, and at the back of your mind you're thinking, it isn't right. And worse still, you're aiming to do permanent damage if you can, to get info we can use to kill people, and they won't be coming back. So, Piyerra, you're fighting, but all the while you've got voices who want you to give up, back off; little voices thinking maybe you deserve to get a bit of justice for what you're doing. Some of them are our good friends, and some of them are you yourself."

Hmm. This part has me thinking...

>"Well, I don't think any astranian's gonna have a sense of justice all that strong."

I think this is sort of a loaded statement.

A sense of justice being strong can either mean that they are steadfast in their beliefs or that they are actually a strict but fair person regarding moral/ethical right and wrong.

Justice is a belief that the guilty should go punished, and that punishments should be fair. A stereotypical astranian's sense of justice might not be overly "strong" in that their punishments might not be fair and their sense of right and wrong may be skewed in the eyes of the scellor, but it seems to me that the stereotypical scellor's sense of justice would be equally weak in the eyes of an astranian.

If instead he means that Comfybat might not be steadfast in her beliefs, we have yet to see that, but I think that assuming the stereotypical astranian won't be steadfast in their beliefs with how their society works is an entirely wrong assumption too.

In the end, Justice is sort of defined by people and society, and Astranians and Scellor have very, very different sets of ethics. Seeing as how there is no universal system of right and wrong, only what their respective societies say, on a psychic level I don't think Piyerra can be "more right" and have her sense of justice overpower Comfybat's in this way. That might have been what cutting her fingers on the necklace could have represented, Comfybat's sense of justice was not only steadfast, but SO alien to Piyerra that attempting to link to it harmed her.
>>
No. 47358 ID: 1854db

Vaejra: Do Tozols have casual wear? Like, things to wear that aren't armor. For sleeping in, perhaps?
>>
No. 47359 ID: 9c7c3b

>>357158
I'm pretty sure that ALL tozzle clothing is armor of one form or another. They probably have metal-plated pyjamas.
>>
No. 47367 ID: 35bcde

>>357157
I think that comment represents the profound differences in Astranian and Scellor culture. Normal astranian things scellor regard as horrific, thus the face that there is a 'just' astranian is weird.
>>
No. 47369 ID: 2563d4

>Redirect or delay the lava
The lava's not the dangerous bit:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyroclastic_flow
>>
No. 47373 ID: 453e62

except the explosion was triggered by bombs, the volcano itself did not explode.
>>
No. 47379 ID: 9cb4b3

>>357167
I don't think you could have missed what my post was saying any harder.
>>
No. 47380 ID: 2563d4

>>357173
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1980_eruption_of_Mount_St._Helens
"Blown" open by an earthquake.
>>
No. 47382 ID: 453e62

>>357180
yes, helens was like a really shook the fuck up bottle of something fizzy, and the earthquake opened it.we don't know how much, if any, pressure was in this volcano that was just bombed.
>>
No. 47395 ID: 73eb25
File 132426686321.png - (495.98KB , 1450x1400 , escape_route.png )
47395

posted here to keep main thread uncluttered
>>
No. 47398 ID: 453e62

>>357195
except the volcano that blew is to the north. your idea moves them closer.
>>
No. 47400 ID: 1444d5

>>357195
>>357198
I think it's the caldera to the south of them that blew.
>>
No. 47401 ID: 453e62

>>357200
except the tozols specifically said they rigged a northern volcano with bombs.
>>
No. 47402 ID: 80b862

>>357198
Lava's easy to avoid if you're not fixed in one spot or something. The pyroclastic flow, on the other hand, is a massive, fast-moving, far-spreading cloud of ash that will pretty much bury everything in its path, but is generally dense enough that it doesn't travel uphill. That is what we're running from.
>>
No. 47410 ID: 73eb25

I assumed they had rigged up mulitple volcanoes with bombs and set off the one nearest the landing site.

If it's the northern one that went off we don't have a damn thing to worry about.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyroclastic_flow
>The larger ones can travel for hundreds of kilometres
>Most pyroclastic flows are around one to ten cubic kilometres and travel for several kilometres.
correction, we may or may not be fucked.

If it's the southern one near us we've got about 3 minutes and 15 seconds to get away before we are covered with 250C ash and boulders.
>>
No. 47411 ID: 73eb25

>>357210
I fucked up. We are 15km away, not 30km. It would reach us in 1 minute and 36 seconds.
>>
No. 47418 ID: f72f26
File 132432072939.png - (69.79KB , 408x300 , Ekia1.png )
47418

>>357007
>Ekia, what's it feel like to be a porn star?
hmm It seems you are thinking of someone else.
>>
No. 47427 ID: 73eb25

>>357218
Do you have a twin sister then?
>>356810
>>357080
It looks like you.
>>
No. 47428 ID: e3f578

Man, do Astranians even have pornography? Hell, do the tozols and the Scellor do too? The Scellors might not on the fact they'd prefer to get it on themselves for real so demand would be pretty low for their species. Tozols look practical as all hell and their culture looks mainly to be focused on combat. Of course, because of that I can see demand for porn, if sex is unavailable and they need focus on the situation, porn would be a decent source of stress relief.
>>
No. 47430 ID: f27b6b

Clearly these are questions we need answers to at once. Stranner porn, Scellor porn, Tozol porn. Does it exist? What is its market value? Is it a useful item?
>>
No. 47431 ID: cdb8cb

>>357228

Tozols keep their porn in something called a "hornbook".
>>
No. 47464 ID: cf49fc

>>357231
It's contents are classified at the highest levels, as it's entirely detailed technical diagrams and schematics.
>>
No. 47491 ID: 2563d4

...do the Astranians realize that a volcano's gone off? It seems like the kind of thing TC'd bring up, or at least mark on the map.
>>
No. 47492 ID: cf49fc

>>357291
It didn't go off. The Caldera was bombed, causing a slow magma release.
>>
No. 47520 ID: 1e3433

>>357292
The top of the volcano blew off and shook the ground for miles, for all you know there could've been enough pressure in the volcano to cause a pyroclastic flow.
Also upon further inspection there appear to be GIANT FUCKING ROCKS flying in every direction.
Volcanoes are no joke and the Astranians should probably notice it.
>>
No. 47521 ID: 453e62

>>357320
and when we were tozols they specifically said THEY PUT BOMBS AT THE VOLCANO!
>>
No. 47524 ID: 2563d4

You idiots are arguing over complete irrelevancy.

A volcano has gone 'splode. Is it OOC for Astranians to know, yes/no. The nature of the 'splode does not change this question.
>>
No. 47525 ID: f72f26

Astranians would definitely notice an exploded volcano
>>
No. 47532 ID: 9cb4b3

>>357325
I think the issue was more "Has the volcano exploded yet and can they see smoke pouring out the top or is lava just flowing down?"
>>
No. 47583 ID: 3947e9

So... we are made to play all 3 sides...
This strongly leads me to believe there is going to be some team up vs a 4th interloper.
>>
No. 47696 ID: 56f9e4

>>357383
space doobies
>>
No. 47714 ID: 73eb25

Questions to all factions.
What is your policy on taking prisoners and treatment of PoWs?
What is your policy on enemy surrendering?
What is your policy on any sort of ceasefire or agreement to generally stop killing each other?
>>
No. 47860 ID: f72f26
File 132538062380.jpg - (68.63KB , 408x300 , TacticaCommand.jpg )
47860

>Man, do Astranians even have pornography?

Romance stories and related media fulfil the roll in Astranian society that pornography does in lesser cultures.

Pornography as you would know it does in fact exist in Astranian society, it is exceedingly rare however and is highly illegal to produce, distribute or even posses copies of.
>>
No. 47861 ID: 1b0f2f

Bah, illegal shmillegal. It's not like the Astranian Alliance is going to break down my door this minute and arrest me for having copies of
>>
No. 47863 ID: 40cb26

>>357660
Is it just as illegal if the porn isn't of astranians? And on the other side of the coin, is there astranian porn in circulation outside of their own culture?
>>
No. 47869 ID: 83dfbb

>>357660
Does written romance literature include acts of consummation directly after a paired bonding ritual or is even that banned?

Same for films. What is considered tasteful? If the two are shown as in love and bonded, what is generally shown if they decide to do what lovers do at that point in the story?
>>
No. 47983 ID: 24dd8d

>>357663
I think you already know the answer to the second question
>>
No. 48012 ID: f72f26
File 132574875733.jpg - (56.72KB , 408x300 , TacticaCommand2.jpg )
48012

>Is it just as illegal if the porn isn't of astranians?
porn of non-Astranians is not illegal.
however social stigma is extremely prevalent around the issue.

>And on the other side of the coin, is there astranian porn in circulation outside of their own culture?
This fact has been proven to be true.

>Does written romance literature include acts of consummation directly after a paired bonding ritual or is even that banned?
this is not banned

>Same for films. What is considered tasteful?
insufficient data available, rephrase in a more specific question.

>If the two are shown as in love and bonded, what is generally shown if they decide to do what lovers do at that point in the story?
Actors embracing while clothed is shown, a cut usually follows. dialogue implies actions but rarely declares them.

>---- - ------ ---- ------ ----- ----
hidden request acknowledged.
uploading classified log entries.

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02:25DrunkWorldthey like thier romance stories
02:25DrunkWorldand totally masturbate while reading them (well many do)
02:25whaatheh
02:26DrunkWorldthough they'de be super angry and upset if you ever brought up such a notion
02:28whaati find it kinda funny how you consider voidshadow's race to be bigger prudes
02:28*** BeakieHelmet joined #tozol
02:28*** Fredrick joined #tozol
02:28+++ ChanServ has given op to Fredrick
02:29DrunkWorldAstranians show faces, tails and sometimes even shins and forearms, in public even!
02:30whaatwell they dont have tails
02:32DrunkWorldthey don't show anything
02:32whaatwell they do have porn
====[edited]
02:34DrunkWorldAstranians have porn, it's just illegal
02:34DrunkWorldand rare
=[edited]
02:34DrunkWorldromance novels are super common though
02:34DrunkWorldthey are pretty much everywhere
02:35whaatill bet
02:36DrunkWorldwhat pornography does exist, is all based on popculture
02:36DrunkWorldfor Astranians to get into porn it has to be a character they are very familiar with
02:37DrunkWorldand they are super picky about it being perfectly in character
02:38whaatso high quality illegal porn
02:38DrunkWorldthere's a reason why it's rare
02:38whaatmust be expensive
02:38DrunkWorldvery
02:39whaatkinda funny considering its the opposite with voidshadow's race
02:39DrunkWorldbut even then by human standards it's pretty tame
02:40DrunkWorldmostly just nudity
02:40DrunkWorldor off camera moaning
02:40whaatso a normal movie
02:41DrunkWorldwith the pinacle of hedonism being straight sex, or a blow job
02:41DrunkWorldby straight sex I mean missionary position
02:45BeakieHelmetblow jobs are the best
02:45BeakieHelmetsrsly
02:46DrunkWorldAstranians are big fans of them
02:46whaatim not sure i want to put that inside somebody's mouth
02:47DrunkWorldbut it does depend
02:48DrunkWorldsome Astranians loathe the idea
02:48DrunkWorldbut most embrace the concept
============================[edited]
02:53BeakieHelmetI mean they have lessened sex drives, I don't really imagine them going for porn all that often
02:53DrunkWorldoh you only missed the beginning
02:53BeakieHelmetoh
02:53BeakieHelmetone thing I was wondering about is whether or not astranians have matchmaking services
02:54DrunkWorldBeakie they are totally like you when it comes to porn, they demand the characters act in character
02:54BeakieHelmethaha I saw that part yes
02:54BeakieHelmetI like a lot of things about the astranians
[edited]
>>
No. 48013 ID: 1b0f2f

Tactica Command: being machine in nature, and therefore non-Astranian, have you starred in any pornography productions?
>>
No. 48015 ID: e3f578

oh shit yeah man, these fuckers have sentient AI
that implies they can have culture and desires too
How is AI culture? I imagine no sex drive though, beyond a minor desire to replicate but you just have to copy/paste or program one yourself from scratch.
>>
No. 48019 ID: 0d7a83
File 132577578212.jpg - (3.14KB , 150x150 , Hal-9000.jpg )
48019

>>357815
I'd imagine there's strict measures in place to stop that happening. Organics generally don't like the idea of replicating A.I.s.
>>
No. 48384 ID: 5bec67

>>355782
>we'd be proper fucked.

No you wouldn't. Remember?
>>
No. 48916 ID: 1854db

Okay, I gotta know.

Do the authors get told information about how the other races operate while they're updating? Because what I just saw is hard to believe. There's no reason for a scellor to just shut down like that even if the shield somehow cut them off from the Undermind, since they are independent entities. If it was a drone, then sure.

