Beta 0 Released

[GameGraphix]

Yep…but TAG did mention that the big guns where on the other side of the planet, still there from when they trash the cities on the Isle of Doom – so I’m assuming that they are closer to the Isle of Doom then the Citadel….

They would only need a way of real time communication to set something up

Would be a good way to bring Sekmekt, Phaestus and their avatars into the fight without directly working with the 5S

[The Author Guy]

[quote=GameGraphix;5241]The Storm Lords don’t know from where or how the priests & avatars are getting mana – so they don’t know of that there are others outside the interdiction…

but one way to get allies to withdraw forces / support from a your enemy is to threaten their base of operations or supply line – forces the ally to reassess their priorities on what is more important – their own resources or their commitment to their ally[/quote]

Exador made a guess as to what they are doing, so they have that.

I agree with the idea, I just don’t see it as being completely feasible for them at the moment, at least not with conventional resources.

Ant this is what I’m pondering, they need non-conventional forces at this point to pull their butts out of the fire.

So the questions are:

1) What unconventional force(s)?
2) Where to deploy?

Now, true, they can threaten the Isle of Doom (presumably) but that won’t cause the avatars to retreat, they are relaying from all over the planet.

The problem is, this time around, they picked the wrong target to use their super magic on, due to Tom’s return to Nysegard and Hilda following him. They expected the 5S to be looking the other way when they pulled the interdiction and so just wipe out the citadel with no one the wiser.

They ended up doing it right while everyone was staring at the Citadel. [b][color=blue]Oops, The priests had their body camera’s on, and now everyone knows what the Storm Lords were doing, and no one likes it.[/color][/b]

Now they are rather screwed.

Hmm, that’s not inconsistent with one of the Lacuna’s and the shift in strategy I was planning for Sutekh and his allies.

[Giwdul]

Since the Storm Lords have previously fought and killed quite a number of D’Orcs and Avatars. I think that they should definitely have some heavy-duty weaponry / forces for anti-supernatural warfare.

Getting the equipment to the battlefield is not a problem. They have been planning this for a thousand years or so right? They just need to pull out and set up the pre-fabricated runic gateway that leads back to the main arsenal. The one that was made a couple hundred years ago, stashed in the emergency-backup wagon, and forgotten about#-o .

[The Author Guy]

[quote=Giwdul;5252]Getting the equipment to the battlefield is not a problem. They have been planning this for a thousand years or so right? They just need to pull out and set up the pre-fabricated runic gateway that leads back to the main arsenal. The one that was made a couple hundred years ago, stashed in the emergency-backup wagon, and forgotten about.[/quote]

That’s the spirit!

Now if I just knew what that thing was!

[Giwdul]

[quote]
[quote]Getting the equipment to the battlefield is not a problem. They have been planning this for a thousand years or so right? They just need to pull out and set up the pre-fabricated runic gateway that leads back to the main arsenal. The one that was made a couple hundred years ago, stashed in the emergency-backup wagon, and forgotten about.[/quote]

That’s the spirit!

Now if I just knew what that thing was![/quote]

Spent a bunch of time creating an unstoppable force of super-warriors and now can’t figure out how anyone can stand against them[lol] .

Have you considered Hulk-Zombies/Vampires/Vampyres?

Unlife creatures have to be pretty much pulverized to kill most types right?
Vampyres with adamantite enhanced skeletons (like Wolverine)? Normally hibernate as they require huge amounts of mana and animus to be up and about but can go toe to toe with a D’Orc if need be.

[The Author Guy]

Yes,

I’d been thinking about a summoning of an Eldritch Horror, but some super beast they have locked in their dungeons might be a lot better.

Great line of thought!

[Iume]

[quote=The Author Guy;5248]Which parts are giving you WoT feelies? Specifically, if you can. I need to avoid those like the [size=6][color=green][b][i]plague![/i][/b][/color][/size].[/quote]

Basically the Rupert/Fer Rog, the Tal Gar, and Ragala-nargoloth parts.

Also, the Inferno scenes unless it is actually going somewhere in this book. I presume it meant to be part of an as-of-yet unread cliffhanger but since that cliffhanger moment hasn’t happened…

Basically these journeys happen and only minimally intersect with Tom’s story, and then… they just end. Right now they are more like separate stories rather than an interwoven tale and that was RJ’s sin. I skipped the boring stories a character had within each book and stuck to the interesting ones.

[The Author Guy]

[quote=Burien;5265]If i was the SL I would start the Interdiction during the initial assault, after the fodder heads in, but before the heavy hitters, leaving little to no reaction time; zombie shock and awe.Right now its the forces from Doom that kick the battle off, seizing the initiative almost immediateley, when the battlefield should already be in chaos when they arrive thanks to the delay.[/quote]

So, I am addressing this in the next release, already.

1) I’ve upped their attacks
2) I’ve also adjusted who arrives when to be more accurate. The SL only really start showing up en masse about the time the Interdiction starts. They are using the day time to set up camp and construct their siegecraft. They do not have sufficient resources to start pounding until later in the afternoon, and then their big push will come (as it does) with sunset because then their vampires can work as well as other daylight sensitive creatures.

The big problem from a reality point is that they just showed up and start blasting, in a real siege they need to set up, and the defenders will try to stop them.

In the new stuff, the Citadel is planning on blasting the crap out of them during setup using avatars. However, the SL screw this over with the Interdiction. In the past the Citadel had always used this “setup time” to extract a heavy price.

This time the SL subverted this with Interdiction, throwing the Citadel into disarray.

Even so, I’ve amped up their attacks during the day, even as they are still getting into position.

