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Author Topic: The Firmament - Great Flame War Arms Race  (Read 20947 times)

NUKE9.13

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Re: The Firmament - Great Flame War Arms Race
« Reply #165 on: August 24, 2021, 01:59:14 pm »

Quote from: S01E04 - Concrete Jungle
Quote from: Attack One
Hacker: CF_Dogcatcher
Region: Application City
Duel Disk[7]: MinionCall A (1), Squad Summon S (1)x4, Recovery 10 (1), Atk+10 (1), CallChiptune (0)
Other: Things are getting wild in Application City! Reptilian mons stalk beneath a neon canopy, while Hunter viri make sport of rival gangs! All the while, mysterious vines continue to spread!
Quote from: Attack Two
Hacker: DJ King Cabaret
Region: Viral Jungle
Duel Disk[7]: ADI - Vivi_Paltest.dat (4), Atk+10 (1), Squad Summon S (1)x2, CallChiptune (0)
Other: The bombastic DJ challenges a fortified foe in the Viral Jungle! Will he crown himself the DJ King of the Jungle, or will Sonata's forces prove the apex predator?
« Last Edit: August 24, 2021, 02:08:55 pm by NUKE9.13 »
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Long Live United Forenia!

piratejoe

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Re: The Firmament - Great Flame War Arms Race
« Reply #166 on: August 24, 2021, 04:57:46 pm »

Quote from: Votebox
S01E04 - Concrete Jungle (2): Nuke, Piratejoe
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TricMagic

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Re: The Firmament - Great Flame War Arms Race
« Reply #167 on: August 24, 2021, 05:06:33 pm »

Quote from: Votebox
S01E04 - Concrete Jungle (3): Nuke, Piratejoe, TricMagic
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Scholar Knight

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Re: The Firmament - Great Flame War Arms Race
« Reply #168 on: August 24, 2021, 07:12:58 pm »

Quote from: Votebox
S01E04 - Concrete Jungle (4): Nuke, Piratejoe, TricMagic, SK
Fantastic work.
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Scholar Knight

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Re: The Firmament - Great Flame War Arms Race
« Reply #169 on: August 26, 2021, 01:20:20 am »

Gonna throw up another viri submission while I remember it. Shouldn't be too hard, since it is utilizing a lot of our logic experience from the Hunter, First Mate, scout, and wyrm. While also pulling its weapon from our various pulse weapon experiments.

Marine.exe -Class: Viri - Tags: Elite Commandos, Squad based gunners, Burst Pulse guns
An elite trooper, on a similar tier to the Hunter. However, rather than a solo, long-ranged operative, the Marine.exe are designed for midrange, coordinated squads for objective focused operations.

Taking the base Hunter and First Mate code, the bulk of the work on the unit themselves is on reinforcing the viri without drastically decreasing mobility. Armoring them up in pirate-themed modern marine combat armor, making them able to last longer than a conventional minion so they can see their mission to the end. Their Intelligence Logic borrows heavily from the First Mate, including 3-4 "Tactical Slots" per unit for tactical flexibility, while also utilizing a degree of swarm/drone logic from the Wyrm.exe and Scout.exe to drastically improve coordination between individuals. Though their "hierarchy among Viri" still places them below First Mates, allowing First Mates to issue orders if it doesn't override a hacker or ADI issued order. Frequently picked Tactical Slots often revolve around providing covering fire, leapfrogging, and flanking maneuvers to maximize squad based advantages. Or Provide a Delaying Action, setting up an ambush/killzone, or setting up overwatch positions once they've reached a location.

The armament for the Marine.exe is the Pulse Stormer. Learning our lessons from the Pulse Railrifle and failed Pulse Rifle, a new pulse weapon will be built from the ground up to utilize and capitalize on our charge and 'multi-shot feedback' systems. The Pulse Stormer contains two charge arrays, one hardwired into the rifle itself, and a second one that can attach and de-attach from the weapon like a conventional gun magazine. The purpose of this duel capacitor set up is to facilitate our refined multi-shot array (That hopefully won't break the weapon when it is fired at different capacitor amounts.)
By charging the gun to Stage-1 with both capacitors present, the Pulse Stormer will fire off a series of several stage 1 charge shots and normal shots from the optimized energy spike amplification of firing on a lower charge amount. With multiple pre-charged "Capacitor Cells" included per Marine, they will be able to quickly swap one cell out for another, enabling a continued barrage of pulse blasts. This way they can provide continuous fire or alpha strikes before needing to resort to normal charging before firing.

