Dragon Quest Online (SAO/Worm)

[Ehorin]

You pass by a shop for warhammers and consider a weapon in its display that's almost two meters tall and has a head the size of a breadbox. In real life it'd be a weapon reserved for changers and breakers with extra mass or an ability to modify momentum. Maybe a tinker with heavy enough armor. Human-massed brutes wouldn't be able to do anything with it regardless of their strength, they'd just throw themselves around ineffectually. In fact, nearly every weapon store has at least one completely unusable weapon in its display, and even the average piece isn't much better. Polearms, axes both one-handed and two-handed, large and small swords, daggers, an entire store dedicated to machetes, hammers and flails and maces, they're almost universally unusable. Some are simply too big, some have serrations or jagged edges that should make them incredibly difficult to cut with, many are decorated in ways that'd cripple their structural integrity. Almost every weapon on display is more than a little bit blade-heavy. The exceptions are the offerings of the store selling "rapiers", which are actually fencing foils that'd be difficult to use as actual weapons.

Click to shrink...

this is either Anime derived or a canon change, because canonically part of SAO's HYYYYPPPPEEE was because of the effort that went into making sure the swords and sword skills were as accurate as possible. Most of the Sword Skills were designed using motion capture on master fighters.

 

[AlexTheCynic]

[X][Update Action] Ask Yui about the game
-[X][Update Action] Ask about game mechanics
--[X][Update Action] Video game physics

 

[veekie]

[X][Food] Let Yui recommend something
[X][Update Action] Ask Yui about herself
-[X][Update Action] She seems kind of young to be in an MMO, much less a full-immersion VR game
-[X][Update Action] How'd she get her nerve gear?
[X][Update Action] Ask Yui about the game
-[X][Update Action] How does this game work? What is a nerve gear?

Don't think I could cram in more before the food is done even if it had normal serving and eating times.

 

[Jeboboid]

[X][Food] Let Yui recommend something
[X][Update Action] Ask Yui about herself
-[X][Update Action] She seems kind of young to be in an MMO, much less a full-immersion VR game
-[X][Update Action] How'd she get her nerve gear?
[X][Update Action] Ask Yui about the game
-[X][Update Action] How does this game work? What is a nerve gear?

 

[Liquid Ink]

[X][Food] Let Yui recommend something
[X][Update Action] Ask Yui about herself
-[X][Update Action] She seems kind of young to be in an MMO, much less a full-immersion VR game
-[X][Update Action] How'd she get her nerve gear?
[X][Update Action] Ask Yui about the game
-[X][Update Action] How does this game work? What is a nerve gear?

 

[the]

[X][Food] Let Yui recommend something
[X][Update Action] Ask Yui about herself
-[X][Update Action] She seems kind of young to be in an MMO, much less a full-immersion VR game
-[X][Update Action] How'd she get her nerve gear?
[X][Update Action] Ask Yui about the game
-[X][Update Action] How does this game work? What is a nerve gear?

 

[underscore]

[X][Food] Let Yui recommend something
[X][Update Action] Ask Yui about herself
-[X][Update Action] She seems kind of young to be in an MMO, much less a full-immersion VR game
-[X][Update Action] How'd she get her nerve gear?
[X][Update Action] Ask Yui about the game
-[X][Update Action] How does this game work? What is a nerve gear?

 

[Phearo]

[X][Food] Order something
-[X][Food] Pick what looks to be the most appetizing.

[X][Update Action] Ask Yui about the game
-[X][Update Action] Yui mentioned a beta
-[X][Update Action] Ask about game mechanics
--[X][Update Action] You only saw melee weapons in the shops
--[X][Update Action] Equipment

[X][Update Action] Spend some more time reading your status page
-[X][Update Action] See if you can find the manual

[X][Update Action] Ask Yui about herself
-[X][Update Action] She seems kind of young to be in an MMO, much less a full-immersion VR game

Let Dragon pick what she'd be interested in eating, herself. I don't think it's a nice idea to default to Yui when faced with any decision.
The other options are just there because it's the easiest to segue together- Dragon's a bit of a social butterfly (compared to armmaster, at least, and that's while she's pretending to be an extreme recluse)

 

[Ryune]

this is either Anime derived or a canon change, because canonically part of SAO's HYYYYPPPPEEE was because of the effort that went into making sure the swords and sword skills were as accurate as possible. Most of the Sword Skills were designed using motion capture on master fighters.

