Summer Updates - 048

[Elessar]

I like Charlie.

[HailGreen28]

For what it's worth though, Parson is lying. Ansom is consolidating resources for a big strike on the capital of Jetstone.

Bingo.

I think Parson is trying to play Charlie.

Also mentioning toilet paper to charlie, trying to get evidence that Charlie is an outsider.

[Lady Nerevar]

there is one vital question which no-one has thought to pose:

what did Parson use before he had toilet paper?

[Lightbender]

His hand, and then he dropped bricks on them. Takes the dirty skin right off.

[Mr. Goodwraith]

The "diminishing schmuckers" thing has to be either a bluff or a short-term tactical necessity rather than a game mechanic. From Update 43: "They are pursuing the express aim of bringing all sides into a new alliance, in line with this new view of the world. They ask for the allegiance of all. Failing that, they intend to croak and decrypt every unit in Erfworld."

If it's not mechanically possible for a side to achieve world domination, the threat to "croak and decrypt every unit in Erfworld" becomes laughable, and Bea would have dismissed it out of hand rather than including it in her letter to Don.

[HailGreen28]

there is one vital question which no-one has thought to pose:

what did Parson use before he had toilet paper?

Whatever he could find, probably.

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/415963/what_did_people_use_before_toilet_paper.html?cat=46

[joosy]

there is one vital question which no-one has thought to pose:

what did Parson use before he had toilet paper?

The three shells? warning not quite 4-chan worthy but still NSFW.

[Infidel]

Just realized that there's a pretty big giveaway on this update:

The "Charlie-is-from-Earth-also" theory is now officially busted.

Parson mentioned Kleenex, which is an Earth company/product. Unless it, or something identical, exists in Erfworld, then Charlie not even noticing it is somewhat of a giveaway. I think if Charlie was from Earth, and suddenly Parson mentions something from Earth, he'd at least trip a little bit and go "wait a minute, how would Parson know about that?". Consider that Charlie's been in Erfworld a lot longer than Parson, and if he was from Earth, then another guy from Earth would totally change Charlie's viewpoint in a huge way.

The fact that there was no such "hold on, what did you say?" reaction from Charlie proves that he was popped in Erfworld just like everybody else, and Parson really is totally alone there.

Unless I'm looking way too much into this...It is only Kleenex after all >_>

Charley could still be from Earth, not that I'm promoting that theory. Kleenex isn't exactly ubiquitous, and besides, Charley could be from a different era before Kleenex. Personally, I see that Charley's "I'm nobody's tool." an indicator in favor.

Or he could know about Kleenex, and not care. Ancient Greeks used a sponge IIRC.

[Darkside007]

I had a nice long response written up, then my internet connection fell for a couple hours. Sigh, I'll try to rewrite it...

1) I still think Erfworld cities are governed by a Civ 4 maintenance mechanic, meaning a cost paid by every city based on total number of cities, which means the upkeep cost per city gets much higher for each additional city. This could be in the form [constant]*[number of cities]^2, or something similar. At a certain point, adding another city would cost a side schmuckers, and any additional city beyond that would get very prohibitively expensive. This would explain a lot, not just the diminishing comment of this update. Like why no super sides have emerged, as would be inevitable in an actual wargame. Why royal sides would ever want to split off and form new sides. Why King Saline IV never ordered FAQ's cities rebuild after they were conquered by Stanley.

You have no Erfworld justification for this theory at all. Civ 4 may be a great game, but it doesn't have much to do with Erfworld.

I may as well suggest that there is a unique cap on decrypted because there's a cap on total skeletons one player can control in Warcraft 3.

[the_tick_rules]

Parson and Charlie have been different with each other over time. Ansom is probably trying to gain allies and undercut the coalition, sensible idea, especialy to lower guard to bring the hammer down.

[Darkside007]

Parson and Charlie have been different with each other over time. Ansom is probably trying to gain allies and undercut the coalition, sensible idea, especialy to lower guard to bring the hammer down.

I doubt it. Parson was probably telling the truth there.

After all, if you lie all the time, lying becomes useless.

