>>133386
What is Kay angry about? Sore loser?

Patreon Blooper Sarcopholacooda 2020/07/09(Thu)10:14 No. 133389 ID: 11f77a
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March's blooper for Patreon fans! Hang in there, Gurrich!

>>133387
She's always angry 'bout something. Maybe River throws too hard.

Patreon Question Sarcopholacooda 2020/07/09(Thu)21:30 No. 133390 ID: 11f77a
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Njar talks about her biggest love interest. Seems like they didn't really have a good influence on one another.

Sarcopholacooda 2020/07/17(Fri)20:27 No. 133447 ID: 11f77a
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She's stuck. Send help =C

Sarcopholacooda 2020/07/17(Fri)20:29 No. 133448 ID: 11f77a
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Tongues! Sajjas tongues can grab, btw. Ya know... to hold onto food.

Team Port Echo: Script Sarcopholacooda 2020/07/25(Sat)07:54 No. 133502 ID: 11f77a
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I finally got around to (what I hope to be) the final draft of the planned graphic novel. The dropbox link should work and there is a way to download the pdf in the sidebar somewhere. There's still a bit of character design and concept art to do before I start illustrating the first page. Enjoy!

Link: https://www.dropbox.com/s/hkmsynjb5pqvbs5/TPE101_script.pdf?dl=0

Patreon Question Sarcopholacooda 2020/09/22(Tue)11:58 No. 133844 ID: 11f77a
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Driga looks back on what prompted her to go merc.

Patreon Prompt Sarcopholacooda 2020/09/22(Tue)12:00 No. 133845 ID: 11f77a
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So I'm starting to allow random ideas (sfw) for the characters in my universe. Someone requested Key with one of Veisar's legs for some unusual purpose. Hmmm...

Sarcopholacooda 2020/10/08(Thu)20:10 No. 133911 ID: 11f77a
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New quest idea. Huron High School with all your favorite mercs!

Patreon Question Sarcopholacooda 2020/10/29(Thu)11:03 No. 134237 ID: 11f77a
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Veisar, Victor, and Cybil all answer short questions from September's poll!

Patreon Question Sarcopholacooda 2020/12/01(Tue)15:17 No. 134426 ID: 11f77a
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October's question!

Patreon Question Sarcopholacooda 2020/12/22(Tue)18:51 No. 134548 ID: 11f77a
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I seem to have forgotten this one as well

Patreon Blooper (1/2) Sarcopholacooda 2020/12/22(Tue)18:57 No. 134549 ID: 11f77a
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Ortessus is finishing up her demolitions test. She seems to have everything under control.
-
Huge blooper dump thanks to the Patreon members who make it possible! Join my Patreon to suggest more stuff and vote for things!
https://www.patreon.com/teamportecho

Patreon Blooper (2/2) Sarcopholacooda 2020/12/22(Tue)18:58 No. 134550 ID: 11f77a
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Egads! Looks like she got the riddle mixed up. Although it's not entirely her fault for how stupid the memorizations are...

Patreon Blooper Sarcopholacooda 2020/12/22(Tue)18:59 No. 134551 ID: 11f77a
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Ortessus gets a rude awakening from her Cnidarian friend, Husk.

Patreon Blooper Sarcopholacooda 2020/12/22(Tue)19:00 No. 134552 ID: 11f77a
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Njar shouldn't be standing anywhere near Sertis' acid tank in a bullet fight.

Patreon Blooper Sarcopholacooda 2020/12/22(Tue)19:02 No. 134553 ID: 11f77a
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You can't blame Arthocobs who suffer from vestiphagia: the desire to eat fabrics. Poor Njar for being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Patreon Blooper Sarcopholacooda 2020/12/22(Tue)19:03 No. 134554 ID: 11f77a
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Njar is still losing her clothes! At least she has Veisar to help sew them back together in the heat of battle.

Patreon Blooper Sarcopholacooda 2020/12/22(Tue)19:04 No. 134555 ID: 11f77a
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Hold on for dear life Driga!

Patreon Arena Sarcopholacooda 2020/12/22(Tue)19:06 No. 134556 ID: 11f77a
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Ortessus vs. Njar.
--
Thanks to her quick crafting knowledge to make a claymore mine out of some tape, a glove, and a claymore mine--Ortessus has blasted all of Njar's clothes off.

