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edited 11th Apr '18 6:31:51 PM by dRoy
I'm curious if the apocalypse that befalls the world of my story would dampen interests in other work from that same world?
My story's world is extremely large and has a lot of backstories and overall "lore" that wouldn't fit in the main narrative. I've had thoughts of creating stories based around either characters who are mentioned/encountered or just about other people living within the world who have nothing to do with the main events.
However...in the main story, my main protagonist eventually goes evil and unleashes The End of the World as We Know It before he is stopped by a Ragtag Bunch of Misfits. That means that everyone in these side stories either died or was transformed into part of his monstrous army, or at the very least their lives were upended and they became swept up in masses of terrified refugees around the globe.
That means whatever ending to these stories—happy or awful—will eventually wind up shattered.
What I wonder is, is it worth making these other stories, knowing that this happens to these people? A small example can even be found within the main narrative; there's a side-story that has nothing to do with anyone in the spotlight, and the protagonists of that story die horribly in the apocalypse.
Fear is a tyrant and a despot, more terrible than the rack, more potent than the snake. — Edgar Walllace
That's definitely a difficult situation. I guess it also depends on what media you wanted to publish your stories as, and in what order.
How much were you thinking of making these other characters and stories affect the world, even after the apocalypse? For example, a particular settlement that remains important and in a post-apocalyptic world, and was founded by a certain character; or a certain technology, that was designed by another character, which is still used in the present. That way, the audience would be more interested in learning the story of the people behind these things: even if the characters themselves were affected by the apocalypse, what they did wasn't completely meaningless.
It's a similar thing with Fallout: the events of the first game do lead up to the backstory of Fallout: New Vegas, even if the former game's protagonist as succumbed to the Wasteland like many other people.
Oo oo ah ahI intend for them to be written down in a book format (although it would be amazing if they were animated by a studio like the one that did The Legend of Vox Machina or if I'm really dreaming, an anime studio like MAPAA). But they are truly intended to be written stories.
As for their order...it depends. Most of them are set decades prior to the events of the main story but one of them is actually set in the years after the apocalypse (it's about the life of the son of one of the villains; him growing into a young man, raised by his father and with the occasional visit from his mother's ghost).
I wonder if this information might give some perspective; I want to clarify what I mean by "apocalypse". The world prior to it was very much The Masquerade—supernatural beings hidden from humans while occupying the same world and having their power-plays, wars, intrigues and even mundane aspects carefully hidden from humanity.
Afterwards, the world largely rebuilds itself the way it was before technology-wise due to there being comparatively little infrastructure destruction (the devastation is more focused on the deaths or transformations of people).
In the "new world" humans and supernaturals live uneasily alongside each other; for example, you could work the night shift at a restaurant and have a vampire as a host/hostess using their Super-Speed to maximize their work output.
Edited by Swordofknowledge on Sep 12th 2024 at 7:45:54 AM
Fear is a tyrant and a despot, more terrible than the rack, more potent than the snake. — Edgar WalllaceWell, so it's closer to the original meaning of "apocalypse", a revelation. With people still dying, metaphorically or not.
Then, it's probable that'll be even easier to have some characters affect the world they live in. Like, in one book, you could have the characters visit an important landmark, and ask a local "how did this happen?". And the story revealed would still be important to the setting, even if its protagonists have been killed by, or turned into, weresloths.
A question that has nothing to do with anything else I was talking about so far, but is it impossible to modify the length of a video game animation?
For example, an animation for an action that normally contains 12 frames: is it possible to "shrink", or shorten that animation so that it wraps up in 8 frames instead? Or should one program a new animation from scratch?
Of course, one could double the duration of each animation by making each frame stay on screen twice the time it originally lasted.
Oo oo ah ah
In what way? I don't have a lot of experience with sprite-based animation, but if you're lucky you might be able to delete some frames from around the middle and still have an acceptable product. Flipwise, 3d-animation is a different beast. It can make use of set keyframes and just let the computer figure out what happens in-between, so it's not that difficult to just "shrink" the keyframes and have it happen in a shorter span of time, at the cost of possibly looking silly. 'Course, this is a pretty short animation. What, half a second max? Either way, I'm not sure what you mean by "program from scratch", but you'd probably have to do more work than just deleting a couple frames no matter what.
Regarding animations, Marchen pretty much has the right of it, I believe.
To add a few thoughts:
- If you don't mind going down to 6 frames instead of 8, you might be able to simply delete every second frame of the animation.
- All of the above—my addendum and Marchen's post—depends rather on the specific animation; offhand, on which frames/sections of the animation are particularly important, and whether some are "hold" frames.
