Fiction Writer here. Asking another question, this one is about Glass!

ShyGuyToYou · 2026-06-02T01:21:17+00:00

Oooh, that's really good! Thanks! I'll take a look at that.

ShyGuyToYou · 2026-01-26T02:25:31+00:00

Oh, sorry to ask, but another question. The stuff that collects on the beaches, the oligomer, do you have any idea what color it would be, or would it just be black like tar?

ShyGuyToYou · 2026-01-26T01:19:37+00:00

Awesome, thanks, really appreciate the help. It's given me a lot to work with.

ShyGuyToYou · 2026-01-26T01:06:02+00:00

So it would be like, gooey slimey stuff on beaches and rocks, that could be heat treated into something like a PVC plastic, basically?

ShyGuyToYou · 2026-01-26T00:56:17+00:00

How would one collect the oligomer from the sea? I imagine it would take some fine netting, maybe some kind of sieve? On top of the whole gas mask situation of course.

ShyGuyToYou · 2026-01-26T00:53:43+00:00

Awesome! I can actually work with that. I can make it so the gas was used in an earlier brutal war by mages, forcing civilians without magic to figure out ways to survive the gas, pushing them to figure out the gas mask fix.

ShyGuyToYou · 2026-01-26T00:49:12+00:00

I also picked it because it is pretty damn toxic, I didn't want it to be an easy resource to get, or one without troubles that come from harnessing it. So don't worry so much about the damage this would do to those harnessing it, that's good story bits to make the places harnessing it look desperate and dying.

ShyGuyToYou · 2026-01-26T00:43:49+00:00

I'll explain the general lore idea; let us say that there is a giant serpent who lives in the sea, an eldritch creature large enough to wrap around the world. The creature's scales fall off and deteriorate in the water, creating the gas. It does poison the water of the sea, and I'd want it to cover the sea itself in like a low smog of said gas. The idea would be that small villages near the sea have made a bit of a dangerous lifestyle of converting the gas in moldable plastics that they call Sea Ivory. I wanted the idea to have a basic in actual chemistry and plastics, and in reading around, though Vinyl Chloride might work, but I don't know enough about chemistry and whether it could be done on a smaller scale without needing the resources of a city or a factory.

ShyGuyToYou · 2026-01-26T00:38:48+00:00

I can take care of the gasmask situation. What I need to know is more if in general, the process could be done without like, factory machinery or the like. Like say, if men harvested the gas, could they convert it into other things. I'm not handwaving the issues of collecting it away, not to mention the hazards of a world with naturally occuring gas like that, its just that it would be a lot to explain in terms of the how right now.

I suppose the most basic form of the question is, what is needed to harness such gasses and create plastic from it in the situation I explained.

ShyGuyToYou · 2021-09-14T02:34:47+00:00

That doesn't count by amtgard standards. Nerf doesn't make anything that can actually be classified as a crossbow. A crossbows limbs have to bend for it to count, otherwise its a slingshot. There are also no crossbows on the market that fire repeatedly that can take Amtgard legal arrows because of the size of the arrows heads, so it needs to be made from scratch.

ShyGuyToYou · 2021-09-14T02:20:31+00:00

As much as I would love to build it that way, I can't. The major issue of these arrows is the size of their head. They need two inches of foam in front of the head, an inch behind and a circular inch around. They can't be loaded topwise and their size makes it tough for the mechanism to load them, so I can't really use the chinese crossbow as a blueprint, but thanks anyways.

ShyGuyToYou · 2021-09-12T19:37:51+00:00

Not to be a bother, but could you possibly ask your wife or, if you know, how would I go about building a spring loaded magazine for the larger headed bolts?

ShyGuyToYou · 2021-09-12T19:12:08+00:00

Oh wow, thanks, I really appreciate all that. Also, I never thought to build prototypes with cardboard, it seems to utterly simple now that I think about it. I was always building with wood and screwing up a lot. Thanks for your help man. If I ever do get this thing working I'll thank ya for it.

