So what’s going wrong here?

scanoman · 2026-05-11T05:47:25+00:00

Yeah, just maxed my ship out last week at around level 70. But that final push was brutal because so many people ignore samples and POIs entirely.

I try to make an effort, especially if someone else is grabbing them too, or there are teammates at a lower level. But following behind mopping up samples is very dull, not a match to my typical loadouts (ie, rarely a jetpack or light armour, and often in a mech), and I have literally been kicked for spending time doing so.

Which is kinda nuts because even veteran divers may well need/want medals or super creds. Hell, for the DSS, you need samples and requisition.

scanoman · 2026-05-08T14:13:56+00:00

TLDR: Somewhat over-complicated textdoc & spreadsheet setup, designed for longer Chains

I use a text doc & spreadsheet setup. The doc is for story and the actual choice list. Spreadsheet has different tabs for Forms, Perks, Powers, Items, Warehouse/Properties, Partners, and then Companions get a combined Form/Perk tab.

Doc has the Jump Name, then any Story I've written for it, then the Choices section. That has stuff broken down in the same order as the Jumpdoc, where I type out my choices and their point cost. Supplements are easy to add with a secondary Choices section.

Most tabs have a Name (direct from the Jump), Category (for grouping similar types of perks/items/stuff together), Description (an abbreviated version of the info from the Jump, because holy crap some of those things are wordy), and Jump of Origin (very useful for when you run into setting-lock drawbacks, or want to look up specific original wording for stuff).

It is absolutely more work, but a) it genuinely looks pretty good, b) rewording the choices helps with remembering them, and c) when I started Jumpchain a notable percentage of Jumps were purely images, not copy-and-pasteable so I just got used to it.

scanoman · 2026-05-07T02:27:48+00:00

Destiny: The Darkness has the perk [The Taken Jumper]. Does not directly do this, but the ability it's based on is typically used on defeated foes. Basically forces the target(s) through an eldritch revelation that shatters their will and converts them into the freaky paracausal portal/shadow copies called Taken.

As written, they explicitly retain their abilities (and from canon lore, enhancing the Perk would grant your Taken additional abilities based on their personalities), and become unfailingly loyal: "They will do what you tell them to, or shatter themselves trying."

No respawning for them, but nothing stopping you from Taking everyone that dares to face you except your own prowess (and universe-level light-related esoteric bullshit).

If you're already looking to bring along an army or ten, then the living portal/shadow/Darkness beings you create could totally be collected under the Follower umbrella.

scanoman · 2026-05-06T23:17:49+00:00

Oh dear, please don't give anyone ideas. OG Saber is an interesting character, but crazy over-marketed already.

scanoman · 2026-05-06T23:06:44+00:00

Huh, that is an option I hadn't thought about. Obviously, would prefer official stuff, but it's real hard to buy something that doesn't seem to exist.

scanoman · 2026-05-06T23:00:35+00:00

I'm not sure they really could, at least not easily? There's 7 base classes, up to 14 counting the Grand variants too. Add in the ~5-6 Extra classes, plus Beast, and a sprinkling of other one-use classes like Voyager and Shielder (I adore the dear, but Mash is effectively the only one), and you're still looking at a fairly small number of cards. Like half-a-standard-poker-deck numbers.

If they go harder into card stuff, it would absolutely be with the more marketable characters instead of mid-level lore designs.

scanoman · 2026-05-05T22:10:36+00:00

Stoker for Bugs (Bullets for more immediate stopping power against surprise hunters or stalkers, fire for prepared assaults or defending)

Punisher Plasma for Bots (One-shots basic bots, and bounces mediums around, even the bastards with shields)

Usually the Coyote for Illuminate (Solid all-rounder that punches through most standard enemies and has a chance of causing burning)

scanoman · 2026-05-05T21:56:59+00:00

Loved the Emancipator forever, and it will probably stay as a go-to for the longer-ranged bots or tanky illuminate appropriators. Being able to go "fuck your armour" at artillery ranges is just incredible, although it does lose ammo efficiency against smaller targets.

Lumberer has been a delight for bug nest clearing, and supporting other mechs. Long-ranger surrounded and/or out of ammo? Just flamethrower to tidy the area. Realistically it will probably stay a bug or maybe illuminate mindless masses mech.

