Question 6

[Kobold King he/him]

Yeah….even if I put "Planning ONLY. NO JOKES/SHIPPING/PONIES/RANDOM CHITCHAT, GUYS" at the top of each thread, there would still be a pony comic by post 15.

 

That said, Joe does have a point. It's difficult enough to sift through all the posts in one of these threads when it's just Portland and The Dalles; if we added Astoria and even just one of the other areas we'd mentioned, the Question threads would fill up very quickly. I'm not sure what the best solution is—multiple Questions, keep the Questions for all-purpose pony comics and crack shipping and add a few planning threads, something else entirely—but I do think we need a solution. 

 

Thoughts? 

 

What if I made a public service announcement with ponies warning people not to post ponies?

 

Maybe we could use the Member Blogs feature to announce major planning topics (when to start the Astoria thread, new character concepts for review, etc). I've never used that feature though, so I have no idea how it works.

[Voidus]

There is the option of doing planning in PMs more, I know that a few of us do already but I think it's an easier way to plan and we seem to be a bit more on-topic in them.

[Kobold King he/him]

There is the option of doing planning in PMs more, I know that a few of us do already but I think it's an easier way to plan and we seem to be a bit more on-topic in them.

 

Speak for yourself. I've been known to get way off topic in PMs.

 

Is there a way to flag Question thread posts as important? With some sort of special icon or colored text, perhaps, letting skimming forum members know what they should be reading?

[TwiLyghtSansSparkles she/her]

Speak for yourself. I've been known to get way off topic in PMs.

 

Is there a way to flag Question thread posts as important? With some sort of special icon or colored text, perhaps, letting skimming forum members know what they should be reading?

 

Maybe a serious planning thread would be the answer here. 

 

…I was going to say I could pin it, but I pin a ton of topics already, so if I'm not careful we'll have every single topic in this forum pinned ere long. I like to pin things a bit too much.  

 

But seriously, if I set up a thread for planning only with the stipulation that ponies be kept to a minimum, do you think that would work? 

[Mailliw73 he/him]

... So, erm, sorry to interrupt, but how does one go about joining this thing? (Aside from posting and asking to join and all.)  This RP looks really awesome. 

 

I have a couple ideas for Epics, and, (thanks to the very helpful summary posts a little ways back) pretty well understand what's going on in the Dalles. 

 

However, I have two(-ish) problems. I'm having difficulty thinking up a suitably pretentious and self-important name, and I'm wondering whether or not I should add more limitations on the powers of the Epic I'm thinking of running. At the moment, he's not super-powerful (it's not like he can level city block or anything) he can just do a crap ton of stuff, with clever applications of the one ability. (I'm not sure exactly where to introduce him into the thread either, as depending on who he met and when he met them, he could fall on pretty well any side. This can come later, however.)

 

Anyways onto a (relatively) brief description:

Name: ?? (I'm kinda leaning towards Frostfire, or something similar, because it reflects the main use of his power.)

 

Primary Power:

Energy Manipulation: Can transfer energy from himself, or any object in direct physical contact with him, to anything within sight. Is allowed to choose the vectors of the energy he's applying (in the case it is something that can be described in vectors). 

 

Secondary Power:

Life Sense: More energy-sense than anything, but he has the ability to gauge the rough location of objects around him. (The greater net energy the object has, the clearer it is, and the further away he can sense it from. Cool/room temp. stone is a dim blur. Quickly moving objects, open flames, people etc., are fairly definite, bright shapes. Epics (High Epics in particular) tend to be like small suns.) The more he concentrates on it, the better he can see like this.

 

Limitations: Can draw energy only from things he is touching. He can also only transfer energy to things roughly within his line of sight, and to only one target at a time. The more distant an object is, the less effective his power becomes. Can only hold energy for a very short amount of time. Whenever possible, he needs to be rid of whatever he’s absorbed very quickly; the more energy he has, the quicker he needs to be rid of it before losing control and sustaining injury. (For example, when being shot at, he has very little time to stop and choose targets. If he's prepared, he usually won't suffer injury though.)

