Grrl Power #183 – Confirm skill upgrade Y/N
I really had to resist the temptation of digressing the conversation into exactly what portion of the EM spectrum succubi can see and drawing a panel of how the world looks through Dabblers eyes. For instance a shot of her looking at Maxima and Anvil but she sees Max with much more muted purples in her hair because she doesn’t see as far into the violet/ultraviolet spectrum as we do, but further into the red/IR spectrum, so Anvil’s hair is blown out.
It kind of bugs me how other races in everything are always human plus. Klingons are taller and much stronger than humans. Vulcans are smarter and stronger and have tactile telepathy, elves have infravision and live for 1000 years or whatever. At least an orc is stronger than a human but presumably less intelligent to balance out the point totals. Dabbler has a lot of advantages over humans even without all her extra curricular skills, but at least she has trouble telling mauve from lavender. Until she tweaks the dials on her cybernetic eye that is. Normally it’s set to match her natural vision exactly, (with some added heads up widgets of course) ’cause otherwise I’d imagine having mismatched vision would give you a headache. However her cybernetic eye is capable of a broader range of vision than most natural eyes. It’s just not always scanning into radio frequencies.
I realize just before I posted this page that the orb switches hands between panel 3 and 4… it was too much work to redraw her arms or flip her around so late, so lets just say she can switch hands while spending the point as long as at least one is still touching the orb.
I know DaveB said he’d throw the Patreon pimpage over to the tipjar, but considering that it’s becoming his primary source of income (at least until there’s a book ready to print) it seems both prudent and practical to have it front and center for a while longer. Again, thanks to everyone for the support so far. As the celebrity endorser, I get 10%, and I’m paid in hotsauce, so keep em coming! Also he’s added some support levels and milestone goals, so it may be worth re-visiting the page.
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.
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So… Panel 4 is missing something non-trivial from Sydney.
Where is the swearing? The references to animal parts and bodily fluids?
She’s so angry she can’t form words.
That’s unlike her. I mean, her past fits against the orbs have resulted in her scaring nuns and making sailors blush. Tho to be fair, tubey was being a major nuisance then. Now its a matter of real world gaming life and death. And worse, its her only skill point.
Blasphemy.
Only a skill point?
Such a statement shows that you will never understand why this has enraged Syndney to the point where she can’t even curse anymore.
I felt her pain.
You know, I think he meant it as it’s her only (as in, only one, singular, not two, etc) skill point.
Not it’s only a (as in, she’ll get more) skill point.
It’s a rare dialect of Angrish, I’ll give you that.
Technically, what she called the yellow orb is considered crude language.
actually the creative cursing started about three seconds after the viewed scene ended
Which was when the broadcast was interrupted for “technical difficulties” AKA The Censor’s hand is still cramping from last time.
Adamas, You rule, I busted up laughing from your true comment
I think the point here is that this is Dabbler’s recap (within Sydney’s backstory – historiception?) of events, and cultural differences & eiditic memory aside, I doubt she’d bother to reiterate a 20-minute monologue of increasingly vile (not to mention physically dubious) expletives that lend little to the story itself.
That, I can believe
You want swearing? Wait till Sydney finds out that the new ability she unlocked was designed for the original orb designers who were visiting Earth.
“Congratulations. You now have the ability to breathe in an oxygen-based atmosphere.”
Doesn’t sound like something that would be built into the Com/illusion orb, however.
Maybe it allows her to turn invisible when she projects the illusion or something.
I’m hoping on a switch ability like harems. Make illusion be illusion.
Or make a solid illusion.
Multi Shadow Clone Jutsu activate!!!
Maybe Dabbler put a ‘Censor’ spell on Syd so when she curses, it substitutes Star Wars sound effects?
not even xurial’s that powerful of mage, now if cthulu was to team with cronus you might get every other one blocked
Ha :) That reminds me https://ps238.nodwick.com/?p=48
Well, Suzie has a point.
Syd can sound like a tauntaun all she wants,
as long as she doesn’t smell like one.
Inside or outside?
Ooh, congratulations Suzie. Level 2 journalist already! Going to spend it on investigative journalism? Or will you do down a shady route and get into phone tapping and hacking?
Nah, Suzie is too smart for either option: she will pick “Dogged Determination To Uncover The Unknown!” (or 2DTuTu)
that’s “Route Dogged Determination To Uncover The Unknown!” or R2DTuTu
well played
Yes, that is an improvement (coming up with anagrams/whatever{can’t be bothered looking up the correct word :P} that aren’t too obviously forced, like MOUSERS in the new TMNT series, is very tough)
Making one with that many letters can’t help BUT sound forced!
Reminding me of an old James Bond movie:
SPECTRE — Special Executive for Counter-intelligence, Terrorism, Revenge and Extortion,
among other rather forced-sounding names.
Like SHIELD?
Like one for a ship I created in an RP
Mobile
Armored
Tactical
Transport and
Repair
System
M.A.T.T,R.S. (pronounced “Matters”)
It’s arch-nemesis being Anti-M.A.T.T.R.S?
You activate an orb in order to pick the skill slot? Not certain of the mechanics involved in placing the skill spec on the inner ring, which does not appear to link up to any orbs at all.
Upgrading the yellow ball does appear the best path, but my personal choice would have been to unlock the skill tree with apparent power upgrades. Once you figure out the new skill, you’d get an idea what an upgrade would mean, the next time around. And heck, maybe Time is what the skill tree gives you – the ability to look backwards a bit in time with your Telepresence…
Maybe you need to grab two orbs to power up a linked slot?
I meant the inner circle, that appears to correspond to the pie segments at the very core. That circle is not direct connected, apparently, to any of the orbs. There are two of seven slots filled there, but if you have to grab an orb to activate a slot, how does one populate that inner ring?
Consider, grabbing multiple orbs might have originally been the way to select inbetween slots for previous race, but nothing stops previous race from being able to grab all of the orbs at once. Or even three orbs at once, to specify an unusual selection. Picking from across the sides might also be a manner of selection, or it might even be that the original means of wielding them involved grafting them to the flesh, so they could understand your thoughts and meanings, and all of this trickery is actually utterly unnecessary advertisement sales pitchery. “But if you wanted to, you could just hold this sphere, and it’d release a ray, just as simple as if you replaced your right eye with it.”
