Outsider

[PoeticallyPsyco]

So I just discovered Outsider, a Space Opera complete with Space Elves, and find myself quite hooked. Reminds me a bit of the Uplift War with the importance of alien politics and humans desperately trying to navigate the system well enough to stay afloat. I was wondering what other people thought of it. (I'm all caught up on the comic itself, but haven't dove through the frankly crazy amount of supplementary material yet).

[RCgothic]

I think it's pretty cool, brilliant art and world building. The updates do drag a bit though.

[halfeye]

Seems to be heading toward alien porn at a rate of many knots.

We'll see?

[PoeticallyPsyco]

What's everyone's thoughts on who shot down the Bellarmine (the human ship)?

The way I see it, there's three options:

Spoiler

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The Loroi are on the up and up, and it really was shot down by the Umiak. The Barsam comment about the "lies" the Loroi have been telling merely refers to how they've been claiming they're direct descendants from the (most recent) Precurser race, when it looks much more likely said precurser race merely modified humans to create the Loroi. But why is the Historian personality construct so adamant that the Loroi do not have his best interests at heart?

The Loroi shot down the Bellarmine, and pinned it on the Umiak. They've actually got a pretty good justification for this: the Umiak are using Farsensor cloaking technology, and then a similarly 'cloaked' ship appears next to them, so they shot it down... but it wasn't Umiak at all, it was Human. Oops. And we actually get a glimpse of the enemy ship on the Bellarmine monitors, and it looks a lot more like a Loroi ship than an Umiak one. But then why would they be so thorough in completely wiping out the ship, when logically they'd want to make sure the cloaking technology was intact so they could study it. And if they were trying to wipe out the humans, it doesn't make much sense to then spare Alex and formally recognize him in front of alien witnesses. They could be trying to manipulate humanity... but why bother, with a race so inferior to themselves and their allies? Maybe there are multiple factions in the Loroi fleet, with conflicting goals.... (On that note, we've only got Loroi word that Alex was the only survivor...)

The Bellarmine was shot down by a third party trying to escalate conflict. This same third party would presumably be responsible for the mysterious incident that kicked off the whole war. Honestly, I'm probably just paranoid from my experience with the Lost Fleet series... but just because I'm paranoid doesn't mean the idea is wrong. This would explain the effort they went to to eliminate any witnesses.

[Gez]

What's everyone's thoughts on who shot down the Bellarmine (the human ship)?

The way I see it, there's three options

Alex paid close attention to the look of the various beams and has already confirmed that it doesn't seem like Loroi weapons destroyed his ship. It's important to note, too, that when the Bellarmine is attacked, the Loroi did not know about farsense cloaking. At least the strike group didn't, and it'd make no sense not to share such intelligence, if it is known with the units that have to act on it.

https://well-of-souls.com/outsider/outsider060.html "very bright white, with a greenish tint"
https://well-of-souls.com/outsider/outsider070.html Alex looking for intel on Loroi weapons

https://well-of-souls.com/outsider/outsider077.html
https://well-of-souls.com/outsider/outsider078.html
https://well-of-souls.com/outsider/outsider079.html
These three pages of the space battle shows that Loroi beams are blue and pink for long range weapons, red for point defense. Umiak beams certainly seem much closer to the "bright white with a greenish tint" description.

https://well-of-souls.com/outsider/outsider006.html the presumed hostile ship; doesn't look much like a Loroi design to me, it's kinda squat and compact instead of the Y shape with clearly separated engine pods that Loroi ships have.

However, the option of a third party remains open.

[Lvl 2 Expert]

Big ploot hooks, sexy ships, nice art, familiar setting type, seemingly no inherent bias towards the "cool" psychic aliens and against the insectoid ones, I'm bookmarking this for a proper read through.

[halfeye]

Big ploot hooks, sexy ships, nice art, familiar setting type, seemingly no inherent bias towards the "cool" psychic aliens and against the insectoid ones, I'm bookmarking this for a proper read through.

It's just a thing, not in a particularly bad or good way, but the elven ships remind me of some from Moo2, was it the Psylons?

[Gez]

It's just a thing, not in a particularly bad or good way, but the elven ships remind me of some from Moo2, was it the Psylons?

