Grrl Power #659 – The greatest challenge – upgrading
A game’s death penalty is a big factor in how people play it. If there’s a significant one, people tend to care more about healing and defense, whether that is damage mitigation with armor, or dodging attacks or blocking and parrying them. Of course some games are set up so that if you can lay down crazy DPS, that’s a viable survival tactic, especially if you can link some vampiric damage to the attacks.
What those games don’t take into account is how much it hurts to take damage in the first place. (Nearly all of them, yes, there’s stuff like Darkest Dungeon that takes fatigue and sanity into account.)
My point is that if you’re playing the game in real life, as Sydney is, she’d obviously much rather not take any damage at all. Sure, it’s cool to be able to survive being impaled and then regenerating, except for the part where it would really fucking hurt to get impaled. Sure, if you’re the Swamp Thing and you’re made of moss, it probably doesn’t hurt much, if at all, but if you’re Wolverine, it still hurts like hell. Obviously Wolvie has a bonkers pain threshold, but there’s got to be times where he wouldn’t mind switching powers with Kitty Pride or Colossus.
I’ve read a few LitRPG books, where characters are put in a position where they’re essentially playing a game. Sometimes they literally are, through a Matrix quality VR setup, and I don’t really care for those because as far as I’m concerned, the stakes are super low if it’s just a game, but some books have RPG elements in them even though it’s the real world (at least, within the fictional universe of the novel) like a computer or ability that rates their gear or skills and there’s an obvious progression path. Whatever the story hook is, the characters in those are usually fairly concerned with damage mitigation, but it depends on how much the writer likes to push the “ow this really hurts for real” elements of the story.
If I was Sydney, I’m not sure what I’d do. Getting out of there ASAP seems like the best option, but… upgrading her shield so she can take multiple direct hits from the “shimmer blast” as she called it also seems tasty. On the other hand, her shield is already overkill when she’s not fighting world bosses, so it might feel like a wasted point, especially since she doesn’t know if she can even max out every orb. She’s assumed that’s the case, but what if her orbs are like some game where you can only specialize in 2 or 3 things? She doesn’t know if she has a level cap.
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I’m REALLY impressed at her lack of panic.
Don’t worry. Being Sydney she’ll likely make up for it after she gets back. (Until I re-read from the beginning last month I’d forgotten that this is a flashback)
Flashback? Where did that start?
Page 4
At this point it might as well not be a flashback anymore. Flashbacks aren’t normally for multiple story arcs and it’s been years, so the story might as well just begin on page 5.
I dunno, they’re plenty of stories which start with old people regaling the young with takes of their youth. They’re all technically flashbacks.
Framing device good sir. It’s a framing device.
Baron Munchausen, is nothing but flashbacks him retelling his exploits. So are the John Carter books the first few at least where it starts with John and his nephew having a brandy.
How do we know we’re not past that point in the timeline?
During the course of the flashback so far, DaveB has only accounted for a few weeks at most…She’s still in basic training & that only lasts 8 weeks (for “normal” boot camp anyway), only 2 months. The first page of the comic came only after several months of the flashback.
The last line on page 4 is “Let’s back up a few months”. The fact that the story is still in the first week (maybe starting the second?) has been bemoaned several times over the years. DaveB has apologized, but personally I’d rather he continued the quality of work he’s posted so far. Even if it only adds up to a day or two of story time per year. ;)
Noone said page 4 couldn´t be the end of grrlpower… maybe that is just how everything ends. (Just joking) As long as the story is interesting there is no need for much passing time in a comic…
Sydney asks Dabbler about shields stopping light-based attacks at some point, which was only presented as a concern on page 3.
However, Sydney is apparently a Corporal on page 4, and as far as we can tell she’s still a Private right now.
I don’t think she has even hit any rank yet, she along with people like Jiggawatt are classed as recruits. I don’t necessarily understand how American military grades work, but seeing as they also have civilian consultants who can also act as superior ranks it is all confusing. Either way she has still at least two and half months minimum (as several can be anywhere after two plus) before she reaches page four. Additionally I am more than happy with the pace. I would rather DaveB continue working on it rather than big jumps or even stopping due to complaints at speed. Also looking forward to the day this comes out in hardback form.
What if… and I’m sure Dave wouldn’t do this…
What if Dave took this opportunity to bring the strip into *OUR* present???
When she returns to Earth, Sydney’s been missing for 8 years!!!
(Bonus: We’d get to see Maxima cry. (Happy crying, but still.))