If the "exploding" issue can't be ironed out for firing with less-than-designed capacitors present, then just put in a safety switch at the end of development to prevent the gun from being fired in arrangements that explode it. Simultaneously, we should enable the spare Capacitor Cells to be purposefully triggered to explode by the Marine.exe if it values a quick and dirty 'extractor' grenade. Even if the explosion of a single charge capacitor isn't that threatening, a bright glowing projectile thrown at the feet of enemy Viri with some degree of self-preservation should be able to exploit their simple logic into breaking cover or formation. Allowing Marines to further divide and conquer enemies in otherwise advantageous spots.


TL;DR: A better armored, squad based minion-variants with First Mate tactical prowress and Scout/Wyrm swarm drone to improve squad coordination. Armed with a Pulse burst rifle that can swap out magazines to fire several bursts in a row before needing to manually charge a burst. And said magazines can be primed to explode and be thrown like a grenade to freak out less intelligent enemy viri into breaking formation or cover.
« Last Edit: August 26, 2021, 01:34:15 am by Scholar Knight »
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Happerry

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Re: The Firmament - Great Flame War Arms Race
« Reply #170 on: September 07, 2021, 09:04:07 pm »

Quote from: Attack One
Hacker: CF_Dogcatcher
Region: Application City
Duel Disk[7]: MinionCall A (1), Squad Summon S (1)x4, Recovery 10 (1), Atk+10 (1), CallChiptune (0)
Other: Things are getting wild in Application City! Reptilian mons stalk beneath a neon canopy, while Hunter viri make sport of rival gangs! All the while, mysterious vines continue to spread!

In the back streets, the sound of Tommy Guns beat out their staccato rhythm as tattoo wearing GangMinions face off with Firmament CarbineMinions as the Firmament clashes with the established gangs for turf. Briefly distracted by matters in other zones, Bailey has returned once more to the Application City to solidify her control over it. But without any remaining border territory to build her influence in, she is now forced to confront the city's major gangs if she wishes to expand the Firmament's turf. To establish the needed control over the local dataspace, more Network Backbone links are needed, and to claim those she must drive out the forces currently using the areas where the vertebra are accessible.

And so she musters her forces in the back streets of the city and conducts Scout.exe hit and run attacks on enemy strongholds as the new Hunter.exe Ver. 0.9-B lock down areas under her control while limited numbers of Chamelee.mon constructs leave safehouses rent and full of dissipating data. Of course, things don't go entirely her way. While each shot might be individually weaker the Tommy Guns of the GangMinions fire extremely rapidly, allowing them to fill battlefields with flying leaden data, and though HeelNavi gang leaders prove inferior overall verses the FirstMate.exe programs that command their foes they are more specialized in the demands of urban combat. They lay ambushes for Scout.exe programs, opening fire from hidden bastions in seemingly abandoned buildings, and counter Chamelee.mon programs with chainsaw and flamer bearing half cyborg hunter/killer programs hidden in the walls of safehouses for counter-ambushes as well as unleashing their murderous servitors from armored trucks into the fights taking place in the back streets.

Bailey, of course, does not just sit there and let the enemy attack. BruteMinions find their tattoo armor failing under relentless Wyrm.exe flocks unleashed to defend Firmament safehouses, and GangMinions perish under charged shots that prove who exactly has the superior firepower around here. Darting vampiric Skeeter Drones perish as FirstMate.exe commanders identify their scouting functions, and enemy attacks are buried under the reinforcements called by the ample Squad Summon S battlechips available in this theater. Even the skull masked master assassin programs fail in the end, buried under wave upon wave of CarbineMinions until their death explosions ring out.

