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Drasvin

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Posts posted by Drasvin

  1. Posted

    I might be remembering wrong, but I don't think Rhoda is in the loop about magic and stuff. So she likely wouldn't know that awakening is a thing or anything else about magic outside of her personal experience and experimentation.

    So it's possible she had an awakening somewhere private with all the dramatic special effects, and she wouldn't have known what had just happened except her strange mark is gone and her size changing abilities improved in new ways (her new spells are similar enough that someone not in the know might mistake them as extensions of the previous ability)

    Since Rhoda is keeping her ability secret from seemingly everyone except Cat, it's unlikely she would have told anyone else about the weird spectacle she experienced.

  2. Posted

    Just now, MarrikBroom said:

    OK I suppose tat would do it but the 'simulation grows less detailed/accurate if you don't know how a thin works' is what got me going 'why is this different from imaginationland?'

    No, the simulation only becomes less accurate when Sarah forces it to do something that violates the (non-magical) laws of physics, with the exception of bodt switching. As long as she sticks to mundane interactions with the simulation, it retains its accuracy.

  4. Posted

    14 minutes ago, Don Edwards said:

    And how does that work if she's on a moving bus?

    The bus would stop moving in the simulation. And if she willed it to start moving, then the same would happen if she walked to the edge of the 'snapshot' in the simulation, just she would get there much faster. Though I have no clue what would happen if she tries to move beyond the bounds of the spell's 'snapshot'

  5. Posted

    Just now, Vorlonagent said:
    3 minutes ago, Scotty said:

    Just read this article that states 8K resolution is basically the best you can get, mind you it would require graphics cards 6 times more powerful than the best we currently have and most certainly would start out needing multiple cards running SLI/Crossfire. Considering they're already talking about 8K, I'd say it'll be within the next 5 years we see actual hardware for it, another 5 for it to become somewhat affordable for enthusiasts.

    Moore's Law willing...

    Yeah. As I said, silicon systems are starting to plateau. You can only make transistors so small and so tightly packed together before quantum physics starts causing problems. If the transistors are too close together, you can get electrons randomly jumping to other transistors, rendering computations invalid.

  6. Posted

    Just now, Scotty said:
    39 minutes ago, Drasvin said:

    Video rendering still requires a lot of processing power, especially as resolution and frame-rate increase, comparable to high-end gaming. I've seen a video from LinusTechTips about editing 4k video on an ultra-portable notebook with dual-core CPU and a dedicated GPU, but for that to work they had to have one of their desktop machines transcode the file into a format that worked well with GPU acceleration. Even then they had framerate drops when adding effect layers. And the GPU was maxed out while exporting the finished video.

    Maybe there will be a day when you can do serious video rending on a tablet, but I'm skeptical about five years. There would have to be serious improvements in tablet heat management, if nothing else. 

    I'm thinking we have to be getting to the point where graphics quality can't be noticeably improved any further and so hardware would be able to get ahead, as far as I can tell, we've plateaued on audio quality years ago (I base this mainly on the fact that I haven't heard anyone saying I need to use X audio card instead of the one integrated with the motherboard) though audio mixing is a thing that requires different hardware altogether but can be done on the fly easily enough with little impact on CPU, most people when rendering video, can't do much else until it's done.

    Graphical fidelity is plateauing (at least for a given size of display. A bigger display can require more resolution to get the same degree of fidelity), but so is the processing power of silicon-based systems. And the audio card can matter for quality depending on your audio set-up. For your typical stereo audio, the onboard audio card is good enough. For complex surround sound set-ups with hi-def output, the onboard audio might strain a little.

     

  7. Posted

    17 minutes ago, The Old Hack said:
    1 hour ago, Vorlonagent said:

    Catalina took the GIURPS disadvantage "Impulsive" at double normal strength,

    You normally get a roll to avoid acting on impulse. Catalina's version doesn't allow for the roll.

    You normally get a roll to avoid acting on impulse, but you can forgo the roll (and the book states it's generally good roleplaying to forgo the roll.) On the other hand, she might just have really bad dice rolls.

