I still really want the cat ears, to the point I'd be willing to trade out the modem oral coms for them, but this is pretty much what I was hoping for personally and I really don't have the time or energy to make plan that would likely just split the vote.
I still really want the cat ears, to the point I'd be willing to trade out the modem oral coms for them, but this is pretty much what I was hoping for personally and I really don't have the time or energy to make plan that would likely just split the vote.
I think it's only been just over 1/4 of the vote time, and I we've still got over a full day for people to log in and see any new plans in the thread, so I don't think we're in danger of any vote splitting yet if you have a good idea for what we can do right now.
In fact, with the bit about not needing to the quest ending in 20 days so very long term thinking isn't required, I'm thinking of working on another plan of my own that's trying to combine the cat ears with backpack boosters. The idea being that with a sufficient network mesh of boosters in the forces themselves that can bounce orders between themselves and broadcast them to any non-amplifier unit Intruder would only need to catch a narrow part of a group of her forces to issue orders to all of them, letting her use a narrower and less jammable broadcast to reach them from the back lines in the first place. Combine that with the Fault Tolerance making it so that if G&K ramps up the jammer loud enough that even directed broadcasts and nearby boosters start struggling to reach each other, it just slows down rather than breaks and can be mitigated with the use of brevity codes minimizing the amount of bytes needed to be sent. Better autonomous behavior means that dolls won't be in as bad a position for however long it takes to maneuver a booster back within range of them if a network gets split apart, and with 2 cat ears for Intruder she can control two entire separate networks at once if nessecary.
While with everyone who's voted for it already I'm not going to remove it, I think I am going to edit Counter and Counter-Prep though. While I think the multi-prong attack of destroying the jammer+unjammable communications with the fallback of better autonomous protocols may still have merit, I've noticed some things about it, like despite asking Scarecrow to make the Fault Tolerant protocols the plan never actually uses them. It just goes from blowing up the jammer, to hardline comms+oral last leg, to better autonomous protocols to keep as much of the force alive for however long it takes to blow up the jammer or lay another hardline.
@Solark - is it ok if I add a check-Scarecrow's-work action? If we're vouching for it, I'd like a chance to at least plug it in and see if it functions.
If you think it's important enough to allocate additional day for this purpose— then sure. Scarecrow might not like it though, since she'd rather have you start solving her problem instead.
Yeah, I stuck to 3 days too, we still need to outfit 9 other Ringleaders in 20 days, that's mostly 2 days per Ringleaders, 3 for one or two, if we want to upgrade all of them...
What else... message runners? Hardly. Intruder is playing a real-time strategy here, not a game of chess. Those are too slow to control dynamic engagement.
In a distant universe, another Ouroboros feels a sudden surge of anger. However, for whatever reason, she remembers how she punched a certain technician and feels better.
On more worldly matters, I'm betting on either [X] Plan Cute Electronic Kitten
or [X] Plan: Counter and Counter-Prep
But suddenly you have a vision of two fluffy cat ears-shaped parabolic antennas on top of Intruder's head, twitching, rotating and refocusing to independently track two groups of her advancing troops with narrow communication beams... That... that'd be the most unconventional cutting-edge tracking design on this side of the Milky Way! You quickly write down "power + beamforming + tracking (cat ears)" and switch to the next idea before your giggles have a chance to suffocate you.
[X] Plan Cute Electronic Kitten
-[x] Cat ears tightly focused RF beam tracking kit: 2d
-[x] Oral comms, modem-like digitalized vocalization:1d
-[x] Costumes and decoys (discussion with Intruder): 0d
-[x] Have Scarecrow handle these
--[x] better autonomous behavior patterns (Scarecrow): 0d (1d)
--[x] fault-tolerant protocol (Scarecrow): 0d (2d)
You put together your draft proposal. It's underwhelmingly short compared to the number of options you came up with, but it speaks more about the said number than the proposal itself. And you're not exactly cutting any corners here— you're just being efficient under time constraints. Right?
Scarecrow is on the line, and you have no reason to keep her waiting.
