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 Table of Contents Chapter 1:Stranded on Sucia Island Chapter 2:The Awakened Chapter 3:Rogues Nested in Knowledge Happy New Year boys and girls. We should kick off the start of a really eventful year with a simply wonderful RPG series known simply as Geneforge. Made many a year ago by super independent RPG making machine  The game is truly a delight both in its rich and detailed story telling and its drat fun to boot. Alright so the games have pretty awful sound design and basically no music to speak of, that's okay, it's better than anything I've ever created and gently caress it, this is a screen shot lp so it's not going to make a difference anyway. Some minor ground rules: I'm sure I don't have to tell you guys but the plot and the fascinating world that surrounds it is so lovingly unraveled to us as we traverse the setting so let's not spoil anything in the story. I should also stress that I've only ever finished this particular Geneforge game and would like to experience the sequels unblemished too, so please don't jump ahead to later plots either. That being said go hog wild with mechanics talk and if you wanna say something like "late game has a few challenges that makes the Ballgag of Wistful Flatulence a must have"(assuming we've already found said item) then feel free to. Just don't abuse the privilege of this and keep it nice and vague. Other than that I'll say that this isn't going to be a creative writing lp. I'm not particularly good or interested in writing characterization and narrative in any meaningful or coherent way, I'm here to show off this game as best I can pure and simple whilst being all opinionated and giving hot tips as best as I know them to be. I'm sure you don't want to hear how snug and breezy our protagonists tunic is. I'll be doing some behind the scenes research to keep on top of my game as I'm probably a wee bit rusty with this one. So without further ado lets get the admin out of the way... Prologue: Getting in Shape.  Welcome! To the land of... of.. well I don't know if it has a name or not, I'm sure it'll be revealed in due course. At this point all you need to know about the plot is that there are people called Shapers. They are an esoteric order spell casters who have figured out how to create and manipulate living beings. They use this power to suit their purposes and are very, very powerful. We shall adopt the role of someone who is very new to the order, in fact we haven't even officially joined up yet. But there is more to Shaping than merely being able to manipulate life... There are three distinct classes we will need to choose from. The Shaper  Shapers are skilled at magic and unmatched in their ability to create powerful creatures. However, they are physically frail. A shaper will have to rely on its creations for protection. As the game just mentioned there we can play as a shaper Shaper. The main body of the order of the shapers, the guys that are actually good at doing the kinds of things that this game is all about. Making and maintaining an army of creatures to exert our will and die for us if necessary. They are also pretty decent at traditional forms of magic too, y'know the fireball slinging, buffs and debuffs, that sort of thing. The main downside to them is that they can't take a hit and personally engaging in melee is straight up suicide. The Guardian  Guardians are the defenders of the Shapers. They are highly skilled in melee combat and can create creatures to aid them in the assault. However, their magical skills are otherwise weak. The guardian, ironically looking a bit like The Avatar there. These guys are your powerhouse close quarters class. They suck at magic, but they don't really need it. The key to them is to be swift and decisive. Get next to an enemy and it will die before the turn is up. It's summons are best used as distractions more than anything to keep the Guardian breathing long enough to close in for the kill. They're pretty rubbish at crowd control so the more enemies you have to fight at once, the less effective The Guardian can be. The Agent  Agents travel around on the command of the Shapers and solve problems, usually violently. Their magic and weapon skills are strong, but they are not good at creating creatures. Agents tend to be harder to play. This is your standard battle mage type class. They're completely rubbish at the whole summoning monsters to do their bidding thing, but they can sling traditional magics like you wouldn't believe and they're not bad at regular combat to boot. As an agent you'll probably spend more of the game by your lonesome, but if you play your cards right they can be very dangerous indeed. Okay there you have it, the three possible classes we can play as. I shall now leave it up to a vote. Who we should play through this game with? Andras the Shaper? Dakro the Guardian or Esther the Agent Choose wisely... Zeniel fucked around with this message at 10:46 on Jan 18, 2016 |
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Jan 1, 2016 06:53
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Since I'm not sure we'll get to the other games, let's rock a Shaper.
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Jan 1, 2016 06:56
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Shape it, baby.
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Jan 1, 2016 07:04
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In a game called Geneforge, whose main characters are people who can Shape things, and summon said Shaped things into battle as one of the central gimmicks, clearly we should play as the girl who sucks at Shaping things. Wait no, that's stupid. Play as a Shaper
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Jan 1, 2016 07:59
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I've only ever played as shaper, so I'm interested in seeing an agent.
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Jan 2, 2016 05:49
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Arcade Rabbit posted:In a game called Geneforge, whose main characters are people who can Shape things, and summon said Shaped things into battle as one of the central gimmicks, clearly we should play as the girl who sucks at Shaping things. This is my thinking as well. Play the class that lets you make as many horrifying monstrosities as possible.
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Jan 2, 2016 09:15
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I frickin' love this series. Janky graphics aside, the degree of choice you get in picking your path means that there is more actual role-playing here than in most AAA titles. For the first game, go shaper all the way. Best to show off what the game's about. Maybe try mixing it up a bit for the others, if you get round to them.
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Jan 2, 2016 10:40
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I say Guardian Mainly because I have beaten the game with both an Agent and a Shaper, but haven't bothered with a guardian yet.
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Jan 2, 2016 11:54
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Whybird posted:I frickin' love this series. Janky graphics aside, the degree of choice you get in picking your path means that there is more actual role-playing here than in most AAA titles. I definitely want to do the others in the series when I get to them. I found the second game to be much much harder than the first so I never got terribly far into it but I am looking forward to seeing where this story actually goes.
