The agents of this thread are pretty fucking too: Let's Play Lobotomy Corporation

An archival space for the threads that made it.
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Synchronizing Memory Repository . . .

Day 6: Story

Music: story1
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Image A majority of them would like to know more about you as a person. Some will take the initiative and attempt to approach you first.

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Image There are no regulations to prevent them from coming all the way to your office to interact with you face to face, unfortunately. It seems the one who set those rules in place did not consider situations like this. And I suppose this may be a good opportunity for you to show them that you are generous and caring enough to have chitchats with your subordinates. Words tend to travel faster than you think.

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Image But please keep in mind that you do not have to do everything they ask of you. Simply thank them for their effort. Tell them you hope that they will keep up the good work. That will benefit both parties, don’t you think?

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Image Give them a vending machine and next they will come knocking, demanding a bar. I expect you to make the right decision.

In summary: Our employees may try talking to us, and our job is to spout empty platitudes and make them feel good, but absolutely never under any circumstances listen to any requests we might hear. Y'know, just like corporations in real life. :v:

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Anyways, now that the Control team is fully expanded, we can expand further down to the Information team. We do that.

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Image ...that's it?

Image That's it. We're not all busybodies like Malkuth. Is there anything else?

Image Er… no.

Image Then I'll see you after work.

With the exception of Malkuth on day 1, we have to wait until the day after we open a department in order to get the first cutscene/mission of a given Sephirot. We'll learn more about Yesod soon enough.

Meanwhile…
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Image It looks like with the new department coming online, we've been assigned to different spots.

Image Gonna' be a shame not having you around pushing work off on me anymore.

Image Yeah, well… someone has to keep the newbies in line. I don't mind having access to the CCTV all the time, either.

Image You actually like keeping track of those things?

Image Ehh, while you guys were doing all the work the past couple days, I learned to appreciate watching.

Image Pfft-that's not creepy at all. :rolleyes:

Image How else will I know when to heroically show up to save your ass at the last moment?

Image Whatever, man. Don't do anything crazy.

Image You know I can't promise that. :v: Good luck in info.

Next time, on Lobotomy Corporation: A new department! Ordeals! Terrible skin-care regimens!
Last edited by TeeQueue on Fri Jul 24, 2020 11:37 am, edited 1 time in total.

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This game fascinates me just from its concept, and I'm glad I caught this thread while it's still pretty new! Excited to see what else is in store here. :)

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It's not as easy as TeeQueue makes it look :v
Fun as heck, though.

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This game is actually hard, I swear: Let's Play Lobotomy Corporation

But yes, welcome!

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Synchronizing Memory Repository . . .

Day 6: Gameplay

Music: neutral 4
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Image So, are we going to have any other problems, Malkuth?

Image I don't think so, Manager! Are there any other new tests today?

Image There are not. How are the new hires?

Image Image

Image They've been through some additional Fortitude, Temperance, and Prudence training, as requested!

The basic strategy when using new members with Mirror is to put them at 2/2/2/1, mirror them, and then bring any of the first 3 that's below 2 back up to 2 with either training or bonus LOB. I've also moved the number of agents in each department down to 3: the standard number for early game facilities. By keeping it to 3 we have someone in each department to work each abnormality, and we don't overtax our gear or our LOB.

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Anyways, let's roll.

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Image It's time. Remember to follow the protocols.

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Our newest addition is a strange figure who hides behind a clothesline made of of faces.

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A peek at its details shows that it requires 12 PE boxes to unlock its data, which means it's a TETH. When messing with a new abnormality, it's important to try and eyeball its overall threat level however you can before sending someone at it… or just send them at it and retry if they die horribly. Predictably for our facility, I throw Mizu at the new abnormality.

Image Ooh ooh, dibs on the new monster!

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-92 is our first instance of Black damage. It deals damage to both HP and SP simultaneously, so it's usually a good idea to send in an agent with higher HP than SP. We can bring an agent back from panicking, but they can't recover from being dead. I am not following my own advice, because I am an idiot feel confident that Mizu will be fine regardless.

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Image It seems like they're not a fan of repression work, guys.

Image So how was it?

Image So-so. No matter what I did they only half-cared.

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Since my main goal for the day is to grab all of the equipment from our new abnormality, I send Mizu to do a lot of works with it. Her first two attempts both got bads, maybe this time will be different?

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Image ...huh.

Image You seem confused.

Image I'm totally confused. I kept repressing it just like before, but this time it couldn't seem to enjoy it enough?

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Say hello to Today's Shy Look. This abnormality is all about positioning. It treats every work equally, and gives a blanket success bonus or penalty based on its position. From far left to far right, it grants 30%, 10%, 0%, -30%, and -50%. In addition, it heals with every success on the far left, and heals SP on the second from left. Its damage doubles on the far right.

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This means that when I send an agent to work it, I have to be ready to cancel when it does things like shift to its angry face with my agent about 3 steps in front of the door. Did I mention that I rarely turn the game off of 2x speed for any reason?

Not pictured: the literally dozens of other close calls I had today. :shepface:

There's one other threat associated with working with TSL as well:

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After every work, our agents have a 5% chance of having this stapled to their face. It's possible to hide E.G.O gifts if an agent is level 4 or higher… but we won't be doing that for the sake of this LP. Whatever horrendous mishmash of bits our agents get is what they get.

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Image Hey… what's that alarm sound?

Image That's a meltdown siren. We need to check the nearby cells for meltdowns.

Image Why check, when we can simply work them all and have it covered either way?

Image That works too. Let's do it.

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For most of the day, the Control team is busy having Bishop work with Forsaken Murderer, Mr. Black with 1.76, and Tylana work with One Sin to train Prudence. Also, take a closer look up in the top left corner.

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While a red number means we get meltdowns, at certain points we get these instead. These warnings mean the next meltdown level will spawn an Ordeal, those loose abnormalities we've heard so much of. This color means we'll be seeing an Amber Dawn.

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Image Uh… what the hell, Mizu?

Image I'm just thinking. We got all new clerks after last time, and new agents 'cause we expanded… Some of them are probably gonna' die. We could cry, or we could make a betting pool.

Image That's...

Image I got 2 LOB on Alpha10 making it.

Image You're on!

Image This feels so wrong. :cripes:

Meanwhile…
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Image If you let her, she just goes on forever, doesn't she?

Image Image Yes.

Image Thought so.

This is honestly my favorite halfway-done quote. :3: I keep pushing until we hit the edge, and then send Talow to do the work so that Mizu is on hand to deal with the Ordeal.

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Image I'm going to try talking to it. Let me know if anything happens.

Image Roger.

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Say hello to The Perfect Food, everyone! Every ordeal comes with its own intro and outro, which show up whenever they arrive or are defeated. Behind it are the worms themselves. Let's grab some data.

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The Perfect Food is the only ordeal in the entire game with a variable speed, constantly changing to anywhere between 28 and 32 in order to simulate a wormy slither. It approaches anyone in its room and jumps at them, dealing very low damage.

I send Mizu in to deal with them.

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Image Heave-hup..! Aaaand…!

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Image Hey! You're not allowed to dodge! :mad:

This is the main problem with them: Their jump takes them through an agent, meaning that melee agents with slow attack speeds wind up, swing, and the worm is already behind them so they miss.

Our entire facility is full of melee agents with slow attack speeds. Today's Shy Look's gear was supposed to address this, but I can't equip any of it until tomorrow. :bang:

Image ...This is bad, right?

Image Not as bad as it looks. Talow will be done working soon.

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Image We can move on to the next day whenever you like.

Image Tempting as that would be, I don't want to run away at the first sign of a problem.

Talow joins the fray after a perfect work (seriously, how does he keep doing that), but they're both having problems landing hits so I eventually send them back to the main room to heal. I absolutely don't want to use D.A.D. due to their 1.2x red modifier. Amber Dawns attack pretty quickly, and with five of them attacking D.A.D.'s 31 HP would be gone in only a couple of moments.

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Image Ugh.. these things. We're not equipped to handle these things!

Image We'll be fine! Anyways, I want my 2 LOB. I totally saw one of those guys eat Alpha10.

Image :what:

With plan a out the window, I decide to move on to plan b and hope the control team can attack a little faster. One Sin's weapon swing isn't as slow as one of the hammers.

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Image Don't worry! I'll have my agents perfectly deal with the problem!

Image They're not smiling… I should hit 'em 'til they smile!

Image It's just like in training, it's just like in training, just swing..!

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Image :derp: It's not hitting anything!!

After about 5 seconds or so they haven't managed to land a single hit, and the three already on my group have hit Tylana for 7 HP. :cripes:

Image Fall back! I'll think of something else.

Image Image Image Roger!

The upside of Amber Dawn is that they can't attack your regenerators, meaning that if you take your time you can never lose… so long as you can hit them. I think about it again, and decide to try something stupid.

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Image Hey Talow, you're faster than me, right?

Image Probably, why?

Image What if we both went after them together, and our hammers got super out of sync, and then no matter where they dodge, WHAMMO?

Image ...It's worth a shot. D.A.D., hold down the fort?

Image Not like I can go out with those things around.

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Image I dunno, I thought the backstreets were fun. Always something to do, plenty of food if you knew where to look...

Image ...Just keep swinging. :stare:

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While it takes around 3-4 swings for each hit, the two of them are tanky enough to deal with the first group. Amber Dawn's 2x Red weakness means that each hit from a hammer deals 24-36 damage, so with only 35 HP it isn't long before the two agents are surrounded by worm corpses. :fuckoff:

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Mizu's taken a beating, though, so we go back to heal before attacking the other group.

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Image ...Didn't you guys change teams?

Image They were in the hallway back to our regenerator, and we needed a quick fix.

Image That would explain the holes in Mizu.

Image I can still fight!! :black101:

Image You really shouldn't go out until you're healed!!

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They pop back into the corridor next to Control's main room not long after, and I send the two after them.

Image Hey, these things are called The Perfect Food, right? ...What do you think they taste like?

Image ...10 LOB says it's jelly.

Image You're on!

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Image Mmm… Yep! Grape jelly. Dang.

Image :stare:

Defeating the dawn ordeal instantly gives 10% of your daily quota, so there's not any reason to beat them up if you can end the day unless you want to get more farming done. At this point, I take a deep breath and get back to work.

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The next meltdown hits 1.76 and Forsaken. The radio's being worked already, so I throw Bishop at Forsaken in and try to work TSL real quick.

Image Manager…

Image Hold on, I need to pay attention to this.

Image Manager, you need to-

Image Seriously, I have to pay attention to this.

Image But, X…

Image What is it?

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Image 1.76 MHz is about to suffer a meltdown.

Image Oh for the love of-

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:doh: :doh: :doh: I got so focused on not messing up TSL that I forgot 1.76 needed to be worked. This is how Lobotomy Corporation gets you, get too focused on spinning one plate and another crashes down.

I attempt to send Bishop at the problem, with his 1 fortitude and decent other stats.

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...dammit. I try D.A.D. next, since he has a higher justice level, but no fortitude bonus.

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:rolldice: :sigh:

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In the end, Bishop manages to hit two perfect works in a row to turn the static back off, and he picks up a shiny new radio for his efforts. With all the works I've been spamming for 6 days, I'm sort of surprised that this is only the second E.G.O gift we've seen, but… RNG can be cruel. With the problem back under control, I keep farming until I have the energy to get all of Today's Shy Look's gear.

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It takes a while. :v:

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Image You're really caught up on smiling… why is that?

Image Because there's no problem you can't make better by laughing! Watch, I'll show you!

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Image What'd I just walk in on?

Image I wish I knew. :psyduck:

Image Alright, pack it in, everyone. We're all done for the day!

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With TSL finally maxed out, I decide to end the day and move on.

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Image Another one done by the numbers.

No promotions, but everyone got a bit of good solid growth. Only having TETHs gives an upper limit on how far I can efficiently grind this early in the game, even with the mirror in the facility.

Music: never frozen bottom flows
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F-04-83: Everything will be peaceful while you are under the faeries' care.
F-05-52: Somewhere in the distance, you can hear seagulls.
O-01-67: She was so sad that she had to leave her dear friends behind, so she came up with a brilliant idea!

We just got absurdly lucky here: -67 is a HE abnormality. On day 7 only the third option has a chance to be a HE, and only 20% of the time. On top of this, the game's offering us a HE who can only be described as a good girl who has done nothing wrong in her life. She's an amazing Attachment trainer, her gear is excellent, and she's very easy to work with. She can't breach, so we'll need to keep an eye out for breaching abnormalities for later, but outside of that she's just excellent.

As for the others, -83 is mostly benign, but it's a ZAYIN and we ideally want to be ramping up and not down. It does have 5 slots for both suits and weapons, so it's good for gearing a lot of weaker agents to deal with TETHs. Lastly, -52 can kill an agent instantly if they're unlucky, and while it has only 2 weapons it also has 5 suits for defensive use. It's a ZAYIN too, though.

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The decision is easy. We're getting a HE. :getin:

Next time, on Lobotomy Corporation: We meet Yesod, and find out a bit about him!

New Guidelines

Today's Shy Look

New Gear

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Requirements: Fortitude II

New Story

Today's Shy Look
Last edited by TeeQueue on Fri Jul 24, 2020 11:37 am, edited 1 time in total.

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Mechanics Talk 5: Fear, Panic, and Spirals

Today is 'All things SP' day here in mechanics talk, so we'll start with the basics. I mentioned fear before, so we'll start with what the manual has to say about it:

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This is the only mention of fear damage, tucked away in the section on working with abnormalities. What it doesn't mention is that watching an agent panic or die also causes a fear effect, which is calculated as if the dead/panicked agent is 1 level higher than they normally are. There are six fear levels, based on our agent's level - the threat level causing the fear:
  • Relaxed - Deals no damage. Agent is higher level than the threat.
  • Calm - Deals no damage. Agent's level is equal to the threat.
  • Nervous - Lose 10% of max SP. Agent is 1 level below the threat.
  • Terrified - Lose 30% of max SP. Agent is 2 levels below the threat.
  • Hopeless - Lose 60% of max SP. Agent is 3 levels below the threat.
  • Overwhelmed - Lose 100% of max SP (instant panic). Agent is 4 levels below the threat.
I mentioned it before, but fear damage does count as damage to SP for the purposes of damage modifiers. That means if we can get away with working a higher level abnormality for insight/attachment work, it's not a bad idea! :science:

So long as we aren't doing anything crazy like working ALEPH abnormalities with level 2 agents, we shouldn't see a lot of problems with fear damage. Still, it's always possible that agents will have their SP reduced to 0, so let's take a look into the mechanics behind panic.

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The manual gives a good overall idea of how panic works. When an agent's SP is reduced to 0, we can beat them with a weapon that deals W or B damage to give them SP back. Once they reach their maximum, they're saved from the panic state and resume normal work. W damage is recommended, since it's possible to kill an agent if we use B weapons. We'll now cover each of the panic types in more detail.

