Walking With the Dead (The Walking Dead, SI/Proteus System)
- Thread starter Zaion
- Start date
A lot of the problems in Walking Dead could easily be solved with some good old fashioned Vietnam Era military thought process; build up some traps like the viet cong used to use... Humans / undead the traps don't care and if it doesn't kill the dead it'll at least cripple them and make them much easier to deal with. (Aka zombies who are torn in half or crushed thoroughly are much less of a problem than the ones on two legs).
Zaion
Writer, Sci-fi Addict, Phoenix's Chosen
- Location
- San Diego
Considering this, though if I change it I may or may not take the time to edit the older bits.
As to unlocking the tier, when its unlocked he gets the primary designs category and research categories accessible, with seeing the rest greyed out.
Well, I suppose being able to pay the cost in installments can be convenient. It's easier to get a spare 250 than 750 all at once. Considering his capacity is only 1000 with no apparent way to increase generation or storage (unless the "QE cell" would allow him to store extra QE until he needs it if he's about to get full up) and the quanta is a "use it or lose it" kind of thing, it can be useful to split it up when he can.
That said, it just struck me as odd to have the research split up that way, though as I said, it can be convenient.
Zaion
Writer, Sci-fi Addict, Phoenix's Chosen
- Location
- San Diego
It was intended for convenience As to the cap is only a thousand, you caught a mistake I made in the in-document tables, thank you.
It should actually have read out of 2000 since he made a second Quantum Generator. That's a msitake I'll fix now before I go to sleep. Thanks for drawing my attention to that.
I've changed the cost into bulk cost in my notes for now, but I may change it back. The intent originally was that he could do the purchase in increments, especially since in the original plans the total for tier 7 would have exceeded his cap if he had to pay it all at once.
A lot of problems in TWD would be solved if there weren't magical ninja zombies, and if people didn't suddenly turn into idiots when the plot needed to advance.
It makes sense now. Installments work. Perhaps a small token reduction in costs for lower tier stuff could be given for each installment purchased?
As for the capacity not changing, that actually made sense. Generation and storage could be two separate things, and a "QE Cell" could have been for storage. Produce one and your cap increases.
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Arafell
Verified Cephalon
- Location
- Oregon
You could try for a modified car-crusher as an entrance, like a long corridor with a ceiling that descends. Lure hordes in, close outer door, crush, sweep out detritus with moving walls, open door again.
You might also try motion sensitive sniper turrets, or remote-activated noise making explosives. Zombies tend to follow noise and bright lights, so if you really wanted a low budget method you could use sensors and flare guns to make hordes detour.
Against humans, well, shooting them and being bulletproof tends to work. You could try and see if there's a Mass Effect style cloaking device, which would be immeasurably badass.
You might also try motion sensitive sniper turrets, or remote-activated noise making explosives. Zombies tend to follow noise and bright lights, so if you really wanted a low budget method you could use sensors and flare guns to make hordes detour.
Against humans, well, shooting them and being bulletproof tends to work. You could try and see if there's a Mass Effect style cloaking device, which would be immeasurably badass.
Zaion
Writer, Sci-fi Addict, Phoenix's Chosen
- Location
- San Diego
So, Blizzcon panels and other shit was amazing. I'm utterly completely hyped for Overwatch now (whereas before I was only mildly intrigued and hadn't actually been following ANY development on it).
Legion looks wonderful, the opening cinematic was a thing of beauty. The trailer for the Warcraft movie was jaw dropping beautiful as well. I'm sold on it as a viable film for more than just Blizzard junkies. It's being made by Legendary, the guys behind Pacific Rim, Godzilla, and who are working on a potential Mass Effect movie, so fingers crossed.
Heroes of the Storm is getting a two-player Hero, Cho'gall, as well as Tracer from Overwatch.
Anything else to report? Oh, yeah, my new pet in WoW is the cutest evil little thing ever.
That being said, I have started work on the next part of the story, and have a tiny teaser below.
Using quote because I honestly have no idea how to do awesome formatting to make it look awesome in any other manner.
Godogma managed to remind me of something I had completely forgotten about Mass Effect. In the original game, you broke stuff down into Omni-gel if you didn't need it. ANd this function was performed by your omni-tool.