    The Old Hack reacted to this

  8. Posted

    29 minutes ago, hkmaly said:

    That's good example what I was speaking about. In past, processing the effects required costly specialized machine. Now, it can be done on common notebooks (desktop is unnecessary powerful). I suppose in five years, it will be possible to do that on tablets.

    Video rendering still requires a lot of processing power, especially as resolution and frame-rate increase, comparable to high-end gaming. I've seen a video from LinusTechTips about editing 4k video on an ultra-portable notebook with dual-core CPU and a dedicated GPU, but for that to work they had to have one of their desktop machines transcode the file into a format that worked well with GPU acceleration. Even then they had framerate drops when adding effect layers. And the GPU was maxed out while exporting the finished video.

    Maybe there will be a day when you can do serious video rending on a tablet, but I'm skeptical about five years. There would have to be serious improvements in tablet heat management, if nothing else. 

    1 hour ago, hkmaly said:

    Actually, in fan movies, there are more effects than in professional movies of similar look, because building big sets (and KEEPING it somewhere for months) can cost more than having most on the movie done on greenscreen. On the other hand, greenscreen is not HARD effect, I suppose.

    There are plenty of movies that make good use of greenscreen sets, as it's cheaper than a traditional set and allows for more interesting camera angles and stunts. Though there can be issues with shadows on the actors and props not looking right if they don't take the effort to adjust the lighting of the shot to match what will be in the finished scene. Also, chroma key (the general term for greenscreen and bluescreen technology, you can theoretically use any color you want/need) technology is easier and cheaper to set-up than a traditional stage, it can run into issues if the people setting it up aren't careful. Shadows are bad for chroma key, because you ideally want to have the narrowest chroma range possible.

  10. Posted

    15 hours ago, Vorlonagent said:

    To my mind that's very similar to the way that Greg blurs the line between sleeping and awakened without stopping at the usual EGS definition for "dreaming" (i.e. being Marked).  Elliot, Nanase and Justin all straddled this line as well before being Marked or Awakened.

    I would like to note that the technical definition of Dreaming is "Anyone with some kind of magic without being Awakened." The most common way for that to happen is to be Marked, but the broad definition allows for other possibilities. So those that successfully unlock ASMA abilities, but aren't Awakened, would be Dreaming

  11. Posted

    12 hours ago, The Old Hack said:
    12 hours ago, Drasvin said:

    Furthermore, there has been no indication that an immortal can grant spells to someone who has already awakened.

    Not quite. It is not stated outright, but... I believe it is safe to say that it is at the very least hinted that Pandora might have been acting here.

    Hmm..I can see how that could be interpreted as Pandora gave her the spell, but I interpreted it as Pandora commenting on how Nanase was pushing herself until she 'leveled up' and earned the spell like any other spell she'd earned. Just she really, REALLY wanted a spell to protect Ellen with, and was a enough powerful spellcaster to get a really powerful protective spell. And the situation being really dramatic (Made more dramatic by Pandora's awesome narration) probably helped her get such an awesome spell as well.

  12. Posted

    5 hours ago, hkmaly said:
    6 hours ago, Drasvin said:

    it would lack reasoning and logic and and therefor lack the ability to determine if a given course of action would be beneficial to its objectives.

    Water doesn't need mind to flow down.

    Water also doesn't have to decide on subjective states, like 'what makes a situation suitably dramatic'

     

    5 hours ago, hkmaly said:
    6 hours ago, Drasvin said:
    On 9/15/2016 at 5:32 PM, hkmaly said:

    Also, I totally think it wasn't Will of magic who told Disco Wizard that. It was some immortal and yes, they are now sitting back with a bowl of popcorn.

    Why do you think that?

    Because I think the mind of the person putting Disco Wizard into this is TOO NORMAL to be the Will of magic's one.