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Jan 2, 2016 12:45
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Bob Locke posted:I've only ever played as shaper, so I'm interested in seeing an agent. Ditto
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Jan 2, 2016 13:07
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Arcade Rabbit posted:In a game called Geneforge, whose main characters are people who can Shape things, and summon said Shaped things into battle as one of the central gimmicks, clearly we should play as the girl who sucks at Shaping things.
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Jan 2, 2016 13:26
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Shaper so we can actually see the game's main premise.
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Jan 2, 2016 18:45
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I've only ever played a Shaper but... that's kind of the thing that makes the game unique, isn't it? I beat 1 and 2, 3 bored me a bit so I didn't finish it, finished 4 and kind of ran out of steam before I got around to 5. Marathoning all of the games basically in a row they start to feel a bit same-ish, especially in the early game and in some of their flaws. I hope the creator "remasters" these at some point like he did for the Avernum games.
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Jan 2, 2016 19:03
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I hate playing pet classes so do it for me and pick the Shaper. And he'll probably fit the plot best.
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Jan 3, 2016 03:06
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Though I've only played the Shaper I think if we're going to mix it up we should do it after the first game.
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Jan 3, 2016 03:25
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Well the haters gonna hate hate hate hate hate and the players gonna play play play play play and baby I'm just gonna shape shape shape shape shape yeah. Shape it off! Shape it off!
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Jan 5, 2016 09:45
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The last LP had a shaper as a main and a very hostile agent showing off an alternate (mostly genocidal) approach.
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Jan 5, 2016 13:12
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Chapter 1: Stranded on Sucia Island. To the surprise of no one, least of all me, the Shaper has won by a landslide. So a Shaper we shall be. Perfectly okay, the Shaper class was basically built for this game and is fairly versatile.  You may notice a small creature has wandered onto the main menu screen, in the bottom left hand corner there's a platform that occasionally spawns the various creations we'll see throughout the game and has them wander about. Isn't that neat? Let's take a look at the character creation screen and go through some of the stats.  Yeesh, nothing puts me off starting a brand new RPG series like the stats sceen. Trying to figure out how these archaic numbers actually affect the game over what the game actually tells you they do and how useful they actually are is always a huge pain and you can only hope that the game is forgiving for you choosing inappropriate stats early on. As you can see we've got the four main stats of Strength, Dexterity, Intelligence and Endurance. Strength affects how much damage a physical attack will do. It also affects how much we can carry without being encumbered. The physical damage output from our shaper isn't too important as we won't be doing much of the killing anyway, but we are gonna be lugging around a lot of stuff before too long so it's not wise for us to ignore this stat entirely. For now it can stay as is. Dexterity affects our accuracy with ranged weapons and our ability to dodge blows. This stats probably more useful if you're playing as a Guardian or an Agent. Being able to avoid getting hit would be nice for us, but we shouldn't be allowing ourselves to get into the line of fire anyway. Intelligence increases our energy and essence levels, two things very important to Shapers. It also protects us against mind attacks, like charm, fear, dominate that sort of thing. We will be spending as many points as we can spare on this. I personally like to try and spend a point on this every second level or so. Endurance increases our hitpoints and resistance to poisons. Not a bad thing to have really. But again not putting ourselves in harms way in the first place will take us further. Might be worth a point or two somewhere down the line, unless you don't mind the risk of being one-shotted. For Combat Skills we are weak at, which means we must spend more skill point than the other classes do in order to increase them. Melee Weapons increases our chance to hit and possibly the damage output of all melee weapons. Fancy that. As a shaper that is of no consequence to us, unless we really really wanna go melee sometime in the late game. But there's no real need. Missile Weapons does the same as the Melee skill but for ranged of course. Not entirely out of the question as staying ranged will be apart of our long term survival strategy but probably not really worth it. Quick Action will increase the speed of our melee attacks and eventually guarantee multiple hits per turn. As a shaper this is of no interest to us. Anatomy increases the chance to score critical hits with melee weapons. Absolute murder for a Guardian and useful for an Agent. But we are a shaper, so nuts to this skill. The Magic skills are effectively neutral to us as a Shaper. That is to say, we spend more skill points than an Agent on them but not as much as a Guardian would. Battle Magic governs the effectiveness of all offensive spells. The higher this is, the more damage we can do with them and increases our chance to hit with them too I believe. As a shaper it won't be our main line of attack but we shouldn't ignore the skill entirely. Mental Magic essentially controls the effectiveness of any debuff spells. Putting points into this will largely depend upon what strategies you choose to employ. A bit of non-damaging disruption can go a long way in some circumstances. Blessing Magic controls the effectiveness of all buff spells. Not strictly necessary as a shaper, but being able to crank more bang out of your creations never hurts. Spellcraft is an odd skill it essentially increases the strength of all of your magic at the cost of being a more expensive skill. It has a few other gameplay uses as well. We may not necessarily be putting any points into it, but it will see use before the game is over. Shaping Skills are of course cheaper for us then any other class, they're pretty short and sweet on what they actually do. There's a lot of conflicting opinions on what is the best approach to them, so I say just do whatever you want. We shall definitely be investing points into them all I'd say. Fire Shaping will increase the level of any fire based creations. Battle Shaping will increase the level of any battle based creations. Magic Shaping will increase the level of any magic based creations. Healing craft increases the strength of healing spells. Finally we have the General Skills. All three of these are pretty useful to have no matter who you play as. Leadership will affect the dialogue throughout the game and we shall try and make sure we've got enough of it. At most we'll want 15 points by the end of the game. Mechanics is super useful, we'll need this to open various locked doors, disarm traps and build and tinker with a few things. Not as valuable to us as it is for a Guardian, but we shall want a smattering of points in it every now and then to keep things running smoothly. Luck. Oh luck, the old, does something vague and mysterious stat, that everyone ignores. In this game it does three things. Increases you dodge and critical chance by 1% for every point and also allows certain events to occur that wouldn't occur otherwise. I will try and invest points into this as best I can, at the very least it's cheap. So there you have it. I'll just go spend the paltry 15 points the game starts you off with...  