[PA Comic] Friday, April 11, 2014 - The Dungeon Mistress, Part Two

Dog

[PA Comic] Friday, April 11, 2014 - The Dungeon Mistress, Part Two

The Dungeon Mistress, Part Two

http://penny-arcade.com/comic/2014/04/11

Read the full story here

Kitsy Mirth

"at least they didn't hit her in the knee"

windomere

You guys are using too much compression on your jpegs. The artifacting is fucking distracting.

Commander Zoom

That'll put you off your ale and sausages, no kiddin'.

MichaelLC

Did she quiver before falling?

Tofystedeth

windomere wrote: »

You guys are using too much compression on your jpegs. The artifacting is fucking distracting.

Huh? what artifacting?

Kagera

Tofystedeth wrote: »

windomere wrote: »

You guys are using too much compression on your jpegs. The artifacting is fucking distracting.

Huh? what artifacting?

Looks fine to me. Except the murder part. Killing is very badong

Skull2185

Kagera wrote: »

Tofystedeth wrote: »

windomere wrote: »

You guys are using too much compression on your jpegs. The artifacting is fucking distracting.

Huh? what artifacting?

Looks fine to me. Except the murder part. Killing is very badong

I agree. Unless we're talking about filthy Batarians.

Also, dis story arc gon' be a good one!

AntonNUL

I agree with windomere, and the artifacts are very noticable even in "panel 2". Mike, output your stuff at JPEG quality 85 or 90, preferably as illustration-- oh right, he flattens the layers and then sends it to Photoshop (because Photoshop has amazing text features and MS does not).

Also, what's with the hands? It's like two fingers are always glued together this strip.

ronya

Tofystedeth wrote: »

windomere wrote: »

You guys are using too much compression on your jpegs. The artifacting is fucking distracting.

Huh? what artifacting?

it's noticeable along the edges of every line

I don't know that the compression is actually greater than usual. It might be just that the compression is more noticeable when there are narrow areas of sharply different colours packed together, and it so happens that the focus of panels 2 and 3 include such areas.

YoungFrey

It's times like this that I am super-glad I don't care about fidelity.

TychoCelchuuu

For a long time now (forever?) the compression has been pretty awful on the comics. This is even worse in cases where the comics have a limited set of colors and PNG would work just fine. That's not the case here, but still, the JPEG is pretty fucked up.

YoungFrey

TychoCelchuuu wrote: »

For a long time now (forever?) the compression has been pretty awful on the comics. This is even worse in cases where the comics have a limited set of colors and PNG would work just fine. That's not the case here, but still, the JPEG is pretty fucked up.

It was Bulwark. I only know because somebody pointed it out as such. I have to zoom in to around 250% to notice it, but it's technically true.

Tofystedeth

Hmm, I guess if I really zoom in I can see some jaggies on the lines but but that's a lot more level of detail than I really go into. I was thinking he was talking about like, the blotchy shading problems you get on poorly compressed movies/images.

Hahnsoo1

Heh. I've used this device before. Except that it was a character's girlfriend (d'oh!) and the baby was unrelated to the character (baby from another father, before they were dating). After solving the mystery of the baby and the mother's murder (there were some touching RP moments, like "I reach out, touch her cheek, then close her eyes with my fingertips."), the campaign ended up becoming "Three Men and a Baby", and was one of the more memorable campaigns we ran. How do you balance Shadowrunning and raising a child? (They had an elderly Troll nanny)

Also, reminds me of the Castle episode from Season 6 Ep. 10, "The Good, The Bad, and The Baby." Mysterious person dies in public place, baby in arms. Plot hook!

forty

When did those arrows get there?

Delzhand

forty wrote: »

When did those arrows get there?

Eh. They're trick arrows. Part of the cloak. She's just exhausted.

YoungFrey

I like how Bex's character appears to be wearing a wombat pendant. I wonder if that means she is a relative of Kara.

Gaslight

I declare Bex to be Kara's niece. It is now fanon. So let it be written, so let it be done.

RatherDashing89

Hahnsoo1 wrote: »

Heh. I've used this device before. Except that it was a character's girlfriend (d'oh!) and the baby was unrelated to the character (baby from another father, before they were dating). After solving the mystery of the baby and the mother's murder (there were some touching RP moments, like "I reach out, touch her cheek, then close her eyes with my fingertips."), the campaign ended up becoming "Three Men and a Baby", and was one of the more memorable campaigns we ran. How do you balance Shadowrunning and raising a child? (They had an elderly Troll nanny)

Also, reminds me of the Castle episode from Season 6 Ep. 10, "The Good, The Bad, and The Baby." Mysterious person dies in public place, baby in arms. Plot hook!

The best version of this device was the homestarrunner.com game Peasant's Quest. A lady with a baby has you retrieve "her" lost treasure, then shoves the baby in your arms and beats it. You now have the most useful item in the game, useful for things like getting pills from an old man and retrieving a soda from the bottom of the lake. After you throw the baby into the lake.

Rhesus Positive

YoungFrey wrote: »

I like how Bex's character appears to be wearing a wombat pendant. I wonder if that means she is a relative of Kara.

That's probably a cat, considering her deity.

Quid

Cyn's reaction is the appropriate reaction.

AntonNUL

Hey, look, Annarchy doesn't have a red nose nor red ears anymore.

Athenor

Just picked up on the fact that the Barkeep can see the woman's back.. and is completely, 100% unphased and uncaring.

That's the story of a barkeep in D&D. Been there, done that, see you next week. It's where all the lawful good adventurers who A) survive and give away their worldly possessions go. I mean, it's either that, or become a planeswalker or something.

KalTorak

I think that pendant is probably a cat, not a wombat, given the character's backstory.

YoungFrey

KalTorak wrote: »

I think that pendant is probably a cat, not a wombat, given the character's backstory.

Why do you have to ruin my fantinuity with your cold hard logic and evidence?

mogdemon

Athenor wrote: »

Just picked up on the fact that the Barkeep can see the woman's back.. and is completely, 100% unphased and uncaring.

That's the story of a barkeep in D&D. Been there, done that, see you next week. It's where all the lawful good adventurers who A) survive and B ) give away their worldly possessions go. I mean, it's either that, or become a planeswalker or something.

Being that his eyes are cast down, I interpreted that panel as:

1. The barkeep was hum-drummingly wiping the table, so bored with his job that he doesn't even look up to greet customers who walk in the door anymore
or
2. The barkeep was hum-drummingly wiping the table, so bored with his job that he fell asleep while performing this mundane task for the 8,456th time.