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PMush Perfect posted:There's a reason it's so hard to find artists for ErfWorld, and it isn't a lack of funds. He's actually talked in the past about how many drafts he can go through with an artist to get a page's visual references just right. I'd call him the Stanley Kubrick of webcomics, but Kubrick's stuff is actually good. I wonder if he realizes that the reason 97% of his audience treats his work like cheap disposable entertainment that they don't feel the need to buy merchandise of or a patronage subscription to is because 97% of his audience thinks the work is a lot less good than he thinks it is?
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Feb 20, 2018 01:17
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That kind of spending ratio isn't particularly uncommon, IIRC.
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Feb 20, 2018 01:38
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I wonder if he's going to pay his artists in cryptocurrency.
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Feb 20, 2018 01:39
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balder posted:We learned that a lot of people hate cryptocurrency balder posted:We learned that a lot of people hate cryptocurrency So what are the odds of a skip next update?
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Feb 20, 2018 14:11
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The Cult of Crypto rears its dumb head once more.
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Feb 20, 2018 14:21
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Another victim on the altar of hubris. Although Balder's been dancing naked around that one for awhile I think.
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Feb 20, 2018 15:26
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its been clear for a long time that balder can only produce quality work when he’s yoked to someone who checks his worst impulses and he’s been gradually throwing off that yoke for a while RIP
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Feb 20, 2018 15:35
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Jesus Christ the man already makes upwards of sixteen thousand dollars a month if he manages to update on time and that isn't enough for him? I understand he has people and hosting to pay for but ?!? that's still plenty to pay for those things, and pay well?? I am completely boggled at what honestly looks like naked greed more than anything. What a wretched person to work for. I honestly want to stop reading the comic over this bullshit.
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Feb 20, 2018 22:37
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You are forgetting about the free skips when you calculate that. The more he redefines "on time update," to allow more missed comics, the more he cuts into his revenue stream. Maybe not as much as if he kept missing updates and posting late without triggering a payment, but still less that a regular 2 a week. I'm not really grudging the guy his money, it's great that he's got enough support to make a living. But his constant antics (at least that is how it comes across to me) aren't really going to attract new paying patrons. Not sure what the answer is. He and his team obviously can't meet the given schedule. And it isn't a crazy schedule. So something needs to change in his production process. Maybe more details in the initial art instructions, maybe less intricacy in the final product, maybe half page sized comics. His prose just isnt strong enough for me to think a complete format shift into a text only product would be fun to read. He likes hiding so much in the art, and that sort of effect is tough to achieve in prose without it being obvious. At any rate, from the outside, it looks like something has to change or that house of cards will fall in. But I won't read his forums, maybe the paying customers are more loyal than I give them credit for.
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Feb 20, 2018 23:50
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PseudoY on Reddit posted:Posted in https://www.reddit.com/r/erfworld/comments/7z0oz7/so_it_seems_i_was_banned_from_erfworldcom/ Typical of egomaniacs, I suppose.
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Feb 21, 2018 02:03
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Did this page really just go back over the last four pages in slightly more detail? It's from a different point of view (for 3/4 of the pages) but to no meaningful story impact. I guess it's super important to know exactly what Charlie was thinking moment-to-moment during the events we just witnessed, and exactly what he said to manipulate the pushover. Ditocoaf fucked around with this message at 08:24 on Feb 21, 2018 |
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Feb 21, 2018 08:21
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Ditocoaf posted:It's from a different point of view (for 3/4 of the pages) but to no meaningful story impact
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Feb 21, 2018 08:33
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Actually it does tell us a lot of new information. This is the first time we've had Charlie's direct thoughts on the Transylvito situation rather than just Parson and Caesar making educated guesses as to what his plan might be. With how long this arc has gone on, that's kind of a big deal. It also tells us that Bill turning wasn't Charlie's plan, and that he's working on the fly here, having initially planned to just let things settle and go for a cleaner power grab much later.
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Feb 21, 2018 11:42
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Alright, but what does that actually mean in terms of the story? I don't need to know the color of Bill's socks unless it's gonna be relevant later
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Feb 21, 2018 14:47
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This was a neat aside to the story, but it should have been added in a book or something. Right now all it does is reset the pace back to glacial.
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Feb 21, 2018 14:53
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Well, it tells us what the motivations of the antagonist are, which is pretty important. It also tells us that what we're seeing now isn't a well-executed coup, but an ongoing clusterfuck that Charlie is attempting to manage. This changes the tone of what came before from, "Charlie played Transylvito with a slick plan," to, "the unexpected existence of the temple threw Charlie's slick plan off the rails and now he's improvising his way through a volatile situation". He's one of the key characters so it's important that we know what his actual aims and goals are. In this case, we can see that he's getting messed up all over by the temples, and that his previous "master planner" deal is being constantly derailed by the emergence of new magical elements that have never existed in Erfworld before. It also told us that the portal seal the Dirtamancers set up is just a formality, only they don't know it. Charlie's RPGs could apparently blow it open at any time. This means he has an extra card to play in the Magic Kingdom detente that we previously didn't know about.
