Grrl Power #1175 – As you may or may not know…
Exposition by way of ignorant character acting as audience projectee is vital, you guys.
Dabbler asking “Is that something they teach in schools here?” sounds condescending on its face, but she’s been to a lot of planets and it’s hard to keep that stuff straight. She’s like someone who works at CERN alongside people with multiple advanced degrees being selected to go to (rolls dice) Tonga and giving a talk about (rolls dice) M-Theory. I don’t know much about Tonga without googling it, maybe they’re insanely well educated? At the same time, maybe the average American doesn’t know what transformers actually do or how they work. I’d actually be willing to put some money on that.
In the Grrlverse, just as in many LitRPG/Cultivation novels, an abundance of mana can cause several things to happen spontaneously. Dungeons is one of those things. It can crystalize in various forms and has different names depending on where you are. Magicite, Materia, Chakrum, “Dem glowy things,” etc. It can also form other types of cores besides dungeons, namely monster cores, but also weapon cores, airship cores, all manner of things.
Earth is currently a “Middle Lower Class” planet as far as mana density goes. It doesn’t prevent magic from being used, but mana regen/enchanted item recharge takes a lot longer, and you don’t get many spontaneous mana events. Not none, just enough to inspire a lot of folk tales.
The Twilight Council want to up Earth’s ambient mana to Upper Lower Class, maybe even Lower Middle Class. Enough to give them all a lot more breathing room, but not enough for Earth to suddenly go LitRPG and spontaneously install a System.
Edit: Typos fixed.
The June vote incentive is finally up! Maxima is prepping for her night out.
The new one is on its way. I’m currently mildly sick and that’s causing me to zone out and stare blankly at the screen more than usual.
And in the Patreon variants, she gets (un)dressed and takes a look through all the makeup options.
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Double res version will be posted over at Patreon. Feel free to contribute as much as you like.
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So the dungeons are like the ones in Reincarnated as a Sword?
I was thinking more like the old Dungeon Keeper games. Those games had a ‘dungeon core’ as well.
There’s so many mangas (Isekai and other fantasy ones) and games that include or reference such details it’s more a reference to an entire genre than it is any singular work.
Royal Road is chock full of them as well.
No offence to Americans, but given the stereotypes about your education system, I’d gladly put money on the average American not knowing how a transformer works.
Long story short: changing electricity generates a changing magnetic field, and a changing magnetic field generates changing electricity, so if you put a changing current through a coil of wire, any other coils of wire nearby will pick up the changing magnetic field it creates and turn it back into electricity. This is how wireless phone chargers work. If you use two coils of different sizes, then you can turn low-current high-voltage electricity into high-current low voltage electricity, or the other way around. They need to do this because high-voltage low-current electricity doesn’t lose as much power when it’s being sent across the Grid, but low-voltage high-current electricity won’t cause your phone’s microchips to catch fire.
No offense taken, but I went through US schooling right after Sputnik, and back then I was playing with transformers as a child, making electric motors with wire and nails, literally “breadboarding” circuits by soldering to ten penny nails hammered into a board. (Not a breadboard, though, mom would have killed me if I’d done that.) In elementary and middle school.
I gather from my son’s education that the scare wore off, and educators gradually went back to doing as little as they had to in order to get by, but my son, (Starts 9th grade in a couple weeks.) had no trouble following me when I explained to him the difference between type 1 and type 2 superconductors, while we were discussing the recent news reports of a room temperature superconductor being discovered. Maybe because he has been attending magnet schools.
These days, it depends on where you’re getting schooled and how much time a given kid’s parents have to encourge intellectual curiosity themselves.
The gist is that, ever since the Buckley v. Valeo and First National Bank of Boston v. Bellotti decisions legalized bribery of politicians in the 1970s as long as you call it “campaign contributions”, the U.S. government has been finding ways to cut, cut, cut public school budgets to reduce taxes on the rich and corporations, redirect what they don’t into vouchers their private school-running donors can use to pork-barrel the rest, and demonize teachers for protesting the process.
I’d actually put it down to deciding that public employee unions would be legal. They’re such a great way of laundering tax dollars to politicians.
For those interested, I found a source.
https://www.opensecrets.org/elections-overview/top-organizations
While public employee unions do donate a significant amount, they do not beat corporate donations.
The public unions take positions 7 and 12 in the top 20, though there might be more. (I don’t recognize the names and since it isn’t my country I don’t care enough to look it up.)
One minor quibble and couple of larger ones. #12, the Carpenters and Joiners Union primarily represents private sector workers. (Although I’m sure they do help drive up government spending by supporting Davis-Bacon etc.) Both the NEA and NFT represent public school teachers, and their preferred policies and candidates are nearly identical. If you combine their spending, they’d be #7. Finally, personal and corporate giving is all over the map. In fact, many individual donors give significantly to both parties. (Most corporate giving especially is a lot more pragmatic than ideological.) Union donations OTOH skew massively Democratic. For instance, in the ’22 election cycle, the SEIU gave over $46M to Dems vs not quite $1K to the GOP.
