Thursday, December 25, 2014

The Three Gods of Machinery

Merry Christmas, and I wish all of you probably imaginary but doubtless interesting people a wonderful pagan holiday.

Anyway, this is the thing I wanted to post last week but was too tired to finish. Let me know what you think!

There are three gods of machinery, and each has a different domain; the Assistive one’s domain is Tools, the Neutral one’s domain is Forces, and the Opposing one‘s domain is Puzzles. They can be worshiped individually or together, and each has a specific type of shrine.

The god of Tools can be worshipped by any form of tool crafting or use, and its shrines take the form of freely available tools. Anything meant to teach, such as signs, markings, statues, or most books all count, barring deliberate inaccessibility, as do fountains, lights, fire pits, stairways, and some types of wall. as such would fall under the domain of Puzzles. It is a common practice among those who worship it to leave tools they no longer have use for near a place where they will have use, such as weapons near hunting grounds, deadwood near campsites, and so forth. It is near universally worshipped, and it is traditional to ask it’s blessing on one’s equipment if one is about to do something dangerous, such as enter battle. The most popular of the three, although it is slowly losing prominence as engineers and philosophers begin to outnumber craftsmen.

The god of Forces can be worshipped singularly, but this is much less common than with either of the other two, as the only way is to represent a force or parameter without tools or puzzles. Hence, mathematics is the only way anyone’s come up with, and there is some debate whether or not it can be spoken without also falling under the domain of Tools. Often represented by a small object, such as a rock, atop another object, usually a cracked rock or a geode, with the planet itself as the final piece, representing gravity. There are many types of shrine to it, and this is merely one of the simplest and most common. While it is acknowledged by almost everyone, as it’s domain is rules both natural and artificial, and of the three it has the fewest who devote themselves primarily to it’s service. Doing so is seen as formal, traditionalist, and primarily the domain of the old and the very traditional families, although it has a small following that choose it because it is the least popular. As with all the Neutral gods, it is arguably the most powerful of it’s set, and the one which the other two rely on.

The domain of the god of Puzzles is any device, theoretical construct, or arrangement designed to obstruct, impede, or challenge, to which a solution is always available that does not rely on luck. Certain types of combat, almost all forms of contest, unlockable barriers, mazes, riddles, and fair tests all fall under this. It is worshipped in tandem with the other two, and thanked by those who use locks or games of skill or strategy, but it’s devotees live for a certain kind of challenge. It has an even greater role in combat than the god of Tools, as weapons, armor, and even communications are useless without adaptability, merely representing a greater challenge.
It is the most popular of the three among youths, engineers, and men of learning, as well as the majority of actual old people, and the second most popular of the three in general. It is somewhat more grudgingly accepted by farmers and craftsmen, but many who worship the gods of Fortune worship the god of Puzzles in some manner, although this is theoretically prohibited. The opposite is not, however, and has become something of a fad, as it allows the fusion of games of strategy and chance.

Thursday, December 18, 2014

Shounen Physical Description




Thursday, December 11, 2014

Character Bios, Part Six (Excelion Universe)

Name: Edit
Aliases: “The guy from that anime”, “No, from the television drama”, “No, the other anime. Maybe it was a videogame?”, Mr. Coat and Shotguns, Crazy American
Age: Unknown (25?)
Affiliations: Individual Thirteen(?)
Clearances: Cyan
Equipment: Twin Heavy Combat Shotguns (with grenade launcher attachments), Personal Forcefield Enhancer (Aura Class), Forcefield Anchored Teleportation Unit
Super Mode: Percussive
Appearance: Grayish blond prettyboy with a black spot under each eye. Said spots resemble small moles but, like the rest of his ensemble, are perfectly symmetrical. He also seems to be ambidextrous, suggesting something either unusual about his background or unusually pronounced personal preference.
Character Notes: Longstanding friendship and rivalry with Dominion. Appears to be a member of the Individual Thirteen, but may actually be completely unaffiliated. Loves his job, whatever it is, as he’s allowed to shoot things. Carries concussion type shotguns, and has a somewhat rare personal forcefield generation ability that they channel. Has a fascination with trenchcoats.

