Better late than never. Sorry about the delay. Had a big meeting at work that I had to get ready for. And I’m not just saying that – it was a big meeting. A three-hour-long one. Followed by a new set of instructions for more revisions, and more drawings and more…
That’s enough. I’m going to go pass out, now.
So, I’ve been wondering. Where did these robots come from, and why is the soldier shooting at them no questions asked? They look unarmed.
They were first seen here (and in the next two pages): http://www.viciousprint.com/6commando/?p=927
World War 3..er..2 just started and three giant Soviet war machines just tapped you on the shoulder, I would say shooting is a perfectly rational reaction.
Thank you, wingsofwrath. Yes, what he said.
And in the middle of a war zone, under stress, even well-trained and disciplined soldiers are likely to shoot first and ask questions later.
–M
No, no, they have at least two pairs of arms each, with a hypothesized third, tiny pair for secretly petting kittens hidden in a secret compartment of some kind.
First reaction to a friendly greeting is to open fire 😀
Well, in the aftermath of an atomic exchange, being startled by an enemy robot in your own base…? I’m with Santelli on this one.
–M
No.
We REFUSE to accept that you have a life beyond giving us a cool comic! Back to the table mister, and put that pencil to work! Now! Or I get the whip!
(J/K) RL HAS to come first. I hope your job is doing well. I am STILL looking for one 🙁
😀
Yeah, well… I have a very involved career just on the face of it, and I wouldn’t give up architecture for anything. But it takes a lot of time and energy out of me – it’s not an easy job to do.
–M
See, this is why you should learn the language of your long time enemies, lest you answer “hello” with a hail of gunfire…
Of course, considering the fact the same enemies are visibly unarmed and one of them is raising an auxiliary arm in an unmistakable sign of greeting, one cannot but remark on Santelli’s poor trigger discipline… Of course, this could also be ruthlessness from his part, since we haven’t seen enough of him in the comic so far to know one way or another. “Quick, they’re surrendering, best moment to gun them down!”
Ah yes, work meetings, joy!
This reminds me of a bit project a few years ago, where I was tasked with designing a 20 000 square meter warehouse in Constanta harbour and the clients keep insisting I come in every day for a meeting in which to show them my progress – considering the fact that the first meeting we had was in excess of two hours and for most of those I had to talk them out of some really harebrained ideas, that would not only have killed my productivity, but sent me straight to the nuthouse as well.
Finally I managed to convince them that I couldn’t do that and after a bit of haggling we settled on two meetings per week, but even so the design changed from week to week faster than I could keep track of it, because various “partners” to the endeavor kept joining or leaving, each with their own set of crazy demands.
Finally, when a new such partner informed me that he talked with a friend of his who worked in construction and learned that windows are cheaper than walls so he “demands” I make the whole warehouse glazed, I simply couldn’t take it anymore, so I burst into laughter, stood up, closed my laptop and walked out…
I finished and delivered them the plans for the most recent iteration of the building and kept the advance money, but even so I came in at a net loss when it comes to the amount of work I had sunk into the project.
However, it was clearly the right thing to do, because a couple of months later, with another architect on the job, the project finally crumpled under it’s own weight (with help from the Economic Crisis, mind you) and, to this day, nothing has been built.
Windows… cheaper… than…
OMG
I am not an architect and even ‘I’ know better than THAT. I wonder if that person ever heard of energy conservation. Or cared.
And people WONDER why the world is falling apart? Simple. Arrogant, ignorant stupidity rules.
Windows are HARDLY cheaper than walls. Walls are as cheap as it gets. On average, windows can take up as much as 5-10% of the TOTAL overall construction budget. Just the windows. That’s a LOT.
As to constant design changes, well… people can have very unreasonable expectations of buildings and designers, when they don’t know any better. Building properly is not easy, fast or cheap. Anyone who tells you it is has something to sell you, and it’s probably going to suck.
I’m quite fortunate that the client for the project I’m on at the moment is in all ways excellent, reasonable and easy to work with. It’s just a big project, and requires a lot of administration, just on a day to day basis; even so things tend to fall through the cracks, and little problems and errors need to be chased down – it’s all part of the process.
–M
Historic case in point to the unreasonable demands, the HMS Captain. It’s exactly what happens when people who don’t know better get their way against the expert advice of those who do.
As for HMS Captain, that’s a really good example of a ship built by land lubbers – oddly though, it was the sturdiness of the tripod masts that actually doomed it – sure, the insufficient righting momentum and high center of gravity were the key factors, but the masts not going by the board in the sudden squall was the straw that broke the camel’s back.
But that’s hardly something new – after all, we can go back to Vasa and the Mary Rose to see pertinent examples of small design errors that accumulate to form one disastrous package.
Yes, Indeed – this why I alway warn my clients from the onset that their building is going to cost at least twice and take twice the original estimated time, because there’s always ways of things to go wrong.
