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  1. - Top - End - #181
    Bugbear in the Playground
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    Default Re: Schlock Mercenary VIII: insAIne in the mAInfrAIme

    I count four of these ultra-fancy new battletetraeders. Looks like someone could really use all these chopped up Oafan hulls. And first thing they did was jumpstart a massive armament.

    About the last schlocktoberfest, I think there is a special horror to getting old. Most people only understand it too late, and aside from the worrying, yes, it is boring, too.

  2. - Top - End - #182
    Colossus in the Playground
     
    BlackDragon

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    Default Re: Schlock Mercenary VIII: insAIne in the mAInfrAIme

    I still don't see the point of this new battleplate design. Given that we know there's a limit to how big annie plants can be, these ones are *less* powerful than the pentagonal battleplates we've seen before--their only advantage is having much greater internal volume, and I'm struggling to see how that *is* an advantage.

  3. - Top - End - #183
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    Default Re: Schlock Mercenary VIII: insAIne in the mAInfrAIme

    Quote Originally Posted by factotum View Post
    I still don't see the point of this new battleplate design. Given that we know there's a limit to how big annie plants can be, these ones are *less* powerful than the pentagonal battleplates we've seen before--their only advantage is having much greater internal volume, and I'm struggling to see how that *is* an advantage.
    They could have 5 annie plants, with 1 in the middle. Possibly they take less materials to build than a similarly outfitted flat design. Maybe Howard just got tired of drawing flat starships.
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    Rockphed said it well.
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  4. - Top - End - #184
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    Default Re: Schlock Mercenary VIII: insAIne in the mAInfrAIme

    Quote Originally Posted by factotum View Post
    I still don't see the point of this new battleplate design. Given that we know there's a limit to how big annie plants can be, these ones are *less* powerful than the pentagonal battleplates we've seen before--their only advantage is having much greater internal volume, and I'm struggling to see how that *is* an advantage.
    Within the last few years, the UNS has seen at least two battleplates destroyed because of their dependence on gravitic weapons. A battleplate is an incredibly valuable strategic asset, so it's not surprising that there'd be a big shift in military doctrine as a result.

    The 'bastions' at the edges of a Carbon-class battleplate have very good coverage with point-defence cannons, masers, railguns, and whatever those super-heavy turrets are carrying -- no matter how a target tries to manoeuvre, at least half of a Carbon's 'conventional' weapons should be able to engage it. Most of those weapons could theoretically have dedicated power sources, while the four annie plants allow the battleplate to still have most of the previous generations' gravitic capabilities.

    It's possible that the UNS have gotten a lot better at building warships recently as well: it may just be a perspective thing, but this comic seems to imply that the carbons are also huge, even larger than the previous battleplate generations, and those super-heavy turrets could potentially be the size of the ship you'd get if you took a "lance frigate" like Juab and scaled it up to the size of a destroyer/super-destroyer/carrier.
    Last edited by lesser_minion; 2018-08-19 at 08:25 AM.

  5. - Top - End - #185
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    Default Re: Schlock Mercenary VIII: insAIne in the mAInfrAIme

    Will see what happens, but right now this looks like more UNS ham-handed, heavy-handed, rush-in-before-you-understand garbage.
    It is one thing to suspend your disbelief. It is another thing entirely to hang it by the neck until dead.

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  6. - Top - End - #186
    Bugbear in the Playground
     
    BlackDragon

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    Default Re: Schlock Mercenary VIII: insAIne in the mAInfrAIme

    Remember, when we first saw a carbon-class, we were told it was a 9+, and outgunned any prior ship.

    So, either there's another giant annieball in the middle, or there is a traditional power plant in the middle that can power weapons if the annies are shut down.

    Remember, they have dealt with shutting down annies and relying on capacitors. That would basically be limited by the size of the capacitor, right? Where can you put a giant capacitor in a normal flat plate?
    Not "fire at". I never used the word "at"
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  7. - Top - End - #187
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    Default Re: Schlock Mercenary VIII: insAIne in the mAInfrAIme

    At least Breya's ultimately in charge, at least for the time being, and can be counted on to put some breaks on the UNS's more ridiculous instincts.
    It is one thing to suspend your disbelief. It is another thing entirely to hang it by the neck until dead.

    Verisimilitude -- n, the appearance or semblance of truth, likelihood, or probability.

    The concern is not realism in speculative fiction, but rather the sense that a setting or story could be real, fostered by internal consistency and coherence.