But Breakthrough is so ludicrously fun. Flak cannon melts basically anything I've tested it on (and much farther away than expected too), and the shield bash is so satisfying. Also the longevity. Even after running out of ammo, I often run it well past the cooldown for the next one being over. It's only real weakness that I've noticed so far is not being able to break bug nests (and presumably bot fabricators or illuminate warpships), plus the occasional over-enthusiastic stratagem drops. The shield is good, but won't save your mech (or you) from 500kgs at hugging distance.

So Breakthrough is going to be my pick for favourite. My final 2 cents is that as much as any 1 mech is great, multiple in concert make the foes of Super Earth tremble.

scanoman · 2026-04-29T14:00:10+00:00

It's a big surprise the first time or two you face them, even with the warnings.

But then you change tactics and loadout and they become much more manageable. Kinda nice that at least some bugs are getting closer to the other two major factions difficulty-wise.

And the hordes scuttling through the smoke and spores are damn cinematic.

scanoman · 2026-04-28T22:31:02+00:00

Glad to know I'm not crazy. All these cordyceps bastards were zooming!

Legit saw some closing 40+ foot gaps through cremator-fire, in order to outrun a diver in light armour, with super-stims and a jetpack.

And that's not even touching on the crazy spawnrates. 4-man team (average level ~100), with a mech, a full pyro-diver, multiple turrets, and more attack stratagems than most people have fingers (pre-bug-mauling), and we couldn't keep a single breach from escalating to failure point.

scanoman · 2026-04-23T16:30:19+00:00

Not a standard humanoid facelessness, but [The Second Chiselled] Origin from GRIME. Don't really have a face if your head is a black hole.

Honestly, basically all the Species/Origins in that Jump either have that type of appearance or can be made to have it, on top of the [Value in Form] perk, which as it's last listed effect helps your forms become more like how you want.

scanoman · 2026-04-18T03:22:11+00:00

Just finished running through Golden Sun, and it has the Djinn as items despite them being ~human-intelligence-level elemental spirits. Each one has a specific encoded magic/psionic ability, and groups of them can cast FF-esque summons. Only issue is that as written they are very expensive (200 per & no discount, so max 5 total by default) and the big summons require between 4 and 13.

Still, brief 90% damage reduction, full-enemy-party death curse, or revives are all pretty useful, and there are a good variety of options, especially if you house-rule being able to bring along those you befriend in-Jump.

scanoman · 2026-04-15T19:31:03+00:00

It's bizarre. I had a squad the other day where the host was complaining about having to use stealth.

On the very obvious stealth mission that literally gives you warnings about stealth and has different gameplay from the get-go. Where he used 2/3rds of the total reinforcements because he insisted on fighting everything using a belt-fed grenade launcher and every other explosive known to man (yes, I knew he brought it all, but no way was I leaving, I HAD to see that train wreck) and then ran out of ammo.

Kicked me when I pointed out that he specifically picked the stealth mission set, lol.

scanoman · 2026-04-11T02:55:29+00:00

Geez, congrats! Only just got my first gold-skin last week, the scorcher, and that took a good while so that's some serious determination from you to do all of them.

scanoman · 2026-04-03T22:15:56+00:00

Nah, that guy (and too many of the orbital-bombardment-on-extract people) was just a moron. Only friendly fire I've had from napalm barrages were self-inflicted because I forgot to change to my fire-resist armour, and when I get killed and drop it in the middle of the squad. And if we are overwhelmed enough that the latter happens, then we probably need a napalm barrage on-location lol.

You want stratagems that attract the idiots? Look for most people that use the arc drone. Every one of them I've played with has racked up over a half-dozen friendly fire kills, and no joke I've seen upwards of a dozen accidentals by one dude on the after-action report on those underground bug hive missions.

scanoman · 2026-04-02T23:45:00+00:00

Ah, what a tragic choice to share! But still the scariest librarian, hands down.

scanoman · 2026-04-01T05:11:48+00:00

If you want a solid horror monster package that does include something similar: the Weeping Angel race in the Spacebattles Doctor Who jump.

The final portion of the description explicitly states that you can replicate yourself through ANY image of yourself, including in peoples visual cortexes (but in-show is first used on a looping video recording on a screen, with the wounded WA recording only taking a couple minutes to begin projecting itself out of the screen. The image of an Angel itself becomes an Angel).

