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The Voivode, on the other hand, is motherfucking Dracula.
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Jun 24, 2019 01:52
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Inexplicable Humblebrag posted:oh there's other uses for decrepitude, for winter ascensions Also for Knock ascensions. But that's into spoiler territory.
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Jun 24, 2019 09:45
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One thing is that I feel like they might have been better served by making the Weary Detective sort of a "beat cop" who doesn't make evidence and bring you to trial on his own; instead, have him call in one of the other hunters and then they're the one who can end your game if you screw up or get unlucky. Because right now it feels like they maybe swung the pendulum a bit too far the other way from how it was at launch.
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Jun 24, 2019 16:04
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Another improvement would be to let you mess with the detective during an investigation, so killing/scaring/seducing him becomes a way to save yourself from a trial that then makes future Investigations harder. As it is you can only interact with him when he's not threatening you.
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Jun 24, 2019 16:52
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I feel like Kate slid into the murdering people for books thing really easily.
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Jun 24, 2019 17:12
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Artificer posted:I feel like Kate slid into the murdering people for books thing really easily. Mercy is found only in shadow.
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Jun 24, 2019 17:19
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Artificer posted:I feel like Kate slid into the murdering people for books thing really easily. To be fair, this time she tried the peaceful approach, it didn't work out.
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Jun 24, 2019 17:30
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Regallion posted:To be fair, this time she tried the peaceful approach, it didn't work out. She asked nicely. Three times.
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Jun 24, 2019 18:48
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As someone who tried to get some needed information for my papers - I can completely and utterly understand I was only dealing with a paywall.
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Jun 24, 2019 19:00
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I bought this game based on the LP, and after like 10 hours played, I'm still not sure if I like it or not. The writing is extremely good, the themes are very much my jam, I like the gameplay in theory, but when I'm actually playing it kind of feels like a grind, and I'm just not sure what to make of this whole thing. Are the DLCs worth buying?
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Jun 24, 2019 19:17
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TheCog posted:I bought this game based on the LP, and after like 10 hours played, I'm still not sure if I like it or not. The writing is extremely good, the themes are very much my jam, I like the gameplay in theory, but when I'm actually playing it kind of feels like a grind, and I'm just not sure what to make of this whole thing. In my opinion, yes, but only if you enjoy the base game. The DLC involves primarily additional ascension paths -- Dancer (Heart, Moth, or Something Else), Priest (Knock), Ghoul (Winter) -- and the Dancer DLC also offers the Apostle path, which unlocks after a successful ascension and involves your former cultists helping boost your power further... And one of the Long deciding that no, there's no room for that, and they're going to personally see to it that you fail.
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Jun 24, 2019 19:21
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TheCog posted:I bought this game based on the LP, and after like 10 hours played, I'm still not sure if I like it or not. The writing is extremely good, the themes are very much my jam, I like the gameplay in theory, but when I'm actually playing it kind of feels like a grind, and I'm just not sure what to make of this whole thing. dlcs do not change the core gameplay so if you don't like the game, don't get the dlcs. well, get the dlcs if you want to support the dev studio i guess i still desperately want an Edge ascension DLC though simply so i can read about my cultist going to sleep with a codec on and going HRGN, COLONEL in their dreams
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Jun 24, 2019 19:26
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I mean the first time she didn't even ask. Just, oh these monks have books. Time to get someone to murder them!
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Jun 24, 2019 19:39
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Inexplicable Humblebrag posted:dlcs do not change the core gameplay so if you don't like the game, don't get the dlcs. well, get the dlcs if you want to support the dev studio i guess If you are a follower of Edge, are you allowed to be thicc?
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Jun 24, 2019 20:26
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Artificer posted:I mean the first time she didn't even ask. Just, oh these monks have books. I'm hoping to get my LP optioned by Netflix for their hit new spinoff, Booking Bad. If only I'd founded a Knock cult.