So I threw a single point into Intelligence and the rest into Fire Shaping, as we're gonna need it to give an edge in the early game. I threw the remaining points into Healing for some reason. I kind of regret doing that, I normally put the remaining into mechanics early on. Not to worry it's no big deal, we shall rectify it shortly. Andras as you can see will be sporting a lime green robe in order to blind enemies with his fashion sense. Lets get to to it finally.     And so with a cough and splutter we stagger onto the Forbidden Island of Sucia, with nothing but the robes on our back.   Throughout the game dialogue of various kinds will be presented at the bottom of the play screen. At this point in the game its all just useful tutorial advice. I will try to show it all off. Now that we've gotten an idea of our surroundings as quiet and desolate as they are, let's go check whats in those jars in front of us.   Ooh worthless garbage. I will not be picking any of this up for obvious reasons.  Not much point just standing around here all day, so lets following this old crumbling pathway. Up ahead we find the first of many weapons.  1-6 damage is not in the least bit good. It's also a melee weapon so we shall not be touching this. That being said there are plenty of sticks to be found in this game if you're sort of person who wants to thwack his way to an early grave. Andras Limps further down the docks.  And finds a worthless rock next to a an old building of some kind.   This warehouse has definitely seen better days.  Inside we find some pointless baskets.  and our first piece of armor. The Tunic. It's not very good, but we're kind of in a desperate situation here. It is snug and breezy. In most RPGs its generally not wise to adorn your Wizard class like a battle fortress for all sorts of reasons. In this game however, its generally better that way. If we find a better piece of armor at any point, we're throwing it on, heavyness be damned.  Having equipped our armor, the game kindly informs us how doors work. Stand in front of door, door opens. Unless door is locked via mechanism. Simple.  Inside the first room we find an old storage area with three cabinets.  The first contains some old bones.  The next contains some javelins. These are actually a pretty decent weapon early on. They are in limited supply so use them sparingly. We won't be relying on them too heavily but for now we'll take them with us. The final cabinet contains...   and bowl and spoon hurrah. We venture deeper into the bowels of the warehouse!    Twelve coins and nifty looking cloak to go with our tunic but the real prize lies in the aforementioned box.  There's more to be found in this warehouse yet. We still need to see what lies behind that closed door.   Mystery goo canisters you say? Well they do match our robe, how we resist?  Using it destroys the canister and in case it wasn't at all obvious we have mysteriously learned the firebolt spell. Curious. Welp nothing left to do here except carry on our merry way.    So it seems that these goo canisters have amazing properties. We will most definitely be using any and all that we can find.   Up ahead we find a small field with a few more jars full of goodies.  Healing pods are pretty common so its not a bad thing to be pretty liberal about using them. They only work on your character though and they do hold weight so try not to overload yourself with them. We're not supposed to be getting hit anyway remember?  Off to the side of the field there's a small pile of thorn bushes.  With a small pile of thorns. Thorn are ammunition for ranged weapons in this game, its worth picking up as many as you can whenever you can.  At the end of the field is a small abandoned guard post. We won't be going anywhere until we can get this gate unlocked.  A dagger lies inside of the guardhouse itself. It's worth a tiny bit of cash so we'll take it with us.  There's also a shield in here too. We'll just equip that and we're that much more protected from danger.  Most importantly there's a lever to the gate in here, which is thankfully unlocked with the key we found back in the warehouse.  The inside area of the docks isn't looking any more lively unfortunately. We enter the room directly next to us.    That barracks yields us six more javelins. The winding path continues.   Another healing pod is hidden away in this jar. Up ahead we spy a crumbling building of some kind.   A couple of tethering posts out the front of it.   We find a lever to door further into the inn just off of the entrance hall.  Out back is the old rest area.  In the cabinet at the back of the room is an old robe for us. It's three times as good as the cape we picked up earlier so we'll just put that on instead.  We also find a sweet belt too. Our pants are now firmly secure.  Inside the locked in the back in a store room, with two more healing pods in the one of the jars. Having plundered all that was worth plundering from the inn we make our way out of the north entrance.   And we stumble across another living creature finally. The Ornk. These things are just harmless cattle. Actually if you want to you can slaughter all of them for some easy early on experience. But I'm not power gaming this game, so we'll just save our javelins for something more deserving.  To the north is our first area transition, but we've still got a tiny bit more to explore yet off to the east.  More ornks about, mooing softly and munching on grass.  and a nice beautiful pond to stare at. The real prize lies south of the pond though.  There's an old hovel of some sort, tucked away back here.  Unfortunately my oversight with the mechanics skills prevents us from exploring much further into the hovel. If we had one more point, we could just pick the lock on the lever no problem. So we'll have to return here in a later update. Oh well we find a couple more thorns in the nearby cabinet at least. With this area is well and truly mapped out its time to head further into Sucia Island.  Hmm looks like we won't be getting off of it any time soon. Off to the abandoned vale with us.  A large but deserted building stands before us.  Waahoo its an old shaping building. As a shaper that's good news.  There are two kinds of goo pools inside of shaping buildings that will become super handy whenever we're out on the field. The first is the green pool, which will regenerate hitpoints for you and your creations whenever you stand next to it.  