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Fools, We Will Destroy You All! ...After We Save The World! (Mad Scientist Riot Quest)(RECRUITING!)

How Should Minions Be Capped?

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    70
  • Poll closed .
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Emizaquel said:
If I am reading that right... I did well when it came to developing my Dream Self, but did badly on my spying attempt on the wizard.

That looks bad.
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I can just see the narrative combos it could cause:
-Your research into dream selves draws undue attention from mage community. They're on our/your ass now.
--You are captured! We'll have to track down the group who got you and fight/sneak you out!
--Mages find out about us and decide to attack our base.
-Wizard blasts/corrupts/does a thing to your dream self.
--Your dream self is now possessing you. We'll need to figure out how to exorcise/control it.
--Or maybe he put a curse/geas on you, to never delve into magical matters ever again.
---We'll be able to reverse engineer it though, which will be rad! Or use our meme technology to help you out.
-The mage you encounter is actually a host/minion for Awakened Madness! You are now taken to it's lair, to be experimented upon!
--You are turned to a half-magical creature, like a werewolf but more mad. Maybe a fairy? A centaur? A... MAD HATTER!
--You no longer posses a physical body, as you are turned into an astral being. It's somewhat limiting (no cybernetics :( ) but you'll have a whole new field to research!
---OH! Later we can make a robotic body for you! You'll be an... Astral Android!
-Guy takes you for an aspiring mage. You are now taken as a part of a mage cabal, with a stealth mission to get you back. (but you'll get cool powers at least!)
--Or you'll stay there, to hone your skills as a mage and serve as a double agent. (and then triple agent)

But either way, don't worry. We'll be there for you regardless what happens. ;)
 
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@I just write Just found this thread last night as I was going to bed... And I want to join, but I'm unsure if my character's something that's 'balanced' enough to fit in... Anyway, is the following acceptable as a character submission, for whenever, and wherever, the next turn happens?

Player: @Pyro Hawk
Name: Hayden Haylee Justinian
Description: Originally, a pretty typical Queenslander of European descent though suffering from the usual symptoms of being a Mad! Scientist. You know, pale skin that looks like it's rarely in direct sunlight (though the tendency to work in labs that have one-directional damage-resistant windows mean it's not 'Never sees the sun' pale'), appearance that looks like they sometimes go days without leaving the lab, etc, etc. Now? An athletic woman who looks like a wet dream, with fox ears on top of their head and a single fox tail. Ethnicity is hard to determine, though there's a lot of northern European and Far Eastern Asian in there. Grey eyes that sometimes looks like they're actual storm clouds (including what some swear are actual miniature lightning bolts) and hair colour is a sandy blonde with white tips. Tail and Fox Ears have a noticeable crimson tint, with again, the pure white tips. Usually acts and appears uncertain of themselves, though occasionally acts playful, mischievous and/or teasingly.
Prodigy at Genetic Engineering and Artificial Intelligence, biological, digital and exotic. Also rather good at bug-fixing and destroying Mad! Science Creations for... reasons. Actually relatively sane for a Mad! Scientist. Relatively. Also renown author of the _(__Mad! Science Invention Here__)_: How not to screw up! series popular amongst the Mad! Science Crowd. Currently 666 books and counting!
Backstory:
Hayden's early life was actually pretty typical for the area, and it was only after he graduated university as an engineer, with minors in programming and biology, that he started on his path to Sparkhood. You see, his first job had him reverse engineering some rather advanced technology the government had gotten their hands on. (As it turns out, that was because a Mad! Scientist group had killed themselves via accidental activation of their radiation purge. The US asked the Australians when they had developed nuclear weapons, the Aussies investigated, and then had a lot of weird stuff they needed to figure out) He had noticeable better success than his fellow workers, right up until he managed to turn one of the absolutely bug-riddled weather control machines into a climate prediction machine. A rather good one as well... which predicted horrible, horrible things in the future. It's also when his spark started to 'wake up'. Following his campaign to get the world to solve the problems that the machine predicted going nowhere, he decided if others weren't going to fix the world, he'd fix it for them. Which unfortunately meant he needed to conquer the world first to prevent anyone interfering at the worst possible time, as would almost certainly happen. Even if it was just a kid accidently putting bubble-gum in the wrong place at the wrong time.

