Results 151 to 180 of 1489
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2018-08-03, 05:29 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Feb 2014
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- Denmark
- Gender
Re: Schlock Mercenary VIII: insAIne in the mAInfrAIme
Petey is fictional, I have nothing against him.
A city is destroyed before his eyes, and his only reaction is to be snarky. If you don't find that suspicious, then ...
'You're my best friends in all the world - do you mind coming somewhere unspecified, for unspecified reasons, and please leave your weapons and armor and ships behind ... trust me, it's fine!'
If you're still not suspicious, I can only say this: Since time out of memory, whenever anyone ever asks the protagonist to leave behind their means of protection ... there are only two options: They are being betrayed, or we're meant to think they'll be betrayed.
I can guarantee you this much: I'm right - or wrong. One of those two. 100%. :p
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2018-08-03, 06:11 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Feb 2009
- Location
- Germany
- Gender
Re: Schlock Mercenary VIII: insAIne in the mAInfrAIme
Well, when he was interacting with the monstrous lost archive, I had a certain fear Petey would slowly turn murderous.
But nothing happened, and the entire time, he is shown as a very stable persona. Can't he be benevolent and snarky?
And being a highly functional AI, he already took steps to tera-evacuate his entire orbital framework (probably into some sort ot Buuthandi where no annie plants are needed), right the moment when he spoke that comment to alt-Kevin.
And, Petey (as well as Tayler) really LIKES to be a "big-surprise-revealing jerk". I am one myself: in conversation often dragging out the point of my meaning until it is no longer funny. Getting the kicks out of shocking others with strange witticisms that only make sense after the big reveal.
The right thing of Petey to say would have been: "Tagon and friends: We are under attack by the Pa'anuri. You remember Zoojack? So, I am taking precautions, and these are..."
Instead, he goes: "Hey friends, would you please do some unreasonable things, I am waiting for your hilarious reactions to my demands, which will provide a good joke every day and make you look like fools. Then expect me to fully explain everything within the next weeks, you will understand it all in hindsight."
That's so common in Tayler's storytelling that it's already aggravating: The reading audience already knows that there is a badass protagonist who has a shocking truth to tell. The reading audience either knows or has long ago correctly guessed the truth (like Pa'anuri are bombing the milkyway), and it all knows about the hidden qualities of the protagonist, anyway (e.g. Elf or Schlock).
There is no fun in reading such a story where you already know all the stuff it's about - unless the author is presenting a stooge audience that can and will be flattened by the most dramatic and show-off re-reveal of that same truth.
("Mr. Satan" from Dragonball Z is such a stooge - thinking he is the greatest and knows all, but proven wrong twenty times in short order. And we find it hilarious, until that joke has been also ridden to death.)participate in fan translations of OotS to your native language:
English transcript, Deutsche Übersetzung
(links to dormant projects from others: Traduzione italiano,
Traducción español, Tradução em português, Traductions françaises [- trois fois!], מסדר המקלתרגום עברית )
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2018-08-03, 09:47 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Feb 2014
- Location
- Denmark
- Gender
Re: Schlock Mercenary VIII: insAIne in the mAInfrAIme
Sure. His complete lack of surprise or any other significant reaction could mean nothing at all. It certainly doesn't have to be yes, organic - tell me more about your interesting theory about these attacks. Tell me all about how clever you are.
You don't know that. At all. What you know is that Petey said so. He'd hardly say the opposite.
Oh and .... why would he destroy them? Because he's done uploading the inhabitants. Maybe. Again, just pulling that out of my hat, but it's certainly a theme.
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2018-08-03, 11:51 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- May 2016
- Location
- The Lakes
Re: Schlock Mercenary VIII: insAIne in the mAInfrAIme
It is one thing to suspend your disbelief. It is another thing entirely to hang it by the neck until dead.
Verisimilitude -- n, the appearance or semblance of truth, likelihood, or probability.
The concern is not realism in speculative fiction, but rather the sense that a setting or story could be real, fostered by internal consistency and coherence.
The Worldbuilding Forum -- where realities are born.
