Forging Ahead (GURPS Interstellar Wars/Celestial Forge)

[Amrynel]

Oh, to note, in Traveller the maguffin element for jump tech is lanthanum - some other elements can be used but poorly - while in Battletech it's germanium. Something something allotropes, maybe?

 

[IsaacTheAutobot1229]

Have her deal with the invention and building of the jumpdrive and FTL communications while also inventing Battletech materials. Things like ferrocrete (super concrete), myomers, and endo-steel, its stuff she'd probably need to "invent" to build the first jumpship anyway. Maybe she could write a series of "How to books". How to build a vehicles/dropships/spacestations whatever with current and newly invented materials. She doesn't need to sit around drawing up the next big thing, just give other people the tools necessary to design the stuff they know they need. It wouldn't eliminate development time but it would probably greatly decrease it.

She doesn't have to abandon the Battltech techbase, but she doesn't have to chain herself to it either. Just developing the various unique materials of the setting and releasing guideline books would do wonders without her supervision.

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I agree that is the easiest way to get the ball rolling. Besides adapting over a couple of specific things I imagine that would be how one person could get all of that information across.

Oh holy shit yes.

Command Circuits - in Traveller all cargo travels X parsecs per week with no way to speed it up, but in Battletech (because the jump charging period is long but the jump transit itself is instant) you can with enough ships get important cargo (e.g. VIPs) from planet A to planet B as quickly as you can transfer them between ships and clear the jump zone.

Medical - Battletech has artificially engineered merpeople (canon, The Periphery sourcebook, page 40) and the famed Canopian catgirls (not specifically mentioned in canon AFAIK, but the Magistracy of Canopus canonically has medical tech enough to clone-grow replacement limbs almost casually or even resculpt your body - or someone else's body - to spec if you pay them enough money so various otaku fantasies are almost certainly out there for real somewhere). For a more insidious example, House Liao replaced Prince Hanse of House Davion with a duplicate who thought they actually were Hanse down to the memories but subconsciously worked for Liao, fooling even the medical tests of the Prince's own physicians.

Artificial Intelligence - CASPAR drones etc. Not sure if BT ever cracked stable AGI in secret, but the Star League certainly managed stable VI to at least the Halo / Mass Effect level (albeit more "fits in a building" rather than "fits in a personal drone").

Terraforming - mostly lost to the "modern" era, but the Star League could terraform entire planets. What we just saw Nowak help with? That's a Tuesday afternoon for the Star League DOME (Department of Mega-Engineering); Venus went from hell world to garden world in a few centuries, and this included such feats as building planet-sized solar shades to cool it and repurposing part of the atmosphere as reaction mass to accelerate the planet's rotational period. Honestly, DOME are one of the real MVPs of the Battletech setting.

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I honestly forgot those parts with how long it's been since I've brushed up on my lore. I forgot how crazy the medical, AI, and terraforming were in BT.

 

[Organmonkey]

Besides jumpdrives and HPG which are the obvious game changers and stuff like the drones and endosteel which are good for war build up there are a few more things that might come up.

1.The combination of Star League+Clanner Genetic Engineering+ Canopus Genetic Engineering.

Unfortunately it's probably not something she's going to touch that much because it's definitely good enough to make gene targeted virus bombs etc which was already something she was worried about.

Would hope the medical gene therapies and basic enhancement gene mods might get some use. For getting a larger pool of people in the physically fit range for service and saving lives if nothing else.

2. The two different methods of making double heatsinks which were never put together (Corrosive Liquid Metal Coolent and Clanner style rapid dispersal radiators). Yes, mechs aren't being used and the effects of the heatsinks are lesser when used on a smaller scale (for some wonky Battletech reason) but it would allow for electronics and weapons systems to run a lot hotter safer.

3. Blue Shield Particle Field Dampener which is only meh on the ground but is excellent when not used on mechas and say on ships. Usefulness would depend on how often particle cannons are used I guess. Probably not great against antimatter ones.

 

[Amrynel]

Native Traveller does not have FTL communications or sensors.

This is why the HPG is a huge thing, if introduced.