Patreon Arena Sarcopholacooda 2020/12/22(Tue)19:07 No. 134557 ID: 11f77a
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Key vs. Holster
--
Even though Holster can zip around, guns blazing and making the room seem like a total bullet Hell, Key seems to predict where he'll end up thanks to her keen senses in her whiskers.

Patreon Arena Sarcopholacooda 2020/12/22(Tue)19:10 No. 134558 ID: 11f77a
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Driga vs. Veisar
--
Well Driga, you should've worn the necessary equipment before fighting on Veisar's turf. With a well placed drill her clothes have been yanked clean off!

That's all for now folks!

Free Poll Sarcopholacooda 2020/12/22(Tue)19:44 No. 134559 ID: 11f77a
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This Christmas I'm allowing everyone to vote for the next battle with three remaining contestants! You can vote multiple characters here in this strawpoll. No idea when I'll close it. Who do you want to see naked?! https://www.strawpoll.me/42332278

Why is it called Arthocob Date quest when there hasn't been any actual dating in the quest at all? Why are we having to run from weird cultists? None of this makes any sense! This isn't a date quest, it's just a regular quest! I feel like I've been lied to!

>>134728
I think Sarco got distracted by the allure of spooky shit.
I'm more irritated that the central religious conflict is lacking details. We know almost nothing about either deity.

>>134728
>>134729
>Why spooky? This isn’t a date quest, it’s just a regular quest.
Serious answer? I can’t help but worldbuild. And I like worldbuilding. I added a story to it instead of a simple, straight-forward guaranteed secks no-wrong-answers quest. It began as something I had zero forethought and I didn’t give a shit. Now I do and I’d prefer stakes being played. Characters being built up instead of mere robots. Go (re)read Chupian Date Quest for that.

When will the dating begin? Probably chapter 3. Chapter 2 (at the time of this post) has a third left to complete. What’s happening is important to future events.

>Sarco got distracted by the allure of spooky shit.
I wouldn’t call it a distraction. Lovecraftian stuff is fun.

>We know almost nothing about either deity
Hmm, I’ll reread what the chapters have so far and list here. Perhaps an update is an order for the glossary in the wiki: https://questden.org/wiki/Arthocob_Date_Quest
• Arthocobs are polytheistic. Their bible is called the Voxxus Neb [>>/questarch/918235]. All followers use the same book--which can be interpreted differently depending on who you ask. There’s no Book of Bhothogoshol or Book of Ndepthteph [>>/quest/977531].
• Bhothogoshol, also known as the Great Flying Rod, sheds life from its husk [>>/questarch/902219] A Goddess of Life [>>/questarch/934906] And non-violent [>>/questarch/918235] Ganymede defends her purpose to a mad preacher [>>/questarch/935410].
• [>>/questarch/932913] Voxxus is another world for ‘universe’. Here, the mad preacher talks about the creation of the universe made from the back of a great cosmic centipede, Relik. Relik had two children, Bhothogoshol represents life, and Ndepthteph (also known as the Death Worm) represents anti-life. In the beginning there was anti-life, nothing, and some people are angry Bhothogoshol did something about it. In the nightmare, a variation of Kyzil taunts Eudora with the false belief of Bhothogoshol [>>/questarch/949287] Life is pain, yo.
• Bogn is a fabled warrior. Also known as The Herald [>>/questarch/937605] I guess he’s on the same level as Jesus and carried an amber trumpet which was also a weapon. He practically became a demigod when he entered heaven, known as the Amber City, or Rac-Naquaghu [>>/questarch/936095] More info on him explained by Ganymede himself [>>/questarch/938524]
• Mi-Yok, sometimes known as husks, are like ghosts of bad Arthocobs. They cry and walk around in circles for eternity. They’ll do anything to feel better. An empty shell of their former selves. “…lost spirits from the husks of treacherous creatures…” Ganymede even mentions something about them on his delivery walk [>>/quest/961728]
• There are other gods and goddesses too but so far not introduced properly.

That’s about Arthocob Religion 101

>>134736
Okay, but why is Ndepthteph worshipped? Why is Bhothogoshol hated? Is there any direct conflict between the two gods? Do the gods communicate with their followers at all? What are the gods' personalities?

>>134737
I'm unsure how to answer this properly. Because there are questions that don't matter, and answers that take real-life elements into account.

Why do people worship Ndepthteph? Well... why do people worship any God at all? Why do evil cultists in Lovecraft worship Cthulhu and whatnot?

