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Elemental immunities are a terrible idea in a game where a player might rely almost entirely on a specific element, anyway.
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Nov 19, 2018 20:31
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Damage types and associated immunities, vulnerabilities, bonuses, etc. opens up some interesting design space, but I think I have yet to see a game that really does it well. D&D 4e has whole branches of character builds to take advantage of some damage types being just plain better than others for various reasons. Mike Mearls managed to actually say something smart about game design once: he doesn't like resistances because it ends up discouraging character specializations that suit the theme of the campaign. (His given example being playing a frost wizard in the frozen north, where everything will have frost resistance.)
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Nov 19, 2018 20:38
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and you end up with the 3.5e problem where many high level enemies are flat out immune to backstab - the biggest source of a Rogue's damage potential or encounters becoming a matter of pass/fail - miss the loot, have your weapon fall afoul of a rust monster or your DM is just stingy and you just flat out can't beat the enemy due to damage reduction or immunities.
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Nov 19, 2018 20:44
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This is why weaknesses are better than resistances IMO. In practical terms, they do basically the same thing, but the dynamic being reversed narratively produces much more satisfaction.
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Nov 19, 2018 20:46
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Halloween Jack posted:Damage types and associated immunities, vulnerabilities, bonuses, etc. opens up some interesting design space, but I think I have yet to see a game that really does it well. D&D 4e has whole branches of character builds to take advantage of some damage types being just plain better than others for various reasons. Higher level 4E characters can find ways to bypass resistance IIRC.
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Nov 19, 2018 20:52
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I was running dragon heist last night and Holy gently caress it doesn't seem to understand how loving lethal combat can be with some characters being as squishy as they are. Like if I hadn't done some hard fudging most of my group would have been out.
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Nov 19, 2018 20:52
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I personally prefer the idea that the greatest Fire Wizards in the world exist in the frozen north, throwing fireballs at Ice Wurms. Meanwhile the jungles are just full of Necromancers who can decimate a clearing with a flick of the wrist.
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Nov 19, 2018 20:59
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Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 2e: Sigmar's Heirs The Endless Sadness of Fantasy Eastern Europe You remember how Kislev is Eastern Europe and Russia? Ostermark is also Eastern Europe, except in Germany. The League of Ostermark is the furthest east point of the Empire, and it's a mixture of the normal heavy forestation of the Empire in the western part of the province and wide open plains that are used to raise fine horses in the east. Kislevite influences, particularly of an Ungol bent, have been an important part of the province since the 18th century; Kislevites often cross the border and resettle in the Empire when there's a particularly nasty famine or a political group runs afoul of the Tsar. Thus, also, are most of the Kislevites in Ostermark Ungols; much more likely to piss off the Gospodar Tsars, and they brought with them their talent for horse husbandry and a love of vodka that have marked the province every since. Similarly, most Ostermarkers speak at least a little Kislevite, and loan words are very common in the province. The original inhabitants of the region were the Ostagoth Tribe, who were really a dozen or so smaller tribes that had come together around agreements to defend one another's fortified camps against other human tribes, orcs, and beastmen. When Sigmar came to the Ostagoths, he was welcomed with open arms; they were already doing the thing he talked about doing, and with his assurances that the other tribes were willing to come to an agreement similar to the ones the Ostagoths made with one another, they agreed almost instantly to send an army to join him. King, then Count, Adelhard is said to have laughed at hearing the future Emperor explain the idea of how the tribes had to come together as though it would be unfamiliar to his people; you have to imagine it was a relief for old Siggy to finally run into some other folks who got what he was talking about right away and joined without a fight or long negotiation. Ostermarkers are known for being very dramatic people, to the point that the Ostermarker accent is often used to mark a hammy character in Imperial theater. They like to dance, and ride, and drink, and they love elaborate costumes and passionate courtships. Imported Ungol customs and costumes both lend extra color to the province and its people. They're also known for their elaborate ability to complain and mourn. They love to talk about their troubles, and most Ostermarkers are very pleased to get any opportunity to monologue. While they don't adopt the pre-emptive funerary rites of Kislev, living near Sylvania and in a border province that is often raided or attacked, they have some of the more elaborate funerals in the Empire. Ostermarker tradition speaks against remarriage, because they fear that a jealous spouse might come storming back from Morr's Realm as a ghost (or worse) should their widow (or widower, I'd imagine, particularly as they describe Ostermarkers as somewhat more egalitarian between the sexes than most Imperials, probably due to Kislevite influence) remarry. Further adding to all this flamboyant despair and death imagery is the fact that they have a long standing alliance with the eastern dwarf-hold of Karak Kardin. The book doesn't explain why this would be so, just throwing around the name of Ungrim Ironfist a bit, but I will: That's the dwarven Slayer King, a man who makes bad decisions and likes being pulled between conflicting oaths. Karak Kardin is a hold that is just plain full of Slayers, and as you might imagine, such a place isn't very cheery. Ostermark was also the home of Mordheim, which you might recognize from the skirmish wargame, Mordheim. Mordheim was hit with a giant warpstone meteor about 500 years ago and reduced to dust; it used to be the capital of Ostermark. Now nobody goes there except crazy people, because the site is cursed as all get out and most of the good looting (and warpstone) that could be easily done was done centuries ago. You'd think there'd be more talking about a place full of dark magic, old secrets, and powerful treasure in an RPG book, but Mordheim barely gets a mention here. Ostermark wasn't nearly as badly damaged as Ostland and Hochland (we'll get to Ostland next). They may be in the east, but they weren't on the primary path of Archy's armies. His lieutenant Crom was supposed to hit Ostermark and then continue west to link up at Middenheim, but you might remember him from Night's Dark Masters: He took a flanking route through Sylvannia. This was not a good plan, and while the Ostermarkers are still worried he'll show up, he's no longer an issue. The Ostermarkers are still on edge, though, and that worry is causing some trouble. Especially when it changes shape and the locals start worrying that somehow Kislev is going to invade from the north, despite Kislev being busy with its own problems. Ostermark is also unique in that the Elector Count is the Chancellor of the League, though since 2000 this has always been the Prince of Bechafan, the most populous and prosperous of the remaining towns in the League. Still, every new Chancellor has to be confirmed by election among the League, because the Ostermark is basically a smaller Empire electing an Elector to elect an Emperor for the bigger Empire. Bechafen is prosperous because it makes some of the best river-craft in the Empire, courtesy of their friendship with the dwarfs of Karak Kardin. The dwarfs gifted the town a set of highly efficient water-powered saw-mills that have helped them produce fine timber products for years. The town is currently nervous, since Count Hertwig took most of the province's army west to join the Emperor. They fear that Crom fellow is going to show up any minute, having just been waiting for their army to leave, and the town's watch and council are struggling to keep the rumors and doomsaying to a minimum to prevent panic. The various places of Ostermark get very, very sparse descriptions; for whatever reason, the area just seems less filled in and detailed than most of the other Imperial entries, which are already thin enough as is. Our example Ostermarker is a dashing idiot nobleman pistolier who wants to fight the undead and who has tried repeatedly to join the Knights of the Raven and failed, because it turns out a glory-hounding nobleman with a huge mustache isn't Morrite material. He's decided the problem is he needs to kill some vampires first, before the blighters will take him seriously enough to let him in. To that end, he's trying to recruit PCs to raid Sylvannia. This probably doesn't lead anywhere good. He's actually a pretty serious fighter and very good with his pistols; he wouldn't make a bad temporary ally for a team mid-way through their second careers. He has an additional adventure seed when he shows up while the party is trying to quietly infiltrate Sylvannia and tries to 'help' in their investigations about whether or not Mannfred is going to be a problem this decade, and they have to deal with the mustachioed idiot almost blowing their cover. Ostermark really needed more material. There are hints of good hooks here, but in a book where the provinces and material are already generally too thin, it doesn't get enough to hang on to. Next Up: BULL OF OSTLAND!
