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THRONE//FRINGE: Normal Human Mech-Girl Quest

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Called it. Totally called it. Called like the damn mafia on the last moon. Called like a pumpkin getting cut. Called like... alright i'm really stretching it here but really I should have seen this coming. Didn't think we'd see the conquistador though.

[X] You did not sustain critical damage to your infowarfare suite.
All the gizmos and health in the world is pointless if we cannot act.
[x] ISHTAR//BLOOD. There is no limit to the hunger that she feels, the lust for blood she thirsts for.
 
You know, I'm starting to wonder if I might not have gotten the wrong impression - each of these perks go "once per encounter, pick a friendly unit that is not a drone swarm". My assumption is that in this sense an encounter does not require Arachne/ISHTAR to be present in-chassis (i.e. this encounter would have still been an encounter even if we'd just sent the drone swarms and kept Arachne back in A0) - @Cetashwayo is this the case? We'll need to acquire some non-drone swarm forces first, but is it not the case that we could stay safe at home and apply our perk to whatever/whoever we send out instead?

My general impressions of the perks are "fight better when damaged", "self-repairs during a fight", and "charge up a super move during a fight". What really makes me leery here is that perks 2 and 3 link back to whether or not the unit this applies to is doing damage. Neither of them will do jack shit if the fight is lopsided/stacked against us - that's not so bad for the long term where circumstances may end up different based off of future choices, but right now getting locked into a death spiral because wound penalties from being half dead prevent us from scratching the hull of the Hunter/Killer that set this encounter/ambush up for the specific purpose of murking us.

Even disregarding how relevant each perk would be in this particular fight, each of these perks incentivizes a different playstyle - WRATH incentivizes big clashes and decisive battles by offering incredible battle performance at the cost of incredible casualty/damage levels, BLOOD incentivizes repeated skirmishes and high-tempo wars of attrition by allowing forces to suck up damage from one battle and head to the next without pause or delay, and STORM incentivizes ambushes/routs and turtling up for slugging matches by allowing a force to by time until a nova wipes enemies from the field of battle or by allowing a force that's racking up kills fast to drastically boost their damage output and finish off an opponent with even less casualties.

I'd also like to start making a case for not going out and doing things again, seeing as even if we manage to turn this around and finish off DH there's still his mysterious boss who has a hard-on for killing us lurking ominously - we should really focus on securing ourselves a home base/stronghold that's actually safe rather than continue to bet everything on red. Like, we're a Weaver/Builder unit intended to run around formatting space - at the very least we ought to have a competitive advantage at doing just that, and refusing to play to our strengths in favor of running around getting our face shot off seems kinda counterproductive from a long-term survival perspective.

In conclusion, vote WRATH and being a homebody, because that's (imo) the intuitively logical character development stemming from Arachne's doing really well tactically vs the AXIOM DRONES by rushing in and really poor strategically by rushing into an ambush and nearly (at least hopefully it's only nearly) dying.
 
[X] You did not sustain critical damage to your infowarfare suite.
[X] ISHTAR//WRATH. Till the end she screams defiant, the gouges in her flesh mere adornments of her wrath.
 
me.me.here said:
You know, I'm starting to wonder if I might not have gotten the wrong impression - each of these perks go "once per encounter, pick a friendly unit that is not a drone swarm". My assumption is that in this sense an encounter does not require Arachne/ISHTAR to be present in-chassis (i.e. this encounter would have still been an encounter even if we'd just sent the drone swarms and kept Arachne back in A0) - @Cetashwayo is this the case? We'll need to acquire some non-drone swarm forces first, but is it not the case that we could stay safe at home and apply our perk to whatever/whoever we send out instead?
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That is correct. It is a one-target bonus to any unit. Let's say you one day get an element through, say, a special project (the main way to get more units). ISHTAR would be able to apply her power to that unit or Arachne's chassis (though not both at once). This means WRATH would be very useful in a situation with multiple units; it would allow one unit to supercharge and go in guns blazing while another unit maintains a more defensive posture and prevents the berserker from being overrun. STORM and BLOOD have similar synergies.

