Re: [GRIMDARK] Fallout Equestria: Project Horizons Discussion

[Ironmonger]

He has a point about sleep. I start hallucinating when I'm deprived of sleep, once saw an armor-plated possum.

[Frost]

He has a point about sleep. I start hallucinating when I'm deprived of sleep, once saw an armor-plated possum.

I dunno, them possums are learning. Probably getting hints from bears.

[Ironmonger]

Them fucking possums are unbearable.

[OneMoreDaySK]

I don't like you<u>r</u> attitude mister. Please go to sleep before you get all batty.

[Ironmonger]

I saw one of them too. It told me to come over to the dark side. I see really strange shit when I'm low on power. I'VE SEEN SOME SHIT AND SHIT ACCESSORIES.

[FeatherDust]

I still think it is someone she knows. For all we know one of her friends could be lying about their back story and be the eater and helping her for their own reasons.

I'm fairly sure the big soul she saw getting tortured in the Rings was Luna. Buuuut who knows really. Yes, it must be somepony she recognizes, but she knows so many ponies she's never actually met, via memory orbs, that this does not really narrow it down any.

I doubt the eater is generic evil either. It's hoarding souls. It seems more like it just can't let go and is desperately clinging to those it knows.

From the Star Vision I thought it was pretty clear that the Eater is trying to use its hoarded souls to escape from the planet and get back out into space, and/or to attract another star it can eat.

[Ironmonger]

So once it uses those souls what happens to them, do they go free? Do they...explode?

[OneMoreDaySK]

MeRather thinks they expire and cease to be after EoS uses them. Methinks it's Luna judging from Blackjack's initial reactions on meeting the two sisters in memory orbs for the first time.

[Ketchup]

Ok then, onto Ironman classic. Lemme check my roster if y'all are ok with it:
Ironmonger - Aggressive Assault
Frost - Defensive Assault
CamoBadger - Camping Sniper
SilentCarto - Mobile Sniper
Ketchup - Shiv (Will barely use. Sorry)
Orange - Floating Shiv (Will barely use. Sorry)
RoboRed - Camping Sniper
OHinds - Medic Support
TylerToon - Smoke Support

That it? Here's hoping to you all living.

I recently got XCOM to work on my XP OS, and I use an Alloy Shiv with a heavy plasma weapon in my squad with 2 supports, 1 psi-heavy, 1 assault and a sniper, all Colonels. I have an extra sniper Colonel to fill in for wounded troops. Anyway, the Alloy Shiv is very useful for scouting and tanking, especially when you upgrade the arc caster to repair them. Gun ain't shabby either, though I started with laser, plasma does 11 damage with pretty high critical chance.
So I'd want to be an Alloy Shiv, if possible.

[CannonFodder]

MeRather thinks they expire and cease to be after EoS uses them. Methinks it's Luna judging from Blackjack's initial reactions on meeting the two sisters in memory orbs for the first time.

Maybe it's nightmare moon side of Luna?


Hey I just had a thought. Why has no one thought of just cutting power to the entire hoofington region to get to the core? The smart thing to do would be to do would be to look up the city's electrical grid and turn off the transformer stations that you can get to, cut the wires who's stations you can't get to. It wouldn't leave the entire hoof in the dark, but enough of it that you can "leak" to the steel rangers, enclave, red eye's forces and pretty much everyone that the power is down. Watch as they all go running towards the core, wait for them to all get slaughtered by the defences that still have power and then stroll gingerly right to the core without a care in the world as every other faction just destroyed a large portion of their forces while taking out the leftover defences leaving your faction to collect the majority of everything in the core. Sure you would have to jam the radios to keep their leaders from telling their forces to fall back, but your faction would be all that is left intact afterwards.

Oh and if by some chance the massive swarm of greedy ponies trying to get to the core somehow win you can always turn the power back on, thus turning the enervation back on killing them as well and then turn it back off after the remaining forces die.

You could even get rid of the raider disease by transmitting information to them that there's countless perfectly preserved ponies right for the picking.

[FeatherDust]

Page 3 starts with more Xcom squad naming and a mention of Bakelite!

Bakelite is funny. I always thought it was called that because it's thermoset plastic -- you bake it to make it harden. But no, it's named after the creator, Doctor Baekeland.

