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I'd give 50-50 odds on whether this event means that orcs actually won't show up in future combats.
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May 4, 2024 14:59
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I would bet they still show up. They've made barely a token effort to adhere to lore once inside the combat engine.
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May 4, 2024 20:09
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Yeah, same, the world altering choice will perhaps get a slide in a possible ending diorama but you will be killing orcs until then. The orcs will be back for tower of time 2.
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May 4, 2024 20:17
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goatface posted:I would bet they still show up. They've made barely a token effort to adhere to lore once inside the combat engine. They've barely made a token effort for the pictures to adhere to the dialogue, never mind plot + combat adherence.
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May 4, 2024 21:42
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In a sense, it would've been entirely fitting and appropriate for this game's LP to sputter out and die of malaise, but I'm still glad you're soldering onward.
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May 4, 2024 23:29
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I Am Really Running Out Of Things To Say About This Game Welcome back to Tower of Time! Last time, we fought an orc chieftain who decided he needed to fight to the death to prove we weren't racists, then we got an arbitrary party vote on whether or not the orcs could come live in this dying world where people may or may not be able to grow food depending on which text from this game you look at first.  I do want to point out that I had to refight the boss because we paused mid dialogue, but the thread correctly called that this choice legitimately has no effect on anything else in the game. Remember those Daeva guys the game made a big deal of and how they could maybe use their energy being powers to help us with the Organthe? Yea...   : Let party decide. I'd love to tell you that we got an ending slide out of this, or even something crazy like an orc party member - maybe a witch doctor, a minigunner, a cyborg orc, or one of those black armored spearmen - but I really do get the impression the devs wanted this game to be over as much as the players do.  : Your champions have traversed nine levels of this challenging and deadly tower, overcoming every obstacle set before them. Though they may still argue and debate courses of action, your faith in them is as strong as ever. You let them decide the fate of the orcs on their own and in only a few moments, they decide, even orcs have a right to live.I thought the whole point of this plotline was that the orcs were people too and not "even orcs" - gently caress it. It's a Nick Macari incoherence special. Why the gently caress do I even bother?  These dumbasses can't even keep the orc leader's title straight between the fight and the dialogue.  : By dying breath and last blood, our lands lie open to you in peace and friendship. Send your men back through the portal and let it be known. It's all mediocre and lazy and I won't lie to you, we're not going to get much until we get till the ending which is probably the most "poo poo on the player" ending I've ever seen in a videogame. TheGreatEvilKing summary posted:
 I don't think I will.  Anyway, remember how all the party members had nominally their own personal quests, like how Rakhem was looking for adamantine and Aeric was looking for life oaks and poo poo? You don't? Boy, do I have words for you!  We've had first Rakhem adamantine subplot, but what about second Rakhem adamantine subplot?  : By the great spirits what was a child doing down here? : This is nae child, lass. These remains are dwarven. Yup...same old poo poo... : As Aeric and Maeve move off, Rakhem spots the straps of a map case tangled around the skeleton's leg. The dwarf quickly uncovers a map which cause his eyes [sic] to go white and his helmet to slide carelessly off his head, hitting the floor with a clunk. Yup. Remember way back when when Rakhem had to choose between Adamantine and saving his friends in the Daeva trial? Earlier in this loving game posted: : It may not be accurate...: Digging around in the map case, Rakhem produces a chunk of bright silver metal the size of his fist. : Congratulations, Rakhem. After we reach the bottom, you can follow the map and recover the very object of your desire. Your people will record your name in the book of First Kings. Jesus Christ! We have done "character finds thing and wants to stop expedition" before too, when Aeric tried to mutiny in the library! : Surely you don't mean to abandon us now, Chief. Not when we're this close to the bottom.: Ah'm truly