    Just because a mentality is alien and strange, doesn't mean it can't come to the same conclusion as a mentality that is less alien and strange. Let's examine the logic path here: the Benefactor notices a problem that is going to require a system change if the problem is not solved, and a system change is for some reason undesirable to the Benefactor;
    The problem is being caused by an immortal that has not reset in a long time but has deep emotional ties to her family;
    The Benefactor grants the Emissary a highly specialized spell that can only contact one person that the Emissary has never met, in her dreams. The spell will allow the Emissary to know all the necessary details and details of previous meetings, ONLY will the spell is active and the Emissary is in Grace's dream. Outside of this context, he has no knowledge of who Grace is or what he is trying to convey with this spell, by inherent design of the spell. He only knows that his work with the spell is not yet finished.;
    Grace is expected to remember enough of the dream communications when she's awake, of which she only has about a 10% chance of doing, in order to realize information about the magical marks, so she can talk about it with her friends, allowing Pandora to overhear Grace, realize that someone is feeding Grace information in her dreams, and decide to investigate;
    Then the Emissary needs to talk with Pandora and reveal to her the dangers of the impending system change, without prior knowledge that Pandora is the immortal that is causing the risk in the first place (and apparently without a couple fundamental facts about immortals) and inadvertently convince Pandora to completely reverse her plans.;
    If this logic sequence if too normal for the Will of Magic, then how would you write the Will of Magic's plan?

    Also, there has been no indication that an Immortal can control the variables of the spells they grant mortals finely enough for that plan to work. Anytime we've seen an immortal consider granting a spell, they don't get to decide what kind of spell to grant a person. At best, we've seen Pandora (who can explicitly push the boundaries of the rules for granting marks past what most immortals are capable of) have a list of spells that she can choose from to grant. The spells that an immortal can grant are those related to inherent talents, strong desires, and fundamental natures (And name-based affinities) The Emissary's spell is too narrow and specific to be an inherent talent. He doesn't know Grace in the waking world, so a strong desire to contact her in her sleep wouldn't make sense (I could see a strong desire to fix the impending problem, but then why Grace and only Grace?). And the spell is too specific for a fundamental nature, especially since he doesn't know Grace while awake. (And a name-based affinity would just be ridiculous)

    Furthermore, there has been no indication that an immortal can grant spells to someone who has already awakened. Magic marks, the only explicitly mentioned method that immortals have for granting mortals spells, vanish once the person awakens. Given that magic marks are specifically associated with the dreaming state, I doubt a person can receive a magic mark once they've awakened.

  13. Posted

    5 hours ago, hkmaly said:
    6 hours ago, Drasvin said:

    That would be interesting, but I doubt it. Immortal magic is undetectable to mortal (and half-mortal) magic senses, and I'm not sure if Tedd's magic vision would be any different.

    The whales are likely COMPLETELY unobservable even to immortals.

    Tedd was able to detect them on a subconscious level(giving him the feeling of being watched) even before he boosted himself with his power gauntlet. Yet there's been no indication of him getting even a subconscious detection of the Immortals. Tedd possibly could detect Immortals if he supercharged himself again, but that would require having a charged up gauntlet and last time he used it, the battle mode didn't last very long.

    5 hours ago, CritterKeeper said:
    7 hours ago, Drasvin said:

    The viability of that kind of dodge depends on how fast Voltaire can switch between planes of existence. With the exception of Pandora (who can already push what is possible for an immortal), every time an immortal has shifted plane on-panel, they had a fading effect, which implies it's not instantaneous. Even when Voltaire was alone and therefor wouldn't need the dramatic effect, he had the fading effect. If the transition isn't instantaneous, then a fast enough attack could still connect before he completely transitions. Whether or not anyone in the room has an attack they could launch fast enough is debatable, though I think is likely (Edward at least should have some fast attacks)

    Ellen has one attack she can use rapid-fire.  I think it would be hilarious if it actually worked, maybe even pinning him to the physical plane until it wore off.

    I don't think it would pin him to the physical plane, though it would be a hilarious effect if it actually stuck (sadly, he might be able to shrug off her FV5 Beam like Not-Tengu did, if the reason that Not-Tengu shrugged it off was how powerful he was and not some other quality). Though I'm not sure if Voltaire would get indignant about it or just laugh it off and shapeshift himself back to normal.

  14. Posted

    Just now, EmpactWB said:

    Anyone else wondering if Tedd will be able to see him if he fades without actually leaving?

