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[Powder Miner]

Attempt to disarm Jeremiah, and if I can, subdue him. This involves using my bare fists, mainly.

[Draignean]

((So, are you dropping down from the roof, or using the ceiling hole? Dropping down is a much shorter distance, but would put in a direct LOS with the presbyter on the way down.))

[Powder Miner]

((I think I'll avoid presbyter LOS, aka use the ceiling hole))

[Draignean]

Toomas Amk

"Mm. Mind if I consume a bit of her?" Toomas says, glancing at the shot scientist lady.

If Rob doesn't mind, and we do have time, go and replenish myself from the dying lady a bit.

   Rob waves his pistol absently, and you swing your legs out of the access chair and approach the woman. She's already unconscious from the combination of hemorrhaging, malnourishment, and layered physical trauma. A quick death would be a mercy for her.
   You ram your hand through the wounds already present in her stomach, driving in as deep as you can. You can feel your flesh lose cohesion almost immediately, the hand growing and warping as the mutant ORS strain breaks down her tissues. Dendrites from your fingers consume parts of the scientist's heart and spinal white matter, killing her within seconds. (+32 HP)
   It will take a few more seconds until you're completely restored, but there's far more flesh on her than you need to regenerate. Getting to full strength again is just a matter of time. You peak out into the corridor while you feed, glancing down the direction the pulses of light seem to be coming from. You can, unfortunately, see exactly what's making the ripples in the wax. As you regard the... thing that's oozing its way towards the door, you realize that time might be something that is in very, VERY short supply.
   The Freak that approaches is one of the worst few: the ones that have lost all semblance of humanity. It fills its end of the corridor, a shifting mass of constantly regenerating and degenerating flesh. There is no macroscopic form to it that you can recognize, no shape or geometry that describes its entirety. The smaller parts of it, the ones you can recognize, are ones you wish you didn't. A part of it can still think of itself as a creature, and a part of it remembers that it needs legs walk and arms to crawl. As such, dozens of misshapen and grotesque appendages sprout from its body and claw at the walls and floor to drag the cancerous creature forwards. A part of it remembers that it needs eyes to see, and so dozens of eyeballs bubble up from its body. They are broken things, and few last more than a few seconds. As you watch, one bright blue eye begins to swell up at the creature's front. It grows as large as your clenched fist in seconds, healing and rupturing simultaneously as it inflates. It grows to the size of your head before it pops, the rate of rupture finally outpacing the creature's regeneration. There is no pain to a Cellburner in this state, only a driving need predicated by the part of it that still remembers hunger.
  The scientist didn't just lead some crazy Freak to you, she led a full-on Abomination back.

Spoiler: Toomas Amk (click to show/hide)

Health: 583/590 -[1,6]
Degeneration: Near Nil
Carried Weight: 57 /120
Attire: Plain Technician Uniform, White. Annwn CFUS (50/50, 15lbs)
Eldjotnar Shotgun (4/4 A, 12/12 E, 10lbs)
Energy Cell x3 (Fully Charged)
20 gauge gauss canister x12
Portable Welding Kit (20lbs, Plasma, 100/100)
Mechanical Bypass Kit (10 lbs, 10/10)
Mechanic's Utility Knife (1lb)
Pad (Charged, significant free space, 1lb)
Status: Fine
 

---

Dominique Wakeman

Dom shook her head. "No. We press on." She moved up to try the door ahead of them. If it was locked, it was time for the engineers to do their job.

  You shake your head, motioning for the scientist to get back into the group. [Reflex 1 (bonus negated) Vs Mobility 19+5] Your danger sense spikes before you complete the gesture. There isn't time to react before one of the wax mounds in the rightward corridor explodes, and something hurtles straight at the barely armored scientist's back. [Spine Freak Melee 21+4, 12+5 Vs Scientist Dodge 4-2, 2+1-2] [Confirm Critical 6 Vs 10, critical confirm failed.] [Brawl 11+3, 11+2] (Scientist Armor -10 -8, -6 HP -12, -15. Consume failed.) [Scientist Soak 9, 19. Poisoned] 
    The blurring movement is over in a heartbeat, and time freezes as the whitecoat screams. Two spines, each at least as long as your forearm, protrude from the scientist's front. The spines are covered in the woman's blood, and clear fluid drips from their tips. The spines are being driven through the scientist's back by a pair of ropy appendages that are like nothing you've seen before. They appear to made of solid muscle, with no bones or joints, and they in turn lead back to a creature that could, loosely, be termed humanoid. If the four year old child of the ugliest family on all the habitable worlds was asked to sculpt its mother in soft clay, and that sculpture was then dropped down a flight of stairs and worried on by the family dog, it would be a fair approximation of the creature that is impaling the scientist. It's lopsided and misshapen, with one leg corpulent and the other skeletal, its face is an unrecognizable parody of features, and its arms are spindly and vestigial. The pseudopods emerge from the creature's back, aligned with its spine. This creature is nothing like the first experiment you killed. That one was insane, but human. This... This looks like something about nine tenths of the way to forgetting what 'human' means.
  Of course, that means you don't have to feel the least bit bad about blasting it all to hell.