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  8. - Top - End - #188
    Colossus in the Playground
     
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    Default Re: Schlock Mercenary VIII: insAIne in the mAInfrAIme

    Quote Originally Posted by keybounce View Post
    Remember, they have dealt with shutting down annies and relying on capacitors. That would basically be limited by the size of the capacitor, right? Where can you put a giant capacitor in a normal flat plate?
    A normal "flat" plate is hardly paper-thin--the things are a good 200m thick. Plenty of empty room in there for ancillary components (or else the mad Tagii wouldn't have been able to punch right through a battleplate back above Oisri).

  9. - Top - End - #189
    Orc in the Playground
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    Default Re: Schlock Mercenary VIII: insAIne in the mAInfrAIme

    Random observation. Today's strip calls the skyscraper / location where Tagon is "Tower of Barad-Mellon". If we take the word 'Tower' to have been in lower case, it's simply a building called 'Barad-Mellon'. My Sindarin is a little rusty, but that should translate to "Friend Tower". So it's the tower of Friend Tower. The tautology club meets on the first floor, in the room where the tautology club meets.

  10. - Top - End - #190
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    Default Re: Schlock Mercenary VIII: insAIne in the mAInfrAIme

    Quote Originally Posted by Wayson View Post
    Random observation. Today's strip calls the skyscraper / location where Tagon is "Tower of Barad-Mellon". If we take the word 'Tower' to have been in lower case, it's simply a building called 'Barad-Mellon'. My Sindarin is a little rusty, but that should translate to "Friend Tower". So it's the tower of Friend Tower. The tautology club meets on the first floor, in the room where the tautology club meets.
    This happens in language all the time.

    See, people referring to "ATM machines" and "shrimp scampi".

    IIRC there's some hill somewhere that's been renamed repeatedly with the word for "hill" in each new language of each new people to come to the area tacked on to what it was called by the people already there... so that the name is now, literally, "Hill Hill Hill Hill Hill Hill Hill".
    Last edited by Max_Killjoy; 2018-09-01 at 11:16 PM.
    It is one thing to suspend your disbelief. It is another thing entirely to hang it by the neck until dead.

    Verisimilitude -- n, the appearance or semblance of truth, likelihood, or probability.

    The concern is not realism in speculative fiction, but rather the sense that a setting or story could be real, fostered by internal consistency and coherence.

    The Worldbuilding Forum -- where realities are born.

  11. - Top - End - #191
    Ettin in the Playground
     
    Chimera

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    Default Re: Schlock Mercenary VIII: insAIne in the mAInfrAIme

    Quote Originally Posted by Max_Killjoy View Post
    This happens in language all the time.

    See, people referring to "ATM machines" and "shrimp scampi".

    IIRC there's some hill somewhere that's been renamed repeatedly with the word for "hill" in each new language of each new people to come to the area tacked on to what it was called by the people already there... so that the name is now, literally, "Hill Hill Hill Hill Hill Hill Hill".
    Simpler example -- the sports teams The Los Angeles Angels name means 'the the angels angels.'

  12. - Top - End - #192
    Colossus in the Playground
     
    BlackDragon

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    Default Re: Schlock Mercenary VIII: insAIne in the mAInfrAIme

    Quote Originally Posted by Max_Killjoy View Post
    IIRC there's some hill somewhere that's been renamed repeatedly with the word for "hill" in each new language of each new people to come to the area tacked on to what it was called by the people already there... so that the name is now, literally, "Hill Hill Hill Hill Hill Hill Hill".
    I think you're thinking of Torpenhow Hill there? While "Tor", "Pen" and "How" are all different words for "Hill", so that would be a quadruple tautology, it rather fails on the fact that there isn't actually anywhere called Torpenhow Hill! There's a village called Torpenhow, so that's a triple tautology, though.

  13. - Top - End - #193
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    Default Re: Schlock Mercenary VIII: insAIne in the mAInfrAIme

    The real question here is why does that tower not follow the standard PD naming scheme.
    Man this thing was full of outdated stuff.
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  14. - Top - End - #194
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    Default Re: Schlock Mercenary VIII: insAIne in the mAInfrAIme

    Quote Originally Posted by factotum View Post
    I think you're thinking of Torpenhow Hill there? While "Tor", "Pen" and "How" are all different words for "Hill", so that would be a quadruple tautology, it rather fails on the fact that there isn't actually anywhere called Torpenhow Hill! There's a village called Torpenhow, so that's a triple tautology, though.
    Yes and no. Torpenhow is adjacent to a hill, from which it likely took its name. Unfortunately, tor and pen are both from the same language, and when used together they mean “top of the hill”. As you say, the village’s hill isn’t actually called anything either, so Torpenhow is a simple double tautology: top of the hill hill. Although I suppose it does get some irony points from not being on said top of the hill.

