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Prior Thread: http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/qstarchive/1358929
Archive: http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive.html?tags=Maverick%20Hunter%20Quest
The IRC: suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com, #MHQ
The Twitter: https://twitter.com/HunterCommand
The Recap (thanks to Scarab): http://pastebin.com/wMtuXJM2
Character sheet: https://docs.google.com/document/d/18-L31ukeOd_0XvfqErwY7GogqiwMU8zyIYfXxjTUb-c/

You are what’s left of maverick hunter Anode, A-rank, and this may be it for you.
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>>1387570
Which makes it all the more surprising when you comm Arc Ukumari--your only immediate support on this mission--and hear yourself say the words.

“Start shooting, Arc.”

“Danger close,” she replies in humorless jest. “Get to cover.”

“I’ll try,” you reply, cutting the line. You’ll try.

Ahead of you looms Collide--of all your enemies, he has rapidly made himself among the most imposing, shrugging off the best of your best. Supporting him are a gaggle of DNA Mimics, custom upgraded mavericks with the powers of some of their fallen champions.

You’re backed up by a couple of spiked wheels and warthog-themed military go-karts, with the collective brainpower of your best friend while drunk.

You think to yourself that said best friend would support this next move. “Swarm the fucker,” you order the mechaniloids.

They immediately comply, ramping and roaring and dogpiling in on Collide from all sides. He turns and slams a giant fist into one of the spiked wheels, pulping it into a slightly pointy crescent, before grabbing the sparking remains and hurling it your way. You roll to the side and dash, narrowly avoiding another barrage from the ice-shooting Mimics at Collide’s back. You fire back on the run, but a glowing energy shield sails right on through your firing lane and ablates your fire harmlessly.

You ignore it all, barreling on ahead as far as you can. You hear a single heavy footfall and the whine of building jet exhaust--that giant fucking bug isn’t planning on letting you go that easily.

So far on this mission, you’ve been frozen, stabbed, tackled (at the same time), and blown up. The one silver blessing to all the abuse you’ve been taking is that your capacitor charge is through the roof--and good thing, too, you need every bit of it.

You outstrip the chaotic scuffle behind you as you pour charge into your dash, lunging ahead at breakneck speed for the crater and your one shot at getting out of this alive. Above you, the sky is turning a threatening and unnatural purple-grey, and you can feel ionization dance across the air as distant pinpricks of luminous blue blossom into extra suns over battle-hazed Algeria.

Despite being tailor-built to absorb electricity, you’re more than ready to take Ukumari at her word when she told you it was none of the kind you want.

Inside the crater, you barely take the split-second to pick out--civilian hostage victim turned maverick turned hunter turned victim once again--and grab him by the scruff, plucking him from the hole he’s quite literally curled up to die in.

“I’m sorry,” he wheezes brokenly. “I’m sorry.”

“Me too,” you mutter, before you turn and hurl him down into the tunnel he was digging for you, backed by the force of your Mass Shriver. His wail of anguish and shock disappears with him as he echoes down the tunnel, and you turn back to the battlefield--
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>>1387574
And Collide is right on top of you again, those massive hibeam horns slashing in to finish what they started a minute ago.

Energy still crackling through your system and lance in one hand, you move more through a lack of options than anything else. Mass Shriver still fading, you kick it back on again, arm conduits blazing bright as your other hand finds the hilt of the lance on your swing--

And with a hellish crackle of blade on blade, your boots bite through the battered earth, Collide dragging you further and further back as his boosters snap and snarl like wolves at his back…

And finally, at the end of a new forty-foot-long trench dug by your heels, the two of you come to a halt, his horns cooling and revealing, for once, genuine surprise on the brutal maverick’s face.

He leaps back heavily as you power through your swing, clipping him with the outermost edge of the lance and drawing another bright flicker from his shields. He comes down hunkered and defensive, re-appraising you.

A Crash Roader destroys itself slamming into his back and he hunches down one shoulder on the impact, giving you another chance to make a break for the tunnel. The air smells like iron and ozone, the sky now an unreal, spreading neon as Ukumari’s ordnance streaks in.

The firestorm erupts. Plasma blooms across the battlefield like lazily-glowing bubbles, neon bright and arcing from place to place. The Mimics dive for any shelter they can find, and you leap back as a bolt crashes between you and Collide. Once again, he simply goes hull-down, actually taking a knee and bearing his back to the barrage rather than engage.

You--well, anyone built to channel lightning must also be able to handle the heat that arises as a natural byproduct from it. You’re resistant, certainly, but not immune--and as you feel your battered legs melting into the molten glass earth, your shields flickering perilously dim, even this far from the epicenter. You feel heat that moves through you as if you’re not there as you grit your teeth, praying that by the time the firing disappears, you haven’t gone with it.

Finally, it’s over. The sky lightens to a smoky, earthen gray over the ground, now a thin layer of shiny glass in the midday sun. The clouds swirl around the center of impact, ash and soot and smoke blown away from the epicenter and slowly dissipating.

And then the smoke turns red.

Your gut lurches as a strong gale thins the fog of war enough to see a wall of dozens--at least--of those observer drones from before, luminous eyes piercing through the fog, ringed around you in the air from all sides. OPAL chimes in your ear as you hear distant thunder.

>Signal Lock.
>Signal Lock.
>Signal Lock.
>Signal Lock.
>Signal Lock.
>Signal Lo…
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>>1387576
Collide sees them too, turning back to look at his own crew--two or three Reploids staggering back to their feet, nowhere near as hardy as either of you, and you’re on death’s door as it is.

“STAY AWAY,” someone shrieks on all channels, “FROM MY CHILDREN!”

I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry--!

Pulling a look of absolute disgust, Collide comms back on the same frequency, voice calm--but annoyance unmistakeable. “Mortarphant. It’s in hand. Stop.”

She screams another hellish wail on all frequencies as OPAL begins warning you about what you already know.

>Tunnel. NOW. Burn all your charge to do it.
>Take a parting shot at Collide--you need to, if you want to keep him back long enough to have a chance at a getaway.
>Other?
>>
>>1387580
Hit the tunnel and do NOT stop running.
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>>1387580
>Take a parting shot at Collide--you need to, if you want to keep him back long enough to have a chance at a getaway.

Well hell, with a clear built-in advisory warning like that...

We have a few Wrenades left, right? Huck one at him and then burn everything to GTFO.
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>>1387580
>Tunnel. NOW. Burn all your charge to do it.
>Don't stop even if Collide follows you in.
>Because he's dead if he's caught out, too, and he knows it.

>That being said, keep the saetosbird fuckyou jet ready
>>
>>1387580
>Tunnel. NOW. Burn all your charge to do it.
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>>1387580
>>Tunnel. NOW. Burn all your charge to do it.

RunawayrunawayRUNAWAY!!
>>
Blackout the entrance after we pass by. That'll at least ensure that Earth Commanders can't come after us easily.
>>
Well it was a fun quest whilst it lasted.
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>>1387580
>Tunnel. NOW. Burn all your charge to do it.
Maybe put some ordinance in the ceiling as we go by, make us hard to follow. I want out more than I want away from Collide, but I sure as shit want away from Collide.
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>>1387580

>Tunnel. NOW. Burn all your charge to do it.

WE HAVE NO LEGS SO WE GOTTA RUN!

We can't finish the guy, so why botter with a parting shot?
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>>1387680
>We can't finish the guy, so why botter with a parting shot?

The idea with a parting shot is to make it something with enough oomph it slows him down from being able to follow us into the tunnel before the world explodes.
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>>1387580
>Tunnel. NOW. Burn all your charge to do it
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Hate to be that guy but...

>>1387570
Also yeah, time to GTFO.
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>>1387684
Our body is wrecked, is just too risky. And we don't have enough power. He took a discharge that would kill us and keep standing.
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>>1387580
>Tunnel. NOW. Burn all your charge to do it.

It's time to let the world burn in your wake. (and by that I mean let's burn all charge to the ground while we get outta dodge)
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>>1387580
>Tunnel. NOW. Burn all your charge to do it.
wow, if mortarphant is THIS crazy over the observers, could we actually play the long game?

Destroy observers here and there, bait out full barrages, and hide back in tunnels trying to sap through her supplies faster than they are refueled. If nothing else, her full attention means that the other forces aren't worrying about mortarphant right now.
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>>1387580
>Other?

Namely, both. If they option to run away isn't already composed entirely of raikousen, I propose blowing the battery to make it so in order to make up for the time lost hitting Collide with a heavy assault. This will be costly, but it would be very nice if Collide got caught in the explosions and we didn't. This is an opportunity to effectively hit him with an attack stronger than anything we're normally packing.
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>>1387580
Get the fuck out of there, Jesus Christ GO
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>>1387740

Let's me do a little recap for ya *"You are what’s left of maverick hunter Anode, A-rank, and this may be it for you."*

*You’re resistant, certainly, but not immune--and as you feel your battered legs melting into the molten glass earth, your shields flickering perilously dim, even this far from the epicenter. You feel heat that moves through you as if you’re not there as you grit your teeth, praying that by the time the firing disappears, you haven’t gone with it.*

You still think that we can even afford that parting shock? Our legs are barely working!
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>>1387856
https://youtu.be/L1BDM1oBRJ8?t=12
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>>1387898
Precisely
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>>1387898
Give him the stick DOOOON'T GIVE HIM THE STICK
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>>1387580
>Tunnel. NOW. Burn all your charge to do it.
Cant fight if we're dead.
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>>1387898
>>1387916
It occurs to me that is very literally this vote.
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>>1387740

This, but shoot whatever the fuck we have with the most recoil backwards at Collide.
>>
So, would ya'll say this mission has gone pretty much completely tits up?
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>>1388059
The Paridae do seem particularly vertical today.
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>>1388059
I wouldn't say that, the Mavericks have run out of civilians to kill and are resorting to friendly fire.
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>>1388059
We're alive, not everyone we know is dead, Collide had to show himself, and at least one of the satelite bases is down, with the way to another clear.

It's not THAT bad, assuming we can survive to get back to safety.
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>>1388147
Personally, I'm goncerned we don't have enough shields left to safely challenge Mortarphant.

From what we've seen so far, there's an alright chance Collide will give up and go home after this next bombardment, and that we can avoid the artillery long enough to disable the remaining bases and reach Mortarphant, who is so bad at melee that it lowers her threat level, without taking another hit. Problem is, our shields are low enough that we can't AFFORD to take another hit, and Mortarphant's idea of melee might be to fire off a shell at point blank or something.
Someone mentioned calling in Templar being an option last thread?
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>>1388204
Someone did raise that, and if it was an option I'd vote for it, but Gopher said in about as many words that he wouldn't let Templar out on the field unless we're incapacitated. I'm not counting on it.
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>>1388204
>>1388228
Maybe if we get back to the base they can hook us up with a quick field repair.
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>>1387580
>Tunnel. NOW. Burn all your charge to do it.
Am I too late to vote to Not Die?
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>>1388297
Maybe, but I think free access to a Sub-Tank is still above our pay grade.
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>>1388366
Maybe a fresh Ride Chaser or some more sharp wheels to clear out the mines? After thoroughly apologizing to India, of course.
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>>1388366
Considering the last time we got to use one, we were basically sworn to secrecy, I don't think they'll have one. But maybe they've got some spare energy capsules or something lying around...?
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>>1388204
Hence why is a good thing we recovered the Misericorde. We have to armor break her and then hit her weak point.

But with our legs busted, it will be very hard.
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>>1388438
A VWES recharge, at least?
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>>1387580
>“STAY AWAY,” someone shrieks on all channels, “FROM MY CHILDREN!”

Ahhhhhh. I think perhaps I get it, now. I'd wondered if she was making chunky elephantillery mechaniloids as surrogates for her sister.

Not quite, apparently. But close.

Now I'm not sure if I should be feeling guilty about us going after the satellite bases first, before engaging Mortarphant. I think I could use some moral guidance.

Hey, Cain Labs, just as a hypothetical, how do you think I should feel about robot infanticide? Not recreationally, I mean. Just when it's for practical purposes.
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>>1387580
>Tunnel. NOW. Burn all your charge to do it.

Also, Mass Shriver is an awesome upgrade.
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>>1388512
And people thought it was completely useless.
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>>1387580
>Tunnnnnneeeeeeelllllllllllll go go go
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>>1388461
that's one fucked up looking leg
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>>1388438
Now that I think about it, I wonder just how many reploids can absorb energy capsules. How does that work in MHQ?

I mean, We can simulate drunkenness and taste finely-crafted beer, but we just never had the opportunity to eat an energy capsule on-camera. We haven't been presented with proof that we CAN'T pick up and use mechaniloid energy cores(?) lying around, but... this game has been going on since 2012, and to my knowledge we've never actually seen it happen, among anyone.

Can we get a Word of God on this?
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>>1388967
Thinking more about it... game-wise, we've only ever seen X, Zero, Axl, and the playable Navigators in X8 exhibit ad-hoc energy restoration by picking up components remaining from destroyed enemies.

Could it be a rare trait among reploids?
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>>1388975
>>1388967
maybe the most powerful and unique thing about E-tanks is that everyone can use them. As in, it's not the same for pretty much every other type of recovery.

That would certainly be a good reason for why healing cyber elves were so valuable.
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>>1388967
>>1388975
Word of God is that it's a thing in universe, but that it relies on the LIFE cell inside the target remaining intact and being collected before automatic powerdown.

In-setting, it’s far more rare than it is in the games and not generally something worth looking for. In games, it’s simple quality of life. Anode in particular is a fast mover who hits hard and doesn’t, generally, slow his roll. His weapons usually aren’t the type to leave an intact core to collect, and he wouldn’t be advised to spend his time looking for them anyway. It could, in story, happen.

Here’s the big but:

To pre-empt the inevitable question of why Anode has never seen it once, it’s because narratively, health drops open up an enormous world of problems. To pull back the curtain a bit, adding such a gamelike element would be cumbersome. It’d be doable, certainly, roll for an item drop per each applicable dead mechaniloid, or start scripting power-ups into the story. But the former introduces randomness that will kill narrative (imagine the most tense battles except you lucked into a full health refill a minute earlier), or it starts demanding “expected” drops, which we have to account for you having to maintain the balance.

All in all, though, it would just completely kill the tension. Even if we’re obviously not going to let you do the tried and true Megaman thing of “scroll the same enemies back onscreen to farm health,” I feel like it does more harm than good and even beyond the difficulties I stated above, I feel like the story would venture too far into the games and away from being a story. At the very least, it would be a very different kind of story.

That said.

If people wanted--really, really wanted--to have item drops brought into MHQ, we could do it.
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>>1389024
Personally I'm fine with not having the item drops, it's a bit creepy if you really think about it, even more so than using enemy data to make weapons out of dead mavs.

I mean, I wouldn't be opposed to finding one at SOME point, just as a plot point or something, but I don't want it to be a regular thing.
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>>1389024
I think it would make sense in the context of finding a supply cache, or if the target was explicitly a supply line in the first place.

The real question is whether any of those kinds of resources are compatible as VWES energy.
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>>1389038
That would be a WEAPON cell.
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>>1389041
Yeah, but the resources we would find, say, here in mortarphant's stage, would be more like physical rockets right? Or are they indeed WEAPON cell compatible energy capsules?

Unless we get very lucky in dismantling those DNA mimics, I'm guessing it's not going to be easy to refill VWES ammo.
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>>1389044
Ahh, that's what you meant.
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>>1389044
WEAPON cell ammunition is like a universal ammo resource in a video game. WEAPON, functionally, is a slaved replicator that configures a single output with near-perfect efficiency. IE, Metal Man had infinite Metal Blades. It's what he was built around. Contrariwise, most core systems for a missile Reploid will be fabricating those weapons, be they solid projectiles, exploding shells, or even missiles. Launch Octopus had no worries about running out of torpedoes, and even if he "shot the works" they'd replenish in the course of the fight, rather than need days of rearmament and resupply.

VWES is a more adaptive, but costly, means of using WEAPON cell energy to produce a templated effect. Because the cell isn't configured to that weapon, you do not get infinite ammunition from it, but each entity has its own reservoir when configured in the VWES.
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>>1389049
this should probably be in the wiki.
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>>1389051
It will be.
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>>1389049
Didn't Ukumari say the weapon that could charge Anode's capacitor only had 8 shots?
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>>1389095
That's her secondary weapon, yes. Specialist equipment (see Saetos's javelin-feathers) aren't always governed by WEAPON. He had a finite quantity of those, so each one lost required rebuilding, which he could not do in the span of that mission.
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>>1389098
Dumb question and completely irrelevant to the situation, but we haven't done much with our position as rangemaster. Are we actually meant to be providing training/dealing with paperwork/upkeep/etc, or are we just assumed to be doing all that in the background?
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>>1389109
A bit of both. You can think of developing your Beret squad as an offshoot of your range duties, and continued time and investment will strengthen both them and you.

Hint: Anode's buster accuracy is actually pretty goddamned sharp for a spray-and-pray configuration. There's a reason for that.
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>>1389115
speaking of this, whenever we do see anode training someone on the range it usually involves melee. Have the 4th's rank and file shown any notable improvements in their hand to hand or in anything since we toke over or should we focus on training them more if we live past this if to do nothing more then to try and curve off our growing PTSD?
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>>1389115
>There's a reason for that.
Well, now I'm paranoid.
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>>1389126
No such thing as too much training.
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>>1389126
It's more been for Anode's benefit than theirs--like Em told you when you squad trained the Berets, in their current operational role melee skill is about "getting out of melee, or surviving in it." On that front, they're certainly better than your average Beret, but they need time and drill to really show big results.

You CAN change that, if you want to. Hell, Anode's next session with Em is likely going to be to try to teach him the basics of trying to stay in melee and actually duke it out, instead of just going for lone hits.
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>>1389132
so that's just one more reason not to die

...How's their aim though? At some point I do want to make good with our promise to Indy of making her into a ground pounder and I figure dragging her to the range and easing her in with the range would be a good idea. Or hell if we could ever get Em to get over himself we could have him help us teach her how to fight up close and have her help us teach him how to shoot straight... You think offering Em a chance to beat on Indy with no conscience would be enough for us to convince him to actually work on his aim as a trade off?
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>>1389152
I don't recall ever promising to turn her into a groundpounder. Aside from that, she can probably kick our ass when it comes to skill alone, maybe moreso now that she has ultra-endo to make up for any lack of physical capabilities.
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>>1389162
she said she'd turn us into a pilot and in return we promised to turn her into a ground pounder right before we went and did the lockon hound mission way back when.
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>>1389172
Skimmed through both threads on that mission, plus the one preceding it, can't find a thing.
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>>1389127
No need to be. I'm pretty sure HC is just saying we got a passive accuracy boost by choosing Rangemaster as our specialization, way back when.
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>>1389127
I think he means it is because we spend time on the range more than we see with the stuff we control Anode for as a sort of passive buff for the job.
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>>1389024
Nah, no need to complicate matters. It just struck me as a lore question with a knowable answer.
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>Tunnel. NOW. Burn as much charge as is necessary to get there.
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>>1389132
We need to train the Berets, do we have a sword user? A demonman? A sniper and a tank? Maybe we should get a field medic.

I didn't want us to have a team, but since we do we better do the job well.

The problem is money. We are facing very dangerous enemies with a pay cut, we don't get free upgrades like X does or we are a Badass like Zero. And some enemies we don't even get pay for!

Oh and the guy currently being The Maverick Hunters Boss might be either a clone or in the side of the bad guys
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>>1389024

I'm happy either way. Both sides have their ups and downs, but I trust your decision on it.

That said, I thought we actually *did* find one once. Granted, it's possible we were playing as Flares or Emerald at the time, so you're still right about Anode not seeing one.

It was either around that period, or when we were doing the hostage mission with X. Or I'm imagining it.
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>>1389610
> demonman

Present!
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>>1389640
You hardly count as "man". Now, if we needed a demonbeast or a demondemon, then you'd be in your area of expertise.
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>>1389659

Demonking, I think.
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>>1389640
My favorite part of this is that I read the intended and not the typo at first, and now my mental image of Cain Labs is a black, Scottish cyclops.
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>>1389610
>demonman
I get that you meant "demoman" but now I can't stop thinking about having a Steel Beret specialize in psychological warfare
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>>1389666
Pretty sure that's Flak, he seems like he could break someone's brain with a little effort.
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>>1389610
>swordman
You have Emerald. Your only better teacher would be Rezador, and he can't be bothered educating "disposables."

Your Berets have standard issue lobeam sabers. They aren't built or trained for melee engagement. You might get one to adopt that, but right now the idea of handing one a hibeam and declaring him your "squad melee specialist" is like trying to make a fish your aerial bombardment expert.

The demoman role can/will eventually be filled by Flak, so please drop it and maybe smother it a little. The demonman role is filled by Cain Labs, and, occasionally, Hunter Command.

You're not going to be able to get a field medic. You have a squad of four, not a division. Maybe if you start doing more administrative/strategic command.

"Pay cut" the jury's out on.

>>1389669
That or Susan being really, really depressing.
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>>1389674
>trying to make a fish your aerial bombardment expert.
Why are you so racist against Soar Salmon?
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>>1389674
Speaking of field medic-y stuff, is there any kind of first-aid/engineering training we can do that would allow us to better pick out possible weak-points, capabilities and the like based on their build/appearance? Or any other kind of specific short-term training that the Hunters recommend for general combat use?

And far more importantly, does Susan remember he nearly spilled his drunken backstory to Anode?
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>>1389696
For Anode, the best thing for that is the school of hard knocks.

