Make a Contract With Me! [Lag Backup Thread]

[Rihaku]

Barring HomuHomu and Madoka, the Magic-users we see in the show are far less powerful than their ultimate potential would allow. This is working as intended, for the Incubators.

 

[Alectai]

So, basically, most Magi don't have the ability to break the 5 limit, but those who are either beyond exceptional (Madoka), or not directly under Incubator Influence, can?

Or is it just somethng that only the highest echelons of Magi can hope to do due to a fundamental limitation on how much power they can run without Witching/Liching?

Actually, come to think of it, it might be tied in with the "Most Magi don't know that "The Body reflects the Mind" like Hitori figured out early. They don't try to push their limits like "Top Tier" magi do, because on some level, they just figure that they're "As strong as they're ever going to be"? Especially since Witches apparently become fairly easy to take down once you hit a certain level--unless you either get sloppy, or run into a top-tier one that has nasty surprises.

Madoka being an exception, because she's basically just short of being omnipotent.

 

[Serous]

I think we can all agree on getting Scope 4, so maybe we should see Scope 5 before deciding?

 

[Alectai]

I think we can all agree on getting Scope 4, so maybe we should see Scope 5 before deciding?

Click to shrink...

I'd say no, because unless Scope 5 gives us full out, three-tomoe Sharingan level predictive ability that's on at all times, it's not worth having the ability to--at least in theory--destroy any magical entity we encounter.

 

[Deadly Snark]

Well, I think that scope 4 is kind of like the Sharigan already.

 

[croaker]

Soooooo... upgrade for Perception 2.

We can't see it yet, because we don't have enough Perception.

Hrumm. We'll need to fix that sooner or later, with or without Scope.

 

[TheOtherSandman]

Raising Perception II is what I will return to screaming from the rooftops after this.

It's just that I don't wanna risk something that is important, but still an unknown, for something that is also important, but is a sure thing.

Next go we are raising Perception II.

 

[Rihaku]

So, basically, most Magi don't have the ability to break the 5 limit, but those who are either beyond exceptional (Madoka), or not directly under Incubator Influence, can?

Click to shrink...

No, most Magi simply don't survive long enough to become powerful. Having level 5 in a single Weapon Magic technique is already really powerful, relatively speaking, but it's nowhere near the limit of magical potential. If you had only Silver Bullet level 5, you'd still be odds-up against almost any Witch. Ryoushuu's development rate shouldn't be taken as representative. You can't compare ordinary composers to Mozart.

 

[Berserkslash]

No, most Magi simply don't survive long enough to become powerful. Having level 5 in a single Weapon Magic technique is already really powerful, relatively speaking, but it's nowhere near the limit of magical potential. If you had only Silver Bullet level 5, you'd still be odds-up against almost any Witch. Ryoushuu's development rate shouldn't be taken as representative. You can't compare ordinary composers to Mozart.

Click to shrink...

Basically, Ullysian as a Dragon Blood at the academy? He not only has much better breeding and/or potential to power that when combined with his out of this world determination towards power/self improvement he far outstrips others that would be his peers in growth rate.

 

[Rihaku]

I do have to wonder at this point if SB's issue is not merely traffic but some sort of bug or virus in the hard/software. Locking all those threads doesn't seem to have done anything, really.

 

[Berserkslash]

From what I hear the server is shared with another smaller forum and the version of XF SB is running on right now is two updates out of date.

 

[TheOtherSandman]

I do have to wonder at this point if SB's issue is not merely traffic but some sort of bug or virus in the hard/software. Locking all those threads doesn't seem to have done anything, really.

Click to shrink...

From what I can gather, the move to XenForo was only meant to be temporary fix to the previous forum's problems.
But Kein got caught up in a lawsuit of some sort and was unable to do anything for two years, which combined with the fact that Spacebattles grew far more rapidly than anyone predicted, means that it's bottlenecking.

Hard.

