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Marked for Death: A Rational Naruto Quest

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DanZapman said:
This is the sort of development I can't think of a justification for Hazo stumbling across, especially since it took a lot of gradual refinement of the base idea. Trying to make lenses lighter is a reasonable starting point given the limits we'd run into with physical lenses, but figuring out how is the tricky bit. He might have the glassworking/optics chops to develop it, but it seems like a slow research project a la aerodynamics with the gliders and kunai. Time's precious enough right now that I'd rather make a lens rune and get veterancy for runes that manipulate whatever it is we make the lens out of, chakra or gravity or whatnot.
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Most of the difficulty with historical development in Fresnel lenses seems to have been in the manufacturing process. Earthshaping trivializes that. Hazo could actively reshape the diamond slab while shining light through it, thereby tightening the feedback loop for that hill-climbing optimization process to... conceivably, less than a second per prototype. He doesn't actually need to understand the full theory of optics to make it work, just observe a bright spot at the focal point getting tighter or blurrier, and continue or reverse tiny semi-random variations accordingly. Chromatic aberration or other quirks might make it unsuitable for astronomy but we're just trying to set things on fire.
 
Adhoc vote count started by Sir Stompy on Jun 8, 2024 at 4:16 AM, finished with 221 posts and 16 votes.
[prepday]
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This is not a softlock on prep days, but I am editing them in now and so further alterations to the order might get missed. I'll do my best to run the tally again right before voting closes.

Sir Stompy said:
[X] Action Plan: Lets Go Punch Some Cats
Word Count: ???
Desired Update Duration: Unknown
  • Buy up to 6 FP
  • Sanity check with Kei
  • Send some orders back to Mari to have the clan begin purchasing several small buildings or plots of land around the city. Make it inconspicuous.
  • Tell Naruto we can probably defend Leaf from aerial bombardment with a new rune design and are still working on other gamechangers. Advise him to begin reinforcing the ground beneath Leaf immediately
    • Ask him if Sasuke would be willing to test the limits of the Sharingan's future sight.
  • Research
  • After completing the combat seals, head to the Leopard Border to unstagnate
  • Ask Cannai to take us to one of the packs where the fighting is hottest
    • Try to make a good impression on their strongest fighters, we're sadly lacking in the combat summon department.
      • Try to get at least one contract quickly. Cannai has better things to do than ferry us places at our convenience.
    • Offer anyone a Summon bond if they're interested. Regale them with tales of the Human Path.
    • Distribute earmuffs with Banshee Slayers to the pack we're running with.
      • Prepare MARS chains for various combat situations. Being ambushed, ambushing someone, pursuit, fleeing, etc.
    • Stay with the pack full time to provide proper protection.
    • Use skywalkers and a telescope to detect roving bands of Leopards. Be prepared to fight them.
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Sir Stompy said:
  • Send some orders back to Mari to have the clan begin purchasing several small buildings or plots of land around the city. Make it inconspicuous.
  • Tell Naruto we can probably defend Leaf from aerial bombardment with a new rune design and are still working on other gamechangers. Advise him to begin reinforcing the ground beneath Leaf immediately
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Inferno Vulpix said:
It just makes me worry that we're eroding our own success margins on this fate-of-the-world mission, nickle and diming it away for a bunch of reasons that all feel "worth it" in the moment. But like, how many of these can we stack on top of each other before we cross the border to "hah, as if, everyone knows Hazou's been keeping in contact"? I don't know, and I don't want to find out. I don't see myself voting for a plan that writes home to Ino about this, that is to say. For her sake and ours.
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Sir Stompy said:
Hazou is in regular contact with Nobs for chakra refill, which means passing orders to Mari is simplicity itself. I understand your concern here, but the additional risk from this particular statement is tiny. Mari can keep a secret, and if they're interrogating Nobs, shit is over already.

Plus we need some places to set up runes to defend the city.
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Um. Why are we asking Mari to do this at all? Tell Naruto 'literally a military dictator' Uzumaki that we need a couple buildings to ensure the safety of Leaf with our new aerial defenses. We will get those buildings. We could get those buildings at the drop of a hat on Naruto's orders. There is no particular need to risk any OPSEC at all and we should be going through Naruto, who is in charge of military defense, anyway.

Sir Stompy said:
  • Tell Naruto we can probably defend Leaf from aerial bombardment with a new rune design and are still working on other gamechangers. Advise him to begin reinforcing the ground beneath Leaf immediately
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Seems a bit premature IMO. 'Reinforce the ground' is a nontrivial task and we're actively working on new defensive runes which may change the name of the game. Also, aren't we looking to make a ground-reinforcing rune?
 
