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Art Gallery / Re: Sunday Stream Request Raffle - 8/16 (Open!)
« on: August 13, 2015, 10:51:19 PM »
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Art Gallery / Re: Sunday Stream Request Raffle - 8/9 (Open!)
« on: August 06, 2015, 11:25:36 PM »
Let's see, from what I see so far Potato should be 8, Frosted should be 9, which makes Misha 10 and LurkingWolf 11.
Guess that makes me 12.
Guess that makes me 12.
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Role Play Theater / Re: Into the Fray. (OCT) Sign-Up and Rules.
« on: June 10, 2014, 01:32:34 PM »
I may consider entering, depending on how it ends up looking and if I get an idea for a character.
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Art Gallery / Re: FREE ART -- Dragon Raffle, Year Two!
« on: May 28, 2014, 10:55:33 PM »
#20
Well alright then. I will say I don't have much more than a very vague idea for this, so I'm leaving quite a bit for you to just make up off the top of your head. Have fun I guess?
I was thinking something along the lines of a red fox android attempting to restrain a dragon that is trying to take off, perhaps with a rope or chain, maybe just holding onto the tail, whatever seems like a good idea to you.
The dragon in question is entirely up to you (could be Koryuu, you could get someone to volunteer, or just make one up, whatever you like, if someone wants to jump in the spot that's fine).
As for the android, besides being a red fox and an android of course I suppose blue eyes with a slight glow would be nice. Male chassis, and I suppose since he's holding down a dragon he should have a bit of muscle to him, but he's still a fox after all so it'd be lean and foxy muscle. Those androids that almost look natural but you can still see the outlines of plate/shell in the fur are pretty cool. Ridiculously hard to find references for though. This should give an idea of what I'm talking about, though of course it is unfortunately not a fox.
I have absolutely no idea about clothes. XD Does an android need clothes? Does android wool come from electric sheep? I don't know. Up to you I guess.
For pose, again not much more than a vague idea, but I think it should kind of look like he's having a hard time holding the dragon down. It ain't easy.
Yeesh, trying to communicate ideas without a good solid reference is hard. So, I'm leaving a lot of it wide open to artistic license. Fun, terrifying freedom.
Well alright then. I will say I don't have much more than a very vague idea for this, so I'm leaving quite a bit for you to just make up off the top of your head. Have fun I guess?
I was thinking something along the lines of a red fox android attempting to restrain a dragon that is trying to take off, perhaps with a rope or chain, maybe just holding onto the tail, whatever seems like a good idea to you.
The dragon in question is entirely up to you (could be Koryuu, you could get someone to volunteer, or just make one up, whatever you like, if someone wants to jump in the spot that's fine).
As for the android, besides being a red fox and an android of course I suppose blue eyes with a slight glow would be nice. Male chassis, and I suppose since he's holding down a dragon he should have a bit of muscle to him, but he's still a fox after all so it'd be lean and foxy muscle. Those androids that almost look natural but you can still see the outlines of plate/shell in the fur are pretty cool. Ridiculously hard to find references for though. This should give an idea of what I'm talking about, though of course it is unfortunately not a fox.
I have absolutely no idea about clothes. XD Does an android need clothes? Does android wool come from electric sheep? I don't know. Up to you I guess.
For pose, again not much more than a vague idea, but I think it should kind of look like he's having a hard time holding the dragon down. It ain't easy.
Yeesh, trying to communicate ideas without a good solid reference is hard. So, I'm leaving a lot of it wide open to artistic license. Fun, terrifying freedom.
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Crimson Flag Comic / Re: Comic 298
« on: May 02, 2014, 10:38:03 PM »Those spikes seem better equipped to take out tires than pursuers on foot...
Oh they work just fine against feet, as long as the spikes are long enough to get through the sole of your shoe. Even if you don't step directly on it but instead kind of knock it over with your toe, it'll just tip over and roll another spike right into the bottom of your foot.
And of course against bare feet, getting through the shoe isn't a problem.
They're also little terrors against horses.
A person who knows they're there can try to watch their step, but doing that slows you down. Win/win for someone trying to escape. Unless of course you just clear your path with magic. Because magic solves everything.
Of course, you also have to throw a *lot* of caltrops for them to be effective. Since you have to saturate a large enough area that your pursuer can't easily go around or jump over them. Though would *you* want to try jumping over a patch of caltrops and hope you don't land short?
Those little things are medieval landmines.
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Crimson Flag Comic / Re: Making of a Comic -- Page 134
« on: April 07, 2014, 01:06:40 AM »
The links probably got broken at some point because this thread is from 2011.