Murder: Murder-type agents try to kill whatever is nearby using their equipped weapon. They get an attack speed buff of 1.x times their normal attack speed, where x is the agent's level. If using a W/B weapon, they damage their target's SP as normal, so we cannot have two Murder-type paniced agents go at each other with W weapons and have the situation fix itself.

Suicide: Suicide-type agents stand still right where they first panicked and begin to shudder in place. When first entering this state, a random timer is assigned of between 30 and 60 seconds. At the end of this timer, the agent snaps their own neck in spectacular fashion, dealing W damage to any other agents in the room. The risk level of the damage is equal to their level, and they deal 20*level in damage, so a level 5 agent suicide is equal to an ALEPH abnormality dealing 100 W to everyone in the room. Suicide damage can be avoided if we just have everyone clear out of the room, but if we want to save the panicking agent we have to risk them blowing early and causing more problems for their would-be saviors.

Wandering: Wandering-type agents run through the facility and periodically deal W damage to anyone in the same room as them. The damage and risk level are both equal to their level, making them not a large threat so long as they don't focus their running to only a couple rooms. The real issue here is with knocking them out of panic, as any Wandering-type agent gets a 1.x times buff to their speed, where x is their character level. This means wandering agents tend to move very quickly, and without a ranged weapon that deals B/W damage they tend to just run right by any attempts to suppress them.

Breakout: Breakout-type (because the infographic's term is a mouthful) agents run through the facility with a crowbar in order to get to a randomly chosen Abnormality which still has a QC. While in this state, they gain a buff of 1.x times their move speed, where x equals their level. On top of this, they receive a defense buff, gaining a modifier of 1-0.x times all their incoming damage. This means a level 5 agent would take only half damage from any attacks made against them, making them incredibly tanky. When they reach their chosen abnormality, they attempt to free them by hitting the door to the containment cell with their crowbar. Each hit has a chance of 15% per agent level of lowering the QC by 1, to a maximum of a 75% chance at level 5. After either the QC hits 0 or the agent hits the cell 5 times, they run off to a new cell to free that abnormality as well. If not suppressed quickly, these types of agents will cause resets. Unfortunately, Justice is the speed stat… so agents who get this panic type also tend to be the hardest to catch.

Every panic is bad news, since if not dealt with properly they can lead to a phenomenon called a panic spiral. It happens to every manager at some point:

Agents panic, causing other agents (who may have already taken SP damage) to take a fear hit. These agents, now vulnerable to snapping, are then sent to get things back under control by suppressing the other agents. A neck snaps too quick, or the agents try running around after a wander-type without going through a main room, and now one or two panicked agent turns into more. Abnormalities get out, and suddenly it's a third warning and we can't actually control anyone in the facility anymore since they're all either dead or banging on the last abnormality's door with a crowbar, muttering about salvation.

To avoid this, it's important to not panic when things start going wrong. When we see someone panic, it's best to pause and determine what sort of panic type they are, as well as how difficult they will be to suppress with our remaining agents. In the worst case scenario, we may have to commit to DPSing down a breakout/murder agent before they free/kill something, or simply leaving a suicide to die alone… but that's a rarity. In general, if an agent panics it isn't a wipe so long as we don't make things worse.
Last edited by TeeQueue on Fri Jul 24, 2020 11:49 am, edited 1 time in total.

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I think this game is very cool, but I would not be good at playing it.

it's weirdly both easier and harder then TeeQueue is making it look, on one hand there's some super forgiving reset options that you're pretty much expected to use, one the other hand a lot of the difficulty depends on your abnormality choices, and TeeQueue knows all of them and can avoid the problematic ones.

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The retry mechanics do make things very forgiving, but I understand that not everyone can play this sort of plate-spinning-simulator without causing themselves a lot of stress.

I recommend sitting back with a beverage and enjoying me going through the stress on your behalf. :D

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Synchronizing Memory Repository . . .

Day 7: Story

Music: story 1
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I imagine not losing over 100 of it to meltdowns like the day before yesterday probably helped. :v:

Image You have proven that you are much more capable than you originally perceived yourself to be.The high echelon is watching you. Our founder, A, is among them.

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Image A. He is a visionary. A farmer who sowed seeds on a virgin soil no one had approached before. In time, he may express interest in meeting you in person. If that happens, you will be able to make your dreams come true.

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I think she might be a little biased, you guys. :ssh:

Image But to be fair, he is the one who created me. He is also an enigmatic person. I imagine there are few who can truly understand him.

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Image Will the day come that I understand you completely?

In summary: We're okay at this job. Angela waxes poetic about how totally super cool and badass and awesome her creator, A, happens to be. This apparently makes him difficult to understand. She questions if she'll understand us completely, but unfortunately the answer is 'probably not' because we try to avoid letting people die. :v:

Music: Town - Alone in a Crowd
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:objection: You can't look at us like we're an idiot, we haven't even said anything yet!

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Image The manager should be no exception. However, the rules state that a Sephirah has no authority to impose penalty points on the manager, so I must let you off for now. I am Yesod, the Sephirah of the Information Team. The Information Team is in charge of processing and archiving all the data of our company. New information is generated every day, and we need to ensure that the information is accurate, so we must concentrate and focus on our job at all times.

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Dictionary wrote:bib·li·o·the·ca
/ˌbiblēəˈTHēkə/
noun
-a library.
-a list of books in a catalog, especially for use by a bookseller.
The more you know! :eng101:

Image A single bit of misinformation could lead to an uncontrollable disaster. I am sure you can understand the gravity of my work. Every sliver of the information that you read contains the despair and desperation of our employees. Please do not think lightly of that information.

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You can tell he especially means business this time, because he used a fourth dot.

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Image I have an aversion to exposing any part of my body. I don’t exactly remember when I started feeling this way… But it’s likely that I’ve been this way even before I joined the company.

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This is Netzach, the Sephirah of the Safety Team. His uniform would be worth at least 15 penalty points. If all goes to plan, we'll be meeting him properly on day 16 or so.

Image Netzach, the rules state that we’re not supposed to trade resources between teams. It should be in the very first page of the Sephirah manual.

Image Alright, alright. Stop giving me that sharp look, Mister “Viper”.

Image ....

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Image What are you trying to say with that expression of yours? Is this entertaining to you? Does the nickname make you laugh?

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Image The other Sephirot simply use my nickname as a joke. But others use it in a more serious manner. I know there are many employees who genuinely despise me. Nicknames may be a childish thing, but there’s no better way to describe a person in such few words. I personally like my nickname.

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>I like the sound of it.
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>Doesn’t have a nice ring to it.
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---

Routes Merge Here
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Image I need to finish today’s work. Oh, and I must send you the next assignment.

In summary: Yesod is a no-nonsense sephirah who is called "The Viper" by others. He's a fan of the name, though he doesn't like it being used to make fun of him. Because data is hugely important in our work he views his job running the Information team as vital, and he'll probably try to kill us because he's an AI and this is a video game. Also, X is apparently not able to dress himself. :shepface:

Setting that aside, we finally have a new mission!

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It is not a hard one.

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Next time, on Lobotomy Corporation: a good girl who has done nothing wrong in her life





Image Bishop? This is a surprise.

Image The downside of open-door policies, I guess. Do you have a sec?

Image Of course. What do you need?

Image Nothing in particular. I was just wondering… did you ever find out what was up with the cameras?

Image No. All we know is that it was done on purpose.

Image That's not good. Was anything stolen?

Image No. Everything's... fine. Seems to just have been a prank. Nothing you need to worry about on your end. What brought this on?

Image Well, you know. Can't get promoted if the boss can't see how awesome I am in action.

Image Hah! Confident. I like that. Try not to die out there, okay?

Image Don't worry. Malkuth's scarier than anything we've got in a containment cell. :v:
Last edited by TeeQueue on Fri Jul 24, 2020 11:38 am, edited 1 time in total.

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Synchronizing Memory Repository . . .

Day 7: Gameplay

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The loading screen changes as you proceed through the game, showing you all the departments you currently have access to. Another neat little touch.

Music: neutral 3
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We've outfitted Talow with the new armor, and Bishop/Mizu are getting the new guns since their justice is high, and D.A.D. gets Mizu's old hammer and Talow's old suit. This should be fine for the day.

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Image It's time. Remember to follow the protocols.

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:v: Ma'am, where's your E.G.O suit?

Image I couldn't get in my locker this morning. But I don't need to worry about that, because this is probably a dream!

Image Try pinching yourself.

Image Ow! ...Okay, this might be a little bad.

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Image Does that mean you're not going to be running off to meet the new abnormality right away, then?

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Image ...Mizu?

Our new abnormality is another one that deals Black damage. As a reminder, the base suit has a 1.5x weakness to black damage. On top of that, it's a ZAYIN suit and the abnormality is a HE, so Mizu's taking another 1.2x damage on top of it.

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Image What a good girl! :3:

It turns out we didn't need to worry. Her second work goes just as well.

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This is A Wee Witch, a good girl who has done nothing wrong in her life. Her damage is very low for a HE abnormality, she likes Attachment and can work well with Insight and Instinct, and an agent at 3/3/3 or better in their first three stats can work her relatively safely without armor in order to take a lot of damage but not have any real chance of dying. Whenever we have an agent in the right range, I'm going to have to consider having them work with her in their default suit.

Whichever work we do with A Wee Witch, Witch Work plays, which A Wee Witch will wiggle to. Working A Wee Witch again while Witch Work plays will play Witch Work again, which will stack with the Witch Work we already were hearing. It's weird. :v:

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Image Orders from the top, everyone!

The meltdown makes me remember that the Control team exists, and I quickly throw everyone to work with whatever the mirror made their lowest stat-Bishop is with One Sin on insight work, Tylana is working with Forsaken Murderer on instinct, and Mr.Black is off to repress 1.76 MHz.

Image Oh, hey, it looks like the Amber Dawns want a rematch today.

Image At our current rate of gathering energy, we could completely bypass them.

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Image And why would I do that?

It's The Perfect Food again. Feeling cocky, I send just Mizu in to deal with them.

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Guns make actually hitting these things a lot easier, though the 2-3 damage we're doing per hit means we'll need at least 12 hits to kill one of these things, and more likely need 14 or more. Realizing that this won't work well, I call in Talow and D.A.D. to help.

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Image Hey guys!

Image You okay? You look half dead.

Image Ehh… little over a quarter dead, I'd say. I'll leave it to you!

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Mizu flees the scene while I let D.A.D. and Talow mop up. It's at this point that I zoom out to see where the other pod spawned in, and…

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Oh, hell. The agent AI in this game has a lot of quirks to it, and understanding how it works is important to keeping people alive. Mr.Black was working with 1.76 when the Ordeal spawned in, and they spawned right outside his corridor. If an agent is not given any other orders, and anything that can be suppressed is in a room they're inside of, their AI immediately changes to :black101: mode. While I was busy making sure the Information team's group of worms died Mr.Black finished his work, stepped outside, saw the ordeals, and attempted to engage them alone. A reminder that Mr.Black is too slow to actually hit them with his weapon.

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I order Mr.Black to get back to the main room immediately, and he escapes by the skin of his teeth. This facility's agents are much bulkier on the whole than a normal first loop would have, and we still would have probably lost Mr.Black if I'd noticed even 3 seconds later.

Dawn ordeals may be an absolute joke later, but in the beginning you have to make sure to stay on top of them.

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Image Laughing isn't going to keep your insides inside right now! You need to rest!

Image But I was so close..! Another moment, and I would have landed a hit! Haha..!

Image No talking. Just rest now, smiles.

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The worms hop over next to Information not long after, and since Mizu is the first one in the room she's the one they all attack.

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We have to pull her back, but the worms can't hold a candle to us anymore. Now that that's over, let's unlock the rest of A Wee Witch's info.

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A Wee Witch Laetitia is the first of several abnormalities whose names actually change based on observation level. Name changes like this most commonly happen at observation level 3, though Laetitia's happens at level 4. She does not escape, and only does anything on a Normal result-something we still haven't seen because her success ranges are generous. In order to try and get it to show up, I have D.A.D. try doing insight work with Laetitia, since they can tank the damage easily.

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Image Kid snuck a present into my pocket on the way out. She must be really shy.

Image Hm… so the tips say working with another abnormality would be bad now. We'll have D.A.D. stick with Laetitia the rest of the day, then.

Image Manager…

Image Whenever you use that tone, it's bad news. What's going on?

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Image You forgot 1.76 MHz. Again.

Image :sigh:

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By the time I notice it and pause, there are only 8 seconds left on the timer. Speed is more important than anything now, so I throw Bishop at the problem and hope he's quick enough to make the distance in the time I have left. One day I will stop being so careless, I swear.

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Image You're cutting it close, Bishop!

Image Relax, boss!

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Image Showing up at the last minute for the save is what I do. :cool:

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Image Today's Shy Look is having a meltdown, Talow is working with Laetitia, and Mizu is in a normal suit… D.A.D, get on it.

Image Are you a goldfish, manager?

Image I wanna say… nnnno?

Image Read the management protocols for Laetitia again. I'll wait.

Image Huh? What do you mmm-

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Image -mmmmmhm. I'll cancel that and send Mizu, then.

Image I thought so.

I swear I'm good at this game. :eng99: Luckily, Mizu is more than able to deal with TSL so long as it isn't on the worst face so she doesn't die.

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Image Job's done… Oh, hey! Same hat!

Image Same ha-Mizu what the hell?! :gonk:

Image When I finished working, Today's Shy Look gave me this mask. It smells like jerky. Neat, huh?

Image Yeah… Neat…

Image Enough talk, you two. We're done for the day. Let's get this information compiled and ready for tomorrow.

Image Image Yes sir!

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Nothing else really happens, so once I'm done grabbing Laetitia's gear I call it a day.

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I do want to call attention to our promotions page for once, just to point a few things out. First, we have our first rank 5 agent! This is incredibly early, and her raw stats will let us power through any of the dawn ordeals so long as I equip her well. Secondly, the entire staff was promoted today! :toot: (Mr.Black's mirror trip turned him from a level 2 into a level 3 to start with, but I'm still counting it even if the game won't.) Finally, just keep in mind D.A.D.'s Prudence. It'll be important for next time.

Music: never frozen bottom flows
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F-02-49: With my infinite hatred, I give you this gift.
O-03-60: You see a song in front of you. It's approaching, becoming more colorful by the second.
O-04-08: The girl begged in tears. "Mister, please cut off my feet…"

Ah, here we go. This is more like a Lobotomy Corporation choice. While every other day so far had either an obvious winner or multiple good options, today everything is just :geno:. We'll start with -49, a very festive HE abnormality. It's main selling point is that it gives out a good number of suits and weapons, and it can breach. Next is -60, a TETH. It's showing up to the party a little bit late to be useful for anything beyond being able to breach. Finally, there's -08. It doesn't breach, but is highly temperamental and tries to force your agents to kill each other.