I kinda like this idea, but don’t think the jump for “continuity” would be worth the lost opportunities to see the rest of the characters develop together. This comic explores the characters’ discoveries and mistakes with brand-new powers; giving everyone but Sydney 8 years of experience and conditioning would completely change the team dynamics, and turn it into a completely different comic.
Sure… assuming you’re into MILFy super-heroines. Or, he’d need to explain why they don’t age and/or have permanent stable relationships after 8 years. Also, explain how Deus hasn’t taken over the world after 8 years of super-villainy.
… No, safe to say that this won’t happen.
I’m pretty certain Dabbler won’t have changed much (if any) in her appearance either…Being part demon succubus, she could technically be unaging if it weren’t for her hybrid origins.
It’s also a pretty safe bet that Achilles won’t have changed by the span of time either…More experience, but no physical effects.
At this point in the story, Sydney is still a Recruit. After she finishes Basic Training, she can qualify for Private. She can get promoted to Corporal after a few years of demonstrated leadership skills. Sometimes, the promotion will happen due to extraordinary circumstances, which is likely the case to get to Corporal after only a few months.
Private Second Class after Basic Training completion (usually 3 months time), Private First Class after Advanced Individual Training (usually 1 year time), qualify for E-4 usually after 2 years and additional training based on MOS and Army policy.
Battlefield commission?
Probable.
Since she is a very special soldier, they probably fast-track her promotions. I’m guessing that she has certain authorizations allowing her to completely ignore all superior military ranks when dealing with hot situations, being as she would have access to information and skills that are outside of normal military situations/training.
What were the two Maxims?
– A sergeant in motion outranks a lieutenant who doesn’t know what’s going on.
And
– An ordinance technician at a dead run outranks everyone.
Also, a Warrant Officer can give orders to any rank if those orders pertain to their field of specialization…Yes, a WO can even countermand the Commander-in-Chief, whole of Congress & even the Supreme Court, as long as the WO acts within his/her specialization.
But then again, a WO with the specialization of EO also knows enough to try to stay ahead of a Demo Disposal guy who is running…
At this point she’s a recruit still.
Maxima was addressing Anvil, who is addressed elsewhere as a corporal, not Sydney.
…It took me a few read throughs to get that, myself.
Though according to the cast list, Anvil is a 1st Lieutenant. As page 4 is the future, I’m sure Sydney would be more likely to have been promoted than Anvil demoted.
Also, “name without gravatar” queried why she (Sydney) was a corporal when the cast list said private, and Dave replied without pointing the rank at Anvil (but admittedly not directly stating it was Sydney).
No chevron to chevron Private 8 weeks After basic or OSUT(one station unit training) which can be 17 weeks. PFC Private First class Chevron with a rocker a year. Specialist or Corporals since they are actually the same grade two to three years most go Specialist and then Corporal. Four years Sargent they normally dangle this one as a reward for reupping.
This is called time in grade higher you go the longer it starts to take between grades combat arms is the worst of it. We had Sergeants First Class sitting around with time in grade waiting for a slot to open up so they could get their Master Sargent or First Sargent’s ranks not enough Companies to stick them in then you had Master Sargent sitting around waiting to get their Sargent Majors strips. Being a Cavalry Scout sucked on Fort Knox since that is where all these old timers went. So they stuck them in what ever company they could to train people it works out but you have an over abundance of asshole.
Here after the fight at the steak house is where she realizes her invisible shield deflects light.
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1630
and Here when she barges in on the presidents debriefing is when her ranks is reviled https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1707
–oddly I remember max calling her a privet during that page— oh well the comic is so good it is causing Mandela effects…
I think she’s only slept two or three times since the flashback began. so two or three days at most.
Real talk, she’s going to starve to death long before any of this matters unless one of her orbs can make a sandwich or that big guy is edible and she manages to take him down.
Mmm… sandwich orb.
I’m willing to bet that the life support orb has something for that.
I’m also willing to be that it’s going to be somehow more gross than soylent.
Drinking chocolate soylent as I read this, lol
probably as you upgrade the orb the meals get better.
Why is Squidward blasting over there? Did Sydney Telepresence a decoy?
Might be a lot of things.
If a big explodey thing on a warzone targets something that is not you, it is probably not your top priority to find out what exactly that was.
One thing that Squidward could be doing is a tactic known as “Recon by Fire.” Basically, if you can’t see your target directly, you can lay down suppression fire where you think they might be hiding…In the regular military, this tactic works best with AoE munitions such as grenades & mortars, but can still be effective if you’re shooting through “soft cover” that blocks your line of sight.