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Crimson Flag Comic / Re: Comic 290
« on: March 08, 2014, 03:16:11 AM »
... so does that mean Emiline is dead? Or that the Commodore is possibly not dead but has a bad case of dragon?
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Role Play Theater / Re: Planning a Guided Tour of Planet (Slots Filled)
« on: January 16, 2014, 08:59:16 AM »
7 is fine for me as well, my schedule's fairly open right now.
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Role Play Theater / Re: Planning a Guided Tour of Planet
« on: January 09, 2014, 10:06:45 PM »
Eh, guess it might be fun. I suppose I'll just try to play along with whatever comes up, but a general summary of what to expect will be nice for character-building purposes.
Also, can we get a list regarding species? Seven out of two hundred and eighty is a lot of guesswork.
Also, can we get a list regarding species? Seven out of two hundred and eighty is a lot of guesswork.
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Art Gallery / Re: Pokemonizational Radiation Discharge -- Mini group pic (Open!)
« on: November 18, 2013, 11:37:32 PM »
>rndInt (1,251)
>Password:
>**************
>Access Denied
>Password:
>**************
>Access Denied
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Art Gallery / Re: Halloween Sketch-a-thon 4 (open)
« on: October 20, 2013, 12:25:49 AM »#40
I don't have a reference as I'm not 18 and can't get a Paypal account, but can I get a red feral dragon with one of those plastic pumpkin candy baskets stuck on his head?
References have nothing to do with paypal. O_o It's just an image where you've been drawn before, whether by yourself or someone else, or an image you Googled that kinda-sorta looks like what you have in mind.
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Role Play Theater / Re: DoW the 3rd
« on: October 15, 2013, 07:43:55 PM »
In the aftermath of the Terran Federation's sweeping victory against the Aeon aggressors, the Treaty of Tratos provided for the peaceful removal of the Terran occupation in that city in exchange for transferring control of the island formerly known as "Snuggles" to Terran forces. The island is renamed to Guam.
Command Avatar x4:
Command Order (Council): 6 points total
The Federation sees a disturbing trend of peaceful, law abiding nations being forced to flee their cities by the encroachment of tyrannies with a disturbing habit of utilizing mind control to enslave their subjects. The Federation determines that it must take a more active role to preserve liberty around the world, to promote a free and just society for all people. To this end, the Federation seizes the abandoned cities of Blackwatch, Tuatha, Den Tietzal, Telcoco, and Den Atzintli to serve as operating bases as they stand against the encroachment of tyranny.
Command Avatar: Shape Land: 1 point
Isaac Newton spearheads a massive engineering project to enhance support for the Federation's large space fleet and expanding extrasolar colonies: powered by the latest in fusion technology, the Exajoule Mass Driver has an acceleration track that extends from the eastern border of Joule all the way to the rim of the crater in C4, ramping up the side of it for the purpose of launching large payloads into orbit. It took considerable effort to drain and pave the portion of the swamp that the Exajoule Mass Driver passed through, but the finished project has opened up new frontiers in orbital construction as the raw materials can be launched for a few Sterling per kilogram using cheap, plentiful electricity.
Command Avatar: Shape Land: 1 point
Publius inspires the Terrans to clean up the trench that passes by Guam, reducing it to a fairly normal looking ocean trench. In a few decades, the trench becomes a thriving underwater ecosystem and home to many rare aquatic species. Additionally, Terran engineers are able to gradually replace Guam with natural materials, converting it to a normal terrestrial island.
Command Avatar: Shape Land: 1 point
Adam Smith leads the Federal Highway Project, connecting all Terran cities that share a landmass with paved roads. (yes, technically it's more than 4 squares, I'm stretching it with the fact that roads are a really thin terrain feature, their total area is less than the area that 4 squares would contain)
Command Avatar: Shape Climate: 1 point
John Locke leads a team of climate scientists in normalizing the temperature and wind currents in B4, C4, D4. With the source of the unnatural cold removed, their calculations predict that the climate surrounding those regions should return to normal.
Command Race: 3 points
The Department of Defense establishes Camp Buehring in G12 to act as a forward base to protect Terran interests in the region.
The 2nd Hayek returns to Hayek, the 1st and 4th Say relocate to Tuatha, the 1st Joule relocates to Blackwatch, the 2nd Joule relocates to Joule, the 3rd Joule relocates to Say.
Command Avatar x4:
Command Order (Council): 6 points total
The Federation sees a disturbing trend of peaceful, law abiding nations being forced to flee their cities by the encroachment of tyrannies with a disturbing habit of utilizing mind control to enslave their subjects. The Federation determines that it must take a more active role to preserve liberty around the world, to promote a free and just society for all people. To this end, the Federation seizes the abandoned cities of Blackwatch, Tuatha, Den Tietzal, Telcoco, and Den Atzintli to serve as operating bases as they stand against the encroachment of tyranny.