This phase of the combat is finished when Bailey's Tunneler.exe programs, as buggy as they are, finally finish digging an invasion passage into the main enemy strongholds. The greatest gangs of the city die in a single night under the flashing armblades and reaving sickleclaws of the Chamelee.mon packs that were waiting behind the Tunneler programs as Bailey takes those gang's Network Backbone sites for her own.

It is just in time, for in response to the suddenly flaring gang war the World Data Police has sent a special strike force to Application City as the more public areas call for assistance. The beating of the batwinged Police Thopters fill the air as red and blue lights flash and the thunder of the sirens are heard. Endless ranks of baton welding CopAgents walk the street, riot shields ready for deployment, and Police Hovercars wait at the police stations for deployment, twin mounted 40mm Auto Cannons gleaming in the neon lights.

To complete the Firmament's control over the city, they must take over not just the backstreets and the crime ridden slums, but also the broadwalk front streets where the great shops lie and the neon signs never end. But first, they must face the Crackdown. 

+1 Control in the Amazon Commerce Forest for the Firmament.

Warning. Next turn the World Data Police will be attacking Application City.

Quote from: Attack Two
Hacker: DJ King Cabaret
Region: Viral Jungle
Duel Disk[7]: ADI - Vivi_Paltest.dat (4), Atk+10 (1), Squad Summon S (1)x2, CallChiptune (0)
Other: The bombastic DJ challenges a fortified foe in the Viral Jungle! Will he crown himself the DJ King of the Jungle, or will Sonata's forces prove the apex predator?

See the Battle Report in the core thread.
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piratejoe

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Re: The Firmament - Great Flame War Arms Race
« Reply #171 on: September 08, 2021, 08:06:40 am »

Popup.exe

The Popup.exe is a small device with one goal. Crashing an enemy's processers and essentially immobilizing them via causing a number of minor errors and activating specific coding to cause countless popups to start flooding their screen while demanding more and more processing power to activate more popups to announce the errors as the strain only causes more and more and more errors, essentially leading to a cascading effect until the program needs to restart in order to fix itself. Against minor programs it might actually be able to disable them, though against more well coded programs it's likely to slow them down and potentially stun them for a time, but more importantly is that it can potentially cause problems for someone who happens to be looking in the direction of the little device when it's activated, causing our enemies commanders to be dealing with not only their own forces but also the tide of annoying popups to distract their performance for a bit. Of course, our own computers and units will be given a single line of code that protects them from the mine's effects. If this little code is found out by any enemies we can just change it to make sure they remain effective. Regardless this weapon is mainly used as a mine, and is placed on the ground where after an enemy activates it, it jumps up into the air and then bursts into a static that causes the above effects.

Alternatively

Crasher_Coil.exe

The Crasher_Coil.exe is a moderately sized program that looks similar to a Tessla coil, hence the name. While active, it releases pulses through cyberspace that connects with any program not aligned with us. Upon connecting with anything that isn't ours, it force starts a number of unnecessary background activities in the targets in it's radius all at once that will undoubtedly cause them to lag. Naturally, this slows them down and will, after a long enough time, cause whatever it's targeting to crash. This takes some time, of course, but it is still powerful in slowing our enemies movements and giving time for our Viri to just deal with what was once a very dangerous problem with greater ease due to the slowdown in movements and responses enemy Viri and defense programs will have. This comes at a drawback. The coil, once properly assembled and with the lagswitch flipped on can no longer move, and can be destroyed easily by a few pulse pistol shots. Even so, the entire point is to hide it somewhere, activate it, and protect the thing while hostile Viri and other programs suffer the pain of lag. It possibly can tie well with the Tunneler.exe, provided that it is powerful enough to get through the ground, though this has yet to be tested.
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TricMagic

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Re: The Firmament - Great Flame War Arms Race
« Reply #172 on: September 08, 2021, 08:47:45 am »

