Crystalwatcher's Magical Girl Quest!

[strauss]

Hum, for all that I found the posts generally so annoying I stopped bothering to read them I am glad I followed this specific conversation.

Up to this point with Super Hard start and everything that followed I was under the impression the UD was one small step short of total victory and the UL was trying their best to delay with no hope of it actually doing much and no idea of what to do otherwise with the main reason the UD hadn't won yet was because they hadn't bothered to. I presumed it was due internal conflict since they didn't really have a reason to stay united anymore along with other groups also doing their own things.

Then the Cores appear with a bang and the UL decide shooting for the moon hoping for the potential miracles to make it into an actual chance of success is the best possible course of action and prepare to go all-in. That anything that we(or the other Cores) weren't directly involved in is, at best, a costly stalemate and more often a failure and for us personally anything short of a miracle every battle was a setback we would in all likelihood never recover from.

That it is instead an actual war between two immense groups at the same weight level with us just a piece, if an important one, is way better and I am now going to re-read the thread with that in mind since it rather changes the tone. Though now that I think of it I am not sure why I was under the impression super hard was going to be that hardcore, not like most videogames have it as all that difficult so it is weird to think that.

 

[random_npc]

mostly I think it boils down to the UD dropping massive armies on earth seemingly on a whim. We know for a fact that the answer to how many demons does the UD have is "yes" and they have demonstrated at length that they can drop forces on earth whenever they think it would be funny, it kind of gives the impression that the only reason humanity is still alive is due to UD having internal issues.

I mean if we heard somewhere that those untraceable portals they seem to love are expensive as fuck, and often used on vanity targets like our town then it would be understandable. But from what we have seen the UD would be capable of dropping a few thousand demons on every major population center for giggles/keeping counterforce busy if they wanted to.

 

[UbeOne]

The Unified Darkness is so good at psychological warfare, even we think that they're near-invincible.

 

[justinkal]

I feel fine allowing this.

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Do things like that and "talk to Judgement Core before leaving" need to be explicitly included in the vote?

 

[Crystalwatcher]

The Unified Darkness is so good at psychological warfare, even we think that they're near-invincible.

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Now imagine the feeling of beating something like that.

 

[BoundaryPhantasm]

I placing my vote for this then.

[X]The Victorious Dead (Operation: Soul Collector)
- Maria can give me a general update on what going on with the war?

People, if you want more information on the war without visiting the commands tent, please vote for something like this in the future. Just remember we won't get the full picture, just a summary or fragment on what going on.

 

[Crystalwatcher]

Do things like that and "talk to Judgement Core before leaving" need to be explicitly included in the vote?

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No, they don't.

I'm getting the feeling a good portion of the conversation before everything burst into flames was forgotten here.

I already said that I'll see about it.

*points to the tags at the top of the page*

I didn't add the "Unknowing Player Participation" tag for the shits and giggles.

 

[LostDeviljho]

I didn't add the "Unknowing Player Participation" tag for the shits and giggles.

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I don't think anyone knows what that tag means though.

 

[justinkal]

No, they don't.

I'm getting the feeling a good portion of the conversation before everything burst into flames was forgotten here.

I already said that I'll see about it.

*points to the tags at the top of the page*

I didn't add the "Unknowing Player Participation" tag for the shits and giggles.

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I remember you saying that you'll see about it, but I wasn't quite sure if that meant 'included automatically unless it doesn't make sense'.

Edit:

I don't think anyone knows what that tag means though.

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That's clearly referring to the accidental creation of superbosses, obviously!

 

[Crystalwatcher]

I don't think anyone knows what that tag means though.

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It means that I take a lot of Anastasia's cues from the conversation.

Some things she does during a few of the updates are based on things that come up during the conversation between.

You guys talks a lot on stuff to train, and babble back and forth on how to go about doing it. When the vote to train wins, I poke around to see what parts of that conversation I can fit into her training.

So on.

EDIT: It was supposed to be subtle, and apparently I was too subtle about it.

 

[ReaperofInterest]

I have a few questions.

1: How precisely does Auto Recovery work as an Ability? Does the benefactor regain an amount if health that, while less than the benefactor's Base Health, rose alongside the level? Put another way, does a weapon with the Auto Recovery Ability recover X * (level) health per turn, with X representing a number smaller than Base Health?

