Book 2 – Text Updates 045

[Aquillion]

Actually, thinking of the above made me realize another abuse -- get a bunch of casters and form them into a unit. Have them create units for you in the MK, if that's possible. Raid the Magic Kingdom, grab casters, pull them back to your portal and hit them with Turnamancy. Repeat. Obviously, grab Turnamancers first.

The downside is that every non-mindraped caster in the setting is going to hate your guts; and we've seen that they have at least some ability to influence things and make your life miserable.

Huh. Can Parson drag corpses into the Magic Kingdom and have Wanda uncroak them there to get a standing army and, basically, 'occupy' it? Can Sizemore create golems there? Casters are squishy, so the first side to produce an army in the Magic Kingdom would probably be able to hold it forever, since you can't march troops in -- you have to be there already to create them, and nobody else would get a chance with golems / decrypted shock troops ganking them the moment they come through the portal. The catch is that your MK army probably can't leave the MK, aside from the casters -- although, if non-casters can leave the MK, and only die when trying to enter it, then this exploit breaks the game wide open, allowing Sizemore and Wanda and any other summoner/crafter caster types to produce huge armies in the MK and teleport them directly into any city they want.

Is it possible to grant units casting as a special by paying shmuckers, the same way they can be granted heavy status?

[Xenon]

a weirder thought, get a STACK of casters. lets say they come from several sides in a coalition, and stack up in the MK. next they stack (8+) hits the enemy portal, with shockamancer on point. a couple blasts clear the room, and the dirtamancer gets to work. the naughtymancer uncroaks the fallen enemy, and a combination of cloth golems, rock golems, and uncroaked lead the fight against the enemy. If this is happening while most of the enemy's force is busy in the field fighting your sides main army, then you just got their capital and king in one swift decapitation strike.

so yeah, one caster alone cant do this... but a lot of casters? i can see some sides teaming up to pull off a stunt like this, then divy up the spoils of war.

[kaylasdad99]

Speaking of decapitation strikes...

The status of Don King's attempt to bankroll Tramennis's promotion to heir is still unresolved, (AFAIK). In the event that Slately is croaked before that happens, Jetstone ends, right? What becomes of the Portal in an ended city, if anything? If it goes inactive, does that strand Parson in Spacerock?

He could find himself in excellent physical condition if he has to WALK from Spacerock to Gobwin Knob, ISTM...

And isn't Wanda deploying an ad hoc Delta force to try croaking Slately, even as Parson is preparing to start his run? What becomes of him if he's halfway through the Portal as it snaps out of existence?

[Crarites]

Any takes on Marie's statement

"Everyone's Fate turns this turn," said Marie, much more quietly, but still smiling. "Big changes. Everything changes. Your side's turn changed, its Fate, too maybe. Maybe, we'll see."

This statement makes me beleive that "Kingworld" had a side affect that we are not aware of yet. It implies that the change wasn't temporary but permanent or ongoing? It makes me wonder if GK natural turn order has changed or something more drastic. Since an arkentool was involved in the link-up it may have caused a change to the concept of "turn".

[MarbitChow]

Actually, thinking of the above made me realize another abuse -- get a bunch of casters and form them into a unit. Have them create units for you in the MK, if that's possible. Raid the Magic Kingdom, grab casters, pull them back to your portal and hit them with Turnamancy. Repeat. Obviously, grab Turnamancers first.

When the decrypted were first revealed at the end of Book 1, the idea of hiring ALL the casters in the MK for a single turn, placing each in a single hex, and croaking / decrypting them one after the other was proposed. Each one you croak helps to kill the next, until you have all the casters for no upkeep.

[GKBeetle]

Sorry, but I had to post. The Final Fantasy nerd in me was raging.
The girl with the flower basket is named Aerith, not Aeris. Aerith Gainsborough to be exact.

It probably depends on which version of FF the posters last played. Per Wikipedia, the character has multiple names, depending on release location (and version?). I would argue that the Japanese name is probably the most "correct" spelling and is the one that hasn't changed.

Not a FF player, just copying from the wiki. See Wiki link for a sound file pronouncing her name.

Aerith Gainsborough (エアリス・ゲインズブール, Earisu Geinzubūru?) — spelled Aeris Gainsborough in the English releases of Final Fantasy VII and Final Fantasy Tactics — is a player character in Square's (now Square Enix) console role-playing game Final Fantasy VII.

