Log Horizon Fanfic Sanctioned by Author

[Black Aeronaut]

Found this when trying to dig up more information on Log Horizon...
...Apparently, the author of the light novels wants people to write fanfic of his stuff!!!
It's kinda second-hand...  Taken from a series of Q&A threads on 4-chan that were translated and reposted in an article on CrunchyRoll.

>>Is there any plan for the story in the American server ? in the main story or in "gaiden".>>like rebuilding the security or a story of a cook destroying the huge crime guild.>>I wanna see what its like if a Hollywood-like story or American comic-like story happens in Log-hora world.This is something I also want to see, but I just don't have enough energy left for it.What
happens in the world of Log Horizon, and the mysteries that I've left
in various locations around the world, are blank pages that are there so
that people can write their very own story about it.

Not often someone comes right on out and says something like that!  Woo-hoo!

[classicdrogn]

As I recall, the Sailor Moon creator (whose name escapes me at the moment) said in an interview somewhere that she enjoyed reading fanfiction about her characters, especially the racy ones! I believe JKR has said she has a shelf of Potterfic she's enjoyed enough to print and keep, too.
--
"Anko, what you do in your free time is your own choice. Use it wisely. And if you do not use it wisely, make sure you thoroughly enjoy whatever unwise thing you are doing." - HymnOfRagnorok as Orochimaru at SpaceBattles
woot Med. Eng., verb, 1st & 3rd pers. prsnt. sg. know, knows

[drakensis]

It goes a little further than that in fact. The author has actively integrated fan-creations into the Log Horizon world. D.D.D. member Alakshmi, who makes a brief appearance in the anime, is originally from a fanfic called D.D.D. Diaries and much of the guild's history was drawn from the same fanfic. (the fanfic's in japanese, sadly making it relatively impenetrable to me).
D for Drakensis

You're only young once, but immaturity is forever.

[Black Aeronaut]

*Nods* Which means that any and all Log Horizon fanfic is really part of a large and highly disorganized collaborative writing project.

Personally... I think that is pretty damn cool.

I'm gonna have to learn more about MMORPG's so I can go ahead and write my own. The Author has already hinted that different regions of Half-Gaia would have different classes for players.... And I'm pretty sure that also means different tech trees.

Part of what I would like to do for a fic is to include a bit of American Frontier in the fantasy setting - the idea being that it was felt that this would appeal to American players a lot more than anyone else (like how in the Japanese servers Shinto Priests and Samurai Tanks are likely exclusives). And on that note...

Quoted from Wikipedia:

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The American Longrifle, more commonly, but less correctly, known as the 'Kentucky rifle', was described by Captain John G. W. Dillin in the dedication to his seminal 1924 book, The Kentucky Rifle:
From a flat bar of soft iron, hand forged into a gun barrel; laboriously bored and rifled with crude tools; fitted with a stock hewn from a maple tree in the neighboring forest; and supplied with a lock hammered to shape on the anvil; an unknown smith, in a shop long since silent, fashioned a rifle which changed the whole course of world history; made possible the settlement of a continent; and ultimately freed our country of foreign domination.

Light in weight; graceful in line; economical in consumption of powder and lead; fatally precise; distinctly American; it sprang into immediate popularity; and for a hundred years was a model often slightly varied but never radically changed.

The idea here is interesting. A longrifle, at the time of its invention, was a shockingly accurate weapon at long range (200-500 yards). The trade-off, however, is that it takes an inordinately long time to reload, so you'd better be sure to hit what you're aiming for. This can translate into an attack with an insane amount of damaged dealt, a relatively normal casting time, and an incredibly long cool-down time - which would mean that it's only useful once, maybe twice, in most combats. And it can only be used by Assassins or anyone with the Tracker Subclass.

Thoughts?

[Necratoid]

Lets be fair, Ranma 1/2's anime has the Kuno Family ninja.  The abused little guy is a fanfic creation the Author liked so much he got his own episodes and knocked Tatewaki's manga canon minion down to largely extra,  So this isn't exactly a new idea, except perhaps in scale.
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Also, making it old West/Frontier based has its own madness associated with it.  For instance, the Giant with his equally big blue ox (Paul Bunyon) or the nut case riding the tornado (Pekoes Bill).  Add in those long term escort quests that make you do the equivalent of taking a family down Oregon trail.  Base and wagon defense missions for both settlers and Tribals.  Alamo type crazy uneven fort defense missions.  That some tribes are NPCs the others being near human monsters... that may ally with any given group if bribed enough.  Basically, lots of us or you against the world missions that have insanely random events everywhere.  That doesn't even get into some of the skin shifters and the like randomly getting into population centers.
When you get sick of that you go out, stake a claim and abuse your miner subclass endlessly.  Actually, if not killing NPCs is a thing... I expect claims to eventually end up trapped like Dwarf Fortress after a while so people can go to town once in a while.  It could be months before some of those guys realize that they can't log off as they get so caught up in fort defense.  Crazy hermits building up miles and miles of traps over time and possibly taking down the monster armies this way.  Then getting annoyed as they have to reset them all and some random group of NPCs has moved onto their lawn.
This is actually the big difference between Japanese and American servers.  Japanese serves are all about co-op and the American ones have so many options for loners.  Keeping with the spirit of the setting players and NPCs keep moving out of town and founding new ones.  Subclasses like miner, trapper, and  mountain man making players able to set out on their own and survive in the middle of nowhere.  Though with the respawning monsters everywhere I expect the Tribals and settlers are much friendlier with each other as both see each other as more help.
Add in those 'Reconquista Armies' from the Mexican server (prone to take over the world armies made almost entirely of players) whatever nonsense comes in from the Eastern US and Canadian severs and everything is weird.  I'm thinking the Tribals have actual fortifications set up as they'd not have managed to kill off the megafauna as it keeps respawning.  Basically I see the Western US server as having two types of players.  The normal ones doing all the normal quests and the like and the hard core loners out in the middle of nowhere building empires of population one.  Eventually NPCs figure out that if you bring them enough resources in trade you can get citizenship in their empire as long as you keep them supplied with building materials.  Which lets them expand their personal empire, which means less personal death fortress and more employed by the company store.
Maybe not what your envisioning, but with a monument to empty space like the Old West just screams a few towns to start and the rest has been filling in because of the players.
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On a side note, muskets are actually really useful if they reload by cool down timers.  As long as you spend a lot of your inventory carrying enough of them you could fire constantly.

