Re: [Fallout Equestria] Setting discussions

[O. Hinds]

Well, that's a possibility for interesting politics for Littlepip to take part in :

NCR : "Cut the Alliance from the network, plz ?"
Alliance : "We are only making sure that the NCR isn't preparing something against us, can you blame us ?"


Also... On the other hand the NCR might tolerate the Alliance spying on them from the SPP towers, if only as a guarantee of goodwill. And depending on their mood, the Alliance could even accept to be spied back from its own tower(s).


Overall, I think Littlepip would want the SPP to stay "neutral", and not directly linked to the NCR, the Alliance, or any power beside herself. It's possible she would firewall EVERYONE from the SPP network.


Thoughts ?

I expect that LittlePip probably would want to keep everyone else out, yes, just in case. If anyone wants something from it, they could ask her.

[Harmony Ltd.]

Not relevant to the discussion at hand, but I think it would get lost on the chat thread so I'll put it here...

This may be an interesting case study for the effects of energy weapons :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anatoli_Bugorski

TL;DR : guy get his head bored through by a particle beam, survive with almost no sequels

Wow, interesting.

Proton beam = jet of relativistic hyper-heated hydrogen plasma

He didn't turn into green goo after all.


You know how they cut centimeters thick steel plates just with high pressure water jets mixed with a bit of microscopic sand ? Well, turn that shit up to 10^11 and that what that guy got into his face.

SCIENCE!

[O. Hinds]

Like that the males of the Enclave "make a sacrifice", they don't do shit, and it doesn't really do shit. If they would stay at home and hoof, wing and lingate (made that word up as there's no counterpart to "fellate") the mares and neglect their own pleasure, only satisfy the mares to help them with the SLIGHT/overall increase in arousal. (we don't become braindead sex dolls, even if I can't relate to a mare's heat, it shouldn't be too different as they are also SENTIENT, and heck, even our earth mares crave orgasm, not just out to pleasure the male), THEN they would be doing shit at least, enduring something. (or heck, sterilize every single male after they've had a foal, as they're only allowed to have one anyhow. Or even the females, males are generally much easier though.) Not fly off to fuck elsewhere while giving 0 fucks to the mares in heat. As of now, all they do is leave the females to at what most could be a big lesbian orgy. Since just because you remove a male partner from a female, it's not like their hard-on dies down. We have sexual needs too you know.

This is obviously sexist, but I put that down to the GPE, not Somber.  Also, given that the GPE promotes homosexuality, those lesbian orgies could be intentional.  This does, though, have some interesting implications for the integration of former GPE citizens into post-SR societies…  I think that I'll repost this bit to the headcanon thread, actually.

I hadn't thought of this before, but the legacy of such practices likely would affect integration.

[O. Hinds]

Las Pegasus wouldn't be required to itself integrate, since it's an independent member state of the Alliance, but Las Pegasus citizens operating in other areas of the Alliance would have to work with the fact that such dividing of the sexes is not the Alliance's modus operandi (I'm not sure if any of the minor powers engage in it, but the Miliozi, the Elusive Company, Profectum, and Gibhalter don't).

[O. Hinds]

As I posted before, I see it sorta like how females are forced to cover themselves in Islamic society. In the Enclave, males are held responsible for the lack of control of females, so they are sent away for a week on long-range recon. Long-range recon implying less hospitable environments at or beyond the edge of enclave territory, possibly even dangerously so. Honestly, some soldiers might not even come home from it... and nearly every male is sent away to do this every year.
In any case, I interpret it as the Enclave's society to be terribly sexist, not a sign of sexism without Somber's writing. It makes them kind of interesting as well as even easier to dislike.

[Meleagridis]

Cripes, swicked! I woke people up with that laughter. Be more careful.
Seriously, though, I don't think anything will ever eclipse this for my favourite and accepted RD-fate headcanon.

Way back when we were talking fable logic:

See, as much as I love that sort of logic I have to confess that it doesn't conform all that well to FoE. While a giant holding up the sky or zebras cooking life in kilns might be the norm for other FiM derivatives (or even the show itself sometimes) the FoE setting doesn't make the most use of these fantastic twists of lore-logic. The single example I can really remember is the way clouds work, even getting wired into machines. Kind of cool and also on the right track... but not quite enough, I think.

Of course, my memory of the original is roughly the same consistency as watery chicken soup, so maybe I just can't remember enough.

narrative causality is not among [FoE's] laws of physics.