 

Has no prime invincibility. If you manage to catch him unawares, or somehow dump energy into him faster than he can transfer it (by no means impossible, a small group of people with automatic firearms could probably do it, if they managed to make him stay still long enough), he will die like anyone else.  

 

 

What do you guys think?

 

Hey, Aonar! Great to see you here! It's always fun to see people I know from other areas of the forums join us here. I saw you lurking here a few times and I wondered what was up with that. I like Frostfire. So he can use his powers on any type of energy?

 

Aonar! Glad to have you here. As far as I can see your epic makes sense, though there is the PI problem and the introduction to the story problem.

 

I've been thinking, What if we started the Astoria thread sooner rather than later? The regular plans happen, but the epics under Lucienta's command hold off contacting her, trying to do everything themselves, and only call Lucienta after Portland gets destroyed?

 

Also, are we going to have only one planning thread for the whole RP, or are we going to eventually make a Question: Portland and Question: Astoria threads? This thread already expands at an Exponential rate.

  

I think the Astoria thread is mainly waiting on the Connell plot finishing up. Currently, I'm the one holding that up, sorry. I think we could be finished in a week and then make Astoria.

Multiple threads would solve some problems, but create others, and I think it'd be too much of a hassle.

What if I made a public service announcement with ponies warning people not to post ponies?

 

Maybe we could use the Member Blogs feature to announce major planning topics (when to start the Astoria thread, new character concepts for review, etc). I've never used that feature though, so I have no idea how it works.

  

Speak for yourself. I've been known to get way off topic in PMs.

 

Is there a way to flag Question thread posts as important? With some sort of special icon or colored text, perhaps, letting skimming forum members know what they should be reading?

If someone wants to test the blogs, go for it. I've never used them either.

The only icons I know of are the popular ones when a post gets 10 upvotes. But colored text, like the OOC blue in Elimination, might work. I vote for that idea.

Also, Joe, I don't think you saw it, so I'll ask again. I don't really have anything for Max to do in Atticus, do you want to post to get it set up for him to make his plan known?

[A Joe in the Bush]

I'll add that to my list of things to write tomorrow.

[Kobold King he/him]

Maybe a serious planning thread would be the answer here. 

 

…I was going to say I could pin it, but I pin a ton of topics already, so if I'm not careful we'll have every single topic in this forum pinned ere long. I like to pin things a bit too much.  

 

But seriously, if I set up a thread for planning only with the stipulation that ponies be kept to a minimum, do you think that would work?

I guess that could work. Though I'd prefer colored text, like Mailliw. A whole new thread might be a bit much.

But then, I'm active enough on the Question thread all day long that my opinion probably isn't the most relevant one. We should talk to people like Joe and Voidus, and others that have trouble keeping up this insanity sometimes.

[Aonar he/him]

 

Hey, Aonar! Great to see you here! It's always fun to see people I know from other areas of the forums join us here. I saw you lurking here a few times and I wondered what was up with that. I like Frostfire. So he can use his powers on any type of energy?

 

Yeah, although right now I'm thinking that he isn't fully aware of everything he can do. A meeting between him and Edgerunner or MV would probably be interesting, I think.

 

It seems like everybody's pretty well good with Frostfire's power-set? If so, I'll post a slightly more detailed version to the Epics of Oregon thread, PM his weakness off to TwiLyght and try to think up a place to introduce him into the thread. (Probably tomorrow, though, as it's pretty late right now.)

 

...Speaking of introducing him to the thread, Jain, roughly how many pandas are left in the camp now that they've started a dedicated attack? Pandas would probably make good fodder for playing around with Frostfire's powers, and wouldn't be a bad place to start. 

Edited January 26, 2015 by Aonar Faileas

[A Joe in the Bush]

I guess that could work. Though I'd prefer colored text, like Mailliw. A whole new thread might be a bit much.

But then, I'm active enough on the Question thread all day long that my opinion probably isn't the most relevant one. We should talk to people like Joe and Voidus, and others that have trouble keeping up this insanity sometimes.

