GrrlPower III: Crisis Of Infinite Filler Comics

[HandofShadows]

Agreed. Potentially getting your hands on a users manual never results in getting better at using the technology that manual is for. Trial and error is the only real way to learn how your technology works.

And where did I say or even infer that there might be a "manual" for the orbs? Let me make it easy, I never did. You people are taking about stuff I never said or ever even hinted at in any way and blaming me for it. So kindly stop trying to fool people with this garbage because I have never like people deliberately misrepresenting what I say.

[Kantaki]

Oh gods no please! Sydny really dont need anything else to make her super special

Wouldn't it make Syney less special if Crona's powers come from the same source?

Agreed. Potentially getting your hands on a users manual never results in getting better at using the technology that manual is for. Trial and error is the only real way to learn how your technology works.

Well, to be fair, Manual or not- she would get more Upgrades either way. And in Sydney's case it would be better she knows what she is doing.
Actually, scratch that. No matter who uses the orbs, they should read the Manual before doing so- especially once they start to level them up.

[lord_khaine]

I got a clue for some of you people. Finding out where the orbs came from in no ways means more power for Sydney.

nd where did I say or even infer that there might be a "manual" for the orbs? Let me make it easy, I never did. You people are taking about stuff I never said or ever even hinted at in any way and blaming me for it. So kindly stop trying to fool people with this garbage because I have never like people deliberately misrepresenting what I say.

You.. should perhaps sweep before your own door first then. Since it was not power that were complained about, but her getting more special.

Wouldn't it make Syney less special if Crona's powers come from the same source?

Well no.. because right now its Crona who has the straight up unique power source. So it would instead be Crona that became less special.

[John Campbell]

Well no.. because right now its Crona who has the straight up unique power source. So it would instead be Crona that became less special.

Sydney also does. Sydney and her unique power source have just been hired as a superhero, while Krona's been cast as "some weird kind of magic we guess?" Putting the two of them into a category together makes both of them less special snowflakes.

(Max is also unique, as apparently a natural super who's had her powers enhanced or amplified somehow by geode juice.)

[Leewei]

We interrupt this plot digression for a day at the beach and cringe-worthy Sydney commentary.

[Rogar Demonblud]

Considering that our media pound body image issues into little girls' heads basically from the day they're born, and knowing that Sydney has it worse than usual, I submit we should probably be relieved it went this well.

[AvatarVecna]

And where did I say or even infer that there might be a "manual" for the orbs? Let me make it easy, I never did. You people are taking about stuff I never said or ever even hinted at in any way and blaming me for it. So kindly stop trying to fool people with this garbage because I have never like people deliberately misrepresenting what I say.

You didn't, but you were commenting on people discussing Sydney getting more powerful/special. The orbs wouldn't be really going up in power by her talking with Crona about their workings as she understands them, Sydney would just get a better understanding of how they work, and how they're upgraded...potentially, akin to receiving a users manual. The biggest - the single absolute unbypassable - limitation Sydney's abilities have right now is that neither she nor anybody in their entire organization has even the slightest inkling of how these things operate, including the demon/alien super-magic-scientist on the team. Everything else about her powers - how many orbs she can use at a time, the power level and versatility or her orbs abilities, what two of her orbs even do - are things that could potentially be improved upon via trial-and-error with the upgrade tree...but without knowing what the upgrades even potentially represent, it's the equivalent of building a D&D character by rolling random dice for every single aspect of the character. Sure, you're still playing a Sorcerer, but some bad rolls on that spells known table can severely screw you up in the long run.

And then comes along a character who's power seems to literally be "understands and is learning the coding of the universe", who can potentially take away this one limitation on Sydney's abilities. Understandably (at least to me) the possibility that Sydney could have any idea what she's doing when upgrading represents a significant improvement in her powers even if it's not an immediate improvement, so when I saw somebody come along and say the equivalent of "I don't see why having somebody who can read the language Sydney's manual is printed in will make her better at using her power", I responded with what I felt was an appropriate amount of ridicule.

[HandofShadows]

You didn't, but you were commenting on people discussing Sydney getting more powerful/special. The orbs wouldn't be really going up in power by her talking with Crona about their workings as she understands them, Sydney would just get a better understanding of how they work, and how they're upgraded...potentially, akin to receiving a users manual. The biggest - the single absolute unbypassable - limitation Sydney's abilities have right now is that neither she nor anybody in their entire organization has even the slightest inkling of how these things operate, including the demon/alien super-magic-scientist on the team. Everything else about her powers - how many orbs she can use at a time, the power level and versatility or her orbs abilities, what two of her orbs even do - are things that could potentially be improved upon via trial-and-error with the upgrade tree...but without knowing what the upgrades even potentially represent, it's the equivalent of building a D&D character by rolling random dice for every single aspect of the character. Sure, you're still playing a Sorcerer, but some bad rolls on that spells known table can severely screw you up in the long run.