[X] Action Plan: Lets Go Punch Some Cats
[X] [prep day] Landmine Rune

Taking advantage of my very late vote to skim through the current vote tally and only vote for what I think is underrepresented. I should probably be responsible and look through everything and vote for everything I support, but this is a lot easier.
 
Suleverf said:
This seems like it will affect a far greater volume of material compared to an air dome. Therefore I will suggest a version with a more restricted effect for the main thing we want and a suggested mechanism that we've seen in universe.

Earth Mother Rune
Ground underneath this active rune in a large area becomes extremely resistant to being shaped by Earth techniques. Proposed mechanism (unless Hazo knows better): the rune asserts control of the earth similar to what the chakra crystal did in the Cave of Mild Peril. It doesn't instruct the earth to do anything besides reject the shaping influences of foreign chakra. Would be an interesting coincidence if the substrate used for this rune was the same material collected from that crystal
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I suspect that targeting all earth in the area is easier than only targetoa subset.
And just chakra-resistance isn't enough, Deidara and most other akatsuki members are quite capable of useing justsu to indirectly tunnel (eg. Removeing terrain by blast-mining)
With this in mind, can I get your vote for a prep day of Iron Earth?

faflec said:
Bumping for visibility; I really think this would be a force amplifier for runic capabilities, both offensively and defensively.
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I really want to vote for this, but it's written so weirdly.
Is it separately activated, primed, and triggered? That seems unnecessarily complicated/diffie for an minimum viable test.
"when chakra is detected" is really vague. chakra is everywhere, including in bugs and roots in the ground. Try "when a large chakra source enters the zone" or something.
Would you mind doing a little cleanup?

MMKII said:
[x] [prep day] Explosiver Rune
[x] [prep day] Explosivest Rune

Last two on the off chance that the Kagome-sensei Satisfying one is deemed too vague.
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We urgently need ways to deploy our weapons, or defend leaf, not just bigger boom.
And doing 3 prep days on 3 near-identical runes is really greedy/expensive when we have a lot of time-sensitive prep days that will determine our research path. Especially because there's a good chance that we only need one.

Can you please please pick just one big boom for this cycle, and vote the others in next cycle iff the first prep day doesn't work?

@Sir Stompy, because you also voted this way.
 
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Left-Hand Mutant said:
Can you please please pick just one big boom for this cycle, and vote the others in next cycle iff the first prep day doesn't work?
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Sir Stompy said:
I just think they're neat!
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I understand that, but they don't help us for the very import deadline we have few weeks away.
And voting to spend 3 different prep slots on nearly the same rune is really costly and kinda obnoxious.

You can think they're neat while also voting in a way that lets us run a semi-effective research program.

Prep day the big one first. If it works, great, if not, prep the next one next cycle.
This is obviously more efficient and less wasteful, even before you factor in the significant speed premium on anti-akatsuki stuff.

I'm asking you to please make this sensible change.


Edit:
Sorry if I'm came on a bit forcefully about this.
I've been getting pretty frustrated for a while now by these kinds of unforced errors wrecking our ability to actually run a timely and effective research program, so I have strong feelings here.
 
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ContextBot said:
@eaglejarl, @Velorien, @Paperclipped , What do we and our Dogs know about the Leopards combat abilities? Are we going to run into the Gravity element suddenly?
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They fight fairly similarly to the hyenas and dogs that Hazou has encountered – mostly in close quarters, but frequently using ninjutsu at range or to supplement their CQC. None of the dogs Hazou spoke with had ever heard of the Gravity Element, but the spread of Seventh Path elements is so large that it's really hard to predict what a given leopard may be able to throw at you. A Leopard warrior tends to be stronger than a Dog warrior, but leopards prefer to work alone, meaning that Dog packs can usually fight the leopards back. However, due to the recent war, the leopards have increasingly been moving and working in small groups.
 
Cariyaga said:
[X] [prep day] Pulsed Lingering Temporal Runes (PLTR) 103

On activation, generates a pulse that affects living beings within a small radius. Beings affected experience accelerated time, as if within the field of a Temporal Rune, except that the effect is tied to them rather than to an area of space, similar to the effects of Hazō's prototypes for TR103. The effect wears off over a period of [time; hours to a day would probably be ideal, but depends on what Hazō can get].

Credit to Kyreneryk! Made some minor adjustments here, so reposting it.
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Appreciation.