So until either the software is updated and/or we get moved to a newer, better server, this is how it's going to be.
Both take time and money that are not available.

From what I hear the server is shared with another smaller forum and the version of XF SB is running on right now is two updates out of date.

Click to shrink...

That second forum is so insignificant to SB's traffic, it's not even funny.
We're like the 15th largest of all the Xenforo forums.

 

[Vindictus]

... Goddamnit.

I just watched the Man with the Iron Fists.

So sad that Martial Arts build didn't win T_T

... Maybe I should make a new MA quest?

Bah. SB is too laggy to do anything on it, and Bay 12 cheerfully ignored my one Quest thread there.

What was that alt forum people were suggesting?

 

[Thomasfoolery]

So rereading the story only thread I noticed we are apparently a pretty skilled violinist. For some reason it jumped out at me in the way us being a very good student did not and made me feel a lot more somber about the situation that we've found our self in with regards to what we gave up in normal life. So a nice little detail that framed the issue well for me in that regard.

On the other hand with our coordination 4 and speed 2 we could probably win that golden fiddle off johnny so I suppose you need to take the good with the bad even with things like this.

 

[Berserkslash]

RPG.net

Has a play by post forum after you log on, others said to ask around to make sure quests are welcome first as well as get a feel for the rules.

 

[Berserkslash]

Double post but lag be gone!

Better be at least.

 

[Orm Embar]

Lag sighted off the port bow!

 

[Alectai]

At this point, it's too fucking regular to just be us >_<

1 pm until close to midnight for two, three days I a row. I expect today to be no different.

 

[Malcolmo]

Why do I suspect Tetsu's derived magic is some kind of berserk form that boosts his strength and follows his goals at the cost of sanity?
Also voting for [X] Patience.

 

[Aloysius]

Optimistic fanfic, if we get beat down a consolatory alternate outcome :

Shot one.

It blooms in a scarlet flower on Tetsu's arm.
He was fast, enough to avoid a straight shot to the chest.
His momentum carry him to the side of the room, skidding feet anchoring themselves, ready to push against the ground and launch his coiling body toward the source of the shots.

Shot two, three, four.

They stop him in his track, he just tore his way out of the building, stones exploding under the impact of his hurling form when the shiny projectiles fuse toward him- his hand clamps on the remains of the wall he just burst through and his whole body twist and straighten. He is suspended in the air, only maintained above the ground below by the force of his injured arm-he thinks that he wrenched his shoulder.
Looks like a beam planted haphazardly in the building by a idle hand but that doesn't matter, the rounds have flown beneath his tensed form and now he can-they're looping back !
He push forcefully-yeah, shoulder definitely wrenched now- and goes downward, punch trough the lower floor and comes down rolling in it. Lighting fast he's standing and turning, throw furniture into the path of the bullets that didn't get stopped by the wreckage left in his passage. There's no time to waste, he heard other shots fired.

Tenth shot.

He's finally out of the building, it took him impossibly long -thirty seconds passed battling seeking bullets- but now he's before the building where the sniper shot from. Two steps and his feet collide with the building's walls, one more and he's running upon it. Two seconds later he's almost at the edge of the roof and he wonders-why did Ryusshuu stay put and why did he stop shooting?
Answer: He's ready to blows up the entire edge of the roof the moment Tetsu reach it. So close!
He has the time to throw his katana mid blast but he's too far gone to divert his course and he takes the explosion straight in the face. With the searing pain, the ringing in his ears and the dull throb in his head dimming his senses, he vaguely sees his prey. He's sailing through the air, the explosion seem to have hurled him away- the sword didn't even scratch him.

Last shots.

Tetsu doesn't know how many strike him during his fall.

395 words

 

[Pipeman]

Why do I suspect Tetsu's derived magic is some kind of berserk form that boosts his strength and follows his goals at the cost of sanity?
Also voting for [X] Patience.

Click to shrink...

