Mayuventure talk thread (Art of Domination, Refugeville, From The Sands)

Decided to create a thread where people who follow my adventures can talk freely among themselves and ask me questions that may or may not be directly related to the adventure threads. I enjoy reading story speculation, so feel free to add your thoughts too!

Art of Domination: https://eagle-time.org/showthread.php?tid=1710

Refugeville: https://eagle-time.org/showthread.php?tid=2065

From the Sands: https://eagle-time.org/showthread.php?tid=2054

Probably a good place to say "thanks for writing great characters", because holy shit Vora for instance:
- skilled and smart tactician
- loving and caring mother
- in a healthy and nurturing marriage
- animal lover
- stands her ground
- diplomatic extraordinaire
and Queen Sajar? Also cool af. Just general "thanks for making really goof stuff"

To be fair, we influence those characters too. I mean, I agree that Mayu handles the characters and the stories he tells really well (which is part of why I get so, some might say too, into it), but people like you and others help keep things going. People like me (mostly me) bog things down with overly wordy essays (which I've gotten better about... mostly... sometimes >.>).

Thank you, both for the praise and for sticking with me all these years. Y'all never cease to surprise me with what solutions you'd come up with for solving the crazy problems I swing at you.

You might have noticed, but I have a set update cycle with regards to the three threads. The schedule goes:

- Art of Domination
- From the Sands
- Refugeville

So since I just updated AoD, From the Sands is the next one to be updated. The update should be up in the next 24 hours. In the event that nobody has offered a suggestion after 4 days, I just move on to the next step in the cycle.

Fair. I try to comment consistently, but I hate feeling like I "dominate" the comments... so sometimes I "take breaks" from commenting. I'm sure it is mostly in my head, but I still feel bad that AoD wasn't as widely read as it deserved to be... and that is probably because of my word walls early on into the adventure that, err, 'scared' off some of the more casual people (who totally have a right to enjoy things differently than I do). So, I try to avoid posting too much, especially if I've already said my peace.

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Nah I wouldn't agree with that. I think you do a very good job questioning the strategy of our choices, and pointing out times that things get either too complicated, or aren't logically sound.
The debate aspect of the adventures I think only makes our actual choices better

I still feel bad that AoD wasn't as widely read as it deserved to be...

Yeah agreed in terms of that I think the mayuventures are unfortunately hidden gems.
Especially bc I'm probably gonna gush again about how the worldbuilding, art direction, etc is really gr8 and is one of the biggest things that makes reading works like that tapatastic comics the (gudshit meme)

Thank you, and don't feel bad. I think a lot of people wanted something casual/silly, which I am happy to indulge sometimes but I personally don't like bad tactics so I welcome any serious discussion.

That said, I've figured out a major reason why I keep making mistakes and having issues with consistency/continuity. I have a major aversion to reading my old writings, because it makes me feel ashamed. There are times when I read my old text files and I just had to stop and lie down for almost an hour because I was so distraught that past me just... did that.

In an attempt to mitigate it I tried to have 'isolated' text files where I keep notes on things, like the units you can manufacture. I have a text file labelled 'artofdomination_factory.rtf' which was meant to keep track, but it backfired spectacularly as I kept neglecting to update it with the latest additions.

I just... I hate reading my old work. It makes me feel disgusted. But I can see that this is necessary if I want to maintain continuity.

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SpoilerAnd you're going to see the effects of that in the next Art of Domination update

A fairly common sentiment in many artists and writters, truth be told.
I offered you once to make a tracking sheet an a timeline recap document. Since due to personal circumstances, I have free time to spare, so if it helps, that offer is still open.

People like me (mostly me) bog things down with overly wordy essays

Naah, the debating and wordy essays are half the fun of this adventure as it stands.
It's true this adventure is probably more tad more technical and a little more involved than others. But that's part of what makes it trully stand out. And that's far from a bad thing

Right now if anything lowered the number of participant it's more the death of the MSPA forums of course. I mean the eagle time forums are great, but they jsut don't have have many peope. They aren't attached to a big project to attract new people like MSPA did so it make sense.