During the week, if I get on and there's more than 4 new pages, i just write down their numbers and read them on the weekend. Honestly, Mailliw's suggestion of coloring important text (Like in Sanderson Elimination) Would work perfectly.

[Edgedancer he/him]

Before everyone forgets, what feedback can I get on this? You may need to look back a page for context.

Works for me.

 

... So, erm, sorry to interrupt, but how does one go about joining this thing? (Aside from posting and asking to join and all.)  This RP looks really awesome. 

 

I have a couple ideas for Epics, and, (thanks to the very helpful summary posts a little ways back) pretty well understand what's going on in the Dalles. 

 

However, I have two(-ish) problems. I'm having difficulty thinking up a suitably pretentious and self-important name, and I'm wondering whether or not I should add more limitations on the powers of the Epic I'm thinking of running. At the moment, he's not super-powerful (it's not like he can level city block or anything) he can just do a crap ton of stuff, with clever applications of the one ability. (I'm not sure exactly where to introduce him into the thread either, as depending on who he met and when he met them, he could fall on pretty well any side. This can come later, however.)

 

Anyways onto a (relatively) brief description:

Name: ?? (I'm kinda leaning towards Frostfire, or something similar, because it reflects the main use of his power.)

 

Primary Power:

Energy Manipulation: Can transfer energy from himself, or any object in direct physical contact with him, to anything within sight. Is allowed to choose the vectors of the energy he's applying (in the case it is something that can be described in vectors). 

 

Secondary Power:

Life Sense: More energy-sense than anything, but he has the ability to gauge the rough location of objects around him. (The greater net energy the object has, the clearer it is, and the further away he can sense it from. Cool/room temp. stone is a dim blur. Quickly moving objects, open flames, people etc., are fairly definite, bright shapes. Epics (High Epics in particular) tend to be like small suns.) The more he concentrates on it, the better he can see like this.

 

Limitations: Can draw energy only from things he is touching. He can also only transfer energy to things roughly within his line of sight, and to only one target at a time. The more distant an object is, the less effective his power becomes. Can only hold energy for a very short amount of time. Whenever possible, he needs to be rid of whatever he’s absorbed very quickly; the more energy he has, the quicker he needs to be rid of it before losing control and sustaining injury. (For example, when being shot at, he has very little time to stop and choose targets. If he's prepared, he usually won't suffer injury though.)

 

Has no prime invincibility. If you manage to catch him unawares, or somehow dump energy into him faster than he can transfer it (by no means impossible, a small group of people with automatic firearms could probably do it, if they managed to make him stay still long enough), he will die like anyone else.  

 

 

What do you guys think?

Welcome, he seems good to me.

 

An ordinary mole can tunnel about 12-15 feet in an hour. Assuming the said mole digs 24 hours a day (or works in shifts, as is the case here), it could cover around a maximum of 110 metres in a day (I'm using the non-American spelling, for those of you who are abut to point out that supposed mistake). Now, this is an ordinary mole. What if the said mole was enhanced and enlarged? The digging rate could be at least doubled, if not tripled. As long as the Panda Army did not march very far from The Dalles, the moles could dig the the required tunnels within a week. The debris could also simply be carted away by pandas (Moles don't leave much in term of debris, anyway. Some moles compress the dirt against the walls) and the walls could also be strengthened by said pandas.

 

It's amazing how much damage fire-hardened or stone tipped arrows can do. Especially if fired by enhanced pandas that can put hundreds of pounds of pressure behind an arrow with a bow.

I´m aware that it could work, the problem is just that in the time needed to clear the tunnels and let the entire army march through people could also spot them, I mean the mole hill alone must seem like a small mountain. (You can only compress earth that much before it becomes to hard to simply be pushed out of the way.)  To change shift each mole would also either have to dig itself out again and the new one passing through the entire tunnel again or make the tunnel large enough that multiple moles can pass through.

 

Something contradicted by your first post stating they had to do with only organic material.

