197 – Foreign Languages

Today’s font is called Precursor Alpha.

↓ Transcript
Panel 1: Covenant cruiser communicating with another ship in an unknown language.

Panel 2: Forerunner Dreadnaught communicating with the Covenant cruiser, again in that same language.

Panel 3: Human vessel, unknown loyalties.

Panel 4: Human Marine soldier, speaking in the unknown language.

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    Discussion (122) ¬

    1. xSOB a DooBy

      Well uh, this was enlightening… :(

    2. xSOB a DooBy

      Well uh, this was enlightening… :( Strangest thing is, it seems the Covenant and the Humans are speaking the same language. Virus maybe? And WTF is the forerunner dreadnought doing communicating with the Covenant. Where on Earth (or the galaxy) did it come from and how does it fit in with the story???? Sigh, no questions answered some definitely raised… :(

      • Juesoni

        Agreed. =/

        Looked pretty anyway…

      • Lupus_Cruor

        if i am guessing correctly, I would say that its all Flood infected beings, but thats just my guess ;)

        • Jim Stitzel

          Well, that's one theory…. :p

          • Steadfast623

            Woah! Craaaazy theory here… Again. What if its Tran's program being put into effect? Eh? Ehhh??

            Edit: Perhaps too soon. That would be bad plot management… Even for Jim =D

            • Jim Stitzel

              Yeah, Tran's program hasn't been activated just yet. :)

    3. Duffman9205

      Will we ever know what this says? Is it actual words just changed into some weird font?

      • Jim Stitzel

        No, you won't. This links back to something Tran said in Monday's comic.

        • SnowXing

          Great, flood communicating with the world. Must be the virus.

        • xSOB a DooBy

          Whoa you mean what Tran was holding for RC???

          • Jim Stitzel

            Um, no. Monday's comic. Not the ones before it. . :)

    4. Yukob

      Either I can't read anymore or this isn't English. Awesome.

      • Jim Stitzel

        That is correct, sir. :)

        • SnowXing

          Did you make that a font yourself or is it a bunch of pictures.

      • xSOB a DooBy

        Um, it's not english, or even any other language spoken on earth :D

    5. DZeratul

      Yeeeeaaaa, interesting. Probably the shortest read through of the comic so far :P btw, where did you get the pic of the Dreadnought? that gives me lots of ideas for MY comic :D

      • Jim Stitzel

        Pulled it from the community screenshots section on Bungie.net. :)

      • xSOB a DooBy

        I agree, It must have come from a campaign cutscene, or a shot from the covenant.

    6. Hujgup

      ...WTF????????????????

      • Jim Stitzel

        insert evil laughter here :)

    7. Lupus_Cruor

      Jim, what font is that? Great post btw

      • Jim Stitzel

        Well, this is will probably be a tiny bit of spoiler, but the font is called Precursor Alpha. :)

        • SnowXing

          Money says you wrote a hidden message that's supposed to be really dumb. I would bet 10 to 1 odds on that.

          • Jim Stitzel

            I'll take your money.

            • SnowXing

              Sorry Jim, but I was betting the leftover lint in my socks. You might wan't to reconsider.

        • AdamSusskind

          Hmmmmmm….

        • Captain_EVA

          Could we uuh….get a copy of this font? Hehe…and a urm….translator?

          • Jim Stitzel

            Link provided in the post above.

    8. paul

      yer…...so smoke pot much ay jim?

      • Jim Stitzel

        Never.

        • AdamSusskind

          Ditto.

          • Jim Stitzel

            See, now—I don't believe that. Between you and HolyJunkie, I'm betting you fellas have a corner on the drug market. ;)

      • SnowXing

        No, he just played too much Mario. He's addicted to shrooms.

        • xSOB a DooBy

          LOL… so translator is out of the question, but Precursor Alpha??? Maybe I'm just reading a bit to much into it….

          • Jim Stitzel

            But then again, maybe not. ;)

    9. XxxxJammyxxxX

      Awesome language whatever it is, only has like 9 letters!

      • Jim Stitzel

        It has a full range of letters, actually.

        • SnowXing

          You know, Half Life 2's title font doesn't have a full range. It bothers me because every single time you want to change your title menu text, you need to make a font or find some lousy one.

      • xSOB a DooBy

        Hey hey hey!!! What if… What if….. What iiiiffff someone theoretically identified the font used, you could technically translate it!!!

        • Jim Stitzel

          Good luck with that. Let me know how that turns out for you. ;)

          • SnowXing

            I would like to change my stupid message theory. It's probably something like LolLolLol over and over.

