[PA Comic] Wednesday, November 6, 2013 - Strata

Geth

Strata
http://penny-arcade.com/comic/2013/11/06

Anzekay

Oh hey, birthday comic!

It's even RPG themed, which is appropriate since I am currently working on a bunch of campaign stuff today.

Maz-

Reach for Staryu, not Starmie.

Casual

this is how i feel about everyone elses gaming abilities in general

you all need to reach a sweetspot where it's a satisfying challenge to beat you, but you're still not good enough to ever win

kismesister

Tycho is the worst.

And also my favorite.

YoungFrey

Casual wrote: »

this is how i feel about everyone elses gaming abilities in general

you all need to reach a sweetspot where it's a satisfying challenge to beat you, but you're still not good enough to ever win

I always want to win by 1 point.

Gaslight

https://twitter.com/cwgabriel/status/398115507892531200

kismesister

Gaslight wrote: »

https://twitter.com/cwgabriel/status/398115507892531200

MICHAEL...

halkun

I was going to make a snarky coment about how the comic has a slight whiff of product placement. ("Buy The Thornwatch RPG: Coming Soon. It's going to be too good!") However, now that Mike tweeted about it coming about from a dialog with Erica, I feel better.

Tube

It's not product placement if it's your product.

scotty2haughty

Product placement would be seeing Thornwatch on a table in the background.
An ad is when you say the name of it and ask people to buy it.

This is an ad! But it's a funny one so PA gets a pass!

miaAusa

The thornwatch game looks good they have funny product placements, tycho is so bad, lol, they do have their moments i wonder how erica has handled being said that

forty

Tycho wrote:

Too hard at work, frankly.

wut

Foolproof

Is there some place with thornwatch or lookout icons or symbols?

Rolling Bird

Is Tycho feeling up Gabe in panel 2? If so, this comic is becoming what I've always wanted it to be!

Inquisitor

Some of you guys really make me scratch my head.

Ad.

Product placement.

Gabe and Tycho have always made comics about whatever is on their minds. It's often videogames. Sometimes it's their families. Sometimes, in Tycho's case, it is just words. Gabe is designing a boardgame. In lieu of doing NaNoWriMo I am fiddling in working on a couple boardgame ideas that have been floating around my head for a long time. This stuff occupies a lot of your brain time. As Gabe knuckles down on getting this game into a distributable, playable state it is going to be on his mind a lot.

I expect a good number of comics about this game before it sees release (which it hopefully will!) And I look forward to them.

Doomneto

It's been pretty common for a while now to have the intentions of Mike and Jerry questioned when it comes to the webcomics they put out, sadly.

Tofystedeth

YoungFrey wrote: »

Casual wrote: »

this is how i feel about everyone elses gaming abilities in general

you all need to reach a sweetspot where it's a satisfying challenge to beat you, but you're still not good enough to ever win

I always want to win by 1 point.

I was on the wrong end of this in college with my best friend. Most nights after supper we would sit down and place Soul Calibur 2 for a while. The vast majority of matches I would within a few slivers of health from beating him, but could never land the critical blow. I had about a 1:20 win loss ratio against him.

DeserterKalak

So if there are five classes built of a combination of two skill types, and six total skill types, and assuming that each skill type is equally common and occurs no more than twice, does that mean there's a secret or "unlockable" class?

Strength, Vitality, Mind, Spirit, Dexterity, Will.
Blade: Dexterity and Strength
Sage: Mind and Will
Guard: Strength and probably Vitality
Greenheart: Spirit and probably Will
Brierlock: probably Mind or Spirit and Vitality

Which leaves Dexterity and... Spirit or Mind or Will?

Am I overthinking this?

YoungFrey

DeserterKalak wrote: »

So if there are five classes built of a combination of two skill types, and six total skill types, and assuming that each skill type is equally common and occurs no more than twice, does that mean there's a secret or "unlockable" class?

Strength, Vitality, Mind, Spirit, Dexterity, Will.
Blade: Dexterity and Strength
Sage: Mind and Will
Guard: Strength and probably Vitality
Greenheart: Spirit and probably Will
Brierlock: probably Mind or Spirit and Vitality

Which leaves Dexterity and... Spirit or Mind or Will?

