Book 2 – Text Updates 005

[balder]

New one is up. There was a hitch in scripting (my fault) that's delaying the next page a bit. So here is an extra text update, with illustration by Xin.

[Shadax]

yaay! Thanks Rob!

(Also, just registered! finally, after a long time lurking! )

Edit: The one interesting thing in this update is the idea that Don can sneak a bat into enemy territory entirely unnoticed...do you need some kind of detection magic (findamancy?) in order to scan a hex for small enemy creatures? Or would simply bothering to order a unit to "search" work? I seem to recall the donut'o'doom here, where bats were "sacrificed" to scout, they couldn't enter a dwagon occupied hex unnoticed. So how has the bat in Jetstone managed it? unless it was there from the beginning or something? What are the rules on stealth?!

Also, "extend the range for scouting"...does this mean a bat can scout 20 adjacent hexes without actually entering them when linked with a thinkamancer? Or that the thinkamancer literally increases the bats move when they are linked?

Questions, questions...

[Krennson]

New one is up. There was a hitch in scripting (my fault) that's delaying the next page a bit. So here is an extra text update, with illustration by Xin.

that answers the question about updates i just asked in "everything else erfworld," thanks.

edit- deleted that other post now. thanks again.

[Nebulious]

And once again the pendulum swings back to suggesting Don King is far craftier than he appears.

So I'd say this really cements why Caesar and Bunny have to keep their relationship on the down low. Bunny, more than anyone, knows Don King's mind and secrets. Anyone getting too close to her is getting too close to the king.

One other thought that came to mind: how powerful is Don King? He's apparently never fought in real battles personally, but he seems to be old and have a lot control over his bats. You guys think he's slowly climbed to a pretty high level?

[gameboy1234]

Yay bats!

Too bad, I was hoping to see what a megalogwiff looked like, but they're rather indistinct. Oh well, gotta wait for that I guess.

[Angband]

Edit: The one interesting thing in this update is the idea that Don can sneak a bat into enemy territory entirely unnoticed...do you need some kind of detection magic (findamancy?) in order to scan a hex for small enemy creatures? Or would simply bothering to order a unit to "search" work? I seem to recall the donut'o'doom here, where bats were "sacrificed" to scout, they couldn't enter a dwagon occupied hex unnoticed. So how has the bat in Jetstone managed it? unless it was there from the beginning or something? What are the rules on stealth?!

Transylvito is part of the Royal Crown Coalition II, so that bat is not in enemy territory.

Also, "extend the range for scouting"...does this mean a bat can scout 20 adjacent hexes without actually entering them when linked with a thinkamancer? Or that the thinkamancer literally increases the bats move when they are linked?

I read that as the mental link between a Transylvito warlord and their scouting bat was only 20 hexes. Any farther than that and the warlord couldn't see through its eyes. But with a thinkamancer, that link gets unlimited range in exchange for the thinkamancer's juice. The bat still has its normal move limit, and has to enter a hex to scout it.

[regisminae]

The one interesting thing in this update is the idea that Don can sneak a bat into enemy territory entirely unnoticed...do you need some kind of detection magic (findamancy?) in order to scan a hex for small enemy creatures? Or would simply bothering to order a unit to "search" work? I seem to recall the donut'o'doom here, where bats were "sacrificed" to scout, they couldn't enter a dwagon occupied hex unnoticed. So how has the bat in Jetstone managed it? unless it was there from the beginning or something? What are the rules on stealth?!

Jetstone and Transylvito are allied, so I don't see why the doombat would need to be anywhere unnoticed. It sounds like it's staying out of the way, out of the potential battle zone, but still able to see things when it needs to.

Also, "extend the range for scouting"...does this mean a bat can scout 20 adjacent hexes without actually entering them when linked with a thinkamancer? Or that the thinkamancer literally increases the bats move when they are linked?

I suspect that this means that doombats give their warlords the "camera mode" we saw in book 1 as long as the two units are within 20 hexes or so. Farther out than that, the natural thinkamancy of scouting isn't strong enough to relay the information... but a dedicated Thinkamancer can solve that problem!