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Oh, right, FTL sensors. The Star League spooks had figured out FTL sensors; in very lay terms, you take the germanium material you'd normally used to build a jump core and instead you lay out a bunch of it in giant patterns on asteroids out in space, and measure the energy fluctuations. Congrats, you can now detect hyperspatial manipulations (e.g. jump transitions) across at least short interstellar distances in real time.

Military applications obvious. I'll try to find the relevant link, just in case I'm mis-remembering good fanon.

Edit: sadly starting to look like it was from good fanon... if I actually find a source, I'll post it either way.

 

[Domino]

Ralyx, take five seconds to stop and reflect on where you fucked up if you wanted me to actually accomodate any request you made.

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But cliiiiiiiiff, if they don't nit pick you, how will they convince themselves that they're both smarter than you and a better writer than you?

 

[trebuchet]

And no, you're not going to get Battlemechs stomping Vilani planets into rubble. Let me just dispel that expectation right now. Battlemechs are vastly impractical in any environment outside their native setting...

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Aww, come on - you know you were tempted to have Sophia issue a batchall to the Vilani and start a Trial of Possession for Nusku.

So, it has been
One fought for honor, and one for finality,
Steel and man, facing down their mortality
For the are hardened warriors, that shaped the galaxy
As they clashed in the Battle of Tukayyid Nusku!

 

[A/N]

But cliiiiiiiiff, if they don't nit pick you, how will they convince themselves that they're both smarter than you and a better writer than you?

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Please. Try to be charitable for a minute. Hear me out.

The text says the character hasn't had the chance to look at the options for six months. It also shows that checking the options only takes a few minutes at most. This seems inconsistent and implies that the character is in fact not diligent with something quite important, which doesn't seem to be the story's intent.

Outside the story, we're told that of course she checks the options, it happens off screen like using the bathroom etc.

Except we were told in-story that she didn't check the options for six months.

My suggestion is that this could be solved by changing that line to something like 'she was saving the points for something better and none of the options available in the meantime were appealing'.

No longer would she have explicitly not been checking her options, and would instead be shown to have been doing something.

This seems to me to be a reasonable piece of constructive criticism. Pointing out a potential flaw and offering a possible improvement. Perhaps I came across as abrasive, perhaps I phrased things badly. I apologise if that is the case.

 

[Narwhale]

Hmmm… so Battletech is a good start for building up a new Terran Techbase, but I wonder what other techbases might be helpful in the near future. If Halo is in here, of whatever variety, that'd be a good option, same with Terran, Zerg and Protoss stuff. I can also see Zofia claiming Star Wars and Star Trek as exceptionally welcome additions to her arsenal as well.

Hmm, more speculation required, I suppose.

 

[Domino]

Please. Try to be charitable for a minute. Hear me out.

The text says the character hasn't had the chance to look at the options for six months. It also shows that checking the options only takes a few minutes at most. This seems inconsistent and implies that the character is in fact not diligent with something quite important, which doesn't seem to be the story's intent.

Outside the story, we're told that of course she checks the options, it happens off screen like using the bathroom etc.

Except we were told in-story that she didn't check the options for six months.

My suggestion is that this could be solved by changing that line to something like 'she was saving the points for something better and none of the options available in the meantime were appealing'.

No longer would she have explicitly not been checking her options, and would instead be shown to have been doing something.

This seems to me to be a reasonable piece of constructive criticism. Pointing out a potential flaw and offering a possible improvement. Perhaps I came across as abrasive, perhaps I phrased things badly. I apologise if that is the case.

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Bruuuuuh, you are nit-picking trivial shit. She hasn't had the chance to look at the options for six months because she's been busy and she's not relentlessly hitting F5 to refresh the forge when she isn't ready to buy something new because she has some fucking discipline.

You know what I'd do if I were in her position and I was trying to save up 600cp? I wouldn't keep opening up the buy menu to keep looking at what's available! Not only is temptation a thing, but we know that the forge regularly cycles options out and replaces them with new things. Wouldn't it be super shitty if our MC saw the perfect thing to get when she finally saves up 600cp, only to find that the next time she idly opens up the menu that it got replaced with something else and now she has no idea when or if it's ever going to be available again?