FlyingDutchman.exe

Coding for cyber sails, lochfields, and reinforced code, the FlyingDutchman.exe is a flying Galleon. The cyber sails propel the ship, the lochfields generate beneath and in front of the ship, acting as a surface for the ship to sail upon, and the reinforced coding allows the ship to take some very heavy hits and just self-repair what damage is dealt from data in it's storage banks. This is a multi-stage project, with the cannons being worked on separately. However it also has databanks for storing Wyrm.exe and a radio mast for commanding them to attack targets. They still aren't smart enough to decide things on their own, but they can be used as support for raiding parties or taking down enemy flyers the Dutchman has eyes on, and Wyrm.exe being so simple means it can store plenty of them(or use their data for repairs). However, as of now this is extremely basic without a Captain to command the ship, and will require the hacker to do most of direction for now by using them as a radio point to give the ship orders, with FirstMates helping a bit. [Of Note, the Crow's Nest allows Hunters a great vantage point, beyond the utility of having a flying deck to shoot from between the railings.]

[Details on Lochfields]
Lochfields are the result of generating digital water and confining their spatial position in relation to the ship. In this case allowing it to be free on top and within while the edges locked on the sides and bottom. While some spillage occurs, the result can be fairly thin, no bigger than the size of a swimming pool in depth for a Galleon. Water derezzes as it leaves the range of the generator, allowing more to be formed over time. The Flying Dutchman sits on a bed of this water, and generates new sections as it sails forward. This method could also be used on smaller craft as they require less watermass to be generated, though programming would be on a case by case basis.(They are called Lochfields in reference to a loch, the Scottish word for lake, and locked fields.)



Revision: Charged Cannons
The other part of the FlyingDutchman.exe, Charged Cannons have been added to the superstructure to make a true pirate ship. Taking power from the ships added battery banks, the cannons charge up and fire extremely strong blasts of code suitable for taking out fortifications and enemy formations. Comes in a dense format for penetration and exploding format for wider area damage. Easy enough to handle that even a CarineMinion could aim them, though they'd need a FirstMate or Captain to give them orders on where and when to fire for max efficiency as there are no other programs built in. It's entirely focused on holding the charge without cracking open when it's fired.



Likewise, Captains would be the ones to guide them as a strategist of the wider battlefield. One downside is that they are quite obvious, and complicated. But we could create a downsized FlyDory(SkyDory?) for transporting squads in larger numbers. Mostly in them being smaller programs


Strategic Chip: Phantom Call
A specialized and Exceeding Complex Chip, the Phantom Call stores up the Viri.dat of forces we destroy in it's library, and then allows us to deploy weaker if numerous phantoms of these forces all across the battlefield. As it's power lies in building up this library, it will only be used a single time during a battle, but allows a huge influx of former enemy forces to our side of the battlefield. The better one is at destroying foes before it's used, the stronger the effect will be when it's used to flip the record table.

DJ King Upgrade: Sabotage
Yo yo~ it's your favorite radio host, DJ King Cabaret! Lately I've been vibing to some truly sick beats, testing my might and some of the best defenses the Sonata's Stagehands have to offer. And while I haven't been perfect, I must say depriving us of total victory was a masterstroke by my foe. Well played. Don't count me out just yet though! Coming soon to a Jungle near you, my newest hit Record Scratch is tearing up your lines!

Though the battles in the tunnels against the best the local tribes had to offer, and facing off against someone who is almost perfectly suited to counter his usual tactics, the DJ King has adapted. Through the use of tunnels, traps, SummonSquad S, and plain ingenuity he has become adept at sabotaging the plans of his enemies. And the hits will keep coming! These new Hunters will strike and fade like the waves, and the Wryms appear from nowhere with hidden tunnels holding them in the wings. The Chamelee.mon stike like wind into enemy flanks, and FirstMates raid the strings of supply. The Firmament is Jet-Set for a wild ride!
« Last Edit: September 11, 2021, 06:43:28 pm by TricMagic »
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piratejoe

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Re: The Firmament - Great Flame War Arms Race
« Reply #173 on: September 09, 2021, 11:36:13 am »

Since there's a proposal for the DJ to get an upgrade, I may as well make one for Ophelia and Vivi

(Note, both upgrades specifically apply after the whole raid by the Datapolice)
CF_Dogcatcher Upgrade: Subtle Ember
"It's no fun if your enemy isn't mad, and a good way to do just that is to lead them onto a never ending goose chase and constantly annoy them, chipping away at their advantages until it's time to make that annoyance into a rage that will blind them in combat and make them fail spectacularly, only causing their forces to crumble even more and hastening their downfall. But the best trolls are never called such, mistaken as serious and genuine, yet still able to wage a true flamewar."