sorry, lass, but ma people are counting on this discovery. Ah cannae jeopardize it for anything...: But we need your steady hands of iron and fire more now than ever, Master Smith. The challenges of the tower become more difficult the closer we get to the bottom... without you by our side we will be at a great disadvantage.: Rakhem slips the ore beneath his armor and clutching the dead dwarf's map in his hand, turns to leave in the opposite direction. This is actually not true, Proteus' dumb meld poo poo is stronger but slowly kills its user. : Rakhem takes up a torch, turns and sets off. : That's it, not even a goodbye to the companions who have risked life and limb at your side? ...to do what? Who are you going to fight? The other four races of Artara? Those guys are on the brink of death. The Thetans? The Thetans kicked your asses last time. I thought Proteus literally mind controlled you into coming here! : Forget it, let him go then. We have a tower to descend...I guess Kane mellowed out from when he threatened to beat the poo poo out of Aeric for pausing to take the books. Whatever. : Kane, Boron, and Whisper continue on as Maeve, Kaela, and Aeric watch Rakhem's torchlight fade in the distance. Shaking her head in disappointment Maeve turns and joins the others. Kaela sighs and turns to follow Maeve.: Good journey, Son of Rogheim. I hope you find the treasure you so desperately seek.TheGreatEvilKing summary posted:
 Rakhem is loving gone! We can't use him anymore! Just like that, they did a lame subplot retread and took him out of the party!  I vaguely remember Aeric leaving at this stage from my playthrough. It might be based on who has the worst affinity, but I honestly don't know and don't care.  I'm going to skip this puzzle on the ground that I want to rush the ending and get the damage over with, so to speak.   The game's graphics don't really stand out but I do like the sci-fi environments.  Oh, yeah, we have lore I guess.  I guess some of the tower magi started trying to talk to the Organthe.  Man this procgen loot is all rear end. Also the hilarity of Tier V items being "balanced" by draining the user's HP never gets old. Why the hell can't we just have a fifth tier we can't craft that makes it worth finding loot in the wild?  I want to point out that nothing has happened at all since we popped this dialogue box. We walked through a bunch of the level and picked up some loot, but I have not omitted any combat or dialogue or character encounters. : Strange to travel on without him. I somehow felt the dwarf's stubborn nature would see us through to the end... Suddenly, the light darkens for no reason!  And once again, we must ask ourselves "what was the point of all of this?"  This is filler. This is a complete waste of the player's time, the time it took to write this, the time it took to code this for a game that is clearly getting sloppier and sloppier the longer it goes, and even the introduction couldn't stay coherent with the information this is showing us.  I am not altering this in any way.   ...do you? You literally just abandoned all your friends for your own bullshit!  ...you guys fight all the time. TheGreatEvilKing summary posted:
I don't even know. The only thing I can take away from it is that Rakhem, having destroyed his only stockpile of mystery metal, is now 100% all in on Proteus dumb plan to save the world without having any option to hedge his bets. Next time: I bet you weren't expecting Spanish conquistadors, because Spain isn't even in this game!
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May 5, 2024 11:50
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: Before I die, why are you people so racist????
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Gosh, that sure was a super dramatic and emotional five minutes. So meaningful. There wasn't even a fight between his leaving and his coming back. If you just blindly click through the dialogue as fast as you can (and by this point why wouldn't you) it's probably completely possible to not actually notice he was gone.
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May 5, 2024 13:16
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Wow, Character Development (TM)!
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May 5, 2024 13:40
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I'm pretty sure that both HL: Full Life Consequences and DOOM: Repercussions of Evil have better character arcs, and both are intensely dumb parodies.
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May 5, 2024 16:15
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Burning the map makes zero sense. I assume it's intended as a grand dramatic gesture to show how strongly he's changed his mind but it falls flat when you think for a couple seconds and (1) realize there's no reason to burn the map and (2) it's actively counter-productive to the goal of rebuilding since a cache of super-strong metal has plenty of non-war uses.
