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aleph_armedokay, so this is where I'm going to be keeping all the weapon and armor that Gebura has inside of her, as well as some basic notes to understand what everything means. Most of this stuff will be under a cut, to make things easier for everyone involved.
Levels: So, Lobotomy Corporation has something of a "pseudo-leveling" system: By performing the actions relevant to the virtue, one gains stats in the items related to the associated virtue. Once an agent's stats are high enough in a virtue, they're considered more competent at that type of work, and the respective virtue levels up. Once they have enough total stats, their overall level goes up as well. All levels in the game have a maximum of 5, and each stat goes up to to a maximum of 100-110.
This is kind of important because if someone ends up meeting something of a higher threat level than their level, they take sanity damage as the thing's mere existence harms their minds. This also gives us our best understanding of how the Threat levels compare to stuff outside, as each Risk Level corresponds to a unit Level, and we have examples of what Level 1 and 4 people are like. Which is to say: Level 1 is that of a normal person, while Level 4 is roughly equivalent with what you would expect from an Elite PMC with modern technology and weaponry.
Risk Levels: As mentioned before, each of the five Risk Levels correspond to an equivalent overall Agent level, though Abnormalities will usually be a fair bit stronger than the human equivalent. What is perhaps more important about the Threat Levels however, is that they denote a distinct difference in quality between the levels: Even if the stats of something are identical otherwise, if their Risk Level is different, one is distinctly better than the other. If someone's trying to attack an Aleph level entity with a Zayin weapon, it will barely do anything, while if an Aleph level entity is attacking someone with Zayin armor, they're going to take a massive amount of damage.
Oh, and for the record? "No Armor" classes as Zayin for most humans. With that said, the threat levels, with the official explanation for them:
Zayin: "With little to no aggression, ZAYIN Abnormalities will cause the least harm to your agents. Their damage tends to be miniscule, and they may provide positive effects for the employees. However, if all the Abnormalities in the world were ZAYIN, we wouldn't have to build containment rooms to such a grand scale as this." This is the equivalent of Level 1, and you can also compare it to the "Safe" classification in SCP, though since basically everything in Lobotomy Corporation is Euclid at minimum by default, it's not a perfect comparison. Zayin is the newbie level, though a few Alephs like to pretend to be Zayins. The game's example image for this indicates that a Zayin could probably kill one person before being suppressed.
Teth: "These Abnormalities can inflict varying degrees of injury to your employees. However, as long as your employees follow the proper managerial methods, they will not cause much damage." Equivalent to level 2. Teths aren't actually a big threat, even to level 1 people, and usually don't have nasty instant-death tricks to them. The game's example image indicates that they could probably kill two people before getting suppressed.
He (Pronounced "hey", I believe): "Abnormalities of this class can easily kill a number of employees. You will have to pay twice as much attention as you do for a ZAYIN or TETH. If the situation goes wrong, several employees could be lost in bloodshed. There's no need to be concerned though. With your excellence, they will be in control." That explanation that you need to pay twice as much attention? That's not a joke. He is equivalent to level 3, and they tend to have weird demands to reflect the fact that they're in the spot in between safe and dangerous, requiring a lot more effort to deal with than most. The graphics image for this one places the death toll before suppression at three people, which is honestly understating things a bit.
Waw (Pronounce the w's as v's): "You'll need to be concerned if you start seeing WAW Abnormalities. These are high risk, and carry devastating force. Departments will be like gingerbread houses to a WAW Abnormality. Most will be hostile toward employees, and the death toll could reach into the dozens." The equivalent to level 4, and this is where things get fairly dangerous. Rather than showing an individual number, the example graphic for this one shows a pile of bodies being formed as a result of it needing to be Suppressed.
Aleph: "The most dangerous. The moment an ALEPH Abnormality is included in your list to manage, you should devote as much concentration and attention as possible to it. We had to spend a tremendous amount of capital to learn how to contain ALEPH class Abnormalities. You'll be thankful if the Abnormality is suppressed without ravaging entire departments. You and your employees would suffer severe stress. Please do not take our warning as an exaggeration." -- The equivalent to level five, and most of them can be considered to be a threat to the facility as a whole by themselves if they break out. The example graphic for this one shows three piles of bodies.
The Four Virtues: As mentioned before, every stat in the game is linked to a Virtue, and the Virtue itself is strengthened by performing work related to that. Lore-wise, it's implied that something about how Lobotomy Corporation is set up, allows a person to essentially end up molded by their Virtue and become stronger, or faster, or more resistant to insanity, or just better at doing their job, as their attunement to the virtue increases. The Four Virtues themselves end up having both an explanation in the early and late game, both of which I'm including in here to help try and explain things. Of course, Gebura technically has all of these virtues at 5, not that it matters as much for her as it really should.
