[OOC] For the Gods! [RECRUITING]

[ASTA]

Schradinger said
Well, Krix can't lift two tons. He can lift a little over one ton. In all honesty, I'd rather amp the existing heroes to true demigod levels and say he can lift 10 tons (putting him back in play as a physical powerhouse but still weaker than N'athr and Sovereign) than nerf Sovereign and N'athr. Of course, the other original heroes would need to be amped as well, and Light might have something different to say if he ever comes back, but it would make the battles feel more like it's two demigods fighting.

Well, we can buff the characters for now I guess, but I think a tier system or something needs to be established as soon as possible.

Sovereign's sudden gain in weight and size is only a minor issue born from the inconsistent (and poorly-defined) power scaling of the roleplay. It'll only become worse as time goes on, sadly.

[Schradinger]

Alright, I'll operate under the assumption that Krix can lift 10 tonnes.

About the wolf summon, if it's not going to be a one-time strategic thing, I feel like there should be something more involved in their summoning than "They appear!", since that basically just means that your opponent ends up fighting four champions (even if three are less powerful) at a time instead of one, the weaker three of which can be instantly healed and return to battle after death every X amount of posts.

To me, an attack that increases the number of opponents should be a one-time option whose use needs to be decided tactically, rather than spammed at every opportunity (because if you CAN do it every X posts, why wouldn't you?). An exception to this would obviously be a specialized summoner, who's weaker in personal power than their opponents but makes up for it by summoning creatures stronger than themselves. Summoning wolves, however, makes a lot of sense for your character so I would hate to see the ability removed altogether.

[ASTA]

Schradinger said
Alright, I'll operate under the assumption that Krix can lift 10 tonnes.About the wolf summon, if it's not going to be a one-time strategic thing, I feel like there should be something more involved in their summoning than "They appear!", since that basically just means that your opponent ends up fighting four champions (even if three are less powerful) at a time instead of one, the weaker three of which can be instantly healed and return to battle after death every X amount of posts.To me, an attack that increases the number of opponents should be a one-time option whose use needs to be decided tactically, rather than spammed at every opportunity (because if you CAN do it every X posts, why wouldn't you?). An exception to this would obviously be a specialized summoner, who's weaker in personal power than their opponents but makes up for it by summoning creatures stronger than themselves. Summoning wolves, however, makes a lot of sense for your character so I would hate to see the ability removed altogether.

After having read the first few IC posts that have been submitted for this battle, I've already detected several glaring issues with them. For one, they're rather restricted in their special capabilities and seem to function as nothing more than a chaotic threesome of low-grade minions that are reliant on crude, unimaginative melee attacks to bring harm to their enemies; this isn't satisfactory given the wide range of special powers and items that your average, run-of-the-mill arena combatant has access to (as Krix has just demonstrated). Even Sovereign has a few tricks up his sleeve that can potentially alter the flow of an arena skirmish despite being a claw-to-fresh specialist.

Later versions of Sovereign's CS will feature a far more extensive description of the Shadow Hounds' individual physical characteristics, limitations and a number of distinct powers applied to each of them, which will reinforce my intentions of the 'Hounds being a powerful strategic asset rather than bog-standard mooks destined for the meat grinder. They'll function as a pack, with Sovereign at the head.

To counterattack this 'buff', I'll probably make the power one that requires a warm-up time before it can be used. But in truth, I'm hesitant to make it a charged attack, because charged attacks are difficult to pull off unless you work some seriously skillful IC work that ensures that the charged attack is guaranteed to fire off successfully without being interrupted.

Or I could just make it a one-battle use ability and leave it at that.

However, I'm not changing anything relating to the Shadow Hounds until this battle is concluded, but I am going to decree that Sovereign can only summon them once during this battle so that fair play can be maintained.

But now I need to figure out how to make as many of Sovereign's friends survive Krix's counterattack as feasibly possible.

[Schradinger]

The hounds will only be as useful as you make them, even if they remain entirely physical combatants. In this particular case, it was likely the lack of detail regarding their attacks that lead to the perception of them being low-grade mooks. In the absence of specific detail, I had to run with the information I did have and create the detail myself, though keep in mind that none of my attacks have been successful yet.

As an attack, having three extra (if weaker) characters to work with can be extremely versatile and powerful if used correctly, just like any other character's abilities. At any rate, I look forward to seeing how those three evolve with time and practice.