The second is the blue pool which regenerates Essence and Energy. Essence is kind of like this games mana. You need it to cast high level spells, make creations and heal. It does not regenerate and you can never have too much of it. Especially as a Shaper. Energy is more strange. You need it to cast any spell at all, it will regenerate fairly quickly over time outside of combat and for us, it will pretty much go unnoticed. The energy of your creations is more of a concern, but so long as combat doesn't last too long, you'll also probably never notice it. The nearby book explains essence in greater detail.  Further into the shaping hall.   We find a few more garbage items to add to our list. There's also a book here that will explain the finer points of shaping to us.   Out the back of the hall we've got two more goo canisters to use irresponsibly.  This time they imbue us with the power to finally start shaping as well as heal things. Both very important skills to our survival. Nothing more to it, lets make a creature!  So far all we can shape is the Fyora. Fyoras are essentially vicious pets of Shapers. They act as scouts and attack dogs and are little more than a nuisance. But it's all we've got to work with and they are sort of adorable. As you can see we can spend excess essence to increase the stats of our creations. Whatever you do, its always a smart idea to spend at least two points into intelligence. This allows you to control your creatures during combat, so you don't have to worry about them running amok. There's also a good chance that they could turn on you as well, which would be most embarrassing for all concerned.  As we're kind of starved for essence at this point, we'll settle on making one standard run of the mill intelligent Fyora. We could make two unintelligent fyoras if we so wished, but we wouldn't be able to control them and it could end badly. Plus this way, I still have a few essence left over for emergency healing purposes too.  and so in a cloud of magical blue triangles, we shape our very first creation.  Cute little fella int he? Don't get too attached to him though, we'll be sending many a Fyora to a bloody death by the end of this adventure. We let him take the lead, so Andras does get in the line of fire.  We swing east below the tree line.  Seems the island wasn't abandoned without bloodshed...  On the body we discover some healing spores, these are a group healing item we can use to keep our creatures alive without having to waste precious essence. It doesn't heal for all that much sadly, but hey its free.  The body also had 5 more coins on him, cha-ching.  Following the path leads us nowhere so we'll have to go off road for a bit.         And so combat begins. You'll notice that the UI is slightly different. At the moment all we can really do is either hurl javelins or cast fire bolt. Seeing as Fyoras aren't much of threat, we'll stick with our puny firebolt for now. Our pet Fyora will easily out match us for damage output anyway.  Our fyora attacks first spitting flaming saliva at the rogue.  The fight goes pretty poorly all things considered, neither Andras nor his Fyora can put out all that much damage, but generally the pet fyora should be able to kill the rogue in one or two hits. This is why its important to invest a few points into fire shaping at the start if you're playing a shaper, very low level fyoras are completely worthless and will make the early game a chore.  A few more lucky volleys and the fyora goes down, no problem. Our first foe vanquished.  Further along we find the rogue is not alone. But one more fyora isn't gonna be a problem for us.  In the nearby house another rogue stands ready, guarding a comfy pair of sandals.  More armor for Andras!  We also find a gemstone, the standard generic, this is worth a decent amount and is lightweight but otherwise useless item.  Adjacent to the house we find some ruined dwellings home to more rogue fyoras and a book we should probably read.  This house must've belonged to Terry Hintz I see.  Hacking our way through another fyora we come across a small warehouse.    Finally we have a weapon our shaper can use for the long run. Basic Thorn Batons are not brilliant, but they're stronger than our firebolt spell at least and ammo is plentiful.  More rogues lie outside of the large building at the north end of the vale.  Killing this last rogue, whose decided to contemplate the sea finishes all the rogues to be encountered in this area finally. We make our way into the large building in front of us.    It appears to be decorated in more miscellaneous trash.  But we do get a sweet pair of boots which are 3x as good as our sandals.   So this building was the quarantine area to the island. What research could the Shapers have been conducting that required such a thing I wonder?    This little pig man thing is a servant mind. Shapers grow them to be used as aministrators and that sort of thing. Lets see if its up for a chin wag.  What do I have to do to pass through quarantine?   What happened to this island? Why was it barred?  How long ago were you abandoned?  How long has it been since someone came through here?  Why was Sucia Island abandoned?  What was the purpose of this island?  Are you alright? You have been here for a long time  You don't mind waiting here for so long?  That's all for now. Thanks.  Well that servant mind was pretty unhelpful, but it did allow us access through the quarantine at least.  The doors to the rest of the island scrape slowly open.   Ah good, one of the shapers many loyal servant creations the servile is still about on this island. Perhaps he can shed light on this islands abandonment or at least point us to a way off the island.  Tell me about Vakkiri  I have been stranded on this island. How can I get off of it?  There are no other Shapers here?  The dialogue option choices in this conversation have an impact on the way the various servile factions on the island will approach us. I shall leave it to a vote whether or not we should treat them as any other shaper would or if we're a little more progressive in our views towards our creations. (for this particular option I went with 2, it won't have any real impact at this point) I do not require your total obedience. I only need to leave this island.  Do you know why this island was abandoned?  That's all for now. Thanks.  And with that Timo hurries away, leaving his flock of ornks behind him.  If we wanted to, we could also kill Timos flock for free xp. Timo doesn't seem to mind. But we'll leave them there for the time being.  Next time we head east for the Servile village of Vakkiri. In the meantime, think on how you want us to approach them. Should we treat them as Servants as we are the rightful masters of the serviles? Or do we treat them as People these serviles were long since abandoned anyway?
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Jan 5, 2016 13:56
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They are called Serveiles for a reason 
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Jan 5, 2016 15:58
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Servants!
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Jan 5, 2016 19:10
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Well, our escape from this island may well depend on their goodwill, and the island's Barred anyway, so treating them as People probably won't do us much but good in the long run.