Page four opens on fan art and discussion about Glorystein's monster by which I mean Glory's decision to bring Blackjack back to life and as a cyborg. (She never asked for this)

Except she kinda did; see the end of my post about the Star Vision.

So once it uses those souls what happens to them, do they go free? Do they...explode?

Probably get destroyed for power or something, I dunno.

[CamoBadger]

Page 11 Summary is go
But then we spend most of page two talking about Frost and Ironmongers "when I grow up" plans involving the military, much disinformation is had by all the civies with Rum throwing in a splash of reality.

Wait, we talked about this?

Damnit, I never lurk at times where my input might actually apply

[OneMoreDaySK]

MeRather thinks they expire and cease to be after EoS uses them. Methinks it's Luna judging from Blackjack's initial reactions on meeting the two sisters in memory orbs for the first time.

Maybe it's nightmare moon side of Luna?


Hey I just had a thought. Why has no one thought of just cutting power to the entire hoofington region to get to the core? The smart thing to do would be to do would be to look up the city's electrical grid and turn off the transformer stations that you can get to, cut the wires who's stations you can't get to. It wouldn't leave the entire hoof in the dark, but enough of it that you can "leak" to the steel rangers, enclave, red eye's forces and pretty much everyone that the power is down. Watch as they all go running towards the core, wait for them to all get slaughtered by the defences that still have power and then stroll gingerly right to the core without a care in the world as every other faction just destroyed a large portion of their forces while taking out the leftover defences leaving your faction to collect the majority of everything in the core. Sure you would have to jam the radios to keep their leaders from telling their forces to fall back, but your faction would be all that is left intact afterwards.

Oh and if by some chance the massive swarm of greedy ponies trying to get to the core somehow win you can always turn the power back on, thus turning the enervation back on killing them as well and then turn it back off after the remaining forces die.

If it were that easy, Zebras would have done it during the war. Thing is Hoofington is pretty much a reinforced fortress-city. Plus whatever cybermonster roaming about is probably looking out for the city electrical-wise.

[CannonFodder]

If it were that easy, Zebras would have done it during the war. Thing is Hoofington is pretty much a reinforced fortress-city. Plus whatever cybermonster roaming about is probably looking out for the city electrical-wise.

Well obviously, but all you'd need to do is take down enough powerstations to cause a brownout. Destroying the dam would probably cut the majority of the power. Power would obviously be rerouted to more critical parts of the city, however all you'd need to do is cut enough of the power and cut enough of the powerlines, destroy enough of the transformers to the point that the city's systems begin to fail. Cutting enough power that the city's defences begin to fail is the hard part. Sure losing power to noncritical parts of the city would be easy, but defences would be the last thing to go.

Tl:dr; Well obviously, but all you need to do is cut enough power for their to be a brownout.

[WovenTales]

A bit slow, but the older of my two younger brothers doesn't dislike the show, though he probably wouldn't watch it even if he had nothing else to do, my mother doesn't quite understand it but I managed to convince her that it's not bad, and my youngest brother is more of a fan than I am, though he isn't much interested in the fandom (besides Phoe's commentaries). Still, he's only in fourth grade, so you can't really blame him for that. He's definitely bought into the Derpy hype though. Not quite sure why—Lyra's so much better.

@Kim
On pointless deaths:
Curiously enough, I just finished reading The Poisonwood Bible for an English class. In it the culture was that yeah, bad stuff happens, kids die, and no one can do anything about it. Just grieve for a bit and move on. Now when the main family loses one of theirs, it dramatically affects each one of the characters in different way. In a way, the culture there has adapted to cope with a form of seeming apathy for death. I dunno, might just be reading into it too much.

I remember reading that book. It was one of my favorites from my entire time at highschool, and introduced me to one of my favorite authors (Somber and Fuzzy actually among them). I highly recommend checking out Prodigal Summer (also by Barbara Kingsolver) if you liked it.

[Kattlarv]

@Iron: Meh... I just as said, simply can't grasp how they apparently think. Or the lack of it.

