I doubt armor is going to be the deciding factor in this fight. I would imagine the deciding factors would be
(1) Who's better trained (Democlus)
(2) Who's most skilled with their weapons (Democlus)
(3) Who fires first (undecided)
(4) who takes longer to bleed out (probably Democlus)
and (5) Who has more/better friends at hand (Democlus).
But just for the record, I'd say it's a fair bet that Democlus also has the better armor, for the following reasons:
He's one of Maxus's guys
His armor has no gaudy ornaments and generally looks more functional rather than aesthetic (that's not the armor: that'[s his incredible abs showing through the armor)
Democlus' armor resemble Superman, while the guards' armor resembles... storm troopers
Also Democlus is one of maxus' guys.
Here, I'll repeat that to make sure it sinks in: Democlus is one of maxus' guys.
If that wasn't enough to convince you that Democlus has to win. consider this: Democlus is fighting to defend three beautiful women, while the guards are fighting for prince douchebag and so that said douchebag doesn't have the Cassians tear them limb from limb.
So... yeah. I'd say the smart money's on Democlus.
Note: the guards don't even have names, I bet. Can I get confirmation on that, Cent?
I seem to recall someone commenting on Democlus' armor changing when he was promoted to Acantha's dedicated guard. I don't recall if that was just a decoration difference or if they outfitted him with something better. I could see Maxus going the second route, all things considered. I mean, the scenario of him needing to resist some blue boys for a while was a fairly likely scenario Maxus would've considered at that point.
on the question of armor .. The blues are wearing Heavy Armor ( See tech entry ) any resemblance to superman is coincidental :D
Democleus is armed with a Laser Pistol and a Medium Power blade.
THe Blues are carrying a light power blade and a plasma sub rifle . ( see tech entry )
and .. oh hell just go to the tech page. ...
The Princes Men have to go though the same training as the red guys.. BUT they are a "elite" force .. mostly because they know how to keep there mouths shut around the prince and have no issues with his "Tastes" and a lot of them are criminals and other such scum .
(and the man in the back said everyone attack and it turned into a ballroom blitz,
and the girl in the corner said boy I tried to warn ya it would turn into a ballroom blitz, ballroom blitz)
Isn't that going to make Lynn more of a target (as not being with Acantha could be seen as an attempt to escape)? Could Acantha's instructions give Decimus a reason to openly take action against her (as she is disobeying his direct order)?
I suspect that Acantha will be right next to Lynn.
Basically, she's trying to get the ladies out of the line of fire, so Democlus doesn't have to worry about them and can go all out on the blue boys.
Don't talk just DO! I have a feeling Democlus will take both of them down, but will be injured, not fatally, but enough slow him and the ladies down enough for Nox to get close.
After Nox gets close I don't have any ideas what might transpire, but I think that Dolly will come up and finish Nox before Lynn and Acantha suffer any permanent damage. Not that they are immune from Nox's rage, remember she will hurt them if necessary, just not fatally.
I can't imagine story CentComm wouldn't have some nasty surprises for the Cassians as part of Ceci's upgrades.
If CentComm had a clear view of the situation, she'd just have dropped a payload of "inhibitor-destroying nanobots" on the Black Palace a week ago, though. So I'm not assuming that she's got omniscient info, but enemy combat robots (maybe androids, maybe non-sentient) would've been an obvious given.
If they split up then how do Dolly and Ceci protect them both? If Max arrives at a similar time to Dolly, how do Lynn and Acantha stop them fighting one another without losing ground to the other players?
I take it that Acantha is about to use that gun? If that's the case, won't that give Nox permission to injure her severely?
{edit} What if other players in this drama catch up with them? Things could get complicated fast!
The first time I read it I saw "get back in the elavator and down". I thought that meant "go down one floor". It was only after velvetsanity's post that I re-read it a little more carefully.
There are other reasons why I didn't notice things but I'll send that to you in a PM.
