Super Robot Wars ∀: Deep Space

[MechanicalBull]

I have been sent here by someone scorri. Glorious robots.

[Nanami Touko]

HI GIG

GIMME UR SKYPE SO WE CAN TALK THIS OVER MORE

(I HAVEN'T SLEPT, SORRY IF I SEEM MANIC Q w Q)

[MechanicalBull]

My skype name pm'd to ye.

You should be able to find me with that, right?

[MechanicalBull]

Name: Blodeuwedd Talog

Age: 19

Sex: F

Archetype: Plucky Go-Getter

Skills:
Defensive Support Lv2
Mechanic

Spirits:
Trust
Shield

Adaptabilities: B Air, A Ground, B Water, and A space

Base Stats:

Level: 1

Melee: 7
Shooting: 7
Defense: 7
Skill: 6
Accuracy: 7
Avoid: 6

Current Stats:

Level:

Level: 4

Melee: 7
Shooting: 10
Defense: 9
Skill: 6
Accuracy: 9
Avoid: 8

Appearance: Blodeuwedd is a thickly-muscled amazon of a woman, copper hair shorn short above a right handsome mug, or at least, she’d tell you so. Her eyes are a deep brown. Her skin is covered in swirling tattoos, including her face, and she wears her ancestral markings with pride. A necklace of various kinds of animal teeth, shiny stone beads, and various metals rests heavily across her chest. She wears boots and uniform trousers, but her uniform top is typically just knotted by the sleeves around her waist, leaving her in just a grubby tank top. This is typically, much like the rest of her, stained with oil and grease from her mechanical engineering.

Personality: Blodeuwedd is a mighty titan of personality, rarely able to be dissuaded, disheartened, and perhaps incapable of the notion of fear (and some might say common sense). She has no patience for people moping about, and absolutely no capability for inactivity – she is always tinkering, fighting, exercising, painting – her range of hobbies is both large and inevitably messy. She wants new experiences, and generally, she considers the louder the better.

She’s cheerful, and encouraging of her allies, because she’s having so much fun getting stuck in – they should try it, too! She has a habit of nicknaming everyone and everything. She is also highly superstitious, with dozens of small rituals and habits that she follows to ensure the good operation of her mech and life in general.

Despite her amazonian look, and seemingly crude and simple nature, Talog has a surprisingly sharp mind on her, when she's motivated to put it to use.

Backstory: Blodeuwedd (pronounced "Blo-day-weth") was born to a very large family in a neoceltic commune in Wales.

As a child, she was a precocious tyke – she learned to walk very early, and afterwards made her parents life hell, constantly wandering off and getting into scrapes. No tree was unclimbed, no vehicle un-joyrided, no fellow child left unbefriended (whether they wanted to be friends or not).

As part of the neoceltic lifestyle, she learned the traditional arts of the Celtic peoples – hunting with a bow and arrows she made herself; smelting bronze, or knapping flint, to make tools; piloting mechs across the Welsh hillscapes; and brewing the most potent potables that the Gods could conceive.

As she grew towards adulthood, however, she realised that she was limited as she was. She had a talent for engineering, and piloting mechs in the military looked like it would be fun. She utilised a cousin who was a officer at a military academy to get an advocate, signed up at 16, and showed high aptitudes for both engineering and piloting.Three years in a military-sponsored course, learning the tools of the trade and twice nearly getting kicked out of the military academy despite her cousin's influence, she nonetheless graduated into the military proper - not the top of the class, but not the bottom either. Her first assignment was on a ship captained by Captain Miller, where she works as both a mech pilot and engineer.

Her commanding officer received the notice of her assignment alongside a packet of headache tablets.