Fortitude: Fortitude is linked to Instinct Work, which is mostly about keeping the Abnormality fed and happy. As the late-game explanation indicates, emphasizes one's instincts and desires. Whether those desires are to protect people, or just plain greedy, being passionate about one's desires means you have a strong fortitude.
Early Game: "As an Agent becomes physically stronger, their Fortitude increases. As Fortitude builds up, the Agent will be more daring, have better stamina, and be less susceptible to physical attack"
Late Game: "Fortitude comes from a strong body and instinctive desire. Nobody knows if that desire will become a power to protect everyone or a weapon to satisfy one’s desires."
Prudence: Prudence is linked to the "Insight" type of work, which is primarily about adjusting the environment of the abnormalities through things like cleaning and ventilation... Or making a mess, whichever the abnormality prefers. The late-game description probably best captures what Prudence is about, though: Sharpening one's rationality in an attempt to keep oneself free of bias and make informed decisions.
Early Game: "As an Agent's willpower strengthens, their Prudence increases. With increased Prudence, Agents become numb to most stresses, and they will be less affected by psychological attacks."
Late Game: "What is rationality? We see and analyze through the eyes of rationality. However, its efficiency differs from people to people. A crude rationality blinds you, excessive rationality becomes the knife that stabs you. We must be soundly rational to see this world and people."
Temperance: Temperance is linked to the "Attachment" type of work, which is... Basically everything involving socializing with the Abnormality. The Late Game explanation places this virtue as about controlling your desires and being able to put our needs aside to help others.
Early Game: "As work speed and work success rates improve, Temperance increases. Strengthened Temperance grants the diligence to promptly handle tasks and a sense of judgment to lead works to success."
Late Game: "All humans are born with desires. What’s important is how you control them. It’s not just your problem. Your desires greatly affect how you treat the world and people in it. Hearing only what you want to hear, and seeing only what you want to see. What’s really needed for humans is controlling these desires between oneself, others, and the world. If it’s possible, we will be able to create great things."
Justice: Justice is linked to the "Repression" type of work, which the game explains as suppressing the instincts and desires of the abnormality in question, often violently. The late game explanation for this one seems to place it as about one continually striving to improve, while the early game explanation and work summary seems to describe it as something closer to a mixture of confidence, faith, and being able to understand when to stop.
Early Game: "As attack and movement speed improve, Justice increases. The escalation of Justice will allow an Agent to attack their enemies without hesitation and to hurry their steps wherever they're headed."
Late Game: "Do you believe the existence of soul? I do. I also believe that soul itself is the reason of one’s existence. Then, is there a perfect soul? I do not think there is. However, one can endlessly get closer to perfection. The process of it is an endless wave of agony. At the end of such effort, I expect that we will be able to make valuations of everything correctly."
The Four Damage Types: It's perhaps worth noting that the four damage types have each been based on one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse: War (Red), Conquest (White), Famine (Black), and Death (Pale). "The Pale Horse", while never actually appearing in-game as an Abnormality, is noted to be contained inside the Facility. That's right, this facility has Death just hanging out inside of it like it's no big deal. As if Lobotomy Corp couldn't get shadier already, right?
Red: Red Damage is by far the easiest to explain: It's physical damage. You get punched? That's red damage. Someone stabs you in the face? Red damage. Set on fire? That's red damage too! Yes, that means that there's a lot of stuff that categorizes as red damage that would end up classed as a bunch of different resistances in other games. That's because the other damage types are kind of... esoteric?
White: White Damage is also relatively easy to explain: It deals damage to a person's sanity. Perhaps worth noting though, is that while just getting your sanity drained defaults to a "panic" state, the exact effects can change based on the Abnormality's preferences, and attacking people you identify as an ally with White Damage weapons actually heals their sanity. It can thus be said that White damage is mostly about putting psychological pressure on your target to make them do what you want. Not that you would use white damage to cheat at cards or anything, right?
Black: Black damage is by far the hardest damage type to explain, because what it does is... Weird. Let me pull up the official explanation here:
"A complex of physical and psychological damages. BLACK erodes the target's being. According to the few who have survived the damage, it felt as if dark thorns were burrowing into their body and brain."