I realy don't see a berserk mode being any part of his wish.
It's more likely that he simply already had a violent and unstable personality that was put under even more strain by an ability that's practically handcrafter for inducing paranoia, murdering his own father, and having to execute multiple people he basically considered family each day, because they were planning to kill him.

Aside from that, there was apparently someone mentioning on SB that we should get Perception II, if we can scratch the necessary XP together.
I think that's basically a horrible idea.
Not only does the basic problem with voting for a mystery box that isn't going to be overall better than any of the other options still exist, but from the little bit we do know about Perception II we can safely conclude that it'S not really going to be useful for dealing with Tetsu.
Thanks to insane aiming skills and Scope's spatial awareness our problem isn't really to perceive Tetsu, but that he's liable to just dodge and he's going to be right in our face before we can get much more than half a dozen bullets off.

If we do manage to get enough XP for a stat upgrade, we should probably just stick it into Speed in order to shoot a couple of bullets more at him before he's close enough to turn us into chunky salsa.
Upgrading normal Perception might be a viable alternative for the higher muzzle velocity to make dodging harder and the obvious advantage of being able to engage him from double the distance away.
This of course looses most of its value if we choose to engage now and don't get the chance to actually use the incresed range.
What we certainly do not need is some esoteric sixth sense bullshit, so we can observe how he's going to turn us into paste in a more detailed manner. (And, yes, I know that we aren't guaranteed to lose without getting a stat upgrade, but I'm trying to illustrate a point here. Mainly that choosing Perception II now is an even worse decision that it was last turn, because we now more or less know that it's not really going to help instead of it simply being valuable XP thrown at a mystery box on a hunch.)

 

[TheOtherSandman]

*snip*

Click to shrink...

I was talking about boosting Perception II, but that was when I was thinking that we'd have more time.
Grabbing it now, is a gamble that we cannot afford to make.

I'm guessing that with everything since the last count, we likely have ~75k.

As it is, I'd like to grab Perception 3 and Scope 4.
Though we could take Arsenal 3 (45k) and Speed 3 (25k) so we could be able to ambush/trap him in case we do need to escape.

 

[Pipeman]

I was talking about boosting Perception II, but that was when I was thinking that we'd have more time.
Grabbing it now, is a gamble that we cannot afford to make.

I'm guessing that with everything since the last count, we likely have ~75k.

As it is, I'd like to grab Perception 3 and Scope 4

Click to shrink...

We've already taken Scope 4 and Silver Bullet 5.
Rihaku simply hasn't updated the front page, yet.
Currently we don't even have enough for any upgrade at all.

 

[TheOtherSandman]

We've already taken Scope 4 and Silver Bullet 5.
Rihaku simply hasn't updated the front page, yet.
Currently we don't even have enough for any upgrade at all.

Click to shrink...

We have?

My mistake then.

 

[Pipeman]

We have?

My mistake then.

Click to shrink...

Well, theoretically it's possible that we managed enough XP together to buy something since the last time Rihaku checked, so there's that at least.

 

[Berserkslash]

Alright, so with this update we got to see quite a bit into Tetsu's mind and with the intent going away every time he turns to stare at its direction we can pull that Hitori knows of him having some way to detect him but only while he's viewing him with Scope. So he'd probably be able to use that to experiment out how he's detecting him. If we have Hitori take a shot at the window/into the room we could gain his attention off Hi no and high tail it, saving her for now and buying some time to continue observation. Though we'd have to get away somehow which would be hard and Tetsu would be going spare trying to find Hitori and deal with the fallout of doing that to his girlfriend.

May be able to cause him to Lich out with a clever enough plan.

 

[Orm Embar]

Alright, so with this update we got to see quite a bit into Tetsu's mind and with the intent going away every time he turns to stare at its direction we can pull that Hitori knows of him having some way to detect him but only while he's viewing him with Scope. So he'd probably be able to use that to experiment out how he's detecting him. If we have Hitori take a shot at the window/into the room we could gain his attention off Hi no and high tail it, saving her for now and buying some time to continue observation. Though we'd have to get away somehow which would be hard and Tetsu would be going spare trying to find Hitori and deal with the fallout of doing that to his girlfriend.