Edited July 18, 2016 by MechanicalBull

[Nanami Touko]

posted from skype:

[10:02:37 PM] Melissa: as for the signup i'm really not feeling it
the appearance is a no go at all; we're a military group, they would never allow that much paraphernalia to fly on a person at all times, it would be ridiculous
I also feel with all the heavy drinking and superstitions and rituals they would've gotten themselves kicked out by this point.
the backstory's not bad, though the jump from "is good at engineering, robots look fun, bam now i'm assigned to a space ship" feels weak.
[10:08:17 PM] Melissa: perhaps i don't have enough guidelines set up in the topic for character creation but "would it fly in the military irl" is probably a good question to ask before you set it up here

i'm not against eccentric characters, but this is way too far out of the scope for what i was expecting

EDIT:

More from skype:

i would say if gig wants to stick with most of what they have atm, the helmet would have to go
as well as the heavy drink brewing (the implication of heavy drinking behind it)
it's a necklace, you can keep a necklace, even if it's huge
and scorri's right, small personal rituals aren't gonna conflict with much as long as she's keeping them to herself
but would have to give more details to flesh out why she's there atm before taking her (though again, that's my fault)

Tl;DR EDIT

tl;dr concept is okay at base, needs some revision, and some gm provided information

Edited July 18, 2016 by Melissa

[MechanicalBull]

i'm not against eccentric characters, but this is way too far out of the scope for what i was expecting

Dohoho. I like to think my characters aren't generic, at least. :P

But yeah, no worries. That concept as it stood was to test the waters, so changing it is no problem, but RIP best helmet ;_; I guess it'll just have to be a room decoration or something.

The implication was never that she was meant to be an alcoholic, or anything like that; but she had a still, as is common on a lot of military vessels. Ah well. Axed.

Stats are added, biography and description are altered a bit - there's more to do with how she joined the military now, as well. If there's any info you can provide I should absorb, please let me know.

[Snowy_One]

Name: Melissa Jordan

Age: 22

Sex: Female

Archetype: Plucky Go-getter.

Skills: Defense Support Lv2 (Defend an adjacent ally up to 2 times per turn. Damage Reduction up to 40%)

Mechanic: (Heal 1.5X extra on repair)

Spirits: Trust (Replenish Allies HP by 100)

Cheer: (Bestow spirit 'Gain' to an allied unit.)

Adaptabilities: Air: B

Ground: A

Water: B

Space: A

Base Stats:

Level: 1

Melee: 7

Shooting: 7
Defense: 7
Skill: 6
Accuracy: 7
Avoid: 6

Current Stats:

Level: 4

Melee: 7

Shooting: 9 (+2)

Defense: 10 (+3)

Skill: 6

Accuracy: 8 (+1)

Avoid: 9 (+3)

Appearance: Melissa is a young woman with long, waist-length brown hair and green eyes. She has done her best to keep herself in good physical condition and it shows in the form of a fit and healthy body. She doesn't consider herself terribly attractive, mostly because she isn't. Not 'ugly' or the like, but despite her fit nature she has not put much effort into looking nice. Her uniform is kept nice, clean, and orderly. Out of uniform she's often seen wearing old, ragged pink clothes (preferring tank--tops and shorts) with oil and grease stains as well as a set of earbuds and a brown baseball cap with a deer against a forest backdrop emblem clearly bought from a hunting store.

Personality: Melissa has always been one to follow her own, internal, rhythm to a quite literal level. She's not a 'music enthusiast' in the traditional sense in that she doesn't really pay attention to the modern music scene. Not that she would as she considers many of them 'boring'. Instead she makes her own stuff suited for her needs and she enjoys it. She's frequently humming musical tones and notes following some unheard song trapped inside her own head. When interacting with other people she keeps herself on the quieter end of the spectrum as she's a bit more interested in tinkering with her mech, even if the majority of said tinkering is useless, and generally trying to keep her head low. In fact, around others, she's stifling 'professional' and seems outright scared of the notion of developing anything resembling an actual relationship.

Backstory: Born in good-old 'Murica in the middle of the Bible Belt, Melissa felt like a near-constant oddity. Not a 'duck out of water' so much as a 'duck on the shoreline'. Her family, though not small, had her as the only daughter and her brothers were... less than intellectually gifted. At church she was part of the choir but never joined any bible-studies or classes and seemed to only stay for the sermon because her parents were her ride home. At home she would help her dad work with the machines even when her brothers were more focused elsewhere. With most of the people around her being her brothers friends she often didn't try to talk to them. When she turned 16 she quickly sought out a job in the hopes of applying her mechanical skill to some degree as well as, hopefully, getting to meet some new people.

