Re: Fallout Equestria: Murky Number Seven

[InLucidReverie]

Dude. It's a train. I literally joined this place to say this.... but it's just a train. 

The specifics are unimportant. Do we need a play by play analysis of the construction of gemlamps? (actually I think that'd be pretty cool... but no) or perhaps that water cleaning thing Protege wanted so bad. Do we need a way to explain it?

Maybe the specific mechanics of every weapon, battle saddle or such?

It's a train.

[O. Hinds]

Dude. It's a train. I literally joined this place to say this.... but it's just a train. 

The specifics are unimportant. Do we need a play by play analysis of the construction of gemlamps? (actually I think that'd be pretty cool... but no) or perhaps that water cleaning thing Protege wanted so bad. Do we need a way to explain it?

Maybe the specific mechanics of every weapon, battle saddle or such?

It's a train.

The problem isn't that I don't know exactly how it works (though that would be nice), it's that I'm getting contradictory data.

Hmm... Perhaps this will help: how do you envisage the scene in the locomotive?

[InLucidReverie]

Frankly it's been a few weeks since I read it, given I'm a prereader. I'd have to go and find it as the final scene is potentially different to what I initially saw.

Exactly what is the contradiction? In the SIMPLEST of terms to us non-locomotive-savvy.

[O. Hinds]

Let's see...
Well, firstly, the text both explicitly and implicitly says that the locomotive is a cab forward design; that is, the cab is at the very front. Nothing wrong there; many locomotives, even steam locomotives, have been such. The problems start when the text implies that a more or less ordinary corridor connects the cab with the passenger and cargo cars behind. That could be dealt with, particularly given that this is a turbine locomotive and therefore presumably late in the timeline of Equestrian steam locomotive technology, but it places some much greater restrictions on the design. Then, though, there's there's the stoking rod. An electric, magic, internal combustion, gas-burning steam, or liquid-burning steam locomotive would have no need of a stoking rod in the cab, nor would a solid-fueled steam locomotive with a separate cab and firepony's station. The presence of a stoking rod in the cab identifies this as a cab forward solid-fueled steam locomotive with the firepony's station located in the (enclosed!) cab. Where is the coal, or whatever, meant to be stored? Even if there was a tender (and Murky makes no mention of a cramped tender corridor), there's no way to get the fuel to the firebox at the front of the locomotive. Oh, I suppose that one could incorporate some crazy conveyor screw system, but why? It makes no sense for the locomotive to be built this way.

[InLucidReverie]

So what you're saying is that it doesn't line up with real life train construction.

There's your problem. My little pony is not real life, though it mirrors it in places. Fallout Equestria follows on from the history of the show... which has trains whose stacks bob up and down as they go.

Admittedly I did question the continuous corridor, but then I remembered that the show's trains do in fact have a continuous corridor and dismissed the matter.

[O. Hinds]

Okay, so, basically... where is the coal. You are asking where the coal is.
They've got a coal, or other solid-fuel, engine EXPLICITLY stated (due to the fact that a stoking rod, which I assume is used to stoak a solid-fuel fire)... but there's no coal in its proximity nor a cart (or corridor, or area of any kind) for the coal to be stored in.
What you need is a coal-filled staging area explicitly described as attached to the firepony's station.

Is that right?

Not exactly, though that would work. I don't need to know what the solution is, just that a sane one exists. Where would one put the fuel in such a curiously-designed locomotive? It would also help if I had some inkling of why it was designed the way it was. What set of design requirements led to this? A design may be insane yet sane if sanely designed to meet insane requirements, after all; if the cab forward design with a corridor and no separate firepony's station or tender (though I'm not sure whether the absence of a tender is a consequence of the locomotive design or one of the design requirements) was so important, why was it also vitally important to not use liquid or gaseous fuel, which would have obviously made the locomotive much less complex and more efficient?

[O. Hinds]

Admittedly I did question the continuous corridor, but then I remembered that the show's trains do in fact have a continuous corridor and dismissed the matter.

Wait, what? Where is that shown?

[O. Hinds]

Also, my problem is not that it does not match real locomotives; I would be quite happy to accept a design that would work in the FoE universe but not in ours. I do not see how this is that sort of design, though.

[OneMoreDaySK]

So is Wildcard pretty much an evil Pinkie Pie? Choo Choo!

[InLucidReverie]

I'm not entirely sure a one-off train journey that lasts a total of 2 pages (at best guess) is truly in need of such detailed analysis.

Fact is that you cannot expect Fuzzy to research trains for 2 pages of a journey that isn't about the train.... perhaps if this were being published then it would be worth more consideration.

In addition, perhaps you aughta consider that the train may have been repurposed to run on slave corpses due to a lack of trade with zebra lands restricting coal accassability. ISAMYSTERY.

Maybe it's a furnace fed on unicorn horns.

EDIT: That's the real reason Unity isn't being sent unicorns. Grindstone minces them, feeds the meat to Brutus and uses the bones to power trains!