And so his new crusade born from Mad! Science began, not to rule the world as such, but to fix it. So less explosions for the sake of explosions and using spies to test utterly untested and unsafe mutagens, more CO2 consuming bacteria and memory modifications causing his enemies to get raided instead. He had a rather good track record of achieving his goals... but also just as great a track record of something then going horribly wrong. And I mean even more so than usual for Mad! Scientists... and it was usually his stuff that caused the problem. See: Venezuelan Oil Plague (The bacteria was supposed to be unable to mutate and survive whilst eating atmospheric hydrocarbons. Eating hydrocarbons check, unable to mutate? Not so much when it escaped the lab), The Saharan Monsoon/European Drought (Weather machine that was too good and didn't know when to stop), The Philippine Radioactive Volcanic Eruption (Still not sure how the fusion reactor overloading caused that, but no more volcanic secret lairs for me) and the Americanised Terror Honeybee (Perfectly safe to be around and the honey is absolutely excellent, immune to Colony Collapse Disorder, just as long as you didn't feel terror. They'd swarm you if you did. Unfortunate that psychic terror field they have then, huh?) and the Australian Attack of the Coral (Coral immune to bleaching? Check, amphibious, mobile, poisonous and highly aggressive, also check... wait what???)

Shortly before the last International Convention of Mad Scientists, the one where Professor Red gave her presentation, Hayden had noticed a woman with 3 fox tails and fox ears playing tricks and pranks on the people around his then-current secret base in Japan. She usually did so via use of shapeshifting or illusions. He decided he wished to obtain that minions genetics for his gene bank used to create biological creations, not to mention probably creating a few lab assistants, because damn! she was hot!, he did so in his usual fashion. Abducting her off the middle of the street in her base 'human' form, before bringing her back to her base and asking what she wanted to do for the month it would take to complete the scans, genetic analysis and all that stuff required to best work out how to use her DNA/exotic abilities in future creations. Not to mention the million dollars waiting after the completion of the work. She replied that she was interested in what he was doing and wanted to watch him work. Seeing no problem with that, he agreed and the testing began. The month passed by, much progress was made (the prank war between the two of them was rather amusing, especially when it dragged in Hayden's 8 V1.3 AIs as separate opponents) and Hayden was just giving the woman (You may call me Akemi) the briefcase containing her million US dollars when disaster struck. As it turns out 'Akemi' had family, and they'd been shown her abduction (Akemi thought it would take at least another month of silence from her before they began looking) and they'd called in favours and 'friends'. So just as Akemi was about to leave... the secret base was attacked by a large number of Mad! Science lifeforms that looked like mythological creatures (Hayden had been too distracted by Akemi and his work to go to the ICMS 4 days previously you see). The battle was magnificent, though Hayden eventually won. Akemi left, as did all the creatures, all wounded in some way or another, most also regretting their existence (Akemi had informed Hayden that it was all probably a misunderstanding as the assault began so he gave orders for only non-lethal defences to be used. Making an opponent wish their parents had never been born is non-lethal however if care is taken.)

Unfortunately for him the battle was horribly timed as the 'Igor!Spark', 'Mr Bond' and 'Ms Fatale' V1.3 AIs all started to undergo rampancy and went genocidal, especially towards their creator. The other five soon followed, though fortunately not as fast and they didn't go genocidal either. Which meant another massive battle broke out inside the already heavily damaged base, with most of Hayden's precautions against this sort of rebellion damaged or non-functional. He also took a rather severe wound or three dozen in quick progression. Thus his last conscious memory was his 5 still faithful AIs defending him and informing him that they were going to have to transfer him to a new body immediately. This was fine as he made a point of having at least 3 back-ups of his body ready to receive his mind at any time.