It always will be late and over-budget, but since it rarely goes to such extremes (twice the cost and time) in the end the client ends up satisfied that their building ended up cheaper and got build faster than my pessimistic estimate…
As for the ways things could go wrong on a building site… oh, the stories I can tell!
I’m imagining being an architect in the US is pretty much the same thing, but we have our share of rather specific problems – for a example, a pretty sizable portion of the workforce in construction is still made by completely unskilled men, because in the late 80 there was a sudden need for construction workers due to our late insane dictator’s pharaonic construction projects (which also ended up completely ruining the economy, but really, what do you expect from a guy that based his regime on that of North Korea?) so, they simply ended up taking all the people arrested for misdemeanors such as being drunk in public, forcefully conscripting them in the army and then using them as slave workers…
After the revolution rolled around a lot of those people stayed in construction, and, even though some of them did eventually gain the necessary skills, most of them didn’t. Also, because they worked in a time where proper materials and equipment were rare, a lot of them are prone to improvise when they don’t know how to do a certain task instead of asking somebody who does.
Luckily, this kind of thing has been getting less prevalent, because most of those people are now retiring, and the newer generation has had better training, especially by working abroad.
You made kill-bots look adorable. And you made me feel bad about Santelli trying to kill kill-bots. How are you so good at this?
😀 Cute robots. I was really happy with them.
–M
Not as cute as Tachichomas however.
Tankette + cute voices + tremendous firepower + small size comparatively + good AI = absolute win.
Tachis and Fuchis are the exception to every rule. It’s hard to imagine these guys, who are called, by the way, “Brothers” or “Seven-Forty-Fives” – it’s hard to think of them having cute little voices. These fellas are definitely deep-voiced. And loud.
–M
Still, cute in the big guy way.
Indeed. I really love how the right one peeks around that corner like a shy, but curious child.
^I agree.
and Agree^ @Ulrich
Like peeking carefully not wanting to be seen. ^_^
And then they got shot 😐
P.S. I knew it was them!
I do think it’s hilarious that you gave the first giant killer robot a ‘Hi there!’ pose. 🙂
If only the reds bothered to program the bots with some English
😀 Yeah, I was happy with that.
As to language, well, when in the course of their normal duty would they NEED to speak English? That’s what they figured, anyway.
–M
We come in peace! – They come in peace, kill them!
He says he’s bringing love! QUICK! Break his legs so he can’t get away!
–M
I didn’t have the exact quote in mind. It’s been a while since I watched The Simpsons in English. :/
Question, do all UNA infantry have two full sets of power armor? It seems kind of odd that they all have custom painted armor in both sets (not custom painted, but like with their names and ranks on it). I’d think that would get really expensive really quickly.
It’s just a stencil, and gets painted on repeatedly by Maintenance; it’s actually cheaper than their uniform nametags. The suits are issued soldier by soldier and have to be customized a bit to fit each wearer’s body type after it arrives. This is also done by Base Maintenance, and the suit can be retooled in about two hours for the next wearer when the first guy rotates out of theater. It’s an easier solution than hauling a one and a half ton suit around in air transports. Certain exceptions exist, though – Marines, Airborne, Special Forces and other high mobility troops usually take their suits with them wherever they go.
–M
Does anyone else notice the “killbots” are marked with Soviet wrench decals? Does that mean that they are part of the Soviet engineering corps and are not necessarily murder-machines?
No, it’s just the symbol of the FSR. It’s this world’s equivalent of the Hammer-and-Sickle device, which I don’t like drawing.
–M
There has been a initial sketch on the kill-bots which made them look like battle units.
Though now they have four arms, but heavy armor and no doubt can be geared for war with ease (like with [robot]hand-held weapons). But I think Ilya, Dobrinya and Alesha are all on a rescue mission now.
AND/OR affected by whatever had made Mike go … Mike. Or maybe the differently-sentient-effect which caused Mike’s apotheosis had some effect on those ‘bots, too and they now rally to aid Mike, or their FSR comrades, or the whole of mankind…
Only time can tell.
Santilli doesn’t surprise me. After hearing about his ‘special’ project, his shoot first attitude is not unusual in the least. It takes a strong person to seek peace with an enemy.
On a separate note, I’ve posited that some how getting our nuclear waste or weapons to the sun wont increase background radiation enough to be an issue. The only down sides would be the potential for accident or sabotage getting it to orbit and the resources used to put it into a decaying orbit. The orbit just needs to decay between 60 and 90 degrees behind our orbit for the highest safety margin, though that should be adjusted to compensate for the suns’ rotation which I’m not sure about. The amount of energy wont be much compared to even a minor solar flare which is larger than the planet.
The bots always felt familiar, but now I know why – the blockiness, mix of simple shapes and big central camera eye have a Rockman DASH feel to them.
I also cracked up seeing one big death machine in a relaxed hand-on-hip pose and the other peeking around the corner like a child. Well done, good sir.
Its like “Hey dudes! I brought vodka!”