Black damage harms someone as though they took both red and white damage, but bypasses the defenses of both. The best explanation I've come up with is that this is the stuff of "death" or corrosion magic, as well as Final Fantasy's Gravity spells. Oddly, the mental damage taken by this also works like White damage somehow, in that it goes to whatever the source of the damage desires, so hitting someone you want to save with black damage, while a bad idea, still helps them regain their sanity.
Pale: Pale damage applies damage directly to the soul. In terms of gameplay mechanics, this is represented by percentile HP damage, reflecting the fact that your body doesn't mean anything if your soul is getting attacked.
EGO Equipment will be split up into individual comments so I can work on this bit by bit over time. It also allows me to fit them into subcategories relatively easily, so you can look things up by how much of risk they post to the wielder (which is to say, if they have any Requirements to use safely), and then by whether it's a Weapon or Armor: For the suits, a low number is better, since damage is calculated in game via multipliers.
But before that, the "average person" in the world of Lobotomy Corporation have the Following:
28 in one virtue
26 in three virtues
Level 1 in all virtues
Level 1/Risk Level Zayin
Take 1.0 times damage from Red and White damage
Tale 1.5 times damage from Black damage
Take 2.0 times damage from Pale damage
The vulnerability to Pale damage is honestly likely a trait of humans in the Lobotomy Corp world rather than an assumed trait of humans in general, however; A lot of the lore goes into how humanity's "soul is dying", so the Pale vulnerability might just be a distinct trait of her world; I feel like for most worlds that don't actively involve the spiritual, 1.5 probably makes sense as a vulnerability to esoteric attack methods you're unlikely to see, while a series like Bleach probably has it closer to 1.0. Either way, keep in mind that in the case of a Pale damage multiplier, x2.0 does not actually make you more vulnerable to Pale damage, it just doesn't protect you in the slightest. Aside from that, a normal person probably has some wiggle room for the resistances by roughly 0.3 either way, depending on the nature of the world or series. And of course, once you get past "normal person", basically all bets are off and things have to be analyzed on a case-by-case basis.
Levels: So, Lobotomy Corporation has something of a "pseudo-leveling" system: By performing the actions relevant to the virtue, one gains stats in the items related to the associated virtue. Once an agent's stats are high enough in a virtue, they're considered more competent at that type of work, and the respective virtue levels up. Once they have enough total stats, their overall level goes up as well. All levels in the game have a maximum of 5, and each stat goes up to to a maximum of 100-110.
This is kind of important because if someone ends up meeting something of a higher threat level than their level, they take sanity damage as the thing's mere existence harms their minds. This also gives us our best understanding of how the Threat levels compare to stuff outside, as each Risk Level corresponds to a unit Level, and we have examples of what Level 1 and 4 people are like. Which is to say: Level 1 is that of a normal person, while Level 4 is roughly equivalent with what you would expect from an Elite PMC with modern technology and weaponry.
Risk Levels: As mentioned before, each of the five Risk Levels correspond to an equivalent overall Agent level, though Abnormalities will usually be a fair bit stronger than the human equivalent. What is perhaps more important about the Threat Levels however, is that they denote a distinct difference in quality between the levels: Even if the stats of something are identical otherwise, if their Risk Level is different, one is distinctly better than the other. If someone's trying to attack an Aleph level entity with a Zayin weapon, it will barely do anything, while if an Aleph level entity is attacking someone with Zayin armor, they're going to take a massive amount of damage.
Oh, and for the record? "No Armor" classes as Zayin for most humans. With that said, the threat levels, with the official explanation for them:
Zayin: "With little to no aggression, ZAYIN Abnormalities will cause the least harm to your agents. Their damage tends to be miniscule, and they may provide positive effects for the employees. However, if all the Abnormalities in the world were ZAYIN, we wouldn't have to build containment rooms to such a grand scale as this." This is the equivalent of Level 1, and you can also compare it to the "Safe" classification in SCP, though since basically everything in Lobotomy Corporation is Euclid at minimum by default, it's not a perfect comparison. Zayin is the newbie level, though a few Alephs like to pretend to be Zayins. The game's example image for this indicates that a Zayin could probably kill one person before being suppressed.
Teth: "These Abnormalities can inflict varying degrees of injury to your employees. However, as long as your employees follow the proper managerial methods, they will not cause much damage." Equivalent to level 2. Teths aren't actually a big threat, even to level 1 people, and usually don't have nasty instant-death tricks to them. The game's example image indicates that they could probably kill two people before getting suppressed.