May be able to cause him to Lich out with a clever enough plan.

Click to shrink...

Sweet christ, what is it with SB and playing the hero for strangers? There is no need for a clever plan to lich Tetsu out. Just sit there and let him do his thing. The girl is associating with the Yakuza and only voiced saw fit to complain when he walked in with blood on his hands. She "understands the need for sacrifices," and is hardly as pure as the driven snow. Tetsu's worst enemy is himself; let him self destruct and sink into depression, then mop up. As his mental state slips, there'll be other opportunities.

 

[Alectai]

Sweet christ, what is it with SB and playing the hero for strangers? There is no need for a clever plan to lich Tetsu out. Just sit there and let him do his thing. The girl is associating with the Yakuza and only voiced a complaint saw fit to complain when he walked in with blood on his hands. She "understands the need for sacrifices," and is hardly as pure as the driven snow. Tetsu's worst enemy is himself; let him self destruct and sink into depression, then mop up.

Click to shrink...

Lag appears to be over for now, what a surprise!

I doubt it'll stay that way, but let's get as much done while this window exists as we can.

 

[Alectai]

Lag appears to be over for now, what a surprise!

I doubt it'll stay that way, but let's get as much done while this window exists as we can.

Click to shrink...

It seem I may have spoken too soon, still managed to get a post out during the lull though.

 

[Pipeman]

Alright, so with this update we got to see quite a bit into Tetsu's mind and with the intent going away every time he turns to stare at its direction we can pull that Hitori knows of him having some way to detect him but only while he's viewing him with Scope. So he'd probably be able to use that to experiment out how he's detecting him. If we have Hitori take a shot at the window/into the room we could gain his attention off Hi no and high tail it, saving her for now and buying some time to continue observation. Though we'd have to get away somehow which would be hard and Tetsu would be going spare trying to find Hitori and deal with the fallout of doing that to his girlfriend.

May be able to cause him to Lich out with a clever enough plan.

Click to shrink...

Given that we probably continued to observe him just without the rifle's scope, I think it's rather likely that we know his Danger Sense only tingles if we point our rifle at him.
From ther on it's not very hard to conclude that it's a Danger Sense and while more detailed information on how exactly it works would be useful it's prabably both very risky and hard to acquire, since the only feedback we get is, whether or not Tetsu reacts to us.
Given these difficulties with acquiring more data on it, it's probably just for the best to conclude that we're likely not going to catch him off guard and therefor don't have our plans depend on it.

As for shooting at Tetsu and running, I don't think you appreciate just how fast Tetsu is.
He's going to be at the building we're shooting from in ten seconds at the very most, if he takes some time getting in and out of the buildings and takes a route with some cover, instead of just crashing through the walls Kool-Aid Man style and moving in a straight line.
And once he arrives, he has super hearing and knows how we look.
We're definitely not going to be getting away in time.

And even if we miraculously managed to do so, we'd be giving up a lot of advantages.
Sure, we're unlikely to be able to catch him off guard thanks to that bullshit Danger Sense, but at least he's not going to prepared for us and we can be reasonably sure to be the ones initiating the battle.
Those advantages goes right out through the window, once he knows we are in the city and are still gunning for him and as if this weren't enough he'll know what kind of range we have on our weapon and how strong our shots are as well.

If we're going to do anything at all right now, we sure as hell should make sure we finish the job, because while it's debatable how much better a situation we could get him into, if we waited, alerting him to our presence will practically destroy any hopes of the second engagement not being under much worse conditions.

On a somewhat more unrelated note, for how long have we been back in Tokyo now?
Did we at least manage to observe things a couple of days without tingling his danger senses or seeing him about to murder his girlfriend?