Right now, we only have one abnormality capable of breaching. I really want us to have four of them ASAP, so -08 is out. Between -60 and -49 the choice becomes simple.

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Unless it will destroy the facility, we always want the highest level abnormality we can get.

Next time, on Lobotomy Corporation: Angela poses a hypothetical moral dilemma.

New Guidelines

Laetitia

New Gear

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Requirements: Temperance 2

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Requirements: Level 3

New Story

Laetitia
Last edited by TeeQueue on Fri Jul 24, 2020 11:38 am, edited 1 time in total.

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Mechanics Talk 6: LOB and Rankings

I've mentioned before that LOB is our currency in this game, which we use to buy new agents and upgrade existing agents as well. We get LOB at the end of every day based on our ranking. That ranking, in turn, is based on how many agents survive at the end of the day. Casualties lower your LOB gains, so another, slower spiral this game has is one of surviving days but losing multiple agents, meaning you have to pay LOB to replace them and power them up, but you don't get as many LOB because of the number of agents you're losing, so they're less powerful, so they die, so you lose more LOB that you already can't afford to lose anymore.

Let's cover how rankings work next. Every day has a base number of LOB we can earn, and the rankings actually provide a multiplier to that base number, according to the chart below:

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Basically, to get the most LOB we need to keep 90% or more of our agents alive. To calculate LOB, we then shove that modifier into this equation:

Code: Select all

Max(0, LOB * (Modifier) - penalty)
LOB is the day's base LOB amount. This amount will go up the further into the game the day is, and also spikes whenever we open a new department. Penalty is a penalty for ending the day while abnormalities are breaching. The various risk levels have different penalties applied, as seen here:

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ZAYIN abnormalities cannot escape, and so are not included.

Later on, we will get an upgrade that gives an additional bonus to our LOB gain by putting the number from the first equation through a second one seen here:

Code: Select all

trunc(Max(1, LOB * 0.2 + 0.5))
This is added on to our base LOB, so early game days would be giving 4 instead of 3, and so on. LOB generally becomes less of a problem as we go, so long as we avoid having to consistently replace agents.

All of this is basically a lot of words to explain why I'm not immediately showing off things like Laetitia's heartfelt gift. :v: We can't really afford to lose agents this early since we're dropping at least 4 LOB on each of them to get them up to 2/2/2/1 for the mirror, on top of losing one agent right now dropping our LOB gains by an additional 1-2 points. Throwing 6 points down a sinkhole on day 7-8 isn't wise.
Last edited by TeeQueue on Fri Jul 24, 2020 11:49 am, edited 1 time in total.

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Synchronizing Memory Repository . . .

Day 8: Story

Music: story 2
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Image What would you do if one of your subordinates… Who is harvesting energy from an Abnormality to meet the quota… Shall face certain death doing so?

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I wonder which one she thinks is the right answer, you guys. :geno:

>We must continue producing energy.
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Image However, it comes very close. The truest answer would be “to harvest enough energy before such a situation could arise.”

That wasn't one of the answers! :argh:

Image Lobotomy Corporation is an industry giant, and its mission to produce energy is our top priority. You do seem to listen to my words.

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I literally just talked about why I can't afford to do that. :colbert:

---

>I’ll save the employee.
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Image The manager's role is to oversee energy production, and that only. You are not here to take care of the employees.

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Image Lobotomy Corporation is an industry giant, and its mission to produce energy is our top priority. It was such a simple question for me, however, mayhaps not for you. If I were human…

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Image Is what I would have said. Please do not worry, I will not make such a statement.

Image

---

Routes Merge Here

In summary: Angela wishes to make sure we understand what's really important: energy gathering, even if it kills our agents. Ideally we won't ever be in a position where it matters, but if it ever does: agents are replaceable and must die to grease the wheels of the business. :capitalism:

Music: The 6th Light
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Just how incompetent do we seem, if 'doing four instinct works' is beyond expectations? :raise:

Image Allow me to explain your next—

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Image How many times has it been now?

Image Shouldn’t you… be at your team’s side? It looked super depressing over there.

Image Accidents happen. I want them to understand that it’s not a big fuss. Dwelling on it only encourages them to cry more, and it will eventually tire them out.

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Image Perhaps your aim is different from mine, then. I see no point in being sentimental. Caring too much about the respect of employees or the little complaints they make will steer you away from what’s truly important.

Image Well, I’m just saying… I guess there’s no right answer, is there? We’re both busy, so I’ll see you later!

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>Yes, you should.
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Image Do you think it’s realistic for you to show up in every department every single time an accident occurs? You, the man who spends the whole day incessantly watching employees die through that shiny monitor of yours?

Image ...oof. :(

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Image Such shallow sympathy does no good in the corporation, so I urge you to be rid of it.

---

>No, it’s not a necessity.
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Image We're not the ones whose lives are on the line. We don’t live with the risk of every moment possibly being the last. Nor are we always so close to death’s touch as to not have any attachment to life or worldly values. I disagree with the way Hod copes with it. She just seeks to comfort her own mind and turns a blind eye to reality.

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:monocle: My god. That's the most sensible thing we've heard since we got here. You might be alright, Yesod.

---

Routes Merge Here

In summary: Yesod and Hod disagree with how to deal with employee deaths. Hod thinks that he should say something to try and raise morale, but Yesod thinks that's a waste of time he could spend on avoiding more deaths in the future.

That aside, let's take a look at our new mission!

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It's another easy one, just have to remember not to end the day too early on accident.

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Next time, on Lobotomy Corporation: One of the most terrifying abnormalities in the entire game.






Image Ah, before you go Yesod?

Image Yes?

Image You'd be the one in charge of holding on to application records, right?

Image That's correct.

Image Cool. Forward all the resumes we've received for all positions in the past 60 days to my desk.

Image That could take some time, Manager. Is there anything specific you're looking for?

Image ...Nah. Just want to see who we have available to hire. You don't need to arrange anything, just forward it all in bulk.

Image I understand. I'll have a clerk bring the documents over right away.

Image Try to keep them away from any falling wrenches, okay? :v:

Image That's not funny, manager. :geno:

Image Er. Right. Sorry.
Last edited by TeeQueue on Fri Jul 24, 2020 11:39 am, edited 1 time in total.

Oh, what times we live in where Lobotomy Corporation's business model doesn't even seem all that over-the-top compared to real-world examples. At least LobCorp's employees have a safe retirement plan. It consists in being guaranteed to die horribly before getting anywhere close to retirement age.

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Synchronizing Memory Repository . . .

Day 8: Gameplay

Music: neutral 2
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With a new department comes new research. Like Malkuth, Yesod primarily exists to give us some basic gameplay upgrades, with Yesod focusing on the user interface rather than functionality.

G.O Visualization: Gives everything healthbars. Your agents get a red/blue one that shows HP and SP, and ordeals/breaching abnormalities get a large red one that shows their name. It makes eyeballing HP/SP numbers much easier.

Damage Normalization: Shows damage taken on the screen, both the number and color. This is good for knowing exactly how much damage things are dealing! There's… really not much to say about this one. It's a basic UI thing.

Abnormality Countermeasures Manual: Upgrades our clerks' nerves. Right now if any abnormality or ordeal appears, the clerks go running away in a panic immediately. This will allow them to face down most abnormalities and attempt to suppress them via their pistols. Reminder: their pistols have a 40% chance of dealing 1 red damage each shot. Clerks are useless, and thus this research is a low priority.

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I decide to go with healthbars first.

Now, before we get into the day I have a tiny exploit to show off.

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This is D.A.D. D.A.D. has a prudence of 43, putting them at level 2, but is getting a +6 from their E.G.O gifts, putting them at 49, or level 3.

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So, we go into the Strengthen Employees section, and pay 2 LOB to boost him from 2 to 3. We hit 'Confirm' and…

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D.A.D. now has a base prudence of 75, halfway between level 4 and level 5! This trick lets us save a few LOB on getting a massive boost all at once, and while it's situational it's good to keep in mind whenever you're on the preparation screen.

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Mizu and Bishop get the Laetitia guns, Mizu gets the suit, and we're pretty much ready for the day.

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Image It's time. Remember to follow the protocols.

We can now see the lower area of Information, where our new abnormality is hiding.

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Image D.A.D, your Fortitude is showing as being a little low. You'll be training it with Laetitia today.

Image Gladly. She's a good girl.

Image Talow, you're going to be working with the new abnormality today. We need someone else who's able to quickly ascertain how to work with new arrivals. Mizu, you…

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Image ...don't tell me. :geno:

Image She didn't even come to the main room this time, sir.

Image I'll deal with her later. Be ready.

Meanwhile, the top three agents take a trip to the mirror again.

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Image Woah… I'm huge.

Image I'll never get used to feeling everything just shift like that… wait, did I change at all?

Image It's no problem! Just smile for the mirror and it'll all feel fantastic!

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Image They confiscated the last gift… nice of Laetitia to give me a new one.

D.A.D. manages to get a normal result on their first work, and so they're only working with Laetitia for the rest of the day. Luckily, I wanted that anyways. :v:

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Image Morning everyone!

Image Mizu. You're late.

Image The new abnormality really likes it when you leave socks hanging around its room, and it looks like we wanna take the presents it leaves so there's room for more. That'd be… insight, I think?

Image Be that as it may, Talow is the one who should have been figuring that out today. Not you. Unless there's an emergency, you're not allowed to leave the office.

Image ...aww. :( Good luck, Talow. I could smell those presents even through the sweet scent of jerky. They're baaaad.

Image I'll hold my breath. Thanks.

Nothing else of particular note happens until our second meltdown.

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Image Manager, we're detecting that a new form of ordeal will be appearing today.

Image Hopefully they don't give us as much trouble as the first one.

Image If you're efficient about gathering energy, it should be possible to finish up before the ordeal can rise.

Image I could, but nobody's died to an ordeal yet.

Image What about the clerks?

Image I mean nobody who matters.

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Image That's the ordeal alarm, everyone! Stay on your-

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Image ...Well! As expected of my Control team's members.

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So, Green Dawn! These are, bar none, the least threatening dawn we could hit. Every agent starts twice as fast as them, so we can break away from them should we get in trouble. Their attacks are slow, and only one spawns per group. The most dangerous thing about them is their corpse attack, which they won't ever get to use unless they manage to butcher a clerk. The one in Control spawned right next to it and walked in. It's half dead after about 2 seconds in the main room.

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Fighting enemies in a main room is normally a risky proposition right now, since the main room's healing shuts off as indicated by the red X above the room. Doubt isn't going to be able to do much to these three, though, so I decide not to worry about it.

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Image Every shot is another laugh! Each round a chuckle! Come, robot! Smile with me~!

Image These guns work so much better than the skull maces!

Image You know, this is the first ordeal we've dealt with as a team. I'm proud of you guys.

Image Well, we can't let Information do all the work. :rolleyes:

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:derp: OH GOD, WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE!!

I tried to get footage of the corpse attack here, but instead learned that Doubt cannot successfully stab panicking clerks. They run too quickly for it to get a bead on them. At least you tried, Doubt. :unsmith:

Image Booooss, Talow and D.A.D. are busy working! Someone needs to do something!

Image ...fine. You're authorized to suppress the target. Make it quick.

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Image Ooh, this new gun is strong!

This is just about the maximum range of very long-range weapons, and Laetitia fires very fast. Since the Doubt remains locked on to the closest target, and multiple clerks are running around the area distracting it…

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We have our first ordeal where I don't almost get anyone killed. :woop:

Image X, the extra energy refined from the the ordeal has let us reach our quota. We can end the day at your pleasure.

Image You know the policy. We're getting as much out of the new abnormality as we can, and then we end the day. Speaking of...

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Now. Imagine that you've been playing this game for a few days and nothing's really managed to shock you so far. It's 2 am, nothing's going on, everyone's in bed. You stare automatically at the section where you can see if the abnormality's risk level is HE or TETH and go to unlock the information…

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And out of the corner of your eye, this appears. Unlocking this thing's general information managed to jumpscare me. That doesn't happen often. :sweatdrop:

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Anyways, this is Rudolta of the Sleigh. It's a Christmas abnormality! There's also not a lot else to say about it. Its QC reduces on normal or bad work results, and when it hits 0 it breaches and deals white damage to anything nearby.

Image Nothing left to do but read resumes and wait for the work on Rudolta to be finished so we can all take a good rest. It's nice to have an easy day, but it's so sleepy around here when it happens.

Image We could always check in on the agents, Manager. Background noise has been proven on multiple occasions to cause an increase in focus of up to 15% over the course of a workday.

Image Excellent idea. Make it so.

---

Image

Image Aaand now I have horns. Again.

Image Don't remember you ever having them before.

Image It's a long story.

Image I got time.

Image Well then, let me tell you about the Outskirts…

---

Image

Image Mmhmm, I get that you're angry. But… why are you angry? You were happy until I was about to enter. Is it because I said the mask smells like jerky?

:troll: …...

Image Ahh… right. You're still shy. Well, could you stop poking me with those spikes? They tickle, and to be fair it totally smells like jerky all the time now. It's the best. It actually came in really handy earlier today when...

---

Image

Image Hello, Laetitia! I'm not who you were expecting, but we were a little shortstaffed after the last work. What say that you and me talk about smiles, mm?

:j: ...I like smiling faces. :)

Image Then you and I are going to get along fine! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

---

Image

Image So… Sure is a dead robot in our room.

Image You've gotta look at this construction. It's so anachronistic… When was it made?

Image I thought they were some kind of abnormality.

Image Setting that aside, I'd like to take it apart.

Image I just want it out of here. Beta2's body, too. Don't we have janitors? :psyduck:

Image Yeah, but they don't go to work until after the day's over. Don't worry, you get used to the smell.

Image Oh, that… that's great to know. :gonk:

---

Image

Image Manager, I don't think we should go much further than this. From here on, it appears every one of our containment cells will be melting down with each meltdown.

This is the biggest problem with early game farming. Around meltdown levels 9 and 10, If you can't handle every abnormality in your entire facility at once then you're going to get overwhelmed by missing works, and at 45-50 energy lost per meltdown missed it can become a herculean task to try and clear the day. I still need to work Rudolta one more time to get the last weapon it has, though...

Image Don't worry. I have an idea.

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We set up everyone to get in one last work with the various abnormalities across the facility. D.A.D. is first, and the meltdowns cascade everywhere. We have enough time for everyone to finish one last work, and we buy the last weapon with 13 seconds to spare on Mirror of Adjustment.

Image Alright everyone, pack it in! We've earned ourselves a nice rest.

Image Talow, I expect the updated file on Rudolta on my desk in an hour.

Image Alright, boss.

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...wait.