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    Last edited by Grey_Wolf_c; 2018-09-02 at 09:26 AM.
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  15. - Top - End - #195
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    Default The bribe was accepted in self defense

    New thread title: The bribe was accepted in self defense
    Not "fire at". I never used the word "at"
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  16. - Top - End - #196
    Colossus in the Playground
     
    BlackDragon

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    Default Re: The bribe was accepted in self defense

    Quote Originally Posted by keybounce View Post
    New thread title: The bribe was accepted in self defense
    At the rate posts get added to this thread I don't expect it to hit 50 pages before this time next year, so I think coming up with new thread titles is maybe not that necessary.
    Last edited by factotum; 2018-09-02 at 02:58 PM.

  17. - Top - End - #197
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    Rockphed's Avatar

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    Default Re: The bribe was accepted in self defense

    Quote Originally Posted by factotum View Post
    At the rate posts get added to this thread I don't expect it to hit 50 pages before this time next year, so I think coming up with new thread titles is maybe not that necessary.
    Heresy! Heresy and Blasphemy! New thread titles are the life blood of any discussion thread!

    Edit: And I just realised I could rename the whole thread. Muwahahahahaha!
    Last edited by Rockphed; 2018-09-02 at 04:25 PM.
    Quote Originally Posted by Wardog View Post
    Rockphed said it well.
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  18. - Top - End - #198
    Colossus in the Playground
     
    BlackDragon

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    Default Re: The bribe was accepted in self defense

    Quote Originally Posted by Rockphed View Post
    Edit: And I just realised I could rename the whole thread. Muwahahahahaha!
    Don't like to rain on your parade, but it still shows with the old title in the main forum list...

  19. - Top - End - #199
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    Default Re: Schlock Mercenary VIII: insAIne in the mAInfrAIme

    Quote Originally Posted by NEO|Phyte View Post
    The real question here is why does that tower not follow the standard PD naming scheme.
    To be honest the only thing I can think of is that it wasn't built by Petey but a bussiness owner that set up shop in the Plenipotent Dominion.

    Either that or there was simply no way to get "Friend Tower" to have the initials P.D. but, with me being fluent in only one language and only knowing a handful of words in a handful of other languages, I can't confirm that.

  20. - Top - End - #200
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    Default Re: Schlock Mercenary VIII: insAIne in the mAInfrAIme

    Quote Originally Posted by factotum View Post
    Don't like to rain on your parade, but it still shows with the old title in the main forum list...
    Huh, I thought the time limit for changing titles was 30 days, but I could still change the title in the first post, so I thought I could change the thread name. Looks like I was wrong.

    Also, when I said that, I hadn't tried to change the title yet.
    Last edited by Rockphed; 2018-09-02 at 08:48 PM.
    Quote Originally Posted by Wardog View Post
    Rockphed said it well.
    Quote Originally Posted by Sam Starfall
    When your pants are full of crickets, you don't need mnemonics.
    Dragontar by Serpentine.

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  21. - Top - End - #201
    Bugbear in the Playground
     
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    Default Re: The bribe was accepted in self defense

    Quote Originally Posted by factotum View Post
    Don't like to rain on your parade, but it still shows with the old title in the main forum list...
    I don't know, 5 posts on one page with this title ...
    Not "fire at". I never used the word "at"
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  22. - Top - End - #202
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    Quote Originally Posted by keybounce View Post
    I don't know, 5 posts on one page with this title ...
    ....Four of them are yours.

  23. - Top - End - #203
    Bugbear in the Playground
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    Default Re: The bribe was accepted in self defense

    I like the bribery title as well.

    Let's vote for title changes every 5 thread pages!

  24. - Top - End - #204
    Bugbear in the Playground
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    Default Re: Schlock Mercenary VIII: insAIne in the mAInfrAIme

    About the current stuff, if you abandon your stuff for more than a few decades with no indication you will ever claim it again and others have been using it imo it eventually stops being your stuff. Maybe moving out when you come back is the right thing to do, especially if it wasn't your choice, but making any other claims like about the stuff the new owners sold off that is pretty shameless.

