Grrl Power #433 – The bubble bus
Yes, Sydney has a rebreather now, but it was designed with one person in mind, not four. As Gwen pitches, there may be significant development in this area if the team decides they need it.
The problem with being cagey about what city they’re based in is that whenever I list a city they have to travel to get to, it’s easy to cross if off the list of potential home bases. New York would probably make for a poor location anyway, as would anything on either coast if the team has to serve the whole country. Ideally, there would be at least two active branches, one for each coast, and eventually that’s the plan. Really you’d want one near all the major population clusters, but the scarcity of supers makes that impractical at the moment.
I had trouble deciding what clothes to put Sydney in since she’ll be wearing this gear for a good number of pages in this arc. Part of me wanted her wearing some other superhero shirt as that comprises a fair bit of her wardrobe, but Arianna will get on her case about that now that she has her own personal brand to build. I decided to return her to the white and yellow scheme she was in for the first ~300 pages. Instead of a Wonder Woman-ish pattern though, she’s debuting her official logo. It’s hard to see here but you’ll get a better look at it in upcoming pages obviously. Each team member has one, but Maxima is definitely not down with Arc-SWAT wearing “costumes” so they’re hard to spot in the wild. Really the logo is mostly for marketing purposes, but it only works as branding if they’re occasionally worn by the team members. Sydney’s ideal for this as she clearly has no issue wearing a superhero logo shirt, and especially if it’s her own logo.
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I was wondering when they’d get into this.
For those wondering who Zephan is: https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/416
they should also test the air supply when Sydney uses the “embiggener” option with her shield…More internal space with fewer people should provide a longer time frame.
What is Pixel holding there? A book? Handheld console? Techno gizmo thingy?
Never travel unless you have your e-reader!
I’m almost sad that I don’t fly as much in this job as I did in my last. Nothing beats airtime for uninterrupted reading.
However, some of that is offset by the audio books I get to plow through while driving now.
“Nothing beats airtime for uninterrupted reading.”
At least, as long as the engines continue to function properly…
Which reminds me of a joke I heard, oh so long ago; A guys’ first air trip was making him a bit anxious, but at least he was seated near someone who was kind enough to offer some emotional support during the journey. About an hour into the flight, the Captain announced over the cabin’s intercom that one of their four engines had stopped working; reassuring the passengers that the plane was perfectly capable of completing the flight with three engines, he also mentioned that it would delay their arrival for about fifteen minutes behind schedule. With a bit more emotional support, the first-time flyer came to accept that & settled back down.
About a half hour later, the Captain announced that a second engine stopped functioning, assuring the passengers that they will indeed continue to their destination, but would arrive with about a half hour delay.
Then, about twenty minutes later, the Captain announced that their third engine stopped working, but they will still continue to their destination, but with about an hour and a half delay.
The first-time flyer was *very* anxious at this point & remarked expressed his hope that the final engine would not also quit; “If that thing goes out, we’ll be up here all day!”
The punch line, as I heard it, was “Great, now we’ll never get there!” Which is both the exasperation of the traveler speaking, and the physics of a plane with no engines reaching its destination speaking.
The version I heard had each engine granting a much increased amount of flight time. Hours each time vs. 15 minutes for each engine failure.
Not so much what she is holding as why in last frame is has caught Dabblers interest.
it has, obviously.
i think its a 3ds or a future equivalent….
A 2DS maybe? Or as Dave would claim, “a legally distinct 1LessDS!”
Classic alien personality. “Don’t be concerned, I’m not going to be affected by the thing that’ll kill you.”
(I know Max would have caught them, but you get the point)
It’s right up there with the “If you are horribly killed, I will avenge you.”
“If there is a war between Heaven and Hell, I hope we’re on the same side.”
“You seem nice. We won’t be.”
Wizards are prone to this as well.
And ‘tanks’* in computer games. One of the reasons I never liked them in online ‘roleplaying’ games. An indifferent and/or incompetent tank will be failing to protect his team-mates. But need not be bothered personally, as his own defences will keep him safe.
Of course you do have good ones too. Who know how to taunt, to keep aggro off the party squishies. But that concept itself is just weird anyhow. It has no real-world equivalent. No army unit has “taunter” as a key role. Nobody but the most indisciplined, or stupid, enemy will ignore a high danger threat, in order to retaliate against a target that they are clearly having little or no effect against!
Hence why I always had a preference for controllers (and defenders) in City of Heroes. If they slip up in their role, they suffer just as much as everyone else present. Further they do have real world equivalents, such as troops armed with flash-bang grenades, and the medics who will heal the injured.
* The tough warrior types, rather than the tracked variety.
In D&D versions 4 and 5 there are several classes which have the ability to move themselves, the enemy, and/or their team mates around during combat, in order to create advantageous tactical situations. And for those classes which don’t have those capabilities inherent, there are a couple feats (at least in 5e) that have a similar effect. This is the kind of ‘tanking’ that makes sense, as opposed to the “No, ignore the guy wiggling his fingers and wiping out your friends wholesale! It is I, the guy in full plate and shield who can only stab only of you at a time, who you need to be attacking” kind of tanking.
Looks like Halo has a new rival; the Osprey!
I wonder if one of the future secondary powers for the shield might be oxygen generation. Or maybe that is for the flight orb. Assuming, of course, the the orb makers had human biology.
As seen in the the motion picture ‘The Explorers’?
In that film, the forcefield and propulsion were combined.
Does the bubble manage G forces also?
How about something where Maxima is the engine and Halo provides the forcefield?
Only Problem with that is oxygen is not the real issue at work here. Its the buildup of CO2 in the air that makes it a bit of an issue. Sydney even says as much in fifth panel, her CO2 Alarm went off after 8 minutes. Oddly enough the human body doesn’t even sense a lack or need of oxygen, but it does detect a build up of CO2.
I’m surprised Dabbler doesn’t have a CO2 scrubber spell.
CO2 buildup is happening far too quickly inside the shield though.
Volume of a sphere is V=(4/3)π*r^3
I don’t think we know the exact radius of the sphere, but Syd is about 5′ in hight, and slightly crouched seems to be about half the height of the sphere, so let’s say ~9ft ~= 1.5m which gives us ~14m^3 of air.
By volume, dry air contains 78.09% nitrogen, 20.95% oxygen, 0.93% argon, 0.039% carbon dioxide. So we have our starting point. First symptom of CO2 toxicity is drowsiness, and occurs around 1% So how quickly do 4 people convert 134.4 liters (14m^3 x %0.96 needed to reach toxicity)?
A human uses ~550 liters of oxygen per day. We have 4 people, so 2200 liters/day ~= 91 liters/hour
So there would be about 1.5 hours before 4 people started to feel slight drowsiness in there. Assuming the CO2 alarm is conservatively calibrated at half the safe limit, that should still give them a 45 minute flight time before it goes off.
