Copy pasting over the polearm and the library for using the polearm to a Jane is simple. Getting them integrated into said Plain Jane is less simple, and requires 'trimming' the library somewhat (especially of the bits that assume that the harpoon is being used by someone with the strength of an ADI instead of a basic Viri), and the harpoon itself is a lower grade then the Dutchman's weapon for purposes of ease of production, but the result is still a Jane using a harpoon. The next step is building in the ability to replicate said harpoons into the Jane, which is a bit more complicated but still possible. The third step, making the harpoon capable of rocketing itself forwards is... well, that's an issue. It's an issue eventually solved, but it's definitely the sub-project that took the took the most amount of time to successfully hit the required traits of 'Worth Using In Combat' and "The Harpoon Is Still Simple Enough To Be Replicated By The Jane At A Reasonable Speed'.
Eventually inspiration was taken from the Mega-Pulser project's woes, and now the 'Rocket Throw' involves charging energy into the harpoon akin to how a charged shot is charged, before causing said energy to vent out the rear of the harpoon for propulsion. This sometimes, but not always, also lets the harpoon explode when it hits something if there's still enough energy left in the weapon.
Of course, the Jane can also just throw her harpoon normally, without using the rocket throw.
The necessity for integrated replication abilities of the harpoon and its relatively advanced coding render this version of the Jane complicated.
Well, the good news is that the charge time issue is fixed. The bad news is that the fix negatively interacted with the also designed fix for venting energy, causing attempts to charge to automatically start venting the charge before a charged shot was fired. As this would, if an attempt to charge was continued long enough, cause a Plain Jane.exe's arm to explode, the revision team had to go back to the coding board on that one and... well, they ran out of time again. However they've done enough work on the subject now that fixing the cooldown issue should be a trivial issue next time they are assigned time to look into said issue.
During this phase you must decide which of your hackers will be leading your attacks (you currently have two attacks), and decide what they will use their memory space to bring with them in terms of chips and champions (You currently have 10 memory).
Hackers
Jorg Jörgenson
A thoughtful and methodical hacker that prioritizes force preservation and defense area control, the Bass Line plays for long term advantages as he shapes the battlefield into one incremental advantage after another until it grants him victory. He prefers melee designs over long ranged combat, and his preference for force preservation biases him away from the more fragile viruses whatever their range. He also has a deft hand with territory effecting battlechips that allow him to get more out of them then others would, and substantial experience with using defensive and supportive function battlechips.
Aria
Aria is a relatively new hacker, but Aria's loyalty to Sonata's Stagehands is undoubted. They have a talent with long ranged bombardment by both battlechip and virus, as well as other brute force destruction applications, which is substantial enough to result in their appointment as one of Sonata's Stagehands' field commanders. This plays well with their similar, if lesser, talent with fixed defenses. They have been noticed to have problems with giving the enemy the initiative and not noticing when said foe is doing something sneaky. While less notable, their relative inexperience as a hacker can sometimes cause them trouble in contested data spheres verses a more experienced foe.
Viri
Minion.exe
These roughly humanoid programs are neither very sophisticated (intelligence and coding wise) or very strong, but they are mass producible and smart enough to obey orders without continual direct supervision. Which isn't always something you can take for granted with generic digital constructs, as a lot of them are dumber then rocks. They're not coded with anything more powerful then a basic energy pulse pistol, but they can still defeat the average civilian whom thinks too much of themselves. Just avoid putting them up against Data Police Agents. (Simple - Obsolete)
Plain Jane.exe
A Plain Jane is a roughly humanoid program based on, but improved from, the Minion.exe standardized cannon fodder in use by most serious internet factions in one format or another. Physically they are taller and more slender then the standardized minion body, as well as being vaguely feminine, with a face shrouding helmet and relatively generic armor units. However the most important differences inherent in the Plain Jane are in their foundational structure, which is pre-designed for versatility and integration efficiency with currently non-functional or non-developed upgrade projects and alternate equipment loadouts, allowing them to be more easily adapted into new variants. The improved foundations also increase their functionality over an upgraded Minion.exe's values, if not as much as a dedicated upgrade to those areas would result in. Like the basic Minion.exe, the standardized base template of the Plain Jane.exe is armed with a basic energy pulse pistol.
