Post your ideas for custom party members, we'll be going in dry!
This is not a drill!
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In Progress The Black Geyser Erupts IN YOUR FACE
- Thread starter AwesomeButton
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- no homo
Post your ideas for custom party members, we'll be going in dry!
This is not a drill!
Keeping with the Hungarian and Greed themes, I went with this Thief:
Custom portrait source: https://www.deviantart.com/ymirr/art/Tryggvi-Trevelyan-542863338 Actually a different character but does look like Vlad Taltos.
Also, the game doesn't have moustache as a facial hair option.
Custom portrait source: https://www.deviantart.com/ymirr/art/Tryggvi-Trevelyan-542863338 Actually a different character but does look like Vlad Taltos.
Also, the game doesn't have moustache as a facial hair option.
There will be spoilers below, imagine that.
The story begins at the estate of Espen, in the kingdom of Isilmerald, where there is some sort of a banquet going on.
All we know at this point is that for some reason we are the serving boy at a gathering of nobles behind closed doors, which is happening during the banquet. And as in any RPG tutorial, we are immediately accosted by NPCs who start bossing us around, like we don't know how to point and click to move. This friendly lady's smile says "Kindly do as you are told, or I'll throw you out on your ear"
Lord Espen has gathered a number of peers of his, to consult with them on the recently erupted rebellion, in a province called Deron-Guld.
Not only you can't find good servants these days, but the guardsmen seem to be pretty useless as well. Somehow, out of nowhere, the estate under attack by Deron-Guld rebels.
As, we are fighting our way through the estate, protecting our lord and all, we take our first step on the path to heroic deeds by, well, killing a woman.
Despite our successes of rebel-slashing, the invaders are pushing forward, and we are soon forced to barricade ourselves in Lord Espen's private quarters. But don't be confused, this is all scripted.
As the rebels burst in through the door, having already killed the other noble lords and ladies present at the estate, we learn that their leader is none other than Lord Espen's son. In a dramatic scene, he kills his father, Lord Espen. Around this time, and before the rebels get to us, we mercifully pass out, and are magically whisked away to another area.
As we regain consciousness, we are greeted by a rather smug-looking Crone.
The Crone introduces us to basic game mechanics and interface, including the famed Black Geyser Drying and Brewing. The first task she gives us is to collect some crafting ingredients.
Aside from the typical RPG tutorial fun, the Crone also gets us up to speed with the regional news. There is a curse of greed upon the people of the kingdom, which makes them go gradually more crazy with greed for gold and valuables. And like this isn't enough, an unknown plague is spreading, primarily among the poorer classes.
What concerns us more directly however, is that we secretly are late Lord Espen's son, raised at his estate under the guise of a servant. Given our thieving and spying talents, this must have been a pretty well-kept secret.
So, the Crone sends us off, thankfully, and we are required to sneak and/or fight our way through the swamp where she has her hut. We are in no point of time threathened of being killed on Normal difficulty in this area.
After reaching the right area exit, as there are multiple others which we are not allowed to use, we find ourselves on the Merchants' Road.
The Merchants' Road is an area which might remind you of one of PoE's early areas like Black Meadow, only much smaller and simpler. The common rule of thumb is, if you stick to the road, you will avoid combat encounters. What combat there is to be had is against groups of 2-3 wolves, or groups of 3-4 kobolds. The kobolds actually look more reminiscent of goblins, but let's not be picky.
The central sight of the area is a site of battle, where a Deron-Guld rebel squad apparently attacked an Isilmerald caravan, with no survivors left. Also at that battle site, we find a dwarf fighter hovering about, who introduces himself as Helgenhar, and tips us off about the next location where our main quest will continue:
He only says that and will only join our party if we tell him our whole story, including of our descendance from Lord Espen. This struck me as a bit ungentlemanly of an RPG to ask us to do. It wouldn't have hurt to have had the chance to roleplay a "tactical alliance" with Helgenhar, who we might already find suspicious - a lone rough type, eyeing a site where two parties have been fighting, like a party of Battle Brothers mercenaries looking to cash in on some easy loot. We all know dwarves are greedy SoBs.
But anyway, the game makes it clear that Helgenhar is a good guy, and we take him into our party. Feeling more secure, we set off to explore the Merchants' Road, killing whatever wildlife we find for the loot and the XP, all per venerated RPG tradition.
Slaughtering wolves and kobolds eventually takes us face to face with the real wolf of the Merchants' Road - the representative of Capital himself! You can trade with him, to turn in some kobold loot, pieces of armor snatched off the dead bodies of caravan guards, and wolf pelts. Merchants in Black Geyser have unlimited gold, like those in Baldur's Gate.
Thus evening descends upon us, as we reach the city gates of Isilbright, capital of Isilmerald. Looks like a nicely sized city. I hope they haven't pulled a Pillars of Eternity on us by making the districts disappointingly small.
The story begins at the estate of Espen, in the kingdom of Isilmerald, where there is some sort of a banquet going on.