Republicans are quite reliably anti-union. Do you think that would change if unions donated more to them?
I suppose police unions are the exception, in both respects, so maybe it would.
I think there is enough blame to spread to more than just two events.
The US Government, except in DC and for dependents of armed forces and diplomatic personnel, does not set school budgets. ‘Vouchers’ are a state and local issue. Well, perhaps they do in HaloVerse. That’s up to the Creator.
School performance in the United States is completely uncorrelated to funding. Once you reach the point of “enough money” (which is considerably lower than most people expect), other factors such as parental involvement take over.
True. Also note, much of the ever-growing spending goes to administration, not teachers and classrooms.
That’s an impressive amount of wrong to cram into a single paragraph. Campaign contributions are definitely a form of protected speech. Even if you do regard them as corrupt, it’s ridiculous to call them bribes. If anything, they’re more a case of politicians shaking down donors. When you get a call from Sen. Foghorn’s campaign reminding you that a committee that Sen. Foghorn is a ranking member of is about to vote on a bill that could have a huge impact on your business, that’s a not-very-subtle cue to break out your checkbook. Given the way even minor changes in tax policies, regulations and other laws can make or break a business, saying no isn’t a very good option.
As for cutting funding, that’s pretty laughable. Spending in most places has gone nowhere but up. If there’s any shortage of money, it’s because too much is being diverted from teachers and classrooms to administrators and other things that contribute little to actual education. Vouchers, charter schools and other forms of school choice are highly popular with parents, despite being (usually inaccurately) demonized by teachers’ unions. Any political donations from private school operators aren’t even a drop in the bucket compared to giving from public sector unions. Also, public schools are funded primarily by property taxes, most of which aren’t paid by “the rich and corporations”.
Yes, campaign contributions are protected speech. Why? Because the US Supreme Court says so.
Does it make sense that monetary donations should be considered speech? Not really. ‘Speech’ as per the Bill of Rights is a broad term for general public communication. It covers actual speech (making words with your mouth) and printing and email and so on. The trick is that those are all acts of public communication, whereas a donation is a private act. Communication about the existence of that act should logically be protected, but there doesn’t seem to be a specific reason why the act of donation itself should be.
Then Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission came along and reversed years of precedent by deciding that corporations are people and have the same rights to free speech, and therefore as people do. That essentially destroyed any incentive that politicians have to work for their voters instead of for corporate interests. If you need to raise $10M in order to get reelected, are you going to be more motivated to get it in one shot from the NRA or to have to slog through getting 100,000 donations of $10 each from your voters? It’s a lot cheaper in terms of staff time and a lot more predictable to get your money by kowtowing to the NRA.
Sweet! It’s fun messing around with circuits, I used to do it as well.
Yeah, education nowadays is mainly “memorise this because it’ll be on the test” and then slacking off for the rest of the year. If you want to actually LEARN something, you’ve pretty much got to do it yourself.
Isn’t a Transformer one of them ‘robots in disguise’? One a them ‘Deceptibots’? Or was it an ‘Autocon’?
Decepticon and autobots, a Transformer just mean they changed the state of something. In the case of electricity, a transformer changed amps to volts or volts to amps. They also generated magnetic fields, when I was a mechanic I have the strips wiped clean on my bank card and credit cards when I spent the day next to a 150hp motor that was running.
Was joke, clearly it failed
I was sure it was them Maxypads or Insectadrones.
Transmorphers and accessgobots.
Dinobots and Junkoions
Bobotrons and Stevenobots
The biggest reason many schools did not have much for science classes is because the local school board, they wanted more money for a sports team equipment that higher learning. Teachers are underpaid, overworked, and the class sizes were ridiculous.
When I was in high school classes had 35-42 students per class, but the gym had it’s floor redone and a larger school team logo painted. The music classes were closed after I had left.
This was mid-late 70s and early 80s, that was a dark time in education, not enough funding and many students were pushed towards a more basic education, “they can get it in collage or go into the military” was the opinion back then.
I do not know what it’s like today, I’m going by my own experience and that of my sons’ problems in school.
Even putting aside the variable quality of schools, the actual curricula can vary WILDLY from place to place within the US. While the federal Department of Education does set some standards, state boards of education have a lot of leeway to define what is and is not taught in schools within their state, then local boards of education futz with whatever wiggle room they’re left with for their school district, and then the actual teachers attempt to impart that material over the course of the year. In better-funded schools they may also have some elective courses and extracurriculars like a robotics club or such; in less-funded schools not so much.
See for example the 1899 Iowa bill to redefine Pi=4, and any recent bills out of Florida.
Indiana, not Iowa. Sorry Iowa!
Iowa will never forgive you for this transgression and libelous statement I have been hired and instructed to tell you that you have hereby been banned from purchasing corn and soybeans from the Hawkeye State. I’ll see if I can push for them to have a follow-up decision on this punishment in five years though.
One thing a transformer definitively doesn’t do is turn amps into volts.
Not even a Cybertronian one.
Spontaneously installing ‘Mana.exe’ can lead to some pretty intense escalation.
Minerva managed to go from zero to a Type IV+ Kardashev Civilization by her/themself in a YEAR.