Aerith's original Japanese name is エアリス Earisu, pronounced [eaɽisu̥] ( listen). This has been transliterated to "Aeris" in Final Fantasy VII and Final Fantasy Tactics, but later as "Aerith". Both transliterations have basis, as the Japanese "su" (ス) is used when transcribing "s" (/s/) and "th" (/θ/) to Japanese. However, official Japanese material uses the spelling "Aerith", and developers have stated that "Aerith" is a near-anagram of "Earth".

Hmm. I'm wondering if my memeory was playing tricks on me, then. Aw, I hate it when my nerdrage is unfounded.

[skarl]

Totliaer Kreig.

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah, can someone check their spelling of a word they want to inpress with!

sorry.

nice update! one thing it told us is that predictamancers only forsee things which are really going to happen, making them know if something (or someone) is going to turn everything around. knowing that something big is going to happen is also usefull... has jetstone a predictamancer?

[Lamech]

This update makes me sad. All the storytelling signamancy is there for Sizemore: deep, unresolved doubts about the events he's enabling, his closest friends in awe of how horrible are the things he's doing, and to top it off, a feeling he's never had before that he's really going to be great someday.

Sizemore is going to die. Sizemore is the loss foretold by Wanda in the beginning of Book 2, and it will almost certainly come as a direct result of Parson's actions. The same way Bogroll croaked.

I don't know how it will happen. Maybe Parson will be forced to order him to do something he simply can't bear, like going through the JS portal, and he will disband from disobeying an order. Maybe Janis' hippiemancy will not be sufficient to prevent the MK from croaking Sizemore for what he's done. I don't know.

But Book 3 won't have Sizemore in it.

So when Sizemore gets croaked he can be decrypted or "re-popped". Now since dittomancers can apperenantly double the units popped (remeber Parson's food hack?) we would then get two Sizemores!

[kojiro kakita]

As an additional notion on the Magic Kingdom, some thoughts from Sun Tzu:

Ground the possession of which imports great advantage to either side, is contentious ground.
Ground on which each side has liberty of movement is open ground.
Ground which forms the key to three contiguous states, so that he who occupies it first has most of the Empire at his command, is a ground of intersecting highways.
...
On contentious ground, attack not. On open ground, do not try to block the enemy's way. On the ground of intersecting highways, join hands with your allies.

So, by Sun Tzu's lights, arguably Parson shouldn't start a war in the magic kingdom, nor interfere with free passage therein, but (most likely) see who the heck was responsible for his summoning and get some damn answers (and perhaps have THEM interfere... discreetly).
Of course, he needs to deal with Jetstone, first.

On the current situation:

Rapidity is the essence of war: take advantage of the enemy's unreadiness, make your way by unexpected routes, and attack unguarded spots.

(

While I find it interesting that you are brining up Sun Tzu's Art of War here, I think I am going to disagree with your opinion on what Open Ground means strategically and why you shouldn't try to block it. Open ground is viewed as ground that which allows for freedom of movement. Therefore you do not block the enemies movement because its nearly impossible to do so. In order to do so you must disperse your forces into surrounding all sides of the enemy. However, Magic Kingdom cannot be open ground since it does not allow freedom of movement on the battlefield. If anything, due to the nature of the portals it is either contentious ground, intersecting highways, and hemmed in ground. Because of his innovative use of the portals, he will now be forced to fight for the Magic Kingdom since he has made everyone aware to its strategic value

[Althernai]

knowing that something big is going to happen is also usefull... has jetstone a predictamancer?

No. We've met all of Jetstone's casters. They have a Dollamancer, a Dittomancer, a Healomancer and a Hat Magician

[just2quixotic]

The only possessor of an Arkentool I can not link to a tool manufacturer is Charlie... but then I don't know what his last name is.

Someone named Charlie owns a television channel, that's the reference, check the wiki.

Charlie is a reference to Charles Ergan who is the founder and CEO of Dish Network, a satellite tv company. He frequently appears in commercials promoting the service and has a show called "Charlie Chat" on their customer service and support channel.

I appreciate your effort to clarify things for me, but a previous reply got me checking the ErfWiki, and the ErfWiki states that the real world reference for Charlie is Charlie Townsend of Charlie's Angels: http://www.erfworld.com/wiki/index.php/Charlie.It says nothing about Charles Ergan.