In other words, I gave the SI a loophole (and my entire system in general) which can be abused and allow for more rapid development of the system. I.e., he can make something once then use omni-gel to recreate it, conserving energy for research and new items.
So, yeah, the loophole is a thing now. ^__^
Legion looks wonderful, the opening cinematic was a thing of beauty. The trailer for the Warcraft movie was jaw dropping beautiful as well. I'm sold on it as a viable film for more than just Blizzard junkies. It's being made by Legendary, the guys behind Pacific Rim, Godzilla, and who are working on a potential Mass Effect movie, so fingers crossed.
Heroes of the Storm is getting a two-player Hero, Cho'gall, as well as Tracer from Overwatch.
Anything else to report? Oh, yeah, my new pet in WoW is the cutest evil little thing ever.
That being said, I have started work on the next part of the story, and have a tiny teaser below.
Using quote because I honestly have no idea how to do awesome formatting to make it look awesome in any other manner.
Godogma managed to remind me of something I had completely forgotten about Mass Effect. In the original game, you broke stuff down into Omni-gel if you didn't need it. ANd this function was performed by your omni-tool.
In other words, I gave the SI a loophole (and my entire system in general) which can be abused and allow for more rapid development of the system. I.e., he can make something once then use omni-gel to recreate it, conserving energy for research and new items.
So, yeah, the loophole is a thing now. ^__^
- Location
- Attempting to cast animate object on a black hole.
Only if he notices. Having him climb the tech tree only to be left scratching his head at where the Omnigel is, only to find it near the end of the story. Also, Omnigel is made from really common (in Mass Effect) plastics, ceramics, and other materials that might not, and probably wouldn't, be present in what he has easy access to. Also, it's more of a quick patch-job than a miracle repair-paste.
Omni-gel in the storyline is more than a patch job; an omni-tool in the ME story as opposed to the games is a fully functional mini-fabricator.
Which is why you buy LICENSES in ME1 not items for your ship's requisitions officer; you buy the license then you can pay the fee and make the stuff. Or at least it's the only explanation that makes sense for a ship in deep space to suddenly have access to more stuff every few days.
Which is why you buy LICENSES in ME1 not items for your ship's requisitions officer; you buy the license then you can pay the fee and make the stuff. Or at least it's the only explanation that makes sense for a ship in deep space to suddenly have access to more stuff every few days.
So just read through this story, quite interesting. Feels almost like a civ quest despite being a story. I really like those quests and this is like one without having to argue about every vote, so quite nice. I will be following.
I believe Ford actually has an option for Police ordering vehicles from them for factory installed door armor. But door armor kits are pretty simple to get too.
People say stuff like this a lot and it kind of bothers me, it's not completely inaccurate, but it is somewhat deceptive. Yes bullets will generally pass through a normal car door and still be able to kill you on the other side, but a lot of police forces (particularly the ones prone to shoot outs) pay to have the doors of their cruisers armored. There are car armor companies that offer the armor for just the doors specifically for police using them this way. It's much cheaper than armoring a whole car and doesn't diminish performance nearly as much. That's why in a shoot out or standoff police hide behind their car doors. It's not just a Hollywood thing, you can see it in real life too.neither will a car for that matter (no matter what you've seen on television
I believe Ford actually has an option for Police ordering vehicles from them for factory installed door armor. But door armor kits are pretty simple to get too.
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Yes, and I never said that it wasn't possible to armor a car; I said don't believe the television when it shows you a car blocking bullets. The armor in a door unless it's so heavy as to require special strengthening of the frame and the hinges STILL won't stop a high velocity round; it will however slow one down enough to where it's much less of a risk for the officer.
I have shot up a car before; even the engine block isn't a perfect defense against bullets (and that's with a cast iron engine block - most of them are aluminum now). Shooting a vehicle's gas tank in most cases will not make it blow up either; that's skilled pyrotechnics at work and more movie magic.
My family owns a junk yard in the back side of no-where; no one was in danger when we played "test Hollywood's BS" or "what happens when you shoot stuff" - do not do this at home (unless you have a safe firing lane and it's your own car you're shooting at) and be safe when firing a weapon (whether gun, bow, or slingshot or whatever you have that propels projectiles) at anything.