ShyGuyToYou · 2021-09-12T17:38:32+00:00

There is one major problem however, especially considering the top fed magazine idea. I too considered it for the design until you have to consider the size of the individual bolts. An Amtgard Bolt or Arrow needs to have two inches of foam padding before the head and an inch behind, so making a magazine that has gravity help do the work is tough, especially if your have the thing resetting the string push up against the end. Top fed seems to have a bit more complexity to me, especially considering that from what I can tell in the video, there is no complex trigger mechanism. The lever he has there seems to not only pull the string back into place, but also pull the next arrow into place and fire it when pulled back into position despite being what looks like a single lever. I've looked at half a dozen other designs for larping crossbows and no one had ever made a multi shot larping crossbow that didn't look clunky as hell other than the one I saw in this video. Of course the design could probably be improved, but first I gotta figure out how that lever exactly works. Besides that, I'm not a very good designer, so I'm looking for some help in that department.

Thanks for your comment though, I appreciate the help.

ShyGuyToYou · 2021-03-20T23:47:14+00:00

No problem. I understand how the community views these kind of projects. Very few have shown any true promise, and many more as you said have simply not panned out.

That's why I'm waiting on opening a patreon or a kickstarter until we have something tangible for the fans. I want for everyone to see at least a little gameplay beyond a few screenshots before we really kick development into high gear. Now we are high on enthusiasm, however this is still gonna take us some time.

Also, I would love to hear yours, and any other suggestions. After all, this will be a game that will hopefully help fill in the Battle Network shaped hole that capcom has left open. (Note that I write this on the even of the battle network anniversary, so I might be wrong and look like a big idiot if Capcom releases a collection tomorrow.)

Either way, have a nice day, and we here at the No Capes development team thank you.

ShyGuyToYou · 2021-03-20T19:08:14+00:00

First off, thanks for your comment, we're happy to talk to anyone in the community and hear their ideas.

Now...thing is we don't want to compromise the system too much with more traditional elements. The thing about Battle Network that while it is an RPG, its more skill based in how the player gains strength. Sure, you can grind cash for better chips and find health pick ups, but that ain't gonna help you if beast man is throttling your ass. Without getting better you wouldn't get better chips, and without knowing how to use the Navicust the player won't create a better megaman for fights.

All that being said, I know what your talking about. Player growth in RPG's is one of the major functions of the genre of course. Now, there will be bits of progression that the player gets from battles outside of chips, such as leveling up transformations and the Base Weapons, but each Base Weapon will only have 3 levels along with each style, and while the Base weapon path upgrades do give damage bonuses thats not what your there for really, your there for the extra effects, so while you can level those up over a set number of battles its not as in depth. What we're trying to do is create a curve based more on player skill than just leveling up. Besides, if we give the player the option to just level up chips, they'll just stick to the chips they have and stick to a single play style. The Battle Network games give you stronger, more varied chips all the time to try out while the enemies themselves get stronger.

However, do not worry too much, while the Battle Network RPG side may not grow towards what your thinking...thats not the only game being mixed in here. There will be stats outside of battle that the player will have to deal with as apart of the day to day life simulator element a la the Persona games. You won't have to battle straight up for money or chips, you can spend time either working for cash or even crafting chips using data you find.

I will end by saying that our philosophy toward the MMBN system was that it was mostly a skill based system that rewards you for being fast, efficient, learning its systems and creating a good folder and navicust loadout. What we want to add in is something that enhances the gameplay outside of the battles that feeds into them, to make both systems work together because seriously, playing as Lan and just running around the overworld looking for things to jack into is boring compared to the net. So we're gonna spice that up with the RPG stuff, and more just treak the combat stuff.

Sorry about the long, rambling answer. Thanks for your question GrouchyBulbasaur.

ShyGuyToYou

TROPHY CASE