Nasuverse You're trapped in FRO!

[Fellgrave]

Like Mu, I suppose I might as well go further in depth on my stats too.

(Base) Player Name: Fellgrave
Aliases: Captain Deadmoon. Mordekai Richler. Nikolai Serberov. Lenora Golino. Helena Maxwell. Mizuryu Oda. Others.

(Base) Appearance: 178 cm. Solidly built, slightly overweight, but still muscular. Close-cropped light brown hair. Green eyes and a pair of frameless glasses. Dressed cargo pants and leather vest.

Elements: Earth, Air, Water, Fire.

Circuits: 25. Given how much magic rocks, I'd be pushing them to their limits constantly. Trigger is a Headsman and his Axe.

Magical Specialties: Area Control, Shadow Manipulation, Physical Manipulation of the Body [Self], Bounded Fields [Binding] and [Darkness], Servant [Golem] Construction.

Magical Spells:
Stone Shield, summons a stone wall to protect me.
Fangs of Earth, causes jaws of stone to rise up and bite a foe in half.
Various other Earth spells created when necessary.
Various Air spells created as needed.
Various Ice spells as needed.
Plasma based spells, combination of Air and Fire.
Boreas, calls wind to buffet my foes with blades of air.
Reinforcement.
Alteration [Self].
Area Control. [Mundus] seizes control of every aspect of the surroundings and weaponizes it.
Shadow Manipulation. [Umbra] turns my shadow into a weapon. It can turn into any shape imaginable, and can connect to other shadows to power them as well. In a dimly lit or dark environment, this becomes incredibly powerful.
[Binding], a Binding Field that is impossible to leave without destroying the anchor, which is usually hidden in a book I keep on my person.
[Darkness], creates an area of Nightfall, where a phantom moon hangs above and casts shadows on the Field.
[Stygia], transforms surroundings into a frozen wasteland.

Area Control, Shadow Manipulation, Reinforcement, and Alteration require no spoken chant to activate. The creation of my Binding Fields is silent as well, although activating them requires a unique chant for each.

Equipment:

Ranged Weapons, 2:
Since I don't recall firearms being in SOA, a Crossbow. Initially I'd start with a simple wooden one, but as I improve with Reinforcement, I'd replace it with a much larger model made of steel, like the Arbalist in EO3, (see in spoiler) which I'd keep folded up and slung over my back for the most part.

Spoiler

open image in new tab for closer view

Various throwing knives.

Melee Weapons, 2.

Type: Katana. Blade length: 20-inches.
Type: Knife. Blade Length: 11-inches. Special trait: blade thicker and heavier near tip.

Armour:

Leather Vest with minor defensive improvements. Later improved with with steel plates hidden inside. Dark brown, with red winged cross symbol on back. See Spoiler right.

Spoiler

Leather Cargo Pants, same as Vest.

Bolt Case, Slung over shoulder, enhanced to carry a larger supply of crossbow bolts than it's size would indicate.

Other:

Various Golems. Appearances and Abilities vary.

Other weapons and items kept in storage.

Notable Tricks:

...and in the Darkness bind them.
Draws in foes, then activates both [Binding] and [Darkness] before unleashing [Umbra] at full power.

The Whole World is my Ally.
Use the surroundings to aid in combat, e.g. causing roots to lift up and trip opponents as they move to attack me, making the ground shake to unbalance them as I strike with my sword, clear a direct hole through fog to my opponents as a clear shot, etc.

The only ability I'm not too sure on the legibility of:

I am Legion.
Through the use of Alteration [Self], I change my appearance to anything, then use one of many collected [Name Tag]s to change my name. I do this with some regularity to keep my legend from growing and to keep people underestimating me. I change tactics slightly depending on appearance.

Fellgrave, as above.
Helena Maxwell, uses Ice Magic almost exclusively. Uses Ice Golems. Blonde Loli-mage. Because I can.
Nikolai Serberov, uses Earth/Steel magic. Uses Steel and Iron Golems.
Lenora Golino, uses Plasma magic. Sheathes hands in Plasma.
Mordekai Richler. Uses Air magic to improve attacks only. Long range weapon specialist. Uses steel long bow.
Captain Deadmoon. Uses Water magic. Uses falchion.
Mizuryu Oda. Water magic. Uses Katana and Nodachi.

 

[Nasuren]

Let me take a whack at this:

Name: Helsing
Appearance: Medium in height and build, spiky Red hair and blue eyes covered by goggles at all time
Occupation: Rear Liner/Researcher/Crafter
Weapons: Bastard sword, Ad Hoc Tech.
Element: Doesn't really care
18+ circuits
Magic specialties: Runes, basics. Collects spells to study in free time

I don't see myself really participating in the game at first: I don't make friends easily and tend to go solo in most MMOs. Considering that doing so here can cause problems, I'd most likely end up as a rear liner at first so there wouldn't be the chance of being bullied by larger/stronger parties.

On the plus side, I can be devious with a tendency of thinking outside the box. If there's a way to exploit magecraft to recreate and improve IRL technology, odds are I would be one of the few that would attempt it. Think shenanigans like using runes to recreate a pseudo musket, then improving it that it could shoot stone with runes on them.

 

[Abendroth]

There was a lot of enthusiasm for Mystic Codes, or to be more precise, more like, "Enchanted Items." Also a lot of people that are aiming at invisibility as a magecraft goal.

Nobody mentioned much about Bounded Fields or the [Minecraft] patch to build stuff, but that might be because they haven't really featured in the story much, so people just didn't think about it.

Likewise, nobody really said much about Familiars, except shout27, who wants to be a necromancer.

I was deliberately limiting myself to the simple magecraft and basic research available at the start, rather than where I would be at level 99, since I thought that would be more immediately useful at this point in the story. I hadn't remembered Gemcraft was available though.