He (Pronounced "hey", I believe): "Abnormalities of this class can easily kill a number of employees. You will have to pay twice as much attention as you do for a ZAYIN or TETH. If the situation goes wrong, several employees could be lost in bloodshed. There's no need to be concerned though. With your excellence, they will be in control." That explanation that you need to pay twice as much attention? That's not a joke. He is equivalent to level 3, and they tend to have weird demands to reflect the fact that they're in the spot in between safe and dangerous, requiring a lot more effort to deal with than most. The graphics image for this one places the death toll before suppression at three people, which is honestly understating things a bit.
Waw (Pronounce the w's as v's): "You'll need to be concerned if you start seeing WAW Abnormalities. These are high risk, and carry devastating force. Departments will be like gingerbread houses to a WAW Abnormality. Most will be hostile toward employees, and the death toll could reach into the dozens." The equivalent to level 4, and this is where things get fairly dangerous. Rather than showing an individual number, the example graphic for this one shows a pile of bodies being formed as a result of it needing to be Suppressed.
Aleph: "The most dangerous. The moment an ALEPH Abnormality is included in your list to manage, you should devote as much concentration and attention as possible to it. We had to spend a tremendous amount of capital to learn how to contain ALEPH class Abnormalities. You'll be thankful if the Abnormality is suppressed without ravaging entire departments. You and your employees would suffer severe stress. Please do not take our warning as an exaggeration." -- The equivalent to level five, and most of them can be considered to be a threat to the facility as a whole by themselves if they break out. The example graphic for this one shows three piles of bodies.
The Four Virtues: As mentioned before, every stat in the game is linked to a Virtue, and the Virtue itself is strengthened by performing work related to that. Lore-wise, it's implied that something about how Lobotomy Corporation is set up, allows a person to essentially end up molded by their Virtue and become stronger, or faster, or more resistant to insanity, or just better at doing their job, as their attunement to the virtue increases. The Four Virtues themselves end up having both an explanation in the early and late game, both of which I'm including in here to help try and explain things. Of course, Gebura technically has all of these virtues at 5, not that it matters as much for her as it really should.
Fortitude: Fortitude is linked to Instinct Work, which is mostly about keeping the Abnormality fed and happy. As the late-game explanation indicates, emphasizes one's instincts and desires. Whether those desires are to protect people, or just plain greedy, being passionate about one's desires means you have a strong fortitude.
Early Game: "As an Agent becomes physically stronger, their Fortitude increases. As Fortitude builds up, the Agent will be more daring, have better stamina, and be less susceptible to physical attack"
Late Game: "Fortitude comes from a strong body and instinctive desire. Nobody knows if that desire will become a power to protect everyone or a weapon to satisfy one’s desires."
Prudence: Prudence is linked to the "Insight" type of work, which is primarily about adjusting the environment of the abnormalities through things like cleaning and ventilation... Or making a mess, whichever the abnormality prefers. The late-game description probably best captures what Prudence is about, though: Sharpening one's rationality in an attempt to keep oneself free of bias and make informed decisions.
Early Game: "As an Agent's willpower strengthens, their Prudence increases. With increased Prudence, Agents become numb to most stresses, and they will be less affected by psychological attacks."
Late Game: "What is rationality? We see and analyze through the eyes of rationality. However, its efficiency differs from people to people. A crude rationality blinds you, excessive rationality becomes the knife that stabs you. We must be soundly rational to see this world and people."
Temperance: Temperance is linked to the "Attachment" type of work, which is... Basically everything involving socializing with the Abnormality. The Late Game explanation places this virtue as about controlling your desires and being able to put our needs aside to help others.
Early Game: "As work speed and work success rates improve, Temperance increases. Strengthened Temperance grants the diligence to promptly handle tasks and a sense of judgment to lead works to success."
Late Game: "All humans are born with desires. What’s important is how you control them. It’s not just your problem. Your desires greatly affect how you treat the world and people in it. Hearing only what you want to hear, and seeing only what you want to see. What’s really needed for humans is controlling these desires between oneself, others, and the world. If it’s possible, we will be able to create great things."
Justice: Justice is linked to the "Repression" type of work, which the game explains as suppressing the instincts and desires of the abnormality in question, often violently. The late game explanation for this one seems to place it as about one continually striving to improve, while the early game explanation and work summary seems to describe it as something closer to a mixture of confidence, faith, and being able to understand when to stop.
Early Game: "As attack and movement speed improve, Justice increases. The escalation of Justice will allow an Agent to attack their enemies without hesitation and to hurry their steps wherever they're headed."