The way combat roles work in The Empire is that there are four major unit types (not to be confused with the different voidcraft types such as voidcruisers and drones, a typical element will be composed of many of these, an H/K is just a singular giant voidcruiser, etc):

Hunter/Killer: Specialized anti-personnel unit that is optimized for void warfare and nothing else. They are rare, expensive, and require a specific technology to produce.
Element: All around solid military formation with flexibility in operations able to do things like combined-arms operations or commando raids and occupations.
Operative: Sneaky sneak spooks without much combat capability against military formations but the primary espionage unit.
Elites: Singular god-beings that are a hybrid of an element and an operative and able to go against either that pay for their power with increased costs and require a specific technology to produce.

And Arachne, who is in a weird militarized chassis but whose equipment leans her more towards the Hunter/Killer end of the spectrum with some utility capabilities.

ISHTAR was an elite, Hidalgo is an element. You have yet to meet an operative or H/K yet. Each unit has four stats which reflect their relative capabiltiies but are only comparable to units in the same category (ie -1 in a stat for Arachne's HYDRA Weaver/Builder is not comparable to a -1 for Hidalgo as Arachne and Hidalgo are different unit types).

Swarms function as reserves, ie disposable and less important military formations that are constantly lost and replaced. Reserves can also represent more easily producable but less advanced voidcruisers.
 
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Zaealix said:
DIANAAAAAA~!!!
I hope Ishtar is a murder machine and a half because that's painful to see.
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Units are well beyond your capability right now in terms of special projects, so don't get too much buyers' remorse there. That would be well down the line when you have far more significant infrastructure.
 
And one thing that I want to make clear: I have heard that some felt a little concerned about the way the quest is going or that they feel a little jostled around. I understand that. I want to make clear that my questing style is not one of punishing people for mistakes, especially not early on when there is so little information. What I like to do is to throw unexpected problems and challenges at people from terra incognita and then see how they respond to these challenges, both as a way of introducing new threats and testing limits. I don't do things because I felt a player took a trap option or made a mistake. I do it because I think it is interesting and can expose players to learning that I like to give bloody noses and big rewards for risks taken, not cripple them. In Magna Graecia, for example, players early on faced off against a fleet of 50 galleys with 3 triremes and were able to win by the skin of their teeth because they were ballsy and faced the problem head on. It was a nailbiting holy shit moment but it was also great fun.

I also understand that there is some concerns around lack of information and such. This is part of the conceit of the quest - piecing things together and having little information. You are grappling with an unknown and scary situation. It is hard, it should be! It is a completely new setting and environment.

But I also want to make clear again that much of the more proximal confusion is ending with this arc. There will be plenty of surprises but ones that are less likely to catch Arachne completely unawares or exposed. FRINGE is a dark forest, but you learn to stay quiet and check your corners very quickly unless something truly crazy happens. Arachne was taken advantage of by someone in optimal conditions who effectively lured her out. It is unlikely to happen again.

I just don't want people to think I'm messing with 'em or something. I just want to have fun here. It would make me sad to learn that readers aren't.
 
Cetashwayo said:
In Magna Graecia, for example, players early on faced off against a fleet of 50 galleys with 3 triremes and were able to win by the skin of their teeth because they were ballsy and faced the problem head on. It was a nailbiting holy shit moment but it was also great fun.
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What. Dear God, how'd they pull through with that? Fireboats? Intense boarding action? Pretending to be the vangaurd of a bigger fleet?

I know it's off topic as hell, but 50v3 doesn't typically end with the 3 winning.
 
[X] You did not sustain critical damage to your infowarfare suite.
[X] ISHTAR//BLOOD. There is no limit to the hunger that she feels, the lust for blood she thirsts for.

@Cetashwayo

So are you saying we are going to encounter Eusebios later on? Dudes like a bad penny.
 
Sgtsoldier123 said:
What. Dear God, how'd they pull through with that? Fireboats? Intense boarding action? Pretending to be the vangaurd of a bigger fleet?

I know it's off topic as hell, but 50v3 doesn't typically end with the 3 winning.
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They used their superior ramming capability, higher draft and cohesion to slam straight into the fleet and scatter it. The fleet were less organized pirates who weren't expecting it and so became completely collapsed and routed when put under enough pressure.
 