Looking at more advanced magic, creating new spells would be an effective way to help also, so here are some of the things I would aim for:

Time/space manipulation with or without bounded fields, e.g. teleport gates by defining the space inside one field to be the same as the space inside another field, bag of holding/portable hole, time inside the field moves faster/slower, cut your enemies in half with spacial manipulation.
Magic mirror for two-way communication, magic mirror for scrying, which would negate much of the need for scouting/mapping. Maybe even a database. The laticed nature of gems would make them a good starting point for a magic computer. Or perhaps I would use a series of magically linked ledgers to replicate tables. Lava gate.

Energy Drain will definitely be a priority, as it can be both a useful combat spell and a component in a lot of other spells. Attach it to a weapon and it can drain energy which it then uses to power its other enhancements.

Force Bolt, Force Cage/Wall, Personal Force Field, and enhancing an existing weapon with a sharp force field on the edge of the blade. Those last two are important, as they allow users to completely transcend the physical limits of their equipment, or add an extra layer of enhancement instead of merely incrementally increasing their existing enhancements.

Somebody is going to invent Launch Bolt once range weapons come out, and it might well be me. The most important element of guns is the ability of gunpowder to store/concentrate power beyond the limits of your muscles, which Gemcraft is good at. Making a simple prana-powered rifle may be possible, but not necessarily cost effective.

Shapeshifting weapons, either through being made of mercury, hiding other forms by making them fourth dimensional, or genuine shapeshifting are an idea, but given how much people specialize, I might abandon them. Being able to access four dimensions of space would be pretty valuable though.

I would initially ignore familiars (they seem inelegant and messy compared to the magic I'm otherwise focusing on), until I realized they could be used to automate some of my crafting, then I'd definitely get some. They may also represent a kludge for getting spells that can do basic pattern recognition (healthy/injured).

As for Minecraft, I might build my own lab, but unless I can create an "Instant Fortress" spell macro, I probably won't do too much with it. I tend to take the position that [Alteration] means you can ignore all the "build the tools to build the tools to build the tools" business and just skip right to the last set. Precision can be achieved by measuring a reference item length with [Structural Grasp] and simply defining all the lengths in the [Alteration] in terms of whole number rations of that length.

Of course, any sort of meta-magic, that allows me to manipulate the performance of other magic, will be highly prized.

"Efficient Prana batteries" is like the basis of Gemcraft, which sure, is available by the fifth floor, even if that's only because Liz mentioned it as an aside... regarding an Item Shop on the 2nd Floor, so we can go ahead and say Gemcraft was introduced on the second floor.

Okay, I would definitely practice Gemcraft then. Even as a successful researcher, I'm going to have the same problem Rin does, won't I? Gems=$$$

Be careful how you use healing magic, though. Creating spare flesh inside your body with a spell that's beyond your ability to control sounds like a pretty good way to give yourself cancer. (The poorly created flesh metastasizes...?)

Good point. I would definitely experiment with items and NPCs/animals first. I can think of several way to deal with that, depending on what I can work out. User-directed healing would probably be the starting point, or maybe it just heals whatever it touches. Maybe when activated it imbues water with the magic, so it can be poured on wounds? Making a smart spell that can actually recognize concepts like "injury" is an obvious goal, but I may be able to fake it. The prana circulatory system basically covers your entire body, and it probably isn't going to change like the rest of the body modeling. Maybe make the spell detect 'breaks' in the system, and send magic there? Maybe use Structural Grasp instead, and it sends magic to places that deviate from that image. Either way, it may be necessary to 'prime' the item by giving it an image of the person/item in good health so it knows what is and is not a deviation.

Either way it will be simpler with items, so my first famous item will probably be an item that reinforces your weapon/armor and applies a heal over time to compensate for the damage. If the heal spell leaches prana from the item being healed rather than the gem reservoir, it could be connected with a "pressure valve", so the amount of prana flowing into the heal spell is directly proportional to how over-reinforced the item is, so it automatically balances, and shuts off when the item stops being over-reinforced.

Well that's most of what I'm thinking of right now. I hope it's interesting!

 

[Hardcore Heathen]

Hardcore Heathen
Crafter (armor to start)
Researcher (Wonderous Items) after Mystic Code Patch. REALLY ambitious. Mass production of Crest-like functions?
Connection of Senses; to others, and to database

When would that be? Like, I hadn't even considered that making magical items wasn't a thing yet, because everyone uses weapons as a focus for their spells. And we've seen people (Kirito) doing things to "align" their weapons so that they're more conducive to prana, so clearly there's some manipulation of weapons to facilitate spellcasting going on already.

The reason that I'm asking is because if the "Mystic Code" patch doesn't occur until fairly well on in the game (say, floor 30), then I would have moved onto something different before then. I basically see myself spending the first month (the first floor, before we get the Spell Research information) learning Japanese. I can get along okay spoken, but my written is abysmal. (I've actually got like, a full outline of how I would get into the game and what I would be doing for that first month. I had a boring day listening to briefings at Fort Sam Houston).

Is there any way I could develop the spell as a personal spell, and then just teach it to people, rather than having it be a Mystic Code? Obviously being a Mystic Code is better because it's easier to share, but I was originally envisioning this as a spell that you cast to hypnotize yourself with, that I would be sharing with people. I can see myself tinkering with that for a long time, even if it's inefficient and...kind of bad. "Sharing it with others" could be a hurdle I work on to try and get past for several floors until the MC patch.

Otherwise...well, I might get drawn out of the Safe Zones. Guilt would kick in eventually if I didn't have anything to distract myself. I am a US Army Medical Services officer, so I'm trained in handling medical operations (including treatment, evacuation, combat stress, and post-op/recovery) from Role 1 care (which starts with self-aid and buddy aid, and is the most important part, and a medical platoon of ~40 individuals, usually split into two different groups) up to Role 3 care, which is a full-on field hospital. (Role 4, the final role, is fixed hospitals like Walter Reed, and I know when people need to be evac'd to those locations but am not familiar with how those places actually operate on a day-to-day level).

