So... personally. With Celestial Forge Fics, I always want the MC to go to the Government. Like Taylor did in Distance Learning for Fun and Profit. I mean, none of the MC's tech is black-boxed, beyond them having magic or some other esoteric effects/abilities, it is not Tinker Tech... So I always want the MC's in Celestial Forge Fics to work with the Government to start fixing and improving things... Not with the PRT/Protectorate, since they are corrupt all over and headed by Cauldron.
Just think it would be cool, the MC making new tech and stuff, working with the DoD, with DARPA, etc... Then seeing all those new inventions trickle down all over, and the improvements they would make to everyones everyday lives...
I seriously doubt that is in the cards as this is after all worm and any tech he gives to the government, sells, or gives away will end up in the hands of entities, shards, villains, endbringers, cauldron etc etc.
At least until he gets a black boxing perk, after that he can go nuts as no evil force will be able to take advantage of his tech.
That sounds nice. But I won't call it a gang, more like a community (or a maybe even pseudo family if they stick even closer) that looks out for each other, connecting with each member through their interactions with Michael.
It would be like an infection of kindness. Michael helps person -> person gets inspired by help -> gets urge to help others. Then repeat.
The problem is that canon worm has basically killed the government and has cauldron running around wearing its flayed face as a mask.
Part of it is the genre convention that the feds aren't useful, part is Wildbow not knowing what he's talking about, but the end result is them doing wildly out of character stuff and backing whatever play cauldron wants.
The PRT itself is more of a petri dish for Cauldron's attempts at making more parahumans than it is a real law enforcement agency.
You'd basically need to AU a normal functional government back into the story and mess with cauldron's influence to get something relatively sane.
I've always found that moments like these are important to stories. When you get to see how the characters are during the quiet moments, only to later see how that affects more challenging situations? I've always loved that.
When you see a crisis happen on-screen, and you already know how a character is going to react because that's simply who they are. Even if you know they're not necessarily making the 'right' choice, or the one you would make, you know it's the one they would make... That's what gives me chills.
I always felt like too few official capes were mentioned in Brockton Bay to classify it as a 'Cape City' so maybe the author will bring in OCs or stuff like that.
I believe this is something of a Doylist limitation more than anything. It's hard to have too many characters on screen – but it's also meaningless to list off a bunch of names that aren't relevant and never come up again.
We know from bits and pieces that there are a lot of independents in Brockton, flitting about (and probably not accomplishing a lot, because it's, y'know, Brockton Bay), but as they never really intersect with the canon story it makes sense they're mostly hidden.
I don't want to fill the story with too many OCs, because that tends to be unhealthy for fanfics (especially in this fandom) but I'm not opposed to having them show up here and there.
We know from bits and pieces that there are a lot of independents in Brockton, flitting about (and probably not accomplishing a lot, because it's, y'know, Brockton Bay), but as they never really intersect with the canon story it makes sense they're mostly hidden.
In addition to this point, given the life expectancy for new capes there's probably a constant revolving door of new independents who die or go elsewhere only for new ones to trigger, and only some last long enough and have the ambition and power to really make an impact on the city in a meaningful way.
I made a fallout tech list for another story a while back and given mcs perk I might as well share it here in case you can get some use out it. Fallout has a wide selection of amazing tech and mc can take full advantage.
I made a fallout tech list for another story a while back and given mcs perk I might as well share it here in case you can get some use out it. Fallout has a wide selection of amazing tech and mc can take full advantage.
Fallout does have some pretty amazing tech. Unfortunately, without some further perks, Michael can't make most of the Big MT stuff - technically, he only has access to craft able items, and most of the stuff from New Vegas wasn't craftable or required rare stuff to make.
Maybe eventually, though. Either way, this is a pretty good list!
... Even if you wanted to wipe the stealth suit, you monster.
Fallout does have some pretty amazing tech. Unfortunately, without some further perks, Michael can't make most of the Big MT stuff - technically, he only has access to craft able items, and most of the stuff from New Vegas wasn't craftable or required rare stuff to make.
Maybe eventually, though. Either way, this is a pretty good list!
... Even if you wanted to wipe the stealth suit, you monster.
Fallout does have some pretty amazing tech. Unfortunately, without some further perks, Michael can't make most of the Big MT stuff - technically, he only has access to craft able items, and most of the stuff from New Vegas wasn't craftable or required rare stuff to make.
Maybe eventually, though. Either way, this is a pretty good list!
... Even if you wanted to wipe the stealth suit, you monster.
