explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

Talk:2765: Escape Speed

2025-04-27T20:55:56Z

162.158.74.108:

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</noinclude>"A special feature it that it does not have its own gravity, so the ship continues to be attracted to the crystal sphere regardless of which side of the planet you're on." This seems wrong. You are attracted to the Click and Drag planet and can land on it on any side. It is just that the gravity of the crystal sphere is so relatively huge that it quickly overpowers the gravity of the planet when too high above the surface on the near side makes the ground appear sloped on the "sides", similar to the moon of Origin. It would be really cool if someone could make a map that showed the gravity field everywhere. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.203.39|162.158.203.39]] 11:09, 25 April 2023 (UTC)

When Beret Guy says "Wow!" on the starting planet, isn't it actually a reference to the alt text of [[1117: My Sky]], and not [[502: Dark Flow]]? --[[User:BrightBlackHole|BrightBlackHole]] ([[User talk:BrightBlackHole|talk]]) 18:13, 23 April 2023 (UTC)

With an old browser (all I have, this moment) I just have the starscape, the hovertext and a button in the bottom right corner to seemingly reset (same starscape, and briefly the message "Welcome back pilot", or words to that effect). I look forward to trying it on something more interactive, on this very-late-for-Wednesday special comic... [[Special:Contributions/172.71.242.87|172.71.242.87]] 17:02, 20 April 2023 (UTC)
:For me, Firefox 112 and Chrome 112 work just fine. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.50.133|172.68.50.133]] 15:10, 22 April 2023 (UTC)
The only cheat is "window.python("import antigravity"). (To my knowledge) "ze.goggles()" dosen't work/do anything. Arrow keys, WASD, and HJKL work for movement. (Working on an object table) --[[User:Purah126|Purah126]] ([[User talk:Purah126|talk]]) 17:04, 20 April 2023 (UTC)

<s>I tried to correct a BOT error, but the BOT [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2765:_Escape_Speed&diff=310745&oldid=310744 reverted the correction back to an error]. (Or my 'poor browser', see above, is also going wrong with the hovertext). So we need the BOT's human pappy to override it. ;) [[Special:Contributions/172.71.242.87|172.71.242.87]]</s>
:NVM, done now. Somehow... [[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.159|172.70.162.159]] 17:15, 20 April 2023 (UTC)
::Looks like the original title text contained the error, but has since been fixed. —[[User:Theusaf|theusaf]] ([[User talk:Theusaf|talk]]) 18:12, 20 April 2023 (UTC)

Spoiler but there is hollow space between the rollercoaster and the St Louis arch 17:17, 20 April 2023 (UTC)

Okay I'm still working on it but here's the link to my object table: [https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1xhw3oVb4fMktZB_KEIF9fGkYCkfbpRMHKBLI63laTgc/edit#gid=0] --[[User:Purah126|Purah126]] ([[User talk:Purah126|talk]]) 17:27, 20 April 2023 (UTC)

I'm having trouble using the arrow keys, because it keeps moving the browser window up and down. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.245.11|108.162.245.11]] 18:02, 20 April 2023 (UTC)
:Try clicking on the comic itself, which should move focus there. --[[User:Moble|Moble]] ([[User talk:Moble|talk]]) 18:15, 20 April 2023 (UTC)

I managed to escape the larger planet's gravity well by jumping off the start planet and perfectly manipulating to barely miss it. it wasn't until afterwards thatI found the tunnel --[[User:Toriski3037|Toriski3037]] ([[User talk:Toriski3037|talk]]) 18:12, 20 April 2023 (UTC)

The tunnel is how you escape the planet. Fall through and when you get to the center use your thrusters to leave. --[[User:Silverfunk|Silverfunk]] 18:15, 20 April 2023 (UTC)

There is a way to escape the crystal dome. Fly to the edge and continue around until you find the crack. You need to get enough power ups on your ship in order to make it out. --[[User:Silverfunk|Silverfunk]] 18:19, 20 April 2023 (UTC)
:You can also find the crack pretty easily by finding the 6th Lagrange Point and finding the sign that says "Exit" and heading straight there. [[User:AdmiralMemo|Admiral Memo]] ([[User talk:AdmiralMemo|talk]]) 19:11, 20 April 2023 (UTC)

Absolutely no idea what you’re even talking about. I see a mostly black picture with some white spots. Your ‘explanation’ explains nothing, just makes the confusion worse.
: You probably need a relatively modern browser and Javascript turned on [[Special:Contributions/172.70.251.107|172.70.251.107]] 19:44, 20 April 2023 (UTC)

There is an area that is a huge maze with cities marked on it -the subway system. In Washington DC there is a black hole, which even with lots of power ups I think is inescapable once you land on it (you can reset and retain your powerups). The map of the subway system is from xkcd 1196.
:I'm pretty sure the area is Boston. Also, the black hole just has very high, not infinite, gravity. --[[User:Purah126|Purah126]] ([[User talk:Purah126|talk]]) 18:27, 20 April 2023 (UTC)

Re:"there is a way out" - I went farther down and launched upwards as quickly as I could while not hitting the sides to get past the intense gravity. You can get to the top on the left side, but the gravity is so strong that you're basically stuck to the ground. If you scoot along farther to the left you see a spot that says "the end". Just past there, there is a small dip that, due to how strong the gravity is, I couldn't get out of. I wouldn't be surprised if you got enough upgrades you could get past it.
: If you go right instead, you can go all the way around the "crystal dome" and there is a point of interest a long the way (half way around maybe?) [[Special:Contributions/172.71.154.214|172.71.154.214]] 19:34, 20 April 2023 (UTC)

Should we start saying what planets things are on? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.146.41|162.158.146.41]]

Once you get off the planet by falling through the tunnel and shooting out the other side you can fly around space, visiting other planets. There are power ups in the form of balls with stars in the center. Each power up gives your ship more thrust, faster recharge, etc. If you keep flying straight eventually you get to a white barrier that goes all around space. This is the crystal dome that is mentioned on the "origin" planet. If you fly along the dome long enough you will eventually come across a crack in it. As you fly up through the crack the gravity gets stronger and stronger. Eventually you will not be able to any further. You have to get enough power ups to fly out. Once out there is a dome of text that just says "The end." --[[User:Silverfunk|Silverfunk]] 18:52, 20 April 2023 (UTC)

::Which is not remotely actually the end. ;) [[Special:Contributions/172.71.254.100|172.71.254.100]] 22:30, 20 April 2023 (UTC)

I have raw images for the points of interest here: https://aeromancer.dev/xkcd_2765/ [[User:Aeromancer|Aeromancer]] ([[User talk:Aeromancer|talk]]) 21:00, 20 April 2023 (UTC)

::Cool! There are apparently quite a bunch of places I missed... (which is unsurprising given that I mostly navigated by flying in random directions while hoping to get to where I wanted (still haven’t figured how to reliably find Subway) [[User:Nleanba|Nleanba]] ([[User talk:Nleanba|talk]]) 12:06, 21 April 2023 (UTC)

apparently if you exit the page it saves your "you've found:" stuff and your position, and a spoilery upgrade that shows a gray line, but not any of the upgrades you got to your ship. (the upgrades do NOT reappear anywhere, so you can't collect them again.) thanks firefox for randomly closing to install an update --[[Special:Contributions/172.70.110.214|172.70.110.214]] 21:52, 20 April 2023 (UTC)

^this is a major buzzkill. The page crashed on me twice, and both times I lost my upgrades. It's essentially non-functional now.

you can probably hack back the upgrades quickly somehow. for me, i found a handy variable to use for 'accessibility' (if you want to cheat/skip parts) is to set the starting position to that of some other location, for example to skip to 'mtba' (the +1000s are just so you're not warped to the center of the object, you'll need to tweak for other locations):
window.Comic.voyager.opts.startPos = [window.Comic.map.locations[61].pos[0]+1000, window.Comic.map.locations[61].pos[1] + 1000]
to reset to the original starting location:
window.Comic.voyager.opts.startPos = window.Comic.map.player.pos
in firefox anyway, you can use this to browse the game objects to poke around more:
console.dir(window.Comic)
in particular, .voyager and .map.locations are interesting, as is .gamestate.
i didn't look into forcing upgrades, i grinded those out myself, just didn't want to hunt down all the subway tokens manually ... [[Special:Contributions/172.69.134.55|172.69.134.55]] 22:04, 20 April 2023 (UTC)

:Try these
* _.updatePlayerConfig({ thrustDuration: _.playerConfig.thrustDuration + 2.5 })
* _.updatePlayerConfig({ thrustDuration: _.playerConfig.thrustDuration + 0.4 })
These are the commands run when the most powerful upgrades are run. --[[User:Purah126|Purah126]] ([[User talk:Purah126|talk]]) 23:30, 20 April 2023 (UTC)

You can refer to https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/2712:_Gravity#Hacks for Console commands ...

In Microsoft Edge on Windows, you can change your speed and refuel-rate as shown. At speed=2, you can escape the black hole in Washington, DC.
Comic.gameHandle.playerConfig.speed=0.9
Comic.gameHandle.playerConfig.thrustRecoveryTime=0.000001

Looks like I'll have to wait awhile for someone to make a map I can simply scroll around instead of playing interactive mode. As much fun as it was in the beginning, it's miserable once you've lost your upgrades.

Was floating around in space and found a point where the ship just sits there and the screen orientation spins dramatically when moving around that point. Makes me think there's either a microsingularity there, or maybe something cloaked that only leaks gravitation (mentioned by some characters). Is there a way to check what my coordinates are so I can report the anomaly [[Special:Contributions/172.70.230.73|172.70.230.73]] 23:16, 20 April 2023 (UTC)
Found this as well. It was a marked location, and there was a heavy subway token at this point. After you pick up the token, the location appears to be empty.

Ah, okay. So the residual gravitation field was left behind. Thanks! Still looking for a way to read out my current coordinates though - you know, for science [[Special:Contributions/162.158.154.141|162.158.154.141]] 23:26, 20 April 2023 (UTC)

I think I figured it out. Just added "Comic.voyager.pos.x" and "Comic.voyager.pos.y" to the "Watch Expressions" portion of the Web Developer Tools -> Debugger. Simple for those who know. But something new to me. The coordinates for the microgravity well is [-20473, 3682] [[Special:Contributions/162.158.154.143|162.158.154.143]] 23:33, 20 April 2023 (UTC)

Has anyone found the orange line token? I thought it would be with the group singing a Boston song on Origin, but it doesn't seem to be? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.63.68|162.158.63.68]] 23:48, 20 April 2023 (UTC)

Skimming through the code, it looks like the MIT cloaking system also cloaks the subway lines or something? And MIT harbors a hyperdrive?? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.63.79|162.158.63.79]] 23:59, 20 April 2023 (UTC)

If you've lost your upgrades, you can reset the game to its original state by deleting your xkcd.com cookies. [[User:Whoop whoop pull up|Whoop whoop pull up]] ([[User talk:Whoop whoop pull up|talk]]) 00:07, 21 April 2023 (UTC)

Looks like resetting shouldn't be necessary anymore, just hard-refreshing: https://www.reddit.com/r/xkcd/comments/12t8e9i/xkcd_2765_escape_speed/jh2tvpl/ [[Special:Contributions/162.158.146.208|162.158.146.208]] 00:09, 21 April 2023 (UTC)

There's Quite a bit outside the crystal shell and "the end" rainbow. on the opposite side of the shell there's a small dot with "the platinum cylinder formerly used to define the kilogram", directly above the "rainbow" there's a stream of missiles leading to 2 areas (follow them either way), and even more engine upgrades for some reason. I stopped exploring after that - [[Special:Contributions/172.69.33.155|172.69.33.155]] 00:29, 21 April 2023 (UTC)

guess this is the late april fools comic. [[user:lettherebedarklight|youtu.be/]][[user talk:lettherebedarklight|miLcaqq2Zpk]] 01:34, 21 April 2023 (UTC)

::Probably, the captain of the Corellian corvette adds a message signed April 3rd 2023 to his log. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.86.116|162.158.86.116]] 10:09, 5 May 2023 (UTC)

If you get stuck with your engine in a weird mode like warp or infinite improbability drive you can fix it by using the command ship.engines = “lander” and the ship gets set back to normal. I don’t think it keeps any upgrades though.

You can also escape the planet with the sign that you can never leave, simply by starting there and keeping your finger down. The rocket will return a few times but gets further away each time and eventually lands on your home (start) location. No need to visit the rollercoaster.
[[User:XKCDnl|XKCDnl]] ([[User talk:XKCDnl|talk]]) 04:51, 21 April 2023 (UTC)

Found out that when landed on a surface, with the shield not automatically active, in some condition (maybe some thrust score) using the down-arrow retro thruster allows you to slowly "back up" through surfaces. Can be used to back-through some of the MBTA path blockers thereby reducing the need to deactivate all the blocked paths [[Special:Contributions/162.158.154.174|162.158.154.174]] 05:02, 21 April 2023 (UTC)

::Yeah, when slamming into a surface with high enough speed (possible even without hyperdrive, but very easy with), the ship seems to clip through the ground. It's possible then to navigate (very slowly) through the solid mass, which makes it even possible to leave the crystal sphere without hyperdrive (you are, however, stuck very close to the ground outside). Annoyingly, this also allows the ship to get stuck occasionaly: e.g. when slamming into Boston in the lettering or blocked lines, or on the Earth-map in lakes. [[User:Nleanba|Nleanba]] ([[User talk:Nleanba|talk]]) 12:19, 21 April 2023 (UTC)

I've found about 80 total subway tokens, but for the life of me cannot remember where the subway planet was.