Why is Bhothogoshol hated? "They stand against everything you stand for." Well let's see. Why would a follower of the Death Worm hate the great Flying Rod of life? Okay, there's probably a deeper reasoning than that--something that is woven into the lives of their believers. But I don't like to be blunt. [X] because [Y]. I like writing for people who can connect the dots and do the research themselves. And for those who can't (or won't or have no time to) do that--that's absolutely fine! You can read it without understanding 100% of their religion because it's not vital. Bhothogoshol good. Ndepthteph bad. How far is Ganymede going just to have Eudora say 'yes' to a date while there are other conflicting things going on?

I like to add mystery and have little clues come up bit by bit. And I know some readers want to know the intricate details of the Arthocob lore (or the entire Team Port Echo universe). If it's important, it will be answered in the future.

>>134739
Just because you follow a god of death doesn't mean you hate the god of life. Life does not exist without death, and vice versa. I don't really get the whole "anti-life" thing especially considering Ndepthteph is depicted as a worm, which is a living organism, but I do know that if the worship of her revolves around the fact that life as we know it came about in opposition to her, it'd be more like worshipping the concept of emptiness, or wishing that life did not exist to begin with. And that's not exactly a religion that would inspire fanaticism without also inspiring mass suicide or open war. A religion that wants to remove all life would outlaw reproduction, as well, which means their numbers would go down fairly quickly over time.

Yeah, sure, clues. I'm sorry but that's just not a good method of explaining lore that gives needed context to an existing conflict when the lore involved is something the main character should know. We should at least know the basics, and despite my repeated attempts to get ganymede to fucking SAY ANYTHING ABOUT IT, I don't know the basics. For example, before you explicitly said that Ndepthteph is the goddess of anti-life I just thought she was the first to be born. The first life, not some kind of paradoxical life that is also anti-life.

>>134736
I’m really enjoying this worldbuilding
I wonder, do Arthocobs have cults placing emphasis on specific deities, such as the Romans had? The preacher from the first thread being crazy and clearly unwelcome in the village makes it seem that the worship of Ndepthteph is a fringe belief if not outright heresy, but he could still just be an outlier in a larger, more moderate religious faction.
though, granted, the nihilistic worship of inevitability and death itself probably doesn’t have broad appeal.

Sarcopholacooda 2021/03/31(Wed)22:42 No. 135269 ID: 11f77a
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Today may or may not be a coincidence.

So when are we going to finally get back to the dating part of the quest?

>>135277
I promise there's only... 3% left of the current thread. And then the actual dating part will happen.

I understand how dumb it may be now, I couldn't help myself but try and establish a looming conflict that will affect everyone as the story rolls on. I've had readers who both like the direction it's going--but still speak up about its misleading title.

Arthocob Date began as something out of the blue with no thought for its future. But as all things I create--I start piling stuff on top to give it more... life?

Anyway, Ganymede will be able to date next thread. And it won't have to be exclusively to Eudora. Promise.

Some comments about HURON:

The good:
- the art is sexy
- the setting is great
- the character design is cool
- the writing is okay

The bad:
- the updates are inconsistent
- the story pacing is too slow
- the battle design is poor
- no information choices

There's too much micromanagement in the way the fighting system is designed. If even the tutorial battle takes 30+ updates, then I think that, realistically, the prospect of you ever finishing this quest is unlikely. I would suggest making the battles shorter and streamlining the updates so that each update processes multiple actions and includes multiple panels. You may need to sacrifice some of the art and writing quality for the update speed, but I think it would help with the story pacing and keeping the readers interested. I think a good balance would be if the fights took 30-50% of the total updates in the quest. Even if the whole point of this quest is the clothing damage, not everyone needs to end up completely naked in every battle. The "brace for impact" system, from my point of view, feels too random to be an interesting part of the quest - 4v4 equals 1 in 16 chance of correct guess, and since there's little to no information to go on, it's more or less of a dice roll. But even if we had good information, would we really want to prevent our characters from losing their clothes? :p

>>135399
Thank you for the comments! I will put them into consideration. I know I've been... hobbling along with this quest. Perhaps with all my current quests for that matter. I could spend a long time making excuses why the 'bad' is the way it is but...

Looking forward, after the current battle, I'll finish the chapter there. And my quests (when their current chapters are done) will go through an overhaul before the next thread.

