Re: [GRIMDARK] Fallout Equestria: Project Horizons Discussion

[Ironmonger]

See, Murphy's Law (at least in its typical form) is demonstrably false. There are several times when something could have gone wrong but didn't.

There are two similar rules I believe in though:
Finagle's Law states that the perversity of the universe tends toward a a maximum. This allows good things to happen in order to lull you into a false sense of security, and it explains why so many of the things that do go wrong seem to be, purely by coincidence, part of some vast coordinated cosmic joke at your expanse.
Meanwhile I forget the source, but a common maxim in engineering is "If there's a right way and a wrong way to do something, it's guaranteed that somebody will do it the wrong way." This is a simple application of the law of large numbers, and it basically means that if you design a toaster that explodes when you plug it in backwards, no matter how many warnings you apply or how stupid somebody would have to be to do it, the explosion is your fault because the toaster is capable of being plugged in backwards.

I know you were trying to be serious but this made me laugh a little.

[Sindri]

I know you were trying to be serious but this made me laugh a little.

Both of those things are valid. Honestly if you can't laugh at serious things you're never going to make it far in life without crippling depression. Because, well, see above.

[IncoherentOrange]

I thought the maxim was 'for every right way to do something, there are a thousand ways to do it wrong'. Could be a different one altogether, though.

[Ironmonger]

If I can laugh at the Ohio Highway Sniper Attacks then I can laugh at the serious things.

[O. Hinds]

A Rather Interesting Video, I Think:

By the way, any speculation on Equestrian mobile land and maritime AA? Given that operating pegasi and AAA at the same time would be tricky, what do you think the proportions are?

[Admiral Stoic Rum]

Given the lack of definitive air power on the part of the zebras aa was probably an afterthought. Likely the winter wrap ups would have seen a large push for the zebras to use whatever airpower they possessed.

I think it looks like the equestrians relied on their air power for primary aa.

[Cptadder]

[spoiler=A Rather Interesting Video, I Think]
By the way, any speculation on Equestrian mobile land and maritime AA? Given that operating pegasi and AAA at the same time would be tricky, what do you think the proportions are?

Given the lack of definitive air power on the part of the zebras aa was probably an afterthought. Likely the winter wrap ups would have seen a large push for the zebras to use whatever airpower they possessed.

I think it looks like the equestrians relied on their air power for primary aa.

Give the presence of Thunderheads and Raptors and armored suited Pegesus and depictions of air combat it looks like anti-air technology was in it's infancy. There are no ZSU running around with radar guided missiles and quad 23mm canon. There are no M24 Dusters with dual 40mm Bofors and iron sights. In fact a 40mm bofors cannon seems to not exist. We see 12.7mm heavy machine guns and not much better. Friendship city has some sort of field gun that can toss up flak shells that do shred raptors so we are talking about WWI level air defenses.

Light, heavy and General purpose machine guns on swivel mounts to shoot at fliers, while heavies guns toss exploding shells in the air likely on timers but perhaps there are cut rate targeting fetishes or talismans that let a shell know when something is nearby to explode at best effective distance.

So you want a bit of an estimate I say Zebra AA consisted of machine guns on poles or elaborate and hard to move swivel mounts and a gun (or several) of a likely ineffective caliber. 85mm-90mm is the sweet spot as far as having a gun that can toss a shell a great distance with a big boom at the end fast enough to matter and yet still able to track targets quickly. 40mm is the sweet spot on the middle end and 20mm for the low end. 25mm, 50mm and 75mm are all the the bad calibers which straddle the line between effectiveness, 50mm is significant for how ineffective it is. To big to make automatic, to small to have a decent burst.

[Ironmonger]

Robots listen to Scrap Metal.
FoE Pun: I mighty fortress is my gawd.
Knife to meet you.
Axcommunication.
Okay I'll stop now, put the gun away.

[Cptadder]

So if that post is about Zebra AA what about Pony AA?
Simple, the same but different as they likely have swivel mounted machine guns for local defense and a bigger gun for dragon defense but likely very few in between weapons.

So Pony AA is swivel mounted light miniguns and heavy machine guns with big 76mm guns to shoot dragons with. Anything between is fought by Pegasus.

[Ironmonger]

I've noticed nopony has used something similar to Calculator in an FoE fic, as far as I have seen. Fallout Tactics may have been a bad game, but it gave some interesting concepts for us to use.

[OneMoreDaySK]

@IronMonger
Methinks making a singular Crusader Mainframe was hard enough, but trying to make it multiplayer? Not really feasible methinks, unless there's a fic where a vault would've independently developed it, perhaps with excess mainframe parts that were stored there.

(<3 Corrupt a Wish.)

[Ironmonger]

@IronMonger
Methinks making a singular Crusader Mainframe was hard enough, but trying to make it multiplayer? Not really feasible methinks, unless there's a fic where a vault would've independently developed it, perhaps with excess mainframe parts that were stored there.

