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I'd give 50-50 odds on whether this event means that orcs actually won't show up in future combats.
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May 4, 2024 14:59
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| # ? May 8, 2024 06:52 |
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I would bet they still show up. They've made barely a token effort to adhere to lore once inside the combat engine.
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May 4, 2024 20:09
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Yeah, same, the world altering choice will perhaps get a slide in a possible ending diorama but you will be killing orcs until then. The orcs will be back for tower of time 2.
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May 4, 2024 20:17
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goatface posted:I would bet they still show up. They've made barely a token effort to adhere to lore once inside the combat engine. They've barely made a token effort for the pictures to adhere to the dialogue, never mind plot + combat adherence.
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May 4, 2024 21:42
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In a sense, it would've been entirely fitting and appropriate for this game's LP to sputter out and die of malaise, but I'm still glad you're soldering onward.
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May 4, 2024 23:29
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I Am Really Running Out Of Things To Say About This Game Welcome back to Tower of Time! Last time, we fought an orc chieftain who decided he needed to fight to the death to prove we weren't racists, then we got an arbitrary party vote on whether or not the orcs could come live in this dying world where people may or may not be able to grow food depending on which text from this game you look at first.  I do want to point out that I had to refight the boss because we paused mid dialogue, but the thread correctly called that this choice legitimately has no effect on anything else in the game. Remember those Daeva guys the game made a big deal of and how they could maybe use their energy being powers to help us with the Organthe? Yea...   : Let party decide. I'd love to tell you that we got an ending slide out of this, or even something crazy like an orc party member - maybe a witch doctor, a minigunner, a cyborg orc, or one of those black armored spearmen - but I really do get the impression the devs wanted this game to be over as much as the players do.  : Your champions have traversed nine levels of this challenging and deadly tower, overcoming every obstacle set before them. Though they may still argue and debate courses of action, your faith in them is as strong as ever. You let them decide the fate of the orcs on their own and in only a few moments, they decide, even orcs have a right to live.I thought the whole point of this plotline was that the orcs were people too and not "even orcs" - gently caress it. It's a Nick Macari incoherence special. Why the gently caress do I even bother?  These dumbasses can't even keep the orc leader's title straight between the fight and the dialogue.  : By dying breath and last blood, our lands lie open to you in peace and friendship. Send your men back through the portal and let it be known. It's all mediocre and lazy and I won't lie to you, we're not going to get much until we get till the ending which is probably the most "poo poo on the player" ending I've ever seen in a videogame. TheGreatEvilKing summary posted:
 I don't think I will.  Anyway, remember how all the party members had nominally their own personal quests, like how Rakhem was looking for adamantine and Aeric was looking for life oaks and poo poo? You don't? Boy, do I have words for you!  We've had first Rakhem adamantine subplot, but what about second Rakhem adamantine subplot?  : By the great spirits what was a child doing down here? : This is nae child, lass. These remains are dwarven. Yup...same old poo poo... : As Aeric and Maeve move off, Rakhem spots the straps of a map case tangled around the skeleton's leg. The dwarf quickly uncovers a map which cause his eyes [sic] to go white and his helmet to slide carelessly off his head, hitting the floor with a clunk. Yup. Remember way back when when Rakhem had to choose between Adamantine and saving his friends in the Daeva trial? Earlier in this loving game posted: : It may not be accurate...: Digging around in the map case, Rakhem produces a chunk of bright silver metal the size of his fist. : Congratulations, Rakhem. After we reach the bottom, you can follow the map and recover the very object of your desire. Your people will record your name in the book of First Kings. Jesus Christ! We have done "character finds thing and wants to stop expedition" before too, when Aeric tried to mutiny in the library! : Surely you don't mean to abandon us now, Chief. Not when we're this close to the bottom.: Ah'm truly sorry, lass, but ma people are counting on this discovery. Ah cannae jeopardize it for anything...: But we need your steady hands of iron and fire more now than ever, Master Smith. The challenges of the tower become more difficult the closer we get to the bottom... without you by our side we will be at a great disadvantage.: Rakhem slips the ore beneath his armor and clutching the dead dwarf's map in his hand, turns to leave in the opposite direction. This is actually not true, Proteus' dumb meld poo poo is stronger but slowly kills its user. : Rakhem takes up a torch, turns and sets off. : That's it, not even a goodbye to the companions who have risked life and limb at your side? ...to do what? Who are you going to fight? The other four races of Artara? Those guys are on the brink of death. The Thetans? The Thetans kicked your asses last time. I thought Proteus literally mind controlled you into coming here! : Forget it, let him go then. We have a tower to descend...I guess Kane mellowed out from when he threatened to beat the poo poo out of Aeric for pausing to take the books. Whatever. : Kane, Boron, and Whisper continue on as Maeve, Kaela, and Aeric watch Rakhem's torchlight fade in the distance. Shaking her head in disappointment Maeve turns and joins the others. Kaela sighs and turns to follow Maeve.: Good journey, Son of Rogheim. I hope you find the treasure you so desperately seek.TheGreatEvilKing summary posted:
 Rakhem is loving gone! We can't use him anymore! Just like that, they did a lame subplot retread and took him out of the party!  I vaguely remember Aeric leaving at this stage from my playthrough. It might be based on who has the worst affinity, but I honestly don't know and don't care.  I'm going to skip this puzzle on the ground that I want to rush the ending and get the damage over with, so to speak.   The game's graphics don't really stand out but I do like the sci-fi environments.  Oh, yeah, we have lore I guess.  I guess some of the tower magi started trying to talk to the Organthe.  Man this procgen loot is all rear end. Also the hilarity of Tier V items being "balanced" by draining the user's HP never gets old. Why the hell can't we just have a fifth tier we can't craft that makes it worth finding loot in the wild?  I want to point out that nothing has happened at all since we popped this dialogue box. We walked through a bunch of the level and picked up some loot, but I have not omitted any combat or dialogue or character encounters. : Strange to travel on without him. I somehow felt the dwarf's stubborn nature would see us through to the end... Suddenly, the light darkens for no reason!  And once again, we must ask ourselves "what was the point of all of this?"  This is filler. This is a complete waste of the player's time, the time it took to write this, the time it took to code this for a game that is clearly getting sloppier and sloppier the longer it goes, and even the introduction couldn't stay coherent with the information this is showing us.  I am not altering this in any way.   ...do you? You literally just abandoned all your friends for your own bullshit!  ...you guys fight all the time. TheGreatEvilKing summary posted:
I don't even know. The only thing I can take away from it is that Rakhem, having destroyed his only stockpile of mystery metal, is now 100% all in on Proteus dumb plan to save the world without having any option to hedge his bets. Next time: I bet you weren't expecting Spanish conquistadors, because Spain isn't even in this game!
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May 5, 2024 11:50
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: Before I die, why are you people so racist????
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Gosh, that sure was a super dramatic and emotional five minutes. So meaningful. There wasn't even a fight between his leaving and his coming back. If you just blindly click through the dialogue as fast as you can (and by this point why wouldn't you) it's probably completely possible to not actually notice he was gone.
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May 5, 2024 13:16
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Wow, Character Development (TM)!
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May 5, 2024 13:40
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I'm pretty sure that both HL: Full Life Consequences and DOOM: Repercussions of Evil have better character arcs, and both are intensely dumb parodies.
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May 5, 2024 16:15
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Burning the map makes zero sense. I assume it's intended as a grand dramatic gesture to show how strongly he's changed his mind but it falls flat when you think for a couple seconds and (1) realize there's no reason to burn the map and (2) it's actively counter-productive to the goal of rebuilding since a cache of super-strong metal has plenty of non-war uses.
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May 5, 2024 16:41
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I Read The Words, and Nothing is Happening Welcome back! Last time we had a Very Special Rakhem Character moment. Today the game is going to spew more words all over us and none of it will mean anything.  We need to breach the magic barrier to reach Proteus to, um, have him help us with the robots.  Why? I don't know.  We teleport into a new area as I go out of my way to avoid as much Tower of Time content as possible.  The game is throwing more item forges at us and I cannot bring myself to care.  We will need to craft a shield for Kane with this on it at some point.    Welcome to the game's next dull as poo poo collection of boring enemies.  This is literally middle school fanfiction level writing. : They don't look like Magi... or Ancients.: They're most certainly not Ancients... not as I remember my people anyway.: But their weapons... They seem similar to some of the devices from your time.: I guess there's only one way to find out.  : The newcomers surround your champions, condensing the bulk of their number around Boron, Rakhem, Whisper, and Aeric. Directed at these members of your party, their shouts continue to amplify in strength and frequency. Though you do not understand their words, they are clearly highly angered as if personally insulted.: The apparent leader of their group finally turns to face Kane, Maeve and Kaela... a single comprehensible word escapes his incessant shouts--"traitors!" Before anyone in your party can make sense of what's truly going on, a battle ensues. Spoilers: they're racists who were genociding the orcs.  Developers, I'm not saving the crafting crystals on principle, I'm saving them because your crafting system is boring rear end and I want to interact with it as little as humanly possible.  These assholes have some AoE stun grenades and crap, but it's still a tower of time combat which means you do the same loving poo poo over and over once your crap comes off cooldown.  Here we have yet another exhibit or boring rear end procgen loot. It is a staff made of adamantine, which Rakhem neither knows nor cares about. Wheee!  "Use hard CC to stop incoming damage" wow, really?  : You're hurt. I knew the last battle went more poorly for you than you let on.: It's nothing really. I just need a few minutes.: Nonsense. We stop here. Noble elf, we have need of your healing herbs. Baron Boron, some fresh water.. [sic] Maeve and Kane are in luv, you see. This needs to be reiterated in case someone forgot one of the exactly two things these characters have going on. : Nevermind people, we're not stopping here.: Seeing the concerned, befuddled look on Kane's face, Maeve sighs. A slight shake of her head and smirk.: Just help me walk for bit. [sic] TheGreatEvilKing summary posted:
 We put this on Maeve and not Kaela for reasons.  Only 34 percent? Dang! You can also tell when I just stopped trying and started rushing the exits. I know drat well the side quests are going to be boring fetchy poo poo probably involving turning on the water.  I decide that I don't even want to save scum this fountain and we continue our death march.  What does this have to do with our characters, exactly? We've been fighting golems all game and it's just been tedious.  Boring!  This goes on Kane to try to alleviate his mana problems.  : I don't like this... I get the feeling we're being watched. I love how calm this is. A surprise attack maybe murdered Whisper. This is delivered in the same dull clinical voice as I would describe taking a dump. : Ambush! It's one of those stupid trap battles! No, I don't know why the Pure are using arrows when they have a whole horde of women gunners. I don't even think they use archers. Shut up.  ..huh? This is not Earth. England never existed. Why do these characters speak English? I...gently caress it.  Nick Macari, on subplots posted:When working with subplots, keep this hard rule in mind;  : Another barrage of arrows cuts Kane off mid sentence. The leader continues, ignoring Kane's plea. The entire point of othering other people as a control tactic is to...well, portray them as the other. The word "humanoid" implies that the races to be exterminated are similar to humans. There are much better word choices to be used here, but this entire subplot violates Macari's own rules because it doesn't add poo poo to the narrative. Fundamentally, Tower of Time is a story about hubris and desperation. The various collection of disposable, uninteresting enemies have added nothing to it. I guess if we were being generous it would show that the humans and nonhumans in the party are getting along, but Maeve and Kane really showed no desire to kill any of the champions.  These guys don't do anything interesting and I kill them all.  The only interesting thing is that I have to waste time shooting half the party out of these dumb cages.  POWAH  : They are getting away! We must pursue at once.: Hasn't there been enough killing? Let them go...I don't remember Kaela objecting to murdering that robot or those orcs, but when the Nazis show up now we stop the violence. Not a good look missy. : Her Highness is right... they were able to set this ambush because they knew we were coming. If we let them get away, we could be facing more confrontations like this... all the way to the bottom of the tower. Oh look, another alignment non-choice in 3...2...1... : It looks like we've stepped into some sort of civil war between those strange orcs and these humans... If they both occupy the last levels of the tower, perhaps it is best to try to communicate and express that we have nothing to do with their conflict.Aeric, the Pure Empire personally wants you dead for being an elf. You're stuck here whether you like it or not. : Ah donna think they're gonna give us the chance to do much explaining... besides, if they use dishonorable tactics like an ambush, ah say, they get what's comin' to em. The game keeps trying to convince me these characters are going to start killing each other at any moment. That would be substantially more interesting than anything we've seen so far, so it won't happen.  Look, I know I've been letting you guys vote on choices, but I don't care. I just want this level to be over because it's boring poo poo. : Let the party decide. Like I said, none of this matters.    This is not an error on my part.  The game displays this crap twice. TheGreatEvilKing summary posted:
 The padding! The passion!  This sure exists. We might be able to enchant it with health regen or something. Who cares.  Come on... let the level end...   Unfortunately we had Deep Rakhem Characterization, and now we need Deep Boron Characterization.  : H-how can this be? A memory stone... among humans from another world?: The giant falls to his knees with a resounding thud. The sound recalls all your champions to the chamber. Weapons drawn, they rush to the frostling's side. Seeing no danger present they quietly sheathe their weapons.: What is it, Bigs?: An impossibility...: A memory stone? Sure, Boron. : Perhaps, they found it in the tower.: The only feasible explanation... yet, one that means... this stone, must be...: The misplaced memory yer people sent ye here to find. Boron might legitimately be the worst and weakest of all these characters.   : Boron gasps for breath that eludes him. He drops the stone, crushing the human corpse below it and stumbles back with a roar of pain.You have to remember, Boron's combat kit is all about generating rage that ultimately puts him in a homicidal rage so intense he actively refuses player commands.  