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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!
Scotty

NP: Wednesday January 25, 2017

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23 minutes ago, hkmaly said:

Obviously. Whereas PostScript is not a decent ebook format nor a printing format, it's programming language.

From what the ones that have spellbooks describe, they're certainly not in any clear text format. :D

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6 minutes ago, Scotty said:
30 minutes ago, hkmaly said:

Obviously. Whereas PostScript is not a decent ebook format nor a printing format, it's programming language.

From what the ones that have spellbooks describe, they're certainly not in any clear text format. :D

Obfuscation is NOT encryption. Unfortunately, lot of people makes such mistake.

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35 minutes ago, hkmaly said:
41 minutes ago, Don Edwards said:

PDF is not a decent ebook format - in fact it isn't an ebook format at all. It's a printing format.

Obviously. Whereas PostScript is not a decent ebook format nor a printing format, it's programming language.

Right.  And the best way to generate  PDF, PS and DVI is TeX, or one of the front ends to it like LaTeX. That way you can do major changes to your format and not touch your writing at all.  Also does fun stuff like creating a table of contents and an index more or less automatically.  While I am not a LaTeX master by any means, I can't see going back to "What you see is all you get" word processor for any thing.  A flat  "dot tex" file run through LaTeX results in very good looking PDF file.

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3 hours ago, mlooney said:

Right.  And the best way to generate  PDF, PS and DVI is TeX, or one of the front ends to it like LaTeX.

LaTeX? My turn complaining about kids on my lawn. Plain TeX only!

Yup. My favourite methods of writing formatted text: Plain TeX, HTML, Prawn ... nothing wysiwyg.

(Although I usually DO use wysiwyg form here on forum, only switching to source when I need something more complicated. So, maybe it's more because the other wysiwyg editors are lacking key functionality. Like the switch to source version.)

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5 hours ago, hkmaly said:

LaTeX? My turn complaining about kids on my lawn. Plain TeX only!

I use "pure TeX" about once a month.  That's the nice thing a LaTeX, it's just layer on top of TeX so, if you need to, you can go really deep.

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23 hours ago, Vorlonagent said:

Isn't there a magic shop at the Mall?

So far as I can recall, the only mention of a magic shop within canon was Jerry's comment about saving Susan a trip to Ye Olde Magic Shoppe.  I'm pretty sure the Oblivious Wand Waving NPs were not canon.

23 hours ago, Vorlonagent said:

Susan's version of Nanase's fairdoll has offensive uses.  It's a tiny little flashbang with wings.

Despite being quite loud, we don't really know whether Susan's fairydolls could do any actual damage.  Flashbang may be a good analogy.

23 hours ago, Scotty said:

That's assuming Edward lets Tedd watch him create a linked spellbook and if it's possible for Tedd to duplicate his insight with magitech.

I suspect it might be arranged so that Tedd is around when Justin is given a spellbook.  The Verres house is probably the most secure location Justin would be allowed in, so it makes sense to give him the spellbook there.  If Justin gets any sort of warning at all, it would be easy enough to text Tedd, "Tedd! Your dad's giving me a really cool book, wanna See? ;-)"  Then Tedd quietly emerges from his basement lair, just in time to watch as Edward makes the link.

There's actually no reason to think that Tedd's dad would have any objection to giving him a spellbook in front of the whole gang, really.  Whatever Tedd is, it's such a rarity that "none remember", so it wouldn't make sense for Mr. Verres to object to the others seeing it.

19 hours ago, hkmaly said:

What makes you think magic user can only have one spellbook?

We don't know either way, it was just an interesting scenario to contemplate. :-)

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1 minute ago, CritterKeeper said:

There's actually no reason to think that Tedd's dad would have any objection to giving him a spellbook in front of the whole gang, really.  Whatever Tedd is, it's such a rarity that "none remember", so it wouldn't make sense for Mr. Verres to object to the others seeing it.

There might have been a reason Edward couldn't just have made a spellbook in front of everyone for Ellen and Elliot, I'm guessing that to link one doesn't require having the person the book is intended for to be around....hmm...you know, the linking mechanic for spellbooks is probably the same as the linking mechanic for Nanase's fairy avatar. Maybe it would be enough for Tedd to get a good look at Nanase creating a doll linked to someone to apply that to creating a spellbook.

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10 hours ago, mlooney said:
15 hours ago, hkmaly said:

LaTeX? My turn complaining about kids on my lawn. Plain TeX only!

I use "pure TeX" about once a month.  That's the nice thing a LaTeX, it's just layer on top of TeX so, if you need to, you can go really deep.

I actually use it even less often ... but still much more often than LaTeX.

3 hours ago, CritterKeeper said:
Quote

Susan's version of Nanase's fairdoll has offensive uses.  It's a tiny little flashbang with wings.

Despite being quite loud, we don't really know whether Susan's fairydolls could do any actual damage.  Flashbang may be a good analogy.

Flashbang grenades CAN do actual damage. And while Susan looks unharmed, she does look like actual physic force was applied to her.

