Bay 12 Games Forum

We should've completely wiped the planet clean and created a better race instead of hoping a motley group of pants on head retarded, xenophobic idiots would unite and do something good.

The problems came when you accepted anyone who would come along and no one else. Almost all of those were people with no reasons to consider staying at home, who didn't think things could get any worse wherever they were being sent. This rules out almost all people with actual skills or anything like that. As noted, most people who went along were criminals fleeing the law, beggars, or similar people. (The racism didn't help either; imagine making an extraplanetary colony of 40% African-Americans and 60% KKK members, or one of Germans, Japanese, Americans, French, and Swiss taken from WWII.)

But hey, it shows you were trying to make things better.

Quote from: GreatWyrmGold on February 24, 2013, 11:11:37 pm

There's a much lower chance that dwarves will than that humans or elves will.

Much lower? As in the borderline between some and a lot of hate? Sitting atop a fence?

0.001/0 is as undefined as 1,000/0. Same thing. We know that humans and elves very nearly certainly will kill hydras on sight. We know that dwarves dislike hydras, but don't know of any deep-seated reason for nor of any tendencies towards killing hydras on sight.
It's all relative.

And again, you aren't giving any thought to any other possible situations that could exist that we don't know about yet because we haven't asked nor looked. As I said, they could be "insane, blood-thirsty, sapient-eating, stone-age slave-masters with a grudge against us". So long as they govern themselves with city states, anything's possible.

Well, stone age people tend not to make cities...but yeah.
Still, insane, blood-thirsty, sapient-eating, stone-age slave-masters with a grudge against us are better than dragon-worshipers who see us as an abomination that must be destroyed no matter what.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

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Elves and Humans have the great amount of hatred towards Hydras.  They view the hydras as a perversion of nature that needs to be removed from the face of the earth.  This viewpoint was brought about by their tendencies to have both dragons as their gods, and the hatred at anything that does not fit into their ideas that there can only be a single being in charge.
Dwarves and Goblins, on the other hand, do not take dragons as their gods, and have complex systems of government that put a multitude of people in charge.  The dwarves having an emulation of the governmental system of Greece city-states, and the goblins having an emulation of the governmental system of the early Roman republic.  Due to these facts, the dwarves and goblins have a lesser hostility towards hydras, with dwarves being more likely to take on hydras due to being polytheistic compared to the goblins' worship of ancestors.

That quote specifically states that "the dwarves...have a lesser hostility towards hydras [than elves or humans]." It also notes that they are "more likely to take on hydras due to being polytheistic compared to the goblins' worship of ancestors."
Those quotes support my position of dwarves being the best choice to go to out of the known races.

1. [what specific issues are the problem with animals v densely packed intelligent humanoids? Already hit on smell & tracks]

There's a few things. For starters, you don't know where the animals are coming from; you can't just hide your tracks and dash through a stream to throw them off, because there's always more wolves in the woods. Also, dangerous animals tend to be a bit larger and stronger than dogs, and have much better senses than humans, and are more likely to hunt at night than either. And you can't use tricks used for humans on animals.

[ask em about this, could be an issue but I doubt it]

Procuring supplies might not be a problem. Carrying supplies for an extended trek through the wilderness, intending to enter unknown lands with presumably different flora and fauna...

[they live in the swamps & are bronze-age & talk good, they should have a decent grasp on local flora/fauna], [they live there & should be familiar]

But not ones from more distant areas. They already know about the local area.

[scouts from whom? we don't know. If you think it unlikely to find a village, how unlikely would it be to find another scout? also: master thieves]

Scouts from the various human and elven settlements? Also, note that scouts and other travelers tend to, you know, travel far beyond their hometowns. And master thievery mostly requires stealth whilst escaping and probably approaching a prize, not 24/7.

[still handled]

Actually, still a problem.

[raiders'd be more common along roads, but the proximity of the other towns is worrisome- good thing our guys are professional hiders.], [same as scouts- we deal with humanoids all the time in much more trying circumstances]

Again, being the best thief in the world does not necessarily mean one can be stealthy enough to avoid detection from skilled woodsmen (and animals and so forth) from the moment one gets up to the moment one goes to sleep and all through the night. To pick just an obvious and crude example, master thieves can retain the title if they snore loudly.

