[OOC] Arena Chat Thread

[Liaison]

11,000 adults got up out of bed and voted for Harambe man...

[Xavier Bloodbayne]

They just wanted the candidate who could make the biggest impact...

[MelonHead]

Here is a brief description of Molecular Dissipation. It is the ability to cause solid objects to lose their molecular cohesion by absorbing the energy within their atomic bonds. Thus making objects disappear.

My character didn’t have the ability to do that with his body so I added it to an external force, a projectile.

@Liaison

In other words, you had a dick-waving contest, seeing as how that concept is entirely pseudo-science. Your knowledge of physics was generally irrelevant. You could have just as easily have said your character can fire rounds that displace what they hit from existence, seeing as how the end result is exactly the same. You've just buttered it up to seem somehow less overpowered. For example, how did the rounds contain that much energy over such a brief period of contact? What could possibly stop such a projectile, isn't it non-interactive by its very nature? How did you avoid immediately causing your own weapon to disappear when you fired said bullet (i'm assuming it was a firearm, it could have just been your hand or something, but same logic applies)? How did you stop the bullet absorbing so much energy on route that it exploded?

I assure you all the rules you apply in lower tier fights are the same as high. Here’s what I mean. The simple rules of no Godmoding, Metagaming and Powergaming still apply. Its not like they disappear. You cant control another person character, the amount of damage they take is on them unless you have a logical claim and you cant just overpower and demean others peoples powers because you think you’re “stronger” everything is logic based still. In the case of the armor he couldn’t say his armor would just deflect it because I provided a logical counter which forced him lose faith in his armor and have to evade out of fear of taking lethal blows.

Those general rules apply, but none of the things that actually allow you to determine what actions are possible and impossible do anymore. In my mind, your character is already metagaming if he managed to put together this round apparently for the first time that can in theory penetrate any defence that anyone could conceivably concoct. Did he try and fail to pierce the armour at first? Did he know that its only weakness was the super reality warping round of doom?

Superman has no personality so of course he’s boring.

Actually, Superman's personality is one of the few things that make him interesting. His challenges mostly come from the fact that unlike Batman, he actually aspires to be Heroic. He embodies the concept of a superhero more thoroughly than Batman ever will, because he tries to be a symbol and inspire people to do good, where-as Batman only cares about punishing those who do bad. He's boring because people like to see people overcome physical adversity, they don't like their all-american heroes being confounded by moral issues, they want them to fight through the pain and beat down the British bad guy, throwing him from the tower with a 'yippy ka-ye motherfucker'

I prefer Batman was well but that has nothing to do with Clark Kent. With your logic the comic the Infinity Gauntlet would be as uninteresting as it could be, no? It is entirely possible powerful beings can have extensive back stories and lore’s that would be a pleasure to read.(Ex:Darkseid & Dormammu) Also even characters like Galactus, The Living Tribunal and Thanos have losses at the end of the day as well. Strength is not a indicator of less interesting themes.

None of those characters are heroes, you don't want to relate to them, you want to fear them or hate them and be glad they die. Its pretty common in a narrative sense to make the big-bad big-tough big-big sai.

Also, in most cases when you explore the backstory of an incredibly powerful character, you're usually experiencing their road to becoming that strong. I can't think of many enjoyable stories that involve a character powerful as fuck from the get go.

In addition lets take into account that when Superman fights opponents such as Doomsday, Darkseid and Mongul those tend to be extremely interesting bouts and those beings have vast wells of power. Its because the villians are examples of interesting high powered beings. Lets go back to Darkseid. I find his backstory to be really interesting because he like many rp characters I’ve seen grew to that strength. It was a progress. A lot of these extremely powerful RP characters I’m referring to have become stronger from assets they acquired from thread to thread in one continuing story.

Anyways, I’m about done going back and forth (at least for now). I just wanted to give an alternate view point to the high powered bashing that was going on because I think it would be good if both forms of fighting thrived here. I really mean that. A healthy debate hurts no one at the end of the day.

Those fights are great to read and watch, they're always explosive and fun spectacles, but I can't think of any time where I've been impressed by some tactical move or strategic element employed within them. And comic heroes and villains tend to be better balanced than higher tier characters actually are in Arena, they are usually far narrower in scope than the characters with answers to everything, like your reality warping bullets.

No hate, I appreciate the debate, just saying why I think there's some skill lost in higher tier battle. I can't remember exactly why this discussion started. Still, nothing breathes life into this place like me picking fights with everyone, so I thought I'd give it a new lease for a bit.

[Doc Doctor]

Keep in mind, I just now Googled "Boring Superman" and got these right off the bat.

