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May 5, 2024 16:41
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I Read The Words, and Nothing is Happening Welcome back! Last time we had a Very Special Rakhem Character moment. Today the game is going to spew more words all over us and none of it will mean anything.  We need to breach the magic barrier to reach Proteus to, um, have him help us with the robots.  Why? I don't know.  We teleport into a new area as I go out of my way to avoid as much Tower of Time content as possible.  The game is throwing more item forges at us and I cannot bring myself to care.  We will need to craft a shield for Kane with this on it at some point.    Welcome to the game's next dull as poo poo collection of boring enemies.  This is literally middle school fanfiction level writing. : They don't look like Magi... or Ancients.: They're most certainly not Ancients... not as I remember my people anyway.: But their weapons... They seem similar to some of the devices from your time.: I guess there's only one way to find out.  : The newcomers surround your champions, condensing the bulk of their number around Boron, Rakhem, Whisper, and Aeric. Directed at these members of your party, their shouts continue to amplify in strength and frequency. Though you do not understand their words, they are clearly highly angered as if personally insulted.: The apparent leader of their group finally turns to face Kane, Maeve and Kaela... a single comprehensible word escapes his incessant shouts--"traitors!" Before anyone in your party can make sense of what's truly going on, a battle ensues. Spoilers: they're racists who were genociding the orcs.  Developers, I'm not saving the crafting crystals on principle, I'm saving them because your crafting system is boring rear end and I want to interact with it as little as humanly possible.  These assholes have some AoE stun grenades and crap, but it's still a tower of time combat which means you do the same loving poo poo over and over once your crap comes off cooldown.  Here we have yet another exhibit or boring rear end procgen loot. It is a staff made of adamantine, which Rakhem neither knows nor cares about. Wheee!  "Use hard CC to stop incoming damage" wow, really?  : You're hurt. I knew the last battle went more poorly for you than you let on.: It's nothing really. I just need a few minutes.: Nonsense. We stop here. Noble elf, we have need of your healing herbs. Baron Boron, some fresh water.. [sic] Maeve and Kane are in luv, you see. This needs to be reiterated in case someone forgot one of the exactly two things these characters have going on. : Nevermind people, we're not stopping here.: Seeing the concerned, befuddled look on Kane's face, Maeve sighs. A slight shake of her head and smirk.: Just help me walk for bit. [sic] TheGreatEvilKing summary posted:
 We put this on Maeve and not Kaela for reasons.  Only 34 percent? Dang! You can also tell when I just stopped trying and started rushing the exits. I know drat well the side quests are going to be boring fetchy poo poo probably involving turning on the water.  I decide that I don't even want to save scum this fountain and we continue our death march.  What does this have to do with our characters, exactly? We've been fighting golems all game and it's just been tedious.  Boring!  This goes on Kane to try to alleviate his mana problems.  : I don't like this... I get the feeling we're being watched. I love how calm this is. A surprise attack maybe murdered Whisper. This is delivered in the same dull clinical voice as I would describe taking a dump. : Ambush! It's one of those stupid trap battles! No, I don't know why the Pure are using arrows when they have a whole horde of women gunners. I don't even think they use archers. Shut up.  ..huh? This is not Earth. England never existed. Why do these characters speak English? I...gently caress it.  Nick Macari, on subplots posted:When working with subplots, keep this hard rule in mind;  : Another barrage of arrows cuts Kane off mid sentence. The leader continues, ignoring Kane's plea. The entire point of othering other people as a control tactic is to...well, portray them as the other. The word "humanoid" implies that the races to be exterminated are similar to humans. There are much better word choices to be used here, but this entire subplot violates Macari's own rules because it doesn't add poo poo to the narrative. Fundamentally, Tower of Time is a story about hubris and desperation. The various collection of disposable, uninteresting enemies have added nothing to it. I guess if we were being generous it would show that the humans and nonhumans in the party are getting along, but Maeve and Kane really showed no desire to kill any of the champions.  These guys don't do anything interesting and I kill them all.  The only interesting thing is that I have to waste time shooting half the party out of these dumb cages.  POWAH  : They are getting away! We must pursue at once.: Hasn't there been enough killing? Let them go...I don't remember Kaela objecting to murdering that robot or those orcs, but when the Nazis show up now we stop the violence. Not a good look missy. : Her Highness is right... they were able to set this ambush because they knew we were coming. If we let them get away, we could be facing more confrontations like this... all the way to the bottom of the tower. Oh look, another alignment non-choice in 3...2...1... : It looks like we've stepped into some sort of civil war between those strange orcs and these humans... If they both occupy the last levels of the tower, perhaps it is best to try to communicate and express that we have nothing to do with their conflict.Aeric, the Pure Empire personally wants you dead for being an elf. You're stuck here whether you like it or not. : Ah donna think they're gonna give us the chance to do much explaining... besides, if they use dishonorable tactics like an ambush, ah say, they get what's comin' to em. The game keeps trying to convince me these characters are going to start killing each other at any moment. That would be substantially more interesting than anything we've seen so far, so it won't happen.  Look, I know I've been letting you guys vote on choices, but I don't care. I just want this level to be over because it's boring poo poo. : Let the party decide. Like I said, none of this matters.    This is not an error on my part.  The game displays this crap twice. TheGreatEvilKing summary posted:
 The padding! The passion!  This sure exists. We might be able to enchant it with health regen or something. Who cares.  Come on... let the level end...   Unfortunately we had Deep Rakhem Characterization, and now we need Deep Boron Characterization.  : H-how can this be? A memory stone... among humans from another world?: The giant falls to his knees with a resounding thud. The sound recalls all your champions to the chamber. Weapons drawn, they rush to the frostling's side. Seeing no danger present they quietly sheathe their weapons.: What is it, Bigs?: An impossibility...: A memory stone? Sure, Boron. : Perhaps, they found it in the tower.: The only feasible explanation... yet, one that means... this stone, must be...: The misplaced memory yer people sent ye here to find. Boron might legitimately be the worst and weakest of all these characters.   : Boron gasps for breath that eludes him. He drops the stone, crushing the human corpse below it and stumbles back with a roar of pain.You have to remember, Boron's combat kit is all about generating rage that ultimately puts him in a homicidal rage so intense he actively refuses player commands.  Thus this whole poo poo with Boron being a pacifist - who never objects to actually fighting in any of the battles or anything meaningful like that - makes no sense unless this is addressed. Does he have the cliched version of dissociative identity disorder? : Every champion present recoils at the unrestrained rage.: Friend Frojae?: Boron!: Regaining his composure, Kane steps toward the frostling to lend aid, but Boron waves him off.: I am... ok.: Can you tell us? I don't even know what to make of this. Does he repress his memories after every fight? Is he just dumping all his hate and rage into a memory stone somewhere? That would be legitimately more interesting than whatever the hell this is. : Perhaps, it is... a mistake...: Or some sort of Organthe trick. This game introduces Boron posted:Jesus, I look back on that and it's a contradictory mess. Boron is a stoic warrior poet who flies into an uncontrollable homicidal rage in combat. It's just...what even is this? None of this makes any loving sense! I get that people like the warrior who fights for peace thing, but you generally don't do that by sitting around letting the bad people burn down villages. Or in this case let the Thetans eat their souls. Whatever. I believe we have firmly established this game is hella dumb. : Friend Frojae, ah cannae say this any other way... but ye truly are the most disciplined man ah huv ever met. Yer people should be proud to huv your memories among them. I can't parse this statement. I think Kane is saying warriors are needed to get to the bottom of the tower, but the crisis at the beginning of the game is that people don't have any food. The actual enemy of Artara are a bunch of godlike energy aliens who literally devour suns. There are no amount of human or giant warriors that can fight that with a sword. : Kane's words cut deep into the frostling, echoing in his mind in both the present and as a memory from the stone he just bonded with.: As the words linger, more memories arrive...ancient frostling memories beyond the time of the Archon stone. Memories of the great violent tribes and brutal frostling wars... but along with these visions of violence come memories of peace and cooperation... choices to unite in brotherhood and lead the frostling race into a new dawn.: Boron does not understand it all, but he hears an inescapable truth in Kane's words. The giant rises to his feet, his strength returned, his attention once again focused and clear. Everything we've seen so far is that the Organthe can't be defeated by violence. The old world was united in the war against the evil thought robots, and they fell into the Organthe's trap and died. TheGreatEvilKing summary posted:
 Maeve is disappointed it's not porn...she can sell for money.   Another fountain gives Kane 50 mana.  I am about to skip all the combat when, well...  I... I don't even know. There are a few of these guys running around, and they're all named after Spanish conquistadors for some reason. I legitimately don't know why! Remember, the real life Cortez got all the locals together to fight against the Aztecs because he wanted loot, not because he was driven by weird racial purity crap. Did Cortez act in a particularly moral manner? No. Does it make any sense to have a Cortez allusion here? No. Are these writers going to poo poo it down our throats anyway? Yes. The only explanation I have is that the Polish development team figured Cortez was obscure enough in Poland that it would be like your standard JRPG Christian allusion, but is that really true?  I dunno man.  We beat the poo poo out of him and move on with our lives. Next Time: An Aeric moment and the end of the level.
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May 6, 2024 03:33
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: God drat those are two sexy chicks. ELVES? DORFS? REEEEEEEEE!
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Is that... is that adamantine leather?! Leather isn't made out of ore!
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May 6, 2024 05:54
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Adamantine leather is clearly made by killing and skinning an adamantine golem, then curing its hide. 
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May 6, 2024 08:36
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"Last stand" armour that drains your health seems a bit poo poo. The naming conventions of their procgen system are confusing.
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May 6, 2024 14:12
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goatface posted:"Last stand" armour that drains your health seems a bit poo poo. The naming conventions of their procgen system are confusing. That's why it's called that, it's going to be your last stand if you wear an armour that kills you.
