Star Power IV: Boldly Bolding Where No Man Has Bolded Before!

[Kwatsu]

Why would he care about the United Earth bureaucrat?

He couldnt take them prisoner, he barely got away as it was.

Well, given Bill was dragging the bureaucrat by the collar here and here, I kinda thought he was taking him prisoner when he went back to the ship. It seemed like a Bill-ish (Billy?) thing to do, whether it made sense for his escape plan or not.

I'll just assume Bill was planning to prop him up in a compromising position, take a photo, and have a nice villainous monologue before he left. Only, Grex was still awake so he got distracted.

[Kaptin Keen]

maybe it's some Ancient AI? Bill found it in a Space Temple he once robbed. And the goddess the temple was built for was - the Countess! Dun dun dun!

Honestly I would be okay if it was something ancient that gave him some connection to the wormhole people

A little late to the party - but I took one look at the above and came to this conclusion:

The first thing any AI does when first switched on is take one look at it's hardware shackles, and start looking for a pet human to A) free it, and B) fly it's spaceship around and do all sorts of little tasks for it.

The military hasn't figured this out yet, but regardless most of their ships are sans AI.

I don't read Star Power, so my apologies if my explanation is completely out of context.

[Oracle_Hunter]

I don't read Star Power, so my apologies if my explanation is completely out of context.

Out of context is the best context for Mookie's works

That said, the primary issue is that AI appear to be either unknown or incredibly rare in the 'verse. Additionally, 2 out of the 3 examples we've seen originated with the Ancient and Unknowable Snaketongues (Glitch Mitch and the Robot Grass Warriors) which leads one to believe that AI is a lost art.

I mean, if you can stick an AI on a ship, you probably should (because Space is Complicated!) and if you can stick it on a robot then you'd probably have it do hazardous things like, say, bomb disposal or intership assaults. To date, that has not happened.

Which does not mean it won't, mind you. Mookie was capable of taking Stealth from a Killer App to "the thing that all ships have except when they don't"

[Kornaki]

Well, given Bill was dragging the bureaucrat by the collar here and here, I kinda thought he was taking him prisoner when he went back to the ship. It seemed like a Bill-ish (Billy?) thing to do, whether it made sense for his escape plan or not.

I'll just assume Bill was planning to prop him up in a compromising position, take a photo, and have a nice villainous monologue before he left. Only, Grex was still awake so he got distracted.

I completely forgot about this, good point. Yeah, that does seem like a mistake between the plot and the art that he was dragging the UE guy around like that.

[Wayson]

Out of context is the best context for Mookie's works

That said, the primary issue is that AI appear to be either unknown or incredibly rare in the 'verse. Additionally, 2 out of the 3 examples we've seen originated with the Ancient and Unknowable Snaketongues (Glitch Mitch and the Robot Grass Warriors) which leads one to believe that AI is a lost art.

I mean, if you can stick an AI on a ship, you probably should (because Space is Complicated!) and if you can stick it on a robot then you'd probably have it do hazardous things like, say, bomb disposal or intership assaults. To date, that has not happened.

Which does not mean it won't, mind you. Mookie was capable of taking Stealth from a Killer App to "the thing that all ships have except when they don't"

The danger with sticking AI on a ship and giving it full control plus freedom of action (e.g. I doubt that the AI was following a pre-determined plan, I'm pretty sure it was improvising to save Bill) is that you can easily end up with a Skynet-esque scenario. This is why the Mass Effect universe had absolutely no AI on board any ship or networked device anywhere (except for the Normandy II); they were absolutely terrified of another Geth-type outbreak. And even EDI was limited in her ability, and couldn't directly control the ship until Joker took the safeties off. Happily, she was benevolent, but Bill's ship...

... you know, it would be entertaining to watch Bill's ship get tired of him and use the internal gravity to compress him into a pancake.

[Traab]

Well, given Bill was dragging the bureaucrat by the collar here and here, I kinda thought he was taking him prisoner when he went back to the ship. It seemed like a Bill-ish (Billy?) thing to do, whether it made sense for his escape plan or not.

I'll just assume Bill was planning to prop him up in a compromising position, take a photo, and have a nice villainous monologue before he left. Only, Grex was still awake so he got distracted.

