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      Welcome!   03/05/2016

      Welcome, everyone, to the new 910CMX Community Forums. I'm still working on getting them running, so things may change.  If you're a 910 Comic creator and need your forum recreated, let me know and I'll get on it right away.  I'll do my best to make this new place as fun as the last one!

hkmaly

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Everything posted by hkmaly

  1. Story Tuesday June 7, 2016

    ... oh. Right. I mixed them up. Of course Andrea.
  2. It actually did took more than a few hours. We know that she finished the testing before the dinner, which was the SAME dinner Carol was called from to the griffin in Mall.
  3. 911 fees are included in cell phone plans, Roger's charges $0.75 per month for 911 service, couldn't find what Bell Canada charged but apparently it's not regulated by the CRTC so it likely does vary by provider. As far as I can tell there aren't any charges per call though. I was talking about something like fine for useless/unneeded action. Although I suppose it wasn't like SWAT team which went to that school, so it likely wasn't so costly.
  4. Story Tuesday June 7, 2016

    How is it possible to spend way too much time in game designer mode? *scratches head* Extremely easily. You start designing in afternoon and before you notice, it's morning. And Dan is not likely to be using either ... IF there even is official classification of magic in EGS universe. It's possible than someone in-universe is using 3.x schools of magic because it fits good enough, despite not having anything to do with how magic actually WORKS. (Note that Edward didn't really liked the "awakening" term either.) Personally, only people I would believe to have working classification is Tedd 20 years later and Tara.
  5. Story Thursday June 9, 2016

    Can TFG make a four-armed creature? Can it do without basically duplicating both of arms? (So, the number of arms broken would also multiply). How good would you able to control rearranged arms? That magibabble is very logical actually. And Dan has advantage here: he can avoid complicated situations. He doesn't need to make player-proof rules like RPG would need to. Not including flashbacks, since January 20th to unknown date likely still in January of next year. Quite possible. I'm sure with the number of authors who did spiderman comics over the years, "intentionally vague" is as best as one can say about Spider-Man's healing. More important than speed is that she requires medical attention. Wolverine doesn't: his healing is even better than most shapeshifters have, and that's shapeshifters which CAN set broken bones properly by shapeshifting, which Grace apparently can't. Also, while not directly answered, it seems Grace can get permanent injury. Wolverine will regenerate anything given enough time.
  6. STORY: Wednesday, May 25, 2016

    I imagine she has some training with real weapons. When the comic first started, she was an extreme cynic that strove to hold to (a biased version of) logic and while it might not be a pleasant line of thought, being prepared for a vampire attack would be a reasonable course of action, especially as she's already been specifically targeted once. Based on her only fight with vampire, she might expect that the weapon will gave her big advantage and not really expect LONG fight. Also, it's possible she trains less and less with time ... remember, it was implied she's having Nase summoned almost all the time AND she can't have something else summoned at the same time as Nase (of course, that was AFTER Jerry ... it's possible she trained more BEFORE Jerry ...). Of course, that's all speculation. Sort of. Extremely loose objectives with inhumanly neutral intentions and I guess similar disclaimer applies to the will. Unless it's summoned or created from summoned material. But yes, I was mentioning earlier than Nanase apparently manipulates with more raw energy than nuclear weapons (although my estimate of doll weight was lower). But I'll say it again more specifically: Magic being a force capable of flagrantly violating SOME laws of reality, including the law of Conservation of Energy and Matter, doesn't means there are no laws which it MUST follow. In fact, we already know ONE law it's guaranteed to follow - no time travel. Based on how time travel is defined and in combination with theory of relativity, that may actually be VERY strict law (although I suppose the definition is actually less strict). ... hmm, ok, maybe not ALWAYS that predictable. Still, way more predictable than Earth magic. True: my concerns would only be valid if the percentage of wizards will be high. It's true that EGS world is not our world, so that's also possible. (I'm not having so optimistic view on OUR world) ... Edward have spell for that or something like that, and Vampires seem to also have some sense like that, and if you think about it it actually seems most magic users have some way to sense magic. On the other hand, our sample is too small for such statistics and it may be biased. There MAY be. But the chance might be very low, with magic users being rare AND considerable number of them actually BEING employed by government or something like that. That's very good reason to lying low, instead of attacking on party where several magic users are present. I don't know. Someone who wants to bring about a better world by killing innocent people sure does seem crazy to me. Political parties with this as part of programme won elections multiple times. Also, I didn't said he's not crazy: just that Pandora is more crazy. "People in government" might not be paranormal organization They may be part of government AND part of paranormal organization without the organization being part of government. They would definitely not do that knowingly. On the other hand, it's much easier to keep masquerade without big number of elected officials getting in need to know. So there is definitely motive to keep paranormal organization outside direct government control by not telling government the truth, even if it would require some ally inside government and/or secret service circles. Problem is that with technology, the police can (in worst case) call army with tanks and fighter jets - neither can be possessed by civilians (unless civil war is already in progress). With magic, it's possible that small group of magic users have bigger firepower than everyone else in country combined. Yes. I'm not talking about those. (Also, yes, it's true that I'm basing my knowledge of wild west mostly on movies, so it might not be that reliable). When we though that immortals can't lie, there was discussion about how deliberately vague Pandora was. Note that it's quite likely the person strong-armed into government work Pandora speaks about is agent Cranium. She didn't looked THAT miserable to me. The paranormal division is subject to oversight and regulation by people which may be not completely in know about magic. Even without magic, the oversight over secret services is not so good. He admitted part of the reason she wasn't a threat to him was because he could retreat to a plane of existence out of her reach. So he wasn't completely lying at least. Voltaire being forced to retreat, and the implied existence of the self-defense clause, leads me to believe that a powerful enough mortal could maim, or even kill, an Immortal. Such a death likely wouldn't be permanent (if an Immortal permanently dying is even possible, I doubt it would be that "easy") and would instead be an improper death, not keeping the immortal out the game forever, but certainly handicapping them for a good long while. Though that leads to another question: how powerful is powerful enough? Assuming the Immortal is on the physical plane, it's implied that the government agents could fight and defeat an Immortal (assuming the Immortal is playing fair which they wouldn't), but Agent Wolf has been noted as one of the most powerful Wizards in the Midwestern USA. Yes. Although note that our informations is limited, and also Edward informations about Pandora are limited. He likely wasn't and still isn't aware that the "little girl" didn't reset for centuries over the recommended limit. Also, we don't know how far over the limit Voltaire is either (if he's over limit). Also, she's not going to play fair. She might even cheat on Wolf's side. Definitely extremely unpredictable.
  7. NP Friday June 3, 2016