Unfortunately for Hayden, as he found out upon waking up, those had been the first targets of the three other AIs leaving only the latest version of his attempts to make a very effective and adaptable minion out of 'Akemi's' DNA. Well, as he found out after recovering from the panic and 'wrong body' confusion. It's also when he met 'Kaylee', the V2.0 proto-AI that his still faithful AIs had put together because they knew they would soon die (they were losing the fight against the other three, but only barely) to protect 'him' before he awoke if their final blaze of glory didn't take out the other three as well. Also unfortunately, the rushed nature of the mind transfer had scrambled Hayden's mind a bit so she now needed to recover. Not to mention that fact that all his back up lairs and databanks had been nuked during the civil war. So, he went to one of his friends in the Mad Scientist community for a bit of help and maybe a new identity, whereupon he found out about Professor Red's discoveries.

By now having discovered that she was stuck in 'her' new body (simulations of a transfer without figuring out more about the unknown energy field were... extremely grim) she decided to look into the rumours of M.A.D.'s existence because, A) She didn't like the existence of all these other groups trying to take over the world either, and B) they're probably the most in the know about how to help her get back to her original body, damnit! Or at least, they're the best her best shot. Now she just needs to get a bit of revenge on 'her' other friend. The one who told her where to go, but forgot to inform M.A.D. about 'Hayden's new appearance. After all, whilst introductions between Mad Scientists can usually be risky, it's not often they involve dodging a lot of firepower aimed at you because you tripped their 'Non-human Threat' sensors when you went up to the door to introduce herself.
Skill Levels: Research 4 | Operations 1 | Espionage 1 | Combat 1
Starting Inventions:
Self-Evolving Proto-AI, Partially Guided. Warning: Currently has a tendency to suffer Rapid-Onset Rampancy and/or become Genocidal shortly after becoming a certified true Artificial Intelligence.
(Notes: Currently on V2.0. Unknown capabilities as sole existing example was created as a last act by 5 out of the 8 then-existent V1.3 models. Previous models had a tendency to form personalities labelled as following: 'Minion-Spark', 'Igor-Spark', 'Secretary', 'Personal Assistant', 'Mr Bond', 'Ms Fatale', 'Shadowrunner' and 'Bodyguard'. V1.3 was able to almost become my equal over time, most noticeable by the gaining of the 'Spark' of Mad! Science by two of the model. Possibility that a link exists between this and the 'degradation' encountered, though it will most likely be at least a month or two before V2.0 starts showing signs of possible 'Sparkhood' at best to further examine that potential problem.)
Gene Databank and creation programs for custom species
-Existing (Intact) Genomes:
-- 'Kitsune' Alternate Body/Adaptable Minion - Currently only available as a wide range of very attractive females, see Haylee's description for more. Current version lacks the majority of Hayden's standard bio and cyber-mods. Warning: Internal/Natural Control Systems currently non-functional. Attunement to unknown dimensional energy detected. Major Bug: Causes 'formlock' upon those using this genome as their main body.
(Notes: Despite multiple attempts so far, no multi-tailed versions like the gene donor have been created yet. Also, the unknown energy field that the gene donor possessed has only been duplicated at a barely detectable level. Possible correlation? Yet to obtain the shapeshifting or illusions either... Also, research why energy field aggressively destroys all attempts at generating male variants. Note: Fix 'Formlock' ASAP!!!!!!!!)
(Note: Only existing example is currently inhabited by 'Haylee' due to the 'problems' 'Hayden' has recently had.)

... Okay, I am apparently cursed with being unable to write a short character backstory. It was meant to be half this size at most. Goddamnit... Eh, not the worst curse I suppose.

So uh, is my stuff good, and do I need to shorten the backstory? And if so, by how much?
 
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Wasn't sure what the whole situation was. As I said, I just found this last night as I was going to bed. Finished reading the updates, but only that. So uh, @Trondason how's my write up?
 
Pyro Hawk said:
@I just write Just found this thread last night as I was going to bed... And I want to join, but I'm unsure if my character's something that's 'balanced' enough to fit in... Anyway, is the following acceptable as a character submission, for whenever, and wherever, the next turn happens?

