As you may know (if you read the site) my projectile specialist Actual Intelligence battle personality interface is named Doorkicker. He started off life as a Oggun mecha. He loved his projectile weapons, and his style at the time was best described as spray n pray.From there he got upgraded into an Ammonite. I thought maybe that would stick but the A.I. did not care for the interface and described the capabilities of the mecha as, "limited." But he stayed in the Ammo for quite some time despite his constant bitching and arguments against it.
I offered to switch him to a Harrell, but he declined. With his reasoning being it was too limited like the Ammo, and really just wasn't his look. So we skipped over the Harrell, and actually skipped over the Antithesis as well. That was simply because he wasn't fond of Dr. Drake, having fought him and his clones before, the mecha had a low opinion of both the man and any machine he may make. Granted the Antis are great machines, but you try telling that to a sentient program who argues using data from the insides of a mecha I've never seen before.
He did settle into the Magnus mecha quickly and easily when we finally got a couple. He said he liked the added options of missile and projectile allowing him to hit from various distances for maximum effect. Never mind we have equipment pieces that could have modified him at any time to take different weapon types, but hey lets go for the one with two types as build ins.
Keep in mind I never said this A.I. was "in its right mind". Personally I think his programming is a little left of center, and he enjoys blowing things up a little too much. But he has a proven kill count, we've faced just about every kind of mecha out there at one point or another together, and he's just dammed fun to pilot. So because of those reasons I offered him yet another upgrade.
Yup, I put that loony son of a snavrum A.I. into a Reaper. Was it the smartest thing to do? Probably not, but it had to beat the time I tried to let him bond with and overwrite a Nakshi mecha. That didn't end well for any one. Two Brotherhood hangers destroyed, a small fleet of mechas damaged and a Nakshi that had to be put down from the experience. So in view of past ideas in regards to this A.I. this wasn't necessarily the worst idea I ever had, maybe not the best, but certainly not the worst.
Now Doorkicker seems very at home in his Reaper shell. The big problem now is getting him to watch his ammo expenditure. The big mechas pack a ton of ammunition storage, which is great for prolonged conflicts. However it isn't so great when you are using a A.I. that is used to very limited ammo storage, and realizes its ammo now is in the tens of thousands per gun as opposed to just the thousands.
His training exercises go something like this.....
Me - Remember you have ammo that doesn't mean you have to blow it all in one shot. Basic three count and chill on the guns got it?
Doorkicker - Got it!
1...2...3... release.
1...2...3... release.
Me - Good, yup just like that.
Doorkicker - 1,000....2,000...
Me - No wait, hold on....
Doorkicker - 3,000...
Me - Just knock it off you know better!
Doorkicker - Ammo reserves barely touched...
Me - Stop it! Don't you dare....
Doorkicker - Safety disengaged. ALL THE AMMO!!!!
Me - Damn it Kicker....
So yeah some more training and maybe a personality tweak or three may be in order for him in the near future if he can't calm down. Until then we train, I level the mecha, and try and get him to understand the concept of ammo conservation.
Submitted by Pat Willis#224534