Due to later revision-tier efforts, the Plain Jane is now equipped with a 'Mega-Pulser' brand arm cannon, which possesses basic rapid fire functionality and a charged shot function that, while successfully charging to the first scale, requires a cooldown time after use before the weapon can function at even the base level again. As the Mega-Pulser no longer takes an abnormal amount of time to charge up, charged shots will now be used to a limited degree in general combat with a focus on using them against enemies too resistant to damage for normal fire to damage them. (Simple)
SwordyMinion.exe
The normal baseline minion, adapted to use a sword instead of a pistol. They're no smarter and only a little tougher then a normal minion, but the sword is a stronger weapon then the pistol so it's somewhat more deadly. As long as it can get into melee range that is, as it no longer has the pistol. It will try to stab any enemy projectiles that come to close to it, allowing greater survivability rates then would otherwise be expected as long as the projectiles being shot at it are the kind you can stab.
(Simple)
Defender.exe
An enlarged minion with a continually active siren mounted on its helm and bearing a giant tower shield with more flashing lights and what looks like an impressively large gun array integrated into said shield's surface, this virus is a natural first target for anyone attacking a group that it is in. Which is the point. Not actually armed any more well then a normal minion, but with noticeably integrated code-buffering and a shield formed from active denial firewall lattice coding, the Defender is well equipped to be a remarkably sturdy, for its rating, distraction. It's attention getting features have now been upgraded with an off switch, and Officers have some light scripting telling them when to turn said attention getting features on or off. For example, when sneaking, keep them off. This makes them much simpler to transport.
Due to later revision-tier efforts, the Defender.exe is now equipped with a 'Mega-Pulser' brand arm cannon, which possesses basic rapid fire functionality and a charged shot function that, while successfully charging to the first scale, requires a cooldown time after use before the weapon can function at even the base level again. However the Defender is not programmed to use the Charged Shots, and will only use them when commanded to by an officer-function unit.
(Simple)
Templar.exe
An alternate version of the Defender that's been given a sword instead of a charge pistol and upgraded with a moderate-low level skill library for sword and shield fighting. They still have the reinforced structure, shield, and siren of the Defender, and also like the Defender the Templar's siren can be turned on and off. Sadly, it does not have a flaming shield and sword.
(Simple)
Officer.exe
Based on the generally available in the Undernet Minion programs, Officer.exe constructs aren't much stronger then their lesser kin, still only coded with a basic energy pulse pistol, though officers also come with basic melee coding. But the big difference between and Officer and a Minion is that Officers are coded with noticeably more advanced bit-brains and have a basic tactical library integrated in their knowledge banks, allowing them to lead teams of Minions on operations without needing constant hand holding.
Since the start of the war, they've been revised with slightly enlarged tactical libraries and an improved ability to both identify enemy officers and commanders and figure out which officers on their own side are doing the best, and therefor should be listened to more. They have also been equipped with a 'Mega-Pulser' brand arm cannon, which possesses basic rapid fire functionality and a charged shot function that, while successfully charging to the first scale, takes longer then desired to charge and requires a cooldown time after use before the weapon can function at even the base level again. As well, their tactical libraries have been upgraded to allow them to command other units to use charged shots if the unit in question is not normally programmed to, which they can apply to themselves to get themselves to use charged shots. (Complicated)
Idoloid MDL 01 - Sakura.ISQ
A combination of crude and sophisticated coding, the Idoloid MDL 01 - Sakura.ISQ is attuned to the Music Element, and uses said element to both release regular (close ranged) bursts of healing for friendly units and as the energy type her attacks count as. They are armed with an immensely large syringe they use (crudely) as a spear and as a launching point for slightly weaker then normal pistol shot projectiles. They are also coded to act as officers, and are about equal to existing officers in command skill but make the decisions faster, giving them an advantage in tempo and reaction speed. Defensively they are neither tougher nor weaker then a normal officer, baring elemental interactions.
