‘Not A Villain’ Webcomic – Page 421

Colors by Jemma and Audrey. Everything else by me.

Yes, Esones can save your life. But it's a pain to go and have to find a new one. Especially since Esones vary in strength/power.

Random Game Info:

You can name your Esones. The default is the numerical order of which you've found them. Hence, Danni's Esone is, at this time, called "First".

I actually had a lot more stuff in panel 1, but I felt it was too busy/confusing, so I cut a lot of it out. So, you don't get to see what Danni chose as her other two specials. They'll show up in action eventually, though!

Thanks to those that were giving Special ideas. Unfortunately, most of them would fit better in the higher percentages. I'll keep some of them in mind for later, though!

39 Comments

LOL! I totally missed Kat’s jump the first time reading the page. I don’t think I’d do well with the overlay thing.

Me too

Me three.

I think I would adjust to it after a while, but it would definitely be hard at first.

I saw it, because I was thinking about Kat’s colours but then I got sucked into reading the thing about the esone breaking after one hit and didn’t pick up on what she was doing…

…so yes, I failed like Dani.

Yes, I was like Danni. I mean, in contrast to her, I ALSO had speech bubbles to look at.

I certainly wouldn’t be able to play like this, either. It’s like playing Minecraft and hitting F3 to see your coordinates (among lots of other stuff). Useful at times, but I always turn it off after a while.

I am like that with new games for a while, but when i get used… I always play with F3 on in Minecraft (and that’s with the VIllage Info mod!) and I used to always had the map overlay on in Diablo, when I played that. It seems distracting for a first couple uses, but then one day you forget to turn it off and just see through it like it isn’t there because you are used to it.

Danni’s menu doesn’t count as evidence bc it’s obviously specifically a menu and not normal overlay, it covers most of the screen AND dims it!

And omg Kat looking down from the tree is adorable!

I think thats the point. She made the panel very busy so most of us would miss Kat doing her thing. I am sure Kat will tell her how to minimize most of it till she is used to it. (For example, I don’t think the full list of Morto skills needs to be out all the time.)

And this is case and point for proper HUDs in games. A bad HUD can break an otherwise decent game.

Wow! I am like Danni. It wasn’t until I read the alt text that I saw that I had indeed missed something happening while looking right at it. That would take some conditioning to ignore the readouts. But these seem to be part of a setup menu, so the usual display should not be so obtrusive.

Hmm, does the percentage mean that you have to be at that percent of that alignment, to use that special, or is it just to get?

Also, what does the whole dump (Hp Dump) mean? From what I can infer, you spend that amount when you use the skill, right?

Well, it said that Dani had an alignment of 30% in morto, so I would assume with it saying 35% unavailable that the percentages are “you must have this percent in the alignment to use.”

I think is the effect of the special on the target.

For instance Kleya’s “Nice” dumps your HP by the same amount the damage of your attack on her did (and also dumps your Happiness is she is “hand raised”).

I take it back, semantic confusion 🙂

Now Kat is even behaving like a cat! =D

I would assume that the esone hit absorption would mean literally saving your life from a killing blow, and not just absorbing any hit and fizzling out.

If 15% minimum is needed for alignment perks, what’s the Morto perk? A weakness pointer? [INFO: Target is allergic to peanuts.] =P

I was just thinking that! When she’ s looking down from the tree like ‘what, what did I do’ she reminds me so much of a cat!

Kleya: “Hey Danni?”

Danni: “What?”

Kleya: “I’m stuck in this tree.”

Okay, that’s unlikely to happen, but, you know, it totally could. :p

I kinda feel for Danni here, I actually have a friend named Dani who has a lot of similar problems in MMOs. I assume 10% and 20% HP Dump temporarily reassign that percentage of your HP into another stat? (Strength or Melee Power would be my guess.) If so, Recklessness I, II, III, and so on might be a better name for that special.

Is Morto Market Ride an intimidate skill? (Gain a discount based on your reputation) That’s kind of awesome.

