#i just recruited fane and the red prince

[vilnan]

girlypops (gn) started playing dos2 completely blind. i saw a discussion after a quick google search that you can't recruit everyone and that you should just stick with four companions the whole time bc there's no campsite where you can swap them out. is this true? 😳

[purble-turble]

Thinking about the routes we're nezha turns yandere and how potentially scarier he could be compared to King Red.

For one thing he arguably has more power and I don't just mean in terms of abilities. He's got the whole celestial realm at his back, and he would know how to go about the manipulations to get his way. I actually doubt he'd have to try very hard considering how paranoid the realm is currently and about anything to do with wukong really

Set up wukong, prince red and co for a new crime or just convince his dad to imprison them again. With mk they could capture him or nezha could try to emotionally manipulate him into joining him as a new recruit.

Depending on how the lotus prince goes about his plan he could reasonably act normal the whole time faning ignorance to what's going on.

He's already spent ages masking himself as the perfect son and soilder, hiding his true thoughts and feelings, repressing his more negative urges.

he could also be more semi aware of himself and mk then DKR understanding that mk won't respond well to him if he's not smart about things. He's still gets pretty delusional just not as clouded by it

That’s so true! Yandere Nezha would be a startlingly dangerous threat. He’s got a lot of resources up in Heaven that he can direct and he’s clever enough to find a way to manipulate things so that HE is the person who’s viewed as in the right… In fact, he could even go so far as to get MK arrested for some sort of crime (not difficult considering his designation as the Harbinger of Chaos that Heaven is probably a bit wary about) and gets him locked up, but as far as MK knows it has nothing to do with Nezha… then when he’s alone and nervous in jail, Nezha comes to comfort him and let him know that he’s going to make sure none of these charges stick and MK is going to be just fine! …I mean, it’s going to take some time for him to actually be allowed to leave Heaven again, but that’s alright. He’ll stay at his side the whoooole time to make sure he feels safe and comfortable~

MK’s fam is gonna be absolutely furious, especially Sun Wukong who is already pretty peeved about how Heaven handled the whole pillar thing, assuming immediately that the monkeys were to blame and causing them trouble in their quest to save the world… but I think that bias may even blind them to Nezha’s actions here too. As far as they know, Nezha has been genuine in his affection for MK and they’ve grown closer, so if MK is in trouble with Heaven again it probably is not his fault.

Prince Red probably figures it out, though. His opinion of Nezha is already as low as its ever been, and he blames him for “stealing” MK from him in a way that didn’t make him look so guilty, so why would he put it past the guy to steal him from the rest of his family too and make it seem like it’s not actually his fault???

[racke7]

Me vs Divinity 2

Got bored a few days ago and poked around the Steam Communities. Stumbled across a video of someone doing a "solo run" (only a single character) of the final boss-fight.

Hmm. Checked youtube for others who'd done something similar. Specifically curious about the Necromancer-build (because it's bullshit-broken), and there were a few who used it and-... And it felt very lackluster?

I remember Necromancer being "I move these characters around a bit so that I will insta-frag literally everyone at once". And these guys just sort of "used the skill, and everything died".

(Necromancer has an end-game skill called Blood Storm, which creates a very big aoe-area. Inside of this area, all enemies will have a "meteor" dropped on their heads, which is an aoe-damage. So the trick is to make sure that enemies are grouped-up enough that they get rapid-fire-meteor'd.)

The idea of simply using the skill and kind of just... sitting back to watch it murder everything in an instant, is kind of... lackluster? Where's the weird logistics of moving everyone around? Why are the final bosses apparently so shit that they can't even survive the base Blood Storm?

A competitive spark appeared in my jaded heart. And so I removed a bunch of game-changing mods that I usually use (extra skills, etc), and created a new solo "basically-vanilla" Necromancer. And got killed, and killed, and killed.

See, the problem with Necromancer early-on is that they have two damage-skills. Total. And there's like a... 4+ turns cooldown for both of them.

This means that you can do really good damage on your first turn, and then you can't do any damage at all for basically every turn following that one.

