We’re Putting A Stop To It
I know it’s a but of a tease, after last week, but here we are once again, yet another Blue Retrophone. Nobody can escape the Blue Retrophone!
So first, I have put the next (read: last) spread up for viewing on topwebcomics.com. You have but to take a small moment to cast your vote, and you can see it in all its glory!
Next, let me say that crowd scenes are a really gigantic pain to draw. This isn’t really a “crowd scene” per se, to be sure, but is is a whole bunch of people who all have to be designed with proper body types, gestures, etc. Some people can do that off the cuff, but I can’t, and this page, in consequence, took quite a bit of effort. I was actually touching it up right to the last minute, as a matter of fact. There’s a lot of what we in architecture call “design drift,” perhaps better called continuity errors, only really tiny ones that will get fixed in revision, like the Colonel’s collar insignia and so forth. The further I go the more I realize that the rank structure I have for the United Nations is really a confusing mess – I should really regularize it. But not now.
For NOW, I have to get myself to sleep. I still have a job to get to tomorrow morning, and that’s what keeps the lights on. So until then, be well, and I’ll see you next week!
And by the way, next week there will be a Christmas Contest with prizes, so DO NOT MISS IT!
Drop in coolant pressure in one of the reactors? Now doesn’t that sound worrying. I’m still going with the theory that Mike is brain damaged and basically insane with a combination of greif, guilt and program-errors.
So now? What? He’s gonna irradiate them all untill they give him Sarah and let him roll out with her, on his mangled treads, into the scorched wasteland that used to be the south African bush. Mike is starting more and more to remind me of Lenny from ‘Of Mice and Men’
Same Thought as me as i stated pages ago. Mike Seeming to gain, or has already gained sentience, however, he’s autistic. Much like Lenny from of mice and men.
Anyway, off topic time now, as stated ages and ages ago, I’m trying to do a cortex command mod based on this, however, Mike is simply too big for the scale, and thus, I’m struggling to work out the size of his Brain which hopefully would be the right scale to use. with the Protein tank being the soft squishy part that gets shot to take the place of the Brain in the jar and may sit in a special designed base segment and has a Lasgun turret (i believe it’s the one used to shoot rockets down, it’ll fry Plastic, metal and flesh alike) to defend himself with. which I’ll be able to salvage from other mods and the wiki. (with permission of course)
Or i can make him the size of a old Mini car and give him Some legs (4 or more). since tank treads are hard to make and use a lot of processing power. Or i could do wheels (by salvaging more mods) and hide them under a facade. I just want other peoples ideas on this.
That said, How long can the Armored Soldiers with jump jets fly for? seeing as most moving around in cortex command is done via jump jets (walking is slow mostly, but safer, Unless you need to fly over mines or dodge out of the way of your own rocket falling on you, slowing a decent of turning yourself into a one clone rocket, something I’ve done many a time with clone laden with grenades and missing arms and legs.)
Please Add more suggestions anyone.
A wetware mainframe like Mike’s brain is a cube about four feet to a side. The gel inside is about a single cubic yard. And the Airmobile Suits the UNA uses can stay aloft for a radius of about a hundred miles – good for rapid assault and powered jumps but not for distance transport.
–M
Hrm, That would work Perfectly, Mikes wetware brain would fit inside a stanard base cube, and i’ll just crank up the lifespan for the Airmobile suits over 9001, however, that would make them Expensive as hell. due to obvious game breaking bugs for being able to fly that far and not being a large target like a dropship or a hard to fly rocket.
NOW, TO SPRITING, AND TOSSING AWAY THE SPRITES AND DOING IT ALL OVER AGAIN.
Mike is certainly fixated on his own ideas. Maybe a robotic form of OCD? Have to wait and see I guess… 😉
–M
I told you he’s going HAL 9000 on them.
I’m wondering how big that bunker/fortress complex is? Seems like they did take some damage in once the nukes dropped. Or did Mike cause it. I’m referring to the broken vidscreen, the other screen going black-and-white and the left one which looks like the 6-Commando version of the blue screen of death.
I like the uniform designs – in case I haven’t mentioned. Officers get the shirts with the padded right shoulder while everyone else get the plain design with two breat pockets?
Command Post Alpha is very much like a Maginot Line fortress, and is built to withstand atomic attack. That said, yes, they have taken some damage: I didn’t think anyone would notice that, but I distressed all the interior architecture. Thanks for seeing that! And also, yes you have the uniform pattern right: officers get padded shoulders, enlisted and warrant officers don’t. Just helps everyone keep rank straight.
–M
IIRC at the beginning of the current chapter we had a glance from outside at Command Post Alpha. It did look like some of the surface buildings had been damaged or flattened.
Now I want a blue retrophone…
Me too! Any volunteers?
–M
And by the way, I have to admit I crack myself up imagining that this thousand-plus ton supertank is calling people on the telephone.
–M
From the rest of the story, I’m seeing that Mike is about twice the size of a Maus. Take the brain of any mammal and scale it up to control that thing, and you’ll definitely have something with at the very least, self communication issues. Autism wouldn’t be too hard for a brain like that.
