Gundam Build Divers Thread: DIVE START NOW!

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > VEGETA > Gundam Build Divers Thread: DIVE START NOW!

Darth Walrus: Feb 13, 2012

Yeah, that was a pretty deece fight. Not an all-time series great, but reassuringly solid. Shows they can make Trans-Am look good, too, which is pretty important (and means that Riku�s trump card will still allow for more interesting and varied action than Build Knuckle or Jigen Haoh spam).

# ¿ Apr 10, 2018 11:58

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# ¿ Apr 29, 2024 01:48

Darth Walrus: Feb 13, 2012

I can see you dropping your items if you �die�, which would really suck considering they were on a giant fetch quest.

# ¿ Apr 11, 2018 00:29

Darth Walrus: Feb 13, 2012

I mean, really, harsh death/destruction penalties in MMOs are nothing new. Imagine if they�d been taking a shiny new cruiser for a spin in EVE and ended up in lowsec.

# ¿ Apr 11, 2018 00:37

Darth Walrus: Feb 13, 2012

Kanos posted:

Taking things absolutely seriously to the point of destruction even when they're not life or death was a running theme in GBF. I'm pretty sure the show isn't worried about the technicals and just wants you to get wrapped up in the imagery of a giant robot arm about to smash two kids.

If you absolutely need an explanation, the Diver avatars can obviously be damaged or "killed", otherwise they wouldn't have given a poo poo when Riku accidentally dropped them; whether or not there's death penalties involved is conjectural, but given that Magee got extremely huffy at Fat Oni for trying to PK the newbies in episode 1 and was legitimately worried it would cause them to quit, I'd bet there are. Using this as a basis, Riku didn't want to see his friends get smashed by a giant robot arm. As for Oni dude, he is portrayed as an honorable guy looking for good fights to get stronger(we're introduced to him literally responding to a 3v1 callout) and didn't see any purpose in beating up on an already defeated opponent and seeing Sarah throw herself in front of him made him stop and think about it for a second.

I think Sarah was the most important (though not the only) factor there - his e-honour couldn�t handle having to squish a newbie on foot with a tiny little girl avatar.

# ¿ Apr 11, 2018 01:25

Darth Walrus: Feb 13, 2012

Kanos posted:

He's had a few noteworthy tricks and is obviously talented but the fights we've seen him in are 1. against training dummy bots, 2. against someone so pathetic that they trick raw-rear end newbies into pvp flagging so that they can gank them by surprise, and 3. against an actual fighter where he lost because his gunpla blew itself up because it wasn't good enough.

Also, it honestly wouldn't surprise me if Riku is being written as having a basic level of competence so they don't need to spend a ton of time before he can plausibly actually compete. Their team has four other members in the OP alone right now(Yuuki, Momoka, Ninja Girl, Elf Guy) who may or may not get a reasonable amount of screen time, plus whatever rivals and opponents they decide to introduce besides Ogre and fat kid.

I mean, I�m not going to totally rule out Ogre becoming a team member (possibly with his little buddy along for comic relief). The ending scenes in particular seemed to imply that he was pretty much right about what Riku wanted from Gunpla Battle.

# ¿ Apr 12, 2018 12:13

Darth Walrus: Feb 13, 2012

maninthesuit posted:

Going by the preview-pictures, YES it does. It also comes with two soldiers that look like Grimoire heads on legs and the backpack can open to stow them inside.

Behold.

# ¿ Apr 17, 2018 19:55

Darth Walrus: Feb 13, 2012

Gay furry fans rule GBN so what

# ¿ Apr 18, 2018 01:48

Darth Walrus: Feb 13, 2012

Guy Goodbody posted:

this thing owns

Looks like at least a partial IBO kitbash to me - that�s the Vual�s hammer.

# ¿ Apr 23, 2018 13:17

Darth Walrus: Feb 13, 2012

ManSedan posted:

I dunno kung fu training to get better at VR was silly but in a good way. Of course there�s a whole mess of poopsocking martial arts dudes.

