Order of the Stick: November II

[Penguin_King]

Note to Rich about using codes in future comics: please don't do what some people are suggesting and make OotS something that, if syndicated, would be in the puzzle section of newspapers and not the comics.

Oh, come now - you can understand the joke even if you can't understand Haley's dialogue. Context is our friend. :)

[Kish]

I don't really see the value to Haley's words being harder (or impossible) to translate.

[Lothorus]

I don't really see the value to Haley's words being harder (or impossible) to translate.

Well, they -are- supposed to be gibberish. Readers weren't meant to be able to readily understand it. The cypher was just a little perk for the more attentive readers, I believe.

[Penguin_King]

I don't really see the value to Haley's words being harder (or impossible) to translate.

Look at it this way: whether they're possible to translate or not has no bearing on the humour of the strip - the joke operates on the assumption that the reader can't understand what Haley's saying on the first reading. It could be a simple cipher, a fiendishly complex code, or just meaningless gibberish; the comic "works" in any case.

To put it another way, while there's no intrinsic value in Haley's words being difficult or impossible to translate, there's no intrinsic value in them being easy to translate, either - in fact, if they were so easy to translate that you could figure it out as you went along on a first reading, the joke would be diminished.

[Nightfall]

I agree. My comments were made purely in jest. Please disregard. I wouldn't want to diminish the humor of the strip. :)

[evileeyore]

Note to Rich about using codes in future comics: please don't do what some people are suggesting and make OotS something that, if syndicated, would be in the puzzle section of newspapers and not the comics.

Kthx.

Also, awesome.

^ Ditto ^, ^ Ditto ^, and ^ Ditto ^.

I would also like to put forth that the 'cryptographers' amongst us please use the "What Haley Said" thread for future translations. This way everyone can enjoy discussing the comic without 'stumbling' across the translations if they don't wish to.

This is in no way a slam on the brilliance you've shown, but honestly I was contemplating the answers myself when I wondered in here. Kinda just stopped about then... but had it been contained in a different thread, I'd have tried my rusty hand at it. ;)

[EDIT] Past present participle errors, gerunded to death [/EDIT]

[Duskrider_Moogle]

Oh, come now - you can understand the joke even if you can't understand Haley's dialogue. Context is our friend. :)

Oh, come now - you can understand the complaint I was making and how it was directed towards certain posters and not The Giant, even if you can't understand why anyone would keep on suggesting The Giant make progressively harder cryptograms and placing them in the comic.

Context is our friend ;)

[Penguin_King]

Oh, come now - you can understand the complaint I was making and how it was directed towards certain posters and not The Giant

Sure, I understand your complaint - you think it would hurt the comic in some fashion if a more complex cipher was used on Haley's dialogue. I'm just not sure how you think that's going to happen. Is there some intrinsic connection between the internal complexity of Haley's ciphertext and the quality of the humour?

[Midnight Son]

Personally, I think Rich should keep it simple. That way he can devote more time to the funny. It was unintelligible at first glance and that is what he was going for(also...funny). If he spends all his time coming up with an uncrackable code, I will laugh less, because he would spend less time on the excellent jokes. I'm selfish. I want to laugh more. Besides, I think, from his comments, that he meant it to be crackable. If he really wanted an uncrackable code, all he needed to do was not use letter substitution; just type a bunch of random letters that don't correspond in number to the actual word. In other words, pure gibberish.

[ironoutlaw]

for future strips that may use different codes, http://www.geocities.com/darknesnsilence/decrypt.htm (would've been c++ but i decided to go with something simpler, and yes i know it has some bad coding practices but i wrote this at 2 am, what do u expect.)

[Dark]

Look at it this way: whether they're possible to translate or not has no bearing on the humour of the strip - the joke operates on the assumption that the reader can't understand what Haley's saying on the first reading.

Actually, I think it does. The strip was funnier because even though I couldn't read what Haley said, I could tell that it wasn't just random gibberish. And I derived great amusement from figuring out what she did say, and then reading the strip again.

You're right in that it would have been less fun if the code had been significantly easier, so that it could be decoded immediately. But it would also have been less fun if the code had been significantly harder, so that I'd have had to go to the forums to get a translation, or if it had looked more like completely random letters.

[Wrecan]

Strip went up at 5:23, first full translation posted at 6:00.

Looks like I'll have to be more tricky with the next one...

EDIT: However, I did NOT spell "freakin'" wrong, you must have copied it down from the strip wrong.

