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Misconceptions Regarding Dogecoin and Cryptocurrency (REVISED V1.2)
This is a revised version of my previous article. I am going to try to update frequently. Version 1.2 has the following changes - added new questions based on feedback from the community - Updated some of the spelling errors and minor typos. I don’t have an English degree 😂. The information is still factual though. If you see something glaringly wrong just comment or message me and I’ll fix it. - Updated some of the numbers to reflect current data - Rearranged the order of the questions to build upon each other better - I had to shorten certain answers to fit the length requirement. This information below is important. I ask that you please take the time to read this entire post before making judgment or commenting. My discord group of over 100 people have grouped together the majority of the most asked questioned and misunderstandings regarding Dogecoin, into the following 20 key points. Even if you know the answers to some of these please read the entire post. Please read them below.
Question: What is Dogecoin?
Answer: Dogecoin (/ˈdoʊdʒkɔɪn/ DOHJ-koyn, code: DOGE, symbol: Ð) is a cryptocurrency invented by software engineers Billy Markus and Jackson Palmer, who decided to create a payment system that is instant, fun, and free from traditional banking fees. Dogecoin features the face of the Shiba Inu dog from the popular "Doge" meme as its logo and namesake. It was introduced on December 6, 2013, and quickly developed its own online community reaching a market capitalization of US $5,382,875,000 on January 28, 2021. [Wikipedia, 20210203]
Question: Why Dogecoin?
Answer: For the Lolz. Well, not quite. Initially as a purely meme-driven alternative to the likes of Bitcoin and Litecoin, Dogecoin in-fact boasts very low transaction fees and fast transaction times, very little network congestion, and most importantly, is designed to be used as a daily means of exchange, like your morning cup of coffee. Also, it is really fun, and who doesn't like the Dog ?! 1/2 - second perspective) Question: What Is Dogecoin? And why Dogecoin? Answer: Back a few years ago, some crazy people banded together in support of a cryptocurrency known as Dogecoin. Similar to other cryptocurrencies, Dogecoin, the people's crypto, finds itself with the support of hundreds if not thousands of individuals pushing for this currency to succeed. But why is that? Unless you have been absent from every social bubble, you may have heard of Bitcoin. For the purpose of this explanation, you will find that Bitcoin is not exactly an easy thing to equate to Dogecoin, but lets think about the criteria of a Cryptocurrency.Bitcoin did not find its foothold overnight. In fact, it took several years. A lot of people fought tooth and nail for their belief in the coin. Crypto, in a nutshell, is a decentralized form of currency that finds its value in a combination of individual asset involvement, ease or difficulty in security of an exchange, creating a method of reliable, secure, trustworthy exchange, and other reasons. Think of it like this: to exchange goods and services without currency, one must barter. I can barter a service (a haircut, for example) towards someone who needs a haircut, and in exchange they can barter a good or service to me.Currency then becomes an "IOU" (I Owe yoU) so that, if somebody needs me to cut their hair, they can give me an IOU for a good or service they control. When enough people begin adopting this, a centralized currency eventually takes hold. Crypto seeks to take this a step further and, insteal of relying on building up a centalization in terms of valuable metals or debt, it is built up solely on the exchange of goods and services. Dogecoin, compared to other cryptocurrencies, finds itself in a strange position where the origins did NOT see it soaring to the moon in any situation. Funny how things can change in time. Dogecoin has pros and cons to it. Comparing it to other cryptos, it does not face a supply cap like Bitcoin does. It is not a directly equated asset, such as how Bitcoin can be attributed as a digital gold asset. Mining dogecoin is also much simpler (comparitively) and does not face difficulty spikes, a source of Bitcoin slow-down. In essence, in 50 years, Dogecoin will still be around, still be mined, still be traded. Bitcoin will cease to be created, hoarded, and become the digital currency of the affluent.
Question: Places to buy dogecoin places where you can spend Dogecoin?
Answer: Refer to dogecoin posts by the moderators for a list of businesses that accept doge as payment.
Question: Cryptocurrencies vs stocks. The main differences between them.
Answer: A stock is a type of investment that represents an ownership share in a company. Investors buy stocks that they think will go up in value over time. ... A stock is an investment. When you purchase a company's stock, you're purchasing a small piece of that company, called a share. A cryptocurrency: (crypto for short) is a digital a sset designed to work as a medium of exchange wherein individual coin ownership records are stored in a ledger existing in a form of computerized database using strong cryptography to secure transaction records, to control the creation of additional coins, and to verify the transfer of coin ownership. It typically does not exist in physical form (like paper money) and is typically not issued by a central authority. Cryptocurrencies typically use decentralized control as opposed to centralized digital currency and central banking systems. When a cryptocurrency is minted or created prior to issuance or issued by a single issuer, it is generally considered centralized. When implemented with decentralized control, each cryptocurrency works through distributed ledger technology, typically a blockchain, that serves as a public financial transaction database. When comparing crypto to stocks, the main thing to keep in mind is that cryptocurrencies have few if any regulations applied to them. It is still the "wild west" of trading. You can be scammed, skimmed, pumped-dumped, as so forth, much more often and more easily than with stocks. Terminology is similar to exact between the two, but both require a certain mindset. Crypto is almost always a long-haul game, where stocks can be short play or long haul. Cryptocurrency is literally money. Cryptocurrencies intended purpose is to use it to exchange goods and services. The way paper money is.
Question: Is Dogecoin a product of the Wallstreet Bets movement? What differentiates dogecoin from GME/AMC?
Answer: no. The rest of this article explains why. 6. Question: Difference between cold storage, internet wallets and Robinhood Answer: Coldstorage - in the cryptocurrency world cold storage refers to physical objects/devices that contain your cryptocurrency. Wallets are an electronic program of service that stores your cryptocurrency. There a number of different wallets - but I personally use Dogecoin.info Robhinhood- as of right now robinhood does not actually give you cryptocurrency when purchased through them. From Robhinhood’s cryptocurrency page: “We don’t currently provide you with access to your wallet or your wallet address. You own the cryptocurrency assets in your account, and you can buy or sell them at any time. We’re evaluating features to allow you to safely transfer coins to and from Robinhood, and we’ll update you when these features are available.” If you would Like to use your Dogecoin or cryptocurrency in general for exchange of goods and services - it is recommended to either ask Robinhood who to give us access to our wallets or find another exchange.
Question: Dogecoin vs Bitcoin - their competitive advantages and disadvantages. Answer: information explaining the advantages and disadvantages of Bitcoin vs Dogecoin will be explained throughout this article.
Question: Is Dogecoin a meme or should it be taken seriously?
Answer: We have all witnessed the power of a meme, the depths it can reach in society, especially in recent years. We have seen it many times before with video games, consoles, Oreos, or as of late even toilet paper... A meme has inherent value in the form of “widespread information”. A meme can spread an idea across diverse communities, and even entire countries literally overnight. This can bring about lasting effects on culture and society. If correctly taken advantage of, Doge can become the dominant meme currency of the internet, and amass real-world value just by being a popular, recognisable meme itself. This is where the saying “Dogecoin is the people’s coin” comes from. This is marketing 101. If your idea, or product is too complicated or not enough people know about then it doesn’t matter how technologically sound it is. Dogecoin have the best technology? No. Can it be improved upon. Definitely. In fact, the original developers have started working on the project again. An analogy I like to use is this. McDonald’s makes hamburgers. They have a clown as a mascot. A literal personification of a joke. Does make McDonald’s make the best hamburgers? No. Does McDonald’s have “value” in their industry? Undeniably so. So what does McDonald’s do correctly? They provide a cheap, easily accessible, and brand able product to the masses. Which is what dogecoin does for cryptocurrency.
Question: Mining Dogecoin. How new Dogecoin are created and enter the market/supply. Is there an infinite supply of Dogecoin being produced? Comparison to Bitcoin and the US dollar.
Answer: mining is the process of creating new cryptocurrency by solving a computational puzzle. mining is necessary to maintain the ledger of transactions upon which cryptocurrency is based. Miners have become very sophisticated over the last several years using complex machinery to speed up mining operations. Approximately 600,000 dogecoins are produced per hour and 5,256,000,000 (5.26 billion) per year and there are currently approximately 128,000,000,000 (128 billion) Dogecoin. Now let’s compare this information to what we know about Bitcoin. Bitcoin currently has a supply of 18.5 million. Currently 900 Bitcoin are mined per day or 328,500 per year. However, unlike Dogecoin, Bitcoins mining rate is not fixed. Bitcoin has something known as a Bitcoin halving which means at some point in the future instead of 900 per day being mined 450 are mined. Now let’s compare Dogecoin and Bitcoin to the US Dollar. The US Dollar has an estimated paper money supply (more on this covered in a later section) of approximately (1.2 to 2 trillion) and in 2019 the federal reserve printed 188.3 billion paper dollars. This means that there is 10 times more supply of dollars to Dogecoin and the government prints 37 times more dollars than Dogecoin is mined per year. It is also important to note that this increase in supply of Dogecoin is fixed. It never changes. The federal reserve can change how much they print any given year. Many people think that this means that the supply of Dogecoin is infinite or infinitely increasing. That is not true in the span of our life time. It will take approximately 24 years for the supply of Dogecoin to double and it will take 360 years for the supply of Dogecoin to reach the current supply of the US Dollar. That’s without taking into account the fact that federal reserve adds more dollars each year than Dogecoin adds to its supply each year. Technically speaking the supply of Dogecoin will eventually reach infinity if given enough time but you have to remember that infinity isn’t an actual number. You can’t mine “infinite” dogecoin because infinity isn’t a number. It’s a mathematical concept to describe something that is boundless. Dogecoin doesn’t have a boundless increase. It has a fixed increase a set amount added at a specific interval. So in practical terms for the purpose of using Dogecoin as a legitimate currency, this infinite argument against Dogecoin doesn’t matter. In fact it’s actually way better than Bitcoin at exchanging goods and services because of this fact. That is why the price per Bitcoin is 40,000 dollars and the price per Dogecoin is .07 with a realistic possibility of only reaching $288.60 at current market conditions. That is why it costs .00012 Bitcoin for milk but only 50 Dogecoin for that same commonly traded commodity. That’s why Bitcoin will be treated like digital gold. That is why Dogecoin will be considered the next dollar. The price per coin are inherently different because their supplies are different. More will be covered on this topic on another section of this article.
Question: Does Dogecoin have value? How does Dogecoin increase in price or decrease in price?
Answer: Yes. Dogecoin has value. It is currently valued at between .06 and .08 as of writing this. If didn’t have value then it wouldn’t be bought or sold at all. Anything can have value as long as enough people assign it value and agree to it. The value of any means of exchange is fundamentally driven by supply and demand. If two parties agree that X amount of asset A is roughly worth the same as Y amount of asset B, you effectively have established a market. That’s why the US dollar and other fiat currency has value even though it just a piece of paper. The difference between fiat currency and cryptocurrency is that fiat currency is determined by centralized government and other underlying economical/market conditions. Cryptocurrency is meant to be a decentralized form of fiat currency. Now as to why the price changes from say .05 to .06 (random numbers using this as an example for explanation purposes. It is not exact) this value is driven primarily by supply and demand. We already know the supply of Dogecoin, so for the purpose of this the main driving factor in the change in price is demand. But the demand for Dogecoin isn’t just one person. It’s the entire group of people who own Dogecoin. So if at any given time lets say 10 people with 1000 Dogecoin want to sell. But only 5 people want to buy 1000 Dogecoin. This means that the sellers “value” Dogecoin less at its current price than buyers do. 5000 Dogecoin less. This changes to price from .05 to .49. The same applies if more people wanted to buy. Then the price would go from .05 to .051. An algorithm repeats the process over and over constantly updating the price. However that’s only one way to change the value. The best way to increase the overall value of the currency in the long run is by eventually by exchanging your coins for goods, services, or just by tipping and trading with other Dogecoin holders. This gives Dogecoin utility. Which basically means that it can be used for something other than just buying Dogecoin at .05 and selling it .06. That is why you see people pushing to accept Dogecoin as payment. If legitimatize Dogecoin as a cryptocurrency and currency when companies allow you to exchange it for goods and services.
Question: Circulation of currencies. The importance of buying, selling, and holding - and the differences between them.
Answer: To briefly explain this, a lot of people have been saying “buy and hold” or “I’m never selling!” - which in itself is great start. But there remains a lot of misinformation around the topic, for example that simply "buying and holding Doge" will drive up the price indefinitely. Unfortunately, that is just not true. Buying, holding, and selling are all intricately connected with each other. ALL of those three states are essential for a (digital) currency to flourish. Holding does neither hurt or raise the value of the asset, but rather it helps to establish a baseline, which is also called "setting a floor". Those who have diligently kept on holding their coins, have allowed Dogecoin to stabilize at roughly 0.07 USD cents for the past few days. Remember, this remains a huge gain from where Dogecoin has been just weeks ago. The reason the price is not changing much from this baseline right now is because few are buying and few are selling their Dogecoin, specifically due to topics which will be covered in other sections here. However, an active circulation of a currency is critical to establishing it as an effective means of exchanging goods and setting it up for long term growth. More on the value of Dogecoin in another section.
Question: Establishing a floor or a baseline.
Answer: The day to day trends of Dogecoin may appear strange at first sight, but those who continue holding onto their Doge are affecting or rather creating the floor. The floor is essentially the lowest value Dogecoin will drop to at current market conditions. The floor is currently 0.07 USD cents. Which is up from 0.008 USD cents just a few months ago.
Question: Should Dogecoin have a cap on its supply. Inflation and deflation Infinite supply / no cap vs cap in regarding to cryptocurrency.
Answer: First of all - the original developers of Dogecoin have already stated that they will NOT be adding a cap. Adding a cap fundamentally changes Dogecoin at its core level and they’re just not going to do it. Here is the direct answer from the Dogecoin developers: “The interest was already built by people trying to trick others in buying an asset they themselves do not understand and your link is to a petition that tricks people into asserting social pressure towards changing the core parameters of an asset that have been there since its launch. We believe that what you're really doing is trying to get rich at the cost of others and when that failed because you ran out of victims and money, you come here asking us to bail you out. However, we will not bail you out, as with great freedom comes great responsibility. We take ours seriously and we hope that you will too in the future. We have now closed this topic. Request denied.” - Patrick lodder Dogecoin developer. Second response “A, block reward is needed to secure Dogecoin network in a decentralized manner. Dogecoin is merge-mined with Litecoin, and that makes it somewhat secure against PoW attacks. But if Dogecoin reward will be too low, some Litecoin miners may drop Dogecoin, and our security will suffer. From this point of view, bigger reward is better. If you propose reducing the reward over time, you must also propose a solid way to keep Dogecoin secure. Now about the economic aspect. Current Dogecoin issue rate, taken relative to current total amount, is low, it's almost nothing compared to all the other factors that affect Dogecoin value. If you look at Dogecoin price chart since the introduction of current issue schedule, you will not see effects of "inflation" for all the wild price changes caused by other factors. And this already low issue rate gets even smaller over time, compared to total amount of dogecoins. The only real reason for these "cap" proposals is trying to "sell" Dogecoin to investors under the premise of possibly increased scarcity in the future. In my opinion, we don't need to try to appeal to investors. Dogecoin value will be increasing because of strong community and increased usage. And the fact that Dogecoin value increases is already enough for investors to jump in and increase it even more.” You can read the full response to this directly from the developers here: https://github.com/dogecoin/dogecoin/issues/1674 Even if they DID add a cap it would actually be LESS beneficial for Dogecoin as a currency. Her Here’s some Basic economics explaining why. Inflation and deflation are common economic terms used to explain the change in the inherent value of a currency. This means that that 1 US Dollar today does not have the same value or “worth” as it did, for example, in 1950. Inflation is a situation of rising prices in the economy. A more exact definition of inflation is a sustained increase in the general price level in an economy. Deflation on the other hand occurs when the inflation rate falls below 0%, that is a negative inflation rate. While inflation reduces the value of a currency over time, a sudden deflation of a currency increases its relative value. This would allow more goods and services to be bought than before with the same amount of currency. Deflation can be a factor in leading to a recession and also result in a deflationary spiral. 10a) What does all this mean with regards to cryptocurrency, specifically Bitcoin versus Dogecoin?
Well - Bitcoin is stagnant or deflationary over time, while Dogecoin is inflationary overtime. This is due to the way they are architected and mined, and how new coins are added into their respective markets - covered in other section. What gets misunderstood is which one is “better” or rather "the lesser evil".
10b) Dogecoin doesn't need a supply limit like Bitcoin, because in the long run it will be much easier to exchange Dogecoin for goods and services, than with other crypto currencies or regular currencies for that matter. If Bitcoin wants to become a real global currency with buying power, not just a speculation tool to exchange it for a few thousand debt based USD, when it hits a new record high every few months or years, its supply will have to grow inevitably. Our current money is backed by signatures on debt contracts, not on real values. But it works, because we believe in it, even if it will be our downfall if it continues like this. Dogecoin is different. Dogecoin has a set amount of coins entering the market by the minute. There are plenty of spreadsheets out there showcasing exactly how much many Dogecoin will be in circulation at any given moment of time. People get confused because they think inflation is a bad thing, when in fact it is actually beneficial in small quantities and beneficial to the longevity of a currency. Currencies have inflation - commodities don’t. Dogecoin is better suited to be a currency than Bitcoin is. Bitcoin is better suited to be a digital version of gold.