She was in for a harsh and rude awakening. She doesn't talk about the details but, over the first few months of 'work' she became... different. Scared. Around her family she kept things quick, simple, professional before retreating to her room. On the job she never deviated from what she had been told to say and would even go as far as to outright avoid her own co-workers dodging their own attempts to at least know her. Something was wrong and she wasn't saying what, especially as mounting complains about her 'rudeness' and refusal to talk to customers except when it was business-related reached the point of her being fired. She even left the church choir before her first year was up much to the dismay of her parents.

Taking her mechanical skills she tried for various jobs before, at last, landing one with the ANF. She wasn't military, not really, but she was a civilian mechanic with a notable degree of skill. Spending much of her time repairing the mechs she started to learn about them and understand them on a fundamental level, possibly even learning a bit on how to pilot them just through her work repairing them.

[Nanami Touko]

I'LL TAKE 'EM BOTH

SB left too

so whoopsie doooo

[scorri]

Wao this sure is an NPC~

Name: Colt Taamir
Age: 26
Sex: Male
Position: Engineer

Appearance: Messy light red (IT'S NOT PINK (it's totally pink)) hair that he's always trying (and failing) to keep under control, light brown skin, deep brown eyes that typically are focused intently on something whether that be the person he's talking to or his most recent project. He'll typically wear a tank top and loose pants while working on a project, though outside of the workshop he'll often wear a neat shirt with set of clean jeans and decent shoes.

Personality: Serious about most things, he doesn't usually spend time joking around unless he knows that he has nothing important to tend to. Somewhat oblivious around people that are attracted to him and not overly concerned with that himself. Very interested in developing new projects and learning as much as he can, whether that be about robotics or some other random topic. He firmly believes you can never know too much.

Backstory: The son of two immigrants to America, an African businessman and an English engineer, Colt never really experienced much of life in America. His mother and father split when he was barely a year old and his mother elected to get as far away from his father as she could: Space Colony 5. Her specialty was in prosthetics so it made perfect sense for her to try and get a job there. Thankfully she passed all the checks and had a high enough knowledge and skill that she was offered a position there. Taking Colt with her, she left Earth, fully intending never to return.

Colt grew up in space, learning about engineering from his mother and others on the colony. He had a natural curiosity that he was able to direct towards engineering with ease. He soon found himself helping out on projects in his spare time, though the work they were doing there never managed to catch his attention as thoroughly as the idea of space travel did. Since he'd never known anything but living in space, he dreamed of exploring further, learning more about the universe they lived in. When he was old enough, he applied for a transfer to Colony 1, where they were working on deep space travel and the like. His application was accepted and he bid his mother goodbye, and headed over to a completely different and yet still somehow familiar new home. There he quickly started helping with various projects the colony was working on, often working on some of the more complex math side of things, though he could never fully resist the siren call of the workshop, often working late at night getting his hands dirty with whatever the most recent project is.

Edited July 22, 2016 by scorri

[Nanami Touko]

gonna be so many nerds in the hangar geezus

[scorri]

Well nerds are the best, so it's all good~

[MechanicalBull]

Lots of nerds and then AMAZON

[Balcerzak]

[0:34:28] The Witch-king of Angmar: thinking talog can move to 8,15 use the repair module on herself ; Elaine can move to 7,12 wrist gatling prioxis 1 ; Thorvald move to 8,11 wrist gatling heracles 4?

[0:35:01] Narmaya: did we agree on if people can repair module themselves, xin

[0:35:10] Antitoxin: yes

[0:35:15] Narmaya: h'okay

[0:35:28] The Witch-king of Angmar: we have a staggered zigzag wall still in place

[0:36:19] The Witch-king of Angmar: it's not perhaps what I might have hoped for, but it actually isn't too bad, however, we definitely have threats incoming faster than we can clear them out

[0:37:38] Narmaya: the tension mounts~

[0:38:43] Juliette: ;~;

[0:39:00] The Witch-king of Angmar: it's mostly the southern prioxis that are the problem, relocating to effectively wall them off is gonna be hell, we're too high up the map, really and there's nobody that can counter soften on EP2

[0:39:32] The Witch-king of Angmar: there's still some time, but that would require backpedaling a little awkwardly

[0:39:41] The Witch-king of Angmar: so we'll have to see how it goes

[0:39:50] The Witch-king of Angmar: the heracles aren't chumps either

[0:39:57] The Witch-king of Angmar: good challenge to puzzle through

[0:40:06] Narmaya: what is the 2nd prioxis squad

[0:40:10] Narmaya: doesn't even attack on ep

[0:40:11] Narmaya: o3o!!!