So...my ability to produce useful results with Magecraft largely determines my future path. If I can't do that, then I can easily see myself consulting with LHMC to organize better medical services for people, or forming a guild that performs combat support tasks. (Which are supply, medical, and maintenance). Because the size of frontliners that need to be supported (and that can support) is relatively small, it would probably only be like 30-ish players. I still don't want to actually be at the front lines fighting the bosses, but I will gladly sit my ass in a casualty collection point or aid station (which is more of a designated area than a fixed position) and stabilize people and direct support efforts.

I would basically sit on my ass and research tiny things that make stuff more convenient - think macros, only spells.

This is like the definition of a Mystic Code.

Or a Crest, if it's something you add to someone's body, rather than a tool. Well... putting it in someone's body would be way harder. Wait...maybe a Mystic Code that's inscribed with a tattoo? It could operate like a Mystic Code (insert prana, pull trigger), but it wouldn't be as traumatic to add (or have the other passive benefits) that a Crest has.

Well, [Tattooing] can be one of those Skills that was a purely aesthetic skill to sink money into Avatar customization... but combine that with some Formalcraft and you've actually got something, huh?

How well developed is Formalcraft at this point in the story? Because if I get to go with the "researcher" storyline over the "support organizer" storyline, then I can see myself writing out absurdly huge diagrams and generally putzing about creating small effects, and trying to figure out a magical means to shorten the process...and thus getting distracted by further and further research topics until MCs are actually released, which keeps me distracted instead of guilty about not trying to help the people out in the wilds.

I'm probably going to PM you an outline/snippet of what I'm thinking sometime tomorrow, and maybe post it in the Previews once it's polished and approved and such.

 

[Mokofooja]

Just realized something.

I think I'd probably get bored of the recurring background music and battle music within the first week or two.

Assuming I had enough free time on my hands, I might actually attempt to create instruments, and even Mystic Codes, for the sole purpose of having another musical track to listen to. Failing that, I'd probably burn a couple thousand spare col or so just to commission a retired player or two to do that for me.

I basically see myself spending the first month (the first floor, before we get the Spell Research information) learning Japanese. I can get along okay spoken, but my written is abysmal. (I've actually got like, a full outline of how I would get into the game and what I would be doing for that first month. I had a boring day listening to briefings at Fort Sam Houston).

This. A thousand times this. My first post assumed for the sake of argument that I would have gotten familiar with Japanese first before investing in a Japanese Online Game. But if not, then I hope there's a Japanese-English teacher somewhere trapped in Aincard along with me.

 

[Mu-sensei]

I basically see myself spending the first month (the first floor, before we get the Spell Research information) learning Japanese. I can get along okay spoken, but my written is abysmal. (I've actually got like, a full outline of how I would get into the game and what I would be doing for that first month. I had a boring day listening to briefings at Fort Sam Houston).

This. A thousand times this. My first post assumed for the sake of argument that I would have gotten familiar with Japanese first before investing in a Japanese Online Game. But if not, then I hope there's a Japanese-English teacher somewhere trapped in Aincard along with me.

I assumed it too. I'm somewhat proficient with English... but whatever I do know of Japanese is abysmal. I can decode spoken one by decryption methods (comparing with a pool of known data) and have enough of a good memory to know more than a handful of useful phrases before attempting to play a foreign game, but I'd need to learn more.

 

[seitora]

I would probably play a [Front-Liner] [Scout] who would travel each floor after the behaviors and habits of the local monsters are deciphered by the Front Line Fighters, and scout out the local geography, specifically looking for the Floor Boss.

If my [Magecraft] gives me any of Air, Earth, or Water, I would attempt to study and research my elements to give me a heads-up in scouting. Air? I could detect the air currents, perhaps pick up fine vibrations in the air to tell if there's something generating noise nearby. Water? I could estimate the size of any body of water I come across, its flow rate, purity, trace back where it's flowing from, what monsters inhabit the water. Earth? With enough h4x I could potentially be able to generate a semi-detailed map of the entire floor geography just by feeling outward from the spot I stand to all the mountain ranges, footsteps, prairies, etc. of the floor.

This is, of course, if SAO is so detailed as to have fine mechanics as 'sound waves' and 'air pressure' and 'echolocation'.

 

[daniel_gudman]

I would probably be the rare front-liner who doesn't have any circuits.

Because you're one of the rare people that doesn't have them, or because you didn't open them? Well, in either case, I don't think you'd be able to keep up with the front line... like, the 3rd Boss was an enemy you basically couldn't confront without Magic Resistance to scale down the passive curse the Boss emitted.

(1) Mantle - Its a mobile bounded field...

(2) (Guns)

(3) My masterpiece however, would be a Formalcraft-based engine that works as a computer based on ambient prana. My glasses (I happen to have above average vision FYI) would make use of it to predict trajectories of both enemy attacks and my own, especially shooting trajectories, emulating the laser-sight without my opponent's knowledge, zoom and fire from the waist skills. and I'll have a portable one, tablet like that'd use to make alchemical calculations to save time, as I'm a lazy bastard. It's stored at my back, under the back plate, when not in use.

Dood.

(1) Mobile bounded field... study hard for 30 years, and maybe you'll get there, if you're really talented.

(2) Guns don't exist in SAO.

(3) So you're planning to independently recreate the entire field of technology called "computers" from first principles??? Abendroth said just logic gates would be his research goal. I feel like that's much more realistic.

...I feel like you're just not thinking that we're talking, like, person-months of times. The kind of stuff you're talking about would require person-decades of work, in terms of scale.

Mystic Code Patch...

When would that be?