Is that the only thing from Master of Orion II that this comic reminds you of? Because the Loroi are quite clearly the Elerians, and the Umiak are also quite clearly the Klackons. Other alien races are less blatant (Barsam : Bulrathi? Neridi : Gnolam?) but for the two main factions, it's obvious.

I'll also point out that if you like MOO2 and Outsider, you can check out Stars in Shadow, which you can find on GOG and Steam (currently 75% off on Steam until December 3). Space strategy game, with graphics by Jim "Arioch" Francis (Outsider's author) and a gameplay largely based off MOO2. Pretty cool.

[halfeye]

Is that the only thing from Master of Orion II that this comic reminds you of? Because the Loroi are quite clearly the Elerians, and the Umiak are also quite clearly the Klackons. Other alien races are less blatant (Barsam : Bulrathi? Neridi : Gnolam?) but for the two main factions, it's obvious.

It's a long, long time since I played Moo2, it was good, but it doesn't run on modern hardware for me, so I've forgotten most of it. Something about those ships rang some sort of bell, but I could have entirely the wrong species for them.

I'll also point out that if you like MOO2 and Outsider, you can check out Stars in Shadow, which you can find on GOG and Steam (currently 75% off on Steam until December 3). Space strategy game, with graphics by Jim "Arioch" Francis (Outsider's author) and a gameplay largely based off MOO2. Pretty cool.

If I can get a disc for considerably under a tenner I might think about it.

[HandofShadows]

Been a fan for years. Just wish it updated faster.

[Gez]

If I can get a disc for considerably under a tenner I might think about it.

I don't believe it's distributed in physical form anywhere, but you can get the game + DLC for less than eight bucks while the sale is going.

[PoeticallyPsyco]

It's just a thing, not in a particularly bad or good way, but the elven ships remind me of some from Moo2, was it the Psylons?

For me the whole thing reminds me (in a good way) of the Uplift series by David Brin, and especially The Uplift War. Various species being uplifted to sentience/star travel (though in this case the precursors are extinct rather than continuing to micromanage), emphasis on realism as far as biology and science in general without skimping on rule of cool, human main character is allied with psychic space elves (at least one of whom is a possible love interest)...

[Narkis]

Pretty cool comic. Great art, intriguing story, and the parallels to one of my favorite games of all time are obvious. (I also liked Stars in Shadow, though not quite as much) Definitely something to follow.

The first pages were posted on October 31, 2001.

276 pages in 18 years gives as 15.33 a year, or just a bit more than one a month. It's gonna take a while.

Seems to be heading toward alien porn at a rate of many knots.

We'll see?

Either that, or a harem anime. :P

Spoiler: And regarding the Bellamine

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I think it was the Historians. The beam we saw matched neither the Loroi nor the Umiak weapons. The Historians are mysterious and not completely aligned to the Loroi, and their AI has been trying really hard to get Captain Jardin to distrust his hosts. There's definitely an agenda here, we just don't have enough information to guess.

[Lapak]

Wait, it's updating again? I remember picking that up back when there were like 10 pages and then there was a hiatus so long I assumed it was dead. (Like, multiple months/years since the last update when I removed it the rotation of 'check in every so often just to see.) Never expected it to cross my radar again, but wonders never cease.

[Lvl 2 Expert]

seemingly no inherent bias towards the "cool" psychic aliens and against the insectoid ones,

Okay, quite a bit more bias than I was led to expect. But still an interesting setting. I'm caught up now, so I'll keep an eye on this from time to time.

[Gez]

Okay, quite a bit more bias than I was led to expect. But still an interesting setting. I'm caught up now, so I'll keep an eye on this from time to time.

Well the fact the protagonist has been rescued by one side means that they'll obviously get to see the people of that side point out that it's the other side that's bad.

Objectively, the Umiak have a lot of things going against them when it comes to winning humanity's hearts and minds. The Loroi are much closer to us not just physically, but also mentally: despite their telepathy and unequal sex ratio, their thought patterns are mostly similar to those of humans.

Still we do get to have a glimpse of the other side through "The Stray".

[PoeticallyPsyco]

Three weeks since the last update. Hopefully just the holidays, and not signaling a dry spell.

[Narkis]

Three weeks since the last update. Hopefully just the holidays, and not signaling a dry spell.

Sounds about par the course, actually.

276 pages in 18 years gives as 15.33 a year, or just a bit more than one a month. It's gonna take a while.