I considered the multiple hand (greater than 2) option for previous owners, but I think it is unlikely, mostly because the tree only shows links between sets of two orbs. There is no node, or link, between any set of three or more orbs. If the creators could grasp more than two, they almost certainly would have created synergistic effects for such options – they’ve created options for all the two orb possibilities, after all.
It would be kinda cool if their were three orb nodes, since that would indicate the original owners were not humanoid, and it would mean there certain things the Orbs could do that Sydney has no chance of ever doing, at least without some extensive bio-engineering.
I wonder if some of the nodes might allow the use of orb abilities without having to grasp it?
Something else I hadn’t considered til now – Dabbler is both a space-farer and dimensional traveler. She has no clue about the orbs. Which means they aren’t current tech or in use anywhere she knows or has heard of. I wonder how long they were lying around waiting for Sydney? OR did some unknown power choose to place the Orbs in Sydney’s path…
+1
what in it’s right mind would do something like that?
Someone like us, who finds her antiques funny, and decided giving her powers would amplify her innate aura of chaos.
I said RIGHT MIND we are all quite mad here even scared away the red queen and left the white queen in a swoon
the graphic of Sydney finding the orbs indicates to me that they haven’t been down there too terribly long (in geologic terms, of course). The coral it was imbedded in was still intact, and in general terms, coral grows slowly but not glacially slow. I’d guess they’ve been there for well under 100 years.
Maybe the Roswell aliens dumped them before crashing,
or loosing / forgetting them was the cause for the crash.
I believe I have uncovered details of the race behind the orbs. They have visited Earth in the past and passed into our lore. The are humanoid in appearance, but have green skin. They are sensitive to UV so they dress in long black garments, including a wide brimmed hat that has a central point to match the shape of their skulls. They often travel seated on antigravity hover-rods with a brushy cluster of steering vanes at the back. Their orb technology is advanced to the point of near magic. Surveillance devices often take the form of a much larger orb that can display images of distant locations. Their one weakness is a fatal reaction to a common Earth substance dihydrogen monoxide, which causes a near instant dissolution of their corporeal form. This can be prevented via the use of the correct protective footwear, of which they are greatly defensive.
I have a hard time believing any intelligent life form somehow incompatible with water would find it a good idea to land on a planet 70% covered in water and otherwise with water in the air almost everywhere on the planet.
That was a ‘Wizard of Oz’ reference. It’s as plausible as any other theory.
That assumes they had any choice in landing/landing on Earth and weren’t forced by circumstances or other creatures to do so.
Nice obscurifaction. Either that or I was being slow. I completely missed the witch references there. Although I almost certainly would not have made the Wizard of Oz connection without kemanorel‘s response.
I want to have the orb’s previous owner be a Spaniard that looted them from some Native American civilization and died soon afterward near the Keys.
Hasn’t that been done before? o_O
One of my ancestors looted stuff from Spaniards, which they had looted from Native American civilisations. He was buried at sea off Portobelo, if you want to hunt for his lead coffin. But should you find it, bagsy on any shiny orbs. Inheritance and all that, you know.
I Do believe that the inner circle may actually be how many orbs she can use AT ONCE. Two slots filled, two orbs in use. Just a thought but what do ye think?
Problem with that: it has been shown that Sydney has to be holding the Orb(s) in her hand(s), so unless she can grow extra hands, 2 at once is the most she can use
“You must use a hand to activate an orb” would be a good way of *implementing* a two-orb activation limit, though. So if there’s a way to remove that limit, it might come in the form of the orbs suddenly being sensitive to additional body parts.
actually they explain that one episode of Star Trek all the Alpha quadrant races have a common ancestor that went and spread their DNA to other planets when they realize they were dying out so that there legacy could live on that’s why a lot of the species are genetically compatible
Wrote this out with text to spech on my phone barly had to edit it
That’s an amazing piece of sci fy bullcrap :P
Humans and monkeys aren’t even geneticly compatible, and we have a way closer common ancestor than that
Actually, humans and monkeys share the same common ancester that a dolphin and a cheetah does: ie a ficticious one!
All primates share a common ancestor.
Just like all cats have one. Ect ect
Than if you want to go back even further, all mammals share a common ancestor. Or a couple of ancestors probably
I like Guesticus’s answer better.
But before we get into a debate, just read what has already been done with another comic:
https://ozyandmillie.org/2005/08/22/ozy-and-millie-1493/
I think they have quite outlasted anyone’s attention span with their arguments, and I do not wish to see it again.
Aww, no manual yet. Maybe the upgrade Will reveal something about them?
Lost node: allows her to ACTUALLY irradiate Arianna’s brain.
4 powers for the orb, and only two have been identified. Good luck, kiddo.
Unless sight through the perspective of the illusion/homonculus Sydney counts as a whole power…
depends on what you consider as power. For example projecting a self image is one power (at later uprageds it can project whatever she imagines like how she wanted perhaps), making it talk and see through from it another power (this one can be upgrade for 5 or 6 each upgrade for one sense), using true vision to uncover supernatural disguise is one power (later can be upgraded to be used on normal disguise) and 4th power is that we still don’t know.
Hmm. Go with unknown power, in hopes of getting explanations, or go with something that you might be able to map, in the hopes of getting it figured out.
I think I would have gone with grabbing the tentacle orb, once stuck to the telepresence orb. Hopefully it would confirm thoughts on how things go together, and filled in the connector – allowing the illusion to grab things. (Or the tentacle to shift to her illusion, or something similar.)
Diablo 2 levelling restrictions. Choose Carefully.
I come back after a few weeks away and there are many updates. Pledged because I like the comic and the faster pace helps the story. Also it would be helpful to have a way to contact DaveB directly that would not overload him with spam, perhaps limited to backers or some other way.
Pledgers can use Patreon to send messages and post on the Patreon… wall? Stream? Not sure what to call it really.
no +2 to tentacle range T_T
Considering we don’t know what the +2 is, it could be +2 miles to Tentacle length.
that would of been awesome!!!!
“It’s scientific fact that humans … have THE most efficient method of locomotion … and THE most effective anti-fatigue systems…”
That is pretty amazing and I want to dig on it. Could you please give us your scientific sources?