Cowboy mod tequila gundam was dope and I loved the beam banjo.

Plus, there�s a kind of logic to having an episode like this. It�s totally reasonable for new players in full-immersion VR games to have a disconnect when they encounter unrealistic game physics, and I�m not going to begrudge this show for leaning into its gimmick. Especially if it results in more folks going Master Asia on mobile suits.

# ¿ Apr 24, 2018 11:51

Darth Walrus: Feb 13, 2012

Guy Goodbody posted:

Did I miss the show setting up that Riku was acting like he was tired in the game, or something like that? They spent a lot of time establishing that his build quality wasn't good enough to fight at the level he wanted. So why did they have the "you can't get tired" training montage?

It wasn�t about getting tired. It was about learning that physical pain and real-world physics are a thing of the past. Which were indeed problems he had in his previous fights - he was way too conservative and too concerned about him and his friends getting injured.

# ¿ Apr 25, 2018 01:48

Darth Walrus: Feb 13, 2012

I suppose one thing that�s vaguely interesting about Riku is the way he�s gradually learning that yes, he does actually want to be a vicious PKing murderbeast like Ogre. The catch is that LLENN is in the next show over doing the same thing but better.

# ¿ Apr 25, 2018 02:16

Darth Walrus: Feb 13, 2012

Eh, it does kind of feel like he�s earned it. Riku may not have much of a personality, but he�s the definition of fresh talent - skilled, creative, and driven. Dude isn�t exactly a steamroller, but he keeps going up against famous vets and leaving scars. Given GBN�s team-based gameplay, I imagine a number of folks are salivating at the thought of what they could turn him into after getting him in their force and giving him some serious training.

Ability and charisma are not the same things, after all.

# ¿ Apr 25, 2018 02:43

Darth Walrus: Feb 13, 2012

tsob posted:

What's really sad is that there are dozens of players so committed to the ideal that they all pick identical avatars and spend time going through martial arts rituals but Riku and the gang just strolled in, annoyed the guy in to submission and absorbed his lessons in a few days at most. Those other students must feel like poo poo.

Not that picking an identikit avatar doesn't run against his entire ethos in the first place. I kind of assumed the students were basically background flavor and not real players, but the two GM guys seemed too responsive to be AI and Tigerwolf himself never seemed to acknowledge the whole thing as set dressing to make his RP more real/fun.

I got the impression that Riku and company just got the intro course outlining the basic concepts underpinning the school. The long-term students were there for the specific martial art Tigerwolf had built off those concepts.

I also assumed the custom avatars were another training tool - using a generic model that doesn�t resemble you is probably really helpful for adapting to combat in VR.

# ¿ Apr 25, 2018 16:15

Darth Walrus: Feb 13, 2012

I guess it�s like the Nerve Gear in Sword Art Online, which was also a headset that hijacked your entire sensory suite. This one�s significantly less likely to murder you, though.

# ¿ May 2, 2018 10:57

Darth Walrus: Feb 13, 2012

Sazabi posted:

Was she the pink haired idol? Remind me what was great about her?

She was smart, ambitious, and took very little poo poo from the gundam dudes, and wasn�t villainised for it. That bit where she tried to cheat her way past Sei and Reiji and the latter was just impressed by her determination to achieve her dream was a pretty good start.

# ¿ May 4, 2018 19:23

Darth Walrus: Feb 13, 2012

chiasaur11 posted:

The Seravee thing would be a better excuse if we hadn't basically gotten the same thing last episode. Apparently, high level play consists of doing a pose and shooting beams everywhere.

If this was a better show, I'd expect that to hit a roadblock with an IBO themed suit showing up (official motto of Gjallarhorn engineering: gently caress beam weapons forever.) but... this is not showing signs of being that kind of show.

TBF, I think it�s mainly just that that�s how big super-moves have worked in Gundam in the past. So Tigerwolf was a G Gundam homage, and the ultimate move in G Gundam is to stand still and fire off a big-rear end energy blast, the Sekiha Tenkyoken.

