So I’m working on Pax Imperator these days. It probably sounds like I just can’t stick with a project, but I’ve actually been doing planning and design work on Pax Imperator for a long time. (It’s name has changed at least three times and it’s setting once.)

I’ve got some support on this so I’m putting in pretty much my whole day on this.

The big thing out of all of this is that I’ve decided to change around my working modus operandi a bit. I’m live streaming my entire work process. You can catch it here – stream – it’s probably going to be pretty boring overall, but hey, it helps me focus.

Anyways, I’ll try to remember to drop something in here every now and then.

“Stick to the bar, I’ll handle negotiations.” I said. The young black woman nodded before taking an empty stool and ordering a drink. I kept walking, the people in the bar weren’t especially close to each other, but you could feel that they were organized. Their presences all seemed overbearing, and restrictive, probably intimidating to someone whose never been in a knife fight with a Massakari.

I slid into the booth, taking in the blood shot eyes and pale complexion of the man across from me. It would be hard to tell with the smell of New Hanover cigarettes filling the tiny space if he was drunk now or this morning. Either way he took another puff before finally speaking.

“So you want to hire me to fly around your little expedition in ole’ Charlotte. Now we’ve got the obvious questions, like why should I stick my neck out for you, but I’ve got something a little more personal. You see, I’m not so short on contacts I can’t get the digs on some ole’ glory hound from the clan wars. So what I want to know is, what happened on Huntress?” He leaned forward, his serious face looking almost demented with the light gleaming off the sheen of sweat covering his pale skin. “Why are you here, like some backwoods retiree, but have the whole of the Eridani Light Horse singing your praises like a goddamn military genius.”

I leaned back letting the memories run through my mind, feeling the pain of old wounds. “Towards the end of the fighting on Huntress we were in constant retreat up into the mountains, about half our company had broken off to deal with light ‘mech harassment along our flanks. Problem is we didn’t have very good maps of the area and followed some bad indicators only to wind up way off the mark. What we hadn’t known at the time was that there was a great big vein of magnetite to the south. Our previous route had been unintentionally shielding us from it, but our current position had it completely screwing up our on board compasses. Comms with the ships were through other units, and we didn’t have the equipment to set up a good link.

So South we went, but not quite straight South, and we wound up missing the enemies main forces. Problem is, we didn’t know, ran into their rear guard, three light omni ‘mechs. We had a medium lance, three hunchies including mine and a centurion, our company commander’s Archer and a couple commandos. One of them had a PPC and got a lucky shot on the commanders cockpit, thinking hell was three steps behind these guys we opened up on ‘em to slow em down and booked it in full retreat. A full retreat right into at least a company of enemy ‘mechs.

With our company commander out of action we didn’t really know who was in charge so I just started shouting. We’d caught them flat footed so I called for a knife fight around the edges, catch them in their own crossfire if possible. Finally, I just decided we didn’t have a chance and came up with something really crazy. I set my Hunchback to self destruct and waded into the middle while the others hemmed them in close. My best friend, Mac…

Well, mac waded in there with me, took a lot of big hits so I didn’t have to. He’d been hurt, wasn’t responding right, I tried to get him to eject but he kept saying he would when I did. Time came and I pulled the ejection lever. I pulled it a bit early even. Was just thinking of him, just wanted to see him eject. So I flew up into the sky, and hung there, all those mountains everywhere but I was just looking at Mac’s Hunchback waiting for him to pop right on out. Nothing. Then, just as I was really starting to worry, my reactor exploded. Took out most of the clanners all right, but Mac didn’t make it out. The rest of the fight was over before I hit bottom, all that was left of us was the last hunchback and enough of each commando to keep one moving.

Turns out it was enough. The 11th Lyran were force marching their way through to reach the rest of the Eridani and they’d picked up our radio chatter during the fight. Figured we’d saved them from an ambush and I’d been some sort of ace field commander. Their report made it up the line in the Eridani, and before I knew it I was a war hero.”

