A question of taste.
🕑 Added 2023-10-28 09:19:05 +0000 UTC
For the past month, I've been having a lot of fun laying the groundwork for my new series, Sexy Steampunk Babes. Actually planning out a series properly in advance is a bit of a novelty for me.
General plot, characters and a whole shitload of other stuff has already been planned out.
With that said, the setting remains in a bit of flux.
Specifically, I'm not entirely sure whether I want it to be about knights and mecha? Or airships and fightercraft?
The plot of book one is fully capable of accommodating either at this point.
It cannot be both though :D
Now, I full reserve the right to ignore the results of this poll and do my own thing, yet I find myself curious.
What does my audience think is cooler?
(Apologies if you think this poll is a waste of time. I thought it'd be a bit of fun as much as a way for me to help me make up my mind. I'm genuinely curious as to which comes out on top)
Comments
Marcin
Awww.... as a mecha affecionado im dissapointed :<
Zeoncobra
This is possibly the first Bluefish poll, where my choice won.
Negentropy
I honestly think it would be best to have both, even if you choose either mechs or skyships to predominantly explore/use, I think it would really add to the world and give you more room to explore and exploit/use steampunk's potential to its maximum (like with how Iron Harvest encompasses both "genres" in its dieselpunk setting) - you can then switch between sky and land wherever inspiration takes you, or even combine both: imagine how cool a skyship boarding action would be with mechs! You could even round out the land, sky and sea trifecta while working within the steampunk aesthetic by adding submersibles going on strange and fantastical adventures like 20,000 leagues under the sea or Sunless Seas. But if you really want to focus on one to the exclusion of the other, I'd only choose airships and fighter-planes purely because they seem to be the less explored avenue.
Oreo-belt25
Airships crewed by Knights would be awesome. Ever heard of the Roman Corvus? The Romans were getting their asses kicked at sea because they were skilled in land engagements, not ranged ones. So, in their fights with Carthage, they added giant, swinging gangways with a grappling spike on the end that would connect the two ships and make it one floating land battle. they then proceeded to completely turn around their losing streak.
MarakEvans
MC must be described as "Running for His Life" Or "Running Like Lives Depend On It" And throw in a "Mission Accomplished"
mhaj58
Sexy space babes depicted the mecha suits and spaceships. I enjoyed the differences and I hope that similar genres to Skyship babes. I’m really salty that the series won’t be a regular.
Sable Phoenix
So basically we're choosing between Battletech or Crimson Skies? Love them both but Battletech will have to win.
Longoo
Mecha is love, but I could see either being cool.
Oreo-belt25
mechas are kinda cheesy in my opinion. Steampunk > Gundam
Asherlee
IMO, i think its easier to portray the strength of the MC from a mecha/knight both inside and out of combat because there is the fighting portion and also the chance to show case their engineering abilities by modding it, also the rule of cool. i feel steampunk as a genre gives the leeway to combine both mecha/knight and fighter.
Lurkemancer
Hey, if we give BFC some great idea to fit into his current idea of the story, we might still get aerial mech combat!
SmallTownBo
Listen, I voted for Knights and Mecha, but it looks like Airships and Fighterplanes will win. For that reason... If there is no shirtless, beach volleyball scene where sweaty, built men play against each other, I'm burning this patreon to the ground.
deadeyemax
I prefer Mechs, but I voted for fighter planes just because I feel like I haven’t read any stories featuring that.
Joe ?
Both sounds like the best option.
Alex
Airships give a feeling of exploration & wonder. The world & all its strangeness is all within your reach. Mechs are a reskin of WWII tank battles, gritty fights when “men were men”. Both can be fun but we’re talking about very different stories.
White Neko Knight
Why not both?
Unknown Entity
Also you could have a fighter plane that transforms into a mecha as a normal function or as an ejection system effectively utilizing “the core” as a power source for both.
