Nasuverse FSN + SAO: j-jam it in!

[Goldenfalls]

I really like the idea of Kayaba isolating Shirou for ulterior motives, but wouldn't Illya be suspicious? Though at hhat point he probably wouldn't need her cooperation…

 

[Jess]

Not when Ilya herself is a boss too, I think.

 

[Master of Squirrel-Fu]

It might be a good idea later to make Bosses very OP but a continuous world event, so that players start to learn that you can back off and flee to try and get attacks of opportunity in later or just avoid a confrontation.

Lets reserve that type of boss for the 'age of the gods' floor. It fits the theme a bit better.
In the modern era of magecraft, the big deal monsters have a tendency to remain hidden until they're ready to strike.

It's more that the bosses would back off and go for cheap shots until they decides on doing something big. A boss event. A relatively brief opportunity where the only people who can do something are the people on site (much like Tsukihime).

Tracking them would be hard, but possible.

The point of it would be to teach the players that it's okay to flee. Most RPG fights encourage continuously throwing yourself at the problem until you crush it. Even with SAO meaning caution is necessary it's mostly just meaning that you don't have the safetynet of extra lives so just need to grind first to make sure you're strong enough. Outside of the game that won't be an option, and executioners are probably going to be a very new and dangerous threat as they won't follow the battle paterns that mobs will have. So it's best to teach them before they leave that "Retreat and regroup" is a valid tactic against a stronger enemy.

 

[orumon]

The point of it would be to teach the players that it's okay to flee. Most RPG fights encourage continuously throwing yourself at the problem until you crush it. Even with SAO meaning caution is necessary it's mostly just meaning that you don't have the safety net of extra lives so just need to grind first to make sure you're strong enough. Outside of the game that won't be an option

Very true, sadly, but this is actually something that requires people to actually understand and come to terms with the 'walking with death' part of magus philosophy. I'd imagine the Agatha boss is going to be the one that hammers that message home for anyone who isn't on the front lines, while those already there understand it at this point.

and executioners are probably going to be a very new and dangerous threat as they won't follow the battle patterns that mobs will have.

I don't know about that. What examples of combat style have we got on the church executors? Kirei and Ciel off the top of my head. Both are not only good but high tier executors as well (Ciel is in the Burial agency, after all). Their fighting styles, though, tended to be straight forward, although given how powerful they were, not quite an issue.

It's mages association enforcers or just magi in general that will be something unexpected, since they are quite a bit more versatile and insidious.

The main advantage SAO survivors have is that they can cooperate more easily.

So it's best to teach them before they leave that "Retreat and regroup" is a valid tactic against a stronger enemy.

I'd suggest in addition, 'Research, Strategize and Call reinforcements' (which falls under regroup, though). Also, using familiars for spy in the first place, establish boundary fields that when tripped alert you to approaching threats and establishing a good communication network.

 

[Master of Squirrel-Fu]

The point of it would be to teach the players that it's okay to flee. Most RPG fights encourage continuously throwing yourself at the problem until you crush it. Even with SAO meaning caution is necessary it's mostly just meaning that you don't have the safety net of extra lives so just need to grind first to make sure you're strong enough. Outside of the game that won't be an option

Very true, sadly, but this is actually something that requires people to actually understand and come to terms with the 'walking with death' part of magus philosophy. I'd imagine the Agatha boss is going to be the one that hammers that message home for anyone who isn't on the front lines, while those already there understand it at this point.

and executioners are probably going to be a very new and dangerous threat as they won't follow the battle patterns that mobs will have.

I don't know about that. What examples of combat style have we got on the church executors? Kirei and Ciel off the top of my head. Both are not only good but high tier executors as well (Ciel is in the Burial agency, after all). Their fighting styles, though, tended to be straight forward, although given how powerful they were, not quite an issue.

It's mages association enforcers or just magi in general that will be something unexpected, since they are quite a bit more versatile and insidious.