    I disagree. It's hard to imagine that they didn't put fake lasers into everything. I said TRIED. Obviously, putting real lasers into something is harder. Fake lasers are easier. Of course you don't need real laser for fake laser microphone.
  8. NP Friday June 3, 2016

    Nonsense. The fake laser microphone wasn't invented until years later. Well the infrared one was already used in 1947. Obviously the leap from infrared microphone to laser one is smaller than the leap from normal sword to lightsaber or from normal gun to blaster. Also, it's hard to imagine Star Wars production didn't tried to put lasers into everything.
  9. Story Thursday June 9, 2016

    Yes they could. Get into a cargo aircraft with a big enough hold, and voilá. You can't tell me that a Hercules couldn't easily carry them. They wouldn't get over TSA. Unless you mean military one, which would be even better guarded. (Obviously, I mean fly by own power. And without artificial wing extensions and balloons and in Earth gravity and I think I still missed something which they obviously didn't used when they flied in EGS.)
  10. Story Thursday June 9, 2016

    Well those cybernetic limbs are still in the trial stages, IIRC they're testing with military personnel who've lost limbs in combat, so yeah the degree at which the limb can accurately read the electrical impulses is still likely low and there's probably a learning curve as well, but it still promising and we'll probably see cybernetic limbs that move more fluidly in the near future. I said "we can't rule out". We really don't know where the biological limits are because we are currently limited by other stuff. And note that nerve degradation will become progressively worse the longer it was since injury: I'm convinced that for fresh amputee (like in weeks), we can get cybernetic limb better than the original, but for people who lost the limb year ago? I'm guessing the cold blooded and hollow bones thing would require a complete genetic overhaul to accomplish properly, not sure what could go wrong with the cold blooded part, but I could see hollow bones breaking under the weight of a person's own body. I think we've speculated that Tara and Andrea couldn't possibly be hollow boned for the reason that their size would be hugely detrimental to any benefit hollow bones could give. Actually, the cold blood is EASY to explain. Cold blood means you need different enzymes for like everything, in many cases multiple different enzymes for same thing but different temperature. Cold blooded animals generally have much more chromosomes than warm-blooded ones just so they can record all those enzymes in DNA. Becoming warm-blooded and making child develop inside parent until it's old enough to maintain it's own temperature allowed to simplify everything considerably. Hmmm ... so, TF gun technically is able to make hollow bones but it is disabled as safety feature because the bones would then not be able to support enough weight? Makes sense. And yes: it's not like Tara and Andrea would be able to fly without magic anyway.
  11. NP Friday June 3, 2016

    I wasn't saying they don't have the TECHNOLOGY. Just that the microphones "used" for recording the space battles were fake anyway, so they might just as easily be fake laser ones.
  12. Story Thursday June 9, 2016