Command Avatar: Shape Land: 1 point
Isaac Newton spearheads a massive engineering project to enhance support for the Federation's large space fleet and expanding extrasolar colonies: powered by the latest in fusion technology, the Exajoule Mass Driver has an acceleration track that extends from the eastern border of Joule all the way to the rim of the crater in C4, ramping up the side of it for the purpose of launching large payloads into orbit. It took considerable effort to drain and pave the portion of the swamp that the Exajoule Mass Driver passed through, but the finished project has opened up new frontiers in orbital construction as the raw materials can be launched for a few Sterling per kilogram using cheap, plentiful electricity.
Command Avatar: Shape Land: 1 point
Publius inspires the Terrans to clean up the trench that passes by Guam, reducing it to a fairly normal looking ocean trench. In a few decades, the trench becomes a thriving underwater ecosystem and home to many rare aquatic species. Additionally, Terran engineers are able to gradually replace Guam with natural materials, converting it to a normal terrestrial island.
Command Avatar: Shape Land: 1 point
Adam Smith leads the Federal Highway Project, connecting all Terran cities that share a landmass with paved roads. (yes, technically it's more than 4 squares, I'm stretching it with the fact that roads are a really thin terrain feature, their total area is less than the area that 4 squares would contain)
Command Avatar: Shape Climate: 1 point
John Locke leads a team of climate scientists in normalizing the temperature and wind currents in B4, C4, D4. With the source of the unnatural cold removed, their calculations predict that the climate surrounding those regions should return to normal.
Command Race: 3 points
The Department of Defense establishes Camp Buehring in G12 to act as a forward base to protect Terran interests in the region.
The 2nd Hayek returns to Hayek, the 1st and 4th Say relocate to Tuatha, the 1st Joule relocates to Blackwatch, the 2nd Joule relocates to Joule, the 3rd Joule relocates to Say.
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Role Play Theater / Re: Fixing DoW or Rebuilding in FATE
« on: October 13, 2013, 10:03:15 AM »(stuff)
Balance would definitely be an issue here as there'd be some way to make some powerful combination to produce an Everything Proof Shield. Not sure how to avoid that other than GM'ing.
(more stuff)
Resources:
To have resources such as trees, gold, magic crystals and other such stuff be gameplay changing is sort of unnecessary. It's usually in the description of the city that it becomes known that what the city runs on and what kind of characteristics are there. It'd give alot more reason to have a 2nd/3rd age landshift though.
Events:
Seeming as the game is quite army centric, and catastrophes are a way to keep others down. Event's are, as I see as, a not so destructive catastrophe. I'd describe Donnie's rise of Avalon more of an event as opposed to a catastrophe. It just depends on the writing I suppose.
Yeah, one time I had an interesting idea for a Combined Arms advance that gave -1 under normal circumstances, but +1 for each "type" of army (infantry, armor/cavalry, air, navy, artillery) in the stack. But it would be hard to stop stuff from becoming OP, especially in combination. Even in the above example, the GM would have to make some calls on what constitutes a "type", to prevent me from stacking ridiculously large bonuses. Even though the specific functionality in this case just encourages people to nuke the incoming stack if it gets too large.
For example, let's say we have a civilization called the Yuri Dominion. First, the Yuri Dominion takes a Cloning Vats advancement that gives them two armies for each Raise Army action instead of one. Alright, a little powerful, but might not seem so bad, especially when there are other ways to get armies on the cheap.
Then they take the Grinder Universal Recycler advancement, which allows them to disband an army or city to recover the points it would cost to make it. By itself that's not too bad, it just gives them a little flexibility by letting them "undo" certain moves.
But wait, Cloning Vats gives him two armies for the price of one! If he dumps his points into armies, then disbands them all with the Grinder, he'll have twice as many points as he started with! An infinite point loop like this would clearly be OP, and the GM would have to make some sort of call to prevent it. In this case they'd probably have to use their GM power to say that armies only recover half their cost (rounded down), or that the free army granted by Cloning Vats does not give points when recycled.
Resources would be cool but difficult to implement, since we'd have to build a whole new ruleset around those. Though I suppose players could be allowed to make up resources and their benefits as they go with GM approval, similar to Advances, but we'd have to establish some limiting factors to keep Resources from becoming a 3-point or 1-point (avatar action) Advance.
Also, Donnie's warship was a Catastrophe because he nuked Trask with it.