These do not reflect my own opinion.

[LeeRoy]

@Shoryu Magami
Bruv, I'll fight any character with any number of powers. Step up to the plate, son.

I'm always looking for someone to throw The Baron at, or maybe Eddie.

Either one works, m8.

There's no power too OP for those two, come at me.

[LeeRoy]

@Liaison
That's actually not confirmed and unlikely.

[Liaison]

@MelonHead

Lol be serious man. I’m not going to paste an entire post in this thread to prove a point. I gave a brief description for you and if you want to try to pick it apart with petty arguments without knowing all the details of the post that's fine. Also molecular dissipation is indeed possible. In addition I don’t need to explain why I think shooting regular bullets at a being capable of destroying an entire planet is dumb. Of course my character would feel the need to do more. He would be ineffective if he thought otherwise. In the face of that you would be going for overkill as well. The bullets are something I had the concept for before the fight so nah it wasnt metagaming. Also I don’t appreciate you calling it reality warping because I stated exactly what it was. They’re not an answer to everything just a solid counter to extremely powerful armors I strategized. Period. There are people I know who could counter it that are better than me but I digress. Also it's at the point where you are kind of scraping for low blows here but yeah I agree we should stop this discussion for now.

[Shoryu Magami]

@LeeRoy
>Isn't reading any post except this one that was directed at him, since he's already multitasking.

While I'll remain sceptic about whether or not those two characters would be balanced match-ups for my characters (Doc Doctor has been given vague details - which I would prefer remain unspoken of - about what my characters can do, but I haven't given anyone of the site a full idea of it), at least until I have time to look at a character sheet for them, I nevertheless appreciate the open-mindedness.

I should make a point though -- for anyone who hasn't actually been seeing all the comments I've made all around the site, or hasn't been reading between the lines in my posts in the arena forum itself, I'm actually not getting involved for reasons beyond just the power tier of my characters. I've got way too much going on, I haven't really role-played on a website in over five years, and the only primary reason I involve myself in battle-orientated role-play isn't for the purpose of competition, but rather to use it as a 'battle simulation' to test new ideas for characters or powers I have in mind. There's currently nothing I need to test, so no need to involve myself in it, especially since I usually run these simulations with my own circle of people.

The main reason I took up ELGainsborough on his duel was because I wanted to get some exercise in since I'm incredibly rusty, and no one else had taken up his offer at the time. I picked a role-play duel that was absolutely nothing like the sort I would normally take part in precisely so I didn't need to get overly invested in it with everything else I've got going on. I didn't intend to take part in a other duels on this forum, and I'm barely even taking part in any IC on this site in the first place for a variety of reasons. So it's a misconception that I only didn't get involved here due to the power of my characters and setting -- I've been planning to not get involved regardless, and have made this clear several times (though you've never really met me - nor read threads I've been part of the OOC of - so you can be excused for not knowing that). The only thing being disrespected has resulted in is an unwillingness to contribute to this place in an OOC sense (getting more people interested in the forum, offering advice and tutorials for people, et cetera).

With all that said though, I once again emphasize that I appreciate the open-mindedness.

[Alucroas]

@MelonHeadSuperman isn't boring because he is overpowered, he's boring because he has too many powers - thus limiting his need to think and strategize, and has gone from being a mild-mannered superhero with discernible weaknesses to discarding them for the sake of allowing him to win, and has a habit of turning into a meatheaded dick that is so powerful he can hear my breath as I turn the pages. The most interesting version of Superman I bore witness to was the Injustice version where he became a corrupt tyrant.

As for Batman, he does not do what he does solely to punish criminals. He is also a philanthropist, and while that does play into his Bruce Wayne persona, it still contributes to his overall plan of improving Gotham city and by extension honoring his dead parents.

I would also argue that people do not want their all-american heroes to discard morals and simply fight through the pain, otherwise the Marvel Civil War would not be as memorable as it was due to the sheer fact that it was a story of ideology, otherwise people would spend their time solely debating which side should have won based off powers and skills.

[LeeRoy]

@Shoryu Magami
I just want a fight, I don't care about your arguments. PM your character sheet and step up, my dude.

[LeeRoy]

@Albatross City
Iron Man was wrong, always will be.

It wasn't a question of morality, it was an ethical question.

The Heroes do more good with their identities secret, and their families remain untouched.

Opening their identities to the public puts their families in danger and makes the Heroes emotionally involved.

Morality drives what the Heroes do, but in the long run it's simply more Ethical to let a Hero be a Hero.

