You could have them be Federation Guards and do a simple name change from Confederation to just Federation.
That would work... sort of. I didn't think of that. A part of me REALLY wants to do that.
The lines between a Confederation and a Federation are kind'a mulled. But the distinction is important in the U.S. because the U.S.A. has what we'd consider a Federal government. A confederacy is a group of independent states that work together (like the Iroquois nation or the North German Confederacy); a federation implies more centralization and less independence for the member states.
If nothing else comes up, that's what I'll roll with, but a confederacy is different enough from a federation that I'm a bit wary of running with that.
EDIT: Yeah, just double checked something. Typed confederation vs. federation into Google. The following came up:
By definition the difference between a confederation and a federation is that the membership of the member states in a confederation is voluntary, while the membership in a federation is not.
That'd go against what I'm writing the League to be. The League isn't going to go about trying to annex people; it's going to be a mostly defensive state that tries to expand diplomatically. I'm gonna avoid the word Federation.
Since we have a Neo-Confederate faction, should I change the name of my military from the Confederate Guard to something else? I'm short of ideas here. Anyone have any?
@HellisIs there somewhere I can find a description of the tiers?
It pretty much goes like this:
S-Tier: Think Superman. Think galactic-tier villain. Think the Hulk once he's gone full "I can wipe out all of Asgard on my own" angry. Those are the guys you don't wanna mess with. (Another way to think of it: these guys can save or destroy whole planets... or star systems... or bigger things.) A-Tier: Hard hitters, but nowhere near as hard hitting as the S-Tier. Batman is A-Tier; he can't typically go up against the villains Superman can, but if they're on the same team working together he's still an incredible asset. Ironman would probably be classified as A-Tier as well. Vandal Savage would probably fit here, too. B-Tier: We're getting less threatening, but these guys are still noteworthy in a fight. Deadpool would probably fall here, as would a lot of less famous X-Men. I'd put Green Arrow here, too. They can fight big bads, but they're more of a street level opponent. Green Arrow can slug it with the big boys and evil corporations, but he's not a true game changer like Batman. C-Tier: Us. Yeah, we're not noteworthy at all.
EDIT: Another thing to note is that being able to beat characters of a tier above you doesn't make you that tier. Batman, for instance, could kill Superman if he wanted; that's because he can exploit Superman's weaknesses REALLY EASILY. The Flash is an A-Tier, POSSIBLY super high B-Tier superhero, but some of his chief enemies are B and C-Tier sillies like Captain Boomerang. (Interestingly, the Flash in certain mediums can actually be more powerful than Superman. He can basically break the laws of physics to move faster than light [Hi "Speed Force"!] in Justice League Unlimited, and actually defeated a supervillain that the entire Justice League combined couldn't. But he's typically less powerful than Superman, despite having some serious S-Tier moments.)
I... Hm. This is tricky. I haven't 100% finished the game yet, but here goes. First, though, let me make a point:
Undertale is not my favorite game, nor my favorite Indie game. I only think it's a good game, not a super great game. If you want to know of a great 4X (sort of) card/survival game with good story and interesting lore (real-world Baltic folklore turned fantasy), you should look up Thea: The Awakening. THAT is a great game in my opinion. Undertale is not as great as that...
But Undertale is still a good game, and I'm happy I played it. Here's why:
It's got good storytelling. That's what it comes down to. Undertale's actual mechanics are really subpar, and the graphics style isn't something I dig, even though I did play a lot of SNES games - including, yes, a little Earthbound. But the story is fun, and it toys with player expectations.
When I accidentally killed the first "boss" - you know, the lady you can call Mom - I was mortified. I was only doing around 50 damage a hit, and I wanted to get her really low in HP so I could talk her down, but then my character dealt a whopping 200 or 300 damage hit and she DIED ON ME. So, yeah, of COURSE I loaded the game. I didn't want her to die, and I'm not playing RPGs for an Ironman-mode experience.
The worst part about having her die that first time was that she herself warned me about that, and I was actively calculating my damage so I could get her as low as I could before talking her down, assuming that's what you were supposed to do. The game threw a curveball at me, though.