And yes, he does.
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>>1389711
>And yes, he does.
OH BOY

Get drunk, nearly spill your Super-Secret Origin, demand to know how much your boss makes, and bitch about pay and inequality to him. Our next interaction sure will be fun, presuming we survive!
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>>1389696
Wouldn't a upgrade to our already bullshit scanner that let's us see some invisible people cover that?

Mmm, a detect energy kind of radar would be useful. No matter how bullshit a Phantom is, he or she is dealing the weight and space issues, so it can be completely invisible or hide it's energy signature, but not both. Having both types of shielding would add too much weight.
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>>1389728
We have no idea how good the OPAL system is, which would be helpful to know. Better than infantry sensors obviously, at least somewhere on par with a recon expert's. There's a great deal of leeway in there, and we don't know specifically what's lacking, either. Plus Stylist was still able to overcharge his system to hide at the end, not to mention making us see those potholes, so it's obviously not completely infallible.
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>>1389746
That's because our mental shielding is shit. Remember when we had someone talk into our mind?
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>>1389764
Beams Nautiller of Maverick Hunter R&D. He was using a proprietary ultra-science wavelength or something since regular comms were out. I think any mental shielding available to us would have been irrelevant against it.
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>>1389764
If you mean during the G-rank mission, that happened to Emerald too, and he's had four extra years and a far-larger upgrade-expenditure than us. I doubt we'll be keeping Philosophers off our private comms any time soon. That said, I doubt that kind of security has anything to do with OPAL sensors or the like.

And just seen Scarab's post, yeah, forgot about Nautiller. Again, very specific circumstance.
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>>1389787
>>1389764
Do you mean the text only option hunters seem to be equipped with in case of damage or silent coordination? Because we were able to do that with Em and Flares.
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>>1389793
>and a far-larger upgrade-expenditure than us
>Emerald
>upgrades
do you even read this quest?
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>>1389799
No, I mean...

>You look back at your own dismayed face in that soulless red optic. "Um. Yeah. You're--Commander Nautiler."

>"Ah, yes, you remember. Good. However, the situation does not warrant relaxing our security clearance protocols. I can assure you we're quite secure here now. Isn't that right, Thesis?"

>You hear faint, strangled yelling through the communicator.

>Something in that makes your brain go a little numb and fuzzy--but then something clicks. "Wait, if you have comms--"

>"16th's personal shortwave only, I'm afraid," Nautiler interrupts, just a touch of annoyance in his otherwise wholly lofty, unconcerned tone.
>>
>>1389820
He doesn't spend it on armour or his buster, sure, but some of it has to go on sensors and the like. He can't spend it ALL on sabers and beer. ... Right?

I want to believe.
>>
>>1389799
We should have the option to turn it off if we want, or next time we will be spammed during a mission.
>>
>>1389850
All of Em's upgrades have gone into beam sabers or handheld equipment. He has the same specs as the day he was built.

>>1389857
All Reploids have standard countermeasures against that sort of thing baked in. You can close channels but distraction/DDoS/headscrewy stuff is mitigated.

Aside from specialists in those fields.
>>
>>1389850
Some of it went to super redundancies that make him ridiculously hardy despite low armor, if that helps. The rest....well, yeah, sabers and beer. Though again, I say we invest in making a toy he cannot refuse for how shiny and new and stabby it is, like a kusari gama or other reach weapon.
>>
>>1389867
Even the redundant systems from...I want to say Rock Zombie off the top of my head?
>>
>>1389867
>All of Em's upgrades have gone into beam sabers or handheld equipment. He has the same specs as the day he was built.
The fuck.

He'd better have been built with absolute top-of-the-line sensors and shit (despite being an infantry prototype, so unlikely) then, because he's years out of date. I'm sure Schwarz was delighted with his priorities!

>>1389875
Forgot about the redundancies, at least there's those - but seriously, has he never had a surprise stealth-based Maverick crop up? I know he's big on leaving massive, exploitable weaknesses anyway, but damn if I don't want Anode to smack him upside the head.
>>
>>1389867

So next guy will spam us with adds? Good to know.

And whi bets someone besides that darn Fox will play with our sences like it was the Twilight Zone?
>>
>>1389904
Emerald has honed his neurosis into a razor edge. He hauled himself from a C all the way to A on sabers and skill alone. If he'd just get over his issues and modernize his components he could hit SA easy.
>>
>>1389884
Rock Zombie gave him the Hertzbalger. Em was built as an up-done mass production prototype. Same armoring, shielding, and weaponry, just prettied up a bit--smaller hands to show off the engineering prowess to make articulation at that scale, removable helmet/hair beneath, and after the proof of concept performed, on paper, identically to the production model they intended to create, they just filled out the rest of the base chassis with redundancies.

>>1389904
Nope! His most advanced system is the Secondary Subprocessor.

>>1389904
He's been hunting for six years. He's seen a lot more bad days than Anode has, and he's still kicking.
>>
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>>1389926
This is, after all, a guy who got thrown under a heavy cargo convoy by a turtle about ten times his mass and then came back by crashing a ride chaser through the window.
>>
>>1389919
Exactly, IF he'd just upgrade his armour (and possibly some other parts he's been neglecting). I figured it was just his armour holding him back and making the lack of ranged capabilities, but the fact that a PHANTOM could probably amble along and gank him from behind with ease is somewhat concerning. When he was blinded, he still needed Anode to tell him when Chaff Weasel was coming for him, so he hasn't got other senses improved to make up for it.

Are stealthed Mavericks really all that uncommon that he hasn't had to worry about them in all this time?

>>1389926
Huh, thought it was four years. In any case, I'm still bewildered at the lack of anti-stealth capabilities. Time to drown my confusion in alcohol.
>>
>>1389943

Actually he will gank himself since he is going suicidal on missions with a guy who hates his guts.

But it looks like Making an intervention and sent the girls to talk to him before he does something really stupid isn't in the plans so...
>>
This is a topic I'm not sure about. Should we bother picking up Schwarz crusade of trying to get Em to upgrade? He is more skilled then us, more experience, and those Sabers are grand. I feel like it would behoove us to at least find some way to get Em to upgrade that doesn't involve violence, but I wonder if it's truly worth the effort. If only to ensure he doesn't kick it, I guess.
>>
>>1389969
Trying to get him to upgrade will just get him to back off from us, so not a good plan. Maaaybe there's some way to convince him it's his own idea, or that it's the only way to get him promoted and thus access to whatever's classified regarding Diamond's death, but that would require a lot of manipulation that I'm not sure Anode is any good at.
>>
>>1389985
Not getting him to upgrade, just have him talk with India and the other firls so he stops being a suicidal little shit like he has been since he lost someone.

Is so hard to have an Intervention?

Really if we do not that soon Em will kill himself because before at least he wanted to live.
>>
>>1389985
>>1389969

Unless we find some silver VWES to get through his shield of angst, I figure once his datedness drops him down to B he'll either snap out of it or go all the way off the deep end.
>>
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>>1389962
>>1389969
>>1389985
>>1389998
>>1390004
I'd like an attempted intervention after this elephant gets stuffed.

There's also Schwarz's sidequest -- maybe we can drag Em along on that and talk as we go. I know it's unlocked, but is that something we have to specifically vote for starting, or will there be a prompt when it's ready?
>>
>>1390038
Sidequest? You mean Old Dog, Old Tricks?
>>
Look, I am reasonably certain the easiest way forward with upgrades and Em is to disguise them as swords. Or sharp, pointy objects-like seeing if there is a Mav specialized in ceratanium throwing blades you could get slaved into a sort of shuriken sidepouch.
>>
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>>1390039
I mean the one that was unlocked when we picked him, "The Ghost," out of the "//signal trace fail" lineup several missions ago.
>>
>>1390066
>armour made entirely out of blades
>sensors that can detect and analyse any saber within 500m
>buster that doesn't just create sabers but actively fires them long-distance

Perfect.

>>1390075
Was that actually a sidequest, or just information? We can't actually do anything about it unless we start trying to send more messages to Mystery Sender.
>>
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>>1390075
That one's a backstory mission, not a current operation.
>>
>>1390086
Anyway. What would have happened if Anode died in season one final? Would the Quest have ended?
>>
>>1390086
Right, which is why I wonder how we can access it. We the audience/players know it's unlocked, but how can Anode pick it as a thing to investigate?
>>
>>1390096
I'd probably take some time off, poll the readers for whether they want to roll a new character, continue as an existing one, or the like, and then try to keep going. Same for if Anode dies today.

>>1390102
Just need to have the readerbase up and pick a time. Admittedly with the long spaces between threads, people may be too heavily disincentivized to go for a backstory mission. I may need to just offer it up as something Anode encounters down the line.
>>
>>1390117
I'm pretty sure most of us could be convinced to take a thread or two off for a Schwarz or Emerald background mission. Presuming we're not at a cliffhanger with Anode, anyway.
>>
>>1390083
The trick there is see what he is comfortable with. Like his Tumult gauntlet-is there a way to make that a full on energy shield, for example, that could catch incoming fire in a pinch? Or the Gaff Centipede he hunted could be made into something like the tension coils, swing around and have crazy wuxia fights. Just gotta play to his sensibilities a bit, I think.
>>
>>1390130
So once this mission is done then?
>>
>>1390173
Tumult gauntlet and bondage master? Sure, why not?
>>
>>1390184
Well, we'll be dead before the mission is over, so I guess there'll be a good reason for a break before our new character.
>>
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>>1390184
>>1390190
Even now there is hope for Anode!
>>
>>1390117
Oh, speaking of, HC, what is Em doing with his data from hunts, currently? Just wondering if we can pitch ideas for some of them.
>>
>>1390217
All "free" data has been currently utilized. We can purchase copies of all old data save for Saetos.
>>
>>1390234
Woops. Misread that.
>>
>>1390217
Depends. I'll have it come up next time you talk to him. If, when, survive, etc.

Also, gonna write a thing, just getting ready.
>>
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>>1387619
>>1387624
>>1387672
>>1387680
>>1387687
>>1387736
>>1387739
>>1387936
>>1388300
>>1388512
>>1388689
>>1389569
You don’t hesitate for a moment. While Collide is looking at his own battered team (yours having been pounded to scrap), you boost directly for the tunnel at speed. Glass spiderweb-shatters in your wake as you burn capacitor, streaking directly for the crater--somehow now the most intact thing in creation--the ground beneath you already rumbling with the first detonations of falling bombs.

At the last instant you’re snapped backwards by a massive hand closing over your arm as you pass, your boots yanking themselves up from under you as Collide snares you from behind. You twist in his grip just in time for his fist to slam into your chest, sending you hurtling down the tunnel.

Your shields don’t even go off--by the time you’re conscious enough to notice, you realize that you’d probably be dead if they had. Your chest has been caved in, the armor buckled inward. The spike on your pauldron has snapped clean off on something, lost to who knows where. Somewhere in your flight, you crashed into--and through--Sabomole, who you see curled up beside you, now stone silent, rocking back and forth in a ball.

Behind you, the distant light from the mouth of the tunnel flashes with impact after impact, the ground shuddering through your back. You can barely hear it for the noise, and you can barely move. With effort, you haul yourself upright as you dimly recognize that amid the flash and thunder of Mortarphant’s artillery, the light at the end of the tunnel is quite literally getting closer, Collide smashing aside handfuls of earth and rock with his bare hands.

You raise your buster, already sizing up a battle you’ve lost--nowhere to move, nowhere to dodge, you can run through the tunnel but in the best case you arrive at another enemy base…

...And he stops, with a scoff of disgust and rage as another blast erupts behind him, casting his shadow down across the two of you.

“Enough. We’re done.”

Collide turns, looking back at you coldly over one massive shoulder, ignoring the bombardment falling like rain above him, even as his shields flash and strobe in a bath of hellfire.

“She’s all yours, Livewire.”

And with that, the maverick who had you dead to rights simply walks away.
>>
>>1390683
-----

It’s been three hours, your internal clock tells you.

Three hours sitting in a hole with a catatonic mole--the entrance having been bombarded closed ages ago--knowing that only ignorance and insanity have kept you alive so far. The entire time, Mortarphant has not stopped firing. Every now and then you swear you feel something from beneath you, or freeze up as a blast is perilously loud or close--and then you relax, knowing that you’d be dead before you had time to panic.

Finally, though, it seems to be abating. Mortarphant’s lost interest. In the dark, you don’t dare try to examine yourself, knowing the damage you’re dealing with is all kinds of not good.

You twitch again when your comms crackle--the first signal to get in or out this whole time.

“Captain?”

You haul yourself upright, with difficulty. “Templar?”

“The very same. I’m near at hand.”

Sure enough, a moment later, and light cracks through from the sky. Templar--looking a little battered himself, but none the worse for it--peers down at you cautiously, seeing the whimpering Sabomole next to you, flinching away from the light like a vampire.

“He did true yeoman’s work. Is he… quite well?”

You just shake your head. Templar doesn’t need to hear much more, slowly clambering down after you with surprising care from the giant.

“What you are about to observe, keep mum,” He says carefully. Setting his massive, flanged mace down, he kneels beside you and holds a wide hand to your crumpled chestplate. You feel a thrum of electricity, but your capacitors don’t move.

Instead, your shielding flickers faintly in the dark, and slowly and steadily brightens.

“Strictly speaking, I cannot do this,” he says good-naturedly, and then, as an afterthought: “Shh.”

“Holy shit,” you mutter, faintly disbelieving.

It’s both a familiar and strange feeling--it’s almost like lying in a recharger bed, and you feel a sort of pall of tiredness that made you slow and stiff slowly ebb away. It’s alien but welcome, and for a moment, for a blessed change, it feels like something didn’t go wrong this mission.

He smiles, perhaps at your surprise. “The Heart of Mercy. Classified, of course. The Weissritter would rather not let it be advertised more broadly than their ranks. There would be… questions raised, and rightly so.”

You snort at that, remembering a day not so long ago you got grilled mercilessly about making sure your capacitors could never, ever do exactly this. Right now, maybe it’s the stress finally uncorking, maybe it’s the near-miss with death, maybe it’s the absurdity, maybe it’s just that you’re talking to the god damn anti-Collide right now, but this is the funniest fucking thing you’ve seen in weeks. “No shit.”

“None.”
>>
>>1390694
It takes him a few minutes--nowhere near the speed or power of a sub tank, but slowly, he replenishes your straining LIFE cell, refilling your shields. Your electrical senses combine with the overall feeling of relaxation it imparts, giving you a sort of distant focus as the internal warnings and alerts fade away, one by one. You can feel the energy as it passes along, heading where it needs to go, and despite the difficulty moving from the damaged armor, you feel… alive again.

“Where do we stand, Captain?” He finally asks.

You grimace as he removes his hand--but sure enough, you’re back in action and (almost) in order.

“We have two satellite bases standing, Mortarphant, and we need to get Sabomole out of here.” Sabomole… poor bastard. “Is Arc okay?”

“The Fifteenth is well, all accounted for,” he replies. “In truth they held much more concern for you.”

“How about the disposition up there, what’s it like?” You ask.

“Increased patrols,” Templar replies slow and even--god, he really is the anti-Collide. After three hours of whimpering and bombshells, you could listen to him talk for hours. “And some sporadic rain,” he adds with a tap of his scorched arm plate. “Sir Gopher let me off my leash, with some haranguing from the upper ranks, upon the sole condition that I not engage in any battle in the field today.” He taps a massive finger to his nose. “T’would be a shame if battle finds me, yes?”

A shame for them, you’re sure. “Were there any--did you see any Reploid variants with special weapons?” You ask. “I ran into a guy named Collide.”

“Aptly named,” he observes, gesturing vaguely at your pulped chassis.

“Yeah. He had some custom models backing him up--they shot ice, there were Hoganmer with some kind of coil weapon and Tumult Shells.”

He makes a contemplative, rumbling noise in the back of his throat. Sabomole flinches. “A valuable sum of intelligence. But no, none.”

With Collide, and the Mimics gone… you might just have a chance at getting this done. But there’s too much ground to cover. Templar is too slow to risk getting caught out for a prolonged bombardment. You do have the tunnel running to the second base… and you seem to recall having a Drimole stationed there, waiting patiently for orders that never came.

Plan your next move from each of these options, majority in each field wins, not majority combination because I don’t want to be here until doomsday:

TEMPLAR:
>Take Sabomole and get him to safety.
>Take the tunnel and hit the far base.

ANODE:
>Bring Sabomole back yourself. You’ll have to hit the nearer of the two satellites.
>You’re fastest. Hit the distant base at the end of the tunnel and then head right for Mortarphant.

ARTILLERY:
>Task Ukumari to bombard the nearest base until it melts.
>You still have that lightning-charge trick up your sleeve. Hold out just a little longer.
>>
>>1390701
>Take Sabomole and get him to safety.
>You’re fastest. Hit the distant base at the end of the tunnel and then head right for Mortarphant.
>You still have that lightning-charge trick up your sleeve. Hold out just a little longer.
>>
>>1390701
>Take Sabomole and get him to safety.
>You’re fastest. Hit the distant base at the end of the tunnel and then head right for Mortarphant.
>You still have that lightning-charge trick up your sleeve. Hold out just a little longer.
>>
>>1390701
>Take Sabomole and get him to safety.
>You’re fastest. Hit the distant base at the end of the tunnel and then head right for Mortarphant.
>You still have that lightning-charge trick up your sleeve. Hold out just a little longer.
>>
>>1390701
Not dead! Woo!

Let Templar take Sabo away. He's out of his depth and there is no point risking Templar's cover overly much. And lets sit on the charge bit a while longer.
>>
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>>1390701
Well shit.

TEMPLAR:
>Take Sabomole and get him to safety.

Partnering with a healtank is the best thing for the poor guy right now.

ANODE:
>You’re fastest. Hit the distant base at the end of the tunnel and then head right for Mortarphant.

They're not liable to see that coming.

ARTILLERY:
>Task Ukumari to bombard the nearest base until it melts.

Fuck you, third satellite base. One less thing to worry about.
>>
>>1390701
Do we still have our armor breaking sword?
>>
>>1390788
Rolling with the bugmans on this one.
>>
>>1390701

>Take Sabomole and get him to safety.

>You’re fastest. Hit the distant base at the end of the tunnel and then head right for Mortarphant.

>Task Ukumari to bombard the nearest base until it melts.

The quick-charge would be nice, but I'm really not big on the idea of going after mortarphant with a base still intact.
>>
>>1390701

TEMPLAR:
>Take Sabomole and get him to safety.

ANODE:
>You’re fastest. Hit the distant base at the end of the tunnel and then head right for Mortarphant.

>Use your misericorde on the elephant girl armor if you still have it.

ARTILLERY:
>Task Ukumari to bombard the nearest base until it melts.
>>
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>>1390701
>TEMPLAR:
>Take Sabomole and get him to safety.
I for one am truly happy the Weissritter exists right now

ANODE:
>You’re fastest. Hit the distant base at the end of the tunnel and then head right for Mortarphant.
ARTILLERY:
>Task Ukumari to bombard the nearest base until it melts.
If Ukumari hits the base and then beams out with Sufferingmole and new best husbando, Mortarphant will be trying to attack a whole lot of nothing right after having lost all her support.
>>
>>1390701
>Take Sabomole and get him to safety.
tunnel safe, tunnel good. Sabomole safe in tunnel....but I feel off about using Templar for the main mission. Why the FUCK did Collide just leave?

>You’re fastest. Hit the distant base at the end of the tunnel and then head right for Mortarphant.

>Task Ukumari to bombard the nearest base until it melts.
if we we blow up some more observer drones near the base, will Mortarphant blow up her own base?


Now, speculation about Collide: I'm thinking that with Mass Shriver, that tunnel situation was actually in our favor. His main ram relies on those scissor things, and we could GOFAST through them to misericorde, or just use the range of the Lance to get him first and Mass Shriver into a skewer.
>>
>>1390791
Pretty sure we do. It did squat against Collide, but we didn't lose it.
>>
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>>1390791
You do. You got headbonked before you had a chance to stab him with it.
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>>1390893
>Why the FUCK did Collide just leave?
Mavericks aren't a monolithic faction. It's a reasonable bet at this stage that Collide isn't viral, and whatever reasoning he has for being on their side, Mortarphant just pissed him off to the point he's willing to let us retire her.

That or Sabomole has the King Engine and it finally kicked in.
>>
>>1390893
>Why the FUCK did Collide just leave?
Would you want to be around Mortarphant any more than you absolutely had to? And when you're dealing with Mortarphant, "around" is a subjective thing.
>>
>>1390701
>Take Sabomole and get him to safety.
>You’re fastest. Hit the distant base at the end of the tunnel and then head right for Mortarphant.
>You still have that lightning-charge trick up your sleeve. Hold out just a little longer.
>>
>>1390909
Good, because that big girl armor would be a pain otherwise.
>>
>>1390968
>big girl armor
For you
But I don't think armor's going to be such a big factor in that fight. Maybe that's what's holding her back from being S-class, sort of like Em.
>>
>>1390893
>>1390939
Maybe he knew she'd keep shelling for three hours and he had a show he didn't want to miss.
>>
>>1390952
And you know our legs are still shit right? We did not get any mechanical repairs, just the equivalent of an energy tank or two.

Oh and our chest is still a mess.
>>
>>1390998
the legs were fucked up by ice, right? That should have melted.