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Nov 19, 2018 21:24
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MonsieurChoc posted:Higher level 4E characters can find ways to bypass resistance IIRC. Speaking of which, what I actually meant by that was the weird combos and whole builds you can do based around frost, thunder, and radiant damage. I think it's a design flaw when you have people multiclassing and taking feats they don't really want per se just so they can build combos around being a Radiant Mafia and so on. Now that said, the caveat to any criticisms of 4e is that all the classes basically work. You're not going to make a worse-than-useless character by accident like in 3e. Robindaybird posted:and you end up with the 3.5e problem where many high level enemies are flat out immune to backstab - the biggest source of a Rogue's damage potential or encounters becoming a matter of pass/fail - miss the loot, have your weapon fall afoul of a rust monster or your DM is just stingy and you just flat out can't beat the enemy due to damage reduction or immunities.
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Nov 19, 2018 21:29
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Halloween Jack posted:Damage types and associated immunities, vulnerabilities, bonuses, etc. opens up some interesting design space, but I think I have yet to see a game that really does it well. D&D 4e has whole branches of character builds to take advantage of some damage types being just plain better than others for various reasons. I think a lot of it is some class design stuff, to me that frost wizard should be totally viable because many of his offensive options should be based on ice and not nebulous 'frost'. Something that lives in the frozen north might be good at not taking damage from external cold (though a proper 'frost' spell should be freezing something from the inside anyway so only the craziest of things like a dragon that breathes 'frost' itself might be resistant) but your thick coat of fur or w/e doesn't somehow make a spell that shoots huge fuckoff icicles do less damage, that they're cold is besides the point they're hard sharp things. Like in general every 'elemental' focused character type absolutely needs something that 'fits' with what they control but does a totally different sort of damage, because among other things that lets you know for a fact your DM is a huge piece of poo poo when something is somehow immune to BOTH things you do. Feinne fucked around with this message at 21:35 on Nov 19, 2018 |
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Nov 19, 2018 21:33
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Fundamentally, one of the problems in the 3.PF zone is how permanent your character choices are, how little guidance you get, and how little of what's available you can take. That's one of the reasons my players started hating leveling up when we were playing PF; the 'sort through a thousand feats' thing wouldn't be so bad if picking those rightly or wrongly wasn't going to really gently caress over your character in the long run. Even your equipment is like that, as you see from the guy who picked 'wrong' by taking a blue flavored magic weapon when the campaign was going to be full of Strong vs. Blue (and when the elements/damage types have no other effect). With the gear being built into your advancement scheme, it's not like you're likely to get a new weapon often. One of the reasons I like the Hams 2e Career System (I can't speak as much for 4e, though it seems in a similar vein) is because of how nearly impossible it made it to make a genuinely useless character. It's a good bit of guidance for character building.
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Nov 19, 2018 21:37
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Halloween Jack posted:In 3.0, ranger's bonus damage was also "precision-based," so it was nearly pointless to be a ranger who specialized in hunting undead. Unless you really need that bonus to tracking a skeleton's footprints. Which I always found frankly bizarre. You'd think that like the number-one use case you'd want for your guy built around hunting one particular kind of monster would be a vampire hunter. Not just because of the meaty thematics, but also because undead are one of the rare types you can encounter at any level.
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Nov 19, 2018 21:42
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Whoever heard of a zombie with a specific physical weak point anyway.
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Nov 19, 2018 21:47
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Night10194 posted:Fundamentally, one of the problems in the 3.PF zone is how permanent your character choices are, how little guidance you get, and how little of what's available you can take. That's one of the reasons my players started hating leveling up when we were playing PF; the 'sort through a thousand feats' thing wouldn't be so bad if picking those rightly or wrongly wasn't going to really gently caress over your character in the long run. Even your equipment is like that, as you see from the guy who picked 'wrong' by taking a blue flavored magic weapon when the campaign was going to be full of Strong vs. Blue (and when the elements/damage types have no other effect). With the gear being built into your advancement scheme, it's not like you're likely to get a new weapon often. I'm even going to defend Aberrant on this front, while there are obviously BETTER choices you kind of have to actively go out of your way to just be poo poo. There's a million different ways to essentially have Quantum Blast for one, and it's super rare that the person you're fighting will be able to directly counter the element of your Blasts without you also having equally good defenses against theirs. I mean then someone blows up the action economy and hits you with ten mega-strength punches turning you into paste but *that's Aberrant!*
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Nov 19, 2018 21:48
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Feinne posted:I think a lot of it is some class design stuff, to me that frost wizard should be totally viable because many of his offensive options should be based on ice and not nebulous 'frost'. Something that lives in the frozen north might be good at not taking damage from external cold (though a proper 'frost' spell should be freezing something from the inside anyway so only the craziest of things like a dragon that breathes 'frost' itself might be resistant) but your thick coat of fur or w/e doesn't somehow make a spell that shoots huge fuckoff icicles do less damage, that they're cold is besides the point they're hard sharp things. A better example is undead. Being a spooky necromancer makes you quite poo poo at fighting undead, because they tend to have immunity to disease, fear, and poison and resistance to necrotic damage! That's part of why radiant damage is so popular in 4e; practically speaking, you're probably going to fight a lot of evil monsters who have resistance to darksided stuff and maybe vulnerability to holy damage, and you're not going to fight many angels and unicorns.
