The 'Sidian Tyranny thread

[Nonek]

 

Thanks for the fake choice. To me, this is the low tide moment of the game thus far. No Diplomat (or any other background) option. No Lore check to cite the law. No Subterfuge check to turn around and leave (or at least pretend to). The illusion of a CRPG is shattered and what remains is an isometric interactive movie. Press 1 for outcome A. Press 2 for outcome B.

Erm, why doesn't the Overlord just appoint a supreme military commander for the campaign? Seems a more obvious move than sending the leaders of two factions into the fray.

[Darkpriest]

There is a solid reason for that and it is explained in the game, if you will chose certain paths.

 

Imagine you are holding a somewhat iron grip on powerful individuals, each with own agendas and not entirely blindly loyal. Now imagine they lead significant armies on a conquest of last area of known to you world. what would they be doing after the war, with all those battle experienced troops? Would you risk giving a direct rule over all of your armies to a one individual, or would you rather have them separated and competing?

 

Now, as for that fake choices, a player gets an in character warning from one of the individuals there, but you need to read also the green highlights - so it's not a fake choice, it is your choice to not pay attention to an in game, in character, lore friendly warning.. You need to remember that while you are a fatebinder, you are also just that, a servant to another archon and merely an expendable junior fatebinder at that time.

Edited November 21, 2016 by Darkpriest

[ShadySands]

 

I'm pretty sure Kyros wants them to fight and also believe that their hope is everyone dies in the valley. The last unconquered corner of the continent has just been conquered by these feuding factions so maybe it's time to get rid of them.

 

 

bleh typing on my phone

Edited November 21, 2016 by ShadySands

[Nonek]

Well personally i'd be setting up satraps to oversee large portions of the empire under fairly independent rule, with a central authority oversight as represented by the Fatebinders. I can see why Kyros would be playing off factions against each other, but when stamping out the last elements of resistance on the continent it would surely make sense to first conquer the province, make it profitable, ensure taxes are flowing and the economy is flourishing, while its own military/militia is efficacious, rather than pull it into a Diadochi like struggle for scraps.

 

After all there are always internal threats in any empire, that need putting down and stamping out with extreme prejudice, and surely the secret police of the Fatebinders cannot mount large scale military operations. Though this raises the question of the standing army in the empire of Kyros, what is the command structure, whom does it pay loyalty to, what are its tactics etcetera?

 

Edit: Slaughtering and enslaving the native population would be a good first move, giving their land to loyal settlers of the empire, and perhaps rewarding veterans of the standing army who are retiring from service. Obviously there would be a dual reason for the last move.

Edited November 21, 2016 by Nonek

[Darkpriest]

I'm probably spoiling this too much, but Kyros has an "emergency" army, which is basically an army of doom... Kyros never keeps it for too long due to its nature and its leader, and would rather not use it for conquest. Again, it is explained in game (if you are playing to certain aspects of the game and find it out)

Edited November 21, 2016 by Darkpriest

[prodigydancer]

Erm, why doesn't the Overlord just appoint a supreme military commander for the campaign? Seems a more obvious move than sending the leaders of two factions into the fray.

In principle, there's nothing wrong with forcing the player to pick a side. But this is heavy-handed and not very interesting. Such choices should be driven by the circumstances (and it would be particularly nice if the circumstances on the battlefield reflected your previous choices) not by the whims of the NPCs. Also you'd expect experienced army generals to have more sense than schoolgirls pulling each other's hair in a fit of jealousy.

 

Finally, this dialogue is a content gate which adds insult to injury. Content gating is a necessary evil sometimes but it's still a bad thing. You want to obscure and soften it, not rub it in the player's face.

Edited November 21, 2016 by prodigydancer

[Nonek]

The entire premise seems rather unworkable. Ah well, wait and see if it plays out satisfactorily and in an internally consistent fashion when I purchase the game, at least i'll be able to play as an evil minion for once and am not shoe horned into the usual boring chosen saviour routine. I'm also looking forward to sending thousands to their deaths, inventive torture and dehumanisation etcetera, rather than the usual small scale melee resolution that has turned all CRPGs into ARPGs.

[Pidesco]

I finally got my retail Archon Edition so I now have the loot.

 

The poster and the art book are quite small but I regret nothing and I'm chuffed anyway. Here are some terrible pictures:

 

 

[sorophx]

the money you spent on that Archon Edition would've served you better to replace that potato you took these pictures with 

[Keyrock]

Why are those pictures so orange?  

[Gfted1]

Cause he used a red potato.

 

*badumtish*

[Pidesco]

It's a Spanish phone, and I'm sure there's some setting that makes the picture less orange but I can't be arsed to change it.

[Keyrock]

Maybe Spain has a scurvy problem and it's a citrus filter to help prevent the disease? 

[Orogun01]

The entire premise seems rather unworkable. Ah well, wait and see if it plays out satisfactorily and in an internally consistent fashion when I purchase the game, at least i'll be able to play as an evil minion for once and am not shoe horned into the usual boring chosen saviour routine. I'm also looking forward to sending thousands to their deaths, inventive torture and dehumanisation etcetera, rather than the usual small scale melee resolution that has turned all CRPGs into ARPGs.

Not to spoil it but faith is a major theme of the game, not the belief but more like reputation. If you appoint a supreme overlord to the army it would look as favoritism and indirect support towards a faction making it gain power. Suffice it to say that if such thing were to happen the Archon would gain a tremendous amount of power.

[ManifestedISO]

The entire premise seems rather unworkable. 

 

Which underscores how masterful is the implementation.