Acantha is telling them to take cover inside the elevator, not to leave, people. Sheesh. You guys need to go watch more action movies for urban interior tactics. Yippie-ki-yay, I know Kung fu, and all that. It's an actual, viable tactic.
elevator shafts tend to be markedly reinforced, plus it's the only available cover at the moment.
If she can even stagger one blueb, Democlus will get the other and then make short work of the survivor.
Yep. Elevator doors make pretty good/viable cover too.
I wasn't clear if Acantha was going to try to take a shot at the blue boys past Democlus or if she was planning to take cover as next line of defense in the elevator if either get past him (and trying to let him know she has the defense so he can focus on the one if needed). I suppose it depends on how clear her shot is and how likely she thinks she'll be of help that way or more likely to get injured and cause a problem.
Given that his job is protection, anything that makes his charges less noticeable should help him do his job. I wouldn't be surprised if Max trains them to use that visibility to their advantage.
Democlus vs. Douchebag's bully boys. This should be interesting. I'm guessin they have the same grade of armor, just different colors. The laser sword is a nice touch and could come in handy.
Looks like Democlus is trying to protect the women with his body, otherwise he should duck and roll to give them less of a target. I dunno what Acantha figures she's gonna do with that popgun against armor.
Its actually a "power blade" and made of metal but with a energy field that rips apart matter. they are one of the most dangerous melee weapons in Datachasers.
and yes he is trying to protect them and he ( spoilers ) :D
Maxus chose him personally to protect the only hope for Nova Roma.
Democlus may well be second only to Maxus and if that armor is anything like what I would've used for men like that, it'll have an ablative coating and a conductive outer shell that should laugh off the first plasma bolt or two.
They'll not have time for a third shot.
Also, at this range, that pistol would at least stagger one of them enough for him to close with that sword. If it is as nasty as I believe it to be, one blow will be more than enough.
Oh hey, also, is there a way to take that energy field on the blade and say, project it into a beam that could be swept across multiple targets at range?
My guess is no b/c that would be a WMD. With a little effort, you could chop the planet in half. I'd also like to note that this sounds like it could be similar to the Slaver Disintegrator from Ringworld, which works by temporarily negating the electrostatic fields of either all of the positively- or all of the negatively-charged particles in a small volume of space. The rest of the charges particles then decide that they want to get as far away from each other as possible, which they proceed to do, with devastating results. The interesting thing about this idea is that it would also explain the sparky effect around the blade. The sparks are the high voltage discharges of all the electrons that used to be attached to air molecules that wandered too close to the blade (likely because of the vacuum that surrounds it).
hey this Ring world sounds interesting like a true science fiction novel is it any good? i need a new book and I am sick of this teen crap that's so common these days
Sheela, if it's a noisy cricket, then wouldn't that be rather painful to Acantha if she has to fire it (when the recoil throws her through the rear wall of the elevator)?
On the note of the field around the sword .. ( does no one look at the tech pages? )
The field has to follow wave guides in the structure they surround .. Its a by product of shield tech it causes micro reactions in matter that causes it to separate at the atomic level .. the sowrd is the projector and keeps the field useable .. its also made of very very durable metal so it can be used as a plain Sword as well :D
Yes, I have read the tech pages. I had just stopped checking for new stuff after realizing that there hadn't been an update in several months.
I just checked it again, and it doesn't really explain how the energy field works. It says it breaks molecular bonds but doesn't say how and neglects to explain the sparky effect.
I also have questions about shield tech. The duty cycles on the shields seem awfully short. I wonder if the duration is affected by incoming fire. It would make sense if plasma weapons had more effect on shields than kinetic weapons, due to EM effects. How do shields interact with other nearby shields? If shields remain transparent, does that mean they have no effect on laser weapons?
Sorry didnt mean to sound Catty ..
Honestly I dont have a real explanation on how a power blade works. Im sure that Mister Black or someone can come up with a better technobabble way of explaining it. THe lighting effect is a by product of the blades operation. thats all I can say.
