STGOD 4 OOC Thread (part 2)

SirNitram · Post by **SirNitram** » 2004-08-08 06:10pm

Rogue 9 wrote: That's it, I'm developing SPARTANs.

I'll stick with my small professional army and large conscript force, all of whom are, if nothing else, exceptionally well coordinated.

Pablo Sanchez · Post by **Pablo Sanchez** » 2004-08-08 06:17pm

Rogue 9 wrote: That's it, I'm developing SPARTANs.

What for? Train people specifically to counter the vampires and you'll end up wasting money because my vampires are filling out paperwork, supervising subordinates, holding feasts etc. I'm not going to be sending these people into a situation where they're going to have a knock-down drag-out fight with anybody. They're too valuable to risk and they have a full grasp of their immortality. When you've got potentially unlimited lifespan to look forward too, you're not going to risk it.

Anyway I've only made them powerful for story purposes--as with Alyrium's mages. They're not actually going to appear in combat except as a pre-planned plot point that has been cleared with the opposing player. It's the only way to be fair.

frigidmagi · Post by **frigidmagi** » 2004-08-08 06:26pm

Sounds fair to me. Just how many vampires are there anyways? There can't be that massive a number (in comparsion to interplanetry populations I mean). I mean it takes what? 10 to a 100 humans to support a vampire if he's being careful right?

Rogue 9 · Post by **Rogue 9** » 2004-08-08 06:26pm

Master Chief's good for a lot more than killing vampires.

But if the vampires are really so damned unstoppable, then it makes no in-game sense for them to not hand their enemies their asses personally. I mean, if they cannot be killed short of a high-level mage or another vampire...

Dahak · Post by **Dahak** » 2004-08-08 06:29pm

I still prefer orbital bombardments

SirNitram · Post by **SirNitram** » 2004-08-08 06:30pm

Rogue 9 wrote:Master Chief's good for a lot more than killing vampires. But if the vampires are really so damned unstoppable, then it makes no in-game sense for them to not hand their enemies their asses personally. I mean, if they cannot be killed short of a high-level mage or another vampire...

You miss the point.

Why risk YOUR neck when you have all these lesser beings to do it instead?

Pablo Sanchez · Post by **Pablo Sanchez** » 2004-08-08 07:03pm

frigidmagi wrote:Sounds fair to me. Just how many vampires are there anyways? There can't be that massive a number (in comparsion to interplanetry populations I mean). I mean it takes what? 10 to a 100 humans to support a vampire if he's being careful right?

This is the population distribution--
5% Vampire
15% Dhampir
30% Orc
10% Peon (human)
40% Cattle (human)

There are about 10 humans for every Vampire... but remember our tech level. There is the factor of artificially synthesized blood.

A good majority (maybe 2/3s) of vampires are lazy decadents who drink synthetic blood. Synthetic blood keeps them fat and sated without the icky necessity of selecting a human and murdering it. But because it didn't come from a living creature it can't fuel their powers. A vampire needs an infusion of human blood every once in a while for upkeep on their abilities, otherwise they fade away. I can't think of exactly how often, but I think one soul eaten every lunar month would fit thematically

Now... these guys are too lazy to bother getting a human. They'd still be stronger and faster than a person, but they're also total pussies who probably haven't even felt actual pain in centuries. Less than useless. This group developed after artificial blood was invented (a long time ago). Every year it gets bigger, as formerly effective vampires fall off the tracks and get lazy--they then have to be replaced by new blood. This is the reason that there are any youngblooded vampires at all in the Realm--if not they would all be very old and dangerous and they would be very much fewer.

[Now, a factoid that I haven't developed yet but is important, there are major civil wars regularly in the Realm, over the succession. (The last one was temporally coincident with the genocide wars and saw vicious combat. Ysevelod won that one and retained his throne, and a majority of my current officers in the navy and army served in this war, getting valuable experience). During these civil wars there's a bit of house cleaning and many of those decadents who can't appeal to powerful friends get killed. Got to keep up living space!]

After them it leaves a third who are actually dangerous.

Two thirds of those would be petty nobility with motivation. Since they're either of poor bloodlines or still young (or both) they don't have all their abilities yet. They're far more dangerous than any humans, but still within the range of the popular vampire myths.

The remainder are major nobility. They range in power from slightly better than the normal conception of a vampire to Alucard megawank vampire death machines (in the case of those in the direct line of royal succession).

