@PaulHaynek I'm interested. Just one question. Can we play as a Robot Boy instead of a Robot Girl? While I like Mecha Musume and their designs a lot, I've always wanted to try a male version of the concept. Plus, I generally dislike anime fanservice and Mecha Musume designs are usually all about that.
It's not a dealbreaker, but I would greatly appreciate it. Especially since I see some male robots in the first OOC post.
Hey, so the current idea I have is a robot completely dependent on loadouts to be useful, sort of like the AGE-1. However, this means I can take on any role so long as I have a loadout package I can equip, which I was concerned would be letting me do too much relative to other players, so I decided to run a WIP sheet by you first. Can you take a look at what I have so far?
Appearance:
Note that when battle is joined, the mechanical bits on Hikari's ears extend a telescoping mechanism which encases his entire head in a metal combat visor.
Name: PAEU-MT-001, short for Polar Arms Experimental Unit Modification Type Model 001, nickname "Hikari"
Combat Role: Varies based on loadout
Data Center: Wizdom - North
Equipment & Gear: Currently, three add-on packages have been designed for Hikari to equip, running the gamut of robot classes.
Personality:
Background: Hikari was designed as an experimental unit to test what could be a paradigm shift in combat robot design: Add-on combat loadouts. Hikari's body is basically a blank slate, resembling something similar to a skinless human from the neck down, with the muscles replaced with blatantly-artificial synth-fibers. In his stripped-down state, he has enormous strength relative to a human and running speed exceeding that of a fully-fledged light-class robot, but can only fight with his bare hands.
He is almost dependent on add-on packages to fight, usually supplied by Polar Arms, though Polar has not patented the technology in the hopes that others will adopt its approach, allowing other corporations and other planets to, in time, develop a wide swath of add-ons for MT ("Modification Type)" robots to use. Currently, however, the concept is still being tested, and Hikari, after having his AI run through a simulated childhood that condensed 25 years into a single week, has been dispatched to assist the war effort against the Swarms while collecting data for Polar Arms to analyze and improve the future iterations of his line.
I actually thought about this, robots just customizing themselves to suit the situation. But the players having a bajillion equipment sets would just be taxing to me so I restricted it to a set personal equipment that the character takes during all missions. It also wouldn't be fair to the current players so I recommend just going Hybrid if you want to be versatile.
The in-universe explanation would be that technology for customizable robots is extremely limited for now.
@PaulHaynek Character sheet done. I mostly based her theme off of the fact that the picture I used was one of the only faceclaims i could find that i actually liked that still qualified as a mecha-musume.
Tell me what you think.
Name: BU-SHI-D0 (aka Bushido)
Combat Role: Close Combat - Medium
Data Center: Wizdom - North
→ 4 x BX-450 Rapid Oscillation (RO) Duratanium Katanas, mounted in four bespoke scabbards at Bushido’s hips. Each one vibrates at an insanely-fast rate, not unlike an electric carving knife or a vibroblade from Star Wars, enabling them to cut through Swarm like butter, and easily slice through most obstacle or armor systems without much issue. As if that wasn’t enough, the blades can be electrified to cause additional damage to a target or even take down an enemy non-lethally by hitting them with the flat of the blade. Uses 4 slots.
→ 2 x Variable Flight Units (VFUs), mounted on Bushido’s calves and feet. Resembling the antiquated wings of a Harrier jet, these are ideal for both atmsopheric and spaceflight. Bushido can rotate her calves and hips in an impossible way to lock the VFUs on her legs together with a result that looks not unlike a mermaid’s tail and orient the combined flight units in any direction, allowing her dramatically-increased speed in a single direction at a time at the expense of using her legs in combat. Uses 2 slots.
→ Full-Body Duratanium Armor Plating, sufficient to protect against most attacks in Bushido’s weight class. Uses 1 Slot.
→ 0.5-cubic-foot Repair Nanite Reserve, located in Bushido’s torso. These nanites form an advanced self-repair system, allowing Bushido to regenerate from any bodily damage by substituting themselves for damaged parts, so long as she has nanites left in the reserve. Generally, this is only sufficient to take care of moderate puncture wounds, lacerations, localized burns, minor scrapes and bruises, or one serious injury per refill.
