SDN Worlds 4 Commentary Thread III

[Simon_Jester]

Second of three rapid-succession posts is up. I'm a bit ambiguous about this one; the more I wrote the more it ran away from me in the direction of fucking spooky.

Think of it as a belated Halloween story.

If it is to be considered good, gratitude is owed to the luminaries I shamelessly stole some of the lines from: Rod Serling, Leslie Stevens, Dr. Edward Elmer Smith... and, on a smaller scale, on the nameless individuals responsible for the Imperium of Man's Thoughts for the Day.

[Shroom Man 777]

It so works mang. I cannot wait for the epic conclusion of this story. Man, it makes sense for Geppetto, who probably has an AI doctorate, to go all Hannibal Lecter on them and make them kill themselves...

UH OH!

[Simon_Jester]

And part three of three is up! The only thing that can make being driven to suicide by a hostile AI worse!

This is the capstone. I hope you all like it...

[KlavoHunter]

Let these pathetic suiciding pirates never forget their Bragzinti Lesson!

[Shroom Man 777]

Simon, you deserve a lead-coated plutonium medal of some sufficiently Byzonic award!

In fact, I recommend that everyone involved in the mission be given the Order of the Irradiated Moon, with all Bragulans receiving higher classes than the humans, who only get Last Class, of course.

Of course.



You are the greatest!

[PeZook]

"As soon as my remote unit said "Hello" in customary organic fashion, the trader screamed and ran back aboard his ship, abandoning the samples and fleeing the station at maximum emergency speed. His subsequent piloting showed a wildly inefficient lack of attention to concerns like collision avoidance and drive component lifetimes. I am still not entirely certain what happened."

This really cracked me up for some reason

EDIT: Oh man...you've just entered...the Koprulu Zone!

*wipes tears away*

Simon just made my entire day

[Master_Baerne]

Simon, that was the funniest thing I've read in ages. Only thing that could have possibly split my sides further than they already are would be if the Bragulan captain had remembered something he'd read on etiquette in the Empire of Haruhi Suzumiya and called Geppetto "Mr. Roboto."

[Force Lord]

Simon, you bastard. That cracked me up!

[Simon_Jester]

Aww, thanks guys.

Incidentally, I have a more serious question for Steve that's been pestering me for a while. Suppose I want to perform a round of capital ship upgrades (equivalent to what Lonestar is doing in gameplay terms). Do we have a rule-precedent on that, or has it all been ad hoc so far?

Because my Aurora-class battlecruisers are going to come out of the yards fitted "for but not with" some modifications that would significantly improve their performance, but which were slated to possibly (or not) be installed at a later date.

[Yes, I know how far down the road those ships are due to come out of the yards; I'm just wondering]

Simon, that was the funniest thing I've read in ages. Only thing that could have possibly split my sides further than they already are would be if the Bragulan captain had remembered something he'd read on etiquette in the Empire of Haruhi Suzumiya and called Geppetto "Mr. Roboto."

I seriously considered doing that...

[Force Lord]

Propaganda time.

EDIT: Looks like SDNW 4 is slowing down. Out of ideas guys?

[Force Lord]

Sorry for the double post.

A certain ship with a certain weapon arrives...

[Steve]

People are fairly busy right now with other things, I gather. Though I imagine Rogue is, as always, just unable to get a story going.

[Ryan Thunder]

I can get them going, I just seem to be absolutely awful at finishing them.

[Simon_Jester]

We've had day-sized periods of inactivity before. It's only if nothing happens for a *really* long time that we need to worry, though it'd be nice to see a bit more going on.

A lot of it's probably just the fall semester.

Also, FL, I think I'm gonna write some interesting stuff about that ion cannon in due time... based on my own experience of some of the things that can go wrong on much-smaller scale accelerators.

[Shinn Langley Soryu]

EDIT: Looks like SDNW 4 is slowing down. Out of ideas guys?

I have at least one new idea, but my chronic writer's block is preventing me from completing it. I also have all of those in-progress storylines that need to be moved along...

[Shroom Man 777]

The article's from the 3370s.

[RogueIce]

People are fairly busy right now with other things, I gather. Though I imagine Rogue is, as always, just unable to get a story going.

Actually, I've been legitimately busy.

And you've just made The List. Congrats!

[Simon_Jester]

The article's from the 3370s.

Complete with graphs! Heh.

I shall compose a suitable response to this.

Also... God, I can think of so many ways for this to go horribly awry.

[Master_Baerne]

For my part, inactivity is due to a truly ridiculous collection of stuff in the real world. I've got a few things I'm working on, but they take second place to things like having dinner, executing my evil plots, and making sure my grades don't slip too much.

Also, my stupid computer has a French keyboard, which slows my typing considerably.

[Simon_Jester]

The problem with The Understanding was that it gave one all the wrong ideas of scale for dealing with minor powers. For a first-rank navy such as the Ascendant Starfleet, sending a dreadnought division, a battlecrusier squadron, and a brace of heavy cruisers to escort a diplomatic mission was simply good manners. For the Voyageur Republic, it was a blatant intimidation tactic, and they had made their grievances known. Loudly, and without quite realizing that the Ascendant ships in their system wouldn't have needed to move to slag the capitol of the small state. This vast disparity in power, for Lady ir Tampi (used to the careful, painstaking manuevering to no real end imposed by The Understanding), was almost enough to provoke cackles of hysterical laughter.

I'm not entirely sure I follow how The Understanding is affecting the situation here, Baerne; you're too subtle for me. I mean, aside from Lady ir Tampi being frustrated by her inability to indulge in bullying and gunboat diplomacy and taking it out on the poor hapless Voyageurs...

[Shroom Man 777]

French keyboard? That means you can type... in character, Baerne!

I don't get why anyone would send 1000 points worth, or something, of battleships with divisions of BCs or dreads just for diplomacying. Unless I was deliberately intimidating someone (which might be what the Ascendancy is doing!), I'd just send a couple of paleocruisers and leak radiation in orbit of their planet while sending diplomaticoes to chitchat.

Then again its because my own ship divisions are too busy watching the Byzantines and Solarians!

Man, a low-orbiting paleocruiser would totally leak enough radiation to cause auroras and probably fuck with unshielded planetside electronics. Like a perpetual EMP!

[Shinn Langley Soryu]

RESULTS: I found a stray nation, and I brought it home. Can I keep it?

After reading that latest passage, I'm now imagining Lady ir Tampi as Rena Ryuugu from Higurashi no Naku Koro ni, menacing Mr. Airnmann with a billhook before pulling a complete 180 and going "Omochikaeri!"

Thanks, Baerne. Thanks.

[Siege]

What?

[Simon_Jester]

One moment, menacing the Voyageurs with dangerous weapons, then the next going all adorable and cutesy-pie and "Aww can I keep them?"

I mean, the anime references and Japanese-language mean nothing to me, but I think I get what Shinn is talking about here.

[Force Lord]

Seeing the Sheppoes paranoia regarding ESPers, I'm inclined that they won't see the ESPer-heavy Centrality with good eyes, and that's putting it mildly.