And for AOD, the the fact more than half the logs and archives are missing in an easy to read form (sorry Mayu but that dropbox is unweildy at best).
If you weren't reading this on MSPA good luck understanding how we jumped from the last post int he log (where our heroes see the art of domination 'book' for the very first time) to the stat of the thread in the middle of a region 1 attack
At least a quick 'cast of character' and 'glossary' lists in the first post would help.

I don't follow from the Sand so I can't comment on it.

Refugeville is actualy doing pretty well all things considered.

A fairly common sentiment in many artists and writters, truth be told.
I offered you once to make a tracking sheet an a timeline recap document. Since due to personal circumstances, I have free time to spare, so if it helps, that offer is still open.

Thank you, please do smuchmuch! I will start working on a summary, glossary and character bios along with portraits.

Been working on reusable character sprites for Art of Domination, something I avoided at the beginning due to a misplaced sense of 'pride'. Back when I started Art of Domination (2012? My memory is terrible) I just didn't like the overuse of the same character art and wanted to draw everything from scratch. However, I think I'll start using sprites that show up in subsequent parts with modified/redrawn limbs.

Also, man, my design sensibilities changed over time. Here's Vora in her first appearance and her new design:

Wow, those feet look completely different.

The proportions are certainly less cartoony, manage to give a better sense of volume even without shading and the pose more natural.

Tho the original did have a certain a certain je ne sais quoi to it that I did like, probaly due to the shading and highlight and slightly thicker outlines giving an impression of crispness (well, y'know putting aside the blurriness due tolower image quality that is)

They look def different, and the new Vora is still #stylish as ever (clap emojis)

Wow, those feet look completely different.

YEP! At the time when I first drew Vora, I was more focused on making the feet look 'unique' without actually considering how would they even work.

And thanks for the compliments, guys! Still working on more sprites for future updates.

I want to talk a bit about the inspiration behind Art of Domination, and what got me to start in the first place. Back then I was obsessed with a videogame called Tom Clancy's EndWar. While gameplay-wise it didn't have a lot of depth, the units themselves were given unique callsigns and voices, and as they gained more experience they became more confident when in combat. They were also not afraid to tell you if they believe your order was a bad idea, and if they were losing badly they'd be begging you to give them the order to retreat.

It got me to thinking about strategy games, and how frequently they don't humanize your units. At the time, I think the only other games that do that are the Company of Heroes and World in Conflict, where again units will scream at you if they're losing badly. So, I wanted to make a strategy game hybridized with a story, one where the units you command were not unthinking machines (with the obvious exception of drones).

Alongside this, I was reading numerous articles and reports about fanatical militant groups, and how they exploit shock and disbelief through committing acts of appalling violence to stun their targets. I also spent a lot of time researching genocide and how people could be convinced into ignoring the basic fact that their targets are human beings. I've dealt with people like that in real life, and found it frustrating when I see people complain that a character 'behaves implausibly' when they commit atrocities for extremely petty/flimsy reasons.

And so the story's antagonists were born: An organized military force that does not care at all about humane treatment towards their targets, civilian or otherwise. By the end of this story, our villains would have committed so many atrocities that their war crimes trial would take decades to finish due to the sheer amount of work required to gather every single piece of evidence.

I also wanted to explore the idea of a 'justified' alien invasion. Planet-117 was invaded because their local government kidnapped people from a Saramis Alliance colony, and refused to even look at the evidence. The Human Federation allowed the invasion and annexation because that planet was also not going according to Earth's plans. To Earth, giving Planet-117 to a friendly alien nation that would later be willing to trade sounded like a better option than having it under a hostile human government that wasn't giving much of anything in return.

Put all these together, whisk it for a bit, and that's how Art of Domination started. My only regret is that I wish I didn't let my ego get in the way of updating it faster; early on I disliked the notion of re-using drawings because of a weird sense of pride and irrational fear of being branded 'lazy'.

Art of Domination Sprites done so far:

So there's a name that pops up in both Art of Domination and Refugeville: Zalugi. It was originally the name of a civilization that was the main focus of another forum adventure that I ran in the now defunct Fanboys Online forum. The very first thing they discovered, technologically speaking, was the art of making fire. They figured out how to use fire for hunting before they even came up with the concept of spears.

Eventhough that adventure ended with a whimper, I still want to explore the idea of a culture that adores fire and incorporates it into fashion, food, machines, etc. Also, they used paper for clothes instead of cotton, silk or wool. When they realized paper clothes caught fire very fast, instead of discarding paper clothing they just covered it in wax.