EDIT: Angband, you're a clever and good-looking person, you know that?

[Krennson]

so... the KING of transylvito can't fly, but his warlords CAN. that's.... very interesting.

I wonder what the game-logic of something like that is? are all royals members of the same root 'tribe', and thus incapable of flying, unlike some sort of subordinate translyvitan tribe that pops 'noble' or 'common' warlords?

I wish we knew more about tribes... most of the erfwiki entries about 'human' tribes seems to be speculation that isn't backed up in the comic text evidence. I'm still not convinced that 'human' tribes as such actually exist.

[Menlo Marseilles]

I wish we knew more about tribes... most of the erfwiki entries about 'human' tribes seems to be speculation that isn't backed up in the comic text evidence. I'm still not convinced that 'human' tribes as such actually exist.

There's at least some canon data on this - the old site's character page calls out Stanley and Sizemore as being Plaid-tribe, Wanda as a Croatan-tribe remnant, and Jetstone as a tribe as well.

[Glome]

so... the KING of transylvito can't fly, but his warlords CAN. that's.... very interesting.

I wonder what the game-logic of something like that is? are all royals members of the same root 'tribe', and thus incapable of flying, unlike some sort of subordinate translyvitan tribe that pops 'noble' or 'common' warlords?

Big Al also didn't fly,
http://www.erfworld.com/summer-update-2 ... sh_600.jpg
while Vinnie, who is a count, does fly. Stanley can also fly due to his artifact.

I don't think the ability to fly has any relationship to nobility or being an overlord. Flight is probably just an ability most Translyvito warlords will get on reaching a certain level. Big Al and Don King are probably low level and haven't seen much combat since they are really administrators, they probably never got high enough level to get the flight ability, or they rolled poorly when they popped. There is also the interesting fact that both of them are obese, but that may be coincidence.

[Dr Quest DFA]

Nifty update, nice color to Don and Erf World in general.

I wonder what an honor duel consists of. Presumably just two rulers slugging it out, maybe with a select honor guard. Either way, being crowned so early probably forced Don to be extra crafty and preceptive since he was untested and would be at a higher risk of a coup.

I would put forth that we are seeing Jillian forming up because she knows toruble is heading her way. GK has probably decided to still go through with the decapitation strike (unless the turnamancer can muck with move actions as well). Should be a fun fight.

It seems the sides that have thinkamancers are heavily reliant on them. Don would lose a lot of his intelligence is Bunny went down. Likewise GK would have trouble keeping Wanda and the stack of doom aligned with Parson's strategy/advice. It becomes very apparent how Charlie can afford all those Archons: Thinkagrams are likely big business in Erf World especially if a big side like Jetstone doesn't have a Thinkamancer.*

On a much less consquential note: apparently units can get itchy.

*Random aside: How do tribes/sides/factions hire out -mancers? Most units disband when they go through the portal to the Magic Kingdom (is there even a king there, though?). Is there some 800 number they can call to place an order?

[Glenn]

If Charlie can use the Arkendish to intercept all Thinkamancy transmissions, he must like the way Don King uses his bats to observe interesting events. It could significantly increase Charlie's ability to see everything that's going on.

[Nows7]

I'm glad we got an update regarding the delay in updates. I was somewhat curious, and somewhat apprehensive about it. If the delay is just Rob holding back so he can make sure everything is as good as possible, I'm ok with it.

This text update is kinda Meh for me... Ok Don king himself can scout with his bats via think-a-gram. Neat. He's got one in Spacerock. Kinda expected. Definatly not the Meatyist update we've seen, and probly the most spare since some of the very first summer updates.

*Random aside: How do tribes/sides/factions hire out -mancers? Most units disband when they go through the portal to the Magic Kingdom (is there even a king there, though?). Is there some 800 number they can call to place an order?

I think a tribe can have multiple sides - EG, if GK was taken by Jetstone, Ansom could have started a new side on the capital site. It would have been of the same Tribe though. Tribes I think are more cultural, sharing simular outlooks and appearance.