- (Although there may be other considerations that are not occurring to me right now.)
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One reason that drove me to ask this question is the removal of Athletics (which determined how fast a character runs) and Acrobatics (which determined how high or far a character jumps) in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, meaning there isn't a way to permanently increase your character's mobility, in the same way as increasing the heavy armor proficiency, or the Mana Meter.
And while I do wish they'll bring back Atheltics/Acrobatics in a modern Elder Scrolls game, I was thinking if maybe the reason behind this was problems with the characters' walk cycle animation.
Because I remember that at least in The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind the player character had a very simple walking animation that was simply sped up as you increased Athletics, and the result was pretty goofy.
And while that would've been acceptable in 2001, or even 2006, Skyrim was released in 2011, and by then, players would expect more natural walking animations.
So, the developers would've either slowed down or sped up the animation depending on the character's speed or keep the same walking animation regardless of speed (neither of which would have looked that good), or animate different walk cycles, either longer or shorter, each one for a different running speed (which would've been too much effort).
So, I think they just removed those skills to solve the problem. But if one could indeed have a few key frames, and having the CPU add in-between frames for slower speeds, and maybe a "blurry" effect for higher, low-frame speeds, maybe one could get away with a way to increase the character's running speed in a modern game.
At least, that's my assumption.
I now wanted to expand upon the Envoy Of Fire's "brothers":
Well, I did find a compromise regarding the Envoy Of Spark and the Envoy Of Electricity. And that is, what's often called "the fourth state of matter": plasma.
On Earth, plasma is pretty rare, but it can be found in lightning bolts, so it checks. Plasma is, in fact, the state stars are made of, which is pretty important since the Envoy Of Spark, together with Fire and Core, are the components for the super-Envoy Of Heat, which has Cosmic Motifs.
So, while both Spark and Electricity might be powered by electromagnetism, only the Envoy Of Electricity will have the power to control electric currents, voltage, charges, polarity, and to electrocute enemies; the Envoy Of Spark, meanwhile, will be better at manipulating plasma.
With this, I think I'll leave the electril eel motif for the Envoy Of Electricity... and give to the Envoy Of Spark, as an Animal Motif, a pigeon. That's right. Why? Well, I still wanted an animal that could sense magnetic fields, and it seems confirmed that pigeons can feel the Earth's magnetism, so... pigeon Envoy.
For his personality, he might be the more strict and-by-the-book of the Heat trio; unlike the Envoy Of Fire, he would actively try to change the MC into a more idealized hero. Maybe the MC can use the Envoy Of Spark's power only if he's in a particularly "heroic" mood.
I was thinking the Envoy Of Spark's mecha-sized sword could be a nodachi (an older, giant, two-handed relative of the katana), contrasting with the Fire mech's Flammenschwert. In general, the Envoy Of Spark might have a samurai motif, as opposed to Fire's European knight aesthetic; but this might cause problems later.
Probably, he's a Fragile Speedster as well, at least relatively to Fire.
For his Animal Motif, I wanted an animal that was in some way related to volcanoes. For now, I chose a Galapagos land iguana, because I've seen some sites say they lay their eggs near volcanoes, so that the geothermal heat keeps them warm. But I don't think it was ever confirmed, so if anybody has a better suggestion for what animal Core should be, I might change it.
Well, one thing's certain: the Envoy Of Core is potentially the single most destructive member of the Heat trio, hell, even among the Envoys in general! The possibility of covering the whole world in nuclear fallout is obviously scary, but even a "simple" volcanic winter is incredibly deadly and painful.
And since the MC is a nerd himself, he fully knows this, and might even be too scared of using Core's power.
The Envoy Of Core might even act as his "bad shoulder angel", trying to push him to become more selfish and jerk-y, especially opposing the Envoy Of Spark, who would be the "good shoulder angel" instead. He might be the more crass and loutish of the Heat trio in general, much the horror of the MC...
While I don't imagine a particular accent for either Fire or Spark, I can see Core talking with either a Texan or Cockney accent.
As for his weapon, since Fire gets a mostly straight sword, and Spark a curved sword, I want to give Core a recurved sword: one that curves forward, and is sharpened on the concave side, as opposed to the convex one. These types of sword can also inflict more damage per swing, since the kinetic is concentrated in a smaller area, similar to an ax swing, which fits with Core's general devastating power.
There's one problem: all recurved swords that I did find about come from Europe: the ancient Greek kopis, the Iberian falcata, the Dacian falx, the German scythe-sword... and since the Envoy Of Fire is already themed around an European knight, it would make the samurai-based Envoy Of Spark stick out too much. So I have to solve that as well.