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Art Gallery / Re: Halloween group pic signups
« on: October 11, 2013, 07:29:42 PM »
Name: Dr. Richardson
Ref: http://art.by.virmir.com/art/dr_richardson
Costume: Vampire hunter. Something along the lines of Option B here minus the silly looking arm thing, but with Van Helsing's hat.
Since the costume ref is in greyscale, I'm thinking brown coat, black tie, light grey vest, pants either dark grey or matching coat (whichever you think looks better), brown belt w/silver/grey buckle, black boots.
Reaction: Rather surprised, slightly embarrassed. Probably wide eyed and blushing, tail poof optional.
Ref: http://art.by.virmir.com/art/dr_richardson
Costume: Vampire hunter. Something along the lines of Option B here minus the silly looking arm thing, but with Van Helsing's hat.
Since the costume ref is in greyscale, I'm thinking brown coat, black tie, light grey vest, pants either dark grey or matching coat (whichever you think looks better), brown belt w/silver/grey buckle, black boots.
Reaction: Rather surprised, slightly embarrassed. Probably wide eyed and blushing, tail poof optional.
15
Role Play Theater / Re: Fixing DoW or Rebuilding in FATE
« on: October 07, 2013, 05:23:54 PM »
One thing that I think has contributed to DoW being so army-centered (and to being such a chaotic slugfest in general) is a lack of diplomacy. Sure, you can try to conspire OOC with another player, but generally players don't have much incentive to cooperate with each other. Generally what happens is everyone just sits in their corner of the world building their sandcastle until someone comes along and kicks it over, then a free-for-all breaks loose.
Though I suppose one problem is it would be hard to add diplomacy without creating even more overhead and slowing the game down. There's also the question of whether to maintain a single-turn format, or break the turn up into phases. Phases would increase overhead (as everyone has to complete each phase to advance the turn), but might make it easier for players to read each other as their actions in one phase will give an idea of their intentions in the next.
Basic diplomatic functions that would be useful: Trade, Alliances, formal War status, and Foreign Aid (ie donating tech/troops/points to other players).
Trade: Trade would serve as a predictable source of points, and as an icebreaker for a future Alliance. A city can support 1 Trade Route, which links it to a city controlled by a different race/civilization (not necessarily the same player, giving multi-race builds more viability). Each active Trade Route generates 1 point per turn, perhaps modified by the number of different races/civs you are trading with, to encourage Merchant races/civs to cast a wide net. Though this raises the question of whether we should have a race-specific currency besides Points, since it doesn't make sense for the Dwarves to get a new city because the Elves started trading with the Humans... but that's a whole other can of worms.
Should one of the linked cities be destroyed or their respective races/civs go to War with each other, the trade route is cut. Conquering a city preserves its trade routes, unless you're at war with their trading partner too.
A city could have its trade capacity increased with Advance City (+1 Trade Route), which would make that move a lot less useless.
Alliances: Allied races/civs have to pay double the normal cost to declare war on each other, as a penalty for breaking the alliance. They could probably get a bonus to trade between them, like +50% net trade income (rounded down), so that trade encourages alliances and vice versa. Peaceful diplomatic actions between Allied races/civs (ie Trade and Aid) cost one less point than normal, with the limitation that all actions must cost at least one point. If your Ally is engaged in a defensive war, you gain a Casus Belli against the aggressor (see War).
War: Making attacks without a formal declaration of war costs double the normal cost and grants a Casus Belli to the defending race/civ. This cost is doubled again if the race/civ you're attacking is Allied with the attacker. Declaring War cuts all trade routes between the combatants, as well as their Alliance if they have one. Using a Catastrophe as a weapon while at peace does not change its cost, but still grants a Casus Belli and immediately breaks any Alliance you may have with the target. The cost of declaring War cannot be reduced by an Avatar, but only costs 1 point if you have a Casus Belli. Wars declared with a Casus Belli are still considered defensive wars for the purpose of Alliances. Either player may sue for peace at any time (though terms should probably be negotiated OOC), but you cannot launch an attack and sue for peace in the same turn. Similarly, you cannot accept a peace offer and launch an attack in the same turn.
Foreign Aid: Quite simply, Foreign Aid allows you to donate Advances, Armies, Cities, or Points to another player. Note that in the case of Advances, you donate a copy and keep the original. So if Player 1 donates Advance: Pointy Sticks to Player 2, both players now have Advance: Pointy Sticks. You can make multiple donations with one Foreign Aid action.
DoW would also benefit greatly from a fixed turn order, and having each player resolve their actions as they take them. Though this has a potential to create a lot of overhead (especially if somehow a person who procrastinates a lot gets the first turn), it would also greatly reduce post-order cheese (ie deliberately posting last so you can pull the rug out from under someone, which I have been guilty of) and edit wars.