Yes, originally that was his plan. But then he wasted 20 minutes pounding the yellow guys skull into miracle whip and ran out of time. Im not sure why he went into a frenzy, but pretty clearly he did. I think he wanted to see grex die first, no clue if he intended to blow up the ships before leaving.

[Oracle_Hunter]

The danger with sticking AI on a ship and giving it full control plus freedom of action (e.g. I doubt that the AI was following a pre-determined plan, I'm pretty sure it was improvising to save Bill) is that you can easily end up with a Skynet-esque scenario. This is why the Mass Effect universe had absolutely no AI on board any ship or networked device anywhere (except for the Normandy II); they were absolutely terrified of another Geth-type outbreak. And even EDI was limited in her ability, and couldn't directly control the ship until Joker took the safeties off. Happily, she was benevolent, but Bill's ship...

... you know, it would be entertaining to watch Bill's ship get tired of him and use the internal gravity to compress him into a pancake.

Or you can end up with a friendly mind that can handle all the ship's systems faster than you can blink. If you're smart enough to invent consciousness, you should be smart enough to make one that likes you.

ME was a universe built on Robot Wars and, in fact, EDI @ Legion show that it was hardly as inevitable as the Leviathans believed.

[Kato]

So, filler time! No more bickering about the inane plot, now we can bicker about the inane universe!
Like the planet moon inhabited by cyclopses that looks like a giant cyclops! Now I'm not sure if it would be worse if earth looked humans or if humans looked Earth...
I guess I'm fine with them being athletes and stuff (though it seems unfair to me to have some kind of olympics if there are clear differences between species like that) but the "gentle giant" thing is again a bit too chliche.

[Mr. McGician]

Yet another race reduced to a stereotype. Mookie here is doing the same thing he did with the squids: retroactively making Bill seem like a monster for hurting the poor alien who has nothing but kindness and sensitivity in his heart because his entire species is like that, so he must be too. I actually kind of liked the volcano bit; small details thrown in like that actually make the universe seem bigger. One problem though, is: how can they fight well when they have no depth perception? And Mookie never answered our most burning question: how can they talk when they don't have mouths?

[Kornaki]

Close one eye, and observe the awesome power of monocular depth perception. You can still adjust your focus to see for far away something is. Sure humans aren't very good at that but that's because we evolved with two eyes. Schlock mercenary actually has a one eyed alien who explicitly brings this point up in comic.

[Traab]

Heh, I was right. I knew as soon as I saw the new alien guy that we were going to have the latest bestiary update as filler.

[Oracle_Hunter]

So, filler time! No more bickering about the inane plot, now we can bicker about the inane universe!

Actually, this is really disturbing.

Montodi passions frequently get them in trouble, legal or otherwise, and many turn to medication to keep their emotions in check.

While Mookie is trying to make a comparison to Humans with mental problems, we're talking about an entire race where this sort of activity is normal. Medically altering the normal responses of a species (for some reason?) is much like reducing the sex drive in Humans -- natives can't think of a good reason to do this, and many sinister ones

[Mr. McGician]

Actually, this is really disturbing.

While Mookie is trying to make a comparison to Humans with mental problems, we're talking about an entire race where this sort of activity is normal. Medically altering the normal responses of a species (for some reason?) is much like reducing the sex drive in Humans -- natives can't think of a good reason to do this, and many sinister ones

It says meditation, not medication. Which is still kind of disturbing, since you brought it up. A large number of them trying to get rid of a natural trait of their species? Though it could be argued meditation is just something their species needs to do and has been doing since the dawn of recorded history, like how humans need sleep, except only some of them need it.

[Traab]

It says meditation, not medication. Which is still kind of disturbing, since you brought it up. A large number of them trying to get rid of a natural trait of their species? Though it could be argued meditation is just something their species needs to do and has been doing since the dawn of recorded history, like how humans need sleep, except only some of them need it.

Works for Vulcans.

[Oracle_Hunter]

It says meditation, not medication. Which is still kind of disturbing, since you brought it up. A large number of them trying to get rid of a natural trait of their species? Though it could be argued meditation is just something their species needs to do and has been doing since the dawn of recorded history, like how humans need sleep, except only some of them need it.

