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[smithney]

I'm genuinely missing some talk about the narrative. Sure, Alex's direction and mechanical content deserves the spotlight, but David's been busy this patch, too, and I'm of the opinion his work does deserve some praise as well. I've already voiced some of my opinions in the patch announcement thread, I'm going to dig deeper into individual storylines here:

The Shrines

What a lovely way to get introduced into the Church! I managed to get lucky and not only did my first visit to the Jangala shrine coincide with the protest event, I also nabbed a hitchhiker there on my way to Kumari Aru. All of the visits were memorable and together painted a pretty colorful picture of the Church, a "rainbow road" of sorts if the zealous pardon me. I honestly can't think of anything to improve, it's a neat and simple storyline for new players to pick up to get a good look at a major piece of the core worlds. The only piece it was missing was a peek at the dark side of the Church, which I hoped would be addressed in...

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The Knight Errant

...and it turns out I was right. Sorta. There is no denying that the Path is the dark side of the Church, but I have seen more evidence of the two sides of the Ludd's coin mingling in the Gates storyline through the encounters with Cotton and his knave of Ludd. Admittedly Jethro turning out to have pee'd his pants off to Mazalot was a funny, but ultimately anticlimactic ending, painting him in an arguably unflattering light. I'd have preferred if he ended up being a genuinely resourceful and influential personality active in some kind of an underground action on Mazalot. Perhaps he would end up being an agent of his own that would grow sympathetic to the Luddic radicals, but guilesome enough to influence them towards a more subtle and effective solution to their oppression. Then we could actually make an interesting decision whether to fulfill Jaspis' quest and weaken the faithful of Mazalot in favor of returning one of Gilead's greatest offstage minds home. Or show sympathy to his cause and perhaps eventually see the fruits of such character's efforts come true. I mean, perhaps we could supply him with weapons (or contacts!) if we could do that with...

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The Hood, the Boy and the Bot

..., err, I mean the Volturn Curate. And you might've just ended up puzzled what has the Volturn Padawan quest got to do with the previously mentioned questline. Nothing much except disappointment. I'm not going to write a rant about it again though, it's here for those who are curious. The quest is a fun nod and I appreciate it, but I hope in future it does become an introduction to Sindria's own Chekhov's bot-man.

...Sorry for not coming up with a better joke. But hey! At least it sounds like Batman! 

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The Sentinel Island

IN SPACE!

Boy, is this joke getting old

Didn't arrive to this paragraph by a segue, but neither did I to Sentinel while playing. I mean I didn't encounter this one as fluidly as the other storylines. Which makes sense, the discovery of Sentinel's secret is meant to be sudden and shocking. And what a shocker it is! AI hardwired to Hegemony ships? I choose to read it less as an accident of necessity and more as another proof of Hegemony's hypocrisy. That said, I'm looking forward to see the repercussions of actually handing the PK to anyone in future patches. I'll be disappointed if it doesn't end up being abused by everyone possible. Power corrupts and so on...

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The Usurpers

Speaking of power, the Usurpers questline is steaming, but somewhat undercooked. But that's the cons of tasting the early access for you. On the other hand, the ingredients are amazing! Hyder and Macario are intriguing characters and I would love to see them at each other's throats in the future. I was a bit underwhelmed by Caden coming off as a straight-up idiot, but I suppose that's to be expected of the head of Lion's Guard. I might pretend it to be a case of obfuscating stupidity and perhaps he'll get a chance to show that in future patches. If he doesn't end up dying in a shootout with me over a single double agent, like this time. Either way it looks like Askonia's set up to be a political or even a literal battleground for the four big factions and I can't wait for the theater to start ^^

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All in all, I liked what you got, David. Good job! If you continue at this pace and manage to gently weave the storylines together then we're in for a proper space opera! And no opera would be complete without music, so shout-out to Stian for the new themes! Love the hint of the hyperspace theme in the League ones!

And what do you think, fellow starfarers?

