OttoVann

So I was hoping to make a thread with people who possess engineering knowledge and practice it IC. Otto isn't much in the way of a strict definition one, but I suppose you could say he possesses a lot of materials knowledge in regards to fabrics and precious metals. Anyways I dont think there was an engineer focused thread, so here it is. Tell us that you are one and what you specialize in so I can poach some of you IC for reasons.

I don't see why there needs to be super long drawn out explanations for a blue-mage IC. You learned spells from the Beast-Men. The end. Enjoy your rp. Piss on the haters.

I never asked for anime

Ah, I suppose not. Though I am hoping for at least one male perspective on clan life, but any old bro like you or Jana will work too.

For cultural reasons. Otto has things he needs / wants to know now about cat people culture. Banter rp really, pretty simple stuff. If you are actively involved in a clan, even better.

I want to be an honorary male to this Clan.

Third Umbral Moon / 2nd Sun Trial and error have nearly killed me in my experimentations with materia so far. At first I was trying to use impure materia and just doing my best to have a flush seating with the bracelet. By the way my bracelet couldn't be any more plain and “impartial” to these trials, it is solid plain gold with a divot for the materia to sit in. A simple clasp, that's it. I haven't moved onto any sort of stylized designs, unsure whether different metals will affect the efficacy. I have been burning through hundreds of thousands of gil at a time to work towards a design that is manageable. Details to follow. Materia can break. I can't rightfully place an academic backed theory as to why, but I have guesses. One is the simple idea that impure materia has a shelf-life, and wears out. Another idea is that due to impure materia being imperfectly round and rife with impurities and imperfections making it almost like an unprocessed and unsmoothed rock, it's not able to...well I'd guess do its job properly. The good news is that I have felt the effects of materia already, though it was short lived. The materia I first started using to test was a sky-blue one, small and of the lowest purity you typically see. I was told through my dealer there are various materia that affect people differently, while even sharing the same color. He apparently can “feel” their difference, which of course I thought was complete shit so I told him I would take one meant for enhancing physical strength, and if I could prove he wasn't fooling me, he would secure millions in future trades no questions asked. He sent me on my way with two, didn't even bother charging me. He was that sure of his wares. I started off small, yet thorough, in my initial testing and designs. Apparently, simply seating it properly like I would a ruby or any other gem is all it takes. Even more surprising is that the degree to how much it affects me is almost quantifiable. I had the idea to lift weights and see if I could challenge and surpass some of my maximums. Being honest with this journal, I can benchpress 425 ponze. That's far above average, but I've seen numbers much higher from my kind. To my dealers credit, the little blue materia worked. I had some variations between 440 and 450 and will say about a 20 increase for simplicities sake. A single materia doing that much work. Hard to imagine, and it makes me yearn to wear 10 of the largest most pure I can find as I'm writing this. Fear stops me for now though. Who knows what would happen to the body if you did that. To help ensure I am getting consistent results, I took my bracelet off and tried my newly found max. I could barely muster 420 ponze likely due to being tired. Wearing the bracelet again and giving myself one last push for the day to try and break 450 almost killed me. I had the bar set to 455 in all and I could only manage to unrack it before, terrifyingly, the materia cracked in its fitting, losing its internal coloring, fading to brown, and sending the bar crashing onto me. Fortunately for me, I had one of my office girls in the other room hear my screaming and she ran to help me barely get the bar off my chest. No one had told me up until that point that materia can even break, and when I went back to my trusted supplier with all hells fury behind me he gave off an air of genuine surprise. We went over everything I had been doing and he asked me the queerest thing “What did you do to meld it to your wristlet?” I wasn't sure what melding was at the time, and he told me he wasn't sure either. He only knows that properly melded materia looks like it has been forge-welded into the pieces and that Mutamix the Goblin teaches others who know how to use aether the proper technique, for a price. Unfortunately I can't use aether, so that option was and is no good for me. My dealer was intrigued that I had managed to feel the effects of materia by simply seating it like a jewel. He's the first one that gave me the idea that because the lower grade of materia was used, it didn't perfectly set. He would be correct, it didn't seat flawlessly. I was treating it like any other gem and clasped it down into its seating. If I were to try and have a flawless seating, I would need a pure materia. I consider myself a true Master of smithing with precious metals, matched by next to none. There is no way to have a perfect and flush joining of impure materia to a bracelet without I would imagine a forge-weld, and how is that even possible with materia when it can break with a simple hammer blow to its face. More importantly, how is that ever a viable option when it would defeat the purpose of designing something I can wear fashionably. True to my word, his initial sampling did work, so I went through with my promise. He shipped me 12 of his flawless and allegedly pure materia that would affect physical strength. In all the order cost me over 6 million gil. The order was brought to me by an armed carriage, elaborate. After tasting what simple little ones could do , it was time to put to work new ways to test my designs and the effects of materia on myself. At this point its essential to point out, that 6 million gil is a lot of money. Even to me. As of this writing I'm only worth 246.3 million gil, and that's how much I'm worth, not how much liquidity I hold. I barely have 30 million gil in the bank ready to spend at a moments notice. Moving 6 million gil from a bank all at once gets a lot of attention real fast and its dangerous considering how much I've leveraged my businesses. I had to tell them I was buying a new house for one of my wives to hopefully shake any suspicion, my research into materia and becoming more than I am is of utmost importance now that I've seen it work with seemingly little in the way of magic and mysticism.

