Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

Yes

4 (14.3%)

No

1 (3.6%)

It was fun for a long time but towards the end it just started to drag

6 (21.4%)

I wish I could have joined in.

17 (60.7%)

Total Members Voted: 28

[Zanzetkuken The Great]

[That's quite ridiculous, really. If your civilization is to respond with force to any preparations to kill dragons as a whole, which certainly includes dealing with wild dragons, hydras, and similarly large and tough megabeasts, then our foreign policy will certainly have to be changed. Assassins and spies will have to be branded invaders, captured, stripped down and interrogated, and shipped back in their skivvies with no recollection of their time spent within eyeshot of our fortress, and even traders will have to be guarded by the magically inclined or ethereal at all times. If it persists, then... At least the stoneworkers will have plenty of orders for extra-large -and small- coffins.]

The threat would only be against an attack, not any defense you care to make.

Basically, it would say "Do not use any of these weapons to attack anything.  You may use them for defense, but if you attack with them, I will be back."

[Eric Blank]

[That's quite ridiculous, really. If your civilization is to respond with force to any preparations to kill dragons as a whole, which certainly includes dealing with wild dragons, hydras, and similarly large and tough megabeasts, then our foreign policy will certainly have to be changed. Assassins and spies will have to be branded invaders, captured, stripped down and interrogated, and shipped back in their skivvies with no recollection of their time spent within eyeshot of our fortress, and even traders will have to be guarded by the magically inclined or ethereal at all times. If it persists, then... At least the stoneworkers will have plenty of orders for extra-large -and small- coffins.]

The threat would only be against an attack, not any defense you care to make.

Basically, it would say "Do not use any of these weapons to attack anything.  You may use them for defense, but if you attack with them, I will be back."

That's a reason to send a diplomat, not a battlemage assassin. And a treaty, not a threat.

[Zanzetkuken The Great]

[That's quite ridiculous, really. If your civilization is to respond with force to any preparations to kill dragons as a whole, which certainly includes dealing with wild dragons, hydras, and similarly large and tough megabeasts, then our foreign policy will certainly have to be changed. Assassins and spies will have to be branded invaders, captured, stripped down and interrogated, and shipped back in their skivvies with no recollection of their time spent within eyeshot of our fortress, and even traders will have to be guarded by the magically inclined or ethereal at all times. If it persists, then... At least the stoneworkers will have plenty of orders for extra-large -and small- coffins.]

The threat would only be against an attack, not any defense you care to make.

Basically, it would say "Do not use any of these weapons to attack anything.  You may use them for defense, but if you attack with them, I will be back."

That's a reason to send a diplomat, not a battlemage assassin. And a treaty, not a threat.

Fine.  He's going after you.   

A diplomat from the dragon civilization has arrived.

Diplomat is not the assassin.

[wierd]

Nitpick:

Superinvisiospy that is invisible to *all* wavelengths would be blind.  Just sayin.  Eyes need light tosee. This means the eyes have to absorb light. This means the eyeball cannot be perfectly transparent.  The slight absorption caused by the stealth superinvisiospy's eyeballs could theoretically be detectable.

Physics. Its good for girls, boys, and dragons alike. 

[Zanzetkuken The Great]

Nitpick:

Superinvisiospy that is invisible to *all* wavelengths would be blind.  Just sayin.  Eyes need light tosee. This means the eyes have to absorb light. This means the eyeball cannot be perfectly transparent.  The slight absorption caused by the stealth superinvisiospy's eyeballs could theoretically be detectable.

Physicis. Its good for girls, boys, and dragons alike. 

Still would be hard to detect.

[wierd]

Other issues: radiant IR emmissions.  Superinvisiospy is alive. That means he eats food, and converts it into energy for his body to stay alive.  While the second law *is* a bit wonky in the DF universe, "perfect cammoflauge" would cause his own waste heat emmissions (hot breath, etc) to accumulate inside whatever field effect was cloaking him/her.  Basically, they would easybake themselves to death on their own body heat.  (See last thread, with joykill suffering heat problems from the insulative nature of his hazard suit, coupled with hard exercise of fighting.)  A perfect cammo spell would be even *more* insulative, to keep from showing up to infravision capable creatures.

Another is sonar.  Sonar is sound reflection, bouncing off a surface. If the cammo'ed spy is not ethereal, they would have an echo signature. Echo locating lifeforms like bats would still be able to detect them.