[Humanoid]

My copy just arrived too. To call this think an "art book" is a serious, and frankly rather cynical stretch. It's about as substantial as the leaflet "Famous Jewish Sports Legends". Here's everything together for a size comparison.

 

 

Maybe the price of the physical Archon Edition copies - cheaper than buying the regular digital edition - was a giveaway, but it's disappointing nonetheless, Still, it's probably in line with the grand Paradox tradition of nickel and diming everything.

 

 

EDIT: The hub of the DVD is chipped on one layer but fortunately seems to be working fine. The key (Steam of course) is just on a sticker inside the case. The volume label on the disk is "Tyranny Commander" so clearly there's no different install media for the various versions.

Edited November 22, 2016 by Humanoid

[Pidesco]

This retail edition was actually done by a German publisher, I think, so Paradox wasn't the decision maker here.

[Humanoid]

Inspecting the packaging, the only other company besides Obsidian and Paradox mentioned is Steam, so if this third party is involved, perhaps they wisely chose to stay anonymous.

 

(That, or the German and/or Polish versions are done by different companies, this is a UK copy)

[Keyrock]

Ugh, I just encountered 2 things that really drive me insane in cRPGs:

 

1. Long "cut scenes" where your character just stands frozen like a dumbass for several minutes and does nothing while the antagonist does something terrible.  This is not unique to Tyranny, of course, Baldur's Gate games had this bull**** too.  If you're going to have my character stand there like an idiot while the antagonist gives a 3 minute long speech then does something nefarious then runs off the map and disappears, at least work a way to have some sort of barrier preventing me from reaching him or her into your scripted ****ing sequence.  Like holy **** this is some lazy ass game design!  Dude is going on a 3 minute speech while I just stand there, no obstacle whatsoever in my way, I could literally reach him in 15 seconds.  Better yet, I'm a ****ing archer, I don't even need to run over there, I could shoot a ****ing arrow at the guy right from where I'm standing.  It's what my character does, she shoots people with arrows!  Let me shoot a ****ing arrow at the guy or contrive a reason why I wouldn't be able to, like an energy barrier, I got caught in a net, an earthquake knocked me prone, something, anything!
2. People asking me to do menial tasks for them during times of pressing urgency.  So, said antagonist just stole an artifact of great power that was keeping the town safe from spooky evil forces, took the forge master prisoner, ran off (because ****ing cutscene where I'm not allowed to act even if I'm right ****ing there), and is executing a plan to kill most of the town dead.  I am told to speak to the mayor since he might know where antagonist went.  I do so.  The mayor has no useful information for me whatsoever then asks me to speak with the townsfolk to see if I can help them out with stuff.  You wot!?  You want me to hunt down townsfolk now and see if they have menial tasks for me to perform while the antagonist is executing a plan to murder everyone in the town dead?  This seems like a good time for that?  Now, this isn't as bad as in a BioWare game where you're literally THE ONLY ONE WHO CAN STOP THE WORLD FROM BEING DESTROYED and they have you picking ****ing elfroot, like they couldn't get one of the hundreds of regular soldiers go out and pick them instead.  Let's have THE CHOSEN ONE pick ****ing berries, that seems like a good use of resources.  This isn't as egregious as that, but you're having the ****ing mayor of the town ask me to talk to his townsfolk and lend a hand while there's a madman trying to destroy said town.  Call me crazy, but maybe I should concentrate on finding said madman and snuffing him out first.  That seems like it should be a top priority.

 

These ****ing ridiculous RPG tropes need to die in a ****ing fire. 

[sorophx]

I blame MMORPGs. It's WoW and other games like it that make designers feel they NEED to include these simple fetch quest (or maybe they think they can get away with it easier thanks to players being conditioned by WoW-likes)

[Hurlshort]

Menial quests during urgent times have been around a lot longer than mmo's.

[Orogun01]

Menial quests during urgent times have been around a lot longer than mmo's.

Where they around before the British used to send someone to brew tea in the middle of battle and took their tea break? 

[Madscientist]

@Keyrock

Watch the movie "The gamers: Directors Cut"

I got it for free from gog during a sale. https://www.gog.com/movie/the_gamers_directors_cut

There are some students playing PnP RPG and you can see how their choices work out in the game world.

 

 

 

Game master: You have been ambushed by bandits and the bandit leader holds a speach.

Elf Archer: I shoot him.

GM: You cannot shoot, you are surprized.

elf: Elves cannot be surprized, we hear everything.

GM: You are surprized because I say so! (The bandit leader starts his speech. 15 seconds later he gets shot)

GM: What are you doing?

Elf: Surprize lasts 3 rounds, thats 15 seconds. I have counted it.

GM: Just let me finish my speech. (The bandit leader starts his speech again and when he is finished after some minutes, they start fighting.)

 

 

 

Very funny movie that makes fun of many things you often see in RPGs.

[Madscientist]

If we talk about the same situation, then I threw a stone at him when he wanted to talk. He ran off and I chased after him. I fought some minions and had to talk to the villagers too, but at least I skipped his speech. During conquest and also later in the game I sided with the disfavoured.

[theBalthazar]

Hello everyone :

 

I have a question because I have doubt. 

 

In Tyranny there is 4 paths.

 

Graven Ashes

The voice of Nerat

Anarchist

Rebels

 

In the last patch :

 

• The Rebel player will no longer get multiple options to recruit factions out of sequence.

 

So, to clarify, only Anarchist path can visit the entire game ? (5 areas)

 

Its not imbalance and not fair ? RP =//= EXP.

 

I don't want to be obliged to have the most EXP.

Edited November 23, 2016 by theBalthazar