On the persisting hunting topic the documented hunts show that it is not like human and prey running head to head until the second fall down, but a carefully selection of a specific type of animal, specific weather conditions and a technique. The main factor is not the endurance but we humans sweat a lot :) It is mostly intelligence applied.
By the way, horses do not fit, we are unable to hunt down a horse.
————————————————————————–
Persistence Hunting by Modern Hunter Gatherers – Louis Liebenberg
Cyber Tracker Conservation, P.O. Box 1211, Noordhoek, Cape Town 7985, South Africa (louis@cybertracker.co.za). 11 VII 06
https://www.mattmetzgar.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/08/persistence_hunting.pdf
“They run up to the animal, which quickly flees, and track its footprints at a running pace… and chase it before it has rested long enough”
“The hunts … involved three or four hunters… the fittest runner adopt an easy pace while the other hunters do most of the work tracking and running”
“The hunt takes place during the hottest time of the day, with maximum temperatures of about 39–42 C. Before starting, the hunters drink as much water as they can”
There are “limits the maximum rate of heat dissipation … in animals that rely solely on panting The sweat glands of humans… (have a) high secretory level… humans can keep their bodies cool by sweating… If an antelope is forced to run in the midday heat on an extremely hot day it overheats”
“When chased, the animal… is forced into an intermittent running pattern… less economical than (the hunter) continuous running… (and) elevate core body temperature”
“One hunt took 3 hours 50 minutes to cover 25.1 km, for an average speed of 6.3 km/hr.”
“A total of eight attempts resulted in three kudus killed”
You talking bout that one mexican tribe? The one that literally runs everywhere.
Here’s a youtube link to something about them:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FnwIKZhrdt4
Well, the linked book lists the Tarahumara too, but while the technique is similar at different places the study was done in the Kalahari (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalahari_Desert)
Well the most is always a stupid thing to say, but 2 legs IS way more efficient for walking than 4 legs.
4 legs can sprint faster, but on the long run the 2 legs will get way further
A silly(sillier) thing to note: You actually can run/lope quickly using your arms and legs. Will tear your hands pretty bad, but you can.
The efficiency goes up as you increase loads… Although you do need to properly carry the loads for this to be true. Mind, more efficient does not mean less effort.
As you get to heavier animals, it is more efficient to use four legs to distribute the increased mass. While an elephant can stand on two legs, it can not move very easily that way.
That’s efficient to stand, not efficient to move. More legs (or a snake – no legs) is more efficient to support the body’s weight – less weight per foot.
But that’s to distribute weight. To move, you need to pick up that foot, redistribute that weight to the rest of the feet, move the foot forward, then redistribute the weight again to put it on that foot. That’s the human system – most animals have more steps, as they have move several things at once, and the weight distribution is more complex.
Now, to move fast, you want the weight location you move from and the weight location you move to to be as far apart as possible – again favoring four legs. (At the ends of the body.) But you end up having to curl your body to do it – which takes more energy and more muscles. Humans are well-designed for steady long-distance movement. (Enter a horse in a marathon, and it will lose.) The only animal really close in that department to us is a kangaroo. (Which are also two-legged.)
You forgot the constant micro-adjustments of balance being made throughout the entirety of the operation.
“…Enter a horse in a marathon, and it will lose…”
I am sorry but this is not true: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man_versus_Horse_Marathon
Once again, what is the evidence? where are the tests giving that?
Intuitution is a silly thing to trust at.
Indeed there are studies suggesting biped locomotion is more efficient, but are restricted to plain, firm surfaces. Humans are no so good at sand, swamp, stony, snow, waist-tall grass, let alone whatever more rugous than soft hills.
Despiste that, humans are in fact very good long distance runners but that is mainly attributed to our body heat control mechanism (mostly sweat) than bipedalism. We win if compared with sprint animals (surprise) but against others long distance not so:
https://www.popularmechanics.com/outdoors/sports/physics/animal-kingdom-top-marathon-runners#slide-1
Plus we usually cheat, comparing special groups of humans on special situations with average animals without support. There are almost no situations with humans using no aids like technology (from special shoes to a waterbag) or strategy (from knowing distance in advance to using far tested methods)
Our sucess lays on our brain one way or another. We are no special in almost all other aspect. However we are not wimps, we have our strong points to be proud of, just must not fall in human chauvinism.
Should also be added that, whilst our upright posture and form of locomotion probably confers some advantages, it also confers a number of DISadvantages.
Our anatomy is basically that of a quadruped that evolved to walk uprght, which means:
1) Our leg joints (hip, knee and ankle) are subjected to much more stress than quadrupeds. Noteworthy that it is problems in this area that usually ends the careers of most athletes. It is also a popular area for ailments such as rheumatism and arthritis to strike.
2) We are prone to considerably more respiratory problems and diseases than quadrupeds of comparable size. To put it nicely, any gunk quadrupeds accumulate in their respiratory system only has to travel horizontally to be ejected. Any gunk we Humans try to get rid of has to travel vertically.
Evolution is all about trade-offs and improvisiation, really. Human anatomy is NOT a “perfect” form, just one of many products of millions of years of stopgap solutions for basic survival.
You can download a Free eBook of my new book “The Origin of Science” at https://www.cybertracker.org/science/books
Thank you. I have done just that. Presently my laptop is in it’s non-functional state. But I look forward to being able to read that in comfort, when I get it repaired.
Thank you! I will give it a try :)
By de way, I hope you do not mind my “pruned” quotation of your work. While I do not read it in whole I found it very clear and informative.
No problem! I write my books so that readers can select what they are interested in – I don’t expect people to read everything :)
One of the theories about ADD is that they were trackers back when.
So 1200 on teh patreon as of thi spost, and at least 1 person took the $50 option
Noooo, curse the no edit function.
So 1200 on the patreon as of this post, and at least 1 person took the $50 option
Don’t worry so much about little typoes, everyone does them and most are fluent in Typoese
I BANISH THEE TYPO-DEMON!!!! *Smacks you with a keyboard* I BANISH THEE IN THE NAME OF WEBSTER!!! *Whack*
Don’t forget Miriam (the last one who forgot Miriam wasn’t pretty after the fact)
Good point! *Whacks DK with a Thesaurus* I exile ye in the name of Miriam! *WHACK!*
*glances at Adamas* You used an outdated edition, your attack means nothing and cannot be used again.
