Jackalgirl

I see I'm of the same mind as everyone else here -- I saw a lot of stuff in the noclip documentary that I'd love to actually see in the game, and I'm intrigued by the stuff that was cut out -- the 6-month project, the expanded Terra 2 map. For some reason, I really have Hephaestus on my mind, though. I'd love to see what they do with that. I keep thinking of Kim Stanley Robinson's "Mars" series and wonder if they'll have something like Terminator -- the city that rides on rails so that it's always on the night-side of the planet (as the sun heats up the rails behind it, they expand, and "squeeze" the city along the cooler night-side rails). Also, we've seen canines, primates, insects, reptiles, and something like birds, as animal foes. Where are the cats at? I would love to see some cats. I did some speculating on my own...

I've noticed that on the PS4 at least, the character name field is limited to 16 characters. Could you expand it to 32? My character's name is longer and I'd love to use it, for all of the four or five opportunities to see it in-game, and it might be fun to play a game with "Arthur Septimus Higglesworth III" (Occupation: tossball mascot). Thanks for considering it!

If you belong to the Venn-diagram intersection of "TOW fan" and "Military", what little snippets of unique-to-your-world dialogue would you love to see happening in the background in future installments of TOW? You know, those things that people in your branch always seem to say? I'm thinking something like: or or, of course, any Chief Petty Officer starting a verbal counseling of any kind with the wielding of said knifehand and "Shipmate -- " I'd love to hear from other military folks as to the kinds of verbal or visual memes that you experience in your day-to-day that you'd love to show up in the game! [ Edited to add: I should mention that this is US Navy. Absolutely would love to hear from other branches and other countries' militaries. ]

Just wanting to note that I found the Community Guidelines for IP use for Pillars of Eternity (here: https://eternity.obsidian.net/eternity/legal/ip-use); however, there's nothing specific to The Outer Worlds and I'm not sure where Obsidian stands wrt licensing (especially with the Microsoft acquisition).

So very well-earned!

...and now I have to know: ARE THERE TEDDY BEARS IN THE OUTER WORLDS? 😳

I was trying to get a lock on the story timeline and finally read through the parts of the various wikis that talk about the background history of the worlds of The Outer Worlds. All of them mention TOW's first point of departure from our own history as taking place in 1901, when President William McKinley wasn't assassinated, and Theodore Roosevelt didn't become president of the United States. (Yes, I'm slow to the party.) This kinda majorly blew my mind. I've read Edmund Morris' Theodore Rex series, although it's been a while, and I need to read it again. But it's super intriguing that this one person's absence could be what leads to the throughly hyper-corporate culture of TOW (the gist is that without "Theodore the Sudden's" monopoly-busting activities, the growth and development of super-powerful corporations would have been unchecked, leading to the society we see at play in TOW). That got me thinking of a lot of things. One of the other things that Theodore Roosevelt was passionately interested in is a topic that's near and dear to my own heart: the US Navy. He's the one who instituted the sailing of the Great White Fleet in 1908, and I've always felt that this was one of the starting points (for good and for ill, in retrospect) of the United States' growth as a global superpower. Roosevelt, thoroughly onboard with Alfred Thayer Mahan (contemporary author of The Influence of Sea Power upon History, 1660-1783), realized that dominance at sea was critical to a nation's prosperity, security, and power. There's no indication that Alfred Thayer Mahan was also absent in the history of TOW, but without a no-holds-barred leader like Roosevelt to act upon Mahan's ideas, what would the US Navy of TOW have looked like? Clearly there's some form of some kind of Navy/Marine Corps relationship (not necessarily the US Navy, mind you), because we run into the descendants of a Marine Detachment in Groundbreaker. But without Roosevelt, how would the growth of the United States as a global power be impacted? Would some other country have stepped in to bridge the gap? What would World Wars I and II looked like (I imagine that they still would have happened, especially WWI)? Would there have been the Battles of the Coral Sea and Midway, without the earlier effort to build up the size & effectiveness of the US Navy? I sort of imagine that governments would have had their own proprietary military forces for a while, but eventually the corporations would have become so powerful that governments would have had to contract out to the corporations for military services (sort of as if the British Crown had hired the military arm of the East India Company instead of maintaining its own Navy) before ultimately becoming subsumed themselves by corporations (a unified corporate takeover of governmental functions*?). It also reminded me strongly of Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash. If you haven't read it, I can't recommend it strongly enough. But I think I can safely say without spoiling it too much that it's set in a speculative world in which strong encryption has lead to the growth of cryptocurrency (a theme explored in another of his books, Cryptonomicon, also excellent), which in turn has led to governmental collapse and a world which is largely run by...you guess it, corporations. I need to go reread my Morris, and I can't help but wonder if the folks at Obsidian are Stephenson fans. I was absolutely delighted to find out this detail, though, and I have to think that they've thought about all of this, and I wonder if any more details about the much-earlier history of TOW's Earth will be part of the DLC (or maybe TOW 2)? I sure hope so. I am just on fire to learn more, and for me it really underscores why Obsidian is just so dang awesome. : ) * Do historians in the world of TOW talk about the "Instruments of Corporate Power" as opposed to the "Instruments of National Power"?

Now that the poll is over, I'd like to say that my favorite lines were based on the reactions of the companions or NPCs, typically Max, because Dave Mitchell is amazing. You: "Can Parvati get that treated by a sawbones?" Max: "I see today we'll be conversing without metaphors." And my absolute favorite: Max: <speaking to Reginald Chaney> "Well, guess what. My goodwill's exhausted, along with my temper." You: "Max, if you're exhausted, maybe we should rest and look for the scholar later." Max: <does a double-take at you> "What? You never cease to amaze me, you know that?" Part of this quest is getting him not to kill Chaney, and I love that in this case, you say something so incredibly stupid that it actually snaps Max out of his fury. I laughed and laughed. : )

Looking for a member of the Dev team to answer this one: I'm kicking around the idea of putting together a site that has craft projects from the perspective of a character who's not in the game, although she's related to characters in the game, starting with a mock-apple pincushion. It would wholly be from the POV of this character. There would also probably be short stories, all of which involve the characters and storylines from the game. I'm curious as to what Obsidian's thoughts are towards fan-generated content, in particular written stories taking place within the worlds of The Outer Worlds. It's likely that there's nothing anyone could actually do about it, but what's Obsidian's preference? Nothing? Go hog-wild? Or "it's okay, just include a disclaimer and spoiler warning"?

I realize you're running out of buttons, and this is absolutely 100% not a big deal, but it would be nice to be able to carry the weapon at the ready (in particular, rifles). I guess that putting it away sort of counts (I mean, it's in your hands once you go idle), but I'd like to be able to see that the muzzle is angled downwards. This is completely non-functional, which is why it's not a big deal -- it's just that I absolutely hate flagging my companions, and trying to dip the gun results in a wildly slewing and disorienting viewpoint. Its a story thing and it is 100% aesthetic, so feel free to disregard.

Noticed another super weird occurrence: after Phineas is detained (I'm on the "you're a good guy" track), I returned to the ship. I had dispatched some UDL types who dropped armor, so I put the Captain and Max into new UDL armor. I then returned to the Unreliable and changed my character and Max into their regular street-going wear. I was thinking to make a quick round to Groundbreaker to sell off some inventory. Of course, when I went to the navigation computer to set course for the Groundbreaker, ADA informed me that the crew wanted to talk to me. Fade screen, fade back in to a view of the dining area and everyone's in their armor...and Max is wearing his vicar tunic along with the raised white shoulderpads from his UDL armor. It was disconcerting (and hilarious) to have this whole dialog going on with this weird "wardrobe malfunction" right in the middle of the screen, on my favorite companion no less. After I opted to wait before going on the Tartarus run, I took Max to Groundbreaker as previously planned, and the transition to the docking bay seemed to bring him back from the depths of the 1980s into 2355 where he belongs*. Whew! *If Felix gives him problems, I'm not sure he'd survive "New Kids on the Block"

On my second playthrough on the PS4. The PS4 is claiming that my copy of The Outer Worlds is up to date, patch-wise. During the "Don't Bite the Sun" quest (Parvati's companion quest), I shifted the companions (Max and Parvati) into regular clothing: he in his vicarly duds, and her into a regular outfit with a brown leather jacket (90% sure it's one of the Town & Country sets). I'd been doing this throughout the game: when my character heads out on standard vendor-selling trips, she and her companions usually shift out of their armor into regular clothing. At any rate, after we'd picked up Parvati's outfit from Jolicoeur, we headed back to Groundbreaker. During the part where you're supposed to check on how the date is going, I noticed that Parvati was wearing the brown leather jacket outfit, and not the fancy outfit from the Haberdashery. After the date, all seemed well, and I shifted Parvati back into her armor. Then today I noticed that her brown leather jacket outfit was no longer in my inventory (my character usually carries that one, Max's, and the outfit I've picked out for my character as a matter of course, since she usually goes out with Max and Parvati). I thought that perhaps I'd accidentally sold it to Ike or Belle on the Groundbreaker Promenade, so I double-checked the buy-back feature and nope, neither of them had it. I suspect that somehow the Jolicoeur outfit got bound up with the brown leather jacket outfit, and when the mission completed, both disappeared. It's not a huge deal, but I was fond of that outfit. It suited Parvati (and Felix, too). I'm sure I will find another copy if it somewhere. : )

I totally forgot to mention that, although it did cross my mind: you're absolutely right: Adelaide's solution is even shorter-term if you start requiring that she and hers only make use of volunteers. Not everyone is Parvati. ; ) It's a good book, but dang is it kind of overwhelming (in a depressing sort of way).

I like where you're going with this. It makes total sense. I have this sense, though, that when there's a TOW 2, the arc will involve what happened to Earth, so I suspect something's up (I actually said, out loud, "I'll be it's aliens, too bad about Lilya Hagen!"). But now that you mention it, I'm very intrigued by those encrypted messages. I wonder if, at some point (probably TOW 2), your character/companions will be able to decrypt them.

It does seem to be working on the small scale, but the availability of the organic materials only works for now, with a colony in severe decline. If things were to turn around (as the "be good!" branch of the story seems to want) and the colony were to thrive, I'm thinking that in the long run there would likely be more people than resources (unless you somehow convinced people to limit their breeding, which could be difficult for a given value of culture). It seems to me that an integrated approach would be best for the long-term, combining Adelaide's technique, some accelerated adaptation, as well as trying to build up a culture that values minimum use of resources, maximum return to the environment, and maximum local self-sufficiency (if you've ever read "Ishmael" by Daniel Quinn, I'm talking about a Leaver society, vs. a Taker society).

As Felix would say: "DUH!" ; )

Bwah hah hah hah -- yes, I should have said "banked up good with with everyone BUT the Board". In total agreement! As for Eva, I can't kill her. What she wants to do is just too interesting & compelling. But Tartarus came with all kinds of surprises, especially for the Better Half, who basically just killed everyone and was totally on his own. He was surprised by how my version of the story went. I, of course, was absolutely delighted. "Grimmy!!!"

I am about 90% sure that this is a Tip of the Hat to the episode "Shindig" from the TV show "Firefly" (source of the movie "Serenity").

Huh! I haven't picked up Ellie and gotten to Byzantium yet; when I get home I'll have to pop on over to the Groundbreaker and see if he's there. I'm not sure that I followed the right dialogue tree, though -- something to remember for the next run through. Thanks! Agreed that it's too harsh. I always got the sense from Reed that he was doing his best (though he could have done better) with a really terrible situation; his desire to do the best for his people is what makes him agree to essentially commit suicide -- I mean, he did agree to give over to Adelaide. So there's something there. I wonder if he'd be willing to work for SubLight, if it was framed to him that the communities of Monarch really need that factory? I'd like to think so, because he'd be putting people (the more people the better) ahead of his own pride, which is exactly what he did in Edgewater. Aethel's (my character's) general philosophy is to get good ties with as many people and corporations as possible, so that when it comes time to completely rework the system, she's got some good will banked up. : ) Yes. I think I may just go back and to that just for funsies. I think it might make me feel better!

Here are mine: Max Parvati Felix Nyoka Ellie I might, in a future play-through, pick up Ellie a little earlier and see if she grows on me. I agree with other posters' comments about how her companion quest seems pretty underwhelming (though it is amusing). Edited to add: Ohmygosh I totally forgot SAM. He falls in under Nyoka, only because he doesn't have an extended quest. But his dialogues with Felix are delightful.

Yes, so I've gathered; ah well, it was a (n admittedly uneducated, as I haven't played Fo) thought. That's a pity, though; I do love crossovers/cross-references/tips of the hat (like the cows in the cargo hold, squee!). Thank you for the recommendation -- I'll definitely go with that one (if I ever come up for air from TOW / TOW DLC)!

I'm on iTunes, so I'm rather breathlessly waiting for the TOW soundtrack to show up there. In the meantime, I've had the occasion to do a lot of driving, and as I'm listening to my very old and standard "road trip" playlist, it occurred to me that some of the songs seem to fit the characters and situations of TOW very well*. Felix: Uprising (Muse) Parvati: Marble Machine (Wintergatan) Nyoka: My Songs Know What You Did in the Dark (Fall Out Boy) Ellie: Immortals (Fall Out Boy) Max: The Belly Dancer (Gordon Duncan)** Sanjar/MSI: The Power of Bhangra (vs. Motivo) (Snap!) Anything involving TDD: Right In (Skrillex), Born Too Slow (the Crystal Method) Aethelflaed (my character): Sad But True (Orbital) The Mather Family (and the crew of the Hope): A Little Priest (Angela Lansbury & Len Cariou, from "Sweeney Todd: the Demon Barber of Fleet Street) Monarch: Jupiter Shift (the Crystal Method) I haven't figured anything out for SAM yet. I guess I need to expand the playlist! If you're interested, most of these songs can probably be found on YouTube (especially "The Marble Machine", which you should go and watch right now, because it is freakin' amazing). For other computer games, I sometimes turn the music track off and play my own playlists; does anyone do this with TOW? Or if you've heard listened to music and it's brought TOW to mind, what songs or tunes have struck you as "TOWish"? * Could just be that I'm obsessed. Because I am. ** It's a tune played on guitar and bagpipes, normally in the Mixolydian Mode, but in this case retuned for the Phrygian. "I'm sure you understand what that's like." ; )

I'm not a Fallout player (yet), though I've watched the Better Half play it. And something occurred to me:

3. If you think you only have two choices, there's probably a third way hidden in there somewhere.

I really sympathize. That was a tough one. I managed to make it (eventually) by sprinting and jumping, but I had to save after each successful jump. One time, I came down a ladder and automatically backed off of it to my doom. I'm glad you made it!