Its all the more impressive given that the overwhelming majority of what we see of Nick’s posture and expressions up till now are the posture and expressions of a helicopter.
On the contrary, the posture and facial expression seems like a flaw in this case because Nick has been a helicopter for so long that even HAVING facial expressions or posture should feel weird and unnatural.
If anything, I would expect Nick’s control of this chassis to be somewhat awkward and minimalist.
Yeah, I gotta agree with bob here. It’s great how you carried it over.
I don’t know if I’ve told YOU guys this, but as a webcomics expert I would like to tell you guys that this is one of the finest webcomics. I love the story, it’s great.
Maybe toning down the curves – I’ve seen dress-forms w/ adjustable hips/bust/waist/torso length – A humanoid drone remote is probably not a custom job (each unique) if they are so willing to slag them upon discovery.
AND considering that doctor lee said they based it on (copied) her design – she probably knows all those little adjustments.
Bet it even has a pheromone dispenser (I’m channeling the Artie as secret agent arc of Narbonic) – she probably switched that over if there was any gender specific settings.
I’d suspect that it’s Nick’s voice, actually. I assume that the drone uses the same kind of thoughts-to-speech synthesizer as the helicopter does (since it sounds like this drone is mostly piggybacking off of that technology) and it shouldn’t be hard to adjust the settings to match Nick’s.
What I’M curious about is whether the censor modifies his output at an early stage, or if it just replaces the audio and Nickbot lip-syncs along to what he /wants/ to say.
I’m not sure it makes any kind of technical sense for it to work this way, but I’m imagining it being like TV censorship overdubbing, but with the replacement audio in an obviously synthesized mechanical voice.
Given the purpose the drone was intended to serve, I’d guess it has its own feminine voice. It wouldn’t be desirable for an infiltration drone to sound like its operator, especially when it’s a girlbot with a male operator. While the voice probably could be tuned to match Nick’s ordinary one, that would make interacting with the general public problematic.
Now I’m hearing all of the profanity filter words in the “MESSAGE REDACTED” voice from Jonathan Coulton’s “Chiron Beta Prime”: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5M9UTlDb10
That raises the question of what was Violet’s operator gonna do if Tip ever said yes. Kinda makes me think that maybe things went according to plan after all.
Nick already brought up Violet’s lack of nipples way back in June. If her builders didn’t sweat that detail, I can’t imagine they’d have put forth the effort to include anything more… complicated.
The “its just a ride” – I hadn’t considered that response from him.
I wonder how much feedback he gets from the remote – could affect his sense of self – such as “does he feel threatened when the remote is threatened?”.
Proprioception wouldn’t be enough, he’d be really clumsy without touch as well. Ever wear thick gloves?
It’s a trope that anyone who is forced to adopt a mechanical body will spend their time whining about “not being able to feel anything!” despite usually having no problem going about their daily life. These two things logically don’t go together, but writers rarely seem to understand that.
I am staring at Bee-Nick in baffled awe, trying to figure out how his character design works. For a start, I hadn’t realised how distinctive the shape of Violet’s face was ’til I saw Nick’s facial expressions on it.
I think the primary changes are thinner eyebrows and removed eyelashes, although Violet was drawn that way a few times in the latter strips of the Railway arc (and looked very androgynous as a result). Removing the bow from the hair had a big effect also.
Couple that with a change of clothes and droopier shoulders.
The weird thing is, the previous operator (or “a” previous, we may have seen more than one) tried to seduce Tip with this body. Sounds like that would be pretty pointless…
The operator may not have checked the system schematics carefully enough, or assumed that Tip would be influenced by a pretty face and a plastic body. Or the operator had a seriously disturbing imagination about what could be done with those low-res components…
Or possibly that wasn’t the same body. We don’t know there’s only one of them after all. Given the first mission they expected team Skin Horse, it makes sense to use the “fully functional” body to seduce Tip. The mission to St. Charlie, on the other hand, we know they weren’t expecting Skin Horse to show up so might have used a more basic model.
Another possibility is that the first time we saw Violet, she was actually a human, and the drone was merely modeled after her body. A-Sig does some pretty disturbing things, after all.
The bot actually looks like a boy as well. If I were him I would get them to remove the boobs completely, tone up the face slightly and call it a day. The hair looks good like that.
I do have to admit… I like that you can tell its nick driving the droid. Totally different posture/expressions. Well done.
Its all the more impressive given that the overwhelming majority of what we see of Nick’s posture and expressions up till now are the posture and expressions of a helicopter.
Just have to point out the Mario t-shirt. That’s Nick clothing, not… Violet-Bee-the-character clothing. Bit of a hint.
The real question is, if another helicopter showed up, would we be able to tell it’s not Nick based only on its posture/expressions?
On the contrary, the posture and facial expression seems like a flaw in this case because Nick has been a helicopter for so long that even HAVING facial expressions or posture should feel weird and unnatural.
If anything, I would expect Nick’s control of this chassis to be somewhat awkward and minimalist.
He was a human a lot longer than he was a helicopter, though. Maybe it’s like riding a bike. Mind, he probably feels more comfortable as a helicopter.