Another: gas displacement. While the optical cammo might be perfect, that in and of itself is a flaw, because the environment is not always so.  Examples: low hanging fog, refractive angle change of liquid water, etc. Perfect transparancy means no refractive index. That means they would show up as a distortion if they tried to swim in water, which does have a refraction index. Low hanging mist would give them away as a 'clear spot' in the opacifying waist deep mist. Their cammo has no refraction.. but the mist does.

Sorry for being a joykill.... I picked the name for a reason.   engineers are notorious for pointing out nasty little flaws in narratives.

[Zanzetkuken The Great]

Other issues: radiant IR emmissions.  Superinvisiospy is alive. That means he eats food, and converts it into energy for his body to stay alive.  While the second law *is* a bit wonky in the DF universe, "perfect cammoflauge" would cause his own waste heat emmissions (hot breath, etc) to accumulate inside whatever field effect was cloaking him/her.  Basically, they would easybake themselves to death on their own body heat.  (See last thread, with joykill suffering heat problems from the insulative nature of his hazard suit, coupled with hard exercise of fighting.)  A perfect cammo spell would be even *more* insulative, to keep from showing up to infravision capable creatures.

Sorry for being a joykill.... I picked the name for a reason.   engineers are notorious for pointing out nasty little flaws in narratives.

Meh, he does need a couple more weaknesses.  especially with his ability to teleport...

[Oliolli]

engineers are notorious for pointing out nasty little flaws in narratives.

And that is exactly why they are needed anywhere and everywhere.

[Eric Blank]

Other issues: radiant IR emmissions.  Superinvisiospy is alive. That means he eats food, and converts it into energy for his body to stay alive.  While the second law *is* a bit wonky in the DF universe, "perfect cammoflauge" would cause his own waste heat emmissions (hot breath, etc) to accumulate inside whatever field effect was cloaking him/her.  Basically, they would easybake themselves to death on their own body heat.  (See last thread, with joykill suffering heat problems from the insulative nature of his hazard suit, coupled with hard exercise of fighting.)  A perfect cammo spell would be even *more* insulative, to keep from showing up to infravision capable creatures.

Another is sonar.  Sonar is sound reflection, bouncing off a surface. If the cammo'ed spy is not ethereal, they would have an echo signature. Echo locating lifeforms like bats would still be able to detect them.

Another: gas displacement. While the optical cammo might be perfect, that in and of itself is a flaw, because the environment is not always so.  Examples: low hanging fog, refractive angle change of liquid water, etc. Perfect transparancy means no refractive index. That means they would show up as a distortion if they tried to swim in water, which does have a refraction index. Low hanging mist would give them away as a 'clear spot' in the opacifying waist deep mist. Their cammo has no refraction.. but the mist does.

Sorry for being a joykill.... I picked the name for a reason.   engineers are notorious for pointing out nasty little flaws in narratives.

Don't forget snow, rain, or dirt. While the body could be transparent enough, anything non-ethereal would still accumulate fine particulates. Swampy ground, sand, plant pieces, and the like would accumulate on their body, especially if wearing clothing. Which also brings to mind how they would extend their camouflage to their clothing, but not to every small-ish object or organism they come in contact with. Watching plants suddenly vanish as they approach would be a dead give-away.

Zanzetkuken, if your spies are naked, I sincerely hope they don't intend to reveal themselves when they show up to deliver messages... Or that you at least send some attractive women. That would technically be less annoying to some of us.

[Zanzetkuken The Great]

The spell acts over an inch from the surface of the skin, so that anything inside becomes invisible.  If an object would be within the area of effect, only the portion within would become invisible, but would become visible when it left the area of effect.

[wierd]

In other words, walking through whispy smoke (like incense sticks) would give them away.

[Zanzetkuken The Great]

In other words, walking through whispy smoke (like incense sticks) would give them away.

Just like the invisible man.

[wierd]

Ok. We know we could detect suprinvisiospies now.

But first we need to discover that we are being so monitored. 

Then, its off to the lab to build cheesey rave party smoke machines. Let's hope the dwarves don't decide to have a laser lightshow.

[Super Hyena]

Sorry for breaking stuff and all, I'm quiet new to the forums.
I'll start by asking what is this?
That's all for today, thanks.

[Oliolli]

Hey wierd, thanks. Your anti-invisi -posts helped me write an english essay (due in 8 hours) in 10 minutes.

Sorry for breaking stuff and all, I'm quiet new to the forums.
I'll start by asking what is this?

Welcome to Bay 12. This is our frienly neighbourhood forum roleplaying game. Pop a character into existance and improvise.