*Looks at the 2013 thesaurus* DAMN THEE CONSTANTLY EVOLVING LANGUAGES!!!
Always prefered Roget’s Thesuarus personally
Am I the only one who keeps wondering when it’s going to cut to a scene of Joel with the news on in the background spitting out soda when he sees Sydney?
I think a lot of us are looking forward to finding out what will happen.
It has been several hours since the press conference in which Sydney gave a blatant plug for her store (in tentacle). Unless Archon has deployed a security detail it will be mobbed to overflowing with press and new customers. I’m surprised Sydney hasn’t been getting calls or texts from Joel every five minutes since then.
where does it say she hasn’t gotten a call after the press conference or multiple calls between it and the current scene?
I most certainly am!
*learns tauntaunese, listens again to Sydney, laughs out loud, rolls on the floor, mocks her in klikkitan.*
*remarks on your language in Astromech*
Actually what astromechs and R2 speak is called Binary in-universe.It not like the little tin-cans (meant adoringly) are too stupid to talk properly, their designers just never saw a need for it.
And considering R2-D2 properly still knows all the stuff that happened in EP-1 to EP-4, would you really want him to reveal it all?
There’s this theory flying around the web that Chewbacca and R2 actually were the most important agents of the Alliance ever and that C3PO and Han only were the fall-guys for their work.
Makes sense: next to the late Yoda and Chewie, Artoo is possibly the oldest sentient with an intact(ish) memory (even if it is just a chip)
Was it ever explained why R2 and C3 didn’t just go “Oh, my! I remember this planet, Tatooine. Master Anakin built us here! You remember R2?”
In EP3 C3PO got a memory wipe and R2 had enough smarts not to blab until the kids were supposedly good with it.
R2 was wiped also at that time
Nope, Artoo has never had his circuits scrubbed (Threepio has had his scrubbed so many times they are as shiney as his heinie)
Also, only C3PO was built there, R2 was brought there by Amidala and/or Anakin the odd time.
*Shrugs* I quit halfway through Episode 2. The Clone Wars on Cartoon Network was much more enjoyable and made more sense.
Chewie was by far underappreciated most of the time, and underrated.
He was quite old even in Ep3 and he friggen led the Kashyyk armies against the Separatists.
Can we really expect he goes to be nothing more than a petty smuggler after that? Nah.
In the end, Chewie was so awesome that it literally took a whack with a moon to off him.
And R2 even survives more than a hundred years after EP4 into the Legacy era (140ish after Yavin).
All hail Chewbacca!
I had the pleasure of attended a lecture given by R. A. Salvatore, the author of that storyline. He was approached with the brief that Chewie should be killed in the story. To which his immediate thoughts were “no way, what about all the hate-mail for killing off a beloved icon?”
So he replied that he would only accept the commission provided he had a free hand on how Chewie died. Which they were fine with. Just what he was after, as he explained in the talk “I figured that there would be bound to be calls to bring him back. And if I have to put up with the hate mail for him dying in the first place, I was going to do it in a way that guaranteed no one could bring him back. And I thought to myself ‘I know what, I will drop a moon on him!’
And Chewbacca joined Uncle Ben.
Better than no-one being able to bring him back (and characters have been brought back after something more than just having a moon land on them), who would want to screw up such a glorious death as that? He didn’t just cower, he roared his defiance as the moon came towards him
wouldn’t it have been easily possible to just mirror panel three? (or at least everything but the skill tree?)
The skill tree is not symmetrical, so no. But it works as is, I feel.
Ahh, to take into account your comment in brackets, extracting the skill tree from the image would probably be a lot of work. And it probably could not be re-inserted, after mirroring the rest, without extensive modification.
I tried that, but the position of the word panels looked weird then, plus the skilltree was cropped from the edge of the panel when it was flipped. It wasn’t impossible to fix, it just would have taken more time than I had when I was trying to post it at 11pm, and I still hadn’t made the updates to the Patreon account mentioned in the post.
“Yellow Bastard”? A tip o’ the hat to Sin City?
It would make sense that one of the options of the com orb to have some kind of limited telepathy or empathy. Either way I find this to be a really awesome comic and look forward to reading the next installment.
I’d hate to be the bearer of bad news, but Dabbler won’t be able to pick up radio waves with her eye, Physics gets in the way. Simply put, a receiver for an EM wave has to be about as large as the wavelength of the wave received. Radio waves reach from meters to decimeters, which is somewhat too large for her eye.
Another problem is angular resolution, which also goes down for low wavelengths. She might be able to pick up signals, but she can’t really see more than a blur for anything longer than infrared.
Wait, if they are ‘too large for the eye’, then how can our ears pick them up?
Our ears pick up sound waves, not radio waves
What’s the difference? Seriously, the radio is playing in the background/other room
Now I’m starting to think you’re just trolling…
A radiowave is a signal that is picked up by the radio. The radio turns this signal into sound (with a speaker).
I try to interpret all such comments as generously as possible. Especially as Guesticus is a long-term regular commentator. We shorthand “I comprehended the news on the radio translated into sound waves and broadcast from the receiver in the adjacent room for me to hear with my ears” to “I heard the news on the radio”. It is perfectly reasonable to assume that Dabbler is doing just the same thing here. More than likely, as she has no intentions of sharing her magitech, and that would include avoiding giving hints as to its nature.
She clearly considers it important to share that she has that capability, because it could be of practical use in some mission. But they are probably used to her attitudes by now to know better than to press her for details which will not be forthcoming.
Was serious: how do radio waves differ from sound waves?
Sound waves are waves of compression in a medium, like air. Radio waves are a type of light, like infrared, visible light, UV, X-rays, or gamma rays, and require no medium. A radio works by recieving the sound waves of a song or person speaking, converting those sound waves into radio waves, a light signal pulse, and then those radio waves are received by your radio and converted back into sound. A radio is only called a radio because it is meant to receive radio waves, which are different from other light waves only in the wavelength, which is really all that separates one form of light from any other. Sound works entirely differently.
Thank you
It is important to note that sound waves are caused by vibrations of particles relative to one another, a lot like the “waves” produced by stretching and compressing a large spring/Slinky on the floor. In contrast, radio waves are electromagnetic waves or light waves, more similar to moving that same spring left and right (both cases where one end is moved and another is held still).
