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OneWingedDevil posted:Unrelated question TheGreatEvilKing, you mentioned you got up to at least Chapter 3 of 5 in the OP. Are you still pushing forward or have you abandoned that run so you don't have to play the game twice, only 1.x times? Alternately, did you actually finish this and know the full horror of what we're diving into? I'm gonna try to finish this drat thing before the LP finishes Chapter 3. It promises to be...painful. EDIT: Update on previous page!
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Jun 22, 2022 05:51
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going to assume that when someone or other hears the elephant woman is a previously unknown heir of a noble, that the listening party doesn't actually care whether it's true or not. Plausibly because they aren't being paid enough to care, or don't think it's important either way. "Sure, sure you're a lost noble whatever. thoughts on the rebels?" "Dreadful" "Good 'nuff, go on through." quote:-snip-
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Jun 22, 2022 06:27
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TheGreatEvilKing posted:But... how? You were literally in the closet with the doors shut! Honestly I'm kind of willing to give the game this one just because "character witnesses a murder through a cracked open door" is just, such a common trope and I assume that's what they're going for. But yeah, holy poo poo, the writing in this game is just abysmal so far.
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Jun 22, 2022 08:40
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Are we sure there were actual writers involved? So far this reads like an AI has gathered snippets of writing from every generic fantasy novel and game in existence and stitched them together without worrying about whether they contradict each other. Complete with names from a Geocities fantasy name generator.
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Jun 22, 2022 08:47
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Almost wishing we had chosen a dwarf character to start with. The  notes would write themselves.
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Jun 22, 2022 11:14
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quote:
I think you posted this line twice and with the wrong portrait the first time. And you mixed up Helg portrait with a screenshot at 231. It'd be overly generous to say this plot is threadbare. In reality it's desperately trying to keep itself together through sheer force of will. Also, Ironchin and Kegrunners. Really?  This feels like the game I'd have no qualms about picking the dumbest replies whenever possible. Maybe not the "make someone piss themselves" one in case of the Weinsteins but definitely the others because there's no loving way I'd be able to take anything serious.
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Jun 22, 2022 12:20
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: Imagine how I feel! This raises the question of whether I even exist, since there's no record of the event.
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That bar scene was certainly a thing
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Jun 22, 2022 12:42
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what, you don't regularly piss yourself when hitting on the same woman with two bros who are competing for that same woman?
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Jun 22, 2022 13:29
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should've had the option to call for fisticuffs to determine the rightful suitor as an excuse to knock their lights out instead of that nonsense
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Jun 22, 2022 13:44
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And if they ended up splattered on the floor like that thief? One less horror in the world.
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Jun 22, 2022 13:59
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DACK FAYDEN posted:what, you don't regularly piss yourself when hitting on the same woman with two bros who are competing for that same woman? Of course not! How calllous and base do you think I am? I have at least three bros there
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Jun 22, 2022 14:01
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Cooked Auto posted:I think you posted this line twice and with the wrong portrait the first time. Fixed, ty!
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Jun 22, 2022 23:04
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Ah, one more spelling error!The Manual posted:Fathers began to image their sons plotting against them, and communication and trade began to break down with other clans. Helgenhar knew the answers lied[sic] above in the realm of men, and journeyed out to seek the truth and prevent his people from going to war. The manual needs an extra [sic] after "image" for "imagine".
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Jun 23, 2022 00:44
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OneWingedDevil posted:Ah, one more spelling error! Fixed. Geez, I'm off my game today.
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Jun 23, 2022 01:48
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TheGreatEvilKing posted:Fixed. Geez, I'm off my game today. At least you're not actively documenting each use of the passive voice, or marking repetitive use of words/phrases. I've edited worse than this, but I can easily imagine the headaches I'd develop from (attempting to) proofread this game's tripe.
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Jun 23, 2022 02:55
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Maybe this is a stretch, but I got kinda tripped up by 'eleven tribes of better humans became known as elves'. Obviously I can't know this but since this is a European developer with at least one office in a German-speaking country, can we really rule out that some writer didn't go "Hey, elf (11) and Elf (pointy ears) are homonyms. Welp, that's the racial backstory worked out".
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Jun 23, 2022 16:49
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I was hoping for this to at least be entertainingly bad but its just frustratingly mediocre instead? I hope things pick up one way or the other.
