Re: [GRIMDARK] Fallout Equestria: Project Horizons Discussion

[cb5]

There are little to no in-story clues a that cog could, somehow, not actually be pure evil. I could believe whatever goodness she has is drawn from Luna's underlying nature.
Given how little indication mobius gave as to the difference between when he's on an intercom and egging on a roboscorpion to kill you and when you actually meet him in person, and given PH's typical way of handling its "villains", I can't help but think this is gonna turn out increadibly anticlimactic :P

 I'm thinking more along the lines of cognitium doesn't truly understand what is going on.  From cognitium's view point it is giving out free food and security to the wasteland and stopping project horizons and the destruction of the remains of equestria.  Dawn is following Cog cause she believes Cog is a god.  In reality Cognitium probably doesn't fully comprehend what it's been doing and how it's hurting ponies.

My money is on a scene like with Sanguine; the villain understands "oh shit I fucked up" and they team up shortly to help each other.  My money is on the final boss not being Cognitium, but the eater of souls.

I can imagine it,
"Wow so you're not really evil? and you didn't understand that others were trying to do the same thing to help equestria?  Well that was anticlimactic.  Here I was thinking I was going to have to fight a insane boss battle."
*boss music starts
"Where is that coming from?  Cognitium isn't the final boss"
*Eater of souls has challenged you to a battle
"AH SHIT!"

Also I had a idea into how the factions in equestria probably formed.  Simply put there is no way there is that many guns, bullets and stuff that lasted that long.  What I mean by that is probably a slice of the guns and stuff was in a condition to preserve it.  Like how Trottingheimer's folly was in a closed airtight humidity less condition for those two centuries.  A less likely scenario is the original pony was killed in a firefight after the bombs fell and only some of the parts were still able to function.  Like most of the weapons and ammo was used up in the first few weeks after the bombs as everyone started killing everyone else for radaway and food, but a lot of it was just left when the pony died of radiation.  Stables were self sufficient and maintained their equipment.  Unity didn't need weapons.  The rangers horded their stuff and maintained it religiously.

There was probably a period in time were there was peace simply because the only survivors were ghouls and didn't need radaway and barely anyone had any ammo left.

So that means Unity was by default going to become a faction unless some one had exterminated the alicorns before they collected any more members.  The rangers were going to be a faction by default cause they maintained their weapons.  The enclave maintained and their equipment.  Stables were going to give birth to factions due to them having equipment.  Once the stables opened that gave ponies like red eye who used their resources to make more resources a chance to become powerful.  Most of the guns in the fallout equestria universe were either from the enclave, red eye, or rangers and the original owner was probably killed in a firefight and their body was pecked clean of supplies.

The irony of this is that the rangers, enclave, red eyes and such in their quests for peace would have given the wasteland the tools to destroy themselves again.

[CD]

The brushing's been going well so far, but we'll probably be finishing tomorrow rather than today.  Interestingly, tomorrow also happens to be my two-year anniversary of working on PH; my first post was [Hm, the tag doesn't seem to work for this address; I'll paste it below.], back on 2011-07-12.

http://www.equestriadaily.com/2011/06/fallout-equestria-side-stories.html?showComment=1310525892760#c3377515659959704351

 Damn, it's like Somber is working a lot harder on PH since last chapter. Keep up the good work.

[Evilgidgit]

Woo-hoo! Keep up the good work.

Query - In Fallout Equestria, the Enclave intend on destroying all of the Ministry of Awesome hubs after finding out Littlepip was in the Canterlot hub, in order to cover up the SPP. Where does that leave the Shadowbolt Tower if that is counted as a MoAw hub?

Also, I agree that Cognitum may be the ripoff Crusader Mainframe that Mr. Horse suggested making, but I also assumed he had tried it on the Tokomare and together they had become Cognitum.

[SilentCarto]

OWB:

[O. Hinds]

OWB:

Huh. OWB has always struck me as the second most believable DLC, after only Honest Hearts.

