IDE/Theory Thread 24: The Pink Moon's moon is Io

[Freack]

Well, the game IS more likely to have glitches because it IS still in Alpha/Beta

I though Alpha was the version after Beta that was "fixed."

[linkman0596]

I though Alpha was the version after Beta that was "fixed."

not really, the beta version is the initial session, where the original universe sends out mass copies of sburb (the beta test version) so many potential universes can be created. the alpha version results after a scratch, where only one sessions players enter per universe, and is called alpha due to the sburb copy being an alpha test, making it harder to get ahold of so only the few people meant to have it will get it.

[Conspicuous]

Where?

No, really, where? I truly want to know where you read this, because as far as I can recall, the closest the story's come to even addressing it was Doc Scratch saying "failure is common", which a) may not be indicative of the frequency of actual scratches, and b) if it is, well...

Well, if we assume that all the incomplete GameFAQs are indicative of failed sessions is safe to assume a lot of players don't even make it as far as to cause a Scratch to begin with.

And Rose did remark that Sburb seems to favour redundancy in the reproductive process of universes.
If The Scratch was a reliable process, it wouldn't need to start as many sessions as it did.

[Blaperile]

Where?

No, really, where? I truly want to know where you read this, because as far as I can recall, the closest the story's come to even addressing it was Doc Scratch saying "failure is common", which a) may not be indicative of the frequency of actual scratches, and b) if it is, well...

Here, Doc Scratch says that failures are common, but Scratches are only meant to be used in emergencies like with the Kids (though their situation is still rare).

I guess it wasn't explitly said that Scratches are rare, but I'd think it is because it doesn't happen with all failures, only with real emergencies where victory is not possible.

So with players just generally being bad, they probably don't have chance to get a Scratch. Players who create a null or void session? Most likely they do.

[Legendary]

Considering that to execute a Scratch you have to deal with Denizens and be able to defeat the hardest non-boss monsters in the game, it's actually quite likely that Scratches are relatively rare and exist for one broad scenario:

When the powers of the Horrorterrors, Lord English, or anything else that is ever powerful enough to affect a session arranges things so that the game cannot be won due to circumstances that are not the fault of the players involved. Temporal paradoxes, terminal cancer, whatever.

Either this scenario is quite rare, or Sburb is far more glitchy than Dave's artifacts.

[Vanymstorm]

Has anybody posted "Team Fuck Shit Up is Skipper Plumbthroat" yet?

[mysteriousOutsider]

Not in those words I don't think

but the general idea, yes.

[Kuyan J]

Some theories about what will come after Homestuck:

Structure of MSPA so far:
Adventure 1, Adventure 2, Adventure 3, Midnight Crew, Adventure 4.

Structure of Homestuck so far:
Act 1, Act 2, Act 3, Midnight Crew Intermission, Act 4, Act 5 (Act 1, Act 2, otermission, Cascade), Lord English Intermission, Act 6 (Act 1, Intermission 1, Act 2, Intermission 2, Act 3, to be continued).

IDE/Theory: MSPA after Homestuck will be based on this pattern. The adventure after Homestuck will be bifurcated to an extent not previously seen in MSPA, and conclude with an hour long movie. Then there will be something else like the Midnight Crew adventure, but about something from the Lord English Intermission. Then there will be an adventure broken into seven parts, then one more adventure, and then MSPA will end.

***

IDE/Theory: The entire of the adventure immediately after Homestuck will be very similar in style to Act 1 of Homestuck.

***

IDE/Theory: The purpose of Homestuck was just to build a fanbase. The adventure after Homestuck will somehow rely on having a big, active fanbase.

[wait]

I have a theory, or maybe it'd be more accurately described as a fear?

Jack might die soon. Having Jailstuck going on makes me think of other times when there has been extra focus on certain characters for a while in the lead up to their deaths.

Maybe we'll get a Prospitian jail walkaround first? A stabaround?? John, Rose, Kanaya, Equius etc. all got to have a little stroll before their demise.

I'm also theorizing/hoping that a pony or horse gets stabbed. At some earlier point in time I complained that none of the Jacks were stabbing ponies and lamented that none were even within a reasonable proximity to any ponies that could potentially be stabbed within the grounds of the plot. But then a while later we saw Slick take a nosedive into a sea practically surrounded by stallions, and now Jack is playing Jailbreak which is almost notorious for its slight horse content... It has gone from seeming almost impossible for a pony to get stabbed, to seeming almost inevitable that a pony will get stabbed.

Or maybe Mr Hussie is just fucking with my mind.