Tool King (Modded Fallout) (100CP Free Starter Perk)
Starting with a cartload of random junk and ending with high-quality ammunition or power cells, cutting-edge improvements to power armor, overcharged laser weaponry or even entirely new kinds of science is practically trivial for the average Fallout protagonist yet their talents pale compared to yours. This Perk grants you immediate access to pretty much any kind of crafting shown in the Fallout series: from Hand Loader to Science! and Chemist to Robotics Expert, if it somehow involves building things out of other things (from guns to ammo to even entire buildings), you've got it - including perfectly memorized designs for the kind of components and tools you might need, like the Robotics Workbench or Nuka-Cola Mixer station. In fact, you're good enough that you'll never make mistakes while doing this type of crafting (assuming someone doesn't start shooting at you or some such), and you'll be perfectly aware of where you were in the process if you do find yourself interrupted and have to continue later on.
I might be misinterpreting but I am pretty sure this perk simplifies crafting like it does in the games. It also lists out things like tools for all your fallout crafting which defiantly includes some stuff that no mc ever crafted in fallout.
The perk also says any kind of crafting which supposedly includes other people like big mt scientists crafting too. Even if its only all the protag crafting that still covers a whole lot.
I find that worm lends itself well for fics that focus on the downtrodden. So, exited to see where this goes, already happy with what is here. Can't wait for things to start blowing up.
I might be misinterpreting but I am pretty sure this perk simplifies crafting like it does in the games. It also lists out things like tools for all your fallout crafting which defiantly includes some stuff that no mc ever crafted in fallout.
The perk also says any kind of crafting which supposedly includes other people like big mt scientists crafting too. Even if its only all the protag crafting that still covers a whole lot.
Yes, I was considering it as "protagonist crafting." But yes, I'm operating under the assumption that it simplifies crafting (to a certain degree) – it's not instant, but it does let him do things like completely repurpose circuit boards (by using them as generic "electronics"), build beds out of some cloth and metal, and so on. It's not instant, but it lets him do some... unrealistic stuff.
"This generator produces enough perfectly clean energy to run several apartment buildings at full capacity for a minimum of four thousand years. Oh, but, be careful; if it's damaged too much by impacts or explosives it might detonate in a small-scale nuclear explosion. Oh and I might have already built them all over the Docks."
I find that worm lends itself well for fics that focus on the downtrodden. So, exited to see where this goes, already happy with what is here. Can't wait for things to start blowing up.
I always enjoy a Celestial Forge story, sadly many of them turn into walls of text and exposition to get more powers and what not faster. And while I won't name names, when you can skim through the majority of a chapter and find maybe two paragraphs of actual plot it becomes difficult to stay invested.
That said, I'm liking the chapters posted so far. Nice length, actual plot things happening and no tech-porn for the sake of tech-porn (although with only two chapters, not much in the way of tech to show off yet anyways.)
So I am going to trample on some things here this go to the government the government gives it to the prt and protectorate and if your lucky Dragon then the Dragon Slayers then who they sell to and whoever steals them from the prt are where they will go as well as you.
Now on less serious points i hope the Mc does not go on as the edgelord cousin of newwave, as in They have there message, and he has "nothing to lose" I hope this is just angst on having yor knowledge of worm shoved in there head?
Now on less serious points i hope the Mc does not go on as the edgelord cousin of newwave, as in They have there message, and he has "nothing to lose" I hope this is just angst on having yor knowledge of worm shoved in there head?
Suffice to say that, although the Celestial Forge is not a Shard, Michael underwent a Tinker/Thinker/Trump Trigger Event suitable for granting powers in a similar vein. He has plenty of trauma, just without the extra Parahuman baggage.
He is, as hinted in the chapter, not in a good place, and it manifests in certain ways. He is unlikely to completely lose his disdain for "capes" and put on a real costume himself, due to certain parts of his Trigger Event.
That sounds nice. But I won't call it a gang, more like a community (or a maybe even pseudo family if they stick even closer) that looks out for each other, connecting with each member through their interactions with Michael.
It would be like an infection of kindness. Michael helps person -> person gets inspired by help -> gets urge to help others. Then repeat.
So a cult of personality, with a tinker cape at the center giving out goodies. It'd even be fairly stealthy with each household pitching in with stuff from their garage, or buying random electronics from random yard sales. Or just buying random electronics, since the purchases are decentralized.
The only question is how long till a snitch gets inducted into the community and they are on the radar.
Celestial forges often come with the problem of word count feedback loops. I remember reading bracktons celestial forge and by the time the author goes trough technobabble of making one object with the new powers a new power is granted which goes through technobabble which gives the next one. And so on and so on.
Loved how BattleForge handled it tho. Completing missions or quests granted points and opportunities to gain powers, which sidestepped the feedback loop thing.
