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!
Patreon, for those of you who haven’t heard of it before, is like Kickstarter for microtransactions. Instead of funding one off projects, Patreon is for giving ongoing support to independent artists you enjoy. It creates a steady source of revenue they can come to depend on to help support their projects or even just pay their bills so they can concentrate on making more of what you love.
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!
SuperheroThey're super, thanks for asking!
Meatspace ComicSeriously these are awesome. Check 'em out!
Not UpdatingNo longer updating or only updates sporadically, but definitely worth reading.
SeriouslySeriously you guys. If you like Grrl Power the check these out.
"Mature"Mature subject matter and occasionally something explicit but usually safe. Can't guarantee the ads are safe though.
Dongs Ahoy!Full frontal and backal. Lots of skin, sex on some or all pages, explicit or otherwise.
Continuity, Dabbler is seeing the orbs do something significant: they are presenting a UI above and beyond 7 round glass-like orbs. If there is language, common styles…. There is a lot for her to recognize, if she’s seen its like before. Hunky men sans clothes may be neat, but that meat isn’t going anywhere. The cool display may be gone in 10 seconds. Her focus is correctly where it matters.
Congrats on writing the the page breaking comment
Although standing right behind Sydney probably wasn’t the safest place to stand, given her tendency to lash out when surprised. Which I am every time I bump into someone standing behind me.
Ladies and gentlemen, we have achieved the 6 page mark in a bit over 48 hours!
Let’s see, at roughly 3 pages per day, times 7 days equals 21 pages we could have by next Monday if we didn’t have to put up with the deluge of these twice weekly updates. Slow down Dave, we need a little time to catch up. (sarcasm strongly implied)
Since we were all commenting on the number of pages and how high we could get it (6 page, yahoo) I decided to figure of some of the records on most number of comments and other such things. First off I’ll start off with some interesting facts you probably didn’t know about our comments. Such as the fact that we broke into 4 pages with comic number 62 but didn’t have a comic with 3 comment pages until ten pages later, they had 255 and 329 comments respectively. Yes respectively the first goes with page 62 the second number goes with page 72. That prove one point that is was going to make about how the number of pages of comments is based on the length of comments not the number of comments. The same thing happened with us first breaking into 6 pages of comments with comic number 85 with and the next week getting 5 pages for the first time. The other thing I want to mention I will mention at the end and will mainly be for people who don’t notice it with the records.
First I’ll start off with the least comments per page starting off with the least comments overall, (first number is the number of pages: second number is the number of comments, page x is the comic you can find it on)
1: 6, page 6
2: 86, page 58
3: 254, page131
4: 255, page 62
5: 451, page 111
6: 490, page 86
Now that was probably pretty boring for you, you don’t care what the lowest number of comments was, you want to know the highest numbers we have gotten, well I have them to.
1: 124, page 58
2: 472, page 148
3: 563, page 115
4: 503, page 89
,
5: 568, page 87
6: what ever we make it up to on this page, this page.
So did you notice? The total range of 3 pages of comments completely encompasses the total range of 4 pages.
Also this page has the most comments ever right now, let’s see if we can break 600 guys, 7 more to go… when I started this comment which was a while ago (just after we broke 6 pages).
not to be picky & argumentative, but numbers notwithstanding, I’m fairly certain the page count is dependent upon the total number of top level comments (40 per page).
Thus why my reply was done as a top level post. I was however irked at it being the top post on the next page — bad form, having the comment on one page and reply on another page. :S
Anyhow… It’s one thing getting bonus pages of comment’s its another thing if we spam comments just to get the count up…. What are we saying really when we do that?
‘I haz last comment!’
‘Ninjad – I stole ur last post’
‘Naw. U thnk u stole it. It r mine now!’
I’m happier with real content, to be honest, like discussing how many tons of what goes into Max’s big blast. Or the nature of the Forb.
To be honest, I’m more interested in learning what REALLY is the mixture of ingredients of FNORD.
For more background info on FNORD, refer to Steve Jackson Games & the GURPS Illuminati sourcebook.
So what we really need are long posts, not many to up the page count.
Spam throw down!
Wow, did you this manually?