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Feb 21, 2018 14:58
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Well, this is pretty much all Rob's worst habits on display today. A text update, which does nothing but recap previous comics from another point of view. And that point of view is just Charlie the all-seeing and all-scheming, doing basically nothing but explaining the rules of the setting and revealing all the ways he's broken them over the past couple of strips (all of which were done with zero visual or textual indication at the time). And of course it makes sure to go extra deep on Charlie's reasoning, because every single time one of the two smart schemer characters does something potentially dumb in Book 3, Rob feels the need to explain extra hard why they're still clever supergeniuses and it wasn't their fault and really it was the best decision they could make at the time. And in the end, Rob's just clearing all that aside so he can focus on the Random Nameless Transylvitan Warlord who's probably had like three lines of dialogue to date, and who is going to spend either three weeks or three panels saving the day from this latest twist or turn. Like, sure, it's nice to know that Bill's turning was unplanned. But that could easily have been explained in a single comic panel, rather than devoting half a text update to explaining all of Charlie's potential plans over the next fifty turns. I guess it's nice to know that Charlie can Thinkagram and even link to someone with no noticeable indication, even when that someone is literally six inches from their Ruler's face, but that feels kinda bullshit to me and also means there's yet another thing that can only really be expressed via text; it also isn't really necessary to know right this instant, except that if Rob doesn't tell us that all this stuff was done with links then we might get a mistaken impression about how the rules work. Is it still Transylvito's turn? If so, it'd be nice if Caesar ended turn, so that maybe Jack could have juice for the first time in over 150 pages.
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Feb 21, 2018 17:03
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If anything seems really significant, it's the fact that Charlie can apparently open up a remote link and do incredibly complex and unheard-of feats of magic in less than one second. I have to admit, I really want to get past these years of unrelenting twists-and-turns and have enough downtime for some character development to really happen. Nobody has enough time to reflect with things constantly twisting and reversing.
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Feb 21, 2018 18:57
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Yeah, with the knowledge that a turned caster's dolls don't turn with them by default, Charlie doing Carnymancy to make that happen seems hokey. It kind of undermines the dramatic tenor of the whole thing, where Transylvito being willfully ignorant of Bill's crimes while simultaneously relying on him as a lynchpin of their military strategy finally came back around to bite them. If the dolls only turned because Charlie cast a spell on them, the impact of that is sort of lost.
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Feb 21, 2018 19:02
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It also seems like Carnymancy has unlimited applicability as something that can make things do anything they don't normally do. I have no idea what the limitations are supposed to be.
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Feb 21, 2018 19:07
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Rand Brittain posted:It also seems like Carnymancy has unlimited applicability as something that can make things do anything they don't normally do. I have no idea what the limitations are supposed to be. Yeah, this is a continuing problem. I can see it so far as rules tweaks or special bonuses that don't exist in other mechanics but also don't break existing rules (like making rifles auto-skill people carrying them as archers), like that makes intuitive sense as a magical discipline, but Charlie's Carnymancy is increasingly being written as just, "change whichever rule you like on the fly".
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Feb 21, 2018 19:12
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Rand Brittain posted:It also seems like Carnymancy has unlimited applicability as something that can make things do anything they don't normally do. I have no idea what the limitations are supposed to be. Carnymancy's limitations were the first thing the Carnies carned away.
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Feb 21, 2018 19:15
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The guts of this world are that it occurs in a rule based system, which the author is apparently partly developing on the fly and the main adversary can immediately and flagrantly break the rules, its really some kinda floppy dick masturbation to reverse establish those rules. At least when Parson was the one doing this stuff, the rules tended to be mused on or set up before hand and then exploited within the system but I guess that's harder to write since he hasn't done poo poo in ages.
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Feb 21, 2018 20:13
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Grogquock posted:The guts of this world are that it occurs in a rule based system, which the author is apparently partly developing on the fly and the main adversary can immediately and flagrantly break the rules, its really some kinda floppy dick masturbation to reverse establish those rules. At least when Parson was the one doing this stuff, the rules tended to be mused on or set up before hand and then exploited within the system but I guess that's harder to write since he hasn't done poo poo in ages. I think you've hit at the heart of what has made me like this comic less and less over time. When it was about Parson learning the rules of the world and how to exploit them it was much more interesting. He was a stand in for the reader because he was working from a mindset we could understand in a weird world that made no sense. Now it's a dozen viewpoint characters and a bunch of drama and there is one guy who can just break any rule he drat well pleases and that is boring as gently caress.