Player: @Pyro Hawk
Name: Hayden Haylee Justinian
Description: Originally, a pretty typical Queenslander of European descent though suffering from the usual symptoms of being a Mad! Scientist. You know, pale skin that looks like it's rarely in direct sunlight (though the tendency to work in labs that have one-directional damage-resistant windows mean it's not 'Never sees the sun' pale'), appearance that looks like they sometimes go days without leaving the lab, etc, etc. Now? An athletic woman who looks like a wet dream, with fox ears on top of their head and a single fox tail. Ethnicity is hard to determine, though there's a lot of northern European and Far Eastern Asian in there. Grey eyes that sometimes looks like they're actual storm clouds (including what some swear are actual miniature lightning bolts) and hair colour is a sandy blonde with white tips. Tail and Fox Ears have a noticeable crimson tint, with again, the pure white tips. Usually acts and appears uncertain of themselves, though occasionally acts playful, mischievous and/or teasingly.
Prodigy at Genetic Engineering and Artificial Intelligence, biological, digital and exotic. Also rather good at bug-fixing and destroying Mad! Science Creations for... reasons. Actually relatively sane for a Mad! Scientist. Relatively. Also renown author of the _(__Mad! Science Invention Here__)_: How not to screw up! series popular amongst the Mad! Science Crowd. Currently 666 books and counting!
Backstory:
Hayden's early life was actually pretty typical for the area, and it was only after he graduated university as an engineer, with minors in programming and biology, that he started on his path to Sparkhood. You see, his first job had him reverse engineering some rather advanced technology the government had gotten their hands on. (As it turns out, that was because a Mad! Scientist group had killed themselves via accidental activation of their radiation purge. The US asked the Australians when they had developed nuclear weapons, the Aussies investigated, and then had a lot of weird stuff they needed to figure out) He had noticeable better success than his fellow workers, right up until he managed to turn one of the absolutely bug-riddled weather control machines into a climate prediction machine. A rather good one as well... which predicted horrible, horrible things in the future. It's also when his spark started to 'wake up'. Following his campaign to get the world to solve the problems that the machine predicted going nowhere, he decided if others weren't going to fix the world, he'd fix it for them. Which unfortunately meant he needed to conquer the world first to prevent anyone interfering at the worst possible time, as would almost certainly happen. Even if it was just a kid accidently putting bubble-gum in the wrong place at the wrong time.

And so his new crusade born from Mad! Science began, not to rule the world as such, but to fix it. So less explosions for the sake of explosions and using spies to test utterly untested and unsafe mutagens, more CO2 consuming bacteria and memory modifications causing his enemies to get raided instead. He had a rather good track record of achieving his goals... but also just as great a track record of something then going horribly wrong. And I mean even more so than usual for Mad! Scientists... and it was usually his stuff that caused the problem. See: Venezuelan Oil Plague (The bacteria was supposed to be unable to mutate and survive whilst eating atmospheric hydrocarbons. Eating hydrocarbons check, unable to mutate? Not so much when it escaped the lab), The Saharan Monsoon/European Drought (Weather machine that was too good and didn't know when to stop), The Philippine Radioactive Volcanic Eruption (Still not sure how the fusion reactor overloading caused that, but no more volcanic secret lairs for me) and the Americanised Terror Honeybee (Perfectly safe to be around and the honey is absolutely excellent, immune to Colony Collapse Disorder, just as long as you didn't feel terror. They'd swarm you if you did. Unfortunate that psychic terror field they have then, huh?) and the Australian Attack of the Coral (Coral immune to bleaching? Check, amphibious, mobile, poisonous and highly aggressive, also check... wait what???)

