#sky cotl ramble

[raviosprovidence]

So Lets Talk about Season of [REDACTED]

So recently, a bunch of content for the next season of Sky came out from beta and...I have some thoughts below the cut

Spoilers for next season if you don't want to read

So the new season is called Season of Remembrance, and all of the new spirits are themed around war and the effects of it. The takes have been...mixed. So let's start with the good.

War stories have always fascinated me, and I love the fact that sky is delving more into some darker lore and not just "haha funnee spirits go whee" type stuff. Even though sky is geared for all ages (and thus there's more of a younger audience) the idea that younger audiences can't handle mature subjects is ageist and harmful. Kids are a lot smarter than we think, and showing war through the eyes of the victims is very good for insight.

However, war is still a touchy subject. It's an almost unavoidable subject in real life. Right now, there's a war going on that's received a lot of media attention, and thus, this can be seen as insensitive. As of right now, TGC stands to profit entirely off this season about war and trauma. And this seems really...insensitive? Like they haven't announced donating any % of the profits anywhere. It definitely leaves a bad taste in my mouth considering how greedy they've seemingly gotten lately, with removing passive AFK spaces and pushing IAP's constantly.

And maybe yeah, it is a bit weird that you're watching these horrific things happen, and then taking the spirit's emotions and clothes, but that's...just how sky works. You can't want war stories in sky and then go all surprised pikachu when the game is played properly.

So yeah, it's a little bit of a mixed bag. TGC has been dropping the ball a lot lately with its playerbase and im not sure if pretty cosmetics and a fun concert will be enough to keep people satisfied.

Feel free to reblog/leave your opinions below. I'm very open to discussion

So next season, instead of paying money for IAP's and Season Passes, maybe donate to a charity taking care of refugees or veterans. Your money will go much farther than if you spent it on fake currency

[may-y00]

Ramble bellow

Maybe a weird comparison but...

I've had those moments when I want to help out a moth, the moth friends me, I follow them around for a while to see if its their first time there and, if they're kinda lost I offer my hand and guide them to wl, spirits and maps while I farm, but sometimes they let go off my hand and wander.

I have to admit, and now that I think about it I feel bad, but when some of them wandered I got frustrated and wanted to take their hand and get them to finish the maps.

But when we're moths, well, it's our first time there and everything looks amazing, we wanna look around, not yet aware of farming, cosmetics, events... Its all fun and games, AND THAT IS WHAT THIS IS SUPPOSED TO BE!

But with time some of us center so much around candles, hearts and cosmetics that we forget about that wonder-driven moth we once were, and kinda take sky as a responsibility.

Letting a moth guide you, not minding about missing some wax, grandma, a wl... Its like letting a child invite you to play with them instead of scolding them for playing around and taking them to work instead.

If we have time, its ok to wander around, to let a moth guide us, that may spark the light of curiosity and love for this game that may have been fading away in our currency centered gameplays.

sometimes joy is letting a random moth take you around

[coatl-cuddles]

sorry for the lack of art yall i will feed yall soon for now have an oc doodle

[splatanastamprr]

Been thinking about this a while so as the Shattering Spirits are being rolled back soon here are my thoughts on the Sky Economy. a VERY long post.

Event Spacing (1)

I joined right after Season of Prophecy ended, Season of Dreams was to start in about 3~ weeks? not sure since it was a long while ago.

Later seasons I notice rather than getting up to a month of season downtime, we now get as little as less than a week to break between seasons. Season gaps became slim. Hardly time for off season daily candle quests that make racking up normal candles easier.

On top of this, “Days Of —“ Events became more and more prominent, being mashed on top of Travelling spirits and new off season cosmetics that cost white candles. There’s no room to breathe, its almost a punishment to players who’ve taken breaks from the game after burning out from having to candle run consistently just for new items. Cosmetics that they miss out on get price hikes from their original value in reruns with the new ticket system. It’s a cycle of fomo and it’s what’s killing the playerbase in the first place.