As for the Shields the shields have a pool of energy they can use to stop attacks in it takes a LOT of energy to create a sustained force field so unless hooked to a constant power supply ( like a fusion power plant they cant run for a long time. and yes incoming weapons fire does deplete the shield the amount varys by the incoming damage.
also there are several KINDS of shields .. Deflector , Velocity , and Barrier Deflectors work by shunting energy from attacks away from the user they work best at Kenetic and Photon based attacks, They tend to be weak against massive impacts and radiation. Velocity Shields sap incoming projectiles of kinetic energy .. these work pretty much ONLY against attacks that have kinetic energy .. and then there is Barrier shields these are the most powerful and correspondingly shortest duration of the personal shields they Stop everything. Sheields can have massive feedback when in contact with each other and in some cases can even damage the user of the shield. Barriers stop everything and normally appear as a grid or similar haze when hit. Adaptive Shields are another variant these work by matching the attack with a equal energy wave. these also have issues.
Good catch about Acantha .. Lynn has some light skills from Dolly drilling her in self defense. but its not warfare. Dolly's exact training on fights is mostly AVIOD them!!
That is, the training Dolly gives. Not necessarily the one she has, I take it?
Although I'm sure she's a black belt in the art of avoiding unnecessary conflict.
Dolly is somewhat of a Master on half a dozen forms of combat. mostly revolving around hand to hand and pistols. Although shes not a bad sniper. as well..
If he is as accomplished a fighter as Max, then it should be a quick fight. If either of the guards is a competent shot, and their rifles deal out even reasonable stopping power, it should be a quick fight.
Side question for you guys; do any of the staff in the palace get along? Seems like pretty much everyone in there is on edge and looking for any excuse to go on a foul-mouthed, murderous rampage! =P
keep in mind the kind of armor there. They'd need solid penetration, good stopping power, and a well placed shot, in CQC which is challenging, especially for those whose training has grown lax, all while they're getting staggered by a sidearm then trying to survive one of the nastiest melee weapons in setting.
And those look just like the plasma weapons used against Maxus. Demolus' armor probably does have ablative properties, and resistance to projectile/puncturing weapons. While Democlus' sword is like Maxus' sword and can cut right through Bluebs armor.
The only issue I can think of is if the bluebs target Democlus's joints, those are going to be less protected in order to allow proper movement and will be weaker areas.
Most of the staff in the palace get along reasonably well with each other. However, every last one of the dudes in blue armor is a total asshole who kicks puppies, takes candy from children, and does over-the-top horrible things that I don't even want to name for fear of being accused of gratuitous ickiness.
Targetting joints on a moving target is hard with, well, really anything.
At this range, practically impossible because you have no time to line up the shot. A join hit would just be luck.
Rose caught the question about how the staff gets along..
Demo is about half the mass of Maxus .. Max's fighting style is Brute force .. powering though and crushing his opponents and terrifying them by just blowing though the target.. power swords can cancle each other with out cutting normally . Hrist uses a power blade. its just lighter and designed for quick and delicate work Maxus was hitting it with a Hammer of god style it was never designed to handle ..
Demo is a elegance fighter. using speed and skill rather than brute force.
Democlus was detailed to be Acantha's exclusive guard after Decimus got drunk & started talking himself into raping Acantha before Lynn brained him. There is not even the tiniest bit of a chance that the concept of him having to go up against one or more blue guards who would fail to respect Maxus' authority would've failed to have been high in Maxus' mind as a possibility.
Whatever adjustments can be made to armor to make it harder for the standard issue for the blue boys to damage Democlus will have been done. Likely Maxus specifically prepared and trained Democlus with the expectation he would need to resist, and even kill, some blue boys.
Blue boys are overconfident and overly reliant on people's fear of Decimus and a carte blanche to get their rocks off hurting people, and Decimus doesn't care much about how up-to-date they are on their training or their fighting discipline.