Dipole antennas pick up wavelengths twice their length. So, figure she’s roughly 6 feet tall… 12ft wavelength (using her body as the antenna) or a touch over 3.5 meters, which yields her the bottom third of the VHF band. This neglects to include the possibility of other antenna types allowing reception of higher wavelengths (something I know noting about), and this neglects the magic component, but assuming she’s looking for threat sources, using her body as the antenna has her covered. Threats to her (radar detecting people from range) would face the same limitations on wavelengths they could use.
Right. Physics gets in the way. Like physics gets in the way of building a linear accelerator shaped like a pistol that can reach into orbit.
Physics doesn’t get in the way there. It makes it horribly hard, sure, but there’s no hard limits for the amount of energy you deliver with a gun shot.
When it comes to Science Fiction, there’s basically two kinds of limits you can encouter – hard and soft ones. Soft ones are those that look impossible, but there’s no law of physics that forbids it. It’s actually an engineering problem, not a physics one. Dabbler’s gun falls under that, as do her cybernetics, and most super powers we have seen so far.
And then there are the hard limits, which require you to invent new physics if you decide to go over that. Prime example here is special relativity. The light speed limit usually puts quite a stop to any interstellar travel, so writers like to ignore it. Problem is, when you say that the universe behaves classically all the way up, you won’t have energy-mass-equivalence, and therefore no nuclear fusion, ergo no stars.
The resolution limit is a rather hard limit as well, since it comes directly from the wave nature of light. If you ignore that and therefore have waves as pure particles, you’ll be in a heap of problems. It starts with refraction and works it way all up to Quantum.
@Torrenal: That is indeed a possibility, assuming that she does have a wire running from head to toe.
Why use a wire?
https://www.livescience.com/14204-microsoft-human-antenna.html
The human body conducts electrical signals reasonably well. Certainly well enough for it to augment existing antennas simply by touching them.
True enough when you remember that between the salt not to mention every metallic substance in the earth’s crust is found in the human body in at least trace amounts. IIRC there’s enough Iron in the human body to make I think it’s a 16 “penny” nail for example.
Another idea (my favorite) for FTL travel comes from The Chronicles of the Lensmen:
Inertialess drive, such that when it is active, momentum = 0, but speed is such that drag = thrust. It makes sense when you keep in mind that air resistance is relative to speed.
Just because humanity hasn’t managed to build something like that at that size yet doesn’t mean it’s impossible. It just means that it’s difficult.
Mostly the power requirements are extreme, and our current technology can’t fit that much power into something so small. YET
I came across a web site that was originally set up as a Sci-Fi writers guide. They have a lot of info on various tech topics. One of which is how to deal with what is actual vs what is needed to tell your story.
https://www.projectrho.com/public_html/rocket/respectscience.php
I like the part on unintended consequences for new tech. If we did have instant communications anywhere, then we would have no manned space exploration program, since we could remotely operate robots in real time to get the data we want. Also, if we had replicator tech, then religion would lose its appeal of offering an afterlife of plenty with streets of gold and diamonds. “Sorry, we have that already. What else you got?”
Okay, I’m a long-time ham radio operator. Physics does NOT get in the way here, or your cell phone wouldn’t work, either. You did realize that cell phones work via radio, right? Dabbler’s probably not picking up the 40 M. band with her eye, but she could easily be receiving the UHF and microwave bands (Ultra High Frequency, or 10 cm to 1 m. and 1 mm to 10 cm), and there is a ridiculous amount of traffic on those. In short, Dabbler could read your order at McDonald’s if she wanted to (and was close enough).
Something else that puts humans at the top of the heap: IMAGINATION!!!!
We imagined what it would be like to fly to the moon: decades before we even had powered terrestrial-flight
Writers have also pretty much imagined almost every possible alien encounter (both terrestrial and extra-terrestrial)
Something else that has humans stand out from most other terrestrial lifeforms: ADAPTABILITY!!
Humans have pretty much adapted themselves to almost every environment on the planet, where they haven’t physically adapted, they have developed tools to either make temporary shelter/living quarters or have changed the environment itself (other species may have evolved to live in other environments, but most of them are permanent changes: ie they are stuck in their new location, travelling back to their ‘ancestral’ homes would kill them)
This is why humans are my favorite species in D&D ;-)
E. E. Smith imagined what many things would be like before we had knowledge of them (his books were published in the 1930’s/40’s), and he was mostly correct:
Nuclear power generators
Space is not a perfect vacuum
The moon is rock
Antimatter exists
Along with many other things.
Quick question, what if that node allows her to see dead people or to have her telepresence travel around inside someone and see through their eyes?
Are you saying that you WANT Sidney walking around going “I see dead people!”? I wouldn’t. She’s pretty loopy already.
True but how about seeing into the future instead? She looks at a person and knows what they will do before they do it.
You mean like that nice old lady in Smallville?
She saw Lex be prez and nuke the world.
Caused her a heart-attack.
Yeah sorta like that.
i would have gone for the single node with the double circle instead of the boring one. probably has something new, that boring looking one probably just ads a one time enhancement to something
I have a feeling that the double circle means that two points are needed to activate it.
It is interesting though. Every orb has one of those double-lined nodes; one dial clockwise from the node connecting to the next orb (which are also double-lined).
Speculation: it’s a limit breaker–greatly amplifying the orbs powers–but requiring two hands to use. Maybe.
Picking the teleprescence and truesight orb was the right decision. Archon isn’t going to send her into combat until months of training AT LEAST (I hope – she’s totally a loose cannon). She’ll prove more useful as a utility and support class than as an offensive one. Besides, Dabbler is probably right, and the T.T. orb may allow her to read the “tutorial layer.”
What I’m really wondering is: what did Halo want to level up?
Dave: may I recommend that if you want to include stuff like Dabbler’s color stuff you continue to post that exposition under the comic like you did today? That’s cool, and I like reading about it, but you’re right. It would slow the comic too much.
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.
Welcome to the community.
As an aside, that particular circle only appears blue because it is against a patch of blue sky. Whereas the other grey circles nearby are in front of grey cloud. You can confirm this by zooming in on the downloadable version of that image.