His Moveset:
  • Charge/Parry: Edit holds his shotguns diagonally forwards, and begins charging his signature amber forcefields in and around them. His particular type of forcefields absorb kinetic energy and actually come back stronger with every hit, but can’t be as easily shaped without a physical anchor. He blocks what he can with his shotguns, but outside of close combat that’s not much. Nevertheless, it is one of the few parries that allow mostly unrestricted movement, if only before it reaches it’s final stage. Charging gets exponentially faster with power level.
  • Charge Attack:
    • No charge: Edit fires one of his shotguns. Decent knockback, can use both at once, fairly good damage per hit, reloading takes three seconds, five shots per clip, loads individual shells so he automatically reloads even if he hasn’t used a full clip.
    • Partial charge: Edit fires a charged shot from each shotgun, unless you change the setting to individual fire. The charge shot is significantly larger than the actual round, and explodes on contact with any solid object. Notably, the firing causes a large circular forcefield to briefly appear around the end of the barrel, which can be used to block projectiles rather more effectively than the actual parry. Doing so will increase charge level again, but not affect the current shot.
    • Full charge: Dominion has a forcefield too dense to safely contain with his shotguns, and wraps it around himself instead. As it is solid but malleable when he’s containing it, movement more strenuous than breathing is restricted to a fraction of the speed. Once it gets this dense, he can no longer safely charge it as it has reached his maximum range, and release will provide a tremendous omnidirectional blast that gets stronger the more things it hits, often creating a rebounding propagatory effect. Decent damage, if on the low end for a charge shot, can cause fires, very difficult to avoid, will automatically fade if not used within a few seconds, during which it cannot be recharged..
      • Super Mode Activation: Something hits Dominion hard enough that his forcefield reaches a level he can’t easily achieve on his own. This lets it get to the point that it’s self sustaining, and he can separate it into anchor points between which it is actually safe for him to teleport between. As it is somewhat exhausting, and requires some time to set up on his own, he rarely uses it.
  • Main Attack: Dominion whacks with one of  his shotguns. Can easily be alternated to provide continuous bludgeoning, and if the charge ability is used first the relatively low damage and weak knockdown become quite a bit stronger. If said charging is used first, it becomes rather more of a lethal joke move, as if it hits anything it increases the charge level equal to blocking the same attack, in addition to being a fairly high end melee move in it’s own right. Can’t be used to reach Super Mode directly.
  • Psychotrope Move: Dominion launches a psychic disruption grenade from one of his shotgun mounted grenade launchers. Causes disorientation, most primarily in artificial psychic circuitry, and can be used to interrupt more parries than most. Slow reload, but automatic, with only one shot per launcher.

Final Analysis: Dominion is an incredibly difficult opponent on autopilot, but rather more difficult to use manually to the same degree, at least in super mode. In normal form, he’s a mid tier character, with good offense but low speed and a limited parry. Good assault character, difficult to master.

Name: Dominion
Aliases: Mr. Suit, Tie, and Where-Did-He-Hide-That-Cannon, “The polite one”
Age: Unknown (24?)
Affiliations: Individual Thirteen(?)
Clearances: Cyan
Equipment: Heavy Assault Railgun, Psychic Disruption Pistol, Snappy Battlesuit, Subspatial Field Generator
Super Mode: Cloaked Dominion
Appearance: Dominion looks like a blue eyed man in a business suit, with gunmetal grey hair in a neat center part, and who can somehow produce an enormous boxy rifle longer than his torso by pulling it sideways from his suitcoat.
Character Notes: The quieter and (slightly) saner of the two, but arguably packs several times the firepower. Usually wears a business suit over his battle armor, and is significantly less prone to tossing it away at the beginning of a fight than he was when he had a mullet.
His Moveset:
  • Charge/Parry: Dominion opens a portal, which slowly swells in size. By default, it is centered above him, and will move with him if it isn’t blocked by a wall. The portal tries to draw in anything that doesn’t produce a forcefield of the type associated with sentient creatures or the stuff they’re holding, with the suction growing more pronounced the larger the portal grows. When the portal is released, a number of small bombs, along with anything it’s absorbed, are expelled at high speed. The bombs and debris will not drop where they can harm Dominion, and if the portal is too small for safe release it will not do so.
  • Charge Attack:
    • No charge: Dominion reaches into his coat pocket and withdraws a grenade, which he then tosses. Decent damage, good knockback, can harm himself if he’s careless.
    • Partial charge: Dominion releases his portal, blowing all collected wind and debris outward. Small bombs may be included on release, depending on the size of the portal, with one appearing roughly every half meter on a triangular grid.
    • Full charge: Dominion has a truly massive portal, at least twelve meters wide if unobstructed, and releases it. The air and debris come out in stages, mainly so the overpressure won’t injure him, and every stage unleashes another volley of bombs. Damage scale is ridiculous, especially as any cover has most likely been collected by the portal, and depending on the amount of collected projectiles it can theoretically oneshot full health Super Modes.
      • Super Mode Activation: Despite the intense suction, something manages to hit Dominion for moderate damage. He decides he needs further defensive ability more than ridiculous offense, and gathers the portal into a cloak shape while anchoring it relative to himself. He can use the portal cloak to fly, attract stuff, and cool his railgun manually to drastically improve it’s effective firerate. As he’s no longer at risk of absorption, he can safely turn off the “don’t absorb people” function although portal storage doesn’t hurt them directly.
  • Main Attack: Dominion aims his rifle and fires a short burst at his target. Can be held for a longer burst nearly with three times the duration at the cost of doubled cooldown time. Knockback is significant, a short burst includes at least six shots, and each hit does significant damage. Overall, it plays like a more accurate, nastier version of Albert’s Klingel Seven, with more difficulty to use in close quarters as the only real drawback.
  • Psychotrope Move: Dominion uses his holdout stunner pistol, which doesn’t do much to heavy shields but can easily be used as a non lethal finisher move, as against unshielded or really close targets it causes severe drowsiness and mild disorientation. If the target is already exhausted sleep is almost inevitable, but otherwise it’s mostly only useful as a distraction. Very nearly useless against most Super Modes.