Oh if I wasn't leaving in two minutes I'd get all huffy!
Well not really. But I would disagree, wholeheartedly in fact! Grumpy Pie knows that you can rationalize Pinkie Sense all you want in all sorts of ways- but nothing will change that it is there because a few writers (and presumably a very young Lauren Faust) thought it would be funny.

[O. Hinds]

I thought I'd post my favorite, and longest-held, headcanon in the thread. Specifically, what I think happened to Rainbow Dash.

What kkat wrote:

What I wrote:

What I wrote before what I wrote above:

Hah!

Judiciously Unified, Numerically Cataloged

:D

Oh if I wasn't leaving in two minutes I'd get all huffy!
Well not really. But I would disagree, wholeheartedly in fact! Grumpy Pie knows that you can rationalize Pinkie Sense all you want in all sorts of ways- but nothing will change that it is there because a few writers (and presumably a very young Lauren Faust) thought it would be funny.

That's a Doylist explanation, though.  In order for narrative causality to be among FoE's laws of physics, it would have to be part of a Watsonian explanation.

[O. Hinds]

Judiciously Unified, Numerically Cataloged

:D

I like to imagine Twilight going on a tour of the MoA warehouse, complaining to Rainbow about the fact that they just threw everything into piles of "weapons", "explosives", "sciency-stuff", "covert stuff", "really expensive covert stuff", etc., and Rainbow telling a subordinate to spray paint a number in front of each pile before making up the acronym on the spot.

Edit:
Actually, better yet, Twilight complains about it throughout her first tour of the facility, returns for a second a few months later to see exactly how much effort Rainbow Dash put into answering her complaints, then decides not to tour any MoA facilities ever again :P

Hahahaha!

[Harmony Ltd.]

That's what I'd call a one strike two wins for Rainbow Dash, here.

Also, Swicked, I like the idea that

Spoiler:

[Harmony Ltd.]

Lil'bit of headcannonering 'bout the Days of Fire...


From the few FOE fics I've read, I've kind of got the impression that, at least as far as the survivors two hundred years later are concerned, everything kinda went down the shitter in the span of a single day when the nukes megaspells went off. Well, I guess they have good reasons to believe so, namely the fact that for all they know the only ones who survived that episodes were the stable ponies, the steel rangers, those feathered bastards up there, and the ghouls but it's not like they count.

My own interpretation is a bit different. Well, more elaborated...

Basically, for starter, I think the megaspell exchange would have been a bit longer than one day. Probably more like a week, with up to a few months until the last shots were fired.

Like... Cloudsdale goes poof, it's the First Strike. Initial exchange start, most of the bombs and megaspells are exchanged then. By the first day, the majority of the 150-190 million ponies inhabiting Equestria are dead or dying. The military chain of command on both sides is already on the verge of collapsing, but still hold enough coherence to launch counter attacks, and counter-counter-attacks with the few remaining SAC 2 missiles for the zebras, and the remaining strategic megaspell facilities for Equestria.

By the end of day four, there hardly remain any coherent power structure in both militaries, and the strategic megaspell stockpiles are almost exhausted. Both sides still possess a few "tactical" megaspells, but they have no mean of delivering them to the enemy (think balefire tipped artillery shells, in a warehouse 1000 kilometers away from the actual battlefield). The few remaining underground command centers have lost contact with surface units (who either died or fled), and are basically commanding an army of ghosts.

By the end of the week, the war is effectively over, only a few covert teams on both sides carrying out suicide infiltration mission up to a few month after the start of the exchange, deep behind enemy lines, carrying tactical megaspells to some "critical" targets.


Now you're probably asking yourself... What happened to those guys in the underground command centers ?...

Well, I may have some ideas...

[O. Hinds]

Lil'bit of headcannonering 'bout the Days of Fire...


From the few FOE fics I've read, I've kind of got the impression that, at least as far as the survivors two hundred years later are concerned, everything kinda went down the shitter in the span of a single day when the nukes megaspells went off. Well, I guess they have good reasons to believe so, namely the fact that for all they know the only ones who survived that episodes were the stable ponies, the steel rangers, those feathered bastards up there, and the ghouls but it's not like they count.

My own interpretation is a bit different. Well, more elaborated...

Basically, for starter, I think the megaspell exchange would have been a bit longer than one day. Probably more like a week, with up to a few months until the last shots were fired.

