Questionable Content XV: I HAVE MORE QUESTIONS! I Told You This Thread Was Weird

[Morquard]

The emu was found already, we saw that several days ago. (And "it got away again" is speculation, if that's where someone is going to go.)

And Fae doesn't know about the emu anyway, I don't think she's going to get "invisible emu wandering around" from a muttered "stupid emu" by the AI.

Those are both very valid points. I retract my complaint.

[Kish]

I get that it seems like you people are here because you hate the comic - and god knows i've had my disagreements with it - but when you look at that comic and go...

"Pranks aren't funny!"
"Sam's going to be messed up for life by this bullying!"
"Stupid child doesn't know a shelf bracket when she sees one"
"What if that shelf was really important, eh?"

...it makes you seem absolutely insane. Are you like this with all comedy? "He is under the impression they were on a break, and she isn't! It's absolutely disgraceful they can't work out their differences like adults." "He says Bazinga when he pranks someone - but that was a very poor prank!" "To get to the other side? What an ill-defined motivation for this chicken!"

Ironically, that reaction strikes me as far more of a rejection of the comic than anything people have posted about what Faye is doing/Bubbles is going along with being mean.

Faye is, fundamentally...kind of a mean person. It's entirely intentional. Raven called her out on it and she acknowledged that Raven, despite being someone she continued to hold in utter contempt, was right. She got fired from her job and, in her absence, Dora changed the entire coffeeshop's vibe away from one based around being nasty to people, and Faye talked about wanting to drink when she realized it. In the name of defending the comic, you're waving your hands and demanding no one pay attention to plot or character.

The only question is how thick Sam's skin is. I'm guessing thick enough that nothing much will actually come of this just because if it was otherwise, I don't think she would ever have been drawn to Faye. But that doesn't mean "Faye is being mean" is an invalid observation (if, perhaps, a generally obvious one, rather like saying "Momo is being oddly formal in her speech patterns"). No one said "The comic/this strip is bad because Faye's mean." To use one of your analogies, someone just posted, "Ah, Sheldon, you idiot, ha ha" and you responded by declaring that they clearly don't understand humor.

[Traab]

Nobody has said it isnt in character for faye to act that way, we are just pointing out that the way she is treating sam isnt going to end well. that doesnt make us haters or some such silly thing, it makes us people capable of seeing where the comic is likely to go from here. And the fact that people are trying to compare pointing out this mistake on fayes part to DOMINIC DEEGAN ragging of all things is beyond absurd.

[Vinyadan]

I personally have stopped reading the comic, although I still follow the thread. Because of the posts I had a look, and, well, it's the usual, somewhat boring, very inoffensive fare.

But the comments about the Deeganization of the audience spur me to say why I wasn't enjoying the comic any more. This is a rationalization of my feelings, so your mileage may vary.

Three things.

One is the whiplash between a silly comic about silly people and a comic that wants to be realistic.

The second one is the whiplash caused by a comic that alternates/alternated between politically incorrect humour and politically correct teachings.

The third one (the big one) is the murder of drama. What makes for an interesting story?

I ran out of gas! I got a flat tire! I didn’t have change for cab fare! I lost my tux at the cleaners! I locked my keys in the car! An old friend came in from out of town! Someone stole my car! There was an earthquake! A terrible flood! Locusts! IT WASN’T MY FAULT, I SWEAR TO GOD!

QC has portrayed character growth in a coherent way, but, when I left it, it had stopped putting them into situations of gripping crisis and contrast. In a way, this is realistic: a useful part of growing up is learning to avoid drama, so that, if you have kids, you can get ALL THE KID DRAMA without having to worry about your own -- ha ha, it's not true, because your colleagues are probably vipers who are trying to either force you into submission or to use you or outright damage you, while your boss has the human skills of a lycanthrope and the brains of a watermelon, and, hey, wouldn't that make for a funny comic? Fowl Language does the kid part, and Dilbert does the workplace part (although Dilbert has been losing steam lately).

Now sure, you don't need a massive overarching plot for a slice-of-life comic, but the best years of QC (I personally especially like 1400-1700) were those with multiple personal plots in which characters had to deal with challenges and setbacks, sometimes accidentally throwing a spanner into each other's works because the closeness of the social circle meant that the plots were actually tightly interconnected.

