blotter

I have a 50% off coupon for Tyranny that I don't need since I bought the game last year. My Paradox Interactive Store Key is below if anyone's still looking for a coupon: TYRANNY-LFRTHPRIBMBW-50

Interesting. The way he talked about the shattered tablet at the end of the quest, I figured it was more or less an illegible mess lacking much in the way of individually defining features, but I suppose a lot of that could come down to the despair he felt at that given moment: after all, if he didn't think there was any point in studying it more closely for useful information and/or pertinent features left on it that he could use to support his claims, then it follows that he wouldn't bother to make much an effort to find them. During the Q&As, Sawyer mentioned that there may be further developments pertaining to the Engwithan phylactery that you're able to seize from Cragholdt. The state of Stalwart village/Durgan's battery both seem like things that may be mentioned in Deadfire depending on the choices you made, though I doubt we'll see any durgan steel either way given the direction they're taking with weapon upgrades. Lord Gathbin was an Aedyran noble, if memory serves. Given that there are some Aedyrans in the Deadfire area, it's not inconceivable that they might comment on how you dealt with him (though it does seem like a stretch). Captain Emery does seem like the sort who might take to pirating after the abrupt end of her bodyguard work if you talked her out of standing by Gathbin at the battle of Yenwood field, so maybe we'll meet her again. It wouldn't matter much either way, but it could be interesting. Whether you bargain with Uariki or kill her may prompt some minor reactivity; her limited backstory notwithstanding, it does seem so specifically relevant to the situation with the Huana's colonization woes that I wouldn't be too surprised to see some slight reactivity based on it. It's highly doubtful that she's made meaningful progress in her research either way by the time of Deadfire, but maybe she'll reappear as an npc of minor or moderate importance in Deadfire if you struck a deal with her (assuming she survives in that case; I've never decided not to kill her outright, so I wouldn't know). That's a lot of "maybes" to string together, I'll grant, but the matter of if/how you dealt with the archmages, as a matter separate from the Engwithan phylactery, does seem highly likely to be noted in Deadfire since they've confirmed that there will be further interactions with archmages in the sequel.

Well, it limits me to two three companions instead of three four, but it could work. One of the reasons that I'm happy about sidekicks is that Ydwin and Bonteru give off enough of an amoral scholar vibe that I might be able to fit them into the group, thereby preserving some banter/interaction rather than limiting myself to the haunted silence of my merc gofers. Then again, maybe they'll introduce some sort of Cruel or Aggressive disposition-based demonstrative violence talent to keep fussy companions in line (or let you leverage skills to that effect; if memory serves, there are Deception, Persuasion, and Intimidation skills that they're planning to include).

In reality it began to dawn on me that painting my watergun black wasn't going to fool anyone and trying to fill it with acid was probably going to hurt me more than it hurt anyone else. Lore-wise? Savage killer is par for the course. The white wyrmling and baby bog bat are similarly likely to rip someone's throat out in their sleep (if they wait that long) and fear of a lingering personal threat hadn't kept my Watcher from holding on to Concelhaut's animated skull, which retains enough of the formerly murderous archmage's essence to become him for a limited period of time every day. It was more a matter of considering party morale and keeping faction relations smooth: they (party members and faction-based allies alike) had been remarkably understanding about some of the hazardous critters I'd been collecting, but keeping a quasi undead man-eating child shaped horror as a pet is arguably more distressing than wearing robes stitched together from animated, still-bleeding human skin (for example). Both look and smell horrible, and both raise disturbing questions about how the Watcher came across them and why he keeps them in the first place, but the wicht compounds that even further by causing one to wonder how the Watcher keeps it fed and "happy" enough to follow him around and not nip at his heels or worse while doing so. Especially for party members, who aren't guaranteed to face a continual supply of xuarips and bandits with which to tide the fanged tyke over in their place, it occurred to me that these aren't questions that I want them to be asking.

I think it's still possible to pledge, it just won't count towards the stretch goals anymore. Yeah, I thought about robbing a bank to fund the pet wicht I've always wanted, but I figured that wouldn't end too well.

Well, there's the slacker backer pledge for $2000 that'll let you choose from "almost any" creature in the game and have obsidian create a pet based on it; if you've got the money to spare, maybe they can scale down a lagufaeth a bit to make your wish come time (assuming there will be any in Deadfire).