((The Freak is currently using the scientist as a shield))

Spoiler: Dominique Wakeman (click to show/hide)

Health: 113/128
Stamina: 120/120 (+14)
Carried Weight: 124/210
Attire: Harlequin Uniform, Styx Assault Armor (150/150, 60lbs. Integrated Power cell charged 3/3, Internal Ammunition Supply [Cerico, 14])
Inv:
Dominique's Abassy Heavy pistol -laser sight- [6, 8lbs]
.50 pistol clip (7 0.2lbs) x5
Artemis Railgun (3/3 A, 3/3 E 18lbs)
Size S-3 rail spike pack (3, 0.6lbs) x2
Cerico Shotgun (24/8 A, 16lbs)
12 gauge shells (8, 0.3lbs) x5
Stun club (50/50 11lbs)
Advanced Medical Kit (10/10) (5lbs)
Energy Cell (Full, 0.5lbs) x5
ORS (3) x2
Chitin Nodule
Status: Fine

Spoiler:  Allies (click to show/hide)

Individuals

Cadet Taiya
Psionic
Health: 102/102
Stamina: 110/110
Armor: Hy-Brasil CF-HES (100/100)
Primary Weapon: Kekkai CM Pistol+ (7/7 (Detonating Rounds)) (5 cartridges; 1 Det., 2 Stun, 1 Bleed, 2 AP); +Side locked dart launcher (3/3)
Reserve: Arbiter Blade
Status: Fine. Low Morale [-2]

Squad 1

Haz-Rec Marine 1
Health: 100/100
Stamina: 100/100
Armor: Hy-Brasil CF-HES (100/100)
Primary Weapon: Leanashe Assault Rifle+ (50/50) (4 clips); +Underslung dart launcher (3/3)
Reserve: Salamander suppression pistol (30/30) (2 spare canisters);
Status: Fine. Low Morale [-2]

Haz-Rec Marine 2
Health: 100/100
Stamina: 100/100
Armor: Hy-Brasil CF-HES (100/100)
Primary Weapon: Leanashe Assault Rifle+ (50/50) (3 clips); +Underslung dart launcher (3/3)
Reserve:  Ifrit Incendiary grenades x3
Status: Fine. Low Morale [-2]

Haz-Rec Marine (Designated Gunner)
Health: 114/114
Stamina: 110/110
Armor: Hy-Brasil CF-HES (100/100)
Primary Weapon: Surma LMG+ (90/90) (2 belts); +Underslung dart launcher (3/3)
Reserve:  Blade
Status: Fine. Very Low Morale [-3]

Squad 2

Haz-Rec Marine 3
Health: 100/100
Stamina: 100/100
Armor: Hy-Brasil CF-HES (100/100)
Primary Weapon: Leanashe Assault Rifle+ (50/50) (1 clip); +Underslung dart launcher (3/3)
Reserve: Salamander suppression pistol (30/30) (3 spare canisters);
Status: Fine. Low Morale [-2]

Haz-Rec Marine 4
Health: 100/100
Stamina: 100/100
Armor: Hy-Brasil CF-HES (100/100)
Primary Weapon: Leanashe Assault Rifle+ (50/50) (3 clips); +Underslung dart launcher (3/3)
Reserve:  Blade
Status: Fine. Poor Morale [-1]

Haz-Rec Marine (Designated Marksman)
Health: 86/86
Stamina: 90/90
Armor: Hy-Brasil CF-HES (100/100)
Primary Weapon: Artemis Railgun+ (3/3 A, 3/3 E) (3 clips, 3 cells); +Underslung dart launcher (3/3); Short Range Scope.
Reserve:  Salamander suppression pistol (30/30) (1 spare canister);
Status: Fine. Low Morale [-2]

Squad 3 (Low-Com)

Tech Engineer 1
Health: 60/60
Stamina: 60/60
Armor: Annwn ACFUS+ (50/50) (Masked)
Primary Weapon: Cerico Shotgun (8/8) (8 shells)
Reserve:  None
Status: Fine. Low Morale [-2]
Tools:  Mechanical Bypass Kit 5/5

Tech Engineer 2
Health: 60/60
Stamina: 60/60
Armor: Annwn ACFUS+ (50/50) (Masked)
Primary Weapon: Cerico Shotgun (8/8) (8 shells)
Reserve:  None
Status: Fine. Poor Morale [-1]
Tools:  Mechanical Bypass Kit 5/5