[Skallagrim]

Proposal to the tier/power issue: Because there is a great disparity in what people consider “fair” as originally proposed by Light in constructing a character I am submitting a proposal for evaluating power levels.

This is the intermediate tier I use for my tournaments. You will notice there are three levels within the tier showing the lower and upper limits of the tier. Notice the Jedi example; Padawan, Knight and Master. Even a padawan with a light saber is dangerous although the knight and master have more tricks, they can still be killed by the padawan.

Regardless of where the character falls within the tier, powers are considered equal so someone on the lower end can survive a normal attack from someone on the upper end and only a prepped action will break through normal defenses. Clearly we can tweak this to suit 'comfort' levels of the players but as it is now we have a great deal of freedom without constriction.

Intermediate || Examples of Intermediate powers and abilities include Mad Scientist level genius and scientific ability, long ranged telepathy, magical powers that to not involve a divine patron, and the ability to shoot flaming bats with magic arrows of light without the aid of that damnable fairy partner. In general, the range of ability to be expected from a Jedi Padawan of Star Wars or a Gennin Ninja of Naruto—as well as the use of cybernetics, alchemy, and so on to simulate any of that.

I-2 The basics of nano technology capable of regenerating minor wounds, or alternatively wizardry or clerical ability capable of the same. You can pilot your own short range star fighter and have access to technology so advanced as to be almost magical in nature. The ability to fly for any reason you can think of that makes any rudimentary amount of plot logic. Your character may have the reflexes and skills of an elite Jedi Knight, the speed of Saito Hajime, and the power to take down Trinity of The Matrix with ease.

I-3 The ability to heal major damage taken bother personally, or by others, through the method of your choice. The charisma and influence necessary to muster an army of elite soldiers, and access to the technology needed to build and operate a small space craft capable of interstellar travel (or a magic dragon from the future, whatever floats your boat). Your powers and skills rival those of Gandalf the White, Obi-Wan Kenobi and Himura Kenshin at their best.

[notdeadyet]

Sorry for the wait. X-mas got me buisy.

[ASTA]

I'm starting to question how long it's going to be before RPG's 22/7 downtime is going to cause me to permanently leave this joint.

Mahz admitting he gives 0 damns anymore would be an excellent first start.

[Grnmachine]

ASTA said
I'm starting to question how long it's going to be before RPG's 22/7 downtime is going to cause me to permanently leave this joint.Mahz admitting he gives 0 damns anymore would be an excellent first start.

For all we know Mahz is trying his best to fix the site. Dont be such a pessimist :/

[ASTA]

Grnmachine said
For all we know Mahz is trying his best to fix the site. Dont be such a pessimist :/

He isn't trying. Looking at the list of empty promises and undelivered updates over the past 10 months is dead-proof of this; if you were a long-standing member of RPG prior to its deactivation earlier this year, you would have been exposed to Mahz's older displays of shoddiness.

I'm not going to weigh down the thread with a discussion like this though. If you want to talk about this more, PM me. I'll have links and other citations waiting for you.

[ASTA]

How did Krix intercept that many stones with the single chain while also simultaneously altering each stone's trajectory to such a heavy degree without the stones incurring a sever loss in velocity during the process? I could see him blocking the things, but flinging them back at a completely new target like that comes off as very strange.

Additionally, is there a maximum and/or minimum radius his stone-manipulating/stone sensory powers can function at, or is it unlimited?

[Skallagrim]

ASTA said
I'm starting to question how long it's going to be before RPG's 22/7 downtime is going to cause me to permanently leave this joint.Mahz admitting he gives 0 damns anymore would be an excellent first start.

Hence my reluctance to engage in combat at this time. Even my fight with Melon. Although I want to post the reality is I don't trust the site will remain stable for a lengthy missive.

[ASTA]

Skallagrim said
Hence my reluctance to engage in combat at this time. Even my fight with Melon. Although I want to post the reality is I don't trust the site will remain stable for a lengthy missive.

Well, I've been scouting Iwaku for Arena-type RPs and Arena-style multiverse threads, but they're rare, and the only multiverse thread I found placed strong emphasis on porting characters from established fictional universes into rather chaotic combat scenarios rather than pushing the players to create custom characters fit for tiered and GMed battles. I recall seeing a character--some sort of anthropomorphic cartoon train--literally being described as being in possession of Toon Force. Needless to say, I closed the tab and went elsewhere.

