The Defenders

Okay....
Well can I do this idea: the two are foragers, or a type of "treasure hunter"? Oasis didnt need Zo but they came to an agreement so now Oasis helps Zo find whatever it is and in turn Zo helps Oasis.... I'll think of something
 
That can work! It's all up to you, I'm just the one giving you a platform and a basic skeleton to play them on.
 
Dipper said:
Yeah, the Defenders are a bit confusing. Each is their own individual, but most (excluding the Explorers for various reasons I can ago into if you'd like) require some kind of Human to both aid them in Defender-to-Human communication, and fill in the gaps (offering them information via link on the human world, translating what humans say to the defenders and vice-versa since only Defenders and their human counterparts can understand each other, etc.) so it kind of works like that.

If you need any more info, let me know.
Click to expand...
So how much control do the humans have over the defenders? When I was reading, I was thinking of something a bit like Pacific Rim, where the human would control the defender with their mind, but does this mean that the defender has complete autonomy? Are the humans just there to provide information? Do they travel together, or do all the humans work from some sort of a control tower whilst the defenders are off on missions? Is there a limit to their range of telepathic communication? What do the defenders do when they aren't working? It seems a bit cruel to shut down a seemingly sentient machine, just because there isn't currently a mission for it. Do the defenders "live" in the same location (flat, house, etc.) as their human, or do they have their own homes and money so on?

...I kind of feel like that one annoying kid with all the questions. Sorry. What I'm looking for, basically, is the extent of the human-defender relationship, and how defenders are treated by society. Do they have any rights of their own?
 
I'm actually glad you asked these questions @Disgruntled Goat
I have one more to add:
You are saying the defenders are a mold, so the humans that are partnered with them could possible be inside these molds communicating together? Almost like robots with cockpits and the humans are controlling them from the inside.... But different? Now that goat started asking question I'm confused lol
 
Sounds like the big question right now is this:

Are the "defenders" a separate, sentient robotic race sworn to serve humanity... or just some kind of an exoskeleton/biosuit type of thing that a human would wear?
 
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Alright, don't worry about being annoying. My fault for not providing enough info. Like I said, I wrote this up when I was still relatively new.

Here's kind of how it works:

Upon construction, Defenders are more like "mindless machines that don't quite have a directive" and only basic programming until the mind of a human is linked up with theirs via transplant (or other various ways). Humans come in and their minds are linked, allowing the information Defender's need to flesh out their own programming and personalities, understanding, etc. It's sort of like self programming, but their own CPU's aren't quite large enough to house their entire program, thus a human acts sort of like a secondary control system. If any of that makes sense. They sort of become one, but not really because they're still their own individuals.

Since humans aren't as physically powerful as a Defender, they usually do stay within a Defender Compound, which is where most Defenders spend their time when not in battle, as shutting them down entirely takes up time--but it does happen when power reserves in the Compound are low. Since most of the humans stay within the compound, they usually take it upon themselves to debrief their Defender. If a bond is particularly strong between a human and Defender, then the human can go out into battle with them, but not many do this because it still requires augmentation beyond what they already have.

Defender's don't have many rights, no. The main Earth population doesn't think of them as citizens, just weapons. Defenders are somewhat okay with this, but problems have come up in the past when it came to their treatment. While a Defender could easily take down the entire Earth government, their most base moral programming would either shut them down or try to convince them otherwise. Most want this program gone, but humans (excluding the Defender's human link) disagree.

That got long, but I'm trying to get this to make sense. Let me know if there's anything else you would like to know. I'm still kind of building upon the whole thing and looking for input.

Edit: As I've said before, Explorers are pretty old in comparison, with more time put into their design. They have full capacity to develop their personality on their own.
 
SunsetBumpkin said:
I'm actually glad you asked these questions @Disgruntled Goat
I have one more to add:
You are saying the defenders are a mold, so the humans that are partnered with them could possible be inside these molds communicating together? Almost like robots with cockpits and the humans are controlling them from the inside.... But different? Now that goat started asking question I'm confused lol
Click to expand...
Nah, the humans are separate. I might make that a possibility in the future if there's a demand for that, but for now, no.
 
@Disgruntled Goat

Separate race, somewhat built by humans and somewhat a mystery I want to keep secret until it becomes important.
 
I am so sorry if you guys are just beyond confused due to my muddling. If you'd like me to make changes, I would love your input. I want it to be fun, not confusing or weird or anything.
 
Oooo things are starting to clear up for me. Got it, now that means the human can travel into space with their defender in a compound. Right? Makes "treasure hunting" more likely!
 