I think the uber-squidy has a hard time seeing her, probably why it uses a secondary scout drone for scanning. That is nothing I would bet on, but I would also watch out for that other unit now too.
kinda like focusing on a mosquito, you can roughly hear where it is, but finding and tracking the thing is a bugger.
It’s probably searching for Halo, and it’s method for finding her is destroying possible hiding places, possibly because it’s very large and she’s very small (relatively)
It may be something as simple as Sydney sans active orbs doesn’t present a signature squidward can detect. Or that direct LOS is required, remembering the trouble the good folk at ARC had sussing out anything about the orbs at all.
Which is promising for Sydney, if true, as she can just book it a hundred miles or so in any direction and be out of any immediate danger.
It’s unfortunate that ‘Line of sight’ and ‘Loss of signal’ have the same initials.
Syd had to get out of LOS so that she didn’t end up SOL.
She should hurry up… no shield until done…
Don’t worry. the panic will likely set in after she gets back, (Until I re-read from the start I’d forgotten this is technically a flashback)
Hang on, didn’t they previously whizz around her head when levelling up rather than to the side of her. Personally I believe she should think about survivability. Even if she gets warp speed she doesn’t know where in the galaxy she actually is, has no food and no water. Death in 3 days without water and 3 weeks without food. She better be quick as well as Squid boy only has to turn her way and toast seeing they have a hell of a long range.
Three weeks without food? For some reason, I was stuck on the idea that it was three months…
“Three minutes without air, three days without water, three **** without food…”
Well they use the average of 3 weeks like Mahatma Gandhi survived 21 days of complete starvation, they think the longest generally for total starvation (depending on body fat etc) is around 30-40 days as highlighted by the hunger strikers of the Maze Prison in Belfast in the 1980s, death can occur at around 45 to 61 days as by then most are too weak to even take in solid foods, even being fed intravenously at this point there is still a high chance of death due to organs shutting down. Depending on how long ago she had a drink and unless she has something in her belt then likely death will occur within 48 hours for her. But as this is still a flashback something is likely to intervein in this sooner than that.
Sydney: So the idea is for me to load myself down and then swim laps in the pool?
Anvil: Actually, it is running around the track, otherwise we think you would drown. Otherwise, yeah,
Sydney: Hmm, this is pretty small and not that heavy. I’ll take one of these.
Anvil: Do you even know what that is?
Sydney: Yeah, it is a reverse-osmosis water filter. I drop this end of the hose in gungy water and then I can drink pure H2 from here; no bacteria, no salt, just water. In a pinch, I could even use it to recycle my own urine, but the water that’s left gets even more concentrated with gunge.
Anvil: I guess you do know. But wouldn’t a supersonic flight get you to water quickly enough?
Sydney: If I am on some atoll in the middle of the Pacific, say like Midway, fresh water might not be that close at hand. Besides, it fits right here above the right butt cheek. There. Nice and light.
Oops. H2O, not H2.
starving to death is an interesting topic. most folk who die of starvation still have plenty of bodily reserves, they just run out of trace minerals and vitamins. I read an article recently. there was this morbidly obese guy, the doctors put him on a diet in which he did not eat for over a year. they supplimented him heavily though.
What most people are forgetting is yes, 3 weeks without food, but with a good supply of water and very little activity to use up your reserves. But from what i have heard the hunger can drive you mad. Not a good way to go.
I think there are stories of longer periods of survival- like a guy who was trapped in a cave for multiple months. But that involves a sort of near-hybernation state and access to easy fresh water.
That’s an important point, isn’t it? People who survive that long without food and water usually are inactive. That’s a luxury Sydnye can’t afford. She is being hunted by alien monsters – not a situation where you can relax and conserve your strength.
Where in the galaxy she is…are you sure it’s even the same galaxy? Same DIMENSION? Looking at how they got here in the first place, I’d say that flying home is completely off the table.
DaveB has mentioned in the margins that Syd is roughly 700 light years from Earth. Syd has no idea however. She does not know where she is, or where Earth is from where she is. From Sciona we assume this is Alari (Sci’s home planet) and that’s about it. We don’t even know if they are in the same time reference relative to Earth (future or past)
She was also moving around then so they were moving after her.
I would go for the PPO. Shields end up being useless (broken) if the enemy cannot be damaged at all and the combat is a one-sided one.
I agree. In RPGs, killing something faster means you no longer have to worry about damage from that mob.