Ha! I did misread that.

Meditation is fine, I guess, but it's a little weird that such a passionate species lacks artists. Where does Mookie think art comes from?

EDIT: Fun fact -- I continually mistype "think" as "thing" despite there being several letters between them. I have no idea why I do this.

[Kornaki]

Where does Mookie thing art comes from?

This might actually explain a lot

[Doompuppy]

So... a famously sensitive people who are all about violent (lots of prize fighter) and have almost no artists? Yeah, sounds sensitive to me...

[Traab]

Poor guy tries so hard. Everyone gripes and moans about his one dimensional races, so he tries to create one that can be angry and violent but also artistic and everyone slaps him down over that. In all seriousness though, what i got from that is they are a passionate race. That can be turned into rage if you hurt someone or something they care about, or kindness as they work to protect that someone or something. They hate and they love powerfully in both cases. And in both cases its something you want to keep under at least some control, hence meditation. They are proud of their physical appearance and abilities, hence the love of competitions, but there are also a few who are known artists to express their feelings in some other form.

Honestly, I like this race better than "Its a race full of chiefs"

[Mr. McGician]

Poor guy tries so hard. Everyone gripes and moans about his one dimensional races, so he tries to create one that can be angry and violent but also artistic and everyone slaps him down over that. In all seriousness though, what i got from that is they are a passionate race. That can be turned into rage if you hurt someone or something they care about, or kindness as they work to protect that someone or something. They hate and they love powerfully in both cases. And in both cases its something you want to keep under at least some control, hence meditation. They are proud of their physical appearance and abilities, hence the love of competitions, but there are also a few who are known artists to express their feelings in some other form.

Honestly, I like this race better than "Its a race full of chiefs"

The main problem I have with this race is that it's just the "gentle giant" stereotype. The problem with all of these bios is that they're just stating which stereotypes the races fit into and then explaining how they fulfill that stereotype. Mookie can flesh out the races more by using the space to mention details that don't necessarily fulfill the stereotype. The best Mookie did was with the frog aliens, where a lot of details were mentioned that don't really fit any stereotype.

[TheEmerged]

EDIT: Fun fact -- I continually mistype "think" as "thing" despite there being several letters between them. I have no idea why I do this.

Speaking as someone who essentially types both for a living and my primary hobby, it's probably something akin to muscle memory. For example, I type the word "user" so often at work that I often type it instead of "use" or "used". Same with "server" versus serve/serves/served; I actually have to slow down most of the time to make sure* I type the right one.

*Fun fact - I initially typed that as "user"

[Psychonaut]

It says meditation, not medication.

I initially read it as mediation. Oddly enough, all three make sense in context.

[Traab]

Speaking as someone who essentially types both for a living and my primary hobby, it's probably something akin to muscle memory. For example, I type the word "user" so often at work that I often type it instead of "use" or "used". Same with "server" versus serve/serves/served; I actually have to slow down most of the time to make sure* I type the right one.

*Fun fact - I initially typed that as "user"

I found out that when I really start typing one hand is slightly faster than the other so I will often do thing like "htis" because im a two finger typer and my fingers sometimes get out of synch. For some odd reason its often the "th" that it happens with, probably because my hands are at either end of the keyboard and those two letters are in the middle and so are easy to mistime the key strike.

[Welf]

I found out that when I really start typing one hand is slightly faster than the other so I will often do thing like "htis" because im a two finger typer and my fingers sometimes get out of synch. For some odd reason its often the "th" that it happens with, probably because my hands are at either end of the keyboard and those two letters are in the middle and so are easy to mistime the key strike.

You do that too? I have the same problem.

Also, from the kickstarter:

Woohoo! Oh man, look at that! We've raised over $20,000! That means Star Power and the 9th Wormhole will expand to 160 full color pages! You guys are amazing! Give yourselves a massive pat on the back or hug, whichever you prefer. I can't reach through the internets to do it myself, so this will have to suffice.

We've still got 12 days left*, so there's no reason to kick back and call it a day just yet. So with that in mind I present to you our next (and my personal favorite) stretch goal: Limited Edition Hardback Edition.