By the way, some details:
– page 58 is showed in both list with different numbers. The right one is de second ( 1 page, 124 comments)
– page 115 and page 89 in the second list have incorrect numbers, the right ones are: 2 pages 322 comments and 3 pages 438 comments respectively.
2 Words: Chaos Emeralds
LEVEL UP BITCHES!
I’m betting Dabbler is practically to the point of trying to decide which she’d rather face: potential supervillain enemies or Sydney in nerd mode.
Jee is right. Ignore replys and count top lvl comments – it is 40 per page.
To up the page count if that is what you want, don’t reply. Make new comments.
I counted pages 1 and 2 to check this.
I really like Sydney’s reaction, typical and very funny
And totally understandable. Wouldn’t you do something similar?
This is such a cool idea, and makes perfect sense for Sydney.
Also, going back to the last page, I have to say, nice touch having her new skill point in her hand there. I know that I missed it the first time, so I’m sure others did too.
I dunno…. I’m still creeping out about her teeth… Between where her glasses are positioned and how her mouth is drawn, she looks to literarily have 4 eyes.
Oh, no, now I can’t unsee that…
Yea /enable sarcasm thanks a bunch.
Orb combos. Make your guesses now !
Flight, forcefield.
Guided, placed force fields
Flight, energy blast.
Guided pew pew blasts.
Flight, telepresence, true sight
Remote viewing and not visible.
Shield, PPO: explosive shots that contain the blast inside shields – blow up that tank on Main Street without taking out a single window.
Shield, True Sight: project what is seen remotely onto your local shield – allows people with you to see what you have viewed remotely.
Flight, PPO: strong attacks of pure kinetic energy (think: Grazer)
Ooo, so the Forcefield/TeleSight combo could be like a HUD for spectators? Or maybe just a TV
Flight, tentacle
Spread for area effect, to give cover
Forcefield, ppo
A charged forcefield so anyone touching it takes damage.
Forcefield, telepresence
The other her can touch things
Forcefield, tentacle
Now you can prod things with the line. Or tie people up.
Ppo, true sight, telepresence
Elemental suicide bomber. Halo in energy form to fight as a quadroped ppo blast.
Ppo, tentacle
Explodey defence grids or guided blasts.
True sight, tentacle.
Know magic content with tactile touch of tentacle.
That should be the full list of guesses.
If it were me I would try to eat that skill point when I noticed it on my hand, (Well, maybe not but I actually might, truly) I’m kind of weird
Darn running out of time if there’s going to be a Thursday update, but…
It would make me happy if no-one but Sydney could actually see the skill tree. It’s possible given dabbler couldn’t perceive the orbs with any senses except sight, they clearly are capable of some pretty cool sensory tricks. I like the idea of having everyone else standing around thinking “what is Sydney staring at?” The framing of the comic doesn’t really support it, but that could be artistic licence to have Dabbler standing where she is. Achilles isn’t really looking at it in panel one.
And it would tie in nicely with another commenter’s idea that the orbs are adapting their UI to a form Sydney will understand, ie a skill tree for a gamer. If that’s the case, either everyone could perceive it differently or no-one but the owner gets to see it at all. If I were the orbs’ creator, I’d have the HUD be stealthy as the default setting :)
It also seems like it would be giving away far too much info to the world if the press are still within range – and I’m sure they’ll have the telephotos focused for the foreseeable future. But if they can see it, then wow Sydney really has upstaged Max in the media speculation stakes!
Give panel two of thuspage a peek: https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/621
I am sure the press can see the grid. I also expect that grid to play by the same rules as the glow of the balls. For them to report it may require the assistance of an artist who saw it directly.
Dabbler’s guess of psychic light in the linked page might imply that camera’s won’t pick up the orbs.
I know that psychic light is not an official explanation, I’m just speculating
I agree it is likely that the grid cannot be picked up by cameras. However, the lack of any recordings of it will not prevent the press corps reporting about it. They can just describe what they saw. The fact that there are multiple witnesses means that it can be corroborated. Not to mention explaining what would otherwise be very unusual behaviour by the heroes above.
