It's October so here's a spooky space elf. Get it, because she's being spooky and also because she's a spook. Ha ha.
>>98786203>It's been over half a year because I needed to learn a new piece of softwareSure, Jim, whatever you say.Also telepathy is super fucking creepy.
I like the office chair the Umiak is sitting on.
>>98787503I was thinking the same thing. Ergonomic centaur office chairs is probably the most humanizing feature of Umiak culture we've seen so far.
>>98786203The WIP
>>98786203What the fuck, they're not dead?
>>98787945Of course not, it just updates really, really slowly
>>987879578 updates in 2 years only deserves one "really".
>>98787957I mean the other pilot; I guess I was too lazy to remember who was who.
>>98788047Of the two pilots, one died (the one with worse English, who we spent less time with).
>>98787984really, really, really slowly
>>98786678How different can Lightwave possibly be to Blender? They're both vertex-touching programs, is it really just seven months of "oops, I pressed the wrong shortcut" and "this material system is all weird" or did he try hopping over to the Sculpt Mode workflow?
The beard edit, where is it
Every time this updates, less and less people post in the thread, taken by the ravages of time. But do not weep for them for their chances of seeing this end are the same as yours.
>>98786203Aw yeah, best girl is back. I wonder how long she can keep up the telepathic control? She must have been doing it for hours now.
>>98789326It's because many of the ardent fans are seeing the WIPs months in advance on patreon. By the time Arioch gets around to posting the finished pages, the super users have moved on from discussing the page.
>>98789326Honestly, the fact that he's still posting at all is more surprising than if he had stopped.
>>98789891More like years in advance. Assuming he posts every week (which won't happen), the comic will catch up to the current WIPs sometime in mid-2028.
Are the high quality images worth it?
>>98786203>233did they fucked yet?
>>98796544Jardin-bowl hasn’t even reached halftime yet.
>>98796544No, but they slept together in a big cuddle pile.
Who are these people? I don't even remember their names.
>>98786203W-what happens to Tempo's friend after they get back to Union Space?Also holy shit it's been so long since I actually caught one of these threads.
>>98786203This is still going? After how many years?
I wonder if Arioch actually makes anything from this, considering the time sunk into it. I love it so might join his Patreon.
Imagine Tempo staring into your soul with her glowing eyes forcing you to do vile, degrading things to her.
It's funny Talon still thinks ensign is Andrew's name.>>98789879If nothing else she has to go to sleep at some point.
>>98799390The comic isn't dated, but he uploaded this on Halloween, 2001. So probably at least since 2001.(this is the earliest post I could find on his website)
>>98801557Holy fuck, I dated a girl younger than Outsider.I feel kinda gross now.
>>98801512Fuck, Alex's name. Excuse me while I kill myself.
>>98801577Some of the syndicated comics have run for over 70 years. You could balance out that gross feeling by dating way at the other end and average it out.
>>98789326Even the Erfworld guy stopped but then again Erfworld guy had his girl almost die or something and he had a retrospective look on his life?
>>98792609At this point I'm just hoping he finishes the story one way or another. If a a huge backlog of black and white WIPs on patreon are how he ends up doing that then so be it.
>>98799390Say what you will about the quality, but at least the Drowtales guy finished his shit and had time for a (smutty) space elf side project.
>>98803122>Say what you will about the qualityIt'sS H I THIT
>>98786203Why is the cockpit on the ceiling?
>>98802913>Even the Erfworld guy stopped but then again Erfworld guy had his girl almost die or something and he had a retrospective look on his life?Iirc his son raped somebody and then killed himself and it was just so fucked up he didn't want to continue with creative endeavors.
>>98803589You're in a spaceship, why not?
>>98803589in zero gravity there's no such thing as "ceiling"
>>98803604IIRC that was just the death-knell and the comic had been in trouble for a while. I think his artist was sick? Or maybe he had a fight with the artist?