Personally, I'd open a multiverse thread there, but I don't have the arena experience to pull something like that off without it failing quickly.

[Schradinger]

ASTA said
How did Krix intercept that many stones with the single chain while also simultaneously altering each stone's trajectory to such a heavy degree the stones incurring a sever loss in velocity during the process? I could see him blocking the things, but flinging them back at a completely new target like that comes off as very strange.

Additionally, is there a maximum and/or minimum radius his stone-manipulating/stone sensory powers can function at, or is it unlimited?

The trajectory would have been altered by less than 20 degrees. Sovereign is currently behind Krix, and the second wolf is in front and to the left of him. He didn't stop them then hurl them back, he just nudged them onto a new course, something that requires much less willpower than stopping over two dozen stone projectiles traveling at over mach 2 dead in their tracks. He also didn't use the chain to do it, he was just re-coiling that around his arm.

And for the purposes of this RP, the range would be effectively unlimited. His actual range is around 1 kilometer (getting weaker the farther away it is), but the arena isn't that big. It might be bigger than a 100 meter radius though, which is the range at which his sensory abilities begin to degrade enough to inhibit his perception of things.

[ASTA]

Schradinger said
The trajectory would have been altered by less than 20 degrees. Sovereign is currently behind Krix, and the second wolf is in front and to the left of him. He didn't stop them then hurl them back, he just nudged them onto a new course, something that requires much less willpower than stopping over two dozen stone projectiles traveling at over mach 2 dead in their tracks. He also didn't use the chain to do it, he was just re-coiling that around his arm. And for the purposes of this RP, the range would be effectively unlimited. His actual range is around 1 kilometer (getting weaker the farther away it is), but the arena isn't that big. It might be bigger than a 100 meter radius though, which is the range at which his sensory abilities begin to degrade enough to inhibit his perception of things.

It's probably a lot more than two-dozen stones; Sovereign coiled his twin fists around two different lumps of gravel. In possession of much larger hands than those of a normal human man, he'd have the capacity to gather more rocks--probably over a hundred (if you combined the two piles).

Also, with how fast characters in this RP can move, an arena constructed for humans doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Sovereign would be capable of ringing it completely multiple times within the span of a minute (if not a few seconds). Skall's character's swiftness and jumping capabilities and Mifune's speed would be severely gimped since he's unable to make full-use of it in such a confined space unless Mifune himself is restricting himself solely to melee combat ranges. Ranged characters, like Grnmachine's, are hindered as well; they'd be set upon by melee users within seconds. Presently, the battlefield favors characters like Krix who can exert a profound degree of control over the field of combat with little consequence since it's so petite in total radius and volume. Skall's character can generate a seismic shockwave that has a range of two full miles, so there's no way to avoid this unless you hurl yourself in the air or brace yourself before the character initiates this attack.

[Schradinger]

True enough, which is likely why Light never intended the original characters to be at the level of Sovereign, N'athr, and now Krix (due to his current strength boost). Still, an arena more than two kilometers across would be huge. Likely too huge for the spectators to see the match itself unless it was on their side of the battlefield. Without some method of televising everything, the whole point of having a physical arena becomes moot.

[Skallagrim]

But the primary observers for these fights are gods...does the arena size really matter?

[Schradinger]

Light said in the opening post that it was a "decent sized courtyard", so there is that. But realistically, no. If Notdeadyet and Daglobster are still around they can change the setting to a full-size battlefield if they want.

[Schradinger]

So now that the holidays are over, are we still doing this ASTA?

[ASTA]

I kind of stopped posting on RPG due to the frequent and long-lasting outages. I'm fine with continuing the battle and remaining invested within the RP, but is there anyway we can relocate the RP to a new forum or something? Perhaps Iwaku? This might draw in more players to participate.

And it would also allow me to push Skallagrim into starting a new Multiverse Arena thread on there.

Actually, there's an unusual number of ex-RPGers and current RPGers on Iwaku itself---at least 70+ IIRC.

[Schradinger]

I'd be cool with that. I just made an account and perused a bit, and it looks fairly promising, though the combat section seems far less active than it is (has been) here.