I’d had my eyes closed for a while, not really finding the thought of being watched as I said all this bearable. Finally I opened them to see him leaning back, watching the ceiling with a serious expression.

“What’s the payload?” He finally asked.

“A seventy-five ton omni-’mech, and a thirty-five ton light ‘mech. Twenty tons in ordinance and another five is sensitive equipment. Roughly one four zero tons all told.”

“Meet me at pad three in four hours, and you’re covering the fuel.”

I sat there in a state of semi-shock as he walked away. I’d thought he would have been the hardest to recruit. Breaking out of my stupor I got up and walked back to Billie.

“Pad three, four hours. Make sure you have a full survival kit in your mech.”

Funeral Song – Angreal – Soldier – Al Raabist

Born of light, fair child,
Brought unto this world by boldest whim to spread fair and far,
A most beautiful charm now,
Erst not since broken by the befouling of flesh.

Light Maker, Light Taker,
Accept in the daylight this child’s own sun,
That we may bask now,
Bask in the light of this child’s kind sun.

Spirit, we thank thee.
Spirit, we honor thee.
Spirit, we implore thee,
Forget not thy family,
Watch o’er them fully,
That they might be at peace.

Funeral Song – Human – Soldier – Al Raabist

Then came the stranger who sat at our table,
A wandering soul for whom we had no fable,
But Light Maker blessed me, and I addressed thee,
please join this feast with our blessing.
Through the night we drank and sang with no ire,
Come the morn we broke bread by the same fire,
we were blessed then to know thee,
A light unlike our own but warm and comforting.
Come eve’ again and the darkness doth encroach,
The cold come to bind our hearts in our throats,
But warmth and love we found within thee,
Gave whole of yourself without reserve or flagging.

Spirit, we thank thee.
Spirit, we honor thee.
Spirit, we implore thee,
Forget not thy family,
Watch o’er them fully,
That they might be at peace.

I’ve been working in games for a while now, to varying success. Did art for Fae’s Wyrd by PsychoAvatar, and for our next project as well. I haven’t been skimping on my other projects though, just developing a workflow. However, in the process of developing this workflow, I’ve picked up an important thing about doing your own game design.

Always find the simplest form of your idea. The simplest part, the simplest project, and work from there. That streamlined ultra-low level concept is about as much as your going to be able to make without the backing of a huge team, and it’ll usually be hard enough in and of itself. Now sure, if you have a few years to develop, you can eventually evolve that into something bigger, but it’s not just about how fast you can turn a project around. It’s about how well you can keep yourself motivated, and keep the ideas and concepts straight while your building it. Cargo moves from point a to point b seems like a really simple concept, but after a while you’ll be hip deep in queue structures, custom datatypes and various patches and streamlines of the system. Start working in a second area that has to have the same code work but isn’t really “about” that code and any breakages in your old code become confusing, and it’s hard to keep track of whats really working with the overall idea and what’s just implementation detail.

This is also why 20 page detailed design docs aren’t really a good show of your strength as a designer, in my opinion. It’s not what you ideally want, it’s what you can simplify the overwrought idea down into that matters.

Just a thought.

“Witnesses claim they left towards Freehold, we’ll be taking this road at a hard ride. Our goal is to get my son back, the Seeker is secondary.” The six man posse surrounded the reef, as close together as their horses would allow. “With any luck we should catch up to them by dusk.”

“Sir, there’s someone approaching from the road.” They reformed into a single file line attempting to appraise the cloaked figure approaching. The figure was obviously a woman, a halberd with an oversized blade strapped to her back. As she walked her upper body jerked and spasmed at regular intervals. One of the posse, Milak, broke formation and rode out to her.

“Clear the road, we’ve got a party about to ride out!”

“Ahh, what terrible music…” she said. Her pupils seemed dilated, her clothes torn and stained by varying shades of red. “Can you hear… the music?”