And the game referenced that. The game shoved the fact that I did that in my face. And then it beat the horse dead, but in a way that actually just played with my heartstrings more. I didn't feel offended by that. I thought it was a fun approach, even though I've been exposed to games breaking the fourth wall before. It worked.
How is anything in Undertale a "meme"?
Okay. I can answer this one really easily:
Doge.
Dear God, I was actually really sick of dogs by the time I got through the snowy region. I mean it. You fight two different dogs that were specifically designed to look like Doge (who is a shiba), and THAT is an obvious meme that the developer ran with. Yeah, the game has at least one meme, and it pops up pretty early on, and it isn't all that funny.
EDIT: Two dogs that look like doge doesn't sound like much, but you also fight three other dogs in that region as minor bosses, and I had someone tell me about the whole making-his-neck-grow-infinitely-long joke with the Lesser Dog. That took a while. I was bored of them fast.
Again: the game is still a good game, and I'm happy I played it, but it has at least one meme, and I'm sure I missed others. And yes, that meme existed BEFORE the game did.
I'll also say this: if someone doesn't like the game after a few hours of play, they shouldn't be told to keep playing so they can get to the fun part. I can see why people wouldn't have fun with the game because of the gameplay. Bullet hells just aren't that interesting to me, the RPG elements are really just a flimsy Christmas present wrapping you're supposed to yank off before you get to the present inside (the story), and the art style / graphics are what I'd describe as "Indie 8-bit." Indie 8-bit is the lazier cousin of SNES 8-bit. It could be way better.
(But at least the characters aren't literally 1 pixel wide stick figures like some Indie games. Those games upset me on a deep level.)
I'll also say that my purchase/playthrough of Undertale was really delayed because it DOES have a lot of really lazy design on the surface. Again: graphics style = high-middle end Indie 8-bit. Not saying much. The combat was really boring to watch (a little more fun to play). The story's premise actually bothered me before I picked up the game ("So, I'm playing a little girl trapped in the underworld, I'm trying to escape, monsters are trying to kill me, and I'm supposed to feel bad for fighting back?"). It... Yeah, it's easy to start playing with a frown on your face.
Again, though: turned out to have a good story with subpar gameplay. It was worth the purchase. I enjoyed it. It made me think a little. I can't say much more than that.
EDIT: And I'm gonna reiterate that there are other Indie games out there I'd sooner suggest throwing money at than Undertale. I personally have poured a bunch of hours into Battle Brothers (which is like Panzer General but as a medieval mercenary RPG), and I think Thea is a really fun one, too. There's a few others of similar quality worth mentioning, but I think I've gotten my point across.
That's actually talking about Grunt. Look back at the context.
”...A failed fey invader, a alocholic alien and a mentally challenged... thing...” He started to mumble ”A repentant fey invader, a formidable brawler and a” The hologram trailed of. ”A unfortunate victim of science”
The hologram was trying to repeat everything Merlovich said, but with a more positive spin on things. Failed vs. Repentent, Alcoholic vs. Formidible brawler. Merlovich called Grunt a mentally challenged thing, and then the best retort Archie had to that was "An unfortunate victim of science."
I actually really liked those two sentences because they kind of gave me a good picture of how Merlovich thinks AND how Archie thinks.
I dunno. I mean, if I'm at an aquarium with sharks in it, for instance, and I know all about sharks and that the shark isn't going to break out of the aquarium, I'm still going to be terrified if the shark rams its head against the glass. That's scary. Sharks are scary, superpowers are scary, and dinosaurs are scary. I think having any one of the above, and a lot of other things, pop up in front of you even if you're expecting something can still be a super spooky experience.
But then again, I'm a bonafide coward. That might color my perception of things. But still, you can live in a universe where Superman exists and still be freaked out when someone casually turns into a monster.
Man, everyone is getting along swimmingly! And by swimmingly I mean we're dead. This is good stuff.
Yeah, I think Steve's reaction is fair. I mean, I'd freak out if someone turned into a dinosaur in front of me, even if I did know I was in a superhero universe. Big animals are scary. Steve's response seemed real enough to me.