[burp]

Those are a pretty common danger.

[might be an issue, ask about these]

Might?

I vote worth it.

That's a matter of opinion. Frankly, I don't see the attraction seeing as we haven't even tried the dwarves.

Might be a long forum game...

Time skips.

2. Master thief's knowledge, excuse you! Ask them about it; I disagree- lizardbolds aren't the Masons, they have to scratch out their own spots/techniques and adjust as the humanoids counter their thieving.

They make adjustments, which I have been saying all this time, but that's different than making whole new maps of the best and quietest ways to get through the countryside as you go through it. Think of it as the difference between fixing a car and making a new one from ores and such.

3. Depends on the swamp, depends on the swamp. You can if you're a dwarf. At least...a traditional dwarf. Or an elf for that matter, damn tree-climbers. Pertinent question: do any civs resemble dwarfs, (more info on civs...)?

Well, swamps are noted for being...swampy...which typically implies a certain level of being wet and muddy. That's not good for roads.

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Better than us? Sure. But you know what strikes me as a good plan? Expand our allies and knowledge by contacting the dwarves before risking some of our few lizardies on a scouting trip.

That plan's packing significantly more risk- On the one hand, you have approaching a thoroughly unknown civilization and hoping they not only don't try to skin us for meat, but take us up as allies. On the other hand, we find out what they WOULD do if we did the above plan, while only risking a few expendable, yet highly-skilled minions, and losing a single turn. I posit the latter is more prudent.*** Shoot, how about a compromise- send a single completely unskilled & expendable peon in our place as an ambassador, see how the dwarves react. nvm, that's a bad plan, we'll probably lose that minion (unlike our professionals), and sending a puny lizard instead of ourselves in first might give the wrong impression.

You're also missing the fact that goblins are no more or less unknown than dwarves, while the few facts we know clearly state that dwarves would be more receptive to hydras like us.

Quote from: GrizzlyAdamz on February 24, 2013, 09:56:22 pm

Given the time period emulated, communism is probably more likely than fascism.

Given it's a different world and the civilizations are based on dice rolls & the whims of the GM, I'd say they're about even.

Moderny Communists? Unlikely.
Communists in the sense that everyone works for the good of the community and all that stuff, the general concepts behind communism? Very likely.

***we don't even need to send scouts for this. Ask the lizards for more info, they're bound to have it. Scouting beyond 3km and getting a few maps should still be a priority; if one of the local civs would be friendly according to our lizards, we could ask them for these things. But only our own lizards can truly be trusted. Lizard compradore race ftw.

Scouting only makes sense if we know we can't use what's nearby or need something that's farther away or something. We don't know because we haven't investigated.

Hmm I guess what I mean is, in a hypothetical situation maybe the word "peanut" casts a spell that creates a peanut with a top hat, a monocle and a cane.  Is it the word peanut that creates all of those attributes together or is it the individual parts of the word?  By that I mean if instead I simply said "pean"  as apposed to "peanut"  would that possibly create a peanut with a top hat and a monocle but no cane or would it create an entirely different spell with completely different effects such as a giant elephant that breathes fire?  Additionally within these words would it be the individual letters making up the effects or would it only be syllables or letter combinations making effects.  Like maybe "p" codes for peanut while "e" codes for monocles or conversely it could be that "pea" codes for peanut and "nut" for monocles while the individual letters "p" "e" "a" "n" "u" "t" don't do anything at all by themselves.  Then I suppose in addition to all that changing the wand settings complicates things even further.

I'm not sure how much of that has been figured out...ah, what the heck.
In that situation, "peanut" would be broken into two syllables, "pea" and "nut." Presumably, "pea" would be the peanut that walks and talks and such while "nut" would give it the accessories. "Pean," being one syllable, would presumably make a walking, talking peanut...shaped like a top hat, maybe? The individual letters would presumably create normal peanuts, canes, or whatever.

What happened to my character, and my action?

Most likely, I missed the action, wherever it is.

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Are you sure your character is still alive? Because I pretty sure I remember Archmage Coolguy being incinerated

Sasha is still alive, I'm now playing as my falcon.

Ah.
No, she isn't.

What the heck. In.

Find a build bot and program it to... make a giant mech! Make it use the kill bots and drones and the other build bots as material!