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2018-08-03, 02:07 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Nov 2006
Re: Schlock Mercenary VIII: insAIne in the mAInfrAIme
"This doesn't have annie plants" :-)
Not "fire at". I never used the word "at"
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2018-08-03, 02:28 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Nov 2006
- Location
- Watching the world go by
- Gender
Re: Schlock Mercenary VIII: insAIne in the mAInfrAIme
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2018-08-03, 04:54 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Feb 2013
- Location
- USA
- Gender
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2018-08-03, 09:56 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Feb 2007
- Location
- Manchester, UK
- Gender
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2018-08-03, 10:07 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Nov 2006
- Location
- Watching the world go by
- Gender
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2018-08-03, 10:07 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Feb 2013
- Location
- USA
- Gender
Re: Schlock Mercenary VIII: insAIne in the mAInfrAIme
Microfusion plant.
http://schlockmercenary.wikia.com/wiki/Plasma_Cannon
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2018-08-06, 11:39 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Feb 2014
- Location
- Denmark
- Gender
Re: Schlock Mercenary VIII: insAIne in the mAInfrAIme
Not a single one of you is convinced yet, right?
He's pulling this entire explanation straight out of his rearside - and Cindy is suspicious, but doesn't know enough about Petey's capabilities to be sure.
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2018-08-06, 11:49 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Nov 2006
- Location
- Watching the world go by
- Gender
Re: Schlock Mercenary VIII: insAIne in the mAInfrAIme
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2018-08-07, 12:06 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Nov 2006
Re: Schlock Mercenary VIII: insAIne in the mAInfrAIme
Sorry Petey, I do knot no how that works.
Seriously. 21 minutes, and most of that spent unrolling the spool. Unless there's something going on I don't know, you need to start at the center of mass, and spin out thread in both directions otherwise your whole system will move.
And the time to bring the spin up to speed? Constructing/powering/doing something with the engine that spins the city/counterweight pair?
21 days seems more reasonable than 21 minutes.Not "fire at". I never used the word "at"
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2018-08-07, 01:04 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Feb 2014
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- Denmark
- Gender
Re: Schlock Mercenary VIII: insAIne in the mAInfrAIme
Why. Well, because he doesn't even flinch when that first city died. Take if you will a moment to consider the contrast between the reactions of Petey, and ... what his name again? Petey knew, very well, because he was the one killing that city. That's why.
Everything we've seen after that - ask you self why we're seing this? Why is it relevant to show Tagon teraported - naked, no less - to an undisclosed location? Why is it relevant to see Petey explain to Cindy how he teraported the cities, and provides them with power via 'counterweight fusion'?
Tagon is in a trap, and Cindy is being given a credible excuse to doubt Petey's word - so that later, when Cindy is somehow involved in freeing Tagon, it's not a complete surprise.
Of course I'm guessing here - going ever further out a tangent of my own making. I'm pretty sure Petey's lack of reaction to the destruction of his city is significant. The rest is pure speculation. And more speculative, the further I get.
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2018-08-07, 01:09 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Feb 2007
- Gender
Re: Schlock Mercenary VIII: insAIne in the mAInfrAIme
A.I.'s have freaking super brains that analyze things in nano seconds, and Petey is one of, if not the, smartest and most advanced A.I. in the galaxy. Petey very well could have gone through all the stages of grief and reached acceptance by the time he said that line. Also I am pretty sure the real reason for it is because Taylor still has that policy of always ending a page with a joke.
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2018-08-07, 01:36 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Feb 2009
- Location
- Germany
- Gender
Re: Schlock Mercenary VIII: insAIne in the mAInfrAIme
I don't believe that for a second. Petey has always taken safety measures to not become a crazy or malevolent AI. There are issues with manipulation and free will of his human subjects, but Petey doesn't do evil, he has proven that time and again.
If he didn't flinch visibly there, it's probably because he can revive any victims of the attack, and because he was already furiously thinking on countermeasures.
The conversion of Spindle Cities towards Pendulum Rotators probably didn't take too long because he had planned in advance for emergencies like this. I wouldn't put it past him to construct Buuthandis and Dyson Spheres and Matryoshka Brains of his own design. Just in case he needs a place to hide galactic civilization. And if he hadn't done it before the All-Star was revealed, he probably started projects like that when he learned of them. (And he builds quick)participate in fan translations of OotS to your native language:
English transcript, Deutsche Übersetzung
(links to dormant projects from others: Traduzione italiano,
Traducción español, Tradução em português, Traductions françaises [- trois fois!], מסדר המקלתרגום עברית )
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2018-08-07, 01:56 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Nov 2006
- Location
- Watching the world go by
- Gender
Re: Schlock Mercenary VIII: insAIne in the mAInfrAIme
Petey has been a deadpan snarker practically since we met him. If you pay attention, the city that got zapped was the one under construction, so there might not have been anyone aboard. For pretty much everything else, I think we are going to have to disagree. Where you see evidence of some nefarious plot on Petey's part, I...I don't.