So either Dabbler uses a LOT more oxygen than a human, or that alarm is broken / horribly mis-calibrated.
Heh, I was wondering when someone would do the maths. I knew that 8 minute warning was much too early, both from prior conversations on the shield”s air capacity, and general knowledge about things like people trapped in sealed bank vaults and mines. Plus my own experiences when I heavily insulate my living quarters, in winter.
Well done on doing all the hard legwork though Ray.
Let us just assume that the orbs need to convert some air into carbon dioxide, shall we?* After all even eggs need to metabolise. ;-) And various machines do similar things (albeit that with our technology level we expect different byproducts).
* Or else, if our various physics teachers and mathematicians corroborate your numbers, DaveB made a mistake, and may wish to revise the dialogue accordingly.
I know it’s late to come back to this, but I only started reading the comic recently. (Then I re-read the whole thing while going through the comments. Fun!)
There’s a major miscalculation in Ray’s figures for the volume. He gets a diameter of ~1.5m, then treats it as the radius. The volume of a 1.5m diameter (= 0.75m radius) sphere = 4/3*pi*(.75)^3 = 1.767 m^3.
The volume of the sphere is 1/8th as large as Ray’s calculation assumes, so the ‘time to drowsiness’ becomes ~12 minutes instead of 90. Thus the CO2 alarm setting seems to be about right after all.
Ooh, thanks for the update.
I guess I should have more unwavering faith in Dave.
*heads back into kennel*
Does Dabbler not have a “clean air” spell? As an alien, I would have thought it useful to know for space travel. As an adventurer, it would be useful for poison gas traps
Dabbler’s “clean air” spell will not allow them to measure how good Halo is at group transport (okay for short ranges, not great for long distances unless you bring your own air supply). Besides, using the spell will use up her energy, and she wants to be awake and alert during the dinner discussion.
If said spell even exists.
it probably does, or she can jimmy one up. As for keeping her fully loaded as it where, any helpful member of the team could do THAT. with the obvious downside that the Orgy below might be distracting their driver, ofcourse.
Yeah but then whoever she feeds on would be drained.
“If said spell even exists”
summoning?
transmutation?
spontaneous creation, destruction?
either of those, modified to the specifics could dot he job.
if it hasn’t yet, i am pretty sure it is not that hard to invent. at least for dabbler.
just take a preexisting spell, adjust a few variables, and tada, a clean air spell.
also, depending on the base of the spell, it might he really bad to use.
the creation sphere for example. out of nothing creates more air.
if used in an enclosed space, it will increase the pressure with every cast.
eventually the pressure will kill you.
or one of the two spheres that we don’t know the powers of, creates an environmental effect. Sadly she would have to drop the fly orb to swap for the environment orb. and with the fly orb not holding them Max can carry them from below at her top speed.
oh, i didn’t mean “balls” i mean spheres as areas of knowledge/magic.
and even if one of the 2 balls could do that…
based on the previous events i am pretty sure her shield would have the same issue as “thor’s hammer” no matter how heavy or light it is, you just CAN’T move it.
that was the first experience max had with her balls, and the shield didn’t even flinch at maxima’s or V’s, fist.
based on that, i believe that maxima would be unable to carry them all.
Not an unreasonable supposition. Do note however that the orbs immobility only applied to trying to move orbs beyond a certain distance from Sydney. If you recall Maxima was able to pick up Tubey, with no resistance. It was only when she attempted to throw them away, that she failed.
But it would make sense if the shield was resistant to being moved by others. I think the better example would be Vehemence’s attack. Unlike Maxima, who had to pull her punches (on orders from the General, due to being indoors), Vehemence was able to hit it full-force and he was infused with plenty of vehemic energy at the time too.
Likewise when Vehemence pulled on the tentacle (which was manifested on the outside of the shield) the shield itself did not move. Even though Sydney comically fell over.*
* Which I put down to artistic licence and the rule of funny. It would make no sense for the tentacle (on the outside) to affect Sydney on the inside, other than psychologically making her stumble or loose balance.
Especially given that we know that no part of the tentacle went inside. Halo later tried to use it inside the shield, against Vehemence, but realised that she could not do that. Even on the rebuilding site, Maxima did not make Sydney fall over, when she pulled on the tentacle (ro establish that it could lift approximately fifteen tons).
Without being anchored to anything (that we can detect) and despite it being pulled with such force, it did not move. Which seems to be shared with the force field, in it not suffering from knock back. And, by extension, possibly resisting movement by other means.
Of course the orbs do respond to Halo’s mental commands. So it is entirely possible that the shield will only resist being moved by an attack, but will allow itself to be pushed, by an ally, if she so desires. Clearly something like that must happen, in order for Halo to fly with the shield up.
Well, Syd is capable of something over 500 MPH as I recall. Even at 100 MPH average speed, 8 minutes is more than sufficient to get people OUT of most emergency situations. So this is definitely a useful ability. Although less useful than it could be for long-distance group travel.
Of course, they could stock a box of rebreathers for long-distance travel. Which would still be a sight cheaper than flying the Osprey.
The other question would be Halo’s weight-lifting capacity in this mode, and whether it affects her speed.
That, and Sydney can not accelerate too much,depending on the passengers.
Why doesn’t she increase the size of the sphere? She can do that, can’t she?
Sydney can reach Mach 4, which is still less than Speed Racer’s race car. :) This is about 3000 mph, or 50 miles per minute. If she can manage that while towing her cargo along, then her 8 minute limit for this size bubble and passenger load would let her travel 400 miles between pit stops.
Note: this is not recommended over populated areas or near military installations.
As it was mentioned it was Chicagoish (I think), at 400 miles per 8 minutes, its a 15 minute flight. Even at 100 mph its only an hour.
I have to wonder just how big she could make the bubble, and how that would affect her flight speed.
Bigger bubble, more air inside, however, also more air resistance.
We have seen Halo use the embiggener to make the shield large enough to hold the entire press corps.
Hmm, could she encover the entire earth? If so, good protection against Invaders From Beyond the Stars!
But its a rather HARD two way protection. It would also protect the Invaders From Beyond the Stars from ARCHON.
We know that Dabbler has a “sticky air” spell. Not so helpful for breathing mind.
Although it does have potential to be used to stop her fellow passengers from hitting the ground. Web is a reasonable improvised solution for such situations, if she can cast it fast enough.
That would have an effect similar to, but not quite exactly like, the Adromeda Strain.
So wait… can we possibly get her in the comic actually wearing the Patreon shirt then? It really does seem like a thing she would wear. :P
true true i could totally see her wearing it!!!
Well, in the comic she does’t have her own patreon account, though that would be an odd way for the military to fund itself.
