egscomics
patreon
Parable - 10 - HD
🕑 Added 2019-09-20 18:53:43 +0000 UTCGotta go (effectively) fast!
Commentary
Slow Time in Fable 2 had two functions:
Not Targeted - Slows down time for a variable number of seconds.
Targeted - Rushes you at a target, and gives you a damage boost if you attack fast enough.
I suppose what Susan does here could be viewed as "not targeted" and doing things while time is slowed, but I imagine it's not a shock to anyone that there is no option to mess with people's outfits or steal their weapons.
That said, however, I'd really like to see that in a game. I'd like a freeze time mechanic that doesn't let you run or attack while it's active, but does allow you to activate, move, and take things.
Maybe in-game buttons you press don't fully activate until time speeds back up, allowing you to effectively activate several things at once.
Maybe you can take enemy weapons and gear away if you time things right, with where the enemy is in their animations possibly mattering, meaning you have to time the ability right for it to be an option, and there being a danger of walking right into a hit if timed poorly.
Maybe you can put things in the way that will trip up enemies, or would be bad for them to hit, but they're already mid-attack and won't be able to stop in time.
Maybe you could even push enemies around a bit or turn them, possibly directing them towards things like cliff edges or each other.
I think there's tons of potential there, but most games are just like "hey, you want to aim more easily, and/or get a bunch of attacks in while enemies are defenseless? Yeah you do."
Comments
Anthony Wilson
I think they're saving a Charm like that for the Abyssals or Liminals. And the heartbeat mention is just in the "pure fluff" bit of the Evocation's description - the rest of it is worded so that even if you could stop your heart for longer, it doesn't pause time for longer.
Fenrir
Knowing Exalted, there's also a charm that lets you stop your own heart for a bit so you have more subjective time to work with between heartbeats.
Fenrir
I never played the first one (watched a Let's Play, remember almost none of it), but in the second you can also plant mines on people while time is paused. They ofc go off the moment time resumes. I once saw someone come up with over 50 ways to kill Jindosh using the time-stop power (in conjunction with other abilities, ofc)
Fenrir
Reminds me of Timeshift (great game, btw): You can slow and even stop time more or less at your leisure (stopped things react to what you do to them all at once, so you can launch bodies by emptying a shotgun clip into them), but you're not allowed to even try and fire a weapon while reversing time, for obvious reasons.
Chordat
ooh, yes, I remember that from NWN1. That was fun, especially if you could queue it with higher level spells like Fireball or even Greater Missile Storm.
Otter Annason
incidentally, there's a book that handles stopping time rather interestingly, "The Girl, The Gold Watch, And Everything" 1962, John D. McDonald. The book does MUCH better than the cheap movie they made of it in the 80's
Some Ed
Cutting someone's hair without their consent is totally not cool. Some people say that only applies to "girls", but the fact that they clearly include adult women with that term, based on other things they say, makes it very clear that they are sexist. What's bad for the goose is bad for the gander. A lot of guys will play it off like it's nothing, and to many of them it might be. But I know there's at least a respectable number of guys out there who would be secretly psychologically devastated if you cut off their hair without their consent. As one of them said on multiple occasions, he "would sooner *die*!" As such, Susan is being very mature and responsible here.
Anthony Wilson
There's something like that in Exalted 3rd Edition - one sourcebook had a staff that can momentarily stop time around the wielder for a heartbeat. At first it's only done if you roll well for initiative, but later abilities on the staff let you do it again during the fight. And you could use the stopped time for stuff like disarming a foe, stealing stuff off them, throwing something in their path that would trip them up when time resumes, etc.
WillowD
Susan is awesome.
Elfangor
Dishonored has something like that. You can steal weapons when time is frozen, put enemies in the trajectory of their own bullets, and such. You can't bind them or put clothes in their faces, but it's the closest thing I've seen.
ZekeStaright
One of my favorite things to do in Fallout is have my sneak so high that i can pickpocket everything off someone & they don't even notice.
Daryl Sawyer
Slow time shout plus 100 pickpocketing.
Sibyl Arnett
You're kind of describing Time Stop in the Infinity Engine games, where you could queue up multiple actions that all went off at once when time resumed for the world. It led to some glorious bursts of spell effects as 4 shields and 23 magic missiles flew towards targets after all hanging in midair for 15 seconds.
Stephen Gilberg
Looking back, I see that the previous strip accidentally repeated "8."
Stephen Gilberg
Not sure that's a him.
John Trauger
There's a thief pickpocket for you....
AstroChaos
Hmm... There is a reason the modern form of Time Stop has it end the moment your action affects someone other than yourself. Would be too absurd otherwise
IvyReed
I'm surprised she didn't give him a hair cut.
Sleep
Susan's expressions are entirely wonderful in this.