2: Could a Divine Being's weapon or spell bypass a Magical Girl's defenses against Auto Kill, no matter what Growth Affinity the MG possessed?

3: What precisely keeps the Unified Darkness from dropping armies on Earth, apart from the certainty that the Counter Force would splatter them all?

4: Is the Relaxus mission eventually going to happen, no matter how long we put it off?

That's it for now.

 

[LostDeviljho]

2: Could a Divine Being's weapon or spell bypass a Magical Girl's defenses against Auto Kill, no matter what Growth Affinity the MG possessed?

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I don't know the answer to this, but consider the fact that Divine Beings automatically trump everyone but Divinity anyway. Why would they need an ability to get through something they can already get through?

 

[justinkal]

2: Could a Divine Being's weapon or spell bypass a Magical Girl's defenses against Auto Kill, no matter what Growth Affinity the MG possessed?

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Considering that the immunity is based on your existence having a heavier weight than the attacker's, I'd assume so.

 

[UbeOne]

It means that I take a lot of Anastasia's cues from the conversation.

Some things she does during a few of the updates are based on things that come up during the conversation between.

You guys talks a lot on stuff to train, and babble back and forth on how to go about doing it. When the vote to train wins, I poke around to see what parts of that conversation I can fit into her training.

So on.

EDIT: It was supposed to be subtle, and apparently I was too subtle about it.

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Sounds like the way Adfligo Systema operates.

 

[justinkal]

Sounds like the way Adfligo Systema operates.

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Yeah, but the whole point of PMAS is that Sabrina is partially a SI of SV itself, hence all the meta knowledge.

On that note, who was it that said they were working on a Sabrina expy?

 

[Gore17]

-snip-

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The UD is in the superior position, but it's not an insurmountable position. A big part of that is while they're more prone to internal conflict, they're ironically more organised and unified then the UL, and so provide a stronger front.

There's a few other things, but, well:
/人 ◕ ‿‿ ◕ 人\ [Spoilers!] /人 ◕ ‿‿ ◕ 人\

 

[Crystalwatcher]

1: How precisely does Auto Recovery work as an Ability? Does the benefactor regain an amount if health that, while less than the benefactor's Base Health, rose alongside the level? Put another way, does a weapon with the Auto Recovery Ability recover X * (level) health per turn, with X representing a number smaller than Base Health?

Click to shrink...

The amount of health recovered is set on a case by case basis. Some work as you just asked, while others give specific amounts of health.

Usually defined by Base Damage and Magic Modifier. Though other things can be used as the influence.

2: Could a Divine Being's weapon or spell bypass a Magical Girl's defenses against Auto Kill, no matter what Growth Affinity the MG possessed?

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Divine Beings are Gods. Magical Girls, while not quite 'mortal' fall far short of that. If a Divine Being used an Auto Kill ability on a MG, then that MG and likely a lot of the surrounding area will up and die.

3: What precisely keeps the Unified Darkness from dropping armies on Earth, apart from the certainty that the Counter Force would splatter them all?

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Mostly because if they draw enough forces away from the front lines in order to cause a significant enough threat that the Counter Force wouldn't be able to just immediately splatter the offenders, then the Unified Light would be able to push the battle lines back by a significant amount. More in Basilicom's comment next update.

4: Is the Relaxus mission eventually going to happen, no matter how long we put it off?

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Yes, but you guys have a lot of time before it launches itself. I'll start adding timers on missions as they come up from now on to give a better idea.

Sounds like the way Adfligo Systema operates.

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... Now I'm interested.

I had been intended to leave it a complete secret, but the recent conversation has kind of worn at me along with the RL bullshit I'm dealing with right this second.

There's a few other things, but, well:
/人 ◕ ‿‿ ◕ 人\ [Spoilers!] /人 ◕ ‿‿ ◕ 人\

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I'm calling QM copy right violations

 

[LostDeviljho]

On that note, who was it that said they were working on a Sabrina expy?

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I was considering it, but it's on the back burner at the moment, for a myriad of reasons.

 

[justinkal]

I was considering it, but it's on the back burner at the moment, for a myriad of reasons.

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In that case, I might take a crack at it this weekend if I get in the right mood.