Lots of money. Flagrant womanizer and drugfiend.

Lol what the fuck

As long as I am immune to points the system is fine.

Are the maids hot?

MY TIME TO SHINE IS NOW. I have I would imagine, with no exaggerations or bullshit, about 30 different RP outfits. Some are seldom to rarely seen however, like my IC armor that I have no reason to wear 99.9% of the time, but I do have over 30 outfits. In fact my retainers collectively hold over 250 pieces of gear, most of which is for various outfit changes should the mood arise. I uh, take fashion and Otto's sense of fashion very seriously. I think if you ask other's who have RP'd with me they would echo such a sentiment. I dont have 30 outfits and only wear three, I wear 25 of them regularly and five depending on circumstance. I am always striving to find new combinations too so I can further my need to peacock and outdress everyone else.

Otto is approaching three wives, how will she handle that!?

Id like to see the bunny people. It would be a profit driven thing too since like 65% of japanese characters are miqo, almost all female. More subscribers, more racial diversity, plus they look good and are tall. Why not

How old is the CoD audience and how much attention is given to them buying your game? In what Warren quoted me, he mentioned near the end about 10 year olds not buying the new hotness every year, I agree their parents are. I don't have much outside of opinion for this, but I imagine kids are more susceptible to the "gotta have" new stuff than older for a variety of reasons but most predominantly because they want to play with their peers who will also be on it. Back to my original point to reinforce, I think the CoD audience is what most publishers and developers go after, I think the CoD audience definitely does not average 31, and I think the CoD audience has the most free-flowing money swirling around it due to people in that bracket not only buying the CoD for themselves, but because their children want it - and they are content with Same Game. I also don't see a problem with a bulk of game revenues and profits being made off of that, if that's the case. We can also squarely and unequivocally blame rising production costs on games to the graphics (or visuals) arms-race. People demand hyper-realism or HD, spend thousands of dollars for a machine capable of it, and wonder why costs went up. However, I wonder what the average cost of production was for 2013 and especially 2014 since those years have seen explosive growth in the 'indie' market, games that typically retail for sub $20 and show it. Those production costs are way down, especially for the 8/16-bit renaissance we are having (which I fucking hate personally). Rambling now, but that's all I have to add for now.

Isnt BF5 the one that had a ton of launch issues?

I think basing the idea that BF5 is objectively worse than BF4 is suspect when using metacritic scores because it is a very common and borderline acceptable practice to nuke metacritic scores with bad reviews when the game plays well but online service is disrupted or down. I also find it suspect that because adults spend more money than minors on videogames, that videogames aren't primarily driven and marketed to them and that a lot of games are made today with that demographic in mind. I see no problem with 31 year olds spending more money on kids than 12 year olds on average, because they are buying games for said 12 year olds. Does any of this make sense?

Factually untrue. In the 2014 Usage Date and Demographics made by the ESA, the average age of gamers is 31, with women over 18 making up over twice the gaming population of boys under 18. Most game revenue comes from adults, the majority over thirty. Source There is nothing inherently wrong with Battlefield and CoD, the recent trend has just shown a decrease in quality for their respective franchises. We're reaching a level of saturation for the 'modern shooter' that hasn't been seen since the saturation the same genre had in the 'WW2' theater. Yes, those people are buying games for their kids. This isn't a surprise to anyone. Their kids tastes have changed compared to ours at their age. I'm deeply skeptical of the claim that COD or Battlefield have gone down in quality when, at least when I played Battlefield4 (my most recent forray into modern FPS on a PC) I was blown away at all the quality: visuals, audio, destructible environments, and on and on. What specifically is bad about BF5 compared to BF4?

