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I think Utopia's comment back in the Valley is supposed to be more questioning on the 'civilization' aspect of the device- she's not asking if it's an alien device but more wondering about where the device came from and who put it there and activated it. It's obviously an alien device but as far as anyone in the colony knows they all disappeared millennia ago, so the fact that it's still working is a mystery. That said, it does come off as a pretty abrupt transition since they apparently only found this for the first time when you run across it. It would've made more sense if the valley even was the first in a chain and you had to go through multiple events to unlock the ridge, but presumably the developers didn't want to wall off a new location for too long. e. Update on last page.
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Apr 20, 2023 22:56
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Maybe you're supposed to fail harder at the earlier events so that these guys swooping in should be more of a rescue than it was in this playthrough? Still dicks though.
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Apr 20, 2023 23:05
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I'd assumed that the survey crew had already done some initial looks at the Ridges and found some of their architecture even under Tonin - we've known about the four surrounding regions since the start of the game, after all - and were just keeping that knowledge under their hats until they could do something with it.Szarrukin posted:Before we begin, I want to say something: I don't like Heliopause characters. I consider them very bland comparing to Stratosphere team. Not only basically all of them can be fully described with two words ("nonbinary weeb", "furry jock", "xenophobic dick" and "incompetent fascist"), game tries very hard to make us like Rex (noticed how one of the first possible reactions was "wow, he so hot!"?) and hate Vace (he's the only kid with absolutely no redeeming qualities) and, at least in my case, totally fail in former case. Marz might be an rear end in a top hat sometimes, but at least she's interesting person and has some character development.
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Apr 21, 2023 00:09
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Szarrukin posted:Before we begin, I want to say something: I don't like Heliopause characters. I consider them very bland comparing to Stratosphere team. Lum's fine for what he is and his role in the narrative, but all three teens suffer from the way the game solves the problem of introducing & befriending them in half the time afforded to the rest of the posse. Nomi suffers greatly from the fact that the game needs to infodump on the player about them, and Nomi themself is a very wordy and infodump-prone person. The sudden walls of text one can run into with Nomi break the overall rhythm of the game to me, and they can get very annoying on a first playthrough when you talk to them, expecting a quick check-in (like the low friendship interactions with the original gang) and encounter a sudden novella. Rex goes the opposite way with the character being entirely reliant on being an affable puppy in human form. If that's not likeable to the player, tough luck, there's no gradual intro and build up, deal with it. And finally, Vace is a dickface and is afforded zero neutral or easy-going establishing interactions, unlike baby Tang and Marz were. I have no idea why the writers don't bother to establish some reasons the player character might want to get closer with Vace. Player wanting to 100% the game isn't a character motivation, writers! One does not need to romance any of the characters to learn about them and their qualities, though. Friendship is enough. Rex is afforded a very simple way to rack up regular friendship points, Nomi's milestone events all give multiple points so the player might be able to almost chain them.... and Vace, well. You kinda need to commit, unfortunately. Birthday presents and activities he likes, plus saying stuff he wants to hear until you're past 70-80 friendship points. You can lose points here and there, but the math is pretty tight, at least if you want to do stuff other than invest in Vace, which most people would. Issues of player character motivation aside, Vace is pretty interesting to get to know. He is an actual, literal child soldier, which might deserve some compassion. Annoying bullshit that they are, his interactions are very simple to navigate, and to help you persevere through it, you can always assume that everything agreeable to Vace is said as sarcastic mockery. The player character does not need to be a bully to befriend Marz. And they do not need to be a fashy bootlicker to befriend Vace, either. But they do need to learn when and how to confront people, and to maybe not antagonize walking bundles of ptsd needlessly. Even if they would deserve it. Szarrukin posted:Last update Utopia was like "weeeell, MAYBE there was an ancient civilization here" after we found some xenotech and now we already have both a name for it, strange devices "all over the region" and location of entire ruins? Did I missed some event? I don't think you missed any events. There's something slightly wonky with both the writing and the event chaining. I think the whole exploration line is written with the assumption that the transition from Prosaic Plains to Wresting Ridges is interrupted by the need to go to Valley of Vertigo to forage, and thus you get a longer interruption between the thumper discovery and getting to the Ridges. Also the "holy poo poo xenotech" event is supposed to happen on Prosaic Plains (it uses Plain's background, despite this playthrough getting to trigger it in the Valley), and probably earlier than this playthrough got it. Szarrukin posted:And you've already managed to decipher their glyphs??? Even when we put aside how unrealistic is to decipher alien writing AT ALL just from archeological sources - we still don't know how to read our own Terran scripts, like Linear A or khipu, not to mention language of other sentient species (even our Terran ones like dolphins) - two months ago you had no idea these ruins exist at all! To be fair to the game, no one at any point claims the colonists manage to decipher any writing; I think we're supposed to think "Convergent Domain" is a name of the "Yamnaya" or "Bell Beaker" style, so whatever the glyphs looked like is what inspired the name. It's still an awkwardly weird name. It's doubly weird given what we can learn about the xeno civilization - doesn't seem like a thing they themselves chose as a name, nor a thing that is a good metaphorical descriptor for them. Maybe I just don't know English well enough to get it.