QC had stopped creating situations for interesting drama, or had lost too many chances for doing so, going instead for LOL random, or suddenly taking a direction and backtracking just as suddenly: "I'm a cop! Now I'm not!", "Hey watch me torture this bot-- wait I wanna learn moralityyyyyyy..." (although I think that this one was a good decision, since Squidbot was otherwise way outside the comic's scope). The social circle also had become much looser, in part because CoD lost much of its importance as a common area, and, in part, because of the many new characters.


In an unrelated note, if anyone is interested in AI and androids, I highly recommend watching Ex Machina. I'm probably late to the party, but it's simply a very good film, and it goes into many themes that have been discussed in these threads.

[Agi Hammerthief]

Are you like this with all comedy?

only with unfunny comedy, but with all unfunny comedy equally

[Yana]

I suppose this was rather inevitable with the benefit of hindsight.

[John Cribati]

Speaking of hindsight...

[gbs5009]

Speaking of hindsight...

She already has back; surprised she isn't looking for a nose.

[John Cribati]

She already has back;

... Please don't misquote Sir Mix-a-lot like this. He deserves more respect.

[Mordokai]

Why the hell would a robot want butt implant? Yeah, I guess it's been established they can have sex with humans, but seriously, it kinda bugs me. I guess I shouldn't overthink it, but this one is kinda all over the place.

Does she want to look hotter? Seduce somebody? Peer pressure?

Seriously, at this point, I get the feeling AIs are just metal-coated humans. Maybe the more classic sci-fi has spoiled me, but I was under the impression that AIs were supposed to be over such petty things as emotions.

[Traab]

Why the hell would a robot want butt implant? Yeah, I guess it's been established they can have sex with humans, but seriously, it kinda bugs me. I guess I shouldn't overthink it, but this one is kinda all over the place.

Does she want to look hotter? Seduce somebody? Peer pressure?

Seriously, at this point, I get the feeling AIs are just metal-coated humans. Maybe the more classic sci-fi has spoiled me, but I was under the impression that AIs were supposed to be over such petty things as emotions.

Why wouldnt a fully sentient being want to make itself look "better" if it had the chance? Even the most logical logic engine would be able to identify the simple truth that appearances matter therefore having a better appearance is suggested. And that aside, robots have relationships, even romantic ones, both with humans and each other. So again, wanting to look good to help attract a mate is perfectly logical.

[Evil DM Mark3]

I was under the impression that AIs were supposed to be over such petty things as emotions.

Firstly, emotions are a cornerstone of how the human mind processes information. The idea that they are irrational distractions from proper thinking is somewhat outdated. Being in the right emotional state can make you better at certain types of decisions.

Second, if we aren't going to get AI to value and understand human life via emotions, what are we going to use? Its clear to me that in the QC universe they dealt with the AI problems like how a "resource maximiser" results in an inevitable Apocalypse. (as in Creator:Create as many cat videos as possible. AI: OK., turns entire planet into storage media, cat habitats, video cameras, cats and cat food) problem by creating AIs that have a human-like perspective.

[Rodin]

Besides, even the AnthroPCs have been shown as tiny little people right from the very start. Pintsize himself is very much attracted to human women if the terabytes of porn is any indication, and Momo was shown having an active libido and having dirty dreams about Sven well before fully human AI bodies were even introduced. Well, except for maybe that prototype one Hanner's dad sent her.

AI in this universe simply seem to vary on what they find attractive. Some like humans. I assume that Linuxbot would never lower his standards that much. And Pintsize is omnisexual.

On a more in-depth level, one can assume that AIs that are not interested in humans don't bother with a human-style body. They're either in servers or in other equipment (like Jeremy). Jeremy did eventually upgrade to a humanoid form, but it wasn't one with a human aesthetic and was for purely practical purposes.

[Wraith]

Why the hell would a robot want butt implant? Yeah, I guess it's been established they can have sex with humans, but seriously, it kinda bugs me. I guess I shouldn't overthink it, but this one is kinda all over the place.

Does she want to look hotter? Seduce somebody? Peer pressure?

Seriously, at this point, I get the feeling AIs are just metal-coated humans. Maybe the more classic sci-fi has spoiled me, but I was under the impression that AIs were supposed to be over such petty things as emotions.

She doesn't specify what kind of implants she wants. Maybe she wants fully articulated hydraulics, or the same ones that Melon had fire off into low orbit?

AIs are not limited by meagre human "badonkadonk" aesthetics, not when fully detachable, surface-to-air junk is available. Or maybe she wants to be a spider/drider thing like Gordon, the fluffy purple tarantula AI? Ain't no booty like spider booty, they say.

[Vinyadan]

Ain't no booty like spider booty, they say.