I do not know for the US, but the UK has got specific laws which can be invoked to stop the media from reporting things which could harm the national interest. I guess that the ‘freedom of speech’ obsession might have prevented such an act though. I guess Archon could try a court-order but, even if granted despite the fourth amendment, it would undoubtedly get a series of appeals by the press.
I think the only way they could stop it being reported (discarding the option of of ‘accidentally’ dropping their bus on the return journey) is for Arianna to make an appeal to them. Backed up with the threat that if anyone does leak the story, they and their organisation, will be barred from ever attending an Archon press conference again.
First amendment. I had even checked which one beforehand – doh!
Or they could just rely on the poor quality of eyewitness testimony. Chances are if you did sketches based on what the reporters are going to report most would never come within a mile of the right design. Well Pinky might be a problem she strikes me as a big enough geek to hold it together here.:-3
Archon have the tech support to block what they don’t want known to the public. I can imagine news papers printed with blank pages and a few shredded computer drives.
I don’t think the media can record this and it will be interpreted in multiple ways and blown out of proportion. Like moon shadow’s legend.
what do you mean that MoonShadow DIDN’T do all those things? or have all those snazzy powers?… NOOO!!, Say it isn’t so!…
Okay did anyone notice that Achilles is kinda short in this one?
In panel 5 he’s taller. In the first panel I think he’s supposed to be further back and has a forced perspective of looking shorter.
To me it seems as if Halo only got the basic version of the orbs, not the Super-Deluxe-Mega-Ultra-Collector’s-Edition with all DLCs included. XD
Yeah, she’s definitely missing the manual. Probably bought used.
Well, think of it this way: Sydney initially found the orbs with no (perceivable) documentation, but only the comic author is in a position to say that the documentation actually still exists & Sydney may someday find THAT too! What Sydney is seeing now could be nothing more than the equivalent of the Online Abridged User’s Guide.
Hint, HInt: Possible story arc in the future!
There have been in-comic hints that Sydney has not been telling everything about where and how she originally discovered the orbs. She is genuinely surprised above, so it probably isn’t a handbook. Or if it is, she has not figured out how to make use of it yet. Corroborated by the fact that she does not know what the mystery orbs do. Peggy is absolutely right, she could not resist boasting about them or showing them off if she had read what they do. But there is something that we will find out at a later date, I am sure.
Would love to see a ps238 cross over. Moon shadow and halo could be a great chaotic combo.
Love that comic. Crossover must be wonderful, could be Max Tyler’s aunt? :)
Post 16 of 40 for this page.
Was meant to be a reply to above. Oops. I can’t delete this and it is the most pointless post I have ever made. So the score is that is post 17.
And I have shown I am flawed and thus human. Or is this an attempt to merely appear human ]:)
I’ll just add my voice to the clamoring for a wallpaper/t-shirt. Also attempt to get to comments page 7.
If it were me? I would become paralyzed with deliberation for several hours, before allocating it to the green orb, on the assumption that it would possibly produce an active effect with the ding.
So many possibilities and so many things to be inferred. :3 how delicious.
I note that some folks are asking for a clean version of the skill grid. Which is fair enough as parts of it are very hard to make out due to the background. Personally though, I am rooting for one with Halo in it. As she simply looks incredibly cute in panel 1.
Now I’m wondering if Halo’s “gaming system” is on a network, and will eventually download the ‘next version’ — with, maybe, an eighth orb or upgraded/nerfed/changed powers for existing orbs. (Or, you know, if it’s an appstore thing, eighth through fourteenth orbs and unrecognizably altered powers on existing orbs…)
And when that happens, will it come with a tutorial or at least a manual?
AON, this isn’t what “skill trees” look like to me, so I’ll take the rest of y’all’s word for it.
I think it would just be nice to “unlock” they mystery orbs, or at least figure out what they’re supposed to do…
Agreed, most are more linear or tree-like. But radial and interconnected ones do crop up. Older skill trees tend to look they way they do partly because it is easier and partly because it can lend itself to a branching nature.
But there is also the historical usage of such depictions which makes their ongoing use a cultural thing. Obvious examples are family trees and the tree of evolution. In reality though, both of those will actually have interconnections on them. For example, in the case of family trees if you go back far enough, it can be shown mathematically that just about everyone in Europe is descended from Charlemagne. And any other individual of that era who had a number of offspring. Given the passage of that many generations, their descendants would have no choice but to breed with someone who had a common ancestor with them.