[0:40:29] The Witch-king of Angmar: yeah, that was hinted at in flavor

[0:40:55] Narmaya: I am a cruel mistress

[0:40:59] The Witch-king of Angmar: but, I'm a firm believer in at least putting theory to test

[0:41:11] The Witch-king of Angmar: that said, if 6 doesn't fire on heion, we'll have a good diea

[0:42:04] Narmaya: dundundun

[0:42:16 | Edited 0:42:19] Narmaya: then on turn 3 ep the fun happens~

[0:45:15] The Witch-king of Angmar: I guess what we could do, is leave a hole up top, let prioxis 3 fly forward, presumably to 4,14 and shoot brant

[0:45:30] The Witch-king of Angmar: with his focus up, he'll do good work on it and it can be finished later

[0:45:55] The Witch-king of Angmar: then talog could maybe plug a different hole/let Elaine do something else?

[0:45:56] The Witch-king of Angmar: hmm

[0:46:22] Narmaya: i am glad that we are making you think u w u

[0:48:44] The Witch-king of Angmar: I think that might be too dangerous, it could just as easily try to engage astin at chakram range, with iffy hit on the counter

[0:49:13] The Witch-king of Angmar: and it would much rather use its laser gun than its gatling

[0:52:59] The Witch-king of Angmar: on the plus side, we have strike + spider web on Jess if shit really goes south

[0:58:16] The Witch-king of Angmar: on one hand, I'm tempted to cast shield and just run thorvald as close to the heracles as possible to draw their agro, on the other hand, the wall

Selected stream of consciousness strategy thoughts, posted here for any non-backreading currently working/sleeping/etc. members' feedback

[Balcerzak]

Another episode of battlefield musings. There's definitely a lot of other very viable permutations, so anybody else is free to chime in with what they think is better.

[0:55:21] The Witch-king of Angmar: okay, trying to put together a possible plan

[0:55:53] Phoenix: Megumi: I hope the plan doesn't include killing Talog

[0:56:29] Phoenix: Megumi: stares at Nikolai >_>

[1:14:33] The Witch-king of Angmar: Thorvald relocates to 9,10 swords heracles 4, if it connects, that would allow Tarquin to move to 9,8 and Beam rifle heracles 4 to death. Elaine could move to 8,11 and beam rifle heracles 2 to death. Talog would cast trust on herself, move to 9,9 repair herself and be positioned to support defend any of tarquin, astin, and thorvald.

We also would have a nice jagged wall like so

[1:14:55] The Witch-king of Angmar: the 8 hp prioxis is not a threat

[1:15:13] Phoenix: heheh

[1:15:16] The Witch-king of Angmar: heracles 1 can't sword range stealth one, and will probably stick close to the cluster

[1:17:12] The Witch-king of Angmar: this also gets most of the squad close enough to the prioxis that are designated as no longer attacking, just fleeing, and also the boss squad

[1:20:07] Narmaya: (and Jess can blow a plane up rite |D)

[1:20:23] Phoenix: lol

[1:20:27] The Witch-king of Angmar: options for Jess are, take potshot at heracles 5 or prioxis 10. OR, move to 9,7, and then spiderweb prioxis 10

[1:20:48] The Witch-king of Angmar: did she gain enough will to not leave a plane at 2 hp?