Question: Financial aspects of Dogecoin. Who will profit from it? What will happen if Dogecoin has exponential growth? A zero- sum game. Explaining that you only realize a loss or profit at then time of sell.
Answer: To clear things up - cryptocurrency is essentially what economist call a Zero Sum Game. A zero-sum game is a mathematical representation of a situation in which each participant's gain or loss of utility is exactly balanced by the losses or gains of the utility of the other participants. What this means is that across a group of people who engage in selling and buying Dogecoin, if one person gains another person loses. For example if you bought at 0.08 and sold at 0.03 someone made a profit of 0.05 cents per Dogecoin while you lost 0.05 cents per Dogecoin. The important thing to understand is that in these situations the only way you truly lose or gain anything is when you sell. You don’t realize your gains or losses until you complete that transaction. What this means is that if Dogecoin does increase exponentially the people who have been holding since the price has been low will gain astronomical returns on their investment, while others who joined late will not.
Question: Stability vs Volatility Answer: This describes basically how stable something is over a set period of time. Volatility is how much prices change over time. Stabilization of Dogecoin is important for the overall health, however, cryptocurrencies are known to and will likely remain very volatile for the foreseeable future.
13a) Question: Pump and dump vs long term growth and the difference between them. Answer: "Pump and dump" is a form of securities fraud that involves artificially inflating the price of an owned stock through false and misleading positive statements, in order to sell the cheaply purchased stock at a higher price. Pump and dumps are illegal. While a subset of people are trying to pump and dump Dogecoin, the legitimate community is focused its long term growth and stability which is achieved through the rest of the topics addressed here 13b - second perspective) Essentially many people are just coming onto DOGE because it has low barrier to entry, and enticed by the idea of coming in low, selling what they have and running with the profits short term. This has lead to pumps and dips, and a lot of misinformation being thrown around. I should clarify some points for those who are coming in, instead of repeating the HODL and diamond hands rhetoric. Planned pumps are not what Doge needs. Pumps of this nature usually have an attached implication, which is that people will plan on selling, capitalising on the hype and then buying low to wait for the next pump. This leads to money being taken out of the coin, resulting in the lower price we now see. This means that planned pumps are essentially feeding sellers. We are not doing this in secret. This is a public forum and people with the intention have the information needed to drain us dry if we let them. Essentially, if we want Doge to grow, planned pumps need to stop being openly advertised, or they need to die altogether. Of the two, the latter is the easiest, and it is what this post will be focusing on. Sustainable Growth is now the way. Pumps are fine when they're unpredicted - Elon Musk is living proof of that. However, planned pumps will result in our good boy coin shooting down to the dips, where sellers can reinvest and wait to harvest our money again at the next pump. If however, we grow the price slowly, the floor will increase in a much more stable fashion, resulting in smaller dips. This will mean that the insane dips where sellers truly farm their coin at become very inhospitable to them, as they'd need to put more and more money to receive less and less profit. Essentially, by slowly growing the coin with organic 'food' instead of steroids, we can slowly choke out those parasites who are ruining the growth of the coin by making every dip a horrible investment for their time and efforts. Sure, buy at the dips. Sure, hold the coin. But don't plan any more pumps. The less room you give to the sellers, the doubters and the paper hands, the more coin you can collect and the more profit that awaits you in the future. Conclusion If we come together as a community, Doge will truly live up to the hype - the people's currency. If we choose to continue listening to planned pumps, we have a very difficult, long and risky road ahead of us. Sustainable growth will beat large planned spikes any day.
Question: Elon Musk - Is he important for Dogecoin? The impact of celebrities and big business supporting Dogecoin Celebrity/Influencer Involvement
Answer: Elon Musk, Mark Cuban As many may know, Elon is highly involved when it comes to “meme culture.” we can see Elon has tweeted several times concerning “doge,” reposting memes found from Reddit, as well as concerning himself with the ripples of the recent stock news. Mark Cuban, another notable wealthy, down-to-earth, community-involved individual, has recently mentioned “#dogecoin” specifically. Regardless of whether these people have positive intentions towards $DOGE or not, their mention carries weight and public opinion and is a good assumption that new eyes are looking at us as a result. It should be noted that they have tweeted neutrally to positively towards $DOGE, not indicating a full-send support but they clearly are not talking down the possibilities. Big business allowing Dogecoin to be supported as means of exchanging goods, and people like Elon musk supporting and backing this cryptocurrency are important to proving its value and legitimacy. However, it is important to remember that this is not the sole determining factor in the price. The price is determined by everything covered above.
Question: Is getting Dogecoin to increase to the equivalent of one US dollar possible? Can and will it really happen? What will change if it does happen? How high can Dogecoin realistically rise in price? Market cap explanation and comparison to US currency and global FIAT currency.
Answer: Yes, despite not having a fixed or capped supply, the value of the currency can rise based on its relative value against other currencies in the market. You can find examples of this in the FOREX market where currency pairs are traded, like Euro against US dollar, or US Dollar against Japanese Yen. As the value of Dogecoin rises, more and more businesses will recognise its potential and importance, and subsequently begin to accept it in exchange for goods and services. This will also help to grow the developer community around Dogecoin. Market cap = price x supply. Price is determined by supply and demand (buying snd selling of Dogecoin. Supply is determined by mining Dogecoin. The current market cap of Dogecoin while writing this article is 9,000,000,000 (9 billion). if Dogecoin were to reach $1 today it would have a market cap of 128 billion dollars. Since the current supply of Dogecoin Is 128 billion in circulation. Bitcoin (the most successful cryptocurrency currently has a market cap of approximately 700,000,000,000 (700 billion dollars). This means that at $1 the total supply of Dogecoin would be “worth” about 1/7th of Bitcoins total supply. The estimated supply of the US dollar is 2,000,000,000 (2 trillion) since 1 dollar = 1 dollar (LOLZ) the market cap of the US currency is 2 trillion. If Dogecoin were to reach this market cap - the price can be calculated through dividing the market cap (2 trillion) by the supply (128 billion). This means that dogecoin would equal the entire US currency’s (M0 money supply in economics) at $15.60. This is definitely not impossible but highly highly improbable to ever reach this value any time soon. As in like 3-10 years away minimum. Now the entire supply of the entire worlds fiat (paper) currency is 37 trillion dollars. You can apply the same logic from above and see that the value would be $288.60 This is the theoretical limit to how much Dogecoin can be worth due simply to the fact that if it was valued at anymore than that amount it would be “worth” more than the entire world’s paper currencies combined which is not possible without adding more supply. It’s important to note that this number is not static. Which means if the market conditions change such as an increase in supply or change in price the numbers will change.
Question: What is a 51% attack? Can it realistically happen? What are the implications if it were to happen? Answer: A 51% attack refers to an attack on a blockchain most commonly bitcoin. Such an attack is possible but still just hypothetical. It requires group of miners to control more than 50% of the network's mining hash rate or computing power.
The attackers would be able to prevent new transactions from gaining confirmations, allowing them to halt payments between some or all users. They would also be able to reverse transactions that were completed while they were in control of the network, meaning they could double-spend coin. They would almost certainly not be able to create new coins or alter old blocks. A 51% attack would probably not destroy bitcoin or another blockchain-based currency outright, even if it proved highly damaging. You may have seen an article going around talking about the 51% attack and why it will cause Dogecoin to go to zero. Regarding the 51% Hashrate attacks, Yes, they are real, and have been ever since cryptocurrencies aka Bitcoin started. The article even mentions an example. Now, if a large group of people with a lot of resources very effectively coordinated, they could indeed make a 51% attack on Dogecoin happen. But not just on Dogecoin, but also on many other, small cryptocurrencies. This is nothing new, this has basically been known for the last 10+ years. But the author of the article needs clicks, so there goes the horror-scenario headline... Possible - yes, absolutely. Likely, not very. Unless you have a large sum of people with a few resources each coordinating perfectly - that is in my honest opinion very unlikely - you could have governments, very large hedge funds, or maybe Elon Musk build a vast array of mining farms and do said 51% Hashrate attack. But again, that effort would only be worthwhile if those groups had a definite interest in destroying Dogecoin. There are probably other cryptocurrencies that would be more interesting from that perspective, such as litecoin. Of course, despite the sensationalist headline, for them clicks, the author covers their own backside by stating the following: "In conclusion...Pretty much all the crypto besides Bitcoin and Ethereum are at material risk of a 51% attack, and it's not just a theoretical risk." This problem is not tied specifically to Dogecoin, but to every single cryptocurrency. Now let’s do some math to calculate exactly how much it would cost in order to succeed in pulling off a 51% attack on Dogecoin. Dogecoin has a hash rate of 299.17 TH/s or 299,170,000 MH/s. If you were to use an RTX3090 which costs $2,000 US Dollars, and has a hash rate of 121 MH/s. You would need 1,260,964 RTX3090 at a cost of $2,521,928,926 dollars ($2.5 billion). Is it possible? Yes. Is it likely? No.
Question: There is a lack of developer support for Dogecoin. The technology is outdated. Why would anyone come work as a Dogecoin developer when there are thousands of other cryptocurrencies?
Answer: the original Dogecoin developers have already began working on the project with the new found support of the community and companies accepting Dogecoin as payment. The short answer is there is already development being done due to recent weeks bringing Dogecoin back into relevancy. The long answer is this: Given the recent surge in Altcoins, both from a financial perspective and media coverage, there is now a very good chance that new developers will come back to Dogecoin in time. There are plenty of people with coding experience, also those who have already worked on cryptocurrency concepts in general. As of early 2021, there are around 4000 cryptocurrencies in existance, probably several thousand more hidden as drafts or stealth projects. These days, there are well-paid positions in the up-and-coming cryptocurrency space. There is, as always, a shortage of developers. Thus, how can Dogecoin compete with the wider market and successfully attract developers? Well, there are a number of different reasons Dogecoin will be able to attract good developers. Basically, why does anyone work on anything? Why did the original Dogecoin developers even create Dogecoin in the first place? For fun, because it was interesting, because Bitcoin got the ball rolling, to be part of something exciting. Remember - when Bitcoin was created were those developers simply looking for short-term financial gain? No, they were likely not. Bitcoin took a while to take off. And so did Dogecoin. Bitcoin has inherent limitations for day-to-day use, while Dogecoin has received too little attention over the past few years in terms of development. But, the idea that developers will not work on Dogecoin is just a big misconception. Dogecoin is becoming too popular for developers to stay away. Also, once Dogecoin legitimatizes itself more widely, working on the project as a developer will become inherently more valuable, both financially and non-financially, due to the fact that it will make its way back in the top tier cryptocurrencies.
Question: if all of the above information is true why the cryptocurrency full of people who are trying to discredit Dogecoin as legitimate cryptocurrency.
Answer: The cryptocurrency is horribly misinformed. cryptocurrency is a specific subset of society who has an extremely knowledgeable background in computer science and computer coding. They may have a solid understanding of the technology aspect of cryptocurrency but the reason why Dogecoin will be successful is based on economics, mathematics, social theory and statistics as WELL as the underlying technology. Each of these topics is extremely intricate and each field requires years to fully master. No one person has all of the knowledge of all aspects of a cryptocurrency so when someone is attacking Dogecoin on why it won’t be successful is probably misinformed. Dogecoin is already successful. It’s been proven already. The question is HOW successful. Which nobody really knows the answer to. cryptocurrency is full of gatekeepers who horde their knowledge while the Dogecoin community is focused on explaining and educating new people. cryptocurrency is notorious for being extremely serious and feel threatened that something that started at as a joke/meme has the potential to be at cryptocurrencies intended purpose - exchanging goods and services - than Bitcoin or any other popular cryptocurrency which is deflationary in nature.
Question: Will cryptocurrency replace fiat currency. Will cryptocurrency be the next world currency. Will the next world currency be Dogecoin? Answer: People don’t realize the worldwide paradigm that is taking place right in front of our eyes. People are starting to see that traditional fiat (paper) currency back by centralized governments and debt are flawed and can be improved upon. Cryptocurrency is the future whether the people who can’t see it or try to disagree believe it or not. It’s inevitable. I knew it was inevitable in 2013 when I first heard about Bitcoin. A cryptocurrency will replace fiat currency in the future. Will it be Bitcoin? ETH? Dogecoin? Some other cryptocurrency that doesn’t exist yet? I don’t know. What I do know is that the only cryptocurrency that has inflationary tendencies that line up with traditional fiat currency very very well, allowing for an ease in the transition, a community dedicated to its success regardless of the cost, a mascot that allows for ease for spread of information to the masses thereby assisting with mass adoption is Dogecoin.
Thank you for reading this post in its entirety. It took a large amount of collective effort of people in my discord. I appreciate them to no end. We have over 100 people in that discord and we are here to stay. We are interested in explaining Dogecoin, reducing the scare factor and backing up Dogecoin through economic, social, financial, mathematical theory, etc. Per Dogecoin rules I cannot give out this discord, but if you are interested message me. It goes into greater detail on every one of these topics, with resources, links, articles etc. thank you and above all else remember that at the end of the day this is a meme cryptocurrency from 2013. But the people have spoken, and this is now official the people’s currency as well. Dogecoin🚀🪐🚀
In this series, we will make little tables fly from the Moon Door. As one of those “assholes on the internet”, this is what I do. By the way, I am not sure I can resist the temptation to start this thread as the first part of a series and then give false promises about the next parts. Learned from the master after all. Anyway, here we go! (┛ಠДಠ)┛彡┻━┻ Date: April 19, 1997
GeorgeRRMartin: No television in the immediate future... the fantasy should keep me busy for two three more years.
A SONG OF ICE AND FIRE will eventually run to six books, so I still have three and a half to write. That will keep me busy for quite a few years.
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After that, there's no telling what I'll do. If I do eventually write a prequel to ICE AND FIRE, however, it will not concern the overthrow of Aerys II. I'd go back earlier than that, and follow up with Dunk and Egg from "The Hedge Knight."
Admittedly not the same thing but the recent news reveals that he lifted his veto on the Robert’s Rebellion prequel show. Date: January 20, 1999
[Summary from Kay-Arne Hansen: I asked about a timeline for Robert's rebellion.] I have rough notes on all of this, but it's nothing I want to publish just yet. I may include a Timeline as an appendix in a future book, but I need to work on it some more and fill in some details before it would ready to publish.
Still no definitive timeline for Robert’s Rebellion even though he wrote a history book which by rights should have had it in. (┛ಠДಠ)┛彡┻━┻ Date: February, 1999
John: You've written for TV. You've written a lot for TV. What's your favorite medium? GM: Books. That's easy. John: Any particular reason? Just because no one else is messing with your work? GM: Yeah, that's the big reason. It's very exciting to work for television, but you get tired, after a while, of constantly having to please everybody. Of hearing what the director's ideas are, and the actors' viewpoint, and the network has a note they would like accommodated; you just get sick of that. You just want to tell a story and communicate it to your audience. I'm glad I did my TV work. It was an enjoyable period of time, and the wheelbarrows full of money they also paid me were also good, but ultimately, books are my first love and my last love, and my true love.
Even true love can’t resist an exclusive HBO deal with trucks full of money. (┛ಠДಠ)┛彡┻━┻ Date: March 18, 1999
Fourthman: Will we get more (different) maps with each book? And do you have plans past ICE AND FIRE? Besides Dunk and Egg stories I mean? Any more epics? George_RR_Martin: Past ICE & FIRE . . . well, I have a million ideas. It depends on which one I fall in love with along about 2006 or so. Fourthman: Which one are you dating? George_RR_Martin: I date 'em all.
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SkyDancer: I attended your reading at Seattle's University Bookstore. I very much enjoyed the reading but did not have time to stay for the signing. Excellent work and I look forward to the next (four is it?) books. How do you gauge the length of the series, and how often has it changed? George_RR_Martin: How do I gauge it? Well, very badly, judging by the fact that it has grown from three books to six. I have changed twice. Once from three to four, then four to six. But IT ENDS THERE! SIX! SIX! SIX!
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RMBoye: Will Lady Greyjoy make an appearance? George_RR_Martin: I have no plans to bring in Lady Greyjoy, why? RMBoye: Just curious. George_RR_Martin: I can't drag everyone in the 7 kingdoms on stage, after all.
Drags Lady Greyjoy to make an appearance in the fourth book... (┛ಠДಠ)┛彡┻━┻ Date: July 11, 1999
I will confess, the chronology of these books sometimes gives me fits. You would not believe how often I reshuffle the chapters, trying to find the one true perfect sequence. And then just when I have it exactly right, my editors weigh in from both sides of the Atlantic, each suggesting a slightly different chapter order. It is always a balancing act, since I want the chapters to have a certain dramatic flow, I worry about certain storylines being forgotten if they are "off stage" too long, and there is a constant tug of war between character time and reader time (a character may have two chapters, taking place one day apart, but if two hundred pages of stuff about other characters separate those two chapters, the reader is going to perceive a long time as having passed, even if I begin the second chapter with, "When he woke up the very next morning..."