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Jun 24, 2022 13:11
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Let's Not Do Any Sidequests Welcome back! Last time we impressed a snow elf maiden by making a dude pretend to piss his pants. Today we're going to do some sidequests and make significant progress on snapping the game in half.  Anyway, we had some nonsense to do in the Hall of Records that is thankfully done.  Hamlin prepares to gently caress us over.  : Why is that exactly? If this game didn't have traps I would dump your corpse in a bush somewhere. Then again, how would I ever hear "I would like. A beer please. Thank you." : Alright, alright. You can come.I can't show off his dickery if I don't do this, now can I?  : Good! Thank you, Inta Rume.TheGreatEvilKing summary posted:
 This man has a whole spiel where he left his invitation scroll - to the royal palace - in the library and treats us like poo poo because we're commoners so we need to go get it back. Now, seeing as the royal guard are insistent that only nobility or people directly escorted by nobility are allowed in the archives, I have no idea why he thinks we're random commoners, but again nothing in this game makes sense.  We get the scroll and have the dreaded end of sidequest choice: you can either return the fetch item for nothing, take the reward offered, or demand more things. This varies slightly in that our options are "keep fetched item" - which is not uncommon - but it's your main way of interacting with the GREED curse. The more quest reward you receive the higher party and world greed goes. Of course, we're kind of an estateless noble right now with only our expensive weapons and armor, but the developers love displaying their inability to think ahead or come up with anything remotely interesting.  I go to the embassy and realize it's locked because it's the middle of the night. Time to find something else to do.  This is an encounter I deliberately avoided last night for reasons I'll soon explain.  Siracca here is a party member, and our final party member to get her own manual entry. : Hmm. What's going on here? : Please, I have nothing left I can give to your master. : Then why talk at all? Why not just plant a blade in my back? So, remember how we are explicitly a rillow woman? The game will not. : Leave that woman alone. See, this is exactly the kind of poo poo where the game should realize that WE are a rillow and these guys try to appeal to our rillow pride in that djinni guy who's totally not Amaunator from Baldur's Gate, or literally anything than giving us dialog options that make us sound like a disguised space alien talking to humans. "Fellow hu-mans, why do you harass the feeemale????" : Young lady, do you have some business with these... men?We're not even that old!  Now we get to ask about rillow culture - which makes sense, given that we were raised by Lord Espen in the Treason House, but we again sound like a sectoid pretending to be human. : But isn't Elenuator your master as well, and master of all Rillow?: Not all Rillow, no. I no longer answer to Elenuator. I've turned to the light of Alnarius. To him I pray now, and to him I have consecrated my faith. Elenuator has reacted badly to my decision.We are also right outside the temple of Alnarius, for what it's worth. Fortunately none of the guards who seem to maybe have Alnarius worship as a state religion are anywhere nearby despite being posted all over the streets. Huh.  The developers seem to have taken theology lessons from Warhammer 40k. This is apostasy, as Siracca has abandoned the faith completely. : Is knowing how to count part of a Rillow assassin's training? Because I believe the numbers are in our favor.Ryge: drat your interfering! Very well, breathe the fresh air awhile[sic] longer, Siracca. But to your new friends, I say this: any associate of this heretic will be marked just the same.  The game kindly forces Beavis and Butthead to run off and Siracca spouts off some poo poo. : I thought priests were peaceful?: Not when our lives are in danger. Or those of innocents. This is a blatant loving lie that we'll get to in a minute. : Yes, agreed. Welcome to the party!: Thank you. Let me know if you need any healing.TheGreatEvilKing summary posted:
So, Siracca, or "Siracca the Heretic" as the manual calls her. The Manual posted:Siracca, like most Rillow, came west along the spicelines to Isilmerald. But while most Rillow come seeking adventure, experiences or wealth before returning home, Siracca has come for a different reason… and she’s never going back. Some people might ask, "if the Rillow are hedonistic and love expensive jewelry and fine things how are they resistant to the greed curse?" I don't have an answer.  