[Network Pesci]

Well, you've said most of what I wanted to say.  (For that matter I completely agree with your most recent post in the Alex Appreciation Thread but I didn't want to bump the topic just to say "wot 'e said".)  I don't mind the stories not being complete, after all, the game's not complete, but most of the major factions feel a lot more "alive" and three-dimensional than they used to.  I considered making a "David Appreciation Thread" since Alex has one already, but you beat me to it.  If the writing in StarSector doesn't surpass Iain M Banks, it at least stands proudly with my favorite Black Library entries.

I didn't really take the "Volturnian Padawan" quest as being that important, just a way to nudge first-time players into doing the Pilgrimage and/or Usurpers questlines (and a cool reference to a now-classic story older than the majority of humans on this planet).

There's been a lot of criticism of the Path and the Diktat in previous versions as one-dimensional cartoon villains.  The Path, in particular, not just Brother Cotton, feels a lot more like a real organization made of real people rather than the howling suicidal fanatics they were in past cycles.

[Grievous69]

How do you start the Diktat story mission? I'm probably thinking about Usurpers here and I heard "just go in random bars on their planets". And I have, many times. Do I need something else for it to trigger or am I just this extremely unlucky to find a part of new content?

[David]

Aw, jeez. Thanks guys.

(As anyone who's written knows, it's terrifying to work on something for like a year and then show it off to N-thousands of people all at once. Especially in a field you're not really 'proven' in. You've all been very kind.)
(And and, I know ya'll want some narrative payoff. And I want to give that to you! But we gotta do it when we have the mechanics in place to do it right. I know that sucks to hear, but I think playing the long-game will pay off.)

I am, also, just dying to talk about influences and intents for the narrative threads, but that'd probably hint at where they're going, so I kinda gotta keep my trap shut.

... Okay, fine. I'll say just a little.

Spoiler

Passage to Volturn
This is totally just a little easter egg. I don't dare expand upon it. Disney, don't read this.

Jethro
The Jethro intro wasn't really meant to exist; my plan was to literally just introduce the character at the end of the Shrines and leave him be as someone connected to Jaspis. But then I had An Idea inspired by a movie which I won't name because it'd be a spoiler for where he ends up (and.. isn't even really in the content of the mission at all, btw, so don't bother guessing) so I had to pivot the character intro into its own whole sequence. This wasn't even the mission he was supposed to be in! But, things happen. Like Sedge and Virens and shooting people in the back.

I'm also loathe to do power fantasies. I cannot express just how much I dislike playing them straight. So: I remember writing the "I need a hammer" dialog with Jaspis - originally, and obviously, that "hammer" would be the player character. But I was like, no, that sucks. We already did this exact same thing with Baird and we have enough old ladies bossing the player around while telling them they're important for changing the course of history blah blah.

(I mean, we're still doing that. But pretending not to, at least.)

Sentinel/PK stuff
So Alex left a TODO in my list while I was working on Shrines and I was like "yeah, yeah, leave some notes in the Rules and I'll fill in the text when I have time". I wrapped up Shrines and Usurpers and was feeling very good about myself, then I actually looked and discovered just how deep this content went and was like ohhh noooo, this is an actual whole story? ALEX!!!

Anyway, it's fine. I'm fine. How are you?

(There was a first take with Sentinel that was like 3 paragraphs and nothing else, no unique art or characters. I recall Alex being like, "this feels underbaked?" and I'm like "Alright Mosolov, if that's how you want to play, I'm going to make this weird!!!)

The Usurpers
Not going to shake the wasps' nest of political references here, but let me give another perspective: ever been in a toxic work environment with variously insane managers/executives under lots of pressure? Just extend those dynamics a bit and that's all you need to get this story.

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Edit: turned this into a blog post, oops.

[CapnHector]

Oh yeah, the Diktat, Church and Path were not alive to me before .96, rather they were more the outlines of something but mostly a blank canvas onto which you project your ideas. Now I walk the Path and it is as much thanks to you David as the wonderful ships Alex has put in. You also made the Diktat human. Enjoyed every moment of the new missions, can't wait for more, thank you very much for the fun!

...is it possible to die if you visit the shrine on Jangala too many times?

[MajorTheRed]

The Luddic Shrines quest was really immersive, showing the multiple faces of Luddic Faith and its evolution through time. Also a great reminder of how spread out the Luddic community is through the Sector

[Foraven]

I haven't seen all the questlines yet, but from what I seen I really like how well written they are. I don't know how difficult they are to make but I wish to see more of them in the future for sure.