[SilentCarto]

Somehow I get the feeling that if Blackjack did get inserted into Old World Blues she wouldn't even blink at losing her brain. Might even decide the Think Tank did her a favor, scooping it out. Of course I imagine any reconciliation with her brain would somehow involve whiskey and sex. Or shooting. Or explosions. Actually probably all of the above, in no particular order.

"Is that alcohol?? Ooh, could you pour some of that in my tank? Pleeeeeease?"

I'm thinking more along the lines of cognitium doesn't truly understand what is going on. From cognitium's view point it is giving out free food and security to the wasteland and stopping project horizons and the destruction of the remains of equestria. Dawn is following Cog cause she believes Cog is a god. In reality Cognitium probably doesn't fully comprehend what it's been doing and how it's hurting ponies.

Funny, I think almost exactly the opposite. The EoS has been built up as the Big Bad for a long time, but there's really only two possibilities I can imagine for whatever it was that BJ saw at the core of the Tokomare that shocked her so badly: either Luna's in there, or the Enervation scream is due to the Tokomare torturing the EoS for the past 200 years. If that's the case, then Cog is the final boss, powered by the Tokomare and protected by its instantly-lethal Enervation. Except that BJ is immune...

Cog kind of makes a better "final boss" anyway. She's comprehensible, where the EoS is like Cthulhu -- so huge that you can't even begin to fight it without nuclear weapons or summoning rituals.

Query - In Fallout Equestria, the Enclave intend on destroying all of the Ministry of Awesome hubs after finding out Littlepip was in the Canterlot hub, in order to cover up the SPP. Where does that leave the Shadowbolt Tower if that is counted as a MoAw hub?

Well, the Enclave already controls Shadowbolt Tower. No need to destroy it. It might become the strategic goal for an out-and-out war between Neighvarro and Thunderhead, but I doubt Neighvarro would try to prosecute a war like that at the same time that they spread their forces across the Wasteland to execute Operation Cauterize. For all the tension between the two, I think they would let Thunderhead keep control of the tower for the time being unless Thunderhead showed dangerous weakness or a willingness to ally with surface factions.

[Derpmind]

Huh.  OWB has always struck me as the second most believable DLC, after only Honest Hearts.

*Twitch* Believability is very relative. I'd much rather talk about immersion or writing quality, since believability is more of a 'know it when you see it' kinda thing. (I don't see it there at all!)

unny, I think almost exactly the opposite. The EoS has been built up as the Big Bad for a long time, but there's really only two possibilities I can imagine for whatever it was that BJ saw at the core of the Tokomare that shocked her so badly: either Luna's in there, or the Enervation scream is due to the Tokomare torturing the EoS for the past 200 years. If that's the case, then Cog is the final boss, powered by the Tokomare and protected by its instantly-lethal Enervation. Except that BJ is immune...

Cog kind of makes a better "final boss" anyway. She's comprehensible, where the EoS is like Cthulhu -- so huge that you can't even begin to fight it without nuclear weapons or summoning rituals.

Enervation being caused by torture, yes, but it's P-21 inside the core. P-21 is the last little shred of the old star-alicorn before it began its fall, reincarnated as a pony in one of the worst positions possible: a breeding colt in Stable 99. Top that theory.

[O. Hinds]

Huh.  OWB has always struck me as the second most believable DLC, after only Honest Hearts.

*Twitch* Believability is very relative. I'd much rather talk about immersion or writing quality, since believability is more of a 'know it when you see it' kinda thing. (I don't see it there at all!)

I realized that my reply to this was likely getting a bit too offtopic, so I'm putting it in the chat thread instead.

[cb5]

Cog kind of makes a better "final boss" anyway. She's comprehensible, where the EoS is like Cthulhu -- so huge that you can't even begin to fight it without nuclear weapons or summoning rituals.

 Watching a borderline insane cyborg who has died several times beat to death cthulu would be the most awesome thing to ever existed.  Admit it, Blackjack suplexing a eldritch abomination would be really badass.

I imagine trying to fight the EoS would be like fighting Asura's Wrath's Gaia final boss meets Metal Gear Excelsius meets Cthulu.

