The Vast Error Thread

[bathtimebird]

Talk about Vast Error, probably the most popular fanventure right now, in here. Please be civil. Discussion of Snowbound Blood is also welcome.

[Darth_Energon]

I don't like Vast Error very much, and yes, I have read all of it.

[Robot_Face]

I like Vast Error! Some of the dialogue towards the beginning feels a little stilted, but apparently they did a big rewrite of the early stuff like the month before EOA2 that I haven't gotten around to rereading. Serpaz is my favorite character because she plays the accordion and I also do that. And she's a tealblood.

[1011686]

I've read it. I like it, though I don't think it's the best adventure (the best one is, of course, Corgi Adventure). Currently I'm wondering why Murrit was so annoyed at bone guy whose name is White Noise I think? Just before the end of the act, Murrit was going on about how he hadn't expected this, or wanted this, and how he hadn't been told the whole truth, or something along those lines. But it wasn't very clear to me what he was upset about. I thought the animation would reveal the answer, but if it did, I didn't see it. Anyone else know what was up with that?

[sigmatic]

About time this thread was made, I love it a lot and even got one of the Repiton tapes they are (were?) selling on their etsy.
Found this on Youtube and that's where it started for me, although I had heard about it before:

[Generalrabogolfo]

When does it gets good

[hamifihekrix]

vast error is a major part of my life [if it isn't inherently obvious by both my profile picture and my username]. i think that some of the characters are incredibly written, and a couple of them have more depth to them than most characters i've seen in literature in a long time, and i'm an english student. the way that it subtly [and not so subtly] drops in lgbt+ themes was and is really well-done in my opinion, though that may just be because there are multiple characters that are confirmed to be trans women, including some of the characters that i relate to heavily. i think the team who work on it are very talented and i think the overall friendliness of the team also contribute to why i like the comic so much.

[Eromancery]

Austin is mean to me so VE is bad or something?

But yeah VE is good and there's been so much love and work put into it it's hard to believe that Arcjec started out as Austin's self-insert brony OC

[aspiringWatcher]

I've read it. I like it, though I don't think it's the best adventure (the best one is, of course, Corgi Adventure). Currently I'm wondering why Murrit was so annoyed at bone guy whose name is White Noise I think? Just before the end of the act, Murrit was going on about how he hadn't expected this, or wanted this, and how he hadn't been told the whole truth, or something along those lines. But it wasn't very clear to me what he was upset about. I thought the animation would reveal the answer, but if it did, I didn't see it. Anyone else know what was up with that?

Murrit saw Ellsee perform the VE equivalent of human transmutation (she tried to summon her and Arcjec's ancestors' souls) and it went haywire and of course Murrit saw all of this.

Murrit is angry at WN because Murrit really, really doesn't want Ellsee to fuck everyone over and is fine with killing her to protect everyone else (given that it's WDYDTT, his rationale isn't too unreasonable) but WN doesn't want that to happen because Ellsee is, as he tells Murrit, crucial to the whole mess.

[Darth_Energon]

I'm amazed how loose they are with spoilers, honestly. It's kinda sad.

[aspiringWatcher]

I'm amazed how loose they are with spoilers, honestly. It's kinda sad.

Imagine I told you that you'd slip on a banana peel tomorrow. Wouldn't you not leaving your bed invalidate my prediction?

Most "spoliers" are possible futures. Austin doesn't favour the idea of an immutable outcome. Sure, Arcjec bites it in a vision in EoA1...but most prophecies are as reliable as a game of telephone.

[Alienoid]

This is absolutely going to sound biased as all get-out since I work on Snowbound Blood, but the amount of effort and passion and talent that goes into Vast Error and Snowbound Blood is absolutely phenomenal and it very much deserves the popularity it has.

I mean, no other project has even come close to making me seriously consider writing the phrase "hot dog bong water" to develop the actual lore of the world, so make of that what you will.

(Serpaz is also my favourite. I'm a sucker for puns.)

[Deageon]

bros why is ellsee so cute and kissable??? same goes for hardhat wearing chick
edit: oh shit yeah and the uhhh, jadeblood corporate chick, hamifi? also fucking cute

[austinado]

Oh, hey, I write this thing.

Honestly it feels very odd to be doing this whole forum romp again. Last time I REALLY did this was when the VE Beta started on the original MSPA Forums back in March 2011. There was a brief stint where I put Act 1 updates on Omegaupdate but it didn't really feel the same and I stopped right after EOA1.