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Apr 21, 2023 20:19
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Re: the Helio kids, Rex does have an easy path to raise his friendship (he loves logs, which at this point in the game you're probably swimming in) and you can give him a hug once per season for extra points. Nomi-nomi doesn't have that, but they have plenty of extra events at some of the jobs you might want to do (they have event chains at playing your weird holo-flute thingy and at robotics, maybe a few others), and they also start showing up at the prosaic plains where you can regularly save them from getting eaten by an alien vanilla flower or whatever for extra friendship points. As characters, I do think they suffer a bit from the writers trying too hard to endear them to you on their opening events so they can catch up with the rest of the gang, which makes their early interactions feel less natural than with the other kids, but I do think they get better with time, and their late events are pretty sweet. Vace is just... Vace, though. His friendship route is less about becoming friends with him and more about getting him to be less of a piece of poo poo, which only happens at the tail-end of the game. The IWATE forums are full of players going "i wanted to 100% Vace's route for the sake of completionism but it's not worth it, jesus loving christ this guy sucks". The only things he likes are cakes and the weird alien artifact thingies, and that's not enough to max his friendship unless you've maxed out the social skill that lets you give gifts every month instead of every season (creativity? empathy?). You'll have to go hunting with him otherwise, which is basically playing yes-man as he butcher and teabags every lifeform he comes across. also re: the flirting with Utopia, I think if you pick the two play-flirt lines you get with her and then you get a specific game ending while remaining single, the epilogue says you eventually start a relationship with Utopia later in life.
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Apr 22, 2023 19:43
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The flirting with Utopia thing - and flirting with Dys this update too come to think of it - reminds of something I appreciate about this game. The usual formula in this kind of visual novel for ending up with a particular character is to get as high a friendship with them as you can and take every romantic option that's presented to you. But in Exocolonist all the "flirt" options mean is that you're attempting to flirt, and the characters you're flirting with will respond appropriately to their personality - it won't necessarily get you any closer to dating them.
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Apr 22, 2023 20:38
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to give another viewpoint, on my first playthrough my response to encountering Rex was to take a look at the various personality disorders I had previously dealing with and go "yeah, drama-free new guy it is then." so at least personally the attempt at rapid onboarding worked out flawlessly.
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Apr 22, 2023 20:56
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I think you can learn a little more about Rex through Nomi since she's the chattier one - and is, I think, actually the less guarded one. Rex has the vibe of someone putting on a personality all the time. Getting Perception to 100 rules but also means that you have to intentionally walk into some story/lore-giving events that would otherwise be 'mandatory' (at least when exploring). This feels like about the 'right' place to get it. This has been an exploration heavy 'first' playthrough. My partner recently started playing the game and barely explored at all on their first run, which I thought was interesting. I also found out that something I thought would 'naturally' happen on an explore-y playthrough is something I was lucky to have happen in the right way - I don't think this run will see it.
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Apr 23, 2023 02:33
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Tenebrais posted:The flirting with Utopia thing - and flirting with Dys this update too come to think of it - reminds of something I appreciate about this game. The usual formula in this kind of visual novel for ending up with a particular character is to get as high a friendship with them as you can and take every romantic option that's presented to you. But in Exocolonist all the "flirt" options mean is that you're attempting to flirt, and the characters you're flirting with will respond appropriately to their personality - it won't necessarily get you any closer to dating them. Yes, I love how Clarity is all like "I REALLY like you Dys, yes, in this way" and Dys answers are basically "...but why?". It both shows how incredibly insecure he is and is actually pretty funny.