 

[TroyX]

You know, I suspect the genius patrol is going to be perfectly aware of Sofia going to the corporation. At least if they're actually keeping an eye on her, and Sofia certainly suspects that they are enough that she believes they're probably bugged. Who wants to bet she walks into that meeting, a military scientist is already sitting in, and Sofia be like, "Finally! I wondered what it would take to get your attention." XD

 

[Unaligned_Stars]

Amusingly, the Genius patrol is dealing with the same problem that Tattletale was dealing with in Brockton's Celestial Forge. Trying to model someone behavior is essentially impossible when they're interacting with an entirely undetectable, omnipotent force which builds on itself in arbitrary directions.

Sophias development cycle is infinitely slower than Joes, but than again she exists in a setting where arbitrarily powerful individuals aren't the norm. I think the Confederacy spooks would have had an easier time dealing with Joe. He would have been a weird, but benevolent space god. With no box to try to fit him in, they would have to deal with on his own terms. Sophia on the other hand looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and breathes fire.

I think assigning her to be a sensor tech is the Genius patrols version of dumping her in the duck pond. Sophia response has been to stay in the duck pond happily swimming along for several months before deciding to fly off, burn down a city, eat some sheep and then, knowing her, return to the pond to wait to see how the duck watchers react.

 

[Ralyx]

Ralyx, take five seconds to stop and reflect on where you fucked up if you wanted me to actually accomodate any request you made.

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Did I phrase that too much like a demand or an order, rather than a suggestion or a request? If so, then that was quite rude of me, and I sincerely apologize. In hindsight, I see how that could come across as aggressive or demanding.

But cliiiiiiiiff, if they don't nit pick you, how will they convince themselves that they're both smarter than you and a better writer than you?

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Really now, what an uncharitable accusation to make against someone.

Two separate people offered feedback on a minor phrasing issue that stood out to us while reading, politely clarified that 'no, we understood what the author was trying to say, he just said something else entirely', and you accuse both of us of maliciously nit-picking?

I'm genuinely struggling to understand how one is expected to convey even the most specific, straightforward, and minor of criticisms in an attempt to help an author improve without being dismissed as a bad-faith actor who is only out to complain.

Bruuuuuh, you are nit-picking trivial shit. She hasn't had the chance to look at the options for six months because she's been busy and she's not relentlessly hitting F5 to refresh the forge when she isn't ready to buy something new because she has some fucking discipline.

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Except that the author explicitly clarified that no, that wasn't what he meant to say, and that Sofia has been checking regularly, so apparently it isn't entirely trivial if it clearly caused you to misunderstand. Thank you for perfectly demonstrating the point we were trying to make.

 

[cliffc999]

Two separate people offered feedback on a minor phrasing issue that stood out to us while reading, politely clarified that 'no, we understood what the author was trying to say, he just said something else entirely', and you accuse both of us of maliciously nit-picking?

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You just answered your own question.

 

[ryune]

Wouldn't it be super shitty if our MC saw the perfect thing to get when she finally saves up 600cp, only to find that the next time she idly opens up the menu that it got replaced with something else and now she has no idea when or if it's ever going to be available again?

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I'd actually really like a little bit of bitching from her on perks that she misses out on. It's something that could do a good bit of humanizing the 200+ IQ girl that can magic up things and knowledge from the great beyond. I'd also like to see at least some of the agonizing about what to pick at some junctures and some of the logic on why she picked one thing over another tog et a bit more of the thought process she uses for her pics. It could be particularly amusing if she skipped over some pick because the perk was worded badly only for later review of source material giving her major missing out vibes.

 

[Addlcove]

Get enough of them and she is going to end up becoming something else entirely from a baseline human.

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except it is stated in the mechanics post that no magic is available and I suspect that includes any perks that changes her enough to not be considered human anymore.