“Hear me!? Make way!” The rider closed and gave her a hard kick in the face, knocking her to her knees the halberd clattering from her back onto the ground.

“I suppose… their song has abandoned you…” In a single boneless movement she grabbed the haft of the halberd and spun around. The force of her movement carried the blade through the man’s body without so much as a pause. She danced around his falling torso to charge at the Reef’s formation along a swaying almost drunken route.

“Kill her, quickly!” The Reef’s men charged as well, some drawing swords while others leveled spears. One of the spear carriers came in for first strike, thrusting for her torso. She smashed the head of the halberd into the ground, using it’s haft to vault over the spear head. Rather than letting go she spun around so that she kicked the haft just below the blade, launching it into the air. Using her body as a fulcrum she spun the hooked end up into the air piercing the rider to the lung and dragging him off his horse. She landed gracefully both feet on the ground her stance low. Then she swung wide to the left to avoid the sword of a rider who was passing nearby.

A third rider approached, hoping to thrust his sword into her while the halberd was caught in his companion. She dove to the ground, but kicked the haft up into the air. It’s metal capped tip caught the man in the sternum knocking him off his horse winded. the force of impact jarred the hook free of it’s previous victim. A spear man charged her from the front while a swordsman came from the back, hoping to trap her in a crossfire. With a scream she balanced on her heels and spun the halberd around in a circle. The spear landed a blow in her left upper arm, but the forelegs of their horses were cut. Collapsing, their horses threw them violently to the ground. She pulled the spear from the wound with her right arm, her left obviously falling to the side useless.

The final rider besides the Reef charged hoping to take advantage, but she effortlessly lobbed the spear through the air towards him. He charged dismissing it’s slow arc through the air, only to have the tip slice through his throat, killing him near instantly.

The Reef finally dehorsed, and approached the woman cautiously on foot. He dodged her initial swing. Sensing it was too wide he dodged again, barely avoiding a back swing with it’s hook. He lunged in with his sword. She blocked with the haft of her halberd, turning it into a clinch. He leaned on her with all his might, hoping to overpower her guard. It gave for a second, causing him to lean ever harder, then he found himself sailing through the air from her sudden push upwards against him.

For a few seconds it seemed as though timed slowed down. He hung in the air watching the blade of her weapon sail in a graceful arc towards him. He had no way of moving. No chance of dodging. He could only watch the blade gliding ever closer. Finally it slid into his stomach. Searing pain shot out to every inch of his body. It was made that much worse by then being crushed into the ground when he landed on his back.

He silently watched. He felt his life run out as she pulled the halberd from his body and began walking towards the village. “Who.. are…” the man who had only been winded began to ask. She fluidly swung the halberd around, crushing his head with the dull back edge of the hook. “Silva… wait, should I have said… before killing him? Better next time… I guess.” Silva of the blood lakes, the three kingdom killer, at least he was killed by a legend he thought before it all finally went black.

A link to the DeviantArt of this weeks art piece.

Just got a new style of brush worked out, doing a lot of work with it.

On a completely unrelated note…
Akido Tank
Akido tanks don’t require any specific focus, all of it’s skills draw from the immediately available unarmed skill cloud so leg strength can be especially important if you intend to also do damage.

The basic setup for an akido tank is to set up each row so that you have a redirect, evasion and counter/invasion(opener)/throw(closer).
Redirects: Change the direction of their strike and add to it’s cooldown time. It’ll prevent them from parrying as well, so it’s a good way to open up a tougher opponent for your teammates to get some undisturbed attack time. If a redirect fails you’ll take 2x normal damage.
Evasion: Some basic dodges to avoid taking damage. Even if an evasion fails the damage dealt will be reduced 33%.
Counter: An attack timed to strike slightly faster than an opponent, disrupting their current attack. Very powerful against AOE opponents.
Invasion: A form of counter where rather than just striking an opponent, you instead enter their space and use their own movements to increase the power of your attack. Deals base kick damage + 33% of the enemy’s base damage for the attack countered.
Throw: Does no damage on it’s own, but knocks down opponent and moves them several meters away. Requires the lower body strength to overcome their weight.