>>98802913Rob released an audio file explaining when he shut everything down.Per this post I found on Reddit, the story is pretty fucked up.https://www.reddit.com/r/HobbyDrama/comments/dmsshb/webcomics_longrunning_comic_erfworld_shuts_down/>The most those with access to the audio file explaining everything would say is that a series of horrible events (3 of them specifically) had befallen Rob and Linda's families. Some did independent sleuthing and uncovered the most likely explanation in the absence of a public one from the Balders. Linda's son, actor Thor Macht, had taken his life on October 1, 2019. Worse, it was discovered that he had been arrested in March on charges of "carnal knowledge of a child 13-14 years old" when he was 20.>There's also the matter of the obituary linked above (see the word 'son') and its apparent gymnastics. The full obituary includes calls to donate to RAINN and a reminder to "Never assume that there is only one victim." Following the RAINN solicitation is a solicitation to donate to the Autism Society, which has caused some consternation about how Rob seems to paint Thor as a potential victim of his victim, taken advantage of by the underage child because he was autistic.Continues
>>98802913>>98803648Continued>4chan being 4chan, naturally there are all kinds of additional rumors that don't seem to have grounding but will proliferate in the absence of availability of the audio file. 4chan seems to be fixating on the I in RAINN, suggesting that the child in question was Thor's cousin, though others are calling that out as something that is completely not in evidence. Surprisingly, the 4chan response is a mix of the usual deplorable response you'd expect and people who understand that raping children is bad.>The closest I can find to what seems to be a gist of the audio file is this comment in the 4chan thread:>Bad thing 2 was Linda's son getting arrested and tried for carnal knowledge of a minor. Rob didn't want to talk about it because he though it would hurt his stepson's case.>Linda found her son dead, asphyxiated in his car around the time he was going to accept a plea deal and be on the sex offender's registry for 15 years. His death is bad thing 3.>Rob basically had a mental breakdown and recorded it while driving to virginia to be with Linda, ranting about how he spent so much time of this year in his chair publishing erfworld, being allergic to things and having dental issues on top of it. He really focused on "a couple dozen" haters (probably the subreddit members) and cursed them out.>...Continues
>>98802913>>98803648>>98803652>Update>I was able to listen to the audio file, and the description above is fairly accurate though it also misses that Rob spends a good amount of time trying to say that the child involved lied about her age, that Thor was a virgin whose good nature and autism mean that he was the real victim. Honestly, hearing the audio doesn't change where I was here, and only makes me think that the best case scenario is that Balder is so distraught he can't see how he's trying to sanctify his step-son by victim blaming a child who was sexually assaulted. Thor was a professional actor who was capable of living on his own and getting along in society. Being on the autism spectrum does not mean he was mentally incapable of consent or anything like that. Frankly, by trying to play up Thor's autism as a defense, not only do I see Rob Balder blaming the victim, I see him also revealing his own hurtful attitudes rooted in stereotypes about neurodivergent individuals.
>>98786203The author needs to bite the bullet and euthanize this zombie comic. He clearly ran out of inspiration a decade ago.>>98803648>>98803652>>98803654>banality grandstanding as upright morals>tacking on power words like "rape" as distraction>Tumblrisms galore for high groundDid you post that faggot powermod screed to distract from the Erfworld drama? Because the visceral hatred it inspires in not helping to clarify matters.
>>98805131
>>98801557https://well-of-souls.com/outsider/update_history.htmlOutsider started on 31.10.2021.>>98801577Don't be a faggot. Women in their early 20s are responsible for their own decisions.
>>98803652>His death is a bad thing
>>98786203with updates this slow, ill be 60 before the chapter is over. man, what a bummer, all i want is cute human/blue science elf interactions.
>>98799578He makes something around $1,000 per new WIP and he typically posts 2 WIP pages per month.
>>98786678Its because he designed that chair the bug is using. He went through thousands of designs to simulate the iterative process of the bug society in perfecting arhtropod office furniture.
This isn't a game.It's a comic.
>>98810825Lurk more./tg/ isn't just for games.
>>98810686i believe this without question
>>98810825It is, actually. All characters shown in this comic are statted in GURPS
>>98786203What is this about?
>>98786203Haven't read this comic, but I've seen some pages posted here. Is there any romance in it?
>>98786203Finally
>>98814173Earth's first attempt at diplomatic contact with aliens. Things go wrong and the protagonist gets rescued by blue space elves. All of the characters are statted in GURPS. If you've ever played Master of Orion 2 you'll notice some familiar faces.https://www.well-of-souls.com/outsider/outsider001.html>>98814343No, but there's some minor implications. Maybe it'll happen by 2035.
>>98796113Absolutely
>>98786678This comic and all discussion around it would be totally different if humanity wasn't conveniently immune to psionics.If the Loroi could have read Alex thoughts in the medbay, they'd be a lot more chill about his presence on Tempest. The mind rape wouldn't even have happened. One of the Teidar would have touched Alex and then Tempo would have been called in to confirm. Without humanities psi immunity, the Loroi would have been objectively more polite and more open to Alex. But we'd all be creeped out at what Tempo is doing here. There might be a lot of readers who'd prefer the bugs over the Loroi even.