And then comes along a character who's power seems to literally be "understands and is learning the coding of the universe", who can potentially take away this one limitation on Sydney's abilities. Understandably (at least to me) the possibility that Sydney could have any idea what she's doing when upgrading represents a significant improvement in her powers even if it's not an immediate improvement, so when I saw somebody come along and say the equivalent of "I don't see why having somebody who can read the language Sydney's manual is printed in will make her better at using her power", I responded with what I felt was an appropriate amount of ridicule.

Guess what, this isn't D&D. There is no game balance. It's a written story and works on the "rules" of storytelling. So the source of your "ridicule" is based on an assumtion that has no basis in reality, a lack of faith in the writter and lack of imagination on your own part. Finding out some background on the Orbs does NOT make them more powerful. The Orbs having a connection to Krona's powers does NOT make them more powerful either and could lead to a interesting mystery. In fact if anyone would get a power boost it would be Krona given her reaction to the skill tree. You owe an apology for 2 things. One: is trying to put words in my mouth and Two: Insulting people's inteligence with that so called "justification" rather than admit you are wrong.

[Leewei]

The comic certainly has its shortcomings (say, progressing its plot faster than geologically).

One thing that works for me about it, though, is that the main character is a genre-savvy gaming nerd who gets to weaponize her inner munchkin. Knowing the rules will absolutely increase Sydney's effectiveness. She knows how and where to finesse rules with great impact, and has done exactly this a few times in the comic so far.

I'm not at all clear on what AvatarVecna wrote that offended you, but the gist of Sydney increasing power through analysis seems very sensible.

[Rogar Demonblud]

The writer has overtly stated more than once that he's a power gamer, and what were to be the three main characters (Sydney, Maxima and Dabbler) were intended to be twinked out to the max. Any assessment of Sydney's 'growth' has to be viewed in that frame. I.E. turning a skin thin shell wrapped around a collection of numbers tweaked for maximum power into something more powerful.

[Rogar Demonblud]

After reading this update, I think it's a given that Maxima lied when she said she's a former geek.

[tomandtish]

After reading this update, I think it's a given that Maxima lied when she said she's a former geek.

Cast page is apparently down so not sure how old Max is, but AtLAB ended 9 years ago (2008), so former geek is still a possibility (since she could still have served in Iraq after that time).

[Rogar Demonblud]

She's a colonel, so she should be close to forty.

[Drascin]

She's a colonel, so she should be close to forty.

She's been stated to be uncommonly young for a colonel, so early thirties seems about what I'd expect. Not so young that it defies logic, but certainly unusually young for the full pips.

[Rogar Demonblud]

The youngest colonel on record was twenty for the U.S. (It was a bad day for officer retention, but a good one for sudden promotion). A regiment in England once had a ten year old as colonel, but that was back in the days of purchased commissions.

Just so you know about 'uncommonly young' as a guidepost.

[Tono]

ITs also entirely possible that this will be another case of reality not mixing with the comic. Or Maxima was given a commission and rank based on powers more then anything, and doesnt fit to the time and service you would normally expect.

[Traab]

Im looking at the various TiS levels for officer ranks and its looking like if she had started as a lt at the bottom rung, she would have to be roughly 40 at the youngest to be a colonel. However, if she started out bumped up a few ranks due to her powers granting her a special ranking, say a major, that knocks like 10 years off the total time in service before she could hit the rank. Meaning she would be roughly 30 if she had joined at 18. Thats give or take a year or two as there is leeway in the time in service for reaching the next rank. Theoretically then, she could be in her late twenties. And thats not counting any shenanigans that might be involved with her being a VERY active duty soldier in a lot of hot spots with potential losses and field promotions and whatnot. Its also likely she JUST got the promotion so she would be the ranking officer in arcswat. So really, who knows?

[Dragonus45]

It is also worth noting that if they really wanted to push a chain of command for Arc that had supers in charge that was essentially an entirely new branch of the military normal age reqs wouldn't apply to her. That said I put money in early to mid thirties for her generally.

[Traab]

I was wrong btw, for some reason I thought she was a colonel, not an lt colonel. So yeah, no problem with her being younger even without much rank shenanigans.