Akido tanks have a slight disadvantage due to their requiring the opponent to be attacking, but it isn’t they themselves that necessarily need to be under attack. They are pretty much always light on the damage dealing, but a well timed invasion can floor an enemy who was going for a big burst damage attack. They are one of the few types where their effectiveness tends to decrease as you go upwards in base size, they are at their best with the speed to get in their counters and completely evade attacks.

He sat at the fire, the warmth of the hearth seeping into his bones. The villagers in the inn avoided him, a few of the more brazen snickering into their mead. It wasn’t a bad feeling, to have the space to simply eat without anyone intruding on his thoughts. Of course, this wouldn’t be much of a story if that lasted long.

The young man sat down across from him. Usually the ones who came to him were the sociopaths looking for a good laugh, but this young man seemed more earnest and straightforward. The silence continued for a few moments as the young man obviously gathered his courage.

“You’re a dragon seeker.” It came out as more of a statement, no lilt to the end to indicate a question. The older man simply leveled an even gaze on him, not denying it. “Will you take me with you?”

“How old are you?” he asked. He felt the conversation die off in the rest of the inn.

“Seventeen, sir. I may be young but I’m good with a bow and can take care of myself on the road.” The young man’s eyes didn’t waver even though his jaw tensed and released several times after he was done.

He leaned back. It was a surprisingly brave request, delivered boldly. Any chance he may have had at a peaceful life in this village had just been destroyed in any case. “Parents?”

“I’m making this decision on my own, I’ve already got my gear ready in the stables, with my horse.”

Nodding he said, “All right then, we leave within the hour, just let me settle my tab with the barkeep. Go out and get my horse ready to go.” The young man nodded and left to the stables. As he settled his tab with the barkeep one of the patrons leaned over.

“Ki’s the so’ing Reef’s son, you’re asking for ‘ouble just walking ou’ with him, Seeker.” He said.

“He’s a man by tradition, therefore as ready as any seeker before him. I can understand the situation well enough, it reminds me of someone.”

“An’ who migh’ tha’ be?”

The seeker simply smiled then walked out to the stables.

*Later on the road.*

“What name should I know you by?” the Seeker asked.

“Kron” he answered.

“Apprentice Kron then. I am Noi Hargen, you will address as me as Seeker Hargen, or just Seeker, until you are officially inducted as a Seeker.”

Kron looked off into the forest around them. “Seeker Hargen, is it true… what they say.”

The Seeker nodded to himself, he’d figured it would come down to this in the end. “If I’m understanding you correctly, to some extent yes, though I myself am not. The Seekers are as much a place of last refuge for those who feel there is no place they would be truly welcome. I’m sure you can understand why there would be a great deal of overlap. In any case, we should pick up our pace, I’m sure that as soon as word of your recruitment spreads we’ll be in for company you may not be ready for.”

The two goaded their horses into a fast but not especially taxing trot, hurrying away from the shire and township they’d just left.

“No time like the present to begin your training though,” Hargen shouted over the sound of their riding. “Tell me, what do you know of dragons already?”

“Nobody has seen one for at least four hundred years. Long ago, however, they lived side by side with humanity, but finally faded with disease and then the hunts.”

“Good, and why do you think we seek the dragons?”

“I don’t know. I mean they said around the village that the Dragon Seekers look for them to vanquish them as in the old tales from the hunts.”

“And do you believe this?”

“No. I can’t imagine anyone seeking out something so long forgotten just to get a trophy.”

Hargen rode in silence for a while before finally speaking. “Our task is not the eradication of dragons, you are correct. You will not be made aware of our full task until your training is finished and you’ve been recognized by the order at Drakemont. However, I can tell you that we desire to discover and preserve the unique beauty that dragons brought to the world. This means we seek not only living dragons, but also dragon relics from both before and after the hunts.”

