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ChrisPikula said:
Academic struggle
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That's not an Academic struggle. That's a sunday morning cartoon scene. We've had pages of learning, progress, study, and testing. But I guess since it's not a shitshow of poorly writing reactions, Over hyper emotions, and "running on the street yelling" where the answer was provided by an outside source (PLOT DEVICE) it's not conflict...? And how dare mp3 to write normal(ish) people?
 
Pai said:
That's not an Academic struggle. That's a sunday morning cartoon scene. We've had pages of learning, progress, study, and testing. But I guess since it's not a shitshow of poorly writing reactions, Over hyper emotions, and "running on the street yelling" where the answer was provided by an outside source (PLOT DEVICE) it's not conflict...? And how dare mp3 to write normal(ish) people?
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If nothing else, the reaction is almost never "Eureka!!!". Usually it's "I'm a fucking idiot, thank you."
 
Kitty S. Lillian said:
*dead-voiced reading off a card* why sandy river dee ell what have you found, please tell us
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Haha, funny. In seriousness, the CUI is likely going to be the main conflict driver. Not directly affecting Taylor, but Yangban probing and kidnapping attempts would be highly disruptive to our protagonist's work. There may even be a war, leading to Taylor being asked to develop things she isn't comfortable with.

Additionally, once the spaceship is finished GravTec will be attracting Ziz's attention and force an effort to kill her.

Finally, why are people still complaining about what is effecively the tutorial level not being challenging when we have had Word of Author that it is merely the tutorial?
 
mp3.1415player said:
Oh for... Is this still going on?

OK. New thread rule. I'm going to write what I want, and people can read it or not. If you don't like what I do, or how I do it, or how I respond to people complaining about these points, please get your entertainment somewhere else. I'm not going to respond to any more arguments of this nature here. I've got more important things to do.

Anyone who wants a story written to their exact requirements is free to write it themselves :)
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Threadbans are you friends. Be happy with that report button.
 
Sandy River DL said:
Haha, funny. In seriousness, the CUI is likely going to be the main conflict driver.
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In regards to the Chinese Imperial Union other than having an Emperor and it's own Parahuman NKVD in the form of Yanbang do we have any clue how they are set up? What there military is like? Or how they look internally?

Looking at the Wiki info is rather thin on the ground.
 
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Armsmaster: "Dammit! Not again! I just upgraded it! Who the hell keeps stealing my coffee machines!"

///Latest version uses nanothorns to grind each individual bean on sub-microscopic levels before teleporting the grinds directly under the hot water.
 
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mp3.1415player said:
"Nothing happened," is something I see on my own stories, and lots of other people's writing, as code for "No one died in this chapter." 🤷‍♂️
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You know, I think that might be a side effect of the conventions of the superhero genre.

When arresting a villain can be expected to just result in them escaping from prison later and being angrier for the experience, it doesn't actually feel like progress is being made by a hero performing arrests.

I know I can get frustrated when it seems as though a character is taking on all of this risk that they can barely afford to take, and then ruining their own victories by delaying the problem instead of solving it.

The "Recurring Villain" trope, when applied to mass murderers and terrorists, has primed us to think of anything less than death as a temporarily solution at best.

That said, in addition to following your other stories, I'm currently working my way through Taylor Varga, and am really enjoying it.

Generally, your stories don't tend to frustrate me in that way. The best way I can think to phrase it is that you seem to use the superheroism as more of a setting for your stories than as the point of them.

It makes whether or not it's effective feel less important, because that's not where the focus is.

mp3.1415player said:
Oh for... Is this still going on?
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Well yeah; for some of us that was 8:00 PM, and it's only ~12 hours later. I just woke up and am reacting to it for the first time.
 
Enthusiast#117 said:
Generally, your stories don't tend to frustrate me in that way. The best way I can think to phrase it is that you seem to use the superheroism as more of a setting for your stories than as the point of them.

It makes whether or not it's effective feel less important, because that's not where the focus is.
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This is indeed what I'm going for. Thanks for noticing :)

And now I will go back to writing more such things! Hurrah! Wordz want to escape, I shall allow it because I'm just that nice.

;)
 
On the subject of FTL and Time Travel... every setting that I can think of uses a method of FTL that in some way bypasses the limits of Special Relativity, thereby removing any sort of Time Travel from regular use.

In a few cases, Time Travel is possible under specific circumstances, but is not the norm, it is the exception.

Ergo, if FTL is developed in this story, it is unlikely to involve any Time Travel. I may be wrong, of course. But on a narrative level it is far less likely then one would expect if Special Relativity is involved.