    That would be interesting, but I doubt it. Immortal magic is undetectable to mortal (and half-mortal) magic senses, and I'm not sure if Tedd's magic vision would be any different.

  15. Posted

    On 9/15/2016 at 5:40 PM, hkmaly said:
    On 9/15/2016 at 10:04 AM, ijuin said:

    Aberrations feed on the life of others--presumably this means sapient beings, since they seem unable to gain the needed extra sustenance from eating ordinary livestock, and there is no evidence that they are strictly limited to eating their own former species (i.e. human-derived Aberrations eating only homo sapiens, griffin-derived Aberrations eating only griffins, etc.), so they may be able to feed on any sapient being possessing what we would consider to be normal biochemistry.

    I don't think BIOCHEMISTRY is important. What they actually consume is live energy - even if they also consume blood or flesh - because if they would need blood or flesh they could eat animals. It's possible that Uryuoms would be incompatible, because they are from different planet and their magic is not compatible. (Obviously, that's just hypothesis.)

    They likely wouldn't be able to feed on Uryuoms due to the different magic energies in them. Though every living creature from Earth produces a degree of magical life energy (at least animals generate enough to sustain an enchantment if they don't starve themselves), it's just that humans produce significantly more for some reason. Theoretically, if it is just life energy that aberrations need and not specifically human life energies, then they could feed on animals, but would have to consume a lot more to sustain themselves.

  16. Posted

    On 9/15/2016 at 5:32 PM, hkmaly said:

    You might be overpersonifying Will of magic. It's not supposed to be person. It has a will and objectives of it's own but "mind" might not be applicable. It's mostly still laws and the interaction with individual is more like how physical laws works than how something with single objective would work.

    I would posit that Magic does have a mind of some semblance. Objectives gives it something to work towards and a will gives it the drive to work towards those objectives, but without a mind of some sort, it would lack reasoning and logic and and therefor lack the ability to determine if a given course of action would be beneficial to its objectives. Magic has been consistent in working towards it's objectives, from what we've seen. That would imply it has some sort of mentality to direct its efforts.That said, the mentality of magic could very well be something so strange and alien, that the average human would have trouble recognizing it as such, a la the Old Gods of Lovecraft's stories.

     

    On 9/15/2016 at 5:32 PM, hkmaly said:
    On 9/15/2016 at 2:50 PM, ijuin said:

    Magic likes drama, so IMO it is trying to create a steady supply of heroes and villains. Magic wants epic duels between individuals or small groups, not bloody battles between massive armies.

    Battles between armies might be acceptable. What is NOT acceptable is battle between army of magic users and army of mundane people. Although with current weapon technology even that should be dramatic enough ...

    I think it's less what the armies are composed of, than how likely the battle will end up in the history books, outside of myth and legend.

     

    On 9/15/2016 at 5:32 PM, hkmaly said:

    Also, I totally think it wasn't Will of magic who told Disco Wizard that. It was some immortal and yes, they are now sitting back with a bowl of popcorn.

    Why do you think that?

  17. Posted

    2 hours ago, Zorua said:

    No, but you can easily exploit the nonphysical plane to dodge. You're attacking me? Whoop! I'm in the non-physical plane! Now I'm back. You're attacking again? Pop! Gone and back. You missed. It's like teleporting almost. Oops, you missed again. This is fun!

    The viability of that kind of dodge depends on how fast Voltaire can switch between planes of existence. With the exception of Pandora (who can already push what is possible for an immortal), every time an immortal has shifted plane on-panel, they had a fading effect, which implies it's not instantaneous. Even when Voltaire was alone and therefor wouldn't need the dramatic effect, he had the fading effect. If the transition isn't instantaneous, then a fast enough attack could still connect before he completely transitions. Whether or not anyone in the room has an attack they could launch fast enough is debatable, though I think is likely (Edward at least should have some fast attacks)

     

    4 minutes ago, Vorlonagent said:
    15 minutes ago, Pharaoh RutinTutin said:

    For some reason, I imagine Grace offering the rebuttal.  "Mr Voltaire?  I do not doubt the sincerity of your beliefs and convictions.  And I do not have enough information to meaningfully criticize the technical details of your plan.  However, I must oppose any actions that will result in the death of my friends."