:: If you travel straight through the hole right next to the starter planet, you'll land at a guiding planet [[User:Toby|Toby]] ([[User talk:Toby|talk]]) 13:37, 21 April 2023 (UTC)

Am I hallucinating, or is this a sequel with the same basic "space UI" as a previous comic? (I can't find it in the index, but I remember an extremely similar xkcd comic, with a spaceship being navigated between distant planets.) If such a comic exists, it should be mentioned in this one's description. -- [[User:Dtgriscom|Dtgriscom]] ([[User talk:Dtgriscom|talk]]) 14:02, 21 April 2023 (UTC)

I found the the "gold crown Archimedes stole" (which significantly boosts thrusters) and "a necklace of element samples whose symbols spell out your name (note: hopefully you are not named 'Katherine' or 'Brandon')" whilst traveling around the crystal sphere. How should I add those to the list?[[User:MeZimm|MeZimm]] ([[User talk:MeZimm|talk]]) 14:14, 21 April 2023 (UTC)

The end is not the end - you will need a lot of speed BUT the "there is a way out" leads to the outside of a round planet that everything you have discovered is inside. Continue flying up and you will see a second planet in the wayfinder. There is a line of torpedos and a tunnel up there playerPos: (1361.094208512935,-62444.80167042731) Megan(??) is talking to cuebal and firing torpedos "we have not photon torpedos so I'm firing regular ones"

"You found a Juicero Juicer"

Megan to cueball "Prediction: Seconds before you die you will remember these words" while walkint to an icecream cooler

"you found and out of control trolley"

skateboarder in a bubble going AAAAAAAAaaa (2206.485760681366,-64359.17874192683)

There are multiple ways through this layer in these tunnels

"you found a lymphocyte" (-5565.828800080446,-64207.654606168755)

Outside this layer seems infinite currently have made it past y = -5,000,000

Wayfinder is no longer changing headed back to circle the outer layer and confirm that the layer past the end is the end

[[Special:Contributions/162.158.146.57|162.158.146.57]][[User:Frogg|Frogg]] 15:43 April 21

The orange token is near the spiral planet. It's on a floating stadium-like thing with "BOSTON" labeled on it.

The outer layer is not a layer it seems like some sort of ship, perhaps a star destroyer, roughly triangular shaped.

Found and emperor in a cloak "My Emperor... We all share in yuour newfound enthusiams for birdwatching but normally one watches them in the wild, rather than drugging them and imprisoning them in a house of stairs."

Cueball "Aha! Darth Vaders secret Gold Bullion Reserves! We'll be rich!"
Megan "I'm not sure this is cannon"

Definitely a star destroyer, found the command tower. cool stuff! (22067.78723320221,-71701.23138735193)

For complete Locations list see Comic.map.locations it is a 75 item array accessible in developer tools it gives coordinates and names that will be useful to the wiki I think.

[[Special:Contributions/162.158.146.57|162.158.146.57]][[User:Frogg|Frogg]] 16:21 April 21 2023 UTC

I got stuck in VANCOUVER. Literally. I was flying so fast I clipped into the N and will have to reset to get out. I had many engine upgrades and was going in random directions since my "regular search pattern" had stopped finding things, so I don't know how to get back. I only know it exists.... [[Special:Contributions/172.71.170.94|172.71.170.94]] 16:26, 21 April 2023 (UTC)
* Still not found my way back to VANCOUVER, but I love the hint that the space shuttle was a dinosaur. Straight off the nose of the shuttle is the compromise projected Earth. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.174.101|162.158.174.101]] 16:46, 21 April 2023 (UTC)
* OK, I think I found VANCOUVER. I gave up on looking for it and went for other things and after finding MONTERREY on the Subway Planet I suspect that VANCOUVER is somewhere here too.
* Also, if someone does a long edit of this Discussion page they will overwrite your edits made in the mean time. You can find them in the History if you want to restore them. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.166.248|172.71.166.248]] 17:47, 21 April 2023 (UTC)

I'm sure that "17 angels on the head of pin" is a Calvin and Hobbes Reference, but I can't seem to find the comic online.[[User:Argis13|Argis13]] ([[User talk:Argis13|talk]]) 18:13, 21 April 2023 (UTC)
::Okay, so, after sleeping on it, and reading trough the entire online archive of Calvin and Hobbes, I'm pretty sure that I was misremembering a Dilbert Strip as a C&H strip, and I don't think that would put an intentional reference to Dilbert anymore. Also I'm not paying money to Scott Adams to search the Dilbert archives. [[User:Argis13|Argis13]] ([[User talk:Argis13|talk]]) 03:32, 22 April 2023 (UTC)
::: The angels on the head of a pin thing is a long-standing theological debate point (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_many_angels_can_dance_on_the_head_of_a_pin%3F) - however, the use of precisely 17 is likely a reference to "The Science of Discworld II", in which Ridcully is certain that the number of angels that can fit on the head of a pin is precisely 16. 17 would be a deliberate disproof of Ridcully's claim. --[[Special:Contributions/172.69.64.157|172.69.64.157]] 04:40, 2 May 2023 (UTC)

CHEAT: window.noclip = true; is pretty handy if you're struggling with navigating through some mazes. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.34.29|172.70.34.29]] 18:24, 21 April 2023 (UTC)

The absolute best I can get out of this page (across multiple browsers and platforms) is on my Android versions of Chrome and Firefox. It forces itself into full-screen mode and then by using touch regions at either side of the scene I can get one/both "turning thruster" plus the main-thruster to show a 'flame'. I can get it to turn, both ways, very very slowly but I seem to have no forward-thrust ability at all. I can be parallel to the ground and the side thrust from pressing both sides doesn't move me sideways any noticable amount (nor will a turning craft "roll" away from the palm-tree), free of gravitational resistance in that direction. If I stay facing upwards (or return to it) I just settle down under the weak (but stronger than any thrust!) gravity, spawn landing-gear and I no longer can even induce a rotation now being perched on legs. This is consistent in both browsers, so I rule out javascript-running inconsistencies in any obvious way.
 I presume (from reading the above) that I can get better thrusting, but whether by collecting things that I can't reach or by 'cheating' (more awkward, on mobile browsers, to edit page-variables/etc), I can't help thinking that it's already going wrong for me in ways it isn't for everyone else. And none of my desktop browsers even play ball for me at all (all I have is star background and the reset-button).
 On mobile browsers I've got a short thin line on the right-hand edge of the (fullscreen) background that I thought might be some sort of draggable power-bar (at 50% position, perhaps), but it doesn't respond to touch/dragging, or change at all. Might be just a relic of being on a wider-than-expected aspect ratio screen. Or it's something jutting (barely) on-screen from another nearby on-screen object/destination. As the viewpoint never moves, it's hard to say either way.
 This ''is'' more functionality than I ever got with Gravity, so maybe I'm just unluckily using incompatible browsers/platforms. A pity, though, that this is where I'm left with this. It looks like everyone else (or many, at least) are getting a lot out of this (and that), just not me. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.79.137|172.69.79.137]] 21:41, 21 April 2023 (UTC)

: I couldn't play this at all on mobile (neither chrome nor firefox worked: I got the same behavior as you). It works fine on desktop, though. (I'm using Firefox 112 on Ubuntu 23.04). Granted, controls kinda suck at the beginning, but that's intended. You should get at least a little forward trust if pressing UP on a physical keyboard (at least enough to get you off the ground). [[Special:Contributions/172.69.3.212|172.69.3.212]] 04:09, 30 April 2023 (UTC)

I think the giant spider might be a Tintin reference (see The Shooting Star). [[Special:Contributions/172.64.238.140|172.64.238.140]] 00:31, 22 April 2023 (UTC)

Two things: First, you don't need the warpdrive to be able to exit the crystal sphere or to even explore the area outside of it like the cruiser ship. It's enough to have most of the other upgrades from inside the sphere and do some careful flying/orbital mechanicsing. Second with the warpdrive and most other upgrades you can escape from the black hole in the air and space museum. You likely can escape without the warp drive as well with some very careful flying but it's quite tricky to time the thrusters correctly to get a nice elliptical orbit going. --[[Special:Contributions/172.69.59.64|172.69.59.64]] 18:47, 22 April 2023 (UTC)

Given the occasional occurrences of D&D as a topic in xkcd and the recent re-publication of the Spelljammer setting for fifth edition D&D, the Crystal Sphere might be a reference to Spelljammer (which likely drew on the already-mentioned story ''The Crystal Spheres'' by David Brin for the idea since Spelljammer was published 5 years after the short story). [[Special:Contributions/141.101.68.204|141.101.68.204]] 22:57, 25 April 2023 (UTC)

I'm having a similar reset problem as everyone else. My game crashed, my speed upgrades stayed, but my energy regen upgrades are gone. Which is quite annoying. Does anyone know of a solution to this?

Most of the upgrades I've collected with a given star token have not been the same as what's listed here. I think that which upgrade you get is either semi-random, or that there is a sequential list and you get the upgrades in a predetermined order - with the exception of the "significant" boost upgrades, and perhaps some that specifically relate to the message when found (like the Tank recharge upgrade on Andal, or the Thruster Efficiency upgrade at the Shuttle Skeleton). [[User:Dansiman|Dansiman]] ([[User talk:Dansiman|talk]]) 22:23, 27 April 2023 (UTC)

;Time slowed
I got the "A single molecule of caffeine" upgrade, and it didn't seem to make my tanks recharge faster. Instead, it made my rocket's movement speed extremely slow. Is anyone else experiencing this? I tried reloading and even deleting all cache data stored on XKCD. It still didn't fix it. Any ideas?

Did not personally experience this issue, but if you're looking to reset your progress, try pasting this into your browser console and refresh the comic page: localStorage.save = ""; [[Special:Contributions/172.70.34.29|172.70.34.29]] 21:22, 21 April 2023 (UTC)

Experiencing a similar issue. It was also right after getting a power up, but a different one. "A significant engine boost for a curious pilot". My forward speed and turning speed have been cut down significantly, and gravity seems lower as well. I checked in an incognito page, and turning speed is still much slower than when I initially played, so it seems to affect any instance of the game. I'd love a solution that doesn't require wiping my progress. Maybe I'll try warping to an upgrade I haven't gotten (since getting there myself is basically impossible) and see if collecting it fixes it. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.130.85|172.70.130.85]] 03:26, 22 April 2023 (UTC)

Inspecting element and putting Comic.voyager.opts.speed into the console showed that my current speed was 0.285, which seems low. I manually changed it with Comic.voyager.opts.speed = 1.0 which mostly fixed things. I still feel that my turning speed is lower than before, but otherwise I'm moving around like I used to. Option to avoid resetting progress. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.130.85|172.70.130.85]] 18:47, 22 April 2023 (UTC)

I had the same problem. I played around with console, but it seems like the issue is related to browser tick speed, since things like falling to the ground when returning to the start position are also very slow. The problem went away after I closed some other tabs and plugged in my laptop (not certain which of those fixed it). [[Special:Contributions/162.158.155.177|162.158.155.177]] 04:12, 23 April 2023 (UTC)

That happened to me too, but I plugged my computer in and now it's working fine.

Guessing it's just a power saver feature reducing the tick speed then. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.110.140|172.70.110.140]] 03:46, 24 April 2023 (UTC)

Turning off chrome's "energy saver" worked for me. [[User:Rotartsi|Rotartsi]] ([[User talk:Rotartsi|talk]]) 17:07, 29 April 2023 (UTC)

;Full map of the whole thing, what do?
Someone called u/Boojum on the XKCD subreddit ([https://old.reddit.com/r/xkcd/comments/12tmw01/escape_speed_2765_maps/ old reddit link], [https://www.reddit.com/r/xkcd/comments/12tmw01/escape_speed_2765_maps/ new reddit link]) managed to reverse engineer how the game encodes the map data and posted the whole thing for us to enjoy, should we just put it at the very top or be more measured?

Full zoomable version here: https://aeromancer.dev/xkcd_2765/map.html [[Special:Contributions/172.69.135.75|172.69.135.75]] 23:19, 21 April 2023 (UTC)

"A sparking Gem" in the Gulf of Boni in Indonesia [[Special:Contributions/162.158.155.178|162.158.155.178]] 23:38, 21 April 2023 (UTC)

There's also [https://xkcd2765-map.kuilin.net/ this map] ([https://www.reddit.com/r/xkcd/comments/12txn1o/i_made_an_interactive_map_for_escape_speed/ from Reddit]), which shows the location of all the collectables and seems to load a bit faster than the other one --[[User:CruseCtrl|CruseCtrl]] ([[User talk:CruseCtrl|talk]]) 13:49, 25 April 2023 (UTC)

;Article structure and explaining
I have the impression, that the article structure is a bit messy, and I like to make some suggestions to improve it. Currently, the article is structured with a section for each planets. I suggest to keep that structure roughly but create several list below each of those sections

1. First I suggest to rename the "List of planets" to "List of planets and space objects".

2. Second, I'd like to point out, there are several things to collect, which you can categorize clearly as following:
* '''"You've found"-items''': They appear as a collectible dot. When collected, there is a message of the style "You found WHATEVER". And that WHATEVER item gets added to the list "You've found:" below the comic.
* '''Upgrades''': They appear as large circle with a star.
* '''Messages''': They only display a message when you reach a certain spot. I think it is not visible that there is a message, before you reach that spot.
* '''Subway puzzle tokens.''' They appear as dot with a "T" letter in it and unlock passages at the second subway planet.
Basically you can get a good overview about those at https://aeromancer.dev/xkcd_2765/map.html if you turn on those 4 things in the layer menu in the upper right corner. Beside from that you might also discover:
* '''Fixed text messages.''' From xkcd characters or on signs. You could also add the subway station names.
* '''Interesting looking objects'''. This is a bit vague, as it is not clear, what to add there.
However, those are completely passive things which do not interact with the space ship of the player.

I think we should describe those four types of collectibles in the explanation section.

3. Currently, the lists at the planets do not separate the categories which I mentioned at 2. or only separate '''Messages''' from other collectibles. Sometimes it seems to me some of the passive objects or messages went into the list, too.
So I suggest to always separate the these six categories and add at least the first four of those to each planet and space object, unless the list is empty. For '''Fixed text messages''' I am not sure, if it is worth to always list them, but it is a clearly defined group. For the '''Interesting looking objects''' I would not make a list because it is not clear what to add or not. Instead I suggest to always describe them in the description text for the planet/space object.

4. Note, that players get that "You've found:" list below the comic. Many would like to find out, if their list is complete and whether they have found everything. Currently with the list in that article this is not possible at all. Therefore, I think it is important, that the lists for the "You've found" matches exactly the list which appears below the game.

5. Explain xkcd is about explaining. Many of the '''You've found''', '''Upgrades''', and '''Messages''' are (more or less funny) jokes or references to real things and/or other xkcd comics. We should explain them very shortly for each. So, behind each '''You've found''', '''Upgrades''', and '''Messages''' I suggest to put a very short explanation. You can separate this with a hyphen, a line break, start with italique font or do some other optical separation.

6. Another option would be to create a huge sortable table with four columns:
* Planet / Space Object
* Type ('''You've found''', ''Message''', '''Upgrade''', '''Subway token''', '''fixed text message''')
* Text (1 to 1 as in the game)
* Explanation for the joke or reference.
However, I am currently a bit more in favor for the planet/space object sections and just going with list.