Got your causation reversed there I’m afraid. It’s installing ‘Taylor_Hebert.exe’ that causes that kind of escalation.
Yep this seems like a “why not import rabbits into Australia? Why not import foxes to control the rabbit population?”, or later “Why not grow sugar cane in tropical Australia? Why not import cane toads to eat the cane beetles that have no native predators?”.
Colour me cautious…
While you are very much correct to be cautious… Theoretically, with Dabbler and The Twilight Council on board, we’re looking more of a “introducing Canadian Wolves to Yellowstone” situation: The people doing the thing know what they’re doing, and are doing it VERY carefully.
That analogy would work better if Earth had had mana condensers in the past, but they had been wiped out.
Maybe it’s not so much of if they had but whether they’ve been broken. we have a lot of mythology talking about dragons werewolves vampires etc. we also have a lot of interesting stone architecture around the world.
EG pyramids, Egyptian and Mayan, Atlantis, Stonehenge etc etc. what if we’re looking at them from a different point of view and they’re merely broken systems
I mean we know sciona is a blood mage, kind of similar to what Mayans did.
It could be the reason we don’t have dragons now is because there’s no mana to support them – they “starved” to death
Or, the dragons were always dead and their necromance-ready skeletons are now housed in museums around the world. Time for some live-action Night At the Museum.
Dragons didnt die off when the mana reduced, being sensible (and intelligent) beings they emigrated to somewhere more suitable. Now if Earths mana level improves, some of them might want to move back…
Sounds like RIFTS!
I am getting a vibe these dungeons are like your fantasy setting “Great Labyrinth of…” type of situations.
Where they either know how far out the *is going to summon monsters and magic plants etc..of various strengths* is going to reach, build the structure to house the core in layers accordingly (hence RPG dungeon with levels) and place a big door and control entry into the area and prevent things from leaving…with adventurers and such going in as a means of population control, culling numbers while farming for materials
heh, maybe even give them passes to different levels based on skills and adventurer ranks etc…
The liability waiver for those passes has got to be an interesting read.
I don’t see an “or” to correspond to your “either”.
or the same thing but the core alters the environment around it into a dungeon. I was typing on my phone so could barely see a sentence at a time, forgot to post that part.
A Trope page may explain the concept better.
But be warned: It is TV Tropes. And we know how dangerously distracting that site can be.
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ADungeonIsYou
It’s probably more akin to “why not import orange trees to Arizona?” Since Earth’s natural mana field is fairly low, most of the dungeon-dwellers probably can’t survive without human intervention.
Spontaneously install a System?
Is this a metaphor, or is the Grrlverse explicly implied to be an artificial creation with semi-active creators, as Systems installed in the laws of physics usually imply? I suppose we already have the Superion thing to heavily imply as much, however, though with some suggestion that such modification to the laws of physics could be done by someone inside the universe.
One supposes that “manna” is a kind of concentrated negative entropy you can use to manipulate stuff around you without having to get into the annoying “to command nature you must obey it” details, since it handles the details for you quite naturally. (But with the risk that, if you don’t know what you’re doing, it will manipulate you, instead.)
As negative entropy, it spontaneously generates complexity and organization if not locked down. And tends to just grab details from the environment. (In fact, most manipulation is just feeding it those details before it finds some on its own…) So, if you’ve got people playing MPORPGs and along comes a bunch of unconstrained manna, the next thing you know people have status screens popping up in front of their faces in the real world.
Probably the first world where this happened imprinted its own manna field with various details that sort of diffused out into the universe creating a default template for what happens if you generate a bunch of manna without immediately channeling it.
So, everybody on high manna worlds is stuck playing the favorite RPG of the first race in the galaxy that discovered how to manufacture manna in an exotic physics lab. Then reverse causation sets in, pushing game designers in the direction of replicating that RPG.
RPGs as the spore form of mature magical biospheres…
Just be glad it wasn’t a certain card game and we got RPGs instead.
Hey, but if card games were a possible match, we could’ve gotten the xXxenophile universe, instead…..
( https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/1627/xxxenophile )
Based on what Dabbler mentioned in her fight against Heavenly Sword, are aetheon thrones also a type of core? And would auracite be an example of farmed material (despite not being alive)?
A transformer does not convert Amps to Volts. It converts one voltage to another voltage. The dialogue will unfortunately have to be significantly changed to not make Dabbler look like she knows nothing of science.
I would suggest Dabbler’s comment be changed to say “… use a converter to convert low voltage to high voltage…” and avoid talking about amps at all in that and the following remarks.
If you want to make people uncomfortable without actually being wrong? Yes, a transformer does in fact convert amperage to voltage, or vice versa. Because wattage remains constant, allowing for losses. So if you convert 1V5A to 5V, you’re gonna get somewhere around 1A. So far as component selection for hobbyists is concerned, transformers take one voltage and make it another voltage and everything else is pretty much irrelevant, though, yes.
No, a transformer does NOT convert amperage to voltage. They are two very different (primary) physical entities. It would be like saying something converts inches to pounds. Betarion is quite correct that a transformer converts one voltage to another but he left out that there is a corresponding change in the respective amperages.
