Comic for Wednesday, January 20th
Hmmm. I think most of the things I could say are spoilers. We did have a clever commenter observing that breaking the racquet is a good tactic – and typically it would work well if you had a technique like what Kally’s… but we’ve seen that objects Naomi is holding tend to get a little… weird.
I think it’s fair to say that straight up that was Kally’s first plan – no matter how strong you are making yourself, if you hit the a ball that has too much momentum to be stopped by your racquet, it’ll just go through it… one way or another! Does she have another plan? Mione seems to think so.
I wonder if Mione calls Naomi “our little monster” in audible range of Naomi. I’m not really not entirely convinced that Naomi would object. Maybe to the little the part. It’s not the first time Mione’s called Naomi a monster, but I feel I should not she’s probably not being literal before too many people start connecting dots down that road… 😉
One way or another… Friday a point will be scored! Whose point will be it?! Does this page make it obvious? Is this page a devious red herring by a trolling author? Who can say!
We’ve seen the wispy ‘lightning’ effect before. It, like the sparks/glowing spots, is an effect of mana / psionic particles; and in-and-of-itself does not interact with matter. Generally, however, it’s indicative that physics teacher doesn’t like me anymore because I’m violating their stuff.
I wrote a blog about future of comic and stuff if you didn’t see it last and are inclined to wonder about these things; same tl:dr; I start a new job next week. Comic will march on. Possibly less updates in the short term.
I also recently made a subreddit called /r/storycomics; it’s a place to find and share longform webcomics. There is a long list of reasons I decided to make it, but the tl:dr is I’ve been meaning to improve reader tools for finding story comics – while once I had more ambitious plans, those will be at very least shelved as I start my new job and keep my hobbies on the purely creative end of the spectrum. I will put about 2 new story comics I’ve found from around the web there everyday. I think I can keep that up for a few years… 😉 Anyone else is welcome to share story comics, discuss, browse, etc. Those more familiar with reddit will know that the main comic reddits are not friendly to story comics, so I felt it this was a good idea to make a new refuge and repository for them. Keep in mind it’s for the benefit of readers as much or more then creators… no spammy!
Lastly, I want to thank all of you that have and continued to vote for us on TWC. We’ve reached ranks on that site that are both ridiculous and awesome, and I’m grateful for the support.
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Hah! Fooled me again. ^^ I thought Kally was going for high-velocity only, but it looks like she’s angling the ball (Disk?, Saucer?) for a return smash.
If a player alters the breakability of the ball, and the other player then breaks it, who loses the point?
“Our little monster” isn’t necessarily a slam. It could be an acknowledgement of Naomi’s power, i.e. a pet name. ^^
Is Ila still watching? 🙂
The player that breaks the ball loses the point.
And it’s fair point – to most people being called a monster may seem insulting, but I’m I get the feel Naomi would be proud 😐
Ila has still seen this point. She was probably particularly interested in Kally’s opening spell for this point; like Ila’s ‘railgun’ (pretty sure you were the one that named it that and I’ve just whole sale stolen in from you, but hey 😛 ) it’s an artillery style spell that focuses on turning a fairly ordinary object into a highly-class kinetic projectile, even if they come at it from different directions.
I didn’t invent the name or the concept, but I was the first one to apply it to Ila. Use it, if you wish, but in researching railguns for this comment, I discovered that what Ila uses is actually called a “Gauss cannon”. *Blush* From savant to doofus in one tech article. ><
I thought Kally was going to use a variation of it, but she added a bunch of other stuff, too.
I’ve always wondered, if you very slightly rotationally offset the successive acceleration rings could you impart enough spin to provide added stability and accuracy. Its my limited understanding that most gauss guns are like cannon that in that the projectile is just shoved. Of course some cannon were rifled but they used a sabot and didn’t operate directly on the projectile itself like a modern rifle does.
Theoretical gauss cannons used projectile shape to impart accuracy ala bows and crossbows instead of spin. Given that there is no reason for a fitted projectile there is no reason not to.
@Just_IDD: A gauss gun uses magnetic attraction to pull the projectile forward to the next electromagnetic ring while the previous one shuts off. The effect is evenly applied from the whole ring, and is not affected by ring orientation.
I know the theory, I just got the name wrong. Railguns use a different system. 🙁
Yes, yes… of course… *scribbles away in notebook*
If you guys aren’t careful here I’m going to start learning more about physics from my comments section then I did in college. 😉
Wouldn’t be the first time that has happened with me in comments.
I’m not sure the ball is even a ball anymore. But man this is a crazy sport.
Can a player use both an autocaster and raquet?
I’m not sure it is either. The rules of the sport were a little sparse on what you can do the ball. That is not an oversight… 😛
You can use both. It’s worth noting that boost-engines; the autocasters we’ve seen that enhance people, are not known tech in Malsa, there aren’t rules around them. Even the autocaster rules are comparatively recent as civilian recreational usage is only recently becoming a widespread thing, and they are still pretty expensive.
And now I’m reminded of the rule about destroying the ball. Which seems to me like it’s Kally’s plan. Either break the racquet to let the ball through and score a point, or have her opponents racquet break the ball to deny them a point.
As they say… something’s got to give eventually. At this point I’m a little curious what would have happened to the cube if Naomi hadn’t stopped it; I think we are getting close to artillery magic here… 😉
Do they even have rules for that?
Peter didn’t state the rule, but there is one the books – if you the ball goes outside the cube the last person to control it loses the point; this basically never comes up though as the cube walls are very good at absorbing impacts since they can flex somewhat (the ball bounces off them very well); a bullet would bounce off them easily still, and usually the ball itself isn’t that hard.
Additionally, a really hard shot is almost always aimed downward out of strategy (no point going for a bounce when you can aim for a point) like Naomi’s hit here. Kally’s play is a tad unorthodox.
It’s also probably hard on your security deposit in a non-professional game…
Playing with Kally seems likely to end up hard on your security deposit.
Why should she care? It’s Peter’s money. ^^
Suddenly her plan takes on a whole new dimension of making sense… 😀
And also creates a scary new strategy for pro players. Though I doubt many of the mages capable of pulling it off would really end up being pro sports players
From a below-the-net angle, a hard bounce off the ceiling gets the ball to the floor on the other side faster than almost any other approach. A really fast player might be able to pop it up and spike it in less time, but that’s much more difficult than popping it up harder and letting the ceiling perform the spike.
Bouncing off the walls and so forth usually gets featured more we’ve seen here since Kally and effectively “bounce” it off air and Naomi is just going brute force so far. But there’s still plenty of time for new tactics to make it into the match! 😛
I I see arise that Naomi is going to win another point for having the ball on the Kelly side of the net for more than 15 seconds. I seem to remember that there is nearly unlimited vertical space for the court so all it has to be is on her side of the net and going up.
Haha 🙂 Wide angle perspectives and me don’t get along very well, so its tough to say how big the cube is… but I don’t it’s quite that big 😛 That’d be like… in the clouds 😀
Looking forward to seeing what Kally does next page! Nice effects and Naomi’s windup pose looks good! ^^
Thanks 🙂 To be honest these pages remind me why historically I used to action sequences as double pages frequently… it drives me a little nuts like this 😉
Naomi’s movements are fun to draw, but I have a very long way to go as an action-scene artist. I try to apply a bit of the bend-and-stretch concepts with her especially since she’s supposed move sort of unnaturally, but they are a little hit or miss imo; appreciate the kind words though!