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Damage-optimized training with HEs is really good, guys. :getin:

Anyways, we get our next two rank 5 agents, and the Control department is still just bouncing around 3-4. Tylana is probably done getting mirrored, I rather like having that hilarious HP stat.

Music: never frozen bottom flows
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T-09-80: "The tree simply reaped from what it showed."
O-09-91: This portrait encaptures a moment; it is what we are destined to lose.
T-09-85: Now everything will be just fine.

Mm. Mmm. Hm. Well. :hmmno:

Okay, so, let's get this out of the way first: -85 is a goddamn meme. It is a very rude tool abnormality for which the only good thing I can say about it is 'sometimes it makes you have 1 less meltdown than you otherwise would.' Outside of that, touching it at all means someone is dying and we can't afford a lot of dying yet. It's a trap option-because of course Lobotomy Corporation has trap options, what were you expecting?

Then there's -80 which is… problematic. It's another tool that just instantly kills your agents if you mess with it the wrong way, and we still can't afford a lot of dying yet! It's not as infamous as -85, but I'm trying to avoid these for the moment.

Lastly there's -91. It ruins our damage modifier for one agent, and can lead to making other agents uncontrollably die. It's not a tool I'd particularly like to take, but I can think of a few cases where it could theoretically be useful. I can't say that for the other two.

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This is really just a 'king of the trash heap' competition, but we're going for -91.

Next time, on Lobotomy Corporation: Angela references a Cosmo quiz!

New Guidelines

Rudolta of the Sleigh

New Gear

Image

Image
Requirements: Fortitude 2

New Story

Rudolta of the Sleigh
Mirror of Adjustment
Last edited by TeeQueue on Wed Sep 09, 2020 2:03 am, edited 2 times in total.

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Mechanics Talk 7: Controlling Agents

Despite ordeals and breaches being things that exist, at its core Lobotomy Corporation is a management simulator game. Because of this, it's really not well-built for things like micromanaging 30 agents beating on a giant demonic duck of some sort.

As we will be having to beat on a giant demonic duck of some sort, it's best that we figure out how to make all these agents run around properly.

If an agent is left to their own devices, they wander around in the room they are currently assigned to stay in. If anything that can be suppressed wanders in (with rare exceptions), the agent immediately draws their weapon and attempts to suppress whatever has run in. They do not automatically move to suppress panicked agents, unless they are the target of a murder-type panicking agent.

There are two main ways to move agents. The first major category is left clicking on targets. Left clicking on an abnormality's cell is the most common version of this. It pops up a list of agents, you left click on the agent, and the agent's off to the races. Left clicking on a suppressible target like an ordeal or panicking agent gives a menu of agents who can be left clicked to go run off and suppress the target as well. Agents who are left-click ordered are focused on whatever their order is, ignoring anything else on their way to do what they're told to. Once they are done, they attempt to return to their assigned room. They will change focus for anything they can suppress on the return trip, using the same rules as when they're idle.

The second, more versatile way to move agents is by right clicking. To right-click move agents, first the agent needs to be selected. This can be done either by left clicking on them or by drawing a box around one or more agents. Once a number of agents are selected, we have a few options:

First, we can right-click on a room in the facility to change that room to their assigned room. The agents will move over there, and will focus on reaching their new main room above anything else. If in an elevator, the agent will stand still in the middle. Otherwise, the agent will wander the hallway or room that they're assigned to.

Second, we can right click on a suppressible entity and all selected agents will charge off to attack the entity. They'll attack it until it is suppressed, at which point they will attempt to return to their assigned room and follow standard idle AI. This is usually the best way to handle suppression orders, though when trying to suppress something like Amber Dawn I usually prefer to send them to the room instead of targeting a specific worm. Since the worms are squishy, if the targeted one dies before all the agents get there, anyone not currently in the room goes back home for coffee. It's not ideal.

Finally, we can right click on an abnormality cell to assign a work from one of the agents we have currently selected. When the work type is selected, a list of the selected agents pops up to select one of. If more than five are selected at once, we can use arrows at the top to page through them. There are very few situations where we'd want to use this, but it can be handy to make sure that a specific agent works a nearby cell. It also works cross-department, meaning that it lets us do cross-department work before we have the Joint Command research.

One last note about right-click movement: Every time an agent is given an order, they are deselected. This is important to keep in mind during tense suppressions, as there's nothing worse than ordering a retreat only to realize that nobody is listening and wind up losing Paul to being smacked in the face by a hammer, which is also a face.

The last major way to move agents is actually a tool of convenience more than anything else. It's this button:

Image

This button was given to us by the Assembly Summons research from Malkuth. Every main room gets a button that looks like this placed right next to it, and when clicked it orders all agents from that department to return to the main room. This sees the most use in the late game, when the entire facility has been pulled off of their normal work processes to handle particularly large threats and everyone is all over the place. It makes the agents focus on the main room, so they'll ignore any threats that may pop up on their way back home.

That's pretty much it for how to order agents. The way it works means that it's hard to execute complicated strategies without a lot of time on pause issuing individual orders, but that's bureaucracy for you. :shrug:
Last edited by TeeQueue on Fri Jul 24, 2020 11:50 am, edited 1 time in total.

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Synchronizing Memory Repository . . .

Day 9: Story

Music: story 2
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>I'll pick A.
Image

Image The letter ‘A’ is a fascinating one. My name starts with it as well. Those who choose A are sensitive to the opinions of others about them, and are result-oriented people. As such, they are excellent listeners, and are loved by many. People will flock to them.

---

>Why not B?
Image

Image People who choose B are detail-oriented. They are rational, realistic, and honest to their needs, even to the point where others may perceive them as snobs. However, the pursuit of practical interest and the tendency to avoid loss will lead them to success. Personally, I dislike the letter ‘B’.

---

>C sounds nice.
Image

Image Alright, the letter ‘C’. Not a bad choice. Persons who select C believe that the process is more important than the outcome. Therefore, they are good at planning ahead and enjoy change. They will be able to gain insight and attain inner growth without being confined by the rules.

---

Routes Merge Here
Image

Image There is no scientific basis behind the observations, but it is admittedly a little fun to waste time with these “tests”. You know, maybe I could imagine… Whether I would have been this or that kind of person if I were human.

Image

In summary: We get cosmo quizzed and find out Angela's feelings about a couple of letters. Apparently she hates B. She also likes to think about what she'd be like if she were human, and seems a little self-conscious about it.

Music: Town - Alone in a Crowd
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:v: O… Ox!

:j: Hey, that’s cheating! That’s not a place at all! Doesn’t count.

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:j: Oops, I didn’t know you were here, Sephirah Yesod, sir!

:v: Sorry, I know we aren’t supposed to slack during work hours… But he insisted we…

:j: What?! You started it! You wanted to get back at me for last time, remember?

:v: Shut it, you dork!

I just love these two random employees. :allears:

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:v: :j: O-Of course, Sephirah, sir! We’re sorry!

Image Looks like word chaining is starting to become one of the more popular pastimes here again. Do you happen to enjoy word chaining, manager?

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Music: UNKNOWN from M2
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:synthy: I know, I know. Just this once, please? You know what happens if I fail to finish the assigned work regime! Besides, you know how Sally went in at 82% one time and came out fine? And I’m only at 81%! Please?

Image .......

:synthy: Come on, what are friends for? Act so strict and the employees will end up isolating you. It’ll be so lonely.

Image .......

Image

Image You know that the word “playmate” has no place in this corp—

:synthy: Whoops! My bad, my bad! Anyway, can I please get to work now, my lord Yesod~? Don’t forget that I cut you some slack yesterday when we were playing word chain.

Image

Image And make sure to take a psychological examination right afterwards.

:synthy: You bet! Thank you, Yesod! See you in a bit!

Music: Insignia Decay
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Image Through the clothing, I can see my skin covered with festering boils. Of course, my body is perfectly fine when I open my eyes. It has come to a point where I’ve begun to find the sight of my normal skin strange and unnatural.

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Image I’ve asked the other Sephirot about those visions, but it seems I’m the only one who experiences this.

In summary: Yesod apparently has word chain-based trauma, which is brought up by a pair of employees playing around on the job. Somehow, our manager has the ability to view the flashbacks of the Sephirot, so we see him give a little bit of slack to a friend before he takes a few moments to talk about something he should probably see a therapist for. :stare:

Image So… what happened to James?

Image Are you that curious?

Image Well, yeah.

Image Then I'll tell you tomorrow. If you can handle this:

Image

Image ...do managers ever fail these?

Image You'd be surprised.

Image

Image Right… well, see you tomorrow.

Next time, on Lobotomy Corporation: Oscar Wilde references, shiny new damage numbers and lots of attachment work!






Image :sigh: It's not here...

Image Oh, Manager? I thought you'd be preparing for tomorrow.

Image Oh! Malkuth. Hello. Can I help you?

Image Oh, not at all! Everything is perfectly under control here, and there are no problems as usual! Rather, I wanted to ask how I could help you?

Image Whyyyy would I need help? I'm fine. Got it all in hand.

Image Are you certain, Manager? I'd be more than happy to provide an opinion on any possible new hires!

Image No, that's not necessary. Rather, I'm looking for information on our current employees.

Image Through their resumes?

Image Yeah. I can't seem to find any of the ones I'm looking for, though. No worries.

Image Have you asked Angela?

Image I don't want to bother her with this. She's got her hands full already.

Image Oh! Well, good luck finding whichever resume you're looking for!

Image Thanks, Malkuth. You have a safe day.

Image Don't worry! It'll be perfect as always!



Image ...Phew.
Last edited by TeeQueue on Fri Jul 24, 2020 11:40 am, edited 1 time in total.

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Synchronizing Memory Repository . . .

Day 9: Gameplay

Music: neutral 1
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For our new research today, we immediately grab the other UI upgrade, so that we can see in straight numbers how much damage is dealt. It's worth noting that the interface rounds the damage to the nearest whole number, so a 5 could mean taking anywhere from 4.5-5.4 damage. This almost never matters.

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Weapons get shuffled around, as I hand Talow, D.A.D, and Mr.Black a Christmas club. I completely forget to equip the suit decide we don't need better defenses today. :v:

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Image

Image It's time. Remember to follow the protocols.

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Image I'll head over to the new abnormality, then!

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Image I'm… sorry, you want to run that by me again?

Image We're running an interdepartmental training program. As team captain, I have to pick someone to hang out with the Information team today. With your low temperance, you're ideal for the training regiment they have in mind.

Image Training regiment?

Image I asked Talow during suitup, he mentioned having you work with Laetitia.

Image Oh! She's a very good girl. It'll all be fine!

Image Alright… I guess I'll give it a shot!

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Image Huh… wasn't this portrait blank before? Oh well. Hey good-looking! I bet you smell like jerky. :ocelot:

When we send an agent to work with our new abnormality, they get their picture placed on the frame. Additionally, they get a freaky green cloud and an icon over their head.

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Image ...huh. Did you just feel an ominous tingle?

:j: ...no?

Image Must just be me, then.

Meanwhile, someone else in the facility at random gets the same symbol, and the same fog effect. Today's lucky winner is Tylana. Future uses by the same person do nothing else. We could theoretically use the portrait 10 times in a row to quickly unlock all of the information right from the start.

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So we do that, of course. Portrait of Another World transfers damage from one agent to another, albeit with a 1.5x modifier on the damage being passed. Walking someone else in to set up a new picture kills the first agent. This means that right now we need to be careful about taking SP damage on Mizu, because Tylana only has 42 SP and would be taking extra damage if it's passed over.

Image I just can't get enough of looking at how cool I am. :allears:

Image

Our first meltdown hits the portrait. This is always nice, since once someone's assigned to it it's free to just have them check back in.

Image Green Dawn incoming, Manager!

Image Sounds like a perfect opportunity to test the new interface.

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Image So this is the Information team, huh? What do you guys do to pass the time around here?

Image We used to play word chain, but a couple of the clerks got in a lot of trouble for it being non work-related.

Image So it's report-writing?

Image Hey, you're going to need to learn the format eventually. Odds are you'll be replacing us when the new department opens.

Image There's a new department opening?

Image In about two days, probably.

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Image Control team, take care of your Doubt ASAP.

Image With pleasure!

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Every time damage is dealt from now on (including in containment cells), we see a nice number rise up out of the damage taker. Here, Bishop is dealing 11 B damage to the Doubt with his gun.

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And here is a Doubt getting its face kicked in. :hellyeah:

When damage is dealt, there will be either no text, or one of four other messages: Fatal, Weak, Endure, or Resist. These correspond to how much damage the agent is taking from the attack's color. With only 150 HP, this poor Doubt just melts, barely managing to scratch Mr.Black.

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Mizu is sent to deal with the other Doubt, which has the poor luck of walking near Rudolta's door while D.A.D. was finishing up a work on it. The two team up and annihilate the ordeal.

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Image Nice clubbin'.

Image Nice shootin'.

Image Strut back to the main room?

Image Yeah, sounds good.

With nothing else to do, we just pass the time working and farming up our weaker stats.

---

Image.

Image ...what is it with him and smiling, anyways?

Image Do you not have his resume directly on hand? You could simply look.

Image ...Oh, you're right. Let's see… he's from District 23, and he has a 5-year history in food services... Ah. That explains it.

Image Are food service jobs particularly strenuous, Manager? I lack any experience outside of this place, as I remain unable to leave this facility.

Image Let's just say I'm not surprised he's a bit off. :v:

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A little bit later, we get a meltdown on mirror. Since our agents are all relatively strong I had decided not to mirror them immediately and wait for something like this, just so we wouldn't lose any energy.

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Mr.Black loses about 20 or so Justice and dumps it all in Temperance. Not ideal. :rolldice:

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Image I've been here as long as you.

Image Oh! You're back. I was practicing! For talking to Tylana later.

Image She's been here for nearly a week. I don't think you have to encourage her anymore.

Image It's my duty as her superior officer!

Image Hey guys, I'm ba-

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Image Thank… you? ...why do you smell like jerky?

Image It's the mask! :D

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Another meltdown hits the mirror, and this time we give Talow's stats a roll.

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Image I feel really just all of a sudden.

Talow is never touching the mirror again. :getin:

Meanwhile, with Forsaken Murderer's meltdown…

Image Yesod, Bishop is working with One Sin, and I have Mr.Black working with 1.76. Can you spare someone for the Forsaken Murderer's meltdown?

Image Mizu, get to it. We should be able to learn something from this.

Image Righty-o, boss!

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As we can see, Mizu is taking 0 damage from the Forsaken Murderer, even though normally he'd be dealing ~1-2 per hit. Where is it going?

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Image Just got this new hat, and now I'm having a pounding headache… The hell?

As advertised, it's transferred to Tylana and boosted by 1.5x what it would have been. Because of this, no matter how much damage Mizu would take she counts as taking 0 damage. This means that the Portrait is absolutely terrible for most training! :pseudo:

After mopping up the meltdowns, I decide to end the day off with a bit more training for Talow. With only 34 HP and wearing a 1.5x B armor, he may be in prime Laetitia training territory.

