Or he just fired the beam and now is going to make a sweep
John Swift
3 years ago
Those shots look so good. I bet that would be hard to aim. His flagship is far back for safety so the ships would be quite small in his view, and its a tight beam. Good shot. He probably has alot of practice since iirc he has had his Starcaster for ~100 years.
Or not at all, given how far in reality fighting starships would be. But hey, the comic is a fantasy sci-fi a-la Star Wars, not hard sci-fi. I am not complaining ?
Realistic space-fighting is just a couple of satellites firing lasers at each other and usually having enough time to dodge. If you really want to go all out, spend a rocket’s entire fuel-tank to push a large asteroid towards your least favorite planet and wait a few months or more.
Try hitting something with a good rifle and a scope moving at even 50 km per hour and then imagine doing it with your hand from miles away at something that’s probably moving at 15km per second.
In the end it’s the diameter of the lenses limiting the accuracy of the picture. E.g. Height of a spy satellite + hubble-sized mirror = 1 m resolution.
Or maybe he draws upon the life energy of all beings to guide his shots…. oh wait…. can’t say that or I’ll have Darth Lucas after me…. or even worse, the dang Mouse…. Darth Mickey.
The beam is originating from his hand, but I doubt the act of pointing is the aiming function. He sees his target, the arm begins to charge, and he puts it in front of himself to release the energy.
The mind focuses the energy. Cort hasn’t learned to focus properly yet with his.
Sad news, viewers. There was a horrific accident on the Flagship. An unexpected discharge of a weapon system sliced the USS Death Chicken into two halves, spilling out all the atmosphere and all of the crew.
The Navy is treating is investigating if they can scapegoat their contractor while the Security Service is blaming insurgents and demanding a roundup of those suspected of facilitating the attack.
Interesting development. Nyrah thought the Dranglaex didn’t have a starcaster. I fully expected their caster to be a prop they parade around as a bluff.
No, Dragnalex bluffed they had two Starcasters – the one used here, and the one which Cort has now. That’s why Alliance, which has two starcasters too, didn’t push against them.
Which always makes me wonder what the unnamed third (or third and fourth) side that has the other two Starcasters are going to do. Starcasters are impressive weapons but, if it is not accompanied/supported by a sufficient fleet for defense/transport, that side would be unable to turn aside a determined foe with superior fleet number even if it has fewer Starcasters.
If the Federation and the Dranglaex go into full-out war, the unknown side might wait for the two sides to exhaust themselves and then come sweeping in and knock out both sides.
This seems less like a fleet weapons systems than a WMD. All you need is a scout that can get close to a key enemy planet or facility and hitting them is not much of a problem. BOOM! Then leave. Do the same one at a time at times of your choosing.
This probably has more to do with detente than the fleet situation. It’s like if someone has a death star, the fleet isn’t so relevant as long as it can appear and blow up a planet fairly rapidly.
Egasilon
3 years ago
“What are ya gonna do, step out the airlock and take potshots at them?”
“…Yes”.
Leon
3 years ago
*Fantasia devil music plays*
Kevin Greenbaum
3 years ago
I feel like he forgot the Feds have two Starcasters on their side, not really a weapon I’d have rushed to use knowing they could return fire and wipe out the fleet.
I don’t really understand why the illusion of two starcasters at each side was stopping the war. I don’t really think two starcasters is much better than one. It’s like a nuclear weapon, as long as you have some nuclear weapon, it does not really matter if your opponent has more. You both never use it, because otherwise you both are wiped out.
This is a galactic civilization, not a single planet. If everyone fires their nukes on Earth, life as we know it is pretty much done. But if everyone uses their Starcaster… well, you’ve got three people who blew holes in planets and caused single stars to go supernova. That seems bigger, but to scale with civilizations that span dozens or hundreds of worlds, it’s far smaller. Plus. A Starcaster is a single, non-expendable weapon, not a technology that allows the creation of many expendable weapons. It is tied to a person, who can only travel as fast as a ship… Read more »
That’s not really a valid comparison in space. When you’re stuck on a single planet with no way off, nukes are mutually destructive due to radioactive fallout on the planet you’re living on at atmospheric concerns. In space, where you can battle at a distance of MILES and only have to worry about being hit by Gamma rays or EMP at long range, where your shields capable of protecting you from particle damage while moving faster than light ‘have ample strength to protect you, nukes are only dangerous when fired at you or when fired at another target which you… Read more »
Seems also that you’d not want to be the first shooter because then the other side knows which ship to eviscerate.