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Nov 19, 2018 21:48
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 Adventure 2: Raw Recruits - The Haunted House and the Poltergeist  The next scene starts with - you guessed it - exposition! Dark*Matter posted:You all arrive at the Desmond house about ninety minutes after leaving Chicago. The house itself is unassuming, a roaming ranch house with a dark-stained wood exterior that faces south onto Polk Road. It rests on the corner of Polk and Wilson roads, often-patched two-lane roads. Older wooden poles support both the streetlights and the power and phone lines. As you gather your cameras, tape recorders and brief cases, you notice numerous cars parked on both sides of the street opposite the house, including a squad car from the local police department. Peter Desmond happens to be standing on his front porch as you arrive, and greets you with a cautious smile, gesturing for you to enter into the front room of the house. On the ride over, the group decides that Nadine will pretend to be the leader interviewer, Doug will reprise his pre-HI employment as the cameraman, Jane will pretend to be the muscle/equipment manager, and Donna will act like she's evaluating the house for potential paranormal hot spots. As the group unloads from their van and assembles their gear, each of them make an Awareness - Perception check. Doug and Jane are both too preoccupied with getting all the camera equipment set-up and staged in the Desmond house to notice much of anything else. Since Donna and Nadine aren't as busy with manual labor, they both take a moment to observe the rest of the neighborhood around the property, and simultaneously notice that one of the many vehicles lining the street is currently occupied by two people - it's a nondescript, current-model black SUV (Suburban or Tahoe or whatever) and it's facing north towards the Desmond house. The windows have limo-quality tint so it's not possible for them to see any other details about the vehicle's occupants, and Jane and Doug finish their set-up shortly thereafter and summon Donna and Nadine into the house. When they enter the house, they find Peter making idle conversation. Peter Desmond posted:Let me introduce you to my family! I'm Peter, of course, and this is my wife Susan and our daughter Betsy. Jerry isn't home right yet, but he'll be here as soon as school lets out; he doesn't want to miss this for the world. He's got a big game tonight, but he shares my interest in the paranormal and he really wants to speak with you, since he was the one that discovered your website. I was actually a little surprised that you were even interested in our problem, but we're more than happy to help with your documentary. Susan then offers to provide the investigators with a tour of the house. Jane and Donna agree to follow her, while Nadine and Doug stay in the living room to prep for the "interview". Peter seems eager to chat, and ends up making small talk with Nadine and Doug while they work. Susan likewise gives Jane and Donna the lowdown on the various supernatural events that have happened in each room of the house. The tour of the house itself is uneventful; it's very much a typical middle-class home and none of the rooms presently contain anything out of the ordinary. Betsy follows her mother throughout the house, but takes a particular interest in Nadine after she produces an ectoplasmic spectrometer (a bogus device with some LED lights and rotating flanges) and peppers Nadine with questions about her job in-between her mother's explanations.  In total, the investigators can uncover the following information:
As the Desmonds are talking, Doug has a chance to employ the knowledge about the occult that's he's picked up since working with HI. He makes an untrained Lore check and gets an Ordinary success, and realizes that the Desmonds' account of the different manifestation events don't share very much in common with the average incident reports of hauntings (no local temperature shifts, no unexplained noises or spectral visions). Nadine and Donna both roll skill checks to represent their participation in the conversations: Nadine rolls Interaction - Charm and Donna rolls Deception - Bluff and they both secure Ordinary successes, so the Desmond family completely buys their cover story as paranormal investigators. So far, so good. Dark*Matter posted:As you continue your discussion and interviews with the Desmonds, the front door opens and three people enter: a tall, athletic young man with black hair, a broad-shouldered, hulking teenager with a baby-face, and a primly dressed woman in her mid-30s with auburn hair. The two boys are excited and smiling as they approach. Time for a hazard encounter! All four investigators roll for initiative, while each member of the Desmond family (plus Nick) are treated as non-professional NPCs and act only on the last (Marginal) phase of each round. THE POLTERGEIST Round 1: Doug becomes inexplicably overwhelmed with stress and spontaneously loses control of his burgeoning Pyrokinteics power (thanks, Wild Talent flaw). He immediately targets the coffee table opposite him, causing a fireball to erupt and engulf it. Of course, the effect of the Pyrokinteics power acts like a grenade, so in addition to trashing the coffee table, he deals 2 wound damage and 1 stun damage to both Peter and Nadine. Nadine shrieks in pain as a fireball suddenly erupts from the coffee table about 2 meters away from her. The flash of flame wreathes around her clothing, and she uses her action to sprint from the living room (5) to the southwest bathroom (8), cranking on the shower and jumping into it fully clothed. Donna is standing in the dining room (3) near the kitchen, and watches the pot of boiling food fly up into the air. Not sure what to do, she grabs a decorative candlestick from the table and tries to throw it at the pot. She rolls an untrained Athletics check, and misses the mark entirely. ??? takes the opportunity to hurl the boiling pot directly through the kitchen entry and towards the front door of the house. Nick only has a moment to react, and he attempts to put his large body in front of Betsy as the pot comes flying. He's successful in protecting Betsy, but suffers 3 Stun damage as scalding hot water and cooking potatoes splash onto his head and down his back. Jane wasn't expecting any of this to happen and is caught completely by surprise. By the time she's regained her senses enough to react, Peter Desmond is engulfed in flame. Thinking on her feet, she pulls a large winter jacket off a coat hook and throws it over him, attempting to smother the fire. She makes an Athletics check and gets an Amazing success, which allows her to completely smother the flames. Susan stands shrieking in the kitchen, Betsy crouches shrieking behind Nick, and Jerry appears to be paralyzed with fear in the front hallway. THE POLTERGEIST Round 2: Doug loses his poo poo again and causes another fireball to erupt, this time in the kitchen near Susan. Flames explode out of the oven, dealing 4 Wound and 2 Stun damage to her. ??? whips every loose object in the living room into a whirlwind and tries to nail Doug and Jane with something sharp or heavy. Doug manages to duck in time, but Jane isn't so lucky and catches a decorative picture frame to her dome; fortunately