So... 1/3 of 1/3 of 5% of my population is major nobility... about .5% of the population.

Straha · Post by **Straha** » 2004-08-08 10:08pm

Wow... Beowulf? A new power already?! Didn't we already establish with other people that if you had a playable power you had to carry it through?

Post by **Beowulf** » 2004-08-08 10:41pm

Straha wrote:Wow... Beowulf? A new power already?! Didn't we already establish with other people that if you had a playable power you had to carry it through?

People had severe problems with that one. I talked this over with Pablo already also. He was perfectly fine. Also note that my character is much weaker than anything else in this STGOD. It would in fact be extremely difficult to play something weaker.

Pablo Sanchez · Post by **Pablo Sanchez** » 2004-08-08 10:50pm

Beowulf wrote:People had severe problems with that one. I talked this over with Pablo already also. He was perfectly fine.

I allowed it because the ghost fleet was not a workable power in my opinion. Not only that, but it had done so little that we could easily disregard it from the continuity. Furthermore, he will be playing as a single character with defined abilities. The disruption caused by the abrupt emergence of a new power and the disappearance of the other (the primary reasons for disallowing these switches) will not be present.

Bugsby · Post by **Bugsby** » 2004-08-08 10:53pm

I don't mind. If you've talked it over with Pablo, it's all good. Besides, its just one guy, even if he is very powerful.

By the way.... you ARE vulnerable. I dont care if this guy is more 1337 than Jesus, if he gets hit with a bunch of lasers, hes toast. Hehe, a fight between this guy and Casmir or Basil would be interesting, though.

Two things, though:
1) How much of this can he do at a time. Can he use all his abilities at once? Can he have multiple bubbles activated? Whats the deal?
2) Dont use that "cloning chamber" to make an army of Onis. That will piss a lot of people off, I warrant. Myself included.

Post by **Beowulf** » 2004-08-08 11:13pm

Bugsby wrote:By the way.... you ARE vulnerable. I dont care if this guy is more 1337 than Jesus, if he gets hit with a bunch of lasers, hes toast. Hehe, a fight between this guy and Casmir or Basil would be interesting, though.

Two things, though:
1) How much of this can he do at a time. Can he use all his abilities at once? Can he have multiple bubbles activated? Whats the deal?
2) Dont use that "cloning chamber" to make an army of Onis. That will piss a lot of people off, I warrant. Myself included.

Yeah, I know I'm vulnerable, that's why I have my KTR and the cloning chamber. He can do more than one thing at a time, but it's tiring. If he tried to do everything, without help, he'd fall unconcious. I can't create an army of Onis with the cloning chamber because I only have the one soul for the body. I could try to clone more of him, but then I'd have the bother of actually training the clones. Hint: it'd take years to do so.

And a fight between him and Basil probably wouldn't be all that interesting, when you consider the fact Oni would be much happier turning the surrounding couple sq km. into ash. It's slightly easier that way. And given the fact that Basil can be killed by explosives, it'd likely work.

Oh, and for reference: major characters probably won't be assassinated without their owners permission. So Basil, Casimir, the Asgard Emperor, etc, aren't going to suddenly find themselves before the Pearly Gates. I do reserve the right to kill someone I find annoying though, or that my character gets paid to kill (i.e. someone else finds annoying.)

Thirdfain · Post by **Thirdfain** » 2004-08-08 11:20pm

Rule of STGODS:

#23: Assassinating a head of state or major political figure of a player-run, modern nation, is impossible as long as the character is in his place of power. (i.e, Raistlin was untouchable until he left the Arcane Empire, and Elanie is safe as long as she's on Eketrina or, say, an Ouster Cataphract)

Pablo Sanchez · Post by **Pablo Sanchez** » 2004-08-09 12:57am

Beowulf wrote:And a fight between him and Basil probably wouldn't be all that interesting, when you consider the fact Oni would be much happier turning the surrounding couple sq km. into ash. It's slightly easier that way. And given the fact that Basil can be killed by explosives, it'd likely work.

Hmmm. That's an interesting approach. The real question would be whether Oni would be able to concentrate sufficiently to make such an effort when it came down to it, and of whether he could evade detection long enough to make the hit.

Post by **Beowulf** » 2004-08-09 01:21am

Oh, important note:

Avoiding collateral damage costs extra. It's usually more difficult.