Here, Doc Scratch says that failures are common, but Scratches are only meant to be used in emergencies like with the Kids (though their situation is still rare).

I guess it wasn't explitly said that Scratches are rare, but I'd think it is because it doesn't happen with all failures, only with real emergencies where victory is not possible.

So with players just generally being bad, they probably don't have chance to get a Scratch. Players who create a null or void session? Most likely they do.

Technically, even when the players really just suck, the end result (their failure) is already predetermined, so victory is still really not possible.

It's also not their fault that they suck, as they themselves and their state of "being people who just suck really bad" are the product of a series of events that are outside of their control.

I don't think we can really take Doc's word for anything anyway though. He's full of shit in general, and only really seems to say things for his own purposes. He needed the kids to perform the reset in order for the scratched universe to exist, and describing the process as an inbuilt function of the game which sounded suited the kids' needs was just the way to get them to do it.

I wouldn't be surprised if you're really not supposed to scratch that thing at all. It's like telling a child to break their hard drive to get their parents to replace it. Yeah, it works, but not because the hard drive was intentionally designed with that in mind. The manufacturer probably wouldn't put something like that in the instruction manual... "This has been designed specifically to be damaged. If you have any problems, just break it, and its destruction will signal a nearby parental drone to REBOOT the system with their WALLET."

[Legendary]

On the other hand, if it's existing right there where any player can get at it...

It really makes more sense to look at it like this: Skaia makes a bunch of players with a bunch of configurations and throws them at a planet. For the most part, these planets aren't explicitly designed to pop out perfectly players. They're just places. So when the time comes for the players to circle back around and enter, there's no guarantee they're ready for anything more than participating in their own creation. If one group has a problem player (a sociopath, someone with limited control over their body, perhaps even someone who is too emotionally scarred to really participate reliably), Skaia doesn't care. It made there be lots of players for a reason.

But it keeps track. If every game in a batch is doomed to failure, that suggests outside influence, so the one session with the best odds is given the fate of rebooting existence. It's suicidal yes, but it pays off. And ultimately, only one group in any given set of sessions needs to scratch. Even if they're the only ones reborn on the other end, Skaia is still actually ensuring that they'll (er rather, their ancestors'll) be ready this time around.

To use a reproductive analogy, the males of a given species release a lot of gametes when trying to impregnate a female. They're certainly not upset that most of these gametes will be unsuccessful in finding a female counterpart - only one needs to. But if they all fail in this, it's a sign that it's time to try again, because that universe has got to gestate somehow and wait this is supposed to be a metaphor why am I invoking universes now

[Sparrowsmith]

On the other hand, if it's existing right there where any player can get at it...

It really makes more sense to look at it like this: Skaia makes a bunch of players with a bunch of configurations and throws them at a planet. For the most part, these planets aren't explicitly designed to pop out perfectly players. They're just places. So when the time comes for the players to circle back around and enter, there's no guarantee they're ready for anything more than participating in their own creation. If one group has a problem player (a sociopath, someone with limited control over their body, perhaps even someone who is too emotionally scarred to really participate reliably), Skaia doesn't care. It made there be lots of players for a reason.

But it keeps track. If every game in a batch is doomed to failure, that suggests outside influence, so the one session with the best odds is given the fate of rebooting existence. It's suicidal yes, but it pays off. And ultimately, only one group in any given set of sessions needs to scratch. Even if they're the only ones reborn on the other end, Skaia is still actually ensuring that they'll (er rather, their ancestors'll) be ready this time around.

To use a reproductive analogy, the males of a given species release a lot of gametes when trying to impregnate a female. They're certainly not upset that most of these gametes will be unsuccessful in finding a female counterpart - only one needs to. But if they all fail in this, it's a sign that it's time to try again, because that universe has got to gestate somehow and wait this is supposed to be a metaphor why am I invoking universes now

Perhaps Skaia chooses the session with the strongest guardians for its reboot?
Bro Dirk could evenly match a 3x prototyped Jack Noir who killed the BK outright. Grandpa Harley saved John pretty much effortlessly. Nana Egbert/Crocker healed John. And Mom Roxy was a pretty formidable fighter.

The beginning success of their session was almost entirely due to the guardians. It all just went to shit when Bec got prototyped (something that can't happen in a non-prototyped session) so Skaia has accounted for all ends and put the most resourceful players in the game.

[Blaperile]

I don't think we can really take Doc's word for anything anyway though. He's full of shit in general, and only really seems to say things for his own purposes. He needed the kids to perform the reset in order for the scratched universe to exist, and describing the process as an inbuilt function of the game which sounded suited the kids' needs was just the way to get them to do it.