3 hours ago, CritterKeeper said:

I suspect it might be arranged so that Tedd is around when Justin is given a spellbook.  The Verres house is probably the most secure location Justin would be allowed in, so it makes sense to give him the spellbook there.  If Justin gets any sort of warning at all, it would be easy enough to text Tedd, "Tedd! Your dad's giving me a really cool book, wanna See? ;-)"  Then Tedd quietly emerges from his basement lair, just in time to watch as Edward makes the link.

There's actually no reason to think that Tedd's dad would have any objection to giving him a spellbook in front of the whole gang, really.  Whatever Tedd is, it's such a rarity that "none remember", so it wouldn't make sense for Mr. Verres to object to the others seeing it.

We don't know how the linking actually works. If the book is "trapped" to link on touch or if Edward is doing the linking, then yes, there would be countless ways how Tedd can arrange to be there. Note that Edward doesn't have stack of spellbooks lying around, he orders them, so he likely first scan Justin, then orders the books and then tell Justing to come for the specific purpose of being given the spellbook.

It would be more complicated if the linking would be done somewhere else.

Note that we didn't actually saw  Ellen and Elliot getting the spellbooks ; We see Elliot having one here but presumably it's not first time he see it because if it would it wouldn't make sense to scold him for not reading it.

4 hours ago, Scotty said:

There might have been a reason Edward couldn't just have made a spellbook in front of everyone for Ellen and Elliot,

Yup. He's not able to make it himself. Easy.

4 hours ago, Scotty said:

I'm guessing that to link one doesn't require having the person the book is intended for to be around....hmm...you know, the linking mechanic for spellbooks is probably the same as the linking mechanic for Nanase's fairy avatar. Maybe it would be enough for Tedd to get a good look at Nanase creating a doll linked to someone to apply that to creating a spellbook.

Interesting idea but I don't think it works this way. Like, there may be similarities, but it wouldn't be similar enough for him to reproduce the effect of one based on just seeing the other.

 

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1 minute ago, hkmaly said:

Yup. He's not able to make it himself. Easy.

The last Q&A stated that "Elliot and Ellen's books were made by Mr. Verres". If he had to get someone else to do it, they should have said he got someone make them for him.

Whether he knew the spell, or used a wand to make them is a question only he (and Dan) can answer.

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5 hours ago, CritterKeeper said:

Despite being quite loud, we don't really know whether Susan's fairydolls could do any actual damage.  Flashbang may be a good analogy.

It certainly looked like she'd taken a bit of a physical blow - and I doubt that the fairydoll was in physical contact with her when she detonated it. (And there was only one. Imagine three simultaneously.)

Also, dazing, confusing, and deafening an enemy at a critical moment can grant a HUGE advantage to whatever other forms of offense one might apply. This is why cops use flashbangs.

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3 hours ago, Scotty said:
3 hours ago, hkmaly said:

Yup. He's not able to make it himself. Easy.

The last Q&A stated that "Elliot and Ellen's books were made by Mr. Verres". If he had to get someone else to do it, they should have said he got someone make them for him.

Whether he knew the spell, or used a wand to make them is a question only he (and Dan) can answer.

Interesting (yeah forgot that). Well, while it may be retcon, it could also mean that he first needed to order the books as "ingredience" and then "made" them by turning them into actual spellbooks, in other words linking them to Ellen and Elliot.

(Someone can still ask Dan to clarify. I can't, I don't have tumblr account.)

Given we don't saw Elliot and Ellen getting those books, he actually might made them in front of everyone. Of course Tedd might not know he should be looking back then.

2 hours ago, Don Edwards said:
7 hours ago, CritterKeeper said:

Despite being quite loud, we don't really know whether Susan's fairydolls could do any actual damage.  Flashbang may be a good analogy.

It certainly looked like she'd taken a bit of a physical blow - and I doubt that the fairydoll was in physical contact with her when she detonated it. (And there was only one. Imagine three simultaneously.)

Exactly.

2 hours ago, Don Edwards said:

Also, dazing, confusing, and deafening an enemy at a critical moment can grant a HUGE advantage to whatever other forms of offense one might apply. This is why cops use flashbangs.

While true, the question was if she can do damage. Even Ellen can do dazing, confusing and deafening with her FV5 beam (ok, maybe not deafening, but the effect may be similar).

EDIT: Wait: I do have yahoo account and seems they are connected now ... but someone beat me to hkmaly.tumblr.com ... damn ...

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18 hours ago, hkmaly said:

Note that Edward doesn't have stack of spellbooks lying around, he orders them, so he likely first scan Justin, then orders the books and then tell Justing to come for the specific purpose of being given the spellbook.

 

18 hours ago, Scotty said:

The last Q&A stated that "Elliot and Ellen's books were made by Mr. Verres".

Oh, look, our very own continuity error!  Considering how long EGS has been going, there are a surprisingly small number of them.

15 hours ago, hkmaly said:

Interesting (yeah forgot that). Well, while it may be retcon, it could also mean that he first needed to order the books as "ingredients" and then "made" them by turning them into actual spellbooks, in other words linking them to Ellen and Elliot.