Celestial forges often come with the problem of word count feedback loops. I remember reading bracktons celestial forge and by the time the author goes trough technobabble of making one object with the new powers a new power is granted which goes through technobabble which gives the next one. And so on and so on.
And with this small gesture of kindness your MC has already made the world a better place than many other CF protagonists do in ten chapters....
A quick question @x50413 , will you allow the pulling of companions/assistants from the forge? If yes, I would advise caution due to the exreme amount of character bloat it could cause.
Nonetheless, great start!
A quick question @x50413 , will you allow the pulling of companions/assistants from the forge? If yes, I would advise caution due to the exreme amount of character bloat it could cause.
Nonetheless, great start!
Provisionally, yes. I'm allowing myself a certain level of veto power - vetos for perks that require far more knowledge of a setting than I have or can reasonably get, or for companion characters that will definitively make the story worse, but not for perks that aren't useful or that I don't like.
I enjoy the random nature of the Forge, but at the end of the day the goal is still to write a good story, and I'll bend things as needed to make that work.
"Ah, shit -" I hopped awkwardly back to avoid the spilled coffee. Because of course the Forge would connect while I was pouring a cup. A Fractal bloomed, spiraling into a more and more complex shape, dozens of motes passing by faster than I could read... and leaving me with one, burning in my brain.
I leaned on the counter, watching the coffee drip down onto the tile, then glanced over at the pile of electronics I'd been planning on using to build a Protectron or two. It wasn't a perfect solution, but it was the best option I had at the moment with what I had available. Now, though...
I mopped up the coffee with a wad of paper towels, prepared a new cup, and snagged my laptop on my way to the recliner. There were things I'd need to build, to make use of this, but I didn't have enough steel on hand and they'd be useless without the code anyway. So I sunk down, taking a small sip of caffeine before I started typing. It was much easier with the Forge guiding me, no matter how much I'd enjoyed more mundane coding in the past. It left me time to let my mind wander.
The Greater Good. Words often used by humans to justify awful things... but somewhere, many stars away, they meant something else. They were a code, an agreement, an aspiration. Each and every person knew they were a part of the Greater Good, and they knew what part they were. It was beautiful, even as I shuddered at the idea of having a role assigned to me. Seeing the theory of it in action was... humbling, in a way.
Even their machines learned it, and it was some small fraction of that alien code that now started to spread across my screen. Virtual intelligence, not fully sapient... but that was fine. Without a living mind to transcribe properly, any true AI would, ironically, need time to grow and develop organically. You couldn't just create a mind out of whole cloth and expect it to be stable and harmonious. Or, perhaps you could, but not with the tools I'd been given. There was a period of learning and restraint that was important.
So, for now, something simpler. A companion, to inhabit the shells I'd be building soon. Just the one; that far-off space had been filled with them, drones of all shapes and sizes and purposes, but all of mine would orbit me, and they could share a mind.
I set the first stage of code to compile, and went to refill my coffee before I started work on the mechanical parts. To properly set the VI, it would need to be done in... I'd call them "layers" of code. They weren't full reiterations of the program, but the first stage needed to be running before the next one could be made. Fortunately, that would give me time to build the Drone Controller, followed by the actual housings.
The Controller itself... I mostly let my mind wander. A combination computer-antenna wasn't exactly groundbreaking in concept, even if the actual engineering was science fiction. No, while I worked I was considering the drones themselves.
The Greater Good, the Tau'va, held that every person and every machine had a purpose in the great machine that was society. The drones designed by that principle were the same, with each one specialized for a single purpose, masterfully streamlined over many years of iteration and field testing. I, personally, would have liked a few more general-purpose drones, especially considering my material limitations. But... unfortunately, that wasn't likely. Not unless the Forge provided me with some alternate engineering and design principles. But that, too, was fine.
As if laughing at me, I felt the Future Tech fractal explode into my awareness, only for nearly all the motes to whip by a long distance. Only one remained, a tiny spark of potential called Medicine.
And medicine it gave me. Antibiotics, antivirals, first aid, surgery, nutritional planning – a fully developed far-future medical doctorate. Incredible knowledge that likely outstripped most other Parahumans in that sphere. And completely useless for what I was doing at this moment.
Are you trying to tell me something? I thought to myself, before deciding it didn't matter. Shaking my head, I went back to work, ignoring the ball of knowledge hovering in the back of my head.
My first drone was simple. Centered around an anti-gravity core, with a few small thrusters for quick movement and equipped with two manipulators and an attached arc welder. Designed for construction, deconstruction, and assisting with engineering tasks.
