#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

[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

[absentmindedshyintrovert]

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

My capless and main >:3

[felix-krain]

[polarized-here]

A Moth.

[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.

[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! 💜

[ebi-skycotl]

Attention all Sky Cotl Players

I had a very sad interaction in sky yesterday, and I wanted to talk about it.

The tournament thing has apparently become much more of a competition than I thought, and when I did one of games yesterday, I placed last. A fellow skykid placed first, and began laughing at me? They were pointing and laughing at me, and emoting with the strong poses.

It felt very mean, and I realized that this tournament thing seems to be dividing the community a lot. It's sad to see this, and it hurts to know that TGC is failing to respond to player input. The whole idea of this tournament is cool, but the way it's dividing the players just feels like it's going against the very core of Sky, which is friendship and unity.

I don't even think there's anything to win. It's a pointless competition.

I don't know how many other players feel the way I do, but if you do, I'm letting you know that you're not alone.

[wishsparkleemoji]

Can we PLEASE talk about how it’s no longer whale whisperer sitting with blushy??

[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.

[coatl-cuddles]

Summarizing the Sky Seasons, but I barely know what I'm talking about

Part 1

Season of Gratitude - Inspired off of the Festival of Buhtan! Just a season where they celebrate to give thanks and prayers.

Season of Lightseekers - A family of spirits try to collect the dwindling resource - light - so they don't fade away. It doesn't work.

Season of Belonging - A family gets separated before visiting their grandmother. They perish and their souls are scattered. By ringing a (dinner) bell, you remind them of who they are. The family gets to have one final meal together before moving on. (Thanksgiving themed)

Season of Rythm - Dude, we're getting the band back together!!!!!!

If you ask about the elder bird tgc takes you behind a shed and you're never heard from again.

Season of Enchantment - Spellcasters try to save the land using spells and the Lightseekers light, but ultimately their vessel crashes and they tragically die in the wastelands.

Season of Sanctuary - Not everything is canon in this season according to the devs.

The important takeaway is that they killed too many light creatures, had a sanctuary to try and raise the population, but then the sanctuary got corrupted too.

Season of Prophecy - To keep it short:

Essentially, it's the story of how a Sky Kid became the evil king.

There once was a prophecy where a child would complete ancient death trials and gain 4 elemental powers.

This ended up being Prince Alef, who then became King Resh. Lots of children died, and Prince Alef becomes all powerful. Krill get brought up here for the first time.

Season of Dreams - HELL YEAHH I LOVE FIGURE SKATINGGGG !!!!

Season of Assembly - Come join the BOY SCOUTS to build a tree house cause there wasn't anywhere else to hang out yet when this was released. Shows that Forest is once again the king of construction projects.

Season of Flight - Ancestors got around by flying boats attached the creatures of light. Pretty cooool. Shows a tamer use to darkstones and how navigation around the realms worked wo portals.

[zeichannnnn]

⚠️ Opening Commission for Surgery

So… my sister has scoliosis— like 40°-ish bad and my mother can’t afford both her surgery and my college so she (with the encouragement of my sister) chooses my education over her health.

HOWEVER— I’m planning on making a goal on my Ko-fi to fund her surgery to surprise my sister (and my mother) as a possibly very late birthday gift cause I didn’t get her anything this year orz

I’m not here to sympathy bait, you can donate or you can commission me art/writings, both are acceptable and would be tremendously appreciated.

Here are the things I offer for now:

- oneshot (500-1000 words) - $1

- Simple sketch - $1

- detailed drawing - $10

- character design - $20

Im sorry for tagging a lot of fandom tags, I needed to get boosted plus these are the fandoms I’m most familiar with so fanart commissions can easily be done^^

So anyone interested, please feel free to commission me on Ko-fi or email me at 120106.63aen@gmail.com, all funds will be allocated to my sister’s surgery^^

[angrybatart]

"Aww, you're no fun..."

DISCLAIMER: Yes, I am aware that props cannot be used in the Trials. That's the POINT of the comic. So DO NOT bother me about it. Not that anyone has. I just want to get that out there.

[felix-krain]

An analysis of Resh's design

Based on what we have so far from Two Embers.

By me, a very sane and normal person that likes Resh a normal amount /j

Okay so: I want to start from the very basic stuff. Namely their design as Alef. In the beta concepts Alef had a full star mask (like Resh) but from what we've seen so far they appear to look like a regular kid. Well yes, but also no

I really like this tiny detail they left on their mask. It may not be a full star mask but they did leave those little spikes to make it recognizable. Also Alef seems to be a normal ancestor kid without the little light on the chest that characterizes skykids (I know they DO have it in one of the trailers but that trailer is very old and you can clearly see that their design was altered ever since, none of the new trailers show it) but we don't really know their origin yet. That said let's get to the main point

THIS FUCKER

Unlike popular opinion I don't believe Resh to be bald. Mainly because we can see the folds in what appears to be fabric covering their head during this shot here. Overall their design seems to be a simplified version of their beta one.

One interesting thing to notice is the fact that we never fully see their mask so we cannot confirm it to have four points (especially considering their child one only has three)

They also appear to have their entire body covered up. The head is covered by the hood and the mask, they wear a long sleeved vest and gloves. All of this covered additionally by their cape. We don't really see even an inch of their skin, which is quite interesting...

If we look back at the corrupted King theory we could assume this total coverage of the body could be to hide the rocks growing on their skin

As we have previously seen other characters from Two Embers suffering with this corruption/disease

So... maybe?

They appear to be wearing a robe like other ancestors, an especially long one for that matter. Yet the peculiar thing is that (at least from this shot) they almost appear to not be wearing shoes. I would guess they would be wearing sandals, even though, if we take the previous "all skin covered" fact, it would be pretty odd to leave the feet uncovered but idk, this scene doesn't give a clear enough image for me to speculate

From this information here we can kinda understand their entire design (even if they are never fully shown from the front) but I guess only new trailers (or the series itself) will confirm or deny anything

That said, I am very normal about the fact that we have ACTUAL 3D content of them after SO LONG and I absolutely DID NOT explode yesterday when the trailers came out (/j I did.)