Shortly before the last International Convention of Mad Scientists, the one where Professor Red gave her presentation, Hayden had noticed a woman with 3 fox tails and fox ears playing tricks and pranks on the people around his then-current secret base in Japan. She usually did so via use of shapeshifting or illusions. He decided he wished to obtain that minions genetics for his gene bank used to create biological creations, not to mention probably creating a few lab assistants, because damn! she was hot!, he did so in his usual fashion. Abducting her off the middle of the street in her base 'human' form, before bringing her back to her base and asking what she wanted to do for the month it would take to complete the scans, genetic analysis and all that stuff required to best work out how to use her DNA/exotic abilities in future creations. Not to mention the million dollars waiting after the completion of the work. She replied that she was interested in what he was doing and wanted to watch him work. Seeing no problem with that, he agreed and the testing began. The month passed by, much progress was made (the prank war between the two of them was rather amusing, especially when it dragged in Hayden's 8 V1.3 AIs as separate opponents) and Hayden was just giving the woman (You may call me Akemi) the briefcase containing her million US dollars when disaster struck. As it turns out 'Akemi' had family, and they'd been shown her abduction (Akemi thought it would take at least another month of silence from her before they began looking) and they'd called in favours and 'friends'. So just as Akemi was about to leave... the secret base was attacked by a large number of Mad! Science lifeforms that looked like mythological creatures (Hayden had been too distracted by Akemi and his work to go to the ICMS 4 days previously you see). The battle was magnificent, though Hayden eventually won. Akemi left, as did all the creatures, all wounded in some way or another, most also regretting their existence (Akemi had informed Hayden that it was all probably a misunderstanding as the assault began so he gave orders for only non-lethal defences to be used. Making an opponent wish their parents had never been born is non-lethal however if care is taken.)

Unfortunately for him the battle was horribly timed as the 'Igor!Spark', 'Mr Bond' and 'Ms Fatale' V1.3 AIs all started to undergo rampancy and went genocidal, especially towards their creator. The other five soon followed, though fortunately not as fast and they didn't go genocidal either. Which meant another massive battle broke out inside the already heavily damaged base, with most of Hayden's precautions against this sort of rebellion damaged or non-functional. He also took a rather severe wound or three dozen in quick progression. Thus his last conscious memory was his 5 still faithful AIs defending him and informing him that they were going to have to transfer him to a new body immediately. This was fine as he made a point of having at least 3 back-ups of his body ready to receive his mind at any time.

Unfortunately for Hayden, as he found out upon waking up, those had been the first targets of the three other AIs leaving only the latest version of his attempts to make a very effective and adaptable minion out of 'Akemi's' DNA. Well, as he found out after recovering from the panic and 'wrong body' confusion. It's also when he met 'Kaylee', the V2.0 proto-AI that his still faithful AIs had put together because they knew they would soon die (they were losing the fight against the other three, but only barely) to protect 'him' before he awoke if their final blaze of glory didn't take out the other three as well. Also unfortunately, the rushed nature of the mind transfer had scrambled Hayden's mind a bit so she now needed to recover. Not to mention that fact that all his back up lairs and databanks had been nuked during the civil war. So, he went to one of his friends in the Mad Scientist community for a bit of help and maybe a new identity, whereupon he found out about Professor Red's discoveries.

By now having discovered that she was stuck in 'her' new body (simulations of a transfer without figuring out more about the unknown energy field were... extremely grim) she decided to look into the rumours of M.A.D.'s existence because, A) She didn't like the existence of all these other groups trying to take over the world either, and B) they're probably the most in the know about how to help her get back to her original body, damnit! Or at least, they're the best her best shot. Now she just needs to get a bit of revenge on 'her' other friend. The one who told her where to go, but forgot to inform M.A.D. about 'Hayden's new appearance. After all, whilst introductions between Mad Scientists can usually be risky, it's not often they involve dodging a lot of firepower aimed at you because you tripped their 'Non-human Threat' sensors when you went up to the door to introduce herself.
Skill Levels: Research 4 | Operations 1 | Espionage 1 | Combat 1
Starting Inventions:
Self-Evolving Proto-AI, Partially Guided. Warning: Currently has a tendency to suffer Rapid-Onset Rampancy and/or become Genocidal shortly after becoming a certified true Artificial Intelligence.
(Notes: Currently on V2.0. Unknown capabilities as sole existing example was created as a last act by 5 out of the 8 then-existent V1.3 models. Previous models had a tendency to form personalities labelled as following: 'Minion-Spark', 'Igor-Spark', 'Secretary', 'Personal Assistant', 'Mr Bond', 'Ms Fatale', 'Shadowrunner' and 'Bodyguard'. V1.3 was able to almost become my equal over time, most noticeable by the gaining of the 'Spark' of Mad! Science by two of the model. Possibility that a link exists between this and the 'degradation' encountered, though it will most likely be at least a month or two before V2.0 starts showing signs of possible 'Sparkhood' at best to further examine that potential problem.)
Gene Databank and creation programs for custom species
-Existing (Intact) Genomes:
-- 'Kitsune' Alternate Body/Adaptable Minion - Currently only available as a wide range of very attractive females, see Haylee's description for more. Current version lacks the majority of Hayden's standard bio and cyber-mods. Warning: Internal/Natural Control Systems currently non-functional. Attunement to unknown dimensional energy detected. Major Bug: Causes 'formlock' upon those using this genome as their main body.
(Notes: Despite multiple attempts so far, no multi-tailed versions like the gene donor have been created yet. Also, the unknown energy field that the gene donor possessed has only been duplicated at a barely detectable level. Possible correlation? Yet to obtain the shapeshifting or illusions either... Also, research why energy field aggressively destroys all attempts at generating male variants. Note: Fix 'Formlock' ASAP!!!!!!!!)
(Note: Only existing example is currently inhabited by 'Haylee' due to the 'problems' 'Hayden' has recently had.)

