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Roleplayer's Off Topic Thread #42


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On 3/22/2024 at 10:32 PM, Celan said:

I watched a couple episodes of Three Body Problem. It's bonkers but entertaining.

I finished the series. It was okay. I didn't actively hate it, but it's not on the level of The Expanse, not even close.

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16 minutes ago, The Good Doctor said:

Surprised it was even okay considering who made it. XD 

They're not bad at adapting existing material. I hear that Chinese people don't like that they westernized it, such as the cast, but that's to be expected.

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6 minutes ago, Celan said:

They're not bad at adapting existing material. I hear that Chinese people don't like that they westernized it, such as the cast, but that's to be expected.

Not when they care, I suppose. Because they definitely butchered or tossed out a lot of GRRM’s existing material in the latter half of GoT. Even long before reaching the point where they’d run out.

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Just now, The Good Doctor said:

Not when they care, I suppose. Because they definitely butchered or tossed out a lot of GRRM’s existing material in the latter half of GoT. Even long before reaching the point where they’d run out.

True, I think they got clever starting at least by season 3 and trying to "improve" things. Actors as well as GRRM himself pointed this out to them.

Anyway, I'm not sure I'd recommend watching it, but if you're bored it's alright.

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I finished listening to Rendezvous with Rama audio book and well, it had some interesting points but...

This weekend has been a lesson in the kind of sci fi I don't prefer, which is high-concept low-characterization. The characters in RwR are barely sketched, which is similar to Three Body Problem. I would be happy to see what Denis Villeneuve does with it, but doubt it would be a favorite film, either. There's nothing in either of these stories like Amos Burton or Chrisjen Avasarala.

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7 hours ago, BigBossBalrog said:

Not yet, busy this weekend because of other obligations XD

Fair enough. Well let me know when you start because I wanna hear some thoughts!

Non-story mechanical spoilers:

 

The pawns are hilarious. The dialogue doesn’t seem quite as repetitive as I seem to remember it being in the first game, and it changes based on their experiences. I’ve had other players’ pawns even tell me stuff about their own masters in their parallel worlds, or know the locations of secret caves and treasures because they already found them while traveling with another player. Really cool system.

I started with the Fighter vocation with a Mage as my main pawn. I know it’s about as cliche a duo as possible but the synergy is just too good. The mage has infinite heals to help me tank longer, which in turn gives her time to charge the really powerful offensive spells that take longer to cast.

That said, I’ve already unlocked all the starting vocations for myself (it’s really easy to do), and tried the Archer for an outing. It was really strong, actually made the game downright easy, so I didn’t keep it for long.

Lots of fun you can have by getting creative. I had a huge laugh when I realized you throw pawns across gaps Aragorn and Gimli-style so they can loot treasures or kick down ladders to create a shortcut.

I also managed to jump up and grab an enemy harpy and use it to fly up a cliff, skipping a huge chunk of the map. I did not expect it to work and was stoked when it did. Felt like I’d just snuck past Quarry Junction and reached New Vegas early. XD 

It also has Morrowind-style diegetic fast travel, but honestly better in some ways. Most normal way is riding in ox carts between towns, but some roads are blocked and need to be cleared before it’s unlocked, and your travel can get interrupted by ambushes. There is also a mark/recall system, but instead of early-game spells and scrolls that anyone can get at level 1, marking a location requires the use of powerful and expensive rune stones so you can’t abuse it. 

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5 minutes ago, The Good Doctor said:

Fair enough. Well let me know when you start because I wanna hear some thoughts!

Non-story mechanical spoilers:

  Hide contents

The pawns are hilarious. The dialogue doesn’t seem quite as repetitive as I seem to remember it being in the first game, and it changes based on their experiences. I’ve had other players’ pawns even tell me stuff about their own masters in their parallel worlds, or know the locations of secret caves and treasures because they already found them while traveling with another player. Really cool system.

