Lords of War

Counterpoint: Penny will never grow out of being "only combat" if combat is all she does.

Vote Merchant Lord for character progression!
 
Why you should go for Merchant Lord:

If we were the kind of person that actually could be good for that role you might have a point. But Penny is not the kind of person that would be able to handle the cutthroat and intrigue that comes with trying to run a business. In fact it is the worst place for her as it doesn't allow her to make full use her actual talents and relies on her weaknesses to succeed.

And while the Outpost may be suitable for Penny it has the unfortunate fact that the outpost is also about as restrictive as you can get and it basically means she is pushed more into the role of a weapon.

The Outpost would limit Penny so much instead of letting her hone her strength and weaknesses that the Village allows. The village is not the same as the trading port it is in the middle of the conflict but allows for greater freedom to make Penny grow as more than just a murderbot.
 
[X] Plan Imperial Merchant Lord

There is more to Intrigue than lying. I believe Penny can make the merchant city work well. And having possible access to the rumor mill immediately would be nice.
 
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Seriously you guys are going to put Penny in the most disadvantaged position for the trading post? Why not only is it the most boring option as conflict is far but Penny is badly equipped to run a trading operation.
 
Seriously you guys are going to put Penny in the most disadvantaged position for the trading post? Why not only is it the most boring option as conflict is far but Penny is badly equipped to run a trading operation.
What exactly leads you to believe penny can't run a trading post?

The merchant choice comes with the trading post already being a naval power, and far from conflict. The negatives are the cutthroat politics, and the "Northern oversight". Nobody has clarified what Northern oversight means as far as I know. I'm assuming it's oversight from the northen parts of the empire.

If Penny is a skilled calculator, then she can predict trade trends, and profit margins at unreal speeds beyond many humans.
 
What exactly leads you to believe penny can't run a trading post?

The merchant choice comes with the trading post already being a naval power, and far from conflict. The negatives are the cutthroat politics, and the "Northern oversight". Nobody has clarified what Northern oversight means as far as I know. I'm assuming it's oversight from the northen parts of the empire.

If Penny is a skilled calculator, then she can predict trade trends, and profit margins at unreal speeds beyond many humans.
Penny is not a skilled calculator. She isn't a AI or has a bunch of advanced knowledge. She is specced for combat and nothing else as it is made clear. She also has shit intrigue and Charisma. And being away from the conflict is a bad thing as that means she can't improve on her skills. Penny is a weapon which is why she would not be good in the trading port and why the military outpost would be extremely restricted making her just more of a weapon. Northern oversight is Mantle as in the people that are literally the most suppressive group around.
 
What exactly leads you to believe penny can't run a trading post?
1) Iandude has already confirmed that characters will each be good at 1 of the 4 Leadership skills and two Personals, and of those her most likely skills are Military, Tactics, and Combat Prowess.
2) Cutthroat politics sounds like intrigue and guile with diplomacy and charisma second, and I highly doubt Penny will be good at literally any of those.
3) By getting inserted into the simulator and confirmed by WoG Penny will be in a squishy human body/self at the time, so she probably won't be a skilled/superhuman calculator like you assume
4) Being able to run lots of math really quickly in your head won't do anything if you don't have all the knowledge needed to figure out the actual formulas, especially for predicting trade trends. As such, Penny would be less super intelligent and more being stupid faster.

Also, fairly sure northern oversight is referring to Mantle being to the north of the trade port.
 
What exactly leads you to believe penny can't run a trading post?

Because trading is 50% knowing trade trends and profit margins (which she might be good at, but it is no guarantee. If she does lose her droid body she might also lose her built-in calculator :V), 50% social (talking to people, making them trust you, convincing them to pay more or accept less. Penny is 100% terrible at being a person. This 50% is doomed, at least at the start), 20% guile (Mistrali bonus. This is the society employing bandits. leading a trading post here is definitely going to involve a whole shitton of subterfuge. Penny cannot lie.).

Another small quirk is that Penny hiccups whenever she tells a lie.

Out of this completely legitimate 120%, Penny fails 70 for sure. Potentially all of it.
 
1) Iandude has already confirmed that characters will each be good at 1 of the 4 Leadership skills and two Personals, and of those her most likely skills are Military, Tactics, and Combat Prowess.
It's possible Penny's Leadership skill proficinecy is in Logistics. All we got to base Penny's 1 skill on is "Combat Ready". Ruby's skill is likely Diplomacy from "Leads by example". Sun's is probably Espionage from "lovable scoundrel" or Military. Leaving Jaune's "Strategic Aptitude" indicating Military proficency, Logistics, or Espionage.

So, this lineup could work.

Ruby - Diplomacy
Sun - Espionage
Jaune - Logistics
Penny - Military

Or

Ruby - Diplomacy
Sun - Military
Jaune - Espionage
Penny - Logistics

I don't see any more different possible combos. Military doesn't quite fit Jaune's "Strategic Aptidue".
 