“It will be a great day when our schools get all the money they need and the Air Force has to
hold a bake saleuse Patreon funding to buy a bomber.”?She does have Event Horizon Comics, so if they have a webpage with simple information about their inventory, and a contest or two for the chance to win one collectible thing or another.
winner is based on the donations…
it would give her a reason for the shirt and a way to help the ( at that time) declining finances of the shop.
It doesn’t necessarily need to be to support her or anything. I personally like Patreon as an idea and method to support media that I like…. even if I don’t actually have money to donate. >.>
You stand out wearing your own logo. Until it catches on and she can get lost in a crowd.
Throw in a visit to a comicon and even Hugh Jackman can wander around in full costume without people paying too much attention.
… Except for criticisms about costume accuracy and how Hugh Jackman actually looks quite different to “this” guy.
The one that stood out to him was “Too tall dude, too tall.”
Has there been a “no one fart” warning given?
Not an issue this time – all the passengers are female, and everybody knows that girls don’t fart ^.^
Ha! Yeah, keep telling yourself that.
Side note: The oldest recorded joke is one of a girl farting while sitting in her lover’s lap.
Somebody needs to watch Mythbusters again. They debunked it 3 times, even though the girl denied it during the first two by claiming machine sensitivity.
Girls don’t fart when others are around. Even good friends.
But the really close friends, they will deliberately drop a SBD on them.
I like how Sydney’s first thought after being asked is about putting Peggy out of a job. Also, is it just me, or is she kinda hot in panel 3?
definitely hot
Hot. So hot she is cool.
I mean she was steamin’!
Yorp +2
Weatherheight +3
the words that came to my mind were “disarmingly sexy”. i’ve always found her rather attractive, but that panel, well, looks like the aftermath of some lessons dabbs wouldn’t mind giving her.
As said by Stanley Ipkiss (aka: The Mask): Ssssmokin’!
Oh my goodness, I just realized. They’re going to dinner together. Again. Foreshadowing?
I admit they have set a poor precedent regarding these kinds of things.
Dinner in New York. OK, we better open a pool on this.
20:1 Godzila attacks.*
16:1 A super who has Spider Man like powers is real in the GrrlPower verse and he moved to NY.
8:1 Terrorists threaten the World Trade Center
6:1 Aliens make contact with the United Nations.
2:1 Sydney will not be able to resist a ‘spicy special’
All bets are in Yorpie Snax™.
* Or other non-copyright giant radioactive or fire-breathing lizard/dinosaur. Excluding bona fide dragons (if it also has wings, or can fly under its own power, it is a dragon). Giant Komodo dragons pay out, if they can’t fly.
…if your trademarked Yorpie Snax are anything like “Scooby Snax” then I suspect you may run afoul of the DEA in this country
Nope, no narcotics in the Yorpie Snacks
What about amphetimines?
.
.
.
Bad pharmecutical humor… i’ll show myself out
I’ll take the Aliens make contact with the United Nations at 6:1 considering Dabbler and Godzilla attack at 20:1 based on https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/414
We have seen Spinnerette in the comic (as one of the vigilantes they’re looking to recruit), so I’ll go for “Spider-Man.”
Wait, when did we see Spinny? We saw Catman with a gun to his head, but don’t recall Spinny being shown
What are the odds on firebreathing plumbers?
17:1
Any odds on Giant Albino Alligators from the sewers?
Oh they are bound to be down there. We have Nile crocodiles living, and probably breeding in self-sustaining numbers, in Florida, in the real world. Add super-powers into the mix* and any baby ‘gators flushed down the loo are all but guaranteed to mutate!
Besides which Nile crocodiles are man-eating giant crocs anyhow. So any albino ones, naturally present in any population, will want to shelter from the sun. I can well see one crawling into a sewer, or storm drain outlet, to do just that.
* Especially as, in this setting, they appear more often in industrialised countries/regions, which is where you are more likely to find sewers.
No, no, no…What’s the odds on the wager that the interruption would be a giant albino alligator, not the odds that the alligator itself exists?
O.o
5:1
I am going for they have to deal with an external problem that they are not ideally set up to handle, like the ephemeral undead. Who you gonna call?!
I wonder, does using “the embiggener” make her flying more difficult or unwieldy? You would assume so simply from air resistance, and also her having o deal with moving the larger mass of air held within the shield. However while it wouldn’t decrease the amount of CO2 being produced making the area inside the shield larger should make it take longer for the CO2 to build up to dangerous levels. But would it extend the time by long enough to be worth the drawbacks?
Well, they should already have some idea how passenger mass and shell volume affect her flight performance.
What if instead of the force field Sydney used the light hook to drag a glider or chamber. That way shared air is not a problem
To fly at higher altitudes, lower temperatures, or faster speeds, she needs the force field. As she only has two hands, the lighthook is only good for lower, slower flights.
Yep. According to #354, she’s capable of flying at mach 4… quicker than any manned aircraft save the X-15 rocket plane, or a space shuttle on re-entry. And oxygen supply or not, she’s also doing it at much lower altitudes than the 25km where the Blackbird flew…
And while it’s entirely possible that she’s capable of towing a small glider at such speeds, it’s much less practical to build a glider that could survive the experience.
That was the first time that Halo could have spotted an alien. If she was being properly vigilant, rather than just looking for cloaked space ships.
Wall of air 30 or 40 feet across, travelling at mach 4, all the way to New York…
somebody’s washing is going to be blown off their line. In Melbourne.
I wonder if they thought about having Sydney hold the shield ball and one of the unknown balls while Maxima carries her. It would test if the shield moves with Sydney without Sydney moving herself and if one of the balls might have some sort of life support.
Okay now lets see how much slower you flight is with the embiggened forcefield bubble –a la press conference demo of Maximal Maxima. Increase the radius of the bubble by even a foot and you’ve really increased (physic fu is weak this morn) the cubic air supplied. They could also set up a harness for Max (riding inside) to allow the others to hang momentarily while Sydney drops and re-ups the field without pausing…
And dammit now I glance up and I’ve been ninja’d in real time.
Remaking the shield at flight altitude is probably a bad idea. She’d just trap the cold thin air in the bubble with her.
That would definitely get rid of the CO2, but it would be a little scarce with oxygen and over-all air pressure.
I have an idea about renewing the air supply in Sydney’s shield bubble. Just make the bubble bigger, then smaller again.
It wouldn’t renew the air, just partially refresh it. If you were to double the volume of the sphere, wait a few seconds to allow the CO2 to drop, then reduce it the amount of CO2 will be cut by maybe 75%. But the passengers would also fall, and when she reduced the shield fall to their deaths.
On the ground it would be more useful, but less effective. The ground would prevent the gas from dropping below the smaller shield dropping its effectiveness to maybe 50%
Sydney says “Then why don’t I pop when I make it bigger? Or… …Un-pop when I make it smaller?” This implies that she’s tried making it bigger and smaller without actually dropping it, so nobody would fall. The shield modifies the quantity of air on its own as it changes sizes, as she doesn’t notice a change in pressure during this process.