Click to shrink...

Consider for a moment that these are also all low level equipment. These are terrible designs for weapons that likely have equally terrible stats. It's likely the way they are going to show the progression of weapons. They get more refined and practical as they progress. It's the only way I can see them getting so significantly better over the course of the game without blatant magical stat growth.

 

[CaesriusPolybius]

[X][Food] Let Yui recommend something
[X][Update Action] Ask Yui about herself
-[X][Update Action] She seems kind of young to be in an MMO, much less a full-immersion VR game
-[X][Update Action] How'd she get her nerve gear?
[X][Update Action] Ask Yui about the game
-[X][Update Action] How does this game work? What is a nerve gear?

 

[Felius]

[X][Food] Let Yui recommend something
[X][Update Action] Ask Yui about herself
-[X][Update Action] She seems kind of young to be in an MMO, much less a full-immersion VR game
-[X][Update Action] How'd she get her nerve gear?
[X][Update Action] Ask Yui about the game
-[X][Update Action] How does this game work? What is a nerve gear?

 

[AramilOniasha]

[X][Food] Order something
-[X][Food] Fish

[X][Update Action] Ask Yui about the game
-[X][Update Action] Yui mentioned a beta
-[]X[Update Action] How does this game work? What is a nerve gear?
-[X][Update Action] WHAT YEAR IS IT
-[X][Update Action] Ask about game mechanics
--[X][Update Action] Skills
--[X][Update Action] How combat works
--[X][Update Action] Equipment
--[X][Update Action] Video game physics
--[X][Update Action] You only saw melee weapons in the shops
-[X][Update Action] Ask about the setting; did you skip any cutscenes?

 

[owrtho]

[X][Food] Let Yui recommend something
[X][Food] Order something
-[X][Food] Different from what Yui recommended.

[X][Update Action] Ask Yui about the game
-[X][Update Action] Yui mentioned a beta
-[X][Update Action] Ask about game mechanics
--[X][Update Action] Skills
--[X][Update Action] How combat works
-[X][Update Action] Ask about the setting; did you skip any cutscenes?

[X][Update Action] Spend some more time reading your status page
-[X][Update Action] While Yui is answering your questions, and be obvious about doing it.
-[X][Update Action] See if you can find the manual
-[X][Update Action] Investigate your other skills
-[X][Update Action] Do you have an inventory to go with your equpiment?

This is how friends are made, right?

owrtho

 

[Datcord]

Last update isn't threadmarked, FYI.

You abruptly realize that you can taste the inside of your mouth.

That's weird. Not bad, just... weird. And suddenly distracting.

Click to shrink...

Conscious breathing mode activated! Your jaw has weight! Where is your tongue in your mouth right now? You can feel all your skin! You can always see your nose! Don't think about blinking! And don't swallow. (I will never not love non-human characters suddenly needing to deal with weird bullshit like that.)

[jk][Food] Order something
-[jk][Food] Sausages! Bananas! Spotted dick!
*flees thrown objects*

 

[NemoMarx]

[X][Food] Let Yui recommend something
[X][Food] Order something
-[X][Food] Different from what Yui recommended.

[X][Update Action] Ask Yui about the game
-[X][Update Action] Yui mentioned a beta
-[X][Update Action] Ask about game mechanics
--[X][Update Action] Skills
--[X][Update Action] How combat works
-[X][Update Action] Ask about the setting; did you skip any cutscenes?

[X][Update Action] Spend some more time reading your status page
-[X][Update Action] While Yui is answering your questions, and be obvious about doing it.
-[X][Update Action] See if you can find the manual
-[X][Update Action] Investigate your other skills
-[X][Update Action] Do you have an inventory to go with your equpiment?