Also, it doesn't fit with his animal motif either, but the Galapagos are deserted islands, so no human warrior would really fit anyway.
Obviously the Mighty Glacier of the trio, again, relatively speaking.
Edited by TMH-Sir-Iron-Vomit on Sep 13th 2024 at 11:02:41 AM
Oo oo ah ahFor the Core animal, would it make any sense to base it of an animal living near one of those hydrothermal vents? I'm personally thinking of the Yeti Crab (Kiwa hirsuta), since it's pretty cool. If memory serves me right, this would also mean the protagonist partners up with a land dwelling beetle, a bird that flies in the sky, and a something from the deep sea; Land, Sea, Sky. It could also play into the Mighty Glacier thing too, since crabs are famously armored, though I imagine an Iguana to also be tougher than an exploding beetle and a bird, like many things are.
On a side note, I'll presume you have researched this kind of thing more than me, but wikipedia suggests that the Kopis could be considered an ancestor to the Ottoman Yatagan, which does seem to have that concave curve you were talking about? So a modified armored janissary uniform could also work, though it seems they were more famous for their guns?
Read Otr of the Flame (She/Her)Sorry for interrupting but I have a "logistics" question about military force.
The conflict between my main character and an ancient organization that has been trying to eliminate his family comes when the group does a "controlled" breach of The Masquerade to the United Nations (they showcase the existence of supernatural beings and demonstrate some of their own powers before the representatives of these states).
They then inform the various nations of the world about the supposed threat the main character poses due to his Story-Breaker Power and that it is imperative that he and his entire family be killed to prevent his power from hopping hosts in case he isn't disposed of in the proper manner.
This results in a small army of soldiers invading the main character's base (which was formerly the private island headquarters of another villain) in an attempt to locate and destroy him and his mother and sister—and his human father and aunt for good measure.
Here is my question: The private paramilitary force that works for this organization is at the forefront of the attack, but would UN troops be the ones backing them up, or would it be United States military? The place they go to is on US soil, so I'm wondering which force would take jurisdiction in a situation like that.
Fear is a tyrant and a despot, more terrible than the rack, more potent than the snake. — Edgar WalllaceThe UN doesn't have a military force, and I don't see the US allowing other armed forces into its territory for such an op unless there are particular circumstances that justify it. So US, by default.
"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard FeynmanThat's interesting; I wasn't aware that the UN didn't have a military force of its own. I've heard that they have "peacekeeping forces" which operate under the control of the UN even though their members come from other countries.
But either way it makes sense that the US would send their own troops for this mission, both because it is on US soil and because the main character and his family are US citizens.
Fear is a tyrant and a despot, more terrible than the rack, more potent than the snake. — Edgar Walllace@TMH-Sir-Iron-Vomit, regarding animations:
Ah, I see! Thank you for explaining! (Acknowledging that the explanation was directed at another; but still.)
That said, you're talking there about 3D animations, not 2D, and I'm pretty confident that what you suggest wouldn't really work.
In short, the result would I believe be essentially the same as just speeding up or slowing down the animation—just with some of the important "poses" removed, thus potentially breaking the animation.
(There is some nuance here, depending on the specific of the engine, and whether they really are using keyframed animations. But at best I'm pretty sure that the result would just be the same animation, but faster, while at worst it might not look like the same animation...)
What should work, however—presuming that they're using keyframed animations and support in the engine for the relevant features—would be for them to combine both animation speed-change and blending of animations.
Specifically, they could have a single low-speed walking animation and a single high-speed walking animation, both running at the same speed, and being of the same duration. These could then be blended together—that is, the final keyframe for a given moment in time would be a blend of the relevant keyframe(s) from the "slow" animation and the relevant keyframe(s) from the "fast" animation. And finally, the animations could be sped up or slowed down to match the current movement speed.
This should, if I'm not much mistaken, produce an animation that blends reasonably convincingly from slow to fast.
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I'm grateful for the lesson. The process itself seems like a lot of work, however...
Answering this
I was aware of the yatagan, but from what I've dug up, it's too small. It's a dagger, essentially. Which doesn't really fit.
The only real two-handed recurved sword or blade appears to have been the falx, used by the Dacians and Thracians, which lived in eastern Europe.
But if I switch things around, and make the Envoy Of Spark look like a different warrior from Europe, that also might not work. Because now, from what I found, no two-handed swords im Europe were curved. Only in Asia, there where curved two-handed swords.
With this lack of choice, I could give the Envoy Of Core an oversized Egyptiam khopesh, or an Ethiopian shotel?
