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The Organization of Ghost Hunters
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Latest blog post: Redraw of chapter 1 is happening (2024-05-11)

Author's comment:

Sort of a breather page, with some lore info about the Alliance.
As this is almost exactly second anniversary of the comic existence (first page was done on December 15th 2016, although it wasn't uploaded until much later), I would like to take that moment to ask you guys about your opinions on how the comic progressed so far. What do you think? Are there any issues (besides slow updates, I mean) that you think need to be shed light onto? Other details of the setting maybe? Leave a comment below!



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Steve (transfer from Disqus)

One small technical issue: clicking the comic itself seems to randomly switch between going forward or backward from page to page. It's not a huge deal, but it's a bit annoying since I have a habit of clicking the pages first.

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Darth_Biomech

The page's divided for 13 of it leading back and 23's of it leading forward. I thought that was fairly intuitive, could probably scrap that and just make it go only forward.

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Steve (transfer from Disqus)

Yeah, the standard in pretty much every other webcomic I've read is either the panels being inert or taking you forward. Needing to go backwards one page at a time is rare enough it's sufficient to just use the backwards link at the top or the browser back button.

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Carefulrogue (transfer from Disqus)

The Iss description inclines me to believe they are more advanced in terms of pure engineering than the other races, minus the Azinarsi. Relativistic speed sleeper (I presume cryostasis of some type) interstellar colony ships is a feat that should not be dismissed.

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Darth_Biomech

How can you be advanced in "engineering"? Sleeper ships are comparatively low-tech to what the Alliance has, especially since they were designed to cross a small interstellar distance to a nearby star.
What iss excel at, though, is the calculation of potential impacts and problems with the discoveries and technology they're implementing, but that was a blessing and a curse for their civilization since their technological progress can be described as "steady but surely". There were no Edisons, Einsteins, and Guttenbergs in their history.

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Carefulrogue (transfer from Disqus)

Advanced or perhaps a very pervasive culture in their engineering circles of delivering the highest quality products and designs. Higher standards, greater drive to make it work at the top of the performance envelope, etc.

Either way, building something that as far as I can tell was an interstellar starship out of 100% Newtonian components, is impressive. Sure, it has less of the technological babbles that the Alliance has, but doing more with less is not something to dismiss. With the various hard science rules in effect, those starships must have been built to endure and last for what is as far as hard science is concerned, difficult. An engineering problem, no different from building the fastest jet in the world that leaks on the runway, or lifting an enemy submarine covertly from it's grave while the world watches. Far more compelling than magic plot points.

They may have a more slow progression and uptake in discovering properties of the universe and cautious advance of hardware and technology, but a thoroughness you imply them to have suggests they will figure out the best ways to make use of what they had and what is now available. Even if they remain a generation of tech behind, one may find higher quality in that lagging generation.

Just my misc thoughts. Forgive the rambling.

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Lord Eric (transfer from Disqus)

Careful does have a point there. A hyper-capable ship represents a higher state of the art than a relativistic sleeper ship, but the nature of the trip means that the sleeper has to dot a lot of i's and cross a lot of t's that the jumper can get away with skimping on, because it has to work perfectly for a lot longer and is a lot further from help if something goes wrong.

Of course, ultimately I'd rather travel in a hyper ship, but I would also feel a lot safer knowing that the Iss had a major hand in designing it. Their mindset seems like something that would *combine* really well with other races that are more prone to producing "idea men".

It's really not that hard to produce an Edison, by the way. He wasn't really an inventor so much as a overseer, whose technique mostly consisted of a large lab of minions trying absolutely everything and documenting the results until something went right.

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Siren (transfer from Disqus)

The Azinarsi seem interesting. 1±

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seconds really does cover the full range of possible lifespans.

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Quieteyes (transfer from Disqus)

I'm coming into this late, but so far I'm enjoying it.

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Murphy (transfer from Disqus)

This has a distinctly Stellaris or Master of Orion feel to me (even if the science is harder). What were your inspirations for the setting?

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Darth_Biomech

Mainy that was the other webcomic - "Ousider" with "Trying Human", and Mass Effect to a great extent. Although I didn't liked a lot of stuff in ME, lore-wise, the whole effort spend on those games was admirable and inspiring.

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Murphy (transfer from Disqus)

Interesting. Now that I've read a bit into the setting, the whole premise of relying on a slow courier network with months-long delays in communication also reminds me of Traveller. (Traveller kinda makes a point of how this affects the galactic society, "the second Age of Sail".)

As a side note, since you're explicitly asking about issues: would it be okay to point out minor grammar problems in the comic? Style-wise, your writing looks fine, but it would benefit from proofreading.

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Darth_Biomech

The premise sounds like worth a read. But I can't find it in google.

Pointing out issues is encouraged, even. Minor, major, all sorts of things. I got a volunteer proofreader after 11th page, but apparently that didn't solved the issue entirely.

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Murphy (transfer from Disqus)

It's a roleplaying game, so "Traveller RPG" is your best bet for searching.

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Darth_Biomech

Ah, got it.

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Norman Prather (transfer from Disqus)

I just discovered this comic so won't offer much opinion tonight. I like the concept and the art. You've set yourself a challenging task. I look forward to seeing more of this work.






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TRIVIA
Insectoids in a lot of ways are the weird ones among the Alliance members. Besides having a completely unpronounceable name of the species, they have dextero amino acid biochemistry, which makes their food and biosphere to be inedible by the rest of the Alliance, and vice versa.

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