Ignoring losses, the power input of a transformer equals the power output. Power (watts) is the product of volts times amps; doubling the volts results in halving the amps and vice versa. Volts remain volts and amps remain amps – only the values change.
A transformer works due to the phenomena that a current is induced when an embedded conductor cuts across magnetic field lines. (And vice versa: a changing electric current in a conductor induces an EMF). In a transformer the conductors are static thereby requiring a moving EMF (hence requiring AC input). In an electric motor the (greatly simplified), converse occurs as the conductors are moving. As TMac explains above, this is also how wireless charging works – in essence splitting the “transformer” into two separate devices.
In all cases, power is neither created nor destroyed. Doing so would be akin to perpetual motion or magic.
I think the problematic word in the sentence is “converts.” It seems to mean different things to different people commenting here. Everybody seems to agree on what the transformer does. The disagreement seems to be over whether “converts” is the right word to describe it.
Similarly, when you say, “something converts inches to pounds,” you could very easily be describing a lever, for those who are using “converts” with that meaning: a lever “converts” 3 pounds at 12 inches from the fulcrum into 1 pound at 36 inches.
Please suggest a concise way to explain the trade-off, that you think is better than “converts.”
it transforms from one AC to another AC. its natural that AC gets confusing its 1/2 imaginary anyway.
Which half?
the square root of -1.
Actually it depends on where you start from because whatever you start from has to be multiplied by √-1 to convert it to the other, which also moves the coordinate system by 90° making it normal to the previous coordinate system. Which is why I tell people that “normal” is imaginary because “normal” is at right angles to your existing coordinate system by definition and is the result of multiplying by an imaginary number, √-1.
that idea only works in Flatland, a two dimensional space.
I’m gonna look for a really fancy gyroscope.
As a physicist my immediate thought went to the immutability of the definition of the metrics. A metric is something that can be measured. The units of measurement are either one of the seven basic units (time, length, mass, current, luminosity, temperature and quantity). All other metrics are defined in terms of these seven. A volt always remains a volt and an amp always remains an amp – only the values change.
However, you bring up a good point: “convert” is not a valid description of what a transformer does: There is no “conversion”. What a transformer does is right there in its name: it TRANSFORMS power from one configuration (of voltage and amperage) to another. (It does sound a bit redundant and circular when used in a sentence though.)
Dabbler’s attempted use of a transformer analogy to describe a dungeon is not really valid. A transformer is neither a sink or source for power: input must equal output. The function of a dungeon is a concentrator of mana. It increases the amount of mana within the dungeon – effectively creating localized mana.
Regarding inches and pounds. Again nothing is converted. A lever (or wrench) transforms torque from one configuration of force and length (moment arm) to another. And again, the input (torque), equals the output (torque). Just as with an electrical transformer where the product of the input voltage and amperage (input power), equals the product of the output values (output power), for a lever or wrench, the product of the force and moment arm (torque), at one end equals the product of the force and moment arm (torque), at the other end. length remains length, force remains force and input torque equals output torque.
And, no, I haven’t come up with a better word for “convert” than “transform” although “reshape” might work.
I would think charge, rather than current. would be a basic unit.
I like “condense” for what the core does. Just like condensing water out of the atmosphere will cause surrounding atmospheric moisture to slowly diffuse into the area, thus increasing the total amount of water in over time, the dungeon core condenses ambient mana into mana crystals or what have you, causing more ambient mana to flow in to maintain equilibrium.
I suggest ‘reconfigure’.
Arguing about the exact meaning of a term of art (like transform vs. convert) with laypeople, when a Thesaurus lists the words in question as close synonyms ( https://www.thesaurus.com/browse/convert ), is not a very effective way of communicating that difference.
RE “It would be like saying something converts inches to pounds”
While that sounds impossible, here’s a set of equations from special relativity:
x²/x’² = m’²/m² = t’²/t² = 1 – v²/c²
(My A=B=C=D set is typically written as variants of the A=D, B=D, C=D equations.)
You are under the impression Dabbles knows what she is talking about, or at least enough to ‘dumb it down’ for those recently-involuntarily-were’d layrabbits in the room
Point is: they don’t have to know what a transformer is or how it does what it is meant to do to know what it is meant do: convert, or, (follow me on this) transform one thing into another
Dabbles knows very well what she’s talking about, but is VERY bad at actually explaining it, IMHO.
It’s a pretty unfortunate way of putting it, but a transformer is able to convert (current with lots of) amps into (current with lots of) volts and vice versa. Exchanging high voltage for high amperage may be more exact, but it’s also a bit longer.
Agreed, came here to say that. I wish the author would do 3 minutes of research, anytime there’s science or.math in this.comic it’s usually wrong, and ‘5 minutes of google wrong’ not Stephen hawking wrong.
I’d have said “trade off between” instead of “convert”. That makes it more clear that you’re not trying to be ultra-precise on the mechanics of how applying a transformer to V=IR works and how wattage stays constant.
You might want so PIE with that.