@OMDSK: Actually, that was about... Medly dying mostly, none really gave a fuck about her as said. As said, to me it was about like BJ was about to give a dying pony a healing potion, then drops it and it breaks and everyone goes: "Okay! Everypony back off! I dropped the potion, we can't afford to waste a second one, No Lacunae! Don't waste any magic, we dropped the potion, she is meant to die, nothing we can do about it. Glory, put that first aid kit away. We can't do anything about it lets just sit here and wait for a while... is she dead yet? Okay she's stopped breathing... Everyone, help me haul her soon to be permanent corpse if no help is administered soon, out of the mud! Okay, that only took around a minute, great job everyone, now get her away from here, we needed the room anyhow... I want her toy collection! Dibs on her caps. The hat is mine!" then the fact as said that Glory got aroused by all that...

Sleep might help though, but in no mood to sleep... had a fight with a semi-friend. They don't get me, don't seem to want to bother caring to understand, and I don't really get them nor their so called logic. Just telling me to "just use your imagination, du'h", but I ALWAYS have to. Why is it so fucking much to ask for people to pay minimal attention to females in said situations? I never see him suggest he could use HIS. (I'll stop here before rambling)

[Ironmonger]

I cared a little bit about Medly dying actually.

Also I'm picking about who I'm friends with, mainly because I get aggravated with people who haven't streamlined their thought processes.

On the subject of the Core, I get the feeling it's one of those things you have to chip away at bit by bit before any real progress is made.

[CannonFodder]

I cared a little bit about Medly dying actually.

Also I'm picking about who I'm friends with, mainly because I get aggravated with people who haven't streamlined their thought processes.

On the subject of the Core, I get the feeling it's one of those things you have to chip away at bit by bit before any real progress is made.

Even if you cut power to 95% of the core there would still be the issue of security robots and ghouls. Which is why you tell every faction out there that the power is down and watch as they get slaughtered.

[Ironmonger]

I cared a little bit about Medly dying actually.

Also I'm picking about who I'm friends with, mainly because I get aggravated with people who haven't streamlined their thought processes.

On the subject of the Core, I get the feeling it's one of those things you have to chip away at bit by bit before any real progress is made.

Even if you cut power to 95% of the core there would still be the issue of security robots and ghouls. Which is why you tell every faction out there that the power is down and watch as they get slaughtered.

I'd bring nachos and a keg for that show, call me morbid if you want.

[OneMoreDaySK]

I cared a little bit about Medly dying actually.

Also I'm picking about who I'm friends with, mainly because I get aggravated with people who haven't streamlined their thought processes.

On the subject of the Core, I get the feeling it's one of those things you have to chip away at bit by bit before any real progress is made.

Even if you cut power to 95% of the core there would still be the issue of security robots and ghouls. Which is why you tell every faction out there that the power is down and watch as they get slaughtered.

I'd bring nachos and a keg for that show, call me morbid if you want.

They wouldn't go all out into the core though. Most of them aren't stupid. They would probably send out scouts first, and if they don't hear from them, the factions would stand off and wait until someone else decides to take it on, then vulture from there. Only group I can think of would be the overequipped Harbingers with Steel Ranger reinforcements, and maybe the Enclave. Big Daddy, the reapers and the subordinate groups know they don't have enough strength to fight it out, especially with the casualties of that last big fight. Collegiate is too weak to overextend into the core. The Society would send slave scouts first. And Keeper's aren't so stupid as to go anywhere near that place, especially with the prospect of tussling with any of the major factions.

[Ironmonger]

I'm just saying it would be fun to see it all go down, I'm the type who likes to sit back and watch occasionally, take notes and form my own theories.

Then again I could be captured...

[Necr0maNceR]

As far as FiM in my family goes, I've gotten my mom to watch all the episodes, and she enjoys it well enough, but isn't a huge fan of it or anything. My brother won't even touch it no matter how much I try to convince him to give it a shot. My dad thinks it's kind of funny that I like it, but he said he'll watch it if I give him a digital copy of the episodes, so he can watch them while working. It would actually be relevant to his job, since he works for Hallmark Cards and they have been looking into acquiring FiM as a property.

@ Somber: Taking a break is a good idea. You don't want to force it and produce something of a lower quality. You could even take a break of several months if you felt you had too. Of course, it is obviously important that you finish PH, and finish it well. I mean, you've spent SO much time and effort on this, that to abandon it without finishing it, or giving it a rushed, low quality ending, would just be unacceptable. I don't mean so much for us the readers (although it would be a massive blow), since almost all of us would get over it eventually. I mean for you, the writer, to have poured so much time and effort into this, and then fail to properly finish it (or finish it at all), is something that would cause a massive blow to your self esteem and confidence. One that you may never completely recover from. Of course, you are already well aware of that, I'm sure.