You'd probably have to roll for turn order, though the GM might reserve the right to change someone's turn order if they have a reason (ie "You always take two weeks to post, I'm bumping you to the last turn so everyone else can actually play").
As an example: Player 1 attacks Player 2's city. They immediately roll for this attack in their post and resolve the results with either an edit or a second post. Player 2 then takes his turn from where Player 1 left off.
Limiting the number of Avatars is probably a good idea in either case, as me, Donnie, Virmir, and Toast all proved that you can pull off a lot of cheese with sufficient Avatars.
I would like to see Advances do more than just +1 to combat, though (other than the Advance City example) I'm not sure how to make it work in a way that's balanced.
Though I suppose one problem is it would be hard to add diplomacy without creating even more overhead and slowing the game down. There's also the question of whether to maintain a single-turn format, or break the turn up into phases. Phases would increase overhead (as everyone has to complete each phase to advance the turn), but might make it easier for players to read each other as their actions in one phase will give an idea of their intentions in the next.
Basic diplomatic functions that would be useful: Trade, Alliances, formal War status, and Foreign Aid (ie donating tech/troops/points to other players).
Trade: Trade would serve as a predictable source of points, and as an icebreaker for a future Alliance. A city can support 1 Trade Route, which links it to a city controlled by a different race/civilization (not necessarily the same player, giving multi-race builds more viability). Each active Trade Route generates 1 point per turn, perhaps modified by the number of different races/civs you are trading with, to encourage Merchant races/civs to cast a wide net. Though this raises the question of whether we should have a race-specific currency besides Points, since it doesn't make sense for the Dwarves to get a new city because the Elves started trading with the Humans... but that's a whole other can of worms.
Should one of the linked cities be destroyed or their respective races/civs go to War with each other, the trade route is cut. Conquering a city preserves its trade routes, unless you're at war with their trading partner too.
A city could have its trade capacity increased with Advance City (+1 Trade Route), which would make that move a lot less useless.
Alliances: Allied races/civs have to pay double the normal cost to declare war on each other, as a penalty for breaking the alliance. They could probably get a bonus to trade between them, like +50% net trade income (rounded down), so that trade encourages alliances and vice versa. Peaceful diplomatic actions between Allied races/civs (ie Trade and Aid) cost one less point than normal, with the limitation that all actions must cost at least one point. If your Ally is engaged in a defensive war, you gain a Casus Belli against the aggressor (see War).
War: Making attacks without a formal declaration of war costs double the normal cost and grants a Casus Belli to the defending race/civ. This cost is doubled again if the race/civ you're attacking is Allied with the attacker. Declaring War cuts all trade routes between the combatants, as well as their Alliance if they have one. Using a Catastrophe as a weapon while at peace does not change its cost, but still grants a Casus Belli and immediately breaks any Alliance you may have with the target. The cost of declaring War cannot be reduced by an Avatar, but only costs 1 point if you have a Casus Belli. Wars declared with a Casus Belli are still considered defensive wars for the purpose of Alliances. Either player may sue for peace at any time (though terms should probably be negotiated OOC), but you cannot launch an attack and sue for peace in the same turn. Similarly, you cannot accept a peace offer and launch an attack in the same turn.
Foreign Aid: Quite simply, Foreign Aid allows you to donate Advances, Armies, Cities, or Points to another player. Note that in the case of Advances, you donate a copy and keep the original. So if Player 1 donates Advance: Pointy Sticks to Player 2, both players now have Advance: Pointy Sticks. You can make multiple donations with one Foreign Aid action.
DoW would also benefit greatly from a fixed turn order, and having each player resolve their actions as they take them. Though this has a potential to create a lot of overhead (especially if somehow a person who procrastinates a lot gets the first turn), it would also greatly reduce post-order cheese (ie deliberately posting last so you can pull the rug out from under someone, which I have been guilty of) and edit wars.
You'd probably have to roll for turn order, though the GM might reserve the right to change someone's turn order if they have a reason (ie "You always take two weeks to post, I'm bumping you to the last turn so everyone else can actually play").
As an example: Player 1 attacks Player 2's city. They immediately roll for this attack in their post and resolve the results with either an edit or a second post. Player 2 then takes his turn from where Player 1 left off.
Limiting the number of Avatars is probably a good idea in either case, as me, Donnie, Virmir, and Toast all proved that you can pull off a lot of cheese with sufficient Avatars.
I would like to see Advances do more than just +1 to combat, though (other than the Advance City example) I'm not sure how to make it work in a way that's balanced.