...

How well developed is Formalcraft at this point in the story?

These are somewhat related... Well, let me think.

The [Familiar Spell Tree] was available on the Fifth Floor, and Silica/Itagaki are in the process of unlocking it. So by the time the 6th Floor is opened, it will be available.

My intention is to introduce [Minecraft] and [Bounded Fields] at the same time, shortly after, like 6th-7th floor. Since [Bounded Fields] is enchanting places and [Mystic Codes] are enchanted tools, it makes sense to introduce them at the same time.

Anyway if it's Formalcraft, since it's rituals that substitute preparation for talent, it's around, but still unpopular; rituals aren't really suited for fighting. Well, it's naturally suitable for Bounded Fields, so it will probably show up in front of the reader by then.

I basically see myself spending the first month (the first floor, before we get the Spell Research information) learning Japanese.

If you want to worry about language, go for it; but I was implicitly assuming it wasn't a problem, because from my perspective, it's getting in the way of the game.

Like, I travel too much to really get into an MMO, so for me, the most likely answer to "what would you do?", the answer would be, "I wouldn't even be there in the first place?", which is boring.

I really, really wanted to ride horses when I was younger, but I couldn't because my allergies to them were terrible. So with FRO, one of my first priorities would be getting a mount, and then indulging myself in a childhood thrill as I ride it everywhere.

I think is SAO horses could only be rented, not bought. In any case, doing the "riding" thing was expensive and non-beneficial enough that it was really unpopular.

Well, on the other hand, if it was a [Familiar]....

 

[Hardcore Heathen]

Mystic Code Patch...

When would that be?

...

How well developed is Formalcraft at this point in the story?

These are somewhat related... Well, let me think.

The [Familiar Spell Tree] was available on the Fifth Floor, and Silica/Itagaki are in the process of unlocking it. So by the time the 6th Floor is opened, it will be available.

My intention is to introduce [Minecraft] and [Bounded Fields] at the same time, shortly after, like 6th-7th floor. Since [Bounded Fields] is enchanting places and [Mystic Codes] are enchanted tools, it makes sense to introduce them at the same time.

Anyway if it's Formalcraft, since it's rituals that substitute preparation for talent, it's around, but still unpopular; rituals aren't really suited for fighting. Well, it's naturally suitable for Bounded Fields, so it will probably show up in front of the reader by then.

That works out pretty perfectly for me.

I basically see myself spending the first month (the first floor, before we get the Spell Research information) learning Japanese.

If you want to worry about language, go for it; but I was implicitly assuming it wasn't a problem, because from my perspective, it's getting in the way of the game.

The reason for "learning Japanese" is basically to stall myself inside the city while I try and figure out what in the hell is going on. It's more of a placement device than anything, so that I could "enter" the story at an appropriate time.

 

[violinmana]

I would probably be the rare front-liner who doesn't have any circuits.

Because you're one of the rare people that doesn't have them, or because you didn't open them? Well, in either case, I don't think you'd be able to keep up with the front line... like, the 3rd Boss was an enemy you basically couldn't confront without Magic Resistance to scale down the passive curse the Boss emitted.

I would say that I don't have a single one. I mean, sure there would be a passive curse, but wouldn't the [Rune Knight] come up with a strengthening rune or some sort of countermeasure for the passive drain? Just because you don't have your own circuits doesn't mean that others can't impose on your bodily domain, like Shirou and Argo.

It'd be a PR stunt as well since if there's a guy who got to [Front-Line] status without a single circuit, and he wasn't allowed into the Floor Boss Battles... wouldn't the [Rune Knight] make something that would help with that?

 

[No Such Entity]

I'll make a full character post later


reguarding the a few months not decades timeframe

basically assume the following time frames for equipment and spell developement
-pre-reveal (starting equipment, choosen fake apperience)
-first boss cleared / still mostly starting equipment but starting to see armor or weapons from drops, kiburos scale male, diabels equipment, kiritos blade
-5 floor / have customized appearance now and a few unique spells (where we are in story now)
-(what ever point you think good)
- game cleared (final by 100th floor / after 3 years, and probably around early 4th or 5th) assuming no duesxmachina on 76th floor / apperence and abilitys what ever you can brainstorm as long as you weren't fake coffee drinker


please post what timeframe you are basing your character on in your full character post.

 

[Mokofooja]

I really, really wanted to ride horses when I was younger, but I couldn't because my allergies to them were terrible. So with FRO, one of my first priorities would be getting a mount, and then indulging myself in a childhood thrill as I ride it everywhere.

I think is SAO horses could only be rented, not bought. In any case, doing the "riding" thing was expensive and non-beneficial enough that it was really unpopular.

Well, on the other hand, if it was a [Familiar]....

Mount rental comes from Volume 8 (page 175-176 in the baka-tsuki translation), when Kirito rides to rescue Schmitt, Yoruko and Caynz from Laughing Coffin in the Murder Mystery in Aincrad.

Canonical details are scarce; here's what I got:

- Nothing rules out fighting from horseback (so it would be up to the author's discretion on whether sword skills are usable while mounted, any bonuses or penalties, etc.)

- A skill does govern riding on mounts, but the book is mum on how improving the skill improves the overall riding experience.

- There are no items that allow for mounting. Mounts can be rented from stables run by NPC's. No other details are provided on whether you can acquire a mount by a different method, or use a field monster or pet or familiar as a mount. (see below for addendum)

- You can rent mounts to move items instead of for riding. It isn't stated outright, but the comment on expense of using mounts was only directed to riding a mount, so a pack animal rental may be much cheaper or have a different rent calculation.

- Riding expenses are high, but it is unknown how it is calculated. Worst case scenario, it may be calculated as a rate by minute or by second based on how Kirito sent the horse back immediately after he arrived. Kirito referred to it as a "taxi fare" that the DDA would repay for him (probably as sarcasm or good humor).