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Jan 5, 2016 19:26
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vdate posted:Well, our escape from this island may well depend on their goodwill, and the island's Barred anyway, so treating them as People probably won't do us much but good in the long run. Not if we order them to commit seppuku so we can leave on a raft of their corpses 
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Jan 5, 2016 20:42
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Let's treat them as people, since we are at a severe disadvantage here and we need friends, no matter where they come from.
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Jan 5, 2016 21:27
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Let's treat them as People, because Geneforge is well-written enough that being a huge oval office to the locals actually makes me feel like a bad person. I'd also like to disagree with something you posted. quote:Blessing Magic controls the effectiveness of all buff spells. Not strictly necessary as a shaper, but being able to crank more bang out of your creations never hurts. I found that buffing magic was absolutely vital as a Shaper, because some of the buff spells you get in the game practically double the power of your creatures with a single cast, while just dumping more points in the creatures themselves seems to have somewhat diminishing returns after a point. I really don't think I would've beaten the game as a Shaper if not for enough points in Blessing magic to cast some of the better/best spells.
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Jan 5, 2016 23:05
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I vote we treat them as People, because I'm the kind of person who feels guilty for what they do to video game characters.
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Jan 5, 2016 23:51
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JawaKnight posted:I vote we treat them as People, because I'm the kind of person who feels guilty for what they do to video game characters. Echoing both the vote and the motivation.
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Jan 6, 2016 00:05
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I'd say to treat them as People, but I'd definitely recommend giving people a chance to change their votes later on. One of the best things about this game and the series as a whole is that the morality is not black and white and all paths are both viable and morally defensible. Also, since you said you were cool with mechanics chat, a few comments on the stats: >Dexterity is basically useless for a Shaper, adding points to Endurance should usually be low priority, and even Strength is useful only to the extent it's needed to carry gear. If your Shaper is getting heavily attacked on a regular basis, you're Not Playing Right. >Combat skills are all dead-weight for a Shaper. You could potentially make an argument for ranged weapons, but they also require Dexterity, so it's a huge skill point investment to make them effective. >Battle Magic isn't really worth investing a lot of points in, but it doesn't hurt. The Firebolt spell we just learned has no essence cost and minimal energy cost, so it's basically a spammable filler spell. >Blessing Magic is great for a Shaper. Makes your creation horde much more effective. >Shaping skills - The power-gaming way is to pick one Shaping skill and pump the hell out of it. Shaping skill makes your creations have a higher innate level, which basically gives them higher stats across the board. That said, it's also (IMO) kind of a boring way to go, since you don't get to enjoy the variety of creatures available. >Mechanics and Leadership are both crazy important. In most games the "soft" skills end up outclassed by raw rear end-kicking power, but that's definitely not the case here. In fact, it's a completely viable strategy to dump a large portion of your 15 starting skill points into pumping Mechanics and Leadership.
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Jan 6, 2016 00:10
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MagusofStars posted:>Mechanics and Leadership are both crazy important. In most games the "soft" skills end up outclassed by raw rear end-kicking power, but that's definitely not the case here. In fact, it's a completely viable strategy to dump a large portion of your 15 starting skill points into pumping Mechanics and Leadership. I tested this out before I started lping, because it was basically what I was planning on doing, but it makes the early game quite frustrating as your fyoras are about as weak as the Shapers firebolt spell. It's not really vital to have much of either right off the bat. I personally like to wait until I've leveled up at least once before investing a few more into them. It's totally worth investing early though, just not THAT early.
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Jan 6, 2016 02:12
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Sylphosaurus posted:Let's treat them as people, since we are at a severe disadvantage here and we need friends, no matter where they come from. If we're at that much of a disadvantage, though, then placing ourself in a position as their equal will only deepen that. We need them to believe that we are the great and mighty Shapers, returning to judge them, for at least as long as it takes for them to hand over all of their healing potions and valuables.
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Jan 6, 2016 13:08
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Let's treat them as people. Politeness doesn't cost us much more than effort, and we don't really plan on keeping ourselves around for long.
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Jan 6, 2016 13:18
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PurpleXVI posted:Let's treat them as People, because Geneforge is well-written enough that being a huge oval office to the locals actually makes me feel like a bad person. I'm with Purple on this one. While it'd be nice to demonstrate how being an rear end in a top hat changes things, the game doesn't even pretend that the rear end in a top hat option is anything but (But also doesn't make it strictly "rear end in a top hat/Saint" with the usual strict divide in reward/punishment that other RPGs do)
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Jan 6, 2016 22:58
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Let's go with People because we can always change our mind later by lulling them into a false sense of security. Behold, my singular default dinosaur!... Hmm, lemme get back to you on that whole OBEY ME thing. Also We're clearly still feeling touched by the sacrifice of our lizard boat.
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Jan 7, 2016 07:03
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I'll throw in another vote for People. If we help them, that means more side quests which means more XP!
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Jan 8, 2016 08:03
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People, why not? Though I hope you do show off how being dickish to the extreme can be uhh, interesting, in this game.
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Jan 8, 2016 23:33
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Canisters that just... teach us things without the need for study? Oh god they were researching powerleveling. The anthills have gone rampant and they're coming to pour boiling water on us all!
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Jan 9, 2016 08:10
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Glazius posted:Canisters that just... teach us things without the need for study? You will find that that is far more accurate than you ever thought. Unless you have already played the game... But yeah, that was pretty much right.
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Jan 10, 2016 05:28
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Serviles are made to obey, nothing more, nothing less.
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Jan 10, 2016 07:19
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But you have to pick up all the trash because it says someone might pay you for it!!  Also people
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Jan 10, 2016 18:42
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As an aside, for future updates you can probably condense/consolidate some of those screenshots now that we've seen how the first area works. That update is a little monolithic. I do like how they add Geneforge-specific flavor text to even junk items though!