Apparently, GRRM did not need forewarning about trying to write a book that is currently spilled across two continents with 20 active POVs. (┛ಠДಠ)┛彡┻━┻ Date: October, 1999
Amazon.com: How many novels will there be in the Song of Ice and Fire series? George R.R. Martin: The original plan was for three. When I hit about 1,200 pages of the first book, I was still a long way from where the first book was going to end, according to my original outline. So the first book became two books, and I said... hmm... I've got four. Then as I wrote the second book I noticed that the same thing was happening. So I actually called a halt for a while and I did some reorganization and I figured out how I could tell the story I wanted to tell and do justice to it, but at the same time not spend the rest of my life doing it. And six books seemed to be the most viable way to go.
In the 1980s, you moved into television, working on series such as the new Twilight Zone and Beauty and the Beast. How did you find the experience differed from working in the medium of print? Did it teach you anything? Ultimately it taught me that I wanted to go back to books. Oh, it was an exciting time, to be sure. I worked with some good people and did a lot of work that I remain proud of, but TV and film are collaborative mediums, and in the end I just got tired of collaborating. A book allows me to be the writer, director, producer, special effects artist, set designer, stunt man, and all the actors, rolled in one. I don't have to compromise my story to meet the demands of studio or network, or water it down because Standards and Practices thinks it's too violent or too sexy or too opinionated.
… and one day HBO knocked GRRM’s door with trucks full of money.
When I began, I was planning for a trilogy; three books of about 800 manuscript pages each, I estimated. Had I kept to that, I'd be done by now, with the final book about to come out -- but a story makes its own demands, and this one was simply too big to be contained in three books. Nor have any of the volumes completed to date been as short as 800 pages. Instead they have come in at approximately 1100, 1200, and 1500, respectively. And I still have three more books to go... Had I known as I set out how huge these books would be and how long it would take me to write them, I would probably have been too intimidated to write the first sentence. But now that I am well into it, I am glad things worked out this way. I might have told a version of this story in three 800-page books, yes, but it could never have had the complexity of plot, the depth of characterization, or the richness of detail that I have been able to achieve with those added pages. Sometimes bigger is better.
Anyway, love the series, and hope the next three books are just as good (and hopefully quickly out :) ). "Quickly?" Would that it were so... but these are huge books, and they take a long time to write. I'd look for A DANCE WITH DRAGONS sometime in 2002.
And about A Dance with Dragons, Martin said that he could easily put in a new PoV character, but he probably won't, because it'll make the book thicker, and he has to make ADwD thinner than ASoS. ... Martin said A Storm of Swords was on the Limit of how large a book can get. So it just CAN'T be any thicker.
Since George has not started writing DWD everything though can be changed ... DWD will be thinner and quicker. No new POV Catelyn will not be a POV More attention on Casterly Rock No introduction on what has happened between ASOS and ADWD, but POVs will "reflect" on what happened (so no flashbacks either). A Television station has asked for a meeting regarding an ASOIAF TV-Series. But nothing serious till now. Could change though, if LOTR becomes a box-office smash hit. ... His reason for the gap is simply that he thought each of the first three books would cover a longer timespan. He told us that since he was able just to write down a fictional span of 1-1 1/2 years in these books he had to make the break, otherwise he ASOIAF would be 10 books long.
(15) He doesn't outline much for novels. He works with bits and creates as he goes. Since he hops around a lot, he worries that someday he may lose his sense of story and have nothing to write.
We will learn lots about the Harrenhall tourney in the next three books, so, any prequel work he is considering will strictly be the continuation of the Dunk and Egg stories...
Did I mention the Robert’s Rebellion prequel show? What could possibly go wrong when GRRM allows a TV adaptation that will cover unwritten material? (┛ಠДಠ)┛彡┻━┻
He has a meeting next week in Hollywood with a few execs' who want to make a TV mini-series out of these novels, I strongly tried to dissuade him... but he seemed leary of accepting thier proposal anyways...
Trucks full of money… (┛ಠДಠ)┛彡┻━┻
About another two years for ADWD... but he is hoping to boost his production speed... hope he can...
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I also queried about the possibility of him endorsing a 'Legends' type book, allowing other authors to also dive into Westeros... Gods... he looked at me as if I were an Other who had jumped out of his subconciousness... ha! I wish you could have seen it! He loves his creation much and jealously will he guard it.
Trucks full of money… (┛ಠДಠ)┛彡┻━┻
Oh yah... and he has finished the screenplay for 'Feverdream'. Disney bought the rights. It was very hard for him. He had to dismantle one of his own favorite works for a movie, it was very difficult for him.
One thing I've found particularly interesting is how well you've been able to keep the disjointed plot moving with what seems to be equal interest. One time, I counted six or seven plots. Now that you've killed off a couple of kings, the number of plot lines is somewhat less, but you are still working with a number of story lines. Particularly with the story of Daenerys, a continent away from the central story. Well... it will all eventually come together.
Guest says, "WINDHAVEN reprinted in Fall 2001? Or ADwD done . . . ?" George says, "WINDHAVEN in spring 2001, ADWD in fall 2002. Sorry about that. What year is it, anyway?"
If Tyrion's the easiest character to write, who's the hardest? Martin: Thus far I'd say the hardest character has definitely been Bran, on two counts. Number one, he is the youngest of the major viewpoint characters, and kids are difficult to write about. I think the younger they are, the more difficult. Also, he is the character most deeply involved in magic, and the handling of magic and sorcery and the whole supernatural aspect of the books is something I'm trying to be very careful with. So I have to watch that fairly sharply. All of which makes Bran's chapters tricky to write. It should be easier in the next book, I would think, with the five-year break. Then I'll have a 14-year-old, and in terms of the Seven Kingdoms, that's almost an adult.
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What's the timeline like for publication of the rest of the series? Martin: It all depends on how long it takes me to write it. They're big books, they take me a year and a half, at least, to write, and sometimes I go over those deadlines, though obviously I try not to. So unfortunately, I think we're looking at 18 months to two years for each volume, and that means we're looking for the next three books, and the ultimate end of the series, in five or six years.
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Storm of Swords was the first book in the series so far that contained a seemingly crucial scene that couldn't appear "on stage" because there was no POV character present--the confrontation between Ser Loras and Brienne of Tarth over Renly. When you reach a situation like that, do you consider introducing a new point-of-view character, or using a character that only appears once, or do you try to rearrange the plot so that kind of situation won't come up? Martin: Those point-of-view characters that I use just once tend to have a very short life span. I've so far restricted them to the prologue and epilogue. It's tricky, because when I do a point-of-view character, I don't like to put them in simply to be a pair of eyes. If I'm going to have a point-of-view character, I want to tell a story about them. Each of the viewpoints in the series has a story. It may be a story that ends in death and tragedy, in some cases it may be a story that ends in triumph and happiness, but it will be a story, with a beginning, a middle and an end, and what we call in Hollywood a character arc. I used to write screenplays and teleplays, and people would always use that term--a series of events that changes the character in some way or another. But I don't like just sticking in, as some writers do, a new character so he can see someone doing something because I have no other pair of eyes there. That kind of character is convenient, but really has no character arc. You have no place to go, you have no story to tell about that character, he's just an observer to someone else's story.
I am sure the character arc of Areo Hotah in TWoW will be worth the wait! (┛ಠДಠ)┛彡┻━┻
Martin: You're always learning in writing, and I was always learning new tricks, trying new techniques, different viewpoints, doing a first-person story, then a third-person story, try a time-travel story, a space opera--you're trying different things. And it's good to learn them through the short story, which lends itself to experimentation. If you have an experiment that fails, well, you've only spent a few weeks or maybe a month on it, you haven't spent two years doing an experiment that's a disaster. The high fantasy experiment that is ASOIAF has been running for over two decades now and it risks ending in failure more than ever.
NG: Three more volumes of A Song of Ice and Fire wait to be written. What shape do you expect them to take, and are their titles finalized as yet? GRRM: Yes, three more volumes remain. The series could almost be considered as two linked trilogies, although I tend to think of it more as one long story. The next book, A Dance With Dragons, will focus on the return of Daenerys Targaryen to Westeros, and the conflicts that creates.
One of the things I find encouraging about A Storm of Swords' success is that it's a vast book and people are reading it. That's wonderful. What is it? 120,000 words? More? Well, it's 1500 pages in manuscript. I think I would have been too frightened to figure out what that is in words. It was amazingly long. [Laughs] Was it a long haul? Yes it was. I was several months late turning it in and there was a lot of pressure there at the end to finish it. But I finally got it to a place where I was satisfied with it. But then it's on to the next one of course, so... the readers read the books much more quickly than I can write them. Which is disheartening. I work for two years on a book and it comes out and two days later I've got my first e-mail: When is the next one coming out? [Laughs]
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What kind of things did you do in television? Well, I was on staff for the Twilight Zone revival that CBS did in the mid 80s. And then I was on Beauty and the Beast for three years. After that I mostly did development deals. I was creating my own pilots for new shows. I was doing some film scripts for features, some of them adapting my own work, some originals and some adapting other people's work. Nothing ever got made though. It was one of the things that ultimately frustrated me and drove me back to books. Books were really my first love. I kind of missed doing them anyway. There's a freedom there that you don't get in Hollywood. There's a full canvas to paint on so you don't have to worry about compromising: having to fight with directors or networks or studios. But the real telling thing was that, although I was making a lot of money in Hollywood writing these screenplays and developing the pilots, they weren't getting made and it was just ultimately unsatisfying. No amount of money can really take the place of... you want your stuff to be read. You want an audience and four guys in an executive office suite at ABC or Columbia is not adequate.
Trucks full of money… and fame too! (┛ಠДಠ)┛彡┻━┻
It sounds more satisfying than the television work. Ultimately, yeah. I mean, there are different satisfactions to each one. When television and film is working well -- when you have a good team and you're on the same page -- it's very exciting to be working with good actors and a good director, putting something together and watching it come alive before your eyes. Watching dailies. Those are unique thrills. But that same thing can easily turn bad, you know, when the writer and director don't get along. When your actor insists on changing all your dialog. When the network is giving you notes that totally rip up part of what you were trying to do, then the experience isn't so thrilling. With a book I am the writer and I am also the director and I'm all of the actors and I'm the special effects guy and the lighting technician: I'm all of that. So if it's good or bad, it's all up to me.
By now, it should be quite clear that GRRM knew everything that could go wrong with TV adaptations. Yet he still signed that HBO deal for trucks full of money… and fame too! I guess GRRM should be the last person to complain about the failure of GoT’s ending (or rather be passive aggressive about the whole thing, because he should be contractually prohibited against complaining about the show). (┛ಠДಠ)┛彡┻━┻ Date: April 11, 2001
Will he be able to finish "A Song of Ice and Fire" with so many commitments? Martin strives, he said, to finish each installment in 18 months. And sorry, book No. 4, "The Dance with Dragons" is only a few months along. Devotees of his mythical world will just have to wait.
As to whether I'll ever finish AVALON... well, perhaps. Hard to say. Just now I am not looking past A SONG OF ICE AND FIRE, which is likely to occupy me for five more years at least.
GRRM also revealed that aFoC will hopefully span the next 5/6 years so that aDwD can begin where he expected it to do so all along. He also heavily suggested that characters that will spend their time learning in the next 5/6 years will not feature very much in the next book. But all current POVs will appear. So one can assume that we wouldn't get more than one or two Arya/Bran chapters.
This reporter believes the new PoV is that was not revealed is in fact Brienne. GRRM first reported that he struggled with the idea that there was a five year gap but that important events occured within that time period. So, he decided to scrap the five year gap and push A Dance with Dragons to be the fifth book. The Winds of Winter will be the sixth book. Parris is betting that the series will extend to a seventh book but Martin still wants to keep it to six. But, I digress, the main reason he struggled with the gap was that important events could not be related via flashback BUT would have to be if there was a gap. In fact, he said that the unrevealed PoV was the main reason for this. This makes me believe that the new PoV is Brienne because she had taken Oathkeeper and was actively searching for Sansa. Also, I have repeated asked him for a Brienne PoV and when he announced that there was a PoV that he was not going to reveal - he looked my way.
You read it right folks. According to GRRM, Brienne POV was the main reason why he could not make the 5 year gap work. We had to see her wandering around Riverlands aimlessly for an entire book. (┛ಠДಠ)┛彡┻━┻ Date: September 01, 2001
The 4th Book will be A Feast For Crows, and will cover what would have been the five year gap. Some POV's -- who George said will be "learning" during the five year gap -- will have only one or two chapters. The identity of the other new POV is something he's keeping a secret for now, but he did say its a character with a story to tell that really can't wait. My money is on the Hound.
As the other reporter said, the new POV “who has a story to tell that really can’t wait” was Brienne. Let me tease another project of mine that is currently in the making: I am making a combined reading order of AFfC and ADwD. But unlike the ones you know, this one will be “no-filler” edition. I have already decided to cut all the Brienne chapters from this reading order. Brienne appearing at that ADwD Jaime chapter like a zombie with a half chewed face works extremely well! There was absolutely no reason to dedicate half of AFfC to Brienne and she absolutely doesn’t have a story that can’t wait. Hell, she doesn’t even have a story to begin with! (┛ಠДಠ)┛彡┻━┻ Date: October 02, 2001
A FEAST FOR CROWS is scheduled for fall, 2002, provided I can finish it on time.
I am still hoping to do it in six books... however, I have backtracked on that "shoot me in the head" promise, which might have been a bit, ah... rash.
The pertinent part is that Jordan said he had planned the WoT series to be 5 books (I did a good job not to scoff), but the story has its own mind and can't be contained (again, I didn't laugh). Martin said that he had the same problem. He had originally planned that GoT and CoK to be one book.
Who is laughing now... (┛ಠДಠ)┛彡┻━┻
At the end, Jordan said there's a poll on Motley Fool (not sure if he's making it up or not) asking: Which event will take place first?
Robert Jordan finishes WoT series
GRRM finishes SoIaF series
Obscure reference I didn't catch
Heat death of the universe
and the poll has #4 leading 5:1 to all other choices.
Dargon: Here is the all-important question on many fan’s minds. How is book four coming along? Is there any chance it might come out earlier than expected? George: Not as far as I would like to be. Fall of next year (Fall 2002). But that depends on how quickly I can finish it. But you can’t really tell about that until you do It. Right now I’d say Fall 2002.
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Dargon: We all enjoy your novels immensely. Can you give us a little heads up on what you are working on next and where your taking some of our favorite characters? George: I have scrapped the idea of a five-year gap, as I announced not to long ago. I was originally going to make the 4th book five years later. So I’m now picking it up immediately after the third book. Most of the characters will continue as they were so there will be some new points of view. Two, I think. Cersei and... well, another one, a character who I could not see just being idle for five years.
How would you characterize the current feelings in the North. Depressed - "Man we got screwed...time to get drunk" or Angry - "Now that was the shit that made me mad!" Trying to get an understanding of what the North is feeling after all that has happened to them. Thanks for your time! Wait till the next book, and you can read about the mood in the north for yourself.
Excerpt from the next book: MEANWHILE, BACK ON THE WALL . . . Hey, wait a minute!" some of you may be saying about now. "Wait a minute, wait a minute! Where's Dany and the dragons? Where's Tyrion? We hardly saw Jon Snow. That can't be all of it. . . ." Well, no. There's more to come. Another book as big as this one. Tyrion, Jon, Dany, Stannis and Melisandre, Davos Seaworth, and all the rest of the characters you love or love to hate will be along next year (I devoutly hope) in A Dance with Dragons, which will focus on events along the Wall and across the sea, just as the present book focused on King's Landing. -George R. R. Martin June 2005 (┛ಠДಠ)┛彡┻━┻
Long Long Way To Go: #26 Private Parts & Pieces VIII: New England - Anthony Phillips
Released in 1992 Full album here In 1990, Ant had secured a record contract with Virgin Records, releasing Slow Dance that same year. He then promptly began work on a new project, during a rather prosperous period of songwriting. Ant chose to release New England as the eighth installment of the Private Parts & Pieces series, which was a huge mistake in my opinion. Ant's most loyal fans know and love the album, but for those not as familiar with his work, seeing the title of "Private Parts & Pieces" is both daunting and misleading. Such a label implies that the album is just another collection of odds and ends, when in fact the material was specifically written for New England, and is one of Ant's best releases in his five-decade career. None of the other Private Parts albums even come close to this one, and the last time we encountered one on this list was almost six weeks ago, all the way back at #52. Similar to how Slow Dance was a loose sequel to 1984 in terms of ambition and structure, New England can be seen as belated sequel to The Geese & The Ghost. It's got the softer vocal tracks, the twelve-string epics, the piano pieces, and the miniature guitar interludes - just to bring up some of the comparisons. The album's variety is its biggest strength and is what makes it stand out from the other records in the series. A host of guests also appear on the album, including Ant's longtime friend Joji Hirota, and saxophonist Martin Robertson. Ant:
I think I was in a way a little bit compositionally starved, having been doing TV stuff as well, so I really went off at the deep end and wrote an enormous amount of stuff. I’m not terribly decisive at the best of time and because it was the first album I had recorded within the Virgin contract - Slow Dance came before - I just felt that everything had to be definitive. So I tried to hedge my bets and found myself writing two or three twelve string pieces and recording them and seeing which one worked out best. Multiply that by the different styles that I work in and I came up with far too much music and I over practised and messed up my right wrist.