One counter might be a swarm of small ships and fire from one but hope the interwoven swarm will screw up enemy tracking.
With this weapon, if the other side can hit you, you can hit them. If you know where they are, their guy dies next. If they don’t know where you are, they get to guess while y ou get to counterstrike with surety. (assuming his one first guess is correct)
I think of it this way – say there are two starcasters in this fight, one on each side. The minute one of them fires, their position becomes known. The other can then shoot straight at them, try to kill them or at the very least, heavily damage their ship. By firing at all, they’re giving away their position, which could be super dangerous if the enemy side has a caster present.
Of course, if one side had multiple casters in the fight, things could change dramatically.
I would say it’s because starcasters’ drain their user for either offensive or defensive measures. Thus there’s a hard energy limit of what can be accomplished. Thus, if the Feds knew that their enemy only had 1, then they could afford to attack first using a starcaster to draw out the enemy starcaster to counter their attack. When the enemy starcaster engages theirs (putting the first Fed SC on the defensive to absorb the attack), the second Fed starcaster could engage and overwhelm them. (And if the enemy SC engages the 2nd Fed SC, then the 1st could relaunch THEIR… Read more »
He definitely didn’t forgot about them, they even talked about their impending arrival on the previous page. That’s part of the reason the Dranglaex are planning to fall back.
This is just a quick blast to deal as much damage as possible *before* the enemy Starcasters arrive and can retaliate.
Humsterr
3 years ago
I need to know how it works in open space — does starcaster protect the hand from any open space related damage (as it seems to do with the ray itself) or does the ray emanate through the spacesuit harmlessly? Just on the surface of the spacesuit?
Does starcaster user actually even need a spacesuit?
To quote TVTropes, most authors (and most readers) are human. Basing alien cultures on historical humans ones can provide a certain shorthand, especially if the story isn’t about exploring a particular alien culture.
Is it me or has the bad guy standing outside the hull armor of his spaceship just drawn a bright orange line to exactly the position he’s standing?
And he just so happens to be carrying the easiest to identify (and the heaviest) weapon in his fleet while wearing a flimsy spacesuit made out of paper mache and hope?
Please form an orderly queue to start taking your return fire potshots gentlemen
They are about to run away. This is a parting shot.
Whatever
3 years ago
Don’t worry, it will buff out.
grizz kid
3 years ago
My favorite part of this comic is all of the arm chair physicists saying how a canon that attaches to an arm, that uses the literal power of the sun ISN’T the most unrealistic part of this comic
24
The target was not the cruiser, it was just in the middle of his trajectory to hit the planet, sure
Or he just fired the beam and now is going to make a sweep
Those shots look so good. I bet that would be hard to aim. His flagship is far back for safety so the ships would be quite small in his view, and its a tight beam. Good shot. He probably has alot of practice since iirc he has had his Starcaster for ~100 years.
Or not at all, given how far in reality fighting starships would be. But hey, the comic is a fantasy sci-fi a-la Star Wars, not hard sci-fi. I am not complaining ?
I really love the “in reality fighting starships would be”.
On which basis the reality of fighting starships is known ?
Physics
Realistic space-fighting is just a couple of satellites firing lasers at each other and usually having enough time to dodge. If you really want to go all out, spend a rocket’s entire fuel-tank to push a large asteroid towards your least favorite planet and wait a few months or more.
Try hitting something with a good rifle and a scope moving at even 50 km per hour and then imagine doing it with your hand from miles away at something that’s probably moving at 15km per second.