It would be pretty hilarious if all three of those scellor were drones controlled at a distance to test the astranians' combat abilities. I mean, the whole skirmish seemed like an giant clusterfuck and not something any trained army would do. They jumped directly into an enemy formation, vastly outnumbered. That's pretty fucking stupid.

A different issue is that Astranian soldier continuing to fight while having half their arm lopped off. Humans can't just ignore that sort of pain, and afaik Astranians aren't physically superior to humans in any way. Do they have combat drugs or something?
>>
No. 48917 ID: 1854db

Oh also

Jesus christ LW, finish your turn already!
>>
No. 48919 ID: ed57e8

>>358716
uhhh, that is how ALL scellor work, as said in the undermind thread. they remote control the bodies from the undermind. sentients just are powerful enough to not just go along with what the undermind or other scellor tell them.
>>
No. 48922 ID: 2563d4

>>358716
>Do the authors get told information about how the other races operate while they're updating?
Yes.

In fact, you delightfully polite person, them trying to get hold of each-other at the same time is a contributor to delaying >>358717

>A different issue is that Astranian soldier continuing to fight while having half their arm lopped off. Humans can't just ignore that sort of pain
[citation needed]
Also just going to handwave vaguely in the direction of adrenaline and survivalist tales of people who cut their own limbs off to escape entrapment, etc.

>>358719
>they remote control the bodies from the undermind
Without digging through logs (no time), I am pretty damn sure Jukashi said this is only true of drones.
>>
No. 48923 ID: 5b0d85

>>358716
Considering that astranian shields negate psychic abilities there could be a number of reasons the scellor got brain fried by being completely within astranian shields.

That said, I can verify they all OK all the update's contents with the other authors, so Jukashi likely OK'd this personally.

tl;dr quit your whining and let the astranians have their full turn.

We had to sit through two other turns before we got a single one, you can sit through one before we go back to tozols or scellor or whoever.
>>
No. 48925 ID: f2e3ae

A scellor's psychic pattern is like a connector between their body and the Undermind; it's attached to both, at either end as it were, but the connection is much stronger to the Undermind. If anything strains the link, it's the body that'll lose out every time. Things which completely sever the connection are very rare (they'd have to function in several unusual dimensions), and if that happened the body would still be alive, just driven insane; if the bond is merely suppressed, however, the body simply falls unconscious, depending on how thoroughly suppressed it was. The astranian shields are more powerful in this regard than the effect which did something similar in WotU (though they have their own limitations, such as the specific physical location and energy drain and such).

There are possibly ways around it for a scellor with enough of the right skills, but only with preparation. Scellor with a "deeper" bond, such as Maolla, may also be a bit more resistant, perhaps, whereas drones (who have a much "lighter" connection) would be more vulnerable.
>>
No. 48927 ID: f72f26

Hey everyone, I'm really sorry for the slow rate of updating

I plan to speed up the updates from this point on, and wrap everything up

your patience in this is appreciated,
>>
No. 48928 ID: 1854db

>>358723
>tl;dr quit your whining and let the astranians have their full turn.

Hey, there's no need to be an asshole. LW's turn has definitely been longer than the other two. By both updates and RL time.
>>
No. 48929 ID: b6edd6

>I mean, the whole skirmish seemed like an giant clusterfuck and not something any trained army would do. They jumped directly into an enemy formation, vastly outnumbered. That's pretty fucking stupid.
It is easy to feel invincible when you can both teleport and respawn. Of course, the Astranians have much more limited resources here, but careless habits die hard.
>>
No. 48930 ID: 2563d4

>>358725
>If anything strains the link, it's the body that'll lose out every time.
That seems rather at odds with the notion that they're an under rather than an overmind. (But should we take this to WotU dis?)
>>
No. 48931 ID: 87fa55

>>358730
I figure the distinction has more to do with the structure of it. The fact that it's not just one big mind, but a soup of individuals.
>>
No. 48935 ID: ed57e8

course that all changes if you kill a FUCKLOAD, way more then there are in this quest. like, several planet's worth. then it turns into a overmind and uses rage mode. which most likely involves throwing planets around. since with just a single planet of them they could change the orbit of their homeworld.
the effect would be like all of the scellor in the universe looking at a single location and going "tonight, you"
>>
No. 48939 ID: b78699

>>358731
The distinction is relatively subtle. The difference between suggesting and commanding. An overmind is normally active, the Undermind is normally passive. In a military metaphor, you could say it's like the difference between a bunker and a tank.

>>358735
You'd have to kill more than half of all scellor alive, round abouts, and only after already killing enough fast enough to cancel out how many new scellor are being born.

Scellor biotech is principally superior for farming and life support. They have fantastic medicine, no sense of personal space, and access to scifi architecture technology. They are very expansionist when it comes to life-supporting planets. Under ideal conditions, without special reason to pop kids out super fast, every scellor female alive produces two children every year, which evens to 1 child every year for every individual. Around 1 in 30 scellor are sentient; non-sentient drones usually live around 30 years, and scellor start having kids at around age 6.

In their home setting, liveable worlds are common, and there are ridiculous ancient-advanced-technology whatsits like ringworlds and dyson spheres littering the galaxy. Terraforming is relatively simple, if slow, and FTL travel brings you from one star system to a neighboring one in a matter of hours, if you've got the money for a decent engine. Scellor have been spacefarers for hundreds of years. The only limits on their expansion are how much psykonium they can find (they only need more to increase their population, what they already have sustains them indefinitely), how many worlds other people let them colonize, and how many of them get killed by the people who aren't letting them colonize worlds.

Are you a bad enough dude to kill half of the scellor?
>>
No. 48940 ID: 1444d5

>>358739
>Under ideal conditions, without special reason to pop kids out super fast, every scellor female alive produces two children every year, which evens to 1 child every year for every individual.
>Scellor population doubles yearly
Fuck a duck! 'Expansionist' hardly even covers it.
>>
No. 48941 ID: e3f578

>>358739
I want to see such a bad enough dude. Kinda.
>>
No. 48950 ID: 1b0f2f

>>358740

That'd be 2 children per female. 1 doesn't double. Anyway if skellor have too many kids w/out psykonium, the kids just die.
>>
No. 48951 ID: 1854db

>>358750
Say there are 10,000 scellor. 5,000 women. In a year, the women pop out 2 babies each. At the end of that year there are 10,000 adult scellor and 10,000 baby scellor.

So yeah, it doubles every year. I'm wondering how exactly they deal with that sort of population growth.
>>
No. 48952 ID: 1854db

ON THE OTHER HAND it takes more than one year for a scellor to start popping out babies, so... not quite double every year. I guess it's more complicated than that.
>>
No. 48953 ID: b82a1d

It sounds like psykonium is the limiter, and the reason the entire galaxy isn't awash in Scellor.
>>
No. 48956 ID: ed57e8

god help everyone if they find a way to manufacture it.
>>
No. 48963 ID: 2563d4

>>358751
You're forgetting the death rate, too. (And since we're talking bodies here, the fact psychic patterns can survive doesn't matter, except that it might make them less careful at keeping said death rate down.)

They are still outdone by mice for raw growth rate: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fancy_mouse#Breeding
...but those kind of have population booms and busts with food supply. And get eaten. A lot.

There is the question of what the growth rate of psychic patterns is. We known it's not hard-linked to body-population growth rate because Maolla has previous lives and had to wait to be born after chargen, i.e. a dying body doesn't mean a dying pattern and a new body sometimes re-uses an old pattern rather than creating a new one.
>>
No. 48965 ID: ed57e8

>>358763
they are extremely un-careful. they use the super experimental stuff.
>>
No. 48967 ID: e3f578

>>358763
Wait, so psychic patterns is what uses up the psychic rock stuff and not the bodies?
>>
No. 48978 ID: ed57e8

>>358767
the bodies use it. they recycle the bodies after death. and it doesn't get used up. recycling gets it all back out.
>>
No. 49253 ID: 1854db

So apparently the Scellor were doomed to fail from the start? The Astranians were better off in psychic skill, technology, mobility, and preparation time.

Why bother having them as a fucking choice then if they were never a contender? This may as well be Tozol vs Astranians quest. Except now the Astranians can just rush the tozols with their bullshit weaponry; who gives a shit about subdermal plating if rayguns just vaporize flesh? This isn't a contest anymore.

I also think it's complete bullshit that all the sabotage that went on during the scellor turn had an actual effect, then we were prohibited from doing anything like that anymore. Why legitimize it while at the same time preventing it from happening again? That's just fucking playing favorites.

OH YEAH AND HOW ABOUT ALL THE FUCKING RAILROADING HUH
>>
No. 49255 ID: 1b0f2f

>>359053

U just mad cause the furries are winning
>>
No. 49256 ID: ed57e8

>>359055
no cause furries are OP
>>
No. 49257 ID: 1b0f2f

Nerf the furries or we quit the Internets you!
>>
No. 49258 ID: 5b0d85

>>359053
The scellor were not doomed to fail, they /completely failed/ in their first chapter and got NOTHING done.

The Astranians are the underdogs in this and it's not like any scellor died before anyone gets too much in a huff.
>>
No. 49260 ID: a9f1dc

>>359058
>And it's not like any scellor died

Huh. I guess they can survive being hacked apart without needing to respawn.
>>
No. 49261 ID: 1854db

>>359058
We didn't get a chance to DO anything! We said to do x, y, and z, and then went on the psychic voyage, after that the turn ended. No progress report on anything. The psychic voyage was sabotaged heavily and we had no fucking idea what we were supposed to be even doing through most of it. If the fucking bat saw the scellors' location through the psychic attack that's just bullshit because it breaks the rules that we were told. She didn't do ANYTHING during the attack but smack our greenie in the face. She didn't get any psychic information about our location according to the rules we were told and it's patently ridiculous that scellor would be that ignorant about the danger. If LW claims that she got information through that, he's FUCKING CHEATING.

Don't fucking give me that bullshit about Astranians being the underdogs. They have every fucking advantage over the scellor right now but numbers. Information, technology, psychic warfare, position, resources, time. And they always had those advantages! This is a fucking set-up. So I say again, if we were never given a chance to win, why let us even play?
>>
No. 49262 ID: a9f1dc

>>359061
>So I say again, if we were never given a chance to win, why let us even play?

I fully agree with this sentiment.
>>
No. 49263 ID: 5b0d85

>>359060
No, that's the thing, they just respawn, they aren't dead for good.
>>
No. 49264 ID: bdf35e

It's just a game.
>>
No. 49265 ID: 2563d4

>>359064
No, sadly it's a game between three factions with rabid fanboys.
>>
No. 49267 ID: a9f1dc

>>359063
...Somewhere else entirely, out of the battle.
>>
No. 49268 ID: 73eb25

>>359065
Go tozols!
>>
No. 49272 ID: 1854db

>>359064
People expect certain things from games. When those expectations are not fulfilled, of course they don't fucking like it.

Also what does "It's just a game" even mean? Does doing something that's designed to be enjoyable suddenly mean you can't get mad about what happens while doing it?
>>
No. 49273 ID: 1b0f2f

*takes pipe out of mouth* What you all don't realize is this is a rock paper scissors situation. Astranians toast Scellor with their beam weapons, fanatical bloodthirst and psychic blocking shields. Tozols ruin Astranians when their shield tech turns out to be the same as your average Displacer and in short, doesn't work at all. Then Scellor come in and the Tozols are all so naive and horny they get seduced right away turning the whole thing into a giant orgy.
>>
No. 49277 ID: 049dfa

>>359061

>. The psychic voyage was sabotaged heavily

The ONLY suggestion that was taken there that could remotely be considered 'sabotage' Ended up having no negative effect.

>If the fucking bat saw the scellors' location through the psychic attack that's just bullshit because it breaks the rules that we were told. She didn't do ANYTHING during the attack but smack our greenie in the face. She didn't get any psychic information about our location according to the rules we were told

You mean the 'remember, everything that happens is metaphorical!' rule? That we were explicitly told? And how part of the Scellor got cut off and left behind? And how she specifically mentioned that she lost a part of herself during the attack?

>and it's patently ridiculous that scellor would be that ignorant about the danger.

Because the Scellor totally don't have a culture that supports recklessness and disregard of consequences for actions.

>And they always had those advantages! This is a fucking set-up.

Yeah, it'd be almost like if the Tozzles were casually decimating astranian armored patrol units during their turn or something.
>>
No. 49283 ID: 5bf190

I'd like to answer a couple of issues, here.

> How did Ekia know where the scellor were?