Yes, or I could easily see Edward having to order a wand with the Create Spellbook spell in it.  Hmm, can a wizard learn a spell from using a wand, or only by watching a person actually casting it?

15 hours ago, hkmaly said:

(Someone can still ask Dan to clarify. I can't, I don't have tumblr account.)

Can you ask as a guest?  I think Dan has gone back and forth about allowing anonymous questions....

15 hours ago, hkmaly said:

Given we don't saw Elliot and Ellen getting those books, he actually might made them in front of everyone. Of course Tedd might not know he should be looking back then.

True, although once Tedd got into magitek, I can't see him passing up the chance to Look at a new spell, even if he didn't know there was anything special about doing so at the time.

15 hours ago, hkmaly said:

EDIT: Wait: I do have yahoo account and seems they are connected now ... but someone beat me to hkmaly.tumblr.com ... damn ...

Are you sure you didn't create it years ago and then forget?  I'm pretty sure I did that with a few email addresses and forums in the past, sometimes discovering the fact by getting a "There is already an account linked to that address!" message.

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2 hours ago, CritterKeeper said:
21 hours ago, hkmaly said:

Note that Edward doesn't have stack of spellbooks lying around, he orders them, so he likely first scan Justin, then orders the books and then tell Justing to come for the specific purpose of being given the spellbook.

21 hours ago, Scotty said:

The last Q&A stated that "Elliot and Ellen's books were made by Mr. Verres".

Oh, look, our very own continuity error!  Considering how long EGS has been going, there are a surprisingly small number of them.

Not that small and I'm sure we overlook something ... but yes, considering how long EGS has been going it's small.

2 hours ago, CritterKeeper said:
18 hours ago, hkmaly said:

Interesting (yeah forgot that). Well, while it may be retcon, it could also mean that he first needed to order the books as "ingredients" and then "made" them by turning them into actual spellbooks, in other words linking them to Ellen and Elliot.

Yes, or I could easily see Edward having to order a wand with the Create Spellbook spell in it.

Would be weird way to formulate it then wouldn't it?

2 hours ago, CritterKeeper said:

Hmm, can a wizard learn a spell from using a wand, or only by watching a person actually casting it?

Good question but probably considered spoiler so wouldn't be answered.

2 hours ago, CritterKeeper said:
Quote

(Someone can still ask Dan to clarify. I can't, I don't have tumblr account.)

Can you ask as a guest?  I think Dan has gone back and forth about allowing anonymous questions....

Didn't actually bothered to try, I just assumed anonymous questions are still off.

2 hours ago, CritterKeeper said:
Quote

EDIT: Wait: I do have yahoo account and seems they are connected now ... but someone beat me to hkmaly.tumblr.com ... damn ...

Are you sure you didn't create it years ago and then forget?  I'm pretty sure I did that with a few email addresses and forums in the past, sometimes discovering the fact by getting a "There is already an account linked to that address!" message.

I almost forgot the yahoo but even if I would have any doubts about tumblr the fact that it asked me for specifying some topics it can bother me with confirmed that it doesn't knew me.

Oh wait. You mean the hkmaly.tumblr.com one? The language doesn't match, the photo doesn't match and the only post is too recent to forget it.

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7 hours ago, CritterKeeper said:

Hmm, can a wizard learn a spell from using a wand, or only by watching a person actually casting it?

AFAIK we have no information on how a wizard learns a spell from someone else, only that they can.

My theory is that wizards can only learn spells from (a) other wizards - possibly indirectly via wizards' spellbooks* - or (b) seers, like Tedd. The logic behind this being that wizards have to know how to apply the magical energy, while Marked and Awakened individuals, and magical devices, just make it happen without any understanding of the means by which it happens. Maybe some few wizards specialize in studying magical physics sufficiently that they can, with difficulty, analyze the casting of a spell and learn how to cast the same spell to the same effect, but a seer has the talent to do that almost automatically with greater accuracy and even to identify what could happen.

Of course, I could be 100% wrong. That's pretty much my normal for non-obvious predictions about what's going to happen in the future in a webcomic.

 

* And if you think an Awakened person's spellbook is detailed, you ain't seen nuthin' yet.

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57 minutes ago, Don Edwards said:
8 hours ago, CritterKeeper said:

Hmm, can a wizard learn a spell from using a wand, or only by watching a person actually casting it?

AFAIK we have no information on how a wizard learns a spell from someone else, only that they can.

We have several Tedd's notes which might or might not be based on actual knowledge.

Even if he would see it simpler that it is, however, I would assume that wizards are really OP compared to normal magic users and learning spells is relatively easy for them.

Given that Tedd is specifically described as rare type of WIZARD, I would assume that the process wizards use to learn new spells is similar to how Tedd gets understanding needed for his magitech: so, yes, they basically only need to look, but carefully and from short distance and preferably undisturbed. Where Tedd get conscious understanding, they get understanding subconscious/instinctive, allowing them to cast the spell themselves despite not being able to describe it as well as Tedd.

(Also, Tedd likely can combine spells similarly how Grace can combine forms ; "normal" wizard probably can't.)

Of course, this hypothesis might prove to be incorrect.

 

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