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I do some quick math and determine that he'd have to hit 8 or fewer successes to have a realistic chance of dying, and because Laetitia is a good girl who has done nothing wrong in her life that isn't likely to happen. Time to power level Fortitude again. :getin:

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:j: Want… hat?

Image No thanks. Sorry, but I try to avoid accepting gifts from Abnormalities.

:j: Oh… :(

Image More tea?

:j: Okay…

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He nearly dies a few times, but that just makes the gains all the bigger.

Image Okay, pack it in everyone!

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I end the day before the next meltdown can finish. There's two units in particular that need a closer look today:

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First there's Talow, whose 93 justice here and 103 justice on his status screen earlier means that his title is granting +10 to his total justice stat. This is incredibly good. Then there's Tylana, who has basically gained 50 points of temperance in a single day. She's getting up there with our rank 5 agents, and she's hands-down the best HP tank our facility has.

Music: Acid Bleeding
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Huh. That's not the usual track for this screen...















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Image WHAT THE FU-?!

Next time on Lobotomy Corporation: :unsmigghh:

New Story

Portrait of Another World
Last edited by TeeQueue on Mon Jul 27, 2020 5:13 pm, edited 2 times in total.

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Abnormality Roundup 2

It's that time again. Four more abnormalities, and with it four more summaries. Overall, I'm quite pleased with how the facility is coming together. We've got a lot of good abnormalities, and the only thing I really want to see now is one of the HE-tier Justice trainers to bring everything together trainingwise. We still need two more abnormalities which breach for an upcoming mission, but we do have a bit of wiggle room on completing it so I'm not particularly worried about anything just yet.

Today's Shy Look
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These numbers are only a baseline, as depending on the face Today's Shy Look gives +30%, +10%, +0%, -30%, and -50% to its work rates. In theory, this should work with the black damage the abnormality deals to make it good at training everything as long as you can hit a good face. In reality, because it heals agents' HP+SP on the :D face and SP on the :) face, it works out to only be any good for training Justice, and only if you can get it to stay where you want. The face change is completely random, so past the extremely early stages of the game it makes sense to just throw a somewhat strong agent at the cell when it melts down and otherwise ignore it. Trying to force good results from it after day 10 or so is a waste of time.

Decent gear for early game, though, and one of the most hilarious E.G.O gifts in the game.


Laetitia
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Laetitia is a good girl who has done nothing wrong in her life. With incredibly lenient management conditions, low black damage, and three decent or better work types, Laetitia is a powerhouse trainer for every stat but Justice. Her gear is very strong, and her suit in particular can enable a rank 5 agent to work with several ALEPHs safely. In addition, it's the first suit we've seen with a pale resistance of 1.5x.

Pale damage resistance below 2x is nonexistent below HE-tier suits, and we probably won't see 1.0x or better pale resistances until we start getting ALEPH suits. There aren't many abnormalities which deal pale damage when worked, but the ones that do deal so small an amount of base pale damage that half of them can be worked reliably with a 1.5x pale suit and good temperance. This suit enables us to work those pale abnormalities, which is always a good option to have.

This is a lot of words to spend on a wee witch, but in conclusion Laetitia is a rarity in that she is really good at training your stats, easy to contain, and has great equipment. Most abnormalities only have 1-2 of these at best, which makes Laetitia a high-priority pick in any facility I build.


Rudolta of the Sleigh
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Click here for full size sprite
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It feels very strange to say this about a body horror Santa/Rudolph hybrid, but Rudolta is kind of boring. It has an amazing design aesthetic, but is otherwise a relatively simple "do good or I break out" type of abnormality. It gives more weapons/suits than Laetitia does, and its suits have a 1.5x pale resistance as well, but their poor B resist makes them less useful the later into the game we go. High-power W damage weapons are nice to have around, however, and the lack of requirements on the Christmas weapon is very useful in the event that you want to equip a good weapon onto a brand new agent. It's a good Prudence trainer and it does breach, which is handy for a couple missions, but in the end it just feels like a really cool concept with a slightly disappointing execution.

Not that it'll stop me from grabbing it, since 'boring' is better than 'everyone is dead now.' :v:


Portrait of Another World
Image Image Image Image

As demonstrated, Portrait lets us pass damage off onto other agents with a 1.5x multiplier, turning one agent into a superunit at the possible cost of the rest of your facility. Not mentioned earlier-after 100 damage being transferred the portrait actually begins changing to a masked picture, and then a weird wispy thing after another 100, both included above. If this happens, the multiplier changes to a 2x multiplier, then a 2.5x multiplier. As a result you want to try and keep whoever is being damaged from taking too many hits. This is a rather versatile ability for survival, as the agent outside can be kept in a main room where healing works properly on them while they're being damaged. The downside is that it completely removes the damage modifier from any exp that agent would be gaining, turning things into trading long term growth for short term survivability. I can think of several cases where this is a good deal, but overall this abnormality falls off in usefulness as we approach mid- and especially late-game.
Last edited by TeeQueue on Fri Jul 24, 2020 11:51 am, edited 1 time in total.

Wellllll, here we go I suppose!

I should've probably expected that a game that locks basic UI elements behind facility upgrades would use its artstyle as a story element at some point.

User avatar
Yeah, this is about the point where the game decides to stop merely hinting that things are wrong. :)

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Synchronizing Memory Repository . . .

Day 10: Story

Music: Acid Bleeding
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Image WHAT THE FU-?!

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The light flickers on and off in the background, which adds to the effect here.

Music: story 4
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Image There, I fixed it. There was a system error. How strange, it shouldn’t have been so easily compromised. It’s a technology originally developed during the war, now widely used for commercial purposes. It’s not that impressive of a technology, really.

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Image If a manager like you were to suffer such a reaction, it would be very troublesome for me. So I installed a ‘cognition filter’ in your display. While the cognition filter functions, dead employees will look like cute dolls splattered with red paint. Abnormalities, even those who could ravage your mental state just by being in your sight, will be reduced to adorable toys on the screen of your office.

Image

Image I cannot allow you to join them.

In summary: The facility is an absolute hellsite, and the only reason we as the Manager remain sane is because of a cognition filter that paints over everything to make it look cutesy. This sounds like it's one of the relatively new features Angela mentioned back on day 1, as our predecessors tended to go crazy without one.

Day 10 is the first real 'wham' day that the game has, timed for right about when we're supposed to be getting the hang of things. It's very effective in making it abundantly clear just how wrong things are around here.

Music: When Tv Turns Off
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Image As you may know, having two Abnormalities breach and losing four agents is a rather significant loss of manpower.

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Image I know the kind of place we work in. I am not regretful for the fact that I was unable to stop him. It’s that I regret having developed a personal relationship with him. I was careless with my position and let my subordinate exploit me.

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Image James was a good joker too. Of course I had fun playing word chain. We grew so intimate that I would forgive his “trivial” rule violations. But the price I had to pay for the error I made was not trivial in any way.

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Image We see body bags every single day. It’s a lonely place. Sometimes, you will feel the urge to share the distress and anxiety with someone else; to have a friend. But manager, whenever you feel lonely, please remember what happened to me. And try not to make the same mistake as I did. You will be able to get over the meaningless deaths that way.

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Image People say that I am too rational. “Yesod the Cold-blooded Machine”, “Yesod the Viper”, “Yesod the Cruel and Emotionless”. A frigid being who won’t even bat an eye at the deaths of dozens of employees… I won’t deny that I deserve the reputation. However, whoever built this place has to be a much more cruel person than I am.

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Image A vague sense of sympathy will only cloud your judgement. You are bound to make mistakes that way. Why would they place AIs with emotion to handle the facility, if they were well aware that emotion would only get in the way?

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In summary: Yesod had a friend once, it was awful and he's dead now. We should therefore avoid ever having friends because in the end we're probably going to have to order them to be killed. Yesod also questions why it is that AIs with emotions were put in place here, if lacking them would make life easier. Despite being jealous of Angela, he's apparently got the makings of a decent person in there. :unsmith:

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Our new mission is a step up from the last three… which makes it 'trivial' instead of 'pulse check.' We're still probably going to fail it tomorrow, because :rolldice:

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Image Angela, I could smell that through the screen. How long have there been dead bodies piled up in that room?

Image It has been approximately 5 days, manager. Malkuth-

Image Of course. Go on.

Image Malkuth brought them in and tossed them about before moving on to complete her usual work.

Image Great. How… frequently is that room used?

Image This room is most often used for meetings with outside clients. A once referred to it as "the private public face of the company," referring to its dual nature of showing what we wish others to believe-

Image Yeah, yeah, it's important. Got it. The cleaning staff?

Image Malkuth requested they be sure not to touch the bodies, as it was her job alone per the Manager's orders.

Image Ooof course she did. :nallears:

Image At this point, it would be dangerous to send clerks to handle this. The number of bodies would likely raise their mental corruption to beyond acceptable levels. We could assign the agents to handle things, but this would leave the facility understaffed during the clean-up.

Image *sighs, before looking towards stack of resumes on the corner of his desk* ...Do it. I'll figure something out.

Image Yes, Manager.

Next time, on Lobotomy Corporation: Ten fresh level 1 agents try to keep everything from falling apart.
Last edited by TeeQueue on Fri Jul 24, 2020 11:41 am, edited 1 time in total.

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Synchronizing Memory Repository . . .

Day 10: Gameplay

Music: neutral 2
Image Huh? What're these notices…

Image "Report to the meeting room for cleanup duty." Maybe something escaped?

Image If I had to guess, we're going to be cleaning up the bodies Malkuth left there after her little tantrum.

Image Uugh, you mean she can get worse? :gonk:

Image We'll tell you all about it during cleanup duty.

Image Nothing to it but to smile and get the job done, then!

---

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Image Manager, I've rolled out some training manuals to the clerks that should give them an idea how to handle the threats they're likely to face here. That may help pick up some of the slack.

Image It won't, but thanks.

Image Have you selected the best agents from those available?

Image I hope so. Newbies are pretty much all the same without going through some kind of training program.

Image In that case, who am I working with today?

Image Image Image
Image Image

Medea is suited up to avoid dying despite her 15 HP, and Mr.Blond has a rarity: a beginner title that doesn't reduce a stat to 15. Our greatest issue today is going to be a lack of suits, Credentia and SeyserKoze will have to do without. This is fine for them, since their department deals in easy abnormalities and we really only need 3 people to perform works.

Image I assume I have a new team as well. Bear in mind that we have two HE-level abnormalities.

Image Image Image
Image Image

My plans in Information have to be a little more creative, since anyone walking into one of the HE chambers will be instantly taking 60% of their SP in damage. To deal with Laetitia I have Twee-after a lot of calculations earlier, I figured out that an agent with her stat spread should be able to consistently survive if we beat the average results spread, and only panic if we miss it. Sephiroth's job is to walk up to Father Christmas in case of a meltdown and babble incoherently about his mom until he goes crazy. Both of them are Prudence-highest agents, so they'll stand still if they fail their works.

Boksi, Ishmael, and Tenebrais are there to beat the shit out of them when they panic so that nobody snaps their own neck. That's all they will be doing unless Shy Look has a meltdown. With a total of 10 agents in the building, we can afford to lose one without any penalty to our LOB gains.

Image Manager, it should take five full meltdown periods to finish the cleanup.

Image So I'm stuck until we hit VI, huh? Alright. Let's do this.

:siren: DAY 10 CHALLENGE: OOPS! ALL NEWBIES :siren:

Rules: Reach level VI with a facility of only level 1 agents.

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Image

Image It's time. Remember to follow the protocols.

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Image Call me Ishmael. Some days ago - never mind how long precisely - having little or no money in my purse, and nothing particular to interest me in the city, I thought I would find a job and see the wings of the world. It is a way I have of driving off the spleen and regulating the circulation.

Image ...I can't believe I have to hang out with you today. :what:

Image I just think it's about time they went ahead and hired someone really talented like myself.

Image Oh… were you a SOLDIER as well?

Image No idea what that means. Was in an organization once, though.

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Image Alright ladies, gentlemen and dumbasses. We've got a job to do, and the sooner it's done the better.

Image Right! Leave it to me!

Image We're all super screwed, I can feel it in my hair.

Image I just can't wait to learn more about these abnormalities!

Image Orders from the top, everyone! Credentia, Mr.Blond, Medea, go ahead and give working a try.

Image S'all good, boss!

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The plan at the start is to have the agents in Control work with the upper three. After some faffing about, I settle in on having Medea work with One Sin on insight, Mr.Blond working with 1.76 on repression, and Chinley on Forsaken Murderer. This is one of the downsides of having 5 members who need training in one department, it's impossible to properly cycle training around since two people are going to be idle at all times.

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Our first work on the 3 Control abnormalities shoves us to 29 energy. Gathering the energy won't be a problem, what really matters is the meltdowns avoiding Rudolta.

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Image Hey… like, did you know your hair sort of hovers over your head?

Image Yes, I got that done in the Nest, actually. It alerts me to danger and it's a hell of a fashion statement.

Image Woah… You really can buy anything there.

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Image It's such a shame that they let the riffraff in… but I suppose it's more bodies to put in front of the truly great people.

Image All mortal greatness is but disease.

Image ...Hmph! I suppose that means you're one of them. Try not to get the stench on me.

Image

The first meltdown level hits 1.76 MHz. Since Dawns don't cause meltdowns, that means we only need to get lucky one more time of the two remaining meltdown rolls and Rudolta won't break out. And with a Green Dawn coming on top of it, we're having a pretty lucky day so far. :woop:

Image Since it seems like Control's gotten into the swing of things, it's time we do some work. Twee, you're assigned to talk to Laetitia.

Image Awesome! But uh… If I can ask, sir…

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Image Why am I being escorted?

Image If you go crazy, they're under orders to beat you sane again.

Image Oh, cool!

This is the plan I mentioned above in action. If Twee panics, the three of them will beat her back to sanity. I realize later that I only really need to assign one person to this hallway to prevent a suicide, but overkill is still the best kind of kill.

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Image She's… too good for this world! Too pure..! :gonk:

Losing 60% of a low SP gauge right off is a bit painful, but it at least ensures Twee can't die doing this work. However,

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Image Gee golly, you sure know a lot about magic! I can't wait to talk with you again! :D

Laetitia is a good girl who has done nothing wrong in her life so it's fine.

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With one work until the next meltdown, I stack everyone in the facility into the Control main room. Since any of our level 1 agents would lose in a 1v1 against the Dawn, my plan is to just dogpile on them and take them out quickly. SeyserKoze is sent to work One Sin, and this sets us underway.

Image Good luck everyone!

Image Do I finally get to hit something, now?

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Image Manager, the clerks have engaged the Green Dawns.