After all, Conservation of Momentum seems to have been thrown out already, so why not Special Relativity as well?
 
cryptoam said:
Internal screening(discreetly by various agencies) can do quite a lot*. Combine that with some undercover members of Taylor's protective detail and you can easily find those insider threats to be quickly dealt with.
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Sure, you can explain how any particular source of conflict has been dealt with. Maybe internal screening finds everyone who would feel upstaged by a teenager. Maybe the defense department has precautions that work against Cauldron blackmailing or Mastering the President or key members. But a problem happens when *all* such sources of conflict are dealt with, even though it's believable that *each individual one* is dealt with.

It's like how Batman is unrealistic. It's possible to become the best criminologist in the world, or the best forensic scientist, or the best escape artist, etc. But all of them together at the same time strains credulity. Likewise, it's possible to solve each source of conflict, but not all of them at the same time.
 
Rule 3: Be Civil: You've been warned for this sort of behaviour before. Dial it back.
arromdee said:
Sure, you can explain how any particular source of conflict has been dealt with. Maybe internal screening finds everyone who would feel upstaged by a teenager. Maybe the defense department has precautions that work against Cauldron blackmailing or Mastering the President or key members. But a problem happens when *all* such sources of conflict are dealt with, even though it's believable that *each individual one* is dealt with.

It's like how Batman is unrealistic. It's possible to become the best criminologist in the world, or the best forensic scientist, or the best escape artist, etc. But all of them together at the same time strains credulity. Likewise, it's possible to solve each source of conflict, but not all of them at the same time.
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Be careful. The author will take offense and start throwing a fit if he thinks you're criticising him.
 
arromdee said:
Sure, you can explain how any particular source of conflict has been dealt with. Maybe internal screening finds everyone who would feel upstaged by a teenager. Maybe the defense department has precautions that work against Cauldron blackmailing or Mastering the President or key members. But a problem happens when *all* such sources of conflict are dealt with, even though it's believable that *each individual one* is dealt with.

It's like how Batman is unrealistic. It's possible to become the best criminologist in the world, or the best forensic scientist, or the best escape artist, etc. But all of them together at the same time strains credulity. Likewise, it's possible to solve each source of conflict, but not all of them at the same time.
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Lycanthromancer said:
Be careful. The author will take offense and start throwing a fit if he thinks you're criticising him.
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Can the two of you please stop griping about Taylor's tutorial run being as easy as a tutorial run? We've already been told things are going to heat up later on.
 
SIDoragon said:
Same issue as the kitchen area. "Important" is subjective to the person asking.
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Just like Contessa isn't a literal genie, the Clairvoyant and Doormaker aren't literal genies either. If you ask them for something and a person of normal intelligence can figure out what you mean, they will do their best to get it for you. No person with a higher than room temperature IQ would think that RCB or Contessa would consider the kitchen or the janitor important, so they won't door there.
 
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Once upon a time, Comic Books told stories where Good reliably triumphed over Evil. Then in the mid 1980's, a few deconstructions of such stories came out, and suddenly it became popular to make comic stories progressively darker to match the tone of those best-selling deconstructions.

Worm seems to me to be an attempt to further deconstruct comics, removing every positive aspect and ramping conflict beyond any reasonable measure. It is Grimdark for the sake of Grimdark, and is a setting where Hope is a pipe dream at best.

In my opinion, the best Worm Fanfics are the ones that reduce the pointless conflict for conflict's sake, with Mppi being the Master of doing so. His stories are ones where the world is improved and the usual conflicts are evaded, mostly by remembering the fact that most people are not, in fact, morons.

Could he do with people making mistakes every now and again? Sure; one of my favorite statements is that EVERYONE is a part-time idiot. Everyone makes mistakes now and again. No one is perfect. However, if I'm looking for action, I'll grab an action movie or a kaiju flick and watch it. I read to relax, and a nice slice of life story with little conflict is more to my tastes then one that is filled with conflict on all sides.

Besides, there are plenty of indications that there is conflict going on off screen. However, it's not currently the main focus of this story; Taylor's path of discovery is. And one of the themes seems to be that EVERYONE in the know wants her to experience as little stress as possible so she can continue to be as productive as she has been for as long as possible.

This is just my take, and I will never bring this up again. Instead, I look forward to Mppi writing more as his time allows. Who knows, maybe we'll hear more from Kenny soon, or perhaps a meeting of his various Taylors will someday be written. Who can say?
 
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Slice of Life, I'm telling you.

Everything Mppi writes can be summed up as following someone's life after a major change. There doesn't need to be contrived conflict, because that's not the point. It's not about overcoming obstacles, or slowly rising tension. It's just down to "hey, what if this happened?" and following it to the logical conclusion, where ever that may be. It's about characters being themselves, and what that brings, not storylines and having an "endgame".

Not to say there aren't story threads, but they appear and are solved as they come without being the true focus. Much like life.

--End of Lime--
 
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