Hotfoot · Post by **Hotfoot** » 2004-08-09 02:05am

Beowulf wrote:Abilities:
Note: none of these involve the use of what has been termed magic, or Quantek, or anything of the sort. Sensors which detect magic will not pick up any of these.

Those are all Psionic abilities, no? Perhaps you should re-read that which I have written concerning Quantek.

Rogue 9 · Post by **Rogue 9** » 2004-08-09 02:08am

Thirdfain wrote:Rule of STGODS:

#23: Assassinating a head of state or major political figure of a player-run, modern nation, is impossible as long as the character is in his place of power. (i.e, Raistlin was untouchable until he left the Arcane Empire, and Elanie is safe as long as she's on Eketrina or, say, an Ouster Cataphract)

There would, of course, be exceptions; I can't imagine that the Monacoran princes were safe on Earth during the Rape.

(And this doesn't fit logically either. If Basil can go gaseous through the prison duct work to kill Karsus, why not the same in a Presidential mansion?)

Bugsby · Post by **Bugsby** » 2004-08-09 02:12am

Rogue 9 wrote:
Thirdfain wrote:Rule of STGODS:

#23: Assassinating a head of state or major political figure of a player-run, modern nation, is impossible as long as the character is in his place of power. (i.e, Raistlin was untouchable until he left the Arcane Empire, and Elanie is safe as long as she's on Eketrina or, say, an Ouster Cataphract)
There would, of course, be exceptions; I can't imagine that the Monacoran princes were safe on Earth during the Rape. (And this doesn't fit logically either. If Basil can go gaseous through the prison duct work to kill Karsus, why not the same in a Presidential mansion?)

Yeah, but its REALLY hard, as the kung-fu fight showed. You cant single post these things, and security systems around a major leader would pick up any assassin... even Oni. Then it becomes a job of hacking through dozens of layers of security, usually single-handed, when they know you're coming. Prisoners and dignitaries out for a stroll on the other hand.... much easier.

Rogue 9 · Post by **Rogue 9** » 2004-08-09 02:17am

Who ever said the word "easy?" Easy and assassination of a sitting head of state do not go together. It is, however, doable. This is not something that I particularly like, as I don't indulge in such things myself and the admission could open me up, but I'm not going to lie about it.

Spyder · Post by **Spyder** » 2004-08-09 07:06am

Is there an OOB thread?

Thirdfain · Post by **Thirdfain** » 2004-08-09 08:09am

http://bbs.stardestroyer.net/viewtopic. ... 49#1114649

Yup.

Spyder · Post by **Spyder** » 2004-08-09 08:19am

Thirdfain wrote:http://bbs.stardestroyer.net/viewtopic. ... 49#1114649

Yup.

Woo...concise. Might add something to it later.

Thirdfain · Post by **Thirdfain** » 2004-08-09 08:20am

Actually, if you are interested, the Minmatar are already on the map (we've used them as neutral territory for a treaty or two.)

Pablo Sanchez · Post by **Pablo Sanchez** » 2004-08-09 10:36am

Rogue 9 wrote:There would, of course, be exceptions; I can't imagine that the Monacoran princes were safe on Earth during the Rape. (And this doesn't fit logically either. If Basil can go gaseous through the prison duct work to kill Karsus, why not the same in a Presidential mansion?)

A presidential mansion would probably have defenses in the climate control system to prevent gas attack. You don't want some nutter pumping cyanide into the oval office, and such defenses would also prevent the fine mist of a vampire from breaking in.

The sole reason that Karsus went down as easily as he did was that he was being held in a maximum security prison, which wouldn't be designed to keep an assassin out. Presidential mansions and the like would have such defenses. For example, I recall that the Monacoran Military Prince's bunker sewage system has anti-infiltration defenses.

Post by **Beowulf** » 2004-08-09 11:03am

The only thing that is truly inviolate is permanantly killing off a player's personal character (FAdm. Phong Nguyen for example) with out that player's permission.

Unless you really want to claim Elanie is a Mary Sue, don't consider her impossible to kill. She may be damn hard to kill, but not impossible.

As to Quantek, I don't think I've seen anyone using true TK in the game prior to this. There has been magic, but no TK. It seems more like your Quantek is an outgrowth of research into telepathy, that being the only thing you've mentioned as using. And again, IT'S NOT MAGIC!