Tentacle Construction

[innerfire]

I've been playing around with a lot of different construction techniques for constructs lately, and I've had some success with this one, so I thought I'd throw it out there for discussion. It requires some level of focus beyond a basic level technique, but it shouldn't be too hard.

First I'm going to have to establish what I mean by tentacle. Some of PsiPog's articles had the concept of a tentacle or a tendril. It is nothing more than a projection of energy that you have conscious control of, so instead of a static shape it is fluid, through focus you can actively move it around and such. There's not much to making one beyond the "just do it ideology." Just sprout a little column of energy from your hands, and keep your mind focused on it. Try to wave it around a bit, maybe try and increase the length.

The key to this technique is to make about 4-6 of those. Form a skeleton of whatever shape. Move the tendrils around a bit to kind of trace out a shell for the object (spinning them around works best of the shape permits that). That should form a somewhat stable shell as the outline for the construct. You'll have to fill in the construct later since its currently hollow, and strengthen the shell. Overall the constructs I've made with this are stable but are a little less "sturdy" than other methods, but the advantage for this technique is once you get good at it, it is good for making large constructs quickly (particularly for shapes that have radial symmetry).

Thoughts? The thing with the sturdiness is bothering me, it holds its shape alright, but just doesn't have as much resistance as a normal construct, even after I reinforce it.

[The Devil's Advocate]

Interesting. Sounds similar to my woven constructs and Cullen's Thread constructs. But this is definitely a take I haven't seen before. A suggestion for the sturdiness. In the concept of the programing make the 'tentacles' flexible. Instead of collapsing have them bend and redirect anything acting against it. Flexibility can make up for a lot.

~The Devil's Advocate

[innerfire]

Not so much, thread construction is more elegant. In this the tentacles spread out to just form a regular shell, where as the threads remain in Cullen's thread constructs. This thing I proposed is just an intermediate construction method to help get the outline for large shapes.

I just tried the technique again and I think actually the squishy-ness was just my lack of experience in forming things properly, it feels pretty solid now. I had already tried to make the tentacles flexible since you're right that it helps

[The Devil's Advocate]

sweet. I look forward to seeing it, and no, it may not be as 'elegant' as thread construction but it has a similar concept and can definitely be useful. Don't knock it.

~The Devil's Advocate

[Amaroq]

Sometimes I sit around and imagine neat things I could do. While letting my mind wander, I actually did wind up imagining a scenario in which I'd utilized tentacles.

I can't say what I was doing with them though. No, it's not because it's nasty. It's because it would be considered combat-related, and therefore against the rules. (Just because combat isn't allowed, doesn't mean people don't still think about it and imagine what would happen if they found themselves faced with it.)