The main advantage SAO survivors have is that they can cooperate more easily.

So it's best to teach them before they leave that "Retreat and regroup" is a valid tactic against a stronger enemy.

I'd suggest in addition, 'Research, Strategize and Call reinforcements' (which falls under regroup, though). Also, using familiars for spy in the first place, establish boundary fields that when tripped alert you to approaching threats and establishing a good communication network.

In regards to the executioners, they'd definitely send competent fighters to wipe out what the believe is to be a major leak, but mostly I was referring to the fact that was mentioned by Shirou near the beginning. That while powerful, quick, and threatening the monsters and bosses the players face are not true opponents and they are not fighting real battles like he's used to. The creatures have openings and obey set rules that won't exist in the outside world.

 

[richardsphere]

I wonder if Shirou will end up making an origin weapon at some point.
If so, he'd have recreated EMIYA Alter's Unlimited Lost Works, just...not as a bullet.

I have a beter idea, get together the ENTIRE BOSM. everyone donates bones for origin swords, But we produce 1 sword MORE then there are people in the BOSM. everyone gets a sword of their OWN origin. While shirou, at ilya's or Kirito's insistence, takes the excess metal from those weapons and creates one amalgam [Sword of Saint Mark]

Quistion for DG, What are everyone's origins though, only Shirou's is known.


also: Random showerthoughts moment, Lancer Setanta is shown using his spear as a glorified pen to inscribe runes, does shirou's access to [gae Bolge] and its history give him access to Setanta's runecraft skills? and if so does it give him access to his skills from when he was alive, or just his diminished lancer class runeskills?

[edit] Sudden thought, but relevant seeing as we were discussing the posiblity of origin weapons,

Emiya alter's unlimited lost works, its animation implies that he shoots the targets, it erupts into swords, and ubw FORMES AROUND IT.

does this mean that, assuming shirou arow-fies his originsword, he can shoot a target and trap it in a pocket dimension?
also does this mini UBW contain actual NP's or just random swords?
and can shirou use his hypothetical originblade to access the properties of other NP's? making it a rapidly re-enchanting weapon? and if so wouldnt it be more usefull to have shirou create origin ARMOR instead? or as well. (it wont be a problem with scarcity of materials, you can just use a healing spell to regrow whatever bones hes using).

 

[TSB]

The Sword of Saint Mark sounds like the stuff of legends, and I mean that in a good way. Much like Kansho and Byakko it also strikes me as something made more as a test of Shirou's abilities and craftsmanship rather than as a dedicated weapon. It could be the first, and potentially only, weapon he stores in his treasury because it's not really suited for anyone. I'm imagining Ilya boasting about it as their "secret weapon" and the others muttering it's being held in reserve because the last person to use it nearly lost their arm.

On another note, but related to Shirou's creations, I was thinking about Nezuha recently. We know he was pulling a variant of his scam early on as it was commented he was good with repairs but had a shockingly high fail chance. Several floors in he was still competitive enough in smithing for Lisbeth to be considered a competitor with him. That being the case, him trying to steal one of Shirou's creations would probably be what blew the scam wide open as there's no way Shirou wouldn't recognize it.

 

[richardsphere]

I wonder if Shirou will end up making an origin weapon at some point.
If so, he'd have recreated EMIYA Alter's Unlimited Lost Works, just...not as a bullet.

I have a beter idea, get together the ENTIRE BOSM. everyone donates bones for origin swords, But we produce 1 sword MORE then there are people in the BOSM. everyone gets a sword of their OWN origin. While shirou, at ilya's or Kirito's insistence, takes the excess metal from those weapons and creates one amalgam [Sword of Saint Mark]

Quistion for DG, What are everyone's origins though, only Shirou's is known.


also: Random showerthoughts moment, Lancer Setanta is shown using his spear as a glorified pen to inscribe runes, does shirou's access to [gae Bolge] and its history give him access to Setanta's runecraft skills? and if so does it give him access to his skills from when he was alive, or just his diminished lancer class runeskills?