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May 6, 2024 17:39
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why do the "let the party decide" options result in a majority of the party being unhappy with the resulting decision
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May 7, 2024 13:51
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it flips a coin to pick the option
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May 7, 2024 14:04
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Eh, in this one case going in on the Run Em Down option would have been ok over the normal who cares. gently caress nazis
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May 7, 2024 14:16
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Gort posted:why do the "let the party decide" options result in a majority of the party being unhappy with the resulting decision
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May 7, 2024 14:36
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MagusofStars posted:The one person getting +2 is really loving passionate and just kind of steamrolls the discussion, so everybody else is like "I don't agree with this but this isn't worth the hassle, ugh, fine, we'll do it your way". This is the one that I found initially interesting: 4/7 party members were against the decision "the party" actually made
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May 7, 2024 15:16
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Electoral fraud!
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May 7, 2024 16:21
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Dude, Where's My Plot? Welcome back! Last time on Tower of Time we fought Cortez for some reason. Please don't ask me to explain, because this was pulled out of the game's rear end.  Fortunately for my sanity there is no dialog around this genre displaced Spanish Conquistador and we can continue on our merry way, free of such trivialities as "characterization" or "coherency".  Here we find another example of the game being up its own rear end. The idea of something growing stronger as hit is not even new in the genre space - the Borg from Star Trek and culendar or whatever Robert Jordan called it both have this trick. In Star Trek the adaptive shields were to show how technologically outclassed Picard and the gang were. Here we have more fluffing of Proteus because he's more powerful than the Eetazeeb Corporation. It's worth noting that in both examples the adaptive material is to show that the heroes can't prevail against the Borg or the Dark One's prison by just doing what they're doing and they need to find another way, but here we have a bunch of non-sequiturs because the developers have gotten too far up their asses about plot devices.  : Is that your brother? Proteus?: No... but when I look at these Magi, I see him clearly in my mind.: He must have been a great brother and a good friend. The Proteus we've seen has been egotistical, vainglorious, and constantly demanding sacrifices from others to empower himself. I will give Kaela a pass because she is his sister. : I know you think the Magi turned on him, but perhaps...: (turning away from the painting) My brother had a mastery of magic and knowledge far beyond the other Magi. Most shied away from him, either in fear or jealously. Even his friends regarded him from a distance - it always disturbed my brother... perhaps that's why we were so close. I know without question they are responsible for his fate.From the visions Proteus threw up the barrier to keep... well, we'll see. : Kaela turns and hugs Maeve. The hardness in the Ancient's face disappears, replaced by a softness and sparkle in her eye.: Thank you. Without you and your friends I think this whole experience would be unbearable.TheGreatEvilKing summary posted:
I can't tell if Proteus inspired fear because he was an egotistical nut who demanded sacrifice or whether people were just terrified of him being really powerful. Whatever, I'm not going to overanalyze Kaela's rose-tinted glasses too much. Onward!     : As each of your champions listens intently, a strange drawn out sound growls through the machine. It repeats itself, becoming slightly more clear each time. : It takes a few repetitions, but eventually, each member of your party clearly hears the ominous message. As the champions stare at each other trying to make sense of the message, a loud popping sound explodes from the machine followed by a puff of black smoke and sound of breaking glass.: A few hundred years without any maintenance seems to huv taken its toll.: Whisper's eyes narrow as if she is perplexed by the event.: What is it?: Strange.. If we are to believe that was indeed a voice of these Organthe... it would seem they were speaking to us, in there here and now[sic]... not the Magi of ancient times.: Fascinating. Perhaps the originator of this letter was correct in his or her trail of thought. If we could indeed speak with these creatures, we might be able to learn of their weakness or at the very least their specific plan of attack...: A moot point as the machine is clearly inoperable. Not pictured: an old man or a desk.  : Ahh, it is good to see you friends. Your journey goes well...: Good enough I guess... but how did you get down here and why are you down here?: The Tower has many unseen passages. Over the years I've uncovered a few of them... as for my reason for visiting this level--not so long ago, I uncovered a strange device that I could have sworn had voices speaking through it. I can't explain why, but I believe listening and speaking to these voices could be the key to saving Artara. In my spare time, I've been working to restore the device.: If ye mean the device with the two metal poles in the other room, ah donna think that'll do ye much good anymore...: The librarian jumps up with a look of desperation... and anger on his face.: You didn't turn it on did you?!: I'm afraid...: We didn't know.I believe when this character was first introduced there was a lot of suspicion on Kane and Maeve's part. However, the fact that this man wants a machine to communicate with the Organthe raises absolutely no suspicions on the part of any of these characters and Kaela should probably recognize this dumbass so... who knows?  