Perhaps not feasible for Equestria... *evil-ass grin*

[Cptadder]

No the calculator is just another Crusader Maneframe with brains written onto it. The only thing the Crusader provides over Celestia is Rampency which does not exist in the incredibly rare Maneframes.


One in SPP which Celestia is bound to. One in Spike's cave who's entire existence is dedicated to casting a megaspell. And one put in charge of a Stable that had defective programing. It was not even rampant just insufficiently forward thinking with several logic errors as Littlepip points out.

Adding in "multi-player" or madness does not really change it to anything other than just another Maneframe. Unless you use the original idea of the calculator. That it was a computer working to a pre-set table set by it's creators long ago. It's only intellegent enough to achieve it's objectives and lacks the creativity to do anything but a pass/fail check and move on to the next one.

[Ironmonger]

I'm starting to get an idea of why I sound so stupid compared to you guys, I'm guessing you've read FoE and Horizons multiple times? Because I haven't, hell I barely remember much of what happened in Horizons and I read it from start to present.

[IncoherentOrange]

Well, that'd probably stem from how damned long it is, and you reading it quickly.

[Ironmonger]

Actually I'm somewhat of a slow reader. A side-effect of ADHD is a generally short attention span, whenever I'm reading I end up bouncing from tab to tab. Sometimes it could take me an entire day to read a single chapter of Horizons, but that's more likely because how long it is. Took me something like a month or two to get where I am.

[Cptadder]

I'm starting to get an idea of why I sound so stupid compared to you guys, I'm guessing you've read FoE and Horizons multiple times? Because I haven't, hell I barely remember much of what happened in Horizons and I read it from start to present.

I've read FoE twice, and I'm slowly listening through the audiobook version (Slow because chapters get released every two months and we are at chapter 23 or so). I've read PH one time and started a re-read then stopped because new chapters kept hitting.

[Admiral Stoic Rum]

I read both of those stories in what would be considered one sitting. No speed reading. Utterly absorbing.

[Ironmonger]

Deus voices by Tourettes Guy. Imagine that.
*loads shell* "Oh fuck you you're grounded!"

[Ketchup]

I'm at chapter 12 on both my PH and original re-reads, I think. I'm sure about the original but I'm not on PH. I guess that's the point I get distracted at.

[OneMoreDaySK]

May or may not have read the original story thrice, and Horizons in the double digits.

[Sindri]

Actually I'm somewhat of a slow reader. A side-effect of ADHD is a generally short attention span, whenever I'm reading I end up bouncing from tab to tab. Sometimes it could take me an entire day to read a single chapter of Horizons, but that's more likely because how long it is. Took me something like a month or two to get where I am.

I've done one full reading of each, plus going back through bits and pieces as I sought answers to specific questions. You tend to retain more if you spend more time thinking as you read instead of just going straight through it, so those who do reading reactions/chapter reviews likely remember PH a bit better, and participating in the discussion always helps.

Regarding concentration issues:

[Ironmonger]

Thanks Sindri. I'm trying it out with some Turkish music (something about those Zurna horns...) and it seems to be helping. It's kinda like getting a semi-annoying kid out of your hair.

[Icy Shake]

I've read each once, and am listening to the audiobooks. I'm up to chapters 23 and 14, respectively, of FoE and PH. I might start a reread of FoE since I'll have a hard copy soon, but wouldn't count on it.

[Sindri]

Thanks Sindri. I'm trying it out with some Turkish music (something about those Zurna horns...) and it seems to be helping. It's kinda like getting a semi-annoying kid out of your hair.

I'm helping!

[Ironmonger]

Thanks Sindri. I'm trying it out with some Turkish music (something about those Zurna horns...) and it seems to be helping. It's kinda like getting a semi-annoying kid out of your hair.

I'm helping!

Now I have two scenes running through the Ironmind. Pinkie as a superhero (oh dear lord help us all) and a pony on a rooftop, shouldering a rocket launcher and yelling "I'M HELPING!"

[Icy Shake]

Pinkie as a superhero is canon, remember? It actually worked out pretty well, even if everyone involved was being a jackass.

[Ironmonger]

Pinkie as a superhero is canon, remember? It actually worked out pretty well, even if everyone involved was being a jackass.

Haven't seen much of the actual show, I actually became a brony by reading Project Horizons, first story I saw and it was update 29 I think. I still think the Elements as Chaos Gods would be awesome.

[nebulous]

On the subject of authors making decent fiction out of apparently bad concepts, I've been tempted to try making 30 H's make sense and read well. Or this fic.

[OneMoreDaySK]

On the subject of authors making decent fiction out of apparently bad concepts, I've been tempted to try making 30 H's make sense and read well. Or this fic.

Wow... That's... pretty bad. Though I still don't think anything can top Spiderses for me yet.

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