Thread: Revelations from Patch 5.2

This may be very belated at this point, but I've been having shower thoughts on the subject of the Ruby Weapon.

The Sorrow of Werlyt - Spoilers, Natch

So, it is strongly suggested that the Ruby Weapon's toughness and weaponry are the result of it having absorbed one or more primals prior to facing off against us. And while the circumstances behind a primal's summoning vary quite a bit, one recurring reason is the defense of the primal's followers against outside forces. This, I believe, would likely be the case with the new Weapons based on the potential number of them(Ruby, Sapphire, Emerald, and possibly Diamond) and their general recency.

With that in mind, I have to wonder just how culpable Gaius's adopted family are re: the empowering of their respective mechs, and would be interested to see that explored in later additions to this storyline. Given the tragic angle they're going with, I'd guess that, like Gaius himself, there are extenuating circumstances that keep the blood off their hands.

Or they could just gloss over that, only acknowledging the absorption of primals insofar as "look at this cool thing the new Weapon can do". I'd be disappointed if that were the case, but I'd imagine what we'll get going forward will be good either way.

Originally Posted by Rosenstrauch

This may be very belated at this point, but I've been having shower thoughts on the subject of the Ruby Weapon.

The Sorrow of Werlyt - Spoilers, Natch

So, it is strongly suggested that the Ruby Weapon's toughness and weaponry are the result of it having absorbed one or more primals prior to facing off against us. And while the circumstances behind a primal's summoning vary quite a bit, one recurring reason is the defense of the primal's followers against outside forces. This, I believe, would likely be the case with the new Weapons based on the potential number of them(Ruby, Sapphire, Emerald, and possibly Diamond) and their general recency.

With that in mind, I have to wonder just how culpable Gaius's adopted family are re: the empowering of their respective mechs, and would be interested to see that explored in later additions to this storyline. Given the tragic angle they're going with, I'd guess that, like Gaius himself, there are extenuating circumstances that keep the blood off their hands.

Or they could just gloss over that, only acknowledging the absorption of primals insofar as "look at this cool thing the new Weapon can do". I'd be disappointed if that were the case, but I'd imagine what we'll get going forward will be good either way.

Extenuating circumstance? Oh no. Gaius very much ordered all the killing that went on, such as the raid on the Waking Sands. There was no Ascian that took over his body and used him like a puppet.

I get that people like Gaius and that it's been a while since ARR, but there are very good reasons why the WOL always looks like he or she is just moments away from cutting him down.

Originally Posted by Tanker4444

Extenuating circumstance? Oh no. Gaius very much ordered all the killing that went on, such as the raid on the Waking Sands. There was no Ascian that took over his body and used him like a puppet.

I get that people like Gaius and that it's been a while since ARR, but there are very good reasons why the WOL always looks like he or she is just moments away from cutting him down.

And I am glad that the WoL is reacting that way. He knew how his soldiers behave and yet send her to the scions..he is only now going against the Ascians because they lied to him. Even when Lahabrea revealed his plans all he said was: Lets talk about it later after I kill the WoL. He is all about might makes right and that the strong have the right to rule over the rest..he raises orphans but seemingly are not that much in contact with them seeing how he did not recognize these Au Ra soldiers. He gave them the idea that they should fight and he does a bit of brain washing and creating people like Fordola. (Its horrible how they go out but I have a hard time feeling sorry for him. He was more than ready to do the same to Eorzea with his Ultima weapon..)

He does have some kind of moral code but I really hope that he does not end up being the new leader for Garlemald..I hope that this would fall in the hand of people like Maxima who want peace.

Originally Posted by Tanker4444

Extenuating circumstance?

I'm referring to the Ultima Weapon devouring Garuda, Titan, and Ifrit. From what I recall, it was Garuda and her followers who provoked the summoning of Ifrit and Titan following her defeat at our hands. Gaius took advantage of the situation there, but is otherwise blameless for it happening.


Everything else? Yeah, that's Gaius's fault. But that's not what my comment was about.