[classicdrogn]

I'm reminded of Rogue Galaxy, where there was a three-reload limit on guns before they had a long cooldown timer, so I carried seveeral on the main character who used them... Also of Dark Age comics cgaracters like Cable and Punisher with half a dozen rifles across their backs, or pictures of pirate cosplayers dripping with pistols. I expect the "invention" of Minet balls to reduce the cooldown would be more difficult than just making an appropriately shaped mold as part of your accessories, though.
--
"Anko, what you do in your free time is your own choice. Use it wisely. And if you do not use it wisely, make sure you thoroughly enjoy whatever unwise thing you are doing." - HymnOfRagnorok as Orochimaru at SpaceBattles
woot Med. Eng., verb, 1st & 3rd pers. prsnt. sg. know, knows

[Black Aeronaut]

Necratoid: I wouldn't see it as a system dead-set against co-op play. In fact, in the American Frontier there was certainly safety in numbers - hence why many pioneers heading west tended to band together in great wagon trains and cattle drives tended to consist of anywhere between 20 and 100 men depending on how many head of cattle were being driven. While there will be plenty of room for soloing in the American servers, players will still benefit greatly from being in guilds.

In addition, the game seems to be set in some weird post-apocalypse+throw-back where we have the ancient lifestyles and jobs overlaying the ruins of the present day. The Author, in response to one question, noted that while it would require a remarkable amount of work, it would be possible to rebuild the old rail lines and have trains running again. (The advantage of doing so? No real surveying needed - the rail beds haven't really shifted, just rotted away. Bonus: rail steel is tough shit and resists rust. Even if several hundred years old, it can at least be melted down for recycling.)

CD: I think from what we've seen in Log Horizon there is a limit on what you can carry for weapons... it really depends on the type. We see Akatsuki regularly carrying many kunai... however, she only has one sword equipped at any given time. Same with Naogetsu - just his sword and his shield. Sarasa the Druid only has her Oak Staff.  And so on, and so forth.  The only exception seems to be the Swashbuckler class, which is the only class capable of dual-wielding (this is stated so by Shiroe in the anime). The have great speed and dexterity, but take massive hits in their defense and mana stats.

[s3yang]

blackaeronaut wrote:

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CD: I think from what we've seen in Log Horizon there is a limit on what you can carry for weapons... it really depends on the type. We see Akatsuki regularly carrying many kunai... however, she only has one sword equipped at any given time. Same with Naogetsu - just his sword and his shield. Sarasa the Druid only has her Oak Staff.  And so on, and so forth.  The only exception seems to be the Swashbuckler class, which is the only class capable of dual-wielding (this is stated so by Shiroe in the anime). The have great speed and dexterity, but take massive hits in their defense and mana stats.

Enh. unless there's specific mechanics mentioned by the author I wouldn't really assume this. I've played a number of mmorpgs, and in plenty of them - there's just no real _call_ to be swapping out weapons all the time. But that doesn't mean that you couldn't carry a bunch of them in your inventory. And technically what CD is referring to is more like an... auxiliary weapon slot. Note also that because this is a MMO, 'multiple rifles' might actually be a single 'item'. So functionally, you'd have a single item with 3 'charges' but the in game appearance would be a set of 3 muskets/pistols/rifles what-evers.
Basically, I see multiple ways in which something like that could be implemented without impinging on what's already been shown.

[Black Aeronaut]

Let's see...

We could divvy up the Player Characters into two basic camps: Natives and Settlers. It's be a little like WoW, only not as much animosity between the two camps. There would be plenty of bad blood, sure, but also plenty of common ground. While settlers will have things like gunslingers, musketeers and swashbucklers, the natives will have things like shamen, hunters, and berserkers. Thoughts?

[ECSNorway]

I dunno. If Japan comes off looking like a medieval European fantasy, why should we expect the Western US to come off looking like the Old West?
--
Sucrose Octanitrate.
Proof positive that with sufficient motivation, you can make anything explode.