‘ P (watts) = V (volts) x I (amps)
P (watts) = I2 (amps) x R (Ω)
P (watts) = V2 (volts) ÷ R (Ω)
I think a better analogy is how turbines convert kinetic energy to electric, but I don’t get how that relates to increasing the level of ambient magic.
the reverse application, of course!
Exactly, you just reverse the polarity (TVT warning).
and if it doesn’t work, you can always un-whack it with a hammer
While stepping up/down voltage is true for *why* we use transformers, Dabbler’s description is not entirely wrong.
Specifically, in stepping up the voltage, as a side effect you step down the amps. The total power doesn’t change, so you do reduce amps in order to increase voltage, and vice-versa.
Yes it does, or you would have 1440 volts @ 1 amp volts running into your home. That’s how much volts are in those overhead wires you see on the poles. The high tension poles run in the 17,000 volt range. I’ve worked around 120 volts, 240 volts, and 480 volts. all three levels were made by the transformers we had both inside and outside the factory. The High voltage was to move the electricity from the power plant, but the amps were very low, once it passes through the transformer, the amps go up and the volts drop. https://www.maddoxtransformer.com/electrical-transformers/
Radio transmitters work with voltages in the KV range, one I used to work on had 2 HV sections, one at 14KV and the final output stage was 40KV. The amperages were inversely proportional and the 40KV stage would “bite” a little, but the 14KV (and the line input from the wall plug) would knock you dead before you even knew you touched it if the current path went through something vital. One shop rule was you had to be sitting on one of the insulated stools before powering up something to troubleshoot it. That way there was no way to get a current path through anything further up your arm than your elbow if you hit a live circuit.
My one time boss got an RF burn right through the center of his palm while working on a transmitter tower. I just play with tube audio and use an isolation transformer to reduce the risk.
What the heck is a Kelvin-Volt (KV)?
Did you mean a kilovolt? That would be kV.
Capitalisation matters, people.
(I’m sorry, but imprecise unit representation *really* gets my goat.)
ok, lets commiserate on kilogram-mass and kilogram-weight. when I saw these bastards of brain rot I just went to the restroom and cried. the ambiguity of lbs is bad enough but somehow the US has exported it?!?!?
Overhead powerlines can go up to 800,000 V.
I don’t know how to word it, but I think this would the perfect place for Dabbler to refer to “imaginary” power, even if it’s properly called “reactive” power. Ever referring to reactive power seems to fit the scenario even if more from a non-lingo every-person (imaginary/reactive) use than a technical one.
If I were to explain it informally, I’d probably say it *trades* volts for amps, because when volts go down amps go up, and when volts go up amps go down.
That’s a new look for Dabbler.
It’s for when she wants to be less conspicuous?
Dichromactic eyes would be too much of a tell?
Saying that the dungeon is a magic reactor where
low levels go in and high levels come out might not sell the idea.
Dichromatic eyes aren’t that rare… unless you think David Bowie was a male succubus as well?
Would certainly explain the Goblin King and his very tight pants
Bowie didn’t technically have heterochromia, he had a frozen pupil in one eye that made it look darker.
… He still had two different coloured eyes though, even if it was the result of an accident rather than birth
And thank you for telling me that ‘heterochromatic’ and ‘dichromatic’ are the same thing
heterochromatic is the colour difference, dichromatic means colourblindness (double-checked that one)
It would not surprise me if Bowie was a incubus.
More dungeons means more mana to make magic stuff. Flaw?
More mana may end up making the next set of squirrels in your front lawn learn how to cast one fireball per day.
One series I had enjoyed reading was the aftermath of a series of heroes having saved the world from a major disaster that was supposed to destroy the world… Only for them to fail to realize that while they stopped the event and everything on earth was exposed to magic leaving 5% of it becoming magical… That percentage did not just include humans… And how dangerous that truly was.
If magic is random (squirrel learns fireball) then Darwin Awards are the major impediment to species propagation.
Just because your *species* has a combat projectile spell does not imply the intelligence to cast it, just go ask the chimps you gave hand grenades to in Tonga when trying to explain exploding ‘verses. ;)
Chimps? In Tonga? In the zoo, presumably.
(Chimps, Africa. Tonga, entirely the other hemisphere.)
Maybe Vulture confused Tonga with the Congo?
What with the -ong- bit, and all.
What would a squirrel do with a fireball? That only burns nuts and acorns. Even if you want to go for aggressive defense there are so much more options. Like shocking squirrels, stinky squirrels (the magic stink that sticks for days), fear inducing hallucinations, …
Many squirrel would probably rather go the hiding, or finding more food route than something aggressive.
Wage no holds barred war with other squirrel tribes, obviously. Squirrels are very territorial, and bands of them fight territorial wars all the time.
I’m willing to bet the local squirrels could find a use for a fireball the next time one of the local cats leaps out at them from behind a bush.
Finding food means going places predators may be. Being quick helps, but if you can’t make it to the tree before the cat makes it to you….
What series is that? Don’t think I’ve heard of it.
Yeah, I’d like to know too. Sounds like something I’d love to read!