Has someone an idea what “Morto Market Ride” could do?

I think it summons Dera-chan who fly straight to enemy’s face knocking them down. Short range ;P

I only caught that Kat was in the first couple panels at all on re-read. Neat!

Looks like Kat’s making a move for the rare item. That seems ballsy. I wonder what tactic she’ll use. Could it be the “Ow, I just stubbed my toe on something.” line? Hopefully she’ll stumble over it while “searching for normal plants”.

The whole stumble upon it while looking for plants, no two-ways about it.

So… First time commentator here. I have to ask, is this all based on authors own imagination? You just came up with an idea of a game within a game within an apocalyptic world? And all the little details and rules and stuff, too? Can I have your brain?

I don’t need her brain, I just need a game designer to wander into the comic, do a double take, and design the whole two-level VR game so I can play/watch. >.>

Seconded!

Haha, my brain is only useful for stories, not so much for real life. 😛

And to be fair, it’s taken years for the Game to fully develop in my head. There are still parts I’m working on, too.

How about you put the stuff you cut out as vote incentive? I’m sure many of us would love to see it no matter how confusing it is.

True, but I’ve re-arranged the plot so they’ll come out later. You’ll just have to wait and see!

Can we get a listing for percentage abilities of each classification?

I would love to learn more about them because it sounds awesome.

Maybe after I finish introducing all the alignments? At least for the lower percentages. The higher ones would be spoilerific for certain scenes…

Just caught up in reading this, It is an awesome story. Thanks for sharing.

Thanks for reading!! And for leaving a comment!

No! Bad Kat! No jumping for rare items on top of trees! Bad! Now think about what you’ve done!

Here’s some more special ideas, erbana this time. I’m trying my best to make these unique, because I’m sure that you’ve already got the basic ones in place.

Life bond: The erbana player’s hit points and stats become connected with another player. Then the erbana player has the opportunity to “lend” their stats or hitpoints to that other player. However, if one of them takes a status effect, there is a 50% chance every turn that the other will take the same status effect. If one dies, they both die.

Ivory tower: A White spiraling tree grows from the ground, straight into the sky, up to 50 ft high and 5 feet in diameter, which completely modifies the terrain around it, breaks through enclosed structures, and has the potential to remove any player from the battle field. The tree is only solid for the first hour, then it shrinks approximately 2 feet per hour, until it disappears.

Ivory Path: Same as Ivory tower, but the wood grows laterally along the ground, which can create a bridge over a canyon, make a short wall or press through obstacles like walls (if you’re willing to wait for the 24 hours for it to recede)

Breaking bread: An erbana player divides a potion or food item into multiple pieces, all which contain the same effect as the original. They have to be consumed at the same time to have effect or all remaining items will turn to dust.

Peace bonded: A chosen opponent is subject to the same rules as an Erbana player. Every time they act outside of erbana rules, their primary alignment takes a small hit in % and the opponent feels somewhat sedated for a moment. If two alignments are tied, they take even % hits. The more they struggle against peace, the more they loose and the sedation gets heavier. When the opponent is released from the special, they must re-earn their lost alignment. The sedative effects wear off immediately.

Hidden Caravan: An erbana player can use their infinite bag of holding to smuggle something (or someone) as large as an average sized player. If the erbana player chooses to put multiple people in their bag, they are all transported to the the same holding cell on a different plane, with access to the erbana player’s inventory. This includes the ability to take inventory, or rearrange inventory during their time as “passengers”. The passengers only have an opportunity to be released when the erbana player opens their bag to retrieve an item, although it doesn’t matter what item it is.

Secret garden: Also an upgrade to the bag of holding. Except once a bag of holding receives a new plant, it is able to grow it. The more plants a bag contains, the faster the supply grows. So generally common plants grow quickly, because it is easy to stock pile them, while rare plants grow slowly. If you use all of one type of plant, the “sprouts” stop growing inside the bag until you get some more of that variety. Sprouts may have lessened or slightly different properties than their adult counter parts, but they are typically useless.