 

[Kyrin Fireheart]

Spent so much time catching up on all the responses, which I usually don't bother with since there will ALWAYS be a couple idiots trying to bust the author's balls for stupid reasons. I get it. I really do. You're smart and you want everyone to know it. You also want to help. One or two of you even realized just how abrasive you came off while dying on that particular hill of a tiny detail and apologized.

So let me set you all straight(this is only for the troublemakers). If you don't like a story or how the author is writing it. Keep it to yourself and stop reading. Everyone has an opinion just like everyone has an asshole but no one wants to smell yours. A couple of those troublemaker's bitched about this whole stint in the Navy while failing to understand that she was freaking drafted. It doesn't matter what's in her head she is still a baseline human. No superpowers. No secret base full of resources and tools to build the mcguffin to make the Confederation treat her as an equal. The government comes and tells you to get on a ship and go to basic you damn well get on a ship and go to basic. Or you go to jail and unlike you Sophia isn't stupid enough to cut off her nose to spite her face. Can't save anyone in prison.

You want to genuinely help but aren't good at talking to people? Preface any statement you make with that very fact and things go a little easier. Doesn't give you carte blanche to continue being a toxic douchenozzle but people might give you a little more leeway. Also, you should stop and re-read your post at least three times before posting and ask yourself if what you wrote could be said in a nicer way while still highlighting errors or things that don't make sense to you.

And this is the most important part. THIS IS NOT YOUR STORY! Enjoy someone else's work or go write your own.

Now that my bitching is done, let's get on with my two cents on the latest chapter. First off, great chapter. Loved the interactions during the training sim and it was a nice peek into space combat in Traveller's. Also, I like the fact that while Sofia is understandably frustrated about not having a lot of time to work on her projects she still focused on learning what she could when she could and then mastering that. And I really can't wait to see how the Patrol takes her going to a Corporation to build a shiny new FTL drive.

I don't know much about Battletech or Traveller's but it sounds like the Database she just got is not just a game changer but almost an I Win button. Provided she has even 5 years with the Confederation backing her she could probably invade the Empire instead and win. Too bad she doesn't have that time if I'm reading the dates right. I agree with the fella upstairs about trying to dissemble some info to others to work on and build as well but she'll still have to write all that crap down regardless. Anyhow, can't wait for more.

P.S.

Sophia on the other hand looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and breathes fire.

I think assigning her to be a sensor tech is the Genius patrols version of dumping her in the duck pond. Sophia response has been to stay in the duck pond happily swimming along for several months before deciding to fly off, burn down a city, eat some sheep and then, knowing her, return to the pond to wait to see how the duck watchers react.

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This had me dying. Mostly because I could picture it perfectly.

 

[drakensis]

I wrote that perk, and yes it does include all the required knowledge to get from nothing to building jumpships, HPGs, clantech... all of it.

Things that you might want to consider cliffc999

1. Compact jumpcores (~46% of ship mass compared to 95%) are probably easier to build than the civilian cores most of BT uses - or at least, they were developed first. They're much more expensive, but they allow much more flexibility. First generation K-F drives were shorter range.
2. 'Black box' communication is also something developed before the HPG, black boxes are basically short transmissions of text, more limited in content, range and speed, but much easier to move around.
3. BT myomers were first developed for prosthetics, on a much smaller scale than 'Mechs. (And Sofia could probably make battle armor use of them if that's useful in this era).
4. jump drives, HPGs and all hyperphysics is a tech-tree derived from BT fusion engines, including their skewy numbers for propulsion. No idea how that compares but this is a lot of related technologies that could tie up a lot of people working out implications and possibilities. Jumpdrives are an obvious first look, given the geographic issues of the Confederacy, but not the only field.
5. The Star League's Department of Mega-Engineering was heavily involved in terraforming planets for settlement. They're not necessarily better than the tech Sofia saw, but they do likely have alternate perspectives and solutions.

 

[Fellgar]

.
5. The Star League's Department of Mega-Engineering was heavily involved in terraforming planets for settlement. They're not necessarily better than the tech Sofia saw, but they do likely have alternate perspectives and solutions.