[moose o death]

Just realized that there's a pretty big giveaway on this update:

The "Charlie-is-from-Earth-also" theory is now officially busted.

Parson mentioned Kleenex, which is an Earth company/product. Unless it, or something identical, exists in Erfworld, then Charlie not even noticing it is somewhat of a giveaway. I think if Charlie was from Earth, and suddenly Parson mentions something from Earth, he'd at least trip a little bit and go "wait a minute, how would Parson know about that?". Consider that Charlie's been in Erfworld a lot longer than Parson, and if he was from Earth, then another guy from Earth would totally change Charlie's viewpoint in a huge way.

The fact that there was no such "hold on, what did you say?" reaction from Charlie proves that he was popped in Erfworld just like everybody else, and Parson really is totally alone there.

Unless I'm looking way too much into this...It is only Kleenex after all >_>

Charley could still be from Earth, not that I'm promoting that theory. Kleenex isn't exactly ubiquitous, and besides, Charley could be from a different era before Kleenex. Personally, I see that Charley's "I'm nobody's tool." an indicator in favor.

Or he could know about Kleenex, and not care. Ancient Greeks used a sponge IIRC.

no i would have to say the kleenex thing is parson testing the "is charlie human?" theory. he mentions a few things like that and drives at the point for a while. trying unsuccesfully to get charlie to react to that piece of irritating conversation just to move parson's train of thought on.

if charli's thinkamancy abilities are that strong (he can establish natural thinkamancy with any unit in erf) then he would simply be finding the implied meaning of things directly from parson. like maggie said before parson threw a dragon over a wall. good warlords can command a stack by thought alone.

i'm still more inclined to believe charlie is a single erf unit, moneymancer barbarian perhaps with thinkamancy arkentool, occupying a city and needing constant inflow of upkeep to keep the side afloat. the purse would run dry very fast (purse = unitlevel x 1000) but it neatly ties up all the loose information in ways the others do not.

the lack of units apart from cloth golems and archons. archons popped BY the dish, accounting for the speed they are popped at, and golems made by the archons with fabrication skills.
no warlords as charlie lacks leadership or overlord status to name any.
no natural allies only monetary alliances as charlie can not be identified. if a unit saw charlie directly and discovered the great merceneray organisation was led by a rogue caster, all hell would break loose.

to me that makes the most sense, if his inflow of money dries up even a little all sorts of bad could happen. for now i'll assume part of the contract fro hiring archons is you pay their upkeep everyturn. if so the evidence FOR rogue/barbarian caster is heavily stacked.

[Darkside007]

Charlie has a city. Charlescomm is a side. Therefore, Charlie is not currently a Barbarian, and is not limited to his purse. That ends your theory right there.

There is no basis to say that a unit without a leadership bonus (like a caster) can't gain command of a city and pop warlords.

Also, is there any source for that purse restraint? I know in Diablo 2 it operates on a similar mechanic (purse = level x 10k until level 20, I think, where it jumps to 800k) but is there support for that mechanic in Erfworld?

[Dr Quest DFA]

Here to add my $0.02 to the Charlie is an erfworlder side of the debate.

I would point to the fact that Charlie and his Archons represents a joke/pop culture reference similar to the Ginger and Maryann or the snap, crackle popping of the garrison in a city that shares a name with a cereal. In this case, obviously Charlie's Angels.

My thoughts are that the arkendish might allow Charlie (whoever or whatever "he" is) to see into different dimensions, such as the one Parson is from. This may explain why he can Parson seem to communicate on the same level. Not really substantiated by anything yet, just a thought.

[Infidel]

I think it's most likely that if Charley is not from Erf, he's not necessarily from earth. But yea, personally, I prefer the Charley is possessed by the arkendish theory just because it seems the most interesting to me, not necessarily because I consider it the most likely. "I'm nobody's tool," Has an interesting meaning in this context and also explains a little bit why Charley would scoff at the notion that attuning to a tool meant some sort of mandate, when the person that attuned to the arkendish became a slave.

