At lvl 40-ish, i'm becoming increasingly dissatisfied with SR4's survivability.  Of course the problem is that I am a squishy blapper.  Pure energy, so to speak.  What I'm thinking is that since I have 2 respecs at the moment I should think about respecing both builds:  One for ranged damage spamming for TF's and one more blapperage with every bit of defense a poor 'kill em before they can get me' blapper can scrape up.
Suggestions, Hints/tips/tricks?
Hear that thunder rolling till it seems to split the sky?
That's every ship in Grayson's Navy taking up the cry-
NO QUARTER!!!
-- "No Quarter", by Echo's Children

I was just on Amazon to get info on my publishing history for an opportunity that could blend both my programming and my writing when I discovered http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/ ... dition=new pristine copies of I.S.T. are going for over $100 at some dealers.  Wow.  I still have a few comp copies left, too... just in case I need a little more money.
ETA:  And Robin Hood is going for or more... Camelot is $30, although a "collectible" copy is going for $70...
And for some freaking reason a copy of the D&D module I wrote for Dragon magazine in 1985 is going for $40...  Wow.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

Alrighty, I've been mucking with something for my own Author Avatar... well, it started as a bit of a self deprecating joke, (I have that sense of humour. I know, I suck at it) but sort of inverted when that didn't work out and I found that there was some really interesting concepts in there. One was the idea of a person being able to fly through space without a 'spacesuit', to look on the world with my own eyes unfiltered by glass or video feed. The other was a comment on biomods that I found interesting and worth actually looking at.

There's still some mild self deprecation... mostly from my use of a particular plot device twice elsewhere, and because the Handwavium would be likely to pick up upon that streak inside me anyway and serve up some nice irony, because it knows I find such things funny in a way.

I like some of the ideas, especially the whole being my own spacecraft thing. Most everything else is to make that work, and keep sanity above a certain level.

Anyway, I hacked out a bit of a something on Google Docs: http://docs.google.com/d...5CvZGg&authkey=CPDrnZwM#

The first part's more for my own benefit, to get a mindset and some idea's straight in my own head. It's sort of a long and barely coherent ramble through the 'my' fen-life, with hints rather than facts. I made a point of not naming specific fen characters, or events. It's unsubtle who some people are meant to be, or what events 'I'm' talking about, but at the same time they could be different events or people entirely. That was deliberate, so there can be some flexibility rather than trying to muscle in on things and other people. I also tried to give Jet an interesting range of things to have done, some of which I might be able to make an actual story out of, without actually doing anything that'd draw outright fame.

The back end of the document is a draft wiki profile. Some of the Quirks need new names, but they'll do until I can think of something better.
________________________________
--m(^0^)m-- Wot, no sig?

A thread for this so I don't derail other threads.
Anyway, I need school support staff and heroic student resistance during the
Wolkenritter attack. One chap filler characters, mainly. All I really
need are names. Next chap will be Mahora-centric. Current things on my checklist include at least:

• Signum VS Setsuna
• Kotaro or Chamo VS Zafira
• Asuna VS Vita.
• Negi VS Anyone

This has been bouncing around my head for most of the summer now, since a bit after the El Hazard/ Nanoha discussion, and I've finally got around to writing it up.  It's probably been done before, but I haven't seen it, so...

Quote:It’s said that a butterfly
flapping it’s wings can cause a storm on the far side of the world.  But butterflies are capricious beings, and
sometimes do not flap their wings on cue.

“It’s such a nice day out.  Would you like to get some fresh air?”

 

The doctor turns to the young girl in the wheelchair, who
smiles and nods.

 

            “Yes,
Ishida-sensei”

 

Dr. Ishida walks around behind the wheelchair, and gently
begins to push.

 

What care does a butterfly have
if a girl, trapped within a failing body, can go outside, instead of being
locked within a dreary hospital, after all? 
It simply flaps its wings when it chooses, with no thought to the
effects.

The doctor guides the wheelchair, and the girl it bears
along the tree lined path behind the hospital, stopping when she began to
motion at something by the foot of a tree.

 

            “Ishida-sensei,
what’s that?  It’s so pretty…”

But just because an insect, half
a world away, does not care about the effects, those effects are still present.  So now, thanks to the timely lack of
interference, Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha A’s will now begin…

The girl reaches up from her wheelchair’s seat, and places
the blue gem she found earlier on her bookshelf, next to an old book, which she has
been taking care of for as long as she can remember.  That task complete, she climbs into her bed,
and begins to drift off into sleep.  As
her consciousness fades, a flash of blue light goes unseen, and a single word
goes unheard.

…Just a little bit early.