The melting into glass part.....I HOPE that's only cosmetic.
>>
Since I'm a bit confused from the last update, can you clarify what exactly is the Heart of Mercy and what it's doing that your capacitors can't?
>>
>>1390987
Considering that we were told that she BOMBS HERSELF, nope, her armor is no joke. Also Maverick, we don't know what black market upgrades she got.

Are you new to this quest? Because Intel has rarely been 100% correct for us.
>>
>>1391011
You remember how Anode was told he can never ever have a means of self-sufficiency and battlefield healing? You remember how even knowledge of the existence of sub tanks is classified and kept to high-rank, valuable officers in need-to-know situations?

Heart of Mercy just let Templar refill your shields--IE, heal you--and upended all those rules.
>>
>>1391011
It is recharging our LIFE cell aka health bar. It is similar in function to a subtank, but not as quick.
>>
>>1391030
And unlike the games, it does not repair us. So is a shitty idea to risk our life for the mole when we have A DAMN HEALER THAT CAN DO IT FOR US!
>>
Man, Sabomole is gonna need almost as much therapy as us when this is over.
>>
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>>1391056
We should give him our therapist's number.

yes I know
>>
>>1391063

Oh yeah, for sure, that dude was great.
>>
TEMPLAR
>Take Sabomole and get him to safety.

ANODE
>You’re fastest. Hit the distant base at the end of the tunnel and then head right for Mortarphant.

ARTILLERY
>Task Ukumari to bombard the nearest base until it melts.
>>
>>1391056
>>1391063
>>1391083
>Hey Anode, when's your next therapy appoin-

>MY THERAPIST IS DEEAAAAAAAAD!!!
>>
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>>1391129
Jesus christ, why haven't I thought of that gag?
>>
>>1390701
>Take Sabomole and get him to safety.
>You’re fastest. Hit the distant base at the end of the tunnel and then head right for Mortarphant.
>You still have that lightning-charge trick up your sleeve. Hold out just a little longer.
>>
>>1391159
You mean the gag that has been going for several threads now?

Yes I am blind to sarcasm, why do you ask?

"Due to the money cuts, our new brand therapist is a chatbot."
>>
>>1391225
No, no that exact one. That exact phrase, you fool. Do you even huckleberry?
>>
>>1390701
>Take Sabomole and get him to safety.
>You’re fastest. Hit the distant base at the end of the tunnel and then head right for Mortarphant.
I assume this means the Coastal Battery? Since heading back with Sabomole would take us back past the Cliff Battery.
>You still have that lightning-charge trick up your sleeve. Hold out just a little longer.
That's a tough choice, but I'd rather dodge the Cliff Battery's missile bombardment on a full charge, than try to engage Mortarphant without Arc's assistance. We still have some Chaff rockets to spare, I think. We may need to save some for the fight on the mesa.
>>
Can we take advantage of this break in the enemy intelligence? Somehow advertise that we were killed in the bombardment without surprising Arc when we need that jolt?
>>
>>1390701

Throw one more one the consensus pile.

>Take Sabomole and get him to safety.
>You’re fastest. Hit the distant base at the end of the tunnel and then head right for Mortarphant.
>Task Ukumari to bombard the nearest base until it melts.
>>
>>1390701
>Take Sabomole and get him to safety.
>You’re fastest. Hit the distant base at the end of the tunnel and then head right for Mortarphant.
>You still have that lightning-charge trick up your sleeve. Hold out just a little longer.

This mission may be FUBAR, but we'll be damned if we make Templar do anything that can't be plausibly denied, and escorting a civilian out of an active combat zone takes priority. Save artillery until we need it.

We needed the new guy to come save us, the mission briefing is going to suck on this one.
>>
>>1392151
It's hardly Anode's fault a blatant S-rank maverick operative koolaid man'd his way into the mission.
>>
>>1392305
Also

>Collide
>Koolaid

His name works on multiple levels. I'm hoping that was intentional.
>>
>>1390701
>>Take Sabomole and get him to safety.

>ANODE:
>>You’re fastest. Hit the distant base at the end of the tunnel and then head right for Mortarphant.

>ARTILLERY:
>>Task Ukumari to bombard the nearest base until it melts.

we're going to drink ourselves silly after this mission aren't we?
>>
>>1392762
Somebody's going to be drinking once this is all said and done.

Whether that'll be us, or whether it'll be Em pourin' one out for his niggas, remains to be seen
>>
>>1392762
>>1392771
I actually think that we shouldn't make a habit of drinking our cares away. Maybe we should get a new therapist.
>>
>>1392783
I support this
>>
>>1392783

Thirded
>>
>>1392783
I kind of meant that more as a joke as I'm sure we'll being in the medical ward for about a week after this mission. Hell we're almost taking as much damage as we did when we fought wallaby whatever the fuck his name was. The one were we though we could become the super laser by draining it's batter.
>>
>>1392792
To be fair, we DID become the super laser
>>
so Hunter Command/Cain Labs

How'd we do on our first solo S fight? Because I'm guessing we scored a solid D. And if that guy wasn't an S class or higher then we really need to get our ass in gear.
>>
>>1392783
Fourthed.
>>
>>1392804
Frankly, walking away from an overclassed fight at all is pretty good, even if the only reason that is is that the guy opted to not finish us.
>>
>>1393035
It's a good thing we didn't take a parting shot - might've pissed him off enough to come in after us further.
>>
>>1393040
On the other hand, it might have been enough to have him get caught in the rain, and maybe he would have melted.
>>
>>1393045
Oh I doubt it very much, anything we hucked at him likely only would've stalled him by fractions of a second.
>>
>>1393049
Yeah I doubt it too, just saying. We couldn't do much but it does seem like it wouldn't have taken much either.
>>
>>1393045
I think it would have resulted in us getting our first solid hit on him. Not from the rain since he would be blocking, but on his body from a wrenade or something.

It wouldn't be worth it.
>>
>>1393045
He was out in the rain though. He was blatantly ignoring it while he dug his way towards us until he got bored.
>>
Is there a proper technique for using Mass Shriver to snap objects with our bare hands? Gigantic scissors, artillery barrels, plane wings....
>>
>>1393216
We should get ourselves a nice solid physical melee weapon that we can whip out to use with the Mass Shriver. Like, a hammer or something.
>>
>>1393218
man, that flamberge really WAS great.

But it was the speed of the thing that I wanted to focus on. Any swinging weapon will have a bit of windup and more importantly need solid footing. I was hoping for something we could do while climbing or midair, and quickly.
>>
>>1393218
Can you hear it?

The collective wail of Solstrike Saber supporters
>>
>>1393276
solstrike saber REALLY doesn't need mass shriver.

It's just that 2 of the last few missions would have really appreciated the fuckeverything sword, which in retrospect I concede was a good point.
>>
>>1393276
>>1393222
Neither of those are physical you ninnies, they're beam sabers, which don't benefit much from applied force so much as they burn shit.

I'm talking about a solid ceratanium weapon, or whatever Wren's blades were made out of.
>>
>>1393306
See, when you say "solid", I think "Buster Sword."
>>
>>1393320
Well I'm not talking about a gaseous weapon here anon
>>
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>>1393320
Also if you're gonna use a weapon like that you'd need to commit to it and use it near-exclusively since you'd barely have hand economy to use anything else. Pic related.
>>
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>>1393337
Anode is tall enough that he could sheathe it across his back. Or you could get a smaller one-handed weapon.

Solid alloy weapons of several stripes are an option, but you'd need to leave the lance at home when you use it unless you devise it to be out-of-the-way enough.
>>
I already thought of a solution for that, actually. It's a specialized shoulder rack based off of that one Vile-style shoulder turret we could have got that holds the sword for us, the lifts it above our shoulder for us to grab when we need it.
>>
>>1389049
Wait, I thought that when Em was pondering fucking over his buster to make it shoot sabers, he said he'd cram in a WEAPON cell but only have limited ammo.
Would that be because making sabers would be fuck-off difficult, or just because he'd lack the talent to make it a proper WEAPON entity instead of a VWES system that only shot one stupid thing?
>>
>>1393346
It'd be a ghetto VWES, yeah. Remember, Em doesn't have a VWES at all.
>>
>>1393348
So it's entirely plausible that somebody competent could put an infinite sword gun in his arm, possibly even his non-buster arm, and he was instead contemplating ripping out his only ranged weapon to have like three shots of sword.

Only fucking Em.
>>
Pity we can't use some kind of pseudo-science gravitic fuckery to make a small weapon heavier.
>>
>>1393357
Well, it's more that if he was going to be doing anything (which he wouldn't, you know him), he may as well put the real estate to better use. Like an actual VWES, which he could then create a swordgun fabricator for.

When he's less tetchy, ask him about upgrade ideas sometime. Schwarz almost got him to budge.
>>
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>>1393339
Could always go for something integrated, like an elbow spike, or we could even do a Kars-style extendable arm blade

>>1393343
Something like that seems like it'd slow us down a bit.
>>
>>1393368
Maybe add a pointy thing to the other end of the lance?
>>
>>1393377
Hey, now that's a thought. Though I don't know if the haft of our lance is sturdy enough for full physical stresses especially when using mass shriver.
>>
>>1393377
Would likely fuck up the Ascent Buster.
>>
>>1393401
I forgot we could do the blade couching thing
>>
>>1393401
Arrest Buster, but yeah, it probably would.
>>
How are we going to take on Collide when we see him again in the future? Getting through his armor is clearly a nonoption, unless we... I don't know. Add Mortarphant's weapon data to the wrenades somehow?
>>
>>1393418
He's weak to the jumpjet
>>
>>1390701

TEMPLAR:
>Take Sabomole and get him to safety.

ANODE:
>You’re fastest. Hit the distant base at the end of the tunnel and then head right for Mortarphant.

ARTILLERY:
>Task Ukumari to bombard the nearest base until it melts.
>>
>>1393427
Okay, he's "weak" to it. But that can't really mean much when he's an S-class lightning glacier. We need more to our game than that one trick. What else have we got?

Schwarz would tell us to fight smarter, so we know Collide has damn near invulnerable armor, moves like a bat out of hell, and hits harder than we can. What else have we got on him?
>>
Oh yeah.

TEMPLAR:
>Take Sabomole and get him to safety.

ANODE:
>You’re fastest. Hit the distant base at the end of the tunnel and then head right for Mortarphant.

ARTILLERY:
>Tell Ukumari to wait for your mark, and then begin melting the next one of Mortarphant's "babies." We'll use this to distract her when we're in close with her.
>>
>>1393439
His ranged game kind of sucks, doesn't it? He's got busters that don't hit all that hard and that sickle thing that's really predictable after the first time you see it.
>>
>>1393455

I guess we could try to get our hands on some sort of ranged fire elemental attack, but I'm a little skeptical of trying to pick up one specific weapon to use against a foe that we don't even know for certain we'll run into again. Depends on how much it'd cost us I guess. Of course, maybe we could integrate it into one of the weapons we already have. Like somehow turning the T.Coil into a flaming extendable whip.
>>
Can OPAL see through our own Blackout chaff? If it can't, what would it take to get that mod?
>>
>>1393455
Counterpoint, he's able to catch Anode during a raikousen. If he wants to play the melee game, he gets to play the melee game.
He also may have god only knows what VWES entities and god only knows what hidden tricks.
>>
>>1393514
He might have plenty of unknown tricks, but it would be pretty hard to plan around them.

When we get back to the 4th, can we hit up the simulator? It would be nice to, but I really think we can't keep going at this mission-based velocity without doing some extracurricular training. Even Em's doing it.
>>
>>1393535
so run the sigma simulation until we can actually put up a good fight?
>>
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>>1393469
Not while you're in the cloud. The flak is a sensor-baffle. OPAL is a detector, not a sigint countersuite.

>>1393563
That'd be a while.

A long while.
>>
>>1392305
>>1392313
...10 points for this. Koolaid for the win.

>>1393218
Do you know anyone who specializes in hammers?

>>1393514
I'm sorry, I'm not god. I'm the other one.

>>1393563
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eO0kbcwz22A&t=1m
>>
>>1393306
Just get a strap to carry a giant spiked ball around, and attach ziplines to it to use as a ball and chain whenever needed.
>>
>>1393306
It's cohered plasma, which basically acts as a solid in the context of a sword.

The Solstrike Saber, hell, even the Ascent Lance, both benefit greatly from the mass shriver.
>>
>>1393418
Solstrike Saber, if it's still an option. I think it is, just a very expensive one.

There was an implication that his shielding was weak to fire, in which case the Sword of Fuck You would be his hard counter. Even if that's not the case, I'm certain there is a gimmick to it.
>>
>>1393805
It's not.
>>
>>1393815
FUCK
>>
Were our tension coils ever able cut shit clean through like Jagwire's? Are they still sharp at all?
>>
>>1393824
they're still sharp, remember how wolfspider diced himself when we used them to catch him.
>>
>>1393563
Why don't we start with Tanker Tigershark? ;)

Can the simulator run more than one enemy at a time? Could we choose to fight against, say, Em and Frog at once?
>>
>>1393439
This is kind of our big problem; even with Wrenades we still have no dependable solid fuck-you offense. Mass Shriver seems like it fills some of that but it costs charge, our capacitor at high levels certainly fulfills that function but we nearly never have a high charge because a lot of our mobility relies on it, jumpjets have a cooldown and misericorde has a huge fucking cooldown.

We need to find a way to add more oomph but I just don't see it.
>>
>>1393874
That's actually likely a really goddamn terrible idea if (when) Anode fights Tanker Tigershark.

I was thinking "why don't hunters train on sim data for mavericks they're about to hunt". And I concluded that, since mavericks self-modify, it wouldn't be a huge help. You'd know and be ready for all their old tricks and old patterns, but utterly unprepared for their new tricks and new patterns. Which, if they caught on, would get hunters killed.

I'd say stick to confirmed retired mavs. There's got to be a bunch of melee/armor SAs in the archive.
>>
>>1393874

We would get stomped so hard fighting Em and Frog at the same time. Beyond that, most hunters don't have their data in the simulator. Somebody thought that it might not be the best idea to allow hunters, essentially all of whom could potentially turn traitor, to practice fighting fighting their comrades over and over again until they're really, really, Really good at it.
>>
>>1393914
We can get the data from the Fox. So the data exists somehow in the Black Market. Also they have a simulation of X...
>>
>>1393946

X (and also Zero unless I'm mistaken) specifically allowed the sim to be released. While I grant you, we probably could get black-market sims from Fox, do you really think it'd be a good idea to go acquiring the sims for our best friend and our former boss so we can fight them over and over again with no risk to our self? Especially since it's been like, what, a month tops since the whole Doppler thing.
>>
>>1393991
Em sim been around for so long it was one of Fox generics. We could ask I guess?

And why we would want to fight Frog? Em is the one who always kicks our ass. Frog never fought against us.
>>
>>1393835
But remember that time we let Zero climb one of them? That was kind of a dick move.
>>
>>1394010
He's SA. If he can't safely climb a murderously sharp cable that he wasn't informed was murderously sharp, then he can turn in his coat.
>>
>>1394010
Zero doesn't strike me as being someone who would particularly care about grabbing a razor wire.
>>
>>1393418
Mix Mortarphant and Moloch. Moloch is literally mentioned as being designed for anti armor purposes. Alternately, book a powerful fire Mav and see if we cannot get Em to make our own flambard
>>
>>1394004

I don't think a hunter has to be around for all that long before bits of their data end up on the black market. After all, there's already modded mavs with Tumult Shell launchers, and we've had that for... a couple of in-game months?

Also I'm not the one who first put forth the idea of fighting a Frog sim, that was
>>1393874

Personally I think getting sims of any of our fellow hunters, or even asking for them, is an exceptionally bad idea because it makes us seem like a very transparent maverick. If we want to practice fighting using sims, we should just look up some old mele-focused mavs and/or try out the zero sim. Though that second option probably won't really do us much good since I think we'd probably just get diced into little pieces before we could actually learn/practice anything.
>>
>>1393353
Tech just hasn't advanced far enough.

Em was pretty much taking about making Marino's Elemental Star/Comet/Stella throwing weapons from Command Mission.
>>
>>1394036
The guys with tumult shell, hell any of the mimics, are more likely because Seven stole all the DNA data from HC when he revealed himself.

As for Collide, we have to consider we may not have his counter yet. Really, same goes for all of them. Also Saetos pack may just be really god damn strong instead of his weakness.
>>
>>1394059
>As for Collide, we have to consider we may not have his counter yet.

I suspect Collide, the Squid and the rest of the Phantoms might be part of our next 8 (i.e. MHQ3) targets and we are just getting introduced to them early.
>>
>>1394036
Well considering that we spar with Em, asking for his Sim would be reasonable. If he says no that's it. Not to mention that it would give us extra hours of training if he says yes.
>>
>>1394112
Or it might be like the guys in X2 who had Zero parts...
>>
I actually have an interesting simulator idea for training, but I'm not sure if it's even possible.
What about running through a Classic Megaman Boss Rush? Beating all the robot masters would have to be a decent challenge, even with that big tech gap. Maybe even fight the original Megaman. That would, of course, require sim data of them.
>>
>>1394059

Some very valid points made.

>>1394119

I think if we want to spar with Em we should just ask him to spar with us. Bear in mind that us asking him for a sim could be taken as us asking for a way to spar with him without having to bother talking to him.

Regardless, if you guys want to ask for sims feel free, I certainly seem to be in the minority here.
>>
Wait.
Wait wait wait.

We should do our own sim, 2v1.
>>
>>1394166

That... is actually really clever. I approve.
>>
>>1394141
Animal imagery (i.e. Squid and Beetle) does not really fit the style of those types of bosses.

Violen, Serges, Agile, Bit, Byte, Dynamo and High Max are all humanoids.
>>1394154
Are you familiar with the Cutman fight in X8? Its a silly fight with even unupgraded characters.
>>
>>1394154
Asked ages ago, apparently the tech gap really is that big that we trivialize everything, including the skull bosses
>>
>>1394166
we gonna get skewered by our own misericorde a lot.

Let's do it.
>>
>>1394154
>>1394166

I'm down for both of these, plus Terapin and Wren. I'm just goddamn tired of finding the extra bosses and getting our asses handed to us on a silver platter.

We didn't survive Stylist or Collide because we were good enough, we survived because they had other priorities. That's bullshit. At the rate we're going, our next extra boss will be our last.
>>
>>1394237
Does that include Megaman himself? Bass & Treble?
>>
>>1394210
Violen was some sort of bulldog pig thing
>>
>>1394272
We had Sylist so on the ropes he had to call Sabomole to distract us, and then we made that backfire. Collide may have let us live, but Stylist ran.
>>
>>1394286
That it does. At this point, they are basically outdated mechaniloids. Really, really outdated mechaniloids.
>>
>>1394210
So it would work best as a zerg rush?
>>
>>1394361
A zerg rush can be effective. A robot master rush would be a shooting gallery to an A rank.
>>
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Had to do some housework that turned into a barbecue grill transportation adventure, so no update tonight. Sorry, folks.
>>
>>1394682
I too am eager to defeat Men of Magnut, Nuutlu and Shato (and more)

Hope the adventure with the grill went well (and ended with using said grill)
>>
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>>1393320
>>1393337

I heard someone once told emerald he didn't have the mass to use a solid alloy sword.

Once.
>>
>>1395027
In my defense, I never actually said that. Also, nice art.
>>
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Anyone know what this is missing?
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>>1395593
Dead therapists? Robot Satan?
>>
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>>1395149
is indeed nice art. Not mine, but still nice.
>>
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>>1395606
Added.
>>
>>1395634
you fucked up the years.
>>
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>>1395652
Fixed.
>>
>>1394318
It's hard to tell how much of that was actually bluster though. He claimed that he was tired and had other places to be, but whether that was just him saving face or not is the question.
>>
>>1395721
Missing birds, Emerald's sword fetish, and ART!
>>
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>>1395593
Something related to filename threads

>>1395652
Funny thing is, I made the "Where did everything go so wrong" image but I made that same mistake the first time I posted it.
>>
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>>1395721
I totally got you for What I Expected
>>
>>1395769
Bring me pictures and you have a deal!
>>
>>1395791
>>
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>>1395721
Here's the ART one. Still looking for a good bird one.
>>
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>>1395593
>>1395634
>>1395721
I felt that some things were missing.
>>
>>1396184
The senate/riot picture is arguable. You could probably even swap them and it would still be mostly accurate. Putting them both in the bottom with their captions (discussing combat/discussing upgrades) is probably the best.
>>
>>1396193

I agree.
>>
>>1396193
>MHQ discussing battles
>Senate
>MHQ discussing social links
>Senate
>MHQ discussing upgrades
>universe_on_fire.jpeg
>>
>>1393658
>Do you know anyone who specializes in hammers?
Well, there's a certain sad frog that comes to mind, and his name isn't pepe
>>
>>1396334
I DISAGREE
>>
>>1396515
>>
>>1396556
You fool... The Robot Devil is cackling.
>>
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>>1396558

'kay.
>>
>>1396579
Its not about waifus. Its about husbandos. Green ones.
>>
>>1396584
Wait, did something happen to frog aside from him calling it quits?
>>
>>1396591
Best guess? Schwarz killed him.
>>
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To be watched while listening to:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3HUWUtTZvK4
>>
>>1396579
I still prefer Indy, but Flares is also a viable option.
>>
>>1396184
shouldn't it have the crayon GOFAST sanic?
>>
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>>1397005
>>
>>1396900
I'll be happy just so long as it's not that fucking fox.