I mean, it seems pretty likely that the Momokapool will have a more exotic super if its pilot ever gets to that point.

# ¿ May 5, 2018 10:41

Darth Walrus: Feb 13, 2012

drrockso20 posted:

I am dreading how boring that suit is likely to end up being to watch fight since it basically has no weapons at all(honestly I would not be surprised if Momoka ends up being the token "character who can't fight worth a drat at all" that many shonen and sports anime end up having)

It�s going to use that mini-Kapool to football people to death. No, really, I�m pretty sure that�s going to be its fighting style.

# ¿ May 5, 2018 10:49

Darth Walrus: Feb 13, 2012

Neddy Seagoon posted:

Given that it looks very much like the limbs retract, I'm pretty sure it's going to football people to death with its own body.

Well, that too. But it has another, smaller Kapool for a reason.

# ¿ May 5, 2018 10:55

Darth Walrus: Feb 13, 2012

Guy Goodbody posted:

It's weird that Riku Force is three middle school kids doing it for fun and one adult man working through his severe depression and abandonment issues. That's a weird setup.

But enough about ZZ Gundam.

# ¿ May 8, 2018 14:35

Darth Walrus: Feb 13, 2012

I dunno, the Galbaldy Rebake is a pretty solid artistic statement.

# ¿ May 9, 2018 17:25

Darth Walrus: Feb 13, 2012

tsob posted:

It also doesn't exist at the time he made his statement so can't really be used as a cause for it.

Yea, there is; that each of them might have come to the realisation their favored game is no longer of interest (to themselves or the world at large) at different times. We know from Nanami the group broke up piecemeal rather than all at once, so regardless of whether they all broke up piecemeal to all go to Gunpla Battle Nexus or broke up piecemeal to all pursue entirelt different hobbies it's still plausible to ask why they didn't keep in contact afterwards if they were friends? Shame or anger is a possible explanation in either case.

I think the thing is that the Rebake is supposed to be representative of his private artwork. The straight-builds are mainly commissions he does for other people.

# ¿ May 9, 2018 20:52

Darth Walrus: Feb 13, 2012

Of course you�re going to want straight-builds as rentals. They�re introductory suits, so you want them to be as recognisable as possible and have the minimum amount of gimmicks so new players can get down to playing the game without reading someone's million-word erotic fanfic disguised as an instruction manual.

# ¿ May 10, 2018 00:21

Darth Walrus: Feb 13, 2012

Zodack posted:

Oh yeah, I buy that. It made more sense in the Tournaments of the previous shows because you HD this pool of players that garnered a reputation and then there was a small distribution for people to meet and form rivalries and bonds.

But in Divers we have presumably thousands of people play this game and all the big players - and also a random villain? - are invested in Riku and Co.

Not gamebreaking to me by any means and this does happen a lot with "MMO" anime where it's just a setting and they don't commit to it, just still feels goofy to me. But oh well! I like the bigwigs and seeing them fight is fun.

I think there�s two things at play. First off, this is a team-based game where the teams are big, so everyone is thirsty for hot new talent, and the Build Divers come off credibly as unpolished prodigies. Second, the elite teams are a fairly tight community, so they only had to run into one top player to become known to all of them. There�s a reason GBO keeps getting paralleled with football.

# ¿ May 15, 2018 19:48

Darth Walrus: Feb 13, 2012

Sazabi posted:

I thought 'forces' were a hard locked team like counter strike, DotA, or real life baseball. But after wolfcat's training dojo and today's episode. Maybe a force is more like a guild in an mmo, which goes along way towards reframing these cardboard kids as two halfway decent newbies that can contribute to a forces ranking. If that's true, do you think ranking tied to number of wins as well as who you win against. Like Rommel is ranked second in part because he has a huge number of members who all contribute points to the overall rank of the force?

I think it�s both - a guild for organising hard-locked fireteams for PVP content. So Rommel, for instance, seems to have several junior fireteams to train newbies for his main force, while Tigerwolf seems to focus more on group/individual PVE training to cultivate his recruits. That�s where the Build Divers would likely have ended up if they joined him.

