Turn 4 : Design PhaseViri Design: Idoloid MDL 01 - Sakura.ISQ
This is the first in what will hopefully eventually be multiple lines of Commanding Officer programs. With a song in their soul, a rhythm to their step, and Music in their code(as in, the elemental alignment sense, though they are also made to be good singers) leading the charge while nestled in the middle of her fellow programs. Sakura class Idoloids confer a regenerative buff to any nearby friendly programs inside her Area of Effect with her singing, thus extending their lives by giving them the ability to recover damage without intervention from a chip. The Sakura class leads with upgraded tactical abilities over the base Officers, helping add some additional complexity to her fellow programs tactics.
In terms of design, the Sakura Model is a girl with straight violet hair that stretches down to her knees at the longest points. She wears a cutesy pastel pink nurses outfit with garter belts and stockings, decorated with cherry-blossom themed accessories. In addition, though it is largely for show, she carries an immense(empty) syringe nearly as large as herself. She is not completely defenseless however, as her Syringe can be used both as a stabbing implement and to fire Music Element pulse pistol shots from its tip, though her skill with these attacks is no greater than the base Officer.
4 + 3 + -2 = 5 : Average (Very Hard)
While the Sakura Model is a relatively complicated design involving advancing in several fields that the Stagehands have only made low level applications in before, as well as applying the first new elemental styling the Stagehands have used, the final program is surprisingly functional for an advanced prototype with multiple new or merged features.
The regeneration aura was one of the more difficult features requested, as the teams had done no work in this field before and only had the publicly available Recovery 10 chip to work with as a source of information. However, by combining the Recovery 10 chip and some independent studies they were able to load a weaker variant of the Recovery 10 chip's healing effect into the Sakura Model which 'pulses' the effect regularly, effecting all friendly units nearby. The key word for that is nearby however, as the effect covers around the same area that a Mobile Assault Stage takes up. It also provides only minimal healing per pulse, though pulses are usually fairly frequent.
However, even this weak healing effect takes a continual toll on the Sakura Model's processing power which has detrimental effects on her ability to devote processing power to comprehending tactical situations and making tactical choices. While the Sakura Model has a tactical library equal in variety to that of an Officer.exe's tactical library, their ability to make tactical choices is generally inferior and takes additional time unless they deactivate their healing aura to devote all their processing power to the question of command. If this is done they are generally somewhat superior to officers due to their more advanced coding, but of course the price to that is the lack of healing.
This theme of trying to do two things at once extends itself, and its issues, to the Sakura Model's combat abilities. While her attacks are successfully infused with the 'Music' element, the giant syringe is not especially refined as a weapon, especially with the need to come up with new 'spear coding' for it that also needed integrated ranged combat coding. While they are still able to fire pistol level shots from their syringe their rate of fire is around 10% slower then that of a Minion.Exe and their melee strikes are around the same amount weaker then a SwordyMinion's, as well as suffering from less advanced spear combat data libraries.
Despite these issues the Idoloid MDL 01 - Sakura.ISQ is still a viable combat program that grants noticeable new capacities to the Stagehand's lineup, and this use and the relative crudity of their programming renders them merely a Complicated program instead of a complex one and they will be deployed to supplement existing Officer programs.
It is Turn 4, in the Revision Phase. During this phase you must vote on what revision to do to your current assets.
Hackers
Jorg Jörgenson
A thoughtful and methodical hacker that prioritizes force preservation and defense area control, the Bass Line plays for long term advantages as he shapes the battlefield into one incremental advantage after another until it grants him victory. He prefers melee designs over long ranged combat, and his preference for force preservation biases him away from the more fragile viruses whatever their range. He also has a deft hand with territory effecting battlechips that allow him to get more out of them then others would, and substantial experience with using defensive and supportive function battlechips.
