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Hive Keeper (Worm/DungeonKeeper/WFTO Alt!Power)

I’ve had writers block for over a year on ch16. What solution would you all like to see?

  • - [ ] Minor Retcon — Taylor meets U&L’s squad at the door and makes them an offer

    Votes: 115 64.2%

  • - [ ] Lampshading — Keep plan as-is, just ignore ‘normal’ reactions and do a proper dungeon crawl

    Votes: 17 9.5%

  • - [ ] Short Time Skip — Taylor wakes up & discovers she’s captured U&L and some others.

    Votes: 47 26.3%
  • Total voters
    179
  • Poll closed .
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Pigs are a goddamn menace, the wild\feral ones are worse, not better. Excellent garbage disposals, but they'll eat anything and they do not care if the thing they are eating is still alive or not.
(Incidentally, chooks are the same with blood; if one of the flock gets injured in such a way as to bleed in any significant amount, there's good odds that the rest of the flock will literally peck the injured one to death trying to eat the blood. This is why injured birbs need to be isolated until they recover.)

It's easy to forget just how vicious nature really is; nature doesn't give a shit about morality or ethics, nature cares about survival and reproduction. That's it.


It's also easy to forget that most animals don't treat their young as carefully as humans do, because they typically have a lot more young. To humans, who usually have only a single child, must carry it for nine months and then spend several years carefully guarding and raising the child before it is even vaguely capable of fending for itself, children are a precious and major investment.

For animals like chooks and pigs though? Yeah, not so much.
 
Neruz said:
Speaking as the owner of a couple dozen chickens, chickens will eat anything and do not give a fuck. They won't immediately eat one of the flock that dies, but if the corpse is left for long enough to attract flies and start rotting they'll rapidly reduce it to bones.

Birbs remember an older, harsher era when everything ate everything else, zero fucks were given and their ancestors ruled the world. They may no longer rule the world, but they still don't give a fuck.
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TL-DR: "Chickens crave meat. They were dinosaurs. They did not forget they were dinosaurs."

Dogbertcarroll loves to make reference to this.

There's also the fact that things like feathers and fat don't preserve well, so it's entirely possible that T-Rexes actually looked a lot more like THIS than Jurassic Park.

 
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Valdimarian said:
TL-DR: "Chickens crave meat. They were dinosaurs. They did not forget they were dinosaurs."

Dogbertcarroll loves to make reference to this.

There's also the fact that things like feathers and fat don't preserve well, so it's entirely possible that T-Rexes actually looked a lot more like THIS than Jurassic Park.

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Lol, I've seen that sketch before, with the attending note 'Nothing we know about T-Rexes proves they weren't enormous fatbirds', or something like that. I think some of the really well-preserved T-Rex skeletons actually disprove it through the space the Rex took up before it decayed and/or feather placement in the surrounding impressions, but I'll admit I love the idea. Also, has anyone here seen the time that geneticists were messing around with chicken genomes and undid the beak adaptation in favour of a dinosaur muzzle? It's a fairly new field of science, but genetic-paleontologists are working to inhibit portions of modern animal genomes to determine how given adaptations formed, among them the bird beak - a side benefit may be, as well as resurrecting recently extinct species that we have intact or mostly-intact genomes of, the potential to cobble together representations of extinct animals, even those that are old enough to be beyond the DNA viability threshold, so long as we can figure out enough of their descendant's genomes to do so. The guy that lead the study that created the embryonic dino-chickens is actually quite excited about it.


 
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Your degree is still mostly useless, unless you want a teaching position. The magic industry will search casters with at least 10 years of experience (even if magic is just back for 2 years) who have developed their own casting system and work for recognition.
 
Neruz said:
Pigs are a goddamn menace, the wild\feral ones are worse, not better. Excellent garbage disposals, but they'll eat anything and they do not care if the thing they are eating is still alive or not.
(Incidentally, chooks are the same with blood; if one of the flock gets injured in such a way as to bleed in any significant amount, there's good odds that the rest of the flock will literally peck the injured one to death trying to eat the blood. This is why injured birbs need to be isolated until they recover.)