So lets take advantage of that space magic and lose the air scrubber.
it might be working on percentages of the gas mixture inside when it does it’s enbigening and shrinking. It would even make a certain amount of sense
That would be remarkably shortsighted, if the orbs were actually made by someone. But, then again, why build in a skill tree and not start them at maximum power?
My theory (and probably a lot of other peoples’ theories) is that Sydney is the one that’s super powered. She just has self-confidence issues. She doesn’t believe that she could be powered, so her subconscious manifested her powers in a way she could accept. An outside source with a nifty skill tree.
Or it might be someone planning ahead after thinking of something like this:
https://ffn.nodwick.com/?p=236
She could literally breath with her shield by slowly making it bigger and smaller the whole trip.
So basically you want to compress extra air inside the bubble. Fine, could possibly be doable.. Two possible problems as I see it.
(1) What if the bubble is breached (can’t say this could NEVER happen) OR if it is simply lowered for whatever reason?
Answer: Everybody inside is subjected to some degree of rapid decompression. In ****extreme**** cases, the occupants risk getting the bends. In lesser cases, damage to eardrums seems highly probable. Sure, you could pronounce that Sydney always always always avoids this via gradual pressure equalization, etc., but considering the line of work she is getting into, there WILL be times and situations where this simply can’t be done.
To say nothing of the sudden blast of liberated air whenever the bubble is lowered. Could be rough on any friendlies or equipment just outside the area, as well as being noisy and especially attention-getting – either of which could get you killed very quickly in a tactical situation.
(2) CO2 buildup would still be a concern. It aint about how much air there is, it’s about how much CO2 is IN said air.
No, not compress. The shield regulates pressure and adds or removes air as needed. That’s what Sydney implies, anyway.
And yet she still has to turn it off to actually change the air.
How about keeping plants with her? Plants are how we all breathe, so I wonder how many she’d need to let her breathe effectively infinitely? (Plus she’d be able to eat, so then water would be her only issue. Constant shield!)
I am surprised they don’t seem to experiment with different shield size to compare how it affects air duration and air speed.
Sydney can do very high speeds with her normal shield but how much effect does it have on the bigger shield.
They’ve had a busy week.
I kinda figured that was going to happen.
So can they print T-shirts right there on base? That’s got to be handy.
Ariana HAS had a full day to design and produce that shirt for Halo.
Anybody feel up for fanart of Sid opening the closet and seeing HER LOGO ON A SHIRT!
Yea, bit of a shame DaveB slipped up on that moment. Ok we saw Halo getting her custom collar. But a chest logo is much more symbolic for a traditionalist. It would be a big event for Sydney.
Perhaps we might see it in a forthcoming vote incentive?
Yeah that definitely could have been a good moment that I glazed over cause I was stumped for something to put on her shirt. It could easily be a bonus page at some point if I ever get the time to draw it.
I know I’ll click through to see if it is a vote incentive.
… but I’ll still encourage fans to do it just in case…
Woo hoo!
Just knowing that it is on the cards, as a possible, someday is good enough. Perhaps an extra page in the physical book? No rush though, it happens if it happens. In the meantime my imagination can keep painting my versions of it.
Archon have a resident super who’s specialty is tailoring. Not to mention his ninja tailor assistants. I don’t think they have a problem with any custom clothing.
Plus even Sydney’s T-shirt will be slash resistant. Practically mandatory if they want to go for a stroll in Central Park!
“I don’t think they have a problem with any custom clothing.”
But he DOES have problems with the time…Both the tailor & his ninja crew are VERY busy with their regular business too.
Arianna is a demanding mistress and Sydney is her new poster child.
Forget a couch: giant bean bag!!! That way the lower portion of the bubble is filled with a nice comfy ‘seat’ that conforms to the shape and size of the bubble
+1
Ooh, and a lava lamp. For night flying.
… AND severely creeping out any observers. Imagine the UFO reports that set-up would lead to.
Heatwave could supply the lava lamp, with real lava.
Fairly sure have seen that design on Sydney’s shirt somewhere before, thinking either Van Halen or Led Zeppelin
Okay, just read the AutherBlurb, and it’s a custom Sydney-brand (still looks familiar though… )
It looks quite similar to the quake 2 symbol, to me.
It’s also a lot like the Wonder Woman shirt she was wearing on her first day.
Yup, Dave mentions that in his blog, above. It took that as a base. Possibly Sydney already had a logo in mind, but we have seen her stick-figure art, with her drawing of her imagined wedding. So even if she did, she would have needed somone else to turn it into a product.
So I imagine Sydney would have said to Arianna “something like my current top, but having an emblem like this sketch”. Or the tailor could have seen Sydney’s footage, from the bank and/or press conference and approached her with a suggested look.
It is also a bit similar to Van Hagar.. erm… Van Halen. Good eye.
So, Sydney doesn’t want to put Peggy out of a job, but she has no problem with making the Osprey redundant (or at least jealous) :D
They can put extra nibbles in its trough, to make up for it. And Peggy will still be able to take it hunting.
Suddenly I have an image of a helicopter at a feeding trough, gobbling pellets and shoving the jet out of the way.
Just as long as the swear filter is in place (ala Nick from “Skin Horse”)
I’m imagining this mode of transport in a video game….
WOOOOO!!! SPEEED!
Oops, out of stamina.
WOOOOO!!! SPEEED!
Moment…moment, have to wait for the recharge.
WOOOOOO!!! SPEEED!
that succinctly described my first 20-30 levels of Runescape X(
that also sounds like one of my characters in City of Heroes, at least until I could boost his END higher…And before they outright ended the game based entirely on the results of the PvP action!
More like because they (the evil Korean company, a.k.a. NCsoft ) were greedy and uncaring. The game was simply not profitable enough for them. Despite the fact that it was actually returning a profit, and successfully expanding, all they wanted to do was try and force the players to join the new games they had developed.
Yet, despite community pleas, and offers to buy out the franchise, so that the game could continue, under its own financing, NCsoft chose to lie. Saying that they were pursuing all possible options to allow the game to carry on. Yet two of the companies, which approached them, later revealed that they had been denied the opportunity to even present their offers!
Not to mention NCSoft blocking Cryptic Studio’s own buyout. That subsidiary was well-liked and had the backing of the community. It would have been no skin off NCsoft’s nose to allow that to go through. They would have received cash in hand and the City of Heroes players would have been allowed the opportunity to keep supporting their game and community. I fully intended to stay with it, until my dying day!
I will certainly never use any product that NCsoft have had any hand in creating. Both on moral grounds and from a simple self-interest point of view. Prior to NCsoft choosing that policy, no other company had failed to keep a massively multiplayer game operational, whilst it was still financially viable. Yet NCsoft have a track record of doing that several times!