"Aubade" is our beautiful opener, similar to the material on Slow Dance with a new-age sound consisting of ethereal synth textures, warm piano, and a bright tin whistle - played on keyboard. It lasts for just sixty seconds but is an excellent introduction for the album, leading straight into our next track, "Infra Dig". Again, it's another tiny song, just under two minutes, but is filled with so much life and hope. It's easily one of the best guitar pieces Ant has ever done, and I just can't get over how joyous it is! A very simple song to be sure, but there's something about those happily strung chords that I can't get enough of. Ant's mandolin is also an essential part of the song, echoing the guitar with some merriment. Ant:
There was originally going to be quite a lot of synth stuff but it didn’t seem to work. Maybe I felt that it was too close to library music. The first piece: "Aubade" was using computer as well. In fact, Bill Brink wrote asking “how do you get that effect? Is it just incredible guitar picking or what?” and there’s no guitar on it at all! It was all synth. One thing I suppose is that it was very much using modern technology.1
A piano-led ballad, "Sanctuary" is an absolutely crestfallen track, as Ant touches on the most common theme found in any of his songs - "the one that got away". Songs like "Lucy: An Illusion" and "Lucy Will" were about Ant's girlfriend of the late 60s, while "God If I Saw Her Now" and "I Saw You Today" sang of a lost love, someone who Ant (or at least the narrator) still clearly had feelings for. I tend to believe these two are also directed towards Lucy, from a perspective of longing. And with "Sanctuary" it's similar, Ant clearly thinks of this person night and day, but there's a sense of acceptance felt in his words, as he offer himself up as a sanctuary if she should ever wish to return to him:
How I want your loving, girl How I want your pretty smile. Through the winter nights, And the long hot summer days, I drift and dream of you all the while. And if you ever find yourself sold out And if you're at the end of the line You can find my sanctuary waiting Don't worry girl, I won't let on.
Now the chances that Ant wrote a song about a girl whom he had broken up with over twenty years prior are pretty slim, so it's probably best to assume it's about another lover, but it makes one wonder, especially when you consider that Ant has never been married, who exactly was this girl? As for the music, the lush piano is there to comfort Ant's saddened voice, while the clean guitars add some depth to the arrangement. It's a bottle of sadness that just might bring a tear to your eye. "La Dolorosa" is a mystical twelve-string piece similar to Trespass' sound, while also incorporating some Spanish influences as well. It's both mysterious and delicate, and is one of those tracks where you just get lost in the layers of guitars. This brings us to the "New England Suite", an extended piece split into three parts. Part one is folksy and pastoral, much like Ant's work with Harry Williamson on Gypsy Suite, with a pair of guitars bouncing ideas off of each other, taking the listener on a journey through arpeggios and picturesque themes. Part two slows things down, and is much more tranquil, as the guitar melodies become exceedingly passionate and expressive, with rhythms similar to a guitarist like Tommy Emmanuel. Part three, reprises the opening movement, but this time at an exhilarating speed, playing dozens of notes per second with a flurry of guitars. "Last Goodbyes" is the first of three piano pieces, and another track that oozes with sorrow. The tone of the piano is just as important as the note it plays here, with the instrument's sadness almost being palpable. It's a lovely two minutes, and a nice break between the more guitar-oriented tracks. Which leads us to the one and only "Sunrise and Sea Monsters". Clocking in at ten and a half minutes, this song sees Ant's twelve-string work wonders with Martin Robertson's soprano sax, with the two making a phenomenal team, complimenting each other's style beautifully. About halfway through, African drums and assorted percussion come crashing out of nowhere, for a short burst of energy. The drums soon fade away, as the guitar and sax take a much darker direction, with Robertson's melodies now full of uncertainty. But this doubt soon turns to reassurance as we reach a reprisal of the song's main theme. Round two of the drums soon begins, with Ant confidently strumming away behind them, as Martin's solos become more adventurous. Ant is granted a brief solo of his own, before Robertson retakes the reigns, leading the song into the sunset as it fades away. -Quite possibly the album's best track. The second half of the album begins with "Iona" the first in a trilogy of a recurring guitar interludes. By my count, at least four twelve strings contribute to the song, each playing their own variation of the song's chords, with a lead guitar above them and a fretless bass below. There's only three chords throughout the whole thing, but each is more satisfying than the last: the first being murky and gray, the second confused and tired, and the third - wholly magical. Ant's style of arpeggios will always blow me away, and this is no exception. Our second piano piece, "Cathedral Woods" is much more hopeful than "Last Goodbyes", hinting at what was to come on Soirée. It's playful too, with several mischievous passages in between the rather pensive main melody. Ant's piano playing is just as beautiful as his guitar work, but I find that it's best enjoyed in small doses, with New England having just the right amount. Another collaboration between Ant's guitar and Robertson's sax, "If I Could Tell You" is a gorgeous little track, with expressive melodies and ambient chords, with one line of Robertson's sounding remarkably close to the melody of "For Absent Friends". Ant:
Obviously [Martin's] style is slightly American and sax tends to be in a slightly different area. My music has tended to be English, more classical or pastoral, whatever you want to call it, and the presence of sax tends to make things a bit looser and a bit more American, perhaps more bluesy or jazzy. So that was always finally going to be very experimental and some people may have been offended because it was a departure from the norm - it is difficult for me to judge whether it really works or not.1
One of the album's few six-string pieces, "Jaunty Roads" is a folksier track, interestingly played like a classical piece, with Ant's intricate finger-picking gracefully guiding the song. It lasts for a mere minute, but still manages to check all the right boxes. "Spirals" is identical to "Iona" in nearly every way, recalling those three striking chords: F#m7, Em7 and Dadd9, with the only difference this time being the inclusion of a synth that, as the title suggests, spirals around the guitars. This leads us straight into our second suite "Pieces of Eight". The first movement, "Pressgang", takes us into the action immediately, with Japanese drums from Joji Hirota and Ant's Spanish charanga playing what resembles a Celtic jig. It's a wonderful fusion of sounds, and is the album's most upbeat track. A pity it only lasts two minutes! "Sargasso" is the calm midsection of the suite, as several twelve strings take the lead, playing some gorgeous chords while climbing up the fretboard. A single twelve string is left to fend for itself, as we move on to "Sea Shanty". Joined by Simon Morris' cello, the two present a romantic and dreamy finale to one of the best suites Ant has ever done. Ant:
It really was lovely to have a twelve string guitar with a melancholy cello solo on top as opposed to a sample. It was super to be able to work with a proper player.1
"In The Maze" reprises the guitar passage of "Iona" one last time, with both Robertson' sax and Ant's synth joining in, for the most complete and resolved version of the theme. -It's the album's shortest track at fifty-five seconds, but still never fails to deliver. "Unheard Cry" is sung as a lullaby, as Ant presents another heartbreaking melody, this time supported by his twelve-string. What at first simply appears to be about a baby whose mother can't hear him and brother won't play with him, soon reveals itself to be about a young man who has left his family to begin his own life, but ends up feeling lost and alone in this new world as his innocence fades away.
Stern faces gather, distant voices murmurBut no-one touches, no-one comes near [...] Hours pass slowly, restless turningFor there's no mother to heal your painFading surely, you are returning,But will it first be from a broken heart?And the lights go out on the carousel,Infant innocent, so long, farewell.
A beautiful tearjerker, this is one of the last lyrical songs Ant would ever release. "Now They've All Gone" close the album with a piano piece, acting as New England's "Sleepfall". It's certainly more challenging than the album's other piano tracks, reaching seven minutes, but if you get over its length you'll find it's a song filled with beauty and pain, and a moving end to this fantastic album. Ant really outdid himself with this one, making an album with such a diverse tracklisting that still sounds unified and cohesive. Fans of his piano and guitar work will both be pleased, and the two vocal tracks are there to guide those who are weary of a mostly-instrumental record. All twenty of New England are excellent, and I invite all of you to give this one a go and join in on the love. Ant:
I wanted to try and do all sorts of different things, all sorts of different styles, and I was able to spend more time on it therefore it was bound to me more diverse because of the opportunity I was afforded with it compared to some of the previous albums. I am not knocking the previous albums, but there’s no doubt that if you have a whole album of twelve string guitar however good it sounds, after a while the sound begins to lack variety, and there were very limited resources available in the middle period Private Parts & Pieces albums - again, not taking anything away from them, they were either very small scale or they were not compositionally rounded to any great degree.1
DISCLAIMER 1: If you want to Roll and Smoke through This 4500+ Word Essay skip to the first title 'WINSTON TESLA CANNON' DISCLAIMER 2: A quick bit of gratitude to everyone who saw and upvoted my previous Zarya Guide, alongside the many more of those who have supported these guides over these past two months! Here are the links to my last Guides from newest to oldest:
DISCLAIMER 3: If you prefer to learn things in a video format over text, here's a link to Everything Below In Under 15 Minutes:https://youtu.be/eI7jzu4W6UMTime stamps are also embedded throughout the scroll bar so you can skip to which bit(s) are important to you! DISCLAIMER 4: If you don't know who I am/why you should care, here's a short intro: Hi, I'm "Major Midge," and I am a low GM Flex Support Player from the UK. I've coached players from varying SR ranges as a Former Freelancer on 'Fiverr' and they have all seen highly positive responses! :)
WINSTON TESLA CANNON
Winston's Primary Weapon makes him fire an 8 meter ranged tesla cannon, with an area of effect of 6 meters, being able to cleave multiple targets. The cannon deals 60 DPS (Damage Per Second), consuming 20 rounds per second, with a full ammo capacity of 100 rounds.
WINSTON TESLA CANNON TECH USAGE
Utilise 8 Meter Range
The futher you are away from a certain target, the wider your FOV (Field of view) is. This means that you can make use of your cleave damage much easier the further away you are, whereas if you are up and close to a target, you will often miss any targets to the left and right of you
You can test this out yourself in the training range by the two bots to your left when you spawn. If you stand in the middle of them then shoot at your max range, you will hit both of the bots. However, if you move closer to them (Still staying the middle) you will eventually not be able to hit either of the bots.
This is actually why you may feel in game that aiming Winston's tesla cannon up close and personal is actually harder than you think, because you're not making use of the 6 meter AoE cleave.
Not to mention that the closer you are to the enemy, the typically closer you are to danger, and the further you are away from escape. Whilst in close range, you can have benefits such as weaving in and out of more Reaper shots without your shield (Since the closer you are, the more exaggerated your movements are) when attempting to cleave multiple enemies, and especially when posturing around tanks, you want to keep at your maximum range
Maximising 100 Ammo Capacity
Especially against armoured targets, you want to weave in your melee with your tesla cannon as the armour decreases the damage from tesla's cannon by 20% (Hence he does 48 DPS now instead of 60).
Note that this DOES NOT increase DPS, but it INCREASES Damage over time (Since you need to reload less often, you will deal more damage over a set period of time, but the damage per second dealt does not increase)
Focusing Squishies Vs Focusing Tanks
Generally, the higher you climb, the more you want to focus tanks over squishy targets
There's a few reasons for this: In lower ranks, there is worse positioning hence you can easily punish that with decent cooldown management from your jump pack. Secondly, the enemy team will actually be more coordinated (Atleast subconsciously) to focus down whatever threat is causing them from winning the game OR swap off to characters that allow them to do that. And lastly, the whole point of focusing tanks is to gain primal ASAP, and as you climb, the more emphasis will be placed upon how to use primal well that will separate Good to Great to Amazing Winstons (Mainly due to mechanical execution which is very hard to pull off consistently)
I'll elaborate on this more in the 'POSITIONING/PLAYSTYLE' section of the guide due to your team composition influencing how you play.
WINSTON JUMP PACK
This launches Winston at an initial speed of 30 m/s, dealing 1 damage when you jump (Alongside a bit of knockback as well) and up to 50 damage when you land (Despite people like Jayne having constantly said in past VOD reviews that it deals 45 damage, it deals 50, you just need to be within the 1 meter range which is very tough to pull off).
WINSTON JUMP PACK USAGE
Jump Pack + Melee Combo
This is probably the most known piece of Winston tech that’s been in the game from the very start. If you still don’t know this, simply melee before you land as the landing animation cancels your melee animation, dealing up to 80 damage (30 from the melee, 50 from the jump pack)
However, due to the severe fall off from Winston's jump pack landing damage, unless you goomba stomp someone, you’ll most likely be doing 60-70 damage
In order to help you practice these jumps, just go into a custom game with a bunch of Ana or McCree bots at 35% HP (Workshop Expanse May be the best map for this) to practice your combo, which should oneshot 70HP Squishies. You can also attempt this on TraceGenji who have a slightly faster standard speed of 6m/s instead of 5.5m/s
Also note that this is to increase to damage over time but DPS – I say this because there’s actually a small delay before you can start shooting after you perform this tech (The delay coming from the melee animation)
Knockback +Mobility
You can increase the distance you travel by simply pressing your jump key after you land, performing a little skip
The distance you travel during this skip is directly proportional to the horizontal velocity you are travelling (IE If you do a mid jump or low jump forward and simultaneously Press W, you will travel further than just jumping up in the air vertically, then performing the skip)
You can also utilise the knockback when you land to block off route of retreats, which is done by jumping behind a target who is trying to escape. This is particularly useful against Solider and McCree, who's natural instinct will be to run the other way; In which you can easily knock them back a bit.
There is also a little bit of knockback when you jump (it also deals 1 damage for some reason...)
Minimum Take Off Angle
If you look downwards, no matter if you look downwards, you will always take off from the ground at a low angle (IE There is guaranteed vertical velocity, you won’t just travel in a straight line, and the minimum take off angle is roughly 20 degrees)
This also means that you can’t jump through doorways (Keys places being Eichenwalde 2nd Point Attack castle, Kings Row Hotel First Point Attack, and on other Hybrid/Escort Maps in general
This also means that when you are going against a Dive Comp, you want to place your supports on the other side of doorways to prevent their monkey from jumping through the doorway. Here’s a realistic example of this: You’re running a Brawl Comp against a Dive Comp on Nepal Shrine, and the dive Comp have control of the point. There’s three main ways you can path: By the Elephant, Straight through main, or by the left side by the Mega (Underneath the Highground). You ideally want to path left side, as you can place your supports on the other side of the small arch/doorway or by the back side doorway
Slanted Surfaces
Whilst niche, you can jump to slide yourself across slanted Surfaces and roofs to decrease your jump cooldown when landing
The most prime examples would be on Dorado 3rd Point Defense/Offense, Hollywood First Point Defense, and Busan Sanctuary (Sliding across edged roofs in the middle of the point)
I advise doing this if you are unscouted as the extra two or even three seconds you save on your jump pack, is spent in the air, defenseless – Hence if you are scouted, the enemy can easily focus you if you’re just sliding down slowly across slanted roofs.
Trajectory Control
1.5 Years Ago, KarQ Made a Great Video explaining the mechanical principles of Winston's Primal Rage alongside how to control your jump pack. He noted of 'Late' and 'Early' Inputs.
Late Inputs is where you use your directional keys mid-air when you jump, and an 'Early Input,' is using your directional keys before you use your jump pack. Early inputs have a much more significant effect upon your movement compared to late inputs, and there is a bunch of combinations (in terms of directional keys) you can do to make sure you land as close to the enemy as possible to gain the maximum landing damage possible
The most important directional key is your 'S' Key or downwards on your thumbstick for controller players. Using this information and the above, doing an early input 'S' jump whilst looking downwards will yield a very small jump of around 6-8 meters (Which is possibly the most important jump to get down especially in primal when attempting to juggle a singular target)
However, Winston can jump as far as 25 to 30 meters - In a VOD Review of a Master Main Tank Player, Jayne advised Winston Players to go into the courtyard of Lijang Night Market, to then practice your jumps to land on your spray.