 

I guess that could work. Though I'd prefer colored text, like Mailliw. A whole new thread might be a bit much.

But then, I'm active enough on the Question thread all day long that my opinion probably isn't the most relevant one. We should talk to people like Joe and Voidus, and others that have trouble keeping up this insanity sometimes.

I´m in the same boat as Kobold here.

[Lightsworn Panda he/him]

Welcome, Aonar! I apologize for not seeing your post.

 

 

I´m aware that it could work, the problem is just that in the time needed to clear the tunnels and let the entire army march through people could also spot them, I mean the mole hill alone must seem like a small mountain. (You can only compress earth that much before it becomes to hard to simply be pushed out of the way.)  To change shift each mole would also either have to dig itself out again and the new one passing through the entire tunnel again or make the tunnel large enough that multiple moles can pass through.

 

Something contradicted by your first post stating they had to do with only organic material.

 

The Guards might notice a depression/elevation in the soil, but considering how far the forts (and therefore, the tunnels) are away from The Dalles, I suppose it'd be quite hard to notice. The "shift problem" would only be a problem if there was only one mole working at a time at the front. There's more than one.

 

Fire is fairly easy to make. Just let some wood dry out and set them on fire, before hardening your arrows. Stone is fairly common-place, and can also be quarried with (organically-grown) bone tools. Hmm... come to think of it, I could also arm the pandas with bone-tipped arrows.

[Edgedancer he/him]

Welcome, Aonar! I apologize for not seeing your post.

 

 

The Guards might notice a depression/elevation in the soil, but considering how far the forts (and therefore, the tunnels) are away from The Dalles, I suppose it'd be quite hard to notice. The "shift problem" would only be a problem if there was only one mole working at a time at the front. There's more than one.

 

Fire is fairly easy to make. Just let some wood dry out and set them on fire, before hardening your arrows. Stone is fairly common-place, and can also be quarried with (organically-grown) bone tools. Hmm... come to think of it, I could also arm the pandas with bone-tipped arrows.

So do the moles have to be careful not to scratch and push the dirt on each other?

 

It´s easy yes, but still contradicted by what you wrote.

 

Fatebreaker, the RP flows better, if you don´t put a quote in there. I´m also fairly sure that "barely a wisper" is code for a character standing a distance away can´t hear her.

[Mailliw73 he/him]

I guess that could work. Though I'd prefer colored text, like Mailliw. A whole new thread might be a bit much.

But then, I'm active enough on the Question thread all day long that my opinion probably isn't the most relevant one. We should talk to people like Joe and Voidus, and others that have trouble keeping up this insanity sometimes.

 

What kind of color would work best? I'm thinking like red or purple. Blue would confuse me and probably the other Elimination players too much.

 

Yeah, although right now I'm thinking that he isn't fully aware of everything he can do. A meeting between him and Edgerunner or MV would probably be interesting, I think.

 

It seems like everybody's pretty well good with Frostfire's power-set? If so, I'll post a slightly more detailed version to the Epics of Oregon thread, PM his weakness off to TwiLyght and try to think up a place to introduce him into the thread. (Probably tomorrow, though, as it's pretty late right now.)

Edgerunner's with Scribbler, but is free to have anyone meet her. They're just slaughtering Pandas and other animals right now, so they're kinda getting neglected. If something would add to their story, I'm game for it.

[Fatebreaker he/him]

 

 

Fatebreaker, the RP flows better, if you don´t put a quote in there. I´m also fairly sure that "barely a wisper" is code for a character standing a distance away can´t hear her.

 

Maybe Fade also has SUPER-HEARING!!!

 

Or maybe I didn't notice that "barely a whisper" bit of text. 

Either way, I'll do my best to fix it.

Edit: Whoops, I didn't realize I had accidentally left the whole quote box in there. My bad. 

 

My apologies to y'all about my level of activity of late. it's going to be a wicked busy semester, so while I'll post as frequently as possible, I can't promise a regular posting every day or so. As for the multiple Question Threads, I think you should just put all of the ponies, shipping and stuff in blue text or something so if people are crunched for time and trying to catch up they can skip it and come back to it later. I really find it entertaining, but you guys have such a crazy output that it's hard to keep up with everything.