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Jan 10, 2016 21:53
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| # ? May 4, 2024 23:27 |
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Chapter 2: The Awakened Welcome back to Geneforge. In tonights episode Gene Forge is convicted of a crime he didn't commit, and is forced to work with internal affairs to find out who framed him.   Vakkiri a strange town full of strange people, with plenty of reasons to resent Shapers. We won't be finding this village very welcoming.  Oh uh nevermind.  Lots of talking to be done this time around, let's start with one of the many random townspeople we find milling about.   "What are you raising?" "Just simple vegetables. They aren't a creation. Just ordinary food." You look closer and see that she is correct. "I am looking for information. Is there anyone here who can help me?" "You should talk to Learned Pinner." She points to the northwest. "She lives in the building back there in the woods." "Never mind. You can return to your work." "Thank you, Shaper. You are very kind."Well they all harmless enough. Let's see what the armed guard-serviles are up to.  "What are you guarding against?" "Rogue creatures are common in the woods north and east of here. We never know when some of them will stumble into Vakkiri and need to be dealt with. " "Where can I find aid and information?" "You should speak with Leader Khobar. He is in the feasting hall at the southwest corner of town." "I don't need any more assistance." The guard bows once again and continues on his rounds.That's the general populace out of the way, let's try and talk to someone who might actually have something worth saying.  We meet a particularly beefy looking servile standing in a mess hall.  "You are a blade? What does that mean?" "It means that I defend the serviles here from all threats. I am the leader of the guard and the first to fight. And, with all the threats we have faced recently. I am kept very busy." "What sort of threats do you face?" "There are the rogue creations. They are all around. They appeared recently, mysteriously, and they plague us. Leader Khobar can tell you more about them, if you are interested.""There are also bandits. They are extra weight in a load too heavy to bear." "I can help you with your struggles." "We hoped that, when you Shapers returned, you could help us. But do not think your help will make us willingly return to servitude.""There is a tribe of rogue serviles bandits to the north. They are strong fighters, and cunning. They raid us and take out food and weapons and wealth. They do not kill, but they take our food. This, we do not need." "End their raids. If you have to kill them all to do it, so much the better. I can't spare the casualties, but you have the powers of a Shaper. You should be able to destroy them with no difficulties." "You defend against all threats? Even me? "I do not believe that you wish to threaten us. I am not some Taker, to believe that the Shapers are always evil. But be warned, if you threaten us, your powers will not dissuade us from acting against you." "You said that you are Awakened? Tell me about it. "I should not. I believe it with all my heart, but that doesn't mean that I am a good teacher of it." She thinks "Talk to Sencia. She is the best among us at explaining the path."So the locals are a tad prickly but they seem friendly enough at least. We shall help them out with their bandit problems at some point. In the mean time, there's more people to be talking to.   "I am hungry. Could I get some food?" Here we have a basic shop window in this game. There's never really anything worth buying in food shops. Food just doesn't really cut it as a healing item especially for how much it weighs. But here we can see a few important things to note. The prices here are listed as expensive. This can change depending hidden variables related to how positive the towns disposition towards us, as well as the current amount of gold currently in possession by the vendor. Each vendor only has a finite amount of gold ala Morrowind. Unlike Morrowind however, this amount will never replenish, unless you spend money there. Disappointing, but money is fortunately not really going to be an issue anyway. "What do you serviles eat?" "What does anyone eat? Mostly vegetables, grown here and foraged, some bread, some meat from the ornks we raise. And all of it raised or found by us, with no Shaper help.""Sorry. Didn't mean to give you an Awakened lecture there." She laughs. "It looks like you are hard at work." "Oh yes. I don't cook for all of the serviles. But I cook for all who haven't been mated. And that is enough to keep my days very busy.""It would be much easier if my best knife hadn't been stolen. It was true steel, hardened by magic, a true Shaper artifact. I would pay well to have it back. But, oh well. A brigand probably took it." We shall have to keep our eyes peeled for it. Carrying on, we talk to the head of the village next.  "Tell me more of your village." "After the Shapers abandoned us, we serviles struggled for survival. Most were unable to live without your guidance. Some of us were selected by cruel nature to be allowed to survive. We have formed three villages, that I know of." "What are the other two villages that you know of?" "To the east there is Pentil. They are a feckless, servile lot. You will like them.""Past Pentil is Kazg. You may wish to avoid them. They are very martial, and they have little love for Shapers. They hate you, and even more, they are terrified of you. A volatile combination." "You don't know of all of the settlements on this island?" "To the north is harsh wasteland, full of rogue clawbugs and vlish. There, we do not go. To the northeast are mountains, well protected by Shaper creations and traps. Beyond, we can not go.""In those places, you might find anything." "You said you are Awakened. Tell me more about that." "All of us serviles have developed our own ways and beliefs to deal with the Shapers abandoning us. There are three sects: the Awakened, the Obeyers, and the Takers." "Tell me of the Awakened." "All in this village are of the Awakened sect. We have been Awakened from the dark sleep of Shaper mastery. Our eyes are open. We wish to deal with the Shapers as equals, with friendship and gratitude. But we will not be slaves to you any longer.""Be wary. If you anger the Awakened, this town will no longer be open to you." "It sounds like a strange, new belief, but I hear some wisdom in it." He looks, despite himself, relieved. "I am glad to hear it. We had expected instant opposition from your kind. But if we can convince you, there may be hope for peace." "Tell me of the Obeyers." "They are the ones who wish to follow. They are the ones who worship your kind as gods. You will find them to the east, as obedient and pliable as you could possibly wish." "Tell me of the Takers." "They are the