She always knew. Leaving aside the question of how easy it is to spot giant metal ships leaking radiation lodged in the landscape, the scellor are, psychically, really obvious. Every one of them is constantly being fed with psychic energy from the rest of their species to the point of saturation, and feeding information, sensations and thoughts back the other way. Their natural modes of communication with each other are either telepathic messaging or psychically vibrating the air to make sound. Sentient scellor, who have more self-control (read: they have some self-control), can conceal themselves and their communication from casual detection, but drones, who have no mental restraint, cannot. The scellor could have landed anywhere on the planet and Ekia could probably point right at them, so long as they have a pile of drones around.

And this was always a thing! Even during the intro of the quest, when the characters were in the vastness of space, Ekia mentioned being able to feel them. And when Radde listed the reasons why he chose that landing space, concealment was not one of them; in fact, some of those reasons were formed on the assumption that the astranians would attack them there.

> Why did the ayaar attack, so dumb

It shouldn't be a spoiler, now that that section is over, the reveal that the ayaar intent was to cause confusion and chaos, then teleport in, grab a captive and leave. The scellor have effective and scary methods of getting information, and such a captive would be invaluable! But the attempt was always going to be very risky. In this case, the gamble failed.

It's psychological. Scellor, being "immortal" as they are, have a huge safety net under everything they do, most of the time. Almost all their aggressive expansionist policies and the ways their race operates are designed to make sure this continues to be the case. Combine this with the cumulative tedium of repeated living - a big part of why the scellor are such thrillhounds - and any scellor's natural inclination, when faced with a range of options, is to take the big risk with the big reward. Or even the big risk with the medium reward. They're just too used to the idea that, no matter what, it'll all be ok in the long run. High-class scellor, such as Radde and Piyerra and, indeed, the ayaar, are supposed to be above this sort of thing; but it remains a weakness, especially with spur-of-the-moment situations - such as when you're presented the chance to take a valuable captive and your best chance is right now, before the enemy has set themselves up properly. The ayaar leader made the call to take the risk, and dice came up low.

He was sort of crazy anyway.
>>
No. 49289 ID: 1854db

>>359083
That... wasn't really handled as a hostage grab. They teleported in then just stood there and fought. If I were to have planned it, I'd have had two of the trio pop in near the front of the formation, calling all attention to them, then a few seconds later the third would pop in at the rear to grab someone who's unprotected. Then the first two would just teleport out.

Quick and clean... instead they just sortof stood around and took on vastly superior numbers without using teleport-evasion or gravity wells, which I would've been effective at disrupting the mass of the enemy. Or disarming them if used with enough fine control...

Also why didn't the surviving one use time travel to just replay the battle? Did they simply not have the ability? I'm a little uncertain how rewind works, to be honest. After the rewind, do replayed events affect the 'present', or are changed events limited to the area of effect of the rewind? So that it's like, in the 'present', the area seems to have been changed as if someone edited reality there? So it's not so much changing the past as it is recovering possible futures/present events in a specific location...? Or does it cause a time offset in that area, so that the past is effectively brought into the present to be revisited?
>>
No. 49295 ID: 5bf190

>>359089

None of the ayaar were powerful enough to use the time-rewind power. That's basically the "ultimate ability" of that psychic discipline, and only a few have it. In the scellor home setting, it's also illegal, by interstellar law. To answer your questions, though, it's less like time travel in actual fact and more like moving everything within a certain area back to the position it was before. The sun, for example, would stay where it was in the sky, not move backwards.

As for the grab, you need two ayaar together to teleport an unwilling target, or just a target that can't teleport themselves. The ayaar leader was supposed to be the distraction, which is why he teleported in first and started acting up as a big scary guy. There's also limitations to "chaining" teleports, you can't just go bamf-bamf-bamf. You need to either move away from where you teleported or wait out a "cooldown", of sorts.
>>
No. 49303 ID: b6edd6

What sort of craziness happens at the edge of the time thing's area of effect (like if somebody recently left the area)?
>>
No. 49307 ID: ed57e8

>>359083
actual dice? ugh, i hate actual dice.
>>
No. 49333 ID: 5bf190

>>359107
No, those dice were a metaphor.

>>359103
It's not a strict three-dimensional bubble; not only everything that is in the area, but WAS in the area is affected. In the specific case of something leaving the area, it disappears from where it is and returns to where it was. This does cause chaos, which is part of why it's illegal. Things which are directly on the border of the effect, in particular, are in extreme danger.
>>
No. 49337 ID: 40cb26

>In the scellor home setting, it's also illegal, by interstellar law.
Is there any way for them to even know that?
>>
No. 49343 ID: 5bf190

>>359137

Space police.
>>
No. 49347 ID: 40cb26

>>359143
Man those guys aren't any fun at all.
>>
No. 49348 ID: 3af198

>>359147
fun is also illegal
>>
No. 49355 ID: 1444d5

Now everybody's finished rolling out the Jump To Conclusions mat over 'ZOMG y u scellor railroad?!', let's change tack:
>>/quest/386156
>they will go on to live a thousand lives, each as meaningless as the last. each scellor the witting and unwitting pawn of their precious hive mind [...] with all thier mindless obedience they remind me of you Tactica Command, and that troubles me, I would like you to think about what that means.
So Ekia seems to know about the bugs, and implies she intends to Do Something About That.
>>
No. 49369 ID: e3f578

She's planning on replacing the Hivemind or become one of her own?
Cause that sounds like an insanely stupid but badass villainous plans I'd expect from the Astranians.
>>
No. 49373 ID: 1854db

>>359155
I don't see what that has to do with the bugs. The hivemind she's referring to is the Undermind, meaning she doesn't actually understand how it works.
>>
No. 49378 ID: ed57e8

>>359173
indeed, scellor do not have a hivemind.
>>
No. 49389 ID: 1444d5

>>359173
She's using the Scellor, somewhat incorrectly, as an analogy for the bug's control of the Astranians. Attempting to get TacticaCommand to identify weaknesses in that command structure, as a precursor to attempting to turn it against the Astranian high command. Best logic to use to turn someone traitor is their own.
>>
No. 49507 ID: a2853b

>>359169
>>359173
>>359178
>>359189
That is a good point. The Astranian culture doesn't leave room for the peculiar pseudo-socialistic-anarchistic-capitalistic-deistic-secularist mindset of the Scellor people.
They made the Undermind, it exists as a sort of spiritual 'organ' much like a second backup brain. Any attempt to mess with it is at best going to give all scellor a migraine, or worst case induce the Undermind to awaken fully into an individual being, inducing a Slaanesh-birthing Eye of Terror-class event.
>>
No. 49509 ID: ed57e8

>>359307
it being a single consciousness was what happened when it was first made. it moved their planet out of the way of a extinction event.
so when their civ was around.. looked like bronze~iron age they did that. they could move a planet. think about what would happen NOW if it went rage mode. it could probably crush stars into black holes.
>>
No. 69620 ID: 52d91f
File 136488273181.png - (272.98KB , 417x397 , Law.png )
69620

>>49343
>>49348
Oh the Law can be tons of fun. Especially when they've been on New Hong Kong too long.
>>
No. 69624 ID: f2c20c

>>49509
They didn't move their planet. They moved a STAR.

The full combined might of the Undermind was able to adjust the smaller sun in their binary star system so that it didn't drift out and cook their planet.
>>
No. 69626 ID: bf54a8

>>69624
and that was with just a planet full of them. imagine every scellor in the universe focusing on a single thing. space time would get ripped a new one, several new ones probably.
>>
No. 69673 ID: cee89f

>>69626
They could rearrange all the stars in the galaxy into the biggest image of two scellor having sex EVER O_O

...

What? You know they'd do it, if only for the lulz.
>>
No. 69680 ID: 4e4163

This thread's been dead for just shy of a year, please stop bumping it.
>>
No. 73986 ID: f3bef6

It's back, Yes!
>>
No. 73988 ID: 014f9c

Oh boy!
>>
No. 73991 ID: f3bef6

http://tgchan.org/kusaba/quest/res/527296.html
>>
No. 74042 ID: a23afd

...hey, I just realized... That failed psychic attack is what led to the Scellors being bombarded, right? Because it revealed their position to the enemy commander before they could do anything about it?

Was there even a possibility for one of the other races to make as big a mistake while we controlled them?
>>
No. 74057 ID: 068b9b

>>74042
The psychic attack largely failed because of bad advice.. things like 'grabbing the necklace' and all that.

If it hadn't been the Scellor's turn and thus not player-directed they may have had more success.
>>
No. 74084 ID: ba8629

Note to those checking my vote count: ID: cf49fc voted twice. I counted them as one.
>>
No. 74088 ID: cf49fc

>>74084
Sorry, I forgot. I wasn't thinking too clearly last night.
>>
No. 74090 ID: ba8629

>>74088
Don't worry about it.
>>
No. 74102 ID: 5869f6

To review,
The scellor rely on numbers(like the reds, ahurmhurm)
The Asteranians rely superior training and tech(like the Reich,ahurmhurmhurm)
And The tozols rely on their advanced scouting and stealth manouvers(like the Ranger Order,AHURMHURMHURM)
(Alright, alright, I MAY or MAY NOT have been playing a little too much Metro, ya got me)
>>
No. 74183 ID: ba8629

>>/quest/528146
>I voted twice, meaning switch my earlier vote from Tozol to Scellor.

Unfortunately, I didn't spot this duplicate.

From now on, I'll use a more exhaustive method.

In general, if you want your vote changed, it helps to actually say so.
>>
No. 74184 ID: a186fc

Personally speaking, for a simple two choices, and where there's no huge misunderstanding or new information since the vote started, I'm kind of disinclined to let people change their votes.
>>
No. 74185 ID: c95833

...if miscounting or vote changing messed up the results, feel free to count the scelzol vote whichever way fixes it. :V
>>
No. 74186 ID: cf49fc

>>74102
You play too much Metro, comrade. The Astranians overuse their Shock and Awe and Drone Warfare techniques even when it's ill-advised, like the US. The Scellor prefer Scellor-Wave techniques and cannot-into Mixed-Unit Tactics, like the Chinese, and the Tozols rely upon extreme Guerilla Tactics, like SpecOps.
>>
No. 74429 ID: ba8629
File 137531677307.jpg - (53.15KB , 778x774 , BQ_tozol_faces.jpg )
74429

Have some concept art.
>>
No. 74430 ID: 9ccb59

>>74186
>Shock and Awe and Drone Warfare
>ever being ill-advised
???
>>
No. 74431 ID: 57a559

>>74186
Well, do we know how Tozols typically operate in war when they have significant numbers? Guerilla and spec ops tactics are the most valid against large numbers when there are few for any race, rhyme, reason or region. But surely even Tozols have their own brand of tactics for full on WAR with a full forces so I'm not sure if we're capable of making an analogy.

I think our squad of Tozols are only using guerrilla tactics because, well, I mean its not like they're capable of brute force numbers like the Scellor can, nor can they rely on fancy technology due to being underequipped in the back ends of space. What would Tozols do if they had numbers and equipment I ask!
What would a tozol do for a klondike bar?
>>
No. 74433 ID: 57a559

>>74431
Can they even EAT chocolate?
>>
No. 74439 ID: cee89f

>>74431
>I think our squad of Tozols are only using guerrilla tactics because, well, I mean its not like they're capable of brute force numbers like the Scellor can, nor can they rely on fancy technology due to being underequipped in the back ends of space. What would Tozols do if they had numbers and equipment I ask!

Get hunted down like animals because putting elite guerilla specialists in a large group is a terrible idea.

Super soldiers at the level of a Tozol don't make sense to put in massive, thousand-troop complements because at that point, someone's just gonna drop a bomb and call it a day.

Look at Zeal Like Madness: it's implied it was a typical Tozol vessel, fully equipped. Its population totalled five hundred twenty seven (Possibly twenty eight, i dunno if Penji counted herself or not) and it turned into a massive target.
>>
No. 74444 ID: 57a559

>>74439
Yes, okay, but chocolate?

But in all seriousness, I still kinda ponder how would super soldiers like Tozols do in a battle of large numbers, tactics wise. And an opponent new to Tozols would not resort to nuking them immediately. Not to mention we have an artifact here their trying to keep in tact.

Plus it would be funny to see how exactly both the Scellor and Astranian Factions would react to a full blown Tozol force. Right now, if the small group was discovered, both factions would merely recognize the threat and only slightly shit their pants, but not completely shit their pants because it's a small group of super soldiers that can be defeated with proper counter tactics. Would these two factions retreat from a Tozol army, nuke them (if they even have such things for this small scale encounter), or desperately try fighting them while freaking the ever loving piss out. What would Astranians do or think? Acknowledge their power? Call them inferior or abominations? Scellor... well scellor would probably just love it. Okay Scellor wouldn't shit the bed at the reveal. With their expansionist culture, they probably come across weird powerful shit all the time and so they aren't surprised as much when something real badass comes along. Like a challenge. Astranians probably have little experience with badass aliens, not to mention being less chance takers.