Whereas, if you map evolutionary relationships, you find that ‘branches’ that have been separated for a long time, and which appear to be a distinct species when looking at fossils, can still breed back together. They do not just separate out, they can re-connect. Even in our own tree. There is now a wide body of evidence showing that homo sapiens in Europe acquired Neanderthal DNA. Such that now all non-African human populations have some Neanderthal DNA. From 1% to 6% in different populations around the world.
But inter-connecting trees are more interesting. Or in the case of Halo’s, very interesting.
my question is what’s with the circle in the middle? it could be which ones have been used the most or the most in conjunction with another. i’m not too familiar with skill trees to make anymore guesses.
Possibly indicating the most used and thus where the points must be spent?
nice over 630 comments^-^
also, we re up to 988$ on dave’s patreon, i am amazed!! i’m sure dave is too.
Over $1000!!!
Now we get two comics per week. Though I sincerely hope it goes a lot higher than $1000. I always knew he’d hit the $1000 mark. Best damn comic on the internet!
agreed, it is a comic worth investing in lol. once i’m a little more comfortable with my money i’ll definitively give a little more with patreon
The arrangement of the Orbs reminds me of the chambers in a Gatling Gun. Maybe as each is utilized, they load to the center and retract for the next one to ‘fire’; in milliseconds of course.
Oh sweet mother of god, how do I turn off the “email me when” function? I need an – ah, there it is.
Y’all killed my inbox, haha.
Oh, man, you went “full kick-me”? No one goes “full kick-me”!
Well, those who are unaware of it do…No one is completely invulnerable to a momentary loss of mental acuity required to make sure that damn checkbox is NOT checked.
This is the stage of the week when I usually check the box. That way if somebody makes a comment on this page in the days, weeks or years ahead I will know about it.
So I will be able to start packing, if Quentin Tarantino says “Whoot! Comments page 7. Ok, this comic is so inspiring, I will be making a film of it. If any long-term readers want to watch the movie being made and provide audience-feedback I will send a limo or plane to pick them up and bring them to the studio. Just limit the replies to this page though, as we would not be able to accommodate the millions of readers Grrl Power has attracted since Dave went pro in 2014.”
I feel a certain sympathy for Sydney. She had a Sydney Moment, she’s about to have an ADHD Moment, then she may well have another Sydney Moment.
A friend of mine once explained ADHD as having parallel processing wired into their brain. Where most people think one thought at a time, follow their thought to it’s conclusion, then move on to the next thought, people with ADHD normally have multiple thought-lines going on at once.
Ever been multi-tasking and have something else come up that requires enough of your attention that you lost track of the other things you were doing? That’s what people with ADHD have happen all the time with their thoughts. They will be thinking of how-ever many different things, possibly entirely unrelated to each other, and then something will come up that causes it all to crash and they lose track of what they were thinking.
Sydney has just figured out that she’s looking at a skill tree. Next, she looks at it and tries to figure out what all the lines and dots mean. This will be the point when having ADHD sucks. Imagine Sydney having all the thoughts and ideas people have presented in the comments about what it all means hit her simultaneously. -Wham-! Total mind crash.
And then, once she gets her mind back in something approaching working order, she has to figure out how to spend that one skill point. That’s likely to set off another Sydney Moment. She’s got to wonder, how many more points will she get? What if you only get one point, ever? She doesn’t even know what she will be getting when she spends it. The pressure is on, she isn’t going to want to waste that point, but how do you spend a point intelligently when you are only making guesses what you are spending it on?
This kind of dilemma could leave her running around in circles for a while, then putting the point in one of the lines from the brown orb, since she doesn’t know what that does anyway.
Huh, maybe I have slight ADD, I often want to say sonething, and if I don’t get to say it soon, I will keep thinking about related things, so if anyine interupts me or I get too far from that thought, I can’t remember what I was gonna say.
I also often get lost in thought. I gues it’s not so bad, since i somtimes seem to remember stuff i forgot if keep minwalking randomly trough memories.