All we know at this point is that for some reason we are the serving boy at a gathering of nobles behind closed doors, which is happening during the banquet. And as in any RPG tutorial, we are immediately accosted by NPCs who start bossing us around, like we don't know how to point and click to move. This friendly lady's smile says "Kindly do as you are told, or I'll throw you out on your ear"
From our journal we get to learn that we are an orphan who has been taken on to serve at the Espen estate, doing menial work.
Lord Espen has gathered a number of peers of his, to consult with them on the recently erupted rebellion, in a province called Deron-Guld.
If you enjoy the look of the cherry parquet flooring, it's because our character has mopped it all by himself.
Not only you can't find good servants these days, but the guardsmen seem to be pretty useless as well. Somehow, out of nowhere, the estate under attack by Deron-Guld rebels.
In case you are wondering, this is all still tutorial on rails.
As, we are fighting our way through the estate, protecting our lord and all, we take our first step on the path to heroic deeds by, well, killing a woman.
You can see her as she is crumbling on the floor. Some unfortunate Deron-Guld mage, felled by a merciless swing of the cooking knife we just used minutes ago to cut the appetizers for Lady Larenthal's wine.
Despite our successes of rebel-slashing, the invaders are pushing forward, and we are soon forced to barricade ourselves in Lord Espen's private quarters. But don't be confused, this is all scripted.
As the rebels burst in through the door, having already killed the other noble lords and ladies present at the estate, we learn that their leader is none other than Lord Espen's son. In a dramatic scene, he kills his father, Lord Espen. Around this time, and before the rebels get to us, we mercifully pass out, and are magically whisked away to another area.
As we regain consciousness, we are greeted by a rather smug-looking Crone.
With this sort of dialogue and delivery, if it wasn't for the blade in our hand, we might have felt threathened of being sexually violated.
The Crone introduces us to basic game mechanics and interface, including the famed Black Geyser Drying and Brewing. The first task she gives us is to collect some crafting ingredients.
I will never be able to forget the sound this fox made when it died.
Aside from the typical RPG tutorial fun, the Crone also gets us up to speed with the regional news. There is a curse of greed upon the people of the kingdom, which makes them go gradually more crazy with greed for gold and valuables. And like this isn't enough, an unknown plague is spreading, primarily among the poorer classes.
What concerns us more directly however, is that we secretly are late Lord Espen's son, raised at his estate under the guise of a servant. Given our thieving and spying talents, this must have been a pretty well-kept secret.
The deities of Yerengal have delivered us to the world? I wonder if she means this figuratively.
So, the Crone sends us off, thankfully, and we are required to sneak and/or fight our way through the swamp where she has her hut. We are in no point of time threathened of being killed on Normal difficulty in this area.
After reaching the right area exit, as there are multiple others which we are not allowed to use, we find ourselves on the Merchants' Road.
The Merchants' Road is an area which might remind you of one of PoE's early areas like Black Meadow, only much smaller and simpler. The common rule of thumb is, if you stick to the road, you will avoid combat encounters. What combat there is to be had is against groups of 2-3 wolves, or groups of 3-4 kobolds. The kobolds actually look more reminiscent of goblins, but let's not be picky.
The central sight of the area is a site of battle, where a Deron-Guld rebel squad apparently attacked an Isilmerald caravan, with no survivors left. Also at that battle site, we find a dwarf fighter hovering about, who introduces himself as Helgenhar, and tips us off about the next location where our main quest will continue:
Apparently he also drops a clue about his personal quest or somesuch, but we don't get to ask him more about it at this point.
He only says that and will only join our party if we tell him our whole story, including of our descendance from Lord Espen. This struck me as a bit ungentlemanly of an RPG to ask us to do. It wouldn't have hurt to have had the chance to roleplay a "tactical alliance" with Helgenhar, who we might already find suspicious - a lone rough type, eyeing a site where two parties have been fighting, like a party of Battle Brothers mercenaries looking to cash in on some easy loot. We all know dwarves are greedy SoBs.
But anyway, the game makes it clear that Helgenhar is a good guy, and we take him into our party. Feeling more secure, we set off to explore the Merchants' Road, killing whatever wildlife we find for the loot and the XP, all per venerated RPG tradition.
Slaughtering wolves and kobolds eventually takes us face to face with the real wolf of the Merchants' Road - the representative of Capital himself! You can trade with him, to turn in some kobold loot, pieces of armor snatched off the dead bodies of caravan guards, and wolf pelts. Merchants in Black Geyser have unlimited gold, like those in Baldur's Gate.
Once again a spot-on portrait, looks exactly like a libertarian friend of mine.
Thus evening descends upon us, as we reach the city gates of Isilbright, capital of Isilmerald. Looks like a nicely sized city. I hope they haven't pulled a Pillars of Eternity on us by making the districts disappointingly small.
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I still haven't played enough to say. It's an indie game, so if you can manage your expectations accordingly, I guess it's fun enough.
You don't play it for the combat mechanics or for the production values. What I'm hoping for is that the orignal aspects of the worldbuilding and the greed mechanic are given enough exposure. The "explicit", developer-crafted roleplaying opportunities don't seem to be there much. It relies on the player being able to make his own fun.
The low level combat is actually fun in the same way BG low-level combat is fun, even better, you can't die from 2 hits on normal difficulty here, like you can in BG.