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Feb 21, 2018 21:15
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Uncroaking a dead volcano by combining a croakamancer and a dirtamancer was clever and just enough out of reach of the rules to be good. Ultra-Carnie doing everything he needs done and continuously getting away with it is not. We all know he's going to lose in the end, in an mega-epic way, since it's long been established that carnies bending rules eventually get their comeuppance. He got some comeuppance when his Arkendish setup got blasted, but then that got literally Deus Ex Machina'ed by having Charlescomm become a living tower like Jed. What Balder needs to do is to finish off the Charlie plotline. Have him lose. Figure out some new goal/enemy for Parson, but this endless war where GK keeps winning battles but losing wars is never going to get the apotheosis it is calling for. By the time the final downfall of Charlie begins, it'll either be another quick clever ruse that will leave us unsatisfied, or a long battle with rear end-pulled trick countering rear end-pulled trick. Which in the end will be a victory for Parson, unless Balder wants to write "realistically" and have the literal protagonist lose in the end.
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Feb 21, 2018 21:24
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The problem is 50% macro level, where Balder’s plots are just meandering oneupsmanship and increasingly esoteric cheats, and 50% micro level where the man does not know how to tell a good story. His pacing is godawful and he doesn’t know how dramatic tension works, so he has stuff like the golems turning before it’s established that that is somehow special or unique. It’s a worst of both worlds situation; yet another bullshit Charlie Power pulled out of his rear end, but without even the sense of dramatic reversal as we see something impossible happen. Also loving erfcoin ell emm aye oh
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Feb 21, 2018 21:39
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DAD LOST MY IPOD posted:Also loving erfcoin ell emm aye oh LMIO? I kind of miss the days when Book 1 was winding down and it seemed to me like Charlie would be on the level of Don. Important character, but not the entire plot and reason for Parson being on Erf to begin with.
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Feb 21, 2018 21:53
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Airspace posted:LMIO?
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Feb 21, 2018 22:41
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For anyone hoping Charlie losing soon is a realistic possibility for the plot please remember that Parson (occasionally; plot fuckery excepted) has access to the most health heavy movement capable flying unit in the 'game' and also Wanda who can actually (occasionally; plot fuckery excepted) take everything else on the side and make it cost zero dollars. If you take a moment to think about this from a 'logistics win wars' perspective only Charlie can realistically threaten such an overpowered circumstance in the hands of the guy who was outnumbered twenty six to one and got the win.
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Feb 21, 2018 22:49
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I mean, in theory the endgame is "end war forever", which is an even bigger problem than Charlie. Anyway, let's examine the big cheats so far and try to rank them on fairness:
I left out a few, like Lilith blowing up Comm Tower, that don't really have to do with rules exploits and are just good planning and guts. I mostly mention this to remind everybody that Lilith is cool and I hope she shows up again shortly.
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Feb 21, 2018 23:11
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You know it's very notable that the first three are all in the context of large battles, while the rest all happen on, comparatively smaller scale events. I think that's what's lead to the feeling of this being rear end blowing? Like... the Uncroaking of the Volcano happened at the climax of an intense battle, the end of the turn set up the initial conflict for Book 2, and the falling rule was what allowed the battle to actually be fought. And I don't even find exploiting the falling rules to be that much of a cheat. Of the ones listed I really only like the Big Think giving everyone towers since it seems like such an inherent response to "Erfworld is unfair and these two superpowers are making all these advancements." to be "Well if we need a Games Master to oversee and ensure people don't cheat and there are regulations, then lets give everyone these towers."
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Feb 21, 2018 23:23
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Is that really what the towers do? Jed seems annoyed about cheating, but only if it's giving somebody an unfair leg-up; he cheats himself when he really wants to or to even the score. Shirley is definitely changing Charlie's behavior, but it seems to be more about making him behave like a hero than about following the rules of Erfworld.