I'll probably be around every once in a blue moon to see how things are going. Even now, I still can't resist seeing what people say about VE. No matter how good or bad it actually is. It's the authorial dilemma of "do I want to see something and make myself potentially feel good" or "do I want some guy to tell me that I'm a hack and a shitty person and I don't deserve any credit also I pissed in your Coke idiot" for a nice laugh. It basically becomes Schrodinger's Thread Check, if you will. Especially as we trek further down the long and winding road of depressed capitalistic aliens with bad quirks. My job does not get easier.

Anyways; if you have any questions, comments, concerns, praise, jabs, money, barts, etc. I'll be keeping an eye out.

Potentially even many eyes out.

[Tarty_]

I have my fair share of gripes with Vast Error from a worldbuilding perspective and on a couple other things, but I sure as hell can't fault the team's dedication to their vision (or the ability of your artists). Good on you lot.

[aeonic maiden]

I love vast error its a really ingenius fanventure with a lot of good ideas and the cast is pretty good.

[LudicrousFalcon]

I'm a bit of a sucker for Vast Error. The story's got it's flaws and all, but something about both the trolls, and the world they live in really captures me. The art style is beautiful in my opinion, and the characters are fun to see. Excited to see where it goes in the future, keep up the great work Austin and co!

[egg]

vast error writer post

Why did you piss in my coke? You ingested Mentos and now my beautiful soda is wasted.

[burnt2ashleys]

Vast Error, Vast Error. What a collection of sentences and pixels strewn about chronologically. I actually heard it from one of my 2 friends at the time who were into Homestuck as I finished reading, in 2017. I got a handful of things to say about it, for sure, and I'd like to preface this by saying that I don't exactly mean to say "wow this sucks dick, you people read this? lmao, lol, and dare I say it, rofl.", but rather point out some things I found worth talking about since I first heard of it. Only one post to really fit all these points would be way too boring to read, so I'll be splitting this in 3 or so posts.
-
Let's start with the art. Naturally, it's a replication of Homestuck, and at the start, there's not much to complain, just your good old run-of-the-mill Hivebent-venture, and I'm more than fine with that. My only problem with it would be that there's the circle heads reminiscent of Homestuck, and I feel it would greatly benefit if it departed from those heads and ventured into its own thing, maybe a more realistic rendition (I heard noses are ALL the rage nowadays, y'all), as well as changing the designs for lusii and denizens alike. Nothing against them, but they do clash with other designs, even amongst themselves. Now, this is what I have to say up to page 468, which is where the art switches hands, from Heather to xamag, and this switch brings new pros as well as cons. The most remarkable change is the cleanliness that comes from the new artist, as well as the obvious implications of having someone who worked on Homestuck (and who's quite respected, may I add) working on a fan project. However, this cleanliness also comes off as a softening of the style, a "regression", so to say, into Homestuck, instead of "jumping off from it", like the previous style had potential to do. Heck, the style as it stands looks straight out of Act 6 with extra steps, which isn't a problem in and of itself, but I believe that a fanventure should attempt to diverge from its source material, or at the very least, maintain in parallel, not converge to it. Furthermore, with someone as experienced and as skilled as Xamag on team, there is a myriad of avenues that one may take art-wise to better reflect the themes of the story, merging Homestuck's own style with something else (and as to what, your guess is as good as mine) to create something original, something that lacks in the comic as it currently stands. And, even within the comic itself we can find examples of style shifts!



So, why, then, is the story subscribing to Homestuck's style when there is no reason for such limitation, and the story would so greatly benefit from changing it (and here I remind you that this would also solve the dissonant lusii/denizen designs, killing a multitude of birds with a pebble)? An example that comes to mind is I'm Good, I'm Gone, that has a purposeful art shift to depict a shift in the story: https://imgur.com/a/NKUzuyq
There are other things like the underutilization of sprites later in the comic, which makes the (now fewer) sprite panels look out of place, but that'd be encroaching on nitpicking territory, which isn't my point here.

[Barraskewda]

Vast Error is a lot of good ideas that have a somewhat middling execution as of this point, but I would be lying if I said there wasnt an obvious improvement on all artistic fronts as the comic went on. So I am looking forward to seeing how they continue to improve.