Is there any quest line that are specifically for Tri-Tac or the Hegemony or just what we have with the Academy questline?

[smithney]

Is there any quest line that are specifically for Tri-Tac or the Hegemony or just what we have with the Academy questline?

Well there is a couple of easter eggs for the Hegemony, but none exclusively for the Tri-Tach right now afaik.

Also I suggest you do check out the newest blog post for more insight into David's line of work ;)

[Histidine]

Random thoughts (other than "yeah it was all great"):

The Luddic stuff

Been wanting more details on the Church's governance structure
Dialog suggests there's more than one archcurate; if so, do they form a governing council of some kind? What's the title of the head of government/state, if they have one?

Random Pather assassination attempt event
Wow, someone tries to murder me over what might be (un)charitably described as 'superstitious nonsense' and I get docked with a Church rep penalty for it? This scene turned me into a Reddit atheist.
...wait, how did the Pather know I was a Molochite anyway?

Knight Errant was interesting in a bunch of ways
Turns out gens Kato isn't much or any better than Yaribay. Curious decisions in making Virens a foil to Sedge, and showing one place where the Path is actually a force for a just revolution.

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Askonia

Damn, Curate Moyra Standfast is player character levels of prepared. You expect that kind of stuff from Macario, but from 'nice old church lady'? Is it something in the seafood on Volturn?

Definitely interested in whether it turns out you can undermine the Spider's ability to hold together the Diktat by properly deceiving him (and for that matter Caden and Hyder). And the follow-up quest "Perseus Mandate" to track down the Andrada clones. Hey, Macario has clones of Andrada prepared, but does he have clones of himself too? He's getting pretty long in the tooth just like the boss.

Spotted Imoinu Kato on Umbra, now that's a League quest hook alright.

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Sentinel

I didn't notice the hints of cannibalism until it was pointed out on Discord. Apparently they also eat some of the crew you can leave behind? Good lord, we ought to be able to demand an explanation for that.

Was it normal practice for Hegemony task forces to carry PKs around? With Andrada, and now also with Task Force Safeguard. Who were they planning to use it on? Remnants don't live on planets.

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Other stuff

These marine squads we can bring along for backup are pretty useless... I mean, you expect Macario to be capable of dealing with threats like this, but how does a rookie like Jethro spot at least two of my l33t stealth marines completely unassisted?

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[eert5rty7u8i9i7u6yrewqdef]

The Sentinel Island

IN SPACE!

Boy, is this joke getting old

Didn't arrive to this paragraph by a segue, but neither did I to Sentinel while playing. I mean I didn't encounter this one as fluidly as the other storylines. Which makes sense, the discovery of Sentinel's secret is meant to be sudden and shocking. And what a shocker it is! AI hardwired to Hegemony ships? I choose to read it less as an accident of necessity and more as another proof of Hegemony's hypocrisy. That said, I'm looking forward to see the repercussions of actually handing the PK to anyone in future patches. I'll be disappointed if it doesn't end up being abused by everyone possible. Power corrupts and so on...

[close]

Spoiler

Pretty sure it's supposed to be the A.I. took over derelict Hegemony ships after the final fight, given all the derelict remnant ships floating around one of the jump points.

[close]

[smithney]

Spoiler

Pretty sure it's supposed to be the A.I. took over derelict Hegemony ships after the final fight, given all the derelict remnant ships floating around one of the jump points.

[close]

Spoiler

*Closes the headcanon hatch to prevent damage to it* "The Hegint got into your head, too! There is no way those PK-wielding wackos didn't know!

Anyway, yeah, found that out after my second visit to the system. Turns out transverse jumping does have minor downsides like these.

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[CapnHector]

Guys the thread title already says it has spoilers. Anyway, it's fairly clear from the dialogue it's the Hegemony. In the rules file there is apparently even a special interaction with the drones if you are commissioned by the Hegemony.

So, as of .96, it turns out that Path is the only way to go if you do not wish to follow Moloch into hypocrisy and submission to the machines.