I believe in Huron, and believe it can last a good while. The journey, however, is bumpy. I'm thankful to have people stick around this long.

>The "brace for impact" system, from my point of view, feels too random to be an interesting part of the quest - 4v4 equals 1 in 16 chance of correct guess, and since there's little to no information to go on, it's more or less of a dice roll. But even if we had good information, would we really want to prevent our characters from losing their clothes? :p
I figured that was the point of the bracing for impact thing, in that you're supposed to choose the character you want to see naked the least.

Mother's Day Sarcopholacooda 2021/05/08(Sat)21:47 No. 135480 ID: 11f77a
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I felt like drawing up something special, here's Driga and Yamelle--the only official moms I have so far!

Author Update Sarcopholacooda 2021/05/30(Sun)11:16 No. 135649 ID: 11f77a
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I feel it's a good time to talk a bit on my current quests so far.

Now that the second chapter of Arthocob Date is done, I'll be sure to nudge it in the right direction of its namesake. Before chapter 3 though, I can focus on finishing the first thread for HURON and get The Vitruvian over with. And then have a clean slate again.

At this point, both remaining quests are seeing what works and what doesn't--and figuring out rules as they come along. So it's like... season one where it may have neat ideas but it'll hopefully get better next season. When their threads are finished I'm going to try to remain at one or two quests at a time--but the temptation to make Chupian Date Quest II or something new entirely is strong.

HURON
I'm figuring out ways to fix combat. Everyone has ACs but perhaps I made them a bit too high (because I have other modifiers like STR or DEX). So it's going to feel inconsistent in the middle of the current battle. I'm thinking of changing it to an attack roll vs. defense roll so things move faster. And I've been thinking ahead how to increase story elements with just a little combat.

Vitruvian
It's a fun demo so far. It's a quest for me to figure out the best rules to make as I move along. I didn't warn anyone what those rules are on purpose, in fact. I wanted a natural reaction to the current situation to survive vs. knowing the game and how to exploit it or use some meta-gaming strategy. Will a full quest happen? Perhaps. It's a concept (readers vs. protagonist) I would love to delve deeper into. Seeing how I want to limit myself to 2 quests it may be a while.

At the same time I'm drawing the Team Port Echo graphic novel, finally. Picture related.

Thank you for being patient as well.

Sarcopholacooda 2021/08/21(Sat)22:46 No. 136092 ID: 11f77a
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I always wanted to do this.

Sarcopholacooda 2021/08/21(Sat)22:47 No. 136094 ID: 11f77a
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alt.

>>136092
Ah this brings back memories!

>>136092
>>136093
>>136094
awesome

Thought of a plan to have Fletch or Grutter survive.

Ok so assuming the Catalysts goals are:
-Kill Fletch and Grutter
-Recover the stolen money

We need the money first, then the plan can begin.

I was thinking that Fletch takes the money/half of it if Grutter is present. The two then separate, possibly ending their relationship as partners in crime. Going full no contact.

What Grutter does is completely up in the air. Maybe he fights the catalyst with the resources available or goes along with what I think Fletch should do. Leaving Port Echo.

Fletch uses some of his money to get something to better disguise himself: cosmetic surgery, good hologram tech, or some means to disrupt surveillance. He'd either do this before he leaves Port Echo or does it sometime after leaving Port Echo. Chance of getting caught. We need him to cover up that scar he has.

Regardless of the decision he needs to get off world to places unknown. Head to a random destination and take several connection shuttles to a place deemed safe. Still a chance for things to go wrong.

Assuming the Catalyst decided to pursue Grutter, no matter if he was successful in killing Grutter or not. Grutter wouldn't be able to tell where Fletch went no matter what. The same could be said if the Catalyst goes after Fletch first. Hopefully Grutter is long gone so Fletch can't tell the Catalyst where Grutter went.

Results assuming everything goes without a massive hitch:
>>Best case: Catalyst fails to kill Fletch and Grutter due to the two separating and going to places unknown, the trail being lost. Nor can he bring the stolen money back to his client.
Fletch and Grutter live relatively quiet lives if they keep their heads low but now in a constant state of paranoia, with Fletch probably having survivor's guilt from Ordo and possibly Nirrn's death.

>>Worst case: Fletch or Grutter is dead and the Catalyst retrieves half the stolen money. Whoever wasn't pursued still lives, paranoid for the rest of their days.