So no way do I want to invest a big chunk of my life (and money) into a game and community that NCsoft are likely to shut down, on a whim, even when the community is vibrant and it is financially viable enough to remain self-sustaining.
Teleportation in City of Heroes, it was the fastest mode of transport, but also the most energy draining…
And the most disorienting. Particularly if you had lag, and rubber-banded.
One of my characters, Sucubes, was a super-speeder. But being ground-bound was really inconvenient. So when she grew her demon wings, I needed to get levitation, so they could animate.* That turned out to be really fun!
I then experimented with other combinations, and really enjoyed super-speed combined with super-jump. But her evil twin (yes, Sucubes was a hero) kept close to her sister’s concept and had super-speed with just the lesser auto-jump. Which worked surprisingly well. I never felt the urge to change it as it made for an interesting way to get around the city.
Both sisters did put extra slots in their vertical travel powers though. And filled them with Hammi-O’s, or other specials, that boosted multiple aspects. Either could get to missions really fast. And both had personal stealth capabilities which stacked with that granted by the super-speed. So could wizz around most maps without aggroing the mobs.
* Fly was out, as she was my designated super-speeder.
had a teleporting earth tank, made for great applicability when I needed to aggro multiple areas at once, got really good at rapid firing teleport so that a second port was queued to return me to my position before the first was finished.
As to speed, I could hit the running speed cap with my Fitness-Reflexes character via Ninja Run+Swiftness+Quickness+Elude+Sprint also had combat jumping but no other movement powers:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=alPk5khg87g
Mr. Powersuit Guy(TM) had teleportation for transport. At first I used hover too, but I got good enough that I could just keep chain-teleporting w/o falling too far. Aim a little upwards on each jump, and you’re good to go.
Battlecry: Mr. Powersuit Guy is a registered trademark!
You must have had a good connection. At the time I connected via radio, so mine could be very poor if atmospheric conditions were unfavourable.
Let us say I was doing three teleports to get to an intended destination. On my screen, I would successfully do all three, and reach my target. But lag ment that the third teleport was not received by the server. I could handle it if you just got reset to the position of the second teleport. But oh no, that ofen did not happen.
Instead the server would say “where does the player think he is at the moment?” And my pc/client would reply “here at the third teleport”. Of course the server is not happy with that. So it says “Send him back to the second teleport”.
Which the client resolved in the same way as if you had teleported from position three to position two. Ie you get turned around, to face in the ‘direction of travel’. Despite it being the diametrically opposite direction to the one you were facing and travellign in!
Yea, I could do the point to point teleport, but it was not fun. So I usually made sure all my ports went to safe land points, or were above something that would not kill me if I dropped out of the air.
I did use hover for a while, but it just did not feel right for the character. His rationale was that he was Merlin, but in that world he decided not to sit back and let the knights do all the fighting. So he strapped on armour, conjured himself an icy sword, and took to the battlefield himsself.
It is quite nasty when a blaster is dropped into the middle of a high level mob!
But it did mean that I early on adapted his power set to incorporate the visuals. Any spare power levels and slots got popped into personal defence. Nothing that compromised his primary role, but it actually made him capable of surving such accidental aggro long enough to get clear.
Eventually, when he was able to get stacking hold powers, it paid off really nicely. In situations where the party tank or controllers failed to keep mobs locked down, he could shrug off damage whilst poring his own on to kill the foes fast. Whilst simultaneously preventing the most powerful enemy, aggoed on him, from moving a twitch, thanks to him being encased in a block of ice!
I ended up with a lot of characters who blurred the lines between controller and blaster, in both directions.
Speaking of Levitation, I based a character’s whole image on that. A ninja in white uniform; coupled with the stealth power of Hiding making him translucent (not fully invisible) & I named him the Avenging Ghost…
Heh! I had a ninja villain in that game, named after my online persona in use here. I could travel a looong way before running out of endurance, but it was also fairly easy to keep an eye on that & select a convenient rooftop to teleport down & land.
But also, never underestimate the power of Regeneration!
Location – I always thought they were in Kansas City. Big city (huge, really), flat land, but not that far from mountains and desert, easy flight to other big cities, just about in the center of the country, with a military presence and military contractors for easy support.
I’m amused. There’s a discussion on Facebook right now. If Washington DC is flattened by the aliens like in Independence Day, where would you want to see the new seat of government. A number of people are suggesting KC for those same reasons. :)
London.
My house.
I thought they were in Texas. Maybe Dallas-Forth Worth: very large, very wealthy metropolitan area, still basically in the middle of the country, and the winters are a bit less harsh.
Conceivable, but KC is a bit less militarized than you’d think. Most of the military bases are located 25-60 miles from the metroplex proper. And yes, I do mean metroplex – Kansas City is actually two cities (KCKS and KCMO) with about 30 or so significant cities that they’ve merged towards (Independence, MO; Liberty MO, Overland Park, KS, and Olathe, KS having the largest surface area).
The major military contractors (General Dynamics, Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Northrop-Grummon, and Raytheon) have pretty much moved manufacturing to the South of the US (Boeing still does final assembly in the Pacific-Northwest).
However (and to contradict myself), nearly all the major Civil and Structural engineering firms have a significant presence in KC, as well as telecommunications and (much to my surprise) automobile manufacturing. The area has at least four airports of significant size, one of which (Gardner) is rapidly becoming a major shipping hub. The infrastructure (particularly the highway system) is undergoing a extreme revamping right now to deal with significant increases in population. And while the educational systems vary wildly in quality from city to city, most are slightly above the national average (with a few that are amazingly bad). Higher education is pretty decent too. Oh, and we’ve got lots and lots of underground mines and tunnels (limestone, mostly, but also a very few salt mines).
I’ve lived in the area for 25 years (excluding college – Go ‘Hawks!) and worked construction in the area for just over 3 years, which experience took me into some of most obscure places in the metroplex and pretty much familiarized myself with the whole metroplex (you do a lot of driving doing construction inspection). So, while I would argue KC as-is probably isn’t ideal for a capital, with a bit of sprucing up it might do very well.
Decided to do a quick search for military bases within 100 miles of KC and got the following –
Fort Leavenworth is in Leavenworth, KS, which is part of the metroplex. From my time on the campus, I’ve not seen scads of military hardware – it seems to be more focused on training and administration (and prisoner detention) than a typical Army base. Pretty sure the armory is above par, however.
Marine Corps Mobilization Command is in the very far south part of Kansas City, MO (which I did not know). I’ve been by it a few times and never really noticed it. Interestingly, It’s just a few blocks from the National Nuclear Security Administration complex.
Whiteman Air Force Base is in Knob Noster, MO, which is ballpark of around 60 miles away from KC metro. And by the way, “Knob Noster” fits surprisingly well as a replacement for “Ghost Busters!”
