Book Releases

[sparkyinbozo]

I was looking back through the OotS book release date and found this something neat in the release dates for the books:

Dungeon Crawlin' Fools - 2005 (120 pages)
No Cure for the Paladin Blues - 2006 (244 pages)
War And XPs - 2008 (288 pages)
Don't Split the Party - 2009 (272 pages)
Blood Runs in the Family - 2014 (368 pages)

Since then, we've had about 121 comics - not quite 1:1 equivalent to a page - so we're probably about 1/3-1/2 of the way through the next book after ~3 years, meaning that we will probably see it in 2022, and the last around 2030 at this rate. Oh...well, that's depressing. Not neat. Anyway, what do you think you guys will be doing around then? Guesses for where the world will be?

P.S. - This post was inspired by what looks like a hefty spate of people noticing the very, very slow progress of the comic. And it's saddening. I remember looking forward to refreshing daily, looking forward to (at least) weekly updates. Thanks for the good times, guys.

[Cizak]

Another thinly veiled complaint about the update schedule, huh? Well, I guess it has been two seconds.

[Quild]

The Giant talked about this a few thousand times. He has to juggle with 3 priorities (last time was here I think)

To resume, these priorities are:
- The free webcomic
- Stuff that brings him money to pay his bills
- Rewards for the KS 5 years ago

The last part is probably the most important.
I seem to remember that The Giant wrote an article (can't find it) about the risks of KS and all that was unexpected for him. If memory serves:
- additional costs to take into consideration
- how much success he would have and how much time it would require to deal with everything
He also probably didn't expect to cut his thumb, which didn't help either.

There are now tons of KS where people don't care about keeping their promises. But The Giant is trying to keep his, regardless how much time it takes (but he cares about how much time it takes).
And he can't put the webcomic on hiatus to give backers what they paid for, because most of them could say that they prefer updates to those bonus. Plus, there are the others readers.


Things will go better when the KS will be over. O'Chul's PDF is almost finished and I think it's supposed to be the biggest PDF.
No idea how much time the 4 remaining ones will take. But I find it really hard to blame The Giant knowing all this.


Also please note that most updates are longer than before (many 1 page strips in the few first hundred strips while there must be 5 double page in the last 20 strips) and that the art changed. Which makes the scenery harder to draw.

I sincerely hope you weren't aware of all this and that your veiled complain does not longer stand.

[SilverCacaobean]

At this rate, you people are going to convince him to abandon this beautiful business model, where he posts almost the entirety of his comic on the internet for free and decide that his next project (which I am, for one, looking forward to) will be just something for sale when it's done. Because, frankly, this is insufferable and I'm pretty sure *I* wouldn't have the patience Rich seems to have.

People, get it through your hollow skulls, he's writing a comic, that is for sale, and he happens to post most pages when they're done. He could have a different business model. Also, everything Quild said.

[hroþila]

Nah, the forum is and has always been pretty niche and we don't represent the larger reader base. I don't think The Giant would change his business model at this point because of some complaints here.

Now nuking the forum, on the other hand...

[Kish]

Nah, he gets advertising money for it now. Hopefully, his "no longer reading the forum" policy is sufficient to avoid him being affected by this.

sparkyinbozo, people have been complaining about the pace of the comic for over 90% of its history, so it's not a matter of "a hefty spate of people noticing" something new. I don't know what positive change you think you're going to effect here. I wonder if even you have anything specific in mind, or just want all the forum to know you're ticked off.

[2.5 cats]

Yeah, I'd avoid complaining about the update pace. The Giant is doing the best he can, and every comic we get is one more than we had before. The biggest issue to me is that he gets enough revenue to keep going. New book sales would help with that obviously, but I'm happy to hear the.pdfs and calendars are selling well.

(And anyone reading this who hasn't shelled out for some OotS stuff. Ante up, people!)

[Jaxzan Proditor]

We're actually about 155.5 pages in, even if only 121 strips in, which is about half the page total of BRitF (not including bonus content, which this book is likely to have as well. Going by the Giant's previous comments, I'm going to guess that Book 6 will probably be shorter than BRitF, but I don't think it's entirely unlikely it runs long. However, since it's been about 3 years up to this point, and things will almost certainly start to pick up as more of the Kickstarter finishes, I'm willing to bet Book 6 will be out in 2020, not 2022.

And I'm certainly more than willing to wait that long. What part of not complaining about the update schedule is so hard to grasp?

[TheNecrocomicon]

We're actually about 155.5 pages in, even if only 121 strips in, which is about half the page total of BRitF (not including bonus content, which this book is likely to have as well. Going by the Giant's previous comments, I'm going to guess that Book 6 will probably be shorter than BRitF, but I don't think it's entirely unlikely it runs long. However, since it's been about 3 years up to this point, and things will almost certainly start to pick up as more of the Kickstarter finishes, I'm willing to bet Book 6 will be out in 2020, not 2022.

And I'm certainly more than willing to wait that long. What part of not complaining about the update schedule is so hard to grasp?

Well, those of us who came along too late to participate in the Kickstarter and who don't really possess the disposable income to spend on OotS books, PDFs, etc. are pretty much S.O.L. outside of the online-posted strips. And then we get talked down to that we should consider ourselves lucky to get thrown a proverbial bone once every couple of weeks.

I would venture a guess that such a situation could frustrate people to the point that they feel the need to post about it. That doesn't really justify complaining about it, but it would provide a motivation to do so.

[2.5 cats]

Well, those of us who came along too late to participate in the Kickstarter ... are pretty much S.O.L. outside of the online-posted strips.

For what it's worth, it's quite clear that every Kickstarter strip will be released to the general public--albeit with a time lag. Uncivil Servant and Haleo & Julelan are both Kickstarter strips; pretty sure there's only 1 completed Kickstarter strip that hasn't gone out yet.

[Rogar Demonblud]

And they're PWYW, so you can get them for a dollar each if that's all you can afford.

[TheNecrocomicon]

For what it's worth, it's quite clear that every Kickstarter strip will be released to the general public--albeit with a time lag. Uncivil Servant and Haleo & Julelan are both Kickstarter strips; pretty sure there's only 1 completed Kickstarter strip that hasn't gone out yet.

And they're PWYW, so you can get them for a dollar each if that's all you can afford.

There is that. For my part however, I do feel like an ass (or more of one anyways) throwing in an absolute pittance of $1 for something he went above and beyond the mandate of the main webcomic in order to write, draw and publish.

Also, some people might not be fans of purchasing stuff online and the personal info sharing that goes along with it, no matter how secure a website may be.

[littlebum2002]

For what it's worth, it's quite clear that every Kickstarter strip will be released to the general public--albeit with a time lag. Uncivil Servant and Haleo & Julelan are both Kickstarter strips; pretty sure there's only 1 completed Kickstarter strip that hasn't gone out yet.

I believe you are right, the Therkla strip. I can't wait!!

[KorvinStarmast]

(And anyone reading this who hasn't shelled out for some OotS stuff. Ante up, people!)

If I may second this notion, the quality of the .pdf products is good, and I do have one 'in print' item which is Snips, Snails, and Dragon Tails.' It is also of good quality.

The bonus strips and Rich's commentary add to the enjoyment of the story.

Just saying: it's good stuff.