I take your point, but if it is moving at 50 km/h away from you, its a lot easier. Or in this case, coming more or less directly at you.
Why would the there be reality fighting starships?
He might have some optical enhancements in his helmet for this purpose, or a HUD linked to his ship’s sensors. Or really good alien eyesight.
And a very steady hand. Even assuming distance is just 50km (miniscule for space fight), moving a hand by just 1° equals almost 1km..
Maybe the actual shot is lined up by the starcaster. He has to get it in the rough direction and the Starcaster takes care of the details.
I mean, if I was making a super smashy power beam weapon, I’d probably want to build in lots of firecontrol.
It wasn’t made to be a super smashy power beam weapon though.
Which would be all the more reason to ensure your ability to target whatever it is you are looking to use the Starcaster on
In the end it’s the diameter of the lenses limiting the accuracy of the picture. E.g. Height of a spy satellite + hubble-sized mirror = 1 m resolution.
If it was using lasers. We have no idea what that beam is. Charged particles, dark matter stream, who knows?
Given it’s called a starcaster….
Or maybe he draws upon the life energy of all beings to guide his shots…. oh wait…. can’t say that or I’ll have Darth Lucas after me…. or even worse, the dang Mouse…. Darth Mickey.
The beam is originating from his hand, but I doubt the act of pointing is the aiming function. He sees his target, the arm begins to charge, and he puts it in front of himself to release the energy.
The mind focuses the energy. Cort hasn’t learned to focus properly yet with his.
Good point. Otherwise, doing something like this would be insanely stupid. One sneeze might mean a third of your forces being wiped out.
Sad news, viewers. There was a horrific accident on the Flagship. An unexpected discharge of a weapon system sliced the USS Death Chicken into two halves, spilling out all the atmosphere and all of the crew.
The Navy is treating is investigating if they can scapegoat their contractor while the Security Service is blaming insurgents and demanding a roundup of those suspected of facilitating the attack.
can he throw his crest like ultraman?
Or Chi-chi?
That’s Ultraseven 🙂
Or just a good old fashioned ‘Hadoken!’.
Interesting development. Nyrah thought the Dranglaex didn’t have a starcaster. I fully expected their caster to be a prop they parade around as a bluff.
No, Dragnalex bluffed they had two Starcasters – the one used here, and the one which Cort has now. That’s why Alliance, which has two starcasters too, didn’t push against them.
Which always makes me wonder what the unnamed third (or third and fourth) side that has the other two Starcasters are going to do. Starcasters are impressive weapons but, if it is not accompanied/supported by a sufficient fleet for defense/transport, that side would be unable to turn aside a determined foe with superior fleet number even if it has fewer Starcasters.
If the Federation and the Dranglaex go into full-out war, the unknown side might wait for the two sides to exhaust themselves and then come sweeping in and knock out both sides.
This seems less like a fleet weapons systems than a WMD. All you need is a scout that can get close to a key enemy planet or facility and hitting them is not much of a problem. BOOM! Then leave. Do the same one at a time at times of your choosing.
This probably has more to do with detente than the fleet situation. It’s like if someone has a death star, the fleet isn’t so relevant as long as it can appear and blow up a planet fairly rapidly.
“What are ya gonna do, step out the airlock and take potshots at them?”
“…Yes”.
*Fantasia devil music plays*
I feel like he forgot the Feds have two Starcasters on their side, not really a weapon I’d have rushed to use knowing they could return fire and wipe out the fleet.
I don’t really understand why the illusion of two starcasters at each side was stopping the war. I don’t really think two starcasters is much better than one. It’s like a nuclear weapon, as long as you have some nuclear weapon, it does not really matter if your opponent has more. You both never use it, because otherwise you both are wiped out.