    I'm sure he'll have plenty of spot-on-correct supporting information.  Ed Verres would have his own and it develops into an epic battle of summoned charts and graphs...

    I want to see that. It would be hilarious and awesome.

  19. Posted

    Hmm...cybernetic implants might be more complicated, depending how the implant is constructed. Like if a cybernetic arm is a single cohesive unit, then it would likely all shrink or grow together, but what if the actual implanted part is just a connection hub that the arm can be plugged into?

    2 hours ago, AFNB said:
    Quote

    My rules for shrinking / growing makes it safer than it has any right to be

    Ah, but Dan - Are those your rules, or are they magic's rules? 

    Dan is the writer. His rules supersede the rules of magic.

  21. Posted

    7 hours ago, Scotty said:

    Sarah was the exception because she had an innate talent for the spell. If Ashley had an innate talent for healing rather than just a desire for it, Pandora would likely have been able to give her access to a stronger spell and let the ambient energy do the work. Also if I'm reading panel 1 of August 22nd's strip correctly, Pandora could have given Ashley transformation magic despite Ashley's goodness if she happened to have an affinity for transformation magic.

    Yeah. Seems to be that innate affinity trumps everything. Doesn't matter what kind of person you are or what you want, if you have a natural affinity you could be given a spell matching that affinity.

  22. Posted

    19 hours ago, Scotty said:

    This probably says a lot about the rules not allowing her to mark younger kids, the people she's gone to in the mall are at least over 18 so she's going to be finding the majority of them to be driven more by hormones. If she was in an area with a lot of 8-12 year olds, she'd have more luck finding people that would want to transform into things and be likely to do so at any time.

    I doubt there would be a hard rule on not marking younger kids. Pandora has noted that she can mark anyone, as long as they have the power to use the mark. If she can't mark young children, then it would be as a consequence of children not having as much magical potential, which given that personal magical energy seems to be in part biological, that's certainly possible, with their smaller bodies and such.

    Or it could be the thin threads of Pandora's morality acting up again.

  24. Posted

    1 hour ago, mlooney said:
    6 hours ago, Drasvin said:

    I doubt Sirleck is that well-connected. Besides, General Shade Tail and Lord Tedd give me 'final boss' vibes. I imagine it will be a while before we get back to them in a meaningful fashion. Just foreshadowing, reminders, and other little nudges.

    Based solely on my understanding of milspeak, what Edward told Elliot during the evil monkey/Elliot turned into a girl episode, Lord Tedd is dead.

    I, of course could be wrong

    I might not be too knowledgeable on milspeak, but it doesn't seem like they've eliminated him. More like they are investigating the hows and whys and such of Lord Tedd's attack. Also there's way too much build up to the Lord Tedd situation (the goo, Tedd's dreams, Nioi giving Ellen those second life dreams with her own dewitchery clone with the express purpose of setting up a relation for the eventual confrontation, the similarity of Tedd's gauntlet) for the issue to just be swept under the rug off-screen. It would just be a big narrative waste. More likely the threat of Lord Tedd has been put on the backburner until the story is farther along.

  25. Posted

    6 hours ago, NN1 said:

    Pandora really doesn't need someone to be evil to raise magical awareness. She could just give Ashley a good pain relief spell and then point her at people with chronic pain and loose-lips. Goody-two-shoes Ashley would find it very difficult to let innocent people suffer when she has the means to help them (especially if Pandora stresses how bad some of them have it). Miracle girl will probably get quite a bit of press and possibly a religious following (or cult or witch-hunter). Whatever plays out it has a relatively high chance of raising magical awareness, more so than aura sense at least.

    Pandora wants transformation spells, because they're very overt and obvious. Something subtle like a pain relief spell can be difficult to verify and stands a good chance of being disregarded as one of those fancy new wave treatments or some such. And even if it isn't disregarded, it will take time for it to be verified and studied enough to have a meaningful impact outside of those already with a significant interest in the paranormal.