It's just such a shame that if the Tozols are discovered here, the other factions response is probably going to be an underestimation at first, and then they'll both go "ARGH why are they so hard to kill! They're just a small group!" and comprehend the Tozols on much smaller scale. That's assuming the Scellor and Asrtanians don't wipe them out of the ballpark first chance they actually get. If that happens then neither faction won't get a proper understanding.

I still believe the Tozols have some good tactics that aren't only guerrilla warfare, otherwise, they'd never do something as stupid as putting a bunch of them close by to die like in that Tozol ship you mentioned. They'd be smart enough to know that's tactically very wasteful and dangerous, so they have to have some good shit up their sleeves in various types of warfare, be space naval warefare, or standard field infantry warfare, water naval warfare, or whatever else kind of warfare their is. Super Soldiers have to be super smart! Or else they're not super soldiers at all!
>>
No. 74445 ID: c23ab0
File 137533161742.png - (23.45KB , 500x500 , zeal like madness.png )
74445

>>74431

Tozols would qualify as a species that is very high maintenance. You don't even want to know how fast they burn through vanadium. Thus they generally are in small numbers simply for economic reasons. This group totally had the wherewithal and time to double its numbers, but they don't have enough rare earth tozol cookies to go around. Though the talk of a whole shipful of them has me wondering, I doubt there are enough tozols to go around to actually overwhelm the enemy with sheer numbers.

It just feels that way.
>>
No. 74446 ID: cee89f

>>74445
It's been implied that whatever force commanded the Tozols has been wiped out and them along with it.

... i may be reading too much into it, but that's the impression i get.
>>
No. 74447 ID: 57a559

>>74446
So I guess if I wanted to see Tozol tactics with numerous amounts of them we would have to go back in time a significant amount of years, back when their mysterious commanding force wasn't wiped out?
>>
No. 74452 ID: ba8629

>>74447
Guess that depends on how large a unit you're thinking?

The Scellor in Battle Quest brought around 300 personnel, as mentioned in the opening cutscene of the first thread. The Zeal Like Madness, as >>74439 pointed out, contained about 530 tozols.

And yes, they can eat chocolate.
>>
No. 74466 ID: f05efa

>>74452

>And yes, they can eat chocolate.

So OP
>>
No. 74484 ID: 57a559

So OP is a good band name
So is Can eat chocolate
>>
No. 74489 ID: a01b62

>>74484
"Hi, I'm Mike, we're So Overpowered, and this song is called Eating Chocolate."
>>
No. 74490 ID: cee89f

>>74489
Watcha doin'? Eatin' chocolate.
Where'dya geddit? Tozol dropped it.
>>
No. 74493 ID: 57a559

>>74490
You sure that's chocolate?
>>
No. 74721 ID: cee89f

(deleted previous posts and merged them)

>>74493
That's the joke :P

>>/quest/530526
I was thinking 'the one that has no plan and may or may not be more afraid of being shot than the other guy'. Just exploring our options =/

---

>>/quest/531574
This is one of the scenarios where it isn't a good idea. Namely, one where you can play them against each other and not reveal yourself. Bam! you take out two factions instead of one.
>>
No. 74722 ID: cf49fc

We must not allow the Scellor to die until all the Astranians are dead. The Space Sluts are a LOT worse at tactics than the Space Furries. Therefore, the Space Weasels should bump off the competent, tactically sound, well equipped invasion force, rather than the tactically incompetent, reliant-upon-psionics, Scellor-Wave force that lost the majority of its' troops to volcanic eruptions and orbital bombardment.
>>
No. 74723 ID: 57a559

Can't forget that Astranians are more mean violent than the Scellor's violence for fun (aka insane violence). Because most of the scellors are suicidal nuts.
I don't know how to brand the tozol's violence. Super violence? Neutral violence?

Point is, Scellors are less conflict causing than Astranians, and kinder, so enemy of my enemy is sorta my friend except for when we have to torture the enemy of my enemy because we can't actually trust them too much and we still want them off the planet.

I mean, I guess a legit tozol-Scellor alliance until the end wouldn't be too bad. Tozol's aren't open to sharing studies of the artifact right? They might be able to get a ride back to Tozol space somewhere if they do, and better complete the mission and share the data. Let's just hide the fact that we're going to horrifically torture a scellor for information. Or they could just stay at the spire forever even with an alliance with the Scellor if they don't want to go to Tozol space because Tozol space doesn't exist. With Scellor trade and terraforming technologies (plus whatever is improved by the spire research), they could set up mass production of food just make a big fat tozol-Scellor planet right there.

Gonna be a lot of tozol incest but their DNA doesn't rely on parentage according to the wiki so I guess it doesn't matter.
>>
No. 74724 ID: cf49fc

>>74723
Tozols revolve around Following Orders and Not Dying. If they are discovered by outside forces, they will in all likelihood be killed, and their command structure was wiped out millions of years ago, so it's Kill Absolutely Everything That Comes Near Us it is.
>>
No. 74731 ID: cee89f

>>74723
A legit Tozol-Scellor alliance forevar would be awesome. Space sluts turned up to 11 with space weasal supersoldiers turned up to 11? Awesome *shades*

*removes shades* Too bad it ain't gonna happen, at least not here. With the way this quest is set up, the Scellor and the Tozol aren't going to let the other have the spire. The Scellor think they're going to save the universe and the Tozol think they're following orders that are more important/reliable than whatever the Scellor say. All such an alliance would have going for it is the presence of the Astranians, and that's not going to last forever.
>>
No. 74734 ID: a01b62

I still fully support a temporary alliance against the Scellor if manipulating them into wearing each other down isn't feasible. The latter is just the best choice, but considering the Scellor are right now the weakest, we would do well to help them out a little lest we face the full force of the Astranian military.

But please, please don't let forget that the Tozols are not the main characters here. All three forces are legitimate contenders for winning the Spire.
>>
No. 74737 ID: 57a559

Oh, yeah, well I was thinking of that. I'm helping the side we're controlling. I'm not letting my hatred of furry scum get the better of me. I'll start hating sluts and the religiously strict organic robot weasels that I can't come up with an insult with when the Astranian turn comes.

Until then, the facist furries WILL BURN! Then the SLUTS!
>>
No. 74741 ID: cee89f

>>74734
>>74737
Personally I am treating the Tozols as the main characters only during their turn, just as I'll do for the Scellor and the Astranians.

I promise, my utter hatred of porn, sex maniacs, tech-obsessed animals and of the fact that they got the name 'Astranians' first will not color any suggestions I make for them. And during the Scellor or Astranian turns, I will not allow my hatred of race-of-hats character dynamics and weasals to color my suggestions regarding the Tozols either.

At all.

Honest.

(...It took a lot longer to come up with something I dislike about these races than I'm entirely comfortable with >.> )
>>
No. 74742 ID: a01b62

>>/quest/531574
Putting aside that this is an extremely simplified way of looking at things, there are a few problems with this logic:

1. We're not facing them. They technically don't even know we exist. The Astranians have written off the mechs as a Scellor attack and the only Scellor that knows about us is the Ayaar and we just cut her orel off. That obviously doesn't remove her connection to the Undermind since she's not a blank shell like the Ayaar Leader was, but we should be safe. If we didn't want to take any chances, we should have killed her the first time we had the chance.

2. You are not taking into account that these forces are also facing each other. There is nothing we need do except prevent them from taking the spire until they whittle each other down enough that we can kick the winner off the planet ourselves. I don't foresee any situation wherein they form an alliance against us, as tactically advisable as that would be for them.


3. I say again, there is absolutely no reason we would want to destroy the Scellor and have to face the full force of the remaining Astranian military force. Putting aside the fact that their intentions are purer, their weaponry has proven capable of injuring us (with a mech pilot's field pistol, no less!), even in a well-executed sweep. Once we lose the element of surprise, we are outnumbered, outgunned, and shit out of luck against the Astranians. Whereas the Scellors' main strength, their psychic powers, is close to completely ineffective against Tozols. In this scenario, destroying one of two factions is just stupid.

Anyway, that's my thoughts on it. Take them as you will.
>>
No. 74743 ID: a01b62

>>74742
Oops, stream of consciousness makes things a little unclear. The Scellor's intentions are purer, but the Astranians have proven capable of injuring us.
>>
No. 74744 ID: ba8629
File 137573840316.jpg - (115.18KB , 842x519 , 128608139143[1].jpg )
74744

>>74742
>their weaponry has proven capable of injuring us (with a mech pilot's field pistol, no less!)

I should probably specify that it wasn't the pistol which hit a tozol. It was a bolt from a robot's rapid-fire guns.

The pistol is actually much more powerful.
>>
No. 74745 ID: 57a559

Let us never never never never have the Astranians find out about the Tozols if we can help it.
>>
No. 74746 ID: 57a559

>>74745
Unless we're playing as them of course.
>>
No. 74747 ID: c23ab0

>>74737

Some accurate insults for tozols include heartless nightmare, murder machine, unimaginable horror, The Thing From Space, fatty
>>
No. 74748 ID: cee89f

>>74744
...

Not that I'm disputing the facts here, but um...

Why on Hodra would you make a gigantic cannon /weaker/ than a pistol?! O_o
>>
No. 74749 ID: a01b62
File 137573939783.jpg - (41.12KB , 600x480 , noisycricket.jpg )
74749

>>74748
Why wouldn't you?

>>74747
fatty fatty no parents
>>
No. 74753 ID: cee89f

>>74747
They also get annoyed when we talk about marriage and/or sex for some reason.

>>74749
The noisy cricket was advanced alien tech far beyond what humanity had as a cannon and was weaker than the bigger cannons they had, it doesn't count.

>fatty fatty no parents
What exactly is wrong with being adopted?

Also, look at her, she's not fat.
>>
No. 74754 ID: a23afd

>>74753
Where do you get the idea that the noisy cricket was advanced alien tech?
>>
No. 74755 ID: ba8629

>>74748
>Why on Hodra would you make a gigantic cannon /weaker/ than a pistol?! O_o

It's not gigantic. I meant the infantry robots in that fight, not the cannons on the mech.
>>
No. 74759 ID: cee89f

>>74754
1) Laser cannon.

2) MIB had lots of alien tech.

>>74755
Ah. I thought we were talking about the mechs' gun. Never mind.

I'ma get a soda.
>>
No. 74763 ID: a23afd

>>74759
The laser cannon didn't have crazy stupid recoil. Why do you think nobody used the noisy cricket after the first movie? Humanity in the MIB movies could probably make a similar weapon, but they didn't because it's not actually a good weapon!
>>
No. 74769 ID: cee89f

>>74763
1) Laser cannon referred to the noisy cricket, and why I thought it was alien tech to a world that, last i checked, primarily uses gunpowder weaponry.

2) What does any of that have to do with whether or not it was alien tech?

(Also, in looking up info on it, I found that MIB gives all their new recruits that gun first. There's a betting pool on how far new recruits will fly the first time they use it.)
>>
No. 74771 ID: cee89f

>>74769
Gorramit, I need to read posts closer before i respond...

If humanity would never build such a weapon, then that only really helps my point that it's alien tech =/
>>
No. 74773 ID: 20370b

>>74748

Because they're Astrannians. Of course their officer's sidearms will be the most stupidly powerful things this side of stupidly huge Battlecarrier cannons.

Because Astrannian officers are Astrannian, that's why.
>>
No. 74774 ID: a23afd

>>74771
You said it was advanced alien tech that humanity couldn't produce. Also why are you calling it a cannon when it's obviously a PISTOL? There were other weapons in the MIB series of movies that could easily be called laser cannons. Lastly, the MIB are shown to be far more advanced than outside society. They are part of humanity, in case you didn't realize that.
>>
No. 74777 ID: 5663f2

>>74741
I think this part is mainly because LW designed the Stranners to be able to serve as antagonists AND protagonists from the get-go...Plus, well, the race in general is kinda 'evil' in it's setup, which to me, seems to ironically work in their favor-as much as /Quest!/ can't stomach their goals or ideals, they're also the best for the 'Stranners due to cutting down on the infighting, which strikes me as being one of the Stranner's weaknesses.
On the flipside, I'd say the Schellor do the most poorly about it, since Quest messes with their unity and might not get the whole 'symbolism' with their psychic powers.
Tozols I think are sorta 50/50 on how they come out.
>>
No. 74782 ID: cee89f

>>74774
No, I said it was beyond what we had as a cannon. MIB was supposed to take place on modern earth (of the time, anyway) and if i recall correctly, we see one instance of a gun outside of MIB and it's pretty evidently NOT a laser cannon gun.