It's actually feasible that Democlus could get through this with no significant injuries, despite two blue boys already having their rifles trained on him (we saw how well the plasma did with a little prep by Maxus in his apartment).
Reading this again, why do I get the feeling Arianna is going to go with the emotional response rather than the logical tactical response and get behind cover?
And there seems to be some action further down the field...yes, Datacatchers has overtaken Beast Legion...DC is just a nose ahead...DC is pulling away from Beast Legion....Delve still in front of DC...Delve ahead by about 500 points...DC starting to close the gap....Will DC make it before the end of the month?
It's been interesting to see how the average standing have been going up the list over time.
I think Datachasers was around rank 50-60 when I started following, and up until recently, it seemed too hang around rank 20 ... but this last month has been really good, at sub-15 most of the time.
The sword and side arm are nice, but what he really should have is the technological equivalent of a twelve gauge street sweeper with HEAP and AP rounds.
(And I voted! I voted! Really I did.)
In a purely military operation that might be a good option. While shepherding civilians, who will do the DAMNDEST things, it wouldn't be as good. Too much chance of the spray catching someone you wouldn't want hit, I think.
Stormwind caught it . its why Dolly Specializes in pistol as well . its compact and precise in her line of work thats whats needed .. not spray and pray methods :D
Plus, as an android, she can put those rounds very precisely, increasing the actual damage done, even with just the heavy L-shard pistol she usually uses.
Well, at least she used to be able to.
Her new body seems a lot less accurate, at least until she gets used to it.
No matter what you might think of the movies (though most people I met at least liked them), you cannot dispute they supplied us with ample reference for cool power armour action. Including this.
That grade of armor is the sort I would mass deploy. Good, solid, articulated combat armor. Dolly has excellent taste.
I'd of course paint the whole thing with appropriate camouflage in an ablative paint.
Given her wonderfully practical nature, I suspect Dolly would do the same outside an urban environment, and it probably has an effective measure of foiling energy weapons anyways.
I would also like to say this is my all time favorite comic, and has one of my favorite communities of any comic.
Out of curiosity, does ComicFury allow you to have additional levels of indentation to indicate comment replies? It orders them properly that way, but it can be hard to follow at times when it can make it hard to follow conversations as it is.
No worries, just thought I'd ask. Looking a little closer, I'm guessing the functionality is probably not there. I'd been assuming they were using WordPress under the hood, and that can be set to have a maximum comment depth and will render with indentation to that depth (but then won't accept replies to max depth comments, you have to reply to the parent of a max depth comment). Looking through the page source, if they're using WordPress, it's a bit more heavily customized (or a very old version) than most comics use. So I'm guessing they're using something else and it looks like it might not have a feature for depth past one.
Oh well. Would've been nice, but it's still a hell of a lot better than the mess Patreon just decided to "upgrade" to for their post comments.
Hmm, okayyy, I'ma take a guess here....Bluebs get off a shot or two at Democlus, Dem gets clipped, but not killed; Acantha drops one blueb with a lucky shot and Dem gets the other even though he's (temporarily) down.
So who's armor is better?
(1) Who's better trained (Democlus)
(2) Who's most skilled with their weapons (Democlus)
(3) Who fires first (undecided)
(4) who takes longer to bleed out (probably Democlus)
and (5) Who has more/better friends at hand (Democlus).
But just for the record, I'd say it's a fair bet that Democlus also has the better armor, for the following reasons:
He's one of Maxus's guys
His armor has no gaudy ornaments and generally looks more functional rather than aesthetic (that's not the armor: that'[s his incredible abs showing through the armor)
Democlus' armor resemble Superman, while the guards' armor resembles... storm troopers
Also Democlus is one of maxus' guys.
Here, I'll repeat that to make sure it sinks in: Democlus is one of maxus' guys.