This is... an insane way to balance the game. But in hindsight, I do remember that this was a problem. I just didn't think that it was this fucking bad.

So I died and died and died, and-... just as I was cheesing my way through getting away from the Fort in Fort Joy (with something like 40k gold in the bank, because I didn't disable all mods, and I'm very good at breaking the game), I realized that I kind of wanted to do something else.

I wanted to do a full team, with recruitable-Origins.

See, it's possible to open Divinity 2 four times at once, and then simply join "your own multiplayer lobby". And then (once the game has started and saved) you can close all of the other instances of the game, and play as four completely customizable characters.

This is very convenient for my control-freak neuroses, and so this is usually how I play a "full team". Sometimes I use origin-characters, but usually I custom-build them from scratch.

But I wanted to try making a game where I didn't actually have control over the characters during their "cut-scenes". So I sat down and did some thinking about which characters I wanted to recruit, and which one should be my "player character".

I finally settled on playing as Sebille, because she has an unfortunate tendency to murderize her way through a bunch of characters that I don't want her to instantly kill, and this way I can just ignore the "Sebille dialogue option" when I know that it'll end in bloodshed.

I was planning on going "Lohse, Beast, and Red Prince", but then RP was very rude to me in a way that just... nah. So I did a bit more thinking about who I should pick, and finally decided to bring Fane instead.

And that's the story of why I ate my breakfast at 7pm, twelve hours after waking up, after having played past midnight yesterday.

I'm in full control of my life. Promise.

[faneposting-my-beloved]

My issue with Godwoken graphic novel and its execution

I think it's time to make it into a coherent post instead of just letting bits and pieces known in asks or random replies so let's go. Godwoken Graphic Novel was my first contact with the medium. Not great, but it is what it is. Now with several Witcher ones under my belt, it's definitely easier to pinpoint all things done wrongly, misguided, or in a simply disrespectful fashion.

The premise:

Divinity: Original Sin 2 - Godwoken - Collector's Edition Dive into this brand new hardback filled with six brand new adventures; telling the origin stories of Rivellon’s godwoken; Ifan, Lohse, Red Prince, Sebille, Fane and Beast.

Rivellon is coming to the world of graphic novels! Divinity: Original Sin 2 - Godwoken is the accumulated history of the six godwoken of Divinity: Original Sin 2. Who were they before their trails with the Divine Order, or before travelling to the Hall of Echoes? Everyone starts somewhere. Everyone has an origin story.

Explore the events leading up to the start of Divinity: Original Sin 2, from the perspective of all 6 Godwoken heroes of our tale.

This 300+ page full-colour graphic novel will take you on a journey through never-before seen areas of Rivellon. Ever wondered what Fane looked like in the flesh? Curious about Red Prince’s life as the crown jewel of the Forgotten City? Journey with Ifan as the Divine’s right-hand man, and explore the lives of Sebille, Beast, and Lohse up to the moment of the ill-fated Kraken attack that starts the epic tale that is Divinity:Original Sin 2.

Let's tackle down the hydra starting with the heads. #1 Inconsistencies Ever wondered what Fane looked like in the flesh? This is what personally prompted me to buy the book in a spirit of hype-fueled urgency, in collector's edition no less, and free my wallet of more or less 300 PLN (or 6 Witcher Ronin novels - 128 pages each). I read the entire thing as a zealous inquisitor would the Bible - rapidly losing steam with each flip of the page. Why? Well... Ifan, a Magister before the existence of Magisters

The Lorebook of D:OS2 states plainly: 1235 AD The Divine Order after Lucian

Under Lucian, the Divine Order grew large, and after his death it grew fractious. Its core function remained – to serve the Divine – but Lucian was no more. Without a leader, the Order began to fracture. Without a Divine, the Order struggled to protect the people of the world from the Voidwoken. The hope brought by Lucian’s hard-won peace was soon replaced with despair amongst the people and tension within the Order. Resolving this conflict is one of the most pressing issues for the Order’s new leader – Alexandar, Lucian’s only surviving son.