The lack of spacing seems pretentious in a way, since nearly with every update, a new game breaking bug is rolled out, makes it feel ironic since season down gaps have been cut for seemingly no reason.

Ticketing (2)

A while ago TGC added the ticket system denoting inflation in the sky economy, it was made to remedy the fact people can’t keep affording everything with candles.

Yes it did help somewhat, as the tickets are very easy to collect, but with 3 new ftp cosmetics that are bought with these tickets and some things costing up to a weeks worth of tickets it’s easy to have to skip these items because some people just don’t want to do more daily searching on top of the already daily quests from the questgiver.

Returning items not only are insanely expensive but additionally do not equate the energy spent grinding in their original release (The Days of Sunlight towels from last year have no right being that expensive whatsoever.)

Candles (3)

Early 2021, around March the Daily Light “Chevron” was rolled out as a way to farm light without feeling the pressure to grind insanely hard daily (since very many people were asking for a way to get candles more leisurely, since candle running was very time consuming)

It became redundant as the prices for candle items was driven up very far. Not to be so “back in my day” but genuinely the need to candle run extensively in the way we do now wasn’t as big as it is now.

This is funny. Because now I see people asking for the same thing. A faster, less grindy way to candle run.

the first in game event I participated in was the first Days of Bloom, the cherry blossom cape was 70 candles (which to me was VERY expensive at the time). The following year’s wisteria cape cost 105, then the next tulip cape cost 110. The first price driveup was already kind of nuts to me (is the cape really worth a 35 candle mark up to the first one?) It’s hard to even prepare with the aforementioned small event gaps, it’s punishing to newer players and players who’ve skipped events out of burnout without any time to prepare for candles unless you pay real money to get candles quickly.

Assuming an average person clears their chevrons daily (15-17 candles) and heart trades with their friends (-3 for every person traded with) it’s hard to afford everything that comes your way. Travelling spirit prices are near doubling what they used to, items now costing over 100 candles with the inclusion of the batshit expensive nesting shop it really burns people out knowing you can’t afford everything you want in a game you already grind daily in. It’s demanding.

IAP items (4)

Do I even have to talk about this. The Sunlight Chunky sandals cost more than you can buy actual sandals. Why are in game cosmetics costing up to $25 USD. Huh. I could buy a whole meal for that.

Cute little items cost only a dollar before but now they’re like $3 and its kind of bonkers to me. I have to pay $3 whole dollars for a tiny jellyfish on my shoulder. is this not crazy. im not crazy right? dont wanna get deep into this but jesus my wallet

So why do I care so much? (5)

Sky is a game I hold near and dear to my heart. But I notice people including myself have stopped playing for the same, very painful reason. The fact that Sky is very buggy with little to no compensation to players as well as the Economy being so. So very bad. as well as the shithole that was shattering (the hype for that season was so crazy because yay lore!!! no actually Fuck you crab stunlock 100000)

I know people will be “Well you don’t HAVE to buy — item”, but the game’s userbase is driven completely on grinding for new cosmetics. The active playerbase is driven on just candlerunning. The lore is interesting but there’s hardly anything in game to go off of, there’s little to no curiosity for what the game is and it’s story because it gets more and more arbitrary as TGC refuses to talk about it in game. (Jenova Chen saying that games are not an effective storytelling format really pisses me off sorry)

The cycle of fomo that is essentially required to keep the playerbase going just makes me feel like this game is made on popsicle sticks and prayers (thanks aspen for this line). I can’t find myself to love sky in the same way I used to as a moth.

anyways this is really messy. Sorry. but like damn this is kind of a sad thing to me. made this post because a rant on yt got misogynistic in the middle out of nowhere so i wanted to give my own take minus the misogyny

[linkedin-offficial]

teetering on the edge of "is this even sky anymore",

a ghostly train conductor and a runaway coven witch

[absentmindedshyintrovert]

Had an idea for a pic. It turned out a bit funnier than I thought lmao

My capless and main >:3

[felix-krain]

[candycoatedrox]

isat theme song played in sky children of the light ^^ hoorayyyy yippeeeee

[polarized-here]

A Moth.

[plutonium-sky]

AIGHT HERE WE GO.

So! About the revelation I mentioned with WL and Eden statues- I’m going to give some context first. Me and @halcyon-xxy-art were discussing some Sky DND stuff, and then had an interesting idea- what if there was light corruption, alongside dark corruption?

We immediately establish dark corruption as the crystalized bodies, with the soul (light) trapped inside. The thing is, we wanted to make it so that there wasn’t any weakening of their light- it’s just that there is more darkness. After that got put out, we started thinking about what light corruption would look like, and Aria basically perfectly described a Winged Light. That’s when I had my revelation. What if Winged Lights are sky kids who got light overflow?

I’ll elaborate on that in a bit when I establish another fact we put out right after. Skykid DO have darkness inside them. It’s just hidden in a way no one would expect- it’s right in front of us. A skykid’s darkness would be their physical Body. And, if we go by that logic, their light would be everything else that the body holds- their light and Soul.

And then we added more to the corruption parts. Darkness corruption would work that the soul is trapped inside the body- and cannot return to Megabird (it would slowly weaken inside, losing its power bit by bit as the overbearing darkness drains it.) Light corruption was easy to figure out from there as well. The soul doesn’t have a body to guide it back to the cycle (it had burnt it away, and now the soul is horribly exposed, frozen in time, until a new, temporary vessel guides it back to freedom.)

The skykid’s body needs to walk alongside a delicate balance of light and dark, lest things go to SHIT for them. Too much light will result in being corrupted and overloaded by it, and the body will burn and flake away and the soul be frozen in time and space without the body to guide it back to the cycle. Too much darkness will slow them down, overtake them, eventually turning the skykid into an immovable statue, the soul covered on all sides, and it’s now trapped in a cage of its own making.

Also, absorbing WL (the lost souls of someone else) benefits us instead of harming us because all the overloaded light is still being taken by the other’s soul, not yours. Of course, a little still leaks through- and that’s why it makes flying easier. It’s a sort of…. symbiotic relationship, where the sky kid gives the soul a temporary vessel for it to rest in, while the soul helps the vessel, benefitting it as safely as it can. It takes more WL the longer you have to fly for safety concerns- if they keep on sharing the same amount of energy, the light corruption will happen once more, to a new victim, and now there will be two souls trapped beside each other.

Also, the body and soul theory is further supported by sky kids extinguishing. NORMALLY, we don’t grow crystals. By normally I mean stuff like rain and non-shard crabs. That would be a “normal” death- we aren’t corrupted, the soul and body are still in balance. There’s the pity WL too- you can still be saved. For lore reasons, I’m going to partially ignore the fact that you would still get a pity WL if you lost all of yours to a krill, shard, or shard crabs, because let’s be honest- it’s just ingame things. And, if my memory serves my right (I can’t play sky at the moment to check properly), you would grow crystals for all of those deaths- corrupted by darkness.

There’s then Eden. We run around, giving WL to the lost to darkness bodies of sky kids- or perhaps spirits. Honestly, it doesn’t matter. But, what matters is that somehow, this works in freeing them. My theory for how is that the light corrupted and overloaded soul helps balance out the dark corrupted body, sharing its light with the trapped soul inside. By the point we find the eden bodies, though, the souls are so weakened that they’re barely there- my explanation as to why we don’t see double the winged lights in orbit. They need time to recover.

The last nail in the coffin for this theory, to me, is the cutscene in eden that happens when we finally lose all of our winged light and become a statue ourselves. Where we fall in darkness, as a dark figure, then land. The light and dark of our being in a limbo meet. The light (soul) is sitting there, unmoving, trapped. Meanwhile, us, as the darkness (body) moves, going back to the light, to guide them back. This supports my “the light and soul cannot be guided without the darkness of their body” talk- because it IS the body guiding the soul here. It frees us.