There are, sadly, no such robots available.

"Oh, break time!"
Go bird hunting.

[4] You shoot some pigeons.

FUS ROH DA
BREAK THE GROUND IN HALF

You shout. Not much happens.

Quote from: Persus13 on February 25, 2013, 07:31:31 pm

smash the door down.

You would, but some idiot in another universe shot you. Respawn?
(You failed so badly you felt it in other universes!)

Attempt to cut off section of crystal. Small.

[4-1-1] You fail.

RESPAWN DARN IT, I WANT TO GET BACK IN THIS!

Is it words, letters or syllables that are actually used to cast magic?

Edit: Or should I just find out myself when I play?

Depends on what you mean.
1. Words are individual spells.
2. Syllables are individual parts of spells.
3. Letters determine what the syllables mean, and therefore what the spell does.

Well, you'd best get this thing fixed.
First, you head to Tra to ask for volunteers.
HEY, WANT TO GO TO LIVE ON ONYDIA FOREVER TO REPOPULATE IT?
"...That big green circle in the sky?"
YES.
"...I'll pass."
You get a few volunteers. There's almost four hundred southern dwarves, a couple hundred manormul, about four or five dozen each of humans and gnomes, about a dozen ordynar, and two northern dwarf lovers. A bit over 700 overall. They are sent to Odyna to form a colony, where they swiftly establish a clearing.
The clearing is swiftly filled with bickering; aside from a few sets of lovers like the northern dwarves, they were pretty much all wanted criminals, beggars, or both. This doesn't make them terribly good at getting along. The ordynar and half of the manormul and humans are murdered within two days, along with a dozen gnomes and two dozen southern dwarves. (It's around this point that you tell your champion to lay low; it would destroy all these nice people if it came rampaging through.) The northern dwarves flee the settlement, if you could call it that. By the end of the first week (which, for matters of convenience, is seven days), half of those survivors have died from starvation or the few large predators to still lurk in the jungle. The final population: About 170 dwarves, 50 manormul, 30 humans, and 11 gnomes. The gnomes flee through the wilderness; while four die to attacks, the survivors find the northern dwarves and start building a cottage near a small lake. In the meantime, they live on plants gathered from the forest and small parrots and planarians caught by the male dwarf and one of the gnomes. Meanwhile, the other 250 or so people organize themselves, electing a human to be the Mayor of Onydia City, as they call their clearing. This leads to a bloody coup, where a dozen humans (supporters of the mayor), seven manormul, and three dwarves are killed. Udil Greenknife, the leader of the coup, takes control and enslaves the surviving humans and manormul. Naturally, a mere sixty slaves can't support over 160 dwarves, so the dwarves also work...but the hard work and food-testing goes to the "lesser" races.
Within a month, these two settlements had become stable. The lakeside cottage had a large garden, a crude dock for "fishing" off of, and a set of simple tools for making various goods. Its nine inhabitants had roofs over their heads, walls around their rooms, and well-defined jobs. There had been two weddings, one between the dwarves and one between two gnomes. The group has also caught and tamed several birds, some serpents, and a large planarian. There was a bit of argument (for instance, two male gnomes are both in love with Dahilu), but these are fairly minor and never end in worse than black eyes. The situation is much different in Onydia City. Starvation, murder, and so forth have reduced the village's population to about 120 dwarves, 36 manormul, and 14 humans. Greenknife is still in power, due to having several tools at his disposal (including Jet Blacknight, a great alchemist who is his second-in command and, due to having worked with Udil before, great loyalty to him; a pair of manormul warriors who are alchemally enslaved to him; and Elva, a little human girl with great magical gift who Udil has raised since her parents were killed within the first week); he has a large house made from a massive hollow log. Meanwhile, the others live in the open, or in trees, or in lean-tos. They get by, barely, but things are finally settling down.
You decide now is the time to try and unite the races of Onydia.
Through means far subtler than any you've used yet, you convince the Onyd to send out a scout. You then direct the scout to Onydia City, where he is mistaken for a mere animal, killed, butchered, and eaten. This...was poorly-thought-out.
As you consider simply tossing your champion on a moon and calling it a day, you feel a presence.
YOU HAVE A LOT OF EXPLAINING TO DO, YOUNG GOD...