Through the various bases set up in the tree's of the Amazon Commerce Forest or the subtle creeping vines in the City, CF_Dogcatcher has learned quite a bit about subtlety and when to go loud. How to distract an enemies forces from the greater game and lul them into a false sense of security, or constantly harass and harry them with consistent minor annoyances that take up their attention and do minor chips in their armor that all add up. With all of this, CF_Dogcatcher has become quite adept in creating far greater traps than before, and even ensuring some of her bases are completely hidden and take a good thorough search to even find. Further, they know just how to get into the enemies head, constantly messing with them in some way or another, striking at their pride in their skill through their own actions, or even just simply leaving a few humorous insulting messages behind on a minor base they just ruined. Regardless, their skill at crafting an inescapable trap and luring the enemy right into the jaws has grown quite a bit, and the fight against the Data Police, a force she honestly considers a greater threat than the script kiddies who call themselves stagehands, has been quite informative in just how to do that.

(Basically makes her far better at subtlety and using stealthy units, alongside becoming a better defensive expert)

Vivi_Paltest.dat, Data extension
As we all know, Vivi is a collector of code, and we have found out something fairly important with Vivi's time fighting alongside the DJ King with regards to her preferences. The more complex and highly sophisticated and hard to get code is the type she likes the most, such as the military code that is the prize of her possession. In other words, the coding from governmental sectors, the military, and highly secretive corporate projects are her favorite. This was mainly discovered by simply observing what code she was most excited to receive or take from the jungle and sediment, and was further confirmed by just asking what code she valued the most in her collection, the highest valued under the bit of military code being some sort of governmental one. Naturally, we didn't ask to inspect the code as she's quite protective of it, but with this information in mind we have decided to try and see if the advanced code she likes the most is actually able to improve her more than any old code, and have taken a good deal of code taken from the Data police, along with any important cooperate code we could get, and of course what other advanced code we could manage to find in the sediment. Maybe if we are lucky we even might find another bit of milspec code to give her. Ideally this will make her far stronger and more durable, allowing her to help us more. Though, in the worst case scenario, she'll at least probably be quite happy with us and like us more for all the delicious coding. After all, the way to her heart is coding...
« Last Edit: September 09, 2021, 11:47:26 am by piratejoe »
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TricMagic

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Re: The Firmament - Great Flame War Arms Race
« Reply #174 on: September 09, 2021, 12:24:29 pm »

Quote from: Truncated Votebox
Crasher_Coil.exe ():
FlyingDuctman.exe (1): TricMagic
DJ King Upgrade: Sabotage ():
CF_Dogcatcher Upgrade: Subtle Ember ():

Crasher_Coil.exe is good for defense. Specifically in tunnels and area denial. Upgrade gives the DJ King something special. In both cases, Tunneller revision is best to work with them, though I like the latter more than the former so the DJ King becomes very good at messing with plans. Planting it underground. (Though honestly DJ King gains some pretty big boosts regardless. But Coils would work in the back alleys.)

FlyingDuctman.exe is at the least Complex, including a flight system, durability, self-repair, and data banks for storing the code of the simple Wyrm.exe. In this case, upgrading them to explode or outfitting the FlyingDutchman with cannons(being sturdy code to contain the energy with the ship charging them. No complicated aiming programs or auto-fire routines, FirstMates can give orders and CarbineMnions aim and fire them.) Latter means the ship can shoot enemy craft out of the sky in addition to the wyrms attacking. Former means it's ability to command the swarm to attack leads to greater effect.(Should be noted the enemy cops have some sort of automatic weapon for tearing through hordes, and we can't just let them loose with numbers since that will cause massive civilian damage. Funnily enough the cannons are the more precise option.)