Am I overthinking this?

In the podcast posted to the backer feed Wednesday(I think), Gabe talks about the Brierlock more. He uses wounds and some stat I forget. So he wants to take damage so he can cast spells.

PedroAsani

DeserterKalak wrote: »

So if there are five classes built of a combination of two skill types, and six total skill types, and assuming that each skill type is equally common and occurs no more than twice, does that mean there's a secret or "unlockable" class?

Strength, Vitality, Mind, Spirit, Dexterity, Will.
Blade: Dexterity and Strength
Sage: Mind and Will
Guard: Strength and probably Vitality
Greenheart: Spirit and probably Will
Brierlock: probably Mind or Spirit and Vitality

Which leaves Dexterity and... Spirit or Mind or Will?

Am I overthinking this?

From twitter, there are more Classes coming. Basic maths says there can be 15 combinations of Skills.

Aegeri

Doomneto wrote: »

It's been pretty common for a while now to have the intentions of Mike and Jerry questioned when it comes to the webcomics they put out, sadly.

I've come to believe it's because people expect to agree with Mike and Jerry on everything they do and are actually surprised when they don't.

YoungFrey

Aegeri wrote: »

Doomneto wrote: »

It's been pretty common for a while now to have the intentions of Mike and Jerry questioned when it comes to the webcomics they put out, sadly.

I've come to believe it's because people expect to agree with Mike and Jerry on everything they do and are actually surprised when they don't.

I think a lot of it is because over the last few years, it's been made clear to readers that comics don't make money based on traffic. They make it selling stuff. So now, anyone with he slightest cynical bent, will see a purchasable product in a comic and say to themselves "is this here because I'm supposed to want it". This also coincides with the huge rise is product placement in TV. So people are well primed to suspect products that show up in media.

calamityjamie

YoungFrey wrote: »

In the podcast posted to the backer feed Wednesday(I think), Gabe talks about the Brierlock more. He uses wounds and some stat I forget. So he wants to take damage so he can cast spells.

Yep - Spirit and Wounds. The Briarlock takes damage and manipulates the party's injury in order to cast. He's usually ad odds with the Greenheart, as the Greenheart's role is to remove wounds.

Tube

Is briarlock the guy who was being a total meaniepops in the Eyrewood comics

KalTorak

I think that was the Blade

the other two were the Guard and Sage (?)

PedroAsani

Tube wrote: »

Is briarlock the guy who was being a total meaniepops in the Eyrewood comics

Blade. Referred to in the threads as "Steve". Steve is kind of a dick.

KalTorak wrote: »

I think that was the Blade

the other two were the Guard and Sage (?)

Guard and Greenheart, if Mike didn't swap the names around again.

PedroAsani

Brierlock is the darkest of the Classes so far. They thrive on pain, both their own and their friends'. Hence the briers twisted around the forearm. The faceless mask is creepy also.

It's an interesting mechanic, because it follows that as the party gets weaker, the Brierlock gets more powerful. This allows the party to heal and then the Brierlock gets weaker again. I'm betting that with a skilled player, the Brierlock gives the party a huge boost in longevity.

KalTorak

that unsarcastically sounds totally rad

PedroAsani

KalTorak wrote: »

that unsarcastically sounds totally rad

It's something that rarely comes up as far as mechanics go, possibly because if the other characters do too well there can be little for the Masochist player to do. Self-inflicted wounds can minimise that, but wounding other players can cause bad blood at a table. It is typically done in conjunction with a healing property: transfer the wounds rather than just make use of them. A system which works well with it would have to be very well balanced, but as I said above, with a good system and a skilled player you have a novel way to increase the longevity of the party and make wounds more than just a way of tracking damage.

YoungFrey

The Brierlocksounds cool, but it's my first suspect for gamebreaking exploits. Since a game like this at its core is some sweet sweet math, I'm assuming there are discrete math experts that get hired for balancing games like this. And I must say, that sounds like a cool job.