[edit] Sudden thought, but relevant seeing as we were discussing the posiblity of origin weapons,

Emiya alter's unlimited lost works, its animation implies that he shoots the targets, it erupts into swords, and ubw FORMES AROUND IT.

does this mean that, assuming shirou arow-fies his originsword, he can shoot a target and trap it in a pocket dimension?
also does this mini UBW contain actual NP's or just random swords?
and can shirou use his hypothetical originblade to access the properties of other NP's? making it a rapidly re-enchanting weapon? and if so wouldnt it be more usefull to have shirou create origin ARMOR instead? or as well. (it wont be a problem with scarcity of materials, you can just use a healing spell to regrow whatever bones hes using).

First things first, im sorry for responding to my own post, i just needed to make an addition but someone had already respondedand i dont want to alter something that has been responded to.

i realised that having both Kirito and Ilya, the most likely candidates for getting shirou to make the [Sword of Saint Mark] would both be smart enough to see that as to limiting, both would probably try to get shirou to take an advertisement with argo offering to make ANYONE an origin sword for free. rahter then JUST the BOSM. and that if neither Ilya nor Kirito tried to do this out of [Ilya's Powerhunger] or [Kirito's Curiosity] shirou would offer to make anyone an originblade on prindiple of [Handing out Fishingrods].

so i must relent that the [sword of saint mark] is unlikely to become existent, as having shirou blatanty discriminate against NON BOSM members in the creation of origin weapons is heavily OOC.

and yes i know that a hypothetical blade made from BOSM and NON BOSM would be more powerfull then just regular [Sword of Saint Mark]. but i doubt it would have as catchy a name.

also: When we inevitably get to the [real world arc] can shirou dig up Kiritsugu's bones and add them to the [Sword of Origin]? (for lack of a better name, seeing as [sword of saint mark] is OOC for shirou to produce)

[Edit] Also Also: Can shirou, during the [real world arc] take the inevitable corpses of members of the [mage association] use them to create [Crest Swords]? and if so could shirou access the knowledge and spells stored within the crests?

 

[PlotVitalAlchemist]

I recently had a bizarre idea, though admittedly it probably couldn't be done in SAO, considering how it already considers UBW an outside database:
Manifesting Unlimited Blade Works not by projecting a reality marble, but by tracing a sword which embodies the incarnation of swords (the accuracy of that dumb sentence is a bit sad). The result is a sword which shares UBW's trait of 'the ultimate tool for the creation of blades', and hence swordcancers everything it cuts, if the user doesn't restrain it.
So...basically an origin sword of Shirou's, but temporary and on a much higher level.

 

[orumon]

I recently had a bizarre idea, though admittedly it probably couldn't be done in SAO, considering how it already considers UBW an outside database:
Manifesting Unlimited Blade Works not by projecting a reality marble, but by tracing a sword which embodies the incarnation of swords (the accuracy of that dumb sentence is a bit sad). The result is a sword which shares UBW's trait of 'the ultimate tool for the creation of blades', and hence swordcancers everything it cuts, if the user doesn't restrain it.
So...basically an origin sword of Shirou's, but temporary and on a much higher level.

You're basically talking about Shirou turning his reality marble (which is his soul) into an invasive conceptual infection. Nasty, and totally out of character, but possibly, depending on how you wrangle the boundaries of magecraft. If Shirou came up with this and talked about it, I'd refer him to Zouken Matou, both for immoral counselling and technical guidance on the subject, also whomever invented third sorcery, Nrvsqr Chaos and Roa.

And on a last thought, Brunestud the Crimson Moon, since he basically created the whole moon based vampire pathogen.