          • HSAR

            Entirely possible. However, I'd like to know if it actually has content. Or is it just asssdasdfasdf?

    10. Ilyich

      How… informative :x The pictures look great, at least!

    11. MoltenSlowa

      I’m guessing since it is only 9 unique letters, it’s all giberish.
      So Jim, does this get the award for “Fastest time I’ve wrote a script for Reclaimer”?

      • SnowXing

        It gets the award for "Fastest Read for Reclaimer".

        • xSOB a DooBy

          Agreed, I spent a whole five seconds looking over this one :D

    12. Lt Anders

      Interesting. There is a translator for Precusor Alpha. It's a Dexter and Jax font. I'm not going to link to it(search for it yourself!) but the first three letters of the first text box spell: A J F…So I'm assuming you just typed what looked good, with no real english translation.

      • SnowXing

        ARRGG! I liked the hidden message idea more.

        • Lt Anders

          Sorry to ruin the bubble ;) I only went and translated a few just to make sure it was (literally) Jiberish. But, the meaning to the story is more important…

          • HSAR

            Well, I translated the entire first bubble by hand, and got this:

            A J I E S
            ; L S O E J F [space] . S L S O F
            W I Q U L Z F J I S O W
            A ; S L F J L L W O

      • noobzor

        Exactly! Those games were awesome.

    13. SnowXing

      It coming from all three factions. Very telling.

      • Jim Stitzel

        Indeed.

        • xSOB a DooBy

          Whoa whoa whoa, wait a minute, did I not already say this? Like first comment???

          • SnowXing

            Sorry, I usually post before I read other comments.

          • SnowXing

            Sorry, I usually post my initial thoughts before I read other comments so my mind does not get corrupted by Jim's deceiving antics.

    14. MrAchievables

      were you just typing randomly, because i found a translator website that had this font and the first line in the first box says " AJFIES"

      • Jim Stitzel

        Yup, completely random. (See my comment above.)

        • xSOB a DooBy

          And the one above that, oh and would believe he said it the one above that?? The only thing good about this comic is the chuckle factor for Jim, watching us fruitlessly unscramble it…

          • Steadfast623

            Maybe… hear me out for a sec… Its an anagram?! it could actually mean something!... =P

            • Jim Stitzel

              Anagram, a la Bungie. That's a good thought, actually.

              Note to self: Go make up something to fit said 'anagram.'

        • SnowXing

          According to chaos theory…

    15. AdamSusskind

      Indeed! Wurhph Humph Wimh?

      Images were beautiful though.

    16. Jim Stitzel

      It's completely random. The point is that it's in a language completely foreign to human and Covenant alike.

      • HSAR

        Well, I tried. Here's what I got:

        A J I E S
        ; L S O E J F [space] . S L S O F
        W I Q U L Z F J I S O W
        A ; S L F J L L W O

        • Jim Stitzel

          It's fun watching you guys spin your wheels. :)

          • xSOB a DooBy

            Didn't think there would actually be a message, otherwise you would have just said it in english. :D The language was not the purpose of this comic, just the intercommunication. Well wasn't that fun HSAR :D

            • Jim Stitzel

              Exactly so.

            • HSAR

              Mhmm… amen to that. Although you did waste an hour of my time that I was supposed to be using to study for German. Oh well, it was more enjoyable :P

    17. Himself

      I've never commented here before, but I've read Reclaimer for quite a bit.

      This looks to me like all three ships are receiving a signal from a single source. I've got an idea as to what the signal source might be, but I don't want to spoil anything for anybody if it is what I think it is.

      • xSOB a DooBy

        Yup I think it's the Virus too :D

      • Steadfast623

        Spoilers welcome in the comment section. Those who read it do so at their own risk…

    18. HSAR

      So, no. I didn't think so, anyway. Way too much hard work to be Jim's style.

      • Jim Stitzel

        What are you saying…?! ;)

        :D

        • xSOB a DooBy

          Nah if Jim just wanted to put a hidden message he could just type the message in this font. And watch us all scramble to decode it. And look like idiots… :p

          • Jim Stitzel

            Which is exactly what you've done with this one. It's been fun.

            • HSAR

              I knew you were going to say that… but someone had to try.

    19. Th3 M43

      I hope the virus didn't get Jim, or we're going to be reading like this for a while I believe.

    20. Moni7or

      lolwut?