Image I don't like how that one on the right maimed the corpse. We'll hold back until they've been cleared out.

Image So you're just going to leave my employees to die?!

Image Don't be ridiculous. Clerks don't count.

Since the Doubt's on-kill attack deals a lot of very quick hits of white damage, they're at their most dangerous when they've just killed something weak, like a clerk. Remember that prior to today our clerks would panic and run away from these things, who couldn't swing fast enough to hit them? Yeah, they've actually gotten more dangerous due to the upgrade we got this morning so we wait for the coast to be clear rather than risk panicking the entire facility.

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Image That should be all of the ones in the immediate area.

While the dawns were busy, I ordered the agents into the elevator directly above them. Putting agents into elevators is a double-edged sword, since all of them pile on top of each other. When an enemy walks in, all of the DPS of every agent in there is directly on them, but it leaves agents vulnerable to attacks that can hit multiple targets.

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Image No quarter! No mercy! No hesitation! :black101:

Image No doubt! :ocelot:

It dies just after this, and everyone is moved back to the main room to heal HP/SP back to full.

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Image So uh… this thorn crown thing. It's good, right?

Image Based on my initial observations, yes. It should be fine.

Image Compared to the battles in Wutai, these foes are nothing…

Image Stop babbling nonsense while there're still asses to kick.

Image Heh. I like this guy's style.

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While I reposition the team again, the other Doubt picks a fight with Zeta5.

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It does not end well for Zeta5.

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To be fair, it also does not end well for the Doubt. That's the second hurdle overcome. As long as Rudolta doesn't come up in both of the next two meltdowns, we're clear for the day.

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Image She gave me a hat!

Getting back to work, Laetitia gives Twee a hat and has another perfectly fine work result. Medea and Mr.Blond also go back to work upstairs, alongside Chinley working with Forsaken Murderer.

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The third meltdown here is 1.76. That means that we've missed Rudolta again, so we don't have to worry about it escaping today! :woop:

Image Boksi, get on Shy Look, it's got a good face right now.

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Image For someone of my caliber to be nervous… How interesting!

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Image How's the cleanup going over there?

Image It is progressing smoothly, X. We should be finished in two more meltdown cycles.

Image Good. Great! Keep it up, I'll make sure nothing happens until then.

Image Yes, Manager.

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Image I dunno, I think Instinct work is better. It's easier to understand, just feed them.

Image Saaame.

Image Well… I guess I can't expect everyone to get it. Still, I'm going to understand everything about them so I can properly care for any abnormality we see here!

Image That sounds perfectly perfect to me!

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Rudolta finally gets hit by a meltdown, so it's time for Sephiroth to do what he's here for.

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He does insight work on Rudolta, while Tenebris waits just outside.

:sassargh: *incoherent sputtering*

Image Presents? I have no need of such things. Pour your hatred out, and let darkness consume your heart!

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Image And what is this music? We should change from bells to gongs, and carolers to choirs. Mother would wish it so.

:tfrxmas:

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Predictably, Sephiroth screws up-Rudolta is just too much damage for a level 1 agent to work with. This gives us a bad result, which both lowers its QC to 1, and fails Yesod's mission for the day. Oh well, we can get it another time.

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Image Veni, veni, venias, Ne me mori facias, Veni, veni, venias, Ne me mori facias..!

Image Oh, I've been waiting all day for this.

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This is after one hit. A second one is enough to finish fixing him.

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Image You have earned my gratitude. Once I have become a god, I shall lead you to the promised land.

Image Don't make me club you again.

Using a sacrifice like this is an ideal strategy for when we don't have a better way to deal with an abnormality that's too strong for us. Ideally, we'll always be able to work our abnormalities-but it's important to keep nonstandard plans like this one in our back pocket for just in case something happens that sets our agents back several pegs. :eng101:

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With this last obstacle cleared, there's nothing else preventing us from coasting to the finish line, and we do this by having Twee work with Laetitia one more time.

Image Manager, the cleanup is complete. No agents are showing mental corruption levels above 79%.

Image Great, let's call it before things can get any worse. We got lucky today.

Image You think so? I'd say it is more evidence of your skill as a manager.

Image

Image You all did the best you could. Get some sleep.

Mr.Blond and Twee get boosted straight to rank 2, and notably Sephiroth is not on the list at all-agents only get EXP for works they finish.

Music: never frozen bottom flows
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F-01-87: The city still remained a beautiful place where the emerald roads sparkled bright as ever.
O-02-98: Now it's time for my head to burst. Good day.
T-05-51: Many hands float in the bath. They are the hands of the people I once loved.

I was hoping for a HE-level Justice trainer, but it seems that the game is punishing me for getting through today unscathed instead. Image

Several abnormalities have stat requirements, where agents either need to be higher or lower than a certain level in a stat in order to work the abnormality safely. The ones which require a stat minimum aren't so bad, but the ones which have a stat maximum are among the most annoying to manage abnormalities in the game, since you have to purposely limit yourself to be able to work them. These three all have various stat requirements. We'll start with -51: a basic TETH with a low requirement for fort/temperance to work. Its gear is meh, it doesn't breach, and while it's easy to work we'd rather get something a bit better for us right now.

The next one, -98, requires a Temperance of 4 to work. With Laetitia in the facility this isn't a problem, and it's actually quite a powerful Instinct trainer. However, it's troublesome to deal with when it breaches and most importantly its suit is weak against red damage. Weakness to red damage is a huge liability at this point in the game, so this isn't a great pick either.

Finally, there's -87. Nobody likes -87. It's a breach-prone jerk of an abnormality with a prohibitively low maximum Prudence requirement to work safely, and when it breaks out it can and will lay out a large number of employees if it's not fought carefully. However, it also comes with access to a pair of 0.6 red suits and some very powerful weapons to go with them. Since none of these three are worth anything to our training plans, it's all about prioritizing gear vs risk.

Image

I don't think this is a surprise at this point. :getin:

Next time, on Lobotomy Corporation: A conspicuous lack of Angela. :tinfoil:
Last edited by TeeQueue on Fri Jul 24, 2020 11:43 am, edited 1 time in total.

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Mechanics Talk 8: Service Benefits

What would you say if I told you that the armbands our agents wear are more than a quick way of telling which department they're in? What if I told you they had… benefits?

Image

As an agent works in a department, they gain a bonus based on the number of days they've worked in it, which gets stronger after 3 and then 7 days. The bonuses are listed on the deployment screen, in the same place as the clerk benefits. For instance:

Image

Control gives bonuses to movement speed, and the 3 base bonuses are +3, +5, and +7. As usual, this is not the whole story. The oldest agent in a department becomes a department captain after 7 days. If multiple agents are tied, then the priority is given to the agent furthest to the left on the agent bar. Captains get a more powerful bonus than other agents, in the Control team they get a +10 to movement speed instead of +7. These can only be given to one person in the entire facility, but luckily most of the bonuses are just negligible stat increases.

Most of them. We'll get to the ones that aren't eventually. :v:

One final note, the stat increases are added in the same way that EGO gifts are, so the same leveling trick that I showed off with D.A.D. should work with them as well.



Information Team Bonus Content

Team description
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Clerk/Agent bonuses
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Captain bonus: +10 Temperance.

Team armband
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Yesod sprite


Story background
Last edited by TeeQueue on Fri Jul 24, 2020 11:51 am, edited 1 time in total.

Well, the self-imposed-challenge thing for the fifth days seems to be working as intended, that was a highly entertaining update.

Also,
TeeQueue wrote:
Thu Jul 16, 2020 6:24 am
Yesod sprite
those legs!

Ah, green dawns and the introduction to "clerks as a means of making problems get much worse" of course some white damage isn't too big a problem, but of course there's some really 'fun' stuff that can happen thanks to your uncontrollable NPC buddies, and I'm very much looking forward to seeing them.

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I honestly think that Yesod's research that makes Clerks stand and fight things is actually a debuff half the time. So long as the clerks were running for their lives, the Green Dawns couldn't even hit them, so we didn't have to worry until just now.

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Synchronizing Memory Repository . . .

Day 11: Story

*The screeching and tuning of a radio*
Image

Image Huh?

Music: Dungeon - Wrong Way Street
Image

Image ...Go ahead?

Image You can call me ‘B’. I am… an insider. Someone who knows a lot about the company. Please understand that I cannot reveal my identity. I am going to tell you three truths that the company wishes to keep hidden over the following days. Tell me, please, why do you think you were hired by the company?

Image ...can I get back to you on that one?

Image

Image Should I rephrase that? Let me ask you like this, then.

Image

This choice doesn't matter, the scene plays out the same either way.

Image

Image Well, I can’t judge whether or not you’re telling the truth. You’re the manager, but you don’t actually know anything about the company, do you? Would you say I’m wrong?

Image ...Go on.

Image Each time we speak will need to be as brief as possible.

Image

In summary: We hear from a strange person named B, who's apparently a company insider. He promises to tell us secrets, but quickly disconnects since it's dangerous to talk too long.

Image Manager, it's time to decide how to expand the facility.

Image Just put it into the only choice we have, like every other time.

Image That will not be possible in this instance. There are two expansion options.

Image

For days 11-20, we get to choose between expanding Training and Safety. We can do one, then the other, or mix the two together as we like.

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The Training department increases our stat gains, and there's one research in particular here which is absolutely vital to grab ASAP.

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Safety, on the other hand, deals in healing our agents and keeping them alive. Their researches all have to do with the main room healing, and there's another research here which we'd love to have too, though it isn't vital until later.

Image

We're going to put off Safety for a while, and go through Training first.

Image It's a pleasure to see you again, Manager! Umm, I have to get everything set up, so I'll talk to you later!

Image ...And she's off. At least she seems stable enough....

Next time, on Lobotomy Corporation: Mizu causes problems.






Image Oh hey, Bishop! Where'd you run off to?

Image I just had to check on something. There were some strange readings on the monitor a few minutes ago.

Image That's the Control team captain for you. Find anything?

Image Couldn't say. On the surface it looked like just noise in our comms frequency… but my instincts say it's a problem. Dad always said to trust your instincts.

Image I didn't know you still had a family, Bishop.

Image I don't. Well… not anymore. People vanish all the time in the city, and nobody thinks anything of it.

Image What about your mother?

Image The last I'd heard, someone made her into a pie.

Image I'd heard the rumors about things like that, but actually hearing about it... :psyduck:

Image I don't let it get to me. Crying over what's happened just makes it harder to do my job. That means if you die, I won't be crying either.

Image Hey, now, I'm not going anywhere!

Image I gotta get back to work.

Image Don't just say that and wander off! Hey! Stop ignoring me!
Last edited by TeeQueue on Fri Jul 24, 2020 11:44 am, edited 1 time in total.

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Synchronizing Memory Repository . . .

Day 11: Gameplay

Music: neutral 2
Image

Image New departments mean new staffing requirements. I take it you have an idea of what you would like to do, Manager?

Image Keeping an experienced agent on staff's worked well so far. Bishop can stay in Control team as their head. We'll put Twee and Mr.Blond with them, they showed potential. ...We'll recommend D.A.D. to Yesod for a permanent captain position, and promote the others from Control to work with them. That leaves Mizu and Talow to go to Training, and we'll put Medea alongside them.

Image A new agent, X?

Image Well, it is called Training, isn't it? :v:

Image

Image

Our new wing's much less elaborate than the last two, and it shares an elevator with Information.

Image Let's all do our best today!

Image

Image Oh, hey. Did Mizu leave already?

Image Yeah, she said she was going off to work with the new scarecrow abnormality.

Image I'm quite impressed by her initiative!

Image ...did you say 'scarecrow?'

Image

Image You sure like Insight work a lot, don't you cutie?

Image

Image Boss, we've got a message from Talow?

Image Talow? What's going on?

Image We're about to have a problem. Evac the newbies and order everyone else to Training's main room, stat.

Image What's going-

Image Got it, I'll send the orders.

Image Bishop, the chain of command states-

Image I'm trusting my instincts! You two, stand by!

Image Image Sir!

Image I'm writing you up for this later!

Image

Image ...that's unusual. Control team's calling all agents to the Training main room.

Image Probably just some training exercise. Let's move, people.

Image Resplendent! Hahahaha!

Image ...he always like this?

Image You get used to it. :rolleyes:

Image

Image Just another cutie to add on to the pile~ Do a good job and make it worth-a my while~ Huh? Why's Bishop paging me to the main room? I was going there already.

Image

Image Okay, so everyone's here and the three new guys are hiding over in Information, right?

Image Yeah. So what's this all about?

Image It's my ass on the line if this is some drill, Talow.

Image Hold on! Umm..!

:siren: Music: First Trumpet
Image

Image

Image That's what's going on. We have a problem.

Image I thought he seemed really energetic!

Image Wait… you know what this thing is, don't you?

Image I'm… familiar with it.

Image

Image Its name is Scarecrow Searching for Wisdom, and if it's not stopped we're all dead.

Image It's entered the Information team's hallway. I'll put it on screen.

Image

Image Gamma16? They were going to help me with my reports later.

Image

Image I think you're about to be on your own.

The first rule of engaging Scarecrow is never to do it while there are clerks around.

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Image What's it doing?! :stonk:

Image When it's killed someone, it sucks their brain out through the eye sockets. That's how it feeds.

Image

Image Gamma16..! :stonklol:

This is why. It'll kill the clerks and heal itself, making fighting it pointless.

Image That hallway leads straight to where the others are hiding. We have to move.

Image Alright, let's beat the crap out of a scarecrow.

Image

Image You're gonna pay for that, you son of a haystack!!

The upside of sending everyone in the facility after it is that it can only hit one person at a time, meaning we can blitz it down relatively fast.

Image

Image It seems to like me!

Image It wants your brain! Though I can't imagine why.

Image Oh! I need that! Sorry, cutie, but you'll have to stop now.

After another few salvos of attacks, our facility has it taken care of.

Music: neutral 3
Image

:what: ...yeah, I'm going on lunch.

Now that that's over, we get to work having people do their usual training. Mr.Black is on Instinct work with Laetitia, Tylana learns some Insight with Rudolta, and Twee works Repression with 1.76 MHz. As for the scarecrow…

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Image That thing gets set off by agents with high Prudence, Mizu. This is why you can't just rush in and work everything right away.

Image Ohh… Wait, but how did you know that?

Image I'd recommend having an agent with a Prudence level of 2 or less do the work. That should prevent a repeat.

Image Hey! Don't ignore me!

Image If it requires low Prudence… Umm, Manager? Maybe if we send Medea in there?

Image Let's give it a try.

Image

Image Umm… good scarecrow? Let me just tidy your room. I heard you like diplomas, so I'll hang a few here and there.

Image It's not reacting as enthusiastically. This should be okay!

Image ...X, what do you make of the situation?

Image Couldn't say. All I know is we got out of a first trumpet situation without any casualties or escalation.