[SilentCarto]

Cog kind of makes a better "final boss" anyway. She's comprehensible, where the EoS is like Cthulhu -- so huge that you can't even begin to fight it without nuclear weapons or summoning rituals.

 Watching a borderline insane cyborg who has died several times beat to death cthulu would be the most awesome thing to ever existed.  Admit it, Blackjack suplexing a eldritch abomination would be really badass.

I imagine trying to fight the EoS would be like fighting Asura's Wrath's Gaia final boss meets Metal Gear Excelsius meets Cthulu.

I do admit that would be insanely badass, but highly unlikely. Given Goldie's question to Trottenheimer, we can assume that the EoS weighs in at about 100,000 metric tons -- a sphere of iron 30 meters across. Which is kind of my point. You'd need battlefield weapons just to put a dent in that, forget overcoming its weird antimagic properties or exorcising the evil spirit inside. You can't fight it, conventionally speaking, and it can't really fight back in a physical way, so it's ultimately more of a puzzle to solve than a boss fight.

[cb5]

I do admit that would be insanely badass, but highly unlikely. Given Goldie's question to Trottenheimer, we can assume that the EoS weighs in at about 100,000 metric tons -- a sphere of iron 30 meters across. Which is kind of my point. You'd need battlefield weapons just to put a dent in that, forget overcoming its weird antimagic properties or exorcising the evil spirit inside. You can't fight it, conventionally speaking, and it can't really fight back in a physical way, so it's ultimately more of a puzzle to solve than a boss fight.

 I mean as in fighting a unimaginably powerful thing.  Also that the EoS is a evil spirit that takes souls and devours them.  Winning a fight against it would be like someone you know saying that today they beat up satan.  Although that would be pretty awesome to see someone make a Rocky meets the exorcist movie.

 I know it's not going to happen, I'm just saying it'd be one hell of a climax for the story.

[Somber]

:3

[Katarn]

Why do I have this feeling we might either give Somber ideas or 'scratched' surface what was planned...

[Derpmind]

I imagine trying to fight the EoS would be like fighting Asura's Wrath's Gaia final boss meets Metal Gear Excelsius meets Cthulu.

I know it's not going to happen, I'm just saying it'd be one hell of a climax for the story.

:3

[Guest]

I know we've moved past this topic but I've put more thought into the Twist/Rampage/Peppermint thing and I think I may have a theory that fits. 

What if Peppermint was the child of an enemy Zebra that for some reason or another had nowhere to send their daughter so was forced to bring her onto the battlefield?

The theory that I had involved the mother being killed and most of the other Zebras along with her, which leaves the equestrian soldiers with a filly and no idea what to do with her. I imagine them sending her up the chain of command eventually making her way to the M.O.P and into Twist's hooves. 


Not sure when she'd acquire the proditor stripes but the reasoning behind it seems pretty obvious. Twist gets a filly that looks more like herself and the filly is slightly safer, the general public seems to like proditors a bit more then the average zebra. 


Alternatively Twist could have been among the Ponies that found the filly. I think that fits Shujaa's teasing very well the comparison to the average person finding a stray puppy practical writes itself, which I think more then explains the Pet line. 


As for the feral beast part I honestly can see anyone calling any child that.

[Meleagridis]

Dramatization of Gognitum's Search for EC-1101

Only slightly tongue in cheek:

As for the feral beast part I honestly can see anyone calling any child that.

Yeah, just don't see it being a potential citizen in any known province. Not if someone's throwing around the word, 'beast.'

I was under the impression that most of the process is all mobius.

I... don't remember that, to be honest. But he's doesn't seem to be controlling the lobotomites, or the technology to make them. Not anymore at least.
To his credit, he did try to weasel out of the deal.

The brushing's been going well so far, but we'll probably be finishing tomorrow rather than today.  Interestingly, tomorrow also happens to be my two-year anniversary of working on PH; my first post was [Hm, the tag doesn't seem to work for this address; I'll paste it below.], back on 2011-07-12.
http://www.equestriadaily.com/2011/06/fallout-equestria-side-stories.html?showComment=1310525892760#c3377515659959704351

Happy Firstday! Horizons is better for your contribution.