Originally Posted by Rosenstrauch

I'm referring to the Ultima Weapon devouring Garuda, Titan, and Ifrit. From what I recall, it was Garuda and her followers who provoked the summoning of Ifrit and Titan following her defeat at our hands. Gaius took advantage of the situation there, but is otherwise blameless for it happening.


Everything else? Yeah, that's Gaius's fault. But that's not what my comment was about.

Yeah, the Ixali kidnapped Kobolds and Amal jaa, and made them so desperate they gave up their lives to summon Ifrit and Titan... who Garuda then implores/commands to give their aether to her. Gaius calls in the Ultima Weapon, and it eats all of them, only changing in appearance after Omnomnoming Garuda, and like drinking a Red Bull, she gave Ultima wings.

I kind of doubt we'll ever get to see the details or the primals that the weapons supposedly eat to take on their color/non-mech features. I do wonder which Garlean warrior spirits will be in the override sequence for each though.

Originally Posted by Vyrerus

I do wonder which Garlean warrior spirits will be in the override sequence for each though.

Regula seems like he'd be a shoe-in if they decide to go the route of repeating the whole Oversoul thing with the remaining weapons, but I'm kind of hoping Cid just reverse-engineers the Ruby Weapon to make some kind of disabling device to use after we've beaten the future weapons into submission to spare the orphans for Gaius' sake and to prevent any potential mass destruction from primal summonings (Which there probably would've been had Ruby gotten anywhere near a populated area).

...That and I'd just like some conventional two phase trials without lengthy cutscenes/transitions.

(Do you have enough TP?)

SKYSTEEL TOOLS

Easy enough when the materials aren't gated with timed windows. Well, it's back to working on expert recipes then, there's so much instant gratification up for grabs with score grinding. Pleases the lizard brain like nothing else.

Maybe things will calm down a bit in time for the new premiere.

SAVE THE QUEEN

Yup, you really nailed that look gurl. Loud clashing colors are a timeless classic of MMO fashion ensembles. The sunglasses are really nice too.

Reclaiming national self-determination by subverting a cultural institution of a foreign civilization is kind of like... umm... You know, maybe you should just relax, eat some eyecandy and not think too hard about it. :^) The entire sorry excuse of a ”liberation campaign” was, to put it nicely, revolting. And the cherry on top the vomit sundae was that the parties involved had the nerve to pat themselves on the back for doing squat all to earn any of it. For reasons unknown the plot demands that the poor wittle underdogs must needs to be handed a victory on a silver platter. The post trial scene on the roof was so disgusting that I wanted to skip it, that's the second time I've considered doing it.

”Life and death come and go like marionettes dancing on a table. Once their strings are cut, they easily crumble”? I've seen the two Oshii films but the other productions are stuck in the ”I should really get around watching this sometime” limbo. A thing shaped like a human being that has failed to achieve the illusion of personhood. What are you even supposed to call something like that? If copying real people is the only way a poet can come up with something resembling a personality then perhaps they should let go of the quill and become a gardener or a monk.

Another city we only get to see through a peek inside a duty. What a bummer, the pumpkin fields must have been pretty. I've never understood the hype around ”Answers,” ”Penitus” has always been the real ARR theme. Wheter it's true or not sometimes it feels like I don't hear the sound of tinnitus when I'm dreaming.

”Friends”? Pffft. As if I'd ever consider that lot my friends, don't much care to socialize with some sassy snarky twats full of Sharlayan man's burden. Wait, no, I mean sassy snarky twats full of Sharlayan man's burden that are so totally not like those other Sharlayans, so of course I'm supposed like them. Because they're Morally Superior Author Approved Role Models™ or some other rot like that. Dunno if blondie cares, she's alienating and unrelatable. Someone else's creation, an object that I'm borrowing to interact with the game world.

God Claudius would pit his caracals aginst my guinea pigs and challenge the Peasoup Throne? Not lacking spirit, that one.

Mother has been living on a disability pension for years now and the older nurses have all retired due to age. No one I personally know is directly involved but it's unnerving all the same. Maltese falcon is safe and sound too so that's some good news.

MEMORIA

A funny coincidence, more absurd than morbid. