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Honestly, the premise of this game just seems so boring. It's standard fantasy, the dilemma is just some typical world ending crisis, our "main character" is now just sitting on his rear end while a pair of generic fighters do the real work. And what boring work it is, slaying the standard menagerie of fantasy monsters.
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Mar 27, 2023 21:45
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Keldulas posted:I'll be honest, I couldn't absorb basically any of that update. It kind of just bounced off me for the most part. Same, I kinda dozed off after few screenshots. As of now this game doesn't look bad and, honestly, most of critic comes from "it's TGEK letsplay, time for wHaT dO tHeY eAt nitpick fiesta", game itself is just extremely bland and uninteresting. It took me entire update until I realized I actually played it, but it was so unremarkable I totally forgot about this game. Szarrukin fucked around with this message at 02:25 on Mar 28, 2023 |
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Mar 27, 2023 23:01
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Well, we do have the promise of a shockingly stupid plot to tide us over.
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Mar 27, 2023 23:16
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Szarrukin posted:Same, I kinda dozed off after few screenshots. As of now this game doesn't look bad and, honestly, most of critic comes from "it's TGEK letsplay, time for wHaT dO tHeY eAt nitpick fiesta", it's just extremely bland and uninteresting. It took me entire update until I realized I actually played it, but it was so unremarkable I totally forgot about this game. Suffice to say that we're going places in the future, it just takes us a while to get there. If the rest of the game was about this quality I wouldn't have LP'd it, it builds up to some real nonsense.
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Mar 28, 2023 01:33
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I'm actually a little apprehensive. This update was just really bland and uninteresting, hence I kind of spaced on it. However, the game really got my attention negatively with how bad the consistency was between pictures and narration in the first update. It's the opening, that poo poo should be polished better than that. So you saying that this is the tip of the iceberg, along with your previous... pedigree of bad games, makes me nervous.
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Mar 28, 2023 02:20
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SIGSEGV posted:Well, we do have the promise of a shockingly stupid plot to tide us over. 
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Mar 28, 2023 10:23
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if this iceberg is actually upside down then we're really at the butt of the iceberg
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Mar 28, 2023 10:41
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Morality You Don't Care About Welcome back! Last time on Temple of Time, Mr. Spock the Second Person hero assumed ownership of a crystal throne for some reason. Today we rejoin Kane and Maeve in their quest to explore a tower or some poo poo. I dunno man.  Anyway, I mentioned a city earlier.  Tower of Time isn't like those punk-rear end non-innovative RPGs that have experience points. You dump gold into your champions to unlock level ups. Unfortunately, we are 2 gold away from leveling up Kane, so I will leave you all to speculate as to who or what these mysterious five party members are.  As we inch forward from the teleporter a cutscene fires to introduce an irritating recurring character.  Fortunately for us, it's not the Sorrow.    : Who... who are you? : I am the Tower Avatar. : And what exactly is that?: I am aware of all things that transpire here. I can feel your footsteps fall upon the stone floors and hear your voices echo through the halls. I am the tower's eyes, ears, mouth and hands. What it needs, I provide. What I need, it provides. We are one and the same.: So you see and hear everything we do in here... that's just... creepy.: My creators were powerful Magi. They first constructed my body - the tower itself - then later crafted my mind. They gave me the power to assume this form so that I might defend myself.: Then you are a guard, duty-bound to protect these halls. Well met, Avatar. Be at ease, as we mean you no harm. My name is Kane and this is Maeve.: You do not have the power to harm me, but I appreciate the intentions, Kane. Tell me, why are you here? What do you seek in my tower?: We are here to reach the lowest depths of this mysterious structure and learn how and why it has appeared within our lands.: So be it. I will not stop you. Explore this level as you wish, but be warned... A strange power has awakened old spirits here. The dead roam restlessly through my halls.: We have already encountered them above. Are there a lot of them here?: Yes. They are many and becoming more difficult to contain with each passing day. Stay vigilant. The Avatar then poofs out, having dumped vague exposition everywhere. TheGreatEvilKing summary posted:
 The game helpfully gives us a tip that you should always just savescum the fountains.  You can pick a hero to drink and we pick Kane to gain +10 health permanently.  loving gently caress!  We are naturally locked into cutscene mode as Kane and Maeve run over to ask her about her strange fashion choices.  : Some relics you encounter may have undesirable effects once you use them.Yes. Thank you game. You just hit us with a tutorial message about that.  : She is watching us from the shadows. I don't like it, K.: She is a guardian of this tower, Maeve. It is her duty. Be content that she means us no harm."Back when I served the king, I would walk out of the room when people were pretending to eat the nonexistent crops, then I used to bust in and yell at them that they didn't have any food." TheGreatEvilKing summary posted:
 We also find this thing.  It lets us grind through a bunch of monsters to get unique items and rewards. This game's combat loving sucks. Maybe I'll show them off, but it's literally just recycling the monsters and bosses of this level.  Back to more inane dialogue. I'm sorry! I'm just gonna cut out Maeve's reply about how water is good and we'll move on, shall we?  There's a bunch of stuff to interact with. Mostly Spooky Skeletons.  Wait, Maeve, you didn't know what these things were a minute ag- gently caress it. : These bones are caked in dust and look brittle. Whatever happened here, took place a very long time ago. : Suddenly, a strong gust of wind from the far end of this room washes over your champions.: Can you hear it? I could swear I hear a whisper carried by this wind. It is too faint to identify... Ah, perhaps it is just my imagination.: No, Kane. I hear it too. This place is eerie. Too much like walking through one of those ruined cities in the night. The screen pans over to reveal this item.  So we trek over.  : Master craftsmanship. We should find its twin and the lock it fits.TheGreatEvilKing summary posted:
 Nearby is another talking statue. : That's a stern looking high-born if I ever saw one. I bet he was really wealthy.: Perhaps it was one of the great spirits worshiped by the Ancients? Look, there's an inscription here. : Cindros? Like the Cindras month in winter. Perhaps the two are connected.: Easy enough. I'd say our need is dire and our purpose true.: Well, you know what I think about touching magical statues. Go on, lay your hands on it and say his name. : Offering? Figures there's always a price to pay.: Here, I suppose I can lose one of my rings. Place it at the foot of the statue and see what happens.  There it is again. Maybe the two of them invented that nickname, idk.  : I am not dead, child. I am Death. Do not worry, you will know me for what I am. All mortals of this world will know the everlasting embrace of Cindros, one day. As for those Risen, they are an affront to me as well. What is rightfully mine has been ripped away. Blasphemy!But you just said the dead don't need trink - gently caress it. : Bring me a living thing as your offering and I will give a boon in due return. Then you shall have the means to deal with the Risen. I, too, would like to know why the God of Death is stuck in a loving basement. : I've dealt with a lot of shady characters in my time... But entering a pact with a spirit claiming to be death, there's not enough ale left in all of Artara to convince me of that.: You're right Maeve. But then again, we are on our own down here and his offer to help us get rid of the Risen appears genuine. I think we should make use of whatever help we can get.: Cindros asked for a 'living thing'. I'm not sacrificing an innocent animal or person to this statue!: Of course not. But perhaps you think too big. Perhaps anything will do. A mouse or small insect might do the trick.: Great, now we're chasing dangerous vermin. Let's look around then, but I'll leave the catching to you.TheGreatEvilKing summary posted:
 We continue wandering. I'm sorry, but we're still in the dull fantasy portion before things get real nutty.  None of this is even a particularly good mystery.  So I don't have anything to say, I dunno.  We can grab this, I guess.  There are also tedious skeleton battles.  Oh, uh spoilers.  There's not much to say about these battles. They're bad, but not in an entertaining way like how Gleda blew off half her own hit points every time she attacked in Ash of Gods. They're just really loving boring and we've seen all these enemies before.  There are a few different layouts that get recycled for the maps. it's still really boring. There are a few gimmicks we have yet to see as well, we'll see one of them in a bit.  This is openable and starts a sidequest.  Eventually we make it to this place. : Books? (heavy sigh) What a bore.: Those that do not remember history, are doomed to repeat it.: What? I thought all history was lo - gently caress it. : It's not that the right book can't fetch good coin. But finding the right one in this mess, if there even is a right one, I'd rather--: Hold your tongue, High-courier. Look, there's someone here!  : Stand fast. We mean you no harm... : Thank the Great Spirits. I feel much better now. A warrior and an archer, or is it "archeress"? What brings you to this place? I thought for sure I was the only living soul in this tower apart from those vile animated skeletons.: We are explorers, searching this stronghold by the authority of our lord. Who are you and what are you doing down here all alone?: My name is Philitas. Surely you have heard of me... Renowned historian of our day, relentless seeker of knowledge, master archaeologist, author of A Treatise on the Elven Race.Oh boy, a race scientist. : Sadly, we are not familiar with you or your writings.: Well, I suppose I should expect nothing less, spending so much of my time with elven and dwarven folk.: Elves? Dwarves? You speak about ancient myth as though it were yesterday. There has been neither word, nor sighting of the other races for generations.: Fascinating... but I assure you, brave warrior, they do not consider themselves myths. : I survive by the genius of my intellect dear maiden. Though I confess, my true sustenance comes from the knowledge of the tower itself-libraries such as this.: Now tell me, do you two plan to descend to the bottom, or rather, the top of this tower? Incidentally, you are aware we're standing on the ceiling, aren't you?Why is everything situated right side up to the floor? I dunno man, magic.   Naturally, neither Philitas nor the Tower Avatar will ever be asked "what is at the bottom of the tower". It's a surprise, you see. : Excellent! Then we must come to a mutual understanding. Share with me any knowledge and writings you discover, and in return I will offer my services as interpreter and adviser. Screenshotted for typo. Yes, I'm sure someone in the thread will accuse me of nitpicking for asking why the characters don't ask about the actual dangers of the tower while they're inquisitive about almost everything else. Oh well.  : Mind your place, Maeve. It is not up to you or me to enter into such agreements. Only my Lord above can make such decisions. With his consent, consider it done.: Splendid! Before we part, I leave with you a tome of particular interest. May it help you prepare for the things to come. He wanders off in a convenient cutscene that prevents the heroes from asking any inconvenient questions that open the mystery box. : How... unexpected? A mysterious stranger, in the middle of an unexplored tower. As if pulled straight from a child's bedtime tale.: He seemed real enough and his skills may very well come in handy, but there's something about his manner. Something I can't quite put my finger on.: If you always expect the worst of people, Maeve, they will rarely disappoint. Philitas has offered his services and given us a gift. I think he will prove a most valuable ally in this strange, upside down place.That first sentence is really what the pessimist should say. TheGreatEvilKing summary posted:
 The upgrade book dropped upgrades the armory, which allows Kane and Maeve to gain new levels in the barracks.  I don't know why Kane and Maeve gain more from sparring partners than from fighting for their lives against undead animated by dark magic, but hey.  I don't know that I can explain this either, because King Backstory had an entire militia that apparently needed a commander. Maeve and Kane even talked about fighting outlaws earlier. Hell if I know.  We continue our uneventful trip through the doldrum dungeons.  This unlocks a sidequest to open the door to reach the forge. I hope you will forgive me for eliding the dialogue.  Oh no! A mandatory gimmick fight!  The death knights and wraiths don't reappear until floor 2 I want to say, so it's the same gang of skeletons.  Kane is trapped in Tower Jail.  As Maeve has the consistency of wet tissue paper our balance is going to be "desperately DPSing the cage so we don't die".  We immediately use Maeve's smoke screen teleport to jump behind the cage and shoot it repeatedly.  This frees Kane and from here it's literally the very first skeleton fight on the exact same terrain. Skip!  This leads us to a crystal cave.  Kane is easily impressed. : Many deadly things in this world are beautiful, Kane. Don't turn a blind eye to the menace lurking here. Those crystals give such little light, it's the perfect spot for an ambush, as we just witnessed before.: Really, Maeve...Sometimes I just do not know how you walk through life dragging that ball and chain of pessimism behind you. Free yourself of such burden. Face the unknown with confidence and pride.: I'm not a pessimist or an optimist, just a realist... We tend to live longer.TheGreatEvilKing summary posted:
 Clicking the crystals yields these, which can be used to craft poo poo you don't care about.  Spooky statues!  ...really?  : I've heard stories of such items from the ancient times, the Blade of Ma'han Rath and the Winged Boots of Lothrae... I figured 'em for fairy tales.Maeve you were literally given a magic ring five minutes ago. : Crystal crafting? We have no knowledge of such things. Can you explain the process?: There is a forge nearby designed to meet the needs of the greatest arcane weaponsmiths in the land. It has not been used for centuries and its hearth is as cold as stone. If you can restore life to its fiery heart, it may offer the answers you seek.: Before I depart, allow me to open the door for you. So, yes, the solution to the forge sidequest is to run around until the God NPC exposits at you. Lovely.  Oh, I think he's trying to ask about the librarian. That's... smarter than I gave these two credit for. Good job, game. : She's a little erratic, don't y'think?: Erratic? You assume too much, Maeve. We have no idea how large and complex this structure really is. The responsibilities of duty do not always allow time for simple courtesies.: This forge Avatar spoke of sounds extremely interesting. Let's get back there and see if it will prove useful.: (nods) Worth taking a look.TheGreatEvilKing summary posted:
Off we go. We grab the key part and it's time for more dialogue.  It's just the one line, thank Christ.  We also find an upgrade to the blacksmith shop, which lets us create items. I... will not be doing that. I will also cut out the "how 2 craft" tutorial.   : But its hearth is dead cold. If we could get it lit, I imagine we could craft whatever weapons and tools we needed down here.This leads us to a new quest to light the forge. We're putting that off for now.  We're gathering sacrifices instead. To my knowledge this is the only animal in the tower.  : We can't run in circles searching forever... these will have to do.: True, but it dawns on me, that we too are 'living things'... are we not? Come, I have an idea... let's go back and speak with him again.: If I didn't know you better, I'd be awfully nervous right now. In game we do have to walk there. : He asked for a living thing. : But he did not demand its life as sacrifice. We can make our own offering... an offering of blood.: A blood-oath to the spirit of death? This is a bad omen at the start of a journey.: Kane turns to face the statue, grasping the blade of his dagger tightly in his left hand. As he prepares to draw blood Maeve implores him to reconsider.   That's right gang, it's time for some MORALITY!  The game literally pops a tutorial box after dumping that text on us. Did no one playtest this?  Well, goons, what are we doing?
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Apr 8, 2023 03:26
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I'm gonna choose Offer him a frog simply because it sounds so loving ridiculous, even if it makes some sense in this scenario. Assuming I read this right... Not sure how "we" are supposed to offer things, anyway. Are we going to teleport in? Or just suggest he do the thing?
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Apr 8, 2023 03:52
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Let the idiots decide for themselves. Its just a statue claiming to be Death. There's all that important throne-sitting for our Spock to do instead.
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Apr 8, 2023 03:56
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Can I offer you a nice frog in these trying times?
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Apr 8, 2023 05:30
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The only moral choice... is no choice
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Apr 8, 2023 08:33
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BisbyWorl posted:Can I offer you a nice frog in these trying times?
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Apr 8, 2023 09:09
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A frog? In this economy? Nay! The party can bootstrap themselves. Party decides
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Apr 8, 2023 09:38
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Give him the frog. He's requested the offering of a living thing, the frog is the only option we have that meets that. What would he want with a puddle of blood or a branch ripped from a tree? They're both effectively dead on arrival.
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Apr 8, 2023 11:28
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frog
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Apr 8, 2023 13:42
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BisbyWorl posted:Can I offer you a nice frog in these trying times?
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Apr 8, 2023 13:43
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The votes are pretty clear at this point but I'll vote for the branch for the fun of it. If you can graft it onto a tree and have it keep on growing that's alive enough for me.
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Apr 9, 2023 00:46
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No interference, lord spock cant violate the prime directive.
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Apr 9, 2023 09:24
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BisbyWorl posted:Can I offer you a nice frog in these trying times? I can't refuse the cheap joke. +1 Also are we sure this is an actual game, that people worked on rather than some Unity asset store 'babby's first Baldur Gate' kit? Bland as gently caress world crafting meets uninspired mechanics.
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Apr 9, 2023 15:30
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BisbyWorl posted:Can I offer you a nice frog in these trying times?
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Apr 9, 2023 15:55
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By popular demand posted:Also are we sure this is an actual game, that people worked on rather than some Unity asset store 'babby's first Baldur Gate' kit?
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Apr 9, 2023 16:29
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anilEhilated posted:A game with Very Positive average reviews on Steam, no less. That usually just means it has tits in it at some point. Or that the devs bought a bot.
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Apr 9, 2023 16:30
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Black Robe posted:That usually just means it has tits in it at some point. Or that the devs bought a bot. You’ve got to remember that these are just simple gamers. These are people of the land. The common clay of the realm of gaming. You know… morons.
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Apr 9, 2023 16:35
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For comparison, Gamers will eat up anything, imo.
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Apr 9, 2023 17:11
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BisbyWorl posted:ATOM RPG has Very Positive at 87%
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Apr 9, 2023 18:25
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Not really, it's aimed at a very specific audience and has a roughly 100% hit rate with them.
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Apr 9, 2023 18:28
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I want to believe that 'You' is literally just the main(?) character's name. Anyway, the premise of 'sun's loving gone, now what' has interesting implications that are already being entirely ignored, I see. I'd say I'm excited to see where this mess goes, but 'morbid curiosity' might be a better fit.
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Apr 9, 2023 19:22
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Frog wins!
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Apr 9, 2023 19:24
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Grizzwold posted:Anyway, the premise of 'sun's loving gone, now what' has interesting implications that are already being entirely ignored, I see. I'd say I'm excited to see where this mess goes, but 'morbid curiosity' might be a better fit. For an interesting and short take on 'Sun gone, now what' I recommend the old action rpg Arx Fatalis. Heck, now I need to calculate how many games of AF* a person can play in the amount time the Tower bores you to death. *there's about 3 combat specialization paths
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Apr 9, 2023 20:26
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The Five Races Welcome back! Last time on Tower of Time, the game wanted to know if we'd sacrifice a frog to a statue claiming to be god of death, or whether Kane was going to engage in self-harm. Goons voted for frog. Let's see how that works out, shall we?   : Pact with a Spirit of the Death is never a good choice. Stop Kane and offer him a frog. This makes Maeve happy as she - kind of correctly - pointed out that this was a terrible idea.  People wanted to know how this works and uh, we're straight up just mind controlling Kane here. It's important to note that Kane has expressed nothing but blind loyalty to Mr. Spock, and as we'll see later this update, Spock can just speak to the party from the crystal throne. I'm not really sure why this has to be mind control instead of persuasion, because it makes Spock come off as a massive rear end in a top hat but who knows! Spock is going to come off a lot worse later.  : I value your insight, Maeve and heed your advice this time. Yet, I suspect we will not get very far in this tower without accepting some measure of risk.: I just don't have a good feeling about this one, chalk it up to woman's intuition. : Such a small vessel... such a paltry life force. I had expected something richer. Yet, I will honor the sacred covenant: take this as reward and make good use of it.Incidentally, these are all our options. We can't drag an enemy for sacrifice or anything like that.  We get this sword. TheGreatEvilKing summary posted:
So, as the summary indicates, sacrificing permanent HP to Cindros yields a unique sword that will be outclassed by poo poo we find later in the tower. Lovely. We also get alignment points with Maeve and... that's really how most of these decisions work. If you make enough decisions the companions agree with, they give you a partywide buff. In Maeve's case the happier she is, the more attack speed the party gets. Kane grants armor. We'll see what the other guys get when we find them.  I'm not even sure it's worth equipping over the firesword Lord Spock gave us.  I also take the opportunity to train Kane and Maeve to level 2.  Crucially, Kane's self-heal gets upgraded to a party heal which is gonna be real handy when Maeve gets shot.  Maeve's projectiles go to AoE. I believe you can switch these once set, so we could have set Maeve to single-target for a certain boss fight that's about to drive me nuts. Oh well, onwards!  The game has a long winded explanation of party alignment that's basically what I told you.   Now that we have both halves of the key we can open this door.  It leads to magic coal.  Sexy magic coal. This game has the same problem as Numenera, where the authors want you to know that their standard genre fare would really impress people unfamiliar with standard genre fare. It didn't work there and it doesn't work here!  There's a boss behind the door. The game pops this tutorial explaining bosses. Notice a discrepancy? The Actual First Boss posted:Yeah, let's nope out of this one before it tears us apart. We have a forge to activate!   : By the Great Spirits, it roars to life! The heat is nigh unbearable, even from this distance. All from a single piece of that strange coal. There is almost no point to doing this.  Nevertheless, I'll show it off with this blue crossbow for Maeve.  This raises it to purple rarity. The thing is, we could just go make purple items right loving now with the blacksmith and the crystals we've collected. We could even make a longbow instead of a crossbow. There are also four different material types, and we've only unlocked steel, and we haven't had too much difficulty with the game so far. This will soon change. We could even go grind the practice battles for mats if we needed to. There is a lot of equipment bullshit in this game, and I'm not sure how much of it is valuable. You probably do need to master it for higher difficulties, but why would you do that?  I could gently caress around with enchantments, but why waste the materials on an early game item? TheGreatEvilKing summary posted:
 OK. This boss. This is probably one of the most difficult boss fights in the game, because you have half a full party and this boss loving sucks balls. Let's take a look, shall we?  The first phase is actually not too bad. He has a thirty percent weakness to fire, so we tell Maeve to autocast her fire arrows and let her go to town.  This is problem number one. If you've ever played with or against Fiddlesticks in League of Legends you know how this goes - it's a damage over time lifedrain tether. He can't outheal both Kane and Maeve's DPS, and Kane's heal can go right through it.  He has this supposedly interruptible cast, but Maeve's blind arrows that are SUPPOSED to interrupt casts don't do it. You don't care as long as you stay out of the Spooky Zone.  And here our troubles begin.  Now, you can already see my misplay by setting Maeve to AoE for this fight. There's an argument for it we're about to see, but truthfully I forgot.  Pictured: a fuckton of skeleton wizard adds. These guys suck. You might be tempted to ignore them and try to outdps the boss, but at this point the boss is just a DPS check - can you do enough damage to the boss before you run out of mana to heal/fire arrow and get owned?  The answer is "no." I try this three times and just say gently caress it. The problem is twofold - Maeve can fairly easily dispose of the adds if you can get the boss to clump them up, but then the boss lifedrains Maeve and Kane and you don't have the mana to keep fighting, OR you go after the boss and the adds nuke you into oblivion.  After getting pummeled repeatedly I decide "gently caress this" and figure I'll explore the rest of the level to find cool poo poo.  Did I mention the god drat lifedrain extends halfway across the map? This is on another failed attempt.   Off we go.  I was wrong about the death knights and wraiths, they do appear here. In my defense a LOT of this game blurs together.  We've seen this poo poo before. Maeve and Kane unceremoniously beat them to death. Onwards!  The undead are guarding a lever, which means its more Blathering With Kane And Maeve Time! : This group of vile Risen had been easy for you? Judging from what we have seen so far, I have a sinking suspicion that nothing in this place will come easy.: What's that K, a little pessimism in your voice I hear. (laughing) It's just all starting to feel a little familiar and familiarity gives us the tactical advantage.TheGreatEvilKing summary posted:
 We also pick this hammer up for Kane in a chest next to the lever. This goes right on him, as it solves one of his greatest problems (running out of mana for healing) in addition to making him do some AoE damage.  We open the big door from a while back and it leads to... a hay cave? What?  The game immediately pops this warning about taking on this fight with Kane and Maeve, and uh, you should listen to it. I'm going to show you what happens if you're stupid enough to take on the fight right now.  So these wraiths are all elite and presumably have more hit points and poo poo. More importantly, they all have that lovely drain life spell that hits across the entire map and DoT damages you and heals them. No, that's not an ability any of your champions ever get, gently caress you.  So, you know how it was extremely difficult to beat that boss in a DPS race, because we just didn't have enough sustain to keep up with the constant loving life drain?  These loving wraiths are coming from both the right side of the map and the top side.  They all have that lovely long range lifedrain, and that central wall does more to gently caress over your movement while the wraiths can all position themselves into a firing squad and just suck you to death. There's also something special you get for beating on that boss that really helps out here, so let's go see if we can finally kill that rear end in a top hat.  Alright we got him down to 45% before he could summon any lovely adds.  We can use Kane's stone wall to trap all the adds in the Fun Zone where they can't do anything. I should really upgrade the duration on that thing. There is also an upgrade to make it so ranged attacks can go over it, if you're stupid and like being shot to death.  With Kane's new hammer upping our DPS check and giving us enough mana to heal we jam this stupid rear end in a top hat into the dumpster where he belongs. Don't come back, fucker! ...I'm pretty sure he comes back in at least the practice battles.  Dope, a unique necklace that increases spell power? But we don't have any casters... I throw it on Kane for now. Maybe someone else can use it later.  We can grab a new set of challenge battles, which I may try to grind out next update so we can get the materials and items to stay above par.  What the hell? This is the confirmation that you could have just asked Kane not to cut himself instead of coercing him into doing it.  Or you need a teleporter stone? I don't loving know. : But I must request that you return to the throne room at once... Unexpected visitors have arrived to our city and their intentions are unclear as of yet.: Your party will now teleport back to the throne room to greet the strangers. Yeah, we're going to get one champion from each of the other four races and then a secret champion who has a lot of PLOT.  Everyone say hi to Aeric. We'll be seeing a lot of him going forward.  : I lead what is left of the Elven Dominions. I am Aeric, a Druid, Master of Earth and Life disciplines. My Great Council has sensed a mysterious power emanating from this area. We respect the sovereignty of Humans in the Middle Lands, as we ever will, yet I beg leave to join an expedition to explore this place.: You are very surprised at this development but gladly accept the offer of support. You can now add Aeric to your party.Aeric is extremely useful to have around and was a mainstay of my parties every time I left the house. TheGreatEvilKing summary posted:
 Aeric isn't as strong at laying waste to enemies as our other mage is, but he shows up with an AoE heal over time, a party-wide buff that adds earth damage to all attacks, and an Ent he can summon to attack people.  We don't have the knowledge to level him up but he starts at level 2.  Thanks to upgrading the armory offscreen, we can upgrade Kane to level 3, because honestly if Kane goes down the enemies are just gonna eat Aeric and Maeve alive.  He gets a new skill. It's a taunt aura. His dash already pulls aggro, so this is probably getting swapped out when we unlock more of his stuff.  Incidentally, Aeric's morale boost is mana regen. As mana is a huge early game roadblock, the more, the better.   We can upgrade Kane's dash while we're at it.  Aeric is a mage, so he's getting mostly mastery and life. I need to look up how much speed he needs for appreciable cooldown reduction.  The healing totem can be upgraded for mana regeneration and, uh, poo poo you don't care about. Aeric has a lot of good skills. The Ice Cloud can be upgraded to a fairly nasty damage over time in an area. Water Lord is another summon who will run around the map loving people up. The tree automatically taunts people, so it gets to come along on this adventure, he's the only guy with resurrection - which you shouldn't need, but is nice to have - and can generally make sure people don't go down while crapping summons everywhere. What a cool man.  We'll make the murdertree do AoE damage for now. I'm not sure if there's a cap on how many summons Aeric can have out, we probably want to find him cooldown reduction gear so one day he can just poop out summons.  Alright punks, now that we have a magical elf and a murder tree your days are numbered.  This is Aeric's healing totem in action. We can finally keep up enough health not to be drained to death, and Angry Tree can stuff all those loving wraiths right into the dumpster.  I still strongly dislike the life drain spell.  Like, Jesus, look at that range!   This is at the end of the hay cave. Ooh, loot! : It must have been a mining facility.No, I don't understand how the tower flipped orientation or what they were even mining. Remember, this is the bottom of the tower, but all the bridges and minecarts and poo poo are all facing down into the mine? Huh? : Mining... as in precious stones? Come on!: You really must curtail your lust for wealth, Maeve. No good comes of such pursuits.TheGreatEvilKing summary posted:
 I think we'll hold off on this. I don't want to take continuous damage, thank you.  Also some LORE!  Remember Sleath. He'll show up later.  Not sure if this sword is going on Kane or not. By the end of the update it hasn't, but we're probably not going to build Kane for a lot of autoattack DPS.  We will have more to say about technology this update.  Spooders!  On to the next area!  The game pans out to show a collapsed rope bridge.   Clearly, the expedition in the note didn't make it very far.  : They tried to make it to the lower floor but their rope was too short.: I wonder why no one came to help them? Were they the last of the people living here? The party will take none of these precautions, of course. TheGreatEvilKing summary posted:
 We are absolutely going to throw a rock.  Now, I legitimately do not understand why there's a well at the top of this tower, but I guess it's all magical and mysterious and poo poo.  A bunch of spooky skeletons teleport in.  They slowly walk across the screen as the party is locked into cutscene mode.  This battle is thoroughly uninteresting.  We've seen all this poo poo before and the team is in no danger. Skip!  This is totally worth it because we get a legendary wand for Aeric... to fight more tedious battles... to get more lovely loot.. holy poo poo, I did NOT notice it cut his mana points. Goddamn it. I guess he can regenerate them at least?  In other words save all the forges for tier 4 greens I guess? Idk.  : Bah! If it wasn't for a healthy bit of curiosity we'd still both be hunting rabbits back in the hills and glades we roamed as children. Besides if they are to come, let them come and face me man-to-man. I prefer direct confrontation to constantly watching the shadows behind my back.: A fine sentiment, if we knew the numbers and nature of the danger we face. Since we don't, that kind of prideful thinking is likely to get us killed.TheGreatEvilKing summary posted:
 We pick up a book and we get a tutorial telling us we're about to watch a cutscene. I have no words.  These would really be better as videos but I ain't doin that poo poo unless you guys are really having trouble following along.    the game posted:Trade flourished and technological advancements were made.  the game posted:Humans were the most populous and occupied the central lands.  this game's unreadable loving font posted:Dwarves lived in the highlands of the West, and built underground cities filled with precious stones.  Really? White on yellow? posted:Elves were caretakers of vast living forests in the East.  The game. again posted:To the north, mighty frostlings ruled icy plains and frozen seas.  This game posted:To the south, mystical shadow people wandered great deserts. : The world was in balance.I dunno game, you have two of the five races shoved to lovely land that can't support a large population, while the humans and elves can get tons of food from forest and farmland.   the game posted:There were godlike beings - rulers of four elements - but their power came from immortality and wisdom, not from mystical force. I do not know why this line is here. As far as I know we never meet the elemental lords, I do not understand how they are godlike rulers of four elements who somehow don't have any mystical powers, and their existence probably raises some more questions down the line.  WHY! WHY??? posted:Instead, there was progress: technological advancements that gave races control over the world.  the game, again posted:Steam machines, electricity, amber stones which could harness the energy of the sun, medicine, metallurgy, and flying machines.       Now, I have no idea how this is compatible with an industrial civilization using steam engines, but what do I know? Modern industry is incredibly polluting. : Only some doubted that and wondered where the power really came from... and what would be the real price to pay for it.This will be a plot point.  Sadness is conveyed most effectively through dull passive voice.  In all seriousness this is hard to do well. I'm reminded of my perennial whipping boy Thomas Covenant and Stephen Donaldson's attempts to sell the Land - the trilogy's setting - as a place of wonder and beauty the reader should care about and how it's under threat by Lord Foul who may or may not be Covenant's own mental projection of leprosy. Of course, all this poo poo goes back to Tolkien and how Middle-Earth decayed from the original creation by God thanks to Satan infusing his spirit into the world.  Now, it's not hard to make the characters very sad because their lives could be less garbage, but it's very hard to evoke that sense of nostalgia in a reader because the planet is basically the Age of Wonders setting but with modern technology instead.  I think Stephen Donaldson has a lot of problems as a writer, but there's a weird authenticity to his work that mostly comes through in the inner struggles and paralysis of his protagonists that makes me begrudgingly read his stuff. I can't say the same for these writers, because they desperately have to reinforce the emotions they can't invoke by telling you about it.  You know those stupid stories where someone does something lovely and mundane they're convinced is awesome and they tell you everyone clapped? This is that equivalent, but with the passive voice teary streaks. The thread has wasted no time in pointing out that this is all so far lovely boilerplate fantasy with a nonsensical apocalypse.  So we end up with the game desperately telling us that we feel sad and intrigued because it can't evoke these emotions.  We're right back to Numenera. Trains are not miraculous to me because I live very close to a train station and could go get on a train right now. However, the core of Numenera is "wouldn't a medieval person's mind be totally blown by average sci-fi conceits" which is so self-indulgent and idiotic as to be thoroughly uninteresting.  TheGreatEvilKing summary posted:
Whatever. Onwards!  This seems like it might be backtracking, but..  There's a lever down here that seems to exist for no reason than to pad out the playtime of this game.  Beyond the lever is a small forge we'd rather not use. It's the same as the one we got the tutorial about earlier.  Yes, thank you, we literally had Tower Avatar give us a quest about this.  Why did you think that? Also, yes, get ready for that classic of the fantasy genre, racism. : Clearly not.: These humanoids are not native to our lands. They must originate from far across the great waters. There is no logical explanation for how they arrived here.: Perhaps these green-skins are responsible for the Risen? At the very least, they must be allies, else they'd have wiped each other out long ago.  ChatGPT informs me this is nonsense when I attempt to translate it, but it starts spitting out nonsense when I ask it to evaluate it like a cipher. Keep in mind as a pure Caesar cipher none of this poo poo works. I have no idea how ChatGPT got this posted:welcome to me. What do you demand here? This man appears for one scene and is not getting a portrait. : I am sorry friend, but we-do-not-understand-what-you-are-saying. ChatGPT rides again posted:warrior you have come from afar. warrior you seek knowledge power, but let me depart : This is pointless. He doesn't understand what you're saying either. Use your hands, Kane. Here we go. I have no idea how the hell holding your sword for a pommel strike is supposed to be "vulnerable" and "nonaggressive", but Kane is an idiot as we know.  ChatGPT will STEAL YOUR JERB!!!! posted:WELCOME TO TOWER? WHO APPROACHES US? TIME HAS COME! I don't loving know. If anyone else has a real, actual idea on how to decode this poo poo I'm all ears. Note that this is a different orc. TheGreatEvilKing summary posted:
 The funny thing is this isn't even an unreasonable reaction by the orcs. Here's how Thomas Malory describes the inciting incident of the war that destroyed Camelot. L'Morte de Artur posted:Then were they condescended that King Arthur and Sir Mordred should meet betwixt both their hosts, and every each of them should bring fourteen persons; and they came with this word until Arthur. Theyn said he, I am glad that this is done, and so he went into the field. And when Arthur should depart, he warned all his host that an they see any sword drawn, Look ye come on fiercely, and slay that traitor, Sir Mordred, for I in no wise trust him. In likewise Sir Mordred warned his host that, An ye see any sword drawn, look that ye come on fiercely, and so slay all that ever before you standeth, for in no wise I will not trust for this treaty, for I know well my father will be avenged on me. And so they met as their appointment was, and so they were agreed and accorded thoroughly; and wine was fetched, and they drank. Right soon came an adder out of a little heath bush, and it stung a knight on the foot. And when the knight felt him stung, he looked down and saw the adder, and then he drew his sword to slay the adder, and thought of none other harm. And when the host on both parties saw that sword drawn, then they blew beamous, trumpets, and horns, and shouted grimly. And so both hosts dressed them together This one sword drawing idiot starts a battle where one hundred thousand people die, and that's in negotiation between two parties who can speak the same language and have the same culture. You can imagine a first contact situation where neither party has any clue how to communicate and both parties are worried about swords coming out... and Kane fucks it up for everyone in a stupid rear end way. Oh well! The note that "Dark-skinned orcs" are attacking this extremely white party for no reason isn't a great look either.  The orcs have new movesets but they don't do anything new or interesting and die in droves.  : You can speak? H-how can this be? : I don't think he hears us... pitiful thing. This is no place to be trapped for eternity.  : Will you help me? I beg of you, destroy the magic that makes the song. Destroy it so that I may follow Devron's whispers and finally know peace. Please...: After his final plea, the skeleton falls motionless, staring into the darkness above through hollow, lifeless eye sockets. Note that Aeric calls them the necromantic "arts" here, yet he complains about how vile it is. I'm still not sure what the emerald magic and Devron are each doing because this monologue is confusing as hell. : Maybe this Devron can help. Let's just find his statue and be done with it.: This skeleton knows more than he's letting on. We need to crack him while we have the chance.: Let the dead be. It is unwise and unnatural to parlay with such creatures. Besides, for us to linger so he is aware of our presence, yet can't communicate, is to prolong his torment.But he just asked you guys for help. What do you mean, he can't communicate?  Maybe the skeleton was forced to listen to this dialog. : Many times I've had to be persuasive to gather information... but always with the living! I don't know what proper etiquette dictates for the Risen. : You feel as though with the subtlest of thoughts, you could sway them both to your will. Well, I guess you all know what I picked first run. Alright thread, where will the trolley go? TheGreatEvilKing fucked around with this message at 05:36 on Apr 11, 2023 |
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Apr 10, 2023 07:26
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Wowowowow hothothothot!
: poo poo! My dialogue is all in some kind of lovely gibberish!
: He's drawn steel! ATTACK!
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Probably chose to 'leave the skeleton alone' since you don't have a reason to be a random dickhole to it? Plus mana regeneration and all. How does Maeve go from 'what a pitiful existence' with that skeleton to 'we must torture it for information' in her next line? The orcs are kind of more reasonable than the party considering that they opened with conversation, and kept trying to talk until Kane drew his sword.
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Apr 10, 2023 07:54
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When faced with uninspired blocks of text hurled at me like that my choice is always "less talk" which here means leave moany boney alone
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Apr 10, 2023 09:56
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By popular demand posted:leave moany boney alone Yeah, leave poor skelebro alone.
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Apr 10, 2023 10:13
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Even in the Obligatory Fantasy Golden Age, the best they can do is 'relative' harmony. It's gonna turn out that the five races were in the middle of a cold war and magic showing up made it go red hot or some poo poo. Let's leave the skeleton alone.
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Apr 10, 2023 10:20
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I was kinda struck by an image in the intro cutscene and it led me to an interesting trail of thought wrt wizard towers: I always thought that they can be read as a fantasy parallel for skyscrapers as an exercise in pointless dickwaving, as well as other readings on shows of power etc. so does the tower being jammed upside down like that in the cataclysm-cracked earth as in the intro cutscene have any further implications for the themes of the game or did the writer just stumble on a sharp metaphor and left good enough alone
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Apr 10, 2023 11:26
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I don't think the writer could recognize a metaphor if it bit him on the rear end. That being said, I say we interrogate the skeleton to properly immerse ourselves in the wonderful worldbuilding.
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Apr 10, 2023 11:42
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The game highlighted that the characters were walking on the ceilings, but nothing we have seen says ceiling to me. Maybe it's just so old that everything has been remodeled into floor, but in that case why draw the attention? They could even have done some rad poo poo where the tower was sliced into floors and then the stack inverted. Also, I keep trying to read that Orc language as really heavily accented pidgin english, but I think that's just my brain doing the desperate pattern recognition thing.
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Apr 10, 2023 11:43
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Why doesn't Elfo get an opinion? There should be an option for "shatter skelly skull into pieces", he could provide that. Edit: Nm, I'm dumb and can't read. That should be Kane's option.
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Apr 10, 2023 11:46
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So Maeve started out refusing to trust in magic despite literally using it herself, and now she finds it impossible to imagine a world without magic. About a day of game time has elapsed. Joining everyone else in saying leave the skeleton alone or else it'll exposit dumb poo poo at us.
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Apr 10, 2023 13:39
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