I'll be happier if it's Em, mainly because I find the idea of HC writing what amounts to self-insert slash to be hilarious.

Though both Anode and Em would need endo work done before they could have gay robot sex, wouldn't they?
Would Anode's endo work be done by Liberty Labs? Would he have to explain why he wanted to be anatomically correct? What would the parents say?
>>
>>1396900
Indy is still in love with her ex, and planning to put a ring on her. I reeeeeally doubt Anode and Indy is going to happen.
>>
>>1397020
>I'll be happy just so long as it's not that fucking fox.
I agree with you there, but regardless who he ends up with I'd vote against having any endo work done.
Anode is a lean mean killing machine.
>>
>>1397084
Don't you mean her jet?
>>
>>1397252
Oh, wait, I suppose her ex may also be her old fighter. Mainly because Indy's main love interest seems to be the sky.

As for Em, I want to find him a reploid peacock who has a tail of swords. Just to see what happens. Also, his type seems to be the nimble, punchy sort, though he will likely try and get us endo just to cut Anode's dick off if we try to play wingman or matchmaker.
>>
>>1397307
I think Phasian was the "peacock" choice for the cryptic emails we were getting, and she's pretty swordish(weeaboo). But she's actually a pheasant, and only male pheasants have Phasian's color scheme
>>
>>1397020
There's got to be a way of inducing sexual stimulation without endo. Endos are expensive. Maybe there's some type of specialty nanite?
>>
>>1397472
Could probably do something in a sim.
>>
>>1397472
There's probably a pre-installed sub-program that manages that sort of thing. That said, we're in the middle of something life or death, and you guys are actively trying to piss off CL with sex talk and shipping? Do you WANT Anode to die?!
>>
>>1397465
Except I mean a literal peacock made out of beam sabers, knives, and other objects designed for maximum penetration
>>
>>1397494
You gotta be a real masochist to truly enjoy this quest.
>>
>>1397494
I think it is more that we wanna really deserve what is coming our way. Because if you think Collide is the end of our problems, you do not know this quest well.
>>
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>>1396193
>>1396334
>>1397005
Better?
>>
>>1397627
Alternate with a dash of smug Saetos.
>>
>>1397640
Shit, I forgot our lance still has a pink blade. Wonder what the Mavericks think of that.
>>
>>1397648
Fuchsia!
>>
>>1397657
My apologies, I meant fuchsia, aka ULTRA-PINK.
>>
>>1397640
Better, but I still disagree with "discussing upgrades" being in the What I Expected section, since it's something that actually happens a lot. For an alternate thing there, maybe a picture of the stage select screen from one of the X games? Also I support Smug Saetos but it would be better if we could see more of his face.
>>
>>1397494
> Do you WANT Anode to die?!

Well really, who doesn't?
>>
>>1397862
Cathode?
>>
>>1397898
S'what you think. She dates your mortal enemy, after all.
>>
>>1397729
How's this?
>>
>>1397977
Pretty damn good. The Discussing Upgrades text doesn't look attached to the brawl picture, but that's more personal preference than an actual issue.

Unrelated question: Theoretically, if Anode died, what other character would you guys be interested in playing as?
>>
>>1397977
You forgot to add betrayal somewhere there.
>>
>>1398019
India or the darn fox.

Or ya know, a liquid metal thing...
>>
>>1398019
Cathode
>>
>>1398044
That's a good option too.
>>
>>1398019
Maybe a completely new Hunter assigned to the fourth. Maybe with a weapon that can be spammed, but less versatile than the capacitor.
>>
>>1398019
do you mean a pre existing character or do you mean making a new one? Because if we're making a new one I would like to so the other devisions besides the 4th to see how they compare.

Have to ask though. Do you think this quest would survive if Anode died? I mean a lot of us here have spent 5 years with the blue bastard, if he did drop I'm not sure how people would take it.
>>
>>1398605
>I mean a lot of us here have spent 5 years with the blue bastard
Has it only been five years? Feels like it's been ten with how slow HC updates.
>>
[x] Chassis: Humanoid
[x] Element: Motorcycle
[x] Onboard Weaponry: Integrated Arm Cannon, Overdrive Striker
[x] Combat Class: B
[x] Nitrous
>>
>>1398629
>[x] Element: Motorcycle
keep your pokymans out of this
>>
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>>1398621
No bully!

>>1398605
I don't know, honestly. I'd put it to the players. If nothing else, the offer to carry on would be there. Otherwise I'd probably ask what people would like me to run next.
>>
>>1398634
I do what I want! Fite me.
>>
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>>1398659
>>
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>>1398635
I'd want to follow Cathode. See things through the other sibling's eyes as she occasionally gets to know her brother through some of his friends. Lots of space for drama in there. Hell, imagine the scene if Emerald finally lost it and she was tasked with taking him down.
>>
>>1398635
I agree with the other anon on following up with Cathode. I'd worry about following a new reploid after *she* gets decomissioned.

Of course, that's if things go even more wrong with this mission.
>>
>>1398707
Em way of losing it would be suicide by Maverick unless he gets infected.
>>
>>1398019
I'd prefer to start over as some new Hunter, maybe even a different unit. I feel like taking over someone else would lend itself to them rapidly changing their personality. I'd rather see the aftermath of our death rather than play as the Anode Virus.
>>
>>1398019
Red, leader of Red Alert
>>
>>1394059
>The guys with tumult shell, hell any of the mimics, are more likely because Seven stole all the DNA data from HC when he revealed himself.

Remember how we sent our DNA data to doppler's lab for processing?

>>1394286

HC said classic Megaman would be a reliable C-ranker. Lotta flexibility from VWES, but poor adaptability because of robot master programming.
>>
>>1398635
also quick question in the (hopefully unlikely) event that Anode dies would that mean any future character we played would have to have a built in weakness because of the rock paper scissor thing unless we found a good way to bull shit our way past it since at the beginning you did say that Anode and his sister were some of the last robots made that didn't have a built in weakness incase they go maverick.

Also would we be able to pick a different threat level then A? I remember way back in the first thread you gave us the option to pick any class from D all the way to G. And if you did let us pick a different level how would it be different from being an A? D & C I believe we'd be part of a team of other D & Cs, B would probably be the same, can't play S since you said S can't be made, they're earned... But I do have to wonder how you'd handle it if we went for the G class.
>>
>>1398977
It was B through GA
>>
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>>1398977
You'd have a weakness--Anode has a weakness. The RPS thing comes in with sets of Reploids, in conventional wisdom, being designed to take care of one another in the event of one going maverick. Emerald and his siblings, for instance, were built with that in mind.

Rank, I feel like we'd want to play lower on, rather than higher. Imagine facing the same threats you already did, one letter grade lower, and you go from slugfests to horror stories. And horror stories to desperate survival. I do think A was a pretty good sweet spot, since you get the blend of lower class threats who are nonetheless cagey and dynamic, and being able to survive (or be justifiably sent against) powerhouses and juggernauts.
>>
>>1399042
So Skipjack would be their Wren?
>>
>>1398977
>D all the way to G

The original choices were B, A, SA, PA and GA. I think ranks got changed around later on.
>>
>>1399042
Being a P or G would be interesting because then we'd be dealing more with global politics than anything. When you're as powerful as you are, you tend to rub shoulders with real movers and shakers, and having to deal with that minefield would be crazy.
>>
>>1399042
Anode's weakness is primarily cold, right? Well, cold and birds.
>>
>>1399042
I don't think it would be a horror story, more like a death march. I mean, Anode already feels like he's being dropped into combat with a noose around his neck a lot of the time. It adds tension, which is good, but too much tension without enough climax/relief and you're gonna pull something.

I guess it also provides a very real drive and incentive to get better, though. On the other other hand, the better Anode gets, the stronger the mavericks he is pitted against.

Ever the underdog, eh?
>>
>>1399183
If Anode is weak against flying and ice, he must be a grass type.
>>
If we went B or lower, I have an idea. Refitted mascot reploid for a sake brewery, Seigiku Orochi. Custom weapon basically being cones of condensed or upgraded drunk nanites and a bunch of arms with possible lo beam or ceratanium fangs. I mean, imagine Saetos drunk off his ass, to start off.
>>
>>1399018
>>1399097
>wrong ranks
it has been a few years, guess my memory isn't as sharp as I thought it was.

>>1399042
so you're saying if we went B Cain Labs would be living the dream seeing us crawl around trying not to die a horrible horrible death.

Got to say though, if we did get a new character would it be possible for us to try to be a new member of the rebuilt 9th?
>>
>>1399269
I imagine he'd still rip us in half

>>1399272
It was 8th that was rebuilt, not 9th

We could be 10th, we'd be part of a Halcyon vanity project and get to hang with Grach
>>
>>1399326
We could B rank and be in unit 0.

Cain would love it.
>>
>Take Sabomole and get him to safety.
>You’re fastest. Hit the distant base at the end of the tunnel and head right for Mortarphant.
>Task Ukumari to bombard the nearest base until it melts.

Right. Let’s at least pretend we’re following orders. “Okay, Templar, head back the way you came. Maybe go a little further North.”

His eyes glimmer with understanding, hefting his mace. “Whyever for, Captain?”

“Because Arc will be outsourcing it to orbit,” you reply darkly. “By the time she--and Mortarphant--are done, it’ll be the quietest graveyard on the continent.”

He frowns, gesturing lightly with his free hand. “And our friend?”

You look down at Sabomole, still a huddled, trembling mess, and feel a pang of regret. “You don’t have to go home, but you can’t stay here. Take him with you, get him home.”

Madillo nods. “He’ll be kept as safe as able.”

You nod. “When you get back in contact with Arc, timing for hitting that base will be with you.”

“By now they’re well-defended, I suspect,” he observes.

“She’s crazy, not stupid,” you agree. “Do you have a plan if she opens up on you and doesn’t let up?”

He kneels beside you--putting himself on eye level--as he gently prizes Sabomole up and hauls him over one shoulder. “Tuck and roll.”

You chuckle mirthlessly. “Right. With luck you can either be bugging out, or I can hit my base last to get her attention.”

“If I may, Captain, let the armored bear the lion’s share of fire on your behalf,” Templar replies, tapping your buckled chestplate before he stands upright again. “Your shields are fresh, but I am not a smith…”

You grimace. “Right.”

The one silver lining in all the mushroom clouds here is that being underground during a three-hour-long artillery rave has left your capacitors topped up--you were grounding out excess charge for a few minutes, no less. The downside, of course, is that you’re sure you’re going to need every bit of it to carry this off. You have an alert and aware enemy with a dug-in position, multiple enemy firing positions, and a really pissed-off S-class artillery maverick to go through, and refreshed or no, and an open-ground approach to an elevated position with whatever’s left of a military installation waiting at the top.

You mull over the attack timings as you move, feet echoing down the tunnel in the dark. Nominally you’ll be aiming for a synchronized strike to divert Mortarphant’s attention, but one of you is almost sure to get her attention first. If it’s you, then Templar and Arc will draw some of the heat off, giving you a much-needed respite--but they’ll be calling it on themselves, with a civilian in tow and a unit already in a sorry state. On the other hand, if they’re too early, you’re likely to get the hammer again as she doubles down on the second site.
>>
>>1399410

You move quickly, but it’s a long trip. Long enough to think, rethink, and overthink the timing, trying to estimate in your head as best you’re able from nowhere near enough information. Finally, though, you hear something in the dark ahead--the slow, steady trundle of a mechaniloid engine idling. Your Drimole waits like a squat, purple dog at the end of the tunnel, near a wall your sensors report to your mostly-sightless eyes. You run your hand along the surface--you can’t tell how much Sabomole left to it. Gearing up your lance, you order the Drimole to start digging once again.

About ninety seconds later, you explode out of the cliffside in a shower of falling rock, dropping straight down over a hulking mechaniloid, busters blazing. You don’t even register the type, just unloading twinned charge shots and chasing it with automatic fire all the way down. The thing tries to back up slowly and ungainly, a missile box on its back and bulky launcher assemblies on its arms. It doesn’t get far, firing one strange, fulminating missile with an energy wake that goes wide as it explodes.

A quick sweep of the area tells you three things:

1: That cliff you fell down was hiding more of those asshole rockball mechaniloids,
2: A ring of vaguely ostrich-like spherical mechaniloids on spindly legs are trotting circles around the entire base assembly, and
3: A maverick clad in stone is ordering the artillery mechaniloid you came here to destroy to open up on you.

>Lockons: 5/16
>Coils: 23/32
>Blackouts: 5/8
>Wrenades: 5/8
>Charge: 100%

>Go.
>>
>>1399418
>go straight for the artillery loid. If nothing else, it's good cover for whatever missiles will soon fall on us.

>If we've got so much charge, let's go for a quick kill on it. Pierce it with the lance or misericorde, and unload raw charge into delicate systems.

Wondering whether to Mass Shriver melee the stone maverick, or just throw the entire artillery loid at him with Mass Shriver.
>>
>>1399418
Get a coil out towards that mav ordering around the artillery first and get it out of commission as quick as we can manage with a bit of our topped-off charge to get that done. Then, keep moving, picking off whatever we need to as we do so.
>>
>>1399418
The mech is taking direct orders, is it?...

Dash, grab the rocky commander, Mass Shriver him at the mech and Lockon to pierce both of them. Ideally thread the Lockon at such an angle that it pierces the mech's chest and hits the missile box. Damage damage damage.

And then Blackout any of the rocks coming at us afterward.
>>
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>>1399444
I approve of throwing the stone-armored one at his artillery pet. He is in the wrong place at the wrong time today.
>>
>>1399494

We have full charge, how about something with our lance?

Also should we get our lance its own battery as a upgrade?
>>
The spindly leg things sound like Ball de Vouxs. Those can be lowest priority.

>>1399477
Lockon may not be high power enough for that, and we only have 5. Maybe we could dismiss art class once more?
>>
>>1399418

I like the sound of
>>1399477

Maybe substitute a Wrenade for the Lockon then close with the lance directly after, if we want to conserve our Lockon ammo. Otherwise I think we should give it an overcharged Lockon because we need to get this shit done fast.
>>
>>1399556
I'd rather not run the mech through because we'd probably hit a backpack missile or few, and I worry about overtaxing our shields.

>>1399582
Yes, overcharged to guarantee pierce-through.
>>
>>1399582
Or since we have full charge, use our Lance in the eye or eyes. That's a traditional weakpoint of heavily armed types in most Megaman names.
>>
>>1399594

I'd kinda like to keep as much charge as we can for use in a rousing round of Raikousen on the way to Mortarphant. The less time we spend out in the open on that approach, the better. On the other hand, avoiding death now is preferable to avoiding death later, so if we need to burn it to get things done, we need to burn it.
>>
>>1399614
We are facing an enemy that uses mass bombarment, even while avoiding getting hit charge won't be much of a problem. Being next to an explosion will still generate a lot of kinetic energy.
>>
>>1399418
Fire off a wrenade at the artillery mechaniloid's face and Raikousen to close in to the Crag Man. Grab and toss Crag Man into artillery mechaniloid, and if it goes out of commission, get behind it. Order the Drimole to fire-off drills at whatever it can hit that isn't us.

After the Crag Man and the artillery mechaniloid go down, focus on getting out of the base. Pepper Ball de Vouxs with uncharged shots, twin charged shots for the Iwan de Vouxs. Vouxes? Voux? Whatever. After taking out primary objective, see if there's a chaser we can jack, but don't spend too long lookin'.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_YbWGbx5JM
>>
>>1399678

While you certainly have a point, I'd rather not get that close to the explosions in the first place. Hard to say if that's even possible though.
>>
>>1399709
Why are we wasting precious Variable Weapon Ammo just right before a Boss fight?

If we need it to take a mere empowered mock, then we might as well abort the mission.
>>
>>1399735
You're the kinda guy who ends an RPG with 99 elixirs, aren't ya.
>>
>>1399735
Because our choices are, most likely,
A: Have less ammo and more health
or
B: Have more ammo and less health

Flawless dodger and mechaniloid slayer Anode ain't.
>>
>>1399728
Unfortunately, I think we are not getting a choice on that.
>>
>>1399768
No, but I do save them for Boss fights.
>>
>>1399890
In this case, it is because the longer the fight here takes, the more likely it is Mortarphant targets our location. So it is to handle her baby bouncing mech here without her shoving an entire salvo up our ass.
>>
>>1399890
The approach IS the boss fight, at this point. The mission difficulty isn't always loaded in the boss... And we've still got enough of everything that we can comfortably use one or two.

Also, are you ay8Uas/o...?
>>
If it's an artillery unit it's built for precise targeting over long distances.

So it won't be built to rapidly change the angle its pointing.

>Circle Strafe
>>
>>1399272
>Cain Labs would be living the dream seeing us crawl around trying not to die a horrible horrible death.

Wait you mean I don't do that NOW?
>>
Okay, let me know if this has a shot at working.

1) Bait asshole rockball mechaniloids into grouping up to attack you.

2) Use Blackout to screw with the artillery.

3) Take out Crag Man

4) Let the enemy artillery shower asshole rocks with friendly fire.

5) Close in, take out artillery with Ascent Lance.
>>
>>1400236
The last one did have some close-up anti-personnel measures, so I wouldn't take a complete lack of resistance from it for granted.
>>
>>1400323
1 will take too long

Crag man is there to micromanage the artillery to work around 2 and 4. If it manages to do it before dying, it already did its job.
>>
>>1399418
Blackout the artillery
Coil + Mass Shriver to throw Crag Man into Iwan De Voux trap
Wrenades + Busters to remove artillery & Ball De Vouxs
>>
>>1399709
>Iwan de Vouxs. Vouxes? Voux?
Probably “Iwans de Voux” really.
>>
>>1398019
Round-robin. We've got a lot of cast to cycle through; one mission would be indias, another is ems, one is cathodes, cycle cast in and out to pick from as the roster changes.
>>
Don't wanna use electricity vs rock; the Mavirock is probably immune there.
>>
>>1401537
Hence why we should target the eyes. There is a limit on how much you can shield them, remember Anode first Boss fight?
>>
>>1401597
Anode didn't have shields at all back then.
>>
>>1401724
Context, sir. EM shielding, not phase shielding.
>>
>>1401597
Chaff Weasel was designed to fuck eyes.
Anode is designed to fuck, well, other things. Like everything up.
>>
It has been WAYYYY too long since I posted in an actual MHQ thread. I'm pretty sure since Guns Wallaby. That said, fry this goon. At this point LIFE is way more important than WEAPON.
>>
>>1400497

Good point.

I'm liking the Mass Shriver idea, since we're full of charge right now. But maybe we're thinking too small...

How about using T. Coil on the big artillery bot, then combining it with Mass Shriver to use it as a weapon against everything else? Or would that drain too much charge?
>>
>>1402080
We do need to kill fast or we get bombed.
>>
>>1402080
bad angle and artillery loid is a bit big for flail shenanigans. Maybe if T. Coil was a stiff rod, but since it's flexible we'd more likely drag it across the ground. Sure, the loid would take heavy damage, but it's slow and we'd be open to mr. rock.
>>
>>1399477
>>1399494
>>1400236
>>1402080
You are so far past fucking with these guys.

Since it worked so well the first time, you immediately launch a coil and snag the Crag Man. He kneels to try to stop you, upending and and lobbing a massive chunk of rock your way, but you twist, hard, letting it sail over your head as you engage the Mass Shriver and yank. You slam him into the artillery mechaniloid at his side, its plating buckling inventively as it’s forced off-course, a missile sailing over your shoulder disconcertingly close. The maverick crumples to the floor, but not for long--you retract the coil, dragging him toward you. Midway through, he curls up into a ball, looking like any other slab of rock--but you don’t particularly care about killing him right now. You wind up, cocking back your arm and swinging for the fences barehanded as rock meets fist, and with Mass Shriver coursing through your arm, you smash the obloid piece of shit at full speed, rocketing him back the way he came as the cable falls free. He careens into the elephant ‘loid just as it sights onto you again, smashing its trunk in as it goes to fire, snapping the head back and sending its second payload skyward.

You send a Rockout and a Wrenade whistling after the Crag Man, who had better stay in his fucking ball if he knows what’s good for him, and turn to regard the advancing rock mechaniloids.

One well-aimed Lockout shears through the armor of both, and a quick follow-up slash dispatches the first. The second floats in the air, buzzing angrily as rock begins to tear itself from the earth below it and fly up in a field to rearmor it, but judging from the cascade of explosions behind you, your job here is done. You dash past the immobile ball as you hear another rage-shriek from Mortarphant, knowing the fireworks are right behind you.

You try not to dwell too hard on all the Ball de Voux ringed around, stopped still on their stalky little legs, staring at you with senseless robot optics.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jsdawgd0azk

You launch off the cliff like Cathode’s boyfriend running from you, crackling lightning in your wake as you surf a Raikousen off at wild velocity. The shells come whistling in moments later, chasing after you as you sight on the mesa in the distance. You suspect the Crag Man, the mechaniloids, and anything left up on that mesa are slag before you’ve even hit the ground below, landing hard and actually sparking on impact, electricity coursing through you as you take off as fast as your burning heels can take you.

“UKUMARI?!” You hear roar over the open comes. “IS THAT YOU? I CAN SEE YOU! I KNOW WHAT YOU DID! [B]I KNOW WHAT YOU DID![/b]” The artillery chasing you falls away rapidly as you actually see the blasts swing around the countryside towards the final base, far, far away.

Sounds like that’s that. “Arc, juice me as long as you can.”
>>
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>>1402645
“Copy,” she replies, static on the line from the superheated plasma and ionized air from her weapons fire.