As soon as it was operational, I'd have significantly increased the speed at which I could recover materials and turn them into something more useful. Plus, I might be able to stop handling power tools, which I did not enjoy. It was built with salvaged steel, so it wasn't like it was heavily armored... but that was all right. Since the brain wasn't really stored in the drone, it was more like a tool than a companion. The real companion, the developing intelligence, would be by my side. We'd sink or swim together.
Before any of that could happen, I had a lot more programming to do. I set another pot of coffee to brew, stretched my arms above my head, and collapsed back into my chair.
The first layer was done, and it was time to get back to work.
Build Something to Do It For You (Warhammer 40k - T'au Empire) (200CP)
T'au (and most organic species) have limited forms based on the dictates of evolution, meant to operate at the minimum required for its environment rather than the specialized maximum of a machine designed for a purpose. You are now a master of programming the AI and VI systems that the T'au rely on for their industry and war machines, as well as a master of building and designing the drones that supplement their capabilities for the same.
Skills: Medicine (Star Trek: TNG) (100CP)
Training and knowledge in First-aid, diseases, surgery, anatomy, health and nutrition. You're a fully qualified doctor of the 24th century.
A/N: Right, another small adjustment. This will be the last chapter running on 100 CP per 1000 Words; the pace of powers is a little higher than expected, so I'm going to try lengthening it to 1500 Words per roll instead.
If more adjustments become necessary, I'll make them as needed. This is also the last chapter containing pre-rolled or selected perks; from here on out we're completely at the mercy of rolls. Now, I mentioned it in a comment, but I'm going to put it in a main story post as well – I enjoy the random nature of the Forge, but at the same time my goal is to tell a good story, and enjoy writing it. To that end, I'm keeping a bit of veto power for myself, reserved mainly for two things: Perks that inherently require more knowledge of a setting than I have and can easily get, and companions or assistants that will bloat or otherwise detract from the story.
Other than that – first on-screen Tinkering, let me know how it felt. I'll only be using this kind of detail for the first big use of a new technology or style – for example, future drones will mostly be constructed off screen, unless there's a major adjustment to their design for some reason. Still, I think it's important in Tinker stories (and therefore Forge stories) to give a solid grounding in the tech that's actually being used, so what the character is capable of doing is mostly clear.
VI, drones, and medicine are all super useful tech areas. Especially the crazy stuff that Star Trek medicine can do, like complete cosmetic makeovers or growing replacement organs.
I suspect it's a tricky balance to strike with Celestial Forge stories between filling out the small details and keeping plot moving. The few I've started reading tended to lose me because they got lost in the weeds of inconsequential stuff. Lengthening the distance between power ups is probably a good idea to combat that, to lower the proportion of power explanation upkeep required in the narrative. I'm not sure if it would be possible to keep to the classic adventure story recipe of alternating action and character development/plot chapters in this genre, but as long as things don't drift for too long it'll probably be okay.
Woo! Tau drones!
Annoying little blighters to fight against but loads of fun when they are on your side, even more so outside of a tabletop/wargaming aspect. Once you can solve the material problems, Tau drones are a huge step for any kind of force projection.
A passing thought before I wander off to bed; I wonder if the Celestial Forge narrative would be more dramatic and less prone to bog down with something other than the regular random rolls?
Like the protagonist being able to save up potential and then exert themselves to cause it when needed, or borrowing from Worm's trigger concept and having rolls happen in stressful circumstances. The latter would give the protagonist an in-story excuse to get themselves into dramatic situations as much as possible.
Build Something to Do It For You (Warhammer 40k - T'au Empire) (200CP)
T'au (and most organic species) have limited forms based on the dictates of evolution, meant to operate at the minimum required for its environment rather than the specialized maximum of a machine designed for a purpose. You are now a master of programming the AI and VI systems that the T'au rely on for their industry and war machines, as well as a master of building and designing the drones that supplement their capabilities for the same.
A Fusion of Fallout and Tau technology could be very helpful....
Mr Handy Chassis and Tau Drone Anti Grav means no need for Rocket Lifter and more internal space freed up by using distributed VI, so I think you could get away with a 6 armed Mr Handy with ease.
The Eyebot has 2 interesting variants that are often overlooked also.... The Medical Eyebot and Engineering Eyebot.
They can Heal you and repair each other mid battle as seen in the Divide and with Ulysses etc.
Ideally you could bolt 2 Mr Gutsy Chassis one above the other with 6 to 9 Arms, attach an Assaultron Head atop that, equip it with the Repair and Heal Beams of those specialised Eyebots and then you have a really good Personal Assistant Robot. Could even add in Auto-Doc components too.
But even without Custom Robot Modding, the Variant Eyebots as Back up and a few Stealth Assaultrons can get a lot done. Assaultrons ffor