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It's possible Penny's Leadership skill proficinecy is in Logistics. All we got to base Penny's 1 skill on is "Combat Ready". Ruby's skill is likely Diplomacy from "Leads by example". Sun's is probably Espionage from "lovable scoundrel" or Military. Leaving Jaune's "Strategic Aptitude" indicating Military proficency, Logistics, or Espionage.

So, this lineup could work.

Ruby - Diplomacy
Sun - Espionage
Jaune - Logistics
Penny - Military

Or

Ruby - Diplomacy
Sun - Military
Jaune - Espionage
Penny - Logistics

I don't see any more different possible combos. Military doesn't quite fit Jaune's "Strategic Aptidue".
Logistics involves being in charge of things which Penny has never done before. She may be good enough to get by but she is completely ill suited for the other more important aspects of trying to run a trading operation.
 
Logistics involves being in charge of things which Penny has never done before. She may be good enough to get by but she is completely ill suited for the other more important aspects of trying to run a trading operation.
It's still better than starting from complete nothing but a build dramatically not optimized for the job as has been argued she would be in the merchant choice.
 
It's still better than starting from complete nothing but a build dramatically not optimized for the job as has been argued she would be in the merchant choice.
What are you talking no option is starting from nothing except that the merchant path is the worst of the options as it has too many draw backs for Penny. Mantle is close by and will be controlling her and the settlement and as a outer settlement it would be doubly repressive since that is the area and groups that were hurt the most by the policies that led to the Great War. And Penny is not going to go against that as she is very much someone that would follow orders because of her nature.
 
What are you talking no option is starting from nothing except that the merchant path is the worst of the options as it has too many draw backs for Penny. Mantle is close by and will be controlling her and the settlement and as a outer settlement it would be doubly repressive since that is the area and groups that were hurt the most by the policies that led to the Great War. And Penny is not going to go against that as she is very much someone that would follow orders because of her nature.
This, just this in general. The complete declaration that the merchant option is doomed at the very start with nothing to allow a win if chosen.
 
This, just this in general. The complete declaration that the merchant option is doomed at the very start with nothing to allow a win if chosen.
No it isn't. Stop trying to put words in my mouth. The merchant is the worst start for penny because it is the worst match for her skills and abilities. It isn't doomed but it is the badest start we could take.
 
So since for some reason people are voting to put Penny far away in an early version of Argus, with Mantle being a close overlord, not having a chance to actually fight as much, and being one of the worst starts for Penny can I get your support to vote for the only other Vale option we have and do the Shield of the Innocent plan? There are still far more people that do not want to be in the slaving, repressive, and hypocritical kingdom so if we vote for the other Vale option we can stay out of that. Plus we also don't have to end up fighting the current version of Ozpin if we are in Vale.

[X] A Shield for the Innocent

@AlysPower @ReaperOfShadows @lockdownspartan @SpaceOwl @Sangn123 @Valerian
 
There are still far more people that do not want to be in the slaving, repressive, and hypocritical kingdom...
On the SB side, we are currently debating the pro's of throwing a coup against said Kingdom. Not all of us wanted to be Bandits, but since we must. I'm sure we can develop our way into becoming a rebel army.
I suggest that we try to pull a coup of Mistral, end the war early, or at least pull out of the war before its end, so we can have a peace treaty, Mistral is to put it bluntly, a dictatorial regime, that suppresses the emotions of their outer settlements, and actively practices slavery.

The Great War and its influence causing worldwide increases in Grimm attacks. While pulling a coup may be a long shot, it would be an epic end goal.

It would also prevent us from being seen supporting Mistral Regime, both inside the simulation, and those watching us from the outside.

If Penny and our PC enters conflict, however...well let's hope both sides can let bygones be bygones, down the line.
 
On the SB side, we are currently debating the pro's of throwing a coup against said Kingdom. Not all of us wanted to be Bandits, but since we must. I'm sure we can develop our way into becoming a rebel army.

If Penny and our PC enters conflict, however...well let's hope both sides can let bygones be bygones, down the line.
They denied the glory of the Monkey King peace was never an option. :V
 
Adhoc vote count started by Hikari on Nov 13, 2020 at 12:53 AM, finished with 97 posts and 26 votes.
Total votes are...
  • 12: A Shield for the Innocent
  • 11: Plan Imperial Merchant Lord
  • 3: Plan Sea Queen Penny is a go.
What do you know, looks like A Shield for the Innocent and Imperial Merchant Lord are neck and neck. Looks like we may be fighting SB after all.

On that note, @Iandude0. Currently discussing this on Discord, but putting it on SV now, as the proper place for the discussion.

Post-Simulation, would Penny's body be warped to fit her Simulation Self? Or would she be nerfed, aka physical abilities don't transfer out? Would aura be able to bypass rules of reality to warp the robot body?

Depending on the answer, this could change the way, we develop Penny's combat abilities. Hmm...this would have been a good OOC question.

Reposting To Avoid Double Posting


Useful Video, I found. For anyone who wants a quick summary of how the canon Great War went down.
 
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Hm. So I'm honestly looking forward to where the leading plan goes, and being the straight man who has to ride herd on all the students leaders getting up to on the Valesian side of things. :V
 
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