”Mana is a safe and cheap source of power and our government wouldn’t dream of weaponise it and start a galactic arms race. Mana leaks and waste products are not a threat to the enviroment. Trust your government.”
I’m gonna leave this old reference to an even older thing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U5tveO2nRSk
seems to fit somehow.
Hey, I’ve always wanted the ability to trace intrusive hacks, regardless of it being a human hacker or programmed decryption without direct human operators. Think of how satisfying it could be to either send an intruding system into full shutdown or a transmit a curse to a human hacker with a voodoo doll.
It’s a whole new level of meaning to the term “computer wizard.”
Black ICE is not enough for you?
Ill be the 1st to say it.
What could go wrong.
Dungeons breaks? They are planning to intentionally create places on this plane that spawn monsters with the caveat of ‘there are risks involved, but we are taking every precaution’. Which, historically, never works 100% of the time.
Nothing to worry about, the industry safety experts will detect any flaws in the system. Not that the regulators will act on those findings…
My impression of this comes down to, “Every area has a natural level of mana that it will contain. Let’s say we map them using a grid, and this 3×3 square is areas that naturally contain ten mana. A dungeon core in the center can pull, say, five mana from the surrounding areas and concentrate it all in the center, making an artificial level of fifty mana. The areas around the center will eventually regenerate back to ten.”
“Creatures that depend on mana at levels from eleven to fifty will naturally appear in the dungeon.”
I wonder how Dabbler managed to get her eyes the same color…?!?
… Magic? Or simply… contacts
The same way she has only two arms, pinkish skin and no horns. It’s the eye color that bothers you?
Also, they’re not the same colour.
It might not be obvious on mobile, but it’s apparent in the browser version. I’m not even looking at the high-def patreon version.
It’s a little confusing for me personally to read “mana condenser,” because I learned about electronics back when “condenser” was the standard name for what is now called a “capacitor.” I just figured out that that’s not the intended analogy at all, from seeing dornbeast’s comment.
“Potentially Catastrophic Danger”, who in politics has ever cared about that? I mean it is potentially. That means it is not real. And will not become real in the current legislation period. Right? Right??
“At the same time, maybe the average American doesn’t know what transformers actually do or how they work.”
Or the average cartoonist. They don’t convert amps to volts; they convert volts to volts.
… You saying DaveB isn’t an American? Or that he can’t be both?
Last time looked, this ain’t a cartoon
They do both, just a matter of switching which side was input. But if you do that, there’s a risk of overheating unless the transformer is designed for it.
I mean, they absolutely do exchange voltage for amperage in that when one goes down the other goes up. “Conversion” is a valid term for such an exchange if we’re talking math, so I really don’t see the problem, especially since English is imprecise and Dabbler is a non-native speaker.
*catastrophic danger* “So.. don’t let sydney get hyper near ground zero”
If you can create mana, you can potentially have unlimited amounts of the resource. There are three potential tracks to ultimate cosmic power:
A) Positive feedback / compound interest. The more you have, the more you can make.
B) Linear feedback / constant rate of return. How much you have is how much you can make.
C) Negative feedback / law of diminishing returns. The more you have, the less you can make.
As a major fan of dungen core stories, as well as modern people in fantasy settings, I am really liking where this story is going here!
If you haven’t already discovered Royal Road, you should check it out. Isekai and LitRPG are popular genres there, and plenty of dungeon-core stories.
Have you read Dungeon Life by Khenal? In Chapter Eighty-One he gives a great description of what dungeons do to mana flow.
That’s the story that brought me to Royal Road. :D
So…as far as accountants care these dungeons are like nukes that might give you something useful.
I think breeder reactors might be more appropriate.
This feel like a giant Dungeon Keeper setup with Thothogoth as the Horned Reaper.
I’m looking forward to the Vote incentive of Dabbler as the Mistress
I’m sure they would love to work together again.
yeah, as far as litrpg world goes, lots of mana = random dragon just popping up to destroy a city, it’s quite dangerous if you don’t have a Maxima around
Just a guess, but after installing the dungeon, Sydney’s orbs become more powerful and level up quicker from the resulting mana being produced.
Most are ripping DaveB a third one for getting Dabbles’ math wrong, forgetting that, while she may be the smartest person in most rooms (including when SmugD is stinking the place up), she is not half as smart as she thinks she is (even when she’s dumbing things down)
I tend to think of Dabbler as the Most Knowledgeable person in the room, becomes she comes from societies with superscience, magic, and psionics. She knows all this stuff because she’s a talented person from an advanced society, just like you are more knowledgeable than a tribesman from inner New Guinea: she had access to an education system and learned a lot of stuff.
Deus is supersmart. He’s definitely smarter than her. But he’s not more ‘learned’ than she is because she simply has access to information resources he does not.
In some early episode, Max described Dabbler’s intelligence as “beyond what we can measure” (or something like that). I have no idea where you are getting any measurement of Deus’ intelligence. Maybe he IS smarter, if that’s his superpower. Or maybe his superpower is in being convincing/deceptive, and he WANTS people to think he’s super-intelligent. I’m not placing any bets.