What do you think about those 6 suggestions? Are you with me? Should we start with this restructuring? --[[Special:Contributions/172.70.246.39|172.70.246.39]] 12:53, 22 April 2023 (UTC)
:I think it is good suggestions. Although text on the image should also be added to the full transcript. But yes in principle all references and jokes should be explained. But it is a huge project. I have also been taking some screenshots that I would like to add for reference but again it is such a huge and tedious job to upload them all. I think there should be a table of all the collectible items that would be nice to have with sortable so you can check alphabetically but also with planet/place so you can sort on that. Maybe no explanation there, but go to planet sections for that? --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 10:20, 25 April 2023 (UTC)
::Hi, I have just finished the (hopefully) full transcript of the objects inside and on the outer edge of the Crystal Sphere. I have transcribed all the dialogues, monologues, signs and inscriptions. As for the messages of "You found" kind, I have copied them from the spreadsheet, just to be sure. Screenshotting is uncomfortable and my memory is short, so I have made a lot of mistakes until I noticed the spreadsheet. However, I have not put in the (shortened) object names as they appear on the "you've found" list. I think it may be a good start to take all the texts from there and put them in a table, so people can start writing explanations for everything. I will try to transcribe the rest (the big ships and the Click and Drag planet), but I am a bit tired of it already, maybe someone would take over. It's almost midnight here, have a good sleep everybody! --[[User:Malgond|Malgond]], late April 26th.

Fun little game. You can even do a little antigravity park without the antigravity cheat on! https://imgur.com/a/sJ72VvW [[Special:Contributions/108.162.227.49|108.162.227.49]] 14:01, 22 April 2023 (UTC)

Outside the shell I found a powerup called "it is very lonely out here". I forget what kind of powerup it was...I had left the star destroyer and orbited counter-clockwise around the shell for several seconds before I saw it by chance, and after a bit of searching I was able to backtrack and pick it up. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.127.133|172.70.127.133]] 00:04, 23 April 2023 (UTC)Nathan

If anyone needs a hint, black hole moon [[User:IJustWantToEditStuff|IJustWantToEditStuff]] ([[User talk:IJustWantToEditStuff|talk]]) 23:33, 23 April 2023 (UTC)

;Glitches?
Anybody else got duplicate items? After picking up "very lonely out here", I fell into the crystal sphere hard enough to glitch and get stuck, so warped back home… and then noticed that the orb wren seemed to have respawned. Looking down the list (with the help of ctrl+F), I see that it does indeed appear twice in the list of objects I've found. No idea what happened there. I then went back to the outside and eventually managed to find the last item (the one talking about the "source"), but as soon as I touched it the ship became stationary. The messages appeared, but the item didn't vanish, and the controls were unresponsive. Refreshing the page left me in deep space, so I resorted to using the wayfinder script to find the dot again; and it confirmed that I'd collected everything.

Is there something I've missed, or are these both weird little glitches? -- [[User:Angel|Angel]] ([[User talk:Angel|talk]]) 11:57, 24 April 2023 (UTC)
i cant teleport it puts me in the middle of the starry void my thrusteres work but i dont move [[Special:Contributions/172.71.222.132|172.71.222.132]] 13:09, 26 April 2023 (UTC)

I can't say this happens on every planet, but on a few I've tried (What-If planet, small starting planet) if you are landed (no shields on) you can reverse thrust into the ground and dig into the planet. In most cases there is nothing to find, but the "What-If Planet" has a Megan and Cueball floating around the open core. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.126.141|172.70.126.141]] 21:23, 28 April 2023 (UTC)mlganser3

;Click and Drag Planet Trivia
Didn't know where to put this, so I made a new category: The Water tower on the click and drag planet is placed on the location with the highest gravity potential (which makes sense, of course!) [[Special:Contributions/172.70.114.88|172.70.114.88]] 21:13, 24 April 2023 (UTC)

;What-If Planet Core
Once the hyperdrive has been obtained it is possible to travel to the centre of the What-If planet by parking on top of the volcano, accelerating forwards for a couple of seconds, stopping, then powering in reverse. Keeping reverse held down down for a very long time once in reverse, it will gradually travel to the centre of the planet where you meet Megan and Cueball. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.90.101|172.70.90.101]] 17:00, 25 April 2023 (UTC)

If you keep going in reverse past Megan and Cueball, eventually you pop out on the opposite side of the planet, just on the other side of a short pillar from where another Megan is sitting. (Megan sits on a block looking at a short pillar. On the other side of this pillar is where you emerge if entering from the volcano.) You can also enter here by landing then powering in reverse. Also, I was able to enter here in forward thrust, going quite fast (lucky shot, maybe?) but I got all the way into the center of the planet in very short order.

I've found that I can reverse thrust from any standing location and dig into any planet, not just the What-If Planet. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.127.134|172.70.127.134]] 21:13, 28 April 2023 (UTC) mlganser3

::Yeah, there seems to be a corridor of sorts through the What-If planet centre, between the volcano and the pillar that Megan is contemplating. Since it takes soooo long to go down the volcano, I definitely recommend starting at the pillar and reversing in. If you land on the pillar itself and reverse, it should get you to the centre space relatively quickly.[[Special:Contributions/172.71.123.148|172.71.123.148]] 10:47, 5 May 2023 (UTC)

;Inital Statrting Bug
I have a bug in my game where when I start, I am pushed off of the starting planet, and I continue to get pushed around. My shield is up and everything, and sometimes it tries to land. I have tried many of the cheats, but they aren't working. I need some help! AlabroX201 - 13:22, 26 April 2023 (UTC)
Update: NoClip stops the bug, but only when it is true. 13:28 26 April 20203 (UTC)

;Making a table to organize EVERYTHING

Good heavens, y'all - format table so text is at the top of the cell.

I'm currently making a table to organize planet (file)names, coordinates, and explanations, and the four item types and their explanation, inspired by the comments from [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/User:Kynde Kynde], [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/User:Malgond Malgond], and [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/Special:Contributions/172.70.246.39 172.70.246.39]. Here's my progress so far, do you have any suggestions or feedback? A few things to note:
* I will try to add all explanations for each item found
* The "???" are there because the spreadsheet with all the items doesn't include the message shown to the user. I temporarily put the words that the wiki used instead
* All the "Z" between items will be replaced by a new line. The editor I'm using doesn't support adding new lines directly
* Can someone let me know how to find the coordinates of each planet? Many thanks

----

{| class="wikitable sortable"
! Filename
! Description
! Tiles (X, Y)
! Explanation
! "You found" items
! Upgrades
! Messages
! Subway tokens
|-
| <code>tiny-world</code>
| Starting planet
|
| To return here from anywhere, click the "Home" button in lower right corner. The planet is tiny, grassy, a has few trees. Beret-Guy says 'Wow!'.
| a rock with neat stripes!Za cool bug!Za pretty leaf!
|
| Wheeee!
|
|-
| <code>origin</code>
| Origin
|
| To get here, simply fall from the starting planet by thrusting off from Beret Guy's place. The planet has a sign saying 'Welcome to Origin! You can never leave™'. A large shaft leads from below the rollercoaster to the St. Louis Arch on the opposing side. Lots of landmarks (many on small pedestals) each mark the direction to a different planet.
| a secret gladeZa holographic Charizard business cardZa tiny meteorite!Za 5G seagullZa DVD of The Core (2003)Za normal-looking leafZa marsh wrenZan orb wrenZa single grain of saltZ11 squares packed into a larger squareZa tumbleweed
| Nice flying! (Your tanks recharge faster now.)
| Welcome to liminal spaceZThe St. Louis arch is also known as the gateway to space.ZBe careful; this roller coaster can be disorienting!
|
|-
| <code>hollow-shell</code>
| Hollow Planet
|
| To get here, swing through Origin's central shaft and out the St. Louis Arch. The planet is just a shell with some gaps. On the outside, there are signs pointing at the directions to a few other planets.
| a handful of the quantum foam that makes up the fabric of space!
| You found a sixth lagrange point! (Your thrusters are more efficient now.)ZYou found a glass of heavy water (engine a little more powerful???)
|
|
|-
| <code>orb</code>
| Round Planet
|
| To get here, launch from the sign on the Hollow Planet or the tower with an orb on it on Origin. The planet is moderately small with no vegetation and some architecture such as Stonehenge and the Great Wall of China.
| a swatch pop-out wristwatch
| You found a sensible cheese platter (Your tanks recharge a bit faster now)Z??? (engine a little more powerful???)
|
|
|-
| <code>uzumaki</code>
| Uzumaki
|
| To get here, launch from the sign on the Hollow Planet, Origin's spiral monument, or below the plane-towed banner on the Round Planet. The planet is a large spiral of grass inspired by the manga ''{{w|Uzumaki}}'' by Junji Ito. A Roomba is loose, a reference to [[1558: Vet]].
| a golden radio tuned to 1.618 MHzZa scroll lock keyZa primordial black holeZa cool pair of shoes with flames on the sideZan ink cartridgeZa podcast episodeZa festive but somehow unnerving holiday card from Junji ItoZa friendly beeZa spiral-cut diamondZa burrito
| You found a tree-filled grove and a nice spot for quiet contemplation (Your thrusters are significantly more efficient now.)ZYou found a single caffeine molecule! (Your tanks recharge a bit faster now.)
| Exit OnlyZYou're going the wrong way!Z
|
|-
| <code>guitar-ship</code>
| Guitar Ship
|
| To get here, launch from near Uzumaki. The planet is an enormous guitar labeled 'Boston' with the city skyline under a dome on the back (a reference to the cover art of the album {{w|Boston (album)|''Boston''}}). A guitar shaped UFO with "BOSTON" written on it and the skyline of Boston under a dome at the bottom.
| a guitar pick
|
|
| Orange line deactivated!
|-
| <code>soccerfield</code>
| Spacetime Soccer Field
|
| To get here, launch from the pyramid with a soccer ball on top on Origin. The planet is reference to [[2705: Spacetime Soccer]] and consists of a central pure-white body, goals on the poles and intangible lines farther away.
|
| GOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLLLLLL!!! (Your thrusters are more efficient now.)ZGOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLLLLLL!!! (Thrust Speed???)ZYou found the 3 million point line (Your thrusters are more efficient now.)ZYou found a sunspot! (Your launch speed has increased.)
|
|
|-
| <code>saturn</code>
| Saturn
|
| To get here, launch from the pyramid with a ringed on top on Origin. If you instead see the Spacetime Soccer Field, you're too far left. The planet has a soccer ball inside it, a reference to [[2513: Saturn Hexagon]]
| a really cool data point
| You found a pair of platonic solids, not quite touching! (Thrust power???)ZYou found a block of scandium! (Thrust power???)
|
|
|-
| <code>platform-planet</code>
| Andal
|
| To get here, launch from below Saturn's equator, when the soccer ball is oriented to the bottom left compared to the rocket, or from the miniature of Andal to the left of the pyramids on Origin. The planet is small and has a T-shaped tower, mountains, and grass. On a grass patch Blondie says to Cueball "The MIT cloaking device only affects the electroweak and nuclear forces. Gravity is the odd one out, as usual.", hinting that 'A random point out in space' is the Subway Planet.
|
| You found two Andalites, one canonical! (Your thrusters are more efficient now.)ZWhat a nice place for a ship to sit! (Your tanks recharge a bit faster now.)ZYou found a friend (Your thrusters are more efficient now.)ZYou found baby shoes (and baby)! (Engine power???)
|
|
|-
| <code>earth-map</code>
| Compromise Projection of Earth
|
| The planet is a huge distorted map of all land masses on Earth. The rocket can fly where water would be, but it can't go over land
|
|
|
|
|-
| <code></code>
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| <code></code>
|
|
|
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|
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|-
| <code></code>
|
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|-
| <code></code>
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|-
| <code></code>
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|-
| <code></code>
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|-
| <code></code>
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|-
| <code></code>
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|-
| <code></code>
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|-
| <code></code>
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|-
| <code></code>
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|-
| <code></code>
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|-
| <code></code>
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|-
| <code></code>
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|-
| <code></code>
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| <code></code>
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| <code></code>
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| <code></code>
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| <code></code>
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|}

Do you have any suggestions or feedback? --[[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 17:57, 28 April 2023 (UTC)
:There's a bit of a mix in the game itself between messages, "You found" items and powerups. At first it looked like a small grey dot is an item, a bigger grey star is a powerup. Sometimes they're collocated, i.e. a dot inside the hollow center of a star. But further in the game, I have found hollow stars (i.e. without the dot inside) which leave a "you found" list item anyway. Also, sometimes the "you found" message contains a description that differs from the name on the list below the game viewport. The ultimate source of all is the spreadsheet linked at the start of [[2765:_Escape_Speed#List of planets|List of planets]] section. Any Message (including "you found..." messages) can be accompanied by an Item and an Action (an upgrade or some other things like decloaking or subway token), both of them or none of them. I think it shall be somehow reflected in the table. For example: one column for Message (a value always present), another for Item name (may be empty) and another for Effect (may be empty). Unfortunately, the spreadsheet does not contain the kind of visual representation (a dot, a star, a star with a dot inside, or none at all). --[[User:Malgond|Malgond]]
:Another comment: the Explanation column is currently a short description (of a planet) and some of its features, the way to get there, only sometimes containing an explanation of what the planet name refers to. These should be separate. Explanation shall be a short paragraph about a pun or reference connected to the name of a planet or the text found in the game. For example, explanation for the Message/Item of "11 squares packed into a larger square" shall have a reference to [[2740:_Square_Packing]] and a short description of the mathematical problem involved. I also think we may need separate tables for planets (with very general descriptions and directions), features on the planets, possibly one table per planet (containing architecture, vegetation, animals, people etc. - if worth noting or there's some pun or reference), items and messages to be collected by the player (maybe one per planet), and for words spoken by the people and messages written somewhere (again, only if they contain a pun or a reference). Otherwise, the table would be too big. --[[User:Malgond|Malgond]]

::Hey, thanks for replying.

::>''[...] ... I think it shall be somehow reflected in the table. For example: one column for Message (a value always present), another for Item name (may be empty) and another for Effect (may be empty). Unfortunately, the spreadsheet does not contain the kind of visual representation (a dot, a star, a star with a dot inside, or none at all).''

::Yeah I noticed that too, but tbh I don't think it's SO important that needs to be included in the table or even in the entire page. Also, it would be very time-consuming.