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2018-08-07, 02:25 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Feb 2007
- Location
- Manchester, UK
- Gender
Re: Schlock Mercenary VIII: insAIne in the mAInfrAIme
I hadn't actually noticed that, but good catch--the city that got long gunned was clearly incomplete. That doesn't actually disprove Kaptin Keen's theory, but it *does* mean that Petey didn't callously slaughter millions of people if it *was* him that took the shot.
On an unrelated note--is it weird that all I can think about at the moment is what the tensile strength of Petey's "string" has to be in order to support the entire weight of a city spinning around like that?
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2018-08-07, 07:25 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Dec 2015
Re: Schlock Mercenary VIII: insAIne in the mAInfrAIme
Petey has billions of instances of himself running and thinks billions of times faster than humans do. Outside of 'in virtual space' conversations, he should only flinch when he needs to telegraph to his human conversation partners that he was surprised. That really didn't seem necessary, since alt-Kevyn wasn't even remotely looking at him at the moment.
Not at all. Certainly I was thinking that that would be the first point-of-failure the next battle/terrorist act near one of those things will exploit. However, this is a universe with space elevators, so we know they have material of a similar capacity.
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2018-08-07, 11:37 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Nov 2006
- Location
- Watching the world go by
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Re: Schlock Mercenary VIII: insAIne in the mAInfrAIme
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2018-08-07, 11:52 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Feb 2014
- Location
- Denmark
- Gender
Re: Schlock Mercenary VIII: insAIne in the mAInfrAIme
It's really not a question of how fast Petey is.
It's a matter of the author showing, deliberately, that Petey isn't fazed in the very least by the loss of one of his cities.
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2018-08-07, 12:28 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Aug 2007
Re: Schlock Mercenary VIII: insAIne in the mAInfrAIme
No, I believe it would take Kevlar for the moon space elevator. Still, I'm sure PTUs are more than enough to build a tether for the cities.
Grey WolfLast edited by Grey_Wolf_c; 2018-08-07 at 12:29 PM.
Interested in MitD? Join us in MitD's thread.There is a world of imagination
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2018-08-07, 12:39 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Nov 2006
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- Watching the world go by
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Re: Schlock Mercenary VIII: insAIne in the mAInfrAIme
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2018-08-07, 02:16 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Aug 2008
Re: Schlock Mercenary VIII: insAIne in the mAInfrAIme
I would really like to see a game made by Obryn, Kurald Galain, and Knaight from these forums.
I'm not joking one bit. I would buy the hell out of that. -- ChubbyRain
Current Design Project: Legacy, a game of masters and apprentices for two players and a GM.
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2018-08-07, 02:31 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Feb 2007
- Gender
Re: Schlock Mercenary VIII: insAIne in the mAInfrAIme
We just don't see surprise on Petey's face when the panel is angeled that way. When the explosion happened we see from Petey's silhouette that his arms are spread out when both right before and right after they were folded behind his back. This explosion did, indeed, catch Petey off guard.
Last edited by Lizard Lord; 2018-08-07 at 02:32 PM.
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2018-08-07, 10:45 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Feb 2014
- Location
- Denmark
- Gender
Re: Schlock Mercenary VIII: insAIne in the mAInfrAIme
Aha! I was wrong =)
How amusing, and also slightly disappointing.
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2018-08-10, 08:22 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Dec 2007
- Location
- UTC -6
Re: Schlock Mercenary VIII: insAIne in the mAInfrAIme
So, why would the Psychobear Datacruncher make Kevyn run the numbers on teraporting the city into spin-gravity mode?
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2018-08-10, 08:51 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Feb 2007
- Location
- Manchester, UK
- Gender
Re: Schlock Mercenary VIII: insAIne in the mAInfrAIme
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2018-08-18, 12:16 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jun 2011
- Location
- Tinkering with Ordis
- Gender
Re: Schlock Mercenary VIII: insAIne in the mAInfrAIme
Prediction: Petey dies during schlolcktoberfest.
I'm mostly here for Warframe and a tiny bit of RWBY.
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2018-08-18, 01:48 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Nov 2006
- Location
- Watching the world go by
- Gender
Re: Schlock Mercenary VIII: insAIne in the mAInfrAIme