Aria
Aria is a relatively new hacker, but Aria's loyalty to Sonata's Stagehands is undoubted. They have a talent with long ranged bombardment by both battlechip and virus, as well as other brute force destruction applications, which is substantial enough to result in their appointment as one of Sonata's Stagehands' field commanders. This plays well with their similar, if lesser, talent with fixed defenses. They have been noticed to have problems with giving the enemy the initiative and not noticing when said foe is doing something sneaky. While less notable, their relative inexperience as a hacker can sometimes cause them trouble in contested data spheres verses a more experienced foe.
Viri
Minion.exe
These roughly humanoid programs are neither very sophisticated (intelligence and coding wise) or very strong, but they are mass producible and smart enough to obey orders without continual direct supervision. Which isn't always something you can take for granted with generic digital constructs, as a lot of them are dumber then rocks. They're not coded with anything more powerful then a basic energy pulse pistol, but they can still defeat the average civilian whom thinks too much of themselves. Just avoid putting them up against Data Police Agents. (Simple)
SwordyMinion.exe
The normal baseline minion, adapted to use a sword instead of a pistol. They're no smarter and only a little tougher then a normal minion, but the sword is a stronger weapon then the pistol so it's somewhat more deadly. As long as it can get into melee range that is, as it no longer has the pistol. It will try to stab any enemy projectiles that come to close to it, allowing greater survivability rates then would otherwise be expected as long as the projectiles being shot at it are the kind you can stab.
(Simple)
Defender.exe
An enlarged minion with a continually active siren mounted on its helm and bearing a giant tower shield with more flashing lights and what looks like an impressively large gun array integrated into said shield's surface, this virus is a natural first target for anyone attacking a group that it is in. Which is the point. Not actually armed any more well then a normal minion, but with noticable integrated code-buffering and a shield formed from active denial firewall lattice coding, the Defender is well equipped to be a remarkably sturdy, for its rating, distraction. It's attention getting features have now been upgraded with an off switch, and Officers have some light scripting telling them when to turn said attention getting features on or off. For example, when sneaking, keep them off. This makes them much simpler to transport.
(Simple)
Templar.exe
An alternate version of the Defender that's been given a sword instead of a charge pistol and upgraded with a moderate-low level skill library for sword and shield fighting. They still have the reinforced structure, shield, and siren of the Defender, and also like the Defender the Templar's siren can be turned on and off. Sadly, it does not have a flaming shield and sword.
(Simple)
Officer.exe
Based on the generally available in the Undernet Minion programs, Officer.exe constructs aren't much stronger then their lesser kin, still only coded with a basic energy pulse pistol, though officers also come with basic melee coding. But the big difference between and Officer and a Minion is that Officers are coded with noticeably more advanced bit-brains and have a basic tactical library integrated in their knowledge banks, allowing them to lead teams of Minions on operations without needing constant hand holding.
Since the start of the war, they've been revised with slightly enlarged tactical libraries and an improved ability to both identify enemy officers and commanders and figure out which officers on their own side are doing the best, and therefor should be listened to more. (Complicated)
Idoloid MDL 01 - Sakura.ISQ
A combination of crude and sophisticated coding, the Idoloid MDL 01 - Sakura.ISQ is attuned to the Music Element, and uses said element to both release regular (close ranged) bursts of healing for friendly units and as the energy type her attacks count as. They are armed with an immensely large syringe they use (crudely) as a spear and as a launching point for slightly weaker then normal pistol shot projectiles. While they are coded to act as officers, they must de-activate their healing pulse aura to properly be able to command other units, as otherwise they lack needed processing power and are slow to comprehend situations and make decisions. However when they have their full processing power dedicated to command they are officers around equal to existing officers but which come to the decisions faster, giving them an advantage in tempo and reaction speed. Defensively they are neither tougher nor weaker then a normal officer, baring elemental interactions.