I would tend to agree. If Sydney manages to get/fly out of the way of being on Ground Zero of the bigger shots, her shields would hold long enough to take the lesser damage of weaker shots. Better to wait until after the fight to determine if she has another XP point to choose between FTL Flight or better Life Support (hoping it would produce food/water as well as air) for an interstellar trip.
Where’s the like/agree button? :p I’m of similar mind to MidnightDStroyer. The only other thing is if the unknown orb is a Brig of some kind and she ends up pokeballing squidly. (she may need a few moire dots for that though ;) )
In my opinion, whether the last orb is a map of the universe, interstellar trips are not an option. To be able to read a map, one needs to have some basic knowledge. And I doubt Sydney knows as much about our galaxy as to be able to recognize it and know where exactly the Solar system is. Furthermore, looking a map or a place (the galaxy) from a different point of view can be really disorienting.
In all likelyhood, she will have to remain alive for a couple of days so that she can be rescued. And although she may stay alive thanks to the shield, the Mastersquid will probably end up attacking the rescuers and ruining everything. The Mastersquid must be vanquished. And Sydney needs to be more powerful.
looking at the grid displyed near the ppo the cutter beam version might be at “max power”
The main thing I was noticing about the PPO section is that it only has 3/12 pips active. That’s right, it’s only got 1/4 functionality so far (aside from the separate branch) – got to be a lot of interesting tricks left to discover there. Maybe the main PPO grid is fire modes, and the 2nd branch is total power level?
In general the grid is mostly empty still, and most of the connecting lines aren’t active yet – Sydney is going to be a scary one-woman army when she’s leveled up all the way. O_o
I am willing to live the 400 years it would take to see her fill out this tree just for the pleasure of seeing her full potential.
If the separate branch is power level, it would be worth a try.
There is also a separete node.
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1166
Dead Mobs Don’t Agro.
yet however a world boss will aggro you from a mile away, in an attempt to one shot your level 7 butt.
Can I just compliment you on how well you are keeping up on your publishing cycle?
I don’t know how far ahead you are or how big a buffer you have but I do appreciate the work that must go in to keeping a regular deadline :)
I’d go for one of he mystery upgrades, maybe one of the middle ones, a new power is usually better then a stat boost
I’d try to fill in the link between flight and shield, since a big problem right now is being unable to do both at once and still attack, that has to address that somehow. Maybe rendering the shield orb stationary in air once locked in place with flight?
I’m also glad that Sydney keeps getting forced into these situations where she has to pick her upgrades on her own, I don’t think her boss should have the right to dictate what is effectively part of her all the time, choices that she will have to live with after she leaves this job.
To be fair, they haven’t ordered her to pick one, they’re suggesting to methodically determine what they do.
Well there is a link between flight and PPO already purchased and she can’t fly and shoot at the same time with one orb so the synergy might be something else.
We did see her using both of those orbs at once against the tank, and it was ‘harder to use than the others’. She also hadn’t experimented with the PPO yet, or used it much at all. We have seen her use it A LOT since then, but she didn’t show any difficulty. Also Flight wasn’t used in conjunction at the time, but Shield.
Maybe the junction slot made that connection harder for some reason? Her aim was worse, it took longer to boot up. Must be a reason… like it’s a side effect of something beneficial.
I think the difficulty with the PPO and the tank was not so much difficulty but ‘safeties’ had to be ‘turned off’ for it’s use. similar to Jet fighters and the Red cover switch over a toggle button. It also prevents accidental firing of a dangerous or limited resource. Eg missles bombs etc.
Her ‘safety’ I think was in her thoughts with ‘yeah, I really want to do this”
Why? The military does it all the time. You sign up to be a pilot and the recuiter says “yes you can be a pilot” and the Brass decide that they have enough pilots you will be a mechanic. Guess what, you are going to be a mechanic. When you get out, you won’t become an airline pilot you will still be a mechanic. You life course gets changed according to the needs of the service. That’s what it means to be in the military.
I don’t think the fact that the military actually does it automatically means that it’s right or that they should. Besides, given how permanent this is, it’s more like if they required her to get a tattoo.
I guess, as much as I love this comic and understand it’s a pretty core part of the premise, the idea of supers in the military has a lot of issues for me, which I get reminded of when issues like this come up. Too much power in the government’s hands. Doesn’t make enough sense to me when I try to consider it from a Super’s perspective, there’s nothing to stop them from just walking out and doing their own thing, and I think they would be much better off if they did.
Sorry, went a bit off topic there
I agree that the trade offs in life choices aren’t ideal in the military. I grew up in a Navy town and those trade offs are the only reason I never enlisted.