 

[PlotVitalAlchemist]

I recently had a bizarre idea, though admittedly it probably couldn't be done in SAO, considering how it already considers UBW an outside database:
Manifesting Unlimited Blade Works not by projecting a reality marble, but by tracing a sword which embodies the incarnation of swords (the accuracy of that dumb sentence is a bit sad). The result is a sword which shares UBW's trait of 'the ultimate tool for the creation of blades', and hence swordcancers everything it cuts, if the user doesn't restrain it.
So...basically an origin sword of Shirou's, but temporary and on a much higher level.

You're basically talking about Shirou turning his reality marble (which is his soul) into an invasive conceptual infection. Nasty, and totally out of character, but possibly, depending on how you wrangle the boundaries of magecraft. If Shirou came up with this and talked about it, I'd refer him to Zouken Matou, both for immoral counselling and technical guidance on the subject, also whomever invented third sorcery, Nrvsqr Chaos and Roa.

And on a last thought, Brunestud the Crimson Moon, since he basically created the whole moon based vampire pathogen.

I wouldn't it consider it too far from what a normal conceptual weapon which expresses 'sword' would do, just on a higher level.
Or rather, I'd consider it to basically be an emulation of Unlimited Lost Works, though that being Emiya ALTER's...yeah, he'd probably need to be much edgier to develop a way to incarnate Unlimited Blade Works as a sword.

 

[Tyrantviewer]

I recently had a bizarre idea, though admittedly it probably couldn't be done in SAO, considering how it already considers UBW an outside database:
Manifesting Unlimited Blade Works not by projecting a reality marble, but by tracing a sword which embodies the incarnation of swords (the accuracy of that dumb sentence is a bit sad). The result is a sword which shares UBW's trait of 'the ultimate tool for the creation of blades', and hence swordcancers everything it cuts, if the user doesn't restrain it.
So...basically an origin sword of Shirou's, but temporary and on a much higher level.

You're basically talking about Shirou turning his reality marble (which is his soul) into an invasive conceptual infection. Nasty, and totally out of character, but possibly, depending on how you wrangle the boundaries of magecraft. If Shirou came up with this and talked about it, I'd refer him to Zouken Matou, both for immoral counselling and technical guidance on the subject, also whomever invented third sorcery, Nrvsqr Chaos and Roa.

And on a last thought, Brunestud the Crimson Moon, since he basically created the whole moon based vampire pathogen.

I wouldn't it consider it too far from what a normal conceptual weapon which expresses 'sword' would do, just on a higher level.
Or rather, I'd consider it to basically be an emulation of Unlimited Lost Works, though that being Emiya ALTER's...yeah, he'd probably need to be much edgier to develop a way to incarnate Unlimited Blade Works as a sword.

You know depending on how he made it that could be a really versitile mystic code for Shirou. Since we see him using alteration to let his weapons work for his tracting (black bow, assasin's sword) a sword that intimatly connects to UBW would work far better for that, and may be enough for him to call up various magical effects on to the sword, though depending on how Cardinal's bandwith works it might be a while before he could pull it off or it could be a shortcut towards getting access to Noble Phantasms Early

(as an aside, why hasn't shirou tried to trace any NP so far, the omake where he crashes himself shows its a bad Idea, but I never saw anything that explained his canon reasoning, did his instincts just tell him it was a bad Idea? Also How much do you want to bet that Kayaba has delayed cardinal working on this area to encourage shirou to develop in other directions/ avoid him unbalancing the game by being able to spam litteral game breakers)

Also If shirou could work out an origin effect enforcing the concept of sword on things- then the lightsaber is only a short time away (hilt that enforces the idea of sword on magic channeled through it) and could not only create the canon plasma blade but things like a blade made of magic missile or similar spells (letting assuna create a blade of an element for her to combo another spell with would be cool and could quite possibly sidestep the durability issue by having the blade be a temporary construct, as long as using the code like that doesn't unduly wear down it's durabilty)

Of course that could just be a step towards shirou being able to apply his element to things better as well so he doesn't have to do anything drastic that might go into an origin weapon (like daddy's ribs~) in any case I look forward to any experimentation on shirou's part, I love the bits where he is working on swords and the magic involved

 

[TSB]

He already tried enforcing the concept of sword onto an ether weapon. The approach is fundamentally flawed as the concept breaks down on contact with any physical surface, forcing a complete redo.