this only deals a single point of Stun damage. Nadine cradles herself in the bathtub as the shower extinguishes the flames on her clothing. Terrified out of her mind, she decides to stay curled in the tub rather than return to the living room. Donna can only watch in terror as the oven belches flames that engulf Susan. By the time she has recovered from her shock, it's all she can do to dash into the kitchen, wrench the extendable faucet from the sink, and hose Susan with a stream of cold water. The flames are extinguished, but it's clear Susan has suffered severe burns. Jane tries to shrug off the blow from the picture frame. As she's recovering, she makes an Awareness - Perception check and just barely manages to notice that Jerry hasn't been directly affected by any of the poltergeist's actions yet. In fact, Jane recalls that he was staring directly at the collection of picture frames on the wall before they were ripped loose and thrown at her head. Nick is hastily trying to open the front door, but seems physically unable to turn the deadbolt lock; Betsy continues to scream and wail at his feet, while Peter lies weeping on the floor, smoldering underneath his jacket. Finally, someone begins pounding on the front door from outside the house. THE POLTERGEIST Round 3: Doug just can't catch a break, and manifests another pyrokinetic blast. This time it doesn't target anyone in the home, but it does cause an end table near the camera equipment to burst into flames. ??? decides to have some fun with Donna, and attempts to telekinetically smash her into the burning oven. She's unprepared to resist her unseen assailant, and it successfully throws her off her feet and into the oven's flames. She takes 4 Wound damage and 2 Stun damage and also begins howling in pain. Jane yanks the winter jacket off of Peter and attempts to use it to smother the flames burning on the end table. She makes an Athletics check and gets an Ordinary success, which is sufficient to put out the flames but completely ruins the jacket in the process. Nadine hears more explosions and more screaming and continues to hide inside the bathtub, shaking with fear. Donna acts on animal instinct, rolling herself out of the burning oven and grabbing for the sink faucet again. She begins to spray herself with water, preventing herself from suffering further burns. The old man from the walkway appears outside of the big picture window in the living room and begins to pound on it frantically with his fists. Nick is now attempting to batter down the front door, but despite his considerable bulk he's unable to bust it open. Peter and Susan continue to stay planted, both covering their heads with their arms. Betsy hasn't stopped screaming, but has turned towards the picture window once Jerry's coach begins banging on it. THE POLTERGEIST Round 4: ??? picks up the smoldering coffee table and chucks it directly into the plate glass window. Nobody inside the house is in the way, but the weight of the table and the explosive force of the glass shards put the old man in danger. Inexplicably, he manages to throw himself sideways a second before the table shatters the window, and avoids taking any damage. Donna is in mild shock, and continues to spray both herself and Susan with the sink faucet. Nadine cringes violently when she hears something explode the front window of the house, but otherwise remains crouched in the tub. Jane thinks quickly and jumps through the shattered window and down into the front yard. She lands on top of the busted remains of the coffee table, makes an Awareness - Perception check and gets an Ordinary success. She manages to catch a glimpse of Amanda Jernigan climbing into the back of a nondescript, current-model black SUV (Suburban or Tahoe or whatever). It immediately pulls out onto the street and drives away from the Desmond home. She's not able to ID the vehicle's plates before it moves beyond her field of vision. Doug finally manages to get his Wild Talent under control, and almost collapses to floor from the exhausting effort. His mind begins racing, trying to think of how he'll explain what he just did, when it occurs to him that nobody else is aware of his latent psychic powers, and he could just as easily blame the fireworks on the poltergeist. He notices that Betsy has ceased screaming, and Jerry has completely collapsed to the floor, drenched in sweat. From outside the house, the wail of sirens can be heard. Concerned neighbors begin to mass on the sidewalk in front of the Desmond home, and it's evident that at least one of them must have called 911. About this time Nick finally manages to smash the deadbolt through the frame of the front door, and he nearly falls onto the front porch from the effort. Everyone clenches their teeth for several agonizing moments, before it appears that the manifestation may be over. NEXT TIME: Act II - Puzzle Pieces
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Nov 19, 2018 22:46
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Tibalt posted:I personally prefer the idea that the greatest Fire Wizards in the world exist in the frozen north, throwing fireballs at Ice Wurms. That makes sense. Fire magic would theoretically be a little harder to cast in the cold, so when a frozen fire wizard heads to warmer climes, it would get a little more heat and fire out of the same amount of magical effort.
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Nov 19, 2018 22:53
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Tibalt posted:Whoever heard of a zombie with a specific physical weak point anyway. Even outside of pop culture, it's all made up, so why not say rogues know how to slice up anything in just the right way? Hell, it makes the character more interesting; any chump knows to aim for a humanoid's heart, but your bad-rear end rogue knows how to find the equivalent point in an undifferentiated mass of goo.
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Nov 19, 2018 23:28
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Note to self: NEVER take a wild talent in Dark Matter* *unless you are just playing a quick one-off
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Nov 20, 2018 00:14
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Feinne posted:Matter Creation: Level 3, Quantum 5. This lets you just make poo poo out of nothingness. Raw materials are easy, just roll Wits + Matter Creation and you’ll get more the more successes you roll. If you want something complex, complexity makes you need more successes while size adds difficulty. Objects are temporary, and cost a point of permanent Willpower to make permanent which I’m not really sure about. I’d be nicer about it, honestly. What happens if I make a lump of plutonium or degenerate matter or something?
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Nov 20, 2018 01:12
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By popular demand posted:Note to self: NEVER take a wild talent in Dark Matter* without going into why and spoiling the fun, there's a reason that a character with Wild Talent is specifically targeted in that encounter. it doesn't normally function that wildly (although it does cause you to aim a random power at a random target, so if your only powers are offensive powers, you could very easily be forced to engage in some friendly fire).