Before someone bitches at me I thought I'd throw in that disclaimer.
I have shot up a car before; even the engine block isn't a perfect defense against bullets (and that's with a cast iron engine block - most of them are aluminum now). Shooting a vehicle's gas tank in most cases will not make it blow up either; that's skilled pyrotechnics at work and more movie magic.
My family owns a junk yard in the back side of no-where; no one was in danger when we played "test Hollywood's BS" or "what happens when you shoot stuff" - do not do this at home (unless you have a safe firing lane and it's your own car you're shooting at) and be safe when firing a weapon (whether gun, bow, or slingshot or whatever you have that propels projectiles) at anything.
Before someone bitches at me I thought I'd throw in that disclaimer.
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I'm quite surprised you were able to go through an engine block. Short of anti-material rifles I didn't think there was much of a chance of that. Though it does explain why the LAPD's latest model squadcars include an armored firewall.
Also if you're breaking out bigger guns the LAPD has two vehicles that are essentially armored personnel carriers and designed to take high velocity rounds anywhere. They really learned some lessons from the North Hollywood Shootout.
I'm sure that other big police forces like the NYPD have similar equipment.
Police cars being different from civilian cars is not that great a surprise. Having armor to stop bullets is common sense as the only cover an officer may have after forcing somebody to pull over may be the car.
I think we were thinking of normal cars.
I think we were thinking of normal cars.
@inverted_helix
It's more shrapnel in the case of engine blocks; bullets do funny things sometimes when they hit hard objects. As do hard objects when hit by heavy bits of metal breaking the sound barrier. Usually you just wind up with a cracked engine block when shot with a big enough rifle... but it's the usually part you have to watch out for.
I don't have access to an anti-materiel rifle most of the time; I do have access to old style "Big Fifty" rifles for black powder calibers made to modern powder tolerances however. Aside from killing on the business end they'll also maim on the other when loaded hot however (expect cracked collar bones and dislocated joints unless you go the full monty on your protection gear; shock absorbing recoil pads are a must). Also the African Big Game calibers are fun to bust engine blocks with... or cement blocks... you can make truly impressive plumes of concrete dust with them.
There's a big difference between a car and an armored car or APC; which was the entire point of my digression. When building a base vs zombies an overturned tractor trailer body makes an excellent wall. If you're going up vs humans it merely makes for a decent place to hide as long as they aren't willing to use spray and pray because of lack of ammunition.
Which was why I suggested the sand bags inside them up against the walls/roofs/whatever part of the trailer is facing the outside. Lots of work, but efficient protection. Bags of cement from a hardware store/construction wholesaler would work as well but you'd have to replace the bags if the trailer leaked or as you used them to make other construction projects with dirt/sand anyway.
A better place and way to fort up is out in the woods underground in a bunker... Of course, you need to have sunlight and all that other good stuff as well as places for farming and suchlike... Gah! It's okay, I'm a survivalist junky and have actually come up with methods to survive the zombie apocalypse; I admit it. I also love shootin' stuff... I admit that too.
It's more shrapnel in the case of engine blocks; bullets do funny things sometimes when they hit hard objects. As do hard objects when hit by heavy bits of metal breaking the sound barrier. Usually you just wind up with a cracked engine block when shot with a big enough rifle... but it's the usually part you have to watch out for.
I don't have access to an anti-materiel rifle most of the time; I do have access to old style "Big Fifty" rifles for black powder calibers made to modern powder tolerances however. Aside from killing on the business end they'll also maim on the other when loaded hot however (expect cracked collar bones and dislocated joints unless you go the full monty on your protection gear; shock absorbing recoil pads are a must). Also the African Big Game calibers are fun to bust engine blocks with... or cement blocks... you can make truly impressive plumes of concrete dust with them.
There's a big difference between a car and an armored car or APC; which was the entire point of my digression. When building a base vs zombies an overturned tractor trailer body makes an excellent wall. If you're going up vs humans it merely makes for a decent place to hide as long as they aren't willing to use spray and pray because of lack of ammunition.
Which was why I suggested the sand bags inside them up against the walls/roofs/whatever part of the trailer is facing the outside. Lots of work, but efficient protection. Bags of cement from a hardware store/construction wholesaler would work as well but you'd have to replace the bags if the trailer leaked or as you used them to make other construction projects with dirt/sand anyway.