All that aside, you could always do another reread of Project Horizons as long as your writer's block persists. That might give you some inspiration to push you through.

@ Kattlarv:

Spoiler:

First off, I'd like to apologize for taking so long to reply back to you. I got distracted by the minecraft server and school, and hadn't checked the thread for a while.

I too hate it when an author seems like they are about to do something deep or interesting, then backs out at the last second, and takes the easy way out. Many times I have read a story where it seems like something significant is going to happen, that will shake all the characters up, create conflict, drama, and all-in-all make things WAY more interesting. Then the author seems to quickly change their mind, not do what they were going to go, and the tension suddenly drops. What could have been great source of conflict, drama, a defining moment for multiple characters, and a cause for some very interesting writing is reduced to almost nothing. Things level out, characters relax, the cause for concern is gone, and things get BORING. Conflict and drama are what make a story interesting. The more you take away, the blander it becomes.

One of the most common examples of this is when it seems like a character is definitely going to die, and perhaps even have a supposedly mortal wound, with lots of final goodbyes, last words, and whatever, then WHAM! Something suddenly saves them. Usually a Deus Ex Machina pulled out of the author's ass. This is particularly bad when something happens to a character which there is no way they could have survived, but because you didn't actually SEE them die, the author uses that as an excuse to come up with a reason as to why they survived. Now, admittedly, in most situations where you didn't see the character specifically die and they end up coming back later (same chapter or many chapters later, doesn't matter) the author usually didn't plan on killing them in the first place, and planned on having them come back. One example that really grates on me in particular is the infamous "falling into a river at the bottom of a ravine" example, and it's derivatives. Glory falling at Flash Industries is an example of this. Whenever this happens to a character they always survive! I can count the times a character hasn't survived this (that I know of) on one hand. I'd need a hundred hands to count the times they do survive. Stuff like that happens particularly often in shonen anime and manga. Character's survive what should certainly have killed them, and "almost" die a thousand times.

Anyways, back to what I was originally talking about. An author deciding to kill a character, then backing off at the last second. One particular example that I admire where this DIDN'T happen was in the anime Gurren Lagann when

Spoiler:

I was totally surprised when that happened. Up until that happened, it seemed like one of those shows where the characters were invincible. I mean, it totally changed the tone of the show. It was no longer "just another battle anime", but something with real meaning. I mean, I don't know if that's the best example of what I'm trying to describe, but I think it fits pretty well.

Anyways, I think I've started to go off on a tangent, time to get back on topic. Another example of an author "backing out" would be when a character makes a horrible mistake, like one that results in the death or serious injury of another character, but something equally serious. Regardless, the mistake has massive consequences that the character will have to deal with for the rest of the story. "Backing out" in this case usually involves the sudden revelation that the character's actions actually didn't have the consequences they thought it did, and that things are actually okay. Or, of course, some miracle solution saves the day and undoes the damage the character caused.

ANYWAYS, regarding what you said about Somber, yeah, I agree. There are certain types of violence and hardship that he has no problem with not only telling, but "cranking up the level", as you put it, to some pretty high extremes. You said this mostly applied to "generic" stuff, and I think I see what you are saying. Plenty of nameless or minor character's die all the time, and everyone has to struggle with major hardships. Those hardships, however, are either "gotten over", or something the respective character learns to live with. None of the main characters (except villains) have died, and whenever a character approaches the breaking point, they recover fairly quickly. Somber is very attached to his main characters, and has backed out several times and decided not to kill one (like Scotch) because he couldn't bear to. Especially because of the impact it would have on the other characters. Several times Somber has backed off because he was worried that he might push a character so far past the breaking point that they would be unable to recover. That is a good thing for him to keep in mind, but it also causes him take less risks and only push things so far, which limits him.