[1:20:53] The Witch-king of Angmar: that would be wonderful

[1:21:16] Narmaya: Give em the good ol strike dual beam cannons deal

[1:21:18] Narmaya: Pchoooo

[1:21:41] The Witch-king of Angmar: will 110 =(

[1:21:45 | Edited 1:22:08] Narmaya: Well if you guys kill 3 shell be at 110 will

[1:22:19] The Witch-king of Angmar: I can't figure out how to get a third kill with our remaining damage

[1:22:24] The Witch-king of Angmar: but I will look harder

[1:22:31] Narmaya: O

[1:22:41] Narmaya: Thas fine then

[1:22:58] Narmaya: She could shoot missiles at one of the damaged Heracles instead

[1:23:08] Narmaya: Either kill it or make it kill fodder

[1:23:12] Narmaya: Beam a plane next turn

[1:23:28] The Witch-king of Angmar: wait

[1:23:30] The Witch-king of Angmar: one second

[1:23:40] Narmaya: o3o!!!

[1:24:52] The Witch-king of Angmar: did the will for the latest casualty, prioxis 3, get applied to her yet?

[1:25:24] The Witch-king of Angmar: she has +2 from fighting, and there are 6 prioxis down, if we do get the two heracles, that would be at 10

[1:25:54] The Witch-king of Angmar: or did 6 not count because it was internal strife among the enemies?

[1:26:21] Narmaya: Oh yah that one didn't count for you guys

[1:26:29] The Witch-king of Angmar: hmm, drat

[1:27:09] Narmaya: So if it's just the 5 planes youd have to kill 3 atm

[1:27:24] Narmaya: Can no one kill prioxis 1 I thought it was low

[1:27:30] *** Narmaya in bed atm ***

[1:27:52] The Witch-king of Angmar: yeah, it's super low, but that would require talog to fight instead of reposition and repair herself

[1:28:01] The Witch-king of Angmar: she could still cast trust, so it might be worth considering

[1:28:02] Narmaya: Can always use trust

[1:28:07] Narmaya: Wavelength

[1:29:54] The Witch-king of Angmar: part of me thinks it's a waste to take time out to shoot an 8 hp craft that would hopefully suicide on EP

[1:30:16] Narmaya: I know I'm the gm and I shouldn't be helping so one stop now

[1:30:17] The Witch-king of Angmar: plus we can't count on all our hits connecting, she might need to weaken heracles 4 if thorvald misses

[1:30:21] The Witch-king of Angmar: a very real possibility

[scorri]

Plan seems legit

[Balcerzak]

Tarquin cast Sense (see notes), move to 8-7, incision knife #10 (Recommended: The Sense makes it autohit, the Alert will stick around and he's probably EP target candidate, so still having Strike up allows him full access to his lower accuracy weapons with no fear of missing. His Predict will also be turning on soon, so he can ride on that for the next phase, saving his second cast of Sense for the absolutely deadline.)

After #10 is dead:

Thorvald to 8-9, shotgun #3 (61 hit, 48 damage)

If Thor hits,

*Tal to 9-10, impact gunlance #3 (96 hit, 72 damage)

Kim to 9-8, plasma rapier #8

Elaine stays put, beam rifle #1 (92 hit, enough damage)

If Thor misses,

Kim to 9-8, beam rifle #3 (autohit, 49 damage)

*Tal to 9-10, impact gunlance #3 (96 hit, 72 damage)

Elaine stays put, beam rifle #1 (92 hit, enough damage)

*There is some concern that leaving Talog at 9-10 might have her draw significant AI attention, so it might be better for her to park below Elaine at a slight hit loss to ensure both her EP safety, and that more accurate users will counter.

Possible crits could certainly end up changing things as well.

Edited August 15, 2016 by Balcerzak

[Ether]

So as far as Nikolai goes, if Jess and Kim pop strike and sense(thus 100% hitrates), Jess does 156 with the Big Ship gun, and Kim would just kill with the bazooka. Since Kim doesn't do enough to knock him in range with beam rifle, she would have to use the rippers. Now, there is one caveat with this. Both Jess and Kim have crit rates. Jess has 18%(if she crits, he barely lives, so we get him in range if she does), however, Kim has 25 crit with the rippers, and if she crits after Jess attacks, this will quite obviously KO Nikolai(since we have a margin of about 10 hp).

