Grrl Power #181 – Power UP!
:)
I’m so tempted to leave just the smiley as the comment but, well you guys know I can get a little verbose in these. I really enjoyed designing this, and yes, I know what all of the nodes do. I have an Illustrator file with a very spoileriffic text layer. :) It turns out that Maxima was correct about Sydney leveling up – just in a more literal sense than she knew.
I’m the sort of guy that enjoys designing skilltrees recreationally. Diablo II is one of my all time favorite games. It had a pretty basic skilltree in it, until the 1.10 patch that added the skill synergies. Personally I’m ambivalent about how skills worked in Diablo III. It has its merits but being able to swap skills out whenever you want dilutes player agency IMO. Currently I’m enjoying Path of Exile quite a bit – and it has a rather unique skill system. The actual abilities are either random drops or quest rewards, which I was leery of at first, but after a few playthroughs you start stockpiling skills and can build just about anything you want. The interesting thing about PoE’s skilltree is that it’s all passive abilities – a massive, interconnected web of abilities, rather reminiscent of the Final Fantasy 10 Sphere Grid.
After playing a little Path of Exile, I almost went back and redesigned Sydney’s skilltree and made it far more complicated, but decided to leave it as is for now. It’s not like she can’t discover additional features in the future. :)
Hi there, my name’s Halo! I’m a big time Superhero and this is my first big endorsement, so listen up!
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If everyone who read the comic pledged $1 per month (much cheaper than XBOX Live, a monthly subscription to Xmen, or A sandwich) DaveB could live in a house made entirely of caviar and ponies. If one tenth of readers pledged that much, he could still make his living off the comic and produce extra pages on a regular basis. Granted he’s doing that right now, but until the Patreon campaign hits a certain level, his saving will eventually erode to the point that he will need to find a full time job. So please consider contributing even a small amount (or a big amount, we’re not picky) to support the comic if you’ve enjoyed it so far, and DaveB will continue to endeavor to improve his art and writing and will keep entertaining for many years to come! Thanks!
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Someone mentioned in one of the earlier comments that the single globes with a double line make sense as effects that require both hands. This makes sense to me too, seeing as the globes that are connected to multiple orbs also have double lines.
On a side note, this comic now beats Doctor Who on the anticipation factor for me :) .
i would say the double lines connecting the orbs are X+Y abilities and using both orbs together has some type of effect on the final outcome (the PPO or energy blast orb on its own might just shoot a blast of energy but PPO+flight = cutting exploding beam
no what im wondering about are the 7 slots in the circular configuration near the middle are for.
Those are connections to orbs across the circle from each other. Trace down from the PPO to the Unknown Orbs in he first panel and they both go through the circular structure in the middle of the grid.
So far we have had hundreds of comments on the orb control panel and its various functions. I have yet to see anyone comment on one particular point. We have found out the orbs are functioning under some kind of game system rules. One inevitable fact about video games is there is always a cheat code. There is the possibility that Sydney could figure out what this is and enter ‘god mode’ (possibly literally).
All hail the Capsaicin Queen! Sin not, lest she smite thee with her withering breath of doom!
She’d be a shoe-in for “Goddess of Chaos”!
Let us hope that her motives are good and her perversions are minimal.
Or at least benign. Like preferring hairy dudes (see the Wolverine wedding picture) https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/456
Hmm, if she can apply Role Playing Game science into the real world around her, and we saw that she can be a hell of a rules lawyer at the beginning of the story, you know when this whole thing started a decade ago :D . Then it’s possible she can negate powers through rules lawyering.
She is the most powerful of all the powerfuls evah!
Yeah, the problem with lawyers is that there’s a nice proverb about them.
“You can sell them anything, what matters is HOW you sell it.”
being a massive nerd…Syd figured out the level up system instantly…but I wonder where she puts her new skillpoint…
I spy a little mechanical problem: how exactly is she supposed to reach the Pew Pew Orb to upgrade it? Stand on a chair? Piggyback?
Didn’t you notice that the orbs have rotated? The PPO is now nearer to her right hand. I would assume that means she can still remotely move them around.