And, yea, tantalising hints of further upgrade possibilities, before we have even found out what the first one she has picked does. There are others too. Two more off the Fly Ball and one each from the Force Field, Telepresence and Energy Blast Orbs.
I understand what you mean, but what I was meaning was the far left small circle at the top of pg 181 it isn’t filled in any way, but it has a little line coming off it to the left like it missing another circle attachment or something so it gives you this little hint that something’s missing. Either that or I’m reading too much into it, which is most likely the case.
Yup, that’s one and the same as I am talking about. And, nope, you are not reading too much into it. There is definitely something to it. We just may never find out what.
I think she should have put it into the blue one that one that is on each but different than the rest. The one that the green one has filled but none of the others do. I think that allows for her to use them without touching the orb, but that is just a theory.
You mean the extra-wide line? Maybe as someone else said, that requires 2 points, and by touching the TeleSight orbs she was forced to use it rather than save it up (or at least have more time to decide where to spend it)
Sorry, I would totally do the whole Patreon thing, but my finances aren’t so stable that I can commit to every month.
I will guarantee, though — GUARANTEE! — that I’ll be there for your first Kickstarter, and I’ll pledge as high as I can feasibly justify (and then bump it a little higher).
I wonder if you can put multiple points into the same node and whether or not you would have to do that in order to unlock the next ability. Can you imagine how many times it would take her to max out that tree?
On another point it looks like the second ring, inner ring, ( as seen here: https://davebarrack.deviantart.com/art/Halo-s-Skilltree-Wallpaper-02-428874048 ) has already joined the Forb and Flyball. And if I remember correctly ( https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1112 ) It looks like she needed the fly ball to work in tandem with the Forb to make the shielding big enough for the Conference
I think it unlikely, for a couple of reasons. Firstly we know the orbs are user-friendly (mostly). And the skill-tree is likewise clearly laid out and informative. If more than one point was required in any node, I think there would be some visual indication, say dots or stars next to it.
Secondly the light from each star exactly fits the circle. If it was possible to optionally upgrade a node I would expect it just to fill (for example) 1/3 of the node, to make room for the other two lights to be put in. Or to be 1/3 the size, so that it can get bigger as more points are added.
Neither of these counter-arguments preclude the idea, they just point away from it.
It does look that way. There is a direct correlation between the number of nodes on the inner circles and the number of orbs. And that circle even matches their alignment. That said there is no linkage between the inner circles and the orbs in terms of a connecting line. So it may simply be a matter of aesthetic symmetry on behalf of the designers.
Very possibly. But, playing Devil’s advocate again here, equally possible that she flew up into the air out of sheer theatricality. We can see in your link though that there was a widget on the Forb which she pressed to enable the embiggener.
We know that at least some of the other orbs also have such symbols floating above them. Possibly including an embiggener for those orbs where it would be applicable. Such as on the blast from the PPO. Or an adorifying giant image of Halo.
Personally I suspect that the inner circles are meta-powers, like the embiggener, which can be used on any of the orbs as may be appropriate. As Sydney carries on experimenting by pushing the various symbols, she would gradually unlock more meta-powers and lighting up more of the inner circle(s).
Given that there is no chain involved, or any other reason for meta-powers to appear in a set order, it may simply default to lighting up the node closest in alignment to the orb used to activate the power. Or , presumably, a random one if that one is already lit up.
If my logic bears up to scrutiny it would mean that Sydney has used a symbol on the Fly Ball at some point (or her predecessor did) which is why it is now unlocked. Or she may have used a symbol, successfully, on one of the other orbs, and there is no relationship between which orb is used and the position of the light that is illuminated in the inner circle.
I am pretty sure we have never seen the Fly Ball closer-up than in your link, and that was not close enough to show any symbols. Which is confirmed because they are not visible on the Forb in the same insert. Once we do, that would narrow down the options.
I could see one of the inner circles being ‘newtons per square inch’ force each floaty ball can exhert (enough to lift anvil?) and another increasing the range they can travel from Sydney (enough to leave tubey at home while working?)
I already liked Suzie before, but this page cements that. I hope we continue to see more of her.
$1,288
per month
$15,456 a year
Very happy that it the comic is helping support our beloved artist now.
just flip panel 4 over and redo the words, then it’ll still be the correct hand grabbing the com-ball, just from a different perspective where Arianna can be seen
Ooh, a bit of topical news that relates to the earlier threads about smoking. It turns out that smoking addiction, bizarrely, was inherited from Neanderthals.
They also gave us other things though, like red hair and fair skin, so it is not all bad. And the hint that the gene which affects smoking addition had a different, presumably beneficial, purpose intrigues me.
Ability to tolerate a smoke-filled cave could have been a good trait in ice-age Europe. The cave would be warmer and “Nasty Big Gnashing Teeth” would be held at bay if you were asleep or otherwise occupied.
Whilst nice to think that, that is probably being too literal. By contrast we have identified genes which increase tolerance to alcohol and others which increase the likelihood of becoming addicted, but they are not related. European populations developed the former genes, which meant that they could drink alcohol relatively more safely. At a time when a huge proportion of deaths were through water-borne diseases such as cholera, being able to safely get daily fluid intake from weak beer, wine or the like was a real evolutionary advantage.
But, because genes which make you more susceptible to becoming addicted to the stuff are different, some populations are highly vulnerable. Especially amongst those ethnic groups which did not acquire the resistance gene. Native Americans and Aboriginal Australians spring to mind as well-publicised examples.
Further, we know that smoking addicts today suffer a greater chance of coming down with cancer and the other smoking-related diseases. But that said, as more work is done on comparing the genetic distribution amongst addicts to see what proportion have the genes and what are presumably that way for social reasons, it may yet be found that there is a relatively lower instance of disease amongst those with the gene. Who knows? But it is unlikely that one gene would have both functions.
That said though, it may turn out that the gene does provide some resistance to carbon monoxide poisoning (say by increasing oxygen-extraction). But it would be assuming extreme serendipity for a single gene to provide both a behavioural-modifier and a directly-related physiological benefit too.
Usually genes which have more than one function turn out to do very different things. And that those which are nasty are simply the unavoidable side-effects of what is the hopefully useful thing that it also does. And may be something that appears completely unrelated in the body. Whatever proteins it creates or other chain of reactions the gene starts in the body does both effects so they cannot be avoided. But if, for whatever reason, the combination helps survival it will remain within the population. If it is harmful, it will gradually get removed from the gene pool by natural selection.