Image What about-

Image Clerks don't count. We'll figure out the rest later, we're already behind schedule.

Image

Image See? We've only just now hit the first meltdown level, and… what's that? A Red Dawn?

Image Crimson, Manager.

Image Regardless, it's just a dawn. Keep working as normal.

Bishop works the mirror, and nothing much happens until the next meltdown level.

Image

Image Okay, let's take a closer look…

Image

Image ...Of course it's creepy clowns. Why did I think there wouldn't be creepy clowns?

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Crimson Dawn, AKA The Cheers for the Beginning, is a bit different from the other dawn ordeals we've seen so far. While Amber and Green focused on killing our agents and clerks, the Crimson Dawn focuses on our abnormalities. Three spawn throughout the facility. Of them, two spawn close enough to Mizu and Bishop that they instantly stop living due to their low health and weakness to black damage. The third one spawns in front of the Mirror's door.

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:v: Hey, this is pretty easy! It's not fighting back or anything! Everyone, come on over!

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By themselves, they're no real threat. A group of four clerks managed to take off around 25% of its health by themselves.

Image

This poof of smoke means that the Crimson Dawn's finished its work with the current abnormality. This would take away the PE boxes we use to buy info/gear, as well as lower its QC by one, but tool abnormalities have neither of those so… :geno:

Image

Image That's it? That was ea-

Image It's gonna blow!

Image What?!

Image

Image …the clerk lived through it.

Image Yeah. I guess it wasn't a big deal after all.

In conclusion, Crimson Dawns: They're not a threat themselves, but make sure to keep them from letting out all your abnormalities.

Image

Image Fiiinally, we're just about back on track… Wait. Why's that say 'Noon?'

Image Our sensors are detecting that Noon ordeals are starting to awaken. It looks like you'll be seeing them from here on out.

Image ...Manager?

Image Presently, X appears to be banging his head against a wall. I will have to take a message.

Image

:what: You must be new here.

Image Started yesterday, actually.

:what: Word to the wise: if you're an employee, you're probably screwed. If you're a clerk, you're definitely screwed.

Image What about you, Zeta21?

:what: Me? I'm going on break.

Image Hey Medea, hold down the fort. I wanna see if this mask still looks as cool as I think it looks.

At this point I decide to throw Mizu at the mirror again, to see if she can get more justice.

Image

She does not, but this is still very helpful for what's coming.

:siren: Music: First Trumpet
Image

Image

Image Alright, Dawns haven't been so bad. Let's see what a Noon can do…

Image Sir, one of my clerks has just died!

Image

Image Make that two, sir! One attack each!

Image ...hell.

Image

Welcome to Green Noon, The Process of chainsawing everyone's face in Understanding. Their gun attacks are pretty easy to ignore. They come out quick, but 1 point of damage isn't a lot. The problem is their chainsaw. It hits nine times per attack, with the attacks coming very quickly and each hit dealing 1 or 2 damage. Alongside Amber Dawn, these are why you never go without decent red resists in the early game. Green Noons will chew through your agents like a hot chainsaw through butter, and they're a very rude awakening to anyone still using the base ZAYIN gear, since as HE class enemies they get a 1.2x modifier on all attacks against ZAYINs.

They are a formidable opponent for our facility right now, with only two saving graces. The first is that on occasion they just stop working and sit in a box, letting agents hit them for several seconds. The second has to do with a coding error: In the code, Green Noon's attacks are told to pick an integer between 1-3 for the chainsaw, and 1-2 for the gun. However, due to a bug the RNG can never pick the highest number. Yep, these things were meant to be even deadlier!

Image

One of them is in Training, of course, so I send Mizu and Talow to take care of it. With our facility specializing in W and B offense and R defense, we've stacked the deck as best we can-and luckily we engage while it's in recharge mode.

Image

Image Jeez that hurts!

Image

It gets two more attacks in before the duo is able to down it, and as a result Talow loses half his health.

Image I'll be using the regenerator for a while. See how the others are doing, Mizu.

Image Roger.

Image

Image Engage, everyone!

Image Are you sure? Your armor's-

Image I'll be fine, get it!

Image

Two attacks later I sound the retreat-ducking out of a losing battle fast is just as important as pressing a winning one. Delta17 is unceremoniously killed by chainsaw about 2 seconds later.

Image Requesting assistance! We got one dinged up but had to pull back. Anyone there?!

Image Okee-dokie, I'll head over!

Image

Image Hey, this one isn't dinged up at all!

Image Why are you in Control?! That one hasn't been harmed yet!

Image I heard a cutie walking around! Just give me a sec, I'll take care of it!

Image

Image Mizu, fall back! That thing's a HE-level threat, you can't handle it alone!

Image Mmm… nah!

Image

Image Cutie's a pile of scrap. Searching for the last target now~

So Mizu can apparently solo these things already. :stare: It cost her ~half her HP and we engaged it from the maximum possible distance… but Laetitia's gear is really powerful.

Image

Image No need. I can hear it from here.

Image Just give the order, sir, and we'll fight it.

Image I'm sure we can win!

Image ...No. You two don't have the strength or the gear to hold it off for more than a couple seconds. Run over to Training. Worst case, Talow will make sure you're okay.

Image And what about you, boss?

Image

Image I'm going to make sure he doesn't have to.

Image

Image Relax, and attack. Just like the old days.

Image

Image Bishop, you're taking heavy fire. Fall back and wait for backup!

Image Can't risk the camera cables getting cut again!

Image

Image That's the last step you're taking.




Image

Image ...Situation's all clear. Team, you're clear to return anytime. :zoro:

Image Not bad... I guess that's why he's the captain, huh?

Image Manager, the situation is clear. We're only awaiting final orders to end the day.

Image Of course.

Music: neutral 1
Image

Image So… how DID you know what the scarecrow was going to do?

Image Would you believe I saw it on an Enkephalin high?

Image No.

Image I would! You see all SORTS of stuff.

Image Well, sorry, but that's all the answer I've got for you.

Image Hey, everyone? Umm… It's time to end the workday. Please get everything put away safely!

Image

Image Good job today, everyone!

Medea's prudence is worth extra attention today, it's grown to 10. This is because the stat totals only show two digits. It's actually short for 100, the maximum possible amount. Scarecrow is very good at raising Prudence.

Music: never frozen bottom flows
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O-03-60: You see a song in front of you. It's approaching, becoming more colorful by the second.
O-02-56: People have been committing sins since long ago. "Why do they commit sins, knowing it's wrong?"
F-02-44: However, the curse continues eternally, never broken.

Nothing but TETHs we've already talked about today. As a reminder, -60 is a decent super early game attachment trainer and can breach, -44 is our stalker and literally just a worse, less convenient 1.76 MHz, and -56 is a the one which I agonized over taking on day 1 because I needed it to do things later but it was terrible for training stats.

Image

The choice is not hard.

Next time, on Lobotomy Corporation: We officially meet Hod.

New Guidelines

Scarecrow Searching for Wisdom

New Gear

Image

Image
Requirements: Prudence 2

New Story

Scarecrow Searching for Wisdom








Image

:what: Huh. Thing's dead and it's still giving off sparks like crazy.

Image

:what: ...yeah, I'm clocking out.
Last edited by TeeQueue on Fri Jul 24, 2020 11:45 am, edited 1 time in total.

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Mechanics Talk 9: Emergency Level and Trumpets

WARNING: Absolutely none of this mechanics update actually matters unless you really want to make your game play cool music at will.

Way back in update 5 I did a little bit of talking about the warning system, by which I mean I linked this page from the in-game manual:

Image

What I didn't mention then was how the game determines what trumpet you're on. To do this, the game uses a danger level. The level is a point scale that goes from 0 to 100. At 10+ points, a First Trumpet sounds. Once you hit 50+ points, a Second Trumpet sounds. If you get up to 80+ points on the scale, a Third Trumpet begins instead. The danger level drops by 1 every 15 seconds that pass in game, and when the level gets back below 10 the trumpet will end. Trumpets can only increase, you can't go back from a Second Trumpet to a First Trumpet.

The danger level goes up in two main ways. The first is when agents die or panic. An agent death is worth 4 points, and a panic is worth 2.

The second is when an abnormality or ordeal breaches or spawns. Abnormalities are worth a certain number of points, as shown on the table here:

Image

ZAYINs have a on-breach danger of 5 points, but since they don't breach it will never matter. :v:

Whenever an Ordeal spawns or an Abnormality breaches, the danger points of that abnormality are divided by the number of departments in the facility, and the leftover number is added to the score. For instance, right now a TETH breaking out would be worth 20/3=6.67 points, not enough to trigger a First Trumpet unless it kills someone. A HE breaking out or spawning, on the other hand, is 40/3=13.33 points, enough to kick things into a trumpet. There are a couple exceptions to this rule, and I'll cover them when they show up, but the system is actually quite simple.

Since we still have time, on to a bit of trivia! There's a Fourth Trumpet within the game's code, called EmergencyLevel.CHAOS. It's not implemented and has no associated danger level, but if the code is altered to allow for it to be triggered it works just fine and plays the Third Trumpet song instead of having its own custom music.

I have a screenshot of it courtesy of discord user IvoryVaimon-the first person I'm aware of to have discovered this. Here is the photo, but be warned that it is from a much later-game facility. While most of the text isn't readable, it could spoil a few Abnormality and Ordeal designs. It's believed that the Fourth Trumpet was originally supposed to be a game over state, but was never fully implemented since it wouldn't make sense given our ability to rewind time and redo a day being an explicit game mechanic.

Speaking of trumpets, there are also three more mentioned in the artbook, which goes more in-depth on a variety of in-world topics.



They actually HAVE an 'oops we just caused the apocalypse' trumpet.

I love this game so much. :allears:
Last edited by TeeQueue on Fri Jul 24, 2020 11:51 am, edited 1 time in total.

So here we are at apparently still one of the lower-tier Ordeals and it's multiple giant terrorbots with buzzsaws for hands. Wonderful.

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The normal play experience involves hitting your first noon, realizing they will kick the hell out of you, and then avoiding them for as long as possible. They stop being a problem quickly enough, but in the early game Noons are a terror.

oh boy -56! there's an amazing little quirk to that friend that I've been looking forward to sharing for ages

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Synchronizing Memory Repository . . .

Day 12: Story

Music: story 1
Image

Image Don’t you find them somewhat lacking in certain ways? You have the liberty to disregard whatever they may say. However, please be kind to them.

Image

Image I have never had any serious discussion with them. They seem to be uncomfortable conversing with me. Most likely due to the fact that I am a superior being.

Image

This line is special, because the ID for it in the game's code includes a anim="Glad1". I haven't seen this anywhere else in the text files, so I think Angela is actually supposed to be smiling here but it's written in the wrong spot so it doesn't change anything? :iiam:

Image After all, I am the most advanced AI in this company.

In summary: Angela reminds us that the proper way to deal with the Sephirot is basically patronizing kindness. She also mentions again that she's the very bestest and smartest AI, so much that it gives the Sephirot an inferiority complex.

I'm starting to suspect that Angela isn't really a very good person, you guys. :ssh:

Music: Town - Alone in a Crowd
Image

This is Hod. We've already met her for a few moments during both Malkuth's and Yesod's stories, but this is our first chance to properly say hi.

Image

Image

Image I’m Hod. I’m in charge of the Training Team. We’re… um… what we do is... You know accidents happen in the company.

Image

Or less initiative, in some cases. :v:

Image So the Training Team provides employees with a work manual and sufficient training. You know, to try and reduce the number of accidents. We also help employees that are transferring to different departments in adapting to their new workplace… Umm, I’m not very skillful in many areas, but I’ll try not to be a hindrance, at least...!

Image

Image I don’t know if it will work out, but… umm… Oh, you want to know more about the program?

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Image I know exactly what it’s like. I mean, I don’t directly interact with the Abnormalities, but I know what it feels like to lose yourself… I’m not sure if employees will like my new program, or if it will prove to be helpful... I can only hope…

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The game plays the same knocking sound effect here that we heard back on day 1.

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Image No, no, it was your courage to bare your heart to me that really solved the problem. I just showed you where to start.

:j: I mean it. I’d have probably hung myself by now if it wasn’t for you. Anyway, Miss Hod, you really did save my life. I’m so fortunate to have you as my Sephirah. You’re a really, really good person.

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:j: Of course, miss. I won’t.

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Image I want to be as helpful a person I can be here. Because, the harder I try, the more lives I can save…

In summary: Hod is the head of the Training team, which exists to teach agents how to avoid problems in the workday. She's introduced a new counseling program, and it seems to work pretty well if Tiffany is anything to go by. Tiffany is leaving to a new department, so we'll see how things turn out for her. Hod tries her best to save as many people as possible, and she'll probably try to kill us because she's an AI and this is a video game.

Image

This mission would be easy if most of our regulars weren't already level 5 (and thus unable to be promoted). We'll be bringing back some of the newbies to help us complete it.

Image

At this point you may have noticed that Yesod's new cutscene is missing, since yesterday we completed his mission as well. New scenes for a Sephirah only play when they're ready to give you their next mission, so let's check on the deployment screen to see what the requirements for Yesod's next mission are…

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'Core Suppression,' huh? What a completely normal and nonthreatening name that definitely isn't giving me war flashbacks at all! :stonklol: Anyways, we haven't unlocked Netzach yet, can't unlock Tiphereth until day 21, and Malkuth mission 4 is killing the dusk which requires day 21 as well, so it'll be a while.

Next time, on Lobotomy Corporation: Birds, death, and minor annoyance spirals.






Image Hod, is the Manager done with you?

Image Sure is! Umm… why'd you ask to see me?

Image I don't know if you've noticed yet, but the Manager seems to have an issue with seeing clerks as people. We lose a handful every day to ordeals and breaches, but he just shrugs it off and says they 'don't count.'

Image I thought you didn't care about your crew.

Image That was that, and this is this. Unnecessary deaths should be avoided, regardless of personal feelings.

Image Oh! Umm… you're right, of course. We can't go against him, though... What do you think we should do?

Image I reviewed yesterday's data, and it seems one of your clerks might have the ability to make a usable agent. They witnessed multiple HE-level events, and managed to walk away without any increase to their mental corruption at all.

Image Oh… I know who you mean! They do everything at their own pace, but they're mostly reliable.

Image I believe that if we train that clerk as an agent and have them work alongside the others, it might do something to help change the Manager's mind about clerks.

Image That's... brilliant! I'll put them through the training materials right away! They should be ready in two… no, one day!

Image Keep me posted. I'll slide their data into our agent files once everything's ready.

Image Alright, Yesod! You know, you're cunning as a viper too.

Image Why, thank you.
Last edited by TeeQueue on Fri Jul 24, 2020 11:46 am, edited 1 time in total.

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OK, finally caught up. This game looks pretty interesting!