As Stagehand Hackers currently find their currently minimal healing ability more useful then their command ability, they have not yet made officers obsolete.
(Complicated)
Fisher-Jane.exe
A variant of the Plain Jane that uses harpoons sourced from the Dutchman.mon ADI, if at a lesser quality level. They use a ripped off and simplified copy of the Dutchman.mon's melee library for melee combat, and also include the ability to 'Rocket Throw' their harpoons as a ranged attack though this requires the time and energy expenditure of a normal stage one charged shot to be used. Or they can just throw their harpoons normally if for less effect. The necessity for integrated replication abilities of the harpoon and its relatively advanced coding render this version of the Jane complicated. (Complicated)
Idoloid MDL 02 - Colette.ISQ
An advanced command-specialized Idoloid with the first glimmers of self-adaption included. While the Colette model depends more on a very large pre-constructed library of tactical and strategic 'lego pieces' with which to construct their plans, they do have a (very limited and slow) ability to construct their own 'lego pieces' to adapt to enemies, situations, and environments that they are currently unable to adapt. Despite that ability, said adaption is so slow that to get a viable set of plan components multiple major battles will probably be needed if programmer assistance is not forthcoming. Their non-command abilities are fairly limited, consisting of basic sword fighting skill for their equipped rapier and an instruction set for conducting an orchestra if such a task is ever needed. Beyond their superior ability to put together plans of varied scale, they also think faster then normal officers by re-using certain portions of superior Idoloid MDL 01 coding which allows them to come to command decisions faster then would otherwise be expected. (Complex)
Lesser Lasard.Mon
The Lesser Lasard.Mon is a cyborg theropod with joint locking legs and a counterweight tail to provide a stable firing position for the heavy repeating charge gun that makes up the Lasard's upper jaw. This cannon fires shots somewhat stronger then a potential charged shot from the charge pistols basic minions use, and can also charge up itself to fire a very powerful splash damage shot of ball lightning through use of the Thunder Element, though this drains the Lasard's power such that it needs a few minutes to recharge. The Lasard can also unleash a melee ranged lightning shockwave, though this is far weaker and still drains the Lasard, but its only other decent melee option is hitting things with its tail. The Lasard 'sees' with two strips of electrically sensitive materials mounted on its flanks, and can therefor blind itself when it uses its shockwave. Despite the Lasard's use of electricity, the unit as a whole is not elementally attuned. (Complex)
Mobile Assault Stage v2
A large flying stage with two of the speaker arrays replaced with missile launchers and handrails around the edges to keep passengers from falling off. It's piloted by a minion who's been fused directly with the singer's podium, but still controls the stage with hand controls. Like the missile battlechip, if the Stage's missiles are deflected they'll often lock onto a friendly unit, usually the stage that fired them. The Mobile Assault Stage is capable of carrying a little over twenty minions at a time, or thirty if you pack them on really tightly, enough to interfere with their ability to do anything until they get off the stage. (Complex)
Mobile Assault Stage - Sensory & Manipulation Model - Passion
A redesign of the Mobile Assault Stage that replaces the majority of the deck space with sensory equipment to allow for sniper ranged sensor scans, removes the missile launchers, and replaces the pilot with a Passion model Idoloid which has exceedingly enlarged hands and a somewhat enlarged upper abdomen to go with its overall size increase, and replaces said pilot's long ranged communication gear with dedicated sensor control coding. While this leaves the 'Passion' Model of the Mobile Assault Stage completely useless in direct combat it can now provide valuable informational support and still has the 'floor space' to carry around seven minions on what open floor space it retains. Given the lack of long ranged com gear, normally there's an Officer.exe permanently stationed on the S&M Model to allow for relaying the sensor intake to the command network.