::> ''the Explanation column is currently a short description (of a planet) and some of its features, the way to get there, only sometimes containing an explanation of what the planet name refers to. These should be separate.''

::I don't think they should be separate, because it would mean that the table would get even bigger and navigating it would be harder. You're welcome to add any information in the explanation section, as I'm not editing its contents.

::> ''explanation for the Message/Item of "11 squares packed into a larger square" shall have a reference to [[2740:_Square_Packing]] and a short description of the mathematical problem involved.''

::I totally agree, and as I said in the initial message (above the table), I plan on adding item-specific explanations next to the item "names".

::> ''I also think we may need separate tables for planets (with very general descriptions and directions), features on the planets, possibly one table per planet (containing architecture, vegetation, animals, people etc. - if worth noting or there's some pun or reference), items and messages to be collected by the player (maybe one per planet), and for words spoken by the people and messages written somewhere (again, only if they contain a pun or a reference).''

::I'm sorry but the amount of effort I'm putting in this ''"simple"'' table is already IMMENSE. This would probably require dozens of hours between exploration and formatting. I'm afraid I won't be doing that myself :) [[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 13:57, 29 April 2023 (UTC)

:If you want to get rid of the "Z", you can make line breaks inside the wiki's editing window using the expression '''''' (remove the spaces--I couldn't type the phrase without getting a break). It's the html code for a line break. Technically, I think '''''' works, too. Really, though, just put ''openCarrot br closeCarrot'' wherever you want a break and you'll be fine. --Sorry, I don't have a name here, so I can't really sign this. 11:21, 30 April 2023 (UTC)

::Thanks, but i figured it out. I used Notepad++ to replace all uppercase "Z" with two line breaks and an asterisk. This thing took soooooooo many hours to make, I'm so proud I've finally published it. I'll never touch it again. Now I despertly need to sleep, g'night everyone! [[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 23:24, 30 April 2023 (UTC)

:::General style that I use:
:::*The first linefeed/break in any cell content is fully respected
:::**(Because it takes a line that starts with a cell-markup and then one that doesn't, and actually understands it as a different qualification, so the LF between isn't collapsed to mere whitespace?)
:::**Other div-like markup starters (e.g. bullet points) enforce this.
:::*But, ''if'' you want to add linebreaks where it won't (third-and-later paragraphs?), I sugest using <code><nowiki> </nowiki></code>, the self-closing single-tag version that can't be misinterpretted by any (XML-aware, in general) markup-parser.
:::**You can even use it in the midst of some text flow, whhich might be useful for certain layouts (and their sources).
:::...Or double-LF can often do the job, too. But just Preview things to see what does/does not need additional tweaking... [[Special:Contributions/162.158.34.22|162.158.34.22]] 23:55, 30 April 2023 (UTC)
:I like the idea of the table thank for making it. I have added two more pages, one with overview images of the world and the planets and one with a place to post the screen shots needed for making a full explanation. Put some of the relevant images up already but will not have time to much more the rest of this week. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 14:26, 1 May 2023 (UTC)

;Speedrun
Has anyone started making speedruns of this yet? I'd absolutely love to see an any% run to vader, or to some other end game location. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.3.200|172.69.3.200]] 04:57, 30 April 2023 (UTC)
: Hi! I've done a couple speedruns to get the hyperdrive. Currently, my best time is 25:32. Pretty bad though. There's almost certainly a way to get straight to the center of Uzumaki, which takes like 5 minutes to do. I don't really have a route, just some planets I like going to. [[User:DollarStoreBa'al|DollarStoreBa'al]] ([[User talk:DollarStoreBa'al|talk]]) 18:04, 12 December 2024 (UTC)

;Gravity of shell

: Halfway thru the crack, gravity gets increasingly stronger as the spaceship feels the gravitational force of all the celestial bodies it is leaving behind.

It's the gravity of the ''shell itself'', no? A uniform shell has no net force on objects inside it.
[[User:Wwoods|Wwoods]] ([[User talk:Wwoods|talk]]) 23:09, 30 April 2023 (UTC)

I have removed the topic lines, as they mess with the main explanations table of contest. They are not needed here in the discussion and we try not to use them so do not ass new. Just make a heading with text like here above! --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 12:29, 1 May 2023 (UTC)

:Good job, they were getting annoying. [[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 15:01, 1 May 2023 (UTC)

I'm not a fan of the new table. It's harder to use 'cause long text is limited to narrow column. How to get to where you're going needs to be its own column if we're doing this. And I used the old list to organized to order I wanted to do things in.[[Special:Contributions/162.158.154.19|162.158.154.19]] 20:08, 1 May 2023 (UTC)

: Hey, I'm not sure when you made the comment, but yesterday [[User:Kynde|Kynde]] noticed that an item message was one extremely long word (something like "GOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAL!!!") and added a space that made the table look much better. I think it's readable enough, and it's way more organized that the old list (and i added more info that wasn't there).

: >How to get to where you're going needs to be its own column if we're doing this

: If you add another column it's gonna get even more narrow, I think it's best to keep it as is. One could argue the instructions to get there are part of the explanation for the planet. [[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 15:15, 2 May 2023 (UTC)

::I think it's important to keep the flow of conversation, so I'm putting this after what I'm replying to. I hope that's not too confusing.

::>It's way more organized that the old list (and i added more info that wasn't there).

::Yes, but in this particular instance, I think there are better ways of doing it. You can set a template up where every planet is dealt with typographically in exactly the same way. Each piece of information is in the same place relative to other pieces and handled typographically the same way in every single planet, the objects in interplanetay space and the objects in extraspherical space. You'd loose the ability of a table to sort by arbitrary columns which doesn't seem to be a help with this information, but you'd also loose the annoying short lines, the fact that for most entries, the column head way up there above the readable portion of the screen and because you can use typography to show what different data is, it's a little more intuitive to us monkey-brained folk.

:: For example '''Planet-name: Large, Bold.''' Colon, name in code, comma, coordinates as x=number and y=numers, all in regular wight roman. ''New line, Explanation of how to get there starting with "To get there" and in italics''. New line, any other notes in roman. New line, a bullet-pointed list of items and messages to find. Each entry is structured Name of object or message when found in roman, powerup text in prethases, And then any notes in italics.

::'''Andal''': Filename: Andal, x= 123456 y= -654321
::''To get here, launch from below Saturn's equator, when the soccer ball is oriented to the bottom left compared to the rocket, or from the miniature of Andal to the left of the pyramids on Origin.''
::The planet is small and has a T-shaped tower, mountains, and grass. On a grass patch Blondie says to Cueball "The MIT cloaking device only affects the electroweak and nuclear forces. Gravity is the odd one out, as usual.", hinting that 'A random point out in space' is the Subway Planet.
::* You found two Andalites, one canonical! (Your thrusters are more efficient now.)
::* What a nice place for a ship to sit! (Your tanks recharge a bit faster now.)
::* You found a friend (Your thrusters are more efficient now.)
::* You found baby shoes (and baby)! (Engine power???)

::This can be tweeked and I don't program in html ever so this can be improved. And I recognize that this is harder than a table, but it is much better.

::: I don't really agree this is better, the main reason we wanted to create the table in the first place was so that people could sort it at their liking: ''"there should be a table of all the collectible items that would be nice to have with sortable so you can check alphabetically but also with planet/place so you can sort on that"''. Imagine someone wanted to obtain as many upgrades as possible: they would just sort the table to put the upgrades first and discard planets without them, or sort by subway tokens, to get the hyperdrive and know exactly where to look. A table is the only way to have that, and it's also more compact than a list. [[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 14:28, 6 May 2023 (UTC)

[[Special:Contributions/162.158.62.47|162.158.62.47]] 22:52, 5 May 2023 (UTC)

Hi [[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]], thank you for the table version!
You can get the list of coordinates from the console with this js command:
console.log(Comic.map.locations.map(e=>[e.name,e.pos[0],e.pos[1]].join("\t")).join("\n"))
you will get a list with planet, x coordinate, y coordinate that is easy to manage. [[User:Hydra454|Hydra454]] ([[User talk:Hydra454|talk]])
:Thank you! I added all the coordinates and moved the planet filenames to the Planet Name column to make more space for the other columns

My game restarted after I hadn't played it in a while, but now there seems to be items missing? Like for instance, I can't find the small meteorite item on origin or the quantum foam on the hollow planet? I've searched both planets inside and out and can't find them anywhere. I have all the other items from those planets, it's just those two that are missing. I haven't searched any other planets yet, any idea why this is happening? [[User:IJustWantToEditStuff|IJustWantToEditStuff]] ([[User talk:IJustWantToEditStuff|talk]]) 02:35, 10 May 2023 (UTC)

'''Another attempt to explain EVERYTHING'''
:Hi everyone, I have made a [[User:Malgond/Drafts/Escape_Speed|DRAFT]] of ''explanation of everything'' as two tables, one for planets, another for objects, and put in what I think is interesting or worth noting and explaning for initial four planets. I am basing this work on the [[2765: Escape Speed/Transcript|full transcript]], which I also made. Do you think it is any better than the current form? -- [[User:Malgond|Malgond]] ([[User talk:Malgond|talk]]) 21:39, 13 May 2023 (UTC)
::I really like you table. Maybe we should make seperate pages for the tables used for the explanations? But anyway I like how your look Malgond. Good work. I think it would be a good idea to use those in the explanation. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 09:17, 14 May 2023 (UTC)
:::For instance here [[2765: Escape Speed/Tables]] --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 09:21, 14 May 2023 (UTC)
::::Hey, I've said this in my user page and I'll add it here too. I think the structure of the current table in the article is better at a few things than the one you've been working on: for example, it's easier to sort for upgrades and items (which was the main reason [[User:Kynde|Kynde]] wanted to make a sortable table in the first place), is more compact, and is easier to browse. Why don't we just add a "transcript" column like the table on [[2712: Gravity]] to put what things and people say, and add the rest of the information on the respective columns on the current table? Personally, I think the new one is a little bit too complicated to browse. [[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 15:26, 14 May 2023 (UTC)
:::::Also, we're already trying to move on from the old list and transfer everything to the "new" table. If we add a "newer" table, won't it become even harder to keep track of what needs to be moved and added to what? [[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 15:39, 14 May 2023 (UTC)
::::::Here's what I think we should do: we keep the compact, easy-to-use and easily sortable table in the article, but we put a notice above it that links to the /Tables page for people who want an even more in-depth look description and explanation of everything. The /Tables page is longer than the entire article page AND discussion page combined, so I think it would be too big to be added directly into the article. Do you guys like the plan?
::::::I'll start by adding a prominent link above the current table in the article that points to /Tables --[[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 13:53, 24 May 2023 (UTC)

'''Script to stop momentum of spaceship'''
Cool script to stop momentum of spaceship, useful when flying around and you see something but couldn't stop the spaceship.
<code>
window.onkeydown = function(e){if(e.key == 'p'){Comic.gameHandle.playerConfig.maxSpeed = 0; setTimeout(() => {Comic.gameHandle.playerConfig.maxSpeed = 100;},10)}}
</code>
[[Special:Contributions/172.69.58.75|172.69.58.75]] 01:04, 22 May 2023 (UTC)

:Thanks! I'll add that into the page

Is it just me or is Click-and-Drag at a different scale to everything else?
[[Special:Contributions/162.158.158.227|162.158.158.227]] 15:15, 5 June 2023 (UTC)

;"anyone up for a game of scrabble later" is a reference to the comic 470

https://xkcd.com/470/
"anyone up for a game of scrabble later" is a reference to the comic where someone shows up at a protest content; "anyone up for a game of scrabble later" is one of the signs he's holding. i'd like to add this because i'd love to contribute and this page helped me a lot during my playthrough. --[[Special:Contributions/108.162.245.204|108.162.245.204]] 19:21, 6 June 2023 (UTC)
:Cool, feel free to add that to the article. I'm not sure why you wrote it here instead of editing the actual page, do you need help with anything? --[[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 16:09, 7 June 2023 (UTC)

Apparently the objects (like the weird spaceship thing, transmitter, etc.) on origin points to planets so fly directly up and you'll get there. also does anyone know how to slow your velocity down bc everytime i fly past the planets {{unsigned ip|172.70.207.165|15:48, 24 July 2023}}
:Please remember to sign your post using the button in the toolbar on talk pages. [[2765:_Escape_Speed#Celestial_Bodies_and_Collectable_Items|The table in the article]] already describes how to reach any planet by using those landmarks. To slow down, use the arrow down button on your keyboard. It's the one below the arrow up button you use to accelerate. --[[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 15:21, 24 July 2023 (UTC)
::Or, if playing on a touchscreen mobile device (though it works badly on my devices, that may just be because they aren't <12 months old, as with many things, and become fiddly to use for unsupportable reasons - it looks as if mobile interface has been thought about but perhaps insufficiently tested on a representative variety of devices that aren't "the latest iPad"/whatever), rotate to face backwards and retrothrust 'forward' to bleed off roughly the same amount of velocity you gained in the initial outward-phase of the journey. Standard space-sim (Asteroids, xPilot, countless other gravity-well games) methodology. Doesn't seem to be (nose-based) retrothruster-braking implemented for my touchscreen input, anyway. (hnless that's another thing that is the fault of my being on Android, even with updated browsers that ''should'' be transparently and platform-agnostically handling all that coded-guff.) [[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.244|172.70.162.244]] 19:52, 24 July 2023 (UTC)

For some reason after I got one of the upgrades on the Mercator projection (forgot which one) my game just got really slow. Not lagging or anything, just time had slowed to like a tenth of the normal speed. Closing the tab doesn't fix it, neither does restarting chrome. If it's any help, I'm on google chrome version 116.0.5845.210. [[User:Certified_nqh|Me]][[[285: Wikipedian Protester|''citation needed'']]][[Category:Pages using the "citation needed" template]] 18:53, 2 October 2023 (UTC)
:Hooray! Doing nothing fixed it!!!!!!????? [[User:Certified_nqh|Me]][[[285: Wikipedian Protester|''citation needed'']]][[Category:Pages using the "citation needed" template]] 13:04, 3 October 2023 (UTC)
::The speed of the game has to do with your computer's internal framerate. Usually when your computer goes into low-battery mode, it automatically lowers the framerate, which is probably what you experienced {{unsigned|TheTrainsKid|08:07, 5 January 2025}}

