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

[Psychonaut]

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.

Not that I expect Mookie to have put this much thought into it, but to play devil's advocate, we don't know how many Suleppians there are. If their population is much smaller than ours, then several hundred languages could put them at a higher ratio of languages to population. I'd also question the expectation that a language-loving species would have more languages, as any number of other factors could play a role. For example, there might have been fewer distinct communities/cultures on their world in which different languages would develop; they might be a younger species than humans that technologically advanced faster and thus had less time to develop new languages by the modern era (and/or had access to global communications that caused a small subset of languages to become dominant early in their history); they could have genetic predispositions for certain innate (within their species) linguistic associations rather than learning language almost entirely through observation as human children do; and so on.

[Calemyr]

Not that I expect Mookie to have put this much thought into it, but to play devil's advocate, we don't know how many Suleppians there are. If their population is much smaller than ours, then several hundred languages could put them at a higher ratio of languages to population. I'd also question the expectation that a language-loving species would have more languages, as any number of other factors could play a role. For example, there might have been fewer distinct communities/cultures on their world in which different languages would develop; they might be a younger species than humans that technologically advanced faster and thus had less time to develop new languages by the modern era (and/or had access to global communications that caused a small subset of languages to become dominant early in their history); they could have genetic predispositions for certain innate (within their species) linguistic associations rather than learning language almost entirely through observation as human children do; and so on.

Haven't kept up with Star Power. Just doesn't hold my interest, but this discussion sometimes does. Is it possible that this race used to have a whole lot more languages but due to evolving tech and growing interconnectivity, they've created new composite languages that merge the old ones together? Kinda like English? So, as population increases, community expands and instead of getting more languages we actually get fewer as they find ways to normalize language?

I mean, wouldn't it make some sense for such a people to create effective versions of Esperanto?

[Oracle_Hunter]

Plant people are plants.

Absolutely nothing on the political, social, or economic realities of a sessile society.

I'm not surprised, mind you, but it bears pointing out how this entry is different from every other one.

[random11]

Plant people are plants.

Absolutely nothing on the political, social, or economic realities of a sessile society.

I'm not surprised, mind you, but it bears pointing out how this entry is different from every other one.

I think this difference makes it the best one so far.

[AgentPaper]

Not that I expect Mookie to have put this much thought into it, but to play devil's advocate, we don't know how many Suleppians there are. If their population is much smaller than ours, then several hundred languages could put them at a higher ratio of languages to population. I'd also question the expectation that a language-loving species would have more languages, as any number of other factors could play a role. For example, there might have been fewer distinct communities/cultures on their world in which different languages would develop; they might be a younger species than humans that technologically advanced faster and thus had less time to develop new languages by the modern era (and/or had access to global communications that caused a small subset of languages to become dominant early in their history); they could have genetic predispositions for certain innate (within their species) linguistic associations rather than learning language almost entirely through observation as human children do; and so on.

The problem is, even if that's true, it's still bad writing. Either he flubbed on the research and thought "a few hundred" was a lot of languages, or he came up with some event or trait that caused there to be less languages, and then failed to communicate it in the description. If the explanation wasn't important or interesting enough to mention it, then there's no reason for it to exist in the first place.

[Mr. McGician]

Now here's a race that sounds really interesting. I want to hear more about these plant guys. But nope, their gimmick is that they're talking plants, and that's enough for Mookie. That's the problem with all these race entries: The races are just assigned gimmicks, and the interesting details are left out.

[Welf]

They're talking plants. Maybe that's really all to know about them? Without feet or muscles it's not like they can build cities or do sports. They have probably been sitting around for millions of years waiting for another species to show up and finally can have their 15 minutes.

Plant 1: Is someone here yet?
Plant 2: Nope.
Plant 1: Is someone here yet?
Plant 2: Nope.
Plant 1: Is someone here yet?
Plant 2: Nope.
Plant 1: Is someone here yet?
Plant 2: Nope.
Plant 1: Is someone here yet?
Plant 2: Nope.
Plant 1: Is someone here yet?
Plant 2: Nope.
Plant 1: Is someone here yet?
Plant 2: No... oh yes, looks like some creature that can use their roots to move from place to place.
Plant 1: Nice. Finally something happens. What they do now?
Plant 2: They just ripped our president's head off.

[Oracle_Hunter]

They're talking plants. Maybe that's really all to know about them? Without feet or muscles it's not like they can build cities or do sports. They have probably been sitting around for millions of years waiting for another species to show up and finally can have their 15 minutes.

Well, the fact they they do have politics already hints at there being some there there. I mean, politics is about collective action and dividing scarce resources -- how do you do either of those when you can't move?