Yeah, I gotta agree with bob here. It’s great how you carried it over.
I don’t know if I’ve told YOU guys this, but as a webcomics expert I would like to tell you guys that this is one of the finest webcomics. I love the story, it’s great.
So is the bot speaking with Nick’s voice now, or does it still sound like Violet?
I would assume the voice box in use is Violetbot’s. Wouldn’t be too useful without one.
Maybe that’s what Dr. Lee was adjusting there?
Maybe toning down the curves – I’ve seen dress-forms w/ adjustable hips/bust/waist/torso length – A humanoid drone remote is probably not a custom job (each unique) if they are so willing to slag them upon discovery.
AND considering that doctor lee said they based it on (copied) her design – she probably knows all those little adjustments.
Bet it even has a pheromone dispenser (I’m channeling the Artie as secret agent arc of Narbonic) – she probably switched that over if there was any gender specific settings.
Does that mean Violet/Nick could infiltrate the Daves?
I’d suspect that it’s Nick’s voice, actually. I assume that the drone uses the same kind of thoughts-to-speech synthesizer as the helicopter does (since it sounds like this drone is mostly piggybacking off of that technology) and it shouldn’t be hard to adjust the settings to match Nick’s.
What I’M curious about is whether the censor modifies his output at an early stage, or if it just replaces the audio and Nickbot lip-syncs along to what he /wants/ to say.
I’m not sure it makes any kind of technical sense for it to work this way, but I’m imagining it being like TV censorship overdubbing, but with the replacement audio in an obviously synthesized mechanical voice.
Given the purpose the drone was intended to serve, I’d guess it has its own feminine voice. It wouldn’t be desirable for an infiltration drone to sound like its operator, especially when it’s a girlbot with a male operator. While the voice probably could be tuned to match Nick’s ordinary one, that would make interacting with the general public problematic.
Now I’m hearing all of the profanity filter words in the “MESSAGE REDACTED” voice from Jonathan Coulton’s “Chiron Beta Prime”: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5M9UTlDb10
Thank you.
No! Don’t go! Stay and watch chaos unfold!
That raises the question of what was Violet’s operator gonna do if Tip ever said yes. Kinda makes me think that maybe things went according to plan after all.
So she’s basically a giant, mechanical Barb–I mean Ken doll?
Without even the “looks good in clothing” features.
It’s a droid in the most basic sense, without even a native intelligence.
Not that Nick would care about how he/she looks of course.
Nick already brought up Violet’s lack of nipples way back in June. If her builders didn’t sweat that detail, I can’t imagine they’d have put forth the effort to include anything more… complicated.
The “its just a ride” – I hadn’t considered that response from him.
I wonder how much feedback he gets from the remote – could affect his sense of self – such as “does he feel threatened when the remote is threatened?”.
This is shaping up pretty interesting.
He’s got arms, he’s got legs, he’s got a face to talk with other with.
Everything else is just details.
Is that a reference to Callahan’s?
That would be “I can see fingers and a tongue from here.”
I would hope Nick at least gets proprioception from Violet, or he’s going to be REALLY clumsy.
Proprioception wouldn’t be enough, he’d be really clumsy without touch as well. Ever wear thick gloves?
It’s a trope that anyone who is forced to adopt a mechanical body will spend their time whining about “not being able to feel anything!” despite usually having no problem going about their daily life. These two things logically don’t go together, but writers rarely seem to understand that.
As advanced as it is, I’d like to think that the drone has a sense of touch, even if it’s very limited.
I am staring at Bee-Nick in baffled awe, trying to figure out how his character design works. For a start, I hadn’t realised how distinctive the shape of Violet’s face was ’til I saw Nick’s facial expressions on it.
I think the primary changes are thinner eyebrows and removed eyelashes, although Violet was drawn that way a few times in the latter strips of the Railway arc (and looked very androgynous as a result). Removing the bow from the hair had a big effect also.
Couple that with a change of clothes and droopier shoulders.
I have to say.. Chick Nick is adorable.
For the “low-res” bit. Is the body lacking detail, or are the eyes not very sensitive?
It’s the lack of detail. For one thing, we know it has no nipples.
The weird thing is, the previous operator (or “a” previous, we may have seen more than one) tried to seduce Tip with this body. Sounds like that would be pretty pointless…
The operator may not have checked the system schematics carefully enough, or assumed that Tip would be influenced by a pretty face and a plastic body. Or the operator had a seriously disturbing imagination about what could be done with those low-res components…
Or possibly that wasn’t the same body. We don’t know there’s only one of them after all. Given the first mission they expected team Skin Horse, it makes sense to use the “fully functional” body to seduce Tip. The mission to St. Charlie, on the other hand, we know they weren’t expecting Skin Horse to show up so might have used a more basic model.
Another possibility is that the first time we saw Violet, she was actually a human, and the drone was merely modeled after her body. A-Sig does some pretty disturbing things, after all.
The bot actually looks like a boy as well. If I were him I would get them to remove the boobs completely, tone up the face slightly and call it a day. The hair looks good like that.
Other additions optional.