... Okay, I am apparently cursed with being unable to write a short character backstory. It was meant to be half this size at most. Goddamnit... Eh, not the worst curse I suppose.

So uh, is my stuff good, and do I need to shorten the backstory? And if so, by how much?
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Click to shrink...
One problem, the AIs can't get "sparks". Being Mad is a bit of an emergent property, one that is rather unconductive to appearing in minions. Atleast, without those minions then (attempting to) overthrowing their masters.
Also, a "spark" isn't a thing here. A Mad Scientist is who they are because they are a Scientist who is Mad. Mind your capitalization, this isn't just plain old mad, it's Mad. It's a methodology, a method of thinking, involving mental leaps no sane person could make. If a Sane Person learns to twist and turn their mind in such a way, congratulations, they just drove themselves Mad. You could technically be a Mad Anything. Mad Dancer, Mad Banker, Mad Baker, and you'd excell at the art compared to your sane compatriates, but not by such a huge degree as Mad Science. Mad Science is where the Mad Method truely shines.

Edit: Everything else is fine. Even the kitsune stuff. Got explanations for the whys and hows of that, but you gonna have to find out yourself. Even an idea to fix your form lock.
 
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Yeah, I wasn't actually using 'Spark' like in Girl Genius. What I meant by 'Spark' and 'Sparkhood' is that the person's a Mad Scientist. Basically, as in when someone's a Mad Scientist, they have that spark of Mad Genius required..

... Damnit, it's hard to describe. Let's just say that Hayden/Haylee's notes all define a Mad Scientist as someone who has that 'Spark'/methodology, than someone who is in the process of gaining the complete methodology is 'waking' their spark. Basically, everyone is born with the potential for the 'Spark' but only those who wake it/realise the potential become Mad Scientists.

And on the AI front... So AIs can gain a Spark, they just immediately try to overthrow their creator? Huh, that sounds like exactly what happened with Hayden's AIs... it's just he accidently figured out a way to slow down how fast it appeared and/or cause the AI's mind to begin to break down when they became actual Mad Scientists...

But anyway, you could just have it such that Kaylee's 'parents' figured that out themselves and crippled her such that she could never gain a 'Spark'? Would that work? Basically the idea behind Kaylee is that she's a minion type that's Digital, but if provided a robotic/biological body can control it, and she also gains stats over time... albeit very slowly. Like, say Kaylee comes with a rating of 1 Operations, 1 Espionage. If she helps with research she might gain 1 research, if she keeps helping she'll eventually reach 2 research, and maybe even 3. Basically, a higher cap on how many stats that the 'Proto-AI' can gain, in return for only getting the higher levels over time, and slowing down as they get older.

Really, the whole idea with the 'Proto-AI' is that they are an actual, true form of life, if digital, that can even reproduce without the help of a Mad Scientist if need be (though that probably means the offspring are dumber to start with, aka lower initial stats or something)... Of course, the fact that they are a result of Mad Science does come with some draw backs... like as I said, a tendency towards rampancy that will eventually kill off the AI and/or the desire to commit genocide on everyone else, especially their creator.