[yay]

there is one vital question which no-one has thought to pose:

what did Parson use before he had toilet paper?

maybe thats a duty for a lackey, so bogroll?
-or-
sizemore. he does everything else with crap, why not? if so, his life sucks....

[jkosta]

Boop no. Charlie is a Unicorn.

That would fit into the theory he is from another dimension, hopefully those other unicorns didn't follow him.

Hopefully?! That would be awesome, seeing Charlie tormented to go on some insane quest for the Candy Mountain or some-such.

Oh, come on. Look where he lives. He built a city on Candy Mountain.

[jabbersocky]

Also, is there any source for that purse restraint? I know in Diablo 2 it operates on a similar mechanic (purse = level x 10k until level 20, I think, where it jumps to 800k) but is there support for that mechanic in Erfworld?

I supposed Stanley only taking a few knights with him to Faq as well as wandas reasoning to spend most of the sides cash on the perfect warlord spell would count.
Thats the meaning i got from it anyway.

[djharr]

Just realized that there's a pretty big giveaway on this update:

The "Charlie-is-from-Earth-also" theory is now officially busted.

Parson mentioned Kleenex, which is an Earth company/product. Unless it, or something identical, exists in Erfworld, then Charlie not even noticing it is somewhat of a giveaway. I think if Charlie was from Earth, and suddenly Parson mentions something from Earth, he'd at least trip a little bit and go "wait a minute, how would Parson know about that?". Consider that Charlie's been in Erfworld a lot longer than Parson, and if he was from Earth, then another guy from Earth would totally change Charlie's viewpoint in a huge way.

On the other hand, to play devil's advocate, Charlie is a professional paranoid. Given the chance, he tells no one anything about anything. If I were Charlie and were from Earth, that information would be need-to-know, and no one would have the need. So if Parson were fishing with things like Kleenex and toilet paper, I would bull ahead, pretending to ignore all his asides. After all, this IS a text chat. It is not like there is going to be facial ticks or starts of surprise to inadvertently betray Charlie. Also, he is the MASTER of Thinkamancy, so he always sends only what he wants to send, never any more, never any less. In actuality, I am of the opinion that Charlie's obstinate refusal to even rise to Parson's bait is more fodder for the "Charlie is from Earth" side. I think that natural curiosity would get the better of most people were they in a conversation with Parson where he kept bringing up outre items that they had never heard of and they would be strongly tempted to at least ask once, "What are you talking about?" However, it may be that there is no special significance to Charlie's refusal to be ensnared by Hamster's digressions, it is merely another indication that he is on-message, on-topic, on-plan and very businesslike and single-minded about the whole thing, and he is not going to be turned to one side or the other by anything, until he gets to the end of the conversation.

David

[Sixty]

Just realized that there's a pretty big giveaway on this update:

The "Charlie-is-from-Earth-also" theory is now officially busted.

Parson mentioned Kleenex, which is an Earth company/product. Unless it, or something identical, exists in Erfworld, then Charlie not even noticing it is somewhat of a giveaway. I think if Charlie was from Earth, and suddenly Parson mentions something from Earth, he'd at least trip a little bit and go "wait a minute, how would Parson know about that?". Consider that Charlie's been in Erfworld a lot longer than Parson, and if he was from Earth, then another guy from Earth would totally change Charlie's viewpoint in a huge way.

The fact that there was no such "hold on, what did you say?" reaction from Charlie proves that he was popped in Erfworld just like everybody else, and Parson really is totally alone there.

Unless I'm looking way too much into this...It is only Kleenex after all >_>

Parson could have been trying to annoy Charlie by not answering his questions and talking about something of very minor importance or could have been testing Charlie to see if he was human. Either way, if Charlie IS from Earth then it's likely he knows or suspects Parson is as well as we've seen him react to some of Parson's 1337 speak with some of his own and he seems to understand all of the (from an erfworlder's perspective) odd things Parson says. The fact that when Parson mentions being a Tool Charlie immediately jumps to how we view it, as a joke Parson played on Stanley, seems to be a hint that maybe he is from Earth (though of course not conclusive in any way).