- There is no statement that mounts can be purchased outright. Though it doesn't rule out the ability to buy mounts, it does strongly imply that canonically buying mounts was not possible. (Perhaps nobody every unlocked a quest that could let players acquire mounts at a much cheaper price?)

- At the end of the chapter, Red Eyed Xa Xa states that he was suitably impressed by Kirito's style of riding to the rescue, and promises to ride a horse while hunting down Kirito. Unknown how literal we can consider him serious, but an optimist might take this as meaning it is possible to make a mounted combat build.

- The only other cases of canonical riding (if it can be called that) is when Lizbet and Kirito escape the Frost Dragon's lair by grabbing onto the Dragon as it flies out in Aincrad, and in ALO when the party that goes looking for Excalibur rides on the back of the beat-type evil god. In both cases, the situation is unique enough that one should think twice before using them as proof of MOB-based mounts.

Addendum: even assuming a MOB or a pet/familiar can be used for a mount, it will have to be leveled up to be of use, and there is always the risk of the mount AI making a bad move if the player somehow loses control.

Volume 2, dealing with Scilica's pet Fina, confirms that pets and familiars can level up (page 11 of the baka-tsuki translation), but that pet and familiar stats are relatively low, though they make up for it by having useful support skills. It is unknown if rental mounts can be similarly level'd up, or if mounts provided by NPC's are set to some arbitrary or calculated number.

Theoretically, if a mount is to be taken into combat, it must at minimum be as tough as the player riding it if it is to avoid being targeted by enemies intent on removing the player's mobility. As well, if a mount is to be practical, then there must be some format to protect it, heal it, and/or replace it should it be killed in combat.

Mechanics wise, it goes without saying that the primary reason for riding is because the mount is much faster than the player's walking or running speed. Mounts that are slower than a walking or running player are effectively useless, or sidelined for some niche purpose known only to the user. Since daniel has introduced a stamina system to SAO, mounts that can move as fast as a running player *and* have much more stamina can also be useful.

An optimal mounts system, disregarding monetary expenses for now, should therefore include:
- the ability to equip a mount with armor, equipment or clothing to improve it's performance and utility
- scaling of the mount's defensive stats to match the player (scaling offensive stats and abilities optional)
- some reasonable benefit to improving the riding skill
- a reasonable means to defend, heal, and/or replace the mount should it be hurt or killed in combat.

For my character, then, it probably means while I'm still low leveled and poor, I won't be able to afford a horse. But it does mean that once familiar creation is unlocked, or if daniel_gudman rules that you can save up and buy a mount or use a MOB as a mount, I will pretty much go looking for a wild horse or fantasy equine type to turn into a familiar/mount/what have you. No, I don't have any intention of being special snow-flakey enough to ride giant birds, repitles, or other non-equine mounts, thank you very much.

Also, the mental image of Silica riding a magically enlarged fire-breathing Fina is OP as hell, but awesome. DO IT, DANIEL

 

[Hardcore Heathen]

*A wild Floor Boss appears*

*Silica summons Pina*

*Silica buffs Pina into A Goddamn Dragon, seriously, what the fuck*

*Pina glares at the Floor Boss!*

*It's super-broken!*

*The Floor Boss shits itself so hard its intestines fall out!*

*Silica has won the battle!*

 

[Amodelsino]

Mobile bounded field... study hard for 30 years, and maybe you'll get there, if you're really talented.

Lol, more like 300 years.

 

[No Such Entity]

moved to 1/4 build

Player: No Such Entity
Username: No Such Entity
Build: strength 1 / agility 4
Circuit Count: 29 [like Asuna]
Elements: Air and Ether
Known spells
Magic resistance
Reinforce general
Reinforce specialized
Endurance [very good at]
Strength
Speed
Item durability
structural grasping
basic healing spells (specialized heal self)
(Following if not unreasonable)
Electric Eal touch no jutsu [Mu-sensei’s shock and awe] electric palm attack
Johnny blacks poison reinforce
Ghostly presence [Poh’s use ether to hide circuits are active]
(later in the game)
Tracing [but only if shirou shares it / used more for always have more rope]

Circuit activate: Lightning bolt with thunder 1/2 a sec after (the massive resonative force of the thundbolt is the trigger)

Personality: cold, doesn’t plan to kill people for stuff but willing to run from a fight and will ensure he is fastest of the group. Can handle pain well, cant stand extreme cold, picky eater (might have trouble with some Japanese foods)

Play style: Sticks to already explored area, Picks up every argos guide he can, Never pays much for them because not front line. Not crazy enough to be on actual front line. Go out with craft players as escourt. Does not solo, does not ninja guide

Equipment:
Gladius or wakazashi/ninjato with 15inch blade (have a plastic toy wakazashi/ninjato with this length and it is perfect)
Heavy Bracers (deflect swords)
Armored knuckle gloves (impromptu brass knuckles)
Light chest armor
Paralysis poison (even without johny black spell would want it)
Face mask (would prefer people not see my face)
Very dark gray ninja suit

Appearance:
Blue/Gray eyes / dark Brown hair
Average height
some muscles but not ripped

Assume if in japan have gotten more serious with my life (fluent in spoken Japanese and written hiragana but not kanji, no longer slightly overweight)

 

[happerry]

Thinking of Projection, and working with my already stated preferences for Fire and Earth/Metal magic with the whole superheated spear thing, how nasty would a spell that effectively firehoses molten iron over things, even if said iron fades out only a few moments later?

 

[Fellgrave]

Very Nasty, depending on your opponent. If you are fighting an armored humanoid or any foe with exposed flesh, then it would be very effective. Against golems, elementals of certain types, certain armored beasts, and dragons, I'd say it would do some damage, but not too much.

 

[daniel_gudman]

First thing I found when I tried to quantify that was a paper from 1979.