> Lastly, the MIB are shown to be far more advanced than outside society. They are part of humanity, in case you didn't realize that.

1) Please do not assume I am a moron incapable of figuring out that the primarily human organization based on earth and dedicated to keeping it neutral in galactic politics is a part of humanity. It's rude.

2) They also deal with aliens every single day, many of which are trying to blow up the planet, and confiscate a lot of their stuff. We see this with the orb that J sends richocheting like crazy and the other orb with life on it that K floods in MIB2.

It's a laser gun, I don't see the problem with saying it's alien tech when it's supposed to be set on 21st century earth.

>Also why are you calling it a cannon when it's obviously a PISTOL?

Take your pick:
-Poor word choice. It's a problem with me a lot.
-Because it blew up a truck like a cannon.
-'Laser cannon' is more fun to say than 'laser pistol' but gets the same idea across: it's a gun that shoots lasers.

But this is a pointless tangent, can we talk about something else?

>>74777
The Scellor are having a hard time in large part because their turn was the only one of the three we've finished so far that actually made the situation /worse/ for their side.

>>74773
Thank you.
>>
No. 74785 ID: a23afd

>>74782
Wow, I'm not even gonna bother with you anymore. Your cognitive dissonance is impressive indeed.
>>
No. 74789 ID: cee89f

>>74785
...Eh, fine, that's your prerogative. This is completely off topic anyway.
>>
No. 74801 ID: a01b62

I'm pretty sure we've always had problems with Scellor mindscape things. /quest/ just isn't good at them, I think in a large part because they involve a lot of careful thinking about things that most suggesters (myself included) don't tend to put out for most quests. For instance, the whole diplomat thing? I never would have guessed that. Her aversion to war was never even hinted at as far as I could tell; we were just supposed to guess because it was her job to keep the peace or something. Also: symbolism is fucking stupid. Sure, a sword can symbolize justice, but you know what it also symbolizes?

http://www.scootermydaisyheads.com/fine_art/symbol_dictionary/sword.html

War. Aggression. Both things that a diplomat should be strongly capable of handling. Phalluses (something that a Scellor should definitely be capable of handling). Intellect. Power. A million things other than justice, which doesn't even appear on there.

Imagine if the sword had symbolized war instead (like it, you know, usually does!). Imagine the diplomat stealing the war symbol from the enemy commander and smashing it to bits. What a huge victory that would be! How justified we would have been in reaching for it! And it damn well could have.

That's why, and I hate to dump on Jukashi like this, we will probably never be successful with the mindscape stuff. Both of the times we've tried it we've gotten sorta yelled at for... not really "getting" it. It's one of those things where you have to either try and guess what the author had in mind, which is never fun (who liked English class?), or just present possible interpretations and the author picks the one he likes best. I'm not saying that they couldn't be done well, but when they largely depend on A) knowing the character's personality (of two characters we were basically just introduced to), and B) bloody symbolism, we're destined to fail at them.

Side note, because I hate symbolism so much: Everybody read this poem and try and study it for the symbolism.

http://www.online-literature.com/henry_longfellow/924/

Did you guess it was actually about the human condition and how nature ceaselessly erodes away at man's creations? Did you guess that the traveler is dead when he leaves the town? Did you guess that the waves represent the ups and downs of life? Did you do it on your first try? Even if you did, you still might be wrong! Or more accurately, nobody is wrong! I hate symbolism agrahghrhfhgh
>>
No. 74806 ID: cee89f

>>74801
It was hinted at when she used the cape as a whip ("Rrgh. Right. Right! Those are good reasons! To injure and kill people. Permanently. Right???") but not before the mental battle, no. And now that I look again, we didn't really have a chance to take that into account anyway, so it doesn't matter it was hinted.

But to be fair, it was a necklace, not an actual sword, and her hostility was already confirmed as that dagger Piyerra cut her with.

...Having said that, your general point is correct. Mindscape battles are gonna suck.

... Question: If clothing and possessions represent one's thoughts and psyche in the mindscape and the scellor are supposed to be ultra-powerful psychics why are they completely naked?
>>
No. 74807 ID: a01b62

>>74806
...that's actually a really good point. Why did that stupid crappy Astranian psychic get to carry her dumb necklace in with her but the psychic-oriented Scellor caste aided by, like, her whole platoon or whatever, didn't spawn with an RPG? Is it just defender's advantage?
>>
No. 74808 ID: 226049

>>74806
>... Question: If clothing and possessions represent one's thoughts and psyche in the mindscape and the scellor are supposed to be ultra-powerful psychics why are they completely naked?

Probably because we were in Ekia's mind, not Piyerra. Piyerra was just projecting.
>>
No. 74810 ID: 5663f2

Being on the offensive rather then defensive, range, innate to developed skill yadda yadda...There's enough reasons why it DIDN'T work, fluff wise, I think.
I think what REALLY made it hurt is how the Schellor didn't really get a 'victory'. Like, the Tozols wiped that scouting mech force, and got prisoners.
The Stranners took out the Ayaar scouts, and may have possibly taken the upper hand to require pretty much outright cooperation between the Tozol and Schellor.
But the Schellor? Lost their Psychic battle, which was THEIR specialty, and got blown up and messed up badly by the Tozol's actions. Those, arguably, are /Quest's fault (we didn't remember the mines/difficulties of Psychic battle.) But THIS is what I think made it hurt: instead of feeling like awesome space psychics, we got our tails handed to us for incompetence at something we should have been better at.
Now aside from that, they lost the inital space battle, and lost 2 of the three ayaar, the third of which is now captured by Tozols.
I CAN see the Scellor coming back from this...But it's increasingly looking like if they do, it's because either one of them actually suceeded in their crazy heroics, or the Undermind actually intervened. In short, they need to get lucky to win now, it seems like.
On the flipside, it could very well have been that we simply just had the bad fortune of missing their 'important turns' the Space battle, and the Ayaar encounter, as well as whatever else was going on, but at the same time...Getting that horribly unlucky is much like losing your favorite Quest Character because of a bum dice roll.
Who knows. I'll wager that if we take control of the Schellor in the midst of a firefight or something we'll have a much easier time of it!
>>
No. 74812 ID: 65ddc7

>>74806

I don't think the Scellor have much along the line of attachment to physical objects. The only thing they carry with them at all times is the Undermind, so that is what they bring.
>>
No. 74813 ID: c23ab0

>>74810

That and the psychic bat was totally hax.
>>
No. 74814 ID: cee89f

>>74812
It does make sense that the Scellor wouldn't have an attachment to anything but themselves and the Undermind.

Those items weren't representative of attachments to anything, though. They were metaphors for one's psyche. Ekia had a cloak for her indifference, a dagger for her hostility, boobs for her maternal instincts/self-image, a necklace for her sense of justice, etc.

>>74810
If I may offer a more optimistic viewpoint (for once): It might not be as bad for the scellor as it looks.

The scellor have 3 times the personnel the Astranians have (not counting robots), and most of those soldiers can use psychic powers to some degree. From a meta perspective, we had a hard time in the psychic battle partly because Ekia is one of the few psychics their forces have (conservation of ninjutsu and all), and because our connection to her was as weak as a rusty space elevator's connection to the moon.

The scellor's initial base has been assaulted heavily, but their communications are unhackable, and the enemy can't pinpoint them without exposing their commander's mind to the risk of invasion. They can do asymmetrical warfare pretty easily and help reduce the disadvantage of their lack of discipline.

On top of that, there's a chance the Scellor will gain a (temporary) ally as good as any they could hope for under these circumstances.
>>
No. 74848 ID: 8b9215

>>The tozols estimate a company of infantry, all told; mostly robots.
80-250 units
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Company_%28military_unit%29
>>
No. 74862 ID: cee89f

>>/quest/532515
okay, fair enough, but at 2 miles an hour, it'll take long enough to not be worth the wait. And that's assuming they leave the jungle entirely.
>>
No. 74864 ID: 57a559

I find it weird in the OP picture that Jukashi's representation looks like Comfybat and LW's looks like Radde.
>>
No. 75524 ID: e97f9d

>>75521
Not canon. The Astranian walker's shields would block the Scellor's psychic powers.
:goonsay:
>>
No. 75585 ID: c23ab0

>>75524

The astranian forgot that their walker's shields had blown out earlier and charged into battle unprepared.
>>
No. 75602 ID: 70f7b3

>>75531
If Astranian shields are that great, I question how they can possibly have a "war" against the Solars, whose main armaments appear to be AK-47s and frag grenades. That wouldn't be a war, it would about seven minutes long. With advanced warning, knowledge of all Astranian tactics, and several years to set up traps.
>>
No. 75605 ID: 0bc691

>>75602

I'm pretty sure that you misquoted there, since what you said has nothing at all to do with what you referred to.

Either way: Astranian Shields are specifically designed to block psychic activity. Explicitly so.
>>
No. 75610 ID: c35741

>>75605
I was aiming at 03. Sorry.
>>
No. 75611 ID: 96c896

>>75605
I thought they were designed to block mental attacks? Psychokinesis is a whole different ballgame.
>>
No. 75620 ID: 67bfa9

Astranian shields are designed to stop all direct psychic attacks,
though theoretically enough psychic power could overwhelm it

also reposting a chart thingy I made a while back in my main discussion thread, added psychic attacks to it
--------------------
there are 2 ways to beat Astranian shields, either you pierce through them, or you drain them completely

damage: Piercing power, Draining power
psychic attacks: PP: weak, DP: none
Energy weapons: PP: very weak, DP: strong
solid shot weapons: PP: medium, DP: weak
explosive: PP: weak, DP: very strong
large object/melee impact: PP: strong, DP: strong

Astranians also tend to wear body armour as well it tends to be effective against weapons as follows

Astranian Body armour
psychic attacks: no protection
Eneregy weapons: minimal protection
Solid Shot weapons: maximum protection
explosive: minimal protection
Large object/ melee impact: moderate protection

----------------------

also regarding the fanart picture (which is awesome btw)
many astranian scouts(vehicles or otherwise) on long patrol have no choice but to keep their shields down to conserve energy, leaving them vulnerable to surprise attacks until they have time to charge their shields, which for a large vehicle like the walker could take several minutes!

feel free to ask any questions
>>
No. 75621 ID: ba8629

Sorry about the week-plus of not updating. IRL gave me a high-priority concern.

However, as of today, I have no good excuse.
>>
No. 75622 ID: bc8d67

How much do the BQ tozols know about the Astranian shields so far? They don't know anything about their psi-blocking abilities yet, do they?

>>75621
I'd be more happy about that if I hadn't kept putting off making my suggestion; I kept overthinking it and got nothing down. There still a day or two before the update?
>>
No. 75642 ID: cee89f

>>75621
No need to apologize - RL comes first. Hope whatever it was worked out okay.

>>75622
... Er... Not to be rude, but why would that matter? The Tozols aren't psionic... And if they allied with any of the scellor (the only psionics they /could/ ally with at the moment) they'd already know.
>>
No. 75651 ID: bc8d67

>>75642
True, the tozols don't need anything like Astranian shields to protect against direct psi attacks (though maybe they'd be useful against indirect ones.) Them knowing about the psi-block would be for planning so their actions wouldn't be immediately recognizable as non-Scellor due to being within a shield bubble.
>>
No. 75734 ID: cee89f

>>75651
Okay, good point, but even if they knew that, do they or the Astranians know that Scellor become inert inside the shields? Judging by how the astranians reacted ( >>/quest/384035 ) I'd say they don't know.

And that's assuming they stop all psychic powers used /inside/ the shields, too, which I doubt if they have a commander-ritualist using psychic projection to find and fire on the Scellor.
>>
No. 75751 ID: bc8d67

>>75734
What? Ekia could do that from behind the shields? Uh... >>/questarch/385712 Huh. It does appear she can use psychic projection while the battlecarrier's shields are up. That makes me wonder if it only blocks psionics coming from outside or if psychic projection is a non-directional power and doesn't pass through the shields.

I do admit that the Astranians very likely haven't made the connection between the shield bubble's psionic blocking and the Ayaar going catatonic. They'll need more than that single point of data before making any conclusions.
>>
No. 75762 ID: cee89f

>>75751
Ehhhhh... Well, it's possible she got coordinates directly during the mental battle and then put THOSE into the machine, but it didn't look like it when she put the coordinates in and honestly doesn't seem that likely.

>That makes me wonder if it only blocks psionics coming from outside or if psychic projection is a non-directional power and doesn't pass through the shields.
Another possibility is because she's Astranian. Their shields /are/ racist, after all.
>>
No. 76118 ID: abd8bf

So, sounds like Psychonium can be metabolized into things that the Tozol body needs.