TLDR? Skykids aren’t only light- they are also darkness. The light is their soul and the dark is their body. Without a body, lost because of various reasons (the one I gave is being overloaded/corrupted by light), the soul is trapped and we see this ingame as Winged Light. This creates a delicate balance where there can’t be too much light or too much dark in the soul and body. When you are corrupted by darkness, the soul gets trapped but it is still there. A normal death for a sky kid is when no crystals grow on their body. Eden statues are helped with WL because the overloaded darkness and the overloaded light balance each other out.

Thanks for coming to my Ted Talk, hope it lived up to your expectations.

[blu-orb]

We're a little curious so. poll.

Reblog to spread, pretty please?

If more than one, pick the one you play on most.

[raviosprovidence]

Ocean Game: Plot and More.

So something I noticed in sky is that other than wandering around and getting wax, there's no real incentive for you to explore the world. And in an MMO-like game where combat is non existent, you really do need something else to keep the player entertained, because cosmetics and collecting them is all fun, but for a lot of players, it gets old fast, they drop out, and there goes your revenue.

The solution to this is easy: Lore. And since there's gonna be some dark lore, this game's going to deal with stuff heavier than sky

With Current, I want to make the player feel excited about the world. They should want to discover what happened to it and why it is the way it is. Upgrades will mean more chances to study the lore and how characters interact. So there's gonna be a lot of information in this one.

Let's start with the overall lore. Huge shoutout to @hallofharmony for talking this out with me and heavily influencing where the lore goes.

You are a Nymph, a fresh adult emerging from the underground caves where you've been all your life and are starting their own journey to help restore Neptune. Because what was once multiple little cities of vibrant culture and commerce are now gray, barren wastes filled with ruins and maybe a few fish and crabs. But as you explore, you see a weirdly shaped stone with light emitting from the cracks. You go over, and Boom! It's a siren, or a fully adult Nymph. It is unknown how long they've been stuck like that, but they explain that there are others like them, trapped and waiting to be freed. The sirens will be like the spirits, where you can go to them and get cosmetics, but more importantly, bits about their lore/relationships with other sirens.

So, what did happen all those years ago?

There was a powerful magic siren who's name i'll get to later. If anyone has ideas for placeholder names i'd love to hear them, but they found the realms of Neptune...divided. No one really interacted with each other other then some trading or traveling. One day, there were attacks from outside sirens that devastated all the realms, but many still survived. This angered the Siren. How could his people not see the obvious? So, he and a small group of his followers set out to unite the realms, either by force or by choice. And in his mind, if all the realms were to be united, they needed to look, act, and be alike. He and his crew set out to the realms taking down anyone that got in their way. They captured larger fish to use for mounts and other purposes and over hunted the natural fish populations. Corals reefs were destroyed to make room for more buildings to house weapons and more prisoners than needed. After years of this, and rebel forces getting almost nowhere, people cried out to the conclave of gods: giant beasts that were treated as myths, but many knew they existed.

The conclave heard the people's cries, and answered. Being giant beasts, they destroyed everything and everyone in their path. Not even the magic siren could stand against them as life was wiped out. Many innocent sirens perished, though some were turned to stone by one of the one of the conclave gods as an act of mercy. Some sirens fled to other realms, but many who rescued the eggs, hid in underground caves to raise the new generation (aka: the players)

I can write more about characters you'll find throughout the realms and the types of realms there'll be. I was actually thinking instead of more seasons, it's gonna be split. During one "era", there will be a rotation of traveling sirens that come to visit, and you can find them in different areas, befriend them, and get cosmetics/lore from them. Once they leave, there will be an era where a whole new realm is introduced with permanent spirits, new areas to discover, and lore.

I think next post im gonna go into more the currency and how that is gonna work, as well as other items you'll use to purchase stuff. If anyone has any suggestions/comments please leave them down below.