Sgtsoldier123 said:
What. Dear God, how'd they pull through with that? Fireboats? Intense boarding action? Pretending to be the vangaurd of a bigger fleet?

I know it's off topic as hell, but 50v3 doesn't typically end with the 3 winning.
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Well historically speaking, naval warfare is particularly prone to giant upsets where small naval forces mulch the large naval force. Especially when geography is on the smaller force's side.
 
Cetashwayo said:
They used their superior ramming capability, higher draft and cohesion to slam straight into the fleet and scatter it. The fleet were less organized pirates who weren't expecting it and so became completely collapsed and routed when put under enough pressure.
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From what I remember of the fight, we also didnt let the pentakonters swarm us. We kept moving, and we would ram through them, wheel about, and cycle charge them. They couldnt stop us, so as long as we kept moving and kept ramming them, they had no chance to regroup and board.

If they had boarded us the ships would have been lost.
 
Professor Vesca said:
From what I remember of the fight, we also didnt let the pentakonters swarm us. We kept moving, and we would ram through them, wheel about, and cycle charge them. They couldnt stop us, so as long as we kept moving and kept ramming them, they had no chance to regroup and board.

If they had boarded us the ships would have been lost.
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Yeah, it was just maintaining a constant momentum. But anyways, enough about MG, it haunts me enough already, let's be haunted by a vaporwave conquistador instead :V
 
me.me.here said:
I'd also like to start making a case for not going out and doing things again, seeing as even if we manage to turn this around and finish off DH there's still his mysterious boss who has a hard-on for killing us lurking ominously - we should really focus on securing ourselves a home base/stronghold that's actually safe rather than continue to bet everything on red. Like, we're a Weaver/Builder unit intended to run around formatting space - at the very least we ought to have a competitive advantage at doing just that, and refusing to play to our strengths in favor of running around getting our face shot off seems kinda counterproductive from a long-term survival perspective.

In conclusion, vote WRATH and being a homebody, because that's (imo) the intuitively logical character development stemming from Arachne's doing really well tactically vs the AXIOM DRONES by rushing in and really poor strategically by rushing into an ambush and nearly (at least hopefully it's only nearly) dying.
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This is a nice sentiment, but unfortunately I don't think it is going to be a real option for a while yet. Arachne/Ishtar have formally encountered their first hostile polity, capable of fielding elements (or at least hiring them). Drone swarms, especially DRONE//LEGION which work better with other real units present, may not be sufficient by themselves to secure resources in other hexes going forward. As noted earlier, Arachne is a ways off from being able to produce other units. I'm not sure trying to hole up, sidelining our only real unit, and just build for awhile is going to be our best choice.

There's also the fact we're formatting the home hex for imperial standard tapestry, which while has some advantages, is I'm guessing less defensible than a custom architecture would have been, being imperial standard which everyone in the past at one point was used to operating in. Our defenses at home for a while may not be any better than neutral space, at least until we get some defensive projects under our belt.

On the bright side, we have made choices that mean Arachne/Ishtar is no pushover. Assuming we get some ranged sensors online next, I think intelligent risk taking will probably bring good returns on investment.

As for perks, I think WRATH or BLOOD are both excellent short and long term choices. Both of them reduce the effects of being damaged, either by ignoring and becoming stronger, or removing the damage completely. Blood has more strategic benefit (less repairs afterwards), while WRATH perhaps leads to better tactical outcomes, especially if multiple allied units are available to help defend the damaged unit. Both have obvious applications to the current situation. STORM does seem to have the interesting possibility of leading to Don's defeat via surprise burst damage however. On the other hand, it depends on Ishtar's base resilience and offense to get to that point. It also sounds like it is more effective against groups rather than 1 on 1.
 
[X] You did not sustain critical damage to your infowarfare suite.
[X] ISHTAR//WRATH. Till the end she screams defiant, the gouges in her flesh mere adornments of her wrath.

Damn you, DH, you and your electronic conquistador boss!
 
[X] You did not sustain critical damage to your infowarfare suite.
[x] ISHTAR//BLOOD. There is no limit to the hunger that she feels, the lust for blood she thirsts for.
 
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