Hmm, will this make things worse.. or better?

Reya? How do you feel about licking the Scellor prisoner's wounds clean? As an apology for stealing her underwear of course. ;p
>>
No. 76121 ID: e9b708

Astranian shields are indeed directional
and have no effect on things exiting them, psionic or otherwise
>>
No. 76156 ID: cee89f

>>76121
Hmmmm... Interesting.

I wonder...

Could the Scellor fool Ekia's psychic projection by making it seem as if they're in a different place than they actually are, since she's projecting out from the shield? Or would that require going through the shield? It won't really matter at this point since the Astranians already know exactly where to fire but maybe it could be useful in the future, assuming the Scellor make it out of this?
>>
No. 81083 ID: cee89f

>>/quest/571878
...huh. I thought this thread was defunct.

>>/quest/571848

This, basically. Knowledge like 'how a reactor works' isn't something we can get during an ambush. Maybe if we'd thought of this back at base with Rook (...or had him with us, come to think of it... shit) we'd have time to plan, but we don't.

Plant the bombs and get your Tozol on
>>
No. 81095 ID: 6c6fbc

>>81083
Even a little knowledge might make all difference in our charge placement - upgrade the damage done from 'shutdown for repairs' to 'ionized'. Plus, tasty intel asset for later study. Might not help us on this outing, but might make a real difference later.
>>
No. 81096 ID: cee89f

>>81095
First of all, we're not pulling out a few wires here, we're placing a c4 charge onto the thing. You don't need specialized knowledge of how the reactor works to blow it up.

Second, as mentioned before we do not have time to waste. Seconds are precious here. If there's no tangible, immediate benefit to keeping them alive I see no reason to do it.

Third, we have an intelligence asset already. This is an ambush, not a prisoner raid. And unlike our previous ambush, this one takes place dead center amongst hostile forces. Tozols are the strongest soldiers on the map, but they aren't invincible, the last thing we want is to get caught in a pocket again. (That didn't work out well for Penji)
>>
No. 81098 ID: 6c6fbc

>>81096
Is it an intelligence asset with technical knowledge? Ops is very useful, no doubt, but their technical knowledge is likely fairly narrow.

Depending on how widely the 'stranners cross train their technical corps, he might might well give us access to some exploitable data about some of the workings of their tech-base. Even knowledge of their power systems might be exploitable in the long term.
>>
No. 81112 ID: cee89f

>>81098
Let me just... just work out if I've got this straight.

Your plan is to attempt to capture a member of an extremely proud and racist species in the middle of its own base and force its cooperation in highly technical matters in the span of a few seconds, again, in the middle of its own base. Then, after the slight benefit that such an act would confer upon us (if at all) you want to take it with us. We didn't bring anything we could use to transport this creature out of the walker, so I assume we'll have to have one of the Tozols carry them out to Kaselir's tank, which puts one of them out of commission for the fighting.

You think that this plus the technical details of something we are planning to utterly destroy is worth the risk of the Tozols being caught in the middle of the enemy base without support, not only revealing that we exist, but also probably causing the loss of at least one Tozol, possibly more.

And all of this is ignoring just how many precious seconds we would have to spend on interrogating this creature, the extremely high probability that it could die on our way back, the possibility that it could just lie to us...

I'm sorry, but from where I'm standing the risk outweighs the benefit to a truly astounding degree when we can just put a bomb on the big purply thing and call it a day. Call me crazy, but I don't think the Tozols need much technical knowledge of this thing to know that the big glowy swirly thing in the reactor core is their target.
>>
No. 81115 ID: 6c6fbc

>>81112
I'm thinking field interrogation is purely optional now, beyond maybe how to open the maintenance hatches or such like - we'd look right stupid if the charges expended themselves uselessly against a security force-field or suchlike - more possible than I'd like, I wouldn't risk a gun (the marine's gear) with that kind of firepower near such a possibly volatile system without some kind of safeguard in place - the 'Stranners are dumb, but they're not suicidal; I don't want a Tozol version of the Scellor fiasco. Or maybe we just taze him and haul him home, if it really introduces that much complexity to field interrogate.

>You think that this plus the technical details of something we are planning to utterly destroy is worth the risk

We're looking at a potential goldmine of information here - not just about the walker, but about 'Stranner war machines and technology in general. Data about 'Stranner equipment could give us a vital edge in the fight.
>>
No. 81117 ID: cee89f

>>81115
>if it really introduces that much complexity to field interrogate.
Yes. It does. They know they're under attack, so every second counts. Trying to get info on this reactor now is, at this point, pointless since we can just blow it up.

Assuming we still want one for long-term purposes, there's still the issues of transport and non-cooperation. When we get outside, Kaselir can take our prisoner in her tank, sure, but since we didn't come planning to snatch up prisoners this time, that would leave one Tozol splitting their attention between keeping the prisoner a prisoner and fighting, or just plain out of the fight entirely.

And then, if we judge by our current prisoners, we have a 50/50 shot of getting an Astranian who'll cooperate. Which also means we have a 50/50 chance they won't.

While admittedly we'd get more tech details if they do cooperate, it's probable they wouldn't know much about the airship, since they're working the ground.

I guess Vaejra could hook up to the systems here and learn something as quickly as possible, if we really need to get information on this trip? He has a cybernetic uplink that can do that, right?
>>
No. 81122 ID: a54ae1

I may not dig Halftangible's ideas on tactical dispersal into the room, but he's right on about trying to capture a squishy.

Item #1: Cooperation.

If the Squishy (I love how we've moved from Astrannians to Stranners to 'Squishies'.) is uncooperative then they're dead-weight until we get them home. IF we get them home, we're not exactly rigged for extra POWs here.

Then there's the issue of the Squishies being so.. 'squishy'. Odds are given their egotistical-racist culture and psychology using 'soft' interrogation won't be sufficient, and given how they're so delicate they'd likely die before breaking and spilling useful intel if we used 'enhanced' interrogation.


Item #2: Relevant Intel.

We're Tozols, we weren't born to do this. We weren't Made to do this. We were Crafted to do this by the most advanced artisans the galaxy will ever know. We know how to place charges for maximum-boom, and if we don't see a way to achieve maximum boom just by looking at the reactor once we control that room odds are we're not gonna be able to get relevant info from a Squishy who is either going to be burning time shouting fuzzy-nazi propaganda at us or pissing themselves to death.

Item #3: Time.

We don't have it.

We do NOT have it.

Every second we spend branching out and multiplying our mission objectives on the fly is more time the Squishies have to get a bead on us and start frying Tozols. The Squishies have Handguns that Make You ASPLODE! Fuggin' ASPLODE!


Item #4: Mission Creep.

It's bad, mmm'kay?

Item #5: Tozol Bay.

Let's just blow the damned thing up, Alright?
>>
No. 81124 ID: 6c6fbc

>>81122

Fine. But we need to make time for dedicated fact-finding missions against both sides soon, otherwise we risk getting blindsided.
>>
No. 81125 ID: 6c6fbc

>>81124
Although it might be easier to make a 'stranner carrier than you'd think. Look for a emergency supply box - there could be rescue balls for hostile environments or something like that.
>>
No. 81127 ID: cee89f

>>81122
>I may not dig Halftangible's ideas on tactical dispersal into the room, but he's right on about trying to capture a squishy.
Fair enough. I'm an amateur writer/programmer, not a tactician.

>>81124
Agreed, we need intelligence. But this isn't the time.

>>81125
I hope you meant 'take' :P
>>
No. 81129 ID: 6c6fbc

>>81127
A rescue sphere might need some changes to be useful for our purpose - tying rope to the handles and suchlike to it so can be easily slung on our back, or checking for an emergency beacon and killing it if one is found so it doesn't give us away. All of those likely could be accomplished relatively easily in the field though.
>>
No. 81131 ID: cee89f

>>81129
1) What exactly in that post were you responding to? >.>

2) Kill the emergency beacon? Why would we do that? The forces here are going to know we're attacking the walker as soon as the reactor blows anyway, the carrier is out of range, and even if it tries to come back and help, that takes pressure off of the Scellor and prolongs their fight with the Astranians.
>>
No. 81132 ID: 6c6fbc
File 139827589729.jpg - (9.68KB , 245x269 , ballper1.jpg )
81132

>>81131
I'm referring to your response about the rescue ball - you'd have to modify one slightly to use one of theirs as a prisoner carrier, if we decided to improvise in such a fashion.

A rescue ball is likely to be designed to attract attention by nature -'rescue' after all. Such a device might well have a transponder to help rescuers find it in a smokey area - we'd want to turn such off lest it pinpoint us. We won't need to make it so they wouldn't be able to open it from the inside though - such a feature would be standard so that a delirious or otherwise irrational patient doesn't open the thing in vacuum or toxic environments.

Image related, it's the kind of gadget I'm describing.
>>
No. 81134 ID: cee89f

>>81132
...

But I didn't say anything about a rescue ball >.>
>>
No. 81136 ID: 6c6fbc

>>81134
>iamconfuse.tiff
Then why'd you link to
>>81125
in
>>81127
>>
No. 81144 ID: cee89f

>>81136
... oh. that. I was making fun of your post. Specifically, the part where you suggest we "make" a carrier. :P I assumed you meant 'take', as in 'destroy', and that 'make' was a typo. It seemed funny.
>>
No. 81146 ID: 6c6fbc

>>81144
So what do you think of the idea of improvising a prisoner carrier then? There's a good chance they'll have a gadget like that I described close to hand - it's a pretty versatile piece of equipment for any kind of hostile enviroment emergency - vacuum, coolant leak, the works.
>>
No. 81157 ID: cee89f

>>81146
*shrug* Sorry, I still think there's too much risk and not enough reward. Time is at a premium right now, and we only suspect that such a thing could be improvised.

The Tozols only have so long before all hell falls upon them, and when that happens... well in all likelihood someone's going to die, and a Tozol is far more valuable than a prisoner.
>>
No. 82204 ID: 4a20fa

><@TestPattern> There's some indications of how the shields work in BQ. Just gotta look for them.

Alright, fine, I'll do the obsessive fan thing while waiting for stuff to cook.

>>/questarch/368614 - shaped plasma landmine works
>>/questarch/368615 - fusion cannons "ablating the shield and achieving penetrating hits"; laser and Anak's sniper rifle ineffective
>>/questarch/368617 - "the front shield is much stronger than the back"
>>/questarch/368618 - "Its shield strength is unknown, but doesn't seem to protect the feet."

That's all mech shields, mind. The marine shield stuff shows up vs Scellor, and how it works vs. psychic powers isn't very relevant right now. Even reflected Stranner lasers don't seem to get through: >>/questarch/381536
>>
No. 82363 ID: c27f85

So, it appears that 'Stranner Shields' ability to repel mass doesn't scale-up as well as it's ability to resist energy, good to know.
>>
No. 82377 ID: ba8629
File 140260341998.jpg - (234.02KB , 500x3000 , tozolconcepts.jpg )
82377

Have some very old concept art for the team.
>>
No. 82378 ID: ba8629
File 140260350357.jpg - (133.78KB , 1532x843 , rinis_blocky.jpg )
82378

And some newer concept art.

I spent forever trying to figure out how to draw a stylish charging tozol for the door breach scene... and then didn't use that.
>>
No. 82386 ID: cee89f

>>82377
>>82378
Always nice to see behind the scenes =)
>>
No. 84308 ID: 257e78

What's the dropship's cargo capacity? Are there any mounting points which could be used to carry more stuff on the outside, and if so, how much without redlining the engines just to take off or completely ruining the aerodynamics?

Here is my propozol:
Step one, get a big rock, or several slightly smaller rocks, or hunks of scrap metal or whatnot. Optionally, add some actual explosives.
Step two, mount aforementioned heavy stuff on the dropship in such a way that it can be released quickly.
Step three, wait until a Scellor ship gets back in the air.
Step four, dive-bomb the Astranian carrier, ideally on a vector such that the projectile seems to originate from the Scellor vessel.
Repeat until shields are down.
>>
No. 85998 ID: ba8629
File 141309298247.jpg - (474.26KB , 1152x1152 , 1229977012606.jpg )
85998

Due to creative differences, we've decided it's not really possible to continue this quest in a way we all find fun.

Put briefly, we've got different ways of deciding how things should happen. I saw the quest from the outset as an interesting tactical situation, and approached it from the Gamist/Simulationist side of things, while LonelyWorld prefers a more Narrativist viewpoint. Over time, it became increasingly difficult to reconcile those approaches in a mutually satisfactory manner.