Regarding what you said about the Goddess being able to control Blackjack, I also agree. I hope the control is due to something Lacunae did, otherwise it doesn't make much sense. First of all, I don't agree with the idea that taint exposure = alicorn transformation. The alicorn potion was a very specific thing that Twilight had to create, and not just some random side effect of taint. Secondly, why does being alicorn-ish give the Goddess control over Blackjack? The reason she is able to control alicorns is because they were specifically exposed to her alicorn vats, and taken into Unity. Randomly gaining a few alicorn traits wouldn't give the Goddess control over Blackjack. Of course, like I said, Lacunae probably brought Blackjack into Unity, which would make much more sense.

[Ironmonger]

But suddenly thread nuke! o_o

On the topic of bad writing and writers backing out, do any of you believe that writers do some things that are completely unforgivable? And if so, are there ways one could redeem themselves?

[RandomBlank]

For Somber's depression...


Keep taking the meds for a week or two yet. This is a very, very bad time of the year and it brings awful depression to all who are at least somewhat prone.

When the new season starts, start watching ponies. Within first 2-3 episodes (weeks) put the meds off. Wait another episode (week) and check if your inspiration has returned. It should be there in its full, and depression reduced to manageable size.

Ponies, man! New season! Cheer up!

[Guest]

But suddenly thread nuke! o_o

On the topic of bad writing and writers backing out, do any of you believe that writers do some things that are completely unforgivable? And if so, are there ways one could redeem themselves?

When the author is condescending to the reader, there is no way in hell to make that story good. I'm looking at you, James Patterson. That's not his only sin, but it was the one that irked me most. Terry Goodkind does this a bit, too, though there's just so much wrong with everything he does that it's sort of adorable to watch him screw everything up constantly. =P

[Kippershy]

If anyone wants me, message.
Otherwise, I'm no longer keeping up with this.

[FeatherDust]

On the topic of bad writing and writers backing out, do any of you believe that writers do some things that are completely unforgivable? And if so, are there ways one could redeem themselves?

By definition you can't redeem yourself from something that's unforgivable...

But anyway, as far as I'm concerned, the only mortal sin of literature is making me say the eight deadly words:
I don't care what happens to these people.

That's what killed Great Gatsby for me back in high school -- basically everyone in the story is a reprehensible person, but they're also too bland to cheer for anyone as a charismatic bastard (like say, Ferris Bueller). I could sit here and watch their vapid, pointless lives implode, but I just... don't... care. (A lot of this is probably because I'm a middle-class child of the 80s, raised with the sense that you ought to work for what you get, and therefore start out vaguely disgusted with all the whiny little rich kids in the book.)

[FeatherDust]

Thinking about the Star Vision, I was realizing how the Eater of Souls is basically Satan. The brightest star, turned to evil because of pride, cast out of the heavens, now resident on Earth where he whispers to and tempts mortals...

"Lucifer" even means "the light-bringer". It was the old Roman name for Venus at dawn.*

*It took a long time before people realized that the dawn-star and the evening-star were actually the same planet. The Greeks called the morning star Eosphorus ("dawn-bringer") or Phosphorus ("light-bringer"), which is written in Latin as "Lucifer". The evening star was Hesperus or Vesperus ("western star"), which is why the Catholic sundown service is called Vespers.

[Frost]

But suddenly thread nuke! o_o

On the topic of bad writing and writers backing out, do any of you believe that writers do some things that are completely unforgivable? And if so, are there ways one could redeem themselves?

When the author is condescending to the reader, there is no way in hell to make that story good. I'm looking at you, James Patterson. That's not his only sin, but it was the one that irked me most. Terry Goodkind does this a bit, too, though there's just so much wrong with everything he does that it's sort of adorable to watch him screw everything up constantly. =P

Another way, of course, is if you're writing a licensed novel, to totally rape the established canon. Looking at you Karen Traviss and C.S. Goto

[Stringtheory]

But suddenly thread nuke! o_o

On the topic of bad writing and writers backing out, do any of you believe that writers do some things that are completely unforgivable? And if so, are there ways one could redeem themselves?

When the author is condescending to the reader, there is no way in hell to make that story good. I'm looking at you, James Patterson. That's not his only sin, but it was the one that irked me most. Terry Goodkind does this a bit, too, though there's just so much wrong with everything he does that it's sort of adorable to watch him screw everything up constantly. =P

Another way, of course, is if you're writing a licensed novel, to totally rape the established canon. Looking at you Karen Traviss and C.S. Goto

Two words: Matt Ward

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