I wouldn't like to play it, though. Bad at time management games.

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I absolutely can't fault anyone for not wanting to play this game themselves. Despite how I may be making it look, it's merciless.

The real Lob Corp experience is getting a series of minor problem abnormalities that eventually form a complex web of weird conditions that explodes if the wrong thing happens, like getting bunch of abnormalities that get upset if too many people die to go along with one that that gets upset if not enough people die.

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TeeQueue wrote:
Sun Jul 19, 2020 12:15 pm
I absolutely can't fault anyone for not wanting to play this game themselves. Despite how I may be making it look, it's merciless.
I sorta binged the wiki before reading this thread. Not being able to see much info on which abnormalities you add, uh. Yeah, that's a definite advantage being shown of in this thread.

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Synchronizing Memory Repository . . .

Day 12: Gameplay

Music: neutral 4
Image

We need to promote two agents today, and with so many rank 5 agents I decided to bring back a few newbies to level up to ensure we make it. We WANT this mission cleared ASAP, missing it is a huge pain.

Image Image

Tenebris and Credentia join the Control team today. Since they need a total of 6 stat levels to become level 2, each one gets Temperance 2, so leveling up any other stat once will promote them.

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Ishmael goes to the Training team.

Image

Image

Image Let's all do our best today!

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Image Orders from the top, everyone!

Image I see… Tenebris and Credentia, you're alternating working on 1.76 MHz today. Remember: bring a radio and kick it.

Image Image Roger!

Image Don't screw it up.

Image How are you talking through that belt thing?

Image With my mouth. Obviously.

Image ...I really hope you panic today, Blondie.

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Image It's time. Remember to follow the protocols.

Image Hey, where's Mr.Black?

Image He's already been sent off to work with Rudolta. You're with Laetitia today, to try and get that Temperance up.

Image Nice! She's always just so darn pleasant.

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Image ...it's a bird.

Image It is indeed a bird.

Image A tiny bird cutie for the collection. I'm gonna' go say hi! :keke:

Image For there is no folly of the beast of the earth which is not infinitely outdone by the madness of men.

Image ...I'm going to go check on the scarecrow.

Image Wait, your prudence-


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Image I used the mirror to spread my insight into abnormalities into my other abilities. It's fine.

Image ...Well okay then.

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Image No matter how I look at it, it's just a bird… That's not cute at all, cutie. Oh well… Here's the report, boss!

Image Insight work..? Umm… but both Mizu and Talow have nearly hit the limit of their Prudence, and the damage it deals means Ishmael might die… Malkuth, do you have anyone free who could use some Insight training?

Image I have just the guy. Bishop, go get some training in!

Image Ma'am!

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Our new abnormality, Small Bird, is something of a fan favorite in this game. However, it deals Red damage and prefers Insight work, which makes it less than ideal for training. Bishop will be farming it. If we don't want it to breach, it's imperative to have someone working it before starting any works with any other abnormalities.

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It normally has a QC of 4, but it's already dropped to 1 after our second work on it. This is because its QC has a moderate chance to drop each time another work is started in the facility. This bird is a master escape artist. Another work later and we get its real name:

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Image Punishing Bird? ...Doesn't look very punishing.

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Things are uneventful through the dawn, which is green. Again. I accidentally spoiled the existence of Violet ordeals in the thread earlier, so it'd be really nice if you gave me one, game! :rolldice:

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Image Hey, that robot's mutilating the clerk!

Image ...not a bad technique. I'll try it out on this thing! :black101:

At this point, not even their corpse attack is able to deal enough damage to our agents to be threatening. So long as we keep them well away from the level 1 agents, they've stopped being a threat.

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See also: D.A.D. spanking a Doubt by themself, while wearing armor weak to their primary attack type. Crimson aside, dawns can be brute forced by having big enough numbers on our agents.

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The ordeal ends without incident.

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Image That's a… Crimson Noon coming, right?

Image Yes, Manager. Our energy production is completed, so you do have the option-

Image The day ends when we finish getting every last piece of gear from the new abnormality, and not a minute before.

Image As you like, X.

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Image Hey captain, you ever get this feeling of encroaching dread for no reason?

Image Can't say as I have. I noticed a while ago that for all the talk about how 'dangerous' this place is, for us agent's it's not that big a deal. So long as we follow the orders, we always come out fine.

Image What about the clerks? They keep dying… can't we do something about it?

Image Nothing we can do, Tylana. They've got half the training we do, and management gives them peashooters and wet paper to defend themselves.

Image That's… inhumane.

Image No, that's life in the Wings! Compared to outside, this is nothing~

Image Hold on, we've got a signal.

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Get used to this message. There's actually a mod to make it stop showing up for specifically this abnormality because it breaches so often. I will not be using it.

Image ...what.

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Image Manager! Please do something about it! Someone could be hurt!

Image Yeah… Okay. I'll do something about it. Ishmael, how about you take care of the super dangerous birdie. :rolleyes:

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Image I try all things, I achieve what I can.

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Image See? One damage. That's nothing to be concerned about.

Image I… Umm… Yeah! I guess you're right, manager! Everything's fine!

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Image For there is no folly of the beast of the earth which is not infinitely outdone by the madness of men!

Image ...Why'd it turn red?

Image Is that... steam coming out of its ears?

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Image :gonk:

Image WHAT THE-

:siren: Music: First Trumpet
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Image My body is but the lees of my- :gibs:

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Here's the rest of Punishing Bird's gimmick. While it breaks out frequently, the correct answer is to ignore it. If we don't, and try to suppress it, it turns red and murders whoever dared anger it. That attack dealt 843 damage, and our HP growth stops at 100!

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Image ...No, this one's on me. I underestimated an abnormality. That's not happening again.

Image About time. Every time you're careless, people die.

Image Clerks still don't count, Yesod--What's the status of the bird?

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Image It's… back in its cell.

On the plus side, once Punishing Bird is done with either pecking people or murdering someone who's angered it, it goes back home on its own. The danger level doesn't go down, however, so we'll be hearing the first trumpet song for a little bit longer.

Image ...alright then. Let's just move on and take care of business.

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Image That's a bit callous, isn't it? This is the first time an agent's died before...

Image Under this manager. It took a little longer than normal this time, but eventually someone dies. Then someone else. In the end, everyone is expendable.

Image That's… That just means we have to work even harder to understand the abnormalities! So this doesn't happen.

Image Hey, just do your best. That's the most anyone here can do.

:drugnerd: ...woah. That bird has, like, a mouth in its stomach.

Image Oooh, so THAT'S why its belly opened up like that! It is a cutie after all~ :keke:

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In addition to counting against your ranking at the end of the day, when agents die their gear is completely destroyed. Ishmael had one of each of One Sin's gear, and now we're back down to 4 of the 5 maximum. Retrying a day will reset this, and get us back both your employee and their gear-but we're going to press on and just buy back the gear with our spare boxes. We want to avoid losing our more valuable agents just as much for the stuff they're wearing as for the time we spent building their stats.

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A few moments later we hit our Noon, which re-triggers the first trumpet graphic (something which can happen if the danger level goes below 10, but then is booted back above it). Since the music is already playing first trumpet, nothing really changes.

Image Manager, we've identified the intruder.

Image What are they?

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Image I instantly regret asking! :gonk:

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Welcome to The Harmony of Skin! One interesting note about these guys is that they only class as a TETH for the purpose of danger level, instead of a HE. This means that if not for punishing bird earlier, we wouldn't have heard an alarm at all. :ssh:

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It wipes out a couple clerks with a single stab of its tail. All of its attacks hit multiple targets, so we can't swarm it the same way as we did Scarecrow.

Image My people are dying. Your orders?

Image ...let's just throw Mizu at it and see what happens.

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Image This cutie's a toughie!

With nearly twice the HP of a Green Noon, Crimson Noon is harder to down-but on the upside we only have to deal with one. Also, claw attack. :v:

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Image Might need some help with this!

Image ..!

Image Bishop, Medea, head down there and help her. I'll keep an eye out next to the Scarecrow's cell.

Image Umm… yes! Let's do that!

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Image I'll take point! Take it out while it's focused up close!

Image Gotcha.

Image Okee-doke!

The best way to deal with enemies that hit multiple enemies is to rush in with someone to draw its focus, and then pepper it with ranged attacks, or have everyone else hit it from behind. Medea's 0.6x red resist makes her quite good at tanking despite having lower HP.

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It takes her down to half HP, but the three of them combined can take it out. Also: Medea's weapon looks wrong. This is because of a glitch which sometimes randomly changes our agents' weapons out with weapons from other abnormalities while attacking. There is a mod to fix this. I will be using it.

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Image Woah, we got a problem! More Crimson ordeals… The dawns?

Image They're teleporting out of here!

Image ...I was afraid of this.

Image Afraid of what, X?

Image That wasn't just a clown scorpion… it was a clown car scorpion.

Once defeated, the noon splits into 3 dawns, which immediately teleport off.

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One of them spawns in 1.76's corridor, but Mr.Blonde is right there to take care of it so it's no trouble. The other two show up in Forsaken Murderer's spot, where… I've forgotten to put anyone. :doh:

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I send everyone in to take care of it, and one of them DOES die, but the other…

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Triggers our third re-entry into first trumpet in about 2 minutes. :bang:

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The final dawn teleports over to scarecrow, but I've moved Talow to deal with Forsaken Murderer so I throw Mizu at it instead.

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To predictable results. :fuckoff:

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Meanwhile, Talow joins the badass club alongside Mizu and Bishop by finishing off Forsaken Murderer by himself.

Music: neutral 3
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And finally, finally, a full meltdown level later the emergency music stops. Nothing truly bad happened because of how overtuned the facility currently is, but it's an object lesson in how problems can compound quickly if we're not paying attention.

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Image Finally, a quiet moment. Let's just take a look at-

Image Manager, we have a problem!

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Image ...Angela please show me literally anything else right now.

Image Yes, X.

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Image I see you are. Aren't you just the goodest fella? Just keep right on smiling, that's the way~

Image Umm… Manager..!

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Image Ow. Ow. Ow.

Image Y'know what, I don't think I've checked on the bird's full info yet… Let's just pull that up.

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The proper way to handle Punishing Bird breaches are to just ignore it and let it bully people until it's satisfied and goes home. The winning move is not to play.

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Image See, that wasn't so bad. It's getting late, though, and we're done gathering energy.

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Image Oh… Um… I mean, good job today, everyone!

Medea got her Prudence back up to 100 again, and will be mirroring again soon in hopes of farming even more later. As for the two agents set to farm Repression back at the start of the day?

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They've both been promoted to rank 2. :cool:

Music: never frozen bottom flows
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T-01-68: Where does one go when they die?
O-01-73: All that remains is the hollow pride of a weathered knight.
O-01-04: In the name of Love and Justice~ Here comes Magical Girl!
Day 10: Gameplay wrote: I was hoping for a HE-level Justice trainer, but it seems that the game is punishing me for getting through today unscathed instead.
And the monkey's paw curls its finger... -68 is a HE-level Justice trainer, but it's unquestionably the worst of the lot. It has a stat cap similar to Scarecrow, deals roomwide damage on a breach, and since today is the first day that WAW abnormalities can show up it's also a tier below the two abnormalities right next to it. At the cost of needing to look for good ways to train Justice past level 3, we'll have to pass on this one.

Next is -73, who is interesting for several reasons. First off, she never breaches unless people are dying in the facility, making her very easy to handle, and her special ability benefits our facility barring a very rare downside. She's decent for training Prudence or Temperance, and her E.G.O gift is easily among the best in its slot. On top of all of that, she possesses the only suit below ALEPH-tier to have a Pale resistance of better than 1.5x, making her an excellent way to break into handling Pale abnormalities safely. She's an insanely solid pick, good for any facility.

Finally there's -04. She's pretty much exactly what it says on the tin: a Magical Girl of Love and Justice, one of three members of a trio of magical girls (-73 is another, for the record). Like Punishing Bird, she's a fan-favorite abnormality and one of the most memorable in the game. She has unique and very cool gear that lets us make our agents into magical girls, and a strong E.G.O gift to boot.

She also would unquestionably murder everyone in our entire facility if we took her right now.

Her requirements for being kept safely are very difficult to accomplish without specific researches (that we haven't seen yet) or abnormalities (again, that we haven't seen yet), and without those our only option would be to rely on an exploit centered around carefully timed works. Putting up with that in order to get an abnormality that's terrible at any sort of training, just because her gear is cool, would be a bad plan.

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The hardest part of this choice is risking the ire of -04's fans. I hope we see her again later, when we have a better way to deal with her. :sadwave:

Next time, on Lobotomy Corporation: Angela ruins a perfectly good thing because she can.

New Guidelines

Punishing Bird

New Gear

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New Story

Punishing Bird
Last edited by TeeQueue on Fri Jul 24, 2020 11:47 am, edited 1 time in total.

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Mechanics Talk 10: Titles

Everyone in the company has one, from the Timid Newbie to Modest Arbitrator. Titles are a group of words that all characters have, which give a tiny boost to their stats. Each title is split into two parts: a prefix and a suffix, and each part gives its own set of bonuses. A level 1 agent starts with the Newbie suffix and a random level 1 agent prefix. Level 1 agent prefixes are all +3 to one stat, with most of them also giving -2 to another stat, while Newbie is a flat +2 to all stats.

At level 2, Newbie becomes Employee, which is mechanically identical to Newbie. At level 3, agents get a new suffix. These suffixes all give +2 to all stats and +3 to one specific stat-except for Senior, which gives +3 to all stats. At level 4, agents get a new prefix, which gives +3 to all stats and +5 to a specific stat instead. Finally, level 5 agents get a new suffix which gives +3 to all stats, and +5 to a single stat-except for Grand Senior, which gives +4 to all stats.

An agent's initial titles are randomly rolled, while titles gained via level ups are determined by what their highest stats are. The exact mechanics aren't known, but an agent who primarily trains Prudence will gain Prudence-boosting titles as they level up. In order to get the Senior and Grand Senior titles, all four stats must be more or less even when the agent levels up, making them difficult to get by accident.

Eventually, we'll see an upgrade to our agent creation capabilities that starts them at higher than level 1, and when this happens all agents will start with the suffix of Senior. Grand Senior remains elusive, however-and the easiest way to get Grand Senior is to max out an agent and throw them to the Mirror of Adjustment. Mirror rerolls titles, and uses the current stats as a template for what the titles should be, so with a maxed out agent you will always get Grand Senior with a random prefix.

A full list of the titles and their boosts are located here, for those playing along who want access to the information.

One final note: Titles are located in the game files in Language>Localize>en>AgentTitle_en as an XML file. This means they can be quite easily edited, in the event that anyone would like to make the game call their agents silly names for some reason. :getin:
Last edited by TeeQueue on Fri Jul 24, 2020 11:52 am, edited 1 time in total.

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