(Complicated)
Lesser Lasard.Mon
The Lesser Lasard.Mon is a cyborg theropod with join locking legs and a counterweight tail to provide a stable firing position for the heavy repeating charge gun that makes up the Lasard's upper jaw. This cannon fires shots somewhat stronger then a potential charged shot from the charge pistols basic minions use, and can also charge up itself to fire a very powerful splash damage shot of ball lightning through use of the Thunder Element, though this drains the Lasard's power such that it needs a few minutes to recharge. The Lasard can also unleash a melee ranged lightning shockwave, though this is far weaker and still drains the Lasard, but its only other decent melee option is hitting things with its tail. The Lasard 'sees' with two strips of electrically sensitive materials mounted on its flanks, and can therefor blind itself when it uses its shockwave. Despite the Lasard's use of electricity, the unit as a whole is not elementally attuned. (Complex)
Mobile Assault Stage v2
A large flying stage with two of the speaker arrays replaced with missile launchers and handrails around the edges to keep passengers from falling off. It's piloted by a minion who's been fused directly with the singer's podium, but still controls the stage with hand controls. Like the missile battlechip, if the Stage's missiles are deflected they'll often lock onto a friendly unit, usually the stage that fired them. The Mobile Assault Stage is capable of carrying a little over twenty minions at a time, or thirty if you pack them on really tightly, enough to interfere with their ability to do anything until they get off the stage. (Complex)
Marksman.exe
A buggy mess of a minion variant with a non-functional charged shot sniper rifle with no normal shot mode and who's charged shot only works one in three times, is intensely fragile, and has a non-working advanced ballistic calculator and target value calculator. All this would be bad enough even if the virus didn't only shoot at targets they're directly ordered to shoot without having the Officers programmed to order them to shoot. (Exceedingly Complex)
Autonomous Digital Intelligence
BlueFiend.mon
An upside down floating pyramid surrounded by an oozelike substance that is manipulated into varied body parts and coverings, born of an experiment into self adapting programs. BlueFiend uses this material as armor, tools, and weapons alike, as well as a large degree of personal strength. It tends to prefer melee combat, but is not limited to it, and prefers to communicate in sign language and/or charades. Interestingly, BlueFiend has once or twice shown the ability to entirely liquefy itself, but the rarity of when and hesitance with which it employs this ability suggests some sort of major limiting factor to it. (Memory 4)
Battle Chips
Recovery 10
This tactical battle chip is designed to mend damaged and corrupted code, healing the individual it is applied to by a minor amount. (Simple, Memory 1)
Atk+10
This tactical battle chip pre-allocates resources to empower the next program used, improving the targets ability to deal damage for a short while. (Simple, Memory 1)
MinionCall A
This strategic battle chip creates temporary replicas of the commonly known ‘Minion.exe’ program, causing a short term burst of reinforcements in the targeted zone. (Simple, Memory 1)
Stunbolt
A tactical battle chip that releases a bolt of electricity into the target, which then paralyzes the target until the excess electricity dissipates. This chip is elementally attuned to the element of Thunder. (Simple, Memory 1)
Missile I
The Missile I is a strategic battlechip that effectively fires a decently powerful cruise missile at a chosen target. The missile plays an annoying MeTube speech the entire flight and will not explode before it hits something that's not the ground or a wall, resulting in it almost always hitting the target when it doesn't loose control over itself by bouncing off the ground nosecone over tail, which tends to make it go flying off into the void. Has an annoying issue where, if deflected, it will often lock onto a friendly target instead of going back after the original target. (Complicated, Memory 1)
DramaticSpotlight
This chip combines an environmental influence effect with a protective barrier, it... well, look, it lets you summon a dramatic spotlight to spotlight your avatar or an ADI and includes enough defensive shielding to let you do a (short) dramatic speech or pithy comment without anyone being able to do anything about it. The defenses fail if you move or attack however, and only last a short moment, but it's quite good for making a memorable introduction. (Simple, Memory 0)
InvokeSoundtrack
A battlechip that invokes a soundtrack, using advanced environmental sensors to analyze the zone that the Hacker or the Hacker's Proxies are in and play appropriate music for where they are and what the current events are. Some would swear it has a better detection rate for hidden surprises then anything else in Sonata's Arsenal, but it also has a deeply encoded priority for dramatic timing, and therefor the dramatic chords only begin to play when the surprise is about to be sprung on you anyway. (Simple, Memory 0)
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Topic: Sonata's Stagehands - Great Flame War Arms Race (Read 14242 times)