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Jun 24, 2019 20:39
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Reveilled posted:I'm hoping to get my LP optioned by Netflix for their hit new spinoff, Booking Bad. That actually sounds amazing.
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Jun 24, 2019 20:53
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Reveilled posted:I'm hoping to get my LP optioned by Netflix for their hit new spinoff, Booking Bad. Unironically the Cultist Simulator guys (after originally just joking about the concept and then going "Wait, no... that has legs") are working on a new game about curating and managing an Esoteric Occult Library, much more low-key than CS but in the same(?) world (or History). It's to be called Book of Hours.
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Jun 24, 2019 22:10
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Archenteron posted:Unironically the Cultist Simulator guys (after originally just joking about the concept and then going "Wait, no... that has legs") are working on a new game about curating and managing an Esoteric Occult Library, much more low-key than CS but in the same(?) world (or History). It's to be called Book of Hours. The shared setting is officially called The Secret Histories.
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Jun 25, 2019 00:01
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a library sim? ... alright, i'm listening
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Jun 25, 2019 02:43
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https://store.steampowered.com/app/1028310/BOOK_OF_HOURS/ I guess this is what happens when you wish on the monkey's paw for a library game.
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Jun 25, 2019 02:49
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Archenteron posted:Unironically the Cultist Simulator guys (after originally just joking about the concept and then going "Wait, no... that has legs") are working on a new game about curating and managing an Esoteric Occult Library, much more low-key than CS but in the same(?) world (or History). It's to be called Book of Hours.
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Jun 25, 2019 05:38
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Would you like to learn about the D͕̲ͅé̻̰͈̭̘̮ͅw̥̖̜͡e͍͕̞̺̙y̤̹͎͍̪̪͡ ̜̲͠D́e͕̗̺͔͙͚̬͞a̢͇̘̻̠͈t͖̪̖͇͚̣h̗͠i̡̜̬͙̯̠m̙̯̜̝̰a̶͖̥̖̥̬̞l̛͎̰̫̝̯͚͓ ̮͉̻̠̭S͠y҉̤̞͇͚̤͔̙s͚ṭ̜̩̼͡e̩̮̬̫͠m̨̝̹̹̜͕̫?
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Jun 25, 2019 06:09
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Reveilled posted:And sad news if you were expecting a highly detailed investigation into this location, but I could not find any reliable leads indicating that the Endowment might be a real place. There are many universities in Romania, of course, but nothing in this seems to positively identify one as the stand-in for the Endowment. I've always taken the Land beyond the Forest to represent a general Eastern Europe, regardless of the literal translation. After all, Kuznetsov is a Russian name. However, I couldn't find any mentions about a Prince Kus(z)netsov anywhere.
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Jun 25, 2019 08:20
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Not in this History. 
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Jun 25, 2019 08:48
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Is Cultist Simulator in the same setting as Sunless Sea? We gonna get fallen London antics at some point?
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Jun 25, 2019 13:59
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No, Fallen London is owned by a different company that Alexis and Lottie left to make Cultist Sim. Wouldn't be surprised if they did shout-outs though.
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Jun 25, 2019 14:09
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To clarify, is this basically our world during the 1900s or have there been cataclysmic historical changes due to the presence of Magic Bullshit?
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Jun 25, 2019 14:37
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Artificer posted:To clarify, is this basically our world during the 1900s or have there been cataclysmic historical changes due to the presence of Magic Bullshit? There are multiple Histories. One of them is the "real" one. Tenebrais posted:No, Fallen London is owned by a different company that Alexis and Lottie left to make Cultist Sim. Wouldn't be surprised if they did shout-outs though. I wonder if there's some bad blood there. They didn't do any promotion when Sunless Skies launched. vetinari100 fucked around with this message at 14:41 on Jun 25, 2019 |
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Jun 25, 2019 14:38
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kaosdrachen posted:and the Dancer DLC also offers the Apostle path, which unlocks after a successful ascension and involves your former cultists helping boost your power further... And one of the Long deciding that no, there's no room for that, and they're going to personally see to it that you fail. Just a minor correction. You don't need the Dancer DLC to play Apostle. It was lumped into the base game.