Sadly, being intelligent does not necessarily confer ability to communicate. “Dumbing it down” is a distinct skill set, and many obviously-very-intelligent people don’t have it.
Yeah, have come across that many times in games, specially MMO’s, where a new player is asking for help with a low level mission, and MEGs have no clue how to respond other than “Google it, lols” (half because they had help blitzing through everything and possibly never even did that mission, half because it was so long ago for them they have forgotten it, half because they don’t know how to explain shit but think telling someone to Google solves everything)
One trick to “dumbing it down” is to remember what it was like while they were still learning it
I prefer Khenal’s explanation of how dungeons work; https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/54476/dungeon-life/chapter/989817/chapter-eighty-one
Your description of transformers hurts me, in the same way that describing batteries as storing charge would hurt me. It’s true from a certain point of view, but it’s not correct.
Transformers don’t turn amps into volts. They change the amplitude of both (basically amps_in times volts_in equals amps_out times volts_out plus conversion losses). And Dabs WOULD KNOW THAT.
Yes, she probably does, but she’s trying to explain it to someone who barely knows what a transformer is (other than what she saw at the movies)
Not that I don’t love her, but why does our favorite were-rabbit keep getting invited to these things?
Given she’s on the magic council, she’s probably got all sorts of diplomatic and contract-related skills. Also, she’s one of the power brokers, or working for one.
Did her boobs hear “dungeon”, and start fighting each other?
Naaa, the bigger the boobs, the harder to contain them. I married a large breasted woman, she used to tease me by doing a little jump just to get me to look at her when I was busy. Not that I minded! D-cup and up, if they are not trapped in a sports bra, will pretty much move the way they want, when they want. It was a source of embarrassment for my wife many times at a beach. She hated one-piece suits, so yeah, lost top now and then! Not to mention having to dig her a “boob trench” so she could lay on her belly to sun bathe. She often complained about being “fat” I’d told her many times that 15-20% of your weight is in your top! She weighed 110 lbs at the time. (face-palm)
As seen in the movie ‘Top Secret’.
My takeaway if I am getting it right.
Mana cores increase an overall mana density, focusing mana including in an exotic energy sense by drawing it from it’s own dimension in higher quantity than would occur naturally. While this creates an increase in available mana over a wide area there is a kind of high voltage type of situation around the actual core, creating a zone of enchantment including multidimensional slips between other realities and planes of existence. To prevent a kind of enchanted forest, cursed fort, or haunted mountain etc…scenario for safety reasons an underground structure is prepared ranging at the estimated size of greatest danger zone mana density with the core at the center. With enough changes in density one may even assume the lower levels further away from the core so can divide the dungeon into levels as seen in many fantasy systems with the lower level monsters and magic items manifesting closer to the surface and the more powerful ones closer to the core….relative to the cores actual output making different dungeons themselves being different levels as well.
With the monsters and other magical things that appear being the result of the dimensional slips and mana seeking or dependent life forms or entities drawn to the area or others drawn through dimensions by the same system drawing mama…so various kinds of monsters. I have also seen systems where the mana density can mutate life forms including inherited traits that are exposed for prolonged periods of time…hence naturally magical creatures and peoples.
Although some of that is sometimes an artificial system people are piggybacking on and the monsters are part of a program to either prevent leaks or a higher dimensional being game is what is being tapped into for power and these are just monster enemies and classes they made also being pulled through.
There are a bunch of ways , but the general takeaway and some postulating based on other franchises.
and this made me realize something that now I have to write a thought out about.
Does Other World qualify as a dungeon?
Yeah alot of what I write, especially the older stuff, was inspired by my exposure to video games (JRPGs, fantasy series, anime, etc…) and wanting to create my own twist. I had “Mystic Zones”, portals into pocket dimensions from which “Mystic Monsters” would spill out from and local heroes would have to venture into them to destroy the mystic cores causing them to shut down (something we also see in various games, especially those with randomized dungeons)
But this got me thinking…does a goddess’ avatar *Architect of Magic* qualify as a core? Can we call an entire pocket universe a “dungeon”? Like the pocket universe is in layers around the “slumbering” form that is the source of all the magic and other chaotic energies, of that reality, and when we get far enough out we get to inhabited zones till further and further out near the furthest reaches is a layer of floating continent worlds and fantasy sci-fi civilizations of superhumans and magic powers, because of how rich in mana their reality is.
heck on a “smaller” scale I even had “The Mystic Zone” (creative names were not my thing in my early 20s LoL), that was a pocket solar system with a mana star, and all the planets orbiting it were bathed in magic and obeyed magic system rules, like magical life forms, mana based creatures that would randomly manifest as well “Mystic monsters:, and even treasure chests and pots that would manifest holding magic items. Like trying to have organic living systems coexisting in this RPG game mechanics setting. So would we call the Mystic Sun a dungeon core? Or the “slumbering” Architects of Magic?