Final Analysis: Dominion is a very powerful ranged combat character, whose only deficiency is low health and the tendency to destroy his own cover with his charge ability. As a sniper he’s nearly unbeatable, against a sturdy opponent who can actually hit him, he’s out of good options. High tier, somewhat terrain reliant, good for dueling.

Thursday, December 4, 2014

Intro Scene Draft One (Binding Universe)

Very early draft of the Intro for the Binding Universe! Can you tell?
The author would also like to apologize for the late update, and make the excuse that he's sick.
He hopes you still enjoy it, and is still begging for any form of constructive criticism, as he knows he's done something wrong but isn't sure how best to fix it.

Pan in on a city. The buildings, while not exactly shining, are in reasonable repair and kept moderately clean, as are all the streets we can see. Pan in on one particular side street, slightly larger than an alleyway, and stop as a large circular section of air starts to turn purple. The effect intensifies until the center can only barely be seen through, and then a small and vaguely vulpine figure abruptly exits at some speed. It manages to catch itself despite the two foot drop, and hits the street running. On closer inspection, it appears to be made of glass or some similar material, as it appears to be translucent but large sections refract the light. It reaches the end of the street and turns into an even smaller alleyway. Here, it continues to run before eventually slowing and stopping. Looking around, confused but no longer sure it’s in immediate danger, it seems to come to a conclusion. It walks more cautiously to the end of the alley and encounters a car, parked less than five feet away. It looks around warily, and then bolts for the windshield, shattering it and landing on the passenger seat. It then attempts to gather the pieces, (destroying the front seats in the process,) and collects them on the back bench where it attempts to build a nest. Amazingly, the car alarm has not gone off yet, but finally does so when the Glassfox smashes the side windows for more material. Said alarm startles it, and it runs away from the now vandalized vehicle. It is encountering people, now, who are alternatively cautious and trying to be friendly. Keyword trying. It remains remarkably far from skittish around them, but employs it’s usual strategy around creatures that probably won’t be able to smash it; which is to say barrel through and flex it’s coat to injure anything that gets too close. This leaves several people badly injured on the ground, and it ends up popping a tire on the truck that tries to ram it in response to this. It keeps going and tries twice more to build a nest before it realizes that smashing windshields causes car alarms, and stops. It’s been fifteen minutes since the portal opened, and it’s reached a residential district. It decides to try breaking a sliding glass door instead, succeeds, and retreats to the safety of the adjoining garage to try building nest for the fourth time. Several hours pass, it has gathered significantly more glass with which to build its nest, and assembled a fairly large one when the owners of the house get home. The meeting goes roughly as well as could be expected, and the Glassfox, territorial but having learned to fear cars, snarls at the surprised family but eventually turns and runs. The girl in the back seat opens her door and jumps out to chase it, causing it to consider her posture briefly, snarl, and run away, but it’s not as good at hiding without back alleys or vents to run through, and she displays very little compunction about intruding on other people’s homes through the same entrances it uses, so she eventually corners it when it reaches the local school. It tries to fight, then, but she summons an explosion that dashes it against the wall, cracking it and does so twice more before everything goes dark.