That Magisters as a fraction of the Order existed only after Lucian's death. What's more, we know that before this schism happened - Lucian's Order consisted mostly of Paladins - we play as one during the events of Beyond Divinity (1238 AD). So if Ifan served under Lucian well before that time (Chaos War 1233 AD) he'd have to join the Divine as a Paladin - most of which were of noble descent but did not overlook gifted and dedicated recruits of other walks of life. Recruits, as opposed to Magisters, Paladins are said to go through meticulous military training before joining the ranks proper. This notion may or may not be inspired by an older organization - Source Hunters who are known to train in Academies as far as 4 AD. Meanwhile, we see Ifan wear a Magisterial Red-Gold-Silver combo as opposed to Paladin gold and white

Old Paladin design:

(the picture limit might kick my ass in this post but I want to include as many sources as possible) Naturally, this inconsistency extends over every Magister we see in Ifan's chapter. A notable technical inconsistency on pages 5-9 | 13-14 is that Lucian's eyes randomly flicker between normal, human ones and Divine all-white sclera, and his cloak disappears in the panels on page 5 A bard and a....who?

Now, this is not my own complaint, but my boyfriend frequently pointed out that Nick's appearance is quite random and was not mentioned in the game at all. While I can excuse it with Lohse's memory going more or less blank during her 'episodes' and the indication that Nick might not be real at all - I see it could be jarring to introduce a character this important with no covering in the base material. While Loshe's chapter is among the few that get their job done quite well storytelling-wise I will discuss a few instances from here in another segment regarding worldbuilding and pop-culture references. An assassin in the pale moonlight

Not much to add here either, my biggest irk is visual and regards Sebille's hair color that is portrayed as black while the concept arts and key arts show her with brown hair. And maybe that the Needle is, in fact, a dagger and not some intricate lizard war needle was a bit disappointing, and that her tattoos are mixed together on her arm while they should be separate, but in comparison to other inconsistencies, they really are minor. Kudos for getting the D:OS1 goblin designs spot-on. It was a breeze of fresh air to see accurate portrayals. Again, just as with Lohse's chapter, the biggest sin is not in writing per se, but in the graphical portrayal of certain things that I will discuss at length later.

Beast o' the seas

Honestly, besides Isbeil not looking like herself, there's not much negative I can say on Beast's part. And I am RELIEVED to say that. The old sailor deserved that much. His story suffers only from constraints (like all of them, this SHOULD have been a series) Gods bless Beast's chapter.

The Spouse of the Sun

Once more, his part works. Minus the horrorscape/dream snippet - Sadha looks nothing like her in-game model or concept art, plus on page 254 the color of her scales looks green-ish? Sometimes you just can't have everything. Still, a positive overall.

The scholar of a bygone....oh God

I bitched, I bemoaned, I wailed and I cried over the mishandling (mutilation?) of Fane's chapter and the vitriol in me threatens to overflow still, so let's get straight to it.

If Elves in Ifan's chapter could speak in their own language, so should Eternals - Including the differences in Fane's name (Fane is a 'placeholder' he picked in place of his own, and Xantezza is referred to Xantessa in old sources)

Architecture......just.......no. Just for formalities' sake.

The appearance of the Eternals......Gods please, anything but 80s fantasy standards (especially when the concept arts are so detailed)

The King audience should be played off differently (maybe not in front of the WHOLE court (full of randos?? Where's Aetera??) I also expected Harina to be there with him.

CRIMINAL LACK OF AETERA IN FLESH I REPEAT - A CRIMINAL LACK! It's even a more slap-to-the-face that she's included in one of the additional arts at the end of the Collector's Edition

Eternal Guards should not probably wield swords and look like background characters from The Red Prince's chapter.

Dallis should have been playing with her mask - a good opportunity to explain HOW IN THE HELLS DID HE DO IT WITHOUT ETERNALS DYING OFTEN TO GIVE HIM A CORPSE/FACE TO MAIM

Fane's wife is ugly - the only win in this chapter (I know I know, I'm joking no I am not)

Fane's laboratory......point 2 and let's move on.

Eternals had paper (or a substitute) - in the form of scrolls, yes. But not BOOKS to permanently record knowledge - that is what tablets and memory banks were for! PLEASE.