The young man nodded, taking the revalation in stride, or perhaps simply too preoccupied with his steed to fully process the information.

“Now, the three guiding principles of a Seeker are…”

Unfortunately I really suck at drawing the same character multiple times, but that is supposed to be the same character up there just in and out of armor. The first one is her in the attire she wears around her own court, the second she is wearing her mother’s armor and wielding her father’s zweihänder.

So Grand Marchioness Foira Edemaera is the 19 year old main character. The Edemaera family are one of the imperial family’s strongest supporters. Originally they controlled a northern march along the border, battling foreign invaders and conquering ever greater swaths northward. Their main force was South quelling a rebellion when the Jolla horde’s conquered their way across the continent and finally invaded the Empire. During a several day battle at the pass leading to the capital, Dorell Edemaera turned back the horde and chased them northwards until they eventually disappeared into the jungles. For their efforts they were awarded the fortress built to protect the pass and it’s nearby village. For several generations they were the primary power in imperial politics, until a succession dispute led to their losing the better part of their northern territories to treachery and foreign invaders. When all was said and done, the family had split in two, the Edemaeras and the Montgraives with the Edemaeras controlling only the fortress near the capital and it’s lands. The Edemaeras however kept the title Grand Marchess, allowing the holder to assume command of the imperial army during war with foreign powers.

Although their star may not seem to be on the rise, they are still renowned for the quality of their soldiers, and carry a high rank in the imperial court. It is widely accepted that anyone hoping to attain power over the court will have to deal with them in one manner or another.

I strained my arm a bit reaching into the barrel of the large pulse laser to polish the exposed optics inside, outside Dulcman finally pulled up in his clunky old truck. I pulled my arm out, swishing the cloth around the opening, a dab of polish along the edge of the barrel would keep burned particulates from building up as the weapon was fired, extending it’s life in the field.

“Imagine that, one Clan War relic polishing another.” Dulcman said as he walked into the shade of the barn.
“That’s how you make it to relic, by looking out for each other. Anyways, you got my munitions?”
“It’s all there, brought the crane truck to help with loading. I can back it on in and get to work whenever you’re ready. By the way, where is the lbx going?”
“Right here,” I motioned to an open port under the laser.

For the next few hours we worked in relative silence, only talking to hammer out some detail of the fitting or coordinate things needing the both of us. The sun sat low on the horizon where it filtered in through the warps in the wood at the back of the barn by the time we had finished the fitting and polishing. We’d sat down on a bench that was handy, wiping away the sweat and drinking some god awful nutritional liquid packets, when Dulcman finally reached into his coat and pulled out a packet papers.