This is a galactic civilization, not a single planet. If everyone fires their nukes on Earth, life as we know it is pretty much done. But if everyone uses their Starcaster… well, you’ve got three people who blew holes in planets and caused single stars to go supernova. That seems bigger, but to scale with civilizations that span dozens or hundreds of worlds, it’s far smaller. Plus. A Starcaster is a single, non-expendable weapon, not a technology that allows the creation of many expendable weapons. It is tied to a person, who can only travel as fast as a ship… Read more »
That’s not really a valid comparison in space. When you’re stuck on a single planet with no way off, nukes are mutually destructive due to radioactive fallout on the planet you’re living on at atmospheric concerns. In space, where you can battle at a distance of MILES and only have to worry about being hit by Gamma rays or EMP at long range, where your shields capable of protecting you from particle damage while moving faster than light ‘have ample strength to protect you, nukes are only dangerous when fired at you or when fired at another target which you… Read more »
Seems also that you’d not want to be the first shooter because then the other side knows which ship to eviscerate.
One counter might be a swarm of small ships and fire from one but hope the interwoven swarm will screw up enemy tracking.
With this weapon, if the other side can hit you, you can hit them. If you know where they are, their guy dies next. If they don’t know where you are, they get to guess while y ou get to counterstrike with surety. (assuming his one first guess is correct)
I think of it this way – say there are two starcasters in this fight, one on each side. The minute one of them fires, their position becomes known. The other can then shoot straight at them, try to kill them or at the very least, heavily damage their ship. By firing at all, they’re giving away their position, which could be super dangerous if the enemy side has a caster present.
Of course, if one side had multiple casters in the fight, things could change dramatically.
I would say it’s because starcasters’ drain their user for either offensive or defensive measures. Thus there’s a hard energy limit of what can be accomplished. Thus, if the Feds knew that their enemy only had 1, then they could afford to attack first using a starcaster to draw out the enemy starcaster to counter their attack. When the enemy starcaster engages theirs (putting the first Fed SC on the defensive to absorb the attack), the second Fed starcaster could engage and overwhelm them. (And if the enemy SC engages the 2nd Fed SC, then the 1st could relaunch THEIR… Read more »
He definitely didn’t forgot about them, they even talked about their impending arrival on the previous page. That’s part of the reason the Dranglaex are planning to fall back.
This is just a quick blast to deal as much damage as possible *before* the enemy Starcasters arrive and can retaliate.
I need to know how it works in open space — does starcaster protect the hand from any open space related damage (as it seems to do with the ray itself) or does the ray emanate through the spacesuit harmlessly? Just on the surface of the spacesuit?
Does starcaster user actually even need a spacesuit?
It seems that he would need a breathing apparatus, but other than that, a starcaster would protect the wearer from the bends (decompression sickness).
based on the previous page, he is not wearing a glove on that hand but is on his off hand so presumably the blast comes from the hand itself.
So…why are they Space Romans? Shouldn’t an alien culture be completely unrecognizable? Why do these guys who have spaceships and lasers wear togas?
Maybe the Romans were mimicking them?
That’s a good point, but sci-fi is often a fine line between introducing new signals and also relatable signals.
Romulans, Nazis, The Empire… they’re all totalitarians.
To quote TVTropes, most authors (and most readers) are human. Basing alien cultures on historical humans ones can provide a certain shorthand, especially if the story isn’t about exploring a particular alien culture.
I mean to be honest I don’t see a problem with an independently invented toga and associated variations thereof. It’s a super simple style.
The leaf crown and crest are a bit on the nose, perhaps. Still, suspension of disbelief.
Just like a very long lightsaber…. only without the talking muppet.
https://xkcd.com/1433/
Is it me or has the bad guy standing outside the hull armor of his spaceship just drawn a bright orange line to exactly the position he’s standing?
And he just so happens to be carrying the easiest to identify (and the heaviest) weapon in his fleet while wearing a flimsy spacesuit made out of paper mache and hope?
Please form an orderly queue to start taking your return fire potshots gentlemen
Right because the ship couldn’t possibly have defensive shields.
They are about to run away. This is a parting shot.
Don’t worry, it will buff out.
My favorite part of this comic is all of the arm chair physicists saying how a canon that attaches to an arm, that uses the literal power of the sun ISN’T the most unrealistic part of this comic