# ¿ May 15, 2018 20:35

Darth Walrus: Feb 13, 2012

Sazabi posted:

When did you start seeing 12 year old cartoon girls in a sexual way?

I just want to say that this is a beautiful username-post combo.

# ¿ May 17, 2018 13:58

Darth Walrus: Feb 13, 2012

That bit at the portal was genuinely great and needs to be giffed.

I think the main problem with GBD is that it lacks GBF�s irreverent, imaginative lunacy. It�s a competent kids� sports show that does a solid job of marketing the brand it�s supposed to advertise, but it�s not willing to embrace the absurdity on nearly the same level. This isn�t a show where you�d get Gunpla as currency, Gunpla as part of a PUA�s toolkit, the Gunpla Mafia, or antagonists like Mashita and Baker. It�s playing things extremely safe and extremely straight, and while that does mean it�s avoiding Try�s missteps, it also makes the whole show feel a tad soulless.

# ¿ May 22, 2018 17:04

Darth Walrus: Feb 13, 2012

Neddy Seagoon posted:

They had the two girls in the latest episode and could've just gone for cutesy BearGguys or SD Gundams as they're one-off secondary characters. Instead they showed they're massive Seed Destiny fans, the poor misguided things, with a Gaia Gundam and (I THINK?) a Murasame. Neither of which are girly or particularly mainstream.

Well, technically they�re both piloted by girls in the show, but that�s it.

# ¿ May 23, 2018 12:20

Darth Walrus: Feb 13, 2012

Caros posted:

Yeah, terrifying catastrophic effects that don't negatively impede the lead characters in any way, ones that immediately close up shortly after team rocket gets sent blasting off again. Those scoundrels.

Every example of break decals in use has had them get immediately stomped into mud. Following that up with 'and then they wiped out this group of experienced players' comes off as absurd because I'm fairly certain you could throw a rock at a suit with a break decal active and the thing would shatter into a thousand pieces, given the credibility of the threat that they've been presented as. Like I said, show, don't tell. The viewer cannot take break decals as a reasonable threat when they are effortlessly defeated every time they are used.

Eh, it felt like Riku and Ogre were at least getting pushed this time around, and had to resort to unorthodox tactics to bring that thing down.

It�s also worth remembering the purpose of the Break Decals. They�re pretty obviously a sabotage attempt by a bitter fan of the previous Gunpla game designed to discredit and destroy GBN. Their success isn�t measured in the protagonists they beat, but in the subscriber-count they reduce because the game just isn�t fun any more.

# ¿ May 30, 2018 12:42

Darth Walrus: Feb 13, 2012

Neddy Seagoon posted:

Do-Ji does actually say something like "I'M TRYING, I CAN'T STOP IT!" when they try to talk him down, which is why they go in to kill it.

He said that almost immediately, in fact, so yeah, there was zero reason for them to try to talk him down.

# ¿ May 30, 2018 16:00

Darth Walrus: Feb 13, 2012

W.T. Fits posted:

It's interesting, because it directly contradicts what happened last week, when they were able to talk that girl down and she deactivated the thing on her own. And given that we know the guy with the hood was monitoring the situation (calling Ayame and telling her not to interfere), I'm half wondering if those things have some kind of back door access that lets him take control of the Gunpla remotely and override the player's commands.

He said Do-ji was a �special customer�. That was totally a next-gen Break Decal prototype he was testing.

# ¿ May 30, 2018 16:38

Darth Walrus: Feb 13, 2012

Guy Goodbody posted:

in fairness, it was kinda weird for none of the characters to really comment on this big escalation in the overall threat of the series

The last Break Decal caused serious, area-wide disruption in a festival hub housing thousands of players, even if it was temporary. This one may be an escalation, but it�s not an immediately obvious one, so I can see why they didn�t immediately panic about it. It�ll probably sink in when they get the news from Rommel.

# ¿ May 30, 2018 16:58

Darth Walrus: Feb 13, 2012

chumbler posted:

Break decal effects are eventually going to progress to colony drops and moonlight butterfly if the writers have a clue.