[Iume]

Oh I saw that, no worries. My point is that it is going nowhere. If you cut out all of the Inferno and instead gave Talarius a quest in book 4 to search out Melissance then want exactly would be different in how Book 3 unfolds? So what if Talarius find her alongside the Inferno crew in Book 4? You could explain how that happened in Book 4.

Right now the Inferno crew AFTER they arrive in the Abyss does 2 things:
– Accounts for Sam. But since he isn’t doing anything to Tom it doesn’t really matter.
– They meet w/ Darg-Krallnom (or was it Arg-nargoloth?) and now Tom know they are in the Abyss. Again, nothing comes of Tom having the knowledge in book 3 so… what good is it?

The rest is just exposition about how people view the Abyss and how they feel about being there. Whoop?

Change book 3’s Inferno scenes to stop shortly after Sam boards. Build up to and add in a cliffhanger that really emphasizes that they are basically now a doomed crew that will wander the Abyss forever. Maybe a natural phenomena will damage the ships engines in order to prevent them from easily leaving. Or maybe it is just the Chancellor’s zeal / bureaucratic oversight / an improper understanding of the Abyss that makes them unable to just leave.

Then return in Book 4 for the finding of Melissance by the Inferno crew and the later reunion w/ Talarius. That way you can contrast the two searches in the same book.

[The Author Guy]

I see that. Here are my concerns.

1) I really hate past tense catch up story telling if it’s over done, particularly in this book which is intentionally “live action” (and very different from other stuff I’ve done)
The rule is->show it, don’t tell it. Except where it really has no story other than background
2) I could simply move those chapters to Book 4 and have them happen in in the past, sort of like what I did at the beginning here

The next step is that I’ve decided to give up on the price constraint of the paperback. That was the main limiting factor.

I can have a up to 800 pages in a trade paperback, however, more than about 575 pages forces the cost (for some distribution mechanisms) over $19.99. As it is, the most expensive channels, at that price, leave me with like $0.50/book profit. So I just have to ensure the price is such that I don’t lose money on some channels.

Given how few people buy the paperbacks, taking the price to $24.95 or similar is not that critical to me.

Also, the pages we have here do not correspond to paperback pages. The pages have a lot more words per page, so fewer pages.

So, I can leave them from a word count perspective.
However, if they are too distracting/don’t provide value? That’s a different question.

[The Author Guy]

Doh.

Good point.

The one things that sort of need to stay

1) Sammael basically needs to find them when/while, they are parked, if he literally chases them around the Abyss, that’s awkward.

2) Tom can’t be home when the Inferno shows up at Doom.

But…on the other hand…I do sort of want the reader to know what the status of Melissance is when Talarius vows to get her.

Also, I point out that the knights on the Inferno are coming to the same conclusion that Talarius had that their previous reactions make no sense because EM is no longer a bad influence

I’m sort of afraid that by putting the Knights recognition of this into the next book it sort of dilutes–strings out–this recognition of evil influence.

[fallen_one_84]

ideas for undead forces

Undead dinosaurs
t-rex
raptors
explosive zombies for bringing down walls.
giant dullahan armor gundam sized
they could build it then have ghosts possess it.

for the sea

undead sea monsters
giant squid
megalodon shark

since its another planet
weirder sea creatures.

since the kraken has been sealed the sea creatures it preyed on have gotten bigger.
since no predator to hunt them.

[Iume]

To clarify my last point: EM simply numbs a person conscience, but it does not make them evil. A conscienceless person can do some pretty evil things because they use an external source to guide them (church doctrine) and logic to interpret which is not how such things should work since it leads to an “ends justify the means” attitude.

The knights should be in the exact same boat as Talarius except they haven’t had Tom bludgeon them with the truth. They should NOT adapt so quickly.

If we did rework it… hm…, well I don’t know how you planned this in book 4 so I’m just making this up.

What if Talarius finds Melissance before the Inferno and is still there when the Inferno arrives? What if they DID home in on his signal, but he doesn’t want to leave?

Then comes the final realization by Talarius is that Melissance has become evil in her pursuit of revenge, but not because she was tainted nor because she came to Abyss. It is because she chose to become evil through her actions and attitude and that [b]Talarius[/b] and his betrayal is the root of her perfectly normal mortal-type evil, and not the Abyss and not the Unlife and not because she was cut off from Tierhallon?

So Talarius, hoping to redeem himself w/ Melissance finds that some things cannot be redeemed with just an apology and so he fights with the Inferno crew after the demons won’t let him go and they escape. He returns home subdued and somewhat broken while the Inferno crew is thrilled to have “rescued” him. They decided against pursuing Tom after Talarius convinces them to not bother. They return only to discover that Freehold is under siege.

However, we now have this contrast. Talarius is less zealous and knows the truth, but [b][u]per Antefalken he can’t explain it to anyone (he tentatively tried w/ the Inferno crew, but no-good) so the people aboard the Inferno are still just as zealous as before.[/b][/u]

and Sam left the Abyss with them… XD

[GameGraphix]

[quote=The Author Guy;5286]Doh.

2) Tom can’t be home when the Inferno shows up at Doom.

[/quote]

Why not have them turn up while TOM is in the big battle at Nysegard…..then you can progress their story from the end of bk 3 into the beginning of book 4

[LCSpartan051]

Nah, I don’t see this working. Talarius is too busy with Nysegard and stuff, so he’s not going to have time to immediately go hunting for Mellisance. The inferno scenes could be crammed together a bit earlier in the book, but honestly I’m fine with how that has played out so far. They offer some tension relief, and we need some inferno scenes because it was a big reveal from book 2. My biggest issue has been all the random scenes with the Orc groups. Tal-Gor and Jenn’s scenes are fine, since they most directly reveal what is going on on Astlan(where we readers are more invested). The others should have their scenes moved to book 4 when the major battles for the Doomalogues occur.

[Author]

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