One, two, three strikes you get, each one giving you a sudden blast of energy, capacitors staying high as you cross what feels like miles of terrain in moments. You realize at the last moment you’re entering the minefield as OPAL starts screaming about subterranean signals.

You leap, skimming low and long across the land as dozens of mine warnings strobe past at speed. You aim and fire two more coils ahead of yourself at the height of your jump, snagging the distant cliff almost as far as they can fire. You immediately begin retracting, and haul your toes up the instant before you touch down directly on a mine.

You hear a snap of distant thunder, but no final thunderbolt. “She’s got the diffuser up,” Arc warns. “She’s sending observers towards our position.”

“Can she hit you from here?” You ask.

“I don’t really care to stay and find out.”

“I hear you. Hang on, I’m about to wreck her fucking week.”

You clear the top of the mesa to find that the midday haze has cloaked the plateau. Smoke and dust swirl thickly up here, rising from the ruin all around you below. The sun crests behind the clouds, over what looks like half of a military base, cored out from one side like a gutted animal. You can make out walls and dividers where they aren’t blown apart, rubble and stone littering the ground.

And in the center, as the wind picks up, a massive figure, shrieking blind fury as rocket after rocket hisses and sizzles from her palms, dull thumps and whoomphs as shells fly from her underslung-barrel tusks, and her ears snap this way and that, angular radar dishes flanking either side of her head. She clears ten feet, steel grey with white and green plating, broken only by hazard-striping yellow and red at her joints. After a moment her barrage stops, and she takes a ragged breath, suddenly turning over one shoulder to regard you.

Barrage Mortarphant snaps around with far more speed than anything her size should have, swinging an arm around as a cannon barrel protrudes through her hand. Eyes wide and pupils retracted, she stares a hole down at you, ringed in smoke and devastation.

>
>>
Start off with a Blackout Rocket as an appetizer, follow up with a quick Tension Coil through the cloud, a zap to electrify it, a Mass Shriver jerk to pull her down, then pelt her with Hurricane Bombs. Don't stay still. Shit-talk. It's nothing personal, of course. Just keep her on tilt. If we end up having to engage in close quarters, use the misericorde. If we end up having to get farther, blow our Lockons, full-strength. Don't let up.
>>
>>1402650
>Put all of the ordnance down her cannons. All of it, all of them.
>>
>>1402650
Rockout first, see if we can prevent her from getting a fix on us. We want to stay close to her, or at least relatively so and keep forcing her to turn to hit her. No standing still unless she has no idea where we are.
>>
>>1402650
Can we break her armor with our freezing sword or we wasted the charge already?
>>
>>1402645
>Rockout
Anode has touched his inner musician
>>
>>1402650
Holy shit she looks like a Scopedog
>>
>>1402650
>Blackout first, obviously
>Send a Wrenade to setoff any missiles she blindfires early, and dash around to her side/back
>Coil a leg and Mass Shriver pull, let's try to knock her off balance.
>Close in with the Lance out, but strafe again at the last moment to use Lockons on her radar ears
From here we'll probably go for melee, but let's see what close combat she's got packing.
>>
>>1402720
We haven't used it at all yet, and it had 3 hours to charge on top of that.
>>
>>1402746
Wrenade before Blackout Rocket, otherwise it'll just clear out the chaff. Anyway,

>Fire your assortment of exploding things while strafing
>>
>>1402754
Then let's break that bitch armor with flash freeze.
>>
>>1402778
good point.
>>
>and her ears snap this way and that, angular radar dishes flanking either side of her head.
Based on this, I propose aiming for her ears. If she is getting targeting data from them, damaging them will make her less accurate. It will also almost certainly make her really mad, which is fine if we are fast enough to dodge her shots. That said, we don't know if she has some kind of backup or alternate targeting system. But if we want her mad, the ears seem like a good start.
>>
>>1402650
"Your sister says hi."

Drain all the Elixirs on this one.

Blackout Rocket to the face, strafe and open some holes in her with Lockon Hunters. All the shots of Lockon we have remaining. Once her armor is thus compromised, then and only then start lobbing Hurricane Bombs.

If the armor needs yet more compromising first, carve with the Misericorde. Otherwise save it for the finishing blow.

And dash dash dash to not get touched. Don't get predictable with the orbit, though -- if we're in a circular strafe, say, then cut the circle down the middle with a Saetos dash to surprise and burn in passing.
>>
>>1402792
>backup or alternate targeting system.
Those observers will probably arrive, and I'm not discounting the possibility of them retaining their Target Lock feed to Mortarphant even with her ears blown.

Not that it's a bad idea, but something to be prepared for. We'll be out of Lockons for sure if we allocate them to observers.
>>
>>1402792
I agree.

>Blackout
>Lighting!
>Target that bitch ears.

Blackout is conductive of electricity...
>>
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>>1402792
Right, face first for the Blackout.
>>
>>1402650
> See what can make her the most deaf use black rockets and Lockon Hunters to take out her ears.
>>
>>1402838
>Maybe double power Lock On? If we have at least four regular shots of Lock On left of course.
>>
In other news:

X and Sigma are in Marvel vs Capcom: Infinite.
>>
>>1402995
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZ2Hsig12h8
>>
>>1402995
"No New Non-Crossover Game Content" now in its eleventh year.
>>
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>>1403066
Though I do suppose we could always have it worse...
>>
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>>1402645
>You launch off the cliff like Cathode’s boyfriend running from you
>>
>blackout her
>close in
>misericorde
>mass shriver+ ascent lance deep into the elephant, empty capacitors

I think our capacitors are still really high right? I wanna see what 70+% does to a boss.
>>
>>1403159
Good idea.
>>
>>1403159
I'd rather do that in round 2. She looks angry enough to survive 70+% charge, we need to soften her up a bit with VWES.
>>
>>1402650

This
>>1402746
But with the wrenade before the blackout to avoid clearing the chaff as
>>1402778
mentions.
>>
Argument for Wrenade then Rockout:
Wrenade is likely to send the chaff the way of all things involved with birds.

Argument for Rockout then Wrenade:
Mortarphant would be blind and facing a bird-related weapon.
>>
>>1402650
uhh, just in case it wasn't clear:

I'm >>1402746
and modifying the choice by putting the wrenade step before the Blackout, as per >>1402778 's suggestion.
>>
You guys keep suggesting we use a rockout and then misericorde her, but doesn't the razor chaff damage us, too?
>>
>>1402778
I'm sold on this plan.
>>
>>1404126
Well, we're covered in a fine layer of slag that used to be our armor. I don't think a few scatches will matter much.
>>
>>1404402
Just because our armor's slagged doesn't mean we need to take unnecessary damage. Would you fight Agile with only a few bars of health with the idea that you're banged up enough, so a few more hits wouldn't matter? Every scrap of defense counts. But since we're probably at risk of getting our everything slagged from one or two shots, agility is our strongest asset here.

Now that I think about it, if we fight Mortarphant in close quarters, it will prevent her from using her more destructive explosive attacks, unless she's willing to blow herself up in the process.
>>
>>1404426
She's definitely willing to blow herself up in the process, mind.
>>
>>1404464
Only because her armor can take it. Hence the need to armor break it with our freezing sword
>>
>>1402650

Throw some chaff in her face and follow up with some ordinance at her ears.
The sooner we can make her start dumb firing, the better.
>>
>>1404528
I dunno. She's crazy enough that she probably doesn't actually care if she can take it or not.
>>
>>1404464
Well yeah, but she did lose all platforms at least, cutting out covering fire from them on her position, and we might be able to get her shelling herself more. After all, being able to take it does not equate to taking no damage from it, hopefully.
>>
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Night got complicated, may not get a post out tonight. Sorry, folks.
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>>1404553
She is still heave armored so armor break is still a good idea.
>>
>>1405070
>>
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>>1405271
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>>1405070
The main boss of MHQ is Scheduling.
>>
>>1405327
Admittedly, I don't want to come off like a shit, I like this much more than waiting a month or so between threads
>>
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>>1405637
I do too! Lately it's paced more like a webcomic. New bits each day, or couple of days. Anticipation builds more this way.
>>
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>>1405637
>a month or so
emphasis on or so?
>>
I'm not getting how shields work, exactly.

I'm not getting how the line between "Shields too damaged, explode forever" and "Shields too damaged, shields turn off" works.
Nor how penetration of shields works.
>>
>>1402650
>>Send a Wrenade to set off any missiles she blindfires early, and dash around to her side/back
>>Blackout second, obviously
>>Coil a leg and Mass Shriver pull, let's try to knock her off balance.
>>Close in with the Lance out, but strafe again at the last moment to use Lockons on her radar ears
>> Stetos dash into a misercorde
>> unloade more Wrenade
>>
>>1406475
I don't know the fine details (nor why Collide's punch didn't trigger our shields), but the short version on why explode forever happens is in fact a safety feature.

A LIFE cell is basically a miniaturized fusion reactor. As one might imagine, such a thing would normally make a pretty righteous crater should it become unstable and explode. Dr. Light, in his wisdom, designed the things with a failsafe, such that in the event of failure, rather than one single boom, it vents its excess energy in a series of cascading booms, still plenty to vaporize the poor bastard it belonged to, but without taking out the city they happen to be standing in.

Anyway, one of the more reliable ways to send a LIFE cell into an unstable chain reaction is phase shielding overdrawing on a cell's remaining charge. I'm sure between HC and CL they have a more sciency sounding reason.
>>
>>1406475
HC responding (briefly) from work:

Shields read an incoming hit in the fractions-of-microseconds before full impact and produce a particle field that ablates most of the hit, the full-body charge (required for ablation) preventing further harm for a brief time after the initial activation (since the energy has already been spent). This costs an enormous amount of energy from the LIFE cell tap, colloquially called a shield or armor battery.

Because shields are so draining, they can't mount the same protection again and again, and quickly weaken under successive hits as it taxes the battery. It continues to weaken until attacks actually score physical contact with the body and can begin causing actual damage. Certain weapons can get this effect sooner for concentration or being tuned against shields, most notably cutting implements that focus the damage very narrowly.

To prevent a wild destabilization and nuclear blast when the LIFE cell (which is, after all, fusion energy) ruptures, the system is designed to activate again at full strength on a fatal hit, "overdrawing" and causing the LIFE cell to safe-fail, consuming itself (and the Reploid) in a critical overload explosion chain. You might recognize this as the long boss death animation.

Shields, of course, are actively trying NOT to kill their user, and will not overdraw unless they read a fatal hit. In cases where activating shields would do more harm than good, they attempt to avoid activation, thus allowing more and more damage through--see Collide caving in Anode's sternum. Had your shields gone off on that impact, it would have been over.

TL;DR shields weaken under successive hits and let more and more through until they reach a "die or die" decision point, at which point you explode to avoid your LIFE cell turning into a nuke.

Bear in mind this is a quick (>quick) response, I may need to go back and revise it.
>>
>>1407761

So... the logical foil to the misericorde is the Black March. That's what it sounds like to me.
>>
>>1407761
>To prevent a wild destabilization and nuclear blast when the LIFE cell (which is, after all, fusion energy) ruptures, the system is designed to activate again at full strength on a fatal hit, "overdrawing" and causing the LIFE cell to safe-fail, consuming itself (and the Reploid) in a critical overload explosion chain.
I'm worried that some Maverick is going to get the bright idea to disable that function
>>
>>1408067
And I'm worried that you've given Cain Labs the idea to do exactly that.
>>
>>1408088
Nah, then you can only go off once. Besides, run the risk of killing the guys you are working with and no one wants to believe they are gonna die.
>>
>>1408067
I've asked about this before in IRC, iirc LIFE cells are amazingly difficult to safely mod, presumably because Light doesn't fuck around with things able to turn cities into craters.
>>
>>1408207
So you'd have to be as crazy as Jagwire to try?
>>
At least one version of that explanation I heard had the LIFE cell rely on an internal particle shield to function (so it isn't the main defensive shields that expand in the LIFE cell self-destruct it's the ones that normally keeping the explody plasma safely contained inside the cell)

Maybe I'm misremembering tho it's been a long time since it came up in chat.
>>
>>1408207
Basically this. To try to rejigger a LIFE cell, which he designed from the ground up to be failsafe, you have to outsmart Dr. Light, who as we all know has a doctorate in Theoretical Bullshit.
>>
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>>1407761
Will this be affected at all after X discovers his third armor upgrade and hands it over to R&D?
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>>1408397
TBD.
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>>1408385
I believe you will find that there is nothing theoretical about Dr. Light's bullshit.
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>>1408418
Practical And Applied Bullshit: I Dunno, Graphene or Something, a textbook by T. Light.
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>>1408426
On Artificial Intelligence, New Revised Edition: It's Probably Quantum

But seriously, I like to think that Light's (and to an extent Wily's) greatest contribution to robotics was to make a "slow AI." Phenomenal processing capacity, yes, but divorced from the artificial consciousness -- a thing that is limited to the clock speed of human thought.

They replicated the human experience by replicating the limits of our cognition. And Light finally refined it to human-tier emotion with X.
>>
Actually the real secret is that EVERY reploid is made from a human soul. Do you think it's a coincidence that whenever the reploid population goes up the human population goes down?!!
>>
>>1408466
Almost, but not quite.
HUMANS are made from REPLOID souls. You ever wondered why reploids didn't show up in the history books until human population stabilized? It's because they're hogging all our souls!
>>
>>1402650
>Wrenade, Rockout, run and gun.

You take a breath, about to tell her to stand down, surrender, it’s over. Her sister remembers her.

Not that you need to breathe, but feeling your crumpled chestplate halt the move lets the words drizzle out of the corners of your mouth and pool at your feet uselessly.

You’re tired on a level a few miles deeper than physical. You’ve been blown up, blown up again by friendlies, trashed in a straight slugfest by a giant asshole beetle, and blown up a third time. You’ve endured hours of bombing in the dark of a sealed tunnel, waiting for a bunker buster to finally come punch your ticket. You brought a civilian in who just wanted to make up for what he had been forced to do, and you broke him. And, through the swirling dust, all you see in Mortarphant’s beady little pinprick eyes is insanity.

“...Shellephant says bye,” you tell her flatly, squaring your buster and sending a Wrenade hurtling downrange at her.

She shrieks in response, shouldering forward and lobbing a pair of mortars high overhead with her tusks, and you break to the right, the heat rising palpably as a rush of air blows past you, only to be sucked back into the firestorm. Your grenade impacts her square in the face, slashing at her cheeks and unblinking eyes as her shields flash. Mortarphant ignores it all, a grenade clutched at the end of her trunk and flung your way like a baseball, even as she raises a hulking palm and fires a missile.

You stutter a step ahead of her tracking with another mini-Raikousen and launch a pair of Blackouts after her, one at her head, one at her feet, positively drowning her in a storm of blinding petals.

She tears right through it, shields a constant strobe, and roughly as bothered by the sensor-jamming chaff as a stroll in the rain. You keep up the pace, dodging another lobbed pair of shots as you come around from the other side. A Lockon Hunter sizzles across her heavily-plated chest, drawing one more in a series of near-constant flashes of her shield, but she doesn’t slow, spreading her fire out to saturate the whole area in front of you, forcing you to redirect. You quickly snap-fire your last Lockon straight down the barrel of her hand cannon, but her shields stop it as a missile streaks back at you.

>Jump-jet right through it and into her.
>Bring the capacitors into the mix.
>Keep circling like a one-dork wolf pack, wear her down.
>Other?
>>
>>1408542
>Bring the capacitors into the mix.
Those shields have got to go. Let's see how they like lightning.
>>
>>1408565
FUCK getting close. I'm 99% sure that if Anode tries to close to melee, she'll just pump a salvo into her feet.

At the absolute least, wait for an opening to zig instead of zag so she doesn't expect it.
>>
>>1408573
When I suggest the capacitors, I mean as an alternative to getting close at all.

Anode filled a room with lightning, once. He can zap at range, but he hasn't done it often.
>>
>>1408542
Jump-jetting through the missile seems like a cool idea, but I don't think it's a good one. They're not energy weapons, so I don't think enough damage will be ablated to make the trade-off worth it.

She clearly cares nothing for her own safety, but I don't think circle-strafing is going to work indefinitely. She's crazy, but that doesn't mean she's stupid.

We could try snagging her with a T. Coil and circling her, assuming she doesn't try to pull the same trick that every other Big fighter has and yanking the wire. I suppose the trick will be to hit her in the back.

It's really, really tempting to try and wrap her up and then hammer throw her off of the mesa and into the minefield King Bob-Omb style, but I don't actually know if our Mass Shriver can put out the power to do that.

...Maybe we could snag her legs and trip her up?
>>
>>1408618
She seems big enough to snap any wires or just blow them up.
>>
>>Dodge that missile with the raikousen, snag the side of it with the tension coil, and (if necessary use a combination of dashing and the mass shriver to) swing it back around into her face.
>>Keep circling and zigzagging, and try to get close so we can open her up with the misericorde.
>>
>>1408565

I think this could work. I mean, she's covered in Blackout razors and possibly Wrenade flechettes if her shields didn't get rid of those.

It may not kill her, but it'll pack a punch. Then again, we might not have the speed to dodge her shit if we zap her too early.

Spitballing other ideas:

T. Coils: She could yank the wire, but if we cut the wire immediately after firing, that'd buy us a second to react. We could also try webbing her down with multiple T. Coils.
>>
>>1408542

>Keep circling like a one-dork wolf pack, wear her down.

We have a bag of tricks to use, let's hold back until she throws a trick, then respond in kind.
>>
>>1408542
>Keep circling like a one-dork wolf pack, wear her down.
>>
>>1408542
>Keep circling like a one-dork wolf pack, wear her down.
She doesn't even try to avoid getting hit. Stay on your feet, don't get hit yourself, jumpjet if she gets too close.
>>
Could we jumpjet past her and tag her with the misericorde on the flyby to open up something we can get our lance into?
>>
>>1402650
>and her ears snap this way and that, angular radar dishes flanking either side of her head

Extra Sensory! Can't just blind her with blackouts, gotta deafen her.
Can we go.... LOUD?
>>
>>1408542
>Bring the capacitors into the mix.
If she's going to keep shaking the world, might as well use it
>>
>>1408733
No. This is radar, not sonar.
>>
>>1408789
welp, pun aside, the idea is to more highlight Maybe A Targettable Weakness - we've got her pretty well blinded, but if we take out her ears, then she really can't track us.
(Unless she's networked with her observers.)
>>
>>1408807
She is networked, but the ears are still a good target... just remember to flash freeze her armor too.
>>
>>1408542
>Coil leg
>Shriver Pull
>Detach Coil, unload all Wrenades
>Dash in melee
>Set capacitors to empty
>>
D'ya think we could take out her trunk with our lance?
>>
>>1409001
Like Flame Mammoth, yeah? Could work, in theory.
>>
>>1409001
if we could slash with the lance. Stabbing will not be too accurate, although a good hit would disable it either way.
>>
>>1408542

Is, uh, um. Is no one else really concerned that Cain Labs AND Hunter Command just went out of their ways to carefully and specifically explain to us that a regularly working shield to LIFE setup is that way so as not to go up like a nuke when it fails...

...and we're looking at an explosive-filled full-on lunatic whose shields don't appear to be behaving properly?
>>
>>1409105

Well they also said that to fuck up a LIFE cell in such a way as to make it go nuclear one would have to outsmart Light. I don't really see Mortarphant, or anyone with whom she's interacted recently managing to do that.
>>
>>1409105
Her shields ARE behaving properly, she's standing in a cloud of FUCK YOU HAVE RAZOR CHAFF, they're gonna be cycling as fast as they can.
>>
>>1409105
Her shields are eating our best ordinance and preventing us eliminating her. They gotta go before we can complete the mission.
>>
>>1409121
You're all conspiring to nuke this plateau with wild elephants. I'm onto you.
>>
>>1409150
Don't look at me, I voted for Moloch.
>>
>>1409105
Considering it was answering a question asked, not really.
>>
>>1409273
>writing off the possibility of enemy action so easily
>>
>>1409328
They've all gone complacent. Dear God.
>>
>>1409548
Is mostly that some don't really mind if Anode gets killed anymore.
>>
>>1409591
Speaking of the player character getting killed.

Hey Hunter Command, Cain Labs, is there any chance of us playing a mav during one of the intermissions or other-character scenes? I'd love to see what it's like in the head of a viral, and to see what downtime looks like for the enemy.
>>
>>1409611
There was that one interlude in the leadup to the attack on Geneva where we played as Seven. Apparently he was left in the dark about Doppler and only learned that there were other infiltrators on base by going over financial documents really closely and seeking them out himself.
>>
>>1409591

I mind!

There can only be one explanation: Some of these anons are birds!
>>
>>1409548
No. Just not being paranoid. You are misreading the situation Magnet.

Both the Blackout Rockets and the Wrenade taxed her shields. She basically has Super Armor and won't flinch even if hit with her weakness.
>>
>>1409782
Mass Shriver to get lance in deep.
Unload a good chunk of capacitor.
Finish off with wrenades?

Also have we ever considered a lance upgrade that'd let us burn capacitor power to temporarily up our lowbeam to a hibeam?
>>
>>1409548
I mind, but Anode has rarely gone into a fight with the boss's weakness both available and obvious. That turns most encounters into a brawl, and it's possible that we're in an off-order brawl now.