Fort Riley is near Junction City, KS (Go Big Red One!) and is pretty far outside the metroplex (about 80-90 miles or so). The campus is nearly 500 acres and is exceedingly well armed. Over the years I’ve played and refereed paintball with soldiers from there and they are pretty much all very cool folks (Timothy McVeigh, Terry Nichols, and Michael Fortier notwithstanding).
Forbes Field in Topeka, KS used to have military presence years ago, but except for the National Guard unit that operates out of there, it’s pretty much civilian only.
KC also used to have Richards-Gebaur AFB, till it was closed.
IIRC, they then wasted the very expensive and tough runways by turning it into a rail sorting hub.
Good memory – I totally forgot about that.
Hmm, a quick Wiki search indicates that they are in process of changing that to a freight-to-rail hub (which is good, since the land near downtown is getting very pricey these days, even in the Bottoms). So we’re still at essentially four airports.
Oh, and wasted may not be exactly true – shipping lots are generally about as expensive as a superhighway per square yard – it’s not uncommon for them to have a foot or more of concrete in the parking bays. A lot of them also have significant remediation of the sub-grade as well, often with stabilizing materials introduced.
Granted, freight depots are not so expensive as an airport runway would be (worked on one of those, too – was not a lot of fun fairly often), but more expensive than I would have expected. If they’re planning smart (and shipping companies usually do a decent job on facility planning), they’re just using the runways as parking bays and primary staging areas.
Now, if for some reason they are tearing out the runways instead of the above, then you’re exactly right. :D
Sydney could just fly fairly low (1 km altitude), then accelerate upwards, let go of the flight orb, they’re now on a parabolic trajectory with aerobraking, which means everyone is “falling” upwards against the top of the shield. She can then grab the lighthook, grab all passengers, pop and reform the shield very briefly near the apex of the parabola. Then release the light-hook and re-grab the flight orb.
The manoeuvre is far shorter (and far more fun) than landing. Due to the low-airspeed velocity near the apex of the parabola, no dangerous winds are encountered, but the oxygen in the shield is replaced near instantly.
Of course this requires some practice, for example using Sydney, Heatwave, Maxima and Hiro (since they’re all fliers, in case they mess up during practice.)
Depending on how high that apex is, you can get rid of the CO2 easily, but there might not be much oxygen in the surrounding air to replace it.
I did say she needed to descend first. She can fly at 1km, then accelerate upwards quickly for a few hundred metres, and do the parabola below 2km. No issue with oxygen at all until you go above 3.5km.
I do recommend all passengers stuff their fingers in their ears though, otherwise the sudden pressure drop for the first operation on a trip is going to be uncomfortable.
Brilliant solution.
AIRLINE PILOT: Control, be advised that we have sighted an unidentified flying object on a parabolic trajectory, which will pass just over our flight path.
AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL: Please describe the object.
AIRLINE PILOT: Spherical, kind of shiny… oh wait… no it is a couch, with three girls sitting on it…
AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL: Oookay. Please allow extra time on your arrival at JFK. Police will be meeting you, to conduct alcohol and drugs testing.
Replacing the last line:
Air Traffic Controller: Start your hypoxemia checklist immediately!
Or how about….
Air traffic controler: We also contacted the Happy Valley Nut House and they’re sending a wagon over!
NO! NO! NO!… You NEVER TELL the wacked out psycho that we’re gonna throw him in the Nut-hatch as soon as he lands while he STILL has control over… the…plane full… UM, Is this microphone still transmitting?…
Heh.
*stands up from behind the comm console, holding up a pair of wire-cutters*
Hallucination, loss of sound judgment and slowed perception and reaction times due to loss of oxygen at high altitude is much more common (and prepared for) than recreational pharmaceuticals in regards to airline pilots.
I’m hoping one of the “power-up” nodes for the shield is a selective filter function that obviates the need for this sort of three-ring-circus tomfoolery.
After, of course, DaveB has to draw it a few times. :D
Yes, replaced with cold thin air.
I read ’round couch’ as ’round coach’ at first, and danged if I can’t see the utility of having her drag a wheeled vehicle around, if it’s light enough.
I wonder how New Yorkers would react to a spazz like Sydney???
Maxima would give them all the evil eye!!!
I’m not sure about the the others….?!?!
The Big Apple has a massive and very diverse population. Sydney’s spazz attacks wont even register as even slightly odd.
They need to stop off at the Baxter building to see if Reed Richards can whip up a portable air scrubber. Will J.J. Jameson hear of their visit and rant about it on the Times Square Jumbotron?
Gwen may want to stop off and see Dr. Strange top compare spells. I would avoid the Latverian embassy.
One suggestion to Sydney, if Will Smith approaches you and asks to give you an eye test, just say no.
And if you order a pizza, watch out for any shelled reptiles that might try to steal it.
totally off-topic, but:
i recently saw a trailer for the new Dr. Strange movie… what are your thoughts on having Benedict Cumberbatch play Doc Strange? a Good casting choice? a Bad one?
Personally, no, still don’t like what he did to Holmes
Most people were less worried about Cumberbatch playing Doc Strange than they were about Tilda Swinton being cast as the Ancient One. That does not necessarily mean that the Ancient One will be gender-swapped… anyone who has seen Tilda at various red carpet events knows that she’s androgynous enough that she could pass as either male or female. Though of course it did bring up the usual complaints about “the bleaching of Hollywood”, since the Ancient One is supposed to be Tibetan.
Benedict Cumberbatch seems ok to me, but I have not seen the Holmes series with him. However I do hear it favourably mentioned a lot. Which, given that he is competed against Jeremy Brett, Basil Rathbone, and other notables, shows him in good light. As do the very favourable critical reviews. Not to mention Holmes being one of the BBC’s highest viewed dramas this millennium.
Hopefully he will get suitable vocal coaching for the Manhattan accent that Weatherheight is concerned about. We routinely see actors playing roles either side of the Atlantic nowadays, and getting the support they need, to ensure that the accent matches.
It is idiocy not to cast the Ancient one to an Asian actor. I watch a lot of films from that region and there are plenty of good actors who can do the role justice. And it is idiocy to dilute the exotic nature of the role by failing to do so.
However gender swapping does help to do that (Tibetan nuns do exist, so it is a fair prospect), so I am fine with Tilda Swinton playing from that point of view. And she does pull off exotic roles extremely well. So the racists casting her did choose as good a white actor as they could.
There’s an economic reason for The Ancient not being Tibetan. If you cast an actual Tibetan actor in a movie, you risk China banning your movie completely. Since the Chinese spend more per capita going to the movies than any other country, you can’t afford to risk losing that many potential movie-goers, especially when American movie audiences have been declining steadily over the last several years. You run the risk of your profits turning into a net loss. You can’t cast a Chinese actor in a Tibetan role because they will be worried that it will damage their reputation back home in China.