Liquid metals make good heat transfer media because of their high heat capacity, good thermal conduction, and high heat transfer coefficients. The vapor pressure of liquid metals being very low allows heat transfer operations to be carried out at normal pressures even at high temperatures.

Your best bet would probably be aluminum; it's melting temperature is lower than iron and it has like three times the thermal conductivity as a solid and a liquid (ie, it dumps the heat energy into what its touching faster). This is basically a conduction problem, so it's just Newton's Law of Cooling; heat transfer rate = thermal conductivity * delta temperature.

Or...

Sodium actually melts at a lower temperature than water, and has a thermal conductivity almost as good as aluminum, and it's thermal capacitance is pretty good (liquid sodium is used as a working fluid in a couple solar-thermal systems, also nuclear plant cooling). Well, it's chemically reactive as hell, so it's only used in closed systems; it would hydrolyze with water in the air and create free hydrogen, which would probably be ignited by all the energy your liquid sodium is releasing and spontaneously cause secondary fires as that freed hydrogen combusted.

Anyway, Earth/Metal Psychogenesis to create the stuff, Fire Psychogenesis to dump heat into it, and then Earth/Metal TK to deposit the liquid gobs of that would be a highly efficient way to dump heat energy into the enemy; my gut feeling is, certainly more effective than just like a blast of fire.

EDIT:
I thought I'd get an idea of how dangerous molten metals are by seeing what the BLS could tell us (also OSHA). I don't do incident searches that much though, so I didn't really find anything meaningful (...but most of the reportable injuries I skimmed were fatalities...).

Whelp, my gut instinct is, it would be pretty damn terrifying. Maybe not as scary as dry steam (that's a gas so it seeps in and fucking poaches you inside your PPE) (but to be fair that might be because I deal with steam, but not liquid metals, so I'm more aware of the dangers), but it would it would pretty well ruin your day.

 

[Mokofooja]

Thinking of Projection, and working with my already stated preferences for Fire and Earth/Metal magic with the whole superheated spear thing, how nasty would a spell that effectively firehoses molten iron over things, even if said iron fades out only a few moments later?

Iron's melting point is 1811 K, 1538 °C, or 2800 °F depending on your system of measurement.

If you're sufficiently powerful at projecting really hot materials, you can raise that up to 3134 K, 2862 °C, or 5182 °F, when iron turns into a gas.

You'll lose a lot of heat to the ambient temperature, but the smoke point of the vast majority of oils and fats are below 500 °F or 270 °C. If you cause a person's/beast's body fat to smoke, you've just inflicted full penetration burning past their skin into their muscle.

If you set them on fire, chances are their internal organs are smoking, which means even if they survive the initial attack, they are going to die a slow and painful death from internal burns and hemorrhaging if no aid is administered.

The sudden loss of heat will also cause your projected metal to solidify and stick to the target for the short duration it's still in existence. Even if somehow the projected metal and heat are "crushed" by reality, the damage they can dish out to flesh before that happens probably won't be reversed.

A good concept with lots of potential. I would recommend finding a means to increase it's ability to bypass armor, increase it's range (the way you present the spell makes it seem like a pseudo-flamethrower) or find a chemical element that can combine to inflict damage against targets that lack flesh and fat to burn.

*EDIT*

Your best bet would probably be aluminum; it's Melting temperature is lower than iron and it has like three times the thermal conductivity as a solid and a liquid (ie, it dumps the heat energy into what its touching faster).

That's true, but don't forget that the more distance the molten material has to travel, the more energy it will lose to the ambient environment. And if it's a good conductor, it'll do it faster as well, so it becomes a tradeoff between super-effective contact burning and having the reach to smack an opponent.

Also, keep in mind heat capacity of the involved metals (the amount of energy needed to change the temperature of a set unit of a material by one kelvin). Aluminium needs about 24 KiloJoules per mole to change it's temperature by 1 degree, while iron needs about 25 KiloJoules, so assuming both molten aluminium and iron are at the same temperature and the same amount, iron would have more energy in it and theoretically cause more damage when it conducts it's heat energy to the target (though it would do it slower than aluminium).

Maybe project the molten aluminium inside a thin "skin" of molten iron or another less conductive metal? The outside skin cools slower so the stream travels farther, and when it breaks on impact, the more conductive aluminium transfers the heat energy of both it's high temperature and it's latent heat directly to the target alongside the iron.

INTERNATIONAL BACCALAUREATE THERMODYNAMICS GO

 

[daniel_gudman]

Eh, air's a really good insulator though. Yeah you'll be convecting off heat off into the air, but that's trivial.

 

[killeregglord]

See if I was trapped in FRO I think I'd have three interests (besides food/shelter/comfort).

1) As a personal interest, I'd be interested in trying to found a University (or University type thing) with journals and shared public research goals. Mostly because I don't think I'd be interested in doing magic myself, or in developing my own magecraft in a particular way, but I would be interested in trying to learn everything that can be known about magecraft and how it works (so that as a player-base we have deep and wide knowledge). This is sort of like 'there is no Wikipedia in FRO, so we have to build our own institutions' drive.

2) Since I think the game dynamics would make 1 hard (since the most powerful and knowledgeable players are clearing the game not just doing research), I would be interested in trying to set up a government for the players. Not a Thinker type pension system government, but a body capable of waging war on Cardinal with the entire might of the player base. So I think my personnel research interests would be first trying to figure out the FRO equivalent of a rifle (a item/spell/skill/something that would let any person with limited training become lethal and that would allow more people to become more lethal in larger groups) since this is a necessary precondition to forming an Army that can overawe the player-base. Second, if I ever got an FRO gun-type weapon working I'd want to try and figure out a way of eliminating safe-zones since they reduce the incentives for people to form organizations for common security. I think I'd be trying to convince Diable (if I ever met him) to become SAO's dictator. Other stuff that would go with this would be things like trying to conquer territory or NPCs. The goal would be to not treat SAO like an RPG but like a Military Campaign.

