Comic for Monday, August 15th
The IDS Soldiers are very scary. We’ve seen an IDS boost engine in action before, but the wrist band version isn’t really on par with the real one. I’d also like to note that thinking of good ideas while holding your breathe is really hard (hold your breathe for the time it takes to read this page and last page, then try to think of things that aren’t holding your breathe! 😛 ).
I made a mistake on the page layout, which is why there is a giant open spot on the left and crowded dialogue on the right. This is also the first time (I think) I’ve resort to using a non-sound-effect sound effect with “Freeze”; no matter how else I went about it, it looked like an effect on the punch otherwise.
Mione like Naomi can naturally boost – it’s by far the most common innate ability, and there is not specific limit on only having one innate talent (though having two is far more rare, even if one of them is quite common). Of course, Naomi’s distribution of stats is… well, a little more lopsided the most…
Lastly, I’ve included the language legend at the bottom, as the languages are… well, a little important here 😉
I very rarely promote the Patreon directly, but I will take this moment to note that we are only $9 away from the first bonus comic over there 😉 This comes up as I recently drew the cover for it. I’ve decided to go back and draw chapter covers, but decided to do this one first. Whether or not this ends up being the real cover probably depends on how long it is before it actually comes out 😛
It’s called “Minus Years” being that it is an extended flash back (10-15 pages) to Peter and Kally’s first meeting. Yes, that’s a slightly younger Peter and Kally there 😉 . Figured it’d be a good time to promote it is I actually have time to draw now 😛 Interestingly, there was a decent a chance this is where the comic was going to start originally.
Just to be clear it is not yet made, if it does get made (by reaching the Patreon goal), I’ll release it to everyone eventually. Additionally, the $3 actually has it’s early updates now, so there’s that 🙂
I’ve made the first of the new side bar chibi’s, this one for to mark the voting incentive (of which there is also a new one!); thanks xpacetrue for the suggestion 🙂
In the last piece of news (yes, I know these rambling sections are ridiculously long) the buffer count hit 2 for the first time ever this weekend! This means, mindblowingly, Thursdays comic is already done. I’m about half done with Monday’s! What a time to be alive 😉
I will be drawing more art, so feel free to send along suggestions for vote incentives or sketchbooks or what not.
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Oh well! Up to date. I guess I have to read it one update at the time (not having much choice here) Still lovin it.
Welcome to live 😉
Hitting the end of an archive always sucks, but I’ll see what I can do to replenish the comic-bucket in time.
Glad to hear you enjoyed it! 🙂
Those language indicators are a little hard to distinguish. Especially the | vs [ look really the same at that font size.
If you could make a little icon like a national (worldly?) flag or something to associate with each language, that could be efficient. It works well in Stand Still, Stay Silent, but that comic gets to leverage real world national flags. Not sure if that’s the way this comic should go or just try for better < { [ style distinctions.
The language thing is sort of like the frog in hot water problem – it became a mess slowly, but occasionally it just gets ridiculous. The language flag idea is great, but I do think that makes more sense for real languages.
The crux of the problem on this page I think is | vs [, and that problem comes from the font I’m using not having { – now I could use a curly brace from another font, but it looked a little iffy when I tried a few.
A wiser plot writer then I would simply have cut the <| language, since literally no one on this page really speaks it well, and just have the IDS breaking broken Malsan, but I tend to only realize I can just... change things... to make more sense retroactively 😛 It's something I'll continue to give thought on, but I agree the <[ vs the <| is pretty arse, and that was sort of last lap problem when I realized the font didn't have a {; ultimately I think keeping the outer < is probably good for consistency, but I could drop that and use < vs [ vs || or something. Definitely appreciate the feedback on this ! 🙂
I have zero experience in layout but perhaps a different color for the font to indicate a different language? I am not suggesting this lightly as I have suffered when other comics went this route and chose poorly in regards to background. So for instance Orish would be Neon Green and I.D.S. could be say dried blood brown? Just a thought.
Regarding your storytelling I offer a tip of the hat. I was kind of ‘meh’ towards Tyler a few pages ago and now I am on Team Malsa.
If { is no choice. What about / or \ or *?
Or using >||<
Great Voting Incentive. Mium looks doubtful, and has his white streak back. ^^
While Mium tends to humor humans, I’m not sure he’s nailed down the finer points of ‘fun’. I imagine he’s rather good at building sandcastles though.
“If I can tell stay awake for a few seconds” – What’s the ‘tell’ for?
I think it was supposed to be “still” but got messed up during a “make the words fit the speech bubble” edit, and didn’t show up on spellcheck. Just guessing, because it happens to me if I edit a comment too often before posting it. ><
I actually changed this to be make more sense. Reading it without the sort of narration I read my own text with, I understand this made very little sense in retrospect.
Delta-v is correct in most my errors tend come from editing things and not cleaning them up correctly. In this case, I edited Mione’s thought bubbles here to be less eloquent – more stuttered and starting to verge on chaotic; what barely made sense to me made, upon reflection, no sense. So I buffed the coherence of her thought bubble here a little bit.
Ultimately the crux of the issue that Tyler would have a lot trouble doing anything about the gas, as he can’t see it and doesn’t know what it actually is (which is important for using magic based on the forms of things). Mione, however, can see it, but lacks the ability to alter gas dynamics sufficiently to do much about it.
centeralize… ehhh. you could go with something not pointing to anything like “basic” or “standard”… or something a bit more like say “trade patois.”
Haha well, it does have a name, we just haven’t run across it yet. Central is not literally the name for the world where the IDS come from, it’s just how they refer to it – as the central zone/office of each branch.
Centralize is mostly just me joking around, though it also would make more sense I realize if I called it Central-ese as that’s how actually do the language ending modifier, but I didn’t give it much thought really 😐
well since they are not from this world (the malsian world) “center” makes it more mysterious. not nameing the language, for malsians, or any other pact group or countries in that world would keep it a secret. but i guess we get to find out when the time comes.
i on the other hand have already stated that i think they are from our earth. or an alternate version there of. which would make it english, spanish or any one of the “terran” languages.
I had a worry that was coming… I was hoping they’d go for an explosive (literally) three-way battle, but the IDS Soldiers are a little too “dreaded” for that. There is still hope for a three way throw down between Kally, Mium/Ila, and the ones over there.
That said… I can only think of one person that would speak IDS in that building (who also happens to speak like that), and I can’t wait to see how that turns out. I think we’ll get some answers at least.
PS: Kally with a smile. Holy damn. We need more of that.
Well, the days not quite over yet, never know 😉
Rovak tends to be fairly pragmatic. While he certainly has no problem blowing things up, he does tend avoid confrontations where he actually might be outclassed. He seemed perfectly fine with not fighting Tyler after he realized what was up, even.