Vertical Vs Horizontal Jumps
These are the two main types of jumps (With Low and Mid Jumps as subcategories to Horizontal Jumps)
Vertical Jumps are essentially jumping as high as you can to then aim your jump to land on people's heads to get a burst of 70/80 damage, which is much easier to do than any type of Horizontal Jump because you have less time to air strafe in the air to accurately land on an enemy
I urge you to practice the horizontal jumps as mentioned prior instead of jumping as high as you can to then land on someone since it takes longer, meaning that you'll do less damage over time, the vertical jump is more telegraphed hence an enemy can save a cooldown to dodge or stun your jump
Engaging Vs Escaping
A basic but vital principle that many Winston's still violate is using their jump to engage on an enemy instead of sneaking, walking or dropping (From Highground) to that target (E.G. Dropping from Highground on Hollywood 2nd Point Defense)
This is simply because it can be very easy to burst down/stun a Winston before he gets the jump pack again, and just by doing the above, you can save your jump to escape
There are however some exceptions to this rule. For example, if you have a guaranteed route of retreat such as dropping off highground (Mainly on Numbani 1st Point Attack; It is often worth using your jump down main on the backline top right by point, as you can easily drop off to point, and apply objective pressure from there on whilst simultaneously in cover).
You can also save your jump to not escape, but pursue a kill. A common example would be dropping on a Mercy on Genji, then you wait for them to use their Guardian Angel/Dash respectively, then you use your jump to pursue after them. With mercy in this case, I'd try and stand in between the target she's beaming as you know roughly where she will guardian angel to, then track her midway through her G.A. animation, then jump after her if needed
Another exception would be setting up a crossfire. For example, when running Hackfist Winston D.Va dive, you will have a kill box set up, with your Sombra calling WHEN to dive, your Doom set up on highground, and you and D.Va set adjacent/opposite to your Doomfist, alongside your main support on point, applying a potential 3 or 4 way crossfire on a single target.
A perfect example of this would be on Nepal Shrine where you have control of point, and the kill box is set up just in front of the statue in main.
A (Somewhat) exception would be running counter dive, which I'll get into latter sections
TLDR; Use Jump Mainly For Mobility with two subcategories => Escape and Pursuit. You can also use it for damage which can be done with the 'Jump Melee' Animation Cancel, and occasionally utilise your knockback to block off route of retreats for the enemy. (I don't often to TLDR's but I feel that it's appropriate in this case)
WINSTON PROJECTED BARRIER
This makes Winston project a shield dome with a 5 meter radius, 700 health, lasting 9 seconds with a 13 second cooldown.
WINSTON PROJECTED BARRIER + TECH USAGE
Barrier Cancels
You can animation cancel placing your dome with your melee (Slower to melee after you dome is deployed rather than before)
You can also cancel your reload animation although the delay still goes through so you'll just be standing there being unable to fire for a second or so (Hence I hedge against doing this)
Blocking Cooldowns > Damage
This is the most important piece of general playstyle advice; Winston's bubble is not designed to block large sums of damage so don't place it on payload or in a choke (Despite it having more HP than an Orisa shield)
Instead, you ideally want to block Ana's Sleep, Nade, Hog's Hook, Brig's Bash, McCree's Flashbang, which can then all make space for your DPS to have their damage stick to their enemies (When I say 'stick,' I essentially mean that Winston's Tesla Cannon denies/breaks even any healing applied, from Brig's Repair Pack or Mercy's Beam, hence any damage from your DPS can't be healed by the enemy as long as you are using your tesla cannon)
You also want to try and bubble as late as possible against enemies who have their stuns on cooldown, or don't have a stun at all. This will allow you to chase further without being punished as harshly since you don't have to walk out of bubble earlier than you'd normally would. In combination with your jump skip, you can go quite the extra distance without This can be punished by heroes w/ stuns since they can easily stun you mid air, or when you land
As an exception/side note, there are times where you may want to use your bubble to block both cooldowns and damage. For example, if your Genji engages with Nanoblade (or even with just the regular blade) you can jump in as aggressively as possible to absorb as many cooldowns, stuns, CC, even ultimates (where their Sigma may want to Solo Flux you) as possible; (This may be controversial) But even if you die, that shouldn't matter because your win condition is Nanoblade; Not keeping the Winston alive.
It's a similar line of reasoning to why back in the 2019 Stage 3 OWL Finals, Shanghai Dragons' mercy always flew in front of their Pharah during barrage to almost tank 100 HP worth of damage because the win condition is getting the barrage voiceline to finish rather than keeping the Mercy alive. Overwatch has changed a lot since then (Especially with damage creep and discussion revolving around why Face tanking simply isn't viable anymore) but I still feel that the principle can still apply in situations where your win condition is extremely powerful.
Shield Dancing
This is simply weaving on either side/the opposite side that the enemy is on from any edge of your bubble
There's almost no reason to not do this especially when drop engaging on the backline
Map Control/Holding Space
Take a look at this image here - In essence, it is showing the difference in map control if you decide to take and hold the highground on Ilios Ruins (The Highground with the Mega Healthpack Below it, as is on the coast of the map)
This highground not only allows you to freely drop on the enemy team when they path through main or coast, but can also deny any push/make it risky through the right side.
What does this have to do with your bubble? Well, some Winstons would actually give that space up when contested by a D.Va or even against a pocketed DPS; Without using their bubble or any cooldown.
Whilst it may sound ideal to save your cooldowns for later on, the space is more important than your bubble, which can deny D.Va's Micro Missles or Fusion Cannons which shred through your health pool. There is also a gap at the back end of the highground to retreat if needed, but can actually provide L.O.S. (line of sight) for your Ana or Bap to Heal you from relative safety (Or to even pocket you).
With this, you can force whoever contests you to retreat and escape, which means that they can't push in since they have to wait for their own resources before engaging; And by the time your bubble is coming back online, you can drop engage on their backline, and jump out if in danger.
Bubbling In-Between Fights
If you're familiar with my Zarya guide, you'll know that bubbling between the end of a teamfight and the start of the next one (Specifically 10 seconds before the next one starts) is key to retaining energy
In a similar way, you can use your barrier 13 seconds before the teamfight to chase down any kills (For example, a High Charged Zarya retreating on Nepal Sanctum) as you don't have to travel very far, and your bubble will be back up off cooldown before the next fight begins
Blocking Off Healing
Whilst niche, you can use your bubble in a Grav to cut off healing from a Transcendence or prevent a teammate from getting beat
The Shock (Specifically Smurf) Did this against the Vancouver Titans (The New Record For the Fastest Game in OWL) on Hanamura 1st Point Defense.
In order to do this, the zen/lucio must be on the other side of the bubble to block L.O.S.
WINSTON PRIMAL RAGE
This makes Winston refresh his health pool to 1000 (900 Health, 100 Armour) with a 30% increase in movement speed, dealing out melee attacks that do 40 damage a piece, with a 4 meter hit box, being able to swing every 0.66 seconds, with a duration of 10 seconds. Note that the jump pack cooldown goes down from 6 seconds to 2, and if you finish primal rage with more than 400 health, your normal health goes to 400. If you also finish primal rage with some armour left over, that will also be transferred (IE 950 Health in Primal, will turn into 450 Health after as you 50 armour left over from primal).
WINSTON PRIMAL RAGE TECH + USAGE
Whilst this isn't a conceptually difficult piece of kit to get your head around, the execution to pull off some of the key combos consistently is not only amazing game design, but one of the highest skill cap trade marks in the game. Hitbox x Interactions
Your jump cooldown is refreshed when you use primal, meaning that you can travel as far as a Reinhardt's pin but in the fraction of the time.
Your jump cooldown is refreshed when exiting primal. Keep an Eye on Winston's in OWL; You'll see a bunch of them engage at the very end of their primal because they know that they have a guaranteed escape as their jump is refreshed.
Considering the hitbox, similar to Reinhardt's Hammer, turn your camera in the direction that Winston swings his fists to extend the size of the hitbox to make it larger than it already is. On console, this can be hard to do whilst simultaneously landing your jump perfectly, and adding ontop of this, you need to time the swings so that you don't boop them away from your landing damage - Hence I'd increase sensitivity drastically unless you don't find this as a major problem.
You can also easily jump over your enemy (Due to the 30% increased movement speed) so in order to fix this, just simply look downwards when you swing to smack the enemy in front of you.
Primal Combo
JUMP then TESLA enemy (15-20 Damage)
LAND + MELEE Animation Cancel (50-70 Damage)
PRIMAL + SCHMACK (40 Damage)
JUMP then SCHMACK Mid-Air (40 Damage)
LAND (30-40 Damage)
SCHMACK (40 Damage)
REPEAT Steps 4 Through 6 If Not Dead
Total Estimate: 215 - 250 Damage (If You really are accurate, you could land the full 80 Damage in the Land + Melee Cancel, and oneshot a Mei) N.B. For Step 4. note that I'm NOT saying to START the smack animation mid air, but you need to HIT that smack mid air. The reason why is because if you smack too late, by the time you land, you won't be in range to land your 3rd Smack; The Landing damage may also not even apply as well. Of course, look down whilst smacking as well for the hitbox tip for the 2nd smack. Triple Melee Combo
SCHMACK
START Smack Animation
JUMP then SCHMACK Mid AiClose to Landing
LAND then SCHMACK
N.B. This is mainly used to displace enemies rather than to one shot them Corner Juggling When focusing down a single target, you'll often want them in a corner as they're easier to hit and focus, as well as you spending less time worried about movement.
Continuously Swing to utilise the knockback from your fists
Swing In Front of them so you don't accidentally boop them out of the corner if you jump into them
You ideally want to use your jump off cooldown to gain the extra damage
Building on the above, you want to short jump in front of them as this is the least amount of distance you can travel whilst still keeping your distance, alongside holding down your 'S' key every time you jump to maintain the distance
Jeopardising Backline L.O.S.
In terms of Primal's Usage, directing healing resources away from the frontline and into the supports themselves is certainly viable; With the goal of distraction rather than lethality (Especially considering how many abilities such as Sleep, Nade, Lamp, Harmony, Amp, Mercy Beam, Bash, Repair Pack etc. that can peel a teammate to prevent you doing damage)
However, you'd want to communicate this to your team to push up and focus tanks as they shouldn't be receiving healing for some time
Tanking Stuns
Similar with jumping in then bubbling aggressively to absorb any sort of damage or stun that can prevent your win condition, you can force out lengthy cooldowns such as Lamp, Sleep, Nade, or even Resurrect in some cases (Alongside Forcing out Zen Transcendence) that could prevent your win condition (Commonly Nanoblade, but not exclusive to Shatter, Grav, Amp Matrix etc.)
You could then call out which cooldowns have been used, then your Genji can make an informed decision whether to call for the nano or not (If he's indecisive, use Imperatives/Orders and make the decision for him)
Stalling
Primal can be used to stall as long as possible to either force out enemy utility for the next fight, to buy time for your team to get the extra 10-30% in ult charge to swing the fight, or both
Key Places to do this would be on Kings Row 2nd Point Defense at the very end, or instead of Kings Row, Gibraltar. If you haven't got primal (20-30 off) I'd definitely call for your Ana/Moira/Mercy to just pocket you, then use primal as a set up to get ultimates such as Grav online to then use that as your win condition - It's why Nanoboosting Winston when he's 20/30 off Primal is extremely powerful because of how many resources the enemy have to pour into just killing 1 target with crazy high amounts of knockback
Bubble Before Primal
While niche (Niche since you would have used your bubble to engage, then if you get low, you could always primal to get the refresh of 1000 HP) if you are planning to go aggressive, you could drop your bubble as deep as possible, to then primal to block any stuns that could stop your combo
I would typically hedge against doing this since you're not making use of the refreshed HP pool, and you may have killed that target by just your Tesla cannon anyway, but if you're planning to use primal, there's no harm in dropping a bubble before you primal
N.B. When you actually press Q/Triangle/Y to go Primal, it doesn't activate Primal immediately. What I mean by this is that the audio queue of Winston shouting plays before you actually get the HP refresh, so what ends up happening is: You use your ultimate at 10HP, but because of the slight delay in HP Refresh, you still get the audio queue but you die anyway. You don't lose the ultimate, but this delay can be annoying, hence I recommend using Primal a slight bit earlier than normal for this not to happen.
POSITIONING/PLAYSTYLE
This mainly depends upon your team composition unlike some other characters, as this will be determining whether your target priority, your win condition, and how fast you play.
When running long range, high damage DPS characters such as Pharah, Hanzo or Widowmaker (This'll be in the context of both teams running Winston D.Va mirrors) you want to be playing much slower, posturing around the tanks to gain primal as fast as possible, because their tanks simply can't exist with the high amount of damage you have.
This is a key component in counterdive, where as Winston, you want to be poking down their tanks (WITHOUT using cooldowns) to prevent them from being able to dive your backline. If they do, you can then use your abilities (Jump Pack, Bubble) to prevent as much follow up as possible
Whilst it may sound difficult to not use cooldowns, you ideally want to run Ana Mercy (Mercy for the Pharah/To Enable DPS) as the Ana gives a clear target for the opponent to dive, whilst providing a high amount of healing in the Poke Phase Against Lucio Mercy or even Brig Mercy in some cases
However, when running a dive DPS duo, you want to stage your dive with as little poke phase as possible. I've already mentioned setting up killboxes with Hack Fist but specifically in that case, you'll be wanting to utilise your cleave burst damage to kill any squishy target.
For further details on the ins and outs of Hackfist, I recommend taking a look at Jayne coach Contenders Trials Team 'Incipience' at Hanamura and Nepal
WINSTON TANK SYNERGIES
Winston Zarya: This is definitely an underrated combo, as Winston is guaranteed to take damage during a dive. Make sure to call for your Zarya to push up when you create space to be able to retain it over time. Both of your weapons are also beam damage, meaning that this is on paper, a good duo against Diva (Especially an overtly aggressive one taking too much unnecessary damage). Winston Sigma: Whilst this duo has no direct synergy in terms of ultimates and abilities, you have good coverage of the high and low ground. However, perhaps Reinhardt is a better pick than Sigma in order to be more aggressive whenever you dive in on the backline, and Sigma may be left vulnerable if you decide to posture around tanks. Winston Reinhardt: This has a slightly better synergy than the previous combo due to the Winston barrier being used to block important cooldowns such as Nade, which can prevent your Reinhardt from being aggressive, although target priority and playstyle pace may differ. Winston Orisa: Whilst you can combo your jump pack with Orissa’s halt, there are much more efficient combos, alongside your inability to dive the backline without feeding due to Orissa’s static nature. Soft flanks and soft engages are by far your best bet, but if you are forced to poke down tanks, Sigma may be the better pick. Winston Hog: This is the worst duo for Winston due to the little synergy that both of them have. Ball Hog would be much better due to each tank being able to survive on their own, whereas you’d be constantly stuck in the poke phase as Winston as your hardly have any frontline support. Winston Ball: This is the most aggressive dive due to Ball’s pile driver burst alongside your jump pack melee burst. However, there is nothing to stop you from taking damage, and if the enemy team have many stuns alongside the ability to kite on a wide map such as Junkertown, you will most likely feed. Winston Diva: Best for last. This way, you have some safety during your dive, alongside the versatility to posture and poke against both tanks better than Winston ball in case you want to play a slow dive. I would say 'thanks for reading this guide,' but honestly, no words in the English dictionary can express my appreciation and gratitude to the sheer amount of support these guides receive. (Most Upvoted Comment Receives Small Award :)) Here's my schedule up until Late August: August 7th: ORISA August 14th: ROADHOG August 21st-23rd: Setting Up a System For VOD Reviews The reason why I haven't gotten/updated past mid August is because I'm planning to do VOD Reviews for any Support/Main Tank. I'm planning something for a larger scale by that point (A system set up very similar to how content creator SVB does his VOD Reviews but with much, much less reliance on Patreon) but until then, I hope you stay tuned ;) P.S. DM me if you'd like a VOD in the future as I already have a few requests that'll be prioritised!