There are plenty of supers that arent in the military, but they are restrained from fully using some thier powers. Goverments are fundamentally based around having a monopoly on physical force. A non military Super with a Maxima style nuke, would be treated as a national threat the first time they decided to use that power, even if it was only blowing up junk cars in the desert.
Decisions decisions. Well now you got a choice between your previous plan upgrade your defense upgrade or your office upgrade pick one and roll with it even if it means you have to go grind again for another Point later.
Looks like those orbs brought up that skill tree,when was it last seen?
First on the media super power showcase and secondly on the roof where she got Zillean’d back after getting stabbed by Sciona, this is the third time
So, when she first levelled up she had 103 Skills unbought. Now she has 101. It has been how long between each of them? Obviously you can’t judge a rate of increase from two points, it could be logarithmic or exponential. All we know is she wasn’t levelling up until she was using them more often. Not nescessarily in combat as her first level shows.
I’d say time between the three levels has been, so far, about 1-2 weeks between levels. This means, in order for her to fully level up at this current rate… 3-4 in comic years. I’d say upper bounds, if levelling gets harder and harder, probably closer to 20 or more…
In terms of comic time to regular time. Let’s say it’s been about two months since the flashback started. Two months in eight years… Well, current comic time seems to be progressing at about half an hour a day, on average…. This leads to a final level up occuring between 144 and 960 years from now :D
Neither of those. Go for the link spot between force field and flight which unlocks using those as a single unit in one hand! That is the true upgrade path, pairing orbs.
Wouldn’t that just unlock a new synergistic effect from both orbs but still held one to a hand?
Yeah I figure it will be a synergistic affect. That said I still think this is the way to go. Flight – PPO for instance might fire fast enough to break through whatever field blocks her normal PPO attack. Although potential issues with not being able to shield…
If synergy, it hasn’t shown any traces yet. See my above comment on PPO/Flight synergy once the post shows up for more.
I’m wondering if she actually CAN use more than two at once- she hasn’t done this important experiment:
Hold Flight or PPO in one hand, Shield in another (just for an example).
Have Flight/PPO (whichever she is NOT holding) come into physical contact with the other one she IS holding. See if it’s a synergetic stack effect! Never tried having orbs touch each other to use 3+.
ooh maybe the synergy is that she can envelop the shield with PPO energy to plow trough enemies
So did she already placed the orbs there the other requested it?
Nope. She said specifically that she didn’t do that- but probably should, in case that increases her max speed and she can actually get home.
Pretty abrupt jump to the planet, and her options aren’t exactly worth deliberating over since she has zero idea what they actually do. For all she knows that shield upgrade lets her shield herself from dimensions and so travel through them or something.
Defense first, offense later.
This should definitely be the standard order of priorities. Her shield is so powerful already, with all the upgrades filled in i’d Love to see what it could do.
Best defence is a good offense. Go with PPO Dave.
Great strategy for some games, but as Dave points out, dying in real life really sucks – and you don’t even get to start over from the beginning.
Personally I’ve always played games very defensively, unless there’s a minimal cost to re-spawning; I’d way rather be a sniper than a melee fighter (unless the team needs it for balance). A friend and I helped run a large outdoor paintball course for a couple years as a summer job, and we’d play as part of the teams instead of just sitting and watching. I went for sneaking and cover as much as possible, and my friend was more blaze-of-glory style. We tallied our stats one month, and while he had about 30% more kills, he ‘died’ nearly 10x more often than I did.
Addressing the situation from the perspective of having actually died once, it’s not the getting killed that hurts, it’s when you aren’t dead anymore that it starts getting REALLY uncomfortable. I strongly recommend against getting killed if you don’t stay dead. It has an effect on your vocabulary that Sydney doesn’t need. Like inventing new swears.
Yeah, I read a couple Litrpgs where the author considered the whole pain thing just long enough to come up with power/skill/stat that could let them ignore pain. One guy literally could just move his senses around like Maxima moves her powers around so he could shut off his “sense of pain” (separately from his sense of touch the cheaty bastard mccheaterson! LOL) to upgrade his “sense of hearing” or what have you. Some of those things read more like a fetish than a fantasy.(not that there’s anything wrong with that… )
On the other hand, I follow a Web series called Spellgun, which starts with the main character dying several times in horrible ways until his skills bevin to develop enough to allow him to live long enough to starve instead.
Yeah, spellgun is cool. Reading it on Royal Road but only up to chapter 18. Is it available elsewhere with more chaps?
Not that I know of.
:)
I write on RRL.