I dunno. There are tattooed girls in anime, though usually not fitting her "type", I guess. I think it'd be simpler and more decisive results-wise to just shave her bald. There are bald anime girls too, of course, but they're hardly iconic; also, it fits in with the whole "creepy, death-obsessed animancer" characterization. Or turn her into a Vailian woman with an afro. That'd also work. (edit: though we already have Pallegina...)

Galvino wore a monocle similar to the one you can buy in Defiance Bay. I don't remember any characters who had portraits wearing glasses in Pillars 1, but I can't rule out the possibility an npc having something like that equipped or included in a textual description (though I'm pretty sure it isn't the head priestess of the temple of Wael; I'd have remembered a bespectacled female dwarf in robes).

1. I think they did a good job overall of maintaining backer/investor interest during the original campaign from January 26th to February 24th. If memory serves, it was Sawyer's multiclass video that actually drew me to these boards in the first place: I only registered to begin with so I could view the links in that old thread about information from the SomethingAwful boards and I only started posting to meet the minimum number required to make my account stick. Since then, I've found that they've given us plenty to discuss (for better or worse in some cases). 2. Related to the above, I think they did a get job of providing a fairly steady stream of information throughout the process of the original campaign. I wasn't interested in all of it, and I certainly didn't care about each and every stretch goal, but just watching the wheels continued to move brought some promise for the future. 3. The Final Hours Stream on February 24th was a nice touch, even if I didn't come close to sitting through all of it. 4. Like others, I'd say it's hard to knock the end result of the campaign in regards to the pledges it attracted: 4.7 and some change is huge. I'm loathe to criticize too much since I'm not aware of precisely what went into the process, but the repeated setbacks and missed estimates for when they'd implement a Paypal option for the campaign didn't look good at all from where I was sitting. Even if it didn't affect me personally since I pledged through Fig, that situation really seemed to drag on and the multiple missed dates made similar estimates seem a lot less credible to me. It's possible that there was still untapped potential among people who either hadn't received much exposure to the campaign or didn't realize it was still going on (particularly with the campaign's extension to the 28th occurring towards the very end), but it seems more likely to me that the campaign had simply gone as far as it could in terms of gathering pledges (and again, I think that's really far). I won't address the "anything different" questions toward Obsidian/the Community because what I know about consumer/fan outreach wouldn't fill a baby mouse's bladder. I'm not going to go into particular stories or themes, but I remember hearing that Sawyer's been working on a turn-based historical rpg. That sounds interesting to me. As a D&D nerd, I'd also like to see a Pathfinder rpg (I've never cared about card games). If it ever did happen, though, I'd be somewhat concerned about how annoyed I'd get at being unable to houserule aspects of the system that I don't care for (there's always the possibility of mods, though). Obsidian also expressed interest in working on a game in the Dune setting (even if there's nothing foreseeably in the works for it), and I think that has a lot of potential as well. I never cared about fishing. Even if it was done well, I don't think it ever would've registered to me beyond an initial "Oh, well that's nice, I guess..." reaction. I was interested in having more sea monsters in the game. That said, I was probably more annoyed that the some of the promotion for the stretch goal itself made it sound like we had to reach 4.75 mil or there'd be no sea monsters in the game at all, even if, based on the information they shared about the game thus far through Q&As and so forth, I was still confident we'd be encountering sea monsters either way.

The process of gaining weapon proficiencies is currently set to involve its set of resources as opposed to costing talent points (https://jesawyer.tumblr.com/post/156893948066/weapon-proficiencies-are-in-but-are-the-weapon).

You might have a point if we weren't talking about sickles that potentially be used to slay dragons, kraken, and colossal animats (a fair corollary for your battleship-destroying sword since you're introducing function), but guess what: we are. Further, both fall within the spectrum of media representations of weapons, where, again, matters of structural absurdity are absolutely a matter of degree. They may factor into such concerns along with other details depending on who's using them and how they're used, a point you previously claimed that you weren't arguing against. Right. Because we know that the posters on this board invariably remember/keep track of information from previous updates: we never have nor ever will see any evidence to the contrary in that regard. Are you seriously trying to claim that everyone who read that update and would find anime influence objectionable was also familiar with Xoti's concept art? That's the only way I can see reference to the art preventing any anti-anime backlash from the akimbo scythes description across the board like this. "And yet" nothing. The fact that people did not indulge, as you put it, is central to the discrepancy I was claiming. Ydwin demonstrates a range of features that are similarly present in western fantasy conventions and subsequently bloats into anime caricature as far as the board's concerned. Xoti is featured with a description that is quite evocative of even more egregious anime tropes and I've seen no ridicule about or objections to it. My argument never was that Xoti should be attracting an equal amount of scorn based on adherence to anime conventions, however much Gromnir wishes it was. It was based more on the lack of any such ridicule occurring (that I've seen, anyway).

Exactly what these problems are seems to vary significantly based on who's explaining them. But to clarify, in the post you've quoted I'm not asserting that Ydwin and Xoti would be considered anime-esque for the same reasons; one of the few points of agreement on this subject thus far is that there are plenty of possible reasons for making anime comparisons, even if there's far less agreement about the validity of these reasons. Dual wielding normally two-handed weapons like scythes, as suggested by the "akimbo scythes" description, would seem fairly likely to elicit anime comparisons, however (even if I do dimly recall hearing about a death knight in the Mystara D&D campaign setting who dual wielded greatswords). It obviously didn't, though, hence my surprise in the post that Xoti seemingly wasn't attracting any anime-based hate herself.

We've covered this already and I already explained the basis for my description of Xoti's weapon as being impractical, so I'm not really sure what repeating yourself on the matter of farm implements being historically used as weapons is supposed to accomplish here. Impractical weapons exist in the real world as well, even ones that are impractical to the point of ridiculousness: like ceremonial greatswords that are too large to actually use effectively within a battlefield, scissor katars that wouldn't actually be able to expand inside someone, and phallic symbol throwing weapons like this (https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/43/f7/c0/43f7c0c13037da0e9025906b1edce70f.jpg), all of which would be right at home in various fantasy anime (just like someone wielding a sickle because the person behind the art thought it'd be cool would be). You say that as if there were some consistent and objective criteria by which these comparisons occur, and in accordance with them, Ydwin would necessarily qualify as bearing anime influence while Xoti would not. The criteria are more variable and subjective than that, however. This is demonstrated throughout this thread in regards to the varied standards by Ydwin's anime stigma is applied: we have cases where people have independently concluded the association based on features of the concept art, details of Ydwin's tentative bio, or even retroactively after hearing others discuss her in particular ways. Wow, Grommie. This keeps getting sadder and sadder. I understand that you can't be expected to have a grasp of the particulars of a given position (or positions) that you're arguing against, you've made that clear from your first response when you thought that I or anyone else in this thread had been claiming that Xoti sparked a comparable amount of anti-anime backlash, but when you've previously repeated parts of my posts I'd hope that they'd at least sink through even if nothing else does. Let's review: I've readily acknowledged a difference in degree in regards to impracticality on multiple occasions. If you don't see how a difference in degree can be meaningful, then I grieve for you. Perhaps you've also noted that I drew distinctions between weapons which in and of themselves would prompt anime comparisons and those which contribute to such assessments in conjunction with other features while clearly classifying Xoti's sickle in the latter category, but I wouldn't bet on it given your present track record. Once again, I'll reiterate: I am not claiming that Xoti's sickle in and of itself is likely to be sufficient to justify anime comparisons the way one of those wacky cleavers would be, it simply features among other aspects of the concept art in question which, all taken together, could arguably demonstrate an anime influence. This distinction, which you've miserably and repeatedly failed to address, does not require the sickle to be 100% as impractical as any of the examples of anime weapons that you've posted. Incidentally, I've never made any comparisons between the scythe-wielding bishonen and Xoti's concept art. I simply noted that the "akimo scythes" description used for Xoti in one of the updates seemed evocative of the horrors in that particular screenshot. What I subsequently wrote about arguably anime-esque features in her concept art is not tied to the screenshot in question and it's definitely not dependent on the concept art being equally rife with distinctively anime-based features. If we're facing an impasse here, it's a result of your heroic efforts to preserve this particular strawman.

If memory serves, he's never actually able to produce proof for his theories. The tablets are left fragmented and largely illegible, though I do remember being able to get him to trace bits and pieces of them. AFAIR, if he goes back and persists in his claims, he loses academic credibility but still manages to attract interest and patronage from those who are less concerned about his formal credentials. I'd expect his sister to have mixed feelings about that at best, but who knows. Then again, I certainly haven't seen all of his endings. If there is one where the tablets are somehow preserved and he is fully vindicated before his people, that's a different story I suppose.

Not really. The anime comparisons started following the concept art, after which the tsundere and yandere stuff ensued. Most likely, the initial comparison of the concept art to anime was prompted by more than just Ydwin's weapon; in many cases, the reasoning was probably quite similar to my explanation of convergence between the weapon, who's using it (a petite, bespectacled, albino elf girl), and how (to strike a fairly stupid pose). I'd say that sounds quite similar to the sorts of interactions I was explaining to you in my earlier post. Clearly. The relative impracticality of various impractical weapons, however, is absolutely a matter of degree. You're continuing to insist that I mentioned impractical weapons in some effort to capitalize on an implicit association with the deep (or at least deeper) end of anime absurdity; I'll reiterate that this is not my intention. Since you're convinced that I'm a liar, I don't expect you to believe this but I'll toss it out there anyway: if I had meant to conflate Xoti's sickle with various knockoffs of Cloud's Buster Sword, I would have said that she had an anime weapon, not an impractical one. My description was intended to illustrate that a combination of features within Xoti's concept art, her choice of weapon included, could be argued to be anime-like as well in response to a post that stated her concept art had no such warning signs. Nothing more, nothing less.

I haven't taken anything out of context. People are often happy to engage in anime comparison and ridicule even without characters necessarily toting massive, sharpened lumps of iron. Bookish girls with rapiers/action girls with sickles triumphing over hordes of towering brutes with battleaxes certainly can prompt people to denigrate the media that includes them as being anime-influenced. What provokes the comparison isn't necessarily the weapon itself (though there are cases where it can be); how the weapon is used and who's using it can make all the difference. And on the off chance that someone thinks that I'm trying to conflate anime ridicule with sexism, I'm not. I'm equally confident that teenage boys and adult bishonen mowing through burly mooks with historically accurate katanas or sufficiently ornate longswords can elicit the same reaction from an audience for similar reasons. How so? The difference is one of degree rather than kind, and as I mentioned above, the weapon itself can simply be part of the equation. I didn't bother to proclaim that neither sickles nor rapiers are as impractical as cartoonish two-handed cleavers like the one you posted above because it's both obvious and immaterial to the comparison of Ydwin and Xoti, neither of whom have the latter types of weapons. If you actually think that others wouldn't be able to appreciate that these things exist along a continuum of impracticality, then I guess I'll applaud your diligence in protecting them from any misconceptions I may have left them with.

It was just how they described her in the same update that made Ydwin the poster girl for anime encroachment into Eora as far as some people are concerned. More specifically "toting akimbo scythes" suggests dual wielding wicked looking farming implements that usually require both hands with arms akimbo to strike a "badass" pose, perhaps not unlike the pose in that goofy screenshot I posted earlier (no offense to anyone who likes that franchise).

It's hard to say, but she does have Huana ancestry. Maybe one of the reasons that the devs chose to add her as a companion is because she's either conflicted about her duties on some level or she could be persuaded to feel that way, in either case allowing the player to explore characteristics of Rauatai people that may fall outside of the militaristic arrogance currently seems to define their presence in the area. For my part, I'm more interested in the opportunity to make Xoti an apostate. She seems interesting, but my Watcher's going to be pretty obsessed with causing as much harm to her god as possible after having most of his soul eaten by the bastard.

Yeah, I'd agree that she probably is more incidental to the plot, but that probably has less to do with her general character concept than the point at which she was created or specific plans for her. The plot also heavily features luminous adra, the animancers who are fascinated by it, and the Vailian republics. It just so happens Ydwin's bio identifies her as an animancer with ties to the Vailian Republics and a fascination with luminous adra. When I was referring to impractical weapons, I meant impractical in general, not impractical specifically within the context of anime. Choosing weapons based on dubious symbolism and misguided "rule of cool" conceits are things that I tend to see condemned about anime, regardless of whether those weapons are four feet wide and nine feet long or just ineffective without being structurally absurd. And sure, farming implements definitely have a history of being weaponized to an extent and employed in warfare; it's cheap and practical in terms of saving money that would otherwise be spent arming foot soldiers who were predominantly cannon fodder anyway, but where the wielder's concerned it's pretty damned impractical to use many of these weapons when ones more specialized for war are available. Or so I'd assume. History and the respective pros and cons of medieval weapons admittedly aren't subjects that I specialize in, but I'd generally expect something like a spear or even possibly a hatchet to reliably outperform a sickle when it comes to breaching armor/killing people. I don't think anyone here was ever disputing that Ydwin drew more anime comparisons. I certainly wasn't, as evidenced by the fact that I mentioned my surprise that Xoti didn't draw any ire from the community after being described as toting "akimbo scythes".

Heh, for a second I actually started to imagine literal anime dog whistles, which probably exist. In any case, I'm not sure it's entirely true that Xoti's concept art is 100% free of things that could be argued as evocative of anime influence. Pretty young female battle-priests who smirk while wielding impractical weapons (sickles included) are a dime a dozen in anime after all, but I suppose there probably is a bit of a shifting threshold that her concept art doesn't necessarily breach.

Yep, it's in the same update. Maybe it's different for other people, but "akimbo scythes" really prompts images of far worse anime excesses in my mind than concept art of a rapier-wielding glasses girl.

With all this talk of Ydwin being some sort of anime-influenced blot on the face of Eora, I'm surprised that no one's howling for Xoti's blood. Update #17 did say that she "totes akimbo scythes", which sounds like it'd end up as something like this: Granted, it was most likely the writer's mistake since Gaun's props are a lamp and sickle. Even so, given the faint whiffs that have set some people off from that same update, I'd really expect more blood to boil at the mere thought of Xoti twirling scythes around.

It seems most likely that Kana's ending will have at least some bearing on the Watcher's interactions with her, but if memory serves, the rest of Kana's family assume more conventional Rauatai attitudes of militaristic expansion and resistance to outside influence, so him having a favorable opinion of the Watcher may actually cause Kana's family to resent the Watcher as someone who has been further enabling his delusions. As for meeting Maia, we know that she's a Rauatai ship captain involved in the effort to claim the Huana as subjects of the Rauatai nation. We also know that she's working with a courtier named Atsura and struggling to find her footing amidst all the political maneuvering that's going (as mentioned here - https://www.fig.co/campaigns/deadfire?update=263#updates). From what's been revealed so far, the mention of politics and the accompaniment of one of the Ranga Nui's courtiers may suggest interactions with Queen Onekaza II within the city of Neketaka, which seems to be the likeliest place for such intrigues to occur given the Queen's efforts to play the Vailians and Rauatians against each other (as per - https://www.fig.co/campaigns/deadfire?update=256#updates). Based on this, I'd expect to first encounter Maia in Neketaka and I'd further expect that encounter to be related to her duties as opposed to some sort of meeting that Kana arranged, especially since the Watcher may have killed, ignored, or fed him to the blood pool during the previous game.

The lore already indicates that half-races aren't a possibility in Eora (for a source on that, search for "half races" in this old gamebanshee interview with Sawyer: http://www.gamebanshee.com/news/111978-project-eternity-social-round-up.html). Subracial mixes are an established possibility as per Xoti, though.

Weapon groups aren't a thing anymore. The current plan is for there to be weapon proficiencies for individual weapons which won't raise accuracy but will provide additional options for using them (previously mentioned examples include a savage attack modal for greatswords, a vulnerable attack modal for estocs, and a modal to wield pistols as clubs, afair; see https://www.reddit.com/r/projecteternity/comments/5rju7y/link_deadfire_qa_session_with_josh_sawyer_1h05m/dd867io/ for details). One thing I'd like to see is the introduction of faction antipathy-based quest talents (similar to Faction wrath-based abilities in Tyranny) for those moments when you really and truly screw over one faction or another. I'd also like to see reputations that aren't necessarily tied to disposition or faction/town relationships. For example, you might become infamous as a poisoner if you use lots of it in combat (especially in cities, where the corpses you leave behind are more likely to be seen/studied), a despoiler of Engwythan ruins, a pyromaniac if you use lots of fire spells/explosives, a habitual drug user (particularly since we have a subclass that is defined by its drug use), a trafficker/liberator of slaves, etc. Such reputations could probably be binary as opposed to ranked and may be niche enough to not require too much in terms of reactivity throughout the game while still adding a bit of spice to particular quests/interactions. The game should also address potential hazards or implications of the Watcher's glimpses into others' lives a bit more. There are several instances where the narrative suggest that you're oblivious to the living world while you're experiencing more involved flashbacks of others' lives, but this always occurs during moments where you've yet to encounter or have more or less resolved any nearby threats; if the Watcher's as out of it as he/she seems during these moments, it seems like a waste not to get some tension out it at least once (maybe tie it to a Perception/Resolve check to see if you can effectively respond in the grip of a vision or something).