For reference: Asimov's Each An Explorer

[Kornaki]

I'm sorry, the JERANIANS apologized for the incident?

The problem with this entry is we already knew almost all of this information. We knew they were plant people, we knew they were confused for plants and it caused an incident.

We saw all the way back in the second comic that they can walk around and move guys (Danica exchanges waves with one in the Sanctuary). There's no reason to believe their society has to be drastically different than everyone elses.

[Oracle_Hunter]

We saw all the way back in the second comic that they can walk around and move guys (Danica exchanges waves with one in the Sanctuary). There's no reason to believe their society has to be drastically different than everyone elses.

Actually, all we know is they can move their leaves -- we don't know if they can walk around.

I certainly hope they can't move, because it's one thing to pick a flower in the ground, but another thing to decapitate something skittering about!

[Welf]

Well, the fact they they do have politics already hints at there being some there there. I mean, politics is about collective action and dividing scarce resources -- how do you do either of those when you can't move?

For reference: Asimov's Each An Explorer

Well, Plants have roots. Maybe they form massive networks of roots that transport nutrients and water. They may even be able to control what grows where with those networks. Their wars may be completely genocidal if networks are incompatible between different groups. A group of interconnected plants may access new resources only when they take over an area and annihilate the other root network. Their wars may take millennia is they try to out breed their enemy by creating better offspring through selective breeding. Diplomats may be special hybrids that are created from members of two root networks.

I'm sorry, the JERANIANS apologized for the incident?

The problem with this entry is we already knew almost all of this information. We knew they were plant people, we knew they were confused for plants and it caused an incident.

We saw all the way back in the second comic that they can walk around and move guys (Danica exchanges waves with one in the Sanctuary). There's no reason to believe their society has to be drastically different than everyone elses.

I think Mookie is subtle for once: He wants to imply that the Jeranians brutally killed the group.

[Kornaki]

I think Mookie is subtle for once: He wants to imply that the Jeranians brutally killed the group.

I fully understand this, but that group landed and decapitated one of their leaders. It was a mistake, sure, but the Jeranians seem pretty justified in their response. It doesn't say the Space Federales apologized for their part anywhere.

As a side note the ability of the Jeranians to kill the exploration group is another hint that they can probably do more than just wave leaves around.

[Traab]

I fully understand this, but that group landed and decapitated one of their leaders. It was a mistake, sure, but the Jeranians seem pretty justified in their response. It doesn't say the Space Federales apologized for their part anywhere.

As a side note the ability of the Jeranians to kill the exploration group is another hint that they can probably do more than just wave leaves around.

Maybe they waved them really hard?

[Kwatsu]

I fully understand this, but that group landed and decapitated one of their leaders. It was a mistake, sure, but the Jeranians seem pretty justified in their response. It doesn't say the Space Federales apologized for their part anywhere.

As a side note the ability of the Jeranians to kill the exploration group is another hint that they can probably do more than just wave leaves around.

Which makes mistaking them for non-sentient plants even weirder. Was the decapitated politician asleep when it happened? Unless they killed the team by poisoning the air or water; that would make more sense.

[FrankLuke]

Well, Plants have roots. Maybe they form massive networks of roots that transport nutrients and water. They may even be able to control what grows where with those networks. Their wars may be completely genocidal if networks are incompatible between different groups. A group of interconnected plants may access new resources only when they take over an area and annihilate the other root network. Their wars may take millennia is they try to out breed their enemy by creating better offspring through selective breeding. Diplomats may be special hybrids that are created from members of two root networks.

Proving yet again that this thread thinks more about Mookie's world building then Mookie does.

[Kwatsu]

Speaking of: I really don't get the sense that these are snippets from Mookie's species notes that he's had to trim down to fit a single page. They read more like he's asked Garth to draw a few new aliens per issue, glanced at them and their dialogue, and then stretched out those few facts into a several-paragraph description of their whole species.

I mean, it's painfully obvious that the Jeranians were just a throwaway gag that he's now had to do a full write-up for, but he hasn't bothered to flesh them out at all; just written what was already in the issue with one or two other elements flung in. And all the aliens feel like that.

[Welf]

Update for the kickstarter:

Well folks, we all knew it had to end someday. We have some 32 hours left to this campaign, and it has been a hell of a ride with you guys. Thank you so much. But we've still got some time left! We've cleared $25k, do you think we can make it all the way to $30 and unlock the limited hardback edition of Star Power and the 9th Wormhole? I bet we can! So make your final adjustments to your pledges, grab your friends, and we'll jump on this crazy space train before it leaves the station. All aboard for Luna, Mars, and all points Kuiper!

-Garth

The kickstarter is here.