There are a few reasons why Shirou wouldn't try Tracing a NP:

1.) This is Shirou from the Fate route. As such he has much less experience with his Reality Marble and the few NPs he has crafted were all closely tied to his Servant and Avalon, lessening the load.
2.) Without the jumpstart from Archer in UBW or HF, Shirou doesn't have as deep of an understanding of his magecraft which limits him.
3.) Tracing a NP is hard and would likely inflict a large HP loss.
4.) Importing the parameters of a NP is beyond the system at the moment. Shirou has a massively complex copy of the sword in his mind; successfully feeding that into the Projection program would likely fail.
5.) This is a theory, but Shirou may not want to give Kayaba that sort of information. He's dealing with a Philosopher who has killed hundreds if not thousands and is able to observe every move he makes. If Shirou feeds the data for a NP into the system he has to assume Kayaba will be able to duplicate all of that data.

 

[linkhyrule5]

Hmm... I agree with 5, somewhat with 4 (I suspect Shirou could bypass the Projection program and "trace" an NP directly onto the nascent World of Aincrad, but doing so would crash the system even harder or at least his connection to it, since it's still trying to deal with way-too-much data without a frame of reference). 3 doesn't apply because the system can recognize that Shirou is "skilled with this form of magecraft" even if it can't recognize what "this form of magecraft" even is.

Also, I should note that 1 isn't quite true - DG has mentioned elsewhere that he's using a Fate/UBW mixed route to give him more options. In particular, Shirou has experience with tracing beyond Caliburn and Kanshou and Bakuya, though he hasn't seen Archer's Reality Marble yet I believe. He does know it exists, though, which is a step above the Fate route already.

 

[Tyrantviewer]

He already tried enforcing the concept of sword onto an ether weapon. The approach is fundamentally flawed as the concept breaks down on contact with any physical surface, forcing a complete redo.

I know the ether sword failed, but the point I was getting at was that I don't think an approach using his origin would have failed. Origins seem to have more conceptual weight in magecraft than many other things, or at least one's origin has the most conceptual power for them personally. I think that could get around the issues of forcing things into the form of "sword" and that by exploring his origin Shirou could learn enough to enforce his element better, maybe just researching it could give him insight.

On the lightsaber itself, they discribed the attempt as making a balloon out of the element "sword" and filling it with element ether. My three Ideas for fixing this is to rework how they combined it, better integrating the elements to make the whole thing more stable (shirou could have a brainwave after working on a few elemental weapons) secondly they could find a way to make the sword aspect more stable, preventing the leakage and 'poping' of the ballon, Finally they could work to incorporate the effect, In star wars lightsabers are plasma contained by a magnetic field, both created by the energy and technology in the hilt (the plasma is made from the air or other matter in the way when the blade forms, which incidentally means lightsabers wouldn't work in a vacuum) but the plasma isn't static, and breaking through the field (organic matter wouldn't resist passing through the magnetic field but as the phantom menace shows thicker metalic objects have to be slowly melted through) jsut exposes things to the plasma to be destroyed, presumably that breaking throught the field lets more matter be converted into plasma to make up for what is used up burning or melting things.

What this means for the balloon issue is that instead of scrapping it they refine it, let energy escape when it hits somthing, let that be how it damages things, instead of having the whole thing be a static construct make it a continuous reaction, low cost while intact but immediately reestablishing itself when disrupted and letting the energy within damage what it interacts with in the meanwhile.