It's easy to forget just how vicious nature really is; nature doesn't give a shit about morality or ethics, nature cares about survival and reproduction. That's it.


It's also easy to forget that most animals don't treat their young as carefully as humans do, because they typically have a lot more young. To humans, who usually have only a single child, must carry it for nine months and then spend several years carefully guarding and raising the child before it is even vaguely capable of fending for itself, children are a precious and major investment.

For animals like chooks and pigs though? Yeah, not so much.
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I always say that there is a reason why Orks are half-pig, a ork its just a human with the same priorities as a pig.
About your comment of trying to eat anything, they try to eat me each time i go near them and i have personaly seen how they ear the tails of other pigs until they got to the spine and crippled him permanently.
Pigs also have a common sindrome where their intenstines poke trought their asses, we need to insolate them because if we don´t catch it in time the other pigs will eath the intestines until they kill it
 
Andorxor said:
Your degree is still mostly useless, unless you want a teaching position. The magic industry will search casters with at least 10 years of experience (even if magic is just back for 2 years) who have developed their own casting system and work for recognition.
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Motorata said:
I always say that there is a reason why Orks are half-pig, a ork its just a human with the same priorities as a pig.
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As funny (and horrifying) as these lines of discussion have been, I think we're starting to get a little too off topic now :p

I don't mind tangential discussions that are at least somewhat pertinent to Worm and/or the story, but I think think this has strayed far off course and isn't that anymore :p Let's reel it in before the mods decide to come knocking.
 
Ashkari said:
As funny (and horrifying) as these lines of discussion have been, I think we're starting to get a little too off topic now :p

I don't mind tangential discussions that are at least somewhat pertinent to Worm and/or the story, but I think think this has strayed far off course and isn't that anymore :p Let's reel it in before the mods decide to come knocking.
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To be fair; one of the buildings Taylor can make is the WFTO Slaughterpen that endlessly spawns extremely edible Micropiglets, so pigs are technically relevant to the story. :V
 
Ashkari said:
As funny (and horrifying) as these lines of discussion have been, I think we're starting to get a little too off topic now :p

I don't mind tangential discussions that are at least somewhat pertinent to Worm and/or the story, but I think think this has strayed far off course and isn't that anymore :p Let's reel it in before the mods decide to come knocking.
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Yeah, i thought that i was streching the limits a bit with this post but i couldn´t resist, i just never get tired of seeing people´s reaction to the absolutly horrifing creatures that are pigs
 
Just caught up - excellent story so far!
Dis Lexic said:
For some strange reason, I read that as 'machine Amy' and wondered if I'd missed a story about an android Panacea or something.
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I'm not aware of any stories about an android Panacea (though it would be a hilarious idea probably), but I'm immediately reminded of that one scene in... forgot the name, that one Transformers crossover... where the local version of Taylor, whose powers include mild technokinesis, is described with words to the effect of "like Amy for machines".
 
january1may said:
Just caught up - excellent story so far!
I'm not aware of any stories about an android Panacea (though it would be a hilarious idea probably), but I'm immediately reminded of that one scene in... forgot the name, that one Transformers crossover... where the local version of Taylor, whose powers include mild technokinesis, is described with words to the effect of "like Amy for machines".
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Worm: More Than Meets The Eye?
 
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If a parahuman signs a magical contract to join Taylor, will their Shard functions be add to her Dungeon Core?

Does gaining cape minions unlock new options or evolutionary paths?

Random examples:
=Glory Girl joining lets Naga Researchers discover Mage Armor, Bull's Strength, Charm, and Flight (all D&D spells).

=Uber joining upgrades the Training Room.

=A Tinker joining upgrades crafting workshop.

=Newter joining unlocks Dragon.