Issue #1: Draft Day Written by: dwright5252 Edited by: JPM11S, AdamantAce Previous IssueNext Issue> “You can’t pick Superman.” “You said I got first pick, and who better to add to the team than the Man of Steel himself?” “If we wanted to call as much attention to ourselves as possible, he would be a fine choice. However, consider this a covert operation where not being the center of attention is the goal. Besides, he’s too important to the timeline to pull him out.” “Ugh, fine. But that’s your one veto according to the rules.” “Whatever makes this progress go faster. Now, pick someone we can actually add to the team.” Markovburg, Markovia. 2020 It had taken Violet all these months, but finally she found a location that seemed… familiar to her. She had tried her best to retrace her steps, though her memories only went back as far as the secret base of the 1,000. Returning there took a strength she didn’t know she had; the stench of death had fused into the walls of the compound and made her visit there that much more unbearable. She found little evidence of her existence, almost as if her time in captivity was but a horrible nightmare. However, she did find one link to her possible past: a heavily redacted file mentioning the only name she knew and a location, Markovia. Traveling to another country on the other side of the world without any proper documentation was difficult, and she knew attempting the journey with her aura would drain her considerably. The arrangements took longer than she would have liked, and all that time she spent in cramped quarters and the damp holds of rocking boats. Nothing to do to pass the time but practice… Test… Hone. By the time she reached the shores of the country, smuggled in through the exported goods surrounding her, she felt more in touch with herself than she ever remembered. Maybe that’s why the streets of the Markovian capital felt safe to her. Like she had sought refuge here before. The tales she’d heard pertaining to the state of this country were of a utopia of sorts, that the people were thriving and the leadership was guiding Markovia to a new golden age. The truth of the matter was slightly different. Violet was met with soldiers walking the streets, a few harassing citizens as they walked by, but most minding their own business. If she didn’t know any better, Violet would’ve thought she was back in the 1,000 with guards preventing her from leaving, but was glad that most of the people seemed to walk without interference and seemed safe. “” a voice from behind her said. She was surprised she understood what they were saying, as it was clear they weren't speaking English. She turned around and found herself face to face with two soldiers, each one towering over her. One of the guards, an older man with reddish hair, had his hand out expectantly. “” Violet replied, easily recalling the language from some newly unlocked portion of her mind. The guard advanced on her, grabbing at her hijab. Instinctively she swatted his hand away, causing him to grab her arm roughly. “” the soldier sneered. As his grip tightened around her wrist, Violet instinctively felt her aura change to red as a force field formed around her and pushed outwards, forcing the two soldiers to the ground. Quraci. That word struck a chord with her, but she didn’t have time to dwell on it as the eyes of the people around them were suddenly upon her. She saw fear in their eyes, another pang of memory striking deep within her again. People feared her before… But why? Why do they fear her now? She was only protecting herself. “” the guard shouted from the ground, causing everyone around the square to approach her. Violet quickly summoned her orange aura, lifting into the air and away from the attacking townspeople. She saw the soldiers ready their rifles, and decided her best course of action would be to run away. She didn’t want the bullets bouncing off of her and hurting innocents, as much as she was frustrated by their blind loyalty and fear. Soon Violet found herself in an out of the way alley, away from the roar of the newly formed mob trying to find her. She took several calming breaths, placing her hands on her knees as she steadied herself in the dark corner. “Hey Violet! Long time no see!” She whirled around, willing her aura into a golden glow as she prepared to blast the person behind her. Before she could, a spark of recognition ignited within her, one that lit into a full flame when she saw the familiar visage of Booster Gold. “Michael!” she shouted, embracing the gold-clad figure in a tight hug. He returned it, then stood back to get a good look at her. “When you said you wanted to find some answers about yourself, I didn’t think that’d lead to you being chased by soldiers,” he joked, clearly trying to relieve the tension Violet was sure was on her face. She forced a smile and rubbed her wrist, emanating a violet aura that caused the pain to recede into her. “Nice to see you have some practice with your powers though!” “I have been working hard, but still find myself lacking what I need,” she said quietly. “I fear I may never discover my identity.” Violet saw Booster smile, which she thought was odd considering the sad statement she just made. “Can I ask what you find enjoyable about my failure to find myself?” Booster shook his hands, eyes growing wide. “No no no! I don’t find that funny at all! I was just smiling because I have something that can help you.” “I appreciate your insistence in aiding me, but I am fine on my own,” Violet said, beginning to walk away from him. Though it would help to have someone to work through the fog with her, Violet knew the dangers that lay in the unknown. She couldn’t subject him to such horrors that she might have to face. “Please, just hear me out. I’m putting a team together, a team that helps people. You’re perfect for it, and we can help you find who you really are in between missions.” Booster walked up next to her, displaying a holograph from his wrist of a strange looking ship. “We’d be traveling through time, and we need someone with your abilities. Hell, I don’t even care about those, I want someone with your mindset.” Violet studied Booster’s face, looking for traces of deception or ulterior motives. It was hard for her to believe what he was saying, but she saw how he and his friends helped her escape the 1,000. Even if they couldn’t help her find what she was looking for, she did owe him. “I will help you.” Violet nodded, though she couldn’t shake the feeling this partnership might not work out in her favor. “We can help her find out who she really is, right?” “I don’t see why not. It seems like this… Violet has no real effect on the timeline.” “Could you maybe be a little less… assholey? Besides, it’s your pick.” “I pick Matthew Tyler.” “Really? You’re picking the android you’ve already worked with? That’s such a boring pick!” “I can rely on him; he gets the job done. Your pick, and try not to pick the most recognizable heroes on the planet.” “... You’re the worst.” Radiance, Pennsylvania. 2020 The Anthracite Bar and Grill was the perfect place for Mitch Shelley: dark, out of the way, and a place where nobody asked you questions. Radiance was, by all accounts, a small slice of Americana you only saw in the travel guides. “A Small Town With a Big Heart” was its motto, and Mitch really disliked how friendly most of the townsfolk were. Thankfully he found the Anthracite, the lump of coal in the stack of diamonds that was this picture perfect town. There were only two other patrons at the bar along with Mitch and the bartender: one that was slumped unconscious on the pool table while the other drunkenly warbled to the general tune of whatever song came on the faded jukebox in the corner. As Mitch downed his third beer under the glow of the Lash Whiskey sign, the door to the establishment swung open, letting in the sunshine that the barkeep had spent so long trying to block out. “Hard man to find,” said an annoying voice as someone sat at the stool right next to Mitch. It was one thing for someone to barge into a bar with such loud gusto, but another thing entirely to sit right next to someone when there were literally open seats everywhere else. “How’s that sponsorship you stole from me going?” Mitch looked up into the blue eyes of that one idiot he had to save back in North Carolina. He couldn’t be bothered to remember his name. “Well, all’s forgiven!” The man slapped Mitch on the back, causing some of the beer to spill from the mug in front of him. The bartender quickly grabbed the mug and refilled it, shooting the intruder a dirty look. “Listen, I’m putting a team together, and I think you’d be a perfect fit.” Mitch, now thoroughly annoyed at the loudmouth, turned in his stool to look him in the face. God, what a punchable face. “Fuck off,” Mitch stated, his words piercing the music around them. The grinning idiot’s stupid grin faltered before he gave a hesitant chuckle. “Always the kidder, this one,” the clown said to the bartender, who continued to stare daggers at him. “Look, I know we didn’t get off on the right foot-” “If you don’t leave this bar in the next five seconds, I’m going to freeze that smile on your face and smash your head into pieces to use as ice cubes.” Mitch took the mug from the bartender and demonstrated his latest power, turning the glass frosted and the beer frozen before slamming it onto the bar. “Messaged received.” The idiot gulped and made a beeline to the door, letting in the sunlight one last time before returning the bar to the familiar darkness. “Fucking moron,” Mitch Shelley, the Resurrection Man muttered before placing a crisp $100 bill on the bar for the owner. “Another round.” “OKAY, guess it’s my pick then.” “Whoa whoa whoa! That doesn’t count for me, the guy turned me down!” “Still, he was your pick and he didn’t work out. Guess it’s my turn again.” “You literally suck the fun out of everything you do, you know that right?” “It’s all part of the heavy responsibility of being a Time Master. You’ll learn about it someday.” Gotham City. 2046 “Blast it!” A marker collided against the wall of Gotham University’s Physics Department, a sign of the frustration and fatigue felt by the thrower. David Clinton had gone over the formulas again and again to no avail. He had accounted for the rotation and placement of the Earth, the differences in elemental levels across the various decades, the various limits of the human body and the protections against those shortcomings. He did the math again and again, coming so close to his answer that he was sure it was right there, right on the tip of his brain. And yet, he still came up empty. The elusive concept and execution of time travel lay beyond his grasp. The other professors, once amused at his little “side project” now looked at him with pity-filled eyes, looked at him like a man without a purpose. But he did have a purpose, and he was so close to achieving something he worked his whole life to accomplish. “What variable have I left unaccounted? What am I missing?” David yelled into his empty lecture hall, the mass of numbers and equations on the clear board in front of him beginning to mock him like his colleagues. “You’re on the right track.” David looked out into the seats of the hall and saw a man with a five o’clock shadow, dirty blonde hair and a green shirt. “Sometimes all you need is a little inspiration.” “W-who are you?” David asked, slightly frightened by the presence of this unknown entity. He was positive he had locked the lecture hall to provide him with maximum privacy. “How did you get in here.” “Call me Rip,” the man responded, holding out a hand. David ignored the handshake offer, instead walking over to retrieve his marker. “And let’s just say it’d take more than locks to keep me out of somewhere I want to go. But you know all about that, don’t you?” David felt a bead of sweat drip down his forehead. Did this man know about his after hour excursions to the labs? No, he couldn’t. David made sure he was never seen. “What do you want?” David questioned the man before him, wondering what exactly his game was. “I want to help you succeed in your mission.” The man held out his other hand and displayed a feat of engineering Clinton had only dreamt of. From what he could tell from the shape of the vessel and the configuration its hull and engine was in, there was only one theoretical use for it. This was what he had been working towards, but actually finished. “Is that… a time machine?” David saw the future, his future all in a simple projection. Could this man be for real? “Yep, the genuine article,” Rip confirmed, switching off the projection. “You can finally fulfill your dream, show all of your colleagues you were right. All you have to do is come with me.” David found himself lost in a daydream of all the places he wanted to visit, the things he wanted to see. The assassination of Caesar in the Senate. The execution of Blackbeard. The Battle of Gettysburg. This is the moment his life has led him to. “How do I know this isn’t a scam?” David said, hedging his bets as he thought about the potential outcomes. It could be an elaborate hoax from his peers. It could be a sting operation to get him to confess to the thefts he’d made in order to fund his project. It could have been a lot of things. But what if it was real? “I guess you won’t unless you come with me,” Rip replied, shrugging his shoulders as he began to walk out of the lecture hall. David Clinton pushed all of the possibilities aside and allowed himself to come to the conclusion of the hypothesis he desired to be proven. “This guy seems like a real dreg. Are you sure we want this egghead on the team?” “He has the theory of time travel down pretty well, meaning I won’t have to explain the consequences of getting this wrong to him.” “Does he really end up inventing time travel?” “Would I have plucked him from the timeline if he did?” “Good point. OK, my pick…. How about her?” “Very funny, now who’s your next pick?” “It’s her, I want her on the team. Seems like we need to even out the boring parts you’re adding with some excitement.” “Booster, she’s a criminal. She’s too much of a wild card; I veto her.” “You already used your veto, and I’m going to use my golden ticket to push her through to the team.” “What the hell does that mean? What golden ticket?” “Listen, why should I suffer if you haven’t had the pleasure of watching Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory? She’s in.” “... Fine, but if she ends up being a disaster-” “Yeah, I know. It’ll be my fault. I’m willing to take that risk, because I’m positive I know how to sell this to her so she keeps on message.” “I’d love to see this.” Tinderland Penitentiary. 2020 For a maximum security prison, Deirde Harkness was pretty impressed with how cozy it felt. Sure, the guards were as rude as ever, preventing her from getting into any thrilling situations like a lunchroom brawl or a breakout attempt, but honestly she couldn’t have asked for nicer inmates. They understood her need for the adrenaline rush that came from randomly decking someone in the face, and they responded in kind with such enthusiasm she would’ve sworn they actually wanted to kill her if she didn’t know better. “Rot in hell, copycat!” one of the inmates yelled through his bars as the guards guided Dierdre to the solitary confinement wing of the prison. “Try not to tilt your head back, never a good thing to do with all that blood gushing from your nose!” Deirdre responded cheerily, attempting to wave to the inmate with her cuffed hands. The guard to her left gave her a shove and urged her forward. The escape plan she was being sent to solitary confinement for definitely wasn’t her finest hour. Sure, she had no real drive to break out just yet, but she was disappointed in how… pedestrian it all was. Trying to sneak out through the laundry shoot? She was better than that. The thrill of accidentally getting caught in a spin cycle was nothing compared to a riot. That would’ve been better. “On a scale of one to ten, how badly do you want to kick my ass for that stupid escape attempt?” Deirdre asked the guards behind her as she was pushed into a small cell. “What was I thinking? Seriously, have you guys ever seen a worse attempt?” “Warden says you like picking fights, you little adrenaline junkie,” the hulking guard with a bristly mustache said, ignoring her question. “Good luck fighting without anyone around.” Deirdre smiled pleasantly at the guards as the door slammed shut. Looking around at her home for the foreseeable future, she respected how quickly the warden reacted to her actions. Usually they allowed for a little anarchy from the prisoners, knowing that certain people need to mark their territory and stuff. However, she got shut down after only two misdemeanors. Maybe it was different with inmates that took on the Flash. She knew that some of her father’s old teammates ended up in the old Iron Heights, back before the Rogues burned it down, now and then, and if she didn’t hate the son of a bitch so much she might have felt honored to be in it’s replacement. “Yo, you the new Boomerang?” A muffled voice came through the wall to her right, causing her to lean in close to talk to it. “And improved,” Deirdre added, sitting down on the pitiful excuse they called a mattress. “Definitely in the looks department.” “Still got taken down like the old Boomer,” the voice guffawed. “They say you tried to fly away from the Flash?” “Who would’ve thought he could get that high in the air? That was a rush for sure,” Deirdre sighed, remembering the attempted kidnapping like it was yesterday. “Addicted to that rush, huh?” Deirdre was surprised to hear another voice in her cell, only this time the owner was actually inside with her. “Pretty crowded for solitary confinement,” she noted as she looked over the tall guy standing in front of the steel door. From the look of his costume and the stupid grin on his face, Deirdre immediately pegged him as a hero. “Here to give me the lecture on how evil never triumphs and good wins out? I like a good story to put me to sleep, that’s mighty considerate of you.” “I have a feeling that wouldn’t work with you,” the hero shook his head, leaning himself against the door. “I have a bet going with someone that I can get you to come with me.” “Don’t know if you’ve noticed, darling, but my schedule’s booked solid for more than a few years. Why don’t we talk again in… oh… a decade or two?” Deirdre could see the hero was enjoying her banter, something she appreciated compared to the no nonsense Flash. “That’s where you’re wrong. What if I told you I can get you out of here without anyone noticing? And then what if I followed that up with the thrill of a lifetime?” The hero crossed his arms and waited for an answer. “Community service isn’t a thrill, Gold Bond.” Deirdre slumped against the wall, disappointed that this hero might not be so fun after all. “Did I mention it’s a time machine? And that you get to fight a bunch of people through time And did I mention I’m not actually getting permission to take you out of jail?” Deirdre picked herself off the cot and leapt to her feet. That was the last thing she was expecting to hear from the golden action figure in front of her. “You’re more than meets the eye it seems,” Deirdre rubbed her hands together, ready for the adventure he’d promised. “Let’s get going!” “Hey, how come she gets out?” The voice on the other side of the wall lamented. “She’s a lot more interesting than you, buddy!” The hero replied before grabbing Deirdre’s arm and teleporting them out of the prison. “Welp, I think we have our team.” “Not so fast, I get one more pick.” “Frakk, I was hoping you’d forget about that. What boring pencil pusher do you have in store this time?” “Actually… I think you’ll appreciate this one.” Metropolis, 2480 Michelle Carter walked through the pristine halls of the Metropolis Space Museum, thinking about old times. Her brother used to work in the museum, not as the curator like she was or as a guide but as the janitor. She was proud of him for working through the pain he’d suffered, the embarrassment and shame brought upon him by his bad decisions. She was upset and concerned when he suddenly vanished without a trace, leaving her to look after their sick mother. After she passed, Michelle spent years searching for any sign of Michael, hoping he’d come home and realize there was nothing that couldn’t be forgiven, no chasms between each other that couldn’t be crossed. But as the years went by, Michelle found herself succumbing to the anger. It was a side of her she didn’t like, a side she inherited from him, and one she tried so hard to keep at bay. Michael left them, just like he did. Soon she found that anger for the two absent family members fused into one, like an amalgam of hate and shame. She had no one anymore. All she had were memories and a cold trail. Then, a man named Rip Hunter… No, he wasn’t ‘Rip Hunter,’ Michelle reminded herself… A man named Vandal Savage came and told her what had happened to her brother. Instead of facing the consequences of his actions, he decided to make a name for himself in the past as a superhero. The rage consumed her whole, and she found herself helping this supposed “Time Master” rig a trap to cause him to see justice. Finally he can be responsible. So she became Supernova, she lured “Booster Gold” into his community service. But when she saw Michael, still young after all of this time, she found the anger start to simmer. This was her brother, her best friend. She felt at war with herself, angry at his abandonment but happy he was alive and doing what he wanted to do. Then she found out he wasn’t her brother at all. The “Michael Carter” she discovered in the past was from another world, a parallel dimension. Instead, her real brother had spent years acting as a time travel secret agent, completely shutting himself off from his family to protect them. The real Michael, now going by “Rip Hunter” (as if the name didn’t make her want to throw up before) explained everything to her, offered a weak apology and dropped her off back in her “proper” time. And here she was, running the very museum that started this whole affair. She would’ve laughed at the poetry if it didn’t make her immensely sad. As she stood in front of the Hall of Heroes, unable to summon the courage to walk through, a hand landed on her shoulder. “Hey, sis.” And there he was, specks of grey encroaching into his dirty blonde hair, wearing that stupid vintage letterman jacket he always insisted on wearing. He wore a small smile, but Michelle could tell there was actual sadness in his eyes. She thought he’d given up feelings a long time ago. “Mikey,” Michelle whispered, looking him over to make sure he was real. “I thought you weren’t-” “I know what I said.” He sighed, looking down at the ground as his hands fiddled in the pockets of his jacket. “I said a lot of things, and there are a lot of things I should’ve said that I didn’t.” “You don’t have to say anything,” Michelle said, holding up a hand. “I understand your job comes first.” “But that doesn’t mean you have to come last,” Michael asserted. “Listen, I know I can be a real asshole sometimes-” “Understatement of the century,” Michelle scoffed. “I deserved that,” Michael admitted, taking his hand out of his pocket to scratch his scruffy chin. “And you deserve this.” He took the other hand from his pocket and held out a small key. Michelle studied it, noting how ancient it looked. “You didn’t steal this from the Revolutionary Wing, did you?” she asked, taking the key and inspecting it. “No, it’s the key to the Waverider. I mean, technically the ship doesn’t operate with a key so this is mostly a symbolic gesture but you get what I’m trying to say, right?” Michelle noticed how nervous he looked, reminding her of the time she helped him out with a school bully. “Yes, Mikey, I understand.” She held the metal fob in her hand, considering the weight of it. This could be her chance to reconnect with him, forge a new path forward in their relationship. But more importantly than that, Michelle recalled flying through the air as Supernova, seeing the cities below her from a new and different angle. She remembered the joy of being somewhere other than here, like she was truly making a difference. She wanted to feel that way again, and it only took a visit from her estranged brother to remind her.