The Seven...Point 3. I beg of you.

The concept of food as shown in the secret meeting panels is quite questionable. We know Eternals feed on Source (Source Vampirism is their racial skill) and that their digestive systems seem to be 100% efficient (hence why Fane is appalled by the concept of advanced digestion later on) so ????

Why are the Guards tying him with a linen rope like it's a bondage session?

The tombs that look...nothing like the tombs we see in the game! Neato!

Oh, so now Fane can distinctly speak Eternal and not be understood...? Okay...Okay?

Fane in-game > abhors violence, feels bad about purging that other guy dead. Fane in the novel> Hello, would you like to talk to the handaxe I pulled out of nowhere? Also being the brilliant wizard that I am?

If a knife and a face were all that Fane needed to make his mask, his bitching in Fort Joy would never have happened.

His elven face looks nothing like the one in the game (it does in my copy of the book, I sharpied it)

And now, the absolute cherry on top... Let's point something out. In Ifan's chapter - Ifan's wolf is shown. In Lohse's chapter - Lohse's Maddening Song is shown. In Sebille's- break the shackles. In Beast's and TRP - both demonic stare and tempest are used. So please do tell me, why in cold hell is Fane's MOST unique ability of them all NOT SHOWN AT ALL. We still don't know HOW he mastered time manipulation! Why! Nothing!

#2 Worldbuilding and pop-culture references

A graphic novel is a finely controllable medium - unlike a videogame, the consumer has generally only one way of interacting with it - reading. Now, every panel should move the story further but while this is the core function of a comic what happens in the background has an equally important role - building a wider picture. The buildings, peoples, and things happening in the background can be just as informative as the foreground. The question is: do we want to fill a section with informative details or cram in as much junk as possible? Godwoken novel's approach is very lax in regard to worldbuilding, up to a point where relatively important information gets replaced by a joke. By no means should there be no humor in graphic novel layouts, but there are more or less apt places to do it.

Let's look at this particular scene from Sebille's chapter - it's quite a powerful moment in the whole scope of her character. I'd like to note that Mindaran is the elf she was made to kill within the pages of the novel - a list of her victims was kept on her right arm and the names on the left - were the ones killed for revenge. But, well, maybe it was an issue with running out of pages and was done for brevity's sake. Let's let it rest. What, in my opinion truly detracts value from this scene is all the funky 'reference' names written on her arm. Rubus is the nickname of the artist - less known and quite within reason (and within bonds of the history of artists' signatures). Boromir and Drizzt however share none of those excuses. It feels somehow disrespectful, especially in the context of Sebille's tattoos to put random pop-culture names in there. Was she the one to kill Boromir? Really? On a more serious note, this wouldn't be too bad if we had other, unbiased source about Sebille's victims - but it just so happens that we do not and somewhat important information (to us - lore enthusiasts, and to Sebille herself) gets buried for the sake of a quip. There were definitely better places to make these references than Sebille's skin. Same with Lohse's chapter and the reference to the Hobbit. I love Hobbit as the next child raised on Tolkien's stories (it's even a school lecture where I come from - the only fantasy book on our reading list) But I'd much rather see a reference to older Divinity, rather than a completely foreign universe. Zandalor's character is a walking reference to Gandalf! Why not use him here with Arhu as Bilbo.

I haven't seen anything similarly tactless in Witcher novels, and they were filled with references to the brim! (Several ones made me pause and re-evaluate the context to get them, but it was amazing to have that 'eureka!' moment)

And this pretty much wraps up my feelings about the novel. A lot of goodwill executed terribly poorly and with, well, I'd like to say profit in mind, but that would warrant a series and not one-shot book, so maybe with a riding-the-wave tendency instead? The book did come out whole 3 years after the game too, so there was more than enough time to reconsider the direction, but seemingly not enough time for quality control. (As a side note, my book was bought in 2021 and it's already falling apart - the hardcover really wants to go its own way after sporadic, careful use). I think by then Larian already was in the BG3 deal, and if they really wanted (just like Witcher devs) they could find a studio to handle comic distribution for them and get the Divinity fans something to latch on to during Baldur's development. Not to mention it would be a great solution to filling or straightening up the plot holes and bridging the gap between old and new lore. Alas, it is what it is. Pity.

[motheatenscarf]

OKAY! I’ve gotten everyone recruited. 

Thoughts having met the actual companions so far.

Beast, Lhose, and Ifan all seem very nice. They seem like friendly, amiable folk. They are fine companions. Lhose or Ifan are gonna be my 3rd, I still can’t choose. Ifan seems like he has more to offer to the actual plot, but Lohse is very likable and endearing.  Beast is here and his gimmick of being a cagey old fuck is cute. He’d make a good npc. Alas.

Sebile has already tried to kill me and she’s valid. Also I’m like 98% sure she’s voiced by Alix Wilton Regan so I am IN LOVE. She’s a rogue. I’m bringing her everywhere forever. Ex-slave elf with mysterious scars on a revenge quest voiced by the best VA in the game is apparently not as specific of a type as I thought I had, this is literally the 3rd time it’s happened and it was already weird that it happened twice, now it’s just scary.

Fane is also very interesting. This is how you do a jerk wizard with a superiority complex WELL. This is the shit that made me like Solas. He’ll be an arrogant dick in one breath and then the next will describe the profound sense of loss he has that makes you feel for him. Hoping this one does not betray me to destroy the world in a vain effort to bring back his people who are clearly long gone and may not have been worth saving to begin with, or at least I’ll be able to talk him out of it. 

And that’s it for nice things I have to say about companions.

I’ll put my negative thoughts behind a read more.

I’m gonna hunt the Red Prince for sport, skin him, and wear him for a hat.

[ilmapatsas]

hello i am a Video Games Scientist and i’ve developed a scientific taxonomy of video game companions. it’s very good but not very exhaustive.

1. Big

a tank. big, tall, and super not scary. kind-natured, loves dogs and food. probably portrayed as a little simple.

examples: alistair (DAO), carver (DA2), edér (POE), minsc (BG), Farkas (Skyrim)

2. Sexy

their opening lines to you are probably some sort of pick-up line. very open about their sexuality. also has a very healthy self-esteem, particularly about their looks. will sometimes switch it up by talking about their love of violence. makes you and your party members incredibly uncomfortable. probably bisexual and/or an ethnic minority, because that trope’s still cool in 2020, right?

examples: zevran (DAO), isabela (DA2), iron bull and dorian, to a degree (DAI), marcurio (Skyrim)

3. Angry

the one who fucking hates your guts. will probably threaten you with death when first encountered. also probably plot-essential, so you will be forced to listen to them antagonize you the entire game. you will at some point say the words “you could just say thank you” to them. a good demonstration of how much mediocre male writers hate “strong women”, though male examples also exist.

examples: cassandra (DAI), sebille (DOS2), fenris (DA2), sten and velanna (DAO), Njada and Uthgerd (Skyrim)

4. Better

probably rich. sneers at you and belittles you - and probably most other characters they meet - at every opportunity. asserts that they are only using you to their own ends, although they are actually stuck in your company due to unfortunate circumstances. bizarrely, will take a minute toward the end of the game to talk about how important you are to them as a friend, and then resume spitting in your general direction again.

examples: vivienne (DAI), red prince (DOS2), pallegina (POE), maia rua (POE2), shale and morrigan (DAO)

5. Liar

and not a good one. will say incredibly bizarre things hinting at their awful, horrible, terrible past, which you will catch, but will get no opportunity to interrogate further until it’s too late. full of self-loathing. a bit of a hermit.

examples: blackwall and solas (DAI), ifan ben-medz (DOS2)

6. Sage

a wizard. their every other line is a generic aphorism. fond of philosophical monologues and an enthusiastic user of the thesaurus. presents you with the “deepest” moral quandaries that intern chris could come up with, and then infers your entire personality and moral philosophy from your answer.

examples: also solas (DAI), gale (BG3)

7. Dwarf

...a dwarf. probably the only dwarf. a very chill person. cool, friendly, with a refreshingly positive outlook on life. happily shares tales of the strange, foreign ways of their dwarven homeland. a weird stereotype, but at least they’re nice to you.

