Summer Updates - 049

[balder]

New One is up.

[BLANDCorporatio]

All-right! Next up the comic page!

So, Faq is growing nicely, with Jillian playing double puppet to Transylvito and Charlie. Well, she was always good at taking orders and less fit as Queen anyways.

Faq will be dangerous. I guess they're turning on GK- ok, Tool- side now.

Also interesting to see that, despite the diplomatic efforts of Slately and Ansom, the world mostly stays the same: petty squabbles everywhere. It's too early for things to change drastically.

ADDED: does nobody post here before even reading the update?! What kind of forum is this, people?!

[serinis]

I can see why you put this in first

[Akkristor]

Well, we know what FAQ and Charlie have been up to now.

Still dunno what Charlie's done with the Gobwins around GK.

[Engy]

Lots of information as always, and as much plot is going on I still can't help but be extremely happy that the question of how casters get popped finally got answered.

[name lips]

Yay!

I like the information on Casters... so you just pick to pop a Warlord, and if you're lucky (or if Fate decrees) it turns out to be a Caster.

She hired Uniroyal's Turnamancer. That was nice of her.

She's doing a lot of backroom wheeling and dealing with Charlie. He has a plan, and she's following it. While also following orders from Transylvito. A narrow line to walk.

She natural Thinkamancied a truce with the Giants? And arranged for them to be natural allies? Interesting.

Did it seem like a Turnamancer also had some control over "Turning" units to your side? As well as making production faster? That's two uses of the world "turn" to do very different things. I find that odd.

I'm sad there was no mention of her thoughts about Ansom. It must have been totally devastating to find out he was a pawn of Stanley. Considering how much she loved him, how she wanted to name her kingdom after him, and how much he figures into her earlier thoughts and motivations... it's odd for him to not be mentioned at all.

And the Jillian/Vinnie nookie is confirmed. Maybe she's really completely over Ansom.

Looking forward to reading Book 2! Keep up the good work guys!

[Updog]

I love just imagining Jillian with a figure similar to the princess from shrek clad in battle armor lopping off enemy heads whilst riding a megalogwiff

[BLANDCorporatio]

Did it seem like a Turnamancer also had some control over "Turning" units to your side? As well as making production faster? That's two uses of the world "turn" to do very different things. I find that odd.

Good idea, my take on that was that the Vanna didn't turn Scone, exactly. Rather, that Scone (or any unit) takes a certain amount of ... persuasion ... to turn, a-la Dungeon Keeper. That persuasion needs some time to apply. Since Turnamancers reduce the time cost of actions ...

[DivineDragoonKain]

Turnamancers sound really, really useful. Changing loyalties, reducing time spent popping units...

It sounds like they cut off 1/3 of the time used to pop a unit, roughly. Handy.

[Telva]

Said this in IRC, and it deserves to be paraphrased here:

Thanks for staying up so late to get out the update Rob. And thank you Harknell on all our behalves for doing great work.

And bandage that wound from fighting that gnat. You don't heal at dawn.

[Akkristor]

Yeah, but you know those Turnamancers have to cost an awful lot of Schmuckers.

But that explains why GK hasn't gotten any new Casters since they have so much money. Stanley has no need for more Warlords, and just appoints them rather than pop them.

Kinda figures too. Stanley was a Piker that was promoted. He probably wouldn't accept anyone popped as a Warlord.

[name lips]

Turnamancers sound really, really useful. Changing loyalties, reducing time spent popping units...

It sounds like they cut off 1/3 of the time used to pop a unit, roughly. Handy.

Very handy. But not as handy as it might seem at first... I've run into that problem with games. "Yay I can produce tons of units quickly and get a huge army!" which ends up meaning "Hey look, I didn't need all those units, and all I got was higher upkeep, faster."

The best benefit is when you're desperate for units, like Faq needing to fend off potential attacks, or when you're fighting a war of attrition, where your units and those of your opponents are croaking almost as fast as you're making them, so if you can get the edge and make them faster you'll push towards his city and eventually win.

Otherwise... yeah. Gotta be careful you don't produce more than you can support. Turnamancers don't seem to give you Schmuckers 33% faster.

[Akkristor]

Turnamancers sound really, really useful. Changing loyalties, reducing time spent popping units...

It sounds like they cut off 1/3 of the time used to pop a unit, roughly. Handy.

Very handy. But not as handy as it might seem at first... I've run into that problem with games. "Yay I can produce tons of units quickly and get a huge army!" which ends up meaning "Hey look, I didn't need all those units, and all I got was higher upkeep, faster."

The best benefit is when you're desperate for units, like Faq needing to fend off potential attacks, or when you're fighting a war of attrition, where your units and those of your opponents are croaking almost as fast as you're making them, so if you can get the edge and make them faster you'll push towards his city and eventually win.

Otherwise... yeah. Gotta be careful you don't produce more than you can support. Turnamancers don't seem to give you Schmuckers 33% faster.

If anything, i'm guessing that Turnamancers, in addition to their personal upkeep, require a hefty Schmucker cost to speed a unit pop.

[Sareln]

Whoo! Update. Nice info, gives us a view as to what *other* things Charlie has been up to, the fact that you can, through negotiations, disrupt a natural allies setup, seems really interesting, enabling wonderful levels of skulduggery, as demonstrated here. Jillian might be holding Vanna up to too high a standard there on the dungeon work though, after all, she's used to Wanda's dungeon, and well, Wanda seems to have had alot of practice.

[Telva]

If anything, i'm guessing that Turnamancers, in addition to their personal upkeep, require a hefty Schmucker cost to speed a unit pop.

Less than perhaps taking the full amount of turns though. If popping units costs schmuckers per turn that is.

[BLANDCorporatio]

Thinking that Charlie pulled another natural-alliance-turning trick on the Gobwins, and made them natural allies of Jetstone? That would be fun.

[Sable Phoenix]

Some really very interesting things revealed here about Jillian's character (or lack thereof).

Vanna doesn't play right. Thus, Jillian isn't interested. There's still a tie to Wanda there, no matter how much she might want to deny it.

And Jillian and Vinnie sleeping together now? I honestly didn't see that coming. I mean, there was an [url][url=http://www.erfworld.com/book-1-archive/?px=%2F139.jpg]indication,[/url][/url] granted, but I always thought that Vinnie, for all his egalitarian manner, was too strictly aware of the class distinctions to make that kind of leap. For Jillian's part I can't see it as anything more than trying to drown her losses in someone who's lost an equal amount, and probably that's Vinnie's primary motivation too, though I doubt he'd ever admit it even to himself. That kind of relationship never ends well.

[Updog]

Perhaps Faq hasn't received any new caster's within their first few turns because it's not really a "new" side but regarded by natural thinkamancy or the titans or the powers that be a renewal of the old Faq?

[Moralmancer]

Heh I LOLd at fund-razor.

Seriosly, vert interesting update; if only from a character PoV. Made me think; about psychology, and about how both Don King and Charlie are probably using Jillian for very different things....

[BLANDCorporatio]

Some really very interesting things revealed here about Jillian's character (or lack thereof).

That's maybe a little harsh. Sure, Jillian seems incapable of grand strategic vision and leadership, but has character. She's like a female Dirty Harry or something similar, and the picture that we have of her way of dealing with the world is pretty consistent ... even if a bit limited at times ... She has just enough character to be, IMO, hate-able (or appreciable, whatever).

As for the Jillian/Vinny nookie, yes it was speculated on at the time, with the usual shippers vs. no-romos argument. As part of the latter camp, meh.