How do you get to the center of the ''What If'' planet? I've been trying for ten minutes lol [[User:Psychoticpotato|Psychoticpotato]] ([[User talk:Psychoticpotato|talk]]) 20:42, 8 May 2024 (UTC)
:Ten whole minutes? Wow. Much effort! ::( [[Special:Contributions/172.71.242.70|172.71.242.70]] 04:20, 9 May 2024 (UTC)

;I got to editing it in now
hi im on a different device now but still xkcd...ing? anyway i edited it in but, as my brain is as small as an acorn, i have no idea how to insert links! (this is my first time editing ANY wiki) i'm putting this up because if i do that, you might notice it quicker
now im at the end so hyphen(?) time! [[Special:Contributions/172.71.150.239|172.71.150.239]] 18:38, 18 October 2023 (UTC)

When I'd gathered all of the things, I took off from the sphere into the void. The stars started moving from 12 to 6 o'clock. But, as the months have rolled by, they have moved from there and are now going from 2 to 8 o'clock. I'm finding that interesting. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.111.116|172.70.111.116]] 16:21, 20 October 2023 (UTC)
:And now my ship has stopped dead. That's interesting. There is a further sphere that you can get stuck in. That takes a long time to get to. Cool.[[Special:Contributions/162.158.155.75|162.158.155.75]] 16:51, 9 November 2023 (UTC) Honestly, I'd expected my ship to fall back and hit the sphere eventually. I haven't tried to get unstuck.[[Special:Contributions/162.158.155.76|162.158.155.76]] 16:59, 9 November 2023 (UTC)
::Are you sure that you didn't just fall into the original one again? {{unsigned|Cloudstar|01:31, 18 March 2025}}

the "sixth larange point might be a reference to [[2717: L6 Lagrange Point]]--[[User:Bb777|me, hi]] ([[User talk:Bb777|talk]]) 15:00, 31 March 2025 (UTC)

When people started to create maps for interactive comics: it all just became click and drag. [[User:Aprilfoolsupdate!|Aprilfoolsupdate!]] ([[User talk:Aprilfoolsupdate!|talk]]) 02:33, 4 April 2025 (UTC)

;Sprites/Assets?
Hello! Does anyone have the assets/sprites used for Escape Speed (Eg. Upgrade Items, Ship, Background, Etc). I need it for something {{unsigned ip|172.71.120.10|18:26, 27 April 2025}}

7: Girl sleeping (Sketch -- 11th grade Spanish class)

2025-04-20T18:10:25Z

162.158.74.108: Undo revision 373789 by Translated ORK (talk) Why would we?

{{notice|Despite being categorised as comic #7, this was actually the first xkcd comic released by Randall. To learn more, read the [[LiveJournal|history of xkcd]].}}
{{comic
| number = 7
| date = September 30, 2005
| title = Girl sleeping (Sketch -- 11th grade Spanish class)
| before = <big><big>[https://web.archive.org/web/20070927001941/http://xkcd-drawings.livejournal.com/?skip=40#:~:text=8%3A34%20pm-,Girl%20sleeping,-I%20drew%20this Original title]: '''Girl sleeping'''</big></big>
| image = girl_sleeping_noline_(1).jpg
| titletext = I don't remember her name at all, but she fell asleep on the floor in front of me. [https://web.archive.org/web/20070927001941/http://xkcd-drawings.livejournal.com/?skip=40#:~:text=8%3A34%20pm-,Girl%20sleeping,-I%20drew%20this Original caption]: I drew this in 11th-grade Spanish class. We were watching a movie and she was asleep on the floor in front of me.
}}

This was the first comic originally posted to [[LiveJournal]]. The next one was [[4: Landscape (sketch)]]. It was among the [[:Category:First day on LiveJournal|first thirteen comics]] posted to LiveJournal within 12 minutes on September 30, 2005, on the first day of the xkcd LiveJournal account.

==Explanation==
This comic depicts a girl sleeping on the floor of [[Randall]]'s 11th-grade Spanish class, presumably during a movie as shown in the [https://web.archive.org/web/20070927001941/http://xkcd-drawings.livejournal.com/?skip=40#:~:text=8%3A34%20pm-,Girl%20sleeping,-I%20drew%20this original caption]. The title text on [https://xkcd.com xkcd.com] explains that Randall didn't know her name, but she was sleeping on the floor, and so he decided to draw her.

==Transcript==
:[Girl sleeping on her side, head to the left, facing away from view.]

==Trivia==
*This is the first comic drawn on [[:Category:Checkered paper|checkered paper]].
*This drawing would be used again in [[1506: xkcloud]] as one of the "[[1506: xkcloud/Pictures of other pages#Help! We lost the text|Help! We lost the text]]" images given by Randall.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Posted on LiveJournal| 01]]
[[Category:First day on LiveJournal| 01]]
[[Category:First day on xkcd.com]]
[[Category:Checkered paper]]
[[Category:Sketches]]

Category:Multiple title texts

2025-04-18T19:23:33Z

162.158.74.108:

It's very rare for an [[xkcd]] comic to have more than one [[Title text|title text]]. Among those, most are [[:Category:Extra comics|extra comics]] that have a specific title text for each panel, or for some clickable buttons to teach the user what they do. There are also some comics that [[:Category:No title text|don't have a title text]].

[[Category:Distinctive comics|Title text]]

3064: Lungfish

2025-03-18T00:47:58Z

162.158.74.108: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 3064
| date = March 17, 2025
| title = Lungfish
| image = lungfish_2x.png
| imagesize = 317x403px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = I know having so many base pairs makes rebasing complicated, but you're in Bilateria, so shouldn't you at LEAST be better at using git head?
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a COPY OF COPY OF COPY OF COPY OF LUNGFISH - more information on lungfish if necessary, less information if not. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

{{w|Lungfish}} (the class ''Dipnoi'') have the largest known {{w|genome}} among the {{w|vertebrate}}s (155 billion {{w|base pair}}s), and the third-largest known genome of all species. The comic relates this to a common issue when editing documents or coding, where the author accidentally makes changes to {{w|Fork (software development)|two separately created versions of documents}}, when they meant to only edit one, which can result in changes to both (or all) resulting documents functionally essential parts of the completed project, or at least present as development artefacts in the 'final' product. This may happen if documents are sent for review (or updating) to different editors, or at different times, and the changes from the earlier one(s) aren't properly integrated with the later one(s). The comic posits that Lungfish has a habit of doing this with its own genome, making both genes essential and increasing the amount of base pairs. When Cueball confronts Lungfish about this bad habit of mismanaging files, Lungfish dismisses him by saying he'll just "buy more storage". This is likely alluding to when people are faced with an increasing number of files on their storage media, they just buy more storage, either by adding another media drive or paying additional monthly fees for online storage (ex: [https://www.apple.com/ca/icloud/ iCloud] or [https://one.google.com/about/plans Google Drive]).

For anyone curious about the science, it's important to note that [https://www.science.org/content/article/odd-fish-has-30-times-much-dna-humans-new-record-animals this is absolutely not why lungfish have a large genome]; while some organisms do contain many copies of genes as a diversification strategy, this mostly occurs only in some plants and single-celled eukaryotes. Lungfish have roughly the same number of genes as a human (and likely slightly fewer), and the large size of the lungfish genome is likely due to poor transposon control causing their chromosomes to fill up with junk.

The names of the "files" reference several things about computer files:
* Older versions of Windows, when copy-and-pasting a file within the same folder, would automatically append "Copy of" to the start of the filename, resulting in a file named "Copy of [Document]". (This was previously referenced in the title text of [[1459: Documents]].) If ''that'' file was then copied, it would be likewise appended, thus producing "Copy of Copy of [Document]". (Newer versions of Windows instead add "- Copy" to the end of the filename, which produces the same effect but keeps things in roughly the same order when sorted by name.) Google Docs automatically adds "Copy of ''x''" to documents when copied.
* Numbered labels in brackets can be produced by a couple different actions:
** If multiple files are highlighted and a Rename action is performed, all of the files will be given the same name with a numeric designator, starting with the one clicked on for the Rename action and then proceeding from the top of the list down as originally sorted. For example, if three files named "Alpha", "Beta", and "Gamma" are highlighted, and the user right-clicks on "Gamma" and renames it to "Alphabet", then "Gamma" will be renamed to "Alphabet (1)", followed by "Alphabet (2)" [formerly Alpha] and "Alphabet (3)" [formerly Beta].
** If a copied file is pasted multiple times in the same folder, it will also receive number labels in the same format.
* Some users will keep older drafts of a file in case of a need to revert back to an older version; this can be done with a number label (i.e. "v1", "v2", etc.) or a proper word (i.e. "draft", "edited", etc.) at the user's discretion. This can be useful if it's discovered an edit breaks something important, or in the event that a mistaken save action loses data, but it can also lead to file hoarding. It is also far from foolproof, as a "(Newest)"-named file can't itself know when it is superseded (perhaps by a "(Final)" file) and even a "(Final)" one cannot be sure that the project hasn't been revisited (perhaps with an update to "(Newest)"; such a manual method of attempting to keep sequential versions in line can easily be open to misuse and ambiguity of status. Especially when any changes apparently have not so obviously major that the "version number" has not been updated - or else ''both'' were (separate!) refinements of some "v2" revision(s), or earlier.

The file names "Copy of Copy of Gene v3 (Newest) (2)" and "Copy of Copy of Gene v3 (Final) (2)" suggest a very poorly-organized filesystem - and a tendency to copy-paste unnecessarily - on the part of the lungfish, which certainly explains why it keeps editing multiple documents instead of a single one.

The title text further compares the biology of lungfish to managing versions of files in a popular version control system called {{w|Git}}, which includes a facility called [https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/git-head/ "head"] that assists in keeping track of the latest available version of a particular project resource, across all updating and forking. Rebasing, in Git, is the act of moving changes from one file branch to another, which Cueball says is complicated due to the large number of 'base pairs' - a pun since base pairs are elements of chromosomes. {{w|Bilateria}} is a clade of animals characterized by embryonic bilateral symmetry, giving their bodies distinguishable "head" and "tail" ends. Since this applies to lungfish, Cueball says, in another pun, that the lungfish should at least know how to use the "head" branch with Git.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[Cueball is standing on the end of a wooden dock looking down at the ocean. A lungfish is sticking its head out of the water close to the dock and looking at Cueball.]
:Lungfish: It turns out I've been editing both '''''Copy of Copy of Gene v3 (Newest) (2)''''' and '''''Copy of Copy of Gene v3 (Final) (2)''''' so now I can't delete either one.
:Cueball: You have '''''got''''' to stop doing this.
:Lungfish: It's fine, I'll just buy more storage.

:[Caption below the panel:]
:Why lungfish have such enormous genomes

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Animals]]
[[Category:Biology]]
[[Category:Programming]]
[[Category:Version Control]]

3064: Lungfish

2025-03-18T00:44:06Z

162.158.74.108: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 3064
| date = March 17, 2025
| title = Lungfish
| image = lungfish_2x.png
| imagesize = 317x403px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = I know having so many base pairs makes rebasing complicated, but you're in Bilateria, so shouldn't you at LEAST be better at using git head?
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a COPY OF COPY OF COPY OF COPY OF LUNGFISH - more information on lungfish if necessary, less information if not. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

{{w|Lungfish}} (the class ''Dipnoi'') have the largest known {{w|genome}} among the {{w|vertebrate}}s (155 billion {{w|base pair}}s), and the third-largest known genome of all species. The comic relates this to a common issue when editing documents or coding, where the author accidentally makes changes to {{w|Fork (software development)|two separately created versions of documents}}, when they meant to only edit one, which can result in changes to both (or all) resulting documents functionally essential parts of the completed project, or at least present as development artefacts in the 'final' product. This may happen if documents are sent for review (or updating) to different editors, or at different times, and the changes from the earlier one(s) aren't properly integrated with the later one(s). The comic posits that Lungfish has a habit of doing this with its own genome, making both genes essential and increasing the amount of base pairs. When Cueball confronts Lungfish about this bad habit of mismanaging files, Lungfish dismisses him by saying he'll just "buy more storage". This is likely alluding to when people are faced with an increasing number of files on their storage media, they just buy more storage, either by adding another media drive or paying additional monthly fees for online storage (ex: [https://www.apple.com/ca/icloud/ iCloud] or [https://one.google.com/about/plans Google Drive]).

For anyone curious about the science, it's important to note that [https://www.science.org/content/article/odd-fish-has-30-times-much-dna-humans-new-record-animals this is absolutely not why lungfish have a large genome]; while some organisms do contain many copies of genes as a diversification strategy, this mostly occurs only in some plants and single-celled eukaryotes. Lungfish have roughly the same number of genes as a human (and likely slightly fewer), and the large size of the lungfish genome is likely due to poor transposon control causing their chromosomes to fill up with junk.

The names of the "files" reference several things about computer files:
* Older versions of Windows, when copy-and-pasting a file within the same folder, would automatically append "Copy of" to the start of the filename, resulting in a file named "Copy of [Document]". (This was previously referenced in the title text of [[1459: Documents]].) If ''that'' file was then copied, it would be likewise appended, thus producing "Copy of Copy of [Document]". (Newer versions of Windows instead add "- Copy" to the end of the filename, which produces the same effect but keeps things in roughly the same order when sorted by name.) Google Docs automatically adds "Copy of ''x''" to documents when copied.
* Numbered labels in brackets can be produced by a couple different actions:
** If multiple files are highlighted and a Rename action is performed, all of the files will be given the same name with a numeric designator, starting with the one clicked on for the Rename action and then proceeding from the top of the list down as originally sorted. For example, if three files named "Alpha", "Beta", and "Gamma" are highlighted, and the user right-clicks on "Gamma" and renames it to "Alphabet", then "Gamma" will be renamed to "Alphabet (1)", followed by "Alphabet (2)" [formerly Alpha] and "Alphabet (3)" [formerly Beta].
** If a copied file is pasted multiple times in the same folder, it will also receive number labels in the same format.
* Some users will keep older drafts of a file in case of a need to revert back to an older version; this can be done with a number label (i.e. "v1", "v2", etc.) or a proper word (i.e. "draft", "edited", etc.) at the user's discretion. This can be useful if it's discovered an edit breaks something important, or in the event that a mistaken save action loses data, but it can also lead to file hoarding. It is also far from foolproof, as a "(Newest)"-named file can't itself know when it is superseded (perhaps by a "(Final)" file) and even a "(Final)" one cannot be sure that the project hasn't been revisited (perhaps with an update to "(Newest)"; such a manual method of attempting to keep sequential versions in line can easily be open to misuse and ambiguity of status.