[leaf-in-a-flower-garden]

Wdym the Isle is the only realm outside of Vault that has murals of their elder. Wdym that proves the people of the Isle held a high regard for their elder, furthering the angst of Dawn being disregarded by the others. . Wdym that the Isle clearly was so spiritual they would not desecrate sacred ground, even under pressure of the foreign realms. What. Do. You .mean that even after everything those murals of the other temples remained intact, in the sacred temple of the Isle, even after the betrayal they faced..

[coatl-cuddles]

" WIP DELETE LATER 🤪🤪🤪" ok who gaf?

[tac-bat]

You know what I love? I love that the valley twins aren’t carbon copies from each other!!!

and you might be wondering, well how exactly? I’ll show you!!!!! (Because I’ve spent way to much time staring at them, also this post is very long) (and i use old concept art names to refer to them as such, its just what i'm used to, they aren't cannon)

Body types

different body types! Sah (spike hair) has more wide shoulders than Mekh (flat hair). And because of this, Sah has the most slay snatched waist I’ve ever seen JEBEJVDHE even mekh's waist isint as snatched

Prosthetic's

If you don’t already know (and I don’t blame you) the twins have prosthetic arms on where their eyes are missing. (They’re practically invisible in their cutscene, and even their pin doesn’t have them, I hate it.) anyways they both have different patterns!

Mekh’s, is more detailed, has a shoulder decoration and generally more to it.

And Sahs’ is more simple, it gets the job done. I feel like from the look on their prosthetic's alone you can get an idea of their tastes :3

Another quick think but it also seems Mekh’s uniform is sleeveless on the side of where their prosthetic is! Sah has both of their sleeves. I wonder why?

Gloves

Even their gloves are different! Sah’s glove (left) for their prosthetic is thumbless, the other fingerless. When both of Mekh’s (left) gloves are fingerless!

A detail i'm not sure off, but it also seems like the gloves on both twins prosthetic's are bunched up more compare to the gloves on their live arms.

Sticks

I noticed this on my recent eden trip that the sticks the twins hold when you complete the constellation are different too!! Mekh's stick on the ends have more width, and Sah’s is more consistent with width. Which is just— so fucking cool!! They have their own sticks!!!!! They’re not just copy and paste!!!!!!!!

Stances

this isint leaked, this was a wip from their orbit gift animation by Ari Flesch from his artstation account (who made the animation) which i've linked.

Anyways different stances!!! Mekh has their feet together when Sah doesn't! You can also see what I mean about the ends of their sticks having different width's much clearer!!!

Sah’s Cracked Mask

My fav detail is Sah’s mask (also not in the pin and invisible in cutscenes), they have a crack over their eye when Mekh doesn’t! This small detail has gave me so many evil ideas on how they got it and it makes me wonder HOW it even happened. :3

Cutscene Details

OH BOY CUTSCENE TIME, HERE'S THINGS IVE NOTICED!!

Sah seems to hold their paddle backwards when Mekh doesn’t. But Sah still ends up in the same position as Mekh despite that! (maybe to one up, who knows) But that show's that even here, their animations weren't just copy pasted, there's DIFFERENCES!!

Mekh is faster than Sah, and even shows Mekh being the first to leap up and land when approaching the player, when Sah is just starting to land in the 2nd image. This makes the timing of it intentional!!

okay i think thats it thats all i can remember atm!! Ofc there’s so much more, but this post is more focused on the details that can be missed by normal folks. So I thought I share the ones that might be interesting to see that you might’ve not known about.

but yes, thank you to the folks of tgc in charge of their character design's and animation's for not giving the twins the copy paste treatment. Thank you for making them have their own quirks, their own personalities, and their own differences!!!!

Thank you for making them their own person!

[thera-theadventurist]

Goodness gracious I finished it 😭✊

a great friend of mine got me sucked into this pairing specifically and I’m all here for it ❤️✨

reblogs are appreciated! 💜