SunsetBumpkin said:
Oooo things are starting to clear up for me. Got it, now that means the human can travel into space with their defender in a compound. Right? Makes "treasure hunting" more likely!
Click to expand...
What? Where did that come from?

I assumed that a "Defender Compound" was like a military base?

And, Dipper, I'm still working through it, but it's cool. If we get all this stuff hashed out now, then we'll know what we're doing when the roleplay starts and that's much better. So long as you're cool with me asking around a million questions, I'm cool with asking them. ;)
 
Compound's a military style base, just to clear that up.

And yeah, fleshing out the world more will make this a lot easier and smoother when we get to it. Don't worry about questions, it actually helps a whole lot with the building process.
 
Sorry I was thinking of a capsule... Okay so neverm-
I'm gonna go for a bit.
 
Then I will ask more questions! For the sake of argument, let's say that the human is in a compound based in Texas, but their defender is fighting somewhere up in Alaska.

With that in mind, what is the "link" between the two like? Is it as strong as it would be if they stood side by side, or does distance weaken it? Does the human see all that the machine sees by way of the link, or do they see through a monitor that's connected up to a camera inside the defender?

Does the human have any real control over the defender? It sounds like the idea is for the human to be the "brain", and to make decisions about which route to take, which targets to attack and so on, but do the defenders have to follow them? What if the human was ordering the defender to jump in front of an oncoming train, or off of a high cliff? Does the defender make its own decision every time, and simply use the human's directions as a "suggestion"?
 
The link is very powerful, and only begins to weaken if leaves the solar system entirely, (seeing as Explorers don't usually have a human link, this isn't a problem for them. Explorer-human bonds do generally extend even longer than the bonds of any other Defender-human link.). Humans can view in several different ways: through the eyes via concentrating on the link, through the eyes via monitor, or through an overhead camera that accompanies a Defender upon request of the human. It's all preferential at that point.

Humans can act sort of like navigators: "That enemy is over here, so you should do this." Kind of guiding them along, and the Defenders trust them to give them the correct info. The Defenders can do all of this on their own, of course, but it makes fighting much easier when a human is guiding them along. Sort of like controlling them, but the Defenders are totally capable of ignoring these orders in favor of their own. It's just probably not a very good idea on their part, but like I said before: they have personalities, so some of them are probably going to be a bit rebellious. So yeah, their mostly just suggestions, for lack of a better term.
 
Hmm so let me get this straight:

The human and Defender are linked telepathically, basically.
It seems to me that Defenders are independent, essentially. They only really need humans to help with communication and obtaining outside information.
For example: If they were to be on a mission and see a group of enemies, the human can suggest to steer clear and be stealthy or attack straight on. The humans just act as another opinion.
Because the humans and Defenders are separate beings, we need two characters, or to connect one of our characters with someone else's (ex: my Defender with someone else's human)?
 
@Miss Flufferbutt

You've got it down perfectly. If another player is willing to do that, then go right ahead. It's totally an options.
 
Other than explorers, are there any defenders that don't have a human? What happens if, say, a human gets paired with a defender but the human then gets hit by a bus? Do they just reassign another human to that defender? Or would the defender retain all the knowledge (language, mostly, I would think) that it "learned" from its human and be able to continue without a human?

That said, do defenders have any actual feelings of their own? Do they feel pain? Joy? Loneliness? If a human died and a defender was reassigned, would it resent its new human for being different to the old human, or would they just wipe the defender's memory so that it never remembers that it had a human previously?
 
Defenders usually retain all the knowledge they had previously, yes. From there it's up to whether or not that particular Defender needs or wants what's essentially a link to the human world and a navigator. Usually another one is assigned to them regardless of their personal feelings on the matter.

Anyway, yes they do. Except pain, unless you mean emotional pain. They're kind of still developing all that emotional stuff, you know? It can take a while for a defender to be up to human standards--as such, most explorers are usually pretty human in most cases, because of their age. If the defender is a particularly rebellious one, they will wipe the memory in order to pair it up with another human.
 
Assuming I have a working understanding of the system, I think I can clear up the Defender/human relationship with an analogy.

It's like a two-seat fighter plane. One is responsible for piloting the plane and sending it where it needs to go, and the other is responsible for killing anything the plane is pointing at. Front seat handles the navigational decisions (though back seat can provide input), back seat handles tactical. In this case, it's a bit less controlled because the human doesn't directly influence where the Defender goes, but without that piece of the battle to worry about, the Defender is free to think about what to do where it is, and not about where it should be.

Anyway, this seems like a good story. Room for an Angel?
 
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