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Jun 25, 2019 14:44
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Artificer posted:To clarify, is this basically our world during the 1900s or have there been cataclysmic historical changes due to the presence of Magic Bullshit? Depends on which History you hold to be true. In several of them there have been cataclysmic historical changes; noteworthily the Sovereigns of the Leashed Flame who conquered first England and then most of western Europe, the advances of the Roman Emperor who was the Sun-In-Rags, and of course the contention of the Colonel and Lionsmith since Issus mean the great wars have gone very, very differently.
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Jun 25, 2019 15:09
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Tenebrais posted:No, Fallen London is owned by a different company that Alexis and Lottie left to make Cultist Sim. Wouldn't be surprised if they did shout-outs though. there's some shoutouts in sunless skies to cultist simulator, seemingly - places called Laidlaw's Coffee House, the Desolation of Saliba etc - but I figure that's due to overlapping Kickstarter rewards like 'name a place', 'name a cultist'
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Jun 25, 2019 16:54
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I tend to take the view that the Secret Histories are sort of like overlapping parallel universes. The people of the setting live in the history which matches our own, but the world is littered with remnants of things which have crossed over from other histories (e.g. many/most of the vaults). In that sense "normal" history is merely the one where the Mansus' influence has historically been most successfully suppressed. Not really sure if there's much good evidence for that, but it's the assumption I work with when considering secret history stuff.
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Jun 25, 2019 17:35
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The lore of Secret Histories is super interesting. The lore of it refers to the hours 'braiding the Histories like hair' into a single 'golden ribbon of future'. I take this to mean that there are multiple pasts (the Histories) but only one future, and that the present layers them together is mysterious ways.
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Jun 25, 2019 19:25
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SettingSun posted:The lore of Secret Histories is super interesting. The lore of it refers to the hours 'braiding the Histories like hair' into a single 'golden ribbon of future'. I take this to mean that there are multiple pasts (the Histories) but only one future, and that the present layers them together is mysterious ways. as at least one book written by a Definite Sane Person will explain to you, at length, the Second History is the only real one, and all evidence to the contrary is the work of assholes and madmen
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Jun 25, 2019 20:51
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vetinari100 posted:I wonder if there's some bad blood there. They didn't do any promotion when Sunless Skies launched.
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Jun 25, 2019 21:16
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Page 91 Dear Diary,  I've been considering how best to approach the matter of the castle. I believe a cautious approach may be needed, by some accounts the citadel is abandoned, by others, haunted. I have asked Neville and Auclair to look into possible avenues of attack.   In the meantime, I have spent some time with the book on Sanskrit sent by Clifton. I can see the parallels with Greek and Latin, though for the texts I want the simpler words shall not be of much assistance.  I am finding it a struggle without the use of my arm. I can't do much more with it than pick up a fork, and I've taken to wearing gloves now to hide its appearance. To restore it upon my return to London, I will need more powerful lore of the forge.   This work seemed of interest in that regard, and I believe this should suffice.  One side effect of my disability, however, is that I feel more than ever the importance of the principle that one's identity is in the mind, not the body. My time in the mansus has taught me much, and focusing on the light that guides me, I believe I am refining my soul even as my body withers.  Someday soon, an intelligence may be all I am.  Page 91+i  A dream. This one a little different. As I wandered the bank of the river, my arm cried out in agony. I tore away at my painted-on clothes to get a better look, and found the cuts open once again, this time positively swimming with the ichorous substance I had found on my sheets a few mornings ago. The pain grew stronger, then stronger still, until I was forced to my knees in tears, begging to wake up. The tears dripped from my face onto the stony ground, changing the colour of the stone to that familiar fuscia. I reached up to the wound on my arm, and frantically began to wipe the stone with the fluid leaking from my wound, as I did, the images in that revelatory hue grew larger, until at last when my arm grew numb, I stepped back and beheld fully the clues I had revealed: a cave, filled with shadows, much like the one in Plato. There was an air of finality about it. Page 92   I've completed translation and study of two of the sanskrit works in my possession.   