- Animal Motif: for me, the animals that best resemble the element of wind are two: frigatebirds on one hand, and swifts on the other. Both of these bird families are extremely adapted for flying, and can surpass 153 km/h in orizontal flight, and stay airborne for more than 8 months. The catch is that they're bad at everything else: the legs are stupid weak and short, so they can't walk properly. And they don't swim well, since they don't have waterproof feathersnote . Since odonates (dragonflies and damselflies) also have extreme air mobility but no walking mobility, they could also contend for the spot. Marchen did mention hummingbirds, and they're a good pick too, since they also have incredible flying mobility. Notably, while frigatebirds and swifts have some of the highest absolute speeds among birds, hummingbirds have some of the highest speeds, relative to body size, for any verterbrate. They're also relatives of swifts. However, for me, swifts and frigatebirds have another advantage, in that their wings and tails already look like boomerangs. Speaking of which...
- Weapon Specialization: since the beginning, my preferred weapon for an air-based mech was the boomerang, since it's basically just a wing. So far, it's fine, but the real issue is when I have to come up with several more variants of the same weapon archetype. Boomerangs are technically a type of sticks, so I should give the main partner a stick as well. Maybe a Combat Hand Fan?
- How do they act like: so, I just read about Pacifist Wind, and possible explanations for it. While I could apply to the Envoy Of Air, I think it'd be funny if the Envoys were this group of cute-looking, idealistic entities... and were still a bunch of Blood Knights that just love violence. So, maybe even the Envoy Of Air might like a good fight; in that case, it could be moved to their partner. The Envoy Of Air themselves can still be air-headed, chatty and smarmy.
I should've also asked if this Envoy should be male or female. Envoys can have gender identities, as seen since I kept referring to the Heat trio as males. In their case, it was easy since fire is traditionally a a masculine element.
As for the Envoy Of Air... I want to wait to also work on their partner, before settling on their respective gender/sex.
I'm wondering how a character should answer a certain question—or if the question should be asked at all.
I'm planning to write a short story that acts like a "follow-up" to my main story. It follows the life of one of the minor characters in it, the young son of one of the story's villains and his life after the events of the story, from age 12 to his young adult years.
Here is my question: His deceased mother—the villain in question, who died at the climax of the other story—still "visits" him occasionally as a ghost, via dreams where they have long conversations about his life and how he's doing. They're not common, but they aren't exactly rare either.
During one of these visits, he asks her where she goes when she's not visiting him, and she has no real answer for this. I'm trying to find a "clever" way for her to say this, without outright saying I don't know or something like that.
Does anyone have ideas?
Fear is a tyrant and a despot, more terrible than the rack, more potent than the snake. — Edgar WalllaceOne way is to sort of just dodge the question entirely, which would imply either a lack of an answer or a lack of interest in answering.
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@ War Jay 77:
It's definitely intended to be the former; the idea is that whatever lies beyond death—even for somewhat "earthbound" ghosts—is absolutely incomprehensible. In fact one of my ideas for this question basically went like this:
- Son: "What is it like when you're not here?" (referring to the dream visits)
- Mother: "It isn't." (Essentially saying that there's really nothing, at least nothing she can describe.)
@ Sir Iron Vomit: I guess she could just flat out say it like that; your quote idea sounds like something she'd say (although perhaps a little cruder/simpler, knowing her character). I just want to focus on the idea that whatever is beyond death is rather mysterious, although the readers will know by this point that certain souls such as werewolves have a set destination and fate.
I know, what I'm saying is that dodging the answer could fill in that gap for the audience without having to have her outright reply. But maybe it's just me finding these type of "clever answers" moderately cheesy for someone to deliver on the fly.
Edited by WarJay77 on Sep 13th 2024 at 3:26:21 PM
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My suggestion would be to have her, like, go in to explain it, and as she does she realizes she hasn't a clue, and then she's just quiet with this baffled look on her face. Might be better with a visual medium though.
xEnvoyOfAir Firstly, I'll further defend my hummingbird suggestion. If I remember correctly, hummingbirds are known for their great mobility, which I believe they share with the Odonates. I feel this emphasis on both speed and mobility could help contrast it with the more direct speed of electricity, depending on where you take it of course.
Furthermore, my direct fondness for the little flower-sippers come from the patron deity of Tenochtitlan, the southern hummingbird himself, the Blue Tezcatlipoca Huitzilopochtli; god of war and the sun. So having a hummingbird be this battle-hungry beast is extremely fitting in my eyes. For this reason I'd also suggest making it male.
Still responding to the good Sir Vomit, line breaks just look good. Regarding weapons, I feel boomerangs would more naturally convert to thrown weapons than sticks (Though unless I missed something those basic clubs are unaccounted for), things like the chakram or a discus or something. Though... I believe the Aztecs associated Huitzilopochtli with a club-like weapon? Might be a bit too far removed from a boomerang though.
I also kinda assumed the Henshin Hero would use the boomerang, rather than the mech. It doesn't really matter, but I feel funky boomerang techniques would play well on a small scale. I guess my solution would be to, just, like, give 'em both boomerangs? I dunno, maybe the big one could have a classic v-shaped one while the little one splurges on a fancy branching one?
Also, to defend my yatagan suggestion, you could just make it big, like you suggested with the kopesh. Either of those could work though. They're not exactly un-european, but they're technically not that European, especially the kopesh (North-eastern Africa and all that). The shotel is sick as fuck though, although I'd probably pick the kopesh above it.
Edit: Also, all in favor of the bee. I mean, what kind of animal would you give the element that buzzes and stings?
Edited by Marchen on Sep 13th 2024 at 12:05:54 PM
Read Otr of the Flame (She/Her)It's my pleasure! ^_^
As to the work... Well, it means making two walk cycles, which is more work. Depending on the engine, the actual code side shouldn't be too bad.
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The hummingbird theme is slowly gaining favor, and for now, the Envoy Of Air would be referred as male. For being more specific, maybe a streamertail hummingbird?
Indeed, it was my plan from the beginning for the big mech to have the familiar returning boomerang; since returning boomerangs are not proper weapons, but rather sports equipment, or tool to scare animals in hunts, I thought it'd be easier to suspend your disbelief if it was giant, and held by a Humongous Mecha.
I think I've mentioned that the Air partner would instead get a throwstick, also called a non-returning boomerang, also called "kylie" by Australians.
The kylie has more of a j-shape, is thrown straight ahead instead of making a circle, and is, indeed, a weapon. A well-thrown kylie could cripple or even One-Hit Kill large animals, and might've been even be used in human conflicts. So, even if not as flashy as a returning boomerang, kylies are still badass.
One problem I had with boomerangs is trying to classify them. And, whether I make a "sticks" class, or "throwing weapons" class, there are two issues: relative lack of variety within the class (something I tried to solve by giving the mech a boomerang, but the partner a tessen), and clashing with a different Envoy's weapon class (sticks can often be hard to distinguish from bludgeons, while some throwing weapons are smaller versions of other weapons, like axes).
Oo oo ah ah
Yeah, the problem with boomerangs really is that they're kinda unique. That's part of the reason I advocated for merging it into sound, since I felt that sound's gun was easier to work with, though I'll assume that's very off the table.
The main issue is that boomerangs aren't all that stick-like, and also that I'm not sure how many stick-like weapons there are? The idea of the kylie kinda feels less like stick-class and more like boomerang-class. But, as you said, throwing-class weapons would be nice to give out when convenient.
The tessen I feel like could be a clever solution, but it doesn't feel stick-like enough to pair with a boomerang. It honestly feels like the connective tissue isn't "sticks" but "wind". Would expanding it to "clubs" work? So it's more like the air weapons just so happen to be ranged? Tessen kinda works very good I'd say, it just doesn't classify easily.
On an unrelated side note, do the characters just have unlimited weapons? I feel a normal throwing weapon would have dubious utility if they only have one, but I also get Unlimited Blade Works vibes if anyone else can do that. This Isn't important in the slightest, I'm just curious.
Read Otr of the Flame (She/Her)Could I suggest giving your Air Envoy a hefty supply of stylized boomerangs? They could use a high-speed Combat Parkour style of fighting throwing those boomerangs everywhere (similar to Batman's batarangs, but Spider-Man's athletics).
I'd say to keep Air/Wind and Sound separate. Ranged weapons are a better fit for Sound (e.g. supersonic arrows and bullets).
Also, your Earth Envoy could wield a shield, Captain America style. Could go all out and make it a shield encrusted with crystals.
If Aquaman is "Nobody's favorite superhero", then I am Odysseus. (They/Them) (Troper Wall)Is there any way to estimate screentime from a somewhat detailed summary before you actually turn the entire thing into a script?
I know the general rule of thumb is one script page equals about one minute on screen, but this is a bit early for that. I think my estimations about how much of the stuff can happen in five minutes are a bit lowballed, which propably adds up to make it a lot shorter than what i think it might be (or what it propably should be).
Edited by Nukeli on Sep 14th 2024 at 8:02:41 AM
~*bleh*~

The idea of an unrelated organization providing support to the heroes is interesting (as in good), you mentioned the henshin heroes not necessarily agreeing about their goals, so it implies some sort of greater goal or moral ambiguity. It's good, I, personally, like it.
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