Late Game: "Do you believe the existence of soul? I do. I also believe that soul itself is the reason of one’s existence. Then, is there a perfect soul? I do not think there is. However, one can endlessly get closer to perfection. The process of it is an endless wave of agony. At the end of such effort, I expect that we will be able to make valuations of everything correctly."
The Four Damage Types: It's perhaps worth noting that the four damage types have each been based on one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse: War (Red), Conquest (White), Famine (Black), and Death (Pale). "The Pale Horse", while never actually appearing in-game as an Abnormality, is noted to be contained inside the Facility. That's right, this facility has Death just hanging out inside of it like it's no big deal. As if Lobotomy Corp couldn't get shadier already, right?
Red: Red Damage is by far the easiest to explain: It's physical damage. You get punched? That's red damage. Someone stabs you in the face? Red damage. Set on fire? That's red damage too! Yes, that means that there's a lot of stuff that categorizes as red damage that would end up classed as a bunch of different resistances in other games. That's because the other damage types are kind of... esoteric?
White: White Damage is also relatively easy to explain: It deals damage to a person's sanity. Perhaps worth noting though, is that while just getting your sanity drained defaults to a "panic" state, the exact effects can change based on the Abnormality's preferences, and attacking people you identify as an ally with White Damage weapons actually heals their sanity. It can thus be said that White damage is mostly about putting psychological pressure on your target to make them do what you want. Not that you would use white damage to cheat at cards or anything, right?
Black: Black damage is by far the hardest damage type to explain, because what it does is... Weird. Let me pull up the official explanation here:
"A complex of physical and psychological damages. BLACK erodes the target's being. According to the few who have survived the damage, it felt as if dark thorns were burrowing into their body and brain."
Black damage harms someone as though they took both red and white damage, but bypasses the defenses of both. The best explanation I've come up with is that this is the stuff of "death" or corrosion magic, as well as Final Fantasy's Gravity spells. Oddly, the mental damage taken by this also works like White damage somehow, in that it goes to whatever the source of the damage desires, so hitting someone you want to save with black damage, while a bad idea, still helps them regain their sanity.
Pale: Pale damage applies damage directly to the soul. In terms of gameplay mechanics, this is represented by percentile HP damage, reflecting the fact that your body doesn't mean anything if your soul is getting attacked.
EGO Equipment will be split up into individual comments so I can work on this bit by bit over time. It also allows me to fit them into subcategories relatively easily, so you can look things up by how much of risk they post to the wielder (which is to say, if they have any Requirements to use safely), and then by whether it's a Weapon or Armor: For the suits, a low number is better, since damage is calculated in game via multipliers.
But before that, the "average person" in the world of Lobotomy Corporation have the Following:
28 in one virtue
26 in three virtues
Level 1 in all virtues
Level 1/Risk Level Zayin
Take 1.0 times damage from Red and White damage
Tale 1.5 times damage from Black damage
Take 2.0 times damage from Pale damage
The vulnerability to Pale damage is honestly likely a trait of humans in the Lobotomy Corp world rather than an assumed trait of humans in general, however; A lot of the lore goes into how humanity's "soul is dying", so the Pale vulnerability might just be a distinct trait of her world; I feel like for most worlds that don't actively involve the spiritual, 1.5 probably makes sense as a vulnerability to esoteric attack methods you're unlikely to see, while a series like Bleach probably has it closer to 1.0. Either way, keep in mind that in the case of a Pale damage multiplier, x2.0 does not actually make you more vulnerable to Pale damage, it just doesn't protect you in the slightest. Aside from that, a normal person probably has some wiggle room for the resistances by roughly 0.3 either way, depending on the nature of the world or series. And of course, once you get past "normal person", basically all bets are off and things have to be analyzed on a case-by-case basis.
Suits
Date: 2019-03-23 08:14 am (UTC)Fragments From Somewhere
Date: 2019-03-23 08:18 am (UTC)Teth-Level Suit
Red Resist: x1.0
White Resist: x1.2
Black Resist: x0.6
Pale Resist: x2.0
Notes: "Wait, this is a Teth level with no requirements to wear safely, why is it locked up like this?", one might ask. People that wear this suddenly see things they've forgotten. Of course, everyone sees something different, and there doesn't seem to be a pattern as to what they see beyond "something forgotten". How much amnestics do you think The Foundation uses? No matter who puts it on, there's a very high chance that they might see something that they're not supposed to, and it's probably safer just to keep it locked up where nobody can ever get at it.