 

[orumon]

What this means for the balloon issue is that instead of scrapping it they refine it, let energy escape when it hits somthing, let that be how it damages things, instead of having the whole thing be a static construct make it a continuous reaction, low cost while intact but immediately reestablishing itself when disrupted and letting the energy within damage what it interacts with in the meanwhile.

This sounds like some of the ideas we bounced off each other in college. Am I the only one who thinks that Zelretch and Waver would have this exact conversation. someday?

 

[Tyrantviewer]

What this means for the balloon issue is that instead of scrapping it they refine it, let energy escape when it hits somthing, let that be how it damages things, instead of having the whole thing be a static construct make it a continuous reaction, low cost while intact but immediately reestablishing itself when disrupted and letting the energy within damage what it interacts with in the meanwhile.

This sounds like some of the ideas we bounced off each other in college. Am I the only one who thinks that Zelretch and Waver would have this exact conversation. someday?

It depends on how long zelretch can restrain himself from just grabbing a working lightsaber from somewhere- then it devolves into him teasing waver about how he has one and waver doesn't- then they move on as they get bored or realize how silly this is respectively

 

[orumon]

One thing we haven't seen is the person who tries to go the 'pure warrior' route, not even activating their circuits and just slugging it out on stats and skills. Obviously, they'd quickly fall behind, but their view on how the game is 'unbalanced' would be interesting. Especially as quadratic wizards is in full effect.

The thing is, while the world (gaia) rewards people for going down a pure path, Kayaba and Cardinal certainly won't, since it's contrary to the objective of the SAO project.

 

[Master of Squirrel-Fu]

One thing we haven't seen is the person who tries to go the 'pure warrior' route, not even activating their circuits and just slugging it out on stats and skills. Obviously, they'd quickly fall behind, but their view on how the game is 'unbalanced' would be interesting. Especially as quadratic wizards is in full effect.

The thing is, while the world (gaia) rewards people for going down a pure path, Kayaba and Cardinal certainly won't, since it's contrary to the objective of the SAO project.

The thing is that they'd die very quickly since there are a lot of sorcerer monsters and unless you're born with natural magic resistance like so many of the godling Heroic Spirits you'll be fucked over by the first magic using thing that decides to snipe with an internal spell. Like what nearly happened with Hexi's group before Shirou found them.

Gaia only rewards this kind of dedication under very unique circumstances, and that dedication needs to be absolute. Not just swearing off other things but also pursuing their one chosen path with an insane almost suicidal zeal. And even then the few that succeed were special to begin with. Like Shirou, who is a sword or like that other protagonist who technically couldn't be considered a "Human" by the worlds logic and thus able to surpass it but also fucked when it came to essentially being a made a mental robot by enlightenment. Kojiro was a ludicrously skilled swordsman who hermited himself away on a spiritually significant mountain with ludicrous magic power and dedicated himself to perfecting his art by killing a bird.

 

[Vanigo]

One thing we haven't seen is the person who tries to go the 'pure warrior' route, not even activating their circuits and just slugging it out on stats and skills. Obviously, they'd quickly fall behind, but their view on how the game is 'unbalanced' would be interesting. Especially as quadratic wizards is in full effect.

The thing is, while the world (gaia) rewards people for going down a pure path, Kayaba and Cardinal certainly won't, since it's contrary to the objective of the SAO project.

The thing is that they'd die very quickly since there are a lot of sorcerer monsters and unless you're born with natural magic resistance like so many of the godling Heroic Spirits you'll be fucked over by the first magic using thing that decides to snipe with an internal spell. Like what nearly happened with Hexi's group before Shirou found them.

Gaia only rewards this kind of dedication under very unique circumstances, and that dedication needs to be absolute. Not just swearing off other things but also pursuing their one chosen path with an insane almost suicidal zeal. And even then the few that succeed were special to begin with. Like Shirou, who is a sword or like that other protagonist who technically couldn't be considered a "Human" by the worlds logic and thus able to surpass it but also fucked when it came to essentially being a made a mental robot by enlightenment. Kojiro was a ludicrously skilled swordsman who hermited himself away on a spiritually significant mountain with ludicrous magic power and dedicated himself to perfecting his art by killing a bird.