Either that or they are still spinning slowly. In which case she just needs to wait until they have moved to a convenient height for her to pop the glowie into her chosen slot.
it must be my strange mood – that sounded really dirty to me
not really, I was thinking about anatomical incompatibility with said action without mechanical aid.
That sounded dirty – yet no one noticed my earlier suggestion that Sydney has unlocked a vibrator mode on the Molestorb? :-D
Or possibly noodly phalanges?
just caught up nice story dude cant wait to see more
just caught up nice story dude cant wait to see more. how often do you update?
Welcome to the community. DaveB has just changed to updating twice a week, on Mondays and Thursdays. Hopefully the readership will contribute enough via Paetron donations to allow this to continue. If it is not enough for him to stay financially secure, then at some point he will need to go back to a day job, in which case the updates would revert to Mondays only.
Get rid of Achilles and the speech bubble and I would totally wear the first frame on a t-shirt.
Completely agree, that, with or without dear Sydney, should be a T-shirt.
Sydney’s Septagon.
Can you give us an image of only her power up thingy?
One wonders what happens if she lights up the whole skill tree…
Probably gets another skill tree. Hate having to level again after a new expansion.
I can hear Sidney now, “Who the FUCK designed my god damn powers, FUCKING BLIZZARD?!?!?!”
Maybe it leads her to extra orbs after maxing out.
That… Would be really cool.
Maybe Sydney is a 7th level superhero?
Christmas…
Hrmmm… greenie over there is looking suspicious…
All the orbs have a single “skill slot” off on its own with a border, and greenie is the only one lit. Passive effect maybe? Or a no hands required?
Green is usually associated with living things, perhaps green is some kind of life support, currently set to minimal.
That brings up the idea that maybe this isn’t a “level up” process, but an available power allocation diagram.
Leveling up is when you get new skill points.
So it’s kinda the same thing
Yeah…I am also getting a skill sets chart vibe from this sigil.
I think I figured out what the previously-filled spaces are for. They’re based on Sydney’s natural stats, like her ADHD gives her an Initiative bonus https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/716 her intelligence would give her bonuses in other things (not known at the moment) and other characteristics cause a drop in scores (hence why the green and brown orbs are “unknown”).
*nods* Happier with that than the “someone else’s save game” concept. And can follow how some of the stats we see could have been generated from her personality.
Sydney: Link Unknown to Energy Tentacle
But what do they doooo?!? I am so excited!
she slots the glowing thingie and she get’s a Bioshock-esque hallucination of the new effect?
Could it be possible that this is a user interface created by the orbs to express a need for power allocation or calibration. We know the orbs have a mental link with Sydney as presented by her ability to control there movement This could be a construct base of readings from her thoughts. The orbs read her mind and picked a “Skill tree” because the orbs believed that would make the most sense to Sydney’s brain. If she were a Mathematician it may have presented as complex formula with missing variables to be filled in, or a series of gears to someone more mechanically oriented. Also now I am going to have to try and put down a possible trait for each of those dots. Hum might make a good contest to see who can make the most creative.
Telepresence+energyTentacle = MESS WITH STUFF WHILE IN Telepresence mode!
She. Has. A. Skill. TREE!!!!!!
What happens when she levels up all the way?
She earns a skill acorn.
it unlocks hell mode
The orbs upgrade to cubes and follow her around by rolling instead of flying.
3d skill tree is unlocked.
Okay so somewhere else in the comments someone suggested that the skill tree in front of Sydney is a form of level up system that changes itself to be most accessible to the user. I can’t find it anymore but it gave me an interesting idea. The reason it appears as a skill tree is because Sydney is a gamer right? So if it appears as a skill tree to a gamer what did it appear like to an ancient civilization? In my mind I see a projection of armour and weapons and it going to upgraded version of them as the user adds points, but that is just me and it would be interest ink to hear what other people think it would appear as to other cultures.