Siracca is unfortunately a cleric and clerics loving suck. We mentioned in the class writeup that the spellweaver mage - aka Bjalla, who is currently in our fourth party slot and I will personally override any attempts to remove her from the party - can cast all of the healing spells that we actually need in addition to crapping out summons, CC, and damage spells. Siracca here can heal, but her spell list doesn't have a lot going for it. You'll also notice that her resistances are pretty low and her armor is "robe". There are a few properties of heavy armor that should interest anyone who wants to snap this game in half and put absolutely no effort into it, and one of them is that by stacking full plate armor and various magic items you can get slashing, stabbing, and "pulse & blow" (bludgeoning) resistance all over 100%. This works exactly how you think it works, in that you can send your warrior into a whole horde of sword guys or claw monsters and they take absolutely no damage whatsoever. Siracca cannot do this. So we have a character who cannot cast useful spells and cannot fight and thus is going to be the first woman out of the party as soon as we have more options.  Moving on! Lord Markhem is hanging around the embassy of Zida-Suda and offered us a reward for finding his bracelet, so off we go.  I've missed a whole ton of party dialog with Siracca because it's boring, but here's the one I did catch. : The Rillow? Pfft, never. A bitter, covetous mob they are. The fact I once counted myself one of them is enough shame in itself.Uh, what the gently caress are you, and why are you stereotyping Inta?  : But what of your family, your friends?: Among the Rillow I have neither anymore.It's actually super loving offensive because Inta is right there. TheGreatEvilKing summary posted:
 Lord Markhem: I apologize that you had to wait on your reward, but I trust you will understand my situation. I unfortunately have a weakness for certain vices, and Lord Durbat chose to capitalize on this fact at the exact wrong time.  It's... another greed decision! That's kind of how all the sidequests go, and there is a definitely paucity of anything remotely interesting or like actual decisions into how to resolve these things. Witcher 3 this ain't. : Yes, that sounds fair. Happy I could help.Lord Markhem: Glad to have made your acquaintance, madam.  : Tell me about yourself, Lord Markhem. Lord Markhem: I am the last of the Markhem line, who were once a great family among the Isilbright nobility. But every one of my relations took to their various vices, and were destroyed by them over the course of only a few decades, as if a curse had fallen upon us. Neither was a single heir born to my people. Lord Markhem: I am not immune to this problem - as you have already seen - though I have mostly been able to control it. Devoting my life to diplomacy with Zida-Suda has provided a much needed distraction. Some time ago, I made the decision to end the Markhem bloodline. I refuse to pass on what seems to be a terrible curse.  : I need to go, Lord Markhem. Farewell.TheGreatEvilKing summary posted:Lord Markhem: Hey Inta! Thanks for saving my rear end, here's half price of that bracelet. I would have been totally hosed otherwise! Don't haggle, or you'll get GREED!  For taking the quest reward we didn't ask for that was freely offered, greed points go up. Now, we legitimately need to go into combat with dangerous monsters to prove our birthright because we don't exactly have the skills for a real job, and money helps us do that. The greed system is really poorly thought out. I'll show some more in a second.  We need to talk to Fjora in the embassy concerning Helg's quest to stop a civil war by leaving his family to do stupid poo poo. : A friend of mine needs some advice from an expert on the north. Hallbrag from the Hall of Records said you were knowledgeable about recent events in the area.Consul Fjora: Sure. Tell me your story and I'll help if I can.  : If something isn't done, I fear bloodshed is inevitable. I have a niece from the other bloodline, and my heart would weep should any harm come to her or her family. I must find a way to return peace to those dim halls. That is why I've come to Isilbright.Consul Fjora: Your bravery and commitment to truth is commendable, Helgenhar. I feel a responsibility to every dwarven clan, and I confess I have a particular fondness for the Stoneseekers - though it's been long and long since I've seen any of that clan in person. Consul Fjora: I will look into the deeper context of this problem with the Stoneseekers. I was one of the negotiators in the feud between Freynagar and Riznagar, you know, not an easy knot to untangle. Return later, once I've had some time to work on this. Consul Fjora: Until then, goodbye, my friends. TheGreatEvilKing summary posted:
 They just didn't bother to space out the dialogs, so you just get a bunch of uninteresting gimmick one-note interactions dumped out.  Gavin apparently was just let into the city no questions asked. No one wanted to quarantine him because he might carry the plague, no one bothered to ask him what the hell was going on in Deron-Guld, no one bothered to question if he was an enemy spy. He just set up right in the market square, because nothing in this game makes sense.  : "Ho?" What an odd way to greet someone.: I should think seeing it written would be particularly vexing. I think this is sarcasm, but with the writing it's real hard to tell. Anyway, Tolbard here is a blacksmith. He has his own manual entry I'm not pasting here but he doesn't have any quests or anything. He just sells weapons and armor.  We grab some full plate stuff for Inta and get her actually fairly high resistances. This is not the end of this quest, and I fully plan to minmax the poo poo out of her so I can autopilot trash mobs to death.  This guy lives in the Temple of Alnarius, and I'm going to use him to reinforce a valuable lesson. : What has happened to threaten the safety of Yerengal?Don't do sidequests, because they're boring and they suck.  : A grim shadow has fallen upon many regions of Yerengal, including our own humble kingdom. Unnatural creatures are becoming more and more common, threatening all of Alnarius and Tilindia's creations. Naturally, Brother Wembly's part is to sit in the temple and eat Cheetos. : That sounds like a serious problem. All right, I'll do what I can.: Wonderful! Ever blessed are the righteous. I've had report of another horde of these abominations approaching the city from the southwest, along the Merchant's Road. Ensure you dispatch every last one of them.TheGreatEvilKing summary posted:
 So while our intrepid band of heroes are busily roaming the map looking for the undead let's talk about magic.  Each class has their own spell list for the most part, except spellweaver casts nearly everything. Spells are divided into level and then further divided into "base-energy" and "elevated-energy" spells. As far as I can tell, the entire purpose of this system is to make it so that player mages are way better than Bjalla here because elevated-energy spells are bolstered by both your supernatural score AND by being smart enough to dump your class skills into the right skills. They also run on separate cooldowns which can be reduced by taking the wizard-only skill, meaning that clerics get shafted again and are still useless.  Siracca as a cleric knows all the spells on her list because this is an inbred descendent of D&D, and we need to talk about the spell classes now. We have Natural (poison, healing, etc), Spiritual (holy light and pacification), Unnatural (spooky necromancy poo poo), Summoning (duh), Ritual (plot spells you can't cast), and... Oriental (sigh). The Oriental spells are supposed to be from the Rillow's djinni not-god who created his own spell school for poo poo like teleportation, levitation, a bunch of vaguely themed deserty spells... and this spell that summons the red spell of Japan to power up some dude with Banzai energy or whatever stupid poo poo. It's a grab bag of poo poo vaguely related to being Asian IRL, with the weird lore thing that all the other spell schools were created by actual gods and the oriental school was created by a djinni... who seems more adept at it than many of the actual gods. I don't know, and quite frankly I don't care.  An added "bonus" of the combat system is that your fragile mages will immediately run into melee combat with their staves after casting anything, requiring constant micro to pull the idiots away from the enemy fangs. Unlike Baldur's Gate, I cannot find a way to turn this off.  The undead are near the destroyed wagons in the battle outside the cap - wait a minute! If the Deron-Guld forces made it all the way to the capital, why is no one worried about this?  Apparently it's... a plague ghoul? Is that the plague in Deron-Guld? Why is no one worried about this?  We get this off an undead guy.  We slaughter more plagued undead.  I then gently caress up and misclick ordering the entire party to murderize Siracca. Reload.  Inta gains a level and maxes her Large Blades skill at... level 4. Hooray!  I then realize that with my planned build of "complete immunity to physical damage" there's literally no downside to berserking so whenever I remember to use this it'll be great.  Not pictured: him yelling at me because I missed a group. : I have slain every undead plaguing the Merchant's Road. What the gently caress? Again, we get another tedious greed choice after another tedious quest. : Thank you, Brother Wembly.He never gave the party his name - gently caress it. : I bless you in holy Alnarius's[sic] name.: Oh, may I take a look at that amulet you're carrying?That's right, it's a quest CHAIN! (of boring). : Hmm... I remember seeing it worn by a member of the previous groups who took up arms against the undead. He had a brother serving with the Brightguard, I believe. I advise visiting their headquarters, inform them of the sad news.TheGreatEvilKing summary posted:
 We go to the Brightguard headquarters to return the amulet.  Is this supposed to be funny or something?  : I found this necklace, one of the squires said it might be yours.Jailor: Ah, one of the squires, eh? I'm surprised they know anything other than whining and self-promotion. Show me what necklace you're talking about. Jailor: What? It's impossible... is it possible? Jailor: As the undead became more common on the trade routes, the high priests of the temple put increasing pressure on the Brightguards to clear the area. They deployed everyone they could due to manpower shortages, even taking my dear brother Bryson as a scout months ago, which is why I'm on watch here alone. I haven't heard from him since.  What the gently caress happened to the editors? Who is "God"? This setting runs off OC do not steal deities like Alnarius and Rothgor. "take this little gold piece" - he's offering 100 gold. gently caress it. : Thank you very much. I was happy to help.So the game basically told us that the Deron-Guld guys got the zombie plague right to the doors of the capital and it infected the capital's soldiers, and... nothing. It's not spreading or anything. The game doesn't tell me what the medallion does and I frankly don't care. Jailor: I wish you all the very best. Goodbye. TheGreatEvilKing summary posted:
 So, are you ready for the dumbest part of the greed system? Accepting contractually obligated quest rewards gets you greed. However, note above that we are breaking into this store under cover of darkness despite being 2 nobles who really don't need the money.  We unlock the chest and I gently caress up by not giving these to Inta and giving them to Hamlin instead. I missed that they gave +10 to all physical resistances. We'll put them on Inta next update. Anyway, guess how that affected the Greed meter. Go on, guess. IT DIDN'T! So accepting contractually agreed legitimate payment is greedy, but breaking into a store to steal expensive magical gloves is A-OK! What a great system!  This lady has a fetch quest to go get her some plants because she's getting run out of business from fantasy wal-mart. I'm snipping this.  This guy needs an item we can't get until Chapter 3, with the catch we can give it to a witch instead for more GREED but more cash.  We're gonna do this guy's sidequest to make a point. : Whose life are we talking about? : This is all that damnable Baflodac's fault - may Rothgor tear him into strips! That Greybark villain's goons abducted my dear friend Magnhild. They're holding her hostage, and I'm sure it will get much worse.: What do you need done?: I need someone to rescue my dear Magnhild. Baflodac's gang is a menace to all Isilbright. Someone needs to slap them down, hard - hard enough they'll never get up. We take a look at his stock.  This goes to Hamlin, who disproves the "exceptional strength" nonsense but can now contribute in fights for real.  This goes right on Inta because again, our goal is to get 100% physical resistance because gently caress this game.  I then go looking for the thugs while forgetting I never took the quest.  We get the witch's quest, where I think she's supposed to be bad because people are scared of her, but for all we know she's using it to make turbo healing potions. This game is dumb and nothing makes sense. She also sells Unnatural spells, so Bjalla learns life drain. We'll be back to teach Bjalla the fine art of making GBS threads out skeletons.  She also sells a 1/day resurrection staff I should probably grind for.  : That sounds like real trouble, all right. I'll see what I can do.: Thank you very much, Madam. It all happened in Greybark Square, just outside the southern end of the cemetery. I saw when they cornered her and immediately ran back here to safety - I mean, to get help. We find the thugs struggling with their fear of cooties because they cornered a girl.  The thugs suffer a mysterious wolf accident and die.  Magnhild fucks off after this.  Inta gets a one-handed sword that works with the large blades skill, and I'll be honest - we're switching to that because shields also grant straight up physical resistance.  : Magnhild is safe now. : Thank you Bellun. Good luck with your business.My guy we just paid you hundreds of gold. Of course, this is another GREED choice and by accepting the offered reward - which we never asked for, by the way - for risking our lives in combat the game thinks we were motivated by GREED and ramps up the curse. : Thank you again. Take my advice and stay away from Baflodac. Never know what that crazy bugger might do. Or say.TheGreatEvilKing summary posted:
So there you have it, almost all the sidequests in this game are tedious "go to area, kill everyone/fetch thing, turn down reward to avoid GREED" choice. We'll be skipping most of them - I want to do the character quests and one I remember that's unintentionally hilarious for all the wrong reasons.  The game is STILL throwing out tutorials, because they tacked on a convoluted "party level" system which is supposed to represent group tactics and familiarity - but you get a different set of benefits for constantly rotating out characters. As they don't gain XP when not in the party, it's absolutely not worth it.  On the plus side, with just the crap we found in the first real town - not counting the alchemists gloves Hamlin is currently using - we are really close to never caring about physical attacks again. Next time: Hamlin fucks us over.
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Jun 28, 2022 07:05
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: I'm going to utter a confusing line that could be interpreted as a sexual come on or a death threat.