The key will be finding the best way to attrition her. If electrocuting her shields doesn't do it, maybe punching straight through with a Mass Shriver lancing? If so, I don't want to try that until we can get a clean shot at her back, so she doesn't hug-missile us.
>>
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>>1410337
I mean, attrition-brawl seems the way to go for me. We may or may not have her specific hard counter. We haven't had that a lot of times, and we brawled our way out anyway.

Consider the "easy mode" boss order of Season One...

>Spin Jagwire > Chaff Weasel > Lockon Bloodhound > Tumult Terrapin > Guns Wallaby > Winter Wolfspider > Solstrike Saetos > Splashdown Skipjack > Spin Jagwire

>Jagwire's cables immobilize the relatively weak Chaff Weasel, whose sensor-flak blinds the targeter-heavy Lockon Bloodhound, whose anti-materiel laser defeats Tumult Terrapin's armor, whose powerful energy shield blocks Guns Wallaby's line of fire, whose Phase distortion foils Winter Wolfspider's multidirectional plasma cannons, whose armor-breaking snap freeze breaks Solstrike Saetos's defense, whose powerful heat weapons overwhelm Splashdown Skipjack, whose Highball Skippers catch the evasive Spin Jagwire.

... When what -actually- happened was the more mid-level base difficulty of Weasel > Wallaby > Jagwire > Bloodhound > Terrapin > Wolfspider > Saetos > Skipjack...

... Which Anode beat with Lance > C.Capacitor > Lance > Blackout > Lockons-and-Emerald > T.Coil > Misericorde-and-C.Capacitor (after initial brawl) > Flamberge-and-Tigershark. With the mid-season fights, we never did open fire on Bisanu, and literally everything we had was the Russians’ weakness since they were humans.

And then came the joint mission. Shiva was just victory-by-survival. Weasel-Limited was a team effort with Em and Flares getting the biggest hits, Wolfspider-Limited ate his former counter for lunch before getting Capacitor’d and Flamberge’d, and Nicholz was less a matter of elemental vulnerability than a combination of sibling efficiency and 100% perfect audience votes.

Season Two turned the difficulty from Medium to Hard – after Mac, who was a chump with one trick that only empowered us. We beat Foxfire by endurance and Capacitor-dump through the Lance, but I doubt that was her greatest weakness. Whatever Wren’s hard counter was, we didn’t have it. Sabomole was recovered with words and our fireteam. Stylist hated being hit with Wrenades, but then again almost anybody would hate that. Collide might have been weak to fire, but we found out too late to capitalize on it.

All that is to say we’ve only ended a fight with the “right” weapon/element five, maybe six times in twenty boss engagements. Mortarphant makes twenty-one.

Maybe after this we can ask Rho for a hint as to the rest of our roster's weaknesses so we don't thrash our way to victory more often than not.
>>
>>1410340
>but I doubt that was her greatest weakness

Tumult Shells seemed to mess up her attacks.
>>
>>1409941
>misreading
Irony meets butterknife.

>Maybe after this we can ask Rho for a hint as to the rest of our roster's weaknesses so we don't thrash our way to victory more often than not.

This reminds me, should go back to regularly requesting Navigator support when available.
>>
>>1409928

You rang?
>>
>>1410395
>Irony meets butterknife.
How so?

>mis·read
>misˈrēd/
>verb
>verb: misread; 3rd person present: misreads; >past tense: misread; past participle: misread; gerund or present participle: misreading

> read (a piece of text) wrongly.
> judge or interpret (a situation or a person's manner or behavior) incorrectly.
>>
Damn tho, I was hoping the wrenades would hit a secondary weakness, like how you could cut off flame mammoth's trunk in X1
>>
>This reminds me, should go back to regularly requesting Navigator support when available.
This.
>>
>>1410663
Problem is that it is not currently available. We called for support during Foxfire and Rho picked up saying all available navigators were busy.
>>
>>1410340

Also add to that the fact that not every upgrade we get from a maverick is a weapon.

I mean, one of the upgrades we could've gotten from Skipjack was the ability to walk on water.

Now I wanna go back and see all the other upgrades we could've gotten instead. Not because I think they're better, but just because I'm curious.
>>
>>1410746
The non-weapon upgrades are the ones that interest me.
I'd love to see how the Saetos op would have gone if we'd opted for the LN cooling systems instead of a LN weapon.

I'd also love to see how the Saetos op would have gone if we'd jumped straight in as our first op.
>>
>>1410731
That was because Foxfire was a B-rank mission, and Navigation is currently limited to A or higher. We could technically get Navigation on this one.
>>
I've got some OT tonight and/or tomorrow, so I may not get a post out til later/at all, but we'll see.
>>
>>1410443
Blackbird Sniper! Thank god you're here! There's about a dozen blackbirds over by HQ that we need you to snipe.
>>
>>1410746
They could very well be better. Not to say that MHQ has upgrade trap options, but we could have built Anode with more attention to purpose in mind.

I'd like to know if rebuilding is possible, and what it would cost us.
>>
I think we can technically repurchase the base weapon version of things we made into upgrades.
>>
Anyone else feel bosses are a lot tankier and we're a lot wimpier than in the actual games?

I know we're not a super prototype like regular MM series protagonists but still. It feels like we get missions just like in the canon universe but we're not X or Zero so having an X-hunter equivalent feels like a nightmare mission.

Are we not upgraded enough? we did invest a lot into our squad...

Is our experience not up to snuff? Do we need to grab Emerald when we finally have time and ask for serious hardcore training?

fuck it, time for total thread re-read and taking notes time. Maybe I can spot something. I don't want anode to die.
>>
>>1410946
>trying to compare story difficulty to vidyagame difficulty

Just because you've played megamans to the point that you can 100% the games blindfolded doesn't make Anode an unskilled toddler.

I mean, he sort of is, but that's mostly because he's never really had a stretch of time where he can actually sit and focus on training, it's straight from one mission to the next.
>>
>>1410946
X3 itself was a spike in difficulty. A lot of slog and HP bloat even among the mechaniloids. We're just seeing that from a middling Hunter's perspective.
>>
>>1410970
This too. Anode had such a bad start-of-a-career that Schwarzhund, who had seen a lot of bad missions, got suspicious.
>>
>>1410970
I'm not sperging out about how we're not like the games, I'm saying basically all of our missions even post-Seven have been much more difficult than advertised with the exception of what, Chaff/Spin/Skipjack, and we had Tanker for Skipjack so that hardly counts.

I used X/Zero as an example because we're getting missions similar to them but uh, we're not them. And it shows. And I would like to figure out a way to not nearly die every serious mission we have.
>>
Speaking of Seven, listen to that smug asshole in thread #2:

>"Gimme the rundown," you decide. "Sounds like you've had some issues with Command?"

>"Typical backassward military stuff, really," he nods. "Orders coming late, orders going to the wrong outpost, orders never going through, chain of command snafus. It's all pretty standard shit, it just tends to be harder-felt here. Get used to hearing about how important we are, 'cause it's what we cling to when the Air Cav starts boasting or the Shinobi unit starts strutting. Missed supply drops or miscommunication tend to hurt pretty bad. We're well-supplied now, though it wasn't always that way. A lotta unit commanders see us as the grunts to hold territory whenever they clear it. Or "clear" it, leaving a maverick insurgency presence for a week or three."

I hope we get to kill his ass. And Tanker. And, I don't know if we heard Dodo's transmission of Katyusha, but I hope we play it when we're killing Tanker.

Sorry about the double post, I hit submit and realized I forgot to write this part.
>>
>>1411031
>with the exception of what, Chaff/Spin/Skipjack
Wren was never advertised as anything less than 'try to not die'
>>
>>1411037
>Sorry about the double post, I hit submit and realized I forgot to write this part.
This is 4chan, nobody gives a fuck about forum shit.
>>
>>1411037
>And, I don't know if we heard Dodo's transmission of Katyusha, but I hope we play it when we're killing Tanker.

Watch him be the surprise extra boss on the Stellar Atlantica mission.
>>
>>1411039
More talking about shit like Tumult or Wallaby, where they were way stronger than anyone really thought of.

>>1411058
Knowing cain labs it's probably going to be in the water too!
>>
>>1410759
I'd think the LN cooling would have allowed us to deal with his cannibal plumes more easily

If we'd picked Saestos when we first got our expanded roster; we would only have the Coils and the Phase upgrade, neither of which were really key to the fight. Don't know if we could've won that, maybe we'd get a warning from Schwarz and a chance to back out when we died.

>>1411058
I was figuring that he'd show up right after the 4th mission, like Colonel or Dynamo.
>>
>>1411079
>STELLAR ATLANTICA (Class unknown; unassessed)

>A former singer, Stellar Atlantica has begun attacking concert halls and theaters she once played at, killing several hundred civilians. During her latest attack, she struck an optical laser technologies forum at one of these former venues, and kidnapped a renowned expert in the field on one of his rare public appearances. She has since retreated to an undersea concert hall off the shore of Malta, one her builders had specially ordered for her shows. The entire complex is built around her and her ability to integrate into its fiber optic displays. Attempts for further intel on her design or capabilities have been rejected by her builders at LDM Productions, citing "proprietary information."

>Atlantica's behavior since going maverick has been consistent in its violence. Her purpose in taking a captive alive is unknown, but his insight into optical laser weaponry could be a very useful asset -- or a very dangerous one, in the wrong hands.
>>
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>>1411096
This is our fourth mission. Guess we'll find out.
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>>1410922
those are similar to slaved data weapons in that they will be slightly weaker.
>>
>>1411096
>I was figuring that he'd show up right after the 4th mission, like Colonel or Dynamo.
>>1411100

Bit shows up as a miniboss after the second kill in X3. Byte shows up a few stages after that. The squid was not a surprise to me. Collide on the other hand was.
>>
>>1411232
Just Anode's luck to get two of his equivalent of X-Hunters back to back.
>>
>>1411258
Maybe there's one on each mission.

Maybe we've missed all of the ones from before we got the OPAL upgrade.
>>
>>1411280
>>
>>1411300
>Saetos gave us his DNA because he saw the opposition and decided it was too unfair for Anode
>>
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>>1411316
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>>1411280
>Maybe we've missed all of the ones from before we got the OPAL upgrade.

We got Opal from our first mission.
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>>1411324
Sure.

Of this season.
>>
>>1411352
>somehow we missed a PHANTOM on the Chaff Weasel op
>>
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>>1411380
Stylist was there, off to the side, but we were blind so we never saw him.
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>>1411388
Was he recording it for maverick' s funniest home videos?
>>
>>1411393
Hey, intel comes in many forms.
>>
>>1411324
There could have been a PHANTOM in Foxfire's mission. We wouldn't have been able to see them.

We better start checking our soup again.
>>
>>1411393
HC and CL will never be able to convince me this wasn't the case now.
>>
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>>1411567
Why in the hell would we ever try to?
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>>1408644
>>1408662
>>1408676
>>1408686
You keep on the move, firing charged buster shots into the mix as you keep plugging away at her shields. Finally, after three full salvos, she shrieks again, slamming a foot into the earth and throwing her arms back, shoulder hatches springing open and racks unfurling from either hip as she launches an enormous hail of missiles skyward.

You don’t chance it, dropping another 20% capacitor on a Raikousen to be nowhere near the conflagration that follows. You actually rocket off the edge of the mesa and snag it with a coil, whipping yourself around with your own momentum and swinging back skyward.

You see in your brief instant of zero-gravity hangtime that the mesa has been clawed away by the impacts, several micromissiles tunneling down through the ground and exploding deep within. An entire shelf sloughs off and crashes down below, your arena narrowed by her endless, walking bombardment. As you come down, however, she’s walking no longer, barreling straight at you like a feral animal.

She’s fast, but more by virtue of her size than anything. Her breakneck sprint is paltry compared to your dashes. Your attempt to reangle with another coil is foiled as she simply shreds it out of the air with a storm of missile fire. You come down as she moves to meet you, swinging one of those massive hands wide.

You let yourself fall into a crouch as it sails right over you, tucking your buster up under her guard and firing point-blank, two shots splashing across her armor as she howls and brings her fist down like a meteor. You dive to the side, drawing your lance as you go. She goes to backhand, and you twist away--this is not Collide.

You reverse the movement as you draw your lance, cocking your arm back and unloading with a full Mass Shriver swing. It bites and draws a snarl of wrath from Mortarphant--but you hack through, even as her shields flash angrily, a new cut scored across her chest from a blow they failed to blunt completely. With a roar, she aims both palms at her feet.

You’re already leaping back in anticipation as the explosion erupts beneath you, gouging another hole out of the mesa and sending you flying, smoke curling through the air from your body and your shields reporting their displeasure. You manage to come to a (mostly) controlled halt thanks to another coil, narrowly avoiding another missile streaking past as you zipline to your right.

https://youtu.be/C3_NWLpAwBo

Cloaked in smoke and flame, smoke boiling from seams in her armor like breaches in a ship’s hull, Mortarphant is already firing again, explosions walking toward you as the ground thunders so constant as to be white noise. On this side of the mesa, the remains of the artillery base yawn open into a standing half-a-complex, offering some semblance of cover, from when they were blown apart from within.

>Now’s the time for the knife.
>Exhaust your special weapons and then shock her.
>Draw her into the ruins.
>Other?
>>
>>1411661
>An entire shelf sloughs off and crashes down below, your arena narrowed by her endless, walking bombardment.
Mass Shriver her tail and throw her at a mine
>>
>Other
>Saetos jets, followed by shock
This may kill her from overheating alone

>>1411668
Striker Cobra how did you get my ID
>>
>>1411661
>Now’s the time for the knife.
This is good. Just try to make it a backstab if possible.

>Exhaust your special weapons and then shock her.
This is less good. The more time we take, the less ground we'll have to stand on.

>Draw her into the ruins.
This is not good. Her bombardment will follow us but she won't need to.
>>
>>1411661
Any cover we use isn't going to hold for very long under a sustained bombardment, I think. There's a reason it's a ruin now and not a base... And I'm not sure we can count on her bulling in when she might just step back and unload a MOAB on us.

Still, it's better than nothing. With our armor as fucked as it is, we're relying entirely on shields... And standing out here in the open is to her advantage. Draw her into the ruins. Think of what Schwarz would do.

Maybe someone will have left behind a Stinger or something we can use...
>>
>>1411661
>Now’s the time for the knife.
>>
>>1411661
>>Now’s the time for the knife.

If she wants to blow herself up, lets help her out with that.

Also a general unvote for any write-ins that involve punting her off the mesa, after all the work we put into getting out of her optimal range, lets not let her get back to it.
>>
>>1411661
>smoke boiling from seams in her armor like breaches in a ship’s hull, Mortarphant is already firing again
Definitely time for the knife!
>Now’s the time for the knife.
>>
>>1411734
On second thought.

If we get in close, knife her, then jumpjet her, I think we could do some real damage. Maybe enough to finish her off.

Get into position to do that, but make sure that we're jetting towards the ruins when we do.
>>
>>1411322
Does anyone have an archive of all of this guys stuff?
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>>1411857
I wish. I just saved it bit by bit as I found it in the thread archives.
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>>1411857
http://imgur.com/a/MMDSv

there you go, friendo

e v e r y t h i n g
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>>1411882
You're a gentlemen and a scholar, sir.
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>>1411661
>Now’s the time for the knife.
She can't guard against it, we already dance past her at melee range. Just keep, nimble to get in and out fast. and we should carve her up no problem.
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>>1411661
>Now’s the time for the knife.
go for the back of a knee if we can.

maybe open with some capaciter charge/coil zap
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>>1411388
>someone saved one of my shitty edits.

I made others but deleted them.
they were for making request on /m drawthreads, never really got a response after someone drew Guns.
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>Now’s the time for the knife.
>Continue to prioritize mobility.
>As soon as her armor is open, close in, grab her by the internals, and light her up.
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>>1411661
>Now’s the time for the knife, and then shock her for good measure.
If she's still up after all that, let's just stay the fuck away and unload those special weapons.
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>>1411661
Yeah, I'll also throw in my vote for the knife. Just watch out that she doesn't get her palms on you.
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>>1411661
>Now’s the time for the knife.
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>>1411661
>Draw her into the ruins.
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>>1411661
>Play a bit of knifey-spooney with the hefalump
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Can we see anything that looks diffusery?

If we can bait mortarphant's missiles into heading that direction, it'll get us back our OWN arty support.
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>>1412263
...That's a good point. If we don't see anything outright on the mesa, it might be set up in the ruins, mightn't it?
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quick question, is OUR artillery support still a thing? I mean elephant was just starting to bomb them before we popped in to say hi, could they bring down some thunder of their own if they needed to or is the risk of Mortelepant bombing them back before they could leave her range to great?
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>>1412283
Our support was unwilling to be in firing range to support us because then they'd be in Mortarphant's firing range.
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>>1411668
>So long, Gay Mortarphant!

How are we not already doing this.
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It may not be possible to lure her into the ruins (because she could simply lay waste to them), but if do find ourselves over there, we may be able to use the ruins to find an electrical outlet of some kind to recharge us.
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>>1412310
>How are we not already doing this.

The problem with this idea is that her guns will be able to hit the mesa from not on the mesa. I mean unless you WANT to have to reapproach under a withering artillery barrage.
>>
let's not risk anything for danger close shooting.

misericorde
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>>1412328
Because it is safe to assume the entire time we get up to speed on the throw, she is launching bombs at her feet. Meaning right on us. And then she has range again.
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>>1412368
additionally, it's more flashy than effective. Kill her and be done with it.
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I know I'm getting ahead of myself here, but I had a crazy idea for what to do with Mortorphant's weapon data.

What if we combined it with the Blackout Rocket data to make some kind of high powered flack cannon/buckshot? We could tighten up the choke for farther shots, or go for a wider spread up close. We might even unlock the ability to spend some capacitor charge to accelerate the shots for increased damage.

Now it stands that the chaff qualities might be reduced if we go that route, but honestly, with 2 exceptions, the chaff hasn't really done anything to help us. Stuff either goes past or it flat out doesn't work. think it'd be a worthwhile trade off.

Just something I wanted to throw out there in case I miss the thread conclusion.
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>>1411661
>>Now’s the time for the knife.

Break her.
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>>1412420
Chaff is utility for sensor disruption and also anti air. it does its job in my opinion.

We might want to keep weapon as is for forcing targets to close in if it's powerful enough. offense is kinda wimpy
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>>1412283
Yeah, can we GTFO and let artillery with superior range (now that her satellites are gone) finish this?
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>>1412431
Mortarphant still outranges your friendlies. You could theoretically grind her down in an artillery duel, but that would take a lot of casualties. Besides, you're already inside her vulnerable range and you'd need to fall back into her optimal ranges to exfil anyway.

You COULD ask Arc to move in and open fire on the mesa with her primaries again now that you're contending with Mortarphant, but her secondaries have been diffused and you're not remotely immune to her primary.
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>>1412420
>>1412425
Blackout Rocket does its job perfectly as-is. If we make it more damaging, it'd start covering ground that the Wrenades already well and truly own.

I'd need to see just what Mortarphant's DNA yields. If it's "Missiles Forever," that's a new tactical application worth its own VWES slot.
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>>1412484
There is something to be said for the Macross Missile Spam tactic. We could even mod them to have fun special effects.
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>>1412491
Rig them for electrical conduction, missile-based lightning nets!
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>>1412493
I was thinking more along the lines of magnet missiles
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>>1412420
as >>1412484 says, Mortarphant's DNA has value by itself.

That being the case, there MIGHT be some things we can combine with Blackout for, just not something that can be variable like Lockon.

I'm thinking:
>Chaff Barrage
Weaker chaff, faster flight speed, faster firing rate. We could achieve the same level of chaff by just firing more, but it would be less ammo efficient than original Blackout.

>Chaff Mortar
Extreme long range weapon that can release multiple clouds of chaff on delay. More long-term and unlikely to be ever used against a boss, but the first weapon we could really use the OPAL to snipe with.

>Super Blackout
Same rocket. The chaff is bigger. The chaff explodes.
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>>1412491
>>1412493
>>1412496
>>1412502
Still, let's make sure the elephant is good and poached first.
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>>1412468
Couldn't we just use the 21XX version of cruise missile spam?
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Do you guys think we can get any upgrades to add to our offensive power? We barely dented Collide and a lot of our shit seems to be shrugged off by non-mooks. Remember when Lockon Hunter really hurt dudes with armor? I don't think it was even effective on the turtle, but then again not much was.

>>1412468
HC, someone said something about using capacitor to briefly charge our lance into a hi-beam; is this possible?

Also, can we get your full list o' upgrades?
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>>1412756
Maverick naval fleet is screening.

>>1412784
That would be something of an inefficient use of the capacitor. The lance is already designed to channel your electricity and that damage, while elemental in nature, is more powerful than turning that charge into a hibeam. You'd be better served looking into a sidearm. You'd be better-better served training to use a dedicated dueling weapon first.

In brighter news, my OT is done for now, so I should be able to get writing.

I'll provide the list of upgrades during the next upgrade session.
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>>1412847
Aw shucks, I was hoping the efficiency to do it would be minimal but add up compared to direct channeling.

Also, could we start getting Cap % in threads where we fight again?
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>>1412847
>I'll provide the list of upgrades during the next upgrade session.
No point planning it, we're gonna die.
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>>1412784
Collide was a giant enemy crab. we needed to find a weak point to deal proper damage. its harder to find weaknesses when you only got one life.