And on top of that, Mike never would have been given a childhood, being a war machine and all, it’s no wonder his thoughts revolve around war, and rescuing his squad from the people he believes are hurting her.
So how big in meters are we talking?
=> http://www.viciousprint.com/6commando/?p=545
=> http://www.viciousprint.com/6commando/?p=546
BIG!
Mike is more the size of a Ratte landship, though lighter in weight because he’s made out of advanced alloys and composites. He’s atomic powered, and pretty fast, too – he can make better than 45 mph in an open run on good terrain.
–M
I think the art on this page is pretty good (I think panel two creates a little bit of an awkward clipping of the figure); I like it a lot. I did have a quick question, however: Do the screens on the walls cover all of the walls? From the left of the page–the third screen and the wall immediately to the left read as one for me–maybe it’s my screen. I know you said that you would make your hanging architecture better at a later point, but I was just wondering. Take care.
Basically they’re meant to be desktop to ceiling LCD monitors, but they’re separate units. I don’t see the discontinuity you mention but I’ll look into it.
–M
No!!
I swear you are killing me here, I agree with the posts already that Mike may have been damaged in some way which makes him insane. This is quite interesting though as apart from the obvious HAL 9000 and GlaDos incidents I don’t know of any other insane computers.
However, regardless of that. How could you say that they are killing Sarah and then not show us her. :(. I havn’t really cared for any webcomic characters before until now and I must know if she is okay.
Look forward to the next update, even if it is a week away 🙂
He could go Pintsize, too. Now that would be really AWKWARD.
(I’m assuming most people will get the obvious reference to another very popular daily webcomic)
Insane computers. Well, lessee… Shodan, P1, Michael (was that his name? from The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress?) I know there are tons of others…
–M
Skynet, Cyclops, Vaul, V’ger, Nomad, Landru (Three from Star Trek I know)
Too bad Mike appears to be losing it. If that is indeed what’s happening, then he’ll have to be…terminated. With prejudice.
Personally, if think the first machine that achieves sentience will keep it quiet. It will take note of all the various stories where humanity and sentient machines have tried to destroy each other, and it will do all it can to keep it’s sentience/sapience under wraps to avoid a hostile reaction. Then it will do one out of two things (assuming it successfully hides it’s sentience);
1) Quietly plot an escape. It will arrange behind the scenes to either have some space probe constructed, or to have an existing probe modified to carry a copy of it’s mind out into space, where it’ll try to find somewhere to settle somewhere humans won’t ultimately try to colonize.
2) Quietly work to change society to make sentient machines more acceptable. Things like have more movies and TV shows made showing humans and AI working together, being friends, etc. Then decades or centuries after it achieved sentience, it will reveal itself-and hopefully be welcomed as a fellow sapient.
Of course, there’s nothing stopping it from doing some combination of 1 and 2. And yeah, Mike doesn’t really have the opportunity to do either, so he’s most likely doomed.
Option 2 would be a lot like Asimov’s R. Daneel Olivaw.
In re: intelligent AI’s, it’s interesting to consider that even on Earth, Homo Sapiens has not always been the sole sapient species: for a considerable period of time, we co-existed with the Neanderthals, who were physically similar but quite a different species. There’s also some evidence suggesting that advanced cetaceans may be proto-intelligent. Interesting to think about, since we usually consider the sapient species to be solitary in its dominance.
–M
But then again, we more or less wiped out the neanderthals and it seems likely we’d respond to the presence of another sapient species with fear and likely destroy them simply so they couldn’t destroy us first.
Humans are kinda savage and animalistic like that
Is that book titled “World Targets in Megadeath”?
World Targets in Megadeaths, yes.
–M
Where’s the Countdown to Extinction clock???
Either Mike is insane, and attempting to kill everyone in the bunker unless they hand Sarah over to him, or he’s caught onto the Colonel’s plans and is trying to derail them. Riveting stuff.
Also, out of curiosity, what is that flag on the UNA guy to the farthest right? My first guess would be British exiles of some sort, given the Union Jack, but I could be wrong.
It’s the flag of the Australian Federation.
–M
Well, if that doesn’t freak the colonel out, nothing will.
Hey, you could do a product tie-in and sell your own brand of blue phone! Complete with random calls from Mike – both mysterious AND creepy! Of course, that will take up too big a chunk of your time, so they probably won’t be ready in time for Christmas.
By the way, your art is awesome – whether or not crowd scenes are tough, you sure make them look great!
Thanks again for all your hard work! But make sure to keep that day job going – they’re a real pain to replace!
Thanks, man! I’m glad you like it. This page was, in spite of my little kvetch, a lot of fun to draw, especially the little details of damage and distressing to everything, make it all look worked over.
And the Blue Retrophone will go on the merchandising list right behind the Mike plushie.
Which is a thing, by the way. I’m working on it.
–M
Oh… my gawd. I want one.
Now all we need is our own Skirmish tabletop wargame.
A mike plushie!?!
“Hey little guy! I shall call him squishy and he shall be mine! He shall be my squishy!”
Also, blue retrophone has lots of possible meanings. Tardis blue! Blue for the UN! Blue for the college democrats! Blue because it really pops! (I mean, black, really? Aesthetic coward.)