What's wrong with battlefield or COD again? If someone replies to me with "nothing" then I fail to see the problem of them doing well. Tastes in gaming have changed, and what we enjoyed as young people are not what young people today enjoy. I'm not sure if I see the issue, the market can't adhere to people our age (25+) forever since young people are where most game revenue is to be had.

Lets talk about how good I look.

Second Umbral Moon / 28th Sun What exactly materia is is hard to explain. Where it is sourced is just as nebulous, with the best answer being “artifacts”. How it forms, precisely, is a technique even the Goblins don't understand fully and they developed the technique. Why it affects people is equally shrouded in mystery though I have developed theories on this matter with the help of those scholars who were intrigued enough in my work to lend a hand. Who it affects is limitless I have come to learn. Seemingly anyone can be affected by materia in some fashion, though the effects are not always positive. As far as I can tell there is no need to assay materia. Its quality, or “grade” as some refer to it, is relatively simple to discern based off of how it looks. Materia rife with what I can only guess are impurities is seemingly weaker in application. It is also notably smaller in size compared to the larger, more gem-like appearing materia that are higher in purity. The impurities themselves also form into a crust-like scale on the outside of materia, marring it and making it resemble unrefined ore in a way. If someone did not have a discerning eye for what actual raw gems looked like, smaller impure materia could be confused as such. From what I have seen, materia grows in size as it's purity goes up. I suspect it is because the impurities are being more fully turned into the crystalline structure that materia is made out of leading to less waste and more expansion. More on purity. I suspect materia impurities form on more than just the outside of the piece. I have handled many highly pure materia, some alleged to be perfectly pure. When held, they appear almost luminescent and are crystal clear. It doesn't even require polishing like traditional gems do. Lower forms of materia are brackish, even if you dare to scrape or cut the crust imperfections off, what remains is something you can not look through at all. For my needs, having access to higher purities is not a matter of pride, but practicality in application. No one will want to buy a ring adorned with an unsightly gem on it. I have never heard of, nor seen materia that was not at least partially or wholly round-like in form. I've also taken extraordinary measures to find all of its variations. Most modern materia comes in predominantly these colors: red, white (something like a diamond), green, blue, yellow, and purple. Details are scarce, but before the Calamity, it existed in other colors though record is impossible to find, the most notable color that no longer exists is orange. In fact, pre-Calamity records on anything relating to materia are non-existent. I was able to have Integra locate, through pain-staking research, a small article from the Mythril Eye dated to years ago that talks about Goblins and materia. Apparently they brought the practice to Thanalan, and before them it wasn't something that existed in the regions. Ul'dah, at that time, was extremely apprehensive about materia and feared it was a weapon they couldn't contain, or could be turned into it, so this likely explains why little knowledge of it exists here. This covers enough of the basic premises of materia for today. More to come in future entries that covers my delve into understanding the merits of the various colors materia can come in, and its potency as a whole. For those that care to learn more than just materia and its practical uses, I feel I have left enough starting points for research on other things like the history of materia. That is not my focus. I feel understanding how it actually functions will matter as knowing that will enable people like myself to come up with different designs for our materia-enhanced pieces while still retaining it's properties. I can't imagine only having one design of ring to sell with materia in it and maintaining my success. Innovation will need to continue if I want to stay relevant as a brand.