Edited January 26, 2015 by Fatebreaker

[Voidus]

Edgerunner's with Scribbler, but is free to have anyone meet her. They're just slaughtering Pandas and other animals right now, so they're kinda getting neglected. If something would add to their story, I'm game for it.

Well a small blonde teenager just flew past them if you want something for them to talk about

[Mailliw73 he/him]

Well a small blonde teenager just flew past them if you want something for them to talk about

That makes some great small talk during an animal slaughter.

*looks up after killing a panda*

"Did you see that?"

"What?"

"Looked like a small blond teenager hurtling through the sky."

"Emma, you're crazy"

"Yeah. You're right. Let's get back to killing these thing."

*resumes regularly scheduled panda killing*

[Voidus]

That makes some great small talk during an animal slaughter.

*looks up after killing a panda*

"Did you see that?"

"What?"

"Looked like a small blond teenager hurtling through the sky."

"Emma, you're crazy

"Yeah. You're right. Let's get back to killing these thing."

*resumes regularly scheduled panda killing*

Because flying teenagers are preposterous. Flying pig armies? All in a day's work

[Lightsworn Panda he/him]

That makes some great small talk during an animal slaughter. 

 

*looks up after killing a panda*

"Did you see that?"

"What?"

"Looked like a small blond teenager hurtling through the sky."

"Emma, you're crazy"

"Yeah. You're right. Let's get back to killing these thing."

*resumes regularly scheduled panda killing*

 

 

 

Every time a panda dies in this RP, a puppy dies in the real world.

 

So do the moles have to be careful not to scratch and push the dirt on each other?

 

It´s easy yes, but still contradicted by what you wrote.

 

 

 

If it impedes their progress, yes.

 

What I wrote was:

A panda standing to his right, wearing a red sashimono - the small flags samurai traditionally wore on their backs - saluted the Panda, and roared a command to the amassed pandas behind him. Each panda was outfitted like a classic samurai, with lacquered armor and a kasa (a flat and large round hat made out of reeds or straw).The Panda could not, sadly, clone materials such as steel, so his warriors had to make do with their organic counterparts. Each panda was armed with multiple sharpened bamboo spears, and a rather out of place yew longbow, not dissimilar to the ones the British would use in Medieval times. 

As one, the pandas took out their bows, strung them up and nocked arrows wrapped in oiled paper to their bows. Pandas hurried down the line, lighting the arrows with a torch. 

 

 

 

At no point did I ever state what the arrows were made of, or even write about the arrows.

 

Kobold, I just got to the part in your post where your Epic blinded some pandas. I think I cried for 2 minutes. At least pandas rely on their sense of smell more than their sense of sight. (Sniff)

 

Nice choice of music, though. Do you listen to Imagine Dragon songs?

 

 

Okay, so maybe I was exaggerating when I said I cried.   

[Edgedancer he/him]

What I wrote was:

 

 

At no point did I ever state what the arrows were made of, or even write about the arrows.

 

 

 

The Panda could not, sadly, clone materials such as steel, so his warriors had to make do with their organic counterparts.

This line does not make sense if they used used stone. Bone addmidetly makes sense. Although bone is a rather light weighted material, I´m still not sure if that could pierce proper military gear.

[Lightsworn Panda he/him]

Stone doesn't have to be cloned. You simply quarry it. Heck, you could even pick it off the ground, if its quality was good enough. And there are exceptions to everything, Edgedancer.

 

Arrows don't necessarily have to pierce armour to kill someone. The brunt force of an arrow hitting someone with armour on is enough to crack ribs. Considering how the arrows were fired by enhanced creatures that could put scores more pounds of force into arrows, the fact that modern military gear isn't exactly made to stop large objects like arrows and the fact that the guards were hit by multiple arrows, the guards could have been killed by the force and trauma alone.