The first work, acquired from Gwaer Inn, seems to be speaking circuitously of a method for ascension and transformation. Interesting, but not the path I am taking, and much of the information is a repetion of facts and stories I read some time ago.   Much the same is true of the second work in terms of its repetition, though it deals in acensions I am seeking.  As such, I now have two independent sets of information about the Parables and the Mantras. Interestingly, when I review my notes on both, I see many parallels between the two, almost as if the Mantras are responses to a call by the Parables. I've begun a comparative analysis. Page 93  Interesting. My notes on the two copies of Mantras and Parables tell slightly different versions of the same stories. When structured dialectically, the pairs synthesise, in a sense, into a very recogniseable pattern.  The couplets seem to be referencing the story of the Greek God Phanes, who in this story is likely a representation of the Watchman.  Having paired them up, I now have two versions of this story. In one, Phanes is born from the Cosmic Egg, much like the traditional Orphic account. In the other, Phanes is a man who assaults the home of the gods and takes some power of the egg into himself and changes to a god. Further comparative work between the two will be needed to tease out truth. Page 94  A new arrival at the Grand Hotel today, Dr al-Adim, in the flesh! I sat with him for afternoon tea, and we shared news. He had a commission for me, he said, and as he was travelling this way, he thought he might request it directly.  I had intended, once back in London, to prevail upon him to teach me a little Aramaic. Since he might not be returning for some time, I asked if he would do me the favour of tutoring me here. I offered to pay his room and board at the hotel for the duration, and give him time to relax while I completed his commission.  I expect both shall be completed in a few days. I remember once upon a time, languages took me years to learn. Now it seems as if I can compress a decade's learning into mere moments. I ruminated for a while on how the Mansus might be reshaping my mind. Perhaps, the shape of things to come. Page 95 The time has come, a plan made. Neville and Auclair reconnoitred the Keep, and report back no sign of its approaches being watched. Nonetheless the castle appears in good repair, and because of its commanding location on a cliff, attempts to approach the walls from below would be insanely dangerous. As such, we are going to try the direct route: across the bridge, through the main gate, then down to the crypt where we believe our goal lies.  Cat, Victor and Elridge are looking into the exudate fresco from my dream, enquiring after any notable caves in the region which might have significance.  And so it was that five of us made the journey across that bridge. Of course, the mission was a success, or I would not be writing, but things did not go according to plan.  We penetrated the keep without difficulty, but things took an unexpected turn at the stairs down to the crypt. Neville, Auclair and Enid were in front, with Violet and I directly behind, but as Enid crossed the threshold od the door to the stairs, it slammed shut. Our party had been seperated.  As we tried in vain to force the door, there was a sound from down the hall. I turned. A man, holding a candelabra. "Guten Abend, Doktor Ravenhurst." came the voice, in an oddly clipped accent that I couldn't quite place, before continuing, in German. "You should have called ahead. Would you like to join me for dinner?"  And so Violet and I sat for dinner, conversing with our "host", who introduced himself as Count Jannings, while I obsessed in worry over what might be happening in the crypts below. The Count seemed to sense this; "I do hope your companions make a good account of themselves in the mausoleum, Doktor Ravenhurst. I no more like disposing of bodies than I imagine you do," he said. There was a silence then that seemed to stretch forever.  "My grandfather is buried in the final tomb, with his books and his toys," he continued, "books I read many years ago. Your friends are welcome to them, if they can take them."  He gestured up to an old map on the wall. "In many languages, this is the Land Beyond the Forest. In German, it is the Land of Seven Castles."  He gestured to the chamber's walls. "Castles are a sort of contradiction manifest in stone. A symbol of oppression, but also protection. A symbol of the potential for violence, but also a symbol that unifies a group in cameraderie. No bond is greater than that of the defenders of a home under attack."  He gestured to me. "So, speaking of homes under attack, I might overlook this one, if perhaps we have an understanding? You have my address already, of course."  He escorted us back to the main courtyard, the door to which opened to reveal Enid, Auclair and Neville debating in hushed whispers over what to do now, their arms full of books and other miscellany--they went wide-eyed as the Count emerged behind me. He gave a thin smile, and handed me a book. "As I said, you are welcome to my grandfather's trinkets, but I suspect you will find little of use among them. Perhaps you can find solace in the Bible."  As we made to leave, I thumbed through the slim gospel. Yes, I think this is what I needed. From behind, the count's voice; "Thank you for visiting a sinner in his home. Good Night." I turned to say farewell; he was gone.
