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Abrogation (Steampunk)

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Nixeu said:
I'd be more concerned about that if we weren't SV. I suspect we can keep cranking out crazy and intriguing ideas as long as needed.
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Oh yes. I was a little worried about that too until I saw the next verse.

Alivaril said:
"But I'm not at all worried,
I know all that we were made for.
Light's desires are quite varied,
But rather simple at their core."
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I assume so long as we maintain ambition to be as crazy awesome as possible, we're not going to have a problem. After all, examples of what may possibly impress the Light are "Why not try something that floats? / Disrupt a continental shelf?" So yeah, thinking that so long as we keep up our ambitions to make physics cry, we should be just fine.
 
Unrelated, noticed something weird:
Alivaril said:
You open up a screaming tear in reality as far above the camp as possible. It shouldn't harm anyone all the way up there. Once you're sure you've gotten their attention, you open up a linked rift pair close to the camp and attach your defensive module to Skybreaker.
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This says that Lorelei is worrying about that void rift sucking in people from, what, a couple hundred meters away? That's not air falling into a portal to space like I was expecting. And similarly:
Alivaril said:
You're not entirely certain, but you don't think so. Inspiration never warned you about suffocation hazards from opening rifts in enclosed spaces. On the flip side, you do think rifts might be devouring light. As far as you can tell, the void should be black, not white.
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"No suffocation hazard" means it's not sucking in air in any meaningful quantity. So it's sucking in people from a hundred meters away but doesn't touch air at all? I now have no idea what's going on here. @Alivaril, any chance the safety manual came with a more detailed explanation of the mechanism?
 
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Vebyast said:
Unrelated, noticed something weird:
This says that Lorelei is worrying about that void rift sucking in people from, what, a couple hundred meters away? That's not air falling into a portal to space like I was expecting. And similarly:
"No suffocation hazard" means it's not sucking in air in any meaningful quantity. So it's sucking in people from a hundred meters away but doesn't touch air at all? I now have no idea what's going on here. @Alivaril, any chance the safety manual came with a more detailed explanation of the mechanism?
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Not that you know of. However, the information you currently have access to does provide some useful (see: disturbing) information.

The Void has no known mind, yet it still tries to devour all that it sees.
 
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Without the sensor upgrade, will our sensors be powerful enough to automatically target Skybreaker from its maximum range?
Alivaril said:
but it might not respect personal space until trained.
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Good. That's cute.
Alivaril said:
Not that you know of. However, the information you currently have access to does provide some useful (see: disturbing) information.

The Void has no known mind, yet it still tries to devour all that it sees.
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Quest goal: Find the mind that may or may not exist. And colonize it.
 
Alivaril said:
The Void has no known mind, yet it still tries to devour all that it sees.
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And yet, Inspiration-chan was still fine with giving us blueprints of how to phase into the Void. And is in fact very happy with ideas that involve phasing into the Void. Umm. Inspiration-chan, I know you really don't like Empowered because they literally devour the Light of Inspiration, but... you're not giving us all this Void-access because you want us to blow it up or something, are you?

Also, gotta ask, Alivaril, can our Gift be used to fuel our currently-coal-powered defence module? Or will we have to spend some time tinkering with our defence module to let Gift power it?
 
Kai Merah said:
Also, gotta ask, Alivaril, can our Gift be used to fuel our currently-coal-powered defence module? Or will we have to spend some time tinkering with our defence module to let Gift power it?
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I suspect that our defense module is going to self-destruct about five minutes from now, so we'll have to rebuild it anyway. Shouldn't be hard to rebuild it with a different power source.
 
Alivaril said:
an information warfare suite to let it hijack the personalized creations of other Inspired
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This sounds delightfully mean. I can't wait!
Alivaril said:
it might just up and leave you
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An uncontrolled, dog level mind that is moderately indestructible, has a perpetual power source, energy breath and can hijack other magic technology?
That would be highly irresponsible of us. Or we could just remember to feed our pet. :p

Alivaril said:
The Void has no known mind, yet it still tries to devour all that it sees.
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[:V] Find a way to hug the Void.
 
Kai Merah said:
Also, gotta ask, Alivaril, can our Gift be used to fuel our currently-coal-powered defence module? Or will we have to spend some time tinkering with our defence module to let Gift power it?
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You'd need to repair the module anyway, but giving Gift magnetic reflectors of its own is on your to-do list. You're hoping you'll have enough time for it.
 
Alivaril said:
You'd need to repair the module anyway, but giving Gift magnetic reflectors of its own is on your to-do list. You're hoping you'll have enough time for it.
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Speaking of, wanted to ask about Methodical. What does "able to return to project if unable to complete during Surge" mean? Is it separate from the renewed access Light gave us?
 
Kai Merah said:
Speaking of, wanted to ask about Methodical. What does "able to return to project if unable to complete during Surge" mean? Is it separate from the renewed access Light gave us?
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Normally, when a project is deemed satisfactory, the Surge will end shortly afterward; you may have time for a few refinements, but few major changes. Methodical lets you make, say, a design with legs, then a design with a weapon, then a design with IFF, etc. until you run out of time. So if you complete objectives A, B, and C before trying for D, but you don't have enough time in the Surge to actually make D work, you can return to design C instead of ending with a failed project.
 
Alright, it's definitely been longer than 90 minutes, so here we go.

[x] Give Gift approximately clever-dog-level intelligence. It's not anywhere near as messy as a biological pet would be.

When Inspiration gives you the chance to make an AI, you make an AI.

Also, I'm pretty sure it'll be adorable. If we end up making more later, we can have a whole pack of laser-spider-puppy-bots!
 