That was not e reason for the post though, that was an interesting side thought, my question is what would it appear like for you? Although I am a small time game and can recognize a skill tree off hand they don’t generally appear in the games that I play so for me it would not be a skill tree. For me the outer layers of off shoots would probably appear a complicated bar graph with a max value indicator. The connecting lines would probably stay the same though, with an indicator that the single point offshoot has not been used here to go with the indicators. I have no idea what the wedge does so I can’t particularly speculate on what it would look like.
To repeat the question what does your upgrade system look like.
Skill tree.
Or maybe a convoluted as hell circuit diagram…
skill slots when picking pokemon moves….
Is it okay that I like your idea better than mine?
But than you can only have 4
classic stat allocation screen in the vain of str, dex, int etc only for orbs
3D node-and-spoke building set, with size & color indicating meta-attributes
aaaand now i`m a patreon too ^_^. no garantees that it`ll stay forever but i`ll support you as long as i can ;)
Hmm suddenly things make a bit more sense now.
BTW its an impressive pattern design and it works with all seven orbs.
I knew there was more to those globes than use two at once. Layers for the skilled, more complex an powerful with each upper level of skill set. The original owners and creators of it knew. Sydney has a learning curve with them.
Did you happen to notice there is a node between each orb? One is already between the shield and blaster orb.
GOSH. I just want to know what they all do.
for the reccord i believe this has become the hottest topic of this comic thus far. with over 530 comments that the most spoken topic as of now ^_^
Come on, comments page 6, I am rooting for you! New comic tomorrow, and conversation will die down here fast.
Has anyone else wondered what Dabblers invisible set of arms are doing in the final panel?
The panel where Sydney’s eye-teeth look like…, eyes?
My guess is a reflexive action to create some room between her and Sydney.
It’s that, or getting ready to soften her landing in the dirt.
(Methinks Yorp wants to see comments page 6 before the Thursday page is posted)
Where and how do Sydney’s eye teeth look like eyes
Also yes I agree he does want it to reach 6 pages, I’m normally relatively passive, commenting in reply to someone asking for general ideas and he’s even gotten me trying to boost the number of comments with my general question above. Not that I know yorp personally, or at all for that matter, I just saw him commenting on it so many times I decided to try to get the numbers up.
It is all in a good cause. Provided we keep the comments interesting and relevant. The more folks who regularly come to comment, or just read the comments, the more there will be who also take the effort to put in a daily vote. Getting extra votes pushes it higher it goes up on the rankings websites. As that happens, Grrl Power gets more readers attracted to it. And the more of us there are, the greater the number of potential Paetron donations there are.
Yea, Yorp knows how to spam
*sniff* I resemble that remark.
Lots has been said about the level up system, but how about trying to classify the orb themselves into a RPG stat/skill system?
You would add a skill to each orb, like this:
melee attack : Energy Tentacle orb
magic/ranged attack: Energy Blast orb
defense: Force field orb
movement/dodge: Fly orb
perception: Truesight orb
and this leaves us two unknown orbs, but from the above we can guess at their function.
My guess:
stealth
healing
Now Sydney tried to test both, but you can’t really test stealth unless somebody is looking for you, or healing unless you’re hurt.
Thats actually a possibility, plus if you put a node between the orbs you can have them do dual functions like range attacks and melee attacks or something like that.
If I saw someone looking like Sidney in the last pannel I’d probably fall over backward
interactive kabbala.
i`ve had a look at Dave`s patreon page. its only been up for, what, a week and its already almost to the 1000 $ mark ?? wow i knew people loved his comic and i`m really glad people are actually willing to support it( like i do too ^_^ )
Cmon people, almost there, a little more and we`ve got a 2 comics a week assured : P
I’ve got a grav-ball test I want to pull.
Folks, I’ll need Sidney, Dabbler, and her spaceship.
We get sidney out into space, far enough for gravity to be negligable.
Then we see if her ‘flyball’ still functions, and in what way.
Thus we differentiate if it makes it’s own gravity, or it’s just a gravity lens.
That brings up an interesting question. Would the shield orb bring breathable atmosphere with her into space, or would she need a custom spacesuit that would allow for her to hold the orbs while in vacuum?