I haven’t quite decided if it couple be considered one of the first LitRPG’s but Dreampark and it’s sequels sort of address this as it involves very high tech LARPing situation. All the books contain progressively more sophisticated methods of physically indicating to a play that they are hurt and making it very uncomfortable to try and disobey injuries without actually causing permanent pain as the games are run by a theme park and they don’t want to be sued.
I personally would go for offensive upgrades to the PPO, but that’s me. I do tend to overthink things when leveling, though, so I’d probably be stuck there for a bit analyzing (and searching the internet for a good build guide to see what the best choices really are) ;).
It seems to me that Sydney really needs Krona’s power: being able to see (what I presume are) the details of the skilltree would really help.
On the other hand, she seems to level up faster when she learns something from the combat, so getting stronger might just make them too trivial to learn much from, which getting a new utility skill might help her grow quicker.
Watch the labeling of the nodes was a basic function that she did not figure out … or well it was filled out a bit when she got it?
Wait, do the two dots in the centre mean that she has two upgrade points to spend?
No, those have always been there. Since they aren’t connected to any particular orb, I think the most common speculation was that they indicate how many can be used at a time.
Well then, one of the central points would be the best upgrade, if it’s actually manageable, as it’d reduce complexity in her actions, (switching between orbs mid battle) and give her more options, or more time to think.
More time to think can be a downside for Sydney if she can’t keep focus but mid battle is probably a good focus keeper.
Would she need a third hand?
I would upgrade the Telepresence Orb on the nub. It is her best movement and information skill. It might let her project and teleport to any place she knows (home) or detect weaknesses of the things she is fighting.
I’d second that. Information increases knowledge, and knowledge is power. Even if it doesn’t allow for long-range communications with home, it could very easily give her, say, an ‘energy field view’ mode that would allow her to target weak points or more easily avoid attacks, or a universal translator that could allow her to parlay with whoever.
Hmm, I didn’t have to think about it: Shields! If there’s only one thing to upgrade and the opponent can put some real stress to the shields, upgrade them first. This was my first thought.
Which other options could be helpful? More firepower, yes, but I would still upgrade the shields. More speed, no, Sydney doesn’t know where to go. Life support is already good enough, the rest, I wouldn’t know what to do with them in this situation.
I’d go for that mystery path on the flight orb that has nothing unlocked.
A new power might be better.
Also, is there a high res version of he Orb Skill trees anywhere?
Indeed there is on Dave’s DA account https://www.deviantart.com/davebarrack/art/Halo-s-Skilltree-Wallpaper-01-428873707
Best image is over at DaveB’s Deviant Art page, where Sydney got her first point to use. This is when she wound up putting her first point into her Comm Orb. The second point went into the PPO & she’s now deciding on where to put the third (current) point.
The mystery orb already has 3 skill pips in it, in two separate chains. Adding one more might unlock it’s functionality, in which case it would be like gaining 2 or 3 abilities for the price of one pip. To me, this seems a pretty rock solid bet. Go for what’s behind door number 3.
So far, Squidward and the Flying Flathead Screw have not been able to corner Sydney, and therefor are more of an annoyance than an immediate threat. So dropping the skill pip elsewhere has less of an urgency. She can just avoid them for now.
While food and water are of present concern, Sydney does have an entire (although blasted to ruin) planet of presumably advanced civilization to sift through. My bet is she could find both of these essentials within a day’s uninterrupted scouting – even less if using the Light Bee.
In conclusion, I see a lot of good argument for taking a shot at the mystery orb now.
While this might not be a bad thought, I agree if she some noticible action out of the mystery orb it might help her figure out the other functions. or not. Look at the light bee. really how whoud have thought that sending a hologram of yourself somewhere would potentially give you the ability to teleport there. Especially when you get no tactical sense of touch in the first place.
With that said new powers in her situation might be really useful. she has an entire skill tree on the force field orb is it really out of the realm of possibilities that since the shield is clear that another option is that it can render invisible as well? Not to mention that would jazz the hell out of Sydney with the parallels to invisible woman.
I suspect she’s going to stick with the orbs that have proven the most useful.
If she’s been causing that much damage with just two of four dots in attack, I would expect a level 3 blast to be getting into the megaton range.
they are labeled, you’ve just got to move your mouse over them
Assuming that the line of four dots on flight is each a doubling, she’d gain mach 8 speed from a fifth. The row to the left of it may be maneuverability. It’s a guess that the row to the right is space flight/ftl.