>>98810549That's a solid little boost.He needs a financial incentive to put out the real comic. I think id pay $2 each for a real page.
>>98810686Between this and the blue Loroi bandaids, Jim is out there writing a dissertation on xenoergonomics.
>>98822043>There might be a lot of readers who'd prefer the bugs over the Loroi even.You don't? Sure spess elves got tiddies, but believing or not believing Stud Hardbolt likely won't save him. They're in a very nasty war and he's a threat to the morale of the Loroi being super spesshul. If he's lying he's likely just a propaganda tool of the enemy. If he's telling the truth their command might see that as even worse.Hard to imagine a scenario where he gets welcomed with open arms. Humanity's stellar holdings are too rinky dink, and their technology is relatively a joke. What, precisely, does he offer them?
>>98824249Our tech level has deliberately been set to the minimum requirement to building and reinforcing "deep dives" from the type of space travel provided. You guys keep bringing up technology but always conveniently forget this.
>>98805236>2021Uh, I got 31 October 2001Where are you reading this Anon? Is this a typo?
>>98824298*Oh you are talking about the halloween page
>>98824291You're focusing on the engines and thinking, yep, they're good to go! Jesus, dude. You could at least claim that the Loroi could update humanity's shit, but it would take time to retrofit their ships, let alone train their people in Loroi tech, and given the relative small pocket of space they have spread to it's hardly a given there are enough humans and human ships to turn any kind of tide in this war. That would also require the Loroi to accept humanity which would be a huge shift in their culture which believes they are the one true species and not a subspecies.At this point it's hard to see humanity as anything other than something that's more useful to the buggers than the blue babes.
>>98824354>At this point it's hard to see humanity as anything other than something that's more useful to the buggers than the blue babes.Humanity is definitely more of a risk than an asset to the Loroi. If they thought they could do yhe job, they should genocide the monkeys. Saves awkward religious questions, too.
>>98824376They might not have much choice. They can barely train their fighter pilots, I doubt they can divert enough to adequately deal with humanity. On the other hand it's unlikely they can ignore the issue because another human ship might turn up - or even be picked up by the Umiak.It's one of the questions that keeps me interested in the story. It feels like there is a universe of bad choices, and I wonder how it will play out. It all depends on whether I'll still be here in 2035 to see it finally updated to that point. Sorry, I mean 2045.
>>98802913The Erfworld stuff was just a horrific tragedy. I'm still wondering what happened to The Meek, which was very compelling but just stopped at some point.
>>98824249It's important to remember that the Barsam who started ranting about Loroi lies is a literal preacher of a precursor cargo cult. Most Loroi don't really care about what got Mosin so worked up. It's not like Loroi aren't superior to humans just as any other Soia-Liron species is superior to its unoptimized blueprint species. Plus they have telepathy.Humanity being around is like proving to the Romans that Romulus was not actually descended from a Troy survivor.>>98824411Come on, like 6 destroyers can deal with anything humanity has. Add a couple of tankers and supply ships stocked with WMDs and the Loroi can wipe out humanity with barely any effort.
>>98826175Barely any effort is still effort. You're talking engagement against a human ship, I'd remind you that it would take time to locate them first since they have ships jumping around in different directions trying to make first contact. And this is at a point that seems quite crucial given the sudden Umiak inroads into Loroi territory. Can they even afford to spare barely any effort? The faster it needs to be done, say before an Umiak ship encounters humanity, the better, but that would just require more resources diverted to the hunt.Also claiming to be the One True Descendants of the Soia is a pretty big deal for them:>Official Loroi doctrine agrees with this theory in basic principle, but the Loroi maintain that their own ancestors (the "true" Soia) were clearly the masters of this coalition, pointing to their unique psionic abilities and the fact that Loroi planetary settlements did not appear until the time of the Fall (tradition asserts that the true Soia lived in space aboard their wandering dread-stars and not in dirt-bound planetside settlements). Some versions of the Loroi history go so far as to infer that the other Soia-Liron sentients were nothing more than servants created at the whim of the Loroi ancestors, though these views are seldom discussed outside Loroi nationalist circles. We're also told:>As a warrior culture, Loroi society is heavily stratified, and its institutions and customs can be very rigid.Does this truly feel like the time to be shaking the boat of their conceptual views of their own species identity? You single out Mozin, which is odd because it isn't like Stud Hardbolt's appearance wasn't obviously a matter of deep controversy among just the Loroi we've met. How would it affect the rest of the military? Or their civilians? Their own religious elements/staunch believers in their role as the true descendants.Even the Historian was telling him the Loroi aren't his chums.