[O. Hinds]

Ah, I see that MMMystery on the Friendship Express does present the interior of the locomotive in quite a curious manner. There are several problems, however. Firstly, even if we accept that the Friendship Express as portrayed in the show is of the same design as the train in the chapter, neglecting among other things the possibility of artistic license, the Friendship Express does not have a continuous enclosed corridor; part of the passage is open to the elements, which Murky makes no mention of. Secondly, while perhaps the large heart-shaped window on that locomotive might be the windscreen that the chapter mentions, I do not believe that Murky is tall enough to see through the curve dead-ahead through it. Even a pony of average height would be unable to get a forward view without rearing up.
Oh, yes, and I do not recall any of the show locomotives ever making an noise that could be described as "spooling up", certainly not while stationary.

In addition, perhaps you aughta consider that the train may have been repurposed to run on slave corpses due to a lack of trade with zebra lands restricting coal accassability. ISAMYSTERY.

Maybe it's a furnace fed on unicorn horns.

EDIT: That's the real reason Unity isn't being sent unicorns. Grindstone minces them, feeds the meat to Brutus and uses the bones to power trains!

…I can only assume that these are meant to be jokes.

I'm not entirely sure a one-off train journey that lasts a total of 2 pages (at best guess) is truly in need of such detailed analysis.

Fact is that you cannot expect Fuzzy to research trains for 2 pages of a journey that isn't about the train.... perhaps if this were being published then it would be worth more consideration.

Oh! Are you saying that the Fuzzy does not in fact have a sensible design for the locomotive, and that moreover the design is unimportant to the desired establishment of plot and setting? If so, that opens up the possibility of me moving past this by simply ignoring what's written and mentally substituting something that makes sense; I didn't want to do that before because I thought that it would both be somewhat rude to Fuzzy and make me miss out on part of the story. If this is unimportant and Fuzzy doesn't care, though…

[InLucidReverie]

Oh!  Are you saying that the Fuzzy does not in fact have a sensible design for the locomotive, and that moreover the design is unimportant to the desired establishment of plot and setting?  If so, that opens up the possibility of me moving past this by simply ignoring what's written and mentally substituting something that makes sense; I didn't want to do that before because I thought that it would both be somewhat rude to Fuzzy and make me miss out on part of the story.  If this is unimportant and Fuzzy doesn't care, though…

I would say that it wasn't considered important enough to warrant research, yes. Can't describe EVERYTHING or we'd never move past the floorboards.

'...nails weathered in such a way that the red and grays mottle together into a weird funky green'

Honestly, you could have worked this out by simply reading on and considring the matter once again if it became relevant later on.

[O. Hinds]

So I can just ignore it, then, without causing offense or missing anything?

[InLucidReverie]

That would be a yes.

[O. Hinds]

Thank you very much!

Okay, I ought to be able to finish the chapter later tonight.

[Admiral Stoic Rum]

So I can just ignore it, then, without causing offense or missing anything?

THATS WHAT I SAID ALL ALONG!

[O. Hinds]

Sorry that this took so long! Things kept coming up to delay me.

Interestingly, it looks like, though Equestria may use Brunel track gauge, the loading gauge width is actually about the same as the standard width of North American passenger railcars, according to Wikipedia, and actually narrower than most North American loading gauges. I'm bringing this up because I think that this fascinating locomotive might be a good place to start with the design. Making it liquid- or gas-fired can eliminate the forward section, I expect, and allow more flexibility in firebox design; that, combined with making the locomotive smaller, ought to provide room for a narrow corridor… Hm, yes, I like this idea! And am very, very mad at Wildcard.

Right, anyway, I don't actually need the details of the design, so where did we leave off?

Spoiler:

And there we go! Another good chapter, I think, despite the little hiccup over the design of the locomotive.

[O. Hinds]

So I can just ignore it, then, without causing offense or missing anything?

THATS WHAT I SAID ALL ALONG!

Sorry. I just didn't think it likely that Fuzzy simply didn't have a design.

[Admiral Stoic Rum]

You're hilarious Hinds

[O. Hinds]

...Thanks?

[Derpmind]

Another fun piece from Penby.

[Moodyman90]

I stopped being lazy and read through the new chapter yesterday.

I like Unity, I do, and I can see she's vital to the plot and may or may not have a connection to Protege, but I'm still a Sunny Number Seven shipper.

Don't have much to say about the chapter other than I liked it and kinda funny how it focused so much on the cold when I myself was unable to get warm while reading it. I'd handled all the snow worse than the others haha.

[O. Hinds]

Hah!

[RoboRed]

The original pic has been around a few months, but this edit of it I have never seen before. That's hilarious and adorable. 

[Derpmind]

Penby's been at it again.

[RoboRed]

He showed me that the other day.

...Glimmerbutt.  

[RoboRed]

Lookie what I found.

Spoiler:

Source

[Admiral Stoic Rum]

Lookie what I found.

Spoiler:

Source

excellent

[RoboRed]

50,632 words...


...You hear that sound, Fuzzy? That's the sound of my head cracking wide open and my brain running away. asdfawefafgsdgasdgsfadffsfsgs

[Admiral Stoic Rum]

50,632 words...


...You hear that sound, Fuzzy? That's the sound of my head cracking wide open and my brain running away. asdfawefafgsdgasdgsfadffsfsgs

haha...tis a drop in the bucket compared to the million word 208 chapter story I read over the past week

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