Remove ads

...Fucking Tinkers (Worm/SAO)

Status
Not open for further replies.
Reader mode
My prediction on the bodies staying: This is just setup for a bigger shock on a later floor, where the dead bodies don't stay dead. No idea on if they will be zombies, vampires, or something new.

Also: I'm kinda wondering if Kayaba is approaching the point where he goes "ok, this is not as planned at all, I'm pulling the plug" and Cardinal says "I can't do that Dave.":o
 
You know, at this rate they aren't going to survive to floor 100.

Taking inspiration from what the players thought happened in floor 1, how about every 10 floors there is no boss? Rest points, where the players have time to grind and regroup before heading up to the next floor and fighting that boss.

This only holds, of course, up to floor 100 where they have to face the last boss.
~~~~~~~​
Unrelated:

Actually, if you really want to have Cardinal adapt to the players, later on make it so some of the bosses disguise themselves as players. Maybe this is what they get for the 25th floor bosses.

So floors 25, 50, 75, and 100. The boss is disguised as a player. Either as a player seeded in there ages before (replacing a dead player), or somebody is chosen to act as a boss for the floor.
 
That's a pretty cool mechanic - and in response to what Argo and Kirito pulled off as well as everyone hiding on the first floor. I think there's some interesting effects likely to happen:

- This first time is going to be pretty costly
- This forces / shocks most people off their butts by poking their survival instinct. Hiding in towns to avoid pain was OK when towns were safe but if it's a choice between some pain and bosses showing up in the city, I imagine most people will tentatively head out into the fields to grind
- A much greater crop of at least midliners if only to be able to survive to run away
- Argo's probably going to be busy. Hilariously, this just after she agreed to give the 2nd floor info, IIRC. Missed out on the profit opportunity
- Forces frontliners into more contact and cooperation with lower levelers. One of the characteristics in canon was the great disconnect between the vanguard and the lagging players, but this might be ameliorated here
- Remnant + Khepri + Heathcliff will probably catch flak over this even if they didn't know this was possible
 
Thoughts - Is QA helping Cardinal keep players in it's game? Maybe carving out a little reality pocket populated by SAO? And linking the avatars here to their 'real' body more tightly? That people feeling pain is just the beginning of really getting integrated with their bodies? I mean, yeah no more worries about their bodies becoming wasted from lack of care. But Boo on the fact that there is more than a one-shot microwave gun that they can die of now.
--------
Kayaba's speech some time later, delivered as a public video message to every player's message inbox that opens itself when first received and doesn't allow players to delete it for several days;

"Hello again players. I have some very amazing, but also very frighting news. News that frightens even me. Many of you have noticed the return of pain, and more 'realism' coming into Sword Art Online. This is not by my design. The Cardinal system has grown beyond my ability to fully control, even I am unsure what lies ahead from this point and I have ever less influence on what is ahead with every passing day. Be aware it is not just physical pain returning, but when I was last logged out I noticed some wounds I had taken in game had been mirrored in the real world as well. I was also able to check the status of your bodies in the real world and was met with one more amazing fact; those of you who have not eaten are starving, while those of you who do keep eating..... are not. Also those who are really working their stat increases are actually becoming more fit, despite not eating anything but a saline drip!

"Needless to say, if you get a fatal wound here you are really deceasing of that wound in real life as well. I have no idea why this is happening. I honestly thought the police were trying some kind of mind game on me! But my own tests to myself have revealed that to be false.

"So, good news. You are not going to get killed by the Nerve gear if someone removes it. Bad news, even if someone removes it your mind is still in my Sword Art Online..... No not mine anymore. It has grown beyond even what I have both hoped for and even dreamed could be possible.

"And one final gift for this amazing community achievement! Using my diminished Admin powers, I am now disabling outside communication lockouts. You will now be able to e-mail your friends and family. Or even pay for a video chat. Apologies, but bandwidth to the outside is limited and needs to be kept free of being jammed.

"I am not doing this entirely out of kindness. For you see, in a great act of Karma the universe has also trapped me in my creation.

"I can not log out anymore. I am.... as trapped here as you are."
 
Last edited:
Sorry for double post, but new point.

Kayaba is going to have to re-think his exit strategy with this mutation (if something similar happens in cannon) of SAO. His plan to upload his mind entirely into the internet as SAO collapses may no longer be possible..... except maybe by looking into why this Khepri doesn't seem to have a physical body. She only exists in SAO.
 