[Shoryu Magami]

@LeeRoy
How many times do I have to tell people that I don't have the time? I'm pretty much working sixteen hours a day on notes for my own project right now, with basically only enough time to take breaks for food. As it stands I haven't even been able to keep up to date on the role-play I'm currently in.

[LeeRoy]

@Shoryu Magami
I'm patient, one post a week is an acceptable metric.

[Shoryu Magami]

@LeeRoy
I'll keep that in mind. Even if I did have time, I don't intend to use my project characters in the state my notes are currently in since I'm going through a major overhaul of my work. Regardless, I'll make note of the fact that you're patient.

[Alucroas]

@Albatross City
Iron Man was wrong, always will be.

It wasn't a question of morality, it was an ethical question.

The Heroes do more good with their identities secret, and their families remain untouched.

Opening their identities to the public puts their families in danger and makes the Heroes emotionally involved.

Morality drives what the Heroes do, but in the long run it's simply more Ethical to let a Hero be a Hero.

@LeeRoy

When I used the word morals I was referring to individual choice, but yes, the Marvel Civil War is a story of ethics at the end of the day.

I'm actually on Tony Stark's side because making the public feel more safe is more important than the superheroes personal lives, for in choosing to defend Earth they are acting out of the greater good which requires a large degree of personal sacrifice. By accepting the fact that such dangers would be all too real from the moment they began to act, the government can then provide their families with the necessary protection or simply sign a non-disclosure agreement that pertains to information on their family.

The only way I'd ever be for Captain America's side is if the Avengers was a strictly black ops organization, where espionage is required to accomplish their missions, but all these big battles go on out in the public where everything is visible.

[LeeRoy]

@Albatross City
Oh yes, let's make the public FEEL safe instead of MAKING them safe.

A+ logic there, Iron Man. No, the only way it works is if either-

A: Every Hero and Villain simultaneously stop doing what they're doing, universally. Universally as in THE UNIVERSE. And lay down their arms.

or

B: If every Hero and Villain continue doing exactly as they're doing, because power attracts power. And the superhuman arms race is already in full swing.

A is impossible, because that would require a level of divine intervention that would be so much of a lazy deus ex machina that it'd be the worst selling story in history.

B is basically whats' actually going on. Other than collateral damage, most of the Superhuman antics are pretty self contained, it's the humans that try to interact with them that cause the problems.

[Alucroas]

@LeeRoy

Oh yes, let's make the public FEEL safe instead of MAKING them safe.

A+ logic there, Iron Man. No, the only way it works is if either-

A: Every Hero and Villain simultaneously stop doing what they're doing, universally. Universally as in THE UNIVERSE. And lay down their arms.

The public is only as safe as what's going on in their world, and even without super-powered beings, the world still doesn't feel safe given that a man with a nuke is just as dangerous to a highly populated area. Humanity always feels safer with clearly presented knowledge that they can accept with enough time: hiding facts is what causes people to get pissed, start questioning motives, and leads to events like the Civil War to begin with precisely because lack of knowledge = fear which leads to conflict.

B: If every Hero and Villain continue doing exactly as they're doing, because power attracts power. And the superhuman arms race is already in full swing.

This only causes more panic. Create a big enough threat that is constant enough to make headlines, and people will start hiding inside their homes, at which point civilization starts decelerating as a whole, making it easier for super-villains to come in and take over amidst the chaos.

A is impossible, because that would require a level of divine intervention that would be so much of a lazy deus ex machina that it'd be the worst selling story in history.

If every hero and supervillain stopped doing what they're doing there wouldn't need for any intervention at all.

B is basically whats' actually going on. Other than collateral damage, most of the Superhuman antics are pretty self contained, it's the humans that try to interact with them that cause the problems.

If they were self-contained, the Civil War wouldn't have happened, because its very premise was grounded on the fact that too much damage was being caused by the Avengers, which spurred Stark into taking the actions that he did.

[Athinar]

@Albatross City So one incident by Speedball getting too eager to catch Nitro should cause the whole superhuman world to get regulated?

Instead of that, why not just throw Nitro in whatever SuperJail, and try Speedball for 600 counts of Manslaughter?

[Alucroas]

@Albatross City So one incident by Speedball getting too eager to catch Nitro should cause the whole superhuman world to get regulated?

Instead of that, why not just throw Nitro in whatever SuperJail, and try Speedball for 600 counts of Manslaughter?

@Athinar

No.

Both should happen. If something like that happens once, it is probably going to happen again, albeit with a varying amounts of destruction and death.

[LeeRoy]

@Albatross City
So you're saying the masses should be punished for the actions of the few.