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Terraforming is going to be a well understood and mature science from that universe. Formulaic even. Literally already have the data on how to terraform Mars and Venus all figured out. And do it efficiently too.

So that is worth a pretty penny.

 

[Serran]

Thank you for the new chapter. It was very nice.

I think that Sophia hit the nail on the head, even if she missed part of it. Drafting the greatest known Genius and than dumping her near her parents in a job she is vastly overqualified for and ignoring her requests, seems to me like a softend attempt to get her under control. The Navy to keep her busy and her parents to keep her stable.

The GP explicitely noted her good relationship with her parents and her trouble with social situations, most notable her peer. They also noted that in school she downplayed her Intelligence when confronted with difficult social situations. We know that this is wrong, but the GP has that impression. To me it looks like they tried to trigger this response again. Someone of Sophias genius is scary,doubly so if they can present a (seemingly) perfect false front. Tripply to a group of people who have experience seeing through something like this.
It is all well and good to have Geniuses that want to advance Earth, but only under our control. That is what I got from the Genius Patrol in this chapter.

So they try to hamstring her as long as it takes to figure her out, first with the draft and when that didn't work with her assignment. Which is going to be difficult given the out of context interference.

If it didn't interfere as much with Sophia and her choices I think it could be seen as a comedy of errors by the GP, instead they look pretty bad.
If they had given her a contactnumber or person in case of questions or added an explanation to her file, I might be more charitable. But a forced Recruitment for her Intelligence leaves the ball entirely in the court of the GP. Even or maybe especially if Sophia is somewhat alright with being recruited.

If they don't want to play than going to someone willing is the best move. And now the math for the next big FTL Development as well as probably some or all of the engineering is going to be worked out and presented right on the first planet in the invasion corridor. Where you would expect at least some kind of Vilani intelligence operations. And where they stationed the GENIUS that has proven her mettle as an expendable. Please imagine a quip of questionable quality regarding morons patroling for geniuses here.

Maybe the GP actually want to see what she does if things don't go according to her plans. Unless they are willing to pull some serious immoral and illegal bulls***t than the answer is: Make their life hellishly more difficult and thank her for every second.

On rereading I noticed Sophia's consideration of dropping out of the Navy training, give she has been drafted I doubt that would have gone over well.

 

[Mgunh1]

3. BT myomers were first developed for prosthetics, on a much smaller scale than 'Mechs. (And Sofia could probably make battle armor use of them if that's useful in this era).

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Actually, this is a major point. It wouldn't surprise me at all if the whole reason mechwarrior mechs are mechs and not tanks is due to the neurohelm itself; it is probably much easier to map limbs to limbs than, say, legs to treads, and probably much easier to learn and control for the pilot. I mean, the whole point of the neurohelm is that you're controlling the mech as an extension of your own body.

I could easily see mechs originating as power armour that slowly upscaled until said power armour was a story tall and someone went; you know what? Let's just stick the soldier in a cockpit and call it a day.

 

[drakensis]

Oh one more thing. I'm not sure if anyone brought this up yet.

IIRC, Traveller jump drives have to go star to star. You can't jump to deep space. If I'm correct about this, then a K-F Drive transforms the strategic geography of the galaxy because it can jump to deep space, recharge (using onboard reactor-mass, perhaps using pre-positioned fuel stores.) and jump again. Even without the added range, that removes the need to hop from system to system before reaching core territories.

Of course, of the Vilani get hold of that then current Terran defensive plans just became obsolete.

 

[Fellgar]

Oh one more thing. I'm not sure if anyone brought this up yet.

IIRC, Traveller jump drives have to go star to star. You can't jump to deep space. If I'm correct about this, then a K-F Drive transforms the strategic geography of the galaxy because it can jump to deep space, recharge (using onboard reactor-mass, perhaps using pre-positioned fuel stores.) and jump again. Even without the added range, that removes the need to hop from system to system before reaching core territories.

Of course, of the Vilani get hold of that then current Terran defensive plans just became obsolete.

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That does mean the Vilani rule book on how to wage war is going to get utterly wrecked though. They have thousands of years where they can funnel enemies into kill boxes and force the enemy to go through specific star systems to hit their logistics.