: Help!
: We are bad men!
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So that was pretty wretched, and what I’m going to pick at isn’t important, I know, but I have to say it. “Pulse and Blow?” Really? What the gently caress led them to using that for Blunt damage. It’s such an arbitrary change, and it irritates me more especially because Slashing is still just Slashing.
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Jun 28, 2022 08:28
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Baflodac You're not kidding, those are some remarkably dull side quests. Although as I think about it, the side quests being dull isn't as big a problem as the characters being dull. I suppose they're relatively inoffensive, but every NPC (and party member for that matter) is just so hopelessly generic it's painful. I remember reading the Stygian LP, and that game on balance seemed even worse than this one, but even they managed a few memorable characters and situations- the unknown soldier party member, the theater sequence, even the innkeeper guy who keeps calling you a cuck for whatever reason. I can still remember those parts of the game a few years later. This game, it's been two minutes and I'm struggling to remember almost anything or anyone.
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Jun 28, 2022 09:34
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Keldulas posted:“Pulse and Blow?” Really? What the gently caress led them to using that for Blunt damage. It’s such an arbitrary change, and it irritates me more especially because Slashing is still just Slashing. The entire Oriental magic idea is just sheer WTF. Is the rillow homeland at least to the east?
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Jun 28, 2022 09:57
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I actually like what I see of the Thief so far. He’s kind of a douchebag, but that actually works in his favour as it doesn’t seem like a bad execution of it. The player characters inability to call him out for his poo poo is annoying, but that’s a separate issue.
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Jun 28, 2022 12:18
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Cadolfab
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Jun 28, 2022 12:30
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Is there even any point in doing side quests if you want low greed? XP I guess?
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Jun 28, 2022 15:04
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Mzbundifund posted:Is there even any point in doing side quests if you want low greed? XP I guess? You can reduce party greed by declining rewards. It's probably the optimal way to play for low greed because the game drowns you in loot. anilEhilated posted:The entire Oriental magic idea is just sheer WTF. Is the rillow homeland at least to the east? The Rillow come from the "eastern empire", yes.
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Jun 28, 2022 15:15
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why do I get the feeling I put more effort into slapping those eyebrows on Inta than the devs did into the entire Rillow race
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Jun 28, 2022 15:39
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I've been refusing monetary rewards in video games for the chance of a better reward later on since the 1990s. I thought it was very cool when I got a free combat shotgun in Broken Hills in Fallout 2, but that's coming up on nearly a quarter century ago. Codifying that poo poo in the plot with the curse of Greed doesn't strike me as clever or interesting. Well, at least not the stupid way it's implemented here. I was hardly even surprised when you showed off that stealing poo poo from stores doesn't do anything to increase Greed.
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Jun 28, 2022 15:45
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Psykmoe posted:I've been refusing monetary rewards in video games for the chance of a better reward later on since the 1990s. I thought it was very cool when I got a free combat shotgun in Broken Hills in Fallout 2, but that's coming up on nearly a quarter century ago. Codifying that poo poo in the plot with the curse of Greed doesn't strike me as clever or interesting. Main thing I'm getting from this is that in most cases, turning down a reward really does mean turning down a reward. No better loot later, you just spent your time doing something out of the goodness of your heart and maybe the ill-defined benefit of lowering GREED. There was an exception early on, but nothing in this update mentions that. It's an approach that has potential to really mess with us as players! We're all used to turning down rewards when offered to get some other, usually better reward at a later point. Flipping that around or peppering in the ability to turn down rewards at almost every opportunity and never giving a later benefit would cause strong emotions when people finally realize that yes, they've been actively sacrificing rewards for no mechanical benefit. It'd need to be a game that puts in some memorable moments to it though, as that strong reaction is likely to be very, very negative if the player cares about that sort of thing at all. Emotional payoffs are the main thing I can think of balancing against it. This is obviously not the game to attempt such a high-wire act.