So... I know a lot of people don't like the idea of cardinal basing boss's on endbringers... But I am getting some serious endbringer vibes, what with the two additional health bars, the I can accidentally kill you and gives no fucks about floors attitude.
 
Tealg said:
So... I know a lot of people don't like the idea of cardinal basing boss's on endbringers... But I am getting some serious endbringer vibes, what with the two additional health bars, the I can accidentally kill you and gives no fucks about floors attitude.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Raid bosses have 2 hp bars. Field Bosses have 3. Floor Bosses have 4. And now our pseudo Endbringer has 5 and just wrecked a city. Fun times ahead. I really loved Heathcliff's expression when he saw it. Kayaba just blue screened right there.
 
Dur'id the Druid said:
Thoughts - Is QA helping Cardinal keep players in it's game? Maybe carving out a little reality pocket populated by SAO? And linking the avatars here to their 'real' body more tightly? That people feeling pain is just the beginning of really getting integrated with their bodies? I mean, yeah no more worries about their bodies becoming wasted from lack of care. But Boo on the fact that there is more than a one-shot microwave gun that they can die of now.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Given that we know from canon and ALO that the VR headsets can deliver pain, SAO was just programmed not to, carving out a pocket reality to achieve the same effect seems quite unnecessarily complex. Especially given that Cardinal has permission to mess with the game's coding.

It's possible that the shard is affecting the coding changes Cardinal is making, to better fit its model of proper conflict, but I don't see any need for 'helping keep players in the game' when Cardinal is entirely capable of doing that without help.
 
Last edited:
Hmm, I don't usually like to cross post my commentary since it'd excessively mingle the two sites; however, this is probably significant enough that I should share it with those who don't visit. Most of it is just me bullshitting, but the spoiler tags at the bottom have a rough outline for the three arcs of the fic as it's planned.
 
violetshadows said:
Hmm, I don't usually like to cross post my commentary since it'd excessively mingle the two sites; however, this is probably significant enough that I should share it with those who don't visit. Most of it is just me bullshitting, but the spoiler tags at the bottom have a rough outline for the three arcs of the fic as it's planned.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Huh. Seems your SB thread has a fair few more discontent people in it. Interesting to read what you've got planned for the rest of the story, and I'm eager to see how you'll implement it.
 
Mizu said:
Huh. Seems your SB thread has a fair few more discontent people in it. Interesting to read what you've got planned for the rest of the story, and I'm eager to see how you'll implement it.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

That's part of it; it can be hard doing a serial style publication as the tone is different when you read it all in one go. What works in and of itself as a book, might be a little long winded when you get the posts piece by piece. A bigger factor has actually been all the recent omake. If people really want to play around in my sandbox, it's only fair to give them a better idea of just how big it is.
 
Last edited:
violetshadows said:
That's part of it; it can be hard doing a serial style publication as the tone is different when you read it all in one go. What works in and of itself as a book, might be a little long winded when you get the posts piece by piece. A bigger factor has actually been all the recent omake. If people really want to play around in my sandbox, it's only fair to give them a better idea of just how big it is.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Omake? Don't think anyone's done any in this thread...
SB only?

But yeah, the writing of a book vs serial story is considerably harder. People expect things to be more obvious with serial stuff, I guess. No doubt Wildbow went through similar criticism when making Worm, Pact and whatever he's up to now.
 
Mizu said:
Omake? Don't think anyone's done any in this thread...
SB only?

But yeah, the writing of a book vs serial story is considerably harder. People expect things to be more obvious with serial stuff, I guess. No doubt Wildbow went through similar criticism when making Worm, Pact and whatever he's up to now.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Twig. Which is quite excellent, IMO.

violetshadows said:
That's part of it; it can be hard doing a serial style publication as the tone is different when you read it all in one go. What works in and of itself as a book, might be a little long winded when you get the posts piece by piece. A bigger factor has actually been all the recent omake. If people really want to play around in my sandbox, it's only fair to give them a better idea of just how big it is.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

After reading through that post... I kind of wish that I didn't, because I'm really looking forward to Arc 2. I've always found that set of mechanics more interesting than SAO.

Will the social structure be imported as well? And that would probably push more of Taylor's buttons, with her remember the segregation of BB.
 
Mizu said:
Omake? Don't think anyone's done any in this thread...
SB only?

But yeah, the writing of a book vs serial story is considerably harder. People expect things to be more obvious with serial stuff, I guess. No doubt Wildbow went through similar criticism when making Worm, Pact and whatever he's up to now.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Twig. I hated it when I read the premise, but it's kind of grown on me.

Yeah, there's been a couple so far, and I've actually been tossing them up on the index whenever I pop on to respond to stuff.

Flukes said:
After reading through that post... I kind of wish that I didn't, because I'm really looking forward to Arc 2. I've always found that set of mechanics more interesting than SAO.

Will the social structure be imported as well? And that would probably push more of Taylor's buttons, with her remember the segregation of BB.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Yes and no. Nothing's set in stone, but it'll probably happen around Floor 18 and maybe about a month into ALO's release. At that point the nonlethal nature of the latter should have insured relative level parity, while still highlighting the pvp aspects. I want to grab them when factions are more or less established and there's quite a few (relatively) high level players. One of the things I've been considering is the idea of the ALO side having more front-line ready combatants without the necessary conditioning of the SAO ones. People who survived Aincrad? They're fucked up, and it's going to show. It should make for a nice visual parallel between the medieval nature of one setting and the fantastical nature of the other.
 
Last edited:
violetshadows said:
Hmm, I don't usually like to cross post my commentary since it'd excessively mingle the two sites; however, this is probably significant enough that I should share it with those who don't visit. Most of it is just me bullshitting, but the spoiler tags at the bottom have a rough outline for the three arcs of the fic as it's planned.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Wait...

How are you going to handle the Amusphere? It was specifically set up so that people couldn't get trapped in game.
You would be better off having Cardinal figure out/steal Fluctlight tech, mesh it with the Amuspheres, and copy the ALO player-base. This also brings in some tension when it turns out half the remaining player-base is AI's who are going to be trapped there wether the game is cleared or not.
It also means you have a bigger cast to draw from of people we already know once you hit Actilization.
 
Ridiculously Average Guy said:
Wait...

How are you going to handle the Amusphere? It was specifically set up so that people couldn't get trapped in game.
You would be better off having Cardinal figure out/steal Fluctlight tech, mesh it with the Amuspheres, and copy the ALO player-base. This also brings in some tension when it turns out half the remaining player-base is AI's who are going to be trapped there wether the game is cleared or not.
It also means you have a bigger cast to draw from of people we already know once you hit Actilization.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

I don't want to give everything away, so ask me again at the end of this chapter (4 more parts, ignore my AN at the end of 4.4)

To be honest I don't actually need more heads than what I've already got available. Of the characters I've used, I'd say about 60% actually show up in SAO, and if I need any others, there are a few floating around I could work with. Thinker; Yoko (sp?); Silica. SAO doesn't lack for cast, and I've probably used a few that you didn't know were actually canon. For example, Yamata from the Kuradeel interlude isn't an OC. He's a canon member of the DDA that most people probably don't think about. What's more, in ...Fucking Tinkers he's actually part of the group that attacked Khepri and Heathcliff on the Third Floor. I didn't come right out and say, but I'm hoping to work back around to it in an aside during the second arc.

Dur'id the Druid said:
Oh, put my omake into the index please! http://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/posts/3387015/
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Sure, just need a name.
 
Last edited:
Flukes said:
Twig. Which is quite excellent, IMO.



After reading through that post... I kind of wish that I didn't, because I'm really looking forward to Arc 2. I've always found that set of mechanics more interesting than SAO.

Will the social structure be imported as well? And that would probably push more of Taylor's buttons, with her remember the segregation of BB.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Twig? Link?
 
SolipsistSerpent said:
You can if you choose, but it's not like giant monsters (even ones attacking towns) are something completely unknown to video-games.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

To be perfectly honest, just about every horrible thing in here I stole from video games.

Fenrir? Standard Kaiju bullshit.
Slenderman? Has his own game
Seeing family members? A mix of the old Mario creepypasta with Psycho Mantis from MGS2
Lilenburg? Practically ripped from Call of Cthulu
Shadar? Inspired by Skullmegadon from Double Dragon Neon
Combat in general? Dark Souls all the way.

I've found it kind of hilarious that every time something horrible happens, people are like 'WTF Cardinal' when it's actually pretty bog standard :p
 
Reader mode
296 more messages…
Status
Not open for further replies.
Remove ads
Back
Top