A better place and way to fort up is out in the woods underground in a bunker... Of course, you need to have sunlight and all that other good stuff as well as places for farming and suchlike... Gah! It's okay, I'm a survivalist junky and have actually come up with methods to survive the zombie apocalypse; I admit it. I also love shootin' stuff... I admit that too.
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Zaion
Writer, Sci-fi Addict, Phoenix's Chosen
- Location
- San Diego
@inverted_helix
A better place and way to fort up is out in the woods underground in a bunker... Of course, you need to have sunlight and all that other good stuff as well as places for farming and suchlike... Gah! It's okay, I'm a survivalist junky and have actually come up with methods to survive the zombie apocalypse; I admit it. I also love shootin' stuff... I admit that too.
Ladies and gentleman, here is your look at the guy who inspired one of the survivors encountered in the second arc. As in, was planned from the day I started writing this.
You can thank Godogma for the loophole too.
@inverted_helix: Tiny bit, yeah. The eventual level this will grow to is ridiculous, and while I am not operating under a "readers decide where it goes" mentality I AM listening to all he feedback and ideas I'm given. I in fact specifically asked for any ideas etc. for improving a base. Keep in mind the SI won't have people giving him all those ideas, but some of the suggestions are either too good not to use (drone driving cars piled with sandbags or heavy objects) or touching on stuff that was always going to show up later (the suggestion of having a floating/flying city/building ala Terran style).
Anyways, just got home from work. Got to do some errands this morning, but I hope to write another few pages before I go to sleep today. I'm off in two nights (tuesday night PST) so I'm tentatively slating that I will have the current chapter done by sometime that night, if not tuesday morning/afternoon. I will surely have it done and hopefully the next one after that by wednesday morning, but we will see where things go.
Just a question to throw out on the sandbag idea.
Finding enough sandbags might be problematic at this time.
What about dirtbags instead? Raiding the mall for pillow cases and you can fill them with dirt to make dirtbags instead of sandbags.
While it's true a Wal-Mart, Lows, Home Deport, or any place with a garden center will have some sandbags, they might not have enough in stock to fill a truck, let alone fortify a base. If he's not near a beach or desert, finding enough sand might be difficult. Even many lakes and ponds lack sand, only dirt along the shores.
Finding dirt in the same environment is easy. Would dirtbags work as well as sandbags?
Finding enough sandbags might be problematic at this time.
What about dirtbags instead? Raiding the mall for pillow cases and you can fill them with dirt to make dirtbags instead of sandbags.
While it's true a Wal-Mart, Lows, Home Deport, or any place with a garden center will have some sandbags, they might not have enough in stock to fill a truck, let alone fortify a base. If he's not near a beach or desert, finding enough sand might be difficult. Even many lakes and ponds lack sand, only dirt along the shores.
Finding dirt in the same environment is easy. Would dirtbags work as well as sandbags?
Weero
Taijiquan Initiate
It probably depends on the kind of dirt.
This useful pdf has this to say:
"A heavy bodied or sandy soil is most desirable for filling sandbags, but any usable material at or near the site has definite advantages. Coarse sand could leak out through the weave in the bag. To prevent this, double bag the material. Gravelly or rocky soils are generally poor choices because of their permeability. "
Zaion
Writer, Sci-fi Addict, Phoenix's Chosen
- Location
- San Diego
My Blizzcon goodie bag came in the mail half an hour ago. Awesome messenger bag, murkakin pin, diablo III keychain, and best of all I got Diablo figurine from the mystery box. Now to see if I can find someone selling Nova or Kerrigan at an acceptable price...
I was bored waiting in line for something today, and my mind wandered to this thread for some strange reason.
I've never played Mass Effect as I'm not into shooters or most games that need lightning reflexes (if it was an RPG like Knights of the Old Republic where I don't need lightning reflexes I'd probably buy it), but the talk about omni-gel kinda bothers me. Perhaps if the Omni-tool could be a universal fabricator, but it can only put out what it puts in. If you feed it the hood of a wrecked car, it can't make plastics from that, only the metal the car hood is made of. Of course, feeding it an entire wrecked car can yield a lot of materials from the plastic on the dash, upholstery on the seats, electronics in the radio and gauges, and the engine.