The file names "Copy of Copy of Gene v3 (Newest) (2)" and "Copy of Copy of Gene v3 (Final) (2)" suggest a very poorly-organized filesystem - and a tendency to copy-paste unnecessarily - on the part of the lungfish, which certainly explains why it keeps editing multiple documents instead of a single one.

The title text further compares the biology of lungfish to managing versions of files in a popular version control system called {{w|Git}}, which includes a facility called [https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/git-head/ "head"] that assists in keeping track of the latest available version of a particular project resource, across all updating and forking. Rebasing, in Git, is the act of moving changes from one file branch to another, which Cueball says is complicated due to the large number of 'base pairs' - a pun since base pairs are elements of chromosomes. {{w|Bilateria}} is a clade of animals characterized by embryonic bilateral symmetry, giving their bodies distinguishable "head" and "tail" ends. Since this applies to lungfish, Cueball says, in another pun, that the lungfish should at least know how to use the "head" branch with Git.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[Cueball is standing on the end of a wooden dock looking down at the ocean. A lungfish is sticking its head out of the water close to the dock and looking at Cueball.]
:Lungfish: It turns out I've been editing both '''''Copy of Copy of Gene v3 (Newest) (2)''''' and '''''Copy of Copy of Gene v3 (Final) (2)''''' so now I can't delete either one.
:Cueball: You have '''''got''''' to stop doing this.
:Lungfish: It's fine, I'll just buy more storage.

:[Caption below the panel:]
:Why lungfish have such enormous genomes

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Animals]]
[[Category:Biology]]
[[Category:Programming]]
[[Category:Version Control]]

Talk:563: Fermirotica

2025-03-17T22:39:27Z

162.158.74.108: Undo revision 369300 by 172.70.111.200 (talk)

Explanation marked as incorrect. I would do some editing, but I do not have the time or explanation-writing skill to do so effectively.

Issues:

1. The explanation's listed April Fools' joke seems to have no proof; it has no mention in the comic.

2. The title text seems to just be a complaint against Google's methods for statistics (i.e. "I love" is sarcasm). All it says is that Google just wildly guesses, based on unrelated, random events, and calls it statistics.
[[User:Zweisteine|Zweisteine]] ([[User talk:Zweisteine|talk]]) 04:26, 12 January 2014 (UTC)

I doubt that the title text was complaining or sarcastic at all. If I recall correctly, the ability to plug calculations with units into Google was pretty new in 2009, and especially useful, given as he switched his time units from minutes to years. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.231.234|108.162.231.234]] 17:04, 12 January 2014 (UTC)

Except that it specifically states that Google guesses (stats are ballpark) and change based un unrelated occurrences (time of day and your mother's presence). That sounds like either sarcasm, or him actually loving how google doesn't (or didn't at the time) do a very good job with stats. [[User:Zweisteine|Zweisteine]] ([[User talk:Zweisteine|talk]]) 23:08, 17 January 2014 (UTC)

I agree with Zweisteine - it is obvious a sarcastic comment, because the results from Google is so random that it will change during the day - and of course there is the your mom joke. Is there a category for these comics? (Like with the velociraptor comics etc.) [[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 11:20, 21 January 2014 (UTC)

The two sentences of the title text are unrelated. The first is not sarcasm, but is straightforward praise of Google's "dimensional analysis". Searching on "sqrt( 2 / (pi * (18600 / mile^2) * (80 / year) * 30 minutes) )" yields an answer of "139.379395 meters" with Google correctly doing all of the unit conversion for you. Wow, that really is cool! It should be noted when Google gained this capability, if we can find a source for that. The second sentence is a straightforward discussion of the limitations of the model, as the probability of having sex is not uniformly distributed throughout the day. The mom part is a joke because it applies to a specific individual, not simultaneously to the general population around you (unless it is "Moms Visit Campus Day"). There is no April Fool's joke here. Where does the 18,600 persons / square mile population density come from? Is it for a specific metropolitan area? Finally, what Randall is calling "dimensional analysis" is more commonly referred to as unit conversion. For physicists, at least, dimensional analysis refers to a more subtle and powerful tool where equations for phenomena can often be deduced (to within a scaling factor) purely by analyzing the units involved. Wikipedia's articles on "Dimensional analysis", "Units conversion by factor-label", "Drake equation", and "Fermi paradox" should all be linked. -- [[Special:Contributions/108.162.212.217|108.162.212.217]] 12:26, 21 January 2014 (UTC)

:Ah! I agree that the ''... and (b) whether "your mom" was in town (she is exceptionally slutty)'' "your mom" joke is a better interpretation than my earlier thought that people have sex less often when their out-of-town mom is visiting them. Good job! - [[Special:Contributions/108.162.212.217|108.162.212.217]] 02:28, 22 January 2014 (UTC)

April's fool seems to refer to the date of the comic being April 1st 2009. {{unsigned|Eric957}}

:Understood, but there is no meta-"joke within a joke" or joke on the reader which would serve as a kind of April Fool's joke. This is just a regular comic which happened to be published on 1 April. -- [[Special:Contributions/108.162.212.217|108.162.212.217]] 18:38, 21 January 2014 (UTC)

I think this represents a "Fermi Estimation" - it may give a number to a problem by taking "best guesses" for something that is not easily calculated exactly. See also http://whatif.xkcd.com/84/ [[User:Tier666|Tier666]] ([[User talk:Tier666|talk]]) 17:58, 14 July 2014 (UTC)

:I agree; I think it has little if anything to do with the Fermi Paradox. --[[Special:Contributions/173.245.52.123|173.245.52.123]] 03:21, 26 November 2016 (UTC)

:Also agree! Pretty positive this has to do with “Fermi Problems” (aka “Fermi estimates”).

:Uh, I got 10cm. Interpret that however you'd like. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.49.66|162.158.49.66]] 05:52, 31 December 2015 (UTC)

::I take it as you were off by an order of magnitude at least in one of your parameters or you made a mistake in the calculation. The only way you can get that without X_f and X_d being inconsistent is if you put the population density high enough that people are literally overlapping. --[[Special:Contributions/173.245.52.123|173.245.52.123]] 03:21, 26 November 2016 (UTC)

:::Yeah, make sure to convert your years or minutes so they are both in the same units of time. I came up with 4 meters on my first calculation, realized there was a mistake, corrected the units and got 7.1 kilometers. Now, if your units are correct and you got 10cm, then you might want to move to a quieter neighborhood. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.237.154|108.162.237.154]] 01:24, 29 December 2016 (UTC)

This equation is not perfect (besides several environment factors, thus "on average"), because the times when people have sex are not independent: Usually two people have sex at the same time. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.89.61|162.158.89.61]] 23:56, 20 November 2018 (UTC)

:Wait, that's what the 2 is for. I should learn the circle equations... [[Special:Contributions/162.158.89.61|162.158.89.61]] 00:01, 21 November 2018 (UTC)

Pretty sure this is about Fermi estimation more than the Paradox? Also disappointed to see no callout of the Fermi+Erotica pun. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.143.59|172.70.143.59]] 10:10, 20 May 2023 (UTC)

Is the two supposed to represent the idea that there are two people having sex? If so, then it should almost certainly not be two - different numbers of people are involved in different sex acts, and the average number of people involved in an act of having sex (so to speak) is very unlikely to be exactly two. The overall average number will vary depending on how one defines sex. If, for example, you included group sex in your definition of sex, but excluded masturbation, then the average number of people involved in a single act of having sex would have to be greater than two, possibly significantly so.[[Special:Contributions/172.71.242.29|172.71.242.29]] 21:06, 6 May 2024 (UTC)

Talk:3063: Planet Definitions

2025-03-15T12:26:52Z

162.158.74.108:

The one currently posted has Pluto highlighted in the second box and not highlighted in the first box. Too hard to tell if it's trolling or a genuine mistake. :-D

:Apparently a mistake since it's fixed now. [[User:HughNo|HughNo]] ([[User talk:HughNo|talk]]) 19:59, 14 March 2025 (UTC)

And the first one also has a moon hilighted instead I think?? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.126.5|162.158.126.5]] 15:59, 14 March 2025 (UTC)

:Was about to write the same. The coloring in the first two lines arund Pluto seem wrong (or mistankingly switched). --[[Special:Contributions/172.71.222.246|172.71.222.246]] 16:17, 14 March 2025 (UTC)

This, this is the hill I will die on. I was radicalised by this paper: [https://arxiv.org/abs/2110.15285 Moons Are Planets: "Scientific Usefulness Versus Cultural Teleology in the Taxonomy of Planetary Science"]
In short; planets are what planetary scientists study. Round things with the *good stuff*: atmospheres, oceans, volcanoes (of lava or water ice) (see diagram page 53).
Pluto, Titan, Ceres, Io and Europa are all in the sweet spot where you're not so small you're just a lump of rocks who happen to be stuck together into a lump, and not so large you're just a mostly undifferentiated mass of fusing hydrogen/helium plasma.
And it's consistent with our pre-20th Century understanding of what a planet is, whereas the IAU definition is trying to preserve 19th Century astrology. An amazing read and a strong recommend for anyone who cares about this subject. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.79.138|172.69.79.138]] 16:45, 14 March 2025 (UTC)

Does this sort of count as pi-related for pi day? [[User:TomtheBuilder|TomtheBuilder]] ([[User talk:TomtheBuilder|talk]]) 17:04, 14 March 2025 (UTC)
:he doesn't do themed comics anymore 😔 [[User:CalibansCreations|'''Caliban''']] ([[User talk:CalibansCreations|talk]]) 17:12, 14 March 2025 (UTC)

:: Sure he does. [[2962]] and [[2969]] weren't too long ago. Seems like it, though. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.182.222|172.71.182.222]] 03:31, 15 March 2025 (UTC)

I was somewhat disappointed to get to the end of the table without seeing either an astrology or Sailor Moon joke. -- [[User:Angel|Angel]] ([[User talk:Angel|talk]]) 18:12, 14 March 2025 (UTC)

Is it possible that Uranus is marked under "Empiricist" because of the "Randall has seen Uranus" joke? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.42.178|172.70.42.178]] 18:38, 14 March 2025 (UTC)

The "{{w|Classical planet|Classical Planets}}" should be 7, including the Sun and the Moon.
:The average distance of the orbit of the Moon around the Earth must be slightly farther away than the orbit of the Sun around the Earth, since the Moon lags behind the Sun a little more each day, but the orbits must cross or we would never have a solar eclipse :P [[User:SammyChips|SammyChips]] ([[User talk:SammyChips|talk]]) 19:41, 14 March 2025 (UTC)

Wouldn't the Regolithic one depend on the exact definitions of "dirt", "ice", and "covered"? It seems that an argument could be made that the giant planets also count there but have a much thicker atmosphere on the outside, and disqualifying because of the atmosphere could exclude others like Earth depending on the exact threshold used. [[User:SammyChips|SammyChips]] ([[User talk:SammyChips|talk]]) 19:08, 14 March 2025 (UTC)

Has Randall not seen the sun before?
:I'm impressed that he has seen Uranus (unless that actually is a joke), especially if he saw it unaided (apparently it actually can be barely seen with the naked eye if the conditions are incredibly good). [[User:SammyChips|SammyChips]] ([[User talk:SammyChips|talk]]) 19:36, 14 March 2025 (UTC)
:Could the sun be classified as a "world"? --[[User:MothWaves|MothWaves]] ([[User talk:MothWaves|talk]]) 19:43, 14 March 2025 (UTC)
:I assumed he meant "seen directly with my eyes", so that a photograph would not count, but looking through a telescope during an astronomy night at the local University would count. And he hasn't looked *closely* at the Sun, because of the need for eye protection. [[User:JimJJewett|JimJJewett]] ([[User talk:JimJJewett|talk]]) 23:49, 14 March 2025 (UTC)

Technically, spacecraft have landed on Mercury, Jupiter, and Saturn. Just not in a survivable manner. [[User:Redacted II|Redacted II]] ([[User talk:Redacted II|talk]]) 19:37, 14 March 2025 (UTC)
:Have we really not sent anything directly into the Sun yet? [[User:JimJJewett|JimJJewett]] ([[User talk:JimJJewett|talk]]) 23:51, 14 March 2025 (UTC)
::The most "into the Sun" we've done is [https://science.nasa.gov/mission/parker-solar-probe/ the Parker Solar Probe], and it hasn't attempted to 'land' there (apart from that being effectively impossible, even beyond the likes of Cassini's final fall "onto" Saturn). It's also ''very hard'' to even send things into the Sun, because the direct method would need you to send a craft from Earth backwards at the same speed as the Earth orbits forwards (or very close to that), otherwise all you can do is fall ''past'' it and loop back up again. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.74.94|162.158.74.94]] 01:00, 15 March 2025 (UTC)

It looks like the Pluto error in Traditionalist and Modernist images were fixed. I now see Pluto highlighted in traditionalist and Pluto unhighlighted in Modern. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.7.91|172.68.7.91]] 19:44, 14 March 2025 (UTC)

indeed, it seems fine now, i removed my earlier comment--[[Special:Contributions/162.158.233.116|162.158.233.116]] 23:06, 14 March 2025 (UTC)

//Jean-Luc Margot wrote a serious planet definition proposal// in 2024 as a starting point for community conversations and welcomes feedback. In 2019 I wrote a small article myself on planet and moon classes simply by size. //Mondklassen "wwwahnsinn"// (in German).
[[Special:Contributions/162.158.159.108|162.158.159.108]] 19:49, 14 March 2025 (UTC)

I'm disputing that there has never been a formal definition of "planet" prior to 2006 - the ancient Greek definition of "wandering [relative to seemingly-fixed stars] points of light in the night sky" seems formal enough to me. I marked it {{tl|actual citation needed}}. [[Special:Contributions/198.41.227.73|198.41.227.73]] 19:52, 14 March 2025‎
: I've reworded the sentence to say "in modern times" so we aren't making unfounded and likely-incorrect claims about antiquity. [[Special:Contributions/198.41.227.73|198.41.227.73]] 21:19, 14 March 2025 (UTC)

Does anyone else strongly dislike the term '''natural satellite''' replacing ''moon''? Under the new nomenclature, only Earth's moon is 'the Moon'. All other moons are now merely natural satellites. Phobos, Deimos, Ganymede, are no longer considered moons. My biggest problem with the new definition is that planets themselves are natural satellites of stars. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.182.225|172.71.182.225]] 20:13, 14 March 2025 (UTC)