No good options, that I can see. Her hardest problem is finding a viable route home. There’s no guarantee there’s a star-nav in there, never mind some FTL (shuttle-craft vs interstellar), and even if there is a starchart it might as easily be in the comm-ball as flight. And there’s the remaining mystery-orb wildcard.
I’d upgrade shield a bit first (*really* don’t like how close that came to collapse), then pewpew enough to blat squidward (hoping there’s enough trash mobs to do that). Then pointedly stare down the mothership in the hope of negotiating some kind of ride home, or at least installing a language pack for the skill tree.
Lots of scope for failure, the mothership may just nope out before Syd can find a way to pin them down. But they can do that at any time anyway.
im betting the ones between the orbs the connection dots act like linking controls to main orbs like setting the two main ones or what ever is designated as the controls which then can activate the others thus able to slowly control all with 2 hands. as one friend said in my group that reads what if its not a space ship per say but a EVA suit that is combat capable. and one of the shield buttons could make the shield form instead of a bubble but as psionic armor or the psyco active skin item in dnd.
I’m gonna lol so hard if it turns out that there was a user manual in the sea next to where she found the orbs.
….. hopefully in AI helper form who’s just sitting there going “…I can NOT believe she just left me here….I’m gonna murder her…..I’m non-corporeal…..I’m gonna get a body… THEN…I’m gonna murder her…”
It was dangerous for Sydney to go out alone. She needed to take something else with her…
~Shoutout to Legend of Zelda beginning.
*approving old man nod and clap* I say well done there, good man.
Maybe the Mystery Orb is the manual? Though a manual that you can only access once you have learned how to use your orbs is of… questionable usefulness…
I’m surprised she actually acknowledged the fact that she could just get lost trying to fly through space without any form of navigation.
Upgrading:
PPO won’t help.
Shield won’t help.
Life Support won’t help.
Light Hock won’t help.
What might help:
Flight for POSSIBLE warp-drive
Tele-presence for POSSIBLE interstellar teleportation.
Mystery orb because she doesn’t know what it’s capable of.(Or the upgrade might just make whatever affect it has more apparent.)
“Life Support won’t help?”
I beg to differ. For those long journeys, she’ll need more Life Support than merely air…She would also need food, water & a sanitary way to dispose of…um…waste material. That stuff builds up & she wouldn’t even be able to open her shield to dump it out while she’s in space. Heh…She’d need the rebreather device just to breathe relatively “fresh” air.
However, her current level of PPO isn’t having much noticable effect & she really needs to get more XP to spend in order to have enough upgrades to even attempt to choose which upgrades she might need for long flights. Upgrading her PPO will do better for earning those XP in the shorter term…And will considerably improve her chance to survive longer.
Lighthook :)
I’d suggest this slot be activated:
Why? Flight and Shield are both easy to use, almost instinctual. They each have their Central Core upgrades clicked- so maybe those are “ease of use” slots. If she did that with Comm, then maybe she could either know which slots do what, which orbs function in exactly what way, or at least be able to see weak points in enemies.
The bad part in actually killing Darth Squidward is that the fighting would stop- sure she won, but that’s bad too because if XP is how she levels, then she couldn’t get more points.
But I’m still gunning for ‘other people deciding she leveled is how she levels’. The ship sent out a boss instead of a swarm of scrubs- isn’t deciding she’s a bigger threat than previously calculated count as ‘leveling’? I say yes.
‘other people deciding she leveled is how she levels’
There’d have to be a power of adversary link there. Otherwise its prime for wandering down the street casually and then just shooting into the air to everyone’s suprise, which would be a crappy way to level.
Works in Elder Scrolls.
Thanks. Also here‘s the pic I forgot to post on this page.
I’m not seeing a degradation of stamina yet.
Good!
She’s planning…not indecisive.
Also good.
Did she just wish the skilltree was labeled?
Is that selectable?
I think (should the occasion arise) using one of my 3 wishes to know
WHAT TO WISH FOR would be a good choice.
Of course, the strip`s Bible says `incomplete knowledge of the functions of her Orbs.`
There wouldn’t be a Ruby Slippers mode would there??
A ‘Lloyd’s Beacon’ mode would be good…. (Anybody? ;) )
Good thing she gets to think about it this time. Her earlier upgrades both more or less selected themselves. BTW, how long has it been since she last had a chance to eat, drink and sleep? It was still light out when they left HQ to go after Sciona (after she murdered WyrmCoot), it was dark when they reached her hide-out, and there’s been a LOT of action since. So, when this started, Sydney had already been through a whole day, and al this comes on top of that. Plus, the night before was when she visited the Twilight Council and fought Sciona for the first time. When WAS the last time she slept? She can keep going on adrenaline for only so long!
