Outsider page 276
Added 2025-03-31 04:18:50 +0000 UTCHope this finds you well.
I'm trying to develop some momentum with updates, which obviously hasn't been terribly successful of late, but I feel a little bit better after having done this page. I was feeling a bit lost working page 227, as the other stuff that I've been spending most of my time working on recently is art related but doesn't involve much actual drawing, and I guess I've been getting rusty. But at least working on this page gave me back some confidence that I can still draw.
Thanks as always for your support!
Comments
Umiak can just dont use torpedoes at all? Cant they just blast that lonely tiny escort with their plasma canons?
PepeTheKek
2025-05-16 09:22:16 +0000 UTCUmiak individuals are mostly polite, well-socialized and humbly dedicated to the welfare of the group, but they are also deeply obsessive-compulsive, sometimes to the point of becoming manic. Umiak society simultaneously exploits and copes with this tendency by trying to make sure that individuals are always busy, and Umiak philosophy tries to soothe their mania with small repetitive rituals and the message that they are measuring up to what’s expected of them. A distressed or idle Umiak may be heard chattering mantras to itself that translate essentially as “it just doesn’t matter.” Umiak philosophy seems bleak and nihilistic to outsiders, but it helps the task-obsessed individual not to freak out at every minor mistake, and in a military context provides some comfort to the soldier who knows that he’s about to be killed. On the level of local government and leadership, this racial character has a number of effects. On the one hand, Umiak individuals follow orders well and are inclined to believe whatever they are told. But on the other hand, their obsession with ritual can make it difficult to change how they are doing something if they believe it is the correct or most efficient way, and their need to stay busy can put pressure on leadership to make decisions that may place the short-term needs of the followers rather than the accomplishment of long-term goals. It has also led to a decentralized approach to leadership, both improving productivity and satisfying low-level leaders by giving them some autonomy in how they accomplish their tasks. In civilian contexts this sometimes manifests as reckless use of environment for short-term production gain, and in military contexts it manifests as a need to be constantly on the attack – Umiak crews sitting idle on defense gradually lose effectiveness as they slowly drive themselves crazy, sometimes to the point where they have to be sent on suicide attacks just to be rid of them. In the context of leadership, instructions from higher authority are sometimes deliberately vague to allow for local autonomy, with sometimes messy results. At times group leader A doesn’t know -- or care -- what group leader B is doing, and a group leader ordered to defend may instead attack, if it interprets attack as the best way to accomplish the objective of defense in the current situation. On a higher level of government, the current leadership has channeled these energies into expansion and advancement. The command philosophy has been that this is not only expedient but also necessary to the geopolitical situation. Umiak civilization rose in the context of a long rebellion against the perceived oppression of a more advanced sister-species (the Tizik-tik), focused on the need to constantly play technological and cultural catch-up. The Umiak collective psyche is afflicted with an inferiority complex and is deeply paranoid. This has manifested in a series of pre-emptive “defensive’ wars against perceived potential threats, culminating in the current war against the Loroi. Under the current leadership structure, the only way for another political entity to coexist with the Umiak is to become part of the Hierarchy and essentially submit to their total control. Any other form of peaceful coexistence would probably require a change of leadership, at the very least. And since Umiak leadership is decentralized, that is easier said than done.
Arioch
2025-04-23 18:56:23 +0000 UTCArioch, we've heard a lot about the Loroi and what they believe in, what do the Umiak believe in? Why do they fight? Is there any way that anyone could coexist peacefully with the Umiak?
Cosmic Pillar
2025-04-23 13:37:28 +0000 UTCLooks like you'll need a new entry in the Umiak ship pages! I think the Type-18 looks great!
William Minsinger
2025-04-14 17:59:37 +0000 UTCFascinating update! I guess they're going to head straight through! I also got to catch up on the strip from earlier this year. Thanks Arioch! Sorry you've been having trouble but I always appreciate your updates :)
Jonathan Werts
2025-04-05 23:16:38 +0000 UTCI think IFF's will need to be a bit more complicated than a list of ship codes -- Umiak ships are constantly going to be running into friendly ships that they have never met before; due to lack of FTL comms, ships produced in one location may know very little about ships produced in another location. I also think that they're going to have to be sneaky about how weapons and ships interact; it can't be a simple as each ship transmitting a transponder, because the enemy can detect that sort of thing as well and use that information for targeting. If you only have a few hours to reprogram a lot of dissimilar torpedoes, it may be simpler as a stopgap to risk just turning the IFF systems off.
Arioch
2025-04-01 03:10:13 +0000 UTC"I ain't dead!" Nice to see this continue. And I wouldn't bet my life on IFFs being turned off. IFF systems can be updated on the fly, or can contain more than one code. Maybe one for each ship. In which case, just delete the one for the captured ship.
ANTIcarrot
2025-04-01 02:16:13 +0000 UTC