Ineresting ideas

Although ... while I understand the desire to make a fictional civilisation more unique, paper would make for awfull clothing. ( cellulose clothings actualy existed for a while as a novelty thing for women clothing in the sxities, it didn't last and for good reasons) Putting aside the question of flammability which would make cotton or leather much more logial choice if you're gonna hang around pyres a lot, paper, would be scratchy, get ruined by water (although I suppose waxing would help with that like with fire), making it also unwashable in the process and genraly extremely fragile to tearing stress.

If they gonna stick with waxed flammable clothing if/when they appear in REFUGEVILLE, may I suggest hemp as an alternative material ?
It is one of the oldest crops and clothing material known to man among many other fiber uses, including whatd'ya know paper, (not to mention the 'recreative' uses) I feel it'd sort of fit with the vibes I get from them as highly inteligent, soemwhat esotric minded and resourcefull people and the general survival vibe from refugeville.

....
(On an unrelated matter, anyone of my fellow readers got an idea or comment in art of domination ?)

Mm. I feel we should belay the workshop creation until we can manage to keep a more steady supply of iron going.

We could always look into the creation of a mine, as this does seem to have a dwarf fortress angle to it.

Art of Domination Sprites done so far:

LOVING these!

If they gonna stick with waxed flammable clothing if/when they appear in REFUGEVILLE, may I suggest hemp as an alternative material ?
It is one of the oldest crops and clothing material known to man among many other fiber uses, including whatd'ya know paper, (not to mention the 'recreative' uses) I feel it'd sort of fit with the vibes I get from them as highly inteligent, soemwhat esotric minded and resourcefull people and the general survival vibe from refugeville.

Oooh, that's a good suggestion. I forgot about hemp!

Art of Domination Sprites done so far:

LOVING these!

Thanks! I'm working on a few more, alongside with the next update. It's... very long.

Thanks! I'm working on a few more, alongside with the next update. It's... very long.

Yeah that seems to be the way AoD updates go.
Honestly that's a light bit of the appeal to them for me. Your writing style manages to avoid purple prose while still having tons of meaty details to puzzle over. Especially with the exposition being in-setting, and often unfolding over time.

Oh, hey. I figured it'd be better to bring this up in this thread instead of bumping AoD's thread and disappointing people that're waiting n an update - We should've had access to Cover Blobs at the start of W7, though I can imagine there's a variety of good reasons that hadn't come up, given the rather... hectic situation at the moment. For reference:

5 - Cover Blob: The Cover Blob is able to block enemy projectiles and tests have shown considerable resistance to laser-based weapons. It can be ordered via electrical signals to move alongside a friendly unit. The cover blob can be installed onto vehicles and deployed when the unit is under fire, adding another layer of protection behind our energy-based shields. For infantry units, the Cover Blob can also be used to block off paths and create bottlenecks.

May have been nice to have a few deployed for that shitstorm maybe, but... Ah well. We're still managing well enough, even with all the snags.

Regardless... There's also a bit of an oddity with Refugeville, in that most of the pics on page 1 (Along with a couple on page 2) are either just now direct links to the image itself or just not there at all. Figured you might want to know that so as to minimize any problems for people who decide to get caught up. (Or people rereading the thread, for that matter)

For the Refugeville thing, after a quick check,the images are some hosted on postimage.org. (who seemingly has some troubles lately) Those hosted on imgur work fine.

(As of the cover blobs, while it would have been an help, sure, given the size and scale of the dual battle, we would have needed several (which would have ruined us as much as using the weather machine or building the SIDs, or the savior drones and so forth..) to really have a chance to turnig the tides in any significant way

That said, now that we've seenoffreaking dangrous weaponised pretenders canbe against civiliantargets, if we /can research anoher nanite thing we /really/ need the poisonbane. But we'l see that after the battle is over, I suppose)

Oh crud, thanks for bringing the missing images to my attention! It's late night where I am right now so I'll work on fixing those image-links tomorrow after I've had breakfast.

I've also been working on a recap for AoD but I'm trying to keep it from getting too detailed and too long.

I'm hyped for the next update, and it's cool to hear you're working on both a manga and a novel :0