So it may be that smoking addiction is simply an unavoidable side-effect of something that was useful to Neanderthals, but not necessarily so useful to modern humans. Such as the ability to extract more nutrition from bone-marrow.
Or we could go for a fun alternative and assume that it provides resistance to alien probing.
I find it amazing how people miss trade offs, ‘I want a fighter jet with the speed of a SR71, agility of a helicopter, firepower of a battleship, and armor of a tank.’ You add tank armor to a fighter and it stops flying – too heavy.
Genetics is no different.
There’s a modification to hemoglobin that amazingly grants resistance to malaria. A nice, simple dominant trait that can and probably does protect millions from the fatal disease. It has however a recessive side effect. You see, it breaks hemoglobin subtly. You are fine if you have one gene without the dominant trait. You have issues with having two. Those issues are sickle cell anemia.
I’ve a vision trait that is different for whole other reasons. 99% of the populace would probably call it a defect. Honestly tho, it has zero impact on my day-to-day life, but gives me a decided edge in hunting. In fact, people with this trait had an edge in war, and were able to see German camouflage like it were something closer to neon paint. (Well, not as bad as neon, but seriously, when making cammo, take color-blindness into account).
We spend too much time assigning ‘good’ and ‘bad’ to genetic traits. “Extra finger? Gosh, that’s bad!” We find relish in identifying things as good and bad, good and evil, etc. the truth is there’s a complete spectrum, and when it comes to traits, behaviors, there are always trade offs. All this Neandethal DNA study does, end of the day, is try to define Neanderthals as superior or inferior relative to their counterparts. It pays homage to the ‘x’ is good, ‘y’ is bad mindset, which is no credit to anyone.
I wholeheartedly agree with the gist of your comment. Although I do feel that you may be judging that particular article a bit harshly. That aside though, far too many scientists, reporters and other analysts focus on negative aspects of a gene, and automatically consign it as being a ‘bad’ gene without considering that it might be paired with some other useful aspect.
Granted some (or perhaps most) genes that have unpleasant effects may be nothing more than a flawed copy or genuinely some defect to an otherwise useful gene. But I think there will be a lot which are there for a reason. Some less than obvious benefit, which may prove vital to survival under certain circumstances.
Given that this is a super-hero comic, it is reasonable to use a more colourful hypothetical. So let us assume that the Earth is periodically, but very rarely, bombarded with unusual radiation (or other effect, if we have never experienced it in recorded history, it could be something we do not even have a name for as a theoretical concept). Perhaps from something like a supernova or from some other astronomical cause we simply do not know about. One of the genes which normally has a crippling action on people who express it may, as its primary function, provide immunity to that effect.
This could explain some of the periods of mass-extinction, which science cannot definitively state a reason for. Most life on Earth gets wiped out by this nasty effect. Apart from a few individuals in some species which carry this gene. Because its function is complex enough to disrupt advanced life’s optimal operation, those individuals usually have difficulty competing against more optimised individuals (what we would call ‘normal’ people in the human population).
But in the situation where practically all individuals which do not carry that gene get wiped out, those who survive will be the only ones who get to carry on the human race. Likewise for similar individuals in other species that are vulnerable to such an effect. In which case impaired cognition, slowed reactions or whatever the normal ‘bad’ effects are are irrelevant. Those individuals are alive, everyone else is dead. They have a chance to pass on their genes to future generations, even if many may not survive. The rest of the population will not.
Now consider what happens if science manages to ‘cure’ that gene and remove it from the gene-pool, through a world-wide programme with success like the Smallpox eradication programme.
Adding on to what Gamesman stated, smoke is also very good at keeping bugs and insects away so the smoke in the cave would keep the “Critters” away. Don’t know about the fair skin bit you stated, because all the scientific study papers I’ve read they have looked at the genome coding and it is an evolutionary trait from primitive man moving north into colder climate areas to allow man to absorb the ambient heat from the suns rays while dark skin help to prevent sun burn and the key word is “Prevent” this doesn’t mean that darker skinned people can’t get sun burn. I’ll have to read up on the Neanderthal theory it’s very unique, don’t know about red hair thou it’s my first time hearing anything of that.
Red hair is part of a pigment package that happens to make many common diseases easily noticeable. So they would look sick quicker, meaning in a social species they are likely to get more aid, and at the same time if they are healthy they show it better – so you can tell when they are good mates.
And it’s not heat that’s being absorbed by fair skin – it’s UV. The body uses it to make vitamin D. We don’t need much (and we can get it from food), but it’s a hard nutrient to get, and people in the far north have trouble getting enough sun to make it in the winter months. Darker skin slows down production, but hampers sunburn, and in tropical latitudes there’s no problem getting enough sun to produce the required vitamin D.
Assuming that being addicted to puffing cigarettes and enjoying sitting in smoke-filled caves is actually behaviourally the same (and I am quite happy to do that, having observed the similarity in more than one venue), you make a good case for the utility of the gene. Driving off insects being one aspect, but there are a bunch of other advantages that spring to mind, including the obvious one of not freezing. Likewise scaring off predators. The latter two presuming using camp fires of course.
The red-haired gene tracing from Neanderthals is actually quite old news. Albeit that modern humans have mutated versions of it. But no studies I have seen since have cast any doubt on that discovery. And plenty have corroborated the fact that all non-African populations have a small proportion of Neanderthal DNA. But here is a link to an article from seven years ago: https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7062415.stm
Remembering back to my undergrad classes on prehistory (ca 1998-2001, so I’m out of touch with more recent scholarship), we don’t really know how much time neanderthals spent in caves. Differences in erosion between sheltered cave environments vs the outdoors affect the amount of archaeological evidence remaining for recovery. This contrast is further compounded by the ephemeral impact on the landscape of the nomadic life style, coupled with caves most notably being used by neaderthals to bury their dead in. How much they lived in caves on a day to day basis may be uncertain. Of course, that is from memory of a course some 15 years ago, so i may just be wasting
inkkeystokes…Which is actually irrelevant to the point at hand: Smoke-filled tents or even sleeping next to a smoky fire in the open provide the same benefits.