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Apr 23, 2023 17:26
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Szarrukin posted:Yes, I love how Clarity is all like "I REALLY like you Dys, yes, in this way" and Dys answers are basically "...but why?". It both shows how incredibly insecure he is and is actually pretty funny. Whomst among us
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Apr 23, 2023 18:46
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Szarrukin posted:Yes, I love how Clarity is all like "I REALLY like you Dys, yes, in this way" and Dys answers are basically "...but why?". It both shows how incredibly insecure he is and is actually pretty funny. The true LGBT experience, tbqh
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Apr 24, 2023 02:29
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Tenebrais posted:The flirting with Utopia thing - and flirting with Dys this update too come to think of it - reminds of something I appreciate about this game. The usual formula in this kind of visual novel for ending up with a particular character is to get as high a friendship with them as you can and take every romantic option that's presented to you. But in Exocolonist all the "flirt" options mean is that you're attempting to flirt, and the characters you're flirting with will respond appropriately to their personality - it won't necessarily get you any closer to dating them. Really late on this but I actually like that the romance in Exocolonist works very similarly to what you'd expect in your standard Visual Novel, it just adds an extra little snag that changes the experience. Your routes with the characters are mostly based on friendship, you don't really "raise romance points". Instead, at various points during your route you'll get these little chances to flirt, and you won't get a positive or negative reaction, you'll just get a reaction, which will suit the character's personality, so Marz or Rex will play along, Dys and Anemone will respond with gay panic, Nomi will be a loving nerd (affectionate), Tang will be a loving nerd (pejorative), etc. Then later on you'll have a point in the route where you can choose whether or not to start a relationship (I thought that it was one specific moment per character, but it seems at least a couple of them have multiple events where you can make the choice), and I don't know the exact math but it seems the only requirement is to have expressed romantic interest. Since this essentially makes all flirt options equal and mostly optional (because one or two is all it takes for the gameplay purpose of unlocking the romance route), you are free to choose which ones to pick. You can use the smarmy ones, the stupid ones, the "jesus christ i actually said this in my teens i thought this game was about a better future for mankind" ones, whatever. So I think this adds to the roleplay experience, but it actually does so by taking away some of the mechanics we're used to.
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May 12, 2023 20:19
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SexyBlindfold posted:"i thought this game was about a better future for mankind"
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May 12, 2023 20:58
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Once more I'm sorry for making you wait and I hope you are still with me. Anyways, welcome back to "This Rimworld Colony Looks Really Bad"  I managed to guess Nomi's birthday, yay me!   Unfortunately we can ask only one question.  Why did the Helios know about mom?  I saved this colony from starvation AND from space cordyceps. I think I can handle it. I am not too young! I thought the same about myself once. I was wrong.  At least one of them is OK, I guess.  We are close to 100 points in Animals    Nothing interesting.   Level 3 perk isn't also anything to write home about.   I'm pretty sure this month is Cal birthday but alas, we do not have anything he likes.  On the other hand, this is a perfect chance to finally do some shopping.  I mean, who doesn't like cake for birthday  Good for you, pal.   Yeah, we remember that one.  I wonder what would happen if we never found one? Would the game just assume that we know what it is anyway?   There's also a second event, perhaps it would jump straight to this one?    Aw, I wish we could help. We've had some good time on Cal's hoverboard.   Poor Cal.   Our next focus is going to be Biology.  And for that we are going to study radioactive plants.  Game explaining why Clarity is still alive after absorbing some serious amount of radiation last month.  So of course we are going to do this again.  In the immortal words of Anatoly Diatlov - not great, not terrible, please continue.    There is a botanist crying somewhere there.  Early Wet is Marz birthday.  I never mentioned it before, but obviously teenage Marz lost a few pounds compared to child Marz and as a pretty big person myself I was kinda sad, because no matter what are my personal feelings about her, alpha bitch, no-nonsense, literally shameless Marz being also plus-size would be pretty good representation, and there is still not enough plus size important, non-villain characters in videogames, especially female characters. (customizable player characters do not count).  Well, I've had better conversations this year.  Time to relax with Vriki   Good Vriki.  A final upgrade.  Keep grinding Biology.   TANG, WE MUST COOK.   Uh, okay, so you are hearing voices now. And, judging by what we know about this planet, it's pretty fat chance that these voices aren't imaginary.  Yes, you are totally not addicted, you can stop whenever you want, yadda yadda. Seriously, what's up with kids and drugs in this colony.  Have fun.   Sup.   I could swear we've already had this conversation, but I might be mistaken.  I like to believe that Clarity was being sarcastic and Tang has completely missed it.   Obviously none of the adults noticed that teenage girl that also happens to be our second best scientist is addicted to drugs, malnourished and sleep deprived (even despite her augumentations). Great job.  Anyone who knows Tang for more than five minutes knows, that pointing out her moment of "weakness" isn't the best idea.   I'm always here to listen, TangTang manages a watery smile as she wipes her eyes  Thanks. I apologize for being all... wet on you. It won't happen again. You don't say, Clarity.   Oh, Late Wet also happens to be Tang's birthday.  Expedition time!   Boy, this place is surely lot of fun.  I love how Clarity just smashed it, without considering whether it has any defensive mechanisms or, y'know, what if it just explodes.  oh hi Dys.   I think you all know what am I going to do.  aw.  I'm sure it will be easy...   Yes, he saved our life again.   So we got one person with no sense of fear and one person with no sense of shame.  Next event please.   Our own secret place. :3  Dys, you are starting to sound like an incel again. Please stop. I still remember that creepy "burn Marz" game, bro.  Sure thing it's our secret!   Even if he isn't interested in us in romantic way, he is a pretty cool friend. Next event!   oh crap   um, good airsquids?   Perhaps it's Dys once more making sure we are not getting ourselves killed?  Final event!   I love how she openly admits that she's sending children there because it's too tight inside for adults. She sounds like 19th century factory owner.  Not that we mind, obviously.   I don't think we have any experience with spelunking. Even with antigrav belt it sounds ridiculously dangerous.  Not to mention that we already know Domain's tech can influence our mind.   Even with maxed out Perception it's really hard test.  Once more.   Bingo.  Reading this makes me feel uncomfortable, and I'm not even a claustrophobic.    Our Perception training pays off...   And it looks like we've hit the jackpot.   Utopia quickly handwaving how she managed to join us so fast.  Yes, we need to have ZERO stress to progress futher. It means that without third Perception perk that makes possible to avoid events there's no way to progress.  Lucky for us we have it, so we are going back next time. But for now...  Another Glow. Another attack incoming.  We try to relax.   Look how we went from "oh my gods, what is happening" to "huh, awfully early this year".  Of course we aim to misbehave.   Looks like someone is a glory hound.   But for the first time ever, we have an advantage.   At least nobody died this time.   Perhaps there's hope after all. 
Szarrukin fucked around with this message at 11:49 on Jun 2, 2023 |
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Jun 1, 2023 23:49
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Szarrukin posted:Oh, Late Wet also happens to be Tang's birthday. Rogue AI Goddess fucked around with this message at 00:16 on Jun 2, 2023 |
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Jun 2, 2023 00:14
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Rogue AI Goddess posted:Tang and Dys are twins, after all. ...failing to realize that wasn't my proudest moment.
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Jun 2, 2023 00:16
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Ey new portrait, looking very confident there Clarity. With regards to the rad plants, something that apparently Clarity didn't think about and I'm not sure the devs know but: radioactivity is, almost entirely, a nuclear phenomena, not a chemical or biological one. It is a trait of the nucleus of the atom, and thus hard/impossible to change by mucking about with its electrons, chemical bonds, what tissues its in, etc. This isn't to say that a plant couldn't create a radioactive organ. It very much could! It would do so by absorbing existing radioactive materials from the soil and then concentrating them in whatever part of the body it wants. Which has two meanings in potential in game uses: one is that the soil is pretty irradiated (or else these plants couldn't exist), and the other is that these plants could be a strategic tool for de-radding the soil! Sure they've got med beds but I doubt they're med-bedding all the soil before they plant stuff; doing a few rounds with these rad flowers before planting food should increase yields pretty significantly. This isn't so much a criticism as just a neat little thing. And if you're wondering, this is also partially a real-life technique (phytoremediation). Not AFAIK for radiation specifically but for heavy metal in soil. There are several plant species that absorb heavy metals pretty significantly (AFAIK its not so much that they're adapted to do so on purpose so much as other plant species are better at not doing so), so you can grow the plants, harvest them, and then either just bury the harvested materials in some other location where its unlikely to matter or separate out the heavy metals (which can be economically valuable, just not so much in your groundwater). Anyway I just thought this was neat. Szarrukin posted:...failing to realize that wasn't my proudest moment. lol
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Jun 2, 2023 07:22
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Comforting Tang: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1601-CSKyL4
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Jun 3, 2023 08:47
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Hello again, this time much shorter update. Starting wih our boi Dys   Well, there certainly was sentient life on this planet, so I see no reason why it shouldn't be still here. If there is, we've never met it. Of course I keep going to make Dys uncomfortable, he's so cute when he blushes. Are you... flirting with me?   I give him some alien whatchacallit as an apology gift for teasing him and he loves it.  Now our resident furry boy.  Fun fact - I never noticed it before, but he has heterochromia. Kinda like, you know, husky dog (or myself). Sure, what kind of game?  I am going to regret this question, don't I? What do you mean... more interesting? Well... have you ever kissed anyone?Yup, I do regret this question (also I genuinely do not remember if we did, I'm just going to assume that we don't). No... not yet. Really? Wow, but... you are so pretty and cool.He puts his hand on yours and leans in, looking at you with sincere expression I'd love to be you first kiss, ClarityNo, I don't think so. Uh, no, thank you. That's fine, we don't have to!Say what you want, at least he's not an rear end in a top hat about being rejected.  Is 50 kudos okay? Of course! Whatever you feel comfortable with.Wait, how does it work? I thought kudos are less an actual currency and more like points that can be redeemed for prizes in department store and nowhere else, seeing how most things is made by replicators and there are, from what I understand, free of charge. I think it's the first time we see kudos being transferred from one person to another.  Anyway, new artwork!  What do you like to do for fun? Talk to people mostly. I like to see what everyone's doing, and help them with stuff if I can. I just really like being around people! I like doing what they are doing! Oh, and cuddling of course. And running. And... chasing stuff?I am genuinely worried how far his adjustment goes and how much of his behavior comes from his genetic alteration instead of him willingly embracing his fursona. Making you kid look like a dog is already creepy, but if his parents willingly modified his behaviour to be more "dog-like"... Or he's just loving with me. Anyway, if he starts to lick his privates, I'm out. Have you made any friends here?  Literally "all my friends and Zoidberg" meme What are your plans for future? Imagine if someone decides to create more "dog people", whose entire personality is focused of being people pleaser. Another case for our "Vertumna is one unfortunate accident away from being dystopian, eugenic nightmare".    Anyways, we won.  This time we are going straight to ruins.  Remember how it was mentioned that alien machines make strange, thumping noise? While you are near these things, you can hear actual thumping. Neat.  Here we go.   Let's start with pyramids.  Nothing interesting. Thumpers?  Nope.   That's more like it.  Easy.   Looks familiar.  "Touch stuff at random" a.k.a. "Vertumna's scientific method"    That's some serious archaeotech.   Um, Dys? I think I've found your sentient life.   I'm sure it's not going to be of any importance whatsover.  So, now we know that Convergent Domain was capable to create advanced AI. Or they uploaded themselves into cloud or something. Or... okay, we don't know much yet.  There's actually one more thing I want to do...  Here.   Rare mention of actual adult scientists other than Instance.   Now this is nice example of ludonarrative harmony - as we were supposed to talk to Utopia first and complete boss event later, I was fully expecting Clarity suddenly forgetting about Array.   Not that it changed much. Also, I'm pretty sure we've never heard moniker "Gardeners" before and it jumped out of nowhere, just like Convergent Domain before.   Now we can go home.   Who can it be...   :3   That was a good month.
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Jun 5, 2023 00:30
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Szarrukin posted:Imagine if someone decides to create more "dog people", whose entire personality is focused of being people pleaser.
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Jun 5, 2023 13:32
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Wow was that 4 clarity portraits in one update? I thought they changed like once a year. Rex is a clever bit of writing. The people I know that are successful at hooking up with lots of people aren't pushy about it, they take "no" easily and comfortably. Rogue AI Goddess posted:I suspect it's less of genetic manipulation and more of a fawning trauma response from spending a lifetime surrounded by fascists. Man, I hate that SA LPs are how I learn really really useful things.
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Jun 5, 2023 14:10
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Tulip posted:Wow was that 4 clarity portraits in one update? I thought they changed like once a year.
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Jun 5, 2023 15:22
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Hello again, I hope you are still with me despite long hiatus Let's start with small talk with Tang.   I had to google ocular migrene and it basically means that she's blind in one eye? That doesn't sound very healthy.  We could suggest taking it out, but I think we all know how Tang would react. I'm sure you'll get used to it soon I know I will. It's only pain.  To be honest, seeing how humanity in Exocolonist has multiple augumentations, including human-animal hybrids, nanoprinters, medicine for acute radiation syndrome and noninvasive gender reassignment techniques, eye implant sounds more like glorified VR set than pinnacle of human technology. Also, I really don't think Earth is going to send shipments for us, Tang. First of all, we are criminals, the only thing they sent us so far is ship full of fascists who would either arrest or outright kill us if not for their ship crashing. Second, Earth seems to be too busy with nuclear wars, climate collapse and another perks of late stage capitalism.  Uh, I really don't think empathy or reasoning can cure migraine. I know they probably mean something like "help you think about something else than pain", but wording is unfortunate. Also, what do you mean by "better automation", Vertumna literally has AI that does 75% of hard work here (with 20% being done by Clarity alone).  Anyway, we have enough Biology to help with whatever simulation you got there.  Tang is many things, but she's not petty and won't get mad over us improving her experiments... right?   I did Tang route on my first playthrough, it has... interesting ending. That being said, I'm pretty sure she hates "being taken care of". It was nothing.Then thanks for nothing, I suppose. Please don't tell Instance that my body is adjusting poorly to the holoeye. It's only temporary. This stupid flesh prison is not allowed to draw the limits of my form. We are almost there, just one or two months more...   I think we ran out of Xenobotany events, so next month I'm going to try some farm work.    ...which has no events either. drat.  But we maxed out our Biology and...   ...that looks nice!  We also got first Toughness perk.    Rex is now 17yo. I don't know how much it is in dog's years, but it's surely a lot.   Sounds fancy, but mechanically it's just free card (pretty strong tho)  First three cars are "+1 skill on red/yellow/blue challenge win",  This one looks more interesting.  Sadly, it's just "we are ripped without hitting gym" super strength, not "we can throw cars and bend steel with our bare hands" super strength  Now I'll focus on Bravery, seeing how we are close to maxing it.  HERE WE GO!  Cal is going to apologize any time he gets the ball, Dys hates sportsball more than anything else and Tang is half blind right now. It isn't really a choice.   Easy.  And wholesome, even though "Kombucha Cup" sounds like championship in Starbucks.  Of course these assholes are sore losers.  You tell them, Marz!  I've been dreaming of kicking Vace rear end since Helio crashed on our planet.  Assholes.  Good boy.  Seriously, Nem?   gently caress you, old man, that was low.  Yeah, you must be happy with our new fascist government, don't you.   I believe that without us developing the vaccine, that would be the month when our dad dies. Yes, we can lose BOTH our parents, which is exactly what happened during my first playthrough.     And?   Who are you and what did you do with Nem.  With nonexistent quarantine any expedition can end up with weird alien disease wiping out entire colony.  He's better in exploring than both of us combined, we are not ratting him out and there's no convincing him even if I wanted to do it. Just leave him alone.  The gently caress are you talking about.  Nem, you are the one who picked up alien disease. It's called authoritarianism.  And appearently she's turning into lizardwoman. Seriously, who thought "injured skin turns into scales" was a good idea for augumentation?   Great, that exactly what we needed. Child soldiers.  Jesus loving christ, dude, just listen to yourself.  Imagine former freedom fighter using "pacifist" as a slur.    I wonder what goofy shenanigans are we going to do today. Surely something lighthearted.  Or we can discuss his deepest trauma. That's fine too.  I think I know where this is going.  gently caress yeah, Dys, best ally in the world. <3 I knew he's too cool to be transphobic.  I mean, that's how she treats literally everyone sans Instance, isn't it?  Well, it wasn't a surprise, but it's nice to have Dys opened up a little.  Just few more Bravery grinding and we're back to expeditions.  Game, get your poo poo together. We just won Kombucha Cup, of course we've been on sportsball pitch!  That's very important choice, we need to carefully consider both options... ahahaha, no, gently caress Vace.   gently caress you. And don't loving call her "Nemmie".    Today's Nem birthday!  We don't have anything she likes... but we can buy cake.  Seriously, Nem. I know bad boys can be hot, but he's not THAT kind of bad boy. You can do better.    That's Nem I know.   Stop loving turning our game into recruitment pitch.     I have to admit, it's nice to have   Aw. :3  Did I mentioned that Clarity is a weeb?   Again, nothing interesting for people with our skills.  But it means some quality time with Dys. Who is totally not our secret admirer, no sir.   Next month we are going back to field!
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Jun 21, 2023 19:36
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This update has another couple of examples of the limitations of the game's mechanics loving over the narrative. The Kombucha Cup is the capstone event for Sportsball, so 11+ times job done. It can only happen after Kom's death and Helio's landing, and is written as such, but there's no check if you've already maxed out events/hit the Cup for generic "daily sportsball" text sequence, hence the "haven't been to the pitch" thing right after you won the Cup. The Nem's coversation on the wall about Dys? That's friendship 30 or 40, I think. The convo is expecting you to still be pre-Helio for it, and likely before kids are of age to go on Expeditions (if you snitch here, you can learn about the adults' approach to Dys sneaking out. Yes, of course they knew.). That is not catching authoritarianism Nem, that's good team player Nem who listens to safety lectures (and wants to be A Protector Like Kom). All the Strato kids will weirdly regress in age or seem to be out of context with current events if you start chasing up their friendship points late in the game, unfortunately. For some the distinction is especially sharp (some pre-Helio convos with Nem have her be very bubbly and playful, which can be jarring if Kom just died). Also, of course a freedom fighter would use "pacifist" as a slur. Like, there's a whole category of both proactive revolutionary types and "take up arms for defense" people who are very offended by any implication that they're lesser or flat out wrong for being willing to resort to violence. Now, the fact that Rhett would exchange heated insults with a teen is a bit weird. I wonder why his temper might be getting the better of him. ...I'm not convinced he likes the state of affairs in the colony government.
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Jun 22, 2023 23:49
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I'll admit, you surely remember this game better than I do, and I am playing it right now. Good to have someone to correct me.
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Jun 23, 2023 00:28
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That conversation about Dys and Tang is sweet. It's nice to know that they actually were close confidants growing up. I think Tang treating him with the same superiority she treats everyone might actually be the problem - it's like he isn't special to her any more.
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Jun 23, 2023 00:36
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Marz has roasted Vace to a fine crisp. Clarity's punch was a mercy kill, really.
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Jun 28, 2023 03:15
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While I still despise kid Marz, both teen Marz and adult Marz are much more likeable.
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Jun 28, 2023 22:42
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Hi there, today's update is very short Last time we found out that we have secret admirer.  Clarity is very direct.   Classic Dys. :3  Sometimes Clarity is too direct.    Little apology gift.   Also it's Nomi's birthday this month.   Now they like us enough to unlock new dialogue.    Is that... in different language? Well, yeah! It's better in the original language, but the subtitles don't tell the whole story, either! Hello, fellow weeb!  I'm not really into anime, but I guess it's Girls and Panzer reference but with aircrafts? Although I wouldn't be surprised if "half teenage girl, half aircraft shojo" was a real anime.  You hadn't seen the first season? Spaceship kids make do! You don't have to know everything about something you like in order to call yourself a fan. Just liking it with all your heart is good enough. We have enough Empathy to ask the real question here.  Cool.  Now, I know I said I'm going to expedition next update, but we are sooo close to max Bravery. We need six points.  Single sportsball practice gives us five.   Well look at you, Mrs. Grownup! Sportsball was good enough to you last month!  I'm not joining your space conquistadores team.   More thoughts about sportsball?   Oh girl.  This is a bad idea, Nem. Maybe. Maybe it's a real bad one. I don't know. But I can't just sit around and do nothing. The next time those aliens come... I wanna be ready for them. I'm not really sure getting drafted is what Kom would want you to do.  You don't have to do this.You tell her there are other ways to help besides fighting. Maybe. But this is my best option. I'm not gonna let them take away anyone else.Oh girl. (x2)  Sportsball practice was pretty uneventful.   And we finally maxed our Bravery. Now, what we should train next? Quick reminder which jobs are available to us: Shovelling Dirt, Geoponics, +3 Toughness Farming, Geoponics +2 Biology +2 Toughness Xenobotany Geoponics +2 Biology +2 Organization Tending Animals Geoponics +3 Animals +2 Empathy Study Life Sciences Engineering +2 Biology +1 Reasoning Study Engineering Engineering +1 Engineering +2 Reasoning Study Humanities Engineering +2 Creativity +1 Persuasion Tutoring Engineering +3 Reasoning +1 Empathy Sportsball Garrison +2 Bravery +1 Toughness Defense Training Garrison +2 Combat +1 Animals Lookout Duty Garrison +3 Perception +1 Animals Deliver Supplies Command 10 +2 Organization +1 Perception Yes, it's weirdly hard to train Empathy in second part of the game. Szarrukin fucked around with this message at 22:13 on Jul 2, 2023 |
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Jul 2, 2023 19:41
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Tending Animals Geoponics? I think that's the way to go.
