Summer Updates - 001

[Lunaya]

Personally, I'm thrilled! We get the same amazing artwork with a new literary viewpoint? Big thumbs up from me.

[kin]

ahhh thank god im not the only one to see the significance (and doran as well, kin was first so he gets quoted ). was hoping i wasn't the only British bod here

For the Empire of Plaid!

So who'll be their Arthur Conan Doyle?

[Infidel]

I like the storybook feel. It sorta give me a Dr. Seuss feeling.

[konmanrocks]

Looks damn good to me. I like how it popped in a different style. So what affected the style change? Stanley? or was it random?

this is possible. Stanley changed a great deal over the first book. (or at least near the end)

[Cmdr I. Heartly Noah]

He sure did. First with the "higher calling"/Tool thing, but he also seemed to mellow after his battle with Transylvito and talking to Jack... (and feeling left out @ the campfire the night before)

[warriortribble]

Ah. I think I would've prefered rebuilding to be more turn intensive and mundane, but it's no biggie.

[kreszantas]

The comic has been really awesome and set high standards until now; I have to admit a large amount of disappointment.

That's because you were thinking of this like a new page, instead of what (I think) it's intended to be: teasers to keep you coming back until the next book begins.

Um, well, you see, that's actually completely and totally wrong.

That was not what I was thinking and this was not a teaser.

Darkside, conjecture like this without supporting facts puts your statement into a very dismissive and demeaning tone. (at least in the text world) Could you give us your feelings of why you feel this is wrong? What is causes this update, in your mind to be cast in such a negative light? This is a new writing medium, therefore I feel that there is going to be some sort of disconnect with this style, due to it being an "after discussion" of a closed book. I personally felt like it was a compendium or a bonus feature that could be marketed as a "additional piece" much like a subscriber email update feed, only we have to go to it instead of it being auto-sent to a mass email list that is constantly changing. (my viewpoint on this will send this thread on a tangent.)

[KBF]

] This is a new writing medium, therefore I feel that there is going to be some sort of disconnect with this style, due to it being an "after discussion" of a closed book. I personally felt like it was a compendium or a bonus feature that could be marketed as a "additional piece" much like a subscriber email update feed, only we have to go to it instead of it being auto-sent to a mass email list that is constantly changing. (my viewpoint on this will send this thread on a tangent.)

So yeah, the Yankees are doing pretty well...

I don't think of these as teasers personally, I think of them as individual standalone scenes. Not to keep us hooked, but to show what the characters are like out of a wartime situation, how they were affected by the events of the book, and maybe give a bit of context for the beginning of book 2.

[Sintar07]

] This is a new writing medium, therefore I feel that there is going to be some sort of disconnect with this style, due to it being an "after discussion" of a closed book. I personally felt like it was a compendium or a bonus feature that could be marketed as a "additional piece" much like a subscriber email update feed, only we have to go to it instead of it being auto-sent to a mass email list that is constantly changing. (my viewpoint on this will send this thread on a tangent.)

So yeah, the Yankees are doing pretty well...

I don't think of these as teasers personally, I think of them as individual standalone scenes. Not to keep us hooked, but to show what the characters are like out of a wartime situation, how they were affected by the events of the book, and maybe give a bit of context for the beginning of book 2.

Exactly. This isn't a major event so it doesn't get it's own book. The updates are just fillers between the main attractions, and I think they're done in a different style to reflect that.

[SkarmoryThePG]

I'm curious.

Was the money investment a normal cost, or did Stanley order the tower to be rush-built in one turn.

[HandofShadows]

Hey, everybody look at the door of the new tower: It's not a mouth! This really is a decor change from Gobwin Knob 1.0!

Not as much as you might think though. There is still a skull with horns over the door.

[Anton Gaist]

I'm curious.

Was the money investment a normal cost, or did Stanley order the tower to be rush-built in one turn.

I don't see why he would, he's in no hurry now that the Coalition is (temporarily?) dispersed. Perhaps it's as people have already speculated, and this is a Tower Level 1, with upgrades available later on.

I like the feel of these summer updates, and hope they make it into the printed version of Book 2.

[SteveMB]

I'm curious.

Was the money investment a normal cost, or did Stanley order the tower to be rush-built in one turn.

I don't see why he would, he's in no hurry now that the Coalition is (temporarily?) dispersed.

He might have spent extra money for fast construction because he can, and because he'd prefer to return to a city rather than ruins. However, we don't know whether this is unusually fast construction (yes, it would seem odd that a city can be re-popped in a turn when individual large units take extra time, but "odd" is hardly a disqualifier for how Erfworld might work).

[Anton Gaist]

Humm... The longer I read this, the more I crave for the Erfworld RPG.

He's not re-popping, he's repairing the city. Had it been completely destroyed it wouldn't have popped the blue dwagon in p144, so a complete rebuild it was not.

Then again, it would make sense given Stanley's ego that he'd spend extra money to arrive at a completely repaired and improved city.

[Cmdr I. Heartly Noah]

There isn't enough information -

it's seemingly just as likely that all upgrades (even multiple upgrades) of city level (or tower/tunnel/whatever level) are instantaneous as normally taking time, and seemingly just as likely that doing an instant upgrade costs shmuckers, but you could do it for free by waiting a long time, OR that multiple instantaneous upgrades would cost more than doing one each turn, OR that they would cost the same regardless. (whew)

[gameboy1234]

I assume that the moneymancy here is a form of natural magic for Overlords. It's already been commented that moneymancers can do other things with money, but if an Overlord naturally just orders up buildings or troop types then that makes it "natural" right?

[Cmdr I. Heartly Noah]

Yes, basic things like non-Capital sides buying troops, and Capital sides building/repairing cities, paying your natural allies, taking Shmuckers to buy a $350K spell, all that stuff would be "natural Moneymancy."

[bathysphere]

Also wondering about the new architectural style looking a little imperial. Might be a conscious decision by Stanley, but also might be the agency of Erfworld itself setting the style to suit the current narrative. (You know, Erf just gets better and better.)

[Darkside007]

Then what were you thinking?

That it would be a short one-off script that gave a basis for elements of Book 2 and furthered the plot, not that it would be "The city was rebuilt."

[Ragn Charran]

Regarding the style change, don't forget we also don't know how much of the old Gobwin Knob design was implemented by Saline IV, or even his predecessors. It's hard to imagine the "toughest defensive position in the world" changing hands a lot, or without this level of destruction and rebuild, but we can assume Saline's disposal was relatively destruction free, having come from the inside, and while Saline doesn't look the type to have all that demonic imagery, he did ally with goblins, and we also know real world demonic =/= Erfworld evil.

tl;dr, this may be the first construction Stanley has ever ordered from scratch, previous stuff may have been inherited.