Moonlight Butterfly with colonies for wings.

# ¿ May 30, 2018 17:49

Darth Walrus: Feb 13, 2012

Pretty sure I saw someone cosplaying Zanald. Who isn�t a Char, but does have a mask.

# ¿ Jun 5, 2018 17:41

Darth Walrus: Feb 13, 2012

Kanos posted:

Glemy wore the metaphorical mask of pretending to be an earnest young cadet before transforming into a dickhead. Checkmate.

Episode was pretty decent. I'm glad they finally addressed and explained why the game admins weren't just tossing out ban waves to deal with it.

And simultaneously brought in permanent consequences for even temporary Break Decal activations in a cool, subtle way. I love that the track-covering itself irreparably and undetectably scars the system.

# ¿ Jun 5, 2018 18:20

Darth Walrus: Feb 13, 2012

SpikeMcclane posted:

Gaining illicit access to a beginners server and engaging in coordinated newb-stomping with no possible escape, assisted by a rogue admin, is going to get all these top players suspended or atleast publicly smeared, isn't it? A devious trap.

TBH, this is not an entirely implausible option. It seems pretty clear that the Mass Divers have a guy on the inside.

# ¿ Jun 5, 2018 18:49

Darth Walrus: Feb 13, 2012

Sazabi posted:

That sounds way to smart for this show. I mean a bad guy pulled a gun on someone in game. Either they are incredibly dumb. Or the only enforced rule in GBN is "never break character".

Person-to-person PVP has been a thing in this show for a long while, and they needed to �kill� him so he couldn�t leak any detailed information as they set up their defences. I�m not quite seeing what was so dumb about that.

# ¿ Jun 5, 2018 19:14

Darth Walrus: Feb 13, 2012

Guy Goodbody posted:

If a Gundam character has a mask, it's possible that they aren't Char. I've can't recall that happening, but it's possible that their personality and role within the story would be so wildly different as to make them not a char.

But if a character never wears a mask, not once, then they can't be a char

But while we're on this topic I think that it's worth noting that Build Divers is the first Gundam series to have a female Char.

Zanald from AGE is a notable mask-wearer who isn�t in any way a Char.

# ¿ Jun 5, 2018 19:49

Darth Walrus: Feb 13, 2012

And it seems exceedingly likely that the Mass Divers have a guy on the inside.

# ¿ Jun 6, 2018 01:51

Darth Walrus: Feb 13, 2012

RillAkBea posted:

I'm not sure why you felt the need to phrase your opinion as a question.

Anyway, I just felt that abandoning the SD philosophy didn't make much sense if her original incentive for working for the big bad was to retrieve the SD of Friendship.

That�s the point. She�s lost touch with her motives and is just drifting through life on the verge of total burnout. I actually kind of liked how it felt like she didn�t need convincing so much as she needed someone to speak the right words to give her an excuse. She�d basically already switched sides by the time Riku opened his mouth.

# ¿ Jun 12, 2018 23:43

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# ¿ Apr 29, 2024 01:48

Darth Walrus: Feb 13, 2012

Raxivace posted:

Some of the stuff they have explicitly tried to do as bonding doesn't really land IMO.

Like the whole thing with Riku refusing to use Trans-Am even after all of this time because of Sarah's vague...warnings? I'm still not even sure what the deal is there yet. Like I'm guessing they're somehow trying to make a parallel between Trans-Am usage and Break Decals but I dunno it seems weak to me.

It�s a sign of respect for the game he�s playing and the kit he�s made - Trans-Am puts an enormous strain on the 00 Diver, so he only wants to use it when he�s completely sure that both he and it can handle it, and it�s a cheap I-Win button that could leave him dangerously inexperienced against veterans who know how to counter it. It�s a power he only wants to use once he knows he deserves it. Deliberately using inferior gear so that you more properly grasp the game�s mechanics shouldn�t be too strange a concept for anyone who�s played an RPG, should it?

# ¿ Jun 13, 2018 14:24

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