Tech Scientist 1
Health: 50/50
Stamina: 50/50
Armor: Annwn ACFUS+ (50/50) (Masked)
Primary Weapon: Fenrir Energy Pistol (7/7) (2 cells)
Reserve:  None
Status: Fine. Average Morale [0 ]
Tools: Universal Interface Kit, Advanced Medical Kit (10/10)

Tech Scientist 2
Health: 23/50
Stamina: 50/50
Armor: Annwn ACFUS+ (26/50) (Masked)
Primary Weapon: Fenrir Energy Pistol (7/7) (2 cells)
Reserve:  None
Status: Wax Poisoning (Weak). Poor Morale [-1], being used as a shield by Spine Freak.
Tools: Universal Interface Kit, Advanced Medical Kit (10/10)

Spoiler: Enemy (click to show/hide)

Spine Freak
Cellburner
Health: 432/500
Armor: None
Primary Weapon: Twin spines [3,3. Envenomed], on pseudopods.
Reserve:  None
Status: Hungry, using Scientist 2 as a shield.

Spoiler:  Map (click to show/hide)

---

Ashley Fey

 

Attempt to Drill the door, if that fails then risk interfacing directly

   [Mechanics 12+1+1, 18+1, 20+1, 9+1+1. Luck 14. 79/75] It takes all of the supplies remaining in your kit, but you're able to dismantle enough of the door's critical components to force it open. After you have the door open enough to slip through, it occurs to you that there might be later repercussions to mechanically disabling an airlock door.  The door will still read as locked, and if anyone were to try and disengage the technocrat vessel... Well, it would be unpleasant for anyone remaining in the dock.
   You exit the useless airlock cautiously, ready to engage any Technocrat guards that have been left behind. Disappointingly, there don't appear to be any such guards. You relax a hair and survey the room in greater detail.  The skeleton of the field medical station that was erected earlier is still intact, but most of the supplies are missing. The northern blast door seems to have been levered back into place, the barricades are unmanned, and the armory crates are empty. Many things from your last little traipse are absent, and only a few things have been added; a few puddles and streaks congealing blood and thirteen corpse crates.
   It appears as though you have a clear path back to Dom's shuttle.  [Observation 15] Your hear a faint scratching sound coming from one of the crates.
 

Spoiler: Ashley Fey (click to show/hide)

Health: 159/159
Charge: 159/159
Carried weight: 115/150
Attire: Plain gray under armor padding. Midguard Hardened Armor (112/140, 60lbs)
Inv:
Garou Repeating Cannon (9/12) (19lbs)
15 MM bonding charges x1 (12)
Ashley's Leanashe Assault Rifle [10/30 18lbs]
4.73 mm Caseless box mags x1
Cirri Light pistol [20/20 4lbs]
Energy cell x2
basic medical supplies [1/5] (5lbs)
Manticore Pistol [9/10 6lbs]
Mechanical Bypass kit 1/5 [3lbs]

[Zako]

Ok. Thanks for telling me about the stamina thing. I'll change my action now.

[Harry Baldman]

"Abomination coming our way," Amk says to Rob. "Have any countermeasures? Opinion on success of violence?"

What kind of door am I looking out of? An automatic one? And the woman's body is on the ground inside of our cozy little nook, right?

Also, consider my portable welding kit - is there any way to overload it explosively? Plasma should do a number on a creature like this, should it not?

[SeriousConcentrate]

Dom attempts to use Heavy Manipulation to take the Cellburner's shield away. "Get ready to open fire!"

[Draignean]

Some of you are probably wondering why this is taking so long. Well, maybe.

Actually it's more likely that you just shrugged and chalked it up to Draignean being Draignean. In part, that's true.
It's also in part because the simulations with Anna's team keep ending up... less than desirable because the damage for psionic attacks doesn't scale properly to shoving stamina at it. (A razor bloom from the presbyter can deal 172-270 damage to nine tiles, and that attack has armor piercing II attached. Combined with energy drain, the attack doesn't even drop his net stamina)

Hopefully the turn should be tonight or tomorrow or the next day, but I'm busily working out a system of diminishing returns that can simultaneously be too complex to understand while still remaining an inadequate patch to the current balance issues.

[SeriousConcentrate]

Congratz on the publication stuff, D. ^^^

[Draignean]

Congratz on the publication stuff, D. ^^^

Thanks. I'm pretty sure that lab rat credit on "Pattern Recognition Assisted Infrared Library Searching of Automotive Clear Coats" is going to impress -3 people if I were to try and use it as part of my published works when trying to submit fiction, but it's still a fun thing to have on the resume.