Doc Scratch said he never lies, and this is true. He never lied, he just said things in a misleading way and did things that would help himself and Lord English.

IDE/Theory: The Homestuck books will be in this way:

Homestuck Book 3: Act 3 + Intermission.

Homestuck Book 4: Act 4 + Epilogue.

Homestuck Book 5: Act 5 Act 1.

Homestuck Book 6: Act 5 Act 2 up till Wake (AKA Horrorstuck).

Homestuck Book 7: Act 5 Act 2 from Wake till end.

I'm not sure about the rest of the books though.

[azhdrake]

Doc Scratch said he never lies, and this is true. He never lied, he just said things in a misleading way and did things that would help himself and Lord English.

IDE/Theory: The Homestuck books will be in this way:

Homestuck Book 3: Act 3 + Intermission.

Homestuck Book 4: Act 4 + Epilogue.

Homestuck Book 5: Act 5 Act 1.

Homestuck Book 6: Act 5 Act 2 up till Wake (AKA Horrorstuck).

Homestuck Book 7: Act 5 Act 2 from Wake till end.

I'm not sure about the rest of the books though.

For the records of the insane,
Act 1.0: 0247 pgs, 010,800 words, 162 pg book
Act 2.0: 0511 pgs, 024,045 words, 280 pg book
Act 3.0: 0395 pgs, 017,710 words, ???
Int 1 .0: 0204 pgs, 007,959 words, ???
Act 4.0: 0631 pgs, 056,292 words, ???
Act 5.1: 0637 pgs, 061,343 words, ???
Act 5.2: 1485 pgs, 157,477 words, ???
Int 2 .0: 0002 pgs, 000,016 words, ???

The word counts were gathered by copying the search function into a word document. Dates are counted as words, as are ==>s, but this data does not account for the length or words of flashes, which become more plentiful as time progresses (5.1 excluded).

From this data, act three + first intermission would fit into a book perfectly. However, act four has twice the words and a quarter again the pictures of act two (and the second book is around 90 pages longer then any other MSPA books), so it will most likely need to be broken down. Act 5.1 even more so.

And obviously the second intermission is going to need its own book.

[Druplesnubb]

I think that prospit might start working for Lord English. Since Lord English wants the players to create a new universe they're kinda already doing it but if the players start to realize what's going on and maybe make a change of plans Prospit is likely to start serving him more directly.

[The Mather1]

Just realized, we haven't seen any spidermoms on Jake's island yet...
Something tells me he's in for a bad time in those ruins.

[Woe Kitten]

On the other hand, there might be a virgin mother grub down there/around the island somewhere. UU would probably tell Jake how and why to get a Matriorb, thus helping him bring hope back to the trolls. But there probably are spidermoms around somewhere...

[Legendary]

Not likely to be a Mother Grub actually, since if there was the Condesce could remake her whole species.

[linkman0596]

Not likely to be a Mother Grub actually, since if there was the Condesce could remake her whole species.

she'd still need genetic material, even if she had a mother grub she'd need at least one other troll to make it work

[Legendary]

It would not surprise me if her ship was still littered with the corpses of the crew, though. I mean, she'd kept all those lusii for no reason.

[azhdrake]

Not likely to be a Mother Grub actually, since if there was the Condesce could remake her whole species.

The Condesce clearly had the ability to remake the troll race, the problem was not in Mother Grubs or Genetic Slurries but the fact that Gl'bgolyb would vast glub any of her attempts. The fact that there was something to vast glub suggests to me that She had a mother grub.

[Woe Kitten]

Unless she was just ecto-cloning the bodies of her subordinates. That wouldn't need a mother grub.

Not to shoot down my own theory or anything.

[Blaperile]

From this data, act three + first intermission would fit into a book perfectly. However, act four has twice the words and a quarter again the pictures of act two (and the second book is around 90 pages longer then any other MSPA books), so it will most likely need to be broken down. Act 5.1 even more so.

It seems Act 4 will be in one book, as the word of God says now.

[wait]

Doc Scratch said he never lies, and this is true.

Unless... UNLESS... It isn't true, and he's just bullshitting.

[Legendary]

Andrew Hussie stated about Doc Scratch that he was careful to make it so that he never lied except by omission. As such, we must assume that this is part of his character. As such, we must assume that the Scratch is a normal mechanic.

[The_Codfish]

Unless... UNLESS... Hussie was lying and he's just bullshitting.