Grrl Power #1132 – Supervillain Unknown’s Battleground
I for one would play a superhero themed battle royale game. Let people chose three powers at the beginning, or let them select from a selection of pre-made heroes like a DOTA style game, and they fight through a big map and pick up tokens that will upgrade their powers. Admittedly, there was a BR game with magic called Spellbreak, but like a lot of trend chasing games that come late to a crowded market already full of juggernauts, its lifespan was less than a year. Still, as I recall, you could superjump or straight up fly if you had wind powers (I think, honestly I played it once for about 45 minutes), and shoot lightning and fireballs. Pretty similar to the kind of stuff you’d find in a superhero themed BR game, but hopefully a superhero game like that would have a more expansive power set, and some destructible environments wouldn’t be out of order either. If you could really program it so that people could hit each other with trees or cars or create rings of fire or create portals or telekinetically whip helicopter blades at each other, the meta-game that would evolve would be pretty out of control, especially if the game was played with a squad of three and powers worked in concert with each other. Honestly, it’d probably be too difficult to manage. Give a guy a portal power useable on others, and he’d start the map at the very edge, then once the curtain of doom or whatever it’s called started closing in, he’d zap people out into the death zone. Sure, you could make portals get disrupted by the death zone, but that’d be missing out on half the fun of powers like that.
So yeah, Just Cause meets Red Faction meets Apex Legends meets Portal, Infamous, Prototype, fire and ice powers, etc. Someone get on that.
The January Vote Incentive is still up! Time for the quarterly fashion show that Anvil puts Maxima through. Can you detect the theme?
Okay, so… I actually missed posting a new bonus pic in February. It’s not ideal, admittedly, but I will definitely post two this month, and I’ll endeavor not to wait till the very end of the month to get the March one up. The late February one will be up with the Monday comic for sure.
Variant outfits and lack thereof over at Patreon.
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Double res version will be posted over at Patreon. Feel free to contribute as much as you like.
Katara Enabled! But, sorry, Syd, she’s a supervillain.
If Suck Hole had the clout, I’d dare say he even arranged for this atrium to be built into the structure, as a perfect super brawl battlefield considering he arranged for a breakaway suit.
What’s the menu say?
I can only read a few of them but they seem to all be supervillain-themed foods.
All Hero Chili
Evil … something Pepper?
Turkey something Club…
Something Villain something…
Looks like to me it’s
Supervillian Burger
Evil Fries
Blueplate Special of Doom
Turkey Enchilada Club
D.I.Y Hummus
All Hero Chili
8 oz sugarfree lemonade
Sugar free lemonade????
Ok these people are irredeemably evil villains definitely.
Could be worse: could be artificial sweetener (they use at least two to replace cane sugar)! or that Stevia crap
*lemonade time stops*
…I use Stevia at home, and it’s quite good.
Sounds like evil mad scientist hijinks to me.
You like it, that’s fine, but that doesn’t make it good :P
Actually Panderous, Stevia is a natural sugar-alternative
weirdly enough, most Stevia sweetened drinks give me migraines, unless the Stevia itself is lower on the list of ingredients (at least by 2 sections)
I just know theres an artificial sweetener which is basically sugar which is altered with a chlorine molecule to make the body unable to process it. And I was like ‘nope’ when I heard that. Sucralose? Splenda? Something like that. Evil mad scientist stuff definitely!
Not aspartame but I wont use that either.
You are thinking of Sucralose.
8 oz Sugarfree Lemonade…$8.00
Surpeised no ‘only pineapple’ pizza. Guess they’re not That evil yet.
I have a favorite pizza. It contains spinach, feta, sundried tomato, onions, pepperoncini, olives, garlic, and anchovies. I think of it as a greek pizza, perfectly paired with Uzo. Some might have the Uzo first…
That almost sounds like a salad.
If you have the toppings on pasta then it is a Greek Salad. If anybody asks, it was a salad.
^^Yes, this.
As a New Yorker, I rebel against the concept of having any sort of salad on a pizza.
Pizza is a breadbowl savory non-greens salad.
It’s a bunch of mixed ingredients that you can differentiate, tossed together with a binding agent (dressing, in this case usually a sauce and cheese)
A few are wrong. On Patreon, I can read these
Supervillian Burger
Evil Fries
Lettuce Wrap of Doom
Turkey (exclusive) Club
All Bean Chili
D.I.Y Hummus
Gluten Free Cookies
And yes, the Gluten Free Cookies are worthy of the death penalty…
Where do you see anything even remotely looking like “sugarfree lemonade”?
No patreon for me. I did my best with the blurs.
Nothing wrong with Gluten Free Cookies, it basically means it’s made without wheat, barley or rye
Gluten is apparently where all the flavor is, especially when it comes to bread. It’s fine for celiacs, everyone else is just a camp follower / terrorist.
I am pretty certain that most people are 86% made of gluten.
Glutinous Maximus. This really explains all of the doughy butts.
And there are other ways of getting the flavour (and not even with artificial means)
Point being, most people wouldn’t even notice gluten-free if it wasn’t pointed out, but some people do notice if it isn’t (which is why it’s available, so people don’t die by accident)
It’s kind of hilarious that the scientist, Peter Gibson, who did the original study suggesting gluten as a cause of intestinal distress, did a follow up study, much more rigorous, which proved that the initial hypothesis was wrong. Gluten was NOT responsible. Rather, it was fermentable, poorly absorbed short-chain carbohydrates, also known as “FODMAPs”. Which just happen to be associated with gluten in a lot of foods. But not all foods!
By then the gluten free industry was in full swing, and the follow up study got practically no publicity.
you do know there is (sometimes) low carb pasta. there is now generic low carb bread?!?!. there is low carb pizza. (none of it has pineapple) so far I’m waiting for the low carb potato. we have circuit paths measured in nanometers, so its just a mater of time.