^^ yeah, I’d set up a Patreon myself, only it doesn’t work with PayPal yet. So instead, I’ll keep on donating by PP monthly until Patreon gets their act together.
On choosing the powerup: too many good options.
…bugger the Skill Tree – I want me a “Ding Mutha-Fuckers Tee Shirt with Sydney’s face from panel 6 on the front!!!
Epic panel Dave – absolutely pissed myself laughing, I know that feeling so well!
shirt front “DING”
shirt back “skill tree”
that way, worksafe
…not a problem! I’m self-employed and own my own business, so I set the dress code. :-)
And I say Monday’s are “Ding Mutha – Fuckas” Day from here on in!!
Seriously, Dave! – “Ding Mutha-Fuckas” – print me one size XL, on midnight / gun barrel blue cotton and ship it ASAP will you, otherwise I’ll bloody well make my own and send you a cheque.
Lots and lots of comments. What is the max number of comments ever received for a Grrl Power strip?
…not enough, IMO
I can’t remember it going over 5 pages before, and this one has a lot of replies per comment. So I think whatever this is up to is probably the record.
Hiya Peeps,
Hmm, here’s an interesting question (for any & all to answer.. ;) )…
What do you think is going thru Harold/Achilles’s mind as he’s viewing Syd’s Power-Up/Skill tree? Apart from the obvious one that is.. (enjoying the taste of his melted marshmallow aka “Mmm, tasty!!”)
I get the feeling he’s probably thinking: Ooh, that’s pretty… (I mean that in the sense of him being distracted by the taste/flavour of his marshmallows.. Not trying to imply he has any sort of mental impairment…)
What does everyone else think?
Cheers & Thranx
I don’t think anybody here would argue too much with the idea that Achilles is a few (~60-100) IQ points shy of super-genius…
To be fair there is no proof either way. From assumption made, I’d estimate 85. He may be slow and a bit dim rather than an iq than makes him unsuitable as military cannon fodder.
Regarding Sydney’s Flight-orb: to me, it is not a Gravity-producing orb, but more a ‘localized-anti-gravity-producing-orb’, at least, the ‘lag’ is what gets Sydney off of the ground and then thrusters activate to move her (‘mini-thrusters’ to adjust her position relative to the ground, and ‘main-thrusters’ provide momentum
Basically, the Flight Orb (with ‘LAG’) is the opposite of a certain Greta Grabbie (would love to see those two get into a sparring match (sparring match, so it is not fatal/serious, kinda like when Maxi and Sydney first arrived at the former testing range), specially if the grey/pink nodes allow her to extend the ‘LAG’ outwards and affect others
Les’ face in panel 5: “Ugh! Why did I put my fingers back into my pocket?”
So… is her profile of powers indicative of her potential, or the current state of her skill tree?
I think it’s her current skills and ability to use them (or lack there of)
Huh. 5 pages of comments and no one has mentioned Achilles’ missing choker design on the Who’s who section.
Damn it, was going to make this post that was kinda long asking where she added her new skill point then realized that she still had it in her hand in the 5th and 6th panel. Facepalm…
Going back through the archive I now predict that on Monday’s page Sydney will be missing the arm communicator thingie. She had it placed on her arm on page 156, it was randomly missing on pages 165 and 174 (you should go back and fix those at some point Dave) thus since she has gotten it has been missing on every 9th page (156 + 9 = 165, 165 + 9 = 174) so by taking the last page where it was missing (174) and adding 9 you get 183. Since he is doing pages twice a week the next page will be on Thursday (tomorrow) meaning we actually get up to 183 on the Monday. Yes this entire post was to try and get the number of comment pages up to 6.
On a side note, there’s Achilles with his backside freezing in the wind, and Dabbler doesn’t seem interested in any way? I’d figure she would be taking a photo, at the very least.
Yeah, this also is a dumb comment, pushing the 6 page envelope.
His backside doesn’t freeze. None of him does.
cyber eye and her invisible hands…
less said the better.