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Jun 26, 2019 23:56
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Mechanics Update 12 We're closing in on the end of the game now. We've barely scratched the surface of the sheer amount of written content this game has, and in a blind playthrough we'd likely be stumbling in the dark for loads more episodes, but Kate is now very close to having everything she needs to begin the ascension process. We translated the Iron Book into English from Fucine and read it for a good piece of Forge Lore. We'll do the Forge's Redemption in a future update to transform Decrepitude back to health, but the success chance is based on how much forge you can stuff into the ritual, and this will help us get the best chance possible. We finished levelling up our Scholarship, taking rarefied mind skill. This will be needed for levelling up our Lantern Lores, as Moth and Lantern lores have illumination challenges to upgrade them, which require use of this skill, a Library HQ (which we don't have) or a fascination (which can create more fascination). So that's what we're doing here, taking our sixth-magnitude Moth lore, holding it up to a lantern's flame and watching it burn out to power up the Lantern lore to magnitude eight. We already had a pair of these, and the two sanskrit tantras we read gave us a second pair. We'll be able to do the same with the two Phanean Invocations we're now in possession of in the next update. We also paid a visit to the Vovoide's Citadel in this update. This vault can be passed with Winter and Knock people, which is why I took the people I did. However, I hosed up and forgot to actually add Violet to the expediton, which is why she didn't actually end up in the crypt--another mistake after the decrepitude debacle. It's only sheer good luck that Auclair defeated the ghosts on her own, but good job Auclair. The only thing we actually want from the vault is the Gospel of Zacchaeus, which is going to be useful in our ascension (we'll discuss why next time). In the Bible, Zaccheus is a Jew who is also a tax collector for the Romans. He is a traitor to his own kind, feared and hated, a parasite who feeds on others by taking what's theirs. No prizes for guessing why this book is in this castle.  I don't think there's any question that the castle location in Transylvania is a Dracula reference--what's the point in going to Transylvania otherwise--but while traditionally Bran Castle is the one which claims to be "Dracula's Castle" in all the tourist marketing, I believe the inspiration in this case is Corvin Castle, which features a distinctive bridge over a very steep gorge moat, just like the picture, and was once the residence of the Vovoide of Transylvania.  The castle was restored in the 19th century and today is a museum. Last entry is 45 minutes before the museum closes. --- Phanes, Hours, and Mansus History:  Greek Mythology is often portrayed as this sort of monolithic narrative of events that everyone in the Greek world agreed with: Gaia and Uranus were the first true gods, Uranus was killed by his son Kronos, Kronos had children with Rhea and ate them so he'd avoid the fate of his father, then his son Zeus killed him and so the ancient Greeks worshipped Zeus and all his brothers and sisters and their kids, Poseidon and Demeter and Athena etc. etc.. But Greek religion was actually a very complex and tangled web of gods and goddesses, some of which were fleshed out in stories with personalities and such, others which were more animistic personifications of just things. You can see that, sort of, in how Zeus in the Olympic pantheon is the God of the Sky, but his grandfather Uranus was a god who was the sky itself. There were lots of different Theogonies--genealogies of the gods--but the one by Hesiod is the traditional one that most people with a passing knowledge of Greek mythology would know, the story I relayed above being part of that.  