Speaking of production values, I'm pretty sure it looks beautiful on 1080p. I see that when I resize my screenshots, but I'm playing on full screen 4K, and there it's a bit smudgy when zoomed in, but that's inevitable.
As soon as we set foot past the city gates, we are approached by a couple of refined gentlemen who try to mug us.
Using our charms and persuasiveness as a fellow miscreant (among a number of other conversation options), we convince them they've got the wrong address. The are so impressed that they even hand over their loot and invite us to meet down in Graybark Square. Apparently that is where all the respectable thieves, muggers and cutthroats prefer to congregate.
The story doesn't make it very clear why exactly we are in the city, except for a vague direction to look in the city archives for information on our father.
We seem to be going by the conventional logic that when in an RPG, we should strive to get to the big city, because cities in RPGs inevitably have taverns, and taverns in their turn, inevitably offer side quests.
We find her inside the tavern, surrounded by three bufoons who are doing their best to profess their adoration of her feminine excellencies. It all looks very wholesome, medieval, and funny in a fantasy-RPG sort of way.
With a spot of the good old cunning, we chase the three nuisances away, and we get formally introduced to Bjalla:
What a coincidence - she turns out to be just the right person to guide us to the city archives. We promptly take her into the party, with which our level of social esteem shall hopefully rise to unprecedented heights.
In time-honed PRG traditon, however, we don't go rushing for the next step in the main quest, but decide to take a look around town first. Since it's already late in the night, we choose to walk around until the sun rises at 6 in the morning.
We pay a visit to two local artisans - one is a tailor by the name of Eldin. Unsurprisingly, she has a quest for us, with what sounds like a pretty fine reward:
The other one is a dwarven smithy named Belun, who also has problems, of the kind which we can turn into money and equipment rewards:
Finally, we decide to visit the temple. Here we first learn of the Party Greed meter and that donations to the temples can keep it inside the "Generous" part of the spectrum. We intuitively get it that being out of the "Greedy" part is preferrable.
Apparently the temple clergy in Black Geyser have been enlightened to the corrupting effect which money has upon the individual, and so they endeavor to save us by taking as much of it out of lay people as possible.
Join us next time, for our foray into Isilbright's criminal den, Graybark Square:
Using our charms and persuasiveness as a fellow miscreant (among a number of other conversation options), we convince them they've got the wrong address. The are so impressed that they even hand over their loot and invite us to meet down in Graybark Square. Apparently that is where all the respectable thieves, muggers and cutthroats prefer to congregate.
The story doesn't make it very clear why exactly we are in the city, except for a vague direction to look in the city archives for information on our father.
We seem to be going by the conventional logic that when in an RPG, we should strive to get to the big city, because cities in RPGs inevitably have taverns, and taverns in their turn, inevitably offer side quests.
The mages outside the tavern, one of them seething with jealousy, make sure to inform us about a colleague of theirs who is currenlty inside and who is obviously the local beauty and talk of the town. Apparently the game wants us to meet her.
We find her inside the tavern, surrounded by three bufoons who are doing their best to profess their adoration of her feminine excellencies. It all looks very wholesome, medieval, and funny in a fantasy-RPG sort of way.
With a spot of the good old cunning, we chase the three nuisances away, and we get formally introduced to Bjalla:
What a coincidence - she turns out to be just the right person to guide us to the city archives. We promptly take her into the party, with which our level of social esteem shall hopefully rise to unprecedented heights.
She is something of a looker, regardless of her unfortunate choice of lipstick.
In time-honed PRG traditon, however, we don't go rushing for the next step in the main quest, but decide to take a look around town first. Since it's already late in the night, we choose to walk around until the sun rises at 6 in the morning.
We pay a visit to two local artisans - one is a tailor by the name of Eldin. Unsurprisingly, she has a quest for us, with what sounds like a pretty fine reward:
The other one is a dwarven smithy named Belun, who also has problems, of the kind which we can turn into money and equipment rewards:
Screenshot mixing by me.
Finally, we decide to visit the temple. Here we first learn of the Party Greed meter and that donations to the temples can keep it inside the "Generous" part of the spectrum. We intuitively get it that being out of the "Greedy" part is preferrable.
Apparently the temple clergy in Black Geyser have been enlightened to the corrupting effect which money has upon the individual, and so they endeavor to save us by taking as much of it out of lay people as possible.
In a sudden outburst of religious fervor, we donate all our money to the temple, after having healed ourselves. The Party Greed meter moves barely a couple of notches in the direction of virtuousness.
Join us next time, for our foray into Isilbright's criminal den, Graybark Square:
"Damn-nation! No donaton - no salvation!" (GTA2)
This thread needs a homo tag.
It's quite rough around the edges. Is it as good as Baldur's Gate - if I was 15 again, I'd be able to say with certainty. From today's perspective - it feels a bit too simplistic. I think the appeal is more in the new story, told in an unfamiliar land, not so much in the pure game mechanics. I haven't advanced enough to say if there is real C&C related to the greed mechanic.
luj1
You're all shills
Looks like a B version of BG1
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