However, I totally agree with you that there is a problem in Hollywood. While in this specific case there is a good economic reason to cast a non-Asian, Hollywood’s claim that economics are the reason for the whitewashing of Hollywood falls rather flat. Films in which the leads have been whitewashed have all failed mightily at the box office. Inserting white leads had no demonstrable effect on the numbers. A recent study by the Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles, found that films with diverse leads not only resulted in higher box office numbers but also higher returns of investment for studios and producers. For years, audiences have essentially boycotted “whitewashed” films, yet studios keep making them. Let’s hope Hollywood eventually listens.
So not only do we tolerate the armed invasion of a pacifist nation, we also boycott employing their diaspora, so that the invader’s public can be entertained guilt-free? Sorry, sometimes money does not override morals. The Marvel franchise is about super-heroes, who stand up against tyranny, not get into bed with it!
Besides which if China did decide to draw attention to their continuing occupation of Tibet, by boycotting that movie, then it would draw world-wide attention. The publicity from that could drive up audience figures in the rest of the world. Especially if it went viral and a #SupportTibet movement started up. Encouraging people to see the film, even if they would not normally be in the key demographic.
Not that it is as big a risk as you portray. Various films have had parts set in Tibet (the Golden Child springs to mind, as an immediate example) without any such problem. Marvel et al have made enough money from the franchise to have the balls to take a minor risk on this movie. Especially given how influential Tibetan spiritualism is to the super-hero genre!
Withholding judgement for now – but from a pure appearance and accent basis (Cumberbatch’s), I’m not thrilled. Steven Strange had been a Manhattanite for quite awhile before he wrecked his hands for surgery, so I’ve low expectations for the accent. And Doctor Strange has always had this look somewhere between Manhattan socialite and Bronx porn star, which look Cumberbatch simply cannot pull off.
But so far, for the most part, actors in leading and supporting actors in Marvel movies since the first Iron Man movie have done a wonderful job, so…
I’m a ponytail kind of guy but ermagherd is Sydney cute with her hair down <3
I think Yorp is satisfied with that look; Sydney’s Bed Head with a self-satisfied smile…A dream that many of us shares with him!
The solution is obviously to use a basket with a hot air balloon type harness.
The passengers get into the basket, and Sydney creates her shield inside the harness, which lets her lift the basket.
Call it a Sydney Air Balloon.
the point of the shield it to protect from the effects of speed. At highway speeds you need a windshield or goggles to protect your eyes. By 300 mph wind literally tears at the skin. At even low flight altitudes the air is cold and a little thin, if you don’t bring your own warm, pressurized air it gets uncomfortable fast.
Hear me out, here. Put them in the midwest. WIth the speed that they can deploy, getting to anywhere in the standard 48 would be quicker than ferrying to either coast from either coast. It is also MUCH less populated out here, so super battles (as we know will undoubtedly happen) at HQ would be less of an overall risk. Finally…well. The coasts and big flashy areas get enough stage time as it is. Give us midwestern folks some love! :D
Indy or further west?
I think probably west of Indiana.
It could be Wichita, just to scare Jack White, who thought he was far from this opera forevermore.
But I kind of thought it was implicitly in Texas: Maybe Dallas-Fort Worth, Austin, or San Antonio. It could be Oklahoma City or Tulsa, maybe.
Definitely not Topeka! The ZIP codes all begin with 666, and that would dangerously excite the demonology, prophecy, and numerology crowds.
I know Topeka, and it is a hole. Even the people who live there really don’t want to live there. The west side of Lawrence, KS, (Go ‘Hawks!) has become a bedroom community for Topeka (it has been referred to as “East Topeka” by a few local wags). In addition, it’s the state capital, which means state politicians.. ewwww.
Wichita isn’t a bad choice, but, again – hole. Lived there for 7 years and couldn’t wait to get out (admittedly, the bike trails are pretty awesome). And Sydney would send a significant portion of the city into apoplexy fair quickly.
Tulsa wouldn’t be too bad – Tulsa is pretty nice, all things considered. Ditto for OKC (Very old Joke – Why does the wind in Kansas usually blow strongly out of the south? Because Nebraska sucks and Oklahoma blows).
I like Dallas-Fort Worth, despite the fact that that intentional sprawl was a major component of their urban planning. Lots of places you could fit a supers base there. San Antonio and Austin are quite a bit farther south than DFW as is Houston. Granted, I hear San Antonio has become a very pretty city these days.
St. Louis or Springfield, MO would work. Muncie, IN, would be good for a KODT reference but impractical otherwise. Memphis would be AWESOME (if only for the possibility of Elvis sightings).
Dave has let slip a couple of terms which point at it being Dallas, but that was only because it is where he lives, so uses such without realizing it. The aerial shots, and street names, are deliberately composited from shots of different city references, to ensure they do not match any real city
Allowing it to either remain a generic unnamed city indefinitely, or letting Dave pick one that suits the later story needs, when iit gets there.
The Chicago area could work.
Oooh.. nice!
I’d probably put them in Dallas FW as it’s number 8 for population in the US at just over 5m. It’s the most central of the largish population centres too. Houston Texas City isn’t far behind at number 9 with 4.5m ish but I’d likely go Dallas as it’s more central.
2nd base goes to New York Philly Connecticut as the largest centre with just over 29m most in the greater city itself.
3rd base is L.A. Riverside San Bernardino at 15.5m.
4th base is Chicago Kinosha Racine Round Lake Beach with 9m. Dabblers for A here as she always go to 4ty base plus you know windy city and she blows…
You might skip Boston Providence Worcester for geography, it’s covered by New York really and go straight to Baltimore Washington with 6.7m. Not really necessary but, politics.
Skip Frisco as its covered by L.A. So for 6th base head to Miami Ft Lauderdale Pompano West Palm Beach at 5.3m.
Skip Detroit as it’s covered, go to Atlanta Gainesville at 4.2m.
8th base goes to San Juan Puerto Rico with 3.6m.
9th base Phoenix with 3.3m.
Skip San Diego to Seattle with 3.2m.
Thus gives a good spread and coverage of the state’s. You could also argue for Hawaii and Alaska to cover the geographic gaps. Several of these are probably smaller field offices rather tgan vsses in their own right with fewer personnel and attacked to a handy existing base. That’s 10 or 12 locations, Miami on down being much smaller operations.
Let’s see. Table test. Please ignore.
ComparisonSydneyOsprey
Maximum Speedcirca Mach 4240 knots
EnduraceTime between stops8 minutesCO2 build-up2 hoursRefuel
Ah, I see. All the unapproved HTML tags just got stripped. So I have to come up with a different way to say this.
