October Large Story Poll Response (Patreon)

Hello Everyone! It is now time to bring the Large Story Poll for October to a close. Apologies to those of you who got a notice that I posted something last night. I accidentally hit the post button before it was ready, and then lost my internet connection for the night. Argh.

Anyway, before we get to that, I will also say a hearty thank you to everyone who took part in my inquiries this last time. Yes, I am using that word to not reuse the ‘q’ word, LOL.  Thanks to those of you who took part, I have come to a few conclusions and came up with a few new ideas.

First, the one that has already been partially answered, Magic of the Force.

1. Synner helped with the name of the class of ships I will be using in the next chapter for a combat scene.

2. Here no one actually commented, which is fair enough. I was thinking a ways down the line anyway. Funny thing is I would have liked to use the daughter of the man who helped Ackbar design the A-wing, but she would be both too young (I think) and is REAAAAALLLY a bitch.

3. Thanks to Scott Delphinous, and others who argued against Ahsoka’s inclusion for various reasons, Ahsoka will not be part of the relationship between Harry, Aayla and Padme. She is too young both in age and experience, it would be both immensely creepy and a gross misuse of power given the Padawan/Master relationship, one that Harry would have a lot of issues with, and which the Order would find anathema.

4. Those who commented on him didn’t seem to like Savage Oppress, so he is not going to appear in this fic, or if he does he won’t be a recurring villain.

5.  Here Delphinous stepped up to the plate, and actually ended up helping me a bit with a mistake I made in Horse for the Force. So thank you for that. Not that I am going to share what I will do with the Jedi so named, LOL.

6. (or 5B oops) I am very happy that everyone seems to agree with the way I’ve been handling Sidious, and most of you agreed that it was also time in Magic for him to start being unable to roll with the punches. I like this, as it will indeed occur. Not to the extent where his public persona will start to crack, but to the point where he will start to make mistakes. Although not so much on the political field. He’s got the Senate so tied up it dances to his tune for the most part even subconsciously.

On Stallion of the line.

1. Here several people, like Delphinous, Tomon, Novus, Matthew Williams and others had ideas about how logia fights should work. A lot of interesting points/ideas and concepts, but I won’t go into them here, since it’s just too much. You’ll have to wait for the first Logia vs Logia fight I write.

2. There were only a few people who felt the idea of getting rid of the curse amusingly enough. So the curse is here to stay. Just expect a lot of laughs and humor when Ranma and Ivankov meet, because I fully intend for the hormone fruit to have interesting effects on Ranma.

3. Only a few who knew about him in the first place was against the idea of using Shiki the Lion. So he will appear. It will just be a question of when and how, and what long term effects… I do like the idea of a flying ship, I do indeed…

FILFy:

1. Again here there was a strong consensus that yes, Yasaka should be able to travel more freely. It is just a question of how.

2.  The same with the idea of power-ups, most people thought it was a good idea. Although here, Delphinous, Michael and Tomon mentioned some ideas that I will follow up on: specifically the idea of giving Rias some power that can help defend her family or is in some way connected to motherhood. We shall see there. Regardless it convinced me to put to one side my initial idea for Rias, which leaves that particular power-up available for someone else down the line…

3. No one seems to think Grayfia and Sirzechs on their own are interesting. So there won’t be any scene beyond their arriving in Greece to start their search. This is good because I agree: Grayfia is soo blah, and Sirzechs is only good as a trainer for other characters or comic relief.

Bhaalson Remodel:

1. Few people seemed to have played with Alora given how deep into the game you have to get to gain her as a companion in the original. Still, no one could say there was a specific reason in her backstory to say Alora couldn’t be at Gullykin, so she will eventually show up. Not quickly though.

2. Now with Viconia, there was a reason she was on the run, BUT there was no reason why she was at that point – east of the Friendly Arm Inn - specifically. So Viconia will show up after the adventure in the mines. Although Novus did point out that my initial idea of having her teach Harry how to use the warhammer might not be a tenable one given her personality. Then again, her attempts could still be amusing… Although I would argue Novus, that Viconia must know more than brute force warhammer skills – she has no force to brute! Strength of 10 and Constitution of 8!

3. Everyone who mentioned them seemed to have a favorable opinion of the powers of Tactics that I gave Harry. Scott however brought up the worry of overspecializing, and I will repeat here, I don’t intend for every Tactical upgrade Harry gets to be on the cerebral/soft side of things. He will gain upgrades that have immediate combat implications as well as others. Leadership too will be much the same, with both physical and strategic abilities available for learning.

4. This was where I got the most responses oddly. There were several people who felt strongly about the longsword, and others who felt the Warhammer was a must, like Justlovereadin’(and myself, united in our love of Crom Cruach!). I will say that for now, Harry will remain with the longsword. In the mines and the enclosed spaces that just makes sense. In the long term… I might change that. We’ll see. Regardless he will remain with a one handed weapon, since this leaves his shield hand free to direct spells without forcing him to take a hand off his weapon.

5. Once more, those who mentioned the character sheets felt the way I was using them in the fic was good, although a few mentioned that seeing them more often would be nice when skills are being used and so forth. So I will be writing up a post to that effect over the next few days, to show everyone’s character sheets, the changes, their life skills, and so forth.

Those of you who mentioned the AAH were in favor of them, which was what I wanted. They are easy to do, basically most have only taken an hour and a half to write up, the exception being the one larger episode, and even that only took three hours, and I used it as a break, which I needed.

And now on to the actual poll response. Before I give the results though, I must remind everyone that these polls are weighted. That is, for every dollar you donate, you receive four (4) votes towards your choice. My editors also gain votes per the type and number of stories they looked at in the past month.

Because of this, this poll was close.  It was insanely close.

The winner, by 7 votes, is A Third Path to the Future! With 127 votes from over on fanfic, it scored 2,413 total votes. Horse For the Force brought in an almost equally amazing number of votes at 2,406, though it only took in 32 points from fanfic.

Yeah… close. Wow. Still, the winner is chosen, and the confrontation with Galactus will be up this month.