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Nov 20, 2018 02:37
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 Japan and Other Japan It cannot possibly come as a shock to anyone who’s made it this far that Infinity has a serious hard-on for Japan. Back at the dawn of Infinity, Japan was an administrative sub-unit of Yu Jing, and their armed forces (the Japanese Sectorial Army, implying that word is common in canon somehow) were used as disposable shock troops only a step or two above Kuang Shi. Which, as an uneducated American, seems pretty accurate as far as my understanding of the Sino-Japanese relationship goes. JSA troops could appear in Yu Jing lists at the time, though that basically meant one of two profiles. First were Ninjas, the TO camo infiltrator from this part of the world. Second were the Keisotsu, the JSA line troops. Keis are the worst basic trooper in the game, but that also means they’re they cheapest. If you’re keeping them back to use as cheerleaders, shaving five to ten points off your order batteries can get you really beneficial profiles elsewhere. There was a big presentation at the Gencon seminar where all this was revealed, with data taken from the Infinity army builder and tournament organizer. Anyone taking any other JSA units in YJ lists was statistically insignificant. Facts have no place in the sphere of public opinion, however, and there was doomsaying and calls for vendetta and on and on and on. Eventually everyone remembered that Yu Jing players suck and should be ignored, and we all carried on with our lives. The Japanese Secessionist Forces have reclaimed their homeland and their Emperor during the events of Uprising. They rely on older, crummier technology, since they had to bail on State Empire territory in a hurry, and only some of that materiel deficit has been made up by donations from PanO - the Hyperpower has somewhat openly assisted the rebellion against Yu Jing, and backed Japan’s recognition as an independent power at the Space UN. It’s never specifically said what form of government that Japan has, apart from the Emperor being a thing. It’s not clear if the Emperor is actually head of government, or if it’s like modern day Japan’s constitution, or something else entirely. But that Emperor, woo, you better believe he’s important. We get pages of description about the reverse-kidnapping of the Emperor from the hands of the dastardly Space Chinese and how it was a convenient excuse to nuke some profiles, as these valiant warriors gave their lives yadda yadda yadda. The closest we get is the wild exaltation of the military and adulation of the bushido lifestyle, which, errr. As an army, Japan has a real glass cannon thing going on. They’re also extremely close combat oriented, and on the occasions they get into base-to-base, they’re pretty respectable. There’s a fair chance they get brutally splattered before they get into arm’s length, however. I’m gonna go ahead and get little JSA out of the way. Ikari Company is the black hat version of StarCo. They’re largely composed of JSA troops, plus some mercenaries and the occasional Haqq profile. When the fluff goes out of its way to paint StarCo as a swell bunch of fellas, it spends an equal amount of time trying to convince you that Ikari Company is monstrously evil and corrupt, when they’re really no better or worse than your standard mercenary outfit in most fictional examples you’d care to name. I’ve never seen them played in the wild, and I’m not sure why you’d run them unless you already had a bunch of JSA units and wanted to try something a little different. They’re not mechanically optimal, or terribly interesting. Cool, moving on.   Keisotsu, mostly. The one in the hoodie is actually a different unit, which we’ll get to in a bit. The white-armored folks are among the newest models CB has released. The orange-and-green armored ones are very, very old, and painted up in Yu Jing colors. One of the things that the switch to CG sculpting brought was a more unified scale for everything. A lot of the grognards in the Infinity scene like to complain about scale creep as a result, since a lot of the hand-made models weren’t scaled very well. For reference, even the most upright poses for the old Keis are about chin-height on the new ones. Personally, I think it’s an improvement, but I don’t have thousands of dollars of old models, so I’m biased. YMMV. Keisotsu Butai are the line infantry of the Japanese Secessionist Army. Their stats are very typical of JSA units - their BS and PH values are both 10, so you’ve got a fifty-fifty chance without modifiers of hitting a target or dodging a shot. Expect that to trend downward. They get the lowest WIP value of the faction at 12, so on par with PanO mediocrity, along with measily ARM 1 and BTS 0. In exchange for all these defects, they’re CC 14, they come with V: Courage so they can shrug off successful ARM rolls and don’t retreat, and all for 9 points to start. That’s crazy cheap. Their special weapons are pretty bargain-priced, too, so you’ll almost always want to have some Keisotsu around in quantity, both for their orders and to team them up so they become useful. On that note, Keis get some of the combined fireteam options that Uprising brought us. Options are five Keis; three Keis, one Domaru heavy infantry and one Kempeitai operative precisely; plus my preferred option of between one or two Kempeis and up to four Keis, so you can take some losses and not immediately break your team. Pre-Uprising Keisotsu Butai are explicitly used by the State Empire in Zapp Brannigan style, as warm bodies to throw at an enemy until they run out of bullets. Why any Japanese citizen would willingly join the army to die for Space China is never specified, but usually Gutier can’t help himself if they didn’t have a choice. Post-Uprising, joining the poor bloody infantry is still an extreme hazard to your personal well-being, but it allows the chance of advancing up the warrior hierarchy.  Yuriko Oda does the hero thing for Keis. She’s an engineer, upgraded stats, and comes with Minelayer, so she’s a good choice if you want a defensive link to hang back and juice orders for the rest of your army. A former Yu Jing special operative, she’s secretly working for…  The Kempeitai, with a fixation on hooded robes as seen above and in the Keisotsu picture. Kempeis are better at combat than Keis, with some additional skills and kit. They all have Sixth Sense, which means they can no longer be negatively affected by a surprise shot from a camo marker; it’s nice if they’re on their own, but redundant in a fireteam. You’ll primarily use that skill with the MSV 2 marksman rifle profile, which is the closest thing to a sniper JSA get. They’re shorter range than proper sniper rifles, however, and don’t get the variable ammo types that most of the sniper profiles have. Mixed bag, but better than nothing. Primarily, you’ll keep Kempeitai around because they’re fallbacks. They can instantly take over when your fireteam leader or LT are killed, and that’ll happen a lot in JSA. Stick one in the backfield with a boarding shotgun and let your LT go to their glorious death in combat. Kempeitai are secret police and terrorists, prior to the restoration of the emperor, and guardians of the Imperial household and order after. They worked secretly during the Yu Jing years, targeting the State Empire military for their terror actions, while looking to protect the lives of JSA troops. Contrast to the Tatenokai, a less discriminatory terror organization that just blew up anything or anyone in their way to pursue their nationalist goals. Here’s the thing. The Kenpeitai (same thing, just a different Romanization) were the Imperial secret police during during the 20th century. Originally formed as a military police org, the real Kenpeitai rapidly devolved into secret police tactics when unleashed in Japan’s conquered territories, and as the rule at home got shakier as the war dragged on. The Kenpei were responsible for a pretty impressive swath of human rights violations, even by the standards of the Axis. If you look at an org chart of the IJA and IJN, they don’t look so monstrous. But, uh, maybe not a great thing to name your fun game models after the Unit 731 guys. The Tatenokai are at least condemned in the fluff. I’m not sure why they chose to add this detail in, though - the real Shield Society was a right-wing movement that, for reasons unclear to me, were allowed to train alongside the JSDF, and five of them attempted a coup to restore the Emperor to power in 1970. Your guess is as good as mine.   