I pick FlyingDutchman.exe cause it gives us air access and raiding ability. As well as air denial to their own platforms. A huge swarm of Wryms attacking those is going to cause issues. It fills a very needed niche, and the FlyingDuctman.exe can be attached with anti-air, a Coil, anything that needs a stable platform to fire. Bonus for transporting Vivi around, and the potential for a exceedingly complex flagship down the line for a hacker to use. That and it also deals with the sea travel we'd need to fight in that area once we push that lane.


Subtle Ember meanwhile is a good upgrade, though it puts her firmly in 'speak softly and carry many knives.' It would greatly help against the cops, but that will only go so far without an ADI to match. (Like Red_Death.) Or suitable measures like the coil or trojans..(That's an idea though given both our hacker upgrades could use that, but 1 design a turn.)


Data Extension is something else though. Having a secondary ADI would likely be better short term.
« Last Edit: September 09, 2021, 12:31:04 pm by TricMagic »
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Scholar Knight

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Re: The Firmament - Great Flame War Arms Race
« Reply #175 on: September 09, 2021, 11:18:44 pm »

I've been slow and busy, but might as well fully write up my two suggestions.

Both are a bit ambitious, so understandable if people aren't willing to go with them.

---
Wako.exe (? Could be .mon too, I guess? Not sure which type the native ones in the sediment count as) - Class: Viri - tl;dr: Cyborg Pirate Samurai Cyclops Warriors

A giant of a man, warrior of the seas and sediments. Gathered and copied from the Firmament's delves into the Archival Sediments, the Wako make for excellent shock troopers or heavy artillery. Wielding massive katanas or naginatas they can challenge great beasts their size, or bash through lines of conventional troops with ease. Those choosing to wield Yumi and massive arrows, can threaten enemy forces from afar or strike down flying creatures like the giant dragonslayers of yor.

Designed after or replicated from the Cyclops Samurai Cyborgs of the archival sediment, the Wako are outfitted in pirate-tacular samurai gear, and given roles as elite shock troopers, priority-target eliminators, and of course good old distractions from the gun line. Their logic is largely specialized for combat, and rely on officer-class viri or hackers to give more specific instructions beyond who to kill and when. But the logic they do have make them formidable opponents.
 
Huge in comparison to normal Viri, they can be given one of three pre-set weapons and combat routines upon materialization by a hacker. A Nagi-data, for cleaving through conventional troops en masse with it's long reach and strong head; a Data-na for fending off more equally sized foes or cutting through armor with it's thousand folded data blades; or a Yumi bow which can shoot arrows with heads of concentrated armor piercing code.

(If desired, we could nix the bow for now to make things simpler and double down on the melee focus)

---
Dragonfly.exe or Albatross.exe - Class: viri - TL;DR Self piloting, swing wing fighter/hovercraft, with adjustable loadout

Modeled vaguely after a dragonfly, this somewhat organic-looking flying vehicle stays aloft on four articulating wings that provide both thrust and lift. The albatross can alternate its wings' positions: streamlining them on it's back facing in one direction to achieve a fast interception mode, or spreading out them out to achieve a slow moving hover mode capable of moving in a variety of directions. The four wings also leave little tron line trails indicating the direction of thrust they provide, for aesthetics.

It's eye/cockpit resembles a single large bulbous insect eye with a wide field of view. It's AI is gathered from various flight arcade game AI, quad copter drone logic, and given a degree of tactical planning from the FirstMate.exe's AI to enable it to make adjustments to it's flight plan to better accomplish it's goals.

For armament, it has both underbelly primary payloads, and a secondary fixed weapon. It has two, fixed, forward-facing pulse arrays, located where mandibles would be under the eye. These can provide basic fire if it's main weapons are already spent and resupplying is either unachievable or would take too long.
Under it's fuselage are six spokes/hardpoints that can be used to carry a variety of single-use weapons. After expending all of it's ammunition, it must land in friendly territory to resupply. The three main options for it's hard point weapons are: small Air-to-Air missiles that can fit one per hard point, a series of simple data-compressed Bombs which take up 2 hardpoints each, or a viri-harness that can hold a basic minion-sized viri per hardpoint.
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NUKE9.13

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Re: The Firmament - Great Flame War Arms Race
« Reply #176 on: September 11, 2021, 05:23:04 pm »