I... I really don't think the devs gave the writers any indication of where this stuff would show up in game. This is still not good writing, but I can only assume the art team and the writing team were not allowed to communicate until the final product was mashed together to get us quantum rabbits. : All that work. All for nothing...: Can it not be repaired? Perhaps we can-- We may do this sidequest for the plot "reveals".  No! Bad Whisper! No fetchy! Also, Whisper is usually suspicious of people. Why is she blindly agreeing to fix the Organthe chat machine? : Yes, yes... it might work. But I'll have to start from scratch and recalibrating the machine takes quite some time. Oh by the Great Spirits, all that work lost... I know drat well no one engaged an editor. : There are components in the machine that degrade if it is not operational. They'll be no time for you to come back to the upper levels. Take one of these crystals. Set it to flame when you've found both components. It creates a pulse I can locate you with.: Whisper takes one of the crystals. The librarian wishes you luck and begins collecting his schematics from the floor.There is an entire robot manufacturing plant upstairs. TheGreatEvilKing summary posted:
 Nothing screams advanced future magitech like a crossbow.   Meh, whatever.   I skip this. I think it's more of the Tower Avatar story, but does anyone care? I can go back if anyone cares.  Isn't all magic the Organthe's power, or is this void power? Do I care? SKIP!   ...yeah, we're stuck with an Aeric Moment. : What is wrong Aeric? Do you sense anything?: Aeric points ahead, his hands shaking and eyes wide open.  We get forced to watch the party run across the screen. : What did you find, Horns? Again. That floaty gold thing? That was the seed. It was literally right out in the open, in that tank. Why do these developers have such trouble with basic consistency?  Why? Why are you doing this?  None of this is here! This adds nothing! Aeric finds a seed. You have a TON of poo poo going on already, do you need to vomit words everywhere?  Shut up shut up SHUT UP! : I've never seen a crystal like that.: (softly) There are few who have...: Do you recognize it, Elder? Is it valuable?Who am I to complain if more titles come out of asses? : Unless my eyes deceive me... It is truly priceless.: (stepping in behind Aeric) Priceless? Oh, he has an iron rod now? : A Life Oak Seed. I can see it's lifespark...energy from the natural world of the first age. It's... It's indescribable... This single seed will return life to the Endless Forests and give my people a second chance, despite the invaders' plans for Artara.The game has been extremely incoherent on whether or not magic existed prior to the arrival of the ALIENS. Of course the aliens also devour all forms of energy apparently, so who knows what this actually does. I'm not gonna blame Aeric for flipping out over the object of his quest. : Whisper floats past the others coming to rest before the druid. As she gazes at the seed, her eyes grow brightly.: This--cannot be.This is going to be stupid, isn't it. : What is it, your Highness?: I have witnessed firsthand a relic of celestial night. An item crafted from the very energy which gave the world form. My people know of no greater source of power... yet this simple seed rivals its power... perhaps, contains even more.: Whisper reaches for the seed, causing Aeric to recoil with narrowed eyes. I knew it. I knew it was going to be something stupid. : Stay back! Have you not heard anything I have said in all the time we've been together? This is the very reason I came to this place... it and it alone is the salvation of my people!: Don't be a fool. What good is it if we never see the surface again. The power of this seed is a gift... a gift we must open and make use of right now... while we still have the chance!: Do not mistake my passion for selfishness. The item of its making need not be mine. I will craft it for any one of us--as the group sees fit--but this is an opportunity we must not waste.: Aeric's hand tightens around his weapon. For the first time you feel one of your champions actively resist your bond. The druid's will is so resolute your connection weakens with each passing moment.I want to say Whisper resisted during the Daeva trial, but I'm going to be honest, I don't care. It's another potential inconsistency in a toilet bowl filled full of watery poo poo. : This may very well be the last Life Oak seed in existence. Its power is not to be squandered in the creation of an item of men, no matter how powerful or useful it may be. Not pictured: any of this poo poo. : The shoots sprout and grow with unnatural speed. In moments the entire nook is covered in lush greenery and unrecognizable exotic blooms.: Your champions stand in awe before the natural power of the seed. All except one. The world is literally dying because there's no food and you have a magic seed that instantly makes plants grow. Why are you even discussing this? Come to think of it, what are these guys eating?  