"Aw, thank you! I'll be counting on you then. Oh, wanna hear the whole plan? I'm going to call Intruder about it now."
"Of course."— she gives you a nod of affirmation.
You invite Intruder to the call, and in a moment she's there with you two.
"Architect, dear, I'm happy to see you! And hi again, Scarecrow!"
"Intruder."— Scarecrow greets her with a nod. Seems like they talked recently, and it doesn't surprise to you, as Scarecrow is somewhat of a subordinate to Intruder. You are not sure how it works exactly, since you're confident Scarecrow is more than capable enough to stand on her own. Yet she'd... chosen to work with Intruder? Doesn't care about hierarchy? They've been on all kinds of combat missions together, and now the two of them are closer than ever before.
"Hi, Intruder, long time no see!"— you greet her in turn with a smile. "You look stunning as ever. Ready to guess why I'm calling?"
You've long since figured out what makes your relationship smooth and congenial. She's still quirky, but you're not exactly normal yourself, and her games are quite enjoyable when you know the rules.
"Hmm, I wonder why... "— Intruder puts on an exaggeratedly pensive look. "Oh, I know! You missed me so much that you couldn't take it anymore, so you came up with an excuse to see me! Now, now, let's hear it!"
Her smile is bright and confident, and justifiably so. If you try to deny the "excuse" part or proceed to talk about the plan, it'll only put more wind in her sails. Do you want to look like a schoolgirl denying her crush? Not a chance. You know the rules, and you're going to strike back!
"Shucks, you got me." You cast your eyes down, assume your best embarrassed look and start playing with your hair. "It's just as you say... I have these... ideas about your costumes... and I can't wait to put a pair of cute cat ears on your head... and then maybe we can..."— you cover you face with your hands— "consider something... oral? And to... satisfy you even better, Scarecrow is willing to join in..."
You hear Scarecrow's snort, and peek between your fingers. Intruder is staring at you in astonishment, her blue eyes like saucers. Then she bursts out laughing and starts clapping her hands. Her laughter is graceful, pleasant and genuine. It wasn't always like this, a testament that Intruder, too, has changed since you two first met.
"Hahahaha! That... that was awesome! Hahaha! Bravo, my friend! bravo!"
You take this cue to return to your normal self and perform a theatrical bow. Intruder's smile is warm and fond now.
"I can't believe how much you have grown!"
"Why wouldn't I? I learned from the best!"
"Oh, you tease. But I'm happy to see you don't confine yourself exclusively to engineering. Now, I suppose you wanted to talk to me about my request?"
"Yes! I have a plan ready and wanted you to hear it before I and Scarecrow actually start doing stuff."
"Aw, how thoughtful of you. Say, do you mind if I come over? It's been so long since we've seen each other in person. We could talk about the plan, and catch up on things."
"I'd be happy to, but the work itself is going to take three days, and I'll need you with me when everything's ready."
"Hmm, it's true that I'm only charming in small quantities..."
This is your chance... if you want it, of course.
[x] You'd rather work alone.
[x] Invite Intruder.
[x] Invite both Intruder and Scarecrow.
"Shucks, you got me." You cast your eyes down, assume your best embarrassed look and start playing with your hair. "It's just as you say... I have these... ideas about your costumes... and I can't wait to put a pair of cute cat ears on your head... and then maybe we can..."— you cover you face with your hands— "consider something... oral? And to... satisfy you even better, Scarecrow is willing to join in..."
tbh I'm not sure why we wouldn't want to have both Scarecrow and Intruder on board? Is there an opportunity cost or what? I don't know, but I'm holding off on what seems the obvious no-brainer route for now.
On one hand, having Scarecrow on site could help us keep track and get ideas from her work on the autonomous pattern behavior. As well as having Intruder for feedbacks.
But on the other, it could distract us from our work and we are in a quite time-sensitive situation.
What to do, what to do ?
(Ironically I would find more optimal to invite just Scarecrow to both monitor and see her works without Intruder's... distractions.)