But just like late Roman paganism was riddled with mystery cults, so too was Greek religion. One such mystery religion was Orphism, named after the poet Orpheus who descended into the underworld, and supposedly wrote a bunch of stuff about the gods. One of the gods in the Orphic tradition was Phanes, supposedly born from the World Egg created by Chronos, god of Time, (not necessarily the same as Kronos! Even the ancient Greeks disagreed on whether Chronos was the same person as Kronos) and either Nyx, goddess of night, or Ananke, goddess of fate. Phanes hatches from this egg and creates the day, becoming the first god to be born as opposed to having always existed. You might see the parallels here between this and other religions, possibly. So what does this have to do with the game? Well, as I've alluded to a bit in the narrative, there's a Theogony to the Mansus as well. First, if you haven't picked this up yet, let's do some terminology. There's a heirarchy to the Mansus: Know - A person who has passed the stag door and understands the higher mysteries of the Mansus. Long - A person who has passed the Tricuspid Gate at the summit of the Mansus and visited the Glory which lies beyond it. Anyone who does this becomes immortal. It's implied that only a finite number of people can be Long at once. <--This is our goal for the game. Name - A Long in the direct service of one of the gods of the Mansus. Hour - One of the gods of the Mansus The Hours are split into five groups: Gods-from-Stone - Primordial Deities who existed before Humanity was civilised Gods-from-Light - Hours that emanated from the Glory itself (it's a lot more complicated than this, but not relevant to this story) Gods-from-Blood - Gods that were birthed from the sacrifices of Humanity Gods-from-Flesh - Humans who became hours Gods-from-Nowhere - Scary cosmic horrors but with some actual originality instead of copy-pasting H.P. Lovecraft Our story today concerns an event known as the Lithomachy, where the Gods-from-Stone all got god overthrown (direct parallels with the Titanomachy, where Zeus and the Olympians overthrew the Titans), mostly by the gods of Humanity (blood and flesh). Most were murdered, The Seven Coils was killed by The Colonel and the Mother of Ants, The Red Grail killed the Tide, and so on. There were exceptions: The man who meant to kill the Horned Axe failed, and was punished by the Horned Axe by being transformed into the Stag Door, and the Egg Unhatching fled into the Glory and hid there until a Mortal ascended into the Glory and either killed or merged with or was given the power of the Egg Unhatching, becoming the Watchman, also known as the Door in the Eye. You can see, I hope, how the story of Phanes and other elements of Greek Mythology form an inspiration for these elements of the lore of Cultist Simulator. Next Time: Fork Handles
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Jun 27, 2019 00:01
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There's also parallels with human history. The Gods-From-Stone seem to get displaced/murdered as humans develop more complex societies with metal working and agriculture, for example.
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Jun 27, 2019 05:15
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paragon1 posted:There's also parallels with human history. The Gods-From-Stone seem to get displaced/murdered as humans develop more complex societies with metal working and agriculture, for example. The Moth broke the Wheel; the Grail drank the Tide; the Colonel slew the Seven-Coiled. Nature went from inexorable, arbitrary executioner to lurking force of chaos beyond the walls. The rise and fall of hunger at nature's mercy was subsumed by the cravings of those who were full, but not yet satisfied. The beasts were slain, leaving man at the mercy of the beast-slayers.
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Jun 27, 2019 15:43
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Random thought: is the colonel slaying the seven coils an allusion to the story of Alexander and the Gordian Knot? The description of the idol in the Temple of Seven Coils describes it as in impenetrable knot, and of course the connection between Alexander and the Colonel is well established. The knot was also in Phrygia and—oh! So was The Sisterhood of the Knot. Interesting.
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Jun 27, 2019 16:53
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