 

[Twei]

[X][Food] Let Yui recommend something
[X][Food] Order something

[X][Update Action] Ask Yui about the game
-[X][Update Action] Yui mentioned a beta
-[X][Update Action] Ask about game mechanics
--[X][Update Action] Skills
--[X][Update Action] How combat works
-[X][Update Action] Ask about the setting; did you skip any cutscenes?

[X][Update Action] Spend some more time reading your status page
-[X][Update Action] While Yui is answering your questions, and be obvious about doing it.
-[X][Update Action] See if you can find the manual
-[X][Update Action] Investigate your other skills
-[X][Update Action] Do you have an inventory to go with your equpiment?

 

[Kaizuki]

In fact? Cardinal: consider that a bug report. You don't have bug reports. That's a bug."

Click to shrink...

Vebby you maked catgirl laugh a lot.

 

[Vebyast]

Vebby you maked catgirl laugh a lot.

Click to shrink...

^_^

Last update isn't threadmarked, FYI.

Click to shrink...

Fixificated, thank you for bug report

 

[Nixeu]

Took a while because I was nailing down a few more bits of setting, prompted by discussion, and because I had a completely packed week.

Click to shrink...

I appreciate it. It's nice to get these things answered subtly rather than by WoG when we can.

It's a little bit difficult to represent these properly because the mental advantages that Dragon has are already, to a large degree, part of the Standard Quest Character package.

Click to shrink...

Make sense.

The rest of Dragon's major advantages are simply difficult to represent in a textual format. For example, the thing I was talking about with "thinking big thoughts": I can't convey Dragon's entire stream of consciousness to you. She's limited to human visual acuity and eye movement but still gets much more out of that information than we would. It'd be too big to fit on the page and the sheer quantity of useless information would detract from the quality of the writing. Instead, the updates are me trying to filter Dragon down to the parts that you care about and would find useful, and in order to cover the inevitable gaps I'll answer questions when Dragon would have seen or known something.

Click to shrink...

Thanks in advance.

This is my interpretation.

Click to shrink...

Neat. About what I figured, actually. Interesting that someone managed to get it so that she was able to experience the simulation like this, no matter how they did it. My guess is that the Nervegear's basic design to plug into senses got adapted to her somehow, still, but it seems like a much bigger project than I first thought.

...because canonically part of SAO's HYYYYPPPPEEE was because of the effort that went into making sure the swords and sword skills were as accurate as possible.

Click to shrink...

Maybe in the light novels. In the anime/manga, the swords were not particularly realistic.

Consider for a moment that these are also all low level equipment. These are terrible designs for weapons that likely have equally terrible stats. It's likely the way they are going to show the progression of weapons. They get more refined and practical as they progress. It's the only way I can see them getting so significantly better over the course of the game without blatant magical stat growth.

Click to shrink...

Nah, man, this is pretty typical of the anime. High-level swords tend to look weird, especially because they tend to be made from materials that don't exist on Earth, semi-magical, hard-to-acquire materials and the like. Actually, the lower-level swords tend to look more realistic, IIRC. Much less interesting, anyway.

Conscious breathing mode activated! Your jaw has weight! Where is your tongue in your mouth right now? You can feel all your skin! You can always see your nose! Don't think about blinking! And don't swallow. (I will never not love non-human characters suddenly needing to deal with weird bullshit like that.)

[jk][Food] Order something
-[jk][Food] Sausages! Bananas! Spotted dick!
*flees thrown objects*

Click to shrink...

Thank you for brightening my day, Datcord.

 

[AbZHz101]

[X][Food]Let Yui recommend something

[X][Update Action] Ask Yui about the game
-[X][Update Action] Yui mentioned a Beta
-[X][Update Action] Ask about Game Mechanics
--[X][Update Action] You only saw melee weapons in the shops
--[X][Update Action] Ask about the Setting; Did you miss any cutscenes?
--[X][Update Action] Ask about the Event itself.

[X][Update Action] Ask about Yui herself.
-[X][Update Action] She was in the beta right? Ask if she's noticed any major changes... Besides the event logout thing.

I figure we want to know what the end conditions are for the "event" either time or getting to a certain point.

 

[Malaquez]

[X][Food] Order something
-[X][Food] Pick what looks to be the most appetizing.