This literally allows for strike craft to hit anywhere. Sure distance is still a factor. So limitations on fuel supplies are a thing... that being said you can hit into the soft underbelly of the beast where they are weak rather then be forced to hit through their strong points first.

Meaning you can literally have task forces just go off a raiding deeper and deeper into vilani territory where they don't have military forces built up. No way in hell they have sufficient forces to defend everywhere all of the time. So grabbing fuel supplies and spare parts where needed from storage locations or even undefended transports deep in vilani territory is a legitimate strategy.

They don't even need to conduct repairs in systems, they can jump into the black for those.

 

[Prince Chrom]

Traveller jump drives have to go star to star.

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I remember going through deep space in the game I played, but that may have been a houserule.

 

[heralding_bubble]

re:purchase, It might be just me but the way I read it was that she hadn't had time to actually think on the options if/when she'd had time to remember that the Forge was a thing since she'd been busy with training or recovering from training.

As for going corp, I'm thinking that people are underestimating the amount of cooperation corps and people in general have with the government considering the almost-genocidal wars with Enemy of All Humanity that have happened.

Edit: as for drafting and deployment, I think it's something along the lines of them getting time to figure out how to actually handle her because holy shit, keeping her in a known and safe location, get a better handle on her mentality, and keeping her happy with access to family.

 

[TrueGuardian32]

Huh, she can make bigger ships now. With Battletech technology you can make some pretty massive ships that are still effective despite their size.

 

[GAMB42]

This chapter was all about the steps she took to avoid that long term. She is about to do an end run around the deliberate delays and ensure she can't be ignored like this again.

Remember she is working in a society. She is playing within the rules of that society. She cannot simply go off on her own and sit and build without significate consequences. This isn't the usual power fantasy with a self inset who has all the powers and can equal the might of an interstellar government on their own with zero outside support. Other people have options. This chapter was their attempt to use those options. The end of this chapter is simply the lead up to her forcing them to recognize she has options too.

Edit: Minor corrections and clairifications

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The main problem was if the government and military tell you to go somewhere and you're just some average Joe? It doesn't matter how genius you are, you're going to do it whether you like it or not. She had to prove that she was actually capable of what she said she can do and then they tested her further to see if they actually wanted to give her that kind of power. Then they found out they actually have no freaking clue how to deal with someone like her and put her near her family because she had what looked like a serious mental breakdown out of nowhere. This was her finally stopping giving a shit and making a statement.

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Partially agreed. Just honestly annoyed it took this long for her to finally decide to do something about the whole situation (and personally amused she decided to use Battletech FTL of all things for the tech uplift advantage package to help out her civilization).

My problems with the MC are more about how inconsistent she is with the way she goes about doing things (and what I thought was the narrative too but the author has spoken and it is his fic so ... shrugs). First few chapters are about her getting scientific credit so people believe her and what she can do, then we switch to a flash segment about academic achivements that changes mid way to a test with the Moral Event Horizon trope. And then she goes to boot camp and turns into a junior officer. Okay I guess? She going from Reed Richards to Honor Harrington does seems like a waste of time. Yes I get it that she was drafted and has little agency. She still shows all the commitment of a mushroom to do something about the whole situation she is in, at this point, for years. That is what I find inconsistent with her when she is supposed to be scared that she does not know when the war will start.

But then again looks like we are finally moving into actually building stuff so hopefully we are moving into the good stuff with the mad science finally taking it place front and center.

except it is stated in the mechanics post that no magic is available and I suspect that includes any perks that changes her enough to not be considered human anymore.

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Even without magic she still is gonna end up being something else entirely, simply because all the perks she already has are going to set her apart...no let me rephrase that. It already has set her apart. She already is a genius with her current "perk load" and will probably get even worse as time goes on from the sheer knowledge base she is going to end up with. Also I'm not familiar with the setting but it was mentioned that it has psionics so there is an actual ,in setting, answer to becoming something else then baseline human. Probably not going to be explored because of timeline issues at minimum from what I got from the wiki but it is there.