Like... Cloudsdale goes poof, it's the First Strike. Initial exchange start, most of the bombs and megaspells are exchanged then. By the first day, the majority of the 150-190 million ponies inhabiting Equestria are dead or dying. The military chain of command on both sides is already on the verge of collapsing, but still hold enough coherence to launch counter attacks, and counter-counter-attacks with the few remaining SAC 2 missiles for the zebras, and the remaining strategic megaspell facilities for Equestria.

By the end of day four, there hardly remain any coherent power structure in both militaries, and the strategic megaspell stockpiles are almost exhausted. Both sides still possess a few "tactical" megaspells, but they have no mean of delivering them to the enemy (think balefire tipped artillery shells, in a warehouse 1000 kilometers away from the actual battlefield). The few remaining underground command centers have lost contact with surface units (who either died or fled), and are basically commanding an army of ghosts.

By the end of the week, the war is effectively over, only a few covert teams on both sides carrying out suicide infiltration mission up to a few month after the start of the exchange, deep behind enemy lines, carrying tactical megaspells to some "critical" targets.


Now you're probably asking yourself... What happened to those guys in the underground command centers ?...

Well, I may have some ideas...

Hm... that sounds like it could be plausible.

By the way, since it's sort of related, what do you think of the Last Laugh? I'm still not sure if I want it in or not. (For those who don't remember, the Last Laugh is an idea I had for a megaspell-chamber-equipped super-endurance Equestrian submarine, sort of like a Typhoon. It was meant to, after the conclusion of the megaspell exchange, randomly blast at the former PR lands for as long as the boat's crew deemed good and could manage.)

[Harmony Ltd.]

Well, I think the question with the Last Laugh is, basically : if it got built, entered service, and was functionnal during the Days of Fire, did it actually work as intended, and what did it actually do ?

Or maybe it got destroyed before having the opportunity to do much damage ?

Or maybe the crew decided to not fire despite having been trained to do so ? A mutiny ? Something else ?

Basically, the idea seems to fit in the setting, but how would you exploit it ?

[Harmony Ltd.]

Oh also, I was thinking that up to 5% of the Equestrian population (1 in 20) might have been turned into ghouls during the Days of Fire.

If we go with the assumption that the Equestrian Peninsula hosted around 150 million people then (ponies + griffins + zebra), that makes around 7.5 million ghouls roaming the ashes of Equestria in the immediate aftermath of the attacks, with their numbers steadily declining with the passing decades as time takes its toll, they (quickly for the overwhelming majority) start losing their minds and get killed by the survivors or the new fauna.

plot point for what I'm writing:

[Harmony Ltd.]

still spoiler for that thing:

[Harmony Ltd.]

One word :

Camels.

[Harmony Ltd.]

Oh also, something that might be interesting in a story...

Remember we had been discussing life-augmenting treatments, right ? Well, the obvious and cheap poor man solution would be to try to turn someone into a ghoul under more or less controlled conditions : the way I see it, exposing someone to lethal doses of radiations for several hours while at the same time pumping the person with rad-away to ensure it doesn't actually die from the radiations.

Though obviously the success rate wouldn't be 100% (actually it might probably be closer to 30-50%), and being turned into a ghoul carries the non-trivial risk of going feral at some point (statistically speaking, it's often sooner than later).

[O. Hinds]

Well, I think the question with the Last Laugh is, basically : if it got built, entered service, and was functionnal during the Days of Fire, did it actually work as intended, and what did it actually do ?

Or maybe it got destroyed before having the opportunity to do much damage ?

Or maybe the crew decided to not fire despite having been trained to do so ? A mutiny ? Something else ?

Basically, the idea seems to fit in the setting, but how would you exploit it ?

I'm not sure.  I've not developed the idea much yet, despite it being a relatively old one.

Oh also, I was thinking that up to 5% of the Equestrian population (1 in 20) might have been turned into ghouls during the Days of Fire.

If we go with the assumption that the Equestrian Peninsula hosted around 150 million people then (ponies + griffins + zebra), that makes around 7.5 million ghouls roaming the ashes of Equestria in the immediate aftermath of the attacks, with their numbers steadily declining with the passing decades as time takes its toll, they (quickly for the overwhelming majority) start losing their minds and get killed by the survivors or the new fauna.

plot point for what I'm writing:

Sounds good to me.

still spoiler for that thing:

Indeed, interesting!