[Rogar Demonblud]

The problem (another problem) being that anytime we see her in uniform, either the rank insignia is blobby and indistinct, or she has chickens on her collar, making her a full (O-6) colonel. Plus, casualties in her unit wouldn't get her promoted, because we don't do things like that any more because of Time In Grade regulations.

All of this being why I'd much rather authors and artists stay away from RL military stuff unless they're going to put in the time and research. It's so easy to mess up, and there are too many people who know enough to nitpick and more people all the time who choose to see it as deliberate disrespect.

Much easier to make up your own thing.

[Kantaki]

New Comic

Sydney's stunt was very Sydney.
And now I really want the shield and the flight orb.
So I can do the same.

[Drascin]

The problem (another problem) being that anytime we see her in uniform, either the rank insignia is blobby and indistinct, or she has chickens on her collar, making her a full (O-6) colonel. Plus, casualties in her unit wouldn't get her promoted, because we don't do things like that any more because of Time In Grade regulations.

All of this being why I'd much rather authors and artists stay away from RL military stuff unless they're going to put in the time and research. It's so easy to mess up, and there are too many people who know enough to nitpick and more people all the time who choose to see it as deliberate disrespect.

Much easier to make up your own thing.

Personally, when I run anything with military stuff in RPGs, I tend to fall in the "nobody cares" department, to be completely honest, and tend to just tell people who are heavy sticklers for respecting military guidelines and such to relax. Same with guns. If you wanna make it a colonel cause it's more impressive, more power to you.

(And yes, it's always either guns or military stuff. Nobody ever complains about blatant thermodynamics violations, but misjudge how far a submachinegun should shoot and boy oh boy are you in trouble).

[Celestia]

Personally, when I run anything with military stuff in RPGs, I tend to fall in the "nobody cares" department, to be completely honest, and tend to just tell people who are heavy sticklers for respecting military guidelines and such to relax. Same with guns. If you wanna make it a colonel cause it's more impressive, more power to you.

(And yes, it's always either guns or military stuff. Nobody ever complains about blatant thermodynamics violations, but misjudge how far a submachinegun should shoot and boy oh boy are you in trouble).

I know, right? Just leave my 4,000 ft range assault rifles alone!

[John Campbell]

All of this being why I'd much rather authors and artists stay away from RL military stuff unless they're going to put in the time and research. It's so easy to mess up, and there are too many people who know enough to nitpick and more people all the time who choose to see it as deliberate disrespect.

Much easier to make up your own thing.

This isn't RL military stuff. This is military stuff in a universe where superpowers exist, where government superheros have existed at least since the Civil War, and where there's an entire new branch of the military for superheros, and we're talking about a woman who is capable of unassisted supersonic flight, catching bullets, kicking a field goal with a 65-ton main battle tank and then vaporizing it in an explosion, and then walking out of that explosion like it's no big deal. RL rules do not apply.

[Dragonus45]

Oh look, another goofy digression from the plot take up by a need to explain odd details and have the main character be goofy. Presumably Sydney saves herself with one of the orbs though, at least I am hoping.

[Rogar Demonblud]

Didn't they already learn to tape the damn balls to Sydney's hand?

[Kantaki]

Did Sydney seriously confuse which ball was in which hand?

Archon should seriously reconsider hiring someone who can't tell their right from their left.
While holding bright, differently coloured objects.

I mean okay, I would manage that too, but then nobody remotely sane would let me anywhere near a institution like that, amazing powers or not.

[John Campbell]

Sydney's use of powers involves juggling seven different objects, which are identical in shape, size, and feel, differing only in color - and in some cases (notably, the fly and shield balls), not all that different in color. Depending on the combinations and circumstances of switching active powers, she may not always be using the same one in the same hand. Momentarily forgetting which ball she has in which hand is not wildly unreasonable.

[Dragonus45]

Sydney's use of powers involves juggling seven different objects, which are identical in shape, size, and feel, differing only in color - and in some cases (notably, the fly and shield balls), not all that different in color. Depending on the combinations and circumstances of switching active powers, she may not always be using the same one in the same hand. Momentarily forgetting which ball she has in which hand is not wildly unreasonable.

Momentarily my ass, she has been down there for a while in a very relaxed situation. Doing that in combat would be one thing but this is something totally beyond.

[Leewei]

Oh look, another goofy digression from the plot take up by a need to explain odd details and have the main character be goofy. Presumably Sydney saves herself with one of the orbs though, at least I am hoping.

Same here. Perhaps one of her unknown orbs is an environmental adaptation orb. If not, it is likely we have something DaveB labored over for hours that does diddly squat for his audience.