Morning/Afternoon/Evening/far too late for you to still be online, or whatever time you're reading this at. I'm back, with the 4th installment. This one is focused on the Resistance catching their breath after the recent fight, and talking with their new prisoners. It is also the largest one yet, as far as I can tell, so I hope you like it. Currently I'm thinking of uploading on a roughly 9 day cycle. The next episode is already planned out and half done, but I'm planning on putting out a supplemental at roughly the same time, that will give a different perspective, at least as a one-off. If I think it works, there will likely be more supplemental episodes, although I can't really spoil what they'll be about. This episode may contain hints as to what I'm thinking of though. Anyway I've rambled for long enough, here's your story! Comments, questions, etc, please leave them if you got them. (First)) (Prev) (Next) The first thing Murray saw, much like the last thing he’d seen before passing out, was Thompson staring at his face. “Ay, Captain’s awake! How are you feeling, sir?” Thompson grinned. “Like shit. Where are we?” “That’s better than not feeling anything. Sid took us to some abandoned houses, said they were far enough to avoid suspicion of the base but close enough to allow for a withdrawal. We’re about 30 minutes of walking away from it right now.” “Where did they put the prisoners?” “Locked the collabs in the shed, commander got locked in the garage, they brought in some kind of gas filled helmet to keep him drugged. Sid didn’t interrogate them, says he wanted you to be awake for it.” “Fine. Tell him I’ll be up as soon as my legs feel like working again.” “Afternoon Murray. Hope you like months old branflakes for breakfast, because that’s all there is left in here that won’t require cooking.” “That’s the first thing you say? Not ‘are you ok’, you mention food?” “Yeah well I know you’re alright because you aren’t crawling along the floor to me.” Sid changed his tone slightly. “You know, I could have sworn, the last thing I said to you before you took the commander down, was ‘I don’t want any of you getting hurt capturing this guy.’ Yet here you are, with a hole in your arm and nearly a day out of the picture.” “Not all orders are followed through on, Sid. Anyway, let’s not talk about that please?” “Because you fucked up and know it?” Sid’s voice had a clear note of snark injected into it. “Maybe. How’s my squad?” “Slater has been moved to a medical safehouse so we can ensure his health, same with Hibberd. I assume you’ll want us to try and get them back to the continent asap. Rest of your squad is staying here while we handle the interrogation.” “Fine by me. Shall we go talk to our friend in the garage, then?” Sid smiled, and produced a video camera from the cluttered table next to him. Sid opened the garage’s back door, stepping through into the makeshift interrogation building, and out of the now-pouring rain. Murray took time to note that a Hekatian IFV had crashed into the semi-detached next door, presumably in order to hide it from enemy aerial recon. Two Resistance soldiers were inside the garage, guns trained on the sleeping figure. The Hekatian was in an electric wheelchair, the kind that was so large it couldn’t move without power. Sid nodded, and one went over to a jury-rigged contraption with a hose connected to the alien’s new helmet. He flipped a lever to the off position, before withdrawing an opened gas canister and rapidly tossing it away into a far off garden. “We built this little doohickey a while ago, when we realised the effects of tear gas on them. It’s basically just Scuba diving gear with a few special changes. Uses gas canisters, trickles it in small amounts, so they can still breathe but they’re out cold. Give him a few minutes and he’ll be back to life.” “Interesting. Who designs this stuff?” “This particular design, it came from some guys in Manchester, we’re just the first to put it into action. Rest of the time, it’s the work of our chief technician, Erin. She works with Len who’s better at the actual building part, but Erin can get the theory written up better than anyone. She’s to blame for the Mk 5.” Murray glanced around the garage. It was barren and empty, except for a few large boxes of dog food. Opposite the contraption, was a table with several cardboard boxes and a sign that said ‘for special use only’. “Owners had pets. Would they have evacuated with them?” “Hopefully, that’s what my family did with ours. Hekatians made pets illegal, fuck knows why but we guess it’s them trying to avoid catching diseases off them. That or it’s a cultural thing. Vets have their work cut out when it comes to euthanising, but lots of people are hiding their pets decently.” “So what did you do when the invasion hit?” Murray decided to change topic from the quite depressing thought of mass dog murder. “Family decided to evacuate, we got priority status on medical grounds. I realised when I got there, there were so many people trying to get out, and so little space, there was no reason for me to take up room.” “Hope you don’t mind me asking, but were your family-” “On the Bruges? No, they were evacuated before it sank. Terrible to think about though, what are they saying, about 1000 odd killed? Anyway, I went back home, grabbed whatever stuff I still had left over from cadets. Plan was to go up to Scotland, hide out with a few family members I have up there, and wait this out. Then I met up with the rest of my old cadet detachment, we formed together into a group for support, and ended up coming into contact with the nascent resistance. After that, I just kept going up the ranks.” “You heard from your family since?” “They’re in a refugee camp near Hamburg, they’re doing alright for now. Helps to know that they’re safe while I’m fighting.” The two stared at the bound alien. He’d been stripped of his armour, and clothed in a spare pair of pyjamas. Murray pointed towards the zip ties that almost completely encircled his arms and legs, and connected him to the wheelchair. “Interesting choice.” “Ay, well, they work. One time, when I was in cadets, some guys zip tied a guy with tourettes, kind that makes you clap when others do it. Psychos zip tied him to his bed in the middle of the night, then in the morning when he woke up they just clapped over him for a good 5 minutes. They only stopped doing it because of a bloody fire drill. That’s how I know these things are tough enough.” “Jesus.” Murray was at a loss for what more to say, so he pointed towards the alien, again trying to change the topic. “Do we know if they all speak English?” “The grunts have some sort of translator they use to talk to civvies, so I’d assume a regional commander would too, right? Ah, he’s waking up now.” Sid passed the camera to one of the guards, before he then moved towards the commander. Wake the fuck up mate!” Sid began shaking the Hekatian, before pulling it’s helmet off. “What’s your name?” A thin, raspy voice came from the pathetic creature. This was Murray’s first glance at a Hekatian’s face so far. It was heavily wrinkled, with two separate pairs of eyes, although it only seemed to open the bottom two. The nose was effectively just a large hole with a flap that opened and closed as necessary. It’s mouth looked roughly like that of a cat’s, in how they stretched around the curve of its face. It was also totally and utterly devoid of hair. Noticeably, there were several clearly technological parts to it. The ears were clipped with black boxes. Over the top right eye was what looked like a little augmented reality display, which was directly connected into the skull. There was another box located on it’s neck. “Brigadier General Dristankeokiorofenx.” The box was the source of it’s translated speech. Murray also noted that the mouth didn’t move at all, which likely meant a neural interface of some kind was translating his thoughts into speech.. “I’m not going to call you that. From now on you’re called… Joe, fuck it, might as well call you Joe Bloggs. Let’s start off simple. What the fuck are you doing on our planet?” Sid didn’t seem interested in formality. “Simple? Bah. Worthless humour. It’s nothing against you or your planet, we’re just expanding. Bringing our light to countless worlds. You’re not the first people we’ve come down on.” “There are other alien species that you’ve taken down? How advanced were they, and what did you do with them?” Murray decided to ask his first question. “It varied. Some were stone age, others carried medieval swords and knives, others were running around with primitive firearms. A few even developed the art of flying. The Alganemians, they had better guns than you do, but we did bring more down on them in wave one I suppose. They are all part of our empire now.” Murray noted the translator appeared to have some cultural context. “Wave one? Is that what this is? Advance guard before a main force? How large is it total?” “The 85th Strike Army Group is what I am part of. I am merely commander of a brigade of soldiers. Our force is roughly equivalent to… about 1 million Hekatians.” Sid let out a whistle at that. “Of that, how many are frontline?” Murray was intrigued by the size of the army. “A little over a half.” “That’s a good T3R, you must have automated logistics a lot right?” “Indeed.” “So what’s the rough plan? How does this play out normally?” Sid started turning it back to matters of strategy. “We land on an island of reasonable size, and good geographical location. Doesn’t matter about population, we’ve landed on everything from uninhabited ones to completely packed ones. Set up permanent bases, defeat counterattacks, whatever. Wave 2 usually lands anywhere between several months to a few years after, depending on urgency and strength of resistance. Last plans I looked at said about a year and a half latency for you guys though. Wave 2 then expands outwards from there, using the original island as a springboard for total conquest of the world.” Sid looked slightly unsettled by the alien’s comments. Not surprising, his plans were likely operating on a much longer timescale. “What about nukes? Do you guys not just use them to wipe resistance out? You ever been nuked during an invasion?” “Not all of wave one works on the ground. We have to set up our own infrastructure for when the planet is ours, you know? Part of that, it’s anti ballistic missile stuff. Same reason we don’t just nuke you to dust, we want this planet and it’s people as close to intact for integration. We have no ill will towards the humans, we want you to join our stellar imperium.” “Let’s say that, tomorrow, the entirety of wave one drops dead, just because of magic. What happens to wave two? Can they carry on their mission?” “No. Wave two is so large that it requires special beacons to prevent landing issues, as well as plenty of infrastructure to sustain itself. If we went dark, then they’d be forced to cancel, and a new wave one would have to be organised. It’s happened before, although that was due to an unfortunate combination of geological events wiping out the first wave. If some of the first wave survives by the time wave two arrives, then only part of wave two can land, the rest will have to wait in orbit for additional beacons to be placed.” “Number 3, you getting this?” Sid turned to the soldier who held the camera. He nodded and held up a thumb to signal the camera was functioning. Before entering, they’d agreed to not use real names, in order to prevent the enemy possibly finding them out in the event of a successful escape. Reprisals were a real threat, just because you were in the Resistance didn’t mean your family members were safe. “Just to clarify, if wave one were to be destroyed, then wave two would be incapable of landing, which would give us a reprieve from the invasion, at least for a while?” “Correct, although the second attempt always comes back much stronger. We will try again and again until we succeed. If enough attempts fail, well we’ll just take an FTL drive, and crash something into the offending planet at beyond light speed.” That was a worrying prospect. How would they be able to prevent further incursions, if the Hekatians controlled so much territory? Why were they fighting if the Hekatians could just obliterate them instantly? “How large is your, ahem, stellar imperium? You have faster than light travel? Any other ftl species out there?” “Yes, our assault pods are equipped with faster than light engines. The Hekatian Stellar Imperium spans a 10th of the Milky Way. The rest is owned by different empires, yet none have the same size as us alone. However they are in many alliances which make it difficult for us to expand through their space. We came to your world, like many others, in order to uplift it into the galactic community.” “Your motives sound nice, though I can’t help but notice your means. Overcrowded refugee camps? Martial law? The Ilford Massacre? I’ve been under your occupation for 6 months, and you don’t seem to show a lick of care for the people you’re trying to ‘uplift’.” “You’re that terrorist leader aren’t you… what’s your name then boy?” “Don’t remember giving you permission to ask questions.” “Fine. Look, we have plenty of info on your people, we know all about your history. You think your empire was kind and polite to it’s subjects? You think...Iraq, that’s it, you think they were happy about you coming in?” “Two things can be bad at once, you know?” Sid responded without missing a beat. “Look, before this gets into a debate between you two, I still have questions to ask. Joe, if you’re so advanced that you have ftl, why aren’t you that much more advanced than us on the battlefield? Your stuff is ahead of us, but mostly only by decades. Sure the plasma weapons are advanced but in some ways they’re behind our guns, mainly rate of fire.” “You assume progress in everything is infinite, or that we need it to be improved. Past a certain point there are real physical limits on improvement, and diminishing returns. The Hekatian Star Imperium has been in space for 10,000 years, and the core kit of an infantryman hasn’t changed since the premiership of Lagrandaultrex, 4,000 years ago. Much better to invest in getting between worlds faster, than shell out for some tech that saves you maybe a day or two in your conquest.” “2 more questions. What’s with the other eyes? Why don’t you open them?” Murray was still bugged by this and wanted to know. “My upper eyes are for long range vision, the lower eyes are specialised for close range.” “Makes sense. Final question, what did you do to me in that fight? I was out cold for a whole day.” “My armour carries special miniature injection ports for killing opponents in hand to hand with toxins. It seems our drugs only knock you out though. How unfortunate.” Murray was amazed by how the sneer came through the translation device. “Ok. That’s me all done now.” “Excellent. Number 1, if you’d kindly step outside for a few minutes while I talk to our friend about the limits of his knowledge on the resistance, that would be much appreciated.” Sid was walking towards the ‘special use’ boxes, and Murray suddenly felt he would not enjoy staying much longer. “Actually, might be worth you talking to our collab friends while I’m busy. Ahmed will give you the shed key.” Murray walked out of the garage, closing the door behind him. He immediately heard the sounds of a drill being turned on, and realised now definitely had been the right time to leave the garage. Murray wandered towards the small shed, flanked by Ahmed. He was a young one, couldn’t have been older than 16 or so. Cadet-turned-resistance-fighter, Murray assumed. Ahmed stuck the key in, unlocking it. This gave Murray his first glimpse inside. There were 4 collabs, all over the wooden floor. They had been tied together, with zip ties or garden hoses, whatever seemed to have been available. Ear defenders covered their heads. All had blindfolds, not that it made a difference, as the shed was incredibly dark, until he pulled out a small torch. “What, you thought we were gonna waste guards on them?” Murray supposed Ahmed was correct. Still, it was weird that the aliens seemed to garner more care than the collabs. Murray pushed the ear defenders of the prisoners up, likely the first time they’d had their sensory deprivation broken in a while. “Can you all hear me? Can you speak?” A chorus of relieved yeses came from the group, who must have been under the impression this represented a rescue. “Good. Now, I’m here to ask you some questions. If, at any point, I don’t get answers I like, I’ll be giving out some interesting tips on how to properly lock you all up.” There was a sudden nervous twinge to the prisoners. “For example, I could tell them how to build a high quality, CIA-approved isolation chamber, with just a few bits of cardboard tubing and those very ear defenders you have on right now. Do you want me to tell them that?” A frantic shaking of the heads ensued. “Good! First off: what work do you do for the Hekatians?” “We’re police! Nothing more, nothing less! They tell us where to patrol, they give us some vests and their radios, and we stop people from looting! That’s all!” One man, probably in his late 50s, immediately responded, almost crying out. The others nodded frantically as he emphasised the limited nature of their role. “So you’re just like, government approved vigilantes then? Or do you get extra food for collaborating?” Murray noticed that Len was walking up the garden path towards the shed. “They give us and our families extra food! We get guaranteed housing, food that’s not just fucking bread, guaranteed medication! My kid has epilepsy, I need this to make sure she gets her meds!” The reply came from a younger man, probably mid 30s. This was the first time Murray noticed little name stickers, on which the last names of the collabs had been written by resistance soldiers, placed onto the blindfolds. This man’s sticker said “Fern” on it. “That’s funny Fern, because our info from the council database says you don’t have a family. Or kids.” Len had reached the conversation, and was reading off a notebook. “Here you go captain, all the info we scraped about ‘em. Don’t be surprised when they keep lying. Oh, and this flask has tea in it, here’s one for you as well Ahmed. You’ll have to use ratpack stuff if you want anything in it though. Spoon is in the top.” “Thanks man. So Fern, we’ve established you’re a liar. You there, Daggart, what do you do for them then?” Len walked off towards the garage, with a small backpack with several more flasks inside it. Murray pulled out a creamer packet, opening it up and tipping some in until a small cloud of white erupted in the tea. He then opened the top of the flask, finding a small spoon, like those in ice cream pots, stashed alongside water purification tablets. “Policing work! Patrol the streets, patrol the camp, make sure people are getting their food! Come on, let me go, I know they’re bastards, I don’t believe their propaganda! This is just to keep going, you know? I do the bare minimum to keep them off my back! In fact, I’m behind on my beating quota, please just let me out of here!” Murray stirred as Daggart sputtered. He then returned the spoon to it’s container, before picking the notebook back off the shelf he’d let it rest on. “My notes inform me that 5 separate camp survivors have specifically named you as a, quote, ‘constant source of harassment’, we’ve got evidence of you giving civilians injuries that’d send them to hospital, and you attempting some stuff that, if I had free reign to decide your punishment, would have you strung up off the bridge. So you’re a liar too, and an awful person to boot. What about you… Higgins? What do you think the Hekatians are doing here?” “They’re here to help make sure we’re on top!” “We? That the royal