[Kat]

So I've noticed a couple things, and read about other things, which suggests there are storyline things available that I haven't triggered in my game.

The "Passage to Volturn" thing being one such thing. How is that triggered ?

Did also notice when I accidentally had devmode on, that there was a storyline starting from the planet Eventide.

I'm wondering if I have somehow broken the storyline links, as I visited the Luddic shrines, and stumbled across Sentinel randomly. So does this somehow lock up triggering other storylines ?

How are these storylines triggered ? What conditions do you need to fulfil to get them to start ?

Every planet I go to, I talk to everyone in the comms list, and always go to the bar, but these storylines haven't triggered.


The storylines I have triggered - the Luddic shrines, the Knight Errant, the Sentinel colony, I've enjoyed the writing and worldbuilding a lot.

[TauCetiRedGuard]

So I've noticed a couple things, and read about other things, which suggests there are storyline things available that I haven't triggered in my game.

The "Passage to Volturn" thing being one such thing. How is that triggered ?

Did also notice when I accidentally had devmode on, that there was a storyline starting from the planet Eventide.

I'm wondering if I have somehow broken the storyline links, as I visited the Luddic shrines, and stumbled across Sentinel randomly. So does this somehow lock up triggering other storylines ?

How are these storylines triggered ? What conditions do you need to fulfil to get them to start ?

Every planet I go to, I talk to everyone in the comms list, and always go to the bar, but these storylines haven't triggered.


The storylines I have triggered - the Luddic shrines, the Knight Errant, the Sentinel colony, I've enjoyed the writing and worldbuilding a lot.

For Passage to Volturn its bar encounter on the independent planet in the Corvus system just ask all the bar options and may be there. As for Eventide.

Spoiler

You need to have completed the main questline past the point of meeting the High Hegemon and hold a Hegemony commission. After that visit bars hegemony bars and randomly meet a hegemony lieutenant who will invite you to a party on eventide.

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[Lawrence Master-blaster]

Well, this thread is a month old and I had some time to mull over it(and replay it) so here's my second impressions:

Pilgrim's Path: this is basically just "lore p*rn" so it couldn't possibly be bad. Seeing all the different aspects of the LC was fantastic and overall made me like the faction more. If I had any complaints, it would be that Beholder Station seems lackluster compared to all the others - you just stand in front of a big window and that's it. I get that not every shrine should be "bombastic" but you don't even get a close-up of the planet(much less an actual picture) the same way you get with Jangala.

Knight Errant: pretty much more of the same. After how "nice" Cotton is to the player, Sedge was quite the surprise. It's like "oh right, Pathers are all genocidal terrorists, right". It's also good to see there are LC archcurates who don't quite like that.

ANewHope: nope, still don't like it, way too obvious. The fact that you always get it on Corvus(i.e. the game's official "starting location") is even worse. At least move it to a more remote desert planet.

Sentinel: cool - especially how you can turn it into an actual Hegemony colony in the middle of nowhere - but I believe this is a second quest in the game(after Princess of Persea) where you are "expected" to be commissioned by Hegemony. Also mechanics-wise, I wonder if I'll ever have a game in which the system is perfect for colonization but there'll be Sentinel in my way.

The Usurpers: I like the idea but honestly, it's a bit of a mess. There's just too much happening too quickly. You meet a guy at a bar, then immediately get invited by him(even if he beats you half to death?) for a top secret mission, and he drops a bunch of names with roles you've never heard of before. Then yet another guy appears and the old guy dies and you're sent to find a guy of a gal who is a thing in the thing and etc. This is definitely one of those missions where, if this were an isometric RPG, there would be a lengthy entry in the journal to remind the player just WTF is going on and who is who. Also to be honest the ending was kind of deflated - the missions create this idea of impending power struggle for Sindrian Diktat and then... it turns out Andrada has like 8 kids(or "heirs") and only one of them died so far, so nothing will change anytime soon. Which of course makes sense mechanically, but still...

On a side note, was "Finding Courseuse" changed? I think you were able to visit the potential contacts on Fikenhild in any order, now it's completely linear. Which is worse and seems off given the text(i.e. how you're "pondering your options" even though you only have one)