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THRONE//FRINGE: Normal Human Mech-Girl Quest

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[X] Vainglorious Stand. Counter the encroaching infested menagerie before it can enter intermediate-range and obtain stronger firing solutions.

We chose personality backups.
Let's focus on the realspace threat, then.
 
meianmaru said:
...So. From what I understand, that was a bullet dodged for a mostly wasted upgrade for this particular fight. Or could the Tapestry Strategic Interace, if we had it, slowed down the takeover of our territory?
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No, not a bullet dodged. If you had the interface, every military action that the Catalogue took within your space would have had a negative modifier to their roll reflecting your defensive advantage. Rootkit development merely reduces the advantage - other signature applications could counter it.

I never do trap options.
 
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[X] Beauteous Ruin. Strip away the Envelope's escort and weaken the strongest infowarfare platform before it gets to work.

The highest attack with the lowest defense? Yes plz.
Especially when that attack is debilitating info-warfare.
 
Cetashwayo said:
No, not a bullet dodged. If you had the interface, every military action that the Catalogue took within your space would have had a negative modifier to their roll reflecting your defensive advantage. Rootkit development merely reduces the advantage - other signature applications could counter it.

I never do trap options.
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Probably for the best now that I think about it, those are notoriously hard to balance and make them work in a way that doesn't leave the players extremely salty. Anyway, like Arachne said: I still don't particularly regret taking the backups -option, even if we are only getting currently a tiny taste of what is to come.
 
[X] Beauteous Ruin. Strip away the Envelope's escort and weaken the strongest infowarfare platform before it gets to work.

Always shoot the medic first. If there is no medic, shoot the glass cannon DPS first. Never shoot the tank or all-rounder first, that's what they want you to do.
 
meianmaru said:
Probably for the best now that I think about it, those are notoriously hard to balance and make them work in a way that doesn't leave the players extremely salty. Anyway, like Arachne said: I still don't particularly regret taking the backups -option, even if we are only getting currently a tiny taste of what is to come.
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And after all, the infowarfare hasn't even started.

And yes, when I was writing Magna Graecia I always made a rule not to do so. There were bad options for a given scenario, there were even options where if you took a set of choices you could be in a fucked situation. But I don't like tricking players because there is such an information disparity, so what looks like "shocking but fair twist" just seems like "bullshit" to the voters. If there are shocking twists I try not to make them end the game :V
 
Cetashwayo said:
And after all, the infowarfare hasn't even started.

And yes, when I was writing Magna Graecia I always made a rule not to do so. There were bad options for a given scenario, there were even options where if you took a set of choices you could be in a fucked situation. But I don't like tricking players because there is such an information disparity, so what looks like "shocking but fair twist" just seems like "bullshit" to the voters. If there are shocking twists I try not to make them end the game :V
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Lets see if we can avoid death by avoiding making too many mistakes then. Speaking of which... In long-range combat, Information Warfare is one of the more important stats, correct? Would that mean that getting a targeting solution on Beauteous Ruin would be a bit harder than the other enemies? Because while they are a priority target, if we can't actually damage them with high enough chance of success, we might want to go after the others first at this range.
 
meianmaru said:
Lets see if we can avoid death by avoiding making too many mistakes then. Speaking of which... In long-range combat, Information Warfare is one of the more important stats, correct? Would that mean that getting a targeting solution on Beauteous Ruin would be a bit harder than the other enemies? Because while they are a priority target, if we can't actually damage them with high enough chance of success, we might want to go after the others first at this range.
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Infowarfare is effective at any range but the real value for money is that you're large enough to house a huge suite of really scary long-range weapons. They're running on shitty software and hardware but a wave cannon is a wave cannon.
 
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Well, then. In that case, lets try answering their language with our own.

[X] Beauteous Ruin. Strip away the Envelope's escort and weaken the strongest infowarfare platform before it gets to work.
 