In theory, shouldn’t the most dangerous place in the dungeon be the middle, then? As you go down below the core, manna levels drop off again. And there probably is dungeon below the core, just because of the core causes it to be there, and burrowing high level monsters, and because you’re trying to contain the effects on local aquifers…
Traditionally, a Dungeon Core sits at the bottom of its dungeon, putting as much stuff as possible between it and potential invaders, as depending on the scenario, said intruders might be out to kill or enslave the core (which for this purpose would be at least somewhat sentient)
yeah, theoretically, makes the spherical pocket world make a bit more sense as when you go down you are heading towards the center of the planet/pocket dimension.
Although if you stick to a 2-D plane of effect then you get the going to the center of the maze effect, which I have seen in some games.
But generally if you do this as a game mechanic it would be really weird if you and your party are going down the dungeon, go past the center where the big boss monsters are and then suddenly even deeper the monsters start to get weaker again….just uglier maybe because of the depths but still.
although as Zagaroth put it, if the core is say a sleeping ancient vampire or princess of magic or reality altering genie and the idea is to keep people away while those who put it there can still reach it. Generally you only need open spaces with monsters going towards the surface, as unless you decide to tunnel the core through the planet the bedrock, and rest of the planet under the lowest level tends to be a good deterrent from coming at it from the other direction. and if you have the power to build or move through enough earth a mile away and then come at the core sideways to bypass the dungeon then chances are you were powerful enough to tank most dungeons anyway.
Just as a quick note: In the Dungeon Core genre, the Core is generally a crystal that is the heart/brain/’true body’ of the dungeon, and if it is destroyed the dungeon dies. In these fictions, the dungeon core is sentient and has control over the rest of the dungeon.
If your heart/brain was moveable and you could put it somewhere safer, wouldn’t you keep it as far away from potential hostiles as possible? :)
The average American mostly knows transformers can spectacularly and inconveniently explode – they know that well enough that even relatively dumb ones will commit domestic terror attacks on them.
Boobage drawing quality is down on Dabbler right now. A pity, that would be her sexiest looks for me if the boobage was drawn on usual quality or better.
Dabs is trying to Not Be Distracting with boobage. And plenty of males are attracted by smaller breasts, the average porn actress is B cup or smaller.
Dabbler would make a terrible teacher, almost instantly getting into overcomplicated explanations and doublespeak. Keep It Simple Succubus!
The US education system has been deliberately reduced in effectiveness since the 1940s with direct correlations between; {funding, teacher’s education, required or banned subjects, meal quality, curriculum quality} and student outcomes. My biggest gripe with the Trump administration was that they did almost nothing to address the education system.
Why would you expect the Trump administration to do anything to improve the US education system? The Republican party has made it pretty clear they’re out to destroy public education.
Two questions:
1) What is the time zone of the comment server?
2) Is there a login link somewhere (that I have not been able to find) or other means to avoid comment moderation?
theres comment moderation?!?!?? where? only in extreme cases. like discussions of *moderated*, *moderated, and *moderated*. we have a perennial demand for puns to be moderated, but so far, no pun in ten did.
the comment server uses a strange mix of Timey Wimey stuff, chicken wire, duct tape, and a geriatric hamster.
Based on comment timestamps vs my time zone, it seems the server operates in in CST (Dave’s location in TX), and there’s a plugin screening for spam, language, etc.
As for comments disappearing, it’s often just slow – although I have seen some comments completely disappear. I suspect the system is regenerating the comments on the fly, and new entries sometimes collide or conflict with CDN settings. Probably needs to scale up a bit on DB size or RAM or something.
Suggestion for the next vote incentive, just skip calling it July and go straight to August since this is the last day of July and June is still up? Maybe something with our favorite amputee and sniper?
I imagine increasing the ambient mana on a given world also increases those with the natural ability to manipulate mana? Kinda like sorcerers? Or at the very least makes it easier to become a mage. Also. Betting the orbs partially run on mana and Earth’s low mana density is what resulted in the (hopefully) temporary power failure.
Errr… can create a pocket zones.
A pocket, singular. Zones, Multiple.
I honestly think it would be hilarious if Dave just pivoted into a full System Apocalypse story. Like, they install a dungeon over an ancient indian burial ground or stick it in Chixulub at the epicenter of an extinction event, and besides the zombie dinosaurs, the extra necrothaumic shadow causes the core to heterodyne into overflow.
For some reason this all reminds me of the old RPG.net concept setting: “Project Long Stairs”, where earth started making Dungeons that were full of “Fantasy races but not really” – like the Orcs were kinesthetic mimics who could copy any physical action they witnessed, making them progressively more dangerous until someone showed them how to play video games and suddenly you had pro gamer orcs doing counter-strike surfing around the dungeon.
There was one middling soldier guy who fell into a duplication trap – he got slammed by a rotating wall and when it turned back around there were 2 of him. The soldiers he was with got distracted, and when they checked on him again they discovered there were more than a dozen of the guy, and he (all of him) escaped into the depths, where he is now believed to just self-replicate somewhere down there.
it was a fun dungeon. The mana made magic items real.
https://forum.rpg.net/index.php?threads/setting-riff-voices-from-below-and-the-long-stairs.391379/
It’s still around, although not ‘active’.