  25. - Top - End - #205
    Ettin in the Playground
     
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    Default Re: Schlock Mercenary VIII: insAIne in the mAInfrAIme

    Quote Originally Posted by Ibrinar View Post
    About the current stuff, if you abandon your stuff for more than a few decades with no indication you will ever claim it again and others have been using it imo it eventually stops being your stuff. Maybe moving out when you come back is the right thing to do, especially if it wasn't your choice, but making any other claims like about the stuff the new owners sold off that is pretty shameless.
    Here there used to be squatter's rights, where if you could live in a house without paying rent for ten years, it became yours, but that law was changed.

    If the owners were captive in the basement, that would not do under sqatter's rights, Tagon would be on kidnapping charges for that.
    The end of what Son? The story? There is no end. There's just the point where the storytellers stop talking.

  26. - Top - End - #206
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    Default Re: Schlock Mercenary VIII: insAIne in the mAInfrAIme

    Quote Originally Posted by halfeye View Post
    Here there used to be squatter's rights, where if you could live in a house without paying rent for ten years, it became yours, but that law was changed.

    If the owners were captive in the basement, that would not do under sqatter's rights, Tagon would be on kidnapping charges for that.
    Even if, as in the comic, he didn't know they were there?

    Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't the Toughs have zero indication that there were Oafan survivors around?

    Well, other than the handful of resurrected Oafans that they made the actual deals with? To me that sounds like buying the house from the owner's inheritors, when the owners have been missing and presumed dead for 50 years.
    Last edited by Max_Killjoy; 2018-09-06 at 10:43 AM.
    It is one thing to suspend your disbelief. It is another thing entirely to hang it by the neck until dead.

    Verisimilitude -- n, the appearance or semblance of truth, likelihood, or probability.

    The concern is not realism in speculative fiction, but rather the sense that a setting or story could be real, fostered by internal consistency and coherence.

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  27. - Top - End - #207
    Bugbear in the Playground
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    Default Re: Schlock Mercenary VIII: insAIne in the mAInfrAIme

    Well in the house case someone would have to feed them to have living owners instead of corpses, nobody might believe that a new inhabitant was there but somebody else continued to sneak in food without him noticing. Though I guess the owners could serve as witnesses against that.

  28. - Top - End - #208
    Ettin in the Playground
     
    Griffon

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    Default Re: Schlock Mercenary VIII: insAIne in the mAInfrAIme

    Quote Originally Posted by Max_Killjoy View Post
    Even if, as in the comic, he didn't know they were there?

    Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't the Toughs have zero indication that there were Oafan survivors around?
    Yeah, I wasn't connecting those dots.

    I was thinking that in a real house, you would have to know if people trapped in your basement were getting food and water, and flushing loos, there's no way you could not know there were people there.

    However, the situation changes when the Toughs etc do know there are survivors there. The Oafans are in a virtual world I think? so they might be okay with the Toughs having the real can full of sky if they can migrate to an all-star for instance, but I think by rights it would be the Oafan's choice.
    Last edited by halfeye; 2018-09-06 at 11:03 AM.
    The end of what Son? The story? There is no end. There's just the point where the storytellers stop talking.

  29. - Top - End - #209
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    Default Re: Schlock Mercenary VIII: insAIne in the mAInfrAIme

    I'm surprised we haven't seen anything from the resurrected Oafans yet. Maybe the ones in cyberspace have yet to really figure out there are ones out in meatspace already? One the one they last brought back was a VERY high ranker and would have proper authority. Also wasn't Iafa the proper authority there when the Toughs first arrived? Haven't seen Iafa either yet.
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  30. - Top - End - #210
    Ettin in the Playground
     
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    Default Re: Schlock Mercenary VIII: insAIne in the mAInfrAIme

    Quote Originally Posted by HandofShadows View Post
    I'm surprised we haven't seen anything from the resurrected Oafans yet. Maybe the ones in cyberspace have yet to really figure out there are ones out in meatspace already? One the one they last brought back was a VERY high ranker and would have proper authority. Also wasn't Iafa the proper authority there when the Toughs first arrived? Haven't seen Iafa either yet.
    I'll be the first to admit, right around the time they started the Oafan adventures is right about when I stopped being able to keep track of who everyone was.

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