Weirdly for a place with High Society patrons funding everything, the prices all seem to be under $10, and even list an amount of change. I would have expected fancy steak-menu pricing, with no decimals.
Also, pretty sure the author posts higher res pages on his patreon? Y’might try subscribing, or asking a current subscriber to post a screen clip of it for the full details
Probably, except Ted is the chef…
Steve Jackson Games has a great board game version of a superhero battle royale, in case you’re ever interested.
http://www.sjgames.com/strangesynergy/
Properly representing magic or superpowers in games would probably require two elements:
-An interface that allows for very quick and unrestricted input of what the player wants to do. I don’t think anything besides a functioning neural interface could work for that.
-Adaptive game mechanics to actually execute the freestyle inputs, so active integration of AI.
You should check out Abberant. It uses the storyteller system and as we have seen in the video game “Vampire the Masquerade Bloodlines, that system seems to translate well for a video game.
“You are cordially invited to a premium Suck Hole pounding! Entertainment provided by the venue!”
Sorry, couldn’t resist.
Blame Dabbler
to be honest, I think max is more of a hindrance to stalwart in the fight against suck hole, sure that burning hand thing she had going would probably hurt him a lot but suck hole seems quite familiar with his powers and is able to deflect and move maxima around, it would be better to have stalwart put him into some manner of chokehold let him pass out and then cuff him (and if it looks like his buddies are going to make off with the unconscious suck hole show that incarcerated or interred was not a hollow threat and a semi-military semi-police force does not play games when they take a prisoner)
Just quietly leaving this here – https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-225-guess-who-switched-from-speed-to-armor/
you ever try ‘City of Hero’s’ .. ?
NOSTALGIA ACTIVATED
Here. More nostalgia.
Freedom Force?
The online superhero (and supervillain) MMORPG City of Heroes is still available in various places online, even though the original shut down some years ago. I still fly through the skyline of Paragon City…
I hadn’t noticed this before, but why don’t the guys have chokers like the ladies do?
Thick necks
Yeah and men’s necks bulge out more than a woman’s does when we strain, anything packed with electronics wouldn’t survive, just like the glasses they handed out during the first super fight. The throat mics they used in the ’80s for chopper pilots didn’t last long either.
Oh Brook, have you not learned? Do not lead with your foot! You better be wearing kevlar socks this time.
Will not stop sharps.
Besides, she’s in combat gear this time, not in civvy clothes for dinner, the boots have steel toes and a steel insole. I’d rather risk a knife in the foot anyway, over one in the brain.
machinegun woman just levelled up, and her stats window opened.
I really like how the cast page lists SH. i misread it minus the backslash as “supermassive suck hole” of course. which is funnier to me.
i think if i was a villain, id deliberately name myself things that cause the hero’s an annyurism whenever they talk to the press. id reduce the liklihood of a hero wanting to be my nemesis if i had a name like “the mighty peen” of similar.
I think finding items that grant powers and slotting them in certain keybind locations while having multiple resources that they drain would be good. For instance mana, rage, stamina, health, hydration. Then have each spell require a certain amount of one of the resources to function. Have some powers have the same or stronger effect while using less of that resource of use a different resource. Then maybe have equipment that increases the level of one or more resource, or gives excellent protection while lowering one or more resource, or even lowering one resource while increasing another. Maybe have some equips that passively refill resources. Have some powers refill or give temporary boost to other resources outside their normal range, and some that you power up and their power is based on the time being powered, while using resources based on how much they are powered. Maybe some powers also use 2 or more resources.
Interesting idea. I am not in a position to create such a game, but it would be nice if someone did.
I cannot WAIT for FOR WHO THE BELL TOLLS to stride into the middle of this mayhem like a boss after realizing Varia was right, and swap teams.
For whom justice calls has a pretty nice ring to it ;)
Salvation arc incoming.
Also this lineup of boss villians is great. Supermassive better be enouggh of a pain in the ass they use his full one out of respect, later, as funny as suck hole is.
Death! It’s “For Whom The Death Tolls”! It’s a phrasic portmant-OH, FORGET IT!!
DAVE! You need to watch Netflix’s “The Hollow”. It’s a battle royale where you get to pick 3 powers. It’s exactly what you said.
Try Marvel’s Midnight Suns game.
Cue Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny music.
This at least seems more evenly matched than the big brawl Vehemence pulled together. These Ascenders clearly went for recruiting high tier supers, and while they may not be on the same level as Arc Light, they evened the odds a bit by taking their shot when 3 or 4 of their best were away from base. Without Maxima in the game, they might even have a serious advantage over the rest of the group unless Stalwart could quickly lock up his focus.
Do you think Max will begrudgingly respect Supermassive, and start calling him by his chosen super villain name?
Abso-fucking-lutely not.
No way in hell, once you’ve earned asshole status, it’s worse that skunk spray. Never washes off and will always linger.
Just speculating here, but suppose…
Suckhole is subdued and captured.
Maxima removes his mask, and…
(Cue theme music) …it’s love, at first sight!
Those beautifully maculine eyes, that can see the depths of her soul!
Supermassive’s arrogant attitude is fully justified!
Brave Maxima becomes his playtoy!
Next Scene: An unconscious Suckhole, handcuffed in the paddy-wagon, mumbling as he dreams.
Don’t look at me that way! It could happen!
Oh right, spellbreak. I played that a while.
You picked an element which then was fixed for the round and then could swap your 2nd element by finding gloves.
Each element had several spells and different spells could be combined (including combination with ally/enemy spells)
Mostly stuff like Wind element tornadoe + Fire spell => bruning tornadoe.
Thanks for this. Very nice
This is nice comic. It’s freaking cool.
So cool