Sammlung

All righty... the details of her have been germinating for a long time, in terms of bouncing ideas off each other in IRC and in deep background underlying other things... and it's one of those things where I kept being *about* to do a good writeup, or a framework of a writeup, or at least something for the longest time... but got busy.  And then Mal beat me to it, and in the framework he came up with, did a far better job explaining some of the basics of her existence than I would have.
Bastard. 
Anyway, for perusal and whatnot, I thought I'd throw out what's done thus far because I'm curious to see people's thoughts and all.  She may have started out as my character, but she truly did evolve through collaboration and mulling things over, which makes some things... appropriate.

"I am a machine, and I can know much more. I can experience so much more."

A Difference of Perspective
- For the most part, AI entities in fenspace seem to consist of two
types - either constructs in human-shaped bodies with close to fully
anthropomorphic outlooks, or entities integrated into specific hardware.
 Dee is unusual, possibly unique (Seraphim excluded) in that she's
fully software, and so capable of upgrading her hardware capabilities.
 Moreso, she apparently has access to her own sourcecode and is able to
apply patches or write extensions without any interruptions in her
consciousness.  Those two facts, combined with raw curiosity, a
willingness to experiment, and access to an asteroid's worth of raw
materials has resulted in something surpassing all bounds of what most
would consider possible for an intellect.

Intellect Vast, Warm and Sympathetic -
Dee *likes* humans and human-grade AIs, she really does. She doesn't
always *get* them, because psychology and sociology were never her
strong points in research, but she does like them and wants them to be
happy. It's not a three-laws thing, more like the love of a child
looking after doddering parents/grandparents.

Child of Many Fathers (and Some Mothers)-
Dee was sparked, born, whatever mostly from KJ’s mind; she was his
character in The Game, it was his use of handwavium and his PDA  that
she came into existence on, etc. But at the same time, Dee has taken
some personality aspects from the other Soviets. For example, she’s
taken a mild interest in the occult and a love of fucking with people’s
heads for its own sake from Mal, etc.  What
all this rigamarole means is that Dee is a composite of the VVS in a
similar way as she’s naturally a composite being. And like the Hive,
she’s much stronger than the sum of her parts.

What Did They Know and When Did They Know It?
- The VVS, or at least Mal and KJ, knew that Dee was going way beyond
any sort of "normal" handwavium AI boundaries well before things started
expanding @ Black Mesa. The early Troyers and Dee reoptimizing her
source code were signs. Nowadays (2016ish) they suspect that they've got
a singularity Prime Intellect growing at Black Mesa, but they also
recognize that it's a) friendly and b) not aggressively
expansionistic-hegemonic, so they're giving it room to grow. They don't
know the full scope of what the Hive has become/is becoming, but that's
outside their understanding in many ways.

Who Else Knows? - Not sure. The brighter stars in the Underspace ought to at least suspect,
lord knows Mal's hinted enough time to A.C. that *she* ought to have
major suspicions. There may or may not be others outside the VVS circle
who Dee's confided in, though who they'd be is a good question.
Welcome to Black Mesa
- The Black Mesa compound is highly malleable depending on who's there
and why. Visitors who're on the guest list see a pleasant base with lots
of Troyers running around doing science-y things. Visitors who are
nonhostile but uninvited are given a chillier reception, with things
shifted just enough to be a little unnerving and get them to leave as soon as possible. For hostile visitors, Black Mesa turns into Silent Hill.



Dogs And Cats Living Together, Mass Hysteria!
- Dee’s outing to Fenspace at large would be big, and it would be
messy. How messy? Well, I’m not sure but it would probably involve at
least one major confrontation with the Galacticans, ‘Danelaw involvement
and lord only knows what else.

Deehive units:

* The DeeHive -
also known as 2700 Baikonur or Black Mesa Research Facility, the Hive
has converted mined material from the asteroid into "computronium," a
dense mixture of diamondoid computational elements in a
silicon-handwavium matrix. The computronium is what makes up the bulk of
Dee's mind.

* Berserker -
modeled after Gally from Gunmn. Only one in use at any given moment,
generally called fullsize-Dee. Used for human-scale interaction and
non-BM combat.

* Troyers -
miniature (6") versions of the Berserker body. Anywhere between dozens
and hundreds operational (publicly) at any given moment. Used for
interaction, maintenance and other general duties. What most people
think of when they think of "Dee" as an entity.

* Spiders
- Multi-use modular robots designed vaguely like the Replicators from
Stargate: SG-1 with similar Von Neumann capability. Indeterminate number
operational at any given moment, (could be in the high six digit
range). Used for research and cognitive nodes. Never seen outside of
Black Mesa, no matter how useful they might be.