 

[justinkal]

... Now I'm interested.

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PMMM quest in which the protagonist partially has SV in her head. She has amnesia (or maybe came into existence right when the quest started due to a wish made by a previous timeline's Madoka), but knows literally everything that the thread knows (except everything about things being fictional), including stuff like languages and everything about the canon version of PMMM.

As a result, the very first vote of the entire quest was

"I wish to control grief! My own! That of others! The grief of the Witches! All of it!"

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[Zako]

@crystalwatcher Have you done the XP and profile updates yet? I keep looking for them to see what we got. But, I get it if you need more time due to stuff happening.

Thanks for running such an awesome quest.

 

[BoundaryPhantasm]

@crystalwatcher, some question here as well. This is is primary on the Golems.

According to Gore the Golems are summon by members of Team Gear and it I correct that means everyone one of them can summon one? Another thing is that according to the ability, it is autonomous but I presume Team Gear could control them. How they control the Golems? And are the Golems Divine entity like the frame? Can they be piloted like a mech like how the frames is? When the 10 turn their were summon was up and the golems dis-summon, can their be re-summon in the same battle again? In terms of the Demon Classifications, how will a single golems used by a single person of Team GEAR be rank?

And what kind of minor breakdowns is Lucky Aquila and Maria is having in the update? It can, can give us dialogue description?

 

[Locos_Docos]

It means that I take a lot of Anastasia's cues from the conversation.

Some things she does during a few of the updates are based on things that come up during the conversation between.

You guys talks a lot on stuff to train, and babble back and forth on how to go about doing it. When the vote to train wins, I poke around to see what parts of that conversation I can fit into her training.

So on.

EDIT: It was supposed to be subtle, and apparently I was too subtle about it.

Click to shrink...

That might explains a couple mannerisms. *somethingsomethingbicuriousitysomething*

And before I go off for the night, does anybody recall what page has the post with the demotivational image? The one involving Jack Sparrow running from villagers with the text saying there were events going on in the world and not everything was gonna be your level? I'll get back to this after I wake up.

 

[UberJJK]

I'll start this off by saying I'm sorry to hear you had a miserable day IRL @crystalwatcher and I hope tomorrow is a far better one for you.

The missions that come up are all pulled from a pool that's sitting back at base, and passed on by Basilicom, based on what she thinks fits Nepgear's desired criteria.

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Oh I completely get why all these missions are high priority stuff that would fail without Nepgear. Even putting aside her status as the protagonist our missions are being specially selected from all the available missions to be the most important missions where Nepgear's presence could make a significant difference.

There are probably several important missions going on right now that we're just not being told about because they are either sure enough Nepgear isn't needed or thing she's just not suited for, stealth missions tracking the UD's forces for example.

I also completely understand that the war is fairly balanced. Things are grim and the war does slightly favor the Unified Darkness, thanks to Goddess Red amusingly enough, but victory could easily go either way.

The problem, as other people have already mentioned, is that the quest hasn't done a good job presenting the war that way in story. The talk between updates paints the war as such but if you only look at the updates the Unified Light is always at least one, or more, steps behind and the most recent mission is the only victory we've won against them and even then it came at the cost of thirty Super Heavy Human Infantry. An entire platoon of soldiers wiped out in an instant. What's more damning is that even with such a death toll the mission was considered a resounding success.

Super important missions will begin to taper off and less important ones will start to pop up.

Around then is when I'll start hiding in optional super-bosses if you want to take them on.

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While it certainly makes sense that the most important missions would pop up first I think it would probably be/have-been better, from a story/quest perspective, to have spread them out more.

Something like having a high priority mission to start off with, like Operation Starborn, then a day or two of low(er) priority missions. That way we'd have a few campaign missions that obviously have to be taken, possibly with a choice between two here and there that will let us shape how Operation Answerer plays out, but there will be a bunch of side quests that we can afford to skip out on.

That last bit is the most important. It presents the players with a dilemma; do we take the side quests for better results in Operation Answered but risk Team GEAR being tired/injured and doing poorly, or even failing, a campaign mission or do we skip them to give Team GEAR the downtime needed to guaranty they are at 100% for the important missions?

Honestly that is what I was expecting from this:

You all know that point in an RPG where the protagonists get some kind of rapid transport to travel everywhere and do side missions and the like before going after the final boss? Well... This is it. This is where shit starts to get real.