Still, something to think on.
Skimming through all the comments I haven’t seen my thought aired… That orphaned node in the comm-ball… It’s the tooltips. You know when you hover your mouse over something and a little box appears to tell you what this is and how to use it.
so you have to spend a skill point to learn HOW to use skillpoints? That seems like bad design to me
I think this page must have the highest comments-replies ratio so far, over 400 comments and only 2 pages (approx 65 first level comments).
Had an idea for what the new ability is: Deception Detection. I’m guessing the Comm Ball’s primary purpose is information gathering with telepresence being a secondary ability. The question then becomes “What type of information could she gather that wasn’t currently present at the press conference?” We know that she can’t see through walls as there were plenty of solid objects around. We also can guess that she can’t see through disguises as TV personalities tend to wear a lot of makeup and she might have noticed if they suddenly looked different.
So I’m going with Sydney can detect when someone is lying to her. This makes sense for plot reasons, no one is going to lie to her when she’s training so the mystery can stay alive for a while. And it gives Sydney a front role for discovering that Harem is being sneaky. Toss in some fun conversations with Arianna getting frustrated about her lies being pointed out and it gives some good short term plot devices (long term plot may suffer).
Sounds like an interesting line of reasoning. Most (but not all) of her powers require her to hold an orb to use them though. Which could be socially inconvenient when chatting. Especially if that power becomes known.
I was reading back through the comic, even taking time to look through that of the “Authour notes” at the bottom, would you call them that, anyway…
On the second paragraph I noticed that you were a little irritated at the fact that whenever someone creates a new Race in some shape or form, be it in Fantasy or SciFi, they almost always have that bonus stuff as you mention. But the thing is, what makes us Humans special compared to that of these Fantasy Races have always been our ability to evolve…
Think about it, in Fantasy worlds where Elves, Dwarves and Orcs live along side Humans we see that all these “special” races never really grow or develop after they reach their peak, Dwarves Dig Deep, Elves and Magic of the Forests and Orcs being Orcs, But HUMANS, we grow Empires, Rise and Fall, develop understandings and develop the world. We Seek answers to our problems where the Elves might either already know and don’t care or just outright don’t care enough to be bothered…
In SciFi the Human will always seek to explore, with many Races content of sitting there in their little system being isolated to one planet or maybe many. Be they the Warmongering Species or the Peaceful sort, when they reach that point where they have what they wanted, chances are they will sit back and wait, wait for an excuse to go back to war or whatever. But its the Humans that build the Enterprise, to explore where no one has gone before. To Develop…
I can’t remember which Story it was from, but it was mentioned by a Race seeking to destroy Humans that the reason they fear Humans is cause no matter what, even if they kill all but a small number of them, they feared that the Humans would be able to rebuild and create that one thing that could destroy them, that the Humans would always develop out of their reach and do things unexpected. Because Humans have the Imagination to reach those distant stars…
what if by filling in all the points, the double-bubble gets unlocked and allows for a much more powerful version of the existing power?
Looking back, I think I have the skill tree figured out, How it works I mean. I just want to see what the combined power is. She seems to only have one of them and by the looks of it, it is when you combine Flight with energy Blast.
Im assuming the inner circle within the pentagram shows the last two orbs she was using.
I looked through the comments, but it doesn’t look like any one else noticed. Panel 4 shows that Sydney can use any orb to fly. She can control where the orbs are around her (most of the time) with a thought, and it looks like she can hang in mid air by the com ball.
I don’t think this is quite OP, because it will require personal growth on Sydney’s part to make effective. Using other balls to fly requires Sydney to be able to lift herself up, whereas the fly ball lifts her weight for her. Essentially, all of her balls can be used as an immovable rod, but that wont help her if she can’t do a pull up…. sort of. If she got clever enough, she could create a seat with all of her balls and just sit on them while they carry her around, leaving her hands free to hold other orbs.
There are also 2 relevant moments. One is earlier. Grrl Power #66 – Hero Baiting. Although Sydney can be manhandled, the orbs can’t be. To the point that they may not even be movable by Maxima (though I doubt Maxima was using her full strength there). I feel this could be used for utility purposes. Especially in Grrl Power #404 – Weight restrictions
Just think, if she could have wiggled enough orbs under that beam, and then just used the fly orb to lift only herself. Since the orbs can only get so far from her, it might lift something of ANY weight. I’m sure Dave will put some limits, or else sydney could actually lift (or push) the entire planet. Those limits will mean that the orbs CAN be separated from Sydney, we just haven’t found a way to apply that much force.
Also, it’s probably worth noting that the orbs themselves could be used to totally crash some of Newtons laws. The orbs don’t seem to run out of energy, and are never shown absorbing energy. Doing any ONE of the things they do would consume tremendous amounts of energy. Any thing that doesn’t do work would just generate a lot of heat, but we only ever see the PPO giving off heat of any kind… actually… now it sort of makes me speculate that the orbs are tele-powered. Energy is teleported to them from a star, and any heat or radiation is teleported back to the same (or another?) star. When Sydney describes touching a star when she used the PPO lends some credit to this hypothesis, but I got no way to test it. Barring the tele-energy idea, the orbs totally wreck conservation of mass and energy.
Not that Sydney’s orbs are the only thing that do in super hero comics. Kind of curious if this comic will follow through on those implications and give us some exposition of super powers being used as a component of a self perpetual motion machine. Sort of imagining a speedster generating more energy than he consumes while hooked up to an exercise bike with an electrical generator the size of a city block. Free energy.
And if you’ve got a super hero that can some how create mass out of nothing, or pair that perpetual motion machine with some machine that turns energy into mass… well then. I’m not sure that would qualify as post scarcity, but a super hero universe might devolve into an MMO economy at the least.
blah, I just remembered it works both ways. She still couldn’t lift the beam up like that. Instead, she would have just hit an invisible wall somewhere above the beam she was lifting. Oh well. I think the idea of minmaxing the system so she can fly without the fly orb still works like in panel 4 here.
You have to think about the orb seperation rules as if this was an RPG, and the benefits and detriments were being weighed. The ability to move things with the teather isn’t the point of that constraint. The teather is only there to force her to have the orbs with her at all times. Likewise, the teather can’t be used to move her because that detriment isn’t specifically one of her weaknesses.