[x] Just improve its sensors and leave it as a series of contingent programs with no actual mind to speak of. You'd rather not have to worry about taking care of yet another sentient being, especially since it might just up and leave you. That would be rather inconvenient.

I could make some arguments about why a pet is a bad idea for practical reasons, but nobody really cares. What it comes down to is whether you want a pet or not.

Anyway. After this callout, we absolutely 100% have an Empowered gank squad gunning for us. I'm looking forward to that confrontation.
 
[x] Give Gift approximately clever-dog-level intelligence. It's not anywhere near as messy as a biological pet would be.
Helps with keeping it safe really.
 
[X] Just improve its sensors and leave it as a series of contingent programs with no actual mind to speak of. You'd rather not have to worry about taking care of yet another sentient being, especially since it might just up and leave you. That would be rather inconvenient.
Giving Gift an AI might get in the way of its purpose of powering things.
 
pressea said:
I could make some arguments about why a pet is a bad idea for practical reasons, but nobody really cares. What it comes down to is whether you want a pet or not.
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Allow me to make some arguments supporting a pet for practical reasons. Maybe then you'll feel more comfortable trying to have some actual discussion? Even I usually manage to contain my disgust and appeal to reason when this kind of thing happens.
  • Pets are trainable. Collections of rules can only be changed with a Surge - probably a powerful one, given the invulnerability - and brain surgery. I don't want to risk breaking our reactor every time we have to teach it a new trick.
  • A "clever dog" can actually be damn clever. A "clever dog" built into a nuclear reactor by an Inspired should be pretty easily trainable to operate other Inspired gear. And that means close air support, someone to watch our stuff while we're sneaking around in towns buying stuff, and someone to operate the crane to help us gather loot. This is all doubly applicable because the Gift has a stealth suite.
  • Collections of rules, even ones with high-end cyberwar suites, can be hacked. Pets are much less hackable. Also much less stealable in general. And in the reverse direction, a little intelligence goes a long way when you're talking cyberwar.
  • It has a ridiculously powerful gun, a cyberwar suite that's good enough to hijack the personalized creations of other Inspired, and is small enough to be stealable or kidnappable. That IFF suite is just about the most important addition to the entire build, but also the most likely to go wrong. A clever dog, on the other hand? Quite a bit harder to turn. Especially if the poor fool that's trying to hijack it thinks it's a dumb clockwork.
Sirapthy said:
Giving Gift an AI might get in the way of its purpose of powering things.
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I kinda doubt it, if only because Aether seems like the kind of thing that'd do wireless power transmission. I think that Lorelei would think that part through, and it's not hard to tune the thing's preferences. Imagine this, but for plugging in to recharge the batteries on something. Note also that infowar suite - if it does get bored, all it needs is a remote platform to play with.

[x] Give Gift approximately clever-dog-level intelligence. It's not anywhere near as messy as a biological pet would be.
 
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Vebyast said:
instead of openly insulting the entire thread? Even I usually manage to contain my disgust and appeal to reason
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You're reading disgust where there isn't any. I believe that all practical reasons for or against having a pet pale in comparison to the emotional impact of having an entire new character in the quest.


e:
My reasons were sensors = good and having a weird dog reactor is probably going to make it much, much more difficult to pose as a Courier or other non-Inspired from now on, if you're curious. That's the other reason I didn't want to say them, they aren't particularly good reasons that I don't expect to sway anyone.
 
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[x] Give Gift approximately clever-dog-level intelligence. It's not anywhere near as messy as a biological pet would be.

If we're already giving it a body, an e-warfare suite, sensors, and a gun, I'd really rather it not be a simple computer system. That tends to increase it's vulnerability to outside e-warfare. Plus, we're probably going to end up talking to our tech anyway, if we end up spending too much time alone. Might as well allow it to respond, even if non-verbally.
 
pressea said:
You're reading disgust where there isn't any. I believe that all practical reasons for or against having a pet pale in comparison to the emotional impact of having an entire new character in the quest.
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Ah, fair enough. Sorry about misreading you.

On that note, I'm voting pet. I don't think that we're going to be finding a good minion any time soon and I think it'd be nice to have a distraction from roving around looking for wandering armies to Surge off of.
 
[x] Give Gift approximately clever-dog-level intelligence. It's not anywhere near as messy as a biological pet would be.

Edited in justification:

I do think having a pet like intelligence to interact with could do our MC some good.

Plus, possibly having to do less micromanaging once Gift is sufficiently trained.
 
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Vebyast said:
I don't think that we're going to be finding a good minion any time soon
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Ehhh... I'm not sure about that. Alivaril always scatters around enough plot-hooks that we'll run into one that gives us a cool companion in short order, I think. We're in an area where Inspired aren't treated well so there's always a chance someone will see the light and decide their fortunes are better off with us, for example. We might even Inspire some personally.

Come to think of it, having such a bizarre pet will probably increase our chances of attracting fellow weirdos more than lying low will. If we're still capable of lying low after this reputation boost to the Lady of Blasphemy, that is.

... I just convinced myself, didn't I. I'll jump on the weirdo pet train.

[x] Give Gift approximately clever-dog-level intelligence. It's not anywhere near as messy as a biological pet would be.
 
[X] Just improve its sensors and leave it as a series of contingent programs with no actual mind to speak of. You'd rather not have to worry about taking care of yet another sentient being, especially since it might just up and leave you. That would be rather inconvenient.

I don't intend to have any sort of pet shenanigans. Too fluffy; distracts from plot/characters.
 
I'm not so sure that this is a great idea strategy-wise, but it sounds amusing, so whatever.

[x] Give Gift approximately clever-dog-level intelligence. It's not anywhere near as messy as a biological pet would be.
 
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