“It’s not as much as I’d like, but theres some names and contact info in there along with some decent surveillance. Looks like our revolutionaries are well armed and well funded, but not recovering well from the battle. They’ve got a battalion of mechs, which in itself is pretty nuts for a backwater like this, I’m smelling some heavy Liao funding here. Their most dangerous group is Company Delta, one assault mech per lance, with one mostly heavy lance and two mostly medium lances. The other two companies are all lights and a couple mediums. Looks like nobody trusted these jokers with any clan tech, so their assaults are fairly standard Marauders. Ton for ton, you’ll probably be the most dangerous thing on the battlefield, definitely the best mechwarrior on it. Of course, the army didn’t go down without a fight so some of their units are out of commission at the moment. Doubt they’re having an easy time finding anyone willing to deliver replacement parts either.”
“My only objective is to free the Duchess, this should be plenty to keep ‘em busy.”
“I figured as much, but it may not be that simple. If you’ve been watching the news then you know Marik’s been cock blocking planet gov’s attempts to increase security funding. Truth is, they’ve given us up as too much trouble for our level of independence. They’re refusing to send support troops unless we agree to a finish the annexing process immediately, even the jokers in the capital aren’t stupid enough to just agree to that. You may be the only thing resembling a military once this is done so don’t expect to just walk away.”
“If that winds up the case I’ll figure something out. So who am I looking at here?”
“John Rafkin, came in during the construction boom and bought himself a small dropship and a commercial pilot’s license. With the boom over the work for smaller ships dried up, all went to the big guys who could run multiple jobs at once. He’s a gambler too looking at a small fortune in debt so it shouldn’t be too hard to get the ship itself if you don’t want to work with him. Next is Billie Moser, she’s got a raven with a working beagle due to some research initiative or some shit. Anyways, research fell through but the Raven stayed behind. Figured you’re looking at hit and run tactics to start with, in which case the beagle is probably your best shot for coming back alive. After that are a few standard issue lowlifes who stand something to loose if the power shifts. I wouldn’t trust ‘em too far, but you’re going to need some boots on the ground if you’re really gonna get this done.”
“Thanks Dulce.”
“Yeah well the information wasn’t free, but Raffard paid for it when I called him to set up the deal. Guess he still feels he owes you something. Theres a message in there for you at the bottom of the stack.” He got up to walk back to his truck in the waning daylight, turning around one last time, “don’t go and get yourself killed. I’ve buried enough customers in this business, would hate to bury a friend.” A few moments later the truck was fading into the horizon, leaving me alone with the ‘mech, and the papers. I separated out the note and stuffed in my pocket, I’d read it later, right now I had homework to do.

I eat breakfast. I put a kettle on, go out and take care of the animals. Gene rips, all of them, need some special care, but the milk is good and the breeding brings me in enough to live off of. Come back in and have my morning tea while starting on todays book. I stop reading long enough to grab some lunch and turn on the ComStar broadcast, I see her giving some speech, it’s enough for me. Do some errands, fix some broken posts, work on getting this old hover car back into working shape, that sort of thing. Then I go to sleep, and let the cycle start again. Days go by, then months, and somewhere along the line it became years. She was still on the broadcast, that hover car still didn’t work, and I still hadn’t forgotten or disappeared. Should have known, though, nothing lasts forever.

“We’re receiving reports from the planet’s southern continent more regularly now, they are confirming that Duchess Regina Enkel has been taken into custody at the city of New Dunkirk by members of the Veban Revolutionary Order. The VRO is claiming that their goal is for control of the planet to be relinquished to House Liao.”

I picked up the com receiver and punched in Dulcman’s number.
“Dulcie here, what can I do fer you.”
“Dulce, I need a full armament. LRM20s, some of those S-SRMs you’ve got stashed away, gauss rifle ammo, oh and an lbx-ac 5 if you’ve got it.”
“Ho ho, guess you been watching the news. Don’t know how you knew about my stash, but for you, it’s all on the table. Now about my price…”
“You know where to charge it, they still owe me a few. By the way, it’s worth double if you can get it out here and loaded before nightfall.”
“Be there within the hour, always a pleasure.”
There was more that I’d need so I went back to my room, into that closet I never used and opened that box I never open. The nano helmet was dusty, forgotten, but a few diagnostic button presses proved it was still functioning like new. The gun next to it came apart easy enough as I swabbed it back into shape. No sense letting some dust get me killed. Finally I walked out to the barn, listening to the rippers groan and bleat to no one in particular. Opening the transformer box revealed a small and unassuming switch next to the main circuit breakers which I pressed in and held for twenty seconds. Mechanical buzzing and whirring filled the air and the ground shook as the floor parted in the center of the barn. Achingly slowly, the frame rose out of the ground and up into position, the doors closing underneath it, finally falling with an immense metal on metal ring to rest both feet on the ground.

I look up, appreciating the simple beauty of the frame, the sleek curves and the angry mix of red and yellow paint in a digital camouflage formation. The Mad Cat merely looked out the door of the barn into open space. Conserving energy for the fight to come, I thought, then walked over and started filling a bucket of water, like I said, no sense letting the dust get me killed.