Lockon Hunter isn't that powerful, it's just are sniping weapon. We never really have had a big punch, save when we have something to overcharge are capacitor to Final Flash someone.
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>>1412881
It's supposed to be anti-armor.
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>>1412885
Supposed to
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>>1412468

If Anode is tying mortarphant up, can he ping allies to try to take out the diffuser (if it isn't immediately nearby for him to personally handle?)
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>>1412973
The diffuser is what's preventing our allies from helping out. Also I think Ukumari may have just went home
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I think one of the drawbacks of going for versatility options is that it leaves us without hard counters to some enemies.

That said, I'm also of the opinion that it pays greater dividends, but we have to fight smarter and train to get the full effect. For a lot of our upgrades, the first time we use them is in the field. It's worked out okay for us so far, but I think we can definitely stand to really master the toys we already have.

That said, we are in a war, and we might not really have time to get the training that we'd like in. While I'm not opposed to punching up our weapons (the Hurricane Bomb has done absolute wonders), I think the ineffectiveness of our weapons on Collide speaks less to how weak they are and more to how strong Collide is; we DID see him walk out into Mortarphant's bombardment like it a light shower, and the only thing he took a knee to was Arc's weapon... Which, if we weren't specifically built the way we are, and weren't in probably the most sheltered part of the battlefield that wasn't the tunnel, probably would have killed us outright.

Also keep in mind that it seems like the more powerful a weapon is, the less ammo we have of it.
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>>1412985
I was under the impression that the diffuser was specifically for that electrical whatsit we could get charge from.
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>>1412988
We have a lot of versatility for someone with our specs. I remember there was once two sides in an argument where people were arguing either for more personal power or more supportive upgrade paths.

The supporters were of the opinion that we'd always have people to take on missions with and we could totally focus on mobility and stuff like Blackout Rockets and T. Coils. The other guys were arguing what's the point of a hyper expensive machine if it also needs another hyper expensive machine to do the job it was supposed to be able to do itself?

Personally I'm in the latter camp. We have enough mobility, we have tricks, we have our capacitors, we don't have raw oomph. We should focus on oomph and if we need to upgrade utility later we can. Having a few more tricks isn't going to stop a heavy physical combatant from trashing us like Collide or even Tumult did; we can't rely on shit that might not be available for every mission.

>>1412973
>>1412985
You guys realize we haven't taken any serious damage from Mortarphant and are styling on her, right? We could just try and kill her instead of risking getting away from her, getting shelled while finding the diffuser, busting the diffuser, then getting charged and dumping on Mortarphant. That's a really complicated and risky plan instead of just murdering her right here and now.
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>>1413064
>The other guys were arguing what's the point of a hyper expensive machine if it also needs another hyper expensive machine to do the job it was supposed to be able to do itself?
Considering that we were in fact built to work in concert with another hyper expensive machine...
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>>1412847
>You'd be better served looking into a sidearm. You'd be better-better served training to use a dedicated dueling weapon first.

Is the lance a dedicated dueling weapon? If it is, can we spar somebody to get better at it, and if it isn't, can we buy/find one?
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>>1413064
>You guys realize we haven't taken any serious damage from Mortarphant and are styling on her, right?
Yeah, my point was that it probably wasn't worth trying to bring our support back into the picture.
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>>1413178
It can be, you can, and yes.
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>>1413203
Great, now if Em can spare a moment between suicide-by-Maverick attempts...
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>>1413214
If he doesn't have the time for us, we can just go maverick and then he'll have to fight us!
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>>1413131
We were built to function as a team. Anode uses shit for point blank defense and punishes attackers by using capacitor charge gained from Cathode's weaponry so we had an offensive punch.

We were literally split up before we even arrived at base and may never see her again outside of special scenarios. We've yet to fully address our weaknesses, which is without Cathode we lack consistent range and offensive power. Wrenades help, Mortarphant's weapon might help, but we need to not rely on VWES.

The only guarantee we have on EVERY mission is that we're going to be there. That's what we should be upgrading around, not resources that may or may not be available.

Really, there's no reason for us to build support when our glaring weakness, the lack of offense, has been exploited over and over and over. We keep running into it and it's not going away, so let's fucking put the kibosh on our super sneaky useful support crap for now, train our melee, git gud in terms of offensive capabilities, and if we need more we can come back later. Look at our kit and compare to Emerald's, Frog's, Flares's, hell basically anyone's kit in our unit. We have tons of useful tricks, but our punch is way lower than pretty much anyone I think. We beat Dodo and Seven in offensive capabilities when everyone thought his gun was all fucked up, that's about it.

Hell, half of our extensive damage every mission comes because we can't close out the fights quickly enough and have to eat hits to get through, which isn't a bad strategy per se but also risks our life.

We just got a huge wakeup call in the last few missions that we are not where we really need to be. Wren took us and a buddy on and it came down to us in the end and it was pretty close. Stylist had some shit going we were handling, but far from optimally. Collide spiritually ripped open our chest and took a shit in it. We are alive because he felt like not killing us.

Hell, we had the same thing happen to us in easymode Mavericks where Tumult beat the shit out of us and Em simultaneously because, gasp, we didn't have the offense and neither did Em. Before that, Wallaby also beat us coming and going and we won because we hit him with a superweapon's worth of charge. He had really good guns and could prevent us from closing in on him. That's all he had. Wouldn't fly now because shields and armor and VWES options, but it's another point in the our offense sucks game.

Like sorry to be all ranty mcangerson, but we had to fucking argue with people on THIS MISSION that Tumult Shells weren't worth taking over Wrenades. Because the things that rarely stopped much other than energy weapons were going to stop artillery impacts and be more useful than our best VEWS weapon. The utility sperg has gone on for too long and it's time to not listen to it anymore because I really don't want to play as someone else, I like Anode, we've been playing as him for 5 years, maybe do the shit we need to do to keep him alive.
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>>1413296

We have more offense than you think, the primary thing we're lacking is technique. We're steadily improving on that front though, one big indicator I picked up on (assuming it was meant to be an indicator) was when Em was sparring with assholebot, Anode could actually follow the fight enough to see Em was losing.
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>>1413296
Its not the lack of offense that is getting us wrecked its the massive amount of stuff we've dumped into mobility has pushed us into being crazy fast.

If you wanted to grade us we'd be something like:

Offense: 5
Defense: 5
Mobility: 9
Senses: 6

We started off something like:

Offense: 4
Defense: 4
Mobility: 4
Senses: 4
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>>1413368
We have a lowbeam lance that pack a punch only with capacitor charge. We have wrenades. Both of those failed to even dent collide and the former was enough for Wren after we got patched up and sent back in after a double team. Mortarphant already tanked a Wrenade with her shields and minor damage. We really don't have much.

Theoretically we do, but we have to use our charge so often for mobility that we don't get to use it for offense. It effectively lowers it a lot.

>>1413396
Our defense is probably a 6 or 7, we upgraded armor and gained shielding. Senses are probably higher; we can see invis and spot mines and shit. Mobility is retarded high, I agree.

Our weaponry is bad and we should feel bad.

Actually I just had an Idea inspired by everyone's favorite death beetle's horns. Could we link our LIFE cell to integrate with the lance couching thing so that it ignites as a hibeam or adds extra damage?
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Page 8 reminder to upvote thread! Every vote brings the Maverick virus cure closer to existence!*

http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/qstarchive.html?tags=Maverick%20Hunter%20Quest

*(unverified, illogical guess based purely on passage of time, over 18's only, terms and conditions apply)
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>>1412784
Personally, given the punch of the Blackouts, I would be for combining them with something from this hunt list and upgrading ammo count on them. Get a lot of mileage out of them, after all.

For combat upgrades, if memory serves we were actually going to get one coming out of this off the bat-specifically, a Raikousen upgrade thanks to one of the other slave chip options. Also makes me want to suggest Em look into the slave chip options since they may give him some swording options. But anyway, we could look into Buster upgrades, weapons data to purchase, new developing systems, or beginning our own pet project like Em had with his Flambard. Like a lesser version of the fuck you sword that takes advantage of our current higher than average EM shielding and heat shielding (because we are electric) to make a saber that disorients enemies when we turn it on due to the magnetic sheath, as well as burns as hot as can be tuned for. Or a rifle that we pour the range mavs into, possibly combining Mortarphant, Moloch, and Gibbon. Or seeing how they could upgrade our frame.
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>>1413468
These sound promising.

I think we might have made a mistake with the fuck you sword, all things considered. It sounded a bit retarded at the time, but if we had developed the shielding I think it might've solved a lot if not all of our consistent melee problems.
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>>1413475
The sword may seem useful in retrospect, but if we had it, then we wouldn't have had the tertiary dash, and Wren would've shredded us.
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>>1413498
True, but we also might've hit her for a serious effect or disrupted her systems just by igniting it nearby. While fast and strong, she certainly wasn't the sturdiest of our opponents. Don't know how it would've played out honestly.
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>>1413508
C'est la vie. I'm content with being weaponized-dashey first and fuckoff-swordy second.

Maybe we can get a melee weapon out of whatever Broadside Yamatoad yields. A sword made of battleships.
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>>1413418
>Our defense is probably a 6 or 7, we upgraded armor and gained shielding. Senses are probably higher; we can see invis and spot mines and shit. Mobility is retarded high, I agree.
Armor was not upgraded (We started with the best commonly available armor for our weight class and any additional would just drop our mobility). Phase shielding was added which is why I gave us a 5.

>Actually I just had an Idea inspired by everyone's favorite death beetle's horns. Could we link our LIFE cell to integrate with the lance couching thing so that it ignites as a hibeam or adds extra damage?

Bad idea. Sacing HP for Damage will just get us killed faster.

Better ways to upgrade our offense:
>Mil Specing the Misericorde into a full on dueling class hibeam sidearm.
>Focus on upgrading current VWES entities rather than adding new ones. 4 is the most we can equip and we currently have 5 entities.


>>1413498
Or we would have cleaved her in two. HC has said there are no bad upgrades, just different advantages and disadvantages to each path.
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>>1413517
I would like not to lose against big huge guys anymore. I'm really sick of big huge guys. I want a weapon that specifically tunnels into their robo assholes and explodes and tells the entire maverick force that they shouldn't send big huge guys at us unless their fetish is having their guts bombarded from the inside.
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>>1412985
We probably still have a few minions who aren't remote artillery. If we can get Ukumari's secondary available again this battle will become a LOT easier.

Actually, if her primary still works (dunno if it does) having remaining mechanaloids play spotter and target the diffuser for remote primary strike would be good.
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>>1413538
Forget the diffuser. Its probably an integrated part of her. We only got the first salvo through because she needs to tune it. We were told at the start we only had 1 or 2 shots of it. The Bear has performed it's mission.
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>>1413534
>>1413535
You think the Wrenades could be upgraded further, then?
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>>1413296
Yeah? Utility spergs, huh? You think Collide wrecked us? Imagine how bad it'd be if we couldn't see the fucker. A giant, speedy, heavily armored punchfucker is bad enough; if we couldn't see him, he'd a phantom freight train from hell derailing right into your ass. Best guns in the world don't matter worth a damn if you don't know where to point them. Our mobility has saved our ass time and time again in this mission, and I find it ridiculous that you're putting it down. Even the Shriver, another utility which some were vastly opposed to, has done wonders for us on this mission; we've literally used reploids as wrecking balls and it's the only thing that managed to outright STOP Collide.

I agree that taking Wrenades was the right choice, and said as much when the vote came up. They're hardly useless, they're just not useful in this particular mission. And I'm not saying that we couldn't use more gun, but learning to make the most out of the toys that we have, learning to make the right decisions in combat and on the battlefield as a whole, learning to make and take every advantage we can get will improve our survivability.

We're not packing peashooters. We're getting matched against powerful opponents, or weaker ones that are fighting like we should be fighting.

All in all, I think you should chill.
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>>1413567
Yes, but over focusing is a bad idea. Blackout Rockets, Lockon Hunter, Tumult Shell, Tension Coil, the Misericorde and the Ascent Lance need love also.
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>>1413534
Could've sworn we upgraded armor. Maybe I'm think of when we had to get a totally new chestpiece?

I don't think we'd have to sac HP for that because LIFE powers all our other systems and we never see a downtic, but it's up to HC.

The misericorde idea sounds good if we got better at melee. What exactly is a dueling class weapon again?

>>1413538
But we're winning. Handily. We really haven't had any difficulty with mortarphant. And as I said before...

>>1413064
> We could just try and kill her instead of risking getting away from her, getting shelled while finding the diffuser, busting the diffuser, then getting charged and dumping on Mortarphant. That's a really complicated and risky plan instead of just murdering her right here and now.

There's no reason to leave melee range when Mortarphant is explicitly bad at melee. That is what she would really like us to do. Please don't do what the elephant wants. Also, the whole reason we're here is that they don't want to artillery duel Mortarphant because they think she'd win. If we were distracting Mortarphant while the bear hit us with primary, we'd probably die at this point. Quit with the overcomplicated suicidal plans and kill the elephant!

>>1413567
It's too bad Lockon is a laser and not some high end rail gun thingy, or we could see about a punch-through-armor-and-deposit-a-Wrenade combo.

I don't know how we could get Wrenades to be like that honestly. I think graverend might have something anti-armor if my memory isn't worthless but we have to kill him first. Maybe talk to Emerald?
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>Retard sword talk.

People forget that the Retard sword would have been so powerful that we would need to request authorization to use it from command every time we wanted it.

Remember how the one arty guy's last transmission was a request to unlock his weapon? That could be us.
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>>1413616
We could also lose the retard sword forever if it got destroyed, or maybe even broken since Saetos' data was a one-off. Or somebody could steal it from us; I imagine they'd have a hell of a time if they switched it on, but things can always fall into the wrong hands.
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>>1413615
Moloch:
>GRAVEREND MOLOCH (A-class)
> A new maverick, seemingly purpose-built, has begun a campaign of terror along the United States west coast.
> Moloch is a relative unknown, only becoming active approximately one month ago, and only beginning his attacks in earnest in time with the raid on MHHQ. Survivor accounts have described him as brutal and erratic, seeking carnage and destruction for its own sake. He has evaded capture in the wake of repeated activity.
> While you were busy with Soul Foxfire, he collapsed an entire apartment building (housing a prominent scientist and his family) and disappeared from radar.
< While you were busy with Hurricane Wren, the Hunters struggled to aid in the civilian evacuation of his known locations.
> While you were busy with Disruptor Sabomole, six Hunters went MIA in his area of operation.
> KNOWN WEAPONRY: Earthrend Spike. Designed to shift earth and rock, this weapon is capable of both punching through heavy armor and causing grievous injury to the systems beneath.
> AVAILABLE SUPPORT: 1st Advance, 3rd Deploy

Maybe him next?
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>>1411733
>>1411758
>>1411768
>>1411779
>>1411916
>>1411922
>>1411981
>>1412023
>>1412159
>>1412424
It’s not a hard decision. She’s too insane to do anything but shoot the works. Not enough to hold anything back to trick you. Plus, you have an exit strategy.

Of course, the issue is in the approach. You go for the brain-dead simple, and fake her out, firing a cable and anchoring to the ruins--

And then drop it, zipping in the other direction as she swivels to bombard your perceived angle. She corrects fast, but you’re not moving sideways, this time, you’re dashing in.

Lightning burns at your feet as your overtaxed dash systems strain and whine, a shell whizzing over your damaged shoulder perilously close as you bear down on her. You fake her out once again, for once on the initiative and the favorable side of the exchange--your lance swings out, and she tries to raise an arm to bat your strike away, shields still strong--

Only for your knife to plunge into her abdomen, sizzling for an instant before a strangely organic-sounding crunch of snap-freeze. You wrench it out to one side, an entire plate snapping off and baring the core components beneath. She’s already firing at her feet again, but you’re engaging your jump-jets. Cloaked in flame, you blaze right through her and the explosion thundering behind you, coming to a halt as you stow the misericorde.

She turns over one shoulder again, smoking heavily from her front, and she screams again. Long, loud, and unbroken. Throwing her head back, her entire torso seems to shift and slide, baring…

A missile.

A really, really, really big missile.

“DIE!” Mortarphant screams. “DIE, DIE, DIE, DIE DIE--

The missile streaks skyward from her belly, engine contrail an almost pure white in the haze of sand and smoke and fire all around her. Mortarphant fires on you as you break away towards the edge of the mesa. Fires on you as the engine above you goes cold. Fires on you as OPAL warns of an incoming large-yield weapon.

You fire more coils without a second thought, leaping and plunging strait off the mesa.

Behind you, the world evaporates.

Screaming, burning, and always firing, Barrage Mortarphant stands at the epicenter of her own blast, vanishing in blinding white under a shock that rends your lines and sends you plummeting down the side of the cliff. You blind-fire another coil and hold on for dear life as a rain of stone and steel slashes through the air. Input from one of your ears goes out as the wind howls and whips you against the cliffside, twisting you around ungainly as you hold the coil for dear life.

...And then, it’s over.

Silence.

On top of the mesa, a few more recently-dislodged chunks of the ruined artillery base clatter to the ground as you clamber back topside.
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>>1413641
I think so. Although taking out Mortarphant will give us breathing space for Yamatoad, I'm hesitant to go after our roster's S-Rank so soon, and that weapon looks nice. Plus, I'm not confident anymore that our low-priority missions like Gibbon, Moloch, and Atlantica actually are low-priority. On the other hand, the more we let Yamatoad go, the harder the going is gonna be, so I think we should take care of him after.

That said, I really want to get to the background missions we've got kicking around before we move on to another maverick.
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>>1413651
Barrage Mortarphant is gone. Her screams vanished into the endless thunder somewhere in the middle, the two one and the same until they were simply not at all. Small fires licking at your heels, you step through blackened earth to the center of a great nothingness. Behind you, another piece of the mesa falls.

It’s over.
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>>1413659
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QkbEjDK5OBY
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>>1413659
... Seriously?

That was easy. Suspiciously easy. Incoming G-rank when?
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>>1413581
Yes. Utility spergs in the IRC wanted us to upgrade towards civilian rescue or other such options, and some even floated the idea of being a support character with our cute Lanceteamer buddies and other hunters. Not really dealing with our slugfest issues.

I mean I support arming the lanceteamers, if we ever have a Saetos-esque mission they should be really useful for tertiary objectives, but they can't get near any of our recent opponents without dying horribly.

Yeah, Collide being invisible is bad, and guess what? We could see him and still barely did shit to him. So now that we HAVE utility, we stop upgrading it and patch the gaping hole in our offense. OPAL, by the way, was a freebie upgrade. Raikousen, most of our mobility, was a fairly early upgrade. T. Coil, our other major mobility schitck, is also an early weapon; same with Blackout Rockets.

We've had all this mobility and utility for a really long time yet if we got another similar option from Mortarphant some of these dudes would be stroking themselves about it and ignoring the fact we just got stomped in a straight fight by a guy we're probably seeing again. That's the kind of shit I'm talking about, not utility is useless waaaah big swords. We've forgotten that at the end of the day we still have to kill these guys, mostly.

Mass Shriver upgrades our strength. It's an offensive tool. The utility is secondary, like how we can theoretically use our capacitor to charge a piece of equipment or something.

It isn't a new problem and you're ignoring that we were having the same problem in season 1; Tumult nearly 1v2'd us and Emerald.

Tumult Shell is a very weak VWES option at the moment and I don't really know if it's worth upgrading. The energy weapon shielding is already done weakly by our phase stuff in the lance and strongly by the jumpjets. It's probably the worst slot efficiency of anything we have at the moment.

Our offensive options are:

Capacitor:
Extremely powerful overall, balanced by we need to use Raikousen not to die and usually we don't get the levels of charge we really want.
Is also elemental, risking a RPS problem.

Wrenade:
Pretty awesome. Limited shots and doesn't seem to do as much as we'd hope against heavies though.

Lockon Hunter:
Basically useless at anti-armor so far into our second season of Mavericks. Maybe upgrading it is worthwhile, maybe not.

Blackout Rockets:
Kind of a joke if target has armor, good utility. Might be worth upgrading with Mortar's stuff, maybe not. We'll see.

T. Coil:
Pretty invaluable mobility, pretty shit damage.

Mass Shriver:
This looks to be pretty awesome, Collide gave us that look of respect after using it and he's a big beefy boy.

Misericorde:
Helps a lot but one shot.

>>1413641
>1st Advance
>our darling sister!?
His weapon sounds good and Yamatoad sounds armored, let's go for graverend!
>>
>>1413665
It's clearly not over.
She clearly just rocket jumped.
>>
>>1413665
The hard part of the mission was not getting blown up by Mortarphant and the other artillery spots on the way in. Everyone told us melee is not her specialty at all.
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And, you know, a month later, THAT IS THE FUCKING END OF THAT HOLY SHIT.

Upgrades and shenanigans next thread. For now, I'll be around to answer questions and such.
>>
>>1413659
Call it in.

>>1413672
...But, uh, look up just in case she's trying to pull Operation Dumbo Drop. No, I'm not paranoid, you're paranoid.

It'll be nice to appreciate the sky now that it's not filled with artillery, at any rate.

>>1413667
Alright, I hear you. Though I still think your tone's been a bit hostile and would like you to keep in mind that Tumult also knew we were coming and had basically packed anti-us countermeasures, if I'm not misremembering.
>>
>>1413686
So, if we tried to get that fuckhuge missile, how many could we carry? 2? 1?

