Drifting Pollen

Running and Gunning - Higan Vs. The Magna Pater

All right, here's the long and short of it:

Melon's right about the lens. Most large cameras will in fact have layers of glass in front of the lens, and while these would almost certainly have been broken, destroying them would not impact the functioning of the cameras themselves. The vital parts tend to be buried pretty deep inside... and while blunt force trauma might be enough to severely damage them, these ones are covered in armor, and likely toughened up, given they're part of a freaking battle mech. Indeed, a smart engineer would have made sure that the essential components were thoroughly insulated against large 'smashing' attacks from the outside. Though we can't necessarily say that this is the case here, I'd say that the main lens surviving is more likely. The right side getting taken out is clearly based on the character sheet, so any arguments about that being 'too convenient' are pretty much unfounded.

Doctor's right about the initial grab not working. He'd already established the speed of his character, as well as its flexibility and readiness for a counterattack. So it would get away in time to make its attempt at squeezing under the arm- leading to Melon's latest post. However, it's now Doc's turn, and he has a chance to respond to that.

As for most of the other stuff... there have been multiple accusations of metagaming and whatnot, as unofficial judge I recommend taking them all and throwing them in the big fat garbage can of forgiveness. Yes, there were arguably minor problems on both sides, but none of them stopped the fight from going on or being fun up to this point. Going through them impartially would take forever, likely ruin what was honestly a pretty cool fight so far, and would probably reveal about an equal amount of mistakes from both sides.

And yes, the current fight is technically rather lopsided. If both contestants want to re-balance things to even them out or whatever, then do as you like, so long as the two of you get along. For the purposes of the main points being disputed, however (the grab and the cameras), see what I wrote above.

Hope that helps. Are there any particular points you two feel I still need to address, or does this cover things?

Running and Gunning - Higan Vs. The Magna Pater

@Drifting Pollen

Can you give a judgement on the fight? We need an unbiased, absolute solution to this standstill based upon posts presented both IC'ly and OOC'ly.

@Doc Doctor

I'm charmed that you trust me so :)

Give me some time, need to review all those walls of text you guys wrote.

MT-R2: Divinity Vs DLL

@Divinity

If you had called them lances instead of javelins the issue would still be very much the same.

@Starfall

Not necessarily. I was able to tell they were coming from the ground based on just reading the post, but on the other hand I can see how someone would get a different mental image from it... still, a slight change in the wording might have helped clarify enough to prevent confusion.

We can't really know, though, since everyone is used to different styles and thus may read the same words and interpret them differently. This is why I'm recommending more communication, because I really enjoy reading these things and would like to see them go cleanly if possible.

MT-R2: Divinity Vs DLL

Whoo boy, this got crazy fast.

Just popping in to say this seems more like a misunderstanding to me. Technically, Corban was very vague about where the 'javelins' came from, but that wouldn't have been a problem if DLL had asked for clarification before making his own post. On the other hand, it's possible that the wording itself (specifically 'javelins,' which were throwing weapons and therefore technically a projectile) made him think Corban meant one thing when in fact he meant another...

From my experience, it's generally considered the best form to make things as clear as possible to one's opponents. However, everyone has a right to write how they want... perhaps it would be best for Corban to add a brief, italicized summary of what is actually happening beneath each post? Shouldn't take too much effort, and it would help resolve inconsistencies in the future.

Arena Chat Thread

If you consider others from sites not here unworthy, your community will slowly die. I learned this lesson a long time ago, people tend to hop around. People however do tend to stick with groups, be it a site or a group of friends, and when you get a group that travels around from place to place(usually all at once) its not a bad thing.

@Enki

Considering the anemic condition of the fighting community on RPGuild, an infusion of fresh faces is probably warranted. You can only fight the same people so many times; without new players, things will stagnate. A group of ten or twenty people isn't especially sustainable in this particular context.

@Darth

Perhaps I need to make this clear: I have nothing against people coming here from other sites, and I agree that new players are vital for any community. What I was saying was that I was unlikely to bring along a posse of allies myself, since the structure and rules of the other sites I tend to fight on would make this difficult.

Hope that clears things up.

Arena Chat Thread

@Drifting Pollen If you have allies, bring allies. The Arena needs more people.
Especially since some of the best are either leaving and or indisposed. Humble compliment @Skallagrim, @MelonHead, and @Rilla.
Bring as many people from other sites as you can, my dudes and dudettes.

@LeeRoy

I'll see what I can do. Unfortunately, the other arenas I frequent are also lacking in participants... but perhaps I can find someone bloodthirsty enough to spread their duels across multiple sites.

Arena Chat Thread

@Starfall@Gun
I have like. One guy so like. Yeah.

@LeeRoy

Though I'm not particularly inclined to bring in people from other sites, I'd be willing to join a group if one needs more members.

Running and Gunning - Higan Vs. The Magna Pater

NO MY HUBRIS, I MIGHT HAVE BROUGHT ABOUT A PEACEFUL END!!! THIS IS THE WORST OUTCOME!!!

@LeeRoy

*throws away popcorn* god dammit LeeRoy!

Arena Chat Thread

Sounds interesting LeeRoy, I'd have to give it a miss though. Once I'm done with the tournament one way or another I'm outta here. Whatever creativity I have is definitely dried up by now.

@MelonHead

Well darn... will this be a permanent absence, or are you just taking a break for a while?

I am new to the arena and have tried making two characters following some examples I have found.

But I see people talking about power levels and tiers and do not understand them.

@13 Critics

Power levels are basically measures of how strong your character is. We use them to help make even matchups, so that both characters in a fight have a chance of beating the other. They're divided more or less like this:

Unpowered (tier 1-2): Human characters with few or no special abilities, other than being extremely skilled. Weapons and armor are generally ancient technology, stuff like swords and plate mail.

Low Powered (tier 2-3): Characters with a few special abilities (like super-strength or a couple of spells), not enough to be monstrously powerful but enough that they could easily beat a modern soldier. More advanced weaponry such as guns are sometimes allowed at this tier (though it really depends what kind of fight you want to have).

Mild or Mid Powered (tier 4-6): Characters with an arsenal of different powers they can use to be a serious threat in battle. This is the level where you get stuff like lasers, throwing cars, fire manipulation, etc. Most powers are allowed here, but they shouldn't be so strong that one could do stuff like blow up cities with them (so no nuke launchers, time manipulation, or anything Dragon Ball Z level). Some Mild-powered characters are stronger than others, so we use tiers to measure whether they're closer to Low Powered or High Powered.

High Powered (tier 7 and above): Characters with insanely strong abilities, capable of wiping out cities, countries, or even planets with a single move. This is where you see powers like black holes and time control being thrown around. Fights at this level are pretty rare, however, and tend not to be competitive when they are held (simply because things get really hard to judge when you're throwing planets at each other.

The system is honestly pretty vague, so don't worry if you don't grasp it exactly. So long as you have a general idea of how strong your character is and what kind of fight you want to use them in, you should be fine.

Running and Gunning - Higan Vs. The Magna Pater

If I may interject:

youtube.com/watch?v=sH_6iFYiryY