[Jinren]

I appreciate your effort to clarify things for me, but a previous reply got me checking the ErfWiki, and the ErfWiki states that the real world reference for Charlie is Charlie Townsend of Charlie's Angels: http://www.erfworld.com/wiki/index.php/Charlie.It says nothing about Charles Ergan.

http://www.erfworld.com/wiki/index.php/Arkentool#Real_World_References_and_their_Implications

[Dante]

The references in Erfworld are typically multifaceted, at least those for persisting characters and not throwaways or background fillers.

To wit, http://www.charlestool.com/

[Ditto]

That really doesn't mean anything. A Charles who is linked to Dish Network is clearly an influence & secondary reference, just like Stanley the Tool references both Stanley Tools and Paul Stanley of KISS. The Wiki doesn't mention anything about Charlie's real-world references to Apple/Macintosh, either, and those are pretty explicit (especially when contrasted to those who Think Alike).

It also says "If there are any male Archons in Charlie's service, then one of them may be named Bosley.", which is a pretty useless piece of fluff. They could just as easily be named after Gilligan & Mr. Howell (since we have archons named Ginger & MaryAnn) or the Backstreet Boys (based on the Haggar ambush update with teeniebop pop stars). The wiki is not comprehensive nor is it absolute unless it's under the heading of Canon, backed by Rob.

Hey, lookit, very ninja'd.

[Oberon]

Is it bad to say that I enjoy the text updates as much or in many cases even more so than the regular comic?
Don't get me wrong, I do love the art. I collected comics through college, and still occasionally buy a comic. I have several graphic novels and I very much appreciate the form. But I am also a voracious reader, and I find that there is nothing else like a book to convey a story. Compare any movie adaptation of a book to the book, or even any book adaptation of a movie to the movie, and you'll quickly identify the one element which only the book can provide: The very detailed thoughts and emotions of the characters. In a movie you can have the characters speak some of their thoughts. You can even have a narrator (who could be the character) attempt to explain their thoughts and emotions. But it pales in comparison to the written word. To truly and completely convey to the reader the thoughts and emotions of a character, only text will do. And in this text update and several before, the readers were able to enjoy that deep view into the thoughts, motivations, and emotions of whichever character was showcased.

[Dr Pepper]

Holy crap Dwagon relay + Sizemore = Super high level Dirtmancer.

If Parson understood that Sizemore lvled up from rebuilding GK's capitol he would have been sending him by relay to rebuild any city they conquered

He has been.

[the_tick_rules]

The xp is most likely related to rhe size of city and extent of rebuild. GK was a level 5 that was now a hole in the ground, probably was the lion's share of the xp.

[Dante]

I feel this guy is worth mentioning with regards to Charlie as well:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Wheatstone , inventor of the telegraph. His work on spectrum analysis is also relevant (rainbows might not have been totally directed at Tram's signamancy).

[Oberon]

Hi guys (and girls)

I've been following the comic since the word go and reading the Forums every time a new page appears

I couldn't resist asking these questions though....

The portals look 2 dimensional, what happens if you walk around the back of a portal then step through?
do you appears on the rear side of the out going portal?
jsut step harmlessly through the incomming portal?
Feel like your hitting a brick wall?
Get vaporised?

Does the speed you go through a portal equal the speed you step out of it?
What would happen if you shot an arrow or fireball or somehting from the MK out?

if the portals are 2 dimensional and you where having a fight in the portal roow, what would happen if you threw your oponent edge ways onto the portal?
could they be used to slice grapefruits in half easily?

I think I feel liek parsons at the moment lol, how can I break the rules and find somehting funky to use against my enemy

This really isn't the place for that. Goto the "everything else erfworld" section and make a thread, that's where this sort of speculation belongs.

Meh. The portals are shown in this update, so why try to shut down speculation on their properties in this update? It's not as though updates are rigorously maintained on-topic (whatever that may mean) in any event... Throw the new guy a friggin' bone!

[Infidel]

It hasn't been tested before, so he can't know. And it could be the latter just as easily as the former -- it's very likely he's not "attacking" the place he's portaling to, just suddenly appearing there. What happens when you suddenly appear in a hostile area? The game might classify you as an attacker or something, sure. But it could just as easily classify you as a prisoner. When a zone changes control under you, at least, we know it causes you to become a prisoner automatically. No reason why stepping into a portal to a zone you don't control couldn't have the same effect.

Whatever the mechanic, it is still a bad idea.