[X] Beauteous Ruin. Strip away the Envelope's escort and weaken the strongest infowarfare platform before it gets to work.
 
By the way, a small comment on the aesthetic of the Catalogue. While I otherwise like their creepy feel of desecration and being bacterium-analogues, I wonder about the following:
Cetashwayo said:
First come the bacteriophages, much smaller dots that you suspect represent their version of a reserve or drone, vat-grown and with few exotic materials, a swarm that feels infinite compared to anything you've faced before.
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Bacteriophages are viruses that infect bacteria (and archaea). And while how harmful (or maybe even beneficial in some cases) they are to their host-bacteria varies, they do not infect other types of cells from what I understand. Sorry for the potential nitpick, but the more I like something, the more I pay attention to its little details.
 
meianmaru said:
Bacteriophages are viruses that infect bacteria (and archaea). And while how harmful (or maybe even beneficial in some cases) they are to their host-bacteria varies, they do not infect other types of cells from what I understand. Sorry for the potential nitpick, but the more I like something, the more I pay attention to its little details.
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Good point, but the original definition of bacteriophage was rendered obsolete in the early Imperial period when most natural bacteria and natural micro ecosystems went extinct. The term is actually a reference to a popular primitive infohazard missile deployed during the Central campaigns.
 
Cetashwayo said:
Good point, but the original definition of bacteriophage was rendered obsolete in the early Imperial period when most natural bacteria and natural micro ecosystems went extinct. The term is actually a reference to a popular primitive infohazard missile deployed during the Central campaigns.
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Naruhodo. Also, maybe pre-Imperial research found/developed some kind of extremely mutualistic bacteria/virus symbios that uses relatively harmless (to it) virus infesting itself to attack the targets and the enemies of the bacteria. Which would make the name make more sense. Just to add to the nightmare fuel, if it doesn't already exist in the RL.
 
meianmaru said:
Naruhodo. Also, maybe pre-Imperial research found/developed some kind of extremely mutualistic bacteria/virus symbios that uses relatively harmless (to it) virus infesting itself to attack the targets and the enemies of the bacteria. Which would make the name make more sense. Just to add to the nightmare fuel, if it doesn't already exist in the RL.
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Indeed. Remember that the Empire exists in Deep Time but there was no prior disaster or loss of culture that prevented historical continuity beyond just distance. That meant that many of its naming schemes are anachronistic but actually referencing something much newer than you think (Ishtar does not know what Babylon the city is and wouldn't be able to tell you a thing about actual goddess Ishtar besides basic motifs, which she herself don't know are tied to a Babylonian goddess).

This is basically a shorthand to protect me from having to make up thousands of years of history from nothing because I would do that otherwise and I would go insane. It is also a narrow strand of familiarity in an otherwise hard-to-comprehend setting just from our small invariant perspective.
 
[X] Beauteous Ruin. Strip away the Envelope's escort and weaken the strongest infowarfare platform before it gets to work.
 
[X] Beauteous Ruin. Strip away the Envelope's escort and weaken the strongest infowarfare platform before it gets to work.
 
somewhatLazy said:
@Cetashwayo , how much damage would this first attack likely do to its target? What sort of threat would the two elements likely pose?
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I will play around with it to see how much is reasonable for pacing. Suffice it to say it can do significant damage (at least a hitpoint) depending on the roll. Everyone has four hitpoints.

You'll be rolling d20s against their d20s with modifiers. I am making up a homebrew combat system off the seat of my pants but probably it will be your long range systems rolled against resilence.
 
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Cetashwayo said:
I will play around with it to see how much is reasonable for pacing. Suffice it to say it can do significant damage (at least a hitpoint) depending on the roll. Everyone has four hitpoints.

You'll be rolling d20s against their d20s with modifiers. I am making up a homebrew combat system off the seat of my pants but probably it will be your long range systems rolled against resilence.
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What about the latter question? I'm not quite whether to prioritize the squishy support or the guy coming at us with a shiv.
 
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