It seems likely that the Saturnian moon highlighted in the Maritime definition is Titan, since it has liquid seas and lakes on its surface. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.6.5|172.69.6.5]] 21:54, 14 March 2025 (UTC)
:I've noted in the Transcript that (despite apparently being ''identical'' pre-highlight drawings in all other ways, or at least very consistently reproduced), Saturn is given one moon ''most'' of the time, but two moons on occasion. Similarly, Uranus's moons (spread from upper-right to lower-left) do-or-do-not include the dot (in one case suffering a highlighting) moving across the face of the planet. From an analytical perspective, I'm wondering if Randall did indeed copypaste the 'normal' iillustration, but then have to manually add in "whoops, I forgot I need to highlight a further item thaat I haven't already drawn" into some of the established copies, touching up where necessary (and maybe where still not necessary too). ...But I'm not sure it matters what he did or did not do. It's just an observation about the result. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.79.190|172.69.79.190]] 23:03, 14 March 2025 (UTC)
:Yeah, Titan's present in all the diagrams, and a second moon of Saturn shows up when highlighting is necessary. The bonus "Marine Biologist" planet is clearly Enceladus, but the bonus "Judgemental" planet doesn't line up with it: presumably it's one of Saturn's other moons. Which one? My wild guess is Iapetus. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.150.27|172.68.150.27]] 01:48, 15 March 2025 (UTC)

Great explanation, thank you, but was it really necessary to include a snide dig at Baby Boomers? Not a BB myself - I'm gen X, if we're using those facile labels - but surely we don't need to encourage intergenerational resentment and conflict. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.174.116|172.68.174.116]] 03:22, 15 March 2025 (UTC) 
As a historian, I strongly disagree with the snide definition of tradition. (No, not a BB.) [[Special:Contributions/162.158.212.132|162.158.212.132]] 07:40, 15 March 2025 (UTC)
:That's a direct quote from a prior comic, that whoever wrote it in the first placce ysed, so I've rewritten it to perhaps ''not'' look quite so much like some editor's own grudge/snidiness (which it may or may not be, but not without Randall giving justifiable precedent to say it). Maybe can be tweaked further, but it might be a shame to lose the inter-comic referential humour that (regardless of tone) is staple for this site. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.74.109|162.158.74.109]] 12:25, 15 March 2025 (UTC)

I believe we're currently missing part of the joke in the mouseover text. Not only is Earth now a star because of human fusion, it's also no longer a planet, because, due to human satellites and spacecraft, it no longer clears its orbit.
[[Special:Contributions/198.41.227.42|198.41.227.42]] 06:20, 15 March 2025 (UTC)

Isn't the usual singular of criteria criterion? According to my dictionary, a criterium is a type of cycling race.--[[Special:Contributions/172.71.26.100|172.71.26.100]] 09:46, 15 March 2025 (UTC)
:Indeed. Maybe a thinko, though, rather. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.79.139|172.69.79.139]] 11:06, 15 March 2025 (UTC)

== Citations ==

I added a bunch of Wikipedia citations. I went by the WP rule (citation needed) of linking the first non-parenthesized instance of a word/phrase. That does make for some awkward things, like lists with only some of the items linked, and the {{w|natural satellite|moon}} link in a mention under '''Simplistic''' rather than on the more relevant '''Lunar'''.
–[[User:P1h3r1e3d13|P1h3r1e3d13]] ([[User talk:P1h3r1e3d13|talk]]) 22:34, 14 March 2025 (UTC)

'''Round vs Spheroidal'''
According to the "simplistic" definition, the rings themselves (also round) are separate planets. If the simplistic definition had merely been "spheroidal" rather than "round", they would not be. I'd love to see a version of the chart where Saturn is green, but the rings are white. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.99.166|172.71.99.166]] 23:36, 14 March 2025 (UTC)

Talk:3054: Scream Cipher

2025-02-23T20:47:41Z

162.158.74.108:

What's the American alphabet? [[Special:Contributions/172.68.64.213|172.68.64.213]] 01:16, 22 February 2025 (UTC)AnAussie
Anyone know a good free all-language OCR tool to help with the transcript? [[Special:Contributions/172.69.67.156|172.69.67.156]] 17:30, 21 February 2025 (UTC)
: Found one here: https://www.lexilogos.com/keyboard/diacritics.htm --mezimm [[Special:Contributions/172.68.2.70|172.68.2.70]] 17:52, 21 February 2025 (UTC)

The written cipher is very interesting, but where can I hear recordings of the spoken form? [[Special:Contributions/Rockymountain|Rockymountain]] 17:31, 21 February 2025 (UTC)
: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eL4piuUn5nc Here ya go.] --mezimm [[Special:Contributions/172.68.35.117|172.68.35.117]] 17:54, 21 February 2025 (UTC)

Are Cueball and Megan millenials? Who else would text greetings when they're standing right next to each other? [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 17:38, 21 February 2025 (UTC)
:They could be texting other people. [[User:B_for_brain|B for brain]] ([[User_talk:B_for_brain|talk]]) ([https://www.youtube.com/@bforbrain youtube channel] [https://bforbrain.weebly.com/ wobsite (supposed to be a blag)]) 19:37, 21 February 2025 (UTC)
:Engineers and cyberfolk were text messaging their neighbors rather than talking long before it was <s>cool</s> encouraged for social distancing or quarantine! It's always helpful to get a reminder not to do this. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.159.101|162.158.159.101]] 20:37, 21 February 2025 (UTC)
:They might not be diegetically in the same room. Comics can get weird with physical space. [[User:GreatWyrmGold|GreatWyrmGold]] ([[User talk:GreatWyrmGold|talk]]) 20:34, 21 February 2025 (UTC)

Likely a pun on "stream cipher"

- Related reference: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scream_(cipher) [[Special:Contributions/172.68.26.229|172.68.26.229]] 17:46, 21 February 2025 (UTC)

A̦ÅÄ ẠÂÅȀ, A̓A̅ ȀÅÄĂA̱ ȦÁ ÂÁAĂĂA̦ A̮ÄÂÂA̦ A̓A̮ ȀÁ A̱A̓A̱ A ÀÁÂÃA̓ÅÂ ÅA̮ A̅A̰A̓Ã A̭AA̋Á A̓Â A̅A̰A̓Ã ÃA̅A̦ĂÁ! --mezimm [[Special:Contributions/172.68.3.112|172.68.3.112]] 17:50, 21 February 2025 (UTC)

:The Wikifunction [https://www.wikifunctions.org/view/en/Z22728 from Scream] returns "YOU KNOW, JA̅ WOULD BE NEALLY FUNNY JF WE DJD A VENSJON OF A̅HJS A̭AGE JN A̅HJS SA̅YLE!". Hmmm... [[User:Mwarren|Mwarren]] ([[User talk:Mwarren|talk]]) 19:04, 21 February 2025 (UTC)

::The page you link to came into existence 7 minutes after I had posted this comment ;) I was doing it all manually, using [https://www.lexilogos.com/keyboard/diacritics.htm this page] and best-guess attempts to interpret what Randall's handwritten diacritics were meant to correspond to. --mezimm [[Special:Contributions/172.68.1.158|172.68.1.158]] 19:55, 21 February 2025 (UTC)

::: updated version: "A̦ÅÄ ẠÂÅȀ, ẢĀ ȀÅÄĂA̱ ȦÁ ȂÁAĂĂA̦ A̮ÄÂÂA̦ ẢA̮ ȀÁ A̱ẢA̱ A ÀÁȂÃẢÅÂ ÅA̮ ĀA̰ẢÃ A̯AA̋Á ẢÂ ĀA̰ẢÃ ÃĀA̦ĂÁ!" --mezimm [[Special:Contributions/172.68.3.67|172.68.3.67]] 20:01, 21 February 2025 (UTC)

On Wikifunctions, we implemented the two functions [https://www.wikifunctions.org/view/en/Z22725 to Scream Cipher] and [https://www.wikifunctions.org/view/en/Z22728 from Scream Cipher] --[[Special:Contributions/172.70.38.235|172.70.38.235]] 18:09, 21 February 2025 (UTC)

:It looks like the wikifunctions are using a different character for "D" than [https://scream-cipher.netlify.app/ the github project] linked in the explanation. Seems as though one's using U+0331 and the other's using 0332. [[User:Schiffy|Schiffy]] ([[User_talk:Schiffy|Speak to me]]|[[Special:Contributions/Schiffy|What I've done]]) 20:32, 21 February 2025 (UTC)

Is there a logic behind the choices of the letter? I guess A̧ is for C because of the French ç and Å is pronounced like O in some Nordic languages. Also, is it A̱, A̲ or A̲ ? (or something else). [[Special:Contributions/172.71.126.50|172.71.126.50]] 18:10, 21 February 2025 (UTC)
: Seems to be mostly visual similarity. Å has an actual O shape added to it. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.110.171|172.70.110.171]] 20:19, 21 February 2025 (UTC)

I give it a week for people to make a translator to and from this cipher. [[User:CalibansCreations|'''Caliban''']] ([[User talk:CalibansCreations|talk]]) 18:20, 21 February 2025 (UTC)

- The Wikifunctions translations above were complete at least 11 minutes ''before'' your comment and well within the goal of one week :-) . [[User:Mwarren|Mwarren]] ([[User talk:Mwarren|talk]]) 19:04, 21 February 2025 (UTC)

Numbers should be variations of h and/or g. [[User:Andyd273|Andyd273]] ([[User talk:Andyd273|talk]]) 18:32, 21 February 2025 (UTC)#
:H > g [[User:SqueakSquawk4|SqueakSquawk4]] ([[User talk:SqueakSquawk4|talk]]) 18:59, 21 February 2025 (UTC)

Using ''sed'' you can encode with <code>sed 's/C/A̧/g;s/D/A̱/g;s/F/A̮/g;s/G/A̋/g;s/H/A̰/g;s/J/A̓/g;s/P/A̯/g;s/Q/A̤/g;s/X/A̽/g;s/Y/A̦/g;y/BEIKLMNORSTUVWZ/ȦÁẢẠĂǍÂÅȂÃĀÄÀȀȺ/'</code> and decode with <code>sed 's/A̧/C/g;s/A̱/D/g;s/A̮/F/g;s/A̋/G/g;s/A̰/H/g;s/A̓/J/g;s/A̯/P/g;s/A̤/Q/g;s/A̽/X/g;s/A̦/Y/g;y/ȦÁẢẠĂǍÂÅȂÃĀÄÀȀȺ/BEIKLMNORSTUVWZ/'</code>. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.159.102|162.158.159.102]] 18:41, 21 February 2025 (UTC)
: This is really neat. I suppose `tr` might work too. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.10.242|162.158.10.242]] 16:15, 22 February 2025 (UTC)
:: I don't think `tr` can be used, at least not the most common (GNU) implementation; it doesn't do multibyte characters (and thus UTF-8 or other Unicode). [[User:Chaw|chaw]] ([[User talk:Chaw|talk]]) 20:32, 23 February 2025 (UTC)
::: You'd be able to use Perl's inbuilt equivalent tr/// (or y///) fair enough. I'd have to test for edge cases, but might or might not have to fight with /u or /l post-params (if otherwise desired), in concatonation with /i for case-insensitivity (useful for upconverting "plainText" to "CIPHERTEXT", unless you're also wanting to cater for "á" as well as "Á" in code, so that it can be restored upon decoding). There's plenty of scope for all of this, of course, well beyond the brief spec as given in the comic. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.74.108|162.158.74.108]] 20:47, 23 February 2025 (UTC)

It would be really funny if someone added an image of Bill Cipher screaming, with the tag "A screaming cipher". It wouldn't reall fit but it'd be funny [[User:SqueakSquawk4|SqueakSquawk4]] ([[User talk:SqueakSquawk4|talk]]) 18:59, 21 February 2025 (UTC)
:[[File:Screamingcipher.png]] I did. [[User:B_for_brain|B for brain]] ([[User_talk:B_for_brain|talk]]) ([https://www.youtube.com/@bforbrain youtube channel] [https://bforbrain.weebly.com/ wobsite (supposed to be a blag)]) 19:57, 21 February 2025 (UTC) (EDIT: WOW, that thing is MASSIVE! Can someone please downscale it because I have no idea how. You have permission to edit my comment '''''only for that.''''') (DOUBLE EDIT: Nevermind, I did it.)
Someone started a GitHub repo with a web-based encoded/decoder already: https://github.com/Reginald-Gillespie/StreamCipher [[User:Dlech|Dlech]] ([[User talk:Dlech|talk]]) 19:35, 21 February 2025 (UTC)

I'd almost want to edit in my repo instead of the current one because mine is objectively better, but I'm new to this and not sure if that's appropriate or not =P (I don't even know if I am commenting correctly) [[User:WKoA|WKoA]] ([[User talk:WKoA|talk]]) 00:17, 22 February 2025 (UTC)
:Look to the likes of the [[1190: Time]] comic, where several different fanbase compilations may have been given. I would anticipate that you could do a decent job of editing "This thing here does..." into "Ways of experiencing it include this [existing one] and that [yours] [with room to add more, if they add up]. Or just mention your link here, let others decide if your claims of (better?) functionality stand up enough to prompt it to be put up alongside/ahead/instead of the other. I am at least intrigued as to how you did it differently.
:And you certainly had a bit of trouble with the signing. Just add <nowiki>~~~~</nowiki> to the end of Talk comments and it autoreplaces. No need to go back in and edit (I added the original timestamp back in, for you, just for future reference). Unless of course you forgot to do it the first time... ;) [[Special:Contributions/172.71.178.161|172.71.178.161]] 02:41, 22 February 2025 (UTC)

I know you can decode a substitution cipher by counting letters and replacing common ones like 'E' and then filling in the rest by inspection, but what kinds of automated approaches are there? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.159.105|162.158.159.105]] 20:14, 21 February 2025 (UTC)

'''HEADS UP:''' I just changed A̲ (0332 COMBINING LOW LINE) to A̱ (0331 COMBINING MACRON BELOW) as encoding for "D" in the table and the transcript. Rationale: "T" is written with macron, so it's only logical to encode "D" likewise. A "low line" is longer than a macron, and looking at Randall's comic, the line below the "D" is definitely not longer than the one above "T". It would also make no sense to encode "T" with a "combining low line" as well when a single, uncombined character exists. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.114.123|172.70.114.123]] 20:29, 21 February 2025 (UTC)
: These options should all be including as different writing styles! I think the longer line makes it clearer that A̲ represents D because the ink comes nearer to forming into a closed curve. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.54.68|172.68.54.68]] 15:55, 22 February 2025 (UTC)