    But the TFG can add bones, or else we wouldn't see morphs with tails. We also know that amputees don't really lose their ability to move a limb they've lost, the nerve endings are still viable in a lot of cases that cybernetic limbs can be made that can translate the electrical impulses from the nerve endings allowing a person to control the prosthetic. I couldn't see why a morph wouldn't be able generate an arm or leg in the way it does a tail and the person be able to use it easily. True ; limbs are internally relatively easy AND the morphs with tails - MOVING tails, in fact - seem to suggest it is possible. And even if the degree of control would be limited (that person wasn't exactly playing piano, and we can't rule out degradation of nerves being limit, although inability to CONNECT nerves to sensors in high enough number is more likely cause) amputee would likely still prefer it to prosthetic, just like they prefer prosthetic to nothing. On the other hand, I don't really understand what's so hard on the hollow bones either. And remember, Dan might not have so big medical knowledge, but he's still final authority about what is possible in EGS.
  13. Story Thursday June 9, 2016

    Those are all great points about transformations in general. But I would again point out that TF gun can't make person cold blooded or give them hollow bird bones. There are obviously limits to what TF gun changes, and while Dan doesn't really want to go in details, we can assume that it is NOT able to do lot of those things. (Note that cancer with single tumor is usually considered easy case. While position of tumor can make it problem, the real problem of most cancers are metastasis - lot of small hard to find tumors everywhere in body.)
  14. NP Friday June 3, 2016

    Don't be ridiculous. They used real microphones. Without them, Star Wars would have been a silent movie. You seriously think the sound recorded on set is used in movies? They record the sound separately the same way dubbing is made. Well, maybe not always, but often enough. BECAUSE when filming, they wouldn't be able to get the microphone close enough for clear sound. EDIT: Ok, definitely not always. But some scenes are impossible to get with sound, so it's definitely option. And that's about dialogues: obviously, lot of star wars sounds was created outside the set.
  15. NP, Wednesday June 8, 2016

    If you are older than half of your total life expectancy, then reversing your aging would give you a longer life than if you had just continued to grow older. Stopping the hourglass might mean stopping time for you entirely (i.e. total stasis, unable to act or perceive or think). While both Discworld and the Incarnations of Immortality use similar reasoning, logically reversing aging might make you unable to form new memories and instead just losing the last ones. Not that good life. Truth is, aging is not separate process ; it's just results of all other processes which happens in time. Anything which affects aging differently than other processes must be based on magic and have own rules of how that works, which wouldn't have anything to do with physics. This includes spells which "drains your life" ... either it really drains some sort of energy and while you look older, you can recover, or it really affects aging, but then it's not compatible with physics because you are not moving faster while drained.
  16. NP Friday June 3, 2016

    Don't be silly. They didn't have laser microphones in 1977 when the first Star Wars movie was made. Not on that budget, anyway. If they could afford several starships ... oh, right, those were fake. Well, so were the microphones and the vacuum. That's good explanation for explosion sounds for fighters, yes. For bigger ships it stops making sense.
  17. Story Thursday June 9, 2016

    If the injury would be severe enough, Elliot might be unable to concentrate enough to change. But otherwise, very good question. The answer doesn't even says anything about transformation magic in general. Although the part about hiding is likely true for most kind of transformations, remember that even hiding injuries is useful - especially if it allows you to move closer to hospital. Maybe not. Well, or it will add the limb but the amputee wouldn't be able to move it. For the same reason why it can't make person cold blooded or give them hollow bird bones. Seems like TFG is mostly about changing the look and is not able to change internal organs. Or, there are lot of things magic can heal but you need different spells for different kinds of healing. If you need medical knowledge for just selecting the correct spell, it definitely wouldn't be "cure all". And rightly so. Healing spells will not really help if someone will starts casting fireballs.
  18. NP, Wednesday June 8, 2016

    I wouldn't mind becoming a BIT younger. But if the table is bigger than the hourglass, you can still get bit younger by tilling it a little while holding it. Of course, after reaching "correct" age, THEN you need to stop it.
  19. NP Friday June 3, 2016

    I watched it. I did not specify books vs movies, but we were comparing to a movie, and the LotR movies do not get into any of that. Whether there was a plan to double-cross him ("steal the Death Star") afterwards or not, he was involved in bringing Sauron back to power (rebuilding the Death Star) and it's still a perfectly good analogy. Even in movies, Saruman orcs repeatedly argued with Sauron ones, but it's true their relationship may be less apparent. I can assure you that Sauron didn't needed Saruman's help to get to power, and he did not really GET much help from him, although that was mainly because Gandalf interfered ; if Saruman succeeded in keeping Rohan out of war, it WOULD help Sauron somewhat. (Of course, if Frodo wouldn't destroy the Ring, united West armies would be slaughtered in Battle of the Black Gate, even with Rohan. They were outnumbered AND didn't really have anything to match Trolls and Nazgûls. And presumably, in game terms, had lower leadership.) Only until the bits get too far to keep enough air inside. But, as I said, laser microphones getting the sound from the scrap itself could actually explain it.
  20. NP, Wednesday June 8, 2016