Baby dragon: "I am fire! I am death!"
Taylor: "D'awww, he's so cute~." <3

 
How extensive can taylor reskin things? can she reskin minions before they're summoned? can she reskin her entire dungeon? can she reskin things into a more "space rpg" look?

though it'd make sense if you'd prefer to ignore those things as they have a lot of implications in regards to taylors concerns about PR.
 
This is a lovely story and I'm really enjoying it.

Halloween for Taylor is going to be soooo much fun. She could literally have a skeleton wandering around giving out candy. Not to mention what people would pay for a reskin costume.

How much would Uber and/or Leet pay to get reskined to be Link? :)
 
Valdimarian said:
Uber and Leet both ask to be turned into Link, in an amusing twist Taylor turns both of them into Zelda.
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Nah. If Taylor knows enough about LoZ to do that, she's going to insist on one Link, one Zelda. (With "Excuse Me, Princess!" quotes obligatory, of course.)

The real issue is what happens when both Uber and Leet *want* the Zelda role...
 
Looks like I won't be able to animate the last Core I did Between the render engine I was using running out its subscription, and Max not playing ball when trying to place down animation keys. Everyone is going to have to make do with the static version of the first poor core.
Sorry. I had a really cool Idea for it as well.
 
jcfiala said:
Halloween for Taylor is going to be soooo much fun.
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I really wish I had something prepped for like, a Halloween Omake, but tbh it would reveal way to much for stuff I want to do in the fic.

I have ideas for something that'd work, at least for a setting, but like... no plot concept haha. And that might end up being a bit spoilery.

Otoh, if we ever get to October in-universe, Taylor is definitely gonna be hamming it up :p

jcfiala said:
How much would Uber and/or Leet pay to get reskined to be Link?
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Probably quite a bit, I'd imagine, haha.
 
Carrnage said:
How extensive can taylor reskin things? can she reskin minions before they're summoned? can she reskin her entire dungeon? can she reskin things into a more "space rpg" look?
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I'll address these separately.

——

Q: How extensive can Taylor Reskin things?

A: Pretty extensively, as long as she stays within the same basic form. I talked a bit about this in the post-chapter author's note for... chapter 7 I think it was. The one where she learned Reskin. The full explanation is related to the next question.

Q: Can Taylor Reskin her dungeon?

A: Emphatically yes. Both Dungeons 3 and WFTO do this. In Dungeons 3, Thalya's dungeon reflects the nature of the biome its in, alongside some seasonal skirmish maps, and building heavily with regards to certain factions (Horde/Undead/Demon) actually affects the nature of the walls in the area.

WFTO meanwhile introduces actual 'Dungeon Themes', which both distinguish different Underlords in the campaign and can be selected during skirmish. These themes are literally skins for your imps and your dungeon and core.

This is where prior question comes into play. I talked about it a bunch in the post-chapter author's note of... Chapter 7, I think, but the short summary is that WFTO themes can be... pretty dramatic. Like Imps that look like arcane stone golems, imps that are permanently on fire, imps wearing all sorts of different clothing, undead imps, you name it.

That's actually a large part of why I ended up letting Taylor have some very minor perks with Reskin, like fixing up her eyesight and getting some enhanced senses with her demon-form. It felt really silly to be able to reshape someone to that level and them have zero benefits.

Minor Spoiler: It is also how she will be turning power-built surface buildings into something other than giant Minecraft Dirt Houses, once she researches a ritual-sized version.

Q: Can Taylor Reskin minions before they're summoned?

I'll admit, I haven't thought about it, but probably. At the very least, she can do it simultaneously, which might as well be the same thing.

Q: Could Taylor give her dungeon a 'space rpg' look?

I'm still on the fence about this, actually, because I'm also still undecided if I want to allow her to use Empire units.

Tentatively, yes. Dungeons and WFTO are both a rather... self-aware set of games. There's a lot of very pop-culture / Discworld-esque humor there, enough that I wouldn't be shocked to see one of them add that kind of dlc, assuming they were still getting developed. (Both devs are working on new games now).