 

Also, modern day military gear is made to stop bullets, not arrows. Kevlar is cloth/material. A bullet isn't actually a very sharp object, nor is it a heavy object. Kevlar can stop bullets as it disperses and softens the force of a bullet (which, as I have said before, is a light object). An arrow is a sharp and heavy object. Even fire-hardened or stone-sharpened arrows are very sharp (I know this from personal experience. Still have the scars). Arrows can easily tear through modern armour, as it has more momentum and sharpness than a bullet. True, some body armour do have ceramic or steel plates under them, but those suits are pretty expensive, so I doubt the entire city guard would have them. Plate body armour also do have gaps in them.

[Edgedancer he/him]

Stone doesn't have to be cloned. You simply quarry it. Heck, you could even pick it off the ground, if its quality was good enough. And there are exceptions to everything, Edgedancer.

 

Arrows don't necessarily have to pierce armour to kill someone. The brunt force of an arrow hitting someone with armour on is enough to crack ribs. Considering how the arrows were fired by enhanced creatures that could put scores more pounds of force into arrows, the fact that modern military gear isn't exactly made to stop large objects like arrows and the fact that the guards were hit by multiple arrows, the guards could have been killed by the force and trauma alone.

 

Also, modern day military gear is made to stop bullets, not arrows. Kevlar is cloth/material. A bullet isn't actually a very sharp object, nor is it a heavy object. Kevlar can stop bullets as it disperses and softens the force of a bullet (which, as I have said before, is a light object). An arrow is a sharp and heavy object. Even fire-hardened or stone-sharpened arrows are very sharp (I know this from personal experience. Still have the scars). Arrows can easily tear through modern armour, as it has more momentum and sharpness than a bullet. True, some body armour do have ceramic or steel plates under them, but those suits are pretty expensive, so I doubt the entire city guard would have them. Plate body armour also do have gaps in them.

Again change the line where the Panda says he had to make do with organic material and no problem exsists, but if he used stone he didn´t only use organic material, which means that line is wrong. As is the text first says he only used organic material then you say he used stone as well, which contradicts itself. If there´s an exception add it to the text.

 

Yes, but Voidus post was explicty saying pieces of wood penetrated into a guard´s chest, which I´m refering to here.

 

Arsenal can replicate every armor he has seen, there is no reason for the city guard to have less than stellar equipment, especially not money.

[Voidus]

I have just noticed a pattern emerging in my writing, whenever I start corrupting one of my Epics I throw them into the air. First PP falling from the museum and now Impact. I suspect that Strongsteel will decide to go and inspect the tallest buildings in ThoughtTown soon...

[Kobold King he/him]

Kobold, I just got to the part in your post where your Epic blinded some pandas. I think I cried for 2 minutes. At least pandas rely on their sense of smell more than their sense of sight. (Sniff)

 

Nice choice of music, though. Do you listen to Imagine Dragon songs?

 

 

Okay, so maybe I was exaggerating when I said I cried.   

 

Glamour's just the tip of the iceberg. Just wait for the mass panda carnage Deathwish, Vondra, and Arsenal will be causing.

 

I actually haven't heard much from Imagine Dragons. Just "Radioactive," though I've been meaning to listen to some of their other work. Any recommendations?

 

 

I have just noticed a pattern emerging in my writing, whenever I start corrupting one of my Epics I throw them into the air. First PP falling from the museum and now Impact. I suspect that Strongsteel will decide to go and inspect the tallest buildings in ThoughtTown soon...

 

...So I guess taking MV and Scribbler on skydiving lessons wouldn't be a good idea after all?

[TwiLyghtSansSparkles she/her]

I have just noticed a pattern emerging in my writing, whenever I start corrupting one of my Epics I throw them into the air. First PP falling from the museum and now Impact. I suspect that Strongsteel will decide to go and inspect the tallest buildings in ThoughtTown soon...

It's probably convenient that the MEE will be attacking a floating fortress, then.

[Voidus]

It's probably convenient that the MEE will be attacking a floating fortress, then.

 

No comment.