Raiden, Ryuken-9 The Raiden were medium infantry camo attackers, but not infiltrating specialists. As a result, they were kind of crap and nobody took them. During the Uprising, they all To this day, I have no idea why they sculpted that guy like he’s about to draw his heavy rocket launcher and point the butt end at the enemy.   Good for health, the Aragoto Senkenbutai are the fast cavalry of the JSA. I am a great fan of any wargame model that goes really fast in a straight line (ask me about my gimmick Oops All A-wings list for X-wing), but even apart from that, Aragoto are really good. They’re right up there with the fastest troops in the game, at MOV 8-6, and their other stats are nothing to sneeze at either. It’s a little weird that they have a skill that adds movement to their reactive dodge rolls, since bikers are bad at dodging, but they’re otherwise excellent and priced to move. The light machine gun and hacker profiles are serious hard workers, capable of either delivering hurt at high velocities or dropping a specialist and driving them up into your opponent’s teeth at alarming rates. Especially since they’re regular impetuous, so each can potentially move fully halfway across a standard board using only its own orders in one turn. Pre-Uprising, Aragotos are by and large biker gangers who’ve been given a choice after getting caught - serve or die. Otherwise, they’re speed freaks who joined up for access to the best bikes and a license to use them. It’s not been made clear if the world’s raddest penal legion is still in play after the return of the Emperor, but how can you say no to militarized bosozoku? Aragotos own, even if the new models look like dirt.   Wargaming trends repeat, the first time as tragedy, the second as farce. Asuka Kisaragi, who might as well be named “Batman January,” was once the hero Aragoto. A former sukeban who got nabbed by the fuzz after establishing her own biker gang, Asuka rose through the ranks by effectively being so XXXtreme they had to either put her down or promote her. If anyone could kick-flip into and out of a room on the regular, it would be her. During Uprising, Asuka was killed. And then this mysterious new biker, the Kuroshi Rider, showed up, who never reveals her face, and who has a spooooky cybernetic arm, and a spoooooky undefined background, and who is just loving Celty from Durarara, and it’s really obnoxious they killed a character who was ridiculous but fun with a character that’s ridiculous but sad. She has a serrated scythe, for Christ’s sake, like this is a GW product. I love Asuka, rad bike and warts and all, only half as much as I hate the Kuroshi Rider. gently caress you, Gutier. JSA no longer has medium infantry. Ostensibly this is to represent the depletion of the army’s ranks after the Uprising, but it’s mostly because they didn’t really fit with the fast-moving, hard-hitting character of the army. They sure do have a bunch of heavy infantry, though.  But not Haramaki, those are all dead. Another victim of the event, Haramaki were wildly undercosted for heavy infantry, since they were extremely impetuous and were supposed to run right into the enemy’s guns unless you spent time and resources to stop them. Or, you could just take a link of them, which made them act like normal people again for reasons???, and now you had a heavy infantry link that could poo poo rockets out at anyone who game into their sight. Haramaki probably deserved to get nerfed to death. Haramaki were the working class samurai, looked down on by the ennobled Domaru for working their way up the ranks. Rambunctious and of low status, the Haramaki were spent keeping the Yu Jing armies at bay during the Emperor’s flight.  The Tanko replaced the Haramaki. Training and equipment standards were all relaxed following the disbanding of the Haramaki regiments, so these are the cast-offs of even those low-rung samurai, with cheaper, mismatched armor. Stats-wise they’re pretty interchangable, but Tanko are optionally impetuous like Aragoto, rather than chaotic stupid like Haramaki. You can also only take three of them, so they can’t spam missiles to the same degree.   Shikami, former YJ colors at bottom Shikami are in an awkward spot. They’re heavy infantry ninjas, but they’re not as good at being HI as the other army options, and they’re not as good at sneaking or objectives as ninjas. Until Uprising, they were the priciest JSA heavy infantry option, too. They’re not terrible, but they have weak gunfighting abilities. They are quite mobile, able to ignore pretty much any terrain obstacle in their path, and they will gut you if you let them get into contact, so they’ve got that going for them. The Fukuro ninja clan operates a private security company under Japanese auspices, operating as deniable assets for the state to fund their techno-ninja pursuits. I’m deeply curious as to which thing they’re intended to be a reference to, since the word “fukuro” means “bag,” and there are a whole host of weeb-related characters named as such.  I sure hope Karakuri get a redesign and a refluff soon, because they’re great profiles with terrible models. Those are some straight-up geishabots, and they won’t even do us the favor of pretending otherwise. Karakuri are ambulatory war-bots, comparable with good attack remotes, but with the size and dodging abilities of a regular infantry unit. They’re pretty dang durable, and you can take three of them in an independent fireteam, which actually has a reasonable chance of accomplishing objectives. They’re nothing grossly overpowered, but they’re really solid, and honestly my pick for the best JSA heavy infantry units. I’ll let you do the math on their fluff.  As tempting as it may be, especially given their price, it’s probably not smart to take five Domaru Butai in a fireteam. These HI are really, really good at close combat, and pretty so-so at everything else. They’re not reliably durable enough to make it into melee, and that’s a shame. You can get the cheapest one for 26 points, and the priciest LMG option for 39 points and 2 SWC, so at least you’re not sinking all your budget into a heavy infantry pain train. I think either a hair more armor, or a bit more in the way of weapons options would do a lot to improve the Domaru’s lot in life. These are typical samurai, but now they have power armor. Do you like courtly intrigue and Kurosawa films? Well! No matter how they play, you have to admit Domaru have some kickin’-rad models.  That twisting, creaking noise you hear is the curling of a monkey’s paw. The Daiyokai Dengeketai is a Domaru, but with a little bit more armor and expanded weapons loadouts. Unfortunately it’s Silhouette 5, large heavy infantry, and it costs twice as much as a Domaru for not much more benefit, and that’s a sucker’s bet. You can take a haris fireteam of a Daiyokai and two Domaru, but why? The Daiyokai were experimental heavy armor sets being built in secret in Kempeitai labs before the Uprising. They were rushed into production, and in smaller numbers than anticipated (they’re availability 1, yikes). Work continues on an upgraded version, so I’m wondering if they left themselves an excuse for how crappy it is, or if there’s actually some futureproofing in this entry.  