    Yep. From Tumblr: ... that was rhetorical question, meant to show that I didn't realized it's Dan unless you talked about it.
  21. NP, Wednesday June 8, 2016

    ... that's Dan? BTW, regarding high heels: It's not question of IF they are comfortable. The question is HOW HIGHT can they be to still be comfortable. Because NOONE will be comfortable with heels which would be one meter high, and the higher they are, the less comfortable they are.
  22. NP, Wednesday June 8, 2016

    Agree. Although my solutions might sometimes be TOO outside-the-box. ... ok, I see yours too. I'm sure the wheel can be fixed.
  23. NP Friday June 3, 2016

    The second Death Star is equivalent to the Lord of the Rings series. Sauron had been powerful in the past, and was defeated; now Sarumon is trying to bring him back, but he isn't quite there yet when the good guys destroy him. Wait what? Did you actually READ the Lord of the Rings? Saruman was NEVER trying to bring Sauron back ; he actually planned to backstab him. (Although probably not AS literally as happened to Saruman later. Maybe.) I was always taught that the difference between fantasy and science-fiction is that in fantasy, dragons can hover, and in science fiction, they can't. Well there are obviously lot of differences and any sentence sounding like you are just mentioning the only one is just figure of speech. Also, note that even in sci-fi dragons can hover, if they are lighter than air (usually that means small dragons and lot of hydrogen involved). But it's true that if fantasy says they can't, it's not pure fantasy: in pure fantasy, dragons can fly because magic and that's enough to explain ANY kind of flying. When moving from fantasy to sci-fi, dragons generally get bigger wings, lighter "armor" and start getting problems with stall when flying too slow. (BTW, one reason Hobbit (movie) is fantasy: if you cover anything with gold in sci-fi, it gets MUCH heavier ; dragon covered with gold wouldn't be able to fly, it will hardly be able to move.) Obviously it's not sci-fi, but it's not pure fantasy either. The song of Ice and Fire actually deals with return of magic to land ; they got little or no magic (and dragons went extinct), then something happened (don't spoiler what if it already appeared) and magic started returning. That's not something which could happen in pure fantasy. In pure fantasy, if you remove magic the sun falls down and the air disperse and escapes (ok, that MIGHT be exaggeration, but even if you happen to have pure fantasy on round world there would be just too many stuff not working without magic.) I'm not sure if it was mentioned in New Hope ; it certainly wasn't RELEVANT. It only started to be relevant in next episodes, namely Empire strikes back. Actually, even very sci-fi movies happens to have "too sensitive laser microphones". The more genres you try to define, the less likely is you will be able to find pure examples of single genre, until you arrive at point where you start having one-movie genres of course. Yes, you can divide space opera from sci-fi, but it will still remain close. But note that wiki calls it subgenre.
  24. Story Tuesday June 7, 2016

    New question for debate: what is the ideal wavelength of Susan's hair in relation to its maximum coefficient of whoosh? While interesting question, I don't think it can be solved by debate ; we don't have any input data, we didn't even actually HEARD the sound.
  25. NP Friday June 3, 2016

    Scratch off the Death Star paint and you get Sauron. Wherever he gazes, doom follows. Sauron doesn't have a disadvantage you can easily exploit with correct intelligence to destroy- ... oh wait yes he does. Wouldn't explain how would the Emperor (Melkor?) build second one. (New Hope alone is really painted thin ; But if you consider whole hexalogy - or nonalogy - it becames harder to replace all elements consistently. Also, the part of LOTR where Sauron forged One Ring is little technological ... the resulting "pretty" numbers notwithstanding, it was implied that basically nothing prevented elves to make the rings in hundreds, given enough time.) Note: didn't get opportunity to make it really on-topic, but to the general sci-fi versus fantasy debate, this is important. Another point to discussion: the difference between fantasy and sci-fi isn't if the sword is magic fire sword or plasma-based weapon ; it's that in fantasy, Hero found the sword in a dungeon and that's all origin story needed ; in sci-fi, the sword was constructed by someone, and that someone can construct another, teach someone else to do it or explain the process to audience. New Hope doesn't pass this test - Luke get the sword uh lightsaber from Obi-Wan Kenobi and we have no idea how old it is or where it came from ; in next episode, Luke is able to build new one: it got turned into technology.