One word :

Camels.

?

Oh also, something that might be interesting in a story...

Remember we had been discussing life-augmenting treatments, right ? Well, the obvious and cheap poor man solution would be to try to turn someone into a ghoul under more or less controlled conditions : the way I see it, exposing someone to lethal doses of radiations for several hours while at the same time pumping the person with rad-away to ensure it doesn't actually die from the radiations.

Though obviously the success rate wouldn't be 100% (actually it might probably be closer to 30-50%), and being turned into a ghoul carries the non-trivial risk of going feral at some point (statistically speaking, it's often sooner than later).

What could possibly go wrong?!
I could see that maybe being tried, but I could also see it possibly being banned due to the dangers.  Though, on the other hoof, Profectum might, at least pre-Alliance, have used it as a relatively standard practice.  I'm a bit distracted at the moment, sorry.

2. Isn't it pretty strongly implied that vinyl was the first DJ Pon-3 since she was the first, to our knowledge, to be called that?

No, we know that she wasn't (or, rather, that she wasn't the first Wasteland one; she was the original, pre-apocalypse one); she died in Stable 29.

[StoneSlinger88]

Yeah, LittlePip finds her old room. And there's the bunch of people in FO3 who successfully turn people into ghouls, they're camped in a basement outside of Megaton.

[O. Hinds]

Yeah, LittlePip finds her old room. And there's the bunch of people in FO3 who successfully turn people into ghouls, they're camped in a basement outside of Megaton.

Ah. Would you drop a link to the wiki, please? I've still not gotten Fo3 running.

Ah.
Was there ever a hint as to who the original DJ Pon-3 was, then? I would figure it to be someone who wanted to keep the DJ's memory alive more than her own...

IIRC, we had rumors that it was Vinyl Scratch's nephew, but that's all.

[Harmony Ltd.]

One word :

Camels.

?

I was thinking about possible races to expand the scope of the setting to new, foreign and remote lands. And the idea of camels came to mind.

I dunno why but I had the idea of setting them in a really arid desert, far away from Equestria or even Zebrica, on the other side of the planet, and having their traditional lifestyle be somewhat inspired from the Fremen of Dune / Arrakis (a culture where water is central due to how precious it is, a requirement to live, and how rare it is in their environment).

Though I have no idea how to exploit them at this time. Given they would live at the antipodes of Equestria and how remote they would have been even before the war, I was thinking that they might be a case of "There was an Apocalypse ? We barely noticed."

[O. Hinds]

One word :

Camels.

?

I was thinking about possible races to expand the scope of the setting to new, foreign and remote lands. And the idea of camels came to mind.

I dunno why but I had the idea of setting them in a really arid desert, far away from Equestria or even Zebrica, on the other side of the planet, and having their traditional lifestyle be somewhat inspired from the Fremen of Dune / Arrakis (a culture where water is central due to how precious it is, a requirement to live, and how rare it is in their environment).

Though I have no idea how to exploit them at this time. Given they would live at the antipodes of Equestria and how remote they would have been even before the war, I was thinking that they might be a case of "There was an Apocalypse ? We barely noticed."

Sounds cool.  My alpha world map has the antipode being an ocean, but hey, alpha.

Pertinent section of alpha world map:

[Harmony Ltd.]

You were going with Equestria being vaguely pangea-like ?

Hmm... Is the strip of land going from "Eurasia" to the southern pole really important ? If not you could always "cut" that chunk of land from where it is and drag it east, in one south-america-like continent.

I feel like the fact there's only two tectonic plates in the southern hemisphere kind of... unbalenced, given the tectonic complexity displayed around Equestria.

Is the Northeastern continent supposed to be the birthplace of the ponies ?

[Harmony Ltd.]

Would it be possible for you to mail me the whole map, please ? Just to quickly sketch some suggestions.

[O. Hinds]

You were going with Equestria being vaguely pangea-like ?

What do you mean?

Hmm... Is the strip of land going from "Eurasia" to the southern pole really important ? If not you could always "cut" that chunk of land from where it is and drag it east, in one south-america-like continent.

Also not sure what you mean here, sorry.

I feel like the fact there's only two tectonic plates in the southern hemisphere kind of... unbalenced, given the tectonic complexity displayed around Equestria.

The south didn't have the enormous meteor impact that Equestria did.