 

[Vrenze]

She still shows all the commitment of a mushroom to do something about the whole situation she is in, at this point, for years. That is what I find inconsistent with her when she is supposed to be scared that she does not know when the war will start.

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As you stated it has been years since she found out the next war was coming. She would not and could not still be as scared as she initially was without turning into a damn chihuahua of a nervous wreck. People get used to things so that they stop that devolution into incapability. We see it as a rather short sequence of events but for her it has been years and she is clearly coping which means we wouldn't see her as super scared. Maybe she's rationalizing it as the Forge working on a grander tineline or she realized it gave NO indication of when the war would occur. For all she knows it happens after her natural lifespan.

 

[cliffc999]

As you stated it has been years since she found out the next war was coming. She would not and could still be as scared as she initially was without turning into a damn chihuahua of a nervous wreck. People get used to things so that they stop that devolution into incapability. We see it as a rather short sequence of events but for her it has been years and she is clearly coping which means we wouldn't see her as super scared.

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In hindsight, I begin to realize that I'd forgotten that most of my readers didn't grow up during the Cold War. Because this is so intuitive to me that I literally don't think about it anymore.

Living with a continual awareness that your happy normal life might end tomorrow in a sudden nuking, and there was absolutely nothing you could do about it except pray? That's how I spent my entire childhood, folks.

And for me it was particularly more immediate, because I lived in the Chicago suburbs. Which in the 70s and 80s meant that I was within a dozen miles of O'Hare Airport, Glenview Naval Air Station, and the Midwest's command center for the Nike antiballistic missile network all simultaneously... and those were all separately top-priority "Send a MIRV here now" targets for a Soviet first strike. About the only people in a position to facetank more Soviet ICBMs in the first half hour of World War III than we did lived near Washington DC. Like, other people's survival plans for that era were maybe thinking about bomb shelters or stashing food or at least mentally rehearsing their evacuation route. My family's plan? To just sit down and say a prayer as soon as the sirens went off because we were not getting out, and we knew it. There was simply no safe zone anywhere near enough to actually reach in the 20 minutes' or so of warning that would be the most we could ever expect, especially not with the roads jammed from everybody else trying to run.

(add) Because I was a weird kid, and also because I played the Morrow Project tabletop RPG which actually encouraged you to do this, at one point during high school I actually sat down with a map and what was publicly known about ICBMs at the time to try and guesstimate exactly how dead I'd be if the balloon went up. Acting on the assumption that the Soviets would throw one MIRV cluster each at all three of the primary targets I lived near - which given that we stll had active NIKE sites around us that far back was not an invalid assumption, because they'd have to assume we'd intercept at least one - I think I would have been in the overlapping blast waves of at least a dozen 200-kiloton nuclear warheads. That's not just dead, it's really most sincerely dead.

Basically, I have visceral experience at being a child living under a sense of existential doom because the horrible feared Evil Empire over there has 3000+ WMDs aimed at your face and one day the air raid sirens are going to go off and its not gonna be the regular Tuesday morning civil defense alarm test. And you're entirely right, what you do then is spend a short while panicking your ass off about it when you initially find out about this shit... and then you just push it down into the background of your mind and go back to your normal life, because that's a thing human brains do in order to be able to function.

 

[AgentWho007]

I wonder if she will get technology from F.E.A.R. or Starcraft. After all Psionics aren't magic and even Battletech has some psionics, I think.

 

[drakensis]

In hindsight, I begin to realize that I'd forgotten that most of my readers didn't grow up during the Cold War. Because this is so intuitive to me that I literally don't think about it anymore.

Click to shrink...

I'd have to agree with this.

One of my earliest memories of what the Cold War meant was a TV advert with a ticking timer saying that by the time the timer ran out World War III could be over. Not began, over.

After a while, you just got used to it. I was a child, there was nothing I could do except go on with my life and hope rational adults would keep it from happening. I'd have slept worse if I'd known how rare rational adults are but... even if I had, I couldn't do anything except quietly go on with what I was doing anyway.