examples: sigrun (DAO), varric (DA2 & DAI), sagani (POE), beast (DOS2)

8. Gross

somebody’s dad. an alcoholic. has the unique ability to find more and more unsettling things to talk about. will mention every single female character’s “tits” and has a 5-minute party banter listing every place they’ve ever peed. should probably just skip recruiting him next time.

examples: oghren (DAO), durance (POE), serafen (POE2)

9. Ghost

not of this realm. speaks in riddles, but is also very literal. kind of has their own stuff going on, which you barely understand. creepy, but probably well-intentioned. expresses their good intentions by killing in cold blood, because the writers wanted to make a point about moral relativity.

examples: grieving mother (POE), justice (DAO), cole (DAI), fane kinda (DOS2)

10. Actually Two People

probably a sage or liar type, with an extra ghost inside them. constantly engaged in a profound struggle with their dual nature.

examples: anders (DA2), wynne (DAO), lohse (DOS2), aloth (POE)

11. Mom

a female character with common sense and practical clothes. the straight man to your group of chaotic dolts. intelligent, responsible, caring, and unforgivingly critical. someone in the writer’s room has baggage.

examples: wynne (DAO), aveline (DA2)

12. Naive

a female character who either is young or comes across young. happy, sweet-natured and impractical. if you ask them about their interests, their answer is “you know... girly stuff”. you will be stuck listening to people mansplain things to them, but at least they are genuinely nice to be around.

examples: leliana (DAO), bethany and merrill (DA2), lohse (DOS2)

13. Funny

drastically devoid of any emotional processing skills. always sarcastic, except when delivering snappy punchlines, even in serious and potentially lethal situations. probably more than a little rude and exhausting to be around.

examples: sera (DAI), fane (DOS2), cicero is this to the very extreme (Skyrim)

[fenesvir]

i restarted my game so I could play as Lohse and because I didn’t take advantage of being able to reroll the companion characters when I initially recruited them, and it’s going so much more smoothly now! It also is just really cool to see the differences in game confrontations playing as a human jester/mystic rather than an outlaw elf, and I hadn’t gotten very far so all of those conversations and scenarios from Fort Joy were still really fresh to me so I was really able to appreciate it.

I’m playing Lohse as a summoner mostly for the kicks: she’s possessed by a demon and she summons little totems and incarnates??

Sebille is still a rouge with daggers

I rerolled The Red Prince as an Inquisitor, so he gets a ton of healing during battle. I put a lot of points into Necromancer for him with that healing factor in mind, and then invested some into pyro and poly as well for the Bleed Fire skill and so that I can teach him the wings spell later and increase his movement.

Fane is an elemental now and, again, it’s mostly for the kicks. I needed a character for healing and he was the only one without an assigned role, and I just think it’s really funny to have this undead character master all of these healing spells that would be super deadly to him??

Some of the questions I have as someone who’s mostly still dicking around in Driftwood, leveling and exploring, are:

Does the Red Prince have a name?? I got all up in my feelings the other night thinking about names and how they’re supposed to differentiate one creature from the next and how the Red Prince, as the only one of his kind, wouldn’t necessarily need one as there’s no one else he can be mistaken for. And I started thinking about how that’s kind of sad to be known by such a formal title, only??? So that’s something I’d like to see the game address: his parents and family and how isolating it must be to be The Red Prince.

Everything about Fane is kinda suspect and I don’t trust him. If anyone’s gonna slip a dagger through Lohse’s ribs, it’d be Fane I bet. He doesn’t really care about this whole Divinity thing at all, or the fate of the world, or the voidwoken, he just wants to know what happened to his people. I think he’s the most ruthless out of the bunch and the most self absorbed.

Sebille is perfect in every way and I adore her. Is there anyway I can romance her as Lohse? Can they have a happy ending together? If this game makes me harm her in order to win, I’m gonna throw my laptop out a window.

I’m excited to finish and see the entire plot and to try a playthrough with an OC character! I already know I’m gonna have to do at least one more playthrough so I can bring Beast and Ifan along for the ride.