If that wasn't enough to convince you that Democlus has to win. consider this: Democlus is fighting to defend three beautiful women, while the guards are fighting for prince douchebag and so that said douchebag doesn't have the Cassians tear them limb from limb.
So... yeah. I'd say the smart money's on Democlus.
Note: the guards don't even have names, I bet. Can I get confirmation on that, Cent?
I guess they are called Septimus and Exitus or something the like =P
Democleus is armed with a Laser Pistol and a Medium Power blade.
THe Blues are carrying a light power blade and a plasma sub rifle . ( see tech entry )
and .. oh hell just go to the tech page. ...
The Princes Men have to go though the same training as the red guys.. BUT they are a "elite" force .. mostly because they know how to keep there mouths shut around the prince and have no issues with his "Tastes" and a lot of them are criminals and other such scum .
Why is Democleus wearing pilot's armour?
and yeah the pistol has not been added yet.
(and the man in the back said everyone attack and it turned into a ballroom blitz,
and the girl in the corner said boy I tried to warn ya it would turn into a ballroom blitz, ballroom blitz)
Basically, she's trying to get the ladies out of the line of fire, so Democlus doesn't have to worry about them and can go all out on the blue boys.
That's my guess.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=geHLdg_VNww
If CentComm had a clear view of the situation, she'd just have dropped a payload of "inhibitor-destroying nanobots" on the Black Palace a week ago, though. So I'm not assuming that she's got omniscient info, but enemy combat robots (maybe androids, maybe non-sentient) would've been an obvious given.
I take it that Acantha is about to use that gun? If that's the case, won't that give Nox permission to injure her severely?
{edit} What if other players in this drama catch up with them? Things could get complicated fast!
There are other reasons why I didn't notice things but I'll send that to you in a PM.
Sorry for the snark, I'm a bit tired...
If she can even stagger one blueb, Democlus will get the other and then make short work of the survivor.
I wasn't clear if Acantha was going to try to take a shot at the blue boys past Democlus or if she was planning to take cover as next line of defense in the elevator if either get past him (and trying to let him know she has the defense so he can focus on the one if needed). I suppose it depends on how clear her shot is and how likely she thinks she'll be of help that way or more likely to get injured and cause a problem.
also yes.. his job is to protect them .. and that means taking the shots so be it :D
I think it would be awesome.
Looks like Democlus is trying to protect the women with his body, otherwise he should duck and roll to give them less of a target. I dunno what Acantha figures she's gonna do with that popgun against armor.
and yes he is trying to protect them and he ( spoilers ) :D
Democlus may well be second only to Maxus and if that armor is anything like what I would've used for men like that, it'll have an ablative coating and a conductive outer shell that should laugh off the first plasma bolt or two.
They'll not have time for a third shot.
Also, at this range, that pistol would at least stagger one of them enough for him to close with that sword. If it is as nasty as I believe it to be, one blow will be more than enough.
He's NOT just another redshirt.
It just might turn out to be a "Noisy Cricket". ;)
Oh hey, also, is there a way to take that energy field on the blade and say, project it into a beam that could be swept across multiple targets at range?
The field has to follow wave guides in the structure they surround .. Its a by product of shield tech it causes micro reactions in matter that causes it to separate at the atomic level .. the sowrd is the projector and keeps the field useable .. its also made of very very durable metal so it can be used as a plain Sword as well :D
I just checked it again, and it doesn't really explain how the energy field works. It says it breaks molecular bonds but doesn't say how and neglects to explain the sparky effect.
I also have questions about shield tech. The duty cycles on the shields seem awfully short. I wonder if the duration is affected by incoming fire. It would make sense if plasma weapons had more effect on shields than kinetic weapons, due to EM effects. How do shields interact with other nearby shields? If shields remain transparent, does that mean they have no effect on laser weapons?
Honestly I dont have a real explanation on how a power blade works. Im sure that Mister Black or someone can come up with a better technobabble way of explaining it. THe lighting effect is a by product of the blades operation. thats all I can say.