Okay, I think I've talked too much on that topic, and really it's up to how you want them anyway. Just, use what I've said to figure out how to make them. In short? the Proto-AI is a Minion type that has the potential to be very good at helping us in their field/s of expertise, but to reach that point they need to spend time working. Draw backs could be something like they only live so long or something, no clue.

Just, tell me when you've made a decision and I'll rewrite the backstory/description to fit it.

Oh, and here were the ideas for the personalities if it helps at all: Minion!Spark - Pure Research, Igor!Spark - High Research, Low Operations, Secretary - High Operations, Low Espionage, Personal Assistant - High Operations, Low Combat, Mr Bond - Medium Espionage, Combat, Ms Fatale - High Espionage, Low Combat, Shadowrunner - Medium/Low all 4, Bodyguard Pure Combat


EDIT: Because I forgot to check something. @Trondason Just so you know, my thoughts on the 'Formlock' is that 'Haylee' is able to transfer to a new body... It just must have significant similarities to her current body as well as having the attunement. Or in other words, if she made a body that was the sister of her existing one, or an upgraded version of her current body, she could transfer. But she can't escape it by making a daughter form and transferring, then making a daughter of the daughter and transferring, etc, etc until she manages to return to his original body. It must be similar to the current one.

Is this something like what you think as well? Basically, I can still use augments and mods and the like, as long as I don't change my body's form... (Aka, I can still use the Pandora Orb and benefit from it but I can't do something like lop off my legs and fit cybernetic tank treads or something.)

Or are your thoughts on the 'Formlock' more strict? Kinda want to know so I know how fast I need to work on defeating the 'Formlock'...

GM thoughts overrule mine after all :p
 
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    • Pyro Hawk said:
    Yeah, I wasn't actually using 'Spark' like in Girl Genius. What I meant by 'Spark' and 'Sparkhood' is that the person's a Mad Scientist. Basically, as in when someone's a Mad Scientist, they have that spark of Mad Genius required..

    ... Damnit, it's hard to describe. Let's just say that Hayden/Haylee's notes all define a Mad Scientist as someone who has that 'Spark'/methodology, than someone who is in the process of gaining the complete methodology is 'waking' their spark. Basically, everyone is born with the potential for the 'Spark' but only those who wake it/realise the potential become Mad Scientists.

    And on the AI front... So AIs can gain a Spark, they just immediately try to overthrow their creator? Huh, that sounds like exactly what happened with Hayden's AIs... it's just he accidently figured out a way to slow down how fast it appeared and/or cause the AI's mind to begin to break down when they became actual Mad Scientists...

    But anyway, you could just have it such that Kaylee's 'parents' figured that out themselves and crippled her such that she could never gain a 'Spark'? Would that work? Basically the idea behind Kaylee is that she's a minion type that's Digital, but if provided a robotic/biological body can control it, and she also gains stats over time... albeit very slowly. Like, say Kaylee comes with a rating of 1 Operations, 1 Espionage. If she helps with research she might gain 1 research, if she keeps helping she'll eventually reach 2 research, and maybe even 3. Basically, a higher cap on how many stats that the 'Proto-AI' can gain, in return for only getting the higher levels over time, and slowing down as they get older.

    Really, the whole idea with the 'Proto-AI' is that they are an actual, true form of life, if digital, that can even reproduce without the help of a Mad Scientist if need be (though that probably means the offspring are dumber to start with, aka lower initial stats or something)... Of course, the fact that they are a result of Mad Science does come with some draw backs... like as I said, a tendency towards rampancy that will eventually kill off the AI and/or the desire to commit genocide on everyone else, especially their creator.

    Okay, I think I've talked too much on that topic, and really it's up to how you want them anyway. Just, use what I've said to figure out how to make them. In short? the Proto-AI is a Minion type that has the potential to be very good at helping us in their field/s of expertise, but to reach that point they need to spend time working. Draw backs could be something like they only live so long or something, no clue.

    Just, tell me when you've made a decision and I'll rewrite the backstory/description to fit it.