If a Side wants to hire from the MK, i think they would either:
Have to send one of their own -Mancer's in to find someone
Use Charlie's services to think-a-gram a caster.
Or (Wild speculation) there may be Think-a-mancers in the MK who search for rulers / overlords who want a caster, then the think-a-mancer contacts the caster in the MK. The Think-a-mancer maybe gets some rands from the refered caster, the refered caster gets smukers from the side.

[Infidel]

New one is up. There was a hitch in scripting (my fault) that's delaying the next page a bit. So here is an extra text update, with illustration by Xin.

As long as we don't make Xin overwork.

<Xin turns in the completed page>
"Sorry Xin, I just rewrote the script so we won't be using that page after all."
<Xin defenestrates computer>

I know first draft is only draft and all, so no problem here. But I was thinking with the last update, if we are splitting the updates to make things easier on Xin, maybe we can drop the illustrations from the updates. Not that I want them to go away per-se, I just don't want to take two steps forward and one back, defeating the purpose of the updates at least to an extent.

[Krennson]

If Charlie can use the Arkendish to intercept all Thinkamancy transmissions, he must like the way Don King uses his bats to observe interesting events. It could significantly increase Charlie's ability to see everything that's going on.

that's an interesting thought... do we actually KNOW that Charlie ever 'intercepted' anything parson wrote in the eyebook THAT WASN'T SPECIFICALLY INTENDED FOR CHARLIE?

The first message between charlie and parson through the eyebook was initiated by charlie, and all it said was "Parson?"

It's possible that Charlie figured out how to JOIN the eyebook 'network', but wasn't actually privy to any information through it that wasn't directed specifically at him.

[Sixty]

Heh, I wonder what Rob changed/added and I wonder if we'll ever find out what it was. I also wonder if he saw a forum idea he liked and couldn't resist or whether it came to him another way?

[Gez]

There is also the interesting fact that both of them are obese, but that may be coincidence.

Probably signamancy for "lord with administrative powers but little direct combat experience".

[Aris Katsaris]

My reaction is "well, the new schedule didn't last very long either". I'd hoped that the gap between Books 1 and 2 would have been used to create some sort of buffer to prevent this sort of random delay.

Anyway, I've lost count of when's the next update is supposed to be.

[Sinrus]

If Charlie can use the Arkendish to intercept all Thinkamancy transmissions, he must like the way Don King uses his bats to observe interesting events. It could significantly increase Charlie's ability to see everything that's going on.

that's an interesting thought... do we actually KNOW that Charlie ever 'intercepted' anything parson wrote in the eyebook THAT WASN'T SPECIFICALLY INTENDED FOR CHARLIE?

The first message between charlie and parson through the eyebook was initiated by charlie, and all it said was "Parson?"

It's possible that Charlie figured out how to JOIN the eyebook 'network', but wasn't actually privy to any information through it that wasn't directed specifically at him.

Sizemore has done it, and I assume that once Charlie made an eyebook "account" that he would have just as much access as anyone else, if not more.

[Undead Prince]

It seems more and more obvious GK is being set up for a defeat.

First, we have Parson not participating in the battle (and generally not being too enthusiastic about it). When the protagonist's not leading the attack, it's a bad sign.

Second, we have Jack disabled. A powerful Caster and a noteworthy character; again, his absence from the field does not bode well for GK.

Third, the Gillian/Wanda mechanic. Gillian is hell-bent on revenge; Wanda still seems to be unstable when things concern Gillian. Her shocked expression upon hearing of the "Queen of Faq" clearly points to her inner turmoil. And a confused commander is a commander half defeated already.

Fourth, the Ansom/Ossomer/Gillian triangle. The killing of his brother made Ansom doubt his Decrypted ideology; going against Gillian will likely throw him into more disarray. Ossomer himself does not seem enthusiastic at all about being the new GK warlord. Again, confusion in the GK command.

Finally, in this latest update we are led to believe (through Don King) that if the Jetstone capital is lost, RCC2 is basically screwed and GK wins forever. From the point of storytelling, that would not be a desired outcome; therefore, GK will not succeed.

Now, the exact nature of the defeat is open to speculation. But in general, things point towards Wanda and all other GK-ers (including Ansom and Parson) getting a big wake-up call.