Personality: Bushido has a near-perfect knowledge of ancient Japanese culture. Her memory banks contain terabytes of information on things like how to perform a tea ceremony, according to eighteen different schools dedicated to teaching the subject, and how to properly make a bonsai, and how to craft an authentic katana, and how one should properly use honorifics, and what ancient anime are the best, and so on ad nauseam. This knowledge is almost never actually used by her. She keeps it in her memory banks only in the vague hope that it might be useful someday, but that day has never actually come.
She has a strong sense of justice and self-improvement (instilled by her weeb creator in an attempt to capture Japanese ideals), and a knack for art, but at the same time has crippling self-confidence issues due to years of social missteps leading to constant belittling by her peers growing up. Creeps don’t make the best A.I. programmers.
Background: Designed as more of an art piece than a child, by a blatant Old Earth culture enthusiast whose obsession was downright pathological (the ancient term was “weeaboo”), Bushido was quickly taken away from her maniac “father” and raised in the robot equivalent of a foster care system on Wizdom.
While Bushido kept her old programming, giving her an inherent appreciation for ancient Japanese culture and peerless swordsmanship, she had a serious problem growing up: She was built with an adult body, by someone who might as well be a grown teenager at best. This led to numerous social missteps, as she had to effectively learn social skills and how to live in society through both special tutoring and trial-and-error.
Eventually, she managed to learn enough to be a functional adult, but the fact still remained that she had been designed with close-combat ability in mind, with milspec parts that her creator had acquired through shady means. She might as well be tailor-made to join the military. And so she decided to go through with the process and join the Wizdom armed forces, where she received proper military upgrades that augmented her strengths instead of the black-market hack-job she had before.
"Why do you always drink green tea, anyway? The stuff doesn't even make good biofuel."
Bushido looked up from her mug of warm, green liquid. "Programming," she said curtly.
"Programming? Who would program drink preferences into their daughter?" was the incredulous reply of Snowpoint, a ranged unit specialized for arctic conditions. And Bushido's lunchmate this time.
"A crazy wannabe Old Earth anthropologist who only ever focused on the culture of a long-dead island nation."
"...That was your creator?"
"Hai-I mean yes."
"Eeesh. It shows."
"I've mostly outgrown my programming, but not completely. You can't even comprehend how many times I've thought about having someone change a few variables so I can be done with it."
Snowpoint's face simulated going pale. More pale than she already was, anyway. "You'd go that far?"
Bushido took a long drink of tea and sighed. "It's not just the odd language quirk. I have terabytes of information on this old culture in my memory banks. Nippon, it was called. Japan, to others. And don't get me wrong, it'd be nice to have in a museum somewhere, but it's just taking up space as it is. And some of it gets...weird. Too weird."
"Why'd he do this to you anyway?"
Bushido looked up from her tea, looking Snowpoint in the eye. "I wasn't his daughter, to him. I was an art piece that could talk. He saw me as, and I quote, 'the perfect encapsulation of Japanese culture, immortalized in steel and personified through the female form.' He'd have me do things for him, like perform an ancient tea-making ceremony and slice fabric mats with these swords of mine. And he was as happy as a small child when I did it. Until someone with a processor stepped in and took me away."
Snowpoint simply took a long look at her and swallowed, taken aback by her story. "...I see."
"So now do you see why I drink green tea?"
"Y-yes, but what does that have to do with Nippon?"
Bushido didn't know whether to be overjoyed or ticked that she had an opportunity to use her encyclopedic knowledge, but she dutifully began, "Well, you see..."
@PaulHaynek Honestly, I got a job soon after I joined and thus haven't had a whole lot of free time, plus I both think my character is a bit too goofy and I'm regretting going to Wizdom since it isolates me from the other players. I'm not sure I even want to continue or have the time, and I'd be fine with the game not continuing.
Hey man, looks like you're the only one left here and I got some bad news. Gonna have to end this RP.
Not only am I having trouble finding the motivation to continue this, I've also become really busy with other things and I found out there was no way that I could continue this. The lack of players also didn't help.