Plus, why would anyone do that? If it weren't for the death game aspect, some people would try avoiding magic in order to play on hard mode, but with it? Who's going to kneecap their chances of survival for no particular reason? Yeah, it's theoretically possible to become a unique paragon of whatever you're monomaniacal about, but they have no way of knowing that and no reason to suspect it.

 

[orumon]

Plus, why would anyone do that? If it weren't for the death game aspect, some people would try avoiding magic in order to play on hard mode, but with it? Who's going to kneecap their chances of survival for no particular reason? Yeah, it's theoretically possible to become a unique paragon of whatever you're monomaniacal about, but they have no way of knowing that and no reason to suspect it.

Actually, it's explicitly a stupid idea, but some people are likely that dumb. I don't expect such a character to last beyond the second floor, if that. However, I do think it would serve to highlight the importance of magecraft in the game.

Incidently, as I said, Gaia might reward such efforts under specific, but Cardinal definitely won't under any conditions.

 

[TSB]

They don't necessarily need to be in it for the "hard mode" - as seen with Argo there are instances where a person is born with no potential for circuits. Argo kept at it for a few floors before learning how to generate a Circuit and it was likely a few more after that before she could reliably use them in combat. So it's possible for a person playing it smart to keep up for a ways while dealing with the lack of magic resistance.

Of course Argo is largely a scout who avoids direct combat so it doesn't really compare to a person who wants to actually fight. This person would probably be stuck going solo or with pick up groups since nobody would want somebody with such a liability on their team. They'd probably need to grind heavily so they could overpower magic type enemies quickly rather than risk dealing with the effects.

 

[Vanigo]

Actually, it's explicitly a stupid idea, but some people are likely that dumb. I don't expect such a character to last beyond the second floor, if that. However, I do think it would serve to highlight the importance of magecraft in the game.

Incidently, as I said, Gaia might reward such efforts under specific, but Cardinal definitely won't under any conditions.

We're not looking at the general population, though. This is a self-selected group of hardcore gamers who buy the latest games on the latest hardware. That means two things: they have disposable income, and they take gaming seriously. The former means that they'll probably skew somewhat more intelligent than average, and the latter strongly suggests that, whether they habitually play to win or not, they're at least familiar with the principles. When the stakes suddenly go through the roof, almost everyone will start playing it smart. A few won't, of course - the younger kids especially are going to be less experienced - but most of them are going to stay put and not leave the starting city until other players start working out the strategies that work. And if there's a handful of total yahoos dumb enough to make obviously stupid decisions when their life is on the line? I wouldn't expect them to last the first week; they'll charge into some suicidal fight long before opened circuits becomes near-universal.

(There's also a few players who take griefing way too seriously, of course, but that's a whole separate thing.)

 

[Lab_Accident]

Hey, Newcomer to the thread. Quick question, how are we on "The Disaster" front? I mean, has it been decided and set in stone yet (not about to browse through 145 pages of discussion to find that out). Because from gudman's proposed DIsasters, I noticed he tried to model them on "Outside World" possible disaster scenarios, so 'd like to propose one: The 4th Heaven's Feel.

Given this is Fate!Shirou, the Holy Grail should still be around, so it is a possible apocalypse scenario. I can clearly see Kayaba announcing a World Event where 7 players in Aincrad will be chosen to participate in a no-holds barred fight to the death over the whole of Aincrad for a [Unlimited Wish], and it would make for a good story arc, both in making the by now kind-of-stable Player cooperative society temporarily break down (no one but other Masters can tell who the Masters are, a lot of people want to be Masters, and fights to the death amongst Masters involving lots of collateral damage could spring up anywhere, anytime), and because Shirou and Illya would freak the fuck out (More material to feed Argo and Kirito's suspicions). And after everything is said and done, turns out the Grail was evil and planning on screwing everyone over all along, so wether they make a wish on the thing or just destroy it, a side-effect will be [Safe Zones stop working], standing in for the Fuyuki Fire.