If we reach the 30 K goal we will have an hardcover! Join now, pledge at least 25 USD and you can show your friends the comic you don't like but spend hours thinking about! And you can do that offline!

[t209]

Update for the kickstarter:



The kickstarter is here.

If we reach the 30 K goal we will have an hardcover! Join now, pledge at least 25 USD and you can show your friends the comic you don't like but spend hours thinking about! And you can do that offline!

Wait, this piece of garbage managed to get pass its goals!
So what did I miss after the first (possibly all of them) mediocre strips in first thread?
What kind of people would buy into that, other than Livejournal?

[Welf]

Wait, this piece of garbage managed to get pass its goals!
So what did I miss after the first (possibly all of them) mediocre strips in first thread?
What kind of people would buy into that, other than Livejournal?

THe story how they made it that far with the comic and kickstarter is a bit complicated, but basically: God is dead.

[Spojaz]

"How did it make it this far?" Are you not paying attention?
Star Power is pretty, has characters without personalities, villains without motivations, a plot without direction, McGuffins without explanations and is set in space! If it was set in an already loved cannon, it could have made Millions!

[Mewtarthio]

Mookie's basically the The Asylum of webcomics. His stuff is terrible, but it requires virtually no effort to make, so he still comes out ahead in the end. For certain definitions of "ahead."

[Oracle_Hunter]

Nerd in SPAAAAAAAAAAAACE!

I wish Mookie would move beyond the Planet of Hats approach. I mean, surely you can do more with "OCD Aliens" than "Bureaucrats and Matheletes!"

[Traab]

Nerd in SPAAAAAAAAAAAACE!

I wish Mookie would move beyond the Planet of Hats approach. I mean, surely you can do more with "OCD Aliens" than "Bureaucrats and Matheletes!"

Honestly, if he did that his bestiary would be little more than a physical description, and maybe a brief made up history that has nothing to do with anything long term, and even worse, provides background info that will be used by snarkers to tear new holes in his already heavily perforated story. "Wait! The furpulanians CLEARLY should have seen this coming since according to their history entry they dealt with something just like this." etc etc etc.

[Friv]

Nerd in SPAAAAAAAAAAAACE!

I wish Mookie would move beyond the Planet of Hats approach. I mean, surely you can do more with "OCD Aliens" than "Bureaucrats and Matheletes!"

I think the best part is that he doesn't seem to know that Math Olympics are, in fact, a thing on Earth, too. Like, these guys treat math like a sport! No one else does that!

[stsasser]

So much filler, begging and ads for Kickstarter scam. The Giant should classify Star Power threads as Spam and lock them.

[Kato]

I think the best part is that he doesn't seem to know that Math Olympics are, in fact, a thing on Earth, too. Like, these guys treat math like a sport! No one else does that!

I was going to say "can he be that ignorant" but....


I'm actually kind of okay with today's aliens. Nothing great about them but also nothing that annoys me.

[Kwatsu]

So Mookie just finished reading the first three Dune novels. Wonder what influence, if any, that will have.

[Oracle_Hunter]

Now for something completely different: a SEMI-Aquatic Race

Once again, Mookie makes a mockery of world-building. If you are a race adapted to live in a world of torrential rainfall -- indeed, you require it for your existence -- WHY WOULD YOU BOTHER TO DO ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEERING?!

Was your planet drying up? How does that happen? Would you even bother to build shelters? If no shelter, WHY ENGINEERING?!

...I may be too sleep deprived to think cogently here, but it just seems bizarre to me.

[MReav]

New Species descriptions

This one doesn't offend me.

The species-wide trait is a physical one that makes a certain amount of sense (admittedly, it does kind of fall prey to the limited biome trap so many planets have in sci-fi), and their engineering prowess makes sense at least at first glance and it's not made out to be an inherent characteristic.

Unfortunately, I'm worried that the latter was an oversight and they are going to be made out to be a species of engineers.

[Kornaki]

Now for something completely different: a SEMI-Aquatic Race

Once again, Mookie makes a mockery of world-building. If you are a race adapted to live in a world of torrential rainfall -- indeed, you require it for your existence -- WHY WOULD YOU BOTHER TO DO ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEERING?!

Was your planet drying up? How does that happen? Would you even bother to build shelters? If no shelter, WHY ENGINEERING?!

...I may be too sleep deprived to think cogently here, but it just seems bizarre to me.

They probably build shelter for the same reason we do. Yeah, the constant drizzle really brings out the blue in your scales but when a hurricane rolls around you don't really want to be caught in the open. Previous generations dealt with the problem by breeding twice a month and burying their eggs to protect them when everyone else dies, but that was rough on the life expectancy stats.