As if to further discourage you from taking a Daiyokai, the O-yoroi is JSA’s only TAG option, and a more efficient use of your points. Looking somewhat like a cross between a Guges and Eva-01, the O-yoroi is pretty tough, expectedly good at close combat, and packs an AP HMG, so it’s got a lot of heavy firepower compared to the rest of the army. It’s got all the weaknesses of a TAG, though, so beware. Of particular note, the Martial Arts skill gives you Stealth, so this giant clanking power suit could conceivably sneak up behind someone while their back is turned and stab them with an exploding katana, all sneaky-like. O-yoroi are doctrinally employed against difficult enemy positions to keep the opponent occupied, while the rest of the mobile JSA forces bypass or encircle the resistance point. Corvus Belli can’t stop making sexy O-yoroi pilot sculpts, and it’s getting kinda tiresome.     Traitor ninja, Grey Fox, IBS Grey Fox, Shinobu and Oniwaban All of JSA’s skirmishers are ninja variants. Basically, pick a type of ninja you want and how much you’d like to spend on them, and that’s what’s going to make your enemy worried. All of these models are hidden deployment, TO camo infiltrators. They might be there, they might not. They might be waiting to murder my guys, they might be elsewhere on the board waiting until the last turn to steal an objective. Ninjas are great, despite a good many shortcomings. They’re so great, they’re the main JSA unit not to leave Yu Jing during the Uprising. YJ just didn’t have a comparable cheap camo infiltrator to fill the same role, and they were taken in about 85% of YJ lists, so CB peddled some story about how these previously deeply honoraboru ninja clans decided to defect to the State Empire because of evil/greed/whatever. It’s a kludge, but it’s understandable. Ninjas are not actually that great at anything but close combat! They’re bad shots, and not as good at dodging as you might expect. Your baseline ninja comes with a tactical bow, Martial Arts level 3, TO camo, Infiltration to get up the board, and a bonus to reactive dodge movement. There’s a skill that makes people better at dodging, period, which you’d think ninjas would get - nope. They’re only PH 13. Still, they’re cheap and they can merc things real good, if you get the opportunity. Upgraded ninjas are called oniwaban. Oniwaban are equally fragile as ninjas, but they’re vastly more leathal in close combat, due to stats and the addition of a monofilament CC weapon; if you remember, Monofilament hits have a 60% chance to kill whatever they hit outright, and to hell with your armor and remaining hit points. Because every army’s gotta have a weird LT option, you could take an oniwaban lieutenant. But if they start in hidden deployment, your army begins in Loss of LT, and Chain of Command from your Kempeitai no longer works because you did it to yourself. You’d pay an extra SWC for the privilege, too. Oniwaban (“gardeners”) are steadfastly loyal to the Emperor and Japan; if any of them attempted to stay with the State Empire, they didn’t live to tell anyone about it. Elite among the ninja, oniwaban are unconfirmed rumors to everyone outside the Imperial apparatus and the clans themselves. Saito Togan is a mercenary and the hero ninja. Unlike his counterparts, he gets smoke grenades. He can be a generic specialist, if you like. Otherwise, not a big step up. Saito used to be a big deal in one of the bigger ninja clans, until a high-profile operation he was directly involved in went bust. Rather than kill himself in contrition, he fled, but his successor turned up dead a few months later with evidence implicating the deceased in the operation’s failure on his corpse. Saito is someone entirely different than that disgraced ninja, Because We Are Being Subtle. Shinobu Kitsune is, blessedly, a classification and not a weeb’s idea of a cool name. The hero Oniwaban, Shinobu gets smoke, and is basically the scariest thing in the game when it comes to close combat. You pay a premium for her, but she’s an inherent and unspoken threat in every JSA list. Interestingly, the model is very clearly presented as female, but the fluff only uses male pronouns. I’m gonna guess that’s a translation fuckup, rather than any attempt at either making the character anonymous and mysterious, or something vaguely progressive, though.  As is tradition, we close out this part of the writeup with the local Recreation. Miyamoto Musashi (1584-ish to 1645) was the famous wandering dueslist, painter and author, and beat that guy using an oar that one time. Miamoto Mushashi is an ALEPH recreation, built at the behest of the VissioRama Network, who wanted a brand new star for their Aristeia programming. The slight lisp in his name is apparently to avoid legal issues, and I have no loving answer for that one at all; presumably Gutier forgot how to spell the man’s name. An immediate success on the future bloodsport market due to his skill, they programmed Musashi like a hockey player, and he’s nearly devoid of personality; ratings plunged after the initial spike of interest. Eventually VissioRama went back to ALEPH and asked the AI to wipe and replace Mushashi’s personality with something flashier and actually interesting this time, but the network’s communications were tapped by the swordsman’s fans, who warned the duelist in time for him to make good his escape. Mushashi has outstanding warrants for murder, unlicensed dueling, and breach of contract with the network. He travels the Human Sphere, wandering from battle to battle in search of a greater meaning to the strange life he finds thrust upon him. Mushashi’s real good at close combat, and not much good at anything else. Somebody at CB loooves this guy, because he’s got as many models as Joan, and he’s a major character in the Aristeia board game. All this in spite of “not having a personality” being a core character trait. Also, they were stupid enough to make this thing.  No TIMG on that, suckers. That concludes the faction writeup for the time being. I think I like the fluff even less, now that I’ve had to sit here and process all of it. There are gems here and there, but god, this game needs an editor and a better localizer. Christ, it needs an adult in the room. This isn’t necessarily the end of the writeup as a whole, however. There’s a new supplement due out at the end of the month, but god knows how long it’ll take to actually ship. In the interim, I thought I’d do a battle report, along with showing off my list building process. Here’s your chance for some audience participation. Your choices of showcase armies are
France Russia Scotland PanO
Aconticimento Military Orders CA - Onyx Contact Force ALEPH - OSS Nomads
Bakunin Tunguska JSA I’m afraid I don’t have access to a full Haqq or Yu Jing list. CA and ALEPH are limited to the one sectorial each. Everything else can be vanilla lists or sectorials as listed. Pick your top two.
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Nov 20, 2018 03:04
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grassy gnoll posted:The Tatenokai are at least condemned in the fluff. I’m not sure why they chose to add this detail in, though - the real Shield Society was a right-wing movement that, for reasons unclear to me, were allowed to train alongside the JSDF, and five of them attempted a coup to restore the Emperor to power in 1970. Wow, that's a way to downplay noted playwright and novelist Yukio Mishima's involvement. The Tatenokai was Mishima's private army and there was probably couple reasons why they could train with the JSDF, partly because the leftist college youth movement was considered a threat to the status quo in recovering Japan (can't let the Commies take away all this recovery) butalso because Mishima was Japan's Ernest Hemingway. He was this big Japanese Renaissance Man, who wrote novels and plays that mixed romance and his bushido complex, made films, was a model, and had a literary following both in Japan and overseas. And that coup attempt, it was Mishima's suicide: he and his lieutenant (and gay lover) committed seppuku after turning in the manuscript for his magnum opus, fulfilling a lifelong death wish that Mishima had since he was young and looking at paintings of Saint Sebastian. He was a conflicted dude. If you want to know more, I'd recommend watching Paul Schrader's Mishima: A Life In Four Chapters, which, up until it's release, had the blessing of the Mishima estate, but Schrader including his gay romance in the film led to his wife disavowing the film.