How is that the truth? Whisper is no less guilty of taking the seed and proposing to squander its power on some kind of magic item. It also looks like the seed is actually usable as is, so maybe they could let Aeric have the seed to turbocharge his magic and then use whatever power remains for such trivialities as "restoring the soil" and "growing food". No? : The very fate of elvenkind rests on my shoulders. My people will live or die by this seed. I cannot fail them. : (firm) Enough, your Highness. The druid came to this tower seeking the very thing he now holds... It is his to do as he wishes and there is nothing more to be said on the matter. Now, let us move on. : (mumbling) Life always finds a way... Oh COME ON! : Your champions stop and look back at the druid.: We elves have carried the burden of my peoples' self-centered decision for far too long. It is time we absolved ourselves of that wrong. This seed is the single greatest hope for elvenkind, but if you believe it will better serve all of Artara by another means, so be it. Take it and do as you wish...with elven blessings.  Hmm. Do we save the life oak seed to restore the ecosystem so we can eat, or do we give it to Whisper to do dumb poo poo? Do I actually care enough about this game's narrative to make a choice? No! : Let party decide. Despite Aeric being the guy making a big deal of giving the seed up, he is now Big Mad and will nerf everyone's mana regeneration as a result. : Your champions are making sacrifices for one another. They are forming a bond of brotherhood you dare not interfere with. You withdraw your will and let them choose as a group, on their own. Yeah, it's a literal item in this game's poo poo itemization system. : Whisper accepts the seed with an intense wide-eyed look on her face. Boron places his hand on the druid's shoulders.: I do not believe your people will live or die by a single tree, no matter how powerful. There will be another way, you will see.: The balance has truly turned in our favor. Now, what item shall I forge with such unimaginable power? lmao of course it has the black demon seed TheGreatEvilKing's martyrdom posted:
Hilariously this item is best for Aeric, the guy who could tap the seed for power. It's real fuckin dumb!   I'm skipping this on the grounds of "gently caress this game". Don't worry though, we have some DEEP LORE!   : He stood up and approached the portal. OW posted:He projected all his life force into an energy disc and thrust it into the portal. : When he and the other magi had devised the plan, they were hoping that the different laws of physics in the two universes would negate each other at the connection point and yet co-exist at the same time.Huh? Earlier in the game posted:
They did this. The entire point of giving everyone free infinite mana was that if they used the mana the laws of physics in Artara would change to a point where they could support the Organthe. The entire thing with the Thetan Thought Robots was to trick all the Artarans into using magic in self defense to change the laws of physics. Why are they suddenly holding firm now? : They assumed that their energy would nullify energy of the Organthe, creating a void zone which nothing could cross...But I thought the Organthe ate energy - gently caress it. : When he heard a mind-shattering cry of rage from the other side he knew they were correct.: The bridge was blocked and the Organthe could not cross.: As long as this one was opened, they could not form a different bridge elsewhere.  : The portal, the bridge - still connected to him, was taken deep below ground. : His life-force the only thing preventing destruction. Two opposing forces waiting ever since for the resolution of this struggle.: Proteus can hear the Organthe's whispers from the other side - pleading, begging, reasoning.: He can also feel their thoughts - boundless maddening rage - but also their equally infinite patience.: For the Organthe know that nothing in the universe is eternal, apart from their hunger. TheGreatEvilKing summary posted:
 Thank Christ! Next Time: Actually fighting the Tower Avatar.
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May 10, 2024 03:53
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: We are the Organthe. We are good. Proteus is lying to you. Organthe are super cool, and would never eat entire planets.
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Part of me is morbidly curious about that plot beat you skipped. The rest of me, which is the vast majority, says gently caress that poo poo, keep going, the writing doesn't deserve your attention, let's get this tire fire dealt with.
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May 10, 2024 05:33
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good lord is this still going on. why are you such a masochist? 
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May 10, 2024 09:01
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So, I haven't been able to read the last 4 updates or so because the game has been incredibly bland and/or insipid garbage. Generally with the LPs, the game has provided a generally unintentional but funny hook to it. Whether that be Dark Deity and the Evilest Protag Party (Hail Queen Sloane!), or Black Geyser's tendency to have randomly interesting characters but completely underutilized characters, like the Necromancer chick or the Sea Hag. But this crap is so overwrought and feels like it's been going on forever. Huh, I just realized what I think the problem is. This game has been going on really loving long, and with absolutely nothing of substance happening. I think it's gotten to Dark Deity's length by this point? And it's not even done? Dark Deity had the 'advantage' where the gameplay and the story was completely segregated, so I could skip the gameplay and just read the disaster writing as part of a quick perusal of a car crash. But because this game just intermixes it much more, the hideous gameplay is much harder to skip now, and it's just padding the length. Dark Deity also made me laugh sometimes, even if it was completely unintentional on its part. I also can't remember poo poo about what happens in this game. The thing that's stuck with me longest was Schroedinger's Rabbit at the start, and that's because of just how awful a first impression that was.