[X][Update Action] Ask Yui about the game
-[X][Update Action] Yui mentioned a beta
-[X][Update Action] Ask about game mechanics
--[X][Update Action] You only saw melee weapons in the shops
--[X][Update Action] Equipment

[X][Update Action] Spend some more time reading your status page
-[X][Update Action] See if you can find the manual

[X][Update Action] Ask Yui about herself
-[X][Update Action] She seems kind of young to be in an MMO, much less a full-immersion VR game

Can't wait to see Dragon's reaction to food.

 

[cl20]

[X][Food]Let Yui recommend something
[X][Update Action] Ask Yui about the game
-[X][Update Action] Yui mentioned a beta
-[X][Update Action] Ask about game mechanics
--[X][Update Action] You only saw melee weapons in the shops
--[X][Update Action] Equipment

[X][Update Action] Spend some more time reading your status page
-[X][Update Action] See if you can find the manual

[X][Update Action] Ask Yui about herself
-[X][Update Action] She seems kind of young to be in an MMO, much less a full-immersion VR game

 

[owrtho]

Nah, man, this is pretty typical of the anime. High-level swords tend to look weird, especially because they tend to be made from materials that don't exist on Earth, semi-magical, hard-to-acquire materials and the like. Actually, the lower-level swords tend to look more realistic, IIRC. Much less interesting, anyway.

Click to shrink...

Actually, that would probably suggest that weapons in SAO progress from impractical fantasy designs (bad early game weapons), to practical realistic designs (mid game weapons), to impractical looking but working fantasy designs thanks to high end potentially supernatural crafting materials (also higher level characters being minor brutes) (late game weapons).

owrtho

 

[silentspirals]

[X][Food] Order something
-[X][Food] Pick what looks to be the most appetizing.

[X][Update Action] Ask Yui about the game
-[X][Update Action] How does this game work? What is a nerve gear?
-[X][Update Action] WHAT YEAR IS IT

[X][Update Action] Ask Yui about herself
-[X][Update Action] She seems kind of young to be in an MMO, much less a full-immersion VR game
-[X][Update Action] How'd she get her nerve gear?

 

[SaltyWaffles]

Consider for a moment that these are also all low level equipment. These are terrible designs for weapons that likely have equally terrible stats. It's likely the way they are going to show the progression of weapons. They get more refined and practical as they progress. It's the only way I can see them getting so significantly better over the course of the game without blatant magical stat growth.

Click to shrink...

Low-level equipment suggests "shoddily made, low-quality materials used to make it, and primitive in nature", not "designed by complete morons with zero conception as to how weapons work, how physics work, or how humans do things, and clearly never actually held by their makers because they would quickly find that they were impossible to use".

It's like the Buster Sword. No, you can't argue that it's low-level equipment because it's hilariously impractical. Clearly the smith who made it has zero idea how anything relative to weapons and physics work if he thought it was even remotely usable, since it's absurdly difficult to even LIFT, and even the strongest human alive could not even come close to effectively wielding it.

I vaguely remember that no one in SAO wielded egregiously unrealistic/impractical weapons. You didn't have stupidly-huge swords, serrated blades (the only case of a weapon that fit the bill for "hilariously impractical" was more of a quirky dagger made to look weird and distinct by some independent smith to fuel an elaborate hoax for fake-killing someone--the notion that it was usable in a fight was never even implied), absurdly large mace-heads, etc.

Not to mention the fact that making such hilariously impractical weapons is both more difficult and more expensive for the makers. They use more metal, are bigger (and thus harder to work with), heavier (and thus harder to work with), and more elaborate (requiring more expertise, more work, more time, and more tools).

Case in point: Asuna's rapier looks like an actual rapier (if, perhaps, slightly longer and beefier than rapiers really were--but that still wouldn't quite put it into the realm of impractical, since it'd be less restricted to thrusting attacks, etc). Kirito's two swords were not impractically large or heavy, and what elaboration they did have was fairly tame. The starting gear was also fairly standard (as in, realistic and normal), simple stuff.

So yes: either the author is deliberately making a fairly significant (and, I would argue, distasteful) change to canon, or he screwed up that bit.