(Complex -> Effectively Exceedingly Complex)
Marksman.exe
A buggy mess of a minion variant with a non-functional charged shot sniper rifle with no normal shot mode and who's charged shot only works one in three times, is intensely fragile, and has a non-working advanced ballistic calculator and target value calculator. All this would be bad enough even if the virus didn't only shoot at targets they're directly ordered to shoot without having the Officers programmed to order them to shoot. (Exceedingly Complex)
Autonomous Digital Intelligence
BlueFiend.mon
An upside down floating pyramid surrounded by an oozelike substance that is manipulated into varied body parts and coverings, born of an experiment into self adapting programs. BlueFiend uses this material as armor, tools, and weapons alike, as well as a large degree of personal strength. It tends to prefer melee combat, but is not limited to it, and prefers to communicate in sign language and/or charades. Interestingly, BlueFiend has once or twice shown the ability to entirely liquefy itself, but the rarity of when and hesitance with which it employs this ability suggests some sort of major limiting factor to it. (Memory 4)
Dutchman.mon
A great flying white whale with a pair of naval artillery cannons, a whip tail with a heavy anchor on the end, and a bloody obvious blue glow and smokestack. The Dutchman.mon, despite the use of man in the name, also comes with a female avatar/twin formed from one of Sonata's lost shards of data with noticeable, if less then BlueFiend.mon's, physical prowess and skill with her equipped polearm. The shard-avatar also has a level of command and tactical/strategic skill as scavenged from an Idoloid MDL 02 - Colette.ISQ, allowing her to serve as a command unit if needed. (Memory 4)
Battle Chips
Recovery 10
This tactical battle chip is designed to mend damaged and corrupted code, healing the individual it is applied to by a minor amount. (Simple, Memory 1)
Atk+10
This tactical battle chip pre-allocates resources to empower the next program used, improving the targets ability to deal damage for a short while. (Simple, Memory 1)
MinionCall A
This strategic battle chip creates temporary replicas of the commonly known ‘Minion.exe’ program, causing a short term burst of reinforcements in the targeted zone. (Simple, Memory 1)
Stunbolt
A tactical battle chip that releases a bolt of electricity into the target, which then paralyzes the target until the excess electricity dissipates. This chip is elementally attuned to the element of Thunder. (Simple, Memory 1)
Missile I
The Missile I is a strategic battlechip that effectively fires a decently powerful cruise missile at a chosen target. The missile plays an annoying MeTube speech the entire flight and will not explode before it hits something that's not the ground or a wall, resulting in it almost always hitting the target when it doesn't loose control over itself by bouncing off the ground nosecone over tail, which tends to make it go flying off into the void. Has an annoying issue where, if deflected, it will often lock onto a friendly target instead of going back after the original target. (Complicated, Memory 1)
DramaticSpotlight
This chip combines an environmental influence effect with a protective barrier, it... well, look, it lets you summon a dramatic spotlight to spotlight your avatar or an ADI and includes enough defensive shielding to let you do a (short) dramatic speech or pithy comment without anyone being able to do anything about it. The defenses fail if you move or attack however, and only last a short moment, but it's quite good for making a memorable introduction. (Simple, Memory 0)
InvokeSoundtrack
A battlechip that invokes a soundtrack, using advanced environmental sensors to analyze the zone that the Hacker or the Hacker's Proxies are in and play appropriate music for where they are and what the current events are. Some would swear it has a better detection rate for hidden surprises then anything else in Sonata's Arsenal, but it also has a deeply encoded priority for dramatic timing, and therefor the dramatic chords only begin to play when the surprise is about to be sprung on you anyway. (Simple, Memory 0)
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Topic: Sonata's Stagehands - Great Flame War Arms Race (Read 15315 times)