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Nov 20, 2018 04:14
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The Lone Badger posted:What happens if I make a lump of plutonium or degenerate matter or something? You roll a bit higher difficulty and then you get your EXTREMELY NASTY poo poo. It should be noted that your immunity to your own powers would not cover the exciting consequences of creating degenerate matter outside the sort of physical situations where it is comfortable existing. Or the still exciting but less so consequences of not bothering to look into what constitutes a critical mass of plutonium. Feinne fucked around with this message at 04:36 on Nov 20, 2018 |
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Nov 20, 2018 04:33
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What, not even a Nobunaga Oda? Just Musashi?
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Nov 20, 2018 04:46
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MonsieurChoc posted:What, not even a Nobunaga Oda? Just Musashi? It's my understanding that Nobunaga is intensely vilified in Japan, so he'd probably only appear in Infinity as a bad guy and we can't have bad Japanese guys in our anime war game.
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Nov 20, 2018 05:37
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grassy gnoll posted:
Oh yeah, the best part about the Uprising is that there's a new Mercenary Shasvastii character who was heavily involved in the whole thing, so the entire revolt might literally be an alien plot. My dream for Uprising would have been like, an actual Japanese civil war, between the guys who were mostly okay with the Yu Jing hand because well, at least they were safe and protected and had some opportunities for advancement (remember, the JSA is supposed to, in fluff, exist because the Japanese were complaining about how they were being treated like poo poo, so as a response they were given their own force structure and semi-autonomous status as a sop to national pride) and the guys who wanted full sovereignty. Take JSA + YJ forces versus other JSA + YJ forces. You could represent that by tanking the AVA of most of the JSA units in Yu Jing forces while folding the JSA off to NA2, to represent that a good chunk of them up and vanished and now the Yu Jing folks are kind of leery of the ones who haven't proven their loyalty. It would work better than straight-up taking the units off the board I think. The Infinity factions are at their best when they're questionable, rather than out and out evil, and I think the biggest failing of Uprising was leaning right into full evil (and the Sygmaa are great because they make the EI more than just full evil).
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Nov 20, 2018 05:46
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Nobonunaga is remembered in the same way that Obama would be remembered if the Reeps won twenty straight elections after him.
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Nov 20, 2018 05:46
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Cythereal posted:It's my understanding that Nobunaga is intensely vilified in Japan, so he'd probably only appear in Infinity as a bad guy and we can't have bad Japanese guys in our anime war game. It varies a lot from depiction to depiction. He's either a reformer, a revolutionary, or literally satan. Like, just look at how he's depicted in Samurai Warriors: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CN2wCVm50xk
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Nov 20, 2018 05:48
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Yea, especially recently his depiction is mixed, though he has been villianized for several centuries, he's undergoing a reassessment now.
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Nov 20, 2018 06:20
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Robindaybird posted:Yea, especially recently his depiction is mixed, though he has been villianized for several centuries, he's undergoing a reassessment now. Yeah, the fact was that he was adaptable and thought outside the box made him the envy of the other daimyos, and which will always piss off the traditionalists and the romantics. wiegieman's comment about Nobunuga being Obama was dead-on. He was fascinated with European culture, namely clothes and guns, and introduced Christianity to Japan, even though he never converted. You can see why a lot of people thought he consorted with demons, because foreigners are just as bad.
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Nov 20, 2018 06:49
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MonsieurChoc posted:It varies a lot from depiction to depiction. He's either a reformer, a revolutionary, or literally satan. Or an attractive woman. (The same could be said of Nobunaga.)
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Nov 20, 2018 07:08
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At this point, I'm probably the worst Infinity player in-country and I still love that game. Not when they're making skulps after Pokemon, tho: 
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Nov 20, 2018 09:43
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MonsieurChoc posted:Higher level 4E characters can find ways to bypass resistance IIRC. Even some low level ones, one Assassin feat explicitly lets you bypass immunity and resistance to Poison. (since your whole class gimmick revolves around it) One of these days I need to find a way to try out my build I affectionately call Toxic Love, a Dragonborn Sorcerer multiclassing to Assassin going for all poison all the time. Also, Pokemon Conquest basically has Nobunaga (whose design is basically taken from Samurai Warriors, since it's a Tecmo game) as a misunderstood hero. I think a lot of the historical reinterpretation might come from realising that he wasn't actually much worse than other feudal warlords at the time who preceded and succeeded him, and his attempts at reform were greatly far-thinking given Japan only barely escaped being turbofucked by European colonialism later. (and that had its own set of problems) Or maybe just that he's interesting. Ghost Leviathan fucked around with this message at 10:03 on Nov 20, 2018 |
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Nov 20, 2018 09:51
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MonsieurChoc posted:What, not even a Nobunaga Oda? Just Musashi? While I'm pretty sure you could come up with a list of 20 ancient Japanese heroes that would be way cooler than Lobotomized Musashi (Hello, Goemon!), I think they went for Musashi because he's really famous outside Japan for his fencing manual/tactics primer/ersatz intro to business text, The Book Of Five Rings.
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Nov 20, 2018 10:40
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Funny how some of those heavier JSA units reminded me of Empire of the Rising sun in Red Alert 3. Although mainly the Daiyokai in this case. I wonder if someone at CB played that game and then had a sudden moment of inspiration.
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Nov 20, 2018 10:50
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Cooked Auto posted:Funny how some of those heavier JSA units reminded me of Empire of the Rising sun in Red Alert 3. Although mainly the Daiyokai in this case. They're just giant. The only inspiration to draw from Red Alert 3 is not to make it again.
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Nov 20, 2018 11:23
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JcDent posted:They're just giant.
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Nov 20, 2018 11:25
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A lot of wargame devs seem to be under the impression that the characters with the least personality will be the most popular. Probably by a few bad examples where it's true.
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Nov 20, 2018 12:34
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The sad part is, 'We made Cyber Musashi and he's a little too accurate, by which we mean he's the kind of guy who gets drunk and forgets his sword and then beats a guy with a sword made out of an oar, but translated to an artificial superhuman actor for a TV show' could've ended up cool. Especially when he gets bored with just doing show-biz stuff and wanders off to get involved in the wonderful world of killing aliens with swords or else just tries to wander his way into the Steel Phalanx and show them 'real' swordsmanship or whatever. An incredible swordsman they can't stop from wandering around and challenging Joan to a swordfight just because he's heard she's good at it in between TV shoots (that he hates) would be cool. E: Even better if his show is actually really popular, and he's an incredibly expensive and valuable asset that the company that had him made depends on. "Oh god he's wandered off to enter another deniable conflict to 'see what it's like to swordfight an alien gorilla', hire some of those Nomad guys to back him up or we're going to go bankrupt." Night10194 fucked around with this message at 14:22 on Nov 20, 2018 |
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Nov 20, 2018 14:17
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