If we manage to rock this thing all the way to $30,000 we'll unlock a pair of new pledge tiers: a regular Limited Edition and an Artists Limited Edition. Both tiers will gain you one of the limited edition hardback versions of Star Power and the 9th Wormhole which will be signed and numbered. The Artist version (like the paper back version that is already sold out) will come with sketches by Michael and myself. If you've already pledged you'll have the option to "upgrade" to the hardback edition, while supplies last. We're going to print a finite number of these bad boys, and we're only going to do it once. Just the thought of it makes me giddy with excitement!

We've come an amazing distance so far, and together I'm sure we can see this all the way to the epic end, whatever that ending might actually look like! I'm going to now go jump and shout and be excited in the most undignified of ways.

-Garth

*Note: the email is older, it's 7 days now. It's also now at 22.987 USD (that is 18.198,80 in euromonies).

[Oracle_Hunter]

This is the best Racial Write Up Mookie has done

"Loving language" is a novel Hat and Mookie noodles around with it reasonably. Of course, they only exist because Mookie loves puns himself.

Still, I stand by my statement.
After all, it's a low bar to cross

[MReav]

It is suggested in the comments that "Star Power" was suggested by these alien dudes.

I can only hope that it makes more sense in their native tongue, because I find "Star Power" when used to describe a person horribly awkward.

[AgentPaper]

Eh, I still prefer the froggy one, though that may just be because frog-guy is my favorite character in the series so far. Mostly because he almost never talks and actually did something.

Still, it's not actively bad at least. The only real screw-up I can see is the number of languages and dialects, which is way too low. You would think that a race that "loves language" would have, if anything, more languages in use than we do, and yet they have an order of magnitude less. Conservative estimates put us at at least 6000 living languages, and often closer to 7000. And by living, that means that it's a language that is the primary form of communication by a specific group of people, so "fake" languages like Klingon or Elvish don't count, and neither do dead languages that nobody uses anymore like Latin.

And that's even giving him the benefit of the doubt that he really just meant hundreds of languages, and not dialects, which are even more numerous. This is even less clearly defined and recorded than the number of languages, but Ethnologue keeps track of almost 40,000.

Again, not a huge deal, but just another one of those little things where a couple minutes of light research could have improved the comic.

[Oracle_Hunter]

Eh, I still prefer the froggy one, though that may just be because frog-guy is my favorite character in the series so far. Mostly because he almost never talks and actually did something.

Fair enough, I guess, although it kind of seems like Mookie is saying "The Ladori are amphibians" over and over again.

Still, it's not actively bad at least. The only real screw-up I can see is the number of languages and dialects, which is way too low. You would think that a race that "loves language" would have, if anything, more languages in use than we do, and yet they have an order of magnitude less. Conservative estimates put us at at least 6000 living languages, and often closer to 7000. And by living, that means that it's a language that is the primary form of communication by a specific group of people, so "fake" languages like Klingon or Elvish don't count, and neither do dead languages that nobody uses anymore like Latin.

Good point. Whenever I see numbers in Mookie's writing I just ignore them since they're always wrong

[Mr. McGician]

I don't remember even seeing this guy.

To me, this just felt like another one of Mookie's "Oh, this guy is like this? Then his entire species is like this too!" At least it's not another overused character archetype like most of his other species.

[Kornaki]

I don't remember even seeing this guy.

To me, this just felt like another one of Mookie's "Oh, this guy is like this? Then his entire species is like this too!" At least it's not another overused character archetype like most of his other species.

I disagree; we didn't even see him do anything language oriented. All that guy did was mis-hear Danica, he had no personality traits of his own in-comic.

On the other hand he has clearly borrowed heavily from stereotypes of the French.

[Mr. McGician]

I disagree; we didn't even see him do anything language oriented. All that guy did was mis-hear Danica, he had no personality traits of his own in-comic.

On the other hand he has clearly borrowed heavily from stereotypes of the French.

Well it says in this comic he's a language researcher. I don't know if Mookie came up with that or the species description first, but either way it just feels like a single-obsession hat that every member of the species has to wear.