Thus this whole poo poo with Boron being a pacifist - who never objects to actually fighting in any of the battles or anything meaningful like that - makes no sense unless this is addressed. Does he have the cliched version of dissociative identity disorder? : Every champion present recoils at the unrestrained rage.: Friend Frojae?: Boron!: Regaining his composure, Kane steps toward the frostling to lend aid, but Boron waves him off.: I am... ok.: Can you tell us? I don't even know what to make of this. Does he repress his memories after every fight? Is he just dumping all his hate and rage into a memory stone somewhere? That would be legitimately more interesting than whatever the hell this is. : Perhaps, it is... a mistake...: Or some sort of Organthe trick. This game introduces Boron posted:Jesus, I look back on that and it's a contradictory mess. Boron is a stoic warrior poet who flies into an uncontrollable homicidal rage in combat. It's just...what even is this? None of this makes any loving sense! I get that people like the warrior who fights for peace thing, but you generally don't do that by sitting around letting the bad people burn down villages. Or in this case let the Thetans eat their souls. Whatever. I believe we have firmly established this game is hella dumb. : Friend Frojae, ah cannae say this any other way... but ye truly are the most disciplined man ah huv ever met. Yer people should be proud to huv your memories among them. I can't parse this statement. I think Kane is saying warriors are needed to get to the bottom of the tower, but the crisis at the beginning of the game is that people don't have any food. The actual enemy of Artara are a bunch of godlike energy aliens who literally devour suns. There are no amount of human or giant warriors that can fight that with a sword. : Kane's words cut deep into the frostling, echoing in his mind in both the present and as a memory from the stone he just bonded with.: As the words linger, more memories arrive...ancient frostling memories beyond the time of the Archon stone. Memories of the great violent tribes and brutal frostling wars... but along with these visions of violence come memories of peace and cooperation... choices to unite in brotherhood and lead the frostling race into a new dawn.: Boron does not understand it all, but he hears an inescapable truth in Kane's words. The giant rises to his feet, his strength returned, his attention once again focused and clear. Everything we've seen so far is that the Organthe can't be defeated by violence. The old world was united in the war against the evil thought robots, and they fell into the Organthe's trap and died. TheGreatEvilKing summary posted:
 Maeve is disappointed it's not porn...she can sell for money.   Another fountain gives Kane 50 mana.  I am about to skip all the combat when, well...  I... I don't even know. There are a few of these guys running around, and they're all named after Spanish conquistadors for some reason. I legitimately don't know why! Remember, the real life Cortez got all the locals together to fight against the Aztecs because he wanted loot, not because he was driven by weird racial purity crap. Did Cortez act in a particularly moral manner? No. Does it make any sense to have a Cortez allusion here? No. Are these writers going to poo poo it down our throats anyway? Yes. The only explanation I have is that the Polish development team figured Cortez was obscure enough in Poland that it would be like your standard JRPG Christian allusion, but is that really true?  I dunno man.  We beat the poo poo out of him and move on with our lives. Next Time: An Aeric moment and the end of the level.
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May 6, 2024 03:33
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: God drat those are two sexy chicks. ELVES? DORFS? REEEEEEEEE!
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Is that... is that adamantine leather?! Leather isn't made out of ore!
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May 6, 2024 05:54
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Adamantine leather is clearly made by killing and skinning an adamantine golem, then curing its hide. 
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May 6, 2024 08:36
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"Last stand" armour that drains your health seems a bit poo poo. The naming conventions of their procgen system are confusing.
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May 6, 2024 14:12
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goatface posted:"Last stand" armour that drains your health seems a bit poo poo. The naming conventions of their procgen system are confusing. That's why it's called that, it's going to be your last stand if you wear an armour that kills you.
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May 6, 2024 17:39
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why do the "let the party decide" options result in a majority of the party being unhappy with the resulting decision
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May 7, 2024 13:51
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it flips a coin to pick the option
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May 7, 2024 14:04
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Eh, in this one case going in on the Run Em Down option would have been ok over the normal who cares. gently caress nazis
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May 7, 2024 14:16
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Gort posted:why do the "let the party decide" options result in a majority of the party being unhappy with the resulting decision
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May 7, 2024 14:36
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MagusofStars posted:The one person getting +2 is really loving passionate and just kind of steamrolls the discussion, so everybody else is like "I don't agree with this but this isn't worth the hassle, ugh, fine, we'll do it your way". This is the one that I found initially interesting: 4/7 party members were against the decision "the party" actually made
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May 7, 2024 15:16
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| # ? May 8, 2024 06:52 |
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Electoral fraud!
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May 7, 2024 16:21
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