I expect to win a Turing Award for my proof this cypher is computationally equivalent to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whitespace_(programming_language) [[Special:Contributions/172.71.158.19|172.71.158.19]] 02:57, 22 February 2025 (UTC)

The page technically uses the incorrect characters for (at least) E, M, N, O, R, S, and T based on the title text shown on xkcd.com. The original title text uses two separate characters (ex. A + 0301 COMBINING ACUTE ACCENT for E), whereas the table uses the combined character (ex. 00C1 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER A WITH ACUTE for E). Alternatively, my browser is just doing something weird. Not necessarily worth updating, but something I noticed when implementing the cipher. [[User:Abus|Abus]] ([[User talk:Abus|talk]]) 06:22, 22 February 2025 (UTC)
: I think it's the browser. Firefox->Page Source gives me A+COMBINING WHATEVER, but <code>w3m -dump_source https://xkcd.com/3054/ | zcat | grep 'img.*title='</code> returns single characters. The title text here on explainxkcd was copied by ''TheusafBOT''. I trust ''TheusafBOT'' and ''w3m'' to be so basic and simple that they wouldn't try to do something 'clever' with the characters, whereas I tend to suspect the multi-MB-monster Firefox messed things up. I'm just guessing, though... could maybe someone test with yet another browser - e.g. Edge or Opera? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.159.107|162.158.159.107]] 11:52, 22 February 2025 (UTC)
:: Argh, no, turns out ''w3m'', and also ''wget'' all return A+COMBINING THINGY, but they got merged into the single chars by my ''xterm'' when I copied them to some 'identify unicode' web page. Looking at the raw file dumped by ''wget'' I see A+COMBINING XX - I think... So I think you are right with your observation! Randall uses A+COMBINING XX for the title text on XKCD (though I really doubt that was intentional), then ''TheusafBOT'' merged the characters when it copied the text to create this page. That said, I still think using the merged chars is cleaner. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.159.107|162.158.159.107]] 12:20, 22 February 2025 (UTC)
::: It may be worth noting the difference somewhere, even though the merged chars are cleaner. Someone copying the characters from this page to encipher text would technically be in violation of the "spec" since Randall used the two character version in the title text. If someone wished to decipher the title text from the original XKCD, this characters on this page would fail. [[User:Abus|Abus]] ([[User talk:Abus|talk]]) 18:56, 22 February 2025 (UTC)
: unsure how to indent a sourceblock, see below [[Special:Contributions/172.68.54.167|172.68.54.167]] 16:13, 22 February 2025 (UTC)
<source>$ curl -s https://m.xkcd.com | sed -ne 's/.*id="altText">$[^<]*$<.*/\1/p' | iconv -f utf8 -t wchar_t | hexdump -C
00000000 41 00 00 00 41 00 00 00 41 00 00 00 41 00 00 00 |A...A...A...A...|
00000010 41 00 00 00 41 00 00 00 20 00 00 00 41 00 00 00 |A...A... ...A...|
00000020 20 00 00 00 41 00 00 00 03 03 00 00 41 00 00 00 | ...A.......A...|
00000030 27 03 00 00 41 00 00 00 41 00 00 00 11 03 00 00 |'...A...A.......|
00000040 41 00 00 00 26 03 00 00 20 00 00 00 41 00 00 00 |A...&... ...A...|
00000050 0c 03 00 00 41 00 00 00 0a 03 00 00 41 00 00 00 |....A.......A...|
00000060 02 03 00 00 41 00 00 00 03 03 00 00 41 00 00 00 |....A.......A...|
00000070 04 03 00 00 41 00 00 00 01 03 00 00 41 00 00 00 |....A.......A...|
00000080 11 03 00 00 20 00 00 00 41 00 00 00 41 00 00 00 |.... ...A...A...|
00000090 41 00 00 00 41 00 00 00 41 00 00 00 41 00 00 00 |A...A...A...A...|
000000a0 41 00 00 00 21 00 00 00 0a 00 00 00 |A...!.......|</source>

'''TRIARESIS'''
Does anyone else view the triaresis as a missed opportunity? I'm thinking of Die Aerzte". [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Die_%C3%84rzte#Band_name]. Can someone insert the image of the band's logo? [[Special:Contributions/172.71.102.222|172.71.102.222]] 17:21, 22 February 2025 (UTC)
:I saw that, when following up on the actual A-diaresisand I quite like the idea that they {{tvtropes|HeavyMetalUmlaut|heavy metal umlauted}} an ''actual'' existing umlaut/diaeresis... If it weren't irrelevent to the comic (and skipped the bit at the top that actually translates the name), I might have relinked to that anchor point. But happily boosting the visibility of it here with a small reply⋯ [[Special:Contributions/172.68.205.122|172.68.205.122]] 21:31, 22 February 2025 (UTC)

Yes, should encode all numbers, in binary, using 'g' and 'h' for 0 and 1.[[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.195|172.70.162.195]] 17:56, 22 February 2025 (UTC)
:Why g and h? I saw an early comment saying the same. Why those when letters are A? --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 18:14, 22 February 2025 (UTC)
::I presume for the "AAAAAAAAAGH!" type thing... (Although, given that a number would then be something like GHHHGGH, as a separate word, I'm not sure it'll look "AAAAAAAGH"ish.
::And is it coded as MSF (42=101010), N-bit (e.g. =00101010), BCD per digit (4=0100 2=0010 =01000010) or some other form? Plenty of scope for interpretation.
::Also, might I suggest E and I (or I and E) for it, instead..? IEIEIE EEIEIEIE EIEEEEIE! [[Special:Contributions/172.68.205.178|172.68.205.178]] 19:10, 22 February 2025 (UTC)

Should "Augh" be added to the versions of screaming? Randall uses it alot, e.g. https://xkcd.com/493/, https://xkcd.com/1401/, https://xkcd.com/1388/, https://xkcd.com/1207/, https://xkcd.com/1226/, https://xkcd.com/780/, https://xkcd.com/990/ {{unsigned|Drkaii|18:06, 22 February 2025}}

ÅĂÃÃÀ ÂȦA̮Ⱥ! A̯ ȀA̦ÀȀÀȺĂ A̰ ÂÀÀẠ A̤ÀẢ AA̦ÀȀÅA̮ ǍA̦ÀĀ 2916 AÀ A̰ÄA̮ÀÄĂ A̱ÅÀ A̓A̰Ä ǍA̯ÄẠ A̓ÅA̰A̦A̰A̓AĂA̦Ⱥ ǍÀA̦ ȀȦÄA̓AȦA̰AA̯ÀÄ A̰ÄẠ ÄȦĀẢĂA̦Ⱥ AÀ A̰ẠẠ A̯ÄAÀ AÅĂ A̓A̯ȀÅĂA̦, A̰ÄẠ A̱ÅA̯AĂ ÅA̰A'Ⱥ ÅA̰A AÀ A̰ÄA̮ÀÄĂ A̱ÅÀ A̓A̰Ä ẠĂA̓A̯ȀÅĂA̦ AÅA̯Ⱥ A̯Ä 1 ĀA̯ÄȦAĂ ẢA̮ ÅA̰ÄẠ. (A̰ẢÂĀ: ĀȂA̦ A A̧ẢA̯A̰ÁȂ ĀA̰AĀ ȦÁA̋ẢÂÃ ȀẢĀA̰ ĀA̰Á ȦĂÄÁ, AÂA̱ A̱ÅÁÃ ẢĀÃ ȀÅȂẠ ȦA̦ A̱ÅẢÂA̋ A ĀȂAÂÃĂAĀẢÅÂ.)
(A̰ẢÂĀ ĀÅ ĀA̰Á A̰ẢÂĀ: ĀA̰Á ȦĂÄÁ A̧ÅÀÁȂÃ 70% ÅA̮ ĀA̰Á ȀÅȂĂA̱'Ã ÃÄȂA̮AA̧Á.) [[Special:Contributions/162.158.90.46|162.158.90.46]] 03:57, 23 February 2025 (UTC)

Can anybody provide pronunciation notes or recordings for those 'A's which are actually used in human languages? Can we transcribe the title text and the "Hello", "Hi" from the comic in IPA or something? [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.88|141.101.99.88]] 10:33, 23 February 2025 (UTC)

549: Westley's a Dick

2025-02-16T15:10:43Z

162.158.74.108: /* Explanation */ Hard to say that the (believed) murder didn't let he get on with the rest of her life. "Out there but unattainable" might do that, but "Not out there, so not a question" is a guiltless reason to choose to move on. (Marry a prince, e.g.?)

{{comic
| number =549
| date =February 27, 2009
| title =Westley's a Dick
| image =westleys_a_dick.png
| titletext =Inigo/Buttercup 4eva <3
}}

==Explanation==
This is an alternate take on the 1973 fantasy romance novel ''{{w|The Princess Bride (novel)|The Princess Bride}}'' written by {{w|William Goldman}} which became a {{w|The Princess Bride (film)|film in 1987}}.

In the movie the main character, Buttercup, believes she has lost her first love to the Dread Pirate Roberts years ago. In the present she is considered one of the most beautiful women of the land and so is being married off to a prince. To provoke a war she has been kidnapped by mercenaries, one of whom is a very honorable Spanish swordsman named Inigo Montoya. A man claiming to be the Dread Pirate Roberts rescues her. On verifying his identity as Roberts, she attacks him by pushing him down a hill. While tumbling down the hill he shouts back "as you wish" identifying him as her first love. She tumbles after, landing on top of him as in the start of this comic.

There are, however, several "dick moves" Westley must have made in order for the film's narrative to make sense.
# He took over as the Dread Pirate Roberts becoming a pirate and therefore not respectable, killing people, sacking ports, and looting ships for a living.
# Over the last five years, Westley has allowed Buttercup to believe that he'd been murdered, apparently cutting off their burgeoning relationship of mutual attraction.

Westley breaks the fourth wall and claims he did all of these things for the sake of the {{w|narrative}}. In other words, he did it to make the story better.
In the comic Buttercup realizes that Westley has behaved like a dick and chooses to give her love to Inigo Montoya. But in the movie, Westley and Buttercup end up together in spite of this behavior!

The title text shows what looks like a message she and Inigo have written together, for instance in a heart on a tree. Inigo is the Spaniard referred to by Buttercup. Their names, then forever (4eva) and a heart (smiley heart = "<3"), implying they did end up together according to this version of the story. Alternatively, it could simply be the narrator expressing his wish that this will come to pass.

It is not the first time [[Randall]] has referenced this movie, as the Dread Pirate was referenced in [[345: 1337: Part 5]], and a quote from this movie is in the title text of [[1427: iOS Keyboard]]. So it seems like a film that has some meaning for Randall.

Note: It's quite possible Westley hasn't been killing people as a pirate at all. People had been surrendering to The Dread Pirate Roberts without a fight for years before he took over the role, due to the terror of his name. Of course, there may be a few people who needed to be killed, over the years, but the implication in the book (and movie) is that at least most surrender without a fight and are presumably unharmed.

If you haven't seen the movie or read the book, you may find it helpful to read the synopsis of the book {{w|The_Princess_Bride#Plot_summary|here}}.

==Transcript==
:[A girl (Buttercup) with long hair and a man (Westley) looking like Cueball but with a bandana lies at the foot of a high cliff. There is a forest in the background]
:Buttercup: Oh, my sweet Westley!

:[Buttercup sits on her knees, Westley takes off his bandana.]
:Buttercup: Why did you let me think you were dead?
:Westley: You shacked up with the prince!
:Buttercup: After years of mourning! The worst pain of my life!

:[Buttercup stands up looking down on Westley who still sits with the bandana in his hand.]
:Buttercup: And now you ... kill people?
:Westley: I'd hardly be a dread pirate if I didn't.
:Buttercup: How lovable.

:[Westley stands with the bandana in hand while Buttercup walks away from him.]

:Westley: It was for the sake of the narrative!
:Buttercup: Fuck the narrative. I'm going to go see if that Spaniard's single.
:Westley: ...As you wish.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Romance]]

Talk:2576: Control Group

2022-02-03T01:35:24Z

162.158.74.108:

This is my first explanation, feel free to improve upon it. [[User:KirbyDude25|KirbyDude25]] ([[User talk:KirbyDude25|talk]]) 00:30, 3 February 2022 (UTC)

Ran into your edit when I tried to submit mine, hah.
I don't actually like Know Your Meme that much but I'm not sure where else I could source that joke. Maybe it's unnecessary. [[User:Obw|Obw]] ([[User talk:Obw|talk]]) 00:36, 3 February 2022 (UTC)
:Sorry about that. Thanks for expanding my explanation, especially the description of the "study" aspect. I think the joke is fine, though we'll see what others think. [[User:KirbyDude25|KirbyDude25]] ([[User talk:KirbyDude25|talk]]) 00:43, 3 February 2022 (UTC)
:Your explanation of the title text actually helped me understand the joke there! I added a bit more to flesh out the explanation [[User:Obw|Obw]] ([[User talk:Obw|talk]]) 00:45, 3 February 2022 (UTC)
:Thanks! Your edits definitely helped clear up the study terminology. [[User:KirbyDude25|KirbyDude25]] ([[User talk:KirbyDude25|talk]]) 00:50, 3 February 2022 (UTC)

Is the text exceptionally large for an xkcd comic? I was seeing if my browser was zoomed in, but the previous comics are all a normal size [[Special:Contributions/172.70.134.215|172.70.134.215]] 00:55, 3 February 2022 (UTC)
:I noticed that, too. It looks about 1.5 times larger than normal. I don't think it means anything, though; Randall probably just made the image the wrong size by accident. [[User:KirbyDude25|KirbyDude25]] ([[User talk:KirbyDude25|talk]]) 01:00, 3 February 2022 (UTC)
:The image is the size normally used for the _2x version. In this case, the main image is the same size as the _2x version for some reason. Normal image: https://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/control_group.png; 2x image: https://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/control_group_2x.png; Normally the _2x version is double size for hi-DPI displays. I'm hoping that will get fixed and we'll get the normal size back. [[User:Orion205|Orion205]] ([[User talk:Orion205|talk]]) 01:11, 3 February 2022 (UTC)
::This size is way better though. Do people still use low-res monitors? When I check the website, it shows up as 478 x 613 pixels, which is absurdly small, even for a webcomic. - [[Special:Contributions/172.70.130.153|172.70.130.153]] 01:33, 3 February 2022 (UTC)