[Meleagridis]

I thought the Think Tank flushed your brain by accident? Well... whoops.

[O. Hinds]

Dramatization of Gognitum's Search for EC-1101

Only slightly tongue in cheek:

Hahahahahahahahahahaa!  Oh my!

The brushing's been going well so far, but we'll probably be finishing tomorrow rather than today.  Interestingly, tomorrow also happens to be my two-year anniversary of working on PH; my first post was [Hm, the tag doesn't seem to work for this address; I'll paste it below.], back on 2011-07-12.
http://www.equestriadaily.com/2011/06/fallout-equestria-side-stories.html?showComment=1310525892760#c3377515659959704351

Happy Firstday! Horizons is better for your contribution.

Thanks!

[Plasticube]

This Thread+You Guys  =

Spoiler:

No Regrets 

[Nightshade]

I, um, want to know if I'm guessing this right about the story so far... it's nothing big, but it might be along the lines of spoilers. Sorry.
 

Boo sorry if I startled you:

I hope I'm not sounding dumb for asking.

[cb5]

I, um, want to know if I'm guessing this right about the story so far... it's nothing big, but it might be along the lines of spoilers. Sorry.
 

Boo sorry if I startled you:

I hope I'm not sounding dumb for asking.

You're not dumb.

Basically Boo isn't dumb, she's just recently been born and such. She may have a physical appearance of being a adult, but she got pooped out of the machine less than a couple months ago. Physically a adult, but her mind hasn't caught up with her body.

This Thread+You Guys =

Spoiler:

No Regrets

"THIS HAND OF MINE IS BURNING RED! IT'S LOUD ROUR TELLS ME TO DEFEAT YOU!"
EoS, "oh *beep me"
"SHINING FINGER!"

[Nightshade]

Heh, to death fingers of death.  
Sad how her fingers no longer work 

She'd save us all then.

[cb5]

Sad how her fingers no longer work

Probably user error.  No really.  Remember how when she first got her cybernetics she didn't know how to use them?  My guess is that these new fingers work in a different way and she doesn't know how to use them.  It'd be like if you took like someone that has only ever used a mac and popped them in front of a pc.

[Nightshade]

I think that as well, but there are still two more good possibilities. 
1) they just dont work.
2) the metal is too heavy. hee hee heavy metal Remember, due to her new metallyness, she is heavier than before her last time she lost her limbs. Simply, the two who fixed her up may not have given her the right kind of motors for her new fingers to pop out.
 
...
 
 Um... if you don't mind my guesses.

[O. Hinds]

57!

[Nightshade]

 
 No way! I'll have to read the ponies out of it in the morning!!
 
Um... well, if that's okay that is.

[cb5]

I just had a thought of who the eater of souls is.

In canon Nightmare Moon and Nightmare Rarity were Luna and Rarity possessed by a evil spirit. The question is where is the Nightmare's real body? My guess is that it's sealed away in a unbreakable prison that nothing can damage. If you were the evil spirit that was stuck in such a prison you would need to suck in infinitely more power to break free. A world where ponies, dragons, griffins channel magic it would make a ton of sense to use countless ponies as a means channel even more energy. That poses a big problem to your enemies when you eventually break free, cause not only was it a all powerful evil spirit capable of freezing to death the planet, but now it has unknown amounts unknown amounts of pony's magic power boosting it to the point I doubt even so much as the elements of harmony or such could make a scratch on it. You'd have to be insanely drunk and high five death on a regular basis to attempt to fight such a being.

57!

SWEET!

[Caoimhe]

Man I love how you release on the weekend. I'll have a hangover tomorrow I'm sure so I need something to recover with.

Which reminds me... urgh time for bed.

[Somber]

/me waits nervously from people to find out how bad it was...

[Moodyman90]

I've been enjoying it so far Somber. I haven't had any problems with it so far. Barely past the part with Pain Train. I like him.

 Edit:

Minor spoilers:

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