3) The above two are sort of how I would react from a 'how do we clear the game perspective', I think my belief that it was a death game would also cause me to engage in a lot of religious proselytizing, since it is no longer 'just a game'. So trying to set up churches and prayer groups and things like that.

Now knowing what I know outside of FRO, I'm not sure that any such 'Sam Colt made them equal' moment is even possible in Nasu-land. But I think that is what I would try to achieve. Failing that I think I might try to convince other people to organize something like a Roman Legion (more like a legion from the Codex Alera series of books actually). I think I'd have several rude awakenings in the course of time, most coming about in the way that the "Laws of Magecraft" don't fit my expectations of the "Laws of Physics".

 

[daniel_gudman]

That's pretty interesting.

Something like a [University] that exists as a specific place that develops, archives, and distributes magecraft to the Players... well, since the Paladins hand out [Cure] to everyone for a single symbolic col, I feel like Diabel would definitely be supporting you. (In exchange for some loyalty to him, that is).

Now knowing what I know outside of FRO, I'm not sure that any such 'Sam Colt made them equal' moment is even possible in Nasu-land.

It's not even possible in the real world.

I mean, the guy with the gun is naturally deadlier than the guy without one. If anything, Sam Colt made people less equal, because guns are so deadly that "possessing a gun" completely erases variations between humans, like punching strength, with that single overwhelming inequality of "possesses a gun."

And the guy with military training and an assault weapon, wearing infantry armor, is deadlier than the guy with a six-shooter.

And if there are two guys, and each of them has a shard of rock, the one that won't hesitate at all, that confidently dashes forward to smash in the other bloke's head, that guy is naturally deadlier, too.

"God created men, and Sam Colt made them equal", is ad copy from a gun company, that implies everyone should buy a pistol from them. You know what I mean?

And in the first place...

the FRO equivalent of a rifle (a item/spell/skill/something that would let any person with limited training become lethal and that would allow more people to become more lethal in larger groups)

You mean, other than the Sword Arts? Or being able to shoot fireballs in the first place?

Not a Thinker type pension system government, but a body capable of waging war on Cardinal with the entire might of the player base.

I really liked seeing this; I've put some effort into creating the perception that it's "Players vs. Cardinal" while Kayaba stands in the background, murmuring, "yes, dance, puppets."

But....

I mean, fundamentally, there's not a whole lot that the Players can do other than play along with Kayaba. He holds like, all the cards. This is especially true before the reveal "Magic is Real", because it means that absolutely anything and everything a Player can do is inside Cardinal, and subject to its rulings.

If you think he's telling the truth about "Game Over on Game Clear", then you should do your best to clear the game at top speed.

If you think he's lying, then you should do your best to pretend to Clear the Game to appease him (so he doesn't pull out a big ol' Hammer labelled "Incentives" to smack you with), while really you're just buying time for the JSDF to break you out from the inside.

Well, in either case, "Everyone, let's do our best to win without casualties," that would be the best policy, huh?

That would be the kind of speech Diabel would give you, if he thought you were starting to go off the rails.

 

[Mu-sensei]

Dood.

(1) Mobile bounded field... study hard for 30 years, and maybe you'll get there, if you're really talented.

Well, I never said I'd succeed. There's always alternative ways of getting the same effects.

(2) Guns don't exist in SAO.

Don't mind me, I'm crazy, and I was working on ToHO when writing this. There are guns there, so I forgot yours don't. A Railgun-like weapon/cannon can still be done though. Right?

I mean, a simple cannon can be done by creating an explosion between the bottom of a tube and a projectile, so its simple enough. A feeding system can be done through kinetic magic, and it won't even take separate research from the Railgun barrel. I sure as hell don't know dimensions from RL guns by heart, but I know the principles behind it. Gunpowder or better explosive compounds can be done through alchemy, and a little shaping magic go long ways on the "Acquiring the tools" side, and maybe even making the bullets, like the spell I mentioned.

If a creature can be defeated by normal means, those are always preferable, being less expensive and dangerous. If it can't... Magical Bullets.

(3) So you're planning to independently recreate the entire field of technology called "computers" from first principles??? Abendroth said just logic gates would be his research goal. I feel like that's much more realistic.

...I feel like you're just not thinking that we're talking, like, person-months of times. The kind of stuff you're talking about would require person-decades of work, in terms of scale.

If you're working from the base up, sure, impossible. Absurd and nearly impossible. If you work into making what you need, not so much. There's the reason a non-smartphone-type with the same capabilities is always simpler than his smartphone (number of parts and structural complexity wise) counterpart: Compatibility layers. Normal computers have lots of functions that are not used anymore, but are sitting there for no other reason than compatibility (When was the last time you pressed Scroll-lock?).

I wouldn't do that, or even try to make transistors. Nope. I'd work on an acceptable formalcraft substitute, preferable working on base 10 to skip conversion times, and focus on math and conditional/loop functions, and make other operations as I needed them for the program. It would be a dedicated device, incompatible with everything else, true, but that is something to work out once we're back to RL.

Thinking of it, I'd probably try Gemcraft, and dabble in a lot of odd fields. Jack of all trades master of none. But lethal nonetheless.

 

[Abendroth]

Talking about distributing magecraft, I figure that Argo's Guide would serve as an early way to share information about magecraft, because it's the only form of centralized information distribution in the early game. As guilds develop, I would turn over spells and item designs to Thinker's [Aincrad Liberation Front] for mass production/distribution. Thinker would probably organize groups to work on making or brainstorming about what magic they've got, which would probably evolve into the [University]. Which would mean that the university would already be working for Diable, so he'd be quite happy about that.