There's certainly some implication that the 'tech level' could be changed. The Keepers / Underlords / etc dungeons tend to have a very 'mad science' and 'goblin engineering' look to a lot of the rooms, when they aren't fully magical in theme. But WFTO does allow you to play as an Empire Theme in skirmish, and you can control Empire Portals in both Dungeon Keeper and WFTO, and thus use non-corrupted 'good guy' units.

What I'm on the fence about though is whether or not I want to allow that sort of thing. It kind of makes 'The PRT would never take me' superfluous, because Taylor could then stick to 'friendly' units, or the PRT could basically demand she stick to non-monsters, or stick to Unicorns and Fairies or even just normal animals, and she wouldn't have a reason to refuse.
 
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Ashkari said:
I'll address these separately.

——

Q: How extensive can Taylor Reskin things?

A: Pretty extensively, as long as she stays within the same basic form. I talked a bit about this in the post-chapter author's note for... chapter 7 I think it was. The one where she learned Reskin. The full explanation is related to the next question.

Q: Can Taylor Reskin her dungeon?

A: Emphatically yes. Both Dungeons 3 and WFTO do this. In Dungeons 3, Thalya's dungeon reflects the nature of the biome its in, alongside some seasonal skirmish maps, and building heavily with regards to certain factions (Horde/Undead/Demon) actually affects the nature of the walls in the area.

WFTO meanwhile introduces actual 'Dungeon Themes', which both distinguish different Underlords in the campaign and can be selected during skirmish. These themes are literally skins for your imps and your dungeon and core.

This is where prior question comes into play. I talked about it a bunch in the chapter-post note of... Chapter 7, I think, but the short summary is that WFTO themes can be... pretty dramatic. Like Imps that look like arcane stone golems, imps that are permanently on fire, imps wearing all sorts of different clothing, undead imps, you name it.

That's actually a large part of why I ended up letting Taylor have some very minor perks with Reskin, like fixing up her eyesight and getting some enhanced senses with her demon-form. It felt really silly to be able to reshape someone to that level and them have zero benefits.

Minor Spoiler: It is also how she will be turning power-built surface buildings into something other than giant Minecraft Dirt Houses, once she researches a ritual-sized version.

Q: Can Taylor Reskin minions before they're summoned?

I'll admit, I haven't thought about it, but probably. At the very least, she can do it simultaneously, which might as well be the same thing.

Q: Could Taylor give her dungeon a 'space rpg' look?

I'm still on the fence about this, actually, because I'm also still undecided if I want to allow her to use Empire units.

Tentatively, yes. Dungeons and WFTO are both a rather... self-aware set of games. There's a lot of very pop-culture / Discworld-esque humor there, enough that I wouldn't be shocked to see one of them add that kind of dlc, assuming they were still getting developed. (Both devs are working on new games now).

There's certainly some implication that the 'tech level' could be changed. The Keepers / Underlords / etc dungeons tend to have a very 'mad science' and 'goblin engineering' look to a lot of the rooms, when they aren't fully magical in theme. But WFTO does allow you to play as an Empire Theme in skirmish, and you can control Empire Portals in both Dungeon Keeper and WFTO, and thus use non-corrupted 'good guy' units.

What I'm on the fence about though is whether or not I want to allow that sort of thing. It kind of makes 'The PRT would never take me' superfluous, because Taylor could then stick to 'friendly' units, or the PRT could basically demand she stick to non-monsters, or stick to Unicorns and Fairies or even just normal animals, and she wouldn't have a reason to refuse.
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Hmm maybe make the empire units have a downside? Like since they are human they have to eat and rest more then the other units, while also being more independent and innovative?
 
Balra said:
Hmm maybe make the empire units have a downside? Like since they are human they have to eat and rest more then the other units, while also being more independent and innovative?
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Problem with this solution is it doesn't solve the PRT angle. Not unless they're so independent the PRT doesn't want her to use them, and informing them about it would likely panic them (if you recall, she actually talks to a bit about this.)
 
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