    21. keyofcmusic

      //FLASH-TRAFFIC PRIORITY BETA//Relay Protocol 00283-D
      Decryption Enabled// Message Fragment

      Covenant Covenant CCS-class Battle Cruiser "Glorious Solitude": "Hello? Wassup?"
      Remote Reply: "Nothing B. Just watchin' the game. Having a Bud. Wassup wit' you?"
      Forerunner Dreadnaught Unknown Designation: "WASSSAP!"
      UNSC Serenity-class Frigate "Farragut": "Yo Dukie, pick up the phone!"
      Staff Sgt. Miles Warner: "True. True."

      //MESSAGE ENDS

      • Jim Stitzel

        Ha! Best comment ever! :D

        • HSAR

          :(

        • keyofcmusic

          Now I am truly honored! :) Thanks, Jim! Keep up the great work!
          It just came to me… Maybe I need more sleep….

          • Jim Stitzel

            It just cracked me up because it was so unexpected. :)

            • Viktim Viktor

              Ditto that. I'm not accustoming to LOL'ing when reading the Reclaimer comments section but this one got me.

    22. ChadPurzycki

      For those who are too lazy to download the font and are angry at Anders
      here's the link
      http://scratch.mit.edu/projects/fullmoon/162897

    23. ChadPurzycki

      For those who are too lazy to download the font and are angry at Anders
      here's the link
      http://scratch.mit.edu/projects/fullmoon/162897

      • ChadPurzycki

        BTW what earth language is it becuase it looked like gibberish at first but then i remembered the title it's Foreign LanguagES which means it needs to be translated more than once?

        • xSOB a DooBy

          Or it is just Jibberish like Jim has said over five times in this comic.

          • ChadPurzycki

            ok so didn't read them until now

            • Jim Stitzel

              Hehe, there's a lot of good stuff buried in the comments. :)

    24. Diamondking

      Holy catfish, Batman! When in France, speak French.

      • Jim Stitzel

        Wow, France has really changed a lot! ;)

        • SnowXing

          Catman and Robin…

          wait…

          No more Robin.

    25. Steve

      Well, we can assume that the weird cuneiform-style gibberish is maybe the flood, or this strange virus unleashed by the discovery of Archimedes. We now see that it has infected the covenant, humans, and somehow, a forerunner ship.

      • SnowXing

        I knew it, we're all going to die.

        Starting with Jim.

      • Jim Stitzel

        Or, whatever's flying the Dreadnaught.

    26. Steadfast623

      Maybe not flood. Flood use telepathy. Virus? Nobody's really throwing that around…

      Edit: Lies! Everyone's suggesting the virus. D'oh!

      • Jim Stitzel

        Hehe, there's a LOT of comments on this one. It pays to read through them all first. ;)

    27. liteRed

      I know I'm a little late, but as soon as i read this I guessed that it was Precursor! And im pretty sure Jim confirmed that, but he is a master of reverse psycology….

    28. ajain

      Seems Jim found a new font to use on us :P

    29. Hunter

      Yeah, it's pretty sweet…
      ~Hunter

    30. xSOB a DooBy

      HAHAHHA That was good :D

    31. xSOB a DooBy

      Don't do that please. Keep it clean. We have managed for nearly 200 comics now. Please don't spoil it… :(

    32. Jim Stitzel

      User has already been moderated and banned.

    33. Sangheilioz

      And that's what I like to call the Swift Kick in the Groin of Justice! (SKGJ)

    34. Jim Stitzel

      I have no patience or tolerance for trolls. Those who dare show their faces around here are met with swift, unforgiving discipline.

    35. SnowXing

      Instead of studying, why not try to decipher the code hidden in the Hex Charts for the first forty pixels in the picture.

    36. SnowXing

      Jim, why didn't you hide a message like "Congratulations wasting your time decoding this idiot." or something along those lines.

    37. SnowXing

      That outdoes all my lame stories combined. Congrats.

    38. SnowXing

      You're evil Jim.

    39. SnowXing

      Strange, I just ignore the idiots and thier ignorance. It's this kind of stuff they get a kick out of. Just ignore them.

      Oh and um…

      BANHAMMER FTW!!!!!!!!!!

      It's like Grifball, it's contagious.

    40. Jim Stitzel

      Well, there's a reason why the Reclaimer community has such great interaction. I've worked hard to eliminate the trolling and foster the people who actually want to be here.

    41. Jim Stitzel

      That's the nicest thing you've ever said to me. :D

    42. Jim Stitzel

      'Want' doesn't have an apostrophe. ;)

    43. Jim Stitzel

      Check the post body up above for your answer.