Just noticed your handle. Nice one.
OoooOOO! Shiny! It’s reminiscent of the Skyrim level system Now we just need to be able to read it..But I’m sure Syd has that covered for the lot of us
now here’s something I’d like to know: if achilles is indestructible, how does he trim his hair and shave? he looks orderly and presentable (shredded clothing not considered XD) but if his hair is immune to blasts, it must also break blades. so….
Somebody posted the theory that he’s quantumly locked, and hasn’t been able to change since he developed his powers in the 1980s. Which explains him looking younger than his actual age, why he’s got an 80’s hairstyle, because it can’t grow or be cut, and why he’s immune to all damage.
Did anyone notice, the two bottom orbs that Sydney couldn’t use have just 1 or glowing balls next them. Where as the know and used Balls have five or six each.
That and the unknown orbs gained a glowing ball… I suspect we may be able to see what those orbs do soon, Sydney couldn’t use them before because they were LVL 0 with no active skills, now they’re LVL 1 and with skills assigned….
No, nothing has been added, yet, Sydney is still holding the Level Up ‘glowy thing’ in the last panel
/enable self-edit mode. Does this post meet anti-spam criteria? Relevant – check. Interesting – check. New – check. YAY – /proceed to topic:
I think that I, and probably the majority of readers, are working on the assumption that the orbs have fixed functions for each intersection. For instance that unlocking the node that connects to flight and energy tentacle orbs might grant the ability to summon the Flying Spaghetti Monster.
This stems from the fact that we have primitive games at the moment. Our programmers have to painstakingly work out how any given function will operate. And then go through many stages to turn that into a specific fixed capability that the user can activate at some point.
Advanced games will be a lot more flexible. Especially in the super hero genre. As, by it’s nature, it can draw on any other genre it chooses to.
For instance the game mechanics in City of Heroes used to have points like this: “you have unlocked the next group of fire powers, which at this level adds the option of a massively damaging attack which drains all of your energy or you can pick a less damaging attack, smaller in size but that you can use much more often”.
All well and good, unless your character concept did not call for either. So you either had to compromise and find a rationale for one of the new powers, or pick an older, weaker power that you had rejected previously.
Whereas a future descendant of City of Heroes, at a similar point, will say “you have unlocked the next tier of fiery powers, design anything fire-based you like and, provided it is not overpowered, you will be able to use it”.
Likewise, with Halo’s skill tree (and nicely in keeping with earlier suggestions that it’s very form may have been visualised from Sydney’s subconscious mind to appear in a form familiar to her), it may be that each of the skill options can create a power of her own choosing.
Thus, if she put her skill choice in the intersection between the Forb and Tentacle Orb, she could choose any power that utilised both force field and energy tentacle. Let us say that she knows from experimenting that her energy tentacle can be ‘cut’ by waving a knife through it (or a power cable or magnet if you prefer). She may choose to be able to manifest a version which has a force-field to protect it from being damaged.
Alternatively, she may go with the very likely seeming option of allowing her energy tentacle to reach through the raised force field. Either way, once she has chosen how it manifests, that option would then be fixed from then on.
Unless, of course, it is supremely flexible and allows her to manifest those chosen forces in any combinations she likes, once she has allocated her skill point. Thus being able to improvise any type of force/tentacle powers she likes.
Atleast its not like the Path Of Exile skill tree, SHe’d go crazy
This picture actually made me want to skill-tree geek out so much that I researched and downloaded Path of Exile. We’ll see how it goes once it has finished downloading
Heh, the developers should put DaveB on commission.
If I didn’t already have it, I’d be donloading it right now…and half of us too XD
(BTW, longtime lurker, awesometastic comic, yadda yadda…Hi DaveB! *waves hand*)
Comment 30. Ten to go.
All I can say to path of the exile skill tree is that it look like FFX skill tree on steroids and it look like I’ll love it.I wounder if I can use my RPG and MMO knowledge to deduce the orbs powers that is unknown and the upgrades for the ones we do know.I guess one of them is her mana pool other one might be her passive physical ability, like increase endurance or some thing.Given her power is base on holding the orbs and the only way I can think of to test it is to run as far as she can while holding the orb and would be a little hard to figure out.Now I’m half expecting Sydney to have a omega beam. Now I’m off to play with that tech tree.