Basically just asking if we're willing to risk crits(realistically this can happen with anyone pretty much, we just have favourable damage numbers and guaranteed hits with these two.

Edited August 17, 2016 by Ether

[scorri]

That was general thought yeah but need to look at specific numbers as stuff might be better to use tarq and Kim but not sure

[Balcerzak]

I ran out of time this morning, but had to post what I'd got down anyway. I might add on a little bit more during breaks or whatever at work.

[Balcerzak]

Okay, so here are my brief thoughts on how to spend some of our hard earned cash:

two pips on armor:    Legionary (Talog)     ~ 5k
two pips on mobility: Velite (Kim)          ~ 8k
two pips on weapons:  Sniper Rife (Tarquin) ~ 9k? 12k?
two pips on weapons:  Beam Sword (Astin)    ~ 9k?
two pips on weapons:  Beam Rifle (Brant)    ~ 9k?

I had to guess a little on the weapons, but if I'm right this spends roughly 40k of our roughly 66k, leaving one third in savings/slush fund. Ordinarily I'd save it all until I hit a problematic map, then load my save and spend it where I need it, but we don't really have that luxury in RP. Plus, it helps the GMs iron out the wrinkles in the system, the sooner the better.

Initial Skype reactions were mixed. I know I've seen some people advocate for bot upgrades (golden mookbot etc.) while others advocate against, as they'll be replaced eventually. There's good arguments on both sides, honestly. (The first tiers of upgrades are pretty cheap though, and we did just graduate to Normal+ difficulty...)

My specific reasonings for these choices were as follows:

Talog will get most use out of an armor upgrade, currently, through leveraging support defends.

Stacking mobility on high mobility units/pilots tends to be better than trying to compensate for a weakness. Kim's bot can be used by someone else still after she moves to new hotness when that happens.

Dudes with special get that sweet % damage increase, so in the vein of buffing buffness I thought I'd tweak their weapons a bit. Sniper and Beam Sword seem also seem like decent enough staple weapons that can be traded around if needed later, and probably will make the transition to personal bots as solid bread and butter arsenal. Tarquin's Sniper will also prove a good finisher option for the time being, in case we need to overcome retreat thresholds at some point.

Brant gets some love so that everybody (save Jess) will have gotten something (Elaine grabbed the Gauss earlier, and Thorvald got the Booster), though obviously we can always shuffle things around if people aren't happy.

Talking with scorri, she didn't seem to think that Astin's beam sword should be a priority, which might have some merit. It's not exactly "finisher" class weaponry, and if she's happy with her current damage output against non-bosses, it might be better to just save the money towards her final bot's eventual Large McHuge Sword^TM.

It also might be worth waiting for Brant's funnels? idk. Beam Rifle is solid every day bread and butter for anyone too though, similar to Beam Sword.

Edited August 28, 2016 by Balcerzak

[scorri]

It's also the fact that 99% of the time, I *shouldn't* be the finisher. Thanks to Gain, I need fewer kills than the average person to keep up in exp, especially if I'm getting boss kills. Add in the fact that I'm already pretty good (read: really good) at stabbing, it just doesn't seem to make a lot of sense to buff an ok weapon on me when I don't really need it.

I'm not a huge fan of buffing bots tbh. I think it probably makes more sense to hang on to some money and see if parts become available for purchase or upgrade weapons, etc.

[Shin]

I'd say we go for it. I trust Mel enough to not screw us over with something later that we can barely just not afford. We have a fair bit of cash, and are likely to get more as time goes on. It's not like I'm saying blow it all now, but these appear to be some logical and worthwhile investments which could probably help for the early to mid game.

Plus, golden mookbot is GLORIOUS.

[Dandragon]

Posting from phone due to LTE coverage. Power outage. Cannot get on skype for criticism or responses. GG

[Nanami Touko]

Hey guys. Posting this to ask a question. How would you all feel about a side story topic? It would focus on things happening in the EU during the Riese's adventures and show off some future tech + pilots with bigger skill pools to give you all an example of what's to come.

Opinions?

[Phoenix]

Well you know my feelings on this lol

*cautious thumbs up*