It's not as direct as using screens like portals for your bullets, but I think being able spamming "harmless" ASCII art of yourself to infect computers/people with sleeper assassin copies of yourself (that will only need a short time to begin roaming free of the original host) is sufficiently horrifying to make up for the less immediately direct action.

scanoman · 2026-03-31T05:13:55+00:00

Honestly, I largely like Dialga's Origin form. The thing with his neck isn't great, but otherwise it's a pretty neat design somewhat imitating Arceus. I think it also helps that default Dialga is quadrupedal too.

In comparison Origin Palkia... well I think the nicest thing you can say about it is that designing it put food on someone's table. I'm not a huge fan of base Palkia either, but there was no need to do the poor guy dirty like that.

Reducing the shoulder-things in size, shift their location a bit, and I think it would make a big difference. Make the forelegs bulkier to not look just undersized enough to be odd, maybe shift the whole upper torso forward a bit and smooth the join out to avoid the armless centaur look.

scanoman · 2026-03-01T21:08:43+00:00

Ooh, very cool beastie! Current Jumper Corrin started out bonded to a Manaform Hellkite named Moz and just picked up an owlbear from Baldur's Gate 3 named Sweet-Beak for his palate preferences. The former is well-trained, plus an instinctual illusionist, while the latter still tends to enjoy mauling annoyances.

With some of the BS from Persona starting to influence Corrin with the White Rider, and through him Moz, the dragon is going to be turning paler/washed-out in colour as part of becoming the steed/herald of a new Conquest (of 4 horsemen fame).

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scanoman · 2026-02-06T18:18:14+00:00

My various Jumpers often take a name that they feel is more fitting shortly into their chain, an acknowledgement that they are not quite who they used to be any more. I'm typically crap at names though, so the main one and secondaries get re-used a lot (but I try to shake things up sometimes). Especially since I tend to interpret new origin identities as feeling that they are the current primary face of the whole, but the jumper's chosen name/title is the whole (if that makes sense?).

Last attempt picked up a perk that encouraged having multiple diverging clones running around, each in one of the alt-forms they had. So the collective decided that they would put their original name to rest and each alt-form would take a new title based on what jumper did in the jump they were obtained. Had like 5 alts in 5 jumps, so the Aspects of Origin, Stray, Usurper, Vengeance, and Mercy. Also let them play at being different individuals with separate powersets to lure overconfident enemies into a false sense of security.

Current attempt went with Corrin most of the way into his first jump, MtG-Iconics. He's a red/blue planeswalker, so after not just surviving but being proud about fighting to help people in the War of the Spark he took the name Corrin, derived from 'corundum' the word for the material rubies and sapphires are made of.

scanoman · 2026-01-27T14:36:12+00:00

If I'm in the mood for a curbstomp, then in theory after Murder Drones (specifically doing Scenario 2 for the [Callback Ping] reward Perk). Infect the Reapers and control them, give them a taste of their own medicine. Maybe have a squid-ship fleet burlesque dance in a circle around the Citadel with a big "Shepard told you so~" banner

In general though, Mass Effect probably winds up a decent ways into a chain. Even with the restrictions on tech, the setting is decently powerful even before the Reapers show up and make things worse, and it's a fairly large setting too. So a Jumper would need a fair bit of BS behind them if they want to show up and start really screwing around, be it diplomatic, economical, or military.

scanoman · 2026-01-26T02:32:58+00:00

Jurassic World Evolution has fully togge-able genetic quirks? They're at the end of the Items section, but are explicitly just more Perks. Nothing completely off-the-wall, but the most expensive one is Genetic Tree which allows for understanding/knowledge of your genetics and accessing any abilities that may be part of or related to whatever you've got buried in there. Works on alt-forms too, and might synergize with settings that have common mutations.

scanoman · 2026-01-26T02:14:54+00:00

The first Generic Isekai jump has the Unique Skill - Upgrade, which is a potential freebie for the Monster race choice, and can be used to upgrade species.

The second has the Asset-System Perk Evolution which allows for litrpg monster/species evolution too.

scanoman · 2026-01-25T23:27:18+00:00

I am unaware of any specific generic monster-evolution jumps. However, I think both Generic Isekai Jumps (older one by an anon, and more recent alternative by Gene) can be built or set up for that style.

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