>>98827253>which is odd because it isn't like Stud Hardbolt's appearance wasn't obviously a matter of deep controversy among just the Loroi we've met.Frankly, you can't blame Captain Stillstorm for thinking that he was an Umiak trick. What are the odds that there would be a non-blue version of the Loroi?...Oh, really big?Uh, what are the odds that he would be invincible to the Loroi's biggest advantage? Okay, now things make more sense.>Even the Historian was telling him the Loroi aren't his chums.I wonder if the Historians would have Humanity's best interests in mind (of course, that's just a single construct, not all of the Historians, and not even a real Historian, but still). They have an incentive to help the Loroi but also to have a weapon ready to use against them if needed. Plus there's one sentient species that they seem to be defending just on general principles, though who knows what we can believe.
>>98827393>Frankly, you can't blame Captain Stillstorm for thinking that he was an Umiak trick. What are the odds that there would be a non-blue version of the Loroi?Just imagining the Umiak capturing a Loroi male (pretty rare catch!), altering his memories, smoothing his ears, and bleaching him, then dumping him in space near a Loroi ship to be discovered. Just an amusing mental image.>>98824354If these threads have taught me anything it's that humanity offers them something precious: dudes hungry for blueberry space elves. Unfortunately the biochemical and genetic differences make the prospect of using human males to shore up the number of Loroi warriors dubious at best. Even if it did I'm uncertain if faster Loroi maturation would make much difference, assuming the hybrids fully inherit that trait. Could be useful for post-war population growth/recovery.
>>98827253> You're talking engagement against a human ship, I'd remind you that it would take time to locate them first since they have ships jumping around in different directions trying to make first contact.The Loroi don't need to eradicate humanity to a man. They just need to reduce us to a state in which we can't build spaceships for a couple centuries. Then even if the Umiak find us and they wanted to give us their ships. there wouldn't be enough people to man enough ships to make a difference. Once the Loroi win the war, they have all the time in the world to either finish us off for good or help us rebuild.Furthermore, mankind has very few space faring vessels available and of those, the only ones capable of long journeys have already be send off. Most anything else is either a slow moving military ship or a slow moving freighter without the fuel capacity to go far.>Does this truly feel like the time to be shaking the boat of their conceptual views of their own species identity?You are talking about an academic footnote that is barely above a rumor in nationalistic circles. The Loroi identity is obviously based on their unique psionics, their biological adaptation as a 'warrior species' and their military might. Whether or not they have a template species running around should not cause any widespread issues. A) The other species have templates around. So the idea of a Loroi template can't be new or that shocking. B) What are they supposed to do about it? Stop fighting the Umiak war?
>>98827546The Loroi aren't running out of people. Their bottleneck is in education. They literally can't raise and educate as many children as they could birth.
>>98827756>They just need to reduce us to a state in which we can't build spaceships for a couple centuries.No real point if any of those ships already searching the spiral arm make contact with other races, including their enemy.>The Loroi identity is obviouslyWe've only seen warriors, anon, but even military can suffer crisis of faith. There's this thing known as "morale" which, when low, can be quite devastating. This doesn't seem like a time when they can roll the dice on low morale and hope for the best, either.Also other species have templates, but the Loroi claim they don't. That's why Mozin was raising such a ruckus. I also find it amusing you somehow thing their nationalistic circles wouldn't be largely based on being the true descendants of the Soia. It's a source of pride, a feeling of superiority over other races, a belief in the manifest destiny of carrying on the legacy of a great empire. To suddenly have all that ripped away? You seriously aren't seeing the potential problems here?>What are they supposed to do about it?That's already been discussed. You were the one advocating for total annihilation, and then only mostly annihilation, of the human species.
>>98827881You are really hung up on the idea that the Loroi suffer a nervous breakdown if some centuries old idea of theirs gets proven wrong. Honestly, bored of this discussion.
>>98827916You're incredibly dismissive of the effects of having the entire foundation of your racial identity pulled out from under your feet.
>>98827916Having read the comic, yeah, it was pretty clear that his similarity to the Loroi was a major source of drama outside of the ongoing military engagements, and a clear sticking point for the future of the story. Maybe instead of knocking it you can try reading the comic for yourself. It's not nearly as long as you'd expect given how long it's been running. Have fun!
>>98827940Let's be fair, like 95% of the background for the Loroi on the website is dedicated to their sexual habits. I think anyone should be forgiven for thinking that's the primary focus for their sexy space bimbo culture.