Lolth heareth thee

[Mordokai]

I guess love, romance, and life, in general, are weird, confusing and not logical in general.

I can live with that.

[Cikomyr]

Lolth heareth thee

JFC, 66 hit points?!

[georgie_leech]

JFC, 66 hit points?!

That's a decent amount of HP in the edition she was in. Not great, she's not meant to be a sack of meat, but not terribe.

[georgie_leech]

I can't throw stones, my coffee isn't strong enough unless it dissolves any stirring spoons.

[Keltest]

JFC, 66 hit points?!

An AC of -10 means she's all but immune to being smacked with weapons, and she's 70% magic resistant. She's not a wall of meat, she survives by just not caring about attempts to hurt her.

[Wraith]

An AC of -10 means she's all but immune to being smacked with weapons, and she's 70% magic resistant. She's not a wall of meat, she survives by just not caring about attempts to hurt her.

Many people complain that THAC0 was too complicated, but I've always had a soft spot for it.

It very simply says: "You cannot hit this monster until you are at least a level 11 Warrior, or have brought some SERIOUSLY powerful magic items with you". What more do you need to know?

[Morquard]

Not sure the Scotch analogy is a good one, when it's about Faye... just saying

[Willie the Duck]

Not sure the Scotch analogy is a good one, when it's about Faye... just saying

True, but also realistic. Dora has Faye mentally associated with booze.

[Eldan]

JFC, 66 hit points?!

This is the edition where even high level fighters don't really deal more than about 1d10+5, maybe +10 damage, so that checks out.

[Traab]

So you guys are saying its hard to kill a goddess? My mind boggles at the idea.

[Cikomyr]

This is the edition where even high level fighters don't really deal more than about 1d10+5, maybe +10 damage, so that checks out.

That's my point. A bunch of high level fighters could off her in 6 rounds.

Wizards would be worst.

[Keltest]

That's my point. A bunch of high level fighters could off her in 6 rounds.

Wizards would be worst.

A bunch of high level fighters would pretty much only be hitting that AC on a crit. Its hard to overstate just how difficult a -10 AC is to hit.

[Mordokai]

A bunch of high-level fighters would pretty much only be hitting that AC on a crit. Its hard to overstate just how difficult a -10 AC is to hit.

I'm going to play(semi?) devil's advocate here.

The only experience I have with AD&D is Baldur's Gate 2 and its add on. Since I mostly played fighter types(rangers, fighters and paladins in particular), in late game, I often had AC at or over(under?) -10.

It never seemed all that hard for me to get hit. Was that because the enemies were so buffed up? I suspect it's that in part, if not mostly.

But yeah, to somebody like me, AC of -10 doesn't seem all that bad.

[georgie_leech]

I'm going to play(semi?) devil's advocate here.

The only experience I have with AD&D is Baldur's Gate 2 and its add on. Since I mostly played fighter types(rangers, fighters and paladins in particular), in late game, I often had AC at or over(under?) -10.

It never seemed all that hard for me to get hit. Was that because the enemies were so buffed up? I suspect it's that in part, if not mostly.

But yeah, to somebody like me, AC of -10 doesn't seem all that bad.

Keep in mind that that AC would be achieved with some of the best armor in the game with a bevy of miscellaneous armor bonuses on top of a Decent DEX score. Late game Baldur's Gate 2 has you contending with elite Drow armies, powerful fiends, devils, and demons, and in some cases literal demigods. All of them attack multiple times per round and usually have high STR, magical equipment/buffs, or both. In my experience, anything without great AC floating around -10 gets shredded to bits fairly easily if it's on the front lines.

[Wraith]

The only experience I have with AD&D is Baldur's Gate 2 and its add on. Since I mostly played fighter types(rangers, fighters and paladins in particular), in late game, I often had AC at or over(under?) -10.

It never seemed all that hard for me to get hit. Was that because the enemies were so buffed up? I suspect it's that in part, if not mostly.

Thac0 scales with level, and different classes have different tables. By the time you become a level 20 Fighter you have a Thac0 of 1, which means that you're hitting AC-10 on a d20 of (1 add -10 =) DC11, and that's not including buffs from spells or magic weapons.

By the time you're in Throne of Bhaal territory, level 20 enemies are the least of what you're facing. That's why I said Level 11 Warrior earlier - that's when your Thac0 becomes 10, so you can hit Lloth on a modified d20 roll of 20, which is totally doable with a buff from a friendly Mage/Cleric and a +3 weapon.