Update: It’s currently the night after the fifth day by my reckoning.
The first night was the night of the Parking Lot Fight, when Sydney got to bed at 02:41 AM by her PC’s clock, and was up and in her store before 09:46 AM by Joel’s phone. So, about 5 hours sleep?
The second night was the visit to Club Oontz. She had about 3 hours sleep that night. She got about 1 more hour of sleep during what was otherwise an extremely busy day.
Third night was the meeting with the Twilight Council, the fight aginst the killer mannikins and the Wars Fight. She got to bed late, probably well after 12 o’clock and was in her store the next morning.
Fourth Night: The whole visit to the Black Reliquary took place after sunset. She got to bed late and didn’t have a very quiet night apparently thanks to Dabbler’s ‘warming up’ spell.
Fifth night: We’re in it. She hasn’t had a chance to sleep yet.
So, basically, she’s had maybe four or five hours of sleep a night for the last four nights, coupled with very stressful and exhausting days and nights. I’m surprised she’s still standing at this point. I expect her to crash soon, and crash HARD! Sydney’s not a super, and she’s basically endangering her health if she keeps this regimen up.
Truth! And it is poor leadership on Anvil’s and Maxima’s part to allow such an abuse of a recruit. The Club Oontz visit should have been shot down from the start.
New recruits are delicate critters and need a lot of TLC until you have had time to toughen them up. Not everybody comes from a farming community (or similarly hardy and physically demanding lifestyle), such as I did, and finds Army Basic Training a vacation from their daily schedule. Poor Sydney is a nerd with a strong tendency towards lethargic activities like reading and playing on the computer. She needs to escape this situation very soon. My money is on Dabbler finding a way first.
There was actually a full week between three and four. She states this when she’s telling the story at the shop.
Several days, not a full week, but you are right; I missed that when I raced throught the story trying to make my timeline. So, she may have had several better nights before the fourth one when they had the whole “Black Reliquary” adventure. Also, we don’t know what she did during that time, though going by the days and nights we have seen I still think she is going to crash soon. While she is certainly resilient she hasn’t had enough time to build up physical stamina and the extreme stress she has been under will also take its toll. Still, imagine keeping so cool under such circumstances! She is extremely brave!
Personally I’d be more interested in the links between the orbs. Does that mean you can use one orb while maintaining the effects of a second? So say linking flight and oxygen means as long as you have flight in hand, the oxygen continually refreshes, or if you have oxygen in hand you won’t fall from the sky but won’t be doing any fancy flying.
PPO and flight are linked but she still fell while shooting.
It can be labeled. In the language of the aliens that made them. ;)
personally think the labels will be something like “flight speed x” vaguely useful but not entirely helpful
Upgrade the air orb, Sydney! IT’S THE LAST THING SQUIDWARD WOULD EXPECT!
It’s so crazy, it just might work!
See also Maxims 42 & 43
So she should be getting a combat bonus according to Maxim 45?
Cue blinking suggestion of where to put a point to get labels… or grinding for levels montage!!!
What if that solo line on the yellow orb is a universal translator?
I’m really hoping that once Syd’s back on earth that she’ll be able to get Krona to sketch up one of her upcoming skill tree sessions outside of combat and figure out more about the orbs’ function/origins.
This.
The final orb is actually a rez orb, giving you the ability to resurrect yourself.. hence why Sydney hasn’t fond it’s use…
unfortunately, most previous users have been unable to equip the rez orb after death….
Yeah always sucked I found when they kept cutting down the time for the Warlock Soul Stone rez effect. I would often only realise it had dropped off about a second after I was killed.
You know, even if they were labeled, what are the odds it would be in English?
If I remember correctly, in the World War Hulk storyline Bruce put Wolvie down by bouncing his brain off of his adamantium skull a few dozen times. That was probably one time when Logan really wanted to have Shadowcat powers.
“There ain’t many around who can describe what it feels like to get hit by the Hulk…Simple fact bein’ there ain’t many around who can survive to tell the tale. There ain’t no pain at first. It’s like he hits ya so damn hard ya actually leave yer own body. It’s when ya come back that ya feel the pain. An’ ya realize yer goin’ toe-to-toe with a walkin’ earthquake.”
Squidward lost track of her?
That can only mean she used Teleport! !
(It`s super effective)
Or else, in the other end of the storyline, Maxima and company just found their way back, and it’s trying to reduce them to their component quarks.