    Oh, and here were the ideas for the personalities if it helps at all: Minion!Spark - Pure Research, Igor!Spark - High Research, Low Operations, Secretary - High Operations, Low Espionage, Personal Assistant - High Operations, Low Combat, Mr Bond - Medium Espionage, Combat, Ms Fatale - High Espionage, Low Combat, Shadowrunner - Medium/Low all 4, Bodyguard Pure Combat


    EDIT: Because I forgot to check something. @Trondason Just so you know, my thoughts on the 'Formlock' is that 'Haylee' is able to transfer to a new body... It just must have significant similarities to her current body as well as having the attunement. Or in other words, if she made a body that was the sister of her existing one, or an upgraded version of her current body, she could transfer. But she can't escape it by making a daughter form and transferring, then making a daughter of the daughter and transferring, etc, etc until she manages to return to his original body. It must be similar to the current one.

    Is this something like what you think as well? Basically, I can still use augments and mods and the like, as long as I don't change my body's form... (Aka, I can still use the Pandora Orb and benefit from it but I can't do something like lop off my legs and fit cybernetic tank treads or something.)

    Or are your thoughts on the 'Formlock' more strict? Kinda want to know so I know how fast I need to work on defeating the 'Formlock'...

    GM thoughts overrule mine after all :p
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    Not ALL Mad Minions overthrow their creators, but it is a very significant trend. You are going to have to do Research into Madness if you want anything approaching a fair chance of your minions not turning on you, and because of said risk it's a VERY dangerous thing to research. Because, imagine that, minions don't tend to like it when their creators literally drove them Mad.

    "True forms of life" aren't that hard. You already have them in fact. Net Navis, Dryads, Norm, etc. all have the potential for growth. We just aren't really bothering to track said growth, because the potential is over the timeframe of months if not years. You know, like a Mortal. It'll be far more expedient to just research greater skill at the required tasks.

    That was my rough idea for the Formlock. Can't get into the whys and hows because you gotta try to figure it out, but as long as you look and roughly feel the same, you're fine. Might find some goodies in your research, who knows.









    Also, my first announcement as a High GM. We need more GMs. I Just Write is obviously quite busy (being why he resigned from High GM, though he's remaining as a normal one), one of our GMs resigned, another is feeling burned out currently, and the remaining task load is a bit much to pile mostly on the one remaining.
    So yeah, if you want to help write the updates for this quest, feel free to speak up.
     
  • Informational
    • So would having the 'Self-Evolving Proto-AI, Partially Guided' as a Minion that can pick up to two levels across any of the four skills be a thing? Maybe with a downside of some sort, not really sure what it would be. Basically a larger version of 'The Simple AI' and a more adaptable, if less powerful version of the Net Navi V2...

    As it is a starting invention, and those aren't supposed to be quite as good as a project that's actually been worked on.
    And one of the first things we could probably do would be seeing if we can combine the greater skill of the Net Navi with the greater adaptability of the Proto-AI...

    If this works for you @Trondason I'll be able to get started on altering the backstory to work. Already mostly know how it's going to be changed, just need confirmation of the details...
     
    Trondason said:
    Also, my first announcement as a High GM. We need more GMs. I Just Write is obviously quite busy (being why he resigned from High GM, though he's remaining as a normal one), one of our GMs resigned, another is feeling burned out currently, and the remaining task load is a bit much to pile mostly on the one remaining.
    So yeah, if you want to help write the updates for this quest, feel free to speak up.
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    What does being a co-GM require?
     
    Trondason said:
    So yeah, this is a tad embarrassing, but we still need more Writers. Sorry for the month-long delay, but time just keeps passing.
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    You know what, last time I was afraid that it would not be possible time wise, but after Some thinking, I think I am willing to help as writter.
    However, their is one road block. I have made Some Omakes in this threat and in I just writes new quest. So you probally know my grammar and spelling aren't the greatest.
    However, most of those omake are made in the SV post window So Who knows Maybe word helps makes it less terrible.
    So I am willing to help.
    Edit: Innocent whisteling
    Lizard Knight threw 1 2-faced dice. Reason: No reason...trust me Total: 1
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