I apologize to everyone following the quest.
>>
No. 86008 ID: cee89f

>>85998
=(

... eh. Guess it's better to know for sure... and collaborative storytelling is really difficult if the players/writers start butting heads... Disappointing, but understandable.

Thanks for the two threads that y'all did manage to get out before this happened.

Some final thoughts that have been brewing in my head for a while:

I really enjoyed this quest, particularly regarding how faction inter and intra-play worked. The Tozols in particular - since there were so few of them - were all connected to each other in some significant way that meant the team's dynamic would shift heavily if one of them died. (EX: Baj was the child of two of the Tozols, and the lover of a third. Had he died, they would lose their xenopsychological "expert", and three of their soldiers would be emotionally compromised. Look at each of the Tozols and you notice they ALL connect like that to the others in some way) Piyerra and Radde were both integral to the other's proper functioning due to their psychic link. Had Eskia died, Tactica Command would have been unable to properly lead since the Astranians don't take orders from robots (and as Astranian Turn 1 demonstrated, they would push back against its orders every chance they got). However, had Tactica Command been destroyed, the Astranians would be led by an arrogant sloth who didn't give 2 shits about anything going on on the planet's surface.

Each of the factions had believable strengths and weaknesses that, in theory, would allow each to show their full range of power without overwhelming the other factions.

The Scellor probably got beat down the hardest, but I think it's partly because their abilities were the most limited, and partly because of how the three races were originally designed.

The Scellor were originally an RPG-style protagonist: ignoring the fanservice aspects, their appeal came in large part from building up their character's powers over time and discovering more of the world around them. The Tozols were similarly designed to grow and progress in power and skill, but they were also meant to be put into this exact scenario: outnumbered, no chance of reinforcements, low on supplies, and outgunned. On the other hand, the Astranians are designed to operate in a grimdark science fantasy where everything is covered in blood and drinking deep of death, where your best chance for survival is to grind your enemy down until it's nothing but a greasy smear on your boot. The Tozols and Astranians were made to fry bigger fish than the Scellor.

What really hurt the Scellor, however, was the fact that both the Tozols and the Astranians had hard counters to psionics, their most useful ability.

What this ultimately means is that while the Astranians and Tozols were in places where they could fully stretch their muscles from the get-go, the Scellor were not. This probably would've changed as the game went on and each side began to lose more resources, but as-is, the Scellor were pretty screwed.

The three authors had their own quest-telling style that clashed a bit in places (especially the Ayaar prisoner - she seemed more like Mitzi than Piyerra, Radde, Maolla or even the Ayaar leader to me) but overall it made for a varied, interesting read. Jukashi's sections were funny, light-hearted and really showed off his characters. Radde's speech about saving the entire universe from entropy was great, and probably one of the best parts of the quest. LW's sections were dark, bloody and gritty, and it left the astranians feeling very... well, dark and bloody :p TP's sections were gloomy and gray, appropriate given the situations the Tozols found themselves in. They also, however, showed off his characters' ranges quite nicely and despite the gloomy atmosphere I never felt like they were completely hopeless.

As many have noted previously in the thread, Scellor turn 1 was probably the biggest misstep: it was the first (and only) time where the faction's aggressive move felt like an overall loss for the faction. Jukashi, I've noticed, likes to experiment with his quest mechanics and visual cues. Ultimately, though, this bit the Scellor in the ass, since the questgivers were working in a system they barely understood (i don't think anyone called the necklace as being a symbol of justice)

The winner... eh, nobody really got far enough ahead to declare one side or another the 'winner'. If pressed, I'd say the Tozols, as they had the fewest losses.

As for the overall narrative... I put the Astranians as the "villains" as we played. They felt in many places like the Star Destroyer in the opening of A New Hope: they were an overwhelming force pounding hard on their thoroughly underequipped foes. They were trying to sieze the spire 'just because' and their forces were in large part either arrogant, lazy or cowardly. It also makes sense that they'd be the least sympathetic since the Tozols were a tightly-knit unit that was defending their de facto home out of duty and loyalty, and the Scellor were out to save the whole dang universe from dieing. (that speech was pretty much perfect, btw) I recall LW saying somewhere that the Astranians were meant to be both an- and pro- tagonists in equal measure, and it really shows here.

I put the Scellor as the "heroes" since their goal here was to save the entire universe. It was an understandable goal, it was delivered to near-perfection by a character who had up until that point seemed like the silly, playful one, and it was an appropriately far-reaching goal for a race of all-but-immortals.

The Tozols were my favorite of the three factions. Their force numbered 8, which allowed for their strong character dynamics, aesthetic personas and personalities to shine through.

Speaking of, characters were REALLY strong here. Jukashi's were probably the best imo, but nobody was phoning it in on this one. LW integrated his characters perfectly into the story such that they acted as unintrusive exposition while still showing off their personalities (take a look at the squad analysis back in thread 1, you'll see what i mean). Jukashi's were probably the most fun, Radde in particular owned every scene he was in and Piyerra was a great straight man to his zany...ness. As I've said before, TP's Tozols were all well-designed characters with a tightly knit group dynamic. All 8 of them felt unique and likeable in their own ways and I think you deserve kudos for that. An ensemble cast is not easy to pull off.

In conclusion, you guys are all awesome and I wish you three all the best in whatever you do next.
>>
No. 86009 ID: 2e7fb1

RIP. You will be missed.
>>
No. 86014 ID: 9ddf68

so she's dead huh? well it was a good run while it lasted

This was a quest I really wished I could have gotten into more but with the sporadic updates I never could really get into the grove of things so ended up more just reading and waiting to see what happened next instead of actually participating. But since it's over mind if I ask Test a question that has been bothering me for awhile? Why do Tozols have tanks? I mean if you look at the tozol wiki page I see no reason why they'd need a tank, they could probably run faster then the tank could move and move over a wider range of terrain, the tozol solder is a hell of a lot less likely to be spotted then a tank, and from what I have seen of the tozol's weaponry half of there armament could probably be classified as small artillery. The only things I could see use for Tozol armor is as a supple/troop carrier or for very specific special task that needs a gun that even a tozol couldn't carry and air support isn't an option. if this question has already been asked and answered then could you link me to the answer?
>>
No. 86018 ID: ba8629
File 141315406849.png - (239.74KB , 800x600 , tankdestroyer.png )
86018

>>86014
>Why do Tozols have tanks? I mean if you look at the tozol wiki page I see no reason why they'd need a tank, they could probably run faster then the tank could move and move over a wider range of terrain, the tozol solder is a hell of a lot less likely to be spotted then a tank, and from what I have seen of the tozol's weaponry half of there armament could probably be classified as small artillery. The only things I could see use for Tozol armor is as a supple/troop carrier or for very specific special task that needs a gun that even a tozol couldn't carry and air support isn't an option.

That last one.
>>
No. 86020 ID: db2d60

>>86008

>The Tozols were my favorite of the three factions. Their force numbered 8, which allowed for their strong character dynamics, aesthetic personas and personalities to shine through.

I actually thought that was the weakest part of the quest. The tozols were set so far behind from the start that they couldn't lose any soldiers without effectively dropping out of the quest, each individual represented such a large portion of tozzle resources that there wasn't really any tension regarding whether or not they would suffer for their actions. The astranians and the scellor could suffer consequences for their actions and still be 'in the game,' which meant that you couldn't be sure if their plans would actually work.

as a counterpoint, the tozzles set up a big plan, and then had to have one of them suddenly adjust the plan on the fly when things went wrong without communicating the plan to any others, but then they just executed the plan as they had initially intended to do as though nothing had happened without any consequence. It was an incident where the players settled on a course of action that was then disrupted, but instead of having to improvise or scramble or suffer a consequence it just sort of worked anyway. It sucks the tension, and thus the interest in what's going on, out of the whole side of the quest. And the problem is that there isn't much of a way to avoid it when the group is structured in such a fashion.

The astranians suffered numerous setbacks on other players' turns, and the scellor suffered a significant setback even on their own player turn. The tozzles were put in a position where they couldn't suffer setbacks so they just sort of didn't.
>>
No. 86022 ID: 2fd516

>>86020
I suspect that is not why they didn't suffer setbacks.
>>
No. 86024 ID: bb78f2

Even just one tozol could win the game. So could an Astranian or Scellor to be honest.

It could have gone down as mexican standoff with three superpowered, super equipped factions with only one survivor on each side.

Comfy-Bat in an astranian metal gear, Radde in a gundam, and Baj on foot with a knife.
Mexican standoff. BIG mexican standoff.
>>
No. 86025 ID: bb78f2
 

>>86024
I would actually like to made a change to that last statement, even if it basically means Baj would win the fight.
>Comfy-Bat in an astranian metal gear, Radde in a gundam, and Baj on foot with a katana.
>>
No. 86043 ID: 5bab69

>>86020
Seriously? Have you read Tozol Quest?
>>
No. 86044 ID: cee89f

>>86020
>Losing one tozol meant they were basically out of the game
Where were you getting that idea? Each Tozol had their own specialty, sure, but there were redundancies everywhere. Look at Vaejra's first post here, it's like the third post in the discussion thread with an actual image. Each of the Tozols has many jobs.

EX: The commanding officer and Reya were both information warfare experts, Ota was there to take command if Vaejra died, etc etc. Heck, it's implied in ITQ that some of the Tozols wouldn't care if some of the others died (Rinis and someone else?)

Each side was stuck with the resources they had, that much was clear from the get-go, but the Tozols were especially isolated. Mechcanically, each individual Tozol was a huge resource you could ill afford to lose, like the Astranian Warship. Narratively, each Tozol was a precious character we didn't want to lose like Radde or Tactica Command. It was a well-designed scenario, I feel.

>No setbacks
Well yeah, that's kind of the Tozol faction's whole thing. Every setback they had would be an extreme one, since their resources are so limited. Compare each faction's biggest guns: the Scellor have their psychic powers (if Scellor had been the first turn in thread 2, i was going to suggest that every scellor in the army link into a battlemind, and have that battlemind attack the ship), numerous grav tanks and their ships. The Astranians had a friggen warship, numerous battle walkers and the command walker.

The Tozols had... bombs (the other factions had those too) a tank (just ONE tank, compared to the enemies' several each) and a dropship (that wasn't going to help much against any of the enemy ships).

As I said before, no one was getting reinforcements. So the Tozols were always going to be stuck working on a lower bar, but the Tozols themselves were so overpowered that it was basically going to be an even fight.

>It just sort of worked anyway

Well, we had yet to see that, for one. The quest stopped right before we got to see how well this infiltration played out. This was the first point where we could have lost a Tozol, and the Scellor turn was the only one so far that did not work out favorably for that side.

For another, the plan was to destroy and/or disable the walker. The bomb would have most definitely done the latter (and possibly the former - can someone yell 'timber'?) but instead we got next to nothing from the bomb itself.

>>86024
I was thinking more Sout with one shot and no shields, Vaejra with one leg and a knife, and Piyerra with nothing but psychic power, a thermal layer and Radde's crazy grin.

>>86014
>Why do Tozols have tanks?
Because you can never have enough dakka.
>>
No. 86046 ID: db2d60

>>86043

Keep in mind that I hate tozzles interacting with other quest races outside their own setting because they're too relatively powerful to be interesting in the first place. I know all about tozzles.

The problem here isn't the individual power level difference. The problem is that the structure of the quest meant that I knew going into it that the tozzles wouldn't suffer setbacks because they were the race put in a position where they just plain couldn't afford it. There was no tension at all.

Even when they had the big scene with OH MAN THIS MARINE IS HARDCORE IT TAKES SO MUCH WORK TO KILL IT, there was no tension. It was a matter of 'how long will it take' not 'will it work' or 'will they lose any resources in the process?' And then the ultimate resolution was just hitting it with a thing. It doesn't matter how much you try to play up threats when you've already sucked all fear of setbacks out of the situation. It's already over.

>>86044

>Well, we had yet to see that, for one. The quest stopped right before we got to see how well this infiltration played out.

I have a sneaking suspicion that that's where the 'creative differences' that ended the quest came from -- The problem of being unwilling/unable to actually give the tozzles any kind of setback in order to achieve their goal; or alternatively suffering the setback of having their plan to take out the walker fail.

Which is a shame since having to fall back because they had no way to actually stop the walker without unacceptable sacrifices, and as such losing ground and having to relocate and all that would have caused them an actual setback and added an element of tension which was otherwise completely lacking in their side of the story.

>and the Scellor turn was the only one so far that did not work out favorably for that side.

Which is why I divide the three sides into distinct tiers.