So, as I picture it, it would go something like this:
Kayaba makes a System announcement that in (a week? 24 hours? 36 hours?) time, a World Event is going to happen where 7 players are going to get the oportunity to fight to the death over an unlimited wish. The rules are:
*Only voluntary players will be chosen to become Masters. Masters who participate WILL die for realsies if they are killed during this event (this should prevent a lot of people from wanting to participate, but we only need 7).
*Masters get an exemption for the Criminal Offenses Rules for the duration of the event (they won't turn orange for trying to kill other Masters, nor for any collateral damage they cause in the process, giving participation is voluntary). However, they also get an exemption to Safe Zone Rules during the event to prevent camping (no one is safe from them and they aren't safe from anyone).
*The identity of the Masters is kept hidden from all Players, but Masters get to identify each other on sight).
*Masters get previously defeated Floor Bosses as faimiliars (Servants) for the duration of the Event.
*The Arena is the Entire Aincrad.
Everything else is the same as the real Heaven's Feel.
Panic ensues. then it goes From Bad To Worse.

 

[Lab_Accident]

The [Disaster]
Ah, yes, the [Disaster], the capstone event of the next major arc. Still working on this one; honestly once I start getting through chapter 10 I'll probably have to concretely settle on something.

Ah, hell, let's unpack that right now, a little bit.

Right now... the sequence of events for that is something like this, in the order the players encounter them:
1) The 5th Floor Boss Patch will introduce the Minecraft Mod.

1.1) However, once you have enough buildings standing next to each other, NPCs can randomly pop, like as people that claim to be from the Starting City that can be hired; likewise, you can go hire them as employees to be the user interface in your shop, for example. So Agil can hire some NPCs to stand around and function as vending machines.

2) The number/size of villages will taper off dramatically over the next few floors.

3) By the 10th Floor, the Floor Gates are sitting unprotected in open fields and establishing protections (essentially a strategically-paced tower defense minigame for people interested in those kinds of things) will be a necessary act.

4) There will be a lot of [Elemental Challenge] Floors. The [Astral Monster] type, ghosts and stuff, will also be introduced.

5) Somewhere, a plot event where monsters try to kidnap / brainwash / harass low-level Players will begin. It will probably not be related to the [Floor Clearing] mechanic. It's Kayaba punishing players that aren't playing the game, and he very well might make that clear with NPC dialogue so that people understand why everyone is happening.

5.1) Things it could be:
5.1.1) A monster like the Pied Piper that uses hypnotism to reach into the [Safe Zone] and pull people to their doom.
5.1.2) Ghosts that can possess people and force them to leave safe zones and either jump to their doom or just get mauled by monsters.
5.1.3) Using a Bounded Field to force people to accept a [Duel to the Death] even inside [Safe Zones] is a good trick, but I'm thinking about keeping that reserved for Laughing Coffin's repertoire.

5.2) Well, no matter what, Kayaba turning to the player base and saying, "boring kids who don't play the game will now be punished" and then following through with that is basically the plan, although I'll have to be careful to not make it so that "not playing the game" doesn't become equivalent to "passive resistance".

6) The 25th Floor Boss with be Heathcliff; he will probably be a Dead Apostle. So creating a bunch of ghouls or whatever might be a good match to the arc.

7) The Black Cats will wipe against Heathcliff.

8) The Shirou shows up. Heathcliff will enable that "perfect automatic defense" thing; I'm thinking Shirou will respond by just being even more HAX than that.

Oh, nevermind. Last chapter already dealt with LC putting "the Disaster" in motion, then shrugging and saying "Welps, not my problem."