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May 10, 2024 09:30
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lol that nobody but Aeric and Whisper gave a poo poo over whether the world gets to have food in it or not
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May 10, 2024 09:57
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Since the game brought up the upside down nonsense again: It is rather convenient that whoever designed this tower thought enough to put all those stairs, planters and even computer terminals in the ceiling. Have we ever seen what the ceiling(that used to be the floor) looks like?
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May 10, 2024 12:08
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Dammit devs, stop bringing up the stupid plot point that is not represented in your game in any way and makes no sense.
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May 10, 2024 15:09
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It's so good when they remember for a few sentences and then completely forget again for the next several hours of game.
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May 10, 2024 15:32
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Poil posted:Since the game brought up the upside down nonsense again: It is rather convenient that whoever designed this tower thought enough to put all those stairs, planters and even computer terminals in the ceiling. Have we ever seen what the ceiling(that used to be the floor) looks like? Honestly, the whole thing feels like a first-time pen-and-paper DM pulling something out of their rear end to make it seem exciting (it's a tower but not just any boring old tower, it's special because it's upside down! isn't that so cool???) without doing any effort to deal with the logistics, implications, or so forth. Then as soon as the players start asking practical questions about "oh, what does it look like inside?", "are we walking on the ceiling", "well, how do we change floors inside", "do we need to carry around portable ladders to climb every time we want to check something on the 'floor'", etc, it gets completely dropped because the DM has no loving clue how to handle any of that.
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May 10, 2024 20:01
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And the thing is, it could have been written to be interesting, and still look "normal" upside-down. The characters could remark on that being a thing. Maybe it was originally a tower that was right-side up, but then was driven into the ground at a ley line or something to provide power to what is now the top of the tower (and maybe that was precipitated by an emergency), and because this happened so long ago, the wrecked interior was cleaned up and rebuilt into its current form. Or maybe the tower framework was built, and while the tower was empty, it was decided to flip the thing and impale it into the dirt, then they finished the interior off. Or maybe Proteus just royally hosed up a spell, or made a spell that was just that powerful and flipped only the exterior of the tower, leaving the interior intact. Or, in the absolute simplest form, when you walk into the tower, you reorient your gravity to walk on what used to be the floor and is now the ceiling. Solidifies the place as thoroughly magical and perhaps cut off from reality and the rest of the world. Hell, maybe you fight a gravity-manipulating security system that flings you between the floor and ceiling and you find out that it's just a thing the tower is built to do for some reason. There are dozens and dozens of ways to write that detail of the setting that are consistent, and it doesn't even matter if it's central to the plot or not. All the writers needed to do was be consistent and do something with it. If it's a big deal, have the characters remind us a lot until we find the answer. If it's not a big deal or if it's played for laughs, remind us once or twice, then give us the reveal somewhat early on. But the writers just don't care, and so what could and should have been interesting is just bland and inconsistent.
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May 10, 2024 22:21
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It's magic, I ain't got to explain poo poo. But really, this would be the simplest explanation Dirk the Average posted:Or maybe Proteus just royally hosed up a spell, or made a spell that was just that powerful and flipped only the exterior of the tower, leaving the interior intact. So of course the devs didn't take it. Consistency between writing and gameplay? That's for cowards.
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May 10, 2024 23:17
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My explanation I'd use for a flipped tower is that the magic just flipped the order of the floors. So that the first floor would be what the top was, and vice versa. It would even give room for the floors to start out relatively normal, like you could have people going through bedrooms and personal living spaces that were previously in the high floors with the nice views and everything. And then get into the weirder, more industrial/magical floors as the places they actually were doing their work. So it provides a bit of an escalation in how important the floors are based on that. I don't have an explanation now as to what I'd use to justify this, but hey, the writers here haven't done any of that either so whatever. Of course, that doesn't remotely work in this game where the floors feel completely unrelated to each other, and you have poo poo like sewers in the middle of the tower (???). You can't just say you're going to flip the tower, and then have the floors still oriented normally. As shown, the writers can't even have consistency between writing and writing, so trying to expect consistency between writing and gameplay is an utter lost cause.
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May 10, 2024 23:48
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Shei-kun posted:Part of me is morbidly curious about that plot beat you skipped.  I kinda wanna know, but I can't imagine it'd be worth it. If it's trivial to do whatever it needs then I guess could check, but. ehhhhhhh.
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May 11, 2024 00:59
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