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Feb 21, 2018 23:24
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Rand Brittain posted:It also seems like Carnymancy has unlimited applicability as something that can make things do anything they don't normally do. I have no idea what the limitations are supposed to be. If it we're just Carnymancy, it'd be okay. It's not like Jojo has done much of anything. The problem is that Charlie also has the Arkendish, which so far has exhibited more bullshit powers than all the other known Arkentools combined, and can easily mix those powers with his Carnymancy and his infinite juice (courtesy of his rigged portal) to just break whatever he wants. Let's look at how many rules he broke in just the last few pages. He Thinkagrammed Bill (an Arkendish power) without Bill having to stop and concentrate on it, and without Bill showing any sign of paying attention to it - which he described as a unique Arkendish power, and one that he hadn't previously revealed. Not only did he link with Bill without physical contact (another Arkendish-only cheat), but he linked and unlinked with no apparent side effects on Bill's end, an ability that he hadn't previously revealed. Using those links, he rigged Caesar's pendant and turned all of Bill's dolls, and both tricks were implied to involve Carnymancy. For a while, it seemed like he was listening in on Transylvito's bats by eavesdropping on Bunny's Thinkamancy-snooping, but Bunny's long gone and he's still listening in on every bat in Transylvito's capital, so apparently that's yet another Arkendish power. He's apparently able to see through Bill's eyes (or goggles) too, somehow. This update revealed that the Arkendish has a "clock speed" and can "overclock" to allow him to insta-magic or something, as if it wasn't powerful enough already. And of course, Rob has been ever more insistently teasing the idea that the Arkendish can see outside of the universe. Oh, wait, I almost forgot about the rifles, everyone's favorite instakill weapon which can only be made with a Carnymancy link. That's not even a full listing of the Arkendish's powers - that's just what Charlie has done since Parson cast the scroll. It doesn't include, for example, the Thinkagram eavesdropping. Or the ability to pop Archons, or the "affinity with natural allies", or the Gardening channel. By comparison, all the Arkenhammer can do is tame dwagons, shoot lightning, and occasionally turn walnuts into birds. That's it. That's its entire list of known powers so far. The gap between Charlie's Bullshitmancy and the other Arkentools is enormous right now, and he pulls a new superpower out of his back pocket every few pages.
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Feb 21, 2018 23:26
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Rand Brittain posted:Is that really what the towers do? Jed seems annoyed about cheating, but only if it's giving somebody an unfair leg-up; he cheats himself when he really wants to or to even the score. That's how I read it. The Towers cut through the subterfuge and backstabbing politics, they call out cheats when they see it and seek to get on the same level, and most importantly, as we learned with Jed, they want to be defended, to be taken care of and built strong, so they encourage their rulers to be how they need to be. If the last update said anything it's that without the Tower, Charlie would have been fine, and without Shirley... okay well he'd be drugged off his nuts, but it's a whole thing, And the way the GM talked about it "The problem isn't that someone's cheating it's that someone's cheating and has an unfair advantage." The Tower's are an equalizer, No more backstabbing, no more sneaky schemes behind the rulers back, no more lying. The Tower Knows. The Tower Watches.
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Feb 21, 2018 23:28
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Main Paineframe posted:For a while, it seemed like he was listening in on Transylvito's bats by eavesdropping on Bunny's Thinkamancy-snooping, but Bunny's long gone and he's still listening in on every bat in Transylvito's capital, so apparently that's yet another Arkendish power. It was revealed a while back that Charlie can snoop even on Natural Thinkamancy, which includes both the channels the Transylvitians use to see what their bats see, and the orders Rulers give to their units. Nobody else knows this because Charlie insists on inventing other possible ways for the information to get back to him before he acts on the intelligence, hence all the maneuvering with Vanna. Also, I think you're devaluing the Arkenpliers and their unlimited supply of free units, which completely breaks the game's economy over Wanda's knee, but yeah, the Arkenhammer seems way weaker than the other two, so it seems likely that it and the Arkenshoes have some powers we don't know about yet.
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Feb 21, 2018 23:31
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If you got store credit sitting around on your Erfworld account, now's probably a good time to spend it and at least get something for it. Lest you anger Rob in one way or another and he just delete your account.DrAtkins on Reddit posted:Posted in https://www.reddit.com/r/erfworld/comments/7z0oz7/so_it_seems_i_was_banned_from_erfworldcom/dum3l7g/
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Feb 21, 2018 23:31
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Hahaha holy poo poo 
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Feb 21, 2018 23:38
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Rand Brittain posted:It was revealed a while back that Charlie can snoop even on Natural Thinkamancy, which includes both the channels the Transylvitians use to see what their bats see, and the orders Rulers give to their units. Nobody else knows this because Charlie insists on inventing other possible ways for the information to get back to him before he acts on the intelligence, hence all the maneuvering with Vanna. Yeah the Arkenpliers are completely busted, and much of the story since the end of Book 1 has been about how this highly regimented and fairly well balanced game world even works when one side has access to what is basically a hack, mass resurrecting full capability totally loyal no upkeep units for free on an unlimited basis and instantly. There are like zero downsides or difficulties to using the Arkenpliers and they're insanely, ludicrously powerful, probably a lot more so than the Arkendish in terms of time and efficiency. Also this deleting accounts thing sounds skeevy.
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Feb 22, 2018 00:14
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A long time ago Rob specifically told me that not all members of the erfworld community were equal and when I left I generally assumed once everyone who was left there to criticize him was one of the protected members suddenly putting food on Rob's table wouldn't protect you any longer.
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Feb 22, 2018 00:47
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Welp, this guy is a jerkwad. Don't think I'll be losing out on much by dropping this comic from my rotation and checking back in a year or so. Kind of looking forward to a 6 updates binge tbh.
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Feb 22, 2018 01:34
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