Yeah, I was just doing the math on that one myself. Being limited to 8 minutes flight time doesn’t sound like much… but she’s known to fly at mach 4, which is 5000 km/h. Assuming minimal time spent accelerating, she’s moving around 600 km in each of those 8 minute hops.
What does that mean? Well, it means she can travel between NY and Chicago with just a single stop along the way. NY to LA would be an annoying six stops – but she’s still going to be crossing the continental US in under an hour. Sydney is *fast*.
She’s known to fly a Sydney-sized shield at Mach 4. This shield would probably drop her speed to Mach 1 or less.
I like Syd’s shirt with her cool logo. Also, it’s good to see Gwen out and about. Thanks, Dave : )
Don’t forget a mini-bar! And a really powerful set of batteries hidden under the couches, to power it.
I think the ARC can develop a very efficient and very lightweight oxygen cylinder for each person Plus does the shield have to be a round enclosed orb? it can’t be a different shape? or even better, be open in one area kind of like this? https://cdn3.volusion.com/3ga3f.wrwv7/v/vspfiles/photos/GRO-4361-2.jpg
Let’s see. 8 minutes at Mach 4 (about 4500 km/h, depending on multiple factors) would be around 600 km or so, between breathing-breaks, which is not shabby at all. Sure beats driving for 6 hours. By comparison the Osprey can fly at 240 knots (445 km/h) for about 3.5 hours, covering 879 nautical miles (1628 km) before needing to refuel. Mind you, the Osprey carries up to 24 people; Sydney appears to have a capacity of about 4, including pilot. Either one can land without needing an airport, though the Osprey needs a bigger clearing to set down.
You forget the Big Boom Demo test in the desert? Sydney was able to fit a large number of people in her bubble
Large shield = more wind resistance = lower top speed. Try for 150km, not 600km.
Thing is we don’t really know if Wind Resistance bothers her force field, it might create a frictionless event that allows her to totally ignore WR. Hmmmm now I’m wondering how well her flight+force field handles traveling through water.
But you’re assuming a constant speed of Mach 4. It took her some time to accelerate to that speed, which would almost certainly be longer with three passengers and a bigger shield. And then she has to decelerate to a stop again before she can safely release the shield. I doubt that the effective speed would exceed Mach 1. Probably less.
Adding to my own post: Let alone *six* passengers, a couch, and all the equipment that Gwen is suggesting.
You are making an assumption that Sydney’s propulsion functions like a jet or propeller engine. It does not. If you recall Sydney can fly in any orientation, but her hair still points towards her feet. Halo creates something akin to a localized gravity field. The mass of the objects within that field may be totally relevant to the velocity of the orb.
Conditions on the outside (and we are talking fly-ball even without the shield) seem to have no effect on the inside. Note that her clothes behave in the same way as her hair, so it is within a volume associated with her. Further the direction that Halo ‘flies’ (or ‘falls’, as it seems to be more gravity related than anything else) need not be in the same orientation as her own personal gravity. We have seen her flying horizontally, whilst standing vertically.
The mass of falling objects has no correlation to their speed. The only factor adjusting it would be the air resistance. One feather, a bolwing ball, a bag with a ton of feathers or another with a ton of bowling balls all fall at the same rate on the Moon. But we know that the feather will fall much more slowly on Earth, due to its atmosphere.
Grrr “totally relevant” shouild read “totally irrelevant “.
We don’t know that. There’s no indication of how quickly she can accelerate to top speed, nor whether passenger weight or any hypothetical drag from the shield would affect her. There may not be any, since she apparently doesn’t have to deal with heat buildup, or any of the other design concerns for aircraft of comparable performance…
Accelerating to Mach 4 at 1 g (the same acceleration as the gravity of the Earth pulls you down) will take about 2 minutes. Assuming 2 minutes accelerating, 4 minutes at top spreed and 2 minutes slowing down, you would still cover about 450 km, about the distance from Ottawa, Ontario, Canada to Toronto, Ontario, Canada, as opposed to making it all the way to Detroit.
i’m a little surprised Sydney didn’t make the next bubble bigger. but i suppose a really big bubble would cause some problems moving at really high speed.
I’m wondering if a Shield pip will allow it to be semi-permeable, let air in wile still doing the rest of it’s job, but the pressure and temperature will restrict her flight ceiling to that of a light aircraft, and the FAA will restrict her air speed except in emergency situations as a safety measure.
Say to the Flyers have to where or carry Transponders so ATC and Aircraft know their there?
Folks, we’ve been CHEATED.
He drew the utility belt.
The contents are thus “determined”.
We didn’t get to see it well enough to know what’s in it.
A good question is whether that’s a gun holster, or a larger pouch for bigger items; some of the items at the table would’ve been too big for the batman-sized utility pouches.
Also, I’m sure they’ll have opportunities to periodically update their utility items, due to factors such as frequency of use on the field, technological upgrades like smaller more efficient versions of items, and common occurrences causing them to want to be prepared in the future. Though I predict whatever happens in New York, at least one thing in there (that Maxima deemed unnecessary no less) will be very much needed to whip out.
It is a holster for her multi-tool and the trenching shovel! She isn’t cleared to array a firearm yet.
I would expect that the utility belts have a standard configuration to handle most situations, but can be specially arranged when they know they are going to be handling something different.
Remember though that Syd – like Max – will not carry a firearm for firepower. She’ll carry it for intimidation power. If she ever really needs to destroy something, she’ll put the gun away and use her real weapon.
She breathes on you after lunch. :)
The ‘holster’ may be the carrying case for her personal rebreather unit.
If so, it’s probably Utility Belt v1.0.
I expect Sydney will be revising and changing a lot of the contents on an almost constant basis.
yup… and she’ll probably STILL have to do Laps after version three, or even version four, too… :D
Given how Sydney did create bigger shields before (Maxima’s “show”), she should be able to get more air in her shield…
Yeah, can’t really replace the breathable contents of the bubble with something that is in short supply at the heights they are travelling (there is reason why she had been equipped with a rebreather)
podian is talking about forming a larger, more wind resistant bubble on the ground that has more air in it, so they can fly longer (at a slower speed). The problem with this is the amount of air = amount of air resistance. Twice the air = half the speed.
The # of stops and length of flight time would stay the same.
Compressing a bunch of extra air inside her shield would lead to certain other problems.
I like how Pixel is playing her DS in every panel but the last, and when Dabbler takes it in the last she looks pretty annoyed. It’s like Pixel doesn’t much care about how she travels as long as she’s entertained for the duration.
Quick question, there are 3 of them in the shield, but no earth/ground did they all jump as Sydney grabbed the shield ball?
We’ve seen before at the demo with the tank that if Sydney activated the shield near the ground/in a dust cloud it gets stuck in the shield with her so if the girls were on the ground when the shield was activated there should be some in there with them?
Remember when Sydney was at her shop and had to get directions from a Daphne riding with her to get to ARCHON-HQ?