* AI Avatars -
Digital representations of Dee on the interwave & other virtual
networks. Generally resemble the Berserker or Troyer shells. Could
represent anywhere between 10% to 100% of the main Hive consciousness
depending on topic.

---

Angels in the Architecture
- One of Dee's recent experiments in AI self-modding has been in
increasing the *diversity* of the neural nets feeding into the Hive. To
date, all of the Dees produced have been holographic in nature, each
individual Dee more or less identical to the whole. While this makes the
group network more efficient, Dee is worried that this homogeneity
could prove to be a weakness somewhere down the line.

To
that end, Dee has started building AIs she calls Seraphim. These AIs
have neural nets that are *based* on Dee's optimized architecture -
because why mess with a good thing? - but are allowed to mature and
evolve away from and outside the standard "Dee" template. This creates a
completely new personality and adds a measure of new thoughts, opinions
and ideas to the Hive.

So
far, only two Seraphim have been built, matured and let loose on
Fenspace - they're best known as VVS administrators Minerva and Athene
Weatheral. Neither of the Weatheral sisters is fully conscious of their
connection to the Hive; they consider Dee a maternal or filial figure,
but as they haven't connected with the Hive on anything other than a
subconscious level so far.
---
Manifesting
- Every now and then, the full Intellect will make an appearance
through one or more of the various Dee shells. Usually this happens in
the Berzerker body, though it can happen elsewhere.

from a partial story involving a VVS-assisted mission in central Africa:

"What news from the front?" Dee asked casually.

Seargant
Aran saluted. "The main compound's been taken, ma'am. Couple of my
girls hurt, nothing serious. Looks like we managed to stop them before
they could get the catgirling machine operational, thank Serenity."

"Good, good," Dee said. "Anything else?"

"Some
high-rollers took off in escape pods, with luck Patrol'll catch them
when we get to orbit. We did manage to get one of the little bastards
though." Aran stuck her head out the tent flap and whistled. Moments
later, two soldiers hauled a bedraggled-looking white man into the HQ.

Colonel
Neudecker had been watching this little byplay with some small
amusement, as the two Fen play-acted as soldiers. As the prisoner was
brought in, he looked at Dee and felt a sudden cold grab his spine.

Dee's
face, in his estimation always looking privately amused at the world,
had gone completely slack. No emotion showed on her features. It was
like looking at a porcelain mask of a human face. The prisoner,
muttering dire imprecations about his treatment, looked up to see the
same empty face.

*His* reaction was much more dramatic. Color drained from his face as Dee stared unflinchingly at him. "No," he whispered.

"Well, well, well."
The voice coming from Dee's mouth could scarcely be called human,
thousands of voices blending together as one. Though still at a normal
volume, Dee's voice seemed to shake the tent as though in a strong wind.
"Hello, Sukebe. It's been a while."

"No," Sukebe repeated. "No. Nonononono-"

"Oh, yes. There are so many people back on the White Tower who want to... *talk* to you."

Sukebe
screamed, frantically looking for cover. "You!" he cried, pointing at
Neudecker. "Help me! Keep this clockwork bitch *away* from me!"

Neudecker
stood stock still, eyes wide, as Dee crossed the few feet of space
seperating her and the prisoner. She reached out and, very gently,
touched Sukebe's face. Sukebe howled as if he'd had a branding iron
shoved in his face, wet himself, and passed out.

Dee shook her head. "You never did learn, did you?" she whispered in that alien voice. "I did hope you might've, after the last time."
She blinked and shook her head, life returning to her face. "Get him
out of here, cleaned up and on a transport," she ordered in a more
normal tone. "I want him in interrogation on the Tower in six hours."

The soldiers jumped to it.

My thanks again to Mal for most of this; certainly the better written parts. 

boy what a road trip. Finally arrived at Burmingham, Alabama.
__________________
Into terror!,  Into valour!
Charge ahead! No! Never turn
Yes, it's into the fire we fly
And the devil will burn!
- Scarlett Pimpernell

The extraction fan on my computer isn't spinning.
Can anyone suggest probable causes and any advice on how to resolve this?

So... the whole of Yuku was down up until recently, confirmed by downforeveryoneorjustme.com.
Please tell me someone else noticed.

We SO Rocked it!
Allowing for my dad aggro, DS's connectivity problems, etc... A Master of Could conceivably happen with the team we had:

From left to right, ignoring States: Drenivian, Dark Seraph, PI, Lady Nogitsune, Cyberman 8, Reyshal, and (collectively) Hero Sammich
''We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat
them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary.''

-- James Nicoll