If we have to take on Yamatoad's navy, given how people seem be angling for Moloch, I think we're going to need to have the firepower to blow up a battleship or three.
>>
>>1413686
>How good is our OPAL system, on a scale of 'pretty decent' to 'Rangers would salivate over it'
>Is there a reason Anode (or Hunters in general) had his Maverick name changed
>Why do we keep getting blown the fuck up

Thanks for running!
>>
>>1413693
You are correct that dying to a elephant falling on us would be painfully humilating.

Yeah, sorry. But it's like the demoman guy, these dudes are in denial/obsessive about what they like and forget what we're meant to do (hunt and fight/kill Mavs) and keep wanking, and I'm pretty sure HC/CL threw us a bone and let us live there. You were pretty reasonable, wrong to aim that frustration at you.

But no amount of prep should've been able for Tumult to essentially beat us both to a pulp, Emerald's no slouch and neither were we. Even Lockon wasn't as effective as we really needed it to be.

Anyway, UPGRADE UPGRADES HC don't make us wait too long for our candy.
>>
>>1413665
The danger was on the approach, and we made it through. I wouldn't think "three hours underground waiting for death" is anyone's idea of easy.
>>
>>1413615
>Could've sworn we upgraded armor. Maybe I'm think of when we had to get a totally new chestpiece?

Likely. We have replaced our chest armor after being damage but never upgraded.

The character sheet in >>1387570 tell us what we have or will be getting soon.

>I don't think we'd have to sac HP for that because LIFE powers all our other systems and we never see a downtic, but it's up to HC.

Because none of the systems overdraw. Busters are powered by our LIFE cell but charging doesn't draw extra energy from it its storing up. Linking the lance to our LIFE cell for extra damage would be overdrawing.

>>1413641
Hard to tell. Stellar will just be getting stronger the longer we wait on her and we need to clear Yamatoad to make doing that mission reasonable.

>>1413667
>Wrenade:
>Pretty awesome. Limited shots and doesn't seem to do as much as we'd hope against heavies though.
It is our most up to date VWES weapon so no surprise.

>Lockon Hunter:
>Basically useless at anti-armor so far into our second season of Mavericks. Maybe upgrading it is worthwhile, maybe not.
Stellar's data will probably be the best way to upgrade it.

>Blackout Rockets:
>Kind of a joke if target has armor, good utility. Might be worth upgrading with Mortar's stuff, maybe not. We'll see.
Yes.

>T. Coil:
>Pretty invaluable mobility, pretty shit damage.
It's getting to be a pretty core part of our ID. Wish it didn't take up a VWES slot.

>Mass Shriver:
>This looks to be pretty awesome, Collide gave us that look of respect after using it and he's a big beefy boy.
Yep great way to use our capacitors.

>Misericorde:
>Helps a lot but one shot.
Which is why I think we need to upgrade it asap. Moloch's and/or Gibbon's data should be a big assist.

>>1413686
Thanks for running. It was a long month but an awesome month.
>>
>>1413694
Probably not many shots, if you can do it at all. Like someone said earlier, bigger effect, higher ammo consumption.

>>1413712
OPAL isn't cutting edge, but it's pretty damned good--Recon specialists can do better, but they're built around it. For rank and file it's definitely above average. Remember you got it for free because you brought Foxfire and her pet project back intact.

Maverick codenames are usually pejorative, dismissive, or insulting. If the hunter in question is making a name for themselves, they may change the name. In Schwarzhund's case, The Black Dog went from mocking him relative to Weisshund, who went maverick with Sigma, to a name to be feared.

You keep getting blown the fuck up because
1: You're sent against comparably-rated targets you fit the profile for according to the best intel the Hunters can gather, which is not perfect and often has to contend with maverick counterintel.
2: Anode has to git gud. He's got an extremely robust toolkit that he isn't yet able to leverage effectively. This is part of the progression of the story.
3: You're in a war situation where a shortage of available hunters has everyone a little further outside their comfort zone than they'd like to operate.

If Anode was coming back from his missions unharmed, he wouldn't remain in his rank much longer.
>>
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>>1413714
>and I'm pretty sure HC/CL threw us a bone and let us live there

I'm gonna go ahead and let you know that, no, Collide was just sick of his brand new and extremely valuable DNA Mimics getting fragged by a psychotic pachyderm. You may have noticed he's not very chatty.
>>
>>1413686
I know you keep track of Anode's health. How close were we to dying, seriously?

>>1413728
I wanted to knock out Atlantica much earlier for exactly that reason, but then the navy grew and it became inadvisable. Yamatoad sounds nasty and I'd like to introduce him to a reliable high-damage weapon like Earthrend Spike.

Plus, Moloch is fucking shit up between every mission like nobody else in our roster. Time to put a stop to that.
>>
>>1413686
Can OPAL differentiate between regularly visible targets and targets its enhanced abilities render visible to us? That seems like it would be handy to know for further run-ins with stealth assholes. Also was Collide actually a stealth asshole or was Sabomole already broken when Compass called us?
>>
>>1413728
What really worries me about Stellar is that laser researcher that she kidnapped. 2 different laser researchers appear in the later X games: Izzy Glow, and that guy from Shield Sheldon's backstory. I'm thinking we have a chance of changing the future pretty significantly if we take that mission sooner.
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>>1413737
On Collide, one hit. On Mortarphant, one to three depending on what landed.

>>1413741
You can look into tuning OPAL at base. It normally indicates signals, but whatever PHANTOM is using is a cut above typical stealth equipment.

Collide was, indeed, a Stealth Asshole. Imagine fighting an invisibeetle.
>>
>>1413686
Do we have a will written up? What does it look like? It seems like an important thing to figure out in a hazardous occupation like this.
>>
>Return to base. Snog India.
>>
>>1413742
Yamatoad and Stellar had huge blinking "WE ARE IMPORTANT" signs hanging over them, but Moloch is a good piece of DNA for our offensive kit, particularly against Yamatoad since Stellar doesn't sound armored. Decisions, decisions...

I'm still afraid that Glacier Gibbon is setting things up for the Maverick Virus to spread or for Eurasia's eventual takeover.
>>
>>1413746
Most of our possessions are built into us and will likely be valueless if we die, except for Lt. Fullmettool, who is more of a beneficiary, and our slightly-better-than-Cathode's holo-TV.
>>
>>1413742
I know, right?

If I were playing MHQ solo, I might even have gone for her before Foxfire. As things are now, though, I'm just not confident in our ability to dodge the navy sitting over her base -- nor am I completely confident that we have enough high-yield firepower (at the present time) to retire a guy with a battleship in his name.

So I say Moloch > Yamatoad > Atlantica > Gibbon.
>>
>>1413743
Was Collide an enemy we had a reasonable chance of beating, or was he there as an obstacle to evade?
>>
>>1413776
Personally I'd wait until we see the news headlines to pick our next target. Remember when Moloch didn't seem that important before we saw all of those headlines about the damage he was causing?
>>
>>1413743
>>1413735
One hit is the dick missile I presume.

Also I don't know if it's better that way or not.

Sorry about ranting a lot in your thread, HC. I've been holding that in for years at this point, though.

Besides Saetos himself, how would all the enemies we've fought so far react to the Retard Blade?

>>1413737
Yes, let's beat him up.

>>1413766
I think she has a girlfriend? And Em is jonesing for Flares? We have Lt. Metool, our erstwhile platonic companion.
>>
>>1413776
If Atlantica can power up our laser game, I think it would also be a suitable upgrade to take on Yamatoad.

Of course, that means taking Atlantica on without any support....
>>
>>1413771
CAPTAIN Fullmettool, pretty sure he got promoted when we did. If he didn't we need to fix that.

Don't forget we have a massive movie library as well! Max seemed to like the idea of Dodo movie nights, so leaving the movies and TV to him seem like a good bet. Em and Indy both get a box filled with chaff set to explode at them when it's opened.
>>
>>1413787
Fair enough. Maybe something else will present a target of opportunity. But it'd have to be a pretty big opportunity...

If it wouldn't negatively affect our roster, I'd like to check out what side missions we can. We're 50% through, after all.
>>
>>1413789
>I think she has a girlfriend?
India doesn't strike me as the monogamous type.

>threesome!
>>
You guys might want to hold off on plotting our next victim. We just retired the forth mav.
You all remember what that means, right?
>>
>>1413785
Both, but as you noticed, he was a bit of a motherfucker. We were expecting the latter.

>>1413789
"Ow" or "urk?" Can you be more specific?

Also, as for the dreaded Game of Bones (you win or you cry), India does, indeed, have a space waifu. Em mentioned Firefly's his type but immediately demanded Anode not even think about setting them up on pain of death. He's been increasingly withdrawn since the end of the Doppler op, for obvious reasons.
>>
>>1413803
Think more of:

>Not Really Hurt at All
>Hurt
>Ow ow shit OW
>Fuck this I'm out
>Fuck this I'm one shotted
>>
>>1413792
>>1413776
hell, even Gibbon sounds like he could upgrade out laser game

> KNOWN WEAPONRY: Snow Blind, Glace Laser. Glacier Gibbon is capable of variable-setting cryomer compound bursts, and possesses a powerful ultraviolet laser weapon tuned for use at extreme range, nearly invisible in his preferred environs.
Lockon might be getting 2 upgrades by the end of this season.
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>>1413813
>Atlantica laser upgrades Lockon
>Gibbon laser upgrades Atlantickon
>Anode shoots Quick Man beams by Season 3
>>
>>1413813
>Lockon might be getting 2 upgrades by the end of this season.
Or it could go to upgrading the Misericorde MK.2.

Lots of potential.
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>>1413803
Well, Anode can still ask out Foxfire.
Or the white knight who just saved his life.
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>>1413810
It certainly wouldn't tickle. An outright oneshot is, very maybe, Splashdown Skipjack. Tumult would probably fare the best due to being tanky as all get-out, but even he couldn't stand up to it long. The trick would be actually levering it effectively in melee, since there's a skill component Anode lacks.
>>
>>1413853
>Anode?
>Yes?
>Dashing around with the sword out and killing them only with EM waves is NOT melee
>ohhhhhhhhh
>>
>>1413418
Honestly, it would just take a retune to make the lance hi beam, but really it has functions that we would lose out on for that. Functions that have kept us alive, like phaseshift. I would feel more comfortable with my suggested ridiculous sword of back pay over that.
>>
>>1413475
>>1413498
Eh, we would also not have been able to use the Saetos Sword maybe 90% of the time, maybe even more. We went with an option that let us use the bird instead of bench him. I just figure that does not mean we have to necessarily bench the concept of a high end hi beam that we shove something in to rival or surpass the Flambard.
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>>1413922
artillery sword
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>>1413910
It'd take replacing the components and it'd drastically change how you use it in a mission. Remember, Em uses a mix of lo- and hibeam weapons, lobeams are actually generally preferred for prolonged melee engagement.

It would definitely screw with the phase tech (which by itself gives Anode unparalleled conventional weapon defense), and you'd need to either pay for expensive components to make sure the conduit channeling system still fit, or you'd have to remove them.

All in all, it really would be better to just start investing in other weapons and diversifying your loadout.
>>
>>1413535
May I suggest we make a high powered rifle with armor piercing rounds made from the pieces of Mortarphant and Moloch, then? Maybe Gibbon for good measure, though considering the PHANTOMS he may not be the actual boss fight there. Alternately, seeing if we could apply them to our buster for more whammy. Bosses also fill the role of our armor pods, after all.

For those arguing melee, we need skill, but Mass Shriver is definitely adding power when we are in a pinch. Also throwing a motherfucker into another motherfucker is never going to get old.
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>>1413935
Is the Mass Shriver scalable with charge? Or is it a flat % each time.
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>>1413942
Flat percent. No 100% for a single swing to try to pull a Sigma swing.
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>>1413941
Why a rifle?

I keep seeing rifles and there's no reason to make external weapons for us, I'm pretty sure.

>>1413943
Why all the sting chameleon?

Also poop at least let us upgrade to that point someday~
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>>1413943
would Moloch DNA LET us do scalable mass shriver?
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>>1413946
He's photogenic!

Also, a general note on VWES: Remember that hybridizing multiple entries has a rather sharply scaling cost to efficiency. One upgrade with a different set of DNA data is about as far as you can get reliably without severely compromising at least one aspect of the weapon. It gets more complicated as you go. You may need to start killing darlings and prioritizing letting some past data go.

At the same time, I don't think you guys really appreciate the tools you do have. Remember what I said earlier about the phase on the lance giving Anode superlative ranged defense? Now add the T. Shells to that, and back it with his mobility. Against a purely ranged opponent, you're covered against basically anything you can expect to face within your own threat range. It speaks more to Mortarphant's power that her artillery is of a scale that defeats conventional firepower rules.

And even then, it's cumbersome, she only managed to hit you by firing over-the-horizon weapons at her own feet.

TL;DR don't pooh-pooh your VWES, none of them are bad.

>>1413949
You'll have to beat him and see.
>>
>>1413941
>May I suggest we make a high powered rifle with armor piercing rounds made from the pieces of Mortarphant and Moloch, then?

VWES entity would perform that role better.

>>1413946
>no reason to make external weapons for us, I'm pretty sure.

No reason to make external ranged weapons. Our two melee weapons are external.

>>1413949
Unlikely.
>>
Um... is there enough of mortarphant left to GET an upgrade in the first place?
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>>1413962
It's not that none of them are bad, it's that we effectively have 3 slots because we use T. Coil so often. Blackout is kind of wimpy but the sensor thing is useful, too bad we can't seem to keep people in it. Mortarphant just walked out of the the cloud; did it even phase her targeting?
>>
>>1413985
Mavericks nearly universally die via cascading explosion of their LIFE cell, IIRC HC had some handwavery regarding how you get data salvaged from a crater.
>>
>>1413985
She was a Hunter first and has at least one sibling. There's bound to be some good data backups to use.
>>
>>1413994
Not Mortarphant's, no. It played hell with the mechaniloid elephant artillery platforms, though. Between that and Wrenades, you trivialized what were going to be miniboss encounters.

We did drop a hint on Mortarphant's immunity to the sensor-jamming: She screamde in rage the moment the chaffed elephant died, not when it was jammed, meaning she still had contact to it. Her radar and command suite was too powerful to jam that way.

>>1414002
DNA recapture. Mavericks set theirs to be recoverable, which is against the law (and the least of their worries).

TL;DR yes, you'll get Mortarphant's mortarpants.
>>
Do the DNA mimics drop wimpy DNA data, then? Bravely broken might like some shotgun ice
>>
>>1414015
3 minibosses and 2 bosses?

Cain Labs wrote this mission or you got scary.

Care to tease us on any neat upgrades in this set of Mavs?
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>>1414032
>or you got scary.
Need I remind you that Wren was 100% an HC creation?
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>>1414027
They're using VWES. Remember that DNA is "dynamic" neural array. Once it's in a fixed configuration it's no longer malleable or versatile.

>>1414032
All me.

Well, Collide was CL, because of course he was.

Upgrades I definitely don't want to tease ahead of schedule. When Cain Labs is available we're going to fine-tune the upgrade offerings for this mission and we'll try to get that out in a short time.

You know, a short MHQ time, so 2019.
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>>1414055
>You know, a short MHQ time, so 2019.
Can't wait.
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>>1414055
Which PHANTOM Number was Collide? One or two?

Or eight?
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>>1414084
The new new posting format for ultra-/qst/, when we migrate to the Outernet: I just post one letter a night. Well, one letter most nights, let's not go too crazy here.

>>1414112
That would be telling.
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>>1414121
Letters?! Awesome! I was worried you were going to be posting individual bits.
>>
>>1413946
>>1413973
I was suggesting rifle because people were pissed about relying on vwes for heavy hitters, so I figured why not make something that may not have the same ammo count issues, coupled with more space to store DNA entities? Really, the ideal situation is some serious buster upgrades to me on those, or perhaps some variant that ultimately just improves our range game consistently. Hell, if we did not have the Saetos pack I would consider a shoulder mount cannon, to be honest. Because let's be honest, Mortar and her S rank munitions with bunker busting on everything would have been even worse.
>>
>>1414231
The Saetos jumpjet wouldn't rule out a shoulder cannon, would it? It propels Anode's body and wreathes him in flame.

A cannon would just need a mounting hardpoint, which was one of the options after Terrapin.
>>
>>1414264
I thought it was considered a pack option, honestly. Although, as a nasty thought, what if trying to put it in the pack led to fiery missile pinions?
Not saying to do that, mind you, just trying to think outside the box.
>>
>>1414349
Sounds great. I wonder how much weaker it would be if we had it as a permanent upgrade instead of VWES.
>>
I think the biggest concern right now is to make sure we get something that can actually hurt Collide, next time we encounter him.
>>
if our mobility is so excellent perhaps it's time to reconsider armor upgrades.
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>>1414780
Problem is that most armor upgrades would be closer to sidegrades than upgrades.
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>>1414055
When can we look forward to MORE BIRDS?
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>>1415317
I guarantee that at least two of the Phantoms will be birds
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>>1413803
Then just ask India to set them up.
>>
>>1414121
Where would mortar missiles fall damage wise? In fact can we get a numerical value for all our current weapons damage? I'd like a point of reference to X's Zero's Vile's and Axl's weaponry.
>>
>>1413837
nah I think Moloch's weapon adds a quake setting to the misercored that can be used several times optionally boosting the LN or as a separate beef up on the high beam.
>>
>>1418255
Multiple possibilities. We won't know until we down our targets.
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>>1418255
maybe a vibro-mode that causes the misericorde to resonate with itself until the target it's embedded in shatters?

That what I think when I hear "quake"
>>
Reading up on the old upgrades, Shred Zone(charged Tension Coil) would be a pretty effective deterrent against the melee Collide. He would have a hard time keeping us within his optimal range without constantly taking serious damage.
>>
>>1418505
>>1418482
>>1418255
I remember HC saying that the Misericorde, due to being a severe rehaul of a low grade beam saber, would not have space for another maverick. That said, what about a second beam knife? Possibly lo beam but meant to shatter armor, or punch through like it was not there? Could be a nasty 1-2 combo.
>>
>>1419989
Isn't that... what the misericorde already does? Also, part of the reason it's worked for us is that it's orthogonal to everything else we do, so it tends to be useful against foes prepared for our usual kit—too much investment in that direction could actually hurt that, seems to me.
>>
>>1420082
Well, it is designed to hit armor with low temperatures and then shatter it with the heat of a sudden flash of plasma on the spot. The second knife suggestion is more a thought about a consistent armor ignoring beam saber if people wanted to go that way with the data. Personally, I like using it in combination with a VWES meant for pure damage or for blatant destruction of whatever it touches. No tricks, really, just solid hits however it can best get you there that bypass armor, or a method to consistently fuck someone's day.
>>
>>1420192
I kinda disagree with that. The knife's weak reach makes it hard to use for general purpose.

Our melee would be better if we could extend the lance's reach even further, or otherwise crush an opponent's melee. Smashing Collide's scissors would greatly decrease the part of his offense that we can't easily deal with dashstrafing.

On the other hand, we could start watching out for ways to DECREASE other people's mobility. It's mainly a factor of not finding the appropriate mav, but firing wads of conductive adhesive could really fuck someone up.
>>
>>1420082
>>1420192
>>1420318

In general, the Misericorde, while our boon companion and all, is a hacked together kudgefest of an anti-armor solution. If we can get ahold of something purpose-made for it, I think it's alright to leave the Misericorde behind. Beyond that, I doubt something called Earthrend Spike is going to lend itself to a beam weapon. I'm gonna hold off speculating on what we can do with that one until we at least see it in action.

I do wonder what there is to get from Mortarphant, though. That chaff-piercing command and sensor nonsense is nice.

Also I think before we attempt to cram more shit into the lance we should probably focus on skill with it.
>>
>>1420581
The icicle is a negligible burden to carry, and effective in combat.
If either of those change, there's a case for leaving the thing behind, but until then two good things is better than one.

>I do wonder what there is to get from Mortarphant, though. That chaff-piercing command and sensor nonsense is nice.
NO, BAD GENERALIST. OFFENSE TIME.
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>>1420581
I think we should donate the money from this OP for a nice memorial for Sabomole's late family. Maybe that'll cheer him up.
>>
>>1420581
Think Mortarphant's offensive abilities are too nice to pass up, personally, but if we get sensor options maybe we could spend towards them. But for chaff ignoring, I think that was just a case of her having spent a fuck ton on her link up systems.
>>
>>1420607
What, you want to insult him with just this? Save that for Yamatoad, man, his would pay more.
>>
>>1420581

The Black March option. According to HC's write up on how shields do and don't work, a needle weapon is exactly what we should replace the misericorde with. Something custom-made to bear the sort of load we're giving it. Fine material point, hi-beam option, LN bursting.

>>1420611
I agree.
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>>1420607
I am honestly behind this notion.
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>>1420642
Ooh good point.
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>>1420607
How about a nice statue of Sabomole standing above a pile of corpses, with an engraving like "He did the right thing by killing them all?"
>>
>>1420723
Maybe get some kind of pumping system into it, so his fallen foes can continually bleed.
>>
>>1420734
Foes?
I thought we were making a monument to commemorate his dead coworkers?

The blood-pump is a nice idea though.
>>
>>1420746
Foes, co-workers. We're Maverick Hunters. The line isn't super clear.
>>
>>1420750
Was talking about the meat coworkers, apologies for the misunderstanding. I had thought that Sabomole's dig team was mostly human.
I believe we don't hunt those quite yet.
>>
>>1420763
When you think about it, though, treating the humans different from the reploids is hella racist.
>>
>>1420769
It's a flaw endemic to the system, agreed.




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