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and that expectation was reinforced by this part:

If you choose to go on a new mission though, you'll be literally hopping from one battle to the next, with no real break in between, save whatever rest you can catch on the ride over. This might not be very bad for Nepgear, but understand that Team GEAR is merely mortal. They need to rest some time, otherwise it'll start impacting their performance.

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Which made having to select between campaign missions instead of side quests very jarring.

I will if I can manage it into the narrative.

Most of these I was hiding behind the "Visit the Command Tent" option that NO ONE seemed to want to take.

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The problem here, I think I mentioned this the last time the topic came up, is that there is no benefit to Nepgear learning about the goings-on of the war. She isn't an officer, someone concerned with the war from a strategical standpoint, she's an enlisted woman, someone concerned with the war from a tactical standpoint, so knowing about the war outside what she needs for each mission is not simply pointless it's actually dangerous, because the more she knows the more she could theoretically reveal to the enemy.

However as players in a quest, or even just readers of it as a story, it's important to know at least some of the strategical information as knowledge of how the war is going overall lets us tell the difference between "Everything is going to shit and Nepgear is the only competent person on the UL" and "Wow Nepgear has terrible/wonderful luck in always finding the worst situations possible". In other words it has a serious effect on the tone of the quest/story which in turn can have effects on player moral.

The best method I can think of to help deal with this required information asymmetry would be to combine the gossip and Kaleidoscope ideas. Throw out a gossip thing, even if it is clunky, every now and then and put it into the Reflections Through the Kaleidoscope, preferably marked in such a way to make it clear it is canon stuff not non-canon omake stuff.

 

[Crystalwatcher]

1: How precisely does Auto Recovery work as an Ability? Does the benefactor regain an amount if health that, while less than the benefactor's Base Health, rose alongside the level? Put another way, does a weapon with the Auto Recovery Ability recover X * (level) health per turn, with X representing a number smaller than Base Health?

Click to shrink...

The amount of health recovered is set on a case by case basis. Some work as you just asked, while others give specific amounts of health.

Usually defined by Base Damage and Magic Modifier. Though other things can be used as the influence.

Click to shrink...

A good Autonomous Weapon with Auto Recovery could be written out like this:

Random Meat Shield A
Level Pineapple
Health: Lipstick
Base Damage: Cake
Base Resilience: Milkshake
Regeneration: 3% of health per turn
Affinity: Cookies
Ability: Auto Assault | Auto Recovery | Autonomous Combat

@crystalwatcher Have you done the XP and profile updates yet? I keep looking for them to see what we got. But, I get it if you need more time due to stuff happening.

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Was planning on doing that earlier after I got back from my run to Pueblo, but shit happened.

Thanks for running such an awesome quest.

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Thank you.

According to Gore the Golems are summon by members of Team Gear and it I correct that means everyone one of them can summon one?

Click to shrink...

Only those with Core Connection / Lesser Gods.

Another thing is that according to the ability, it is autonomous but I presume Team Gear could control them. How they control the Golems?

Click to shrink...

/人 ◕ ‿‿ ◕ 人\ [Spoilers!] /人 ◕ ‿‿ ◕ 人\

And are the Golems Divine entity like the frame?

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In a way.

Can they be piloted like a mech like how the frames is?

Click to shrink...

/人 ◕ ‿‿ ◕ 人\ [Spoilers!] /人 ◕ ‿‿ ◕ 人\

When the 10 turn their were summon was up and the golems dis-summon, can their be re-summon in the same battle again?

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Yes.

In terms of the Demon Classifications, how will a single golems used by a single person of Team GEAR be rank?

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Class 10.

No. That's not a typo.

And what kind of minor breakdowns is Lucky Aquila and Maria is having in the update? It can, can give us dialogue description?

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When I get the chance, sure. Not at the best location for that.

That might explains a couple mannerisms. *somethingsomethingbicuriousitysomething*

And before I go off for the night, does anybody recall what page has the post with the demotivational image? The one involving Jack Sparrow running from villagers with the text saying there were events going on in the world and not everything was gonna be your level? I'll get back to this after I wake up.

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Somewhere around the.... third? update I think. Lemme check.