In short, it can only use the kinds of raw materials you give it, but it is the ultimate recycler.
I've never played Mass Effect as I'm not into shooters or most games that need lightning reflexes (if it was an RPG like Knights of the Old Republic where I don't need lightning reflexes I'd probably buy it), but the talk about omni-gel kinda bothers me. Perhaps if the Omni-tool could be a universal fabricator, but it can only put out what it puts in. If you feed it the hood of a wrecked car, it can't make plastics from that, only the metal the car hood is made of. Of course, feeding it an entire wrecked car can yield a lot of materials from the plastic on the dash, upholstery on the seats, electronics in the radio and gauges, and the engine.
In short, it can only use the kinds of raw materials you give it, but it is the ultimate recycler.
Zaion
Writer, Sci-fi Addict, Phoenix's Chosen
- Location
- San Diego
@SlickRCBD Couple things about Mass Effect. Like older Bioware games you can go into the config file and edit it. You can mess with some settings to more than make up for the not having lightning reflexes thing.
As to the omni-tool, the way I see it is that by strict logic it should only really be most viable for either repairing damaged equipment, substituting similar materials when neccessary, and determined by supply of various omni-gel mixtures to use for minifacturing or manufacturing.
THat's with regards to canon universe and strict logic rather than game logic being applied.
There is a reason I refer to it as the loophole, though. His omni-tool is as integrated with the Proteus System as it is possible to be. If he gets smart he can use its functions even if he was out of his armor. And the nano-machines would be assisting, converting materials as neccessary, just using the omni-gel as base material rather than breaking down and reconfiguring the matter or converting energy into matter.
That being said, it's absolute best and most efficient use is simply recycling damage components, devices and materials and using the resultant omni-gel output to make replacements or similar parts for other things.
For instance, you have an awesome car you wanna upgrade, you could disassemble a second car and get most of the mats you needed to include to improve and upgrade components of the first car.
As to the omni-tool, the way I see it is that by strict logic it should only really be most viable for either repairing damaged equipment, substituting similar materials when neccessary, and determined by supply of various omni-gel mixtures to use for minifacturing or manufacturing.
THat's with regards to canon universe and strict logic rather than game logic being applied.
There is a reason I refer to it as the loophole, though. His omni-tool is as integrated with the Proteus System as it is possible to be. If he gets smart he can use its functions even if he was out of his armor. And the nano-machines would be assisting, converting materials as neccessary, just using the omni-gel as base material rather than breaking down and reconfiguring the matter or converting energy into matter.
That being said, it's absolute best and most efficient use is simply recycling damage components, devices and materials and using the resultant omni-gel output to make replacements or similar parts for other things.
For instance, you have an awesome car you wanna upgrade, you could disassemble a second car and get most of the mats you needed to include to improve and upgrade components of the first car.
Eh, as far as I know the term sandbags comes from "sandbagging it" or some similar military jargon. Where if the troops have nothing to do? You guessed it, the base officers put the soldiers to digging foxholes and filling bags with the dirt to build fortifications.
Evidently it's better for morale to have your soldiers doing something rather than sitting around with their thumbs up their asses in a warzone. Now, my references to all this soldierdom are kinda at deercamp right now and probably drunk to boot... So don't take this for gospel. (I'll edit the post or make another one later to update the statement as necessary).
I didn't mean sand exactly; I was thinking in military terms so yeah earth works just as well and some earth works better than others. Georgia red "clay" works pretty damn well as a bullet-stop (no, it's not actually clay, but fuck if I know why we call it that).
Omni-gel is a mixture of molten plastic, light metals and ceramics. You can get all of those things easily enough in a junk yard or landfill. So it's a great resource to have; like having a high end 3d printer on your arm. He may not be able to get food out of it but he can make "primitive" body armor (breastplates etc) that'll stop modern (probably not ME) firearms with very little omni-gel... Primitive rifles and pistols (not ME) are just as easy so he'll never have a problem with equipping his survivors either. Though he'd be better off making gauss weapons (probably 1 or 2 back on the tech tree from the Gravity guns utilizing EEZO from ME).
Not to mention melee weapons.