mad ones, the Takers of Free. They have been warped by the cruelty of their time here. They were made by the Shapers, and now they wish to overthrow them.""They wish to separate from the Shapers completely, and if the Shapers attempt to deal with them, they wish for combat. They are mad. We have no worship for the Shapers, but we do not hate them either. We wish to be equal, that is all." "I wish to learn more of this island. When and why was it abandoned?" "I deal with the now and the future. I leave it to others to worry about the past.""You should talk to Learned Pinner." He points to the northwest. "She loves your kind more than is safe. She will gladly share all of her limited knowledge with you." "What dangers do you face in your village?" "Hunger. Cold. Rogue creations. All of the many perils you Shapers abandoned us to."He pauses for a moment, thinking. Then he says, "We can plan, and we can trade. I can't help but notice that you are lacking supplies." "If you would use some of your awesome Shaper power to aid us instead of crush us, I could provide you with useful goods. A fair trade. Does that appeal to you?" "I will trade with you. What do you want?" "The main road to the east passes south of Watchhill. It is the road to the fortress of Ellrah, leader of the Awakened. And, recently, almost overnight, the area has become infested with rogues.""We suspect that something or someone is creating them. There are too many there to be accounted for by random migration. Go there and remove the source, and we will pay you." "I was stranded here because a large ship destroyed my craft. Who might do such a thing?" "I do not know. I can't believe that anyone would attack a Shaper in such an open and foolish way. Only a mad one would attract the wrath of the Shapers.""In this, I wish I could help you. Such provocations can not be good for anyone. Not even the wild serviles of Kazg would do such a thing, I suspect, I do not think you will find the answer to that question here. Okay we're now getting a clearer picture of the current state of Sucia island now. There are three factions of Servile vying for control and the northern parts of the island are desolate and dangerous. We shall get a better picture of the other two factions later and we'll have to choose to side with one them at some point so keep an open mind until we've heard all sides of the story. Or I guess we could stay neutral if we wanted too.  To the west of Khobar is some sleeping quarters.  "You serviles all live here?" "All of us of Vakkiri live in these old buildings. Many of us live in these barracks, and others, those of rank and stature, live in the private homes. I, however, choose to live here, I like to be close to my fellow serviles." "You serviles speak very well. Who taught you to speak like that?" She looks slightly offended by the question. "Who taught us? We did. After the Shapers left our isle, we knew how they spoke, and we started to speak that way ourselves.""We know that Shapers think very little of us. That is why I became one of the Awakened. Some of us, though, do not speak as well, and do not have such aspirations." "Who does not speak well?" "Do not give too much weight to what Clakkit says, or how he speaks. He is, well, he is one of us. But he is foolish, and he speaks foolishness. Do not judge me worse because of him." "You said you that you were of the Awakened. Tell me more? "We are a sect of serviles, led by the mighty Ellrah, who believe that we serviles must stand up for ourselves, be proud, claim our intelligence and our birthright, and look to you Shapers as our equals.""We know that many of you Shapers will not approve of this. We will take the consequences for this. If you would like to learn more, you should speak with Ellrah." "Tell me about Ellrah." "He is founder of the Awakened. He is our creator. He is old now, and he was the first one to stand up and tell us that we should look out for ourselves. He said that you Shapers have abandoned us, and that made us free.""You should speak with him. He lives to the east, in the fortress past Watchhill." "And what is your job in Vakkiri?" "Ellrah asked me to stay here and look after the serviles here, to guide them. They are of the Awakened, but sometimes they return to their weak, old, Shaper-worshipping ways. Usually, it is simple, but sometimes, there are difficulties." "Are you having difficulties now?" "I suspect that there is a Taker spy in this village. The Takers are a dangerous rogue sect to the east, determined to foment rebellion against the Shapers. An ugly, pointless war.""Sometimes, they attempt to stir up trouble here. If you found the spy and brought him to my attention, the Awakened would thank you."  In one of the nearby houses there's a trapped cabinet. Our mechanics skill is not yet up to the task of disarming it. There's probably not much worth taking in there anyway. Just up the road, we find the infamous Clakkit.   "Why don't you talk like the other serviles?" "I smart like them. I no dumb. I no talk Shaper. I no talk like you. I servile talk. Choice." "What sort of things do you know?" "I travel. Listen. Talk. Learn lots, I want help. I know what servile think of you. I know you crime if you crime. I know secrets." "What do the serviles think of me?" "Serviles have little hope. Listen careful what you say and maybe think you maybe want let servile be little free." "What sort of crimes have we committed?" "I know that servile not know about you. They think you act like big clumsy Shaper but may not be all dangerous, so we wait and see." "What sort of secrets do you know?" "You ask. I talk." "Where can I find a boat?" "Leader Khobar. He point right way." "Why was this island Barred?" "Leaned Pinner. He point where you go learn secret." "My craft was attacked. Who did it?" "There sinister outsiders on this isle. That what I know. Know no more than that. But secrets answered to east." "Sencia said I should ignore you." "Sencia think she all smart. But there many way be smart. I watch and listen. And this I know.""Sencia need listen more. Her talk make her no listen."  In a house near Clakkit there's an open cabinet free for pilfering. The NY icon tells you that the items belong to someone and we won't be viewed favorably if we're caught. We're in a desperate situation here, so nice guy or not, we'll nick the coins.  To the north of house we just burgled is a small shoppe.  "You trade with other settlements on Sucia?" "Yes I had contacts in Pentil and even Kazg. But there have been many rogue creations wandering about. So I have lost contact them.""If you ever meet serviles named Pixley and Arth, or find out what happened to them, please let me know. I have plenty of supplies, and I gladly pay for useful information. " "I have never met a servile shopkeeper before." "Well, in the absence of the Shapers, we have had to fend for ourselves. And that means growing and making what we need to survive, And that means trade.""I deal in both servile-made goods and Shaper artifacts. I know nothing about why the Shapers left us but, thankfully, they left much behind. "I would like to trade with you. I need some supplies." Coale has a mixed bag of goods for sale. We've got a handful of new types of thorns, those that go into other kinds of thorn batons. He's got some Icy crystals, that you can throw at enemies for a one shot magic spell like effect. These ones aren't really worth getting, but there are some pretty powerful ones later on. Chitin armor is an upgrade on what we currently have, but we'll be finding plenty of that in the field. Same goes for the iron shield. Besides that, Coale is a decent person to sell goods to as his prices are good and cheap.  At the back of the shop is a locked lever operated door. We will definitely not be opening this until we get some decent mechanics skill.  Leaving Coales shop to the northwest, the house of a purple clad servile can be found.  "Are you wealthy?" "What is wealth? None of us serviles are truly wealthy. All we have is what we can scavenge and what we grow. But, in the sense that I have more goods to trade for things I want. I suppose I am wealthy." "What sort of things do you own?"She points at the door in the east wall. "Well, there is an artifact back there that we serviles can't use. It would kill us. But I suspect that it would be useful to you.""For three hundred pieces of gold, I would unlock the door for you." We don't have this much gold on us at the moment, but once we invest a few point into leadership, that won't be a problem. "I'm not interested." "Fair enough. It isn't going anywhere." "You are from Pentil?" "Up until recently. Then I came here. I wished to join the Awakened, I was tired of the serviles of Pentil and their Obeyer gibberish. We were made to serve, but we do so no longer."The rest of Dreets dialogue is just faction stuff we've heard before.  Off in the west end of the map is a small Apothecary.  "You know how to make potions? How?" "Well, I am glad you asked. When you Shapers left, you left behind many things. This was long ago. We have had many years to study your writings and artifacts."We had no choice. It was a matter of survival, after all." "You should be proud to have achieved so much." Ham beams with pride. "I am so grateful that you think so! Though I am Awakened. I still have a great deal of respect and admiration for your kind. Thank you for that respect." "Where do you find our artifacts?" "Why, they were all over." He points to the box in the corner. "I found that in some ruins recently, but I can't get the lock open." He thinks."We Awakened believe in fair trades. If you can find a way to get that box open, I would gladly pay you for your time. I am sure you could use more supplies." Once again, we'll need mechanics before we can do anything about that box. Let's check out Ham's inventory.  Ham's got a wide variety of useful supplies to us. The living tools, in particular, those are essentially lock picks. In game they're living creatures that the Shapers breed as multi-tools. They are short lived however, and will die if they attempt to do any stressful tasks. He's also got a few new kinds of pods. The curing pods, will cure any poison effect we receive, which can be handy in a pinch. The speed pods are less useful to us. They will increase our number of action points for a few turns, but they only work on Andras though so it's not that useful unless we need to make a hasty retreat. The curing spores are pretty useless. They're a full party cure poison spell and there are very few reasons to ever need to do that. There is one area this could be useful, but that's a ways away from this update. There's also Spray Crystals which are an upgraded gem weapon. It does more damage than the Icy crystal. The real upside to using the crystals as weapons in this game is that they only cost three action points, as opposed to the five points that all other attacks require. This makes the more powerful crystals a very formidable weapon indeed. Heading north from the Apothecary we find an old Shaping hall. These things are all over the place.  It's got a few pre-barred records in it too.   We also find Learned Pinner hanging around.  "Why do you have the word 'Learned' before your name? "It is a mark of respect for my people. I have been alive for many, many years, and I know much history. I will share it with you if you want. Your kind has been away for very long." "Why is Sucia Island Barred? Why was it abandoned?" "We do not know. Your kind left two centuries behind. They left behind us serviles. They did not tell us why they left.""I have an idea, though, of where you might get a clue of why the isle was abandoned." "Tell me more. Where should I look?" "To the north of here, there is a large ruin. I think it was once a school, where your kind learned their arts. Such a place would have had a servant mind, and that mind might have been told more of why Sucia was abandoned.""Go there and see if you can learn anything from the servant mind. Be careful, though. There are rogue creations in there. If there weren't, I could have gone and looked myself." "Why is everyone so in awe of me?" She seems confused. "You are one of our creators. You made us serviles, and you can make us disappear. All we have and are, we owe to you. Your disappearance has been difficult for us, and not all of us know how we should treat you." "Well, it looks like you area doing very well for yourselves here. I have no plans to interfere." She looks very pleased. "I am sure many here will be relieved to see it. For some, your arrival has been the cause of fear. In addition to love, of course. You are very kind." "I have found some very strange artifacts on this island. Do you know anything about them?" "I think you mean the canisters? The large glass cylinders with the glowing matter inside? I have some of the fragments of them in the back room. They were created by the Shapers here before they left." "What are they for? I have never seen one before." "We know that the Shapers made them here on this island. We serviles do not use them. To do so kills us instantly. We tend to fear your Shaper creations. We don't do anything with them. "I have used one. It changed me. It made me more powerful. Are they dangerous?" "I do not know. I see nothing unusual about you. If you use more of them. I can look at you and see if I see a change."We shall have to return here once we find more canisters. There's a few others to speak to around here, but we're starting to run on long here, so let's start heading north of Vakkiri to the Bandit Woods, and next time we'll uncover a few more mysteries of the past. 
Zeniel fucked around with this message at 18:19 on Jan 12, 2016 |
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Jan 12, 2016 08:39
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