Unknown Entity
Traditionally many fighter pilots are called knights. Pilots are called knights and missiles are called foxes. 😉
Loves2Spooge
Myself crying at no mecha-knights fighting from/on big airships.
Lurkemancer
Okay, we can't "have both", but how about Massive Airships... With Mecha. Or really, Mecha with anything other than knights. Colossal Mecha fortresses launching their own fighter squadrons to duke it out while shelling each other with cannons sounds fun as well.
ScarletIce
I picked airships and fighterplanes simply because it seems the more different from the themes in space/sect babes than knights and mecha.
Orion Dye
Guess its time for me to bow out then. Good luck to you and your next series.
David Ellis
You can totally do all of them mixed together! https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knight's_%26_Magic
Indexo's Vault
Just saw a commercial for Armored Core model kits, so I NEED more Mecha to tide me over till they release
hg2b
Reducing the efficacy of ranged combat to give some attention to close quarters engagements, like boarding action, could be nice.
scribbles
I second this
Timothy Alexander
But I wanted to vote for knights and airships!
MarakEvans
Hey Blue, Could always throw the unused option in as an example of historic experiments that never took off. Reuse some of your already spent brain power. ME
MarakEvans
That's wacky. I think I heard some mention of that in passing on a YT Live stream. Want more wackiness. No assignment, all subconsciously selected and redistributed. Sometimes get all females or all males. Frequency of changes can be by the year?season?moon?day?meal?hour?minute?second?
MarakEvans
Hmm Airships and fighters seem more coherent. Don't see how steam engines could power anything more sophisticated than a crawler, let alone a mecha. Whereas hot air and sterling engines could power both Airships and fighters. Assuming the main material forming the structures is lightweight enough, I would expect the Airships and Fighters would be more plausible AND tied together.
Blue Fishcake
Reminds me a little of Knights of Sydonia. Sci-fi setting with a fleet in deep space. As I recall (vaguely) some of the crew were vat-born colonists who had no gender. One would eventually be assigned to them (along with the plumbing) as the need arose, in order to balance the ratios.
MarakEvans
Ok I misread "series" for "species"...
MarakEvans
Here we can plan out a new species. As a social group, the members involuntarily and semi-randomly switch genders under certain conditions. Gender ratio heavily favors females in each social group. Human MC gets a harem... but at any given moment... one or two of them has a shlong... ... I feel a darkness in my mindhdhdjdbhsidkenwbvzxgaijjdjdnd must cause more chaos and suffering on the MC!😈
Faiir
I voted Mecha expecting steampunk mechs, like https://boardgamegeek.com/image/7779126/expeditions
David Sleep
I have to give the vote to ships. I can't help but imagine some Highfleet fantasy when you say airships. Fire up Tanc a Lelek.
Dracaun Vondrachen
Understanding the fact it can't be both for story reasons, I have to give it to airships.
NightLife
My drifting dragons bais is showing, gonna have to vote airships
Bunten44
nice
Blue Fishcake
Here's a bunch mecha I generated as concepts for the squat magitech design: https://imgur.com/a/8OvWwd2
Darth
There are so many focused on Knights and Mecha, not enough about fighters and airships. My vote is firmly for Fighters and Airships
Bunten44
would the mechs look similar to imperial, anime or Battletech mech?
MASC
Same as me😆, was my gateway into anime when they had it on ABC. Love that show, especially the movie version where we have a universe where Shirley lived.
Blue Fishcake
There are plot related reasons why it can't be both. Plot elements that are pretty integral to the planned story. Also bold of you to assume I'm not already very familiar with all of those. (Code Geass was my first ever anime :D )
MASC
Why not both as an option? There are some light novel/manga/anime that you can use for reference to blend these together that fit your magic & feudal sky island setting. Look up; Knights & Magic, Code Geaus, Last Exile and The World of Otome Game is Tough for Mobs
Christopher Manoff
This... this was a hard choice... I'm a slut for Mecha and Airships... but I gotta go with airships