we? On top of who?” “You know, us, up at the top once more, the lesser races in their place! I can tell by your voice, you’re not like these degenerates, one of the n-“ Higgins was interrupted by Ahmed delivering a heavy kick to his chest that sent both him, and Daggart who was tied to him, to the floor. “Thank you Ahmed, I could tell that wasn’t going a good direction. Takes a special kind of person to think an alien invasion is a chance for them to be more racist. So we’ve got a liar, a racist, and an attempted rapist. What about you… Lockjaw? That can’t be your real name.” Murray had turned his attention back to the 50 year old, who had been first to answer him. He looked back at his notes, finding only the phrase “deed poll user” and “nonexistent history.” “It is, I swear! And I can tell you, you don’t have anything on me! I just patrolled and stopped fights, that’s all I did! Believe me! Please!” “Perhaps. But you can still answer my questions. Some general ones here. Where did your gear come from? Are they confiscations or personal ownership?” “Both.” Daggart, who was still fumbling around trying to upright himself, provided an answer. “I had an old Webley that my great grandad used in the war, kept it up in the attic til now. Fern got an AR-15 into the country, fucked if I know how, but it’s in his house.” Fern attempted to kick Daggart for that especially compromising information, but his foot simply impacted an old rusty lawnmower, provoking a shout of pain. Murray noted that down, any source of weaponry was useful. “Right. The vests, you had them standard issue so they must be Hekatian built.” Again, nods. “Now, be honest with me, or I’ll follow through with some of my promises to the resistance. What is your stated purpose as collaborators? What do they say is the job description? “We handle foot patrols of the camp and some street patrols, help them build defenses. Some of us are assigned to infiltrate the terrorist groups, but I haven’t seen any of them in a while.” That was slightly alarming to Murray, he made sure to jot it down. “What have you been told about their long term goals? Do you know why they’re here? Higgins you’re banned from answering this question.” Higgins, still stuck on the floor, attempted to open his mouth, only for Ahmed to provide yet another kick to keep him quiet. “It’s about, they want to take us to the stars! We’re gonna become interstellar! That’s way better than we are now!” Lockjaw seemed dazzled by the concept as he spoke. “Alternatively, we could just, I don’t know, kick these arseholes out and steal their shit, and then become interstellar by ourselves? Seems like a better option to me than prostrating yourself to their rule.” Murray gave them time to mull that over, before sipping from his tea. When was the last time he’d had tea? Probably at the airbase before they set off. It wasn’t perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but it was more than enough for him. “Listen, it’s time for the real question. “What is so important to you that you needed to join the enemy? There’s thousands of people out here in the resistance. Many of them are kids. Kids! They’re fighting against the Hekatians with anything they can get their hands on! That’s true bravery, and what are you doing? Aiding them!” “No! I… if you were in my situation, you’d… either they win, and I survive, or we win, and I survive! It’s… there’s no other option man!” Daggart attempted to justify his actions. “They tried the kapos, after the war, the ones who’d led their own people into the gas chambers. Lotta people who were “just following orders”, too. Hell, the Norwegians brought back the death penalty for Quisling himself. The way we’re going, if we win we’re gonna have a purge to rival Stalin, and I doubt anyone in the world is gonna stop us. You think we’d let you get off the hook for assisting in this?” Ahmed spoke up, the first time he’d said anything in a while. For once the prisoners were silent, having realised their extremely grave predicament. Murray replaced their ear defenders and exiting the shed, before Ahmed locked it again. At the same time, Sid left the garage, now wearing a cooking apron, stained with blood, over his combat jacket. He waved towards Murray, who jogged through the pouring rain. “Joe’s going back on the gas immediately. I want to try and get him off this island if possible, UNCO will do a far better job thinking up questions than me.” “Ay, I’m thinking of organising casevacs for our worst cases of injury and rotation of other SAS troopers in. If you can help me in organising that, we can make space on the boats for several prisoners. I want those collabs off this island ASAP, far more trouble than they’re worth.” Murray didn’t think highly of the idea of having to spare food and guards for a bunch of really rather useless prisoners. “Definitely. There’s a strong faction in the Resistance who advocate just shooting on sight, and I can’t blame them at all. At least it’s Joe’s job to do this, these people threw their hat in because they wanted to be power freaks. My view is that we’re gonna be having quite a few prisons built after this is all over.” Murray and Sid both fell silent, contemplating the idea of a postwar Britain as they walked inside the house. What would it look like? Could it ever really be the same again, after the bloodshed and damage? Murray had considered the likelihood of the people simply refusing to accept the government-in-exile upon it’s return, and as time passed it became more and more likely. The main question was, which side would he take in that issue? On the one hand, his duty as a member of the Special Air Service was to the Queen, and by extension, to the emergency government she had given her blessing to when the invasion hit. Even if she was dead, that oath would still apply, and simply transfer to whichever monarch took the throne. And during his time with the Resistance, he’d heard talk that had left him uneasy, due to the deep change it would spell. Words of republicanism, anarchism, communism, socialism, that reminded him of what he’d heard when he’d been deployed on the ground in Syria against ISIS. A radicalisation was happening, the kind that only happened when people felt betrayed by their official government, and often led to some rather nasty conflict between the government. Murray was by no means a political radical, he’d voted for the Monster Raving Looney Party in every election he’d got a ballot for, not being very interested in voting for politicians that, in his estimate, wouldn’t damage his life. So these words were concerning to him, because they’d likely lead to the kind of upheaval that he was meant to deal with. His career was spent cleaning up the effects of radicalism. But on the other hand… the Resistance were right to feel betrayed, and even regardless of their complaints had accepted him and his soldiers gladly. Their quarrel was with the organisations who had abandoned them, not the soldiers, as Sid had put it. They were willingly putting their lives on the line every single day in service of something, and their vision had more legitimacy based on that alone. And it wasn’t as if the Resistance were turning upon those who still thought of a return to normal, there were devout Muslims working hand in hand with Christians, self proclaimed anarchists building bombs detonated by Tories, marmite haters assisting fellow soldiers who had bad taste, and so on. It again reminded him of the Kurds, where people put aside their differences politically in the face of a common foe, and even when that foe was vanquished, they still would work happily alongside each other, in recognition that the brotherhood of humanity trumped their differences. Plus, at this point, with the Resistance likely to be battle hardened and well equipped postwar, would it even be possible to put the genie back in the bottle and expect these people to be happy? What would he do? What could he do? Would it even matter, when the Hekatians had the capability to just obliterate his world the second it became too hard to deal with? Murray’s head was starting to spin, and he felt rather sick at the idea of finally overcoming it all, only to be instantly wiped from existence by an unpredictable threat. “You all right mate?” It was Sid, grabbing Murray’s arm to steady him. “Yeah, yeah, I’m fine, think I need something to eat.” Murray sat down in the closest chair, feeling the need to rest before he toppled over. “Ay, makes sense. We can get you a good lunch sorted.” “Listen, before you go, when I was in the shed, one of them, they mentioned collaborator infiltrati-” Murray was interrupted by Sid placing a hand on his (uninjured) shoulder. “Don’t worry mate. Their infiltrators are shit. For one, they don’t know where to find the resistance. They keep knocking on random civvies doors, asking them how they join the resistance. The aliens have a total weakness at humint, if you’ll pardon the pun. Joe confirmed it to me.” “Speaking of Joe, what did you do to him?” Sid smiled in response. “Asked him what he knew for certain regarding our bases, gave him a map to point to the things he already knew for certain. Then I asked him where he thought our stuff might be located, and I had to start using some stuff to get him to actually think about it. Don’t worry, we’re clear, and so’s the base, thank god. Added in a few more questions about force disposition, both his and what he knew, those were especially hard to get. Len also had some tech based questions, so I had to extract a few answers from him on that.” “I don’t know how to feel about working with a possible psychopath.” “If I’m the first person to do dodgy stuff that you’ve met, then how long have you been in the army?” “Point taken.” “What’s next then?” Sid and Murray sat down in the living room, sipping what little remained in their flasks. Murray had just finished lunch, and the last throngs of sickness had long since disappeared. “We want an evac of our prisoners, you want an evac of your wounded, I’ve sent word to Eleanor and she’s talking with UNCO about organising that asap, and texting details over. We’ll prepare a quick transport operation, shouldn’t be too hard. I’ll tag along, I assume you’ll want to as well.” “Sounds good. Any news?” “Eleanor says UNCO have been deliberating over targeted airstrikes. They’ve redeployed the B-2 fleet and want to start using them, on targets we designate, so long as they can be assured they’re not gonna get blown up by AA immediately. After that, they intend on progressing air strikes, doing SEAD, and generally degrading enemy capabilities until they’re weak enough to fly helicopters over. We’re also getting promised an increased supply effort.” “You’re setting me up for bad news, I can feel it.” “Yep. You ready?” “Probably not.” Murray gulped down the rest of the tea, bracing himself slightly. “They’ve informed us that the idea of an invasion into Hull is being dropped. The Resistance will be expected to take the Hull region alone, with the port as intact as possible, and then reinforcements will be deployed.” “You’re fucking kidding me.” This went back to the issues from earlier. How could the Resistance be expected to trust their government, or the rest of the world, when they got stabbed in the back like this? “Nope. I have no clue what they’re thinking. We’ll have full air support, and likely much heavier special forces support, but they expect us to liberate and hold Hull without a lot more professional boots on the ground.” “God damn it.” “Eleanor reckons it’s them hedging their bets after we told them how many guys we’re up against. They probably don’t want to launch D-Day 2.0 on a heavily occupied Hull, so instead they’re going to wait for us to bear the brunt of the fighting, kill as many of them as possible, and deploy as necessary. If we lose, they simply land somewhere in Scotland and fight south. If we win, then they have a beachhead.” “And what do you reckon?” “I reckon she’s right, and furthermore, that the generals don’t believe we, as in the Resistance, are valuable enough to justify excess effort to save. Our lives are not being viewed the same way as their soldier’s lives. It’s fucked frankly, because if we get crushed, then the entirety of Hull is gonna get obliterated in the process, and that’s 250,000 thousand odd people they’re gonna leave to die as a test.” “What do we do about it then?” “Well obviously, we have to make it evident that we are pretty valuable, and that our lives should definitely not be treated like test subjects. We can’t make a stable beachhead without them, and the only other way they can make a beachhead will result in them taking so long the second wave lands anyways, at which point we’re fucked.” “Well yeah but, what do we do?” “Do you want to know the dumb idea, or the really dumb idea?” “Both.” Sid gestured to Len, who wandered over and sat down next to Sid. “The dumb idea is that we put full effort into taking apart the weapons we’ve nicked, and rapidly reverse engineering it into something we can deploy. Furthermore, we hold back from sending our tech samples to UNCO while we do this. This isn’t too hard, in that we have the energy to run the weapons, considering the power cells we keep acquiring from their bases. With coordination across country, we could get working prototypes fast. From there, our problem is the resources to build them, but if we have the tech we can get parts off UNCO. Either that gives evidence of our effectiveness, or it gives us the necessary edge, combined with our numbers, to guarantee a win in the uprising.” Sid looked at Len after he finished talking. “After some glances at the pistol design, and incorporating some of what we’ve already got off our plasma rifle stockpiles, I estimate, using an L85 as a base to stick parts in, we can have a working plasma rifle prototype within a month. It wouldn’t be advanced or refined, it would effectively be borrowing the parts of their weapons and sticking them elsewhere, without understanding the mechanisms of how they work, but it would be good enough. Think of it like a kid copy pasting off google for his homework. Ultimately, in this case, it doesn’t matter that we don’t understand, so long as it’s on time and in large enough numbers. An L85 derivative would help us, because it cuts down on material necessities, and it’s what our best troops are familiar with carrying.” Len picked up the final part of the conversation. “I thought their weapons are locked to their armour, so we can’t use them?” “They are, but the lockdown procedure leaves the internal mechanisms mostly intact, so they can be retrieved and put back to work after some repairs. It’s like that thing where the gas plug on an SA80 has a setting you can stick it on to make it useless, except it’s far more generous to repair. We’ll just strip the internals out and put them somewhere else, effectively.” “Sounds doable to me then. What’s the really dumb one?” “With support from local Resistance units, we launch a long distance operation to the least defended landing pod we can find, and seize it. Then we do a rapid snatch and grab on as much of their ftl tech as possible, along with anything else we can, cart it back to base ASAP. From there, that’s a watertight case as to our effectiveness as a fighting force, plus we can make clear that they’re gonna need to send troops or we’ll not be able to guarantee safety of that tech in the event of a failed city-wide uprising.” “Sid, you’re missing one key fact.” “What’s that?” “We can do both.” Murray grinned as he said it, and Sid’s eyes lit up. “See this, this is why I like having you around.”
hedge your bets definition: 1. to protect yourself against loss by supporting more than one possible result or both sides in a…. Learn more. Cambridge Dictionary +Plus hedge your bets. to avoid making decisions, or to decide on more than one thing, so that you will not make a mistake whichever way the situation develops. Political forecasters are hedging their bets about the likely outcome of this Saturday's Louisiana governor's race. Easy Learning Idioms Dictionary. hedge your bets to reduce the risk of losing or making a mistake by supporting more than one side in a competition, an argument, etc., or by having several choices available to you She hedged her bets by applying for various other jobs as well. dict.cc Übersetzungen für 'hedge' im Englisch-Deutsch-Wörterbuch, mit echten Sprachaufnahmen, Illustrationen, Beugungsformen, ... COMMON If you hedge your bets, you are careful not to commit yourself to one thing, so that you do not make a mistake whichever way the situation develops. The Rev James Reeves is hedging his bets on whether Clark is the leader the Church needs in troubled times. hedge your bets meaning: 1. to protect yourself against loss by supporting more than one possible result or both sides in a…. Learn more. Cambridge Dictionary +Plus hedge your bets : to do things that will prevent great loss or failure if future events do not happen as you plan or hope They decided to hedge their bets by putting half their money in stocks and the other half in bonds. Definition of 'hedge one's bets'. phrase. If you hedge your bets, you reduce the risk of losing a lot by supporting more than one person or thing in a situation where they are opposed to each other. The company tried to hedge its bets by diversifying into other fields. Definition of hedge_1 noun in Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary. Meaning, pronunciation, picture, example sentences, grammar, usage notes, synonyms and more. We use cookies to enhance your experience on our website, including to provide targeted advertising and track usage. Hedge Your Bets Meaning. Definition: Choose or support more than one option at a time in an effort to reduce the chance of losing. Origin of Hedge Your Bets. The word hedge means to avoid making a definitive commitment.It comes from the noun hedge, which means a fence made of shrubbery.The hedge that forms a fence offers protection and security, much like hedging a bet.
Hedge your bets on these two Open Comb beasts! In the gold corner we have the Classic Italian Fatip Grande, and in the chrome corner we have the most talked about razor today, the Mühle R41 How ... Mike Herriott & Sean Harkness - Hedge Your Bets (Flights Vol. 1) - Duration: 4 minutes, 46 seconds. Mike Herriott. ... Language: English Location: United States Restricted Mode: Off History Help Today i'm playing on the 1.14.4 Hermitcraft Season 6 World! In this episode we get pranked by iJevin in the WORST possible way.. This is going to take a while to clear up - that's for sure! We ... Hedge Your Bets - Lightning Scar rounds 24-85. 15 Towers Max. No Agents or Road Items. By RaPiD JazZ Video is on 4x speed No Agent, Premium and Speciality (Please comment if you have better ... Meaning of "Hedge Your Bets" - Superduper English Idioms - YouTube “Hedge your bets.”When someone says to “hedge your bets”, they mean that you shouldn’t fully commit yourself to one option,... #BlondeWorship #BritneyBond #GoddessWorship There’s no use, you’ll never win this. Give in. Contact:[email protected] Hedging is a term commonly used in investing but many investors don't understand it. This video will explain a few of the most common types of hedging strate... In this video I show you how I use a Betfair Bot to back the favourite in a race plus make a hedging bet in running. This is all done on autopilot, using a bot on the Betfair platform. Betting Basics Part 2: How To Hedge Your Bets - Duration: 6:43. Odds Market Recommended for you. ... Language: English Location: United States Restricted Mode: Off History Help Want to hedge your bets on stock market outcomes? Miton's David Jane picks three diverse investments for a balanced portfolio. Morningstar guest: David Jane, Manager of the Miton Cautious Multi ...