I guess you're right. I also mistakenly translated "darn" as "damn". Mea culpa! (<-- not a substitution code)

If you want to make your next code really tough, you could try the following...
1) translate the words into a foreign language and then use a letter substitution key. Of course, only people who know the foreign language can translate it.
2) Instead of a single letter substitution key, use a double letter substitution key. Break the sentences into two letter pairs. Then substitute each pair with a single letter (or even more confusing, a pictogram).
3) Rebuses. A rebus is where you replace syllables with homonym pictures. For example, a rebus for "rebus" might be a picture of a fishing reel followed by "-l" followed by the picture of a bus.

[Leveller]

I guess you're right. I also mistakenly translated "darn" as "damn". Mea culpa! (<-- not a substitution code)

If you want to make your next code really tough, you could try the following...
1) translate the words into a foreign language and then use a letter substitution key. Of course, only people who know the foreign language can translate it.
2) Instead of a single letter substitution key, use a double letter substitution key. Break the sentences into two letter pairs. Then substitute each pair with a single letter (or even more confusing, a pictogram).
3) Rebuses. A rebus is where you replace syllables with homonym pictures. For example, a rebus for "rebus" might be a picture of a fishing reel followed by "-l" followed by the picture of a bus.

But WHY would he want to do that? The good thing with what he did now is that it's not so easy you get it at first glance but it is easy enough to figure it out after a while. If he made it retardedly hard noone would have figured it out and it would be less funny.

[evileeyore]

So by M9onday Roy will either once again have the Trouser Titan back in 'action' or have V or Durkon readying to cast the prepared Remove Curse.

Then its on to solving Haley's dilema. I predict Miko will be angered and accuse the OotS of just trying to delay their inevitable justice.

[ironoutlaw]

i predict that monday's episode will involve some of the characters performing some action that we may or may not expect

[Lothorus]

I predict that it will be funny or lead to other funny happenstance.

I'M PSYCHIC!

[zibeck]

I predict that there will be more senseless predictions on this thread.

[McScope]

I predict that more people will post in code on this thread


F rdvi knbyftm mqrm kpikdb xfdd nbry mqfv ???

;D

[evnafets]

I predict that it will be funny or lead to other funny happenstance.

I'M PSYCHIC!

Wow Lothorus! You're not just psychic - you're a FUTURE psychic!

[Lucky2]

That'd be called precognition.

[Cyrano_Wolfe]

And here I thought I would be dropping the bomb on what Haley actually said. LoL Well, I'm at least posting my efforts so I can say something came out of them.

Frame 4 TREASURE!

Frame 5 GONE! All of it, gone! I can't believe it's all gone!
I got eaten by a dragon for that freakin' treasure!

Frame 6 I got vomited up! By a disgusting acid-breathing dragon! And now it's gone!

Frame 7 Not THE loot, MY loot. Mine.

Frame 8 Wait, why do I sound funny? Hello? Hello?

Frame 9 What? No! Don't you tell!

Frame 10 Sneak attack boot to the face!

Frame 11 Darn straight.

[Cyrano_Wolfe]

And now that I read the page 7 of this thread, I wish I hadn't posted the answers. :-[

[evileeyore]

And now that I read the page 7 of this thread, I wish I hadn't posted the answers. :-[

Well considering it was cracked by page 3, I wouldn't really worry to much about spoiling it for everyone else... ;)

But please use the other thread next time. Think of the Kittens. ;D

[Amalthea]

What I find interesting is that while Durkon says that he and V prepared their spells, there was no mention of any Remove Curse spells for Roy. I wonder if this is an implication that neither of them can remove the effects of the gender changing belt?

[ironoutlaw]

the item description says that even wish only has a 50% chance of succeeding, so i doubt durkon or v could cast spells poweful enough to counter the effects

[Nightfall]

Even the belt's original owner (the ogre) only changed back after death. This doesn't bode well for Roy...

[Kish]

the item description says that even wish only has a 50% chance of succeeding,

That's 2ed. All we have to go on in the strip is that Belkar (admittedly an idiot) assumes a Remove Curse will be sufficient.

[rwald]

Note to Rich about using codes in future comics: please don't do what some people are suggesting and make OotS something that, if syndicated, would be in the puzzle section of newspapers and not the comics.

Kthx.

Also, awesome.

What, you didn't like the Foxtrot a few weeks ago with the numeric word search? I sat down with three or four friends, and we solved it by hand -- no calculators (except for the square root).

[Aidan305]

the item description says that even wish only has a 50% chance of succeeding, so i doubt durkon or v could cast spells poweful enough to counter the effects

Maybe V failed his/her knowledge(arcana) check to realise this.

[Amalthea]

the item description says that even wish only has a 50% chance of succeeding, so i doubt durkon or v could cast spells poweful enough to counter the effects

Yeah, but the original item lost all effect after being used once, and the orger they got it from had used it. This isn't the original magic item, so right now we don't really know what will remove it. It seems natural that Roy would ask V or Durkon to at least try a Remove Curse, before looking for other options.