Well, if Thinker's [Army] doesn't take over as the [University], founding a guild to do it might be doable. No, I would absolutely found the [Unseen University] guild, just for the cool name. Of course, at the start I would think of it as being more like [Agil's Item Shop] than a research hub.

Anyway, Earth/Metal Psychogenesis to create the stuff, Fire Psychogenesis to dump heat into it, and then Earth/Metal TK to deposit the liquid gobs of that would be a highly efficient way to dump heat energy into the enemy; my gut feeling is, certainly more effective than just like a blast of fire.

Depending on your strengths, would it be easier to just dump the heat directly into your opponent with Fire Psychogenesis, like a heat ray, rather than creating and then moving an intermediate material?

 

[happerry]

Thinking of Projection, and working with my already stated preferences for Fire and Earth/Metal magic with the whole superheated spear thing, how nasty would a spell that effectively firehoses molten iron over things, even if said iron fades out only a few moments later?

Iron's melting point is 1811 K, 1538 °C, or 2800 °F depending on your system of measurement.

If you're sufficiently powerful at projecting really hot materials, you can raise that up to 3134 K, 2862 °C, or 5182 °F, when iron turns into a gas.

You'll lose a lot of heat to the ambient temperature, but the smoke point of the vast majority of oils and fats are below 500 °F or 270 °C. If you cause a person's/beast's body fat to smoke, you've just inflicted full penetration burning past their skin into their muscle.

If you set them on fire, chances are their internal organs are smoking, which means even if they survive the initial attack, they are going to die a slow and painful death from internal burns and hemorrhaging if no aid is administered.

My character's main reason for not wanting to use gas that he's not fireproof himself, and a stream of molten metal is much easier to control then a blast of gas, especially if he has allies in the area.

Once Mystic Codes come out, maybe 'Iron Gas Grenades' could be made, because he won't be anywhere near them when they go off thanks to the handy dandy slingstaff. (Or at least he can tie a sling to the non pointy end of his spear and use it like one, hopefully) But unless I also gets really good at air magic, horrible burning gasses have too great a backfire chance I'd think..

The sudden loss of heat will also cause your projected metal to solidify and stick to the target for the short duration it's still in existence. Even if somehow the projected metal and heat are "crushed" by reality, the damage they can dish out to flesh before that happens probably won't be reversed.

A good concept with lots of potential. I would recommend finding a means to increase it's ability to bypass armor, increase it's range (the way you present the spell makes it seem like a pseudo-flamethrower) or find a chemical element that can combine to inflict damage against targets that lack flesh and fat to burn.

Well, range will increase as I get better with controlling it, I'd think? I was visualizing a firehose effect, which isn't really like a flamethrower.. Those hoses are highly pressurized so they can, like, spray third or fourth floors. A Flamethrower version would probably be a good idea (Or at least a wide area spray version), but a tight constrained stream should at least be a mid range spell.

And if not, I can always drop the stream idea and just generate and throw globs of it instead..

*EDIT*

Your best bet would probably be aluminum; it's Melting temperature is lower than iron and it has like three times the thermal conductivity as a solid and a liquid (ie, it dumps the heat energy into what its touching faster).

That's true, but don't forget that the more distance the molten material has to travel, the more energy it will lose to the ambient environment. And if it's a good conductor, it'll do it faster as well, so it becomes a tradeoff between super-effective contact burning and having the reach to smack an opponent.

Also, keep in mind heat capacity of the involved metals (the amount of energy needed to change the temperature of a set unit of a material by one kelvin). Aluminium needs about 24 KiloJoules per mole to change it's temperature by 1 degree, while iron needs about 25 KiloJoules, so assuming both molten aluminium and iron are at the same temperature and the same amount, iron would have more energy in it and theoretically cause more damage when it conducts it's heat energy to the target (though it would do it slower than aluminium).

Maybe project the molten aluminium inside a thin "skin" of molten iron or another less conductive metal? The outside skin cools slower so the stream travels farther, and when it breaks on impact, the more conductive aluminium transfers the heat energy of both it's high temperature and it's latent heat directly to the target alongside the iron.

INTERNATIONAL BACCALAUREATE THERMODYNAMICS GO

Well, to be fair on the 'assuming I got dumped into the game without having a chance to use wikipedia to research all this', I wouldn't have a clue about the Aluminium thing. If someone pointed it out to me/explained that, I'd probably try it, and see how it went.

For the 'skin' idea.. Maybe? That'd probably take a lot of skill to project/Psychogenesis two things at once in an altered state then normal like molten metal would be, and then be good enough at controlling them to both get enough range to make it worthwhile and keep the iron on the outside while continuing to make more as it goes along to keep up the effect..

So I'd guess I don't have the skills to do it on the current floor. Maybe I'd try making 'bombs' of melted Aluminium inside thin shells of iron, assuming I could TK it enough to make sure it wasn't anywhere near me when it burst though?

Anyway, Earth/Metal Psychogenesis to create the stuff, Fire Psychogenesis to dump heat into it, and then Earth/Metal TK to deposit the liquid gobs of that would be a highly efficient way to dump heat energy into the enemy; my gut feeling is, certainly more effective than just like a blast of fire.

Depending on your strengths, would it be easier to just dump the heat directly into your opponent with Fire Psychogenesis, like a heat ray, rather than creating and then moving an intermediate material?

In terms of dumping heat directly into enemies, magic resistance is a thing. People who can shrug off spells that could blow up houses have a harder time when you blow up a house in their direction..

And generating something closer to me and then launching it is probably easier then long ranged heat manipulation, anyway..

If I can make people just explode, that'd be neat, but I doubt I'm good enough to do that yet.. (Where yet = Current point in the story)

EDIT : Though if this spell is as effective as people are saying it is, I'd probably be tempted to try to move up from midliner status to front liner..