(I'm going to try journal-entry style writing. Please give feedback) Second Umbral Moon / 27th Sun Normally I wouldn't write a journal over this, but times have changed as they tend to do. I'm approaching thirty cycles in age, I have two wives, and I need to start considering documenting my important works and techniques so that my protégées have access to what I've come to master. I've scoured the lands looking for scholars of all kinds that are knowledgeable about Aether. Deep academic knowledge was a requisite. I had to produce surprisingly large gil bounties to lure the actual professionals out and into my offices for my discussions on materia. I've known of materia, most people do, they're mystic little gems that have some form of aetherial-like properties. People have said they can enhance you, make you stronger, faster, things of that regard. Some thaumaturges have used them in magic making I learned, with various levels of success and dramatic failures. My demand and willingness to spend any amount of money to gain all knowledge of materia yielded scant details for my specific dilemmas. I learned of reputable dealers thankfully, those that could secure something akin to high quality pieces of materia and could differentiate between its different manifestations and effects. I learned few to no specific details about materia usage though. It would seem next to no one in this world use it for anything other than quaint projects, or for those that are informed on the subject, they keep quiet. The only thing I learned of value, at the start, is that materia can be worn out and crack, but as to why or how, it remains a mystery for the most part. I intend to change this. Some scholars mocked; others have shown a purely academic curiosity while most appeared bewildered that a man like me even cared. These future endeavors into my own materia research are more than just fashion statements; it is a form of self-defense. Fashion that works will be my slogan. Before I go further, I should note it is theorized weaponization can occur with materia, the problem is that it would be cumbersome, slow to fire projectiles if used in such a manner, and extremely expensive. A gaudy little lalafell woman made a quip to me about using the fire spitting materia in those muskets the Limsan's use, and how she'd love to it explode. She may have been onto something, but firearm designs are not my expertise. I create fashion, jewelry and clothing, and have no time for trying to master the craft of tightly controlled exports like that. If anyone else reads this in the future though, and the technology hasn't come along, it would be worth a thought. It has been left up to me to figure out how to incorporate materia into my designs of fashion. I see a product people would want, for those that could afford it, where simply wearing my clothes and rings and so on would give them on-demand increased stamina, power, or more. I have a need for this for personal usage after being confronted for the last time with perils and being unarmed and at the mercy and grace of others and their interventions. Ridley is my power, but she won't always be there for me. I need more; this isn't an opinion. I like to consider myself well off, physique wise. Despite my after-hours hobbies, I have maintained a well groomed physicality and endurance, but that's it. Materia may be an answer to problems like that, especially for those who lack the time to master a martial skill or even lack the prowess for them. Some of us have money to spend and places to be; materia can help answer that dilemma, enabling us to dress to the occasion and not feel the naked anxiety of lacking armor and armaments. It could be a great equalizer between the sexes as well, giving women easy and readily available clothing to wear that would help enhance their strength to match that of a man's and even surpass him. Not everyone is aether-touched or blessed. So here I am, in the beginning phases of creating prototypes. I should make it a matter of record my current ideas for materia-enhanced fashion are limited to jewelry: rings, necklaces, bracelets, and earrings. For actual clothing, so far I am only focusing on belts and will begin roughly prototyping into shirts and jackets later. I feel sticking to accessories, for now, helps keep the form factors within reason for easier experimentation and helps in reducing the costs of failure. There is also the concern of keeping the matter of wearing materia in everyday clothing discreet, hiding in plain sight. It also serves the purpose of expanding my potential market, who doesn't wear a belt in this day and age? Who doesn't wear a necklace or jewelry of any kind for that matter. Not everyone appreciates my more...eccentric lines of clothing though. For now materia-enhanced clothing, as a product and principle, will not manifest as I focus on accessorizing materia instead. So we begin with everything I have learned, and my documenting every step and detail as I go along. At times, this will read dry, make no mistake. I will gloss over some of the minutiae in regards to basics that any competent craftsman or tradesman should know, but even still this will be heavy read for which I render no apologies. I wasn't sure if I should do this, and the thought had crossed my mind others had come before me and failed. Perhaps they did not want to document their failures out of shame or what I consider the foolish conventional wisdom of letting others fail alongside you, so no one comes out ahead. Either way, I long to see a time where men in finely cut suits, with no weapons or armor on or around them, have no in fear walking around so freely. I wonder what would happen in society if everyone assumes anyone could be walking around with the strength of three men, maybe it would become a more polite one. There is also the concern of people coming to suspect I am in the business of manufacturing weapons now, and they will be dealt with accordingly when and if those troubles arise.

You know speaking of how Au Ra react, a lot of how they are accepted will come to how they act and behave in the major cities at 3.0. People who have immigrated from anywhere to somewhere else, if they care to be accepted, typically are rather low-key at first and build up that trust and acceptance. If Au Ra swarm Ul'Dah and just demand people get over it and accept they have horns and scales, lol and good luck.

Theres this line I love from Game of Thrones season 1 where that blonde-haired brother of Daenyris (however its spelled) is telling her to chill the fuck out unless she wants to wake the dragon. I use that line often with my wife and now I realize I can use it in game IC. Next time I see, if I ever see, an attractive AuRa chick I can use that line, especially if they are (likely because lolbalmung) wearing slutglams. That is all. "You don't want to wake the dragon do you?" "..."

It's going to be a little humorous to see metal gear themed pachinko machines.