Is the Northeastern continent supposed to be the birthplace of the ponies ?

Northeastern? But yes, I was thinking that the north polar continent is where ponies originally came from.

Would it be possible for you to mail me the whole map, please ? Just to quickly sketch some suggestions.

Sent.

[Harmony Ltd.]

You were going with Equestria being vaguely pangea-like ?

What do you mean?

The planet having one big continent, and any other landmass being of negligible size in comparison.

Hmm... Is the strip of land going from "Eurasia" to the southern pole really important ? If not you could always "cut" that chunk of land from where it is and drag it east, in one south-america-like continent.

Also not sure what you mean here, sorry.

Eurasia => the land east of the Equestrian Peninsula and Zebrica.

I was suggesting basically cutting the part of the mega continent that's south of the equator and dragging it around 120-160° to the east (roughly).

I feel like the fact there's only two tectonic plates in the southern hemisphere kind of... unbalenced, given the tectonic complexity displayed around Equestria.

The south didn't have the enormous meteor impact that Equestria did.

Maybe, but I have a gut feeling it'd still need to be a little bit more fragmented. Not by much, but a bit more.

Is the Northeastern continent supposed to be the birthplace of the ponies ?

Northeastern?  But yes, I was thinking that the north polar continent is where ponies originally came from.

East-Northeast of the mega continent there's a peninsula going south of the north pole continent. That's what I was talking about (I doubt the poles themselves are hospitable enough to have been the birthplace of the pony species).



Thanks for the map, BTW. I'll see tomorrow if I can wipe something up.

[O. Hinds]

The planet having one big continent, and any other landmass being of negligible size in comparison.

Ah, thanks.

Eurasia => the land east of the Equestrian Peninsula and Zebrica.

I was suggesting basically cutting the part of the mega continent that's south of the equator and dragging it around 120-160° to the east (roughly).

And thanks again.  That would require reworking the tectonics,

Maybe, but I have a gut feeling it'd still need to be a little bit more fragmented. Not by much, but a bit more.

but you're proposing that that be done anyway.

East-Northeast of the mega continent there's a peninsula going south of the north pole continent. That's what I was talking about (I doubt the poles themselves are hospitable enough to have been the birthplace of the pony species).

Hm, over there?  I was thinking the smaller peninsula to the NNE, but I suppose that the ENE one could work… I'm also thinking that the planet was warmer at the time.

Thanks for the map, BTW. I'll see tomorrow if I can wipe something up.

You're welcome.

[O. Hinds]

I think that Auferstanden Aus Ruinen might actually have a good tune for the Alliance anthem. Not sure, but it's more of an idea than I've had previously.

[Kippershy]

Real quick one... I decided to make a flag for Four Ridges the other day...

[O. Hinds]

Looks good.  Though are the white lines separating the colored blocks part of the design or an artifact of the drawing method?  Either way works, but the simpler lineless design would likely be easier to manufacture (and the lines wouldn't be visible at distance anyway).

[O. Hinds]

Idea:
Magical energy beam weapons have some considerable advantages from a sniper's point of view.  They are recoilless, and the beams travel in straight lines for long distances, unaffected by wind, gravity, or drag.  Magical energy beam weapons have the serious sniping disadvantage that they draw a glowing line right back to the sniper's position.  This was the problem that lead to the development of the Stiria rifle.  While slightly bulkier and significantly, though not impractically, more powerhungry than a more standard beam rifle design, it combines a specialized scope with the ability to project a cloak with the beam; the upshot is that an invisible sniper of sufficient skill may use the rifle to deliver precise hits at extreme range with little risk of their position being discovered.  The Stiria was originally developed by the Pax Roamana and considered ready for deployment shortly before the end of the war, but it did not end up seeing much use.  Most modern examples of the weapon (it being, while not very widely produced, not unique) are Alliance, due primarily to Profectum's membership, but it is believed that the Remnant may have gotten one or two of the original run and kept them functional.

(We'll see how well the Remnant survives PH, but, even if they're still fully active, the Stiria would be a weapon of dubious use in the cold war.  The attack is so distinctive and possession of the weapon so limited that deniability is pretty terrible; at worst, the Alliance or Remnant could try to frame the other one (the Alliance's Stiriae are better-maintained and new, slightly more powerful versions to begin with, but they could easily be limited for a false flag), but there'd still be considerable suspicion.)

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