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Jul 2, 2023 22:00
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Heads up - you referred to Nomi as "she" at one point. Let's at least try to get Empathy over the first hump - maybe tutor in engineering.
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Jul 2, 2023 22:05
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Tenebrais posted:Heads up - you referred to Nomi as "she" at one point. poo poo, sorry. Fixed.
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Jul 2, 2023 22:12
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Tutor in Engineering.
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Jul 3, 2023 01:08
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Rogue AI Goddess posted:Tutor in Engineering. This
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Jul 3, 2023 01:16
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Nomi rules and is probably based on like 20 different people the devs knew, possibly the entire dev team. Also lol at Dys, jeeze dude just like, you can say how you feel.
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Jul 3, 2023 02:51
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Another short update.   First museum is obviously Louvre, but I don't know what's the second one supposed to be?   Ok, I guess?   We'll start with expedition, than we move on to tutoring career.  There are two interesting events left here.   We found our mysterious stalker/saviour (please ignore first option, it shouldn't be there)   And he's kinda hot.  Also surprisingly humanlike. Literally Green-Skinned Space Babe trope, but male (or at least using he/him pronouns).   Okay, so I kinda hosed up with making screenshots and had to reload at one point. Unfortunately, the way the game works means that everything that happened before reload or in another playthroughs is basically still canon, just happened in "dream". Usually I can ignore such "visions", but not this time. That's why Clarity already knows Sym's name.  Yeah, let's go with "it was a dream"   Why would you need money, Clarity, seriously.   Hey, you didn't answered my question! That's cheating!  That happened.  Now second event.  More references to "you have already seen it".   Fortunately, it's mostly flavour changes.   Turns out our experiments with radioactive flowers were useful after all!    Looks like the place we found out while looking for cure for Shimmer.  If there is anyone on Vertumna who can understand us, it's Dys.   Our Toughness grind finally pays out.  I wonder what happened here.  Leaving? Now that we are so close to find out why we have our visions? No way.   Hell no we are not fainting right now.   Clarity discovers multiverse.   I really like gameplay and story integration, when game explains the gameplay mechanics like saving, leveling up or reloads. Like Undertale, KOTOR 2 or Exocolonist. "All playthroughs are part of greater multiverse" is an excellent idea.   Again, Dys is exactly the person that will understand.  Now now, Clarity, it's not the time to tease Dys, this is serious.  Somehow I don't think Tangent would believe us.  I think Clarity missed the most unnerving question - if they were literally masters of space and time, what happened to them?  Now we can explore Glow!
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Jul 3, 2023 17:45
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Szarrukin posted:First museum is obviously Louvre, but I don't know what's the second one supposed to be? It's probably a reference to the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York City.
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Jul 3, 2023 18:56
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Sym is delightful.
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Jul 3, 2023 22:04
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Szarrukin posted:I'm not really into anime, but I guess it's Girls and Panzer reference but with aircrafts? Although I wouldn't be surprised if "half teenage girl, half aircraft shojo" was a real anime. It... (Oof am I really going to admit that I know this?) It is a real anime.  Strike Witches. It's extremely anime. As far as I remember, the "aircraft pants" or whatever are used as an excuse to have the characters showing their underpants literally constantly. Anyway... Not sure what we should focus on next. Something sciencey like Engineering sounds useful though?
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Jul 4, 2023 08:34
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If you wanted the game not to show you the extra bits, you would've needed to clear your appdata - in particular the 'groundhogs' file that tracks what you've done over past playthroughs. -- So, Sym's appearance is part of a chain of events. It's actually possible to randomly miss getting the start of the chain, meaning you miss Sym for the playthrough! I found him on my first go-round (as well as this 'enlightenment' event) but I imagine people being very surprised if it takes them to a second or third playthrough (or more!) to find him. I think the bare minimum is to find signs of him early when first exploring in the first available area, and then to (just realised this is spoilers - the event itself isn't, but the implication is) find Dys drawing him later when relaxing on the walls (you assume at first that Dys is drawing a cooler version of himself).
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Jul 4, 2023 12:51
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