Answer Scratch

I applied to have an AI installed into my A-80 to help with firing solutions... the tech's told me it was too expensive so I dug around for one privately. I thought I'd found a pretty good one, but it turned out to be an augmented game AI for a fantasy sim Kobold.

This "feature" didn't come with un-installation software, So now "Scratch" is my co-pilot.


First Question; Scratch was wondering when we were gonna see yolk soup on the cafeteria menu. (a cold dish made with raw eggs; he claims its a koboldish delicacy).

Second Question; Scratch wants to re-dub the mamba. He won't tell me what he wants to change it too, he just laughs.

Never video chat with your fighter's AI while walking around the carrier "just to give it a little tour."

A) it broadcasts classified material

B) After visiting the cafetieria, your ship may start making bizzare menu suggestions.

Third Question; Scratch wants to know if the Shepherds Pie is made with real shepherds?

So scratch keeps whining about mediocre pilots in panthers kicking names and taking flags, making them harder to deal with than a pack of aces in mambas.

Someone please explain to him that mediocre pilots can't afford panthers & aces don't fly mambas; I tried myself & he rebooted on me mid-flight.

Actually, it's quite common to see an Ace in a mamba, especially when they're looking for a little extra challenge in a S&D match or want to dance circles around other pilots during CTF. The mamba is quite the little firecracker in the right hands.

Also, Free panther week. That's all I'm going to say on that.

well thanks. now he'll never shut up.

Fourth Question: "whats he got that I don't got"

(scratch wants to know why my G5 is stealing his precious flight time)

I thought about telling him it's because my G5 doesnt reboot into a system diagnostic mid-flight, but I don't want him arming missiles in the hangar.

In answer to the questions in order:

Probably not, the cooks are almost fascist when it comes to actually cooking things

Is the new name "formerly coherent scrap metal?"

Not here, but there's an awesome little place on an asteroid nearby that sells real shepherds pie

Finally, a fast cannon and a turn rate that allows for real turning. Also, a female AI...

I think he wants the Mamba's new nickname to be;
"BOOM- HAhaHAhaHAhaHA!"

He doesn't seem to understand that's too long for common parlance.

When I mentioned the female AI, he asked if I were stepping out with other women. I asked for an explanation about use of the word "other" & he got all sulky & butt hurt. As I left the hangar I think he muttered something about egg layers.

Ok so I went into the hangar this morning and my G5 is now accessorized with neon pink tribal markings.

Scratch doesn't have hands, which means he has a co-conspirator!

(whistle nonchalantly while hiding spray paint and stencils) Hmm... that's interesting, good thing I have a watertight alibi...

>Kingfisher covered in tribal markings
COMON WJ, Give us custom skins!!

Covered!? Don't give them ideas!

Right now it's just a neon pink tramp stamp.

Scratch downloaded gaming books to find out what a Kobold is (i assumed he knew), and now he's trying to convince me he's evil, because the book has Kobolds listed as evil.

"Yes Mr. Bristles with Missiles, I believe you are evil. Put the weapon lock away now."

ok scratch thinks that this "going backwards" riddle thats going around the forum is merely a description of his targets after he rams them...

but I thought it was a way to go faster? (I don't get it).

You can fly backwards in some ships, much to the detriment (and lamentation) of those who thought you were facing the other direction...

I haven't flown an A80, so I don't know if it can pull that particular trick.

...and before you ask, I have a thread for answering those kinds of questions...

so you're not really talking about actually flying backwards... you're talking about reverse faced drifting.

Kackling Kobold wrote:so you're not really talking about actually flying backwards... you're talking about reverse faced drifting.

Yes. And No.
I'd like to clarify that I wasn't the one who called it flying backwards; that guy hasn't played MB for quite some time...

Oh and don't forget the trick with bombers where you bounce your self off a carrier to fly backwards so your behind your pursuer.

Loki wrote:
...and before you ask, I have a thread for answering those kinds of questions...

Apparently you hadn't surmised that this thread's premise is a silly satire of that one.

Kackling Kobold wrote:

Loki wrote:
...and before you ask, I have a thread for answering those kinds of questions...

Apparently you hadn't surmised that this thread's premise is a silly satire of that one.

lol I had, but wasn't sure if I should address it here or there

Why does everyone call the enemy locating thread "con trails"?

Con trails do not occur outside of an atmosphere. Engine trails... maybe. Ion trails, absolutely. (ion trails would occur only outside atmo, & i doesn't even HAVE to be the engine producing it).

Because space has a atmosphere in moonbreakers, it's a Psudo-space game

space does not have atmo, and if the only way you can wrap your head around it is to call it a pseudo space game, you need to brush up on your technobabble, or better yet, actual science.

Having GM'ed sci-fi games for a bunch of college geeks should have been worth college credit; I had to do serious research for that crap, but it's been worth it since.

In anycase, Ion technology is real to various extents, and could actually account for most of what we see in moonbreakers. Ion trails may or may not actually glow, for that matter, but they would be so obvious to sensors that it would theoretically be easy to highlight them in the pilot's HUD.

The simplest bit of scorn i hear most often about works of sci-fi is that sound does not travel in a vacumm. That happens to have a series of simple answers; a blast wave (from an explosion) would make noise when it hits a ships hull, and apart from that, synthesizing the sounds inside the cockpit of combat taking place around a ship does more to help a pilots situational awareness than instruments alone. Allowing the pilot to utilize more senses than just his eyes would make a world of difference against an enemy that doesn't.

The final simple answer to that is "it's hollywood. It's hard to sell without sound even if that would make it cooler." some of the best works of sci-fi ignore this rule and show vacumm scenes in complete or near silence anyway.


....aaannd i'm being a dick again arent i...

Who says the pilots are sitting inside the cockpit? That makes no sense at all.

I reckon they're in the Carrier itself, flying remote-controlled fighters with a screen, keyboard, mouse and user interface incredibly identical to moonbreaker's. Occasionally a torp will hit the Carrier, causing the comms link to fail with an "SEH" exception, and they have to reload the simulator.

Hey why don't you guys make a Reality vs. Space Simulation thread and share all that awesome knowledge you have, on how it works in reality?

There is sound, the space ships fly as if they were in atmosphere and have aerodynamic designs, the bullets don't go on for ever and the shrapnel from a ship blowing up isn't tearing up everything within a thousand metres.

Make no mistake... this is in Hollywood pseudo-space, I wouldn't want to have it any other way, real space is boring as hell.