I've decided to use basic calculus to solve the damage problem. I'm almost certain that I once made a joke in the rollers block thread that calculus was the point of complexity where you should consider simply punching your players in the nose rather than attempt to explain the rules. Same effects.

I'll attempt to prove myself wrong.

EDIT: Screw calculus, I'm just going to make up functions that look close and use those. I already know what the antiderivatives are going to look like anyway. Never use calculus unless you have to. Or it's funny.

EDIT2: That was incredibly stream of consciousness mechanic crafting. Do Forgive.

[Xanmyral]

I'm honestly curious what kind of mechanics you're making that require taking the antiderivative of something.

[Draignean]

Well, let's say I wanted the stamina investment on an ability to yield increasingly effective returns up to a point, and then yield decreasing returns up to a certain max value.

So the base equation looks like K -(F-x)^2 (where K and F are constants), this describes the pattern I want the damage to take.  It's an upside down parabola of height K, that achieves its maximum value after F somethings have been invested. Now, this obviously can't be damage, since low values would be the same as high values which would be less than medium values. Instead I take an indefinite integral and end up with Kx - (F^2)x + F(x^2) - (x^3)/3 + C, where C is a min damage constant if I want one.

Voila, I have a formula for the damage of something that uses power efficiently in a relatively narrow region, but can be overcharged or undercharged as the situation warrants. By adjusting the constant values, I can adjust the actual damage/healing/shielding/ketchup output.

Basically I use antiderivatives because I'm better at conceptualizing the efficiency pattern than I am at conceptualizing the final output pattern.

EDIT: My math looks wrong, but it's too 1am for me to bother checking it.

[SeriousConcentrate]

I have absolutely no idea what you're talking about. Then again I can't even come to terms with algebra so calculus is so far out of my depth of understanding it's not even funny.

Hilariously I was ninja'd and somehow that made my comment EVEN MORE relevant. XD

[Draignean]

I have absolutely no idea what you're talking about. Then again I can't even come to terms with algebra so calculus is so far out of my depth of understanding it's not even funny.

Hilariously I was ninja'd and somehow that made my comment EVEN MORE relevant. XD

You're better off. There's a sort of pall of fear that hangs over people who realize that a professor might one day ask them to try and find the four dimensional intersection of two five dimensional objects.

EDIT: It does have its benefits. I slammed out a set of rough equations for slam, and these are the test results... (on wiki)

Spoiler: Examples (click to show/hide)

Low Power

John invests a simple, unmodified, slam with 5 stamina. He rolls a 13, giving him 2 bonus stamina. His effective investiture is then equal to 7. (5*1+2) This means his slams deals 29 (15*ln[7]) concussive damage if the target is pinned, or 14 concussive damage and 15 knockback if the target can still move.

Mid Power

Harbatkin uses 25 stamina on a slam, but rolls a 9+2-1 which subtracts a point of effective stamina. His roll fell below 11, so his extra point of difficulty is wasted. His effective investiture is then equal to 24 (25*1-1). So his slam deals 48 (15*ln[24]) concussive damage if the target is pinned, or an even 24-24 split otherwise.

High Power

Annette using 50 stamina on a -3 slam, and rolls a 21+2-3, for 9 extra points of stamina. All three difficulty points are effective, so her effective investiture is 59 (50 + 9). This means her slam can deal 80 (19.5*ln[59]) points of damage to a pinned target, or 40-40 concussive/knockback split. 

This illustrates how slam can utilize power quite effectively at lower investiture levels, but it tapers at higher and higher power levels. (200 stamina invested would still only yield 79 points of max damage at base difficulty.) Theoretically, the damage is infinite, but it's not efficient to simple shovel power into it and hope for the best. The K*ln(x) form is ideal for abilities like this. K can be modified by the ability's difficulty, which allows a skilled kineticist to greatly outclass a stronger, but less talented psionic. (Taking a -5 to bring the base K for slam up to 22.5 enables a 10 stamina slam to deal 51 base damage, seven points higher than a 20 stamina slam at no difficulty modifier.)

I also, on an educated whim, made it so that psionic abilities don't just fizzle if you roll below 11. Slam loses one point of invested stamina for each ever point below 11 on the A.K roll, but otherwise functions normally.

[Xanmyral]

-snip-

On one hand, that's an complicated way to work the mechanic of damage for the average joe (at least from the standpoint of a game where the equations aren't taken care of via program and thus aren't really seen/dealt with on a player or GM basis), but on the other hand I'm impressed at the level of detail going into the mechanics and how they can really add variability and the choice of efficiency (which in part grants greater differences between separate abilities, which is always nice).

You don't really see that much of anywhere in games.