I started with the Fighter vocation with a Mage as my main pawn. I know it’s about as cliche a duo as possible but the synergy is just too good. The mage has infinite heals to help me tank longer, which in turn gives her time to charge the really powerful offensive spells that take longer to cast.

That said, I’ve already unlocked all the starting vocations for myself (it’s really easy to do), and tried the Archer for an outing. It was really strong, actually made the game downright easy, so I didn’t keep it for long.

Lots of fun you can have by getting creative. I had a huge laugh when I realized you throw pawns across gaps Aragorn and Gimli-style so they can loot treasures or kick down ladders to create a shortcut.

I also managed to jump up and grab an enemy harpy and use it to fly up a cliff, skipping a huge chunk of the map. I did not expect it to work and was stoked when it did. Felt like I’d just snuck past Quarry Junction and reached New Vegas early. XD 

It also has Morrowind-style diegetic fast travel, but honestly better in some ways. Most normal way is riding in ox carts between towns, but some roads are blocked and need to be cleared before it’s unlocked, and your travel can get interrupted by ambushes. There is also a mark/recall system, but instead of early-game spells and scrolls that anyone can get at level 1, marking a location requires the use of powerful and expensive rune stones so you can’t abuse it. 

That sounds delightful! A game that really caters to the people who like traditional, hardcore fantasy games! 

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@BigBossBalrog Fought my first chimera in DD2 last night.

 

I lost. XD 

Those things are crazy. I’ve fought and beaten ogres, cyclopses, and a really badass minotaur, but the chimera is tougher than any. It is fast, hits like a truck, has 3 (4?) health bars, a snake tail that spits venom all over the area, a goat head that casts AOE spells and can put you to sleep, and a lion head that will just straight up eat you. Thing is ridiculous. :rofl: I had to go to bed but I’ll try again tonight.

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27 minutes ago, The Good Doctor said:

@BigBossBalrog Fought my first chimera in DD2 last night.

 

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I lost. XD 

Those things are crazy. I’ve fought and beaten several ogres, cyclopses, and a really badass minotaur, but the chimera is tougher than any. It is fast, hits like a truck, has 3 (4?) health bars, a snake tail that spits venom all over the area, a goat head that casts AOE spells and can put you to sleep, and a lion head that will just straight up eat you. Thing is ridiculous. :rofl: I had to go to bed but I’ll try again tonight.

Might want to grind a little bit, I remember the OG have absolutely no qualms putting you underlevelled and kicking your teeth in XD

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12 minutes ago, BigBossBalrog said:

Might want to grind a little bit, I remember the OG have absolutely no qualms putting you underlevelled and kicking your teeth in XD

This one definitely doesn’t either. The big monsters are just chilling in the world regardless of your level. Which I much prefer to them being level scaled.

I think I’m definitely underleveled for this chimera fight, but luckily I set out expecting a tough encounter, so I’d just bought a new set of armor, upgraded my weapons, and picked out two very solid pawns (a warrior and a sorcerer), so I think I can pull the win. Just need to git gud.

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Also, something very refreshing is that this game’s economy, at least so far, is surprisingly balanced.

You can save up your gold and accumulate a fairly large amount pretty quickly, but armor, weapons, and the most useful items are very expensive, and sleeping at inns (which is the only way to hard save your game so it doesn’t get overwritten by autosaves) costs quite a bit too. And don’t even bother changing your appearance at low levels because it’s 10,000 gold a pop.

So it’s pretty easy to just blow all your savings in a single shopping trip. Especially if you don’t want to run around in raggedy armor.

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2 minutes ago, BigBossBalrog said:

Apparently the PC version right now is borked, and Capcom is promising a mega-fix in a day or two, so I'm going to wait for that before I jump on. 

Dang, that sucks. I’ve been having a blast so far on Xbox. Feels a lot like an oldschool tabletop where every time you leave town is a full-blown adventure. 

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