How can the two that arnt used as they dont know what they do, have glowies? dont you have to use a skill to have points in them? or where those skill points from the previous onwners? or maybe since this seems to be the first time that Syd is seeing this, it auto leveled them? but you’d have to explained that.
I don’t know if this has been mentioned but I wonder who controlled the orbs before Sydney. Since parts of the skill/power tree are filled in already, someone must have had before her.
How come even the 2 unknown orbs have skill points?
Halo does bring attention that those ones look different. I theorise that those have just been unlocked and are extra-sparkly because they have been auto-allocated to the basic powers that the mystery orbs grant.
Uh, I do not remember making this post.
Maybe it wasn’t Yo, but was rather some other Yo? Yo know what I mean? And the other Yo would think who is this Yo pretending to be? Then Yo could argue that you are not the real Yo. Then folks would start to wonder why Yo were talking to Yoself!
Next thing yo know Yo would be in a padded cell!
But if Yo choose an image you like, and make a gravatar, then the picture will make one Yo stand out from another. One word of warning though, the avatar would be constant, across any website, where Maybe it wasn’t Yo, but was rather some other Yo? Yo know what I mean? And the other Yo would think who is this Yo pretending to be? Then Yo could argue that you are not the real Yo. Then folks would start to wonder why Yo were talking to Yoself!
Next thing yo know Yo would be in a padded cell!
But if Yo choose an image you like, and make a gravatar, then the picture will make one Yo stand out from another. One word of warning though, the avatar would be constant, across any website, where Yo authenticated a post with the same email address.
Just wondering if on comic page 181 if anyone noticed at the top that the blue ball on the lefts skill/upgrade dots go until it comes to a small little white line comes of the last skill/upgrade slot. Just thought it was weird that it looks like it might have a hidden skill/upgrade extension that might come into play later on, for it really looks like it could. AWESOME! webcomic by the way.
Thanks!
The two unused/undiscovered orbs are already upgraded? Interesting…
Has anyone else noticed that the main portion of the skill tree looks like a summoning circle? If you remove the dangly/branching bits, leaving only the orb-ring and everything inside it, it could be a summoning circle. If so, what gets summoned when all the ding/power-point positions are filled?
Me! Having thought through all the alternatives, that sounds by far the best from my point of view. Ok, odds are that it might be in the middle of some climactic battle against the forces of evil. But risk of death and dismemberment would be worth it for the chance to meet Sydney.
Or maybe, it’s the other way around? Once she has filled in all the interior spots, she has met the criteria to BE SUMMONED, and be yanked into another dimension as one of their summoned creatures.
“Be very careful when summoning the Haloed Sydney, my pupil.”
“Why is that, Master?”
“It is a fearsome, bipedal beast; both powerful and unpredicable, in equal measure. It’s nature is that it cannot be controlled. But, should it agree to your request, few things can stand up against its awesome might. Should you offend it, you will be very fortunate to survive its wrath. Heed this warning. Only summon the Haloed Sydney at great need.”
Nice take.
I’m surprised she has so many skill-points on the orbs whose function is still unknown. Go figure.
So does this explain why two orbs don’t do anything yet? Insufficient skill points in them?
Not do anything? Dear me, no. They do lots!
Brown orb
Basic skill level: Provide irritation to wielder and mystery to observers
Upgrade 1 (unlocked): Compel observers to speculate as to the nature of the mystery orbs
Upgrade 2 (unlocked): Project skill tree
Upgrade 3: (unlocked) Make the two mystery orb upgrade lights, on the skill tree, sparkle and twinkle in a mysteriously different way, to further enhance their aura and reputation.
Upgrade 4 (locked): Provide a titbit of a power which implies deep and meaningful purpose, plus hints of vast powers to follow.
Green orb
Basic skill level: Float around broodingly and provide eternal speculation
Upgrade 1 (unlocked): Ensure that fans keep coming back to find out
Updrade 2 (locked): Stronger version in case upgrade 1 starts to seem less mysterious.
Please tell me “Power UP” is an Altered Beast reference….
Indeed. :)