I like the Wako idea. I wrote an alternative version:

Quote
Wako.mon - Class: Viri - tl;dr: Cyborg Pirate Samurai Ronin Cyclops Warriors

The Cyclopes of the Archival Sediment are a strange lot. We have little information on the culture of the deeper tribes, though it is evident that they are both skilled warriors and craftsmen, capable of creating high-quality digiquipment for themselves from the forgotten relics strewn throughout their homes. For now, the fight with them remains a stalemate. However, with our control of the moderate-depth tunnels, the Outcast Cyclopes are under our dominion. Sort of. We can't control them directly, but they've learned to leave us alone, which is what matters. However, it seems a shame to leave such strength unused. Attempts were made to capture some for conversion into subservient .mons, but capturing live specimens turned out to be almost impossible. So we tried diplomacy.
As it turns out, the cyclopes are intelligent enough to understand basic negotiations, and when the prospect of payment (in the form of fresh code harvested from across the web) was raised, they became a lot more cooperative. While these exiles are not the greatest of the cyclopean warriors, and their equipment somewhat patchwork, they are still great big giants capable of shooting lasers from their eyes, and surprisingly intelligent at that.

With Firmament resources, these ronin have been recast as pirates, identifying them as Firmament forces. Unfortunately their cyclopean nature prevents us from giving them eyepatches, but adding skull-and-crossbones motifs to their armour and giving them tricorn hats is easily done. They wield distinctive datana blades (capable of slicing .steel files) made from archival data that has been compressed and resaved hundreds of times. Their armour consists of many rectangular scales sown together, made from scraps of dense archival data- which while not the strongest armour in the world, is quite capable of absorbing large numbers of basic pulse-pistol shots. They also have freaking laser beams they can fire from their eyes.

Massive, but surprisingly good at moving and fighting in (to them) narrow confines (thanks to their cave experience), the renamed Wako.mon are a fearsome presence on the battlefield. Their eye lasers are effective at sweeping through massed infantry, or taking out fliers, while their datana are perfect for taking down larger or more heavily armoured foes. Their combat logic is effective and flexible, and they can be given reasonably sophisticated orders... the main downside is that they might not actually follow said orders. Wako are free spirits, and can refuse to follow orders for any number of reasons- from thinking the order is suicidal to just not feeling like it. A Hacker may need to take time to negotiate in such situations, offering bonus pay in exchange for compliance, or giving alternative orders more to the Wako's liking.
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Scholar Knight

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Re: The Firmament - Great Flame War Arms Race
« Reply #177 on: September 11, 2021, 07:26:50 pm »

Quote from: Truncated Votebox
Crasher_Coil.exe ():
FlyingDuctman.exe (1): TricMagic
DJ King Upgrade: Sabotage ():
CF_Dogcatcher Upgrade: Subtle Ember ():
Wako.exe ():
Dragonfly.exe ():
Wako.mon (1): SK

For the sake of moving things along, I'll just toss in with Nuke's rewrite. Though the Phantom Call and the Coil are both pretty enticing. And the Dutchman will have to happen at some point.
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testmen

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Re: The Firmament - Great Flame War Arms Race
« Reply #178 on: September 11, 2021, 09:51:51 pm »

Quote from: Truncated Votebox
Crasher_Coil.exe ():
FlyingDuctman.exe (1): TricMagic
DJ King Upgrade: Sabotage ():
CF_Dogcatcher Upgrade: Subtle Ember ():
Wako.exe ():
Dragonfly.exe ():
Wako.mon (2): SK, testmen

Yeah okay
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TricMagic

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Re: The Firmament - Great Flame War Arms Race
« Reply #179 on: September 11, 2021, 10:28:07 pm »

Quote from: Truncated Votebox
Crasher_Coil.exe ():
FlyingDuctman.exe ():
DJ King Upgrade: Sabotage ():
CF_Dogcatcher Upgrade: Subtle Ember ():
Wako.exe ():
Dragonfly.exe ():
Wako.mon (3): SK, testmen, TricMagic
Hopefully next turn. I predict air raids in our soon to be future. They aren't any fun when it's us being raided.
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