Ultimately whoever is being pursued needs to make it as inconvenient as possible for the Catalyst to catch them. Buying time for the other and hopefully escaping as well. Any other ideas?

What's Next? [Poll] Sarcopholacooda 2021/12/23(Thu)07:04 No. 136755 ID: 11f77a
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So I'm just curious as to what everyone wants after The Vitruvian. I've been having up-and-down feelings about my quests gaining traction--and I have discussed this to some friends and authors which, admittingly, plot-driven stories are less engaging than character-driven ones. I do like to set the stage and sequence of events that could amaze and surprise my readers, so yeah, I can see that even with a plethora of choices it may end up as a Telltale Game where some choices may lead to the same conclusion (unless there's some outside-the-box thinking). On some good news, I really didn't expect Fletch to survive the store encounter due to some amazing wit. At the moment I'm improvising everything and excited about where this is all going. But there'll be obstacles conveniently placed in every character's way to see how you guys tackle it. A quest where you play everyone but one character hasn't been done before, and is quite risky because an audience could easily become attached to characters (good or bad) who may die in the next minute. This might discourage some people if this happens time and again. This concept would, of course, probably be best on a quest with no death. I base The Vitruvian on a Coen brother's film like Fargo or No Country For Old Men, and Breaking Bad where people can end up in the wrong place at the wrong time.

There are tons of other things I would need to improve before the next quest/thread which I don't have the room to mention at this moment, but onwards to the poll! This is multiple choice, so you may vote for more than one quest prompt in the link.
https://www.quiz-maker.com/poll4080514x0a914549-128
https://www.quiz-maker.com/poll4080514x0a914549-128
https://www.quiz-maker.com/poll4080514x0a914549-128

New Team Port Echo Mission: Not really a retcon but we left them in the middle of an episode which I have no plans of finishing (here). So this'll be a one-off contained adventure that could be solved in one thread. We could see the ol' gang back.
Arthocob Date/Ganymede Thread 3: Continue the adventure of Ganymede. There may be a title-change to the story but he will definitely be able to date anyone upon his immediate return to his village at the beginning of the chapter.
Calliope: I've heard people still talking about this one, and I've yet to give it a proper finish for it's first thread. I've written an update but I've been anxious to revive it fromt he grave because I fear that despite the praise I'll still end up with low participation.
Huron Thread 2: I get that the first chapter took... a long time to complete. And combat was slow. And updates were irregular. And this was merely the result of chasing a trend of clothing damage which obviously failed... but yeah--there's a story I'd still like to show. I'm definitely going to redo a lot of mechanics when our mercenaries continue the heist.
New Thadeus Date Quest: People like porn. So I guess this guarantees something.
Something New and Unrelated: Maybe no one cares about the whole echoverse. Perhaps Team Port Echo and all related lore should just be left as something exclusively read in a webcomic and not in quest format. Maybe I should just have some generic furry adventure without much thought--which isn't meant to sound passive-aggressive. Sometimes I have to go simple.

But if you cannot get enough of my aliens and the echoverse I've developed over the years--there's always my discord server! Hop in, assign yourself as a species, and get to see WIPs and stuff. Yeah!
https://discord.gg/XpRctkx
https://discord.gg/XpRctkx
https://discord.gg/XpRctkx

I very much liked Team Port Echo myself, especially the art style which I find nostalgically reminiscent of mid 2000s sci-fi webcomics for some reason
Suggestions don’t seem to be an accurate metric for actual readership, from what I understand; while I can only speak for myself, I only suggest when I have a particularly good idea or funny comment (or it at least seems that way to me) and tend to abstain from saying anything otherwise. Even classics like Advocate got just two or three suggestions per update when they were running.

Some quests, like Salikai for example, seem to me to have a high suggestion-to-reader ratio because of a combination of high stakes and open-ended issues, resulting in more people stating their own unique solutions, criticizing others’ suggestions and debating in the thread. Mind, they probably have the same number of readers as other quests, it’s just that more readers feel they should make a suggestion. So overall, I wouldn’t worry myself about the number of suggestions too much, there’s just no way to tell how accurate it reflects the number of people reading

>>136755
Defintly Voting for more Gany.

>Post mentions Groundhog Day on Groundhog Day itself
Well played.

>>141629
Entirely coincidental! Realized just before I updated.

Congratulations on the splendid timing nonetheless. Haha, what aim!