[X] [prep day] Pulsed Lingering Temporal Runes (PLTR) 103

However, what you've changed here actually makes the description inaccurate. Hazō didn't make any prototypes for TR103, he completed the rune in a single cycle; to specify that the rune's effect is a 1.03x speedup, adding 103 in the title is sufficient. (Also, would appreciate a link to my original post in yours, so people can easily interrogate the motivation for the rune, which is detailed there; can be found here.)
 
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Left-Hand Mutant said:
I really want to vote for this, but it's written so weirdly.
Is it separately activated, primed, and triggered? That seems unnecessarily complicated/diffie for an minimum viable test.
"when chakra is detected" is really vague. chakra is everywhere, including in bugs and roots in the ground. Try "when a large chakra sounds enters the zone" or something.
Would you mind doing a little cleanup?
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I am aiming for an amount of chakra that mirrors that of a seal activating; I've edited to make this more clear.
faflec said:
Landmine Rune
Rune

A modified explosive rune that does not explode upon initial activation but only after seal-activation levels of chakra is also detected on the surface of the rune. Once the rune is activated, it becomes 'primed'. Upon detection of seal-activating chakra on its surface, the rune immediately explodes.
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Hey players,

Just an FYI to y'all. The current leading plan has you going to Leopard to (presumably hopefully) punch things in order to clear your stagnation. And possibly because you want to make me happy, which I appreciate.

This endeavor, while delightfully different from lighthousing, is a bit pro forma. You're punching to punch things instead of as part or alongside accomplishing any other goal. Have you considered that there are ways to punch things and also advance other goals, including but not limited to:

  • Delving a forbidden dungeon
  • Attempting to get another Scroll
  • Exploring the various exciting locations that you explicitly asked Orochimaru about
  • Testing out the borders of Rain
  • Investigating what's currently guarding Nagi island
  • Finding and clearing a Jashinist temple in order to acquire that lore that y'all describing in terms like "sweet, sweet" and whi-- er, objecting to people keeping from you

Just a thought on this lovely weekend day. Not for this plan, I know, but something to consider for the future.
 
faflec said:
Landmine Rune
Rune

A modified explosive rune that does not explode upon initial activation but only after seal-activation levels of chakra is also detected on the surface of the rune. Once the rune is activated, it becomes 'primed'. Upon detection of seal-activating chakra on its surface, the rune immediately explodes.
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So it only activates when the victim deliberately puts chakra into it?
Or is it saying that it detonates when touched by a ninja or chakra beast?

I'd really rather have a bit of range on the trigger, so we can burry the rune underground and have it detonates when a target enters the zone.
 
[X] [prep day] Landmine Rune
[X] [prep day] Pulsed Lingering Temporal Runes (PLTR) 103

These seem cool, though I missed the Landmine Rune at first glance last night (name implied something more mundane).

Left-Hand Mutant said:
We urgently need ways to deploy our weapons, or defend leaf, not just bigger boom.
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I'm already voting for researching mostly defensive stuff or ways to deliver other dangerous effects. I don't know what else you want...?
 
eaglejarl said:
Hey players,

Just an FYI to y'all. The current leading plan has you going to Leopard to (presumably hopefully) punch things in order to clear your stagnation. And possibly because you want to make me happy, which I appreciate.

This endeavor, while delightfully different from lighthousing, is a bit pro forma. You're punching to punch things instead of as part or alongside accomplishing any other goal. Have you considered that there are ways to punch things and also advance other goals, including but not limited to:

  • Delving a forbidden dungeon
  • Attempting to get another Scroll
  • Exploring the various exciting locations that you explicitly asked Orochimaru about
  • Testing out the borders of Rain
  • Investigating what's currently guarding Nagi island
  • Finding and clearing a Jashinist temple in order to acquire that lore that y'all describing in terms like "sweet, sweet" and whi-- er, objecting to people keeping from you

Just a thought on this lovely weekend day. Not for this plan, I know, but something to consider for the future.
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In defense of going to the leopard border: Hazo genuinely has a lot to contribute both tactically and strategically. Tactically, banshee's and banshee slayers are huge AOE debuffs that can absolutely turn the tide of a wider battle on their own. Strategically though, going to the front proves that "Hazo, international arms dealer" is invested in protecting Dog. Whose to say that if Leopard strikes too strongly or deeply that Hazo won't arm them? Maybe Hyōhakken needs a reminder that Hazo cares.

Sure, saving Dogs lives and territory isn't Hazo's primary goal right now, but there are stakes there that matter to him.
 
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