As for the Shields the shields have a pool of energy they can use to stop attacks in it takes a LOT of energy to create a sustained force field so unless hooked to a constant power supply ( like a fusion power plant they cant run for a long time. and yes incoming weapons fire does deplete the shield the amount varys by the incoming damage.
also there are several KINDS of shields .. Deflector , Velocity , and Barrier Deflectors work by shunting energy from attacks away from the user they work best at Kenetic and Photon based attacks, They tend to be weak against massive impacts and radiation. Velocity Shields sap incoming projectiles of kinetic energy .. these work pretty much ONLY against attacks that have kinetic energy .. and then there is Barrier shields these are the most powerful and correspondingly shortest duration of the personal shields they Stop everything. Sheields can have massive feedback when in contact with each other and in some cases can even damage the user of the shield. Barriers stop everything and normally appear as a grid or similar haze when hit. Adaptive Shields are another variant these work by matching the attack with a equal energy wave. these also have issues.
This is almost as good as dolly expressing herself! (my slight prejudice may be showing here!)
Cent I thought Rose issued all the Blue guys red shirts so people know who to shoot first! I think they are out of uniform.
Although I'm sure she's a black belt in the art of avoiding unnecessary conflict.
Side question for you guys; do any of the staff in the palace get along? Seems like pretty much everyone in there is on edge and looking for any excuse to go on a foul-mouthed, murderous rampage! =P
The only issue I can think of is if the bluebs target Democlus's joints, those are going to be less protected in order to allow proper movement and will be weaker areas.
At this range, practically impossible because you have no time to line up the shot. A join hit would just be luck.
Demo is about half the mass of Maxus .. Max's fighting style is Brute force .. powering though and crushing his opponents and terrifying them by just blowing though the target.. power swords can cancle each other with out cutting normally . Hrist uses a power blade. its just lighter and designed for quick and delicate work Maxus was hitting it with a Hammer of god style it was never designed to handle ..
Demo is a elegance fighter. using speed and skill rather than brute force.
Whatever adjustments can be made to armor to make it harder for the standard issue for the blue boys to damage Democlus will have been done. Likely Maxus specifically prepared and trained Democlus with the expectation he would need to resist, and even kill, some blue boys.
Blue boys are overconfident and overly reliant on people's fear of Decimus and a carte blanche to get their rocks off hurting people, and Decimus doesn't care much about how up-to-date they are on their training or their fighting discipline.
It's actually feasible that Democlus could get through this with no significant injuries, despite two blue boys already having their rifles trained on him (we saw how well the plasma did with a little prep by Maxus in his apartment).
If that happens, the smurfs are in big trouble.
@alt text: it truly is epic :D
And yes I'm voting all I can. :-)
I think Datachasers was around rank 50-60 when I started following, and up until recently, it seemed too hang around rank 20 ... but this last month has been really good, at sub-15 most of the time.
It's nice to see it happen. :)
(And I voted! I voted! Really I did.)
Well, at least she used to be able to.
Her new body seems a lot less accurate, at least until she gets used to it.
But right now, they can't risk even trying one shot at Democlus.
For I am fairly certain that any orders by Decimus did include "Don't kill my sister!"
(Also: Yay for stylish visor drop!)
Ahurm
Now THAT is what I call combat armor.
Thank you.
I'd of course paint the whole thing with appropriate camouflage in an ablative paint.
Given her wonderfully practical nature, I suspect Dolly would do the same outside an urban environment, and it probably has an effective measure of foiling energy weapons anyways.
I would also like to say this is my all time favorite comic, and has one of my favorite communities of any comic.
Oh well. Would've been nice, but it's still a hell of a lot better than the mess Patreon just decided to "upgrade" to for their post comments.
Wouldn't hurt to ask, that's for sure.
Or, for even more drama, Arianna gets it.
I'm probably way off but it's fun to speculate.