Tier 1: Scellor - Suffer setbacks during player turns as a result of player actions during their turn and other player's turns. High-Tension.
Tier 2: Astranians - Suffer setbacks during other player's turns as a result of player actions during other player's turns. Low-Tension.
Tier 3: Tozzles - Suffer no setbacks. No-Tension.
>>
No. 86048 ID: 2fd516

>>86046
...you know, it's possible that the tozols didn't suffer any setbacks because we made the right decisions and were cautious.
>>
No. 86056 ID: 9ddf68

>>86018
I thought a tozol tank destroyer was just called a tozol.
>>
No. 86066 ID: cee89f

>>86046
>Keep in mind that I hate tozzles interacting with other quest races outside their own setting because they're too relatively powerful to be interesting in the first place.
I really hate this argument. A character being 'powerful' doesn't mean that the other characters are completely helpless. Especially not when the other creatures are in the same basic genre and power tier (Tozols aren't going to be blowing up planets with their bare hands any time soon)

>I know all about tozzles.
Then why do you keep mispelling it? :P

>Which is why I divide the three sides into distinct tiers.
I actually found the Tozol situations to be the most tense, followed by the Scellor and then the Astranians. So I dunno what you're talkin' about.

>I have a sneaking suspicion that that's where the 'creative differences' that ended the quest came from -- The problem of being unwilling/unable to actually give the tozzles any kind of setback in order to achieve their goal; or alternatively suffering the setback of having their plan to take out the walker fail.
Dude, the plan to take out the walker DID fail, and we were TOLD what caused the problems: one player wanted to do the quest as a simulation, another as a story. As someone who's done collaborative storytelling before, trust me, this is incredibly common.

Dunno why Jukashi couldn't play tiebreaker, nor why this wasn't worked out beforehand, but I assume that the former was rejected for whatever reason and the latter just didn't occur to them as something to check. It happens.

>Which is a shame since having to fall back because they had no way to actually stop the walker without unacceptable sacrifices, and as such losing ground and having to relocate and all that would have caused them an actual setback and added an element of tension which was otherwise completely lacking in their side of the story.

You're drawing a lot of conclusions on how this played out behind the scenes with very little information and declaring them as fact >.> I also find it odd that you presume that 'falling back' would somehow be a loss for them when leaving would've just been an anticlimax. They'd set up a smoke bomb and antipersonnel mine field and had ample ability to get on the walker, they had every reason to move forward.

I found the infiltration of the walker to be far more tense than Sout or Piyerra's fight scenes (main character shields, ho!). The only real problem i had there was that it took a few months to get inside the walker.

>Setbacks
You keep using this word, i don't think it means what you think it does.

>Even when they had the big scene with OH MAN THIS MARINE IS HARDCORE IT TAKES SO MUCH WORK TO KILL IT, there was no tension. It was a matter of 'how long will it take' not 'will it work' or 'will they lose any resources in the process?'
What quest were YOU reading?

>And then the ultimate resolution was just hitting it with a thing. It doesn't matter how much you try to play up threats when you've already sucked all fear of setbacks out of the situation. It's already over.
You want one of (i think 100?) marines to be a legitimate danger to 5 or 6 Tozols? That's like a single Niaar assassinating Ekia with a slingshot - it ain't gonna happen. Setting up that the Tozol's weapons were completely ineffectual against the Astranian's shock troopers (that the walker was most likely filled with) isn't creating tension for you?

(also, it was solved by hitting the marine with a grenade inside a thing. Just wanted to make that clear)
>>
No. 86067 ID: db2d60

>>86048

lol

>>86066

>Then why do you keep mispelling it? :P

Because I've spelled it that way for years and I have no intention of ever stopping.

>Dude, the plan to take out the walker DID fail

The purpose of the explosives was to immobilize the walked long enough to get inside and disable it.

They detonated the explosives early in the wrong place and it still stopped long enough for the tozzles to all take a quick jaunt through the forces around it, infiltrate it without any real resistance, and then when it looked like they might not be able to safely disable it the quest suddenly ended due to 'creative differences.'

>ou're drawing a lot of conclusions on how this played out behind the scenes with very little information and declaring them as fact >.>

That has absolutely nothing to do with anything in the statement you responded to. Failing to accomplish an objective is a meaningful setback when resources were put into the attempt to achieve it, especially if you're playing the 'guerrilla force with no resupply options' angle.

>I found the infiltration of the walker to be far more tense than Sout or Piyerra's fight scenes

The infiltration consisted of walking to the walker without resistance, opening a door without resistance, walking inside without resistance, and defeating an enemy with minimal resistance.

Where is the tension coming from there?

>You want one of (i think 100?) marines to be a legitimate danger to 5 or 6 Tozols?

I don't believe for a second that any number of marines would be a threat to any number of tozzles, because they walked through a plan that should have been a scramble to salvage something without resistance.

>Setting up that the Tozol's weapons were completely ineffectual against the Astranian's shock troopers (that the walker was most likely filled with) isn't creating tension for you?

When the solution to the problem of their weapons not working is 'hit it with a thing' and the enemy can't even meaningfully fight back?

no, that doesn't create tension at all. Not when the enemy is ultimately trivially dispatched, no matter how many updates are used to point of the minutiae of said dispatching.

>also, it was solved by hitting the marine with a grenade inside a thing. Just wanted to make that clear

The marine was pulverized to death before the grenade even exploded (See: minutiae). What quest were you even reading?
>>
No. 86069 ID: cee89f

>>86067
*sigh* the quest is done, this is the last i'll comment.

>Where is the tension coming from there?
Irreplacable resources are walking into the middle of the enemy encampment, surrounding themselves with foes that the Quest just proved the Tozols can't hurt with standard weaponry.

Thaen's trick was born of desperation and isn't going to work the whole way out since there aren't consoles everywhere in this walker.

They have a very strong chance of being caught in the blast of what amounts to a small nuke.

They're in the middle of a mine field.

Tozols have been shown to be disabled by standard bullets. The Astranian's guns are magitech laser cannons. Not 'standard'.

Frankly you're not giving the Astranians enough credit and the Tozols too much >.>

>That has absolutely nothing to do with anything in the statement you responded to.
So I put it in the wrong place, sue me. You're avoiding the issue. :P

>I don't believe for a second that any number of marines would be a threat to any number of tozzles
You don't believe that furry space marines with magic lasers have a chance against a group of Tozols after surrounding them and cutting them off from any and all reinforcements, which they have likely done given the noise made and the fact that they are inside the enemy's command walker.

You're asking too much.

>because they walked through a plan that should have been a scramble to salvage something without resistance.

I think you're talking about the walker bomb, but I don't see why that should have been a scramble >.> It's not like the bombs suddenly deactivated.

If you mean the reactor, we don't know what happens after that. You assume that the problem is TP wanted his Tozols to come out without a scratch, but frankly I don't see it.

>The marine was pulverized to death before the grenade even exploded
Frankly I'm not convince he would've died without the 'nade. Astranians get crushed in their suits and live. See: Huro. I'm not even sure it required him to breath.
>>
No. 86070 ID: 2fd516

>>86067
>lol
Okay smartass, why don't you just ask the author, instead of putting words in his mouth and exaggerating everything that is possible to exaggerate?
>>
No. 86071 ID: db2d60

>>86069

>They have a very strong chance of being caught in the blast of what amounts to a small nuke.

Or they could realize that that's a bad idea and have to abort the mission, at which point they have expended resources and accomplished little to nothing and experienced a setback

>They're in the middle of a mine field.

Which they set up.

Which they are apparently actively aware of the position of every mine they set up since they sprinted through it even when moving to a location that they had not originally planned to approach.

>Tozols have been shown to be disabled by standard bullets. The Astranian's guns are magitech laser cannons. Not 'standard'.

And the astranians are apparently incapable of even firing in a direction adequately describable as toward a tozzle. Going by the fight scene we saw.

>Frankly you're not giving the Astranians enough credit and the Tozols too much >.>

I'm not talking about crediting the species.

I'm talking about trust in the scenario. The tozzles walking into the command walker destroyed any idea that they would be in danger. The fight scene inside annihilated it.

>So I put it in the wrong place, sue me. You're avoiding the issue. :P

Because there is no issue. There is nothing that I have declared as a fact that is not observably a part of the quest.

>which they have likely done given the noise made and the fact that they are inside the enemy's command walker.

You mean the soldiers that are outside the walker, in a minefield (that the tozzles can navigate perfectly), and were unable to see the tozzles moving past them to get to the walkers in the first place?

>I think you're talking about the walker bomb, but I don't see why that should have been a scramble >.> It's not like the bombs suddenly deactivated.

Because one tozzle set off the bomb early without being able to communicate the change in plans to the other tozzles, despite no contingency being set up in advance.

Because they had to move to a position they had not planned to move to, through an army who was not in the positions they were planned to be in.

>If you mean the reactor, we don't know what happens after that.

Nothing happens after that, because 'creative differences.'

>You assume that the problem is TP wanted his Tozols to come out without a scratch, but frankly I don't see it.

No, I assume it's because he wasn't sure how to maintain their involvement in the quest if they suffered a significant setback (either losing tozzles in the blast or aborting the mission and expending resources on nothing).

>Frankly I'm not convince he would've died without the 'nade.

'By the time the grenade detonates, the Astranian's already had its last breath crushed out.'

ded
>>
No. 86072 ID: db2d60

>>86070

What have I exaggerated?

And fine, hey test, what were the specific creative differences?
>>
No. 86073 ID: 2fd516

>>86072
Oh my god what is wrong with you? When I say "ask the author" when you're arguing about why the tozols seemed to have an easy time of it, why would you not ask the author why the tozols seemed to be having an easy time of it? Why would you instead choose to ask about a private disagreement that he is obviously not giving details on?

Why would you ask what you were exaggerating when I said you were exaggerating everything?
>>
No. 86074 ID: db2d60

>>86073

>Why would you ask what you were exaggerating when I said you were exaggerating everything?

Because nothing that I have stated happened in the quest is an exaggeration, that's why.
>>
No. 86075 ID: cee89f

Why do I always say 'this is the last i'll comment', I always get one or two more in...

>>86071
>Because there is no issue. There is nothing that I have declared as a fact that is not observably a part of the quest.

You have both stated and treated several of your opinions as fact ('this wasn't tense' is an opinion, not an 'observable fact') and treated a hypothesis of why the quest ended as fact once you'd finished proposing it. When someone suggested a legitimate possibility you laughed in their face, which I assume means you found the idea absurd.

>>86074
>Because nothing that I have stated happened in the quest is an exaggeration, that's why.
Yes, you have exaggerated.
>>
No. 86076 ID: db2d60

>>86075

>You have both stated and treated several of your opinions as fact ('this wasn't tense' is an opinion, not an 'observable fact')

Where on earth did I say that was a fact. Stop putting words in my mouth.

>and treated a hypothesis of why the quest ended as fact once you'd finished proposing it.

The only thing I treated as fact about the quest ending was that it was over creative differences.

My source for that is right here: >>85998

If you want to point out how my one assertion of fact re: the end of the quest was not a fact, I'm all ears.

>When someone suggested a legitimate possibility you laughed in their face, which I assume means you found the idea absurd.

It certainly doesn't hurt that the idea was absurd.

>Yes, you have exaggerated.

where?
>>
No. 86077 ID: 2fd516

>>86076
>The only thing I treated as fact about the quest ending was that it was over creative differences.
>It certainly doesn't hurt that the idea was absurd.

Do I need to point out the contradiction here?
>>
No. 86078 ID: db2d60

>>86077

Yes, you will.

Because there is no contradiction in that statement.

!!!!!
!!!!*
!!!!
>>
No. 86081 ID: 61da19
File 141329525671.png - (3.34KB , 114x115 , Capture.png )
86081

>>86077
>>86078
....

(I better stay focused on the discussion. The judge will give me another penalty if I keep lashing out...)
>>
No. 86092 ID: ba8629

>>86071
>No, I assume it's because he wasn't sure how to maintain their involvement in the quest if they suffered a significant setback (either losing tozzles in the blast or aborting the mission and expending resources on nothing).
Just for the record, the tozols actually had zero chance of successfully bringing down the shield.
>>
No. 86095 ID: cee89f

>>86081
The admins here make me laugh =3

>>86092
... huh.

That just makes me curious what the plan was gonna be here, then. Presumably the Astranian ground forces were going to be halted by the minefield (at least for a bit) and do whatever they could to kill the Tozols on their way out...
>>
No. 86961 ID: 8f01e8

Probably irrational, but as the last poster before TOD I can't help but worry that I contributed to the bad end somehow.
>>
No. 86992 ID: cee89f

>>86961
... 'TOD' = Game Over?
>>
No. 86994 ID: 2fdec1

>>86992
From context my best guess is it's "Time Of Death."
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