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Jun 29, 2022 01:25
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Hamlin Fucks Us Over Welcome back! Last time on Black Geyser we did some of the most tedious and unimaginative side quests known to man. Today we're going to be continuing the main plot, which is to find Inta's birth certificate and present it at the Hall of Records to prove that we're actually Lady Espen.  We are now closer to our goal of getting 100% physical resistances thanks to the gloves Hamlin "liberated" for us last update.   The Espen Estate is infested with blue scorpions of large size.  They are easily handled by ordering the party to autoattack. The only thing to worry about is one of the non-fighters drawing aggro, and even then these things are jokes.  Is Eddie Murphy in this game????  Anyway, this starts Hamlin's quest chain. : What... what happened here? I have this selected because it's just a really weird line. The game pointed out already that Aldnar can't inherit the estate because he's a traitor to the crown. Thus everything in here - once our identity is proven - is legally ours. Who exactly is going to give a poo poo if we take our own property? : Undoubtedly. I suppose the wrong people heard the estate was abandoned and looted it. : Do you think whoever did this might still be inside? : All right. Remember we're after anything that looks like official documents.: Got it.TheGreatEvilKing summary posted:
 The treason room is totally smashed. It is also full of scorpions.  There's nothing here, but I want to point out that the AI, instead of going after Inta, had the scorpions circle to the right.  The scorpion appeared behind the front line, but had absolutely no problem just wailing on the fighters it could barely hurt instead of Bjalla's low HP rear end.  This feels like it should have some kind of emotional significance to our character, but the game's writers have so far managed to make nothing have any impact whatsoever. This is our father's house that we grew up in, and it's treated the same as every other boring CRPG dungeon.  There's a magic portal in this room with a manticore!  I order Bjalla to use a damage spell for once. The manticore is stupid easy and gets beaten to death.  The reward is this amulet that lets us cast a stun spell 2/day and makes us immune to illusions. It's apparently fluffed as that stupid labyrinth from Tides of Numenera.  Beline the not-Imoen has a sidequest for us. We are absolutely doing this because it's inadvertently hilarious. : What happened here? The damage seems excessive, even for bandit raiders. : It was all down to Aldnar and his... his terrible soldiers. I was already on my knees. I had thought I would be taken prisoner, and when they saw I would earn them no ransom perhaps they would release me. Or they would sell me for a slave, but at least I would keep my life. But they simply cut me down, with less fuss than a scullery maid breaking a chicken's neck. Then they held a great feast over the still-warm bodies. Even when his brigands had had their fill of mayhem, Aldnar egged them on. He wanted to see everything destroyed.I just want to point out we haven't seen a slave or seen any references to slavery at all. I don't have any quarrel with Aldnar hating Lord Espen so much he wanted to burn down the estate - it honestly seems kind of reasonable because Espen was kind of a piece of poo poo.  See all the monsters are in the house not because it was wrecked and abandoned but because Aldnar did it! Or something. : What is it that keeps you tied to this awful ruin?: It was Winona. I linger here because of my sister Winona. Since my killer didn't have the courtesy to give me an easy end, my thoughts lingered on her, when we last spoke in our home in Deron-Guld, as my belly bled into the straw. We had had a fight, you see, a terrible row, before I came here to work for Lord Espen. I thought I should hate her forever for what she'd done. From what I remember of this quest the writers are not nearly clever enough to tie this to greed for expensive jewelry. : Very well, Beline, I will find the golden conch for you.: You will? Thank you, Inta Rume, and please hurry! The pain of wandering through this shambles does not lessen; it stings just as badly as the day I was murdered. The family home was in Deron-Guld Center, on the east side of the Guild Hall. That is where you will find it.TheGreatEvilKing summary posted:
 The house is full of boring rear end scorpions, but they were summoned by Aldnar the Turbo Bad Man, a fact that does not make fighting them any more interesting.  I guess when they were trying to ruin the house no one thought to burn it, and no one searched this particular fallen bookcase either, even though you've been given strict instructions by your commander to loot and destroy the place.  The Birth Record posted:On the occasion of the Birth of Inta Rume "Harvestend". I'm sorry, this is nearly as bad as Dark Deity's VigorSun (and before you ask, that is somewhere in the LP queue). Let's talk about this a little more, because ultimately the birth certificate is wasted potential. Lord Espen raised us not as a noble daughter but as a weird servant girl reduced to menial tasks like serving drinks and being ordered around by maids. The game is strange about class - almost every noble is portrayed as an elitist foppish rear end in a top hat misusing aristocratic privilege to be rude to our hero and order them to run minor errands. Yet instead of actually having anything to say about hereditary aristocracy, they are not wrong to be rude to Inta because it's deplorable behavior but because Inta was secretly one of them all along, and indeed Inta can turn around and act snobbish toward the commoners. The game goes to great lengths to explain to us that Espen kept Inta as a servant to protect her from the Satanists or whatever the gods were afraid of, but he also conspicuously hired her the same expensive tutors and sword masters he hired for Aldnar and doesn't seem to have bothered to try to keep it a secret.  Ultimately the writing is just incoherent and doesn't have anything to say. Class seems like a theme - the rebellion in Deron-Guild is supposedly led by a council of nobles striving against the king - but the game awkwardly erases most of the common folk and doesn't have anything to say. At best it's just wish fulfillment - wouldn't it be cool if you were a hereditary noble?  Oh I guess it's a cutscene.  : Who could have done this? Naturally the game developers didn't change the dialog even though Hamlin presumably heard Beline's spiel. : They're not here now. Whatever they were after, I hope they didn't get it. Again, Beline explained who they were. I don't know... you know what, gently caress it. : The damage to the structure is extensive, and definitely not the work of thieves. Look at what's been left behind. : Something catch your eye there, Hamlin? It's a bit of subtle characterization where presumably Aldnar ordered his soldiers to leave his mother's portrait alone. This raises the question of why he just left Lady Espen's portrait behind if he cares enough to spare her, or if he actually cared why he just had random scorpions wandering around and poo poo - you know what, gently caress it, I've put in more thought then the devs did. : You - you're thinking how to steal that portrait, aren't you? : But what in Yerengal are you going to do with it? : Come, Hamlin. Stop lying to me. : Not good enough. Alright thread, we have a decision to make! Are we letting Hamlin steal the portrait of our dead stepmother? Choose wisely! TheGreatEvilKing fucked around with this message at 06:03 on Jul 1, 2022 |
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Jul 1, 2022 05:21
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Do we have any reason to give a crap about this painting or the woman it depicts? Hamlin can have it, whatever.
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Jul 1, 2022 05:34
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No portrait for you, Hamlin. Just deprive him of nice things, he deserves it.
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Jul 1, 2022 05:42
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Oh, and let Hamlin have the portrait. Brought him here, might as well see where he's going with this.
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Jul 1, 2022 05:57
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Arcanuse posted:think that's the wrong image, there? Fixed, ty!
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Jul 1, 2022 06:05
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Let him have the portrait The game has really not given us a reason to give a flying gently caress about that portrait. If there's a use for it that could actually gently caress us over, I'd actually like to see it, because that might vaguely approach 'cleverness', or as close as this dumb game is going to come.
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Jul 1, 2022 06:43
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BraveLittleToaster posted:No portrait for you, Hamlin. Just deprive him of nice things, he deserves it. Agreed. gently caress Off thief
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Jul 1, 2022 06:51
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On the one hand, no, why should we encourage and abet the unrepentant klepto, especially when we've got what we need to prove this is OUR poo poo at the very least WE could sell and get full price for, which he's only asking for nicely instead of just trying to slip it out because it's too big and we can paint the room with his guts? On the other, we never knew our mom, and there's no way we can just come back and spend a few months getting set up where Lord Espen left off with Aldnar running around, so what's even the point of keeping this poo poo? Plus supposedly this is going to end in a funny way so.... gently caress it, he can have it. That better be the right choice.
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Jul 1, 2022 07:00
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Ignatius M. Meen posted:On the one hand, no, why should we encourage and abet the unrepentant klepto, especially when we've got what we need to prove this is OUR poo poo at the very least WE could sell and get full price for, which he's only asking for nicely instead of just trying to slip it out because it's too big and we can paint the room with his guts? Also he's kindly asking for it, so clearly demanding payment or killing him to keep it would incur more Greed, so we should let him take the drat thing! I'm talking out my rear end, by the way.
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Jul 1, 2022 07:51
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Oh boy, a deep moral choice where we've been given no reason to care about either outcome! Eh sure, but you're carrying it.
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Jul 1, 2022 13:20
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Black Robe posted:Oh boy, a deep moral choice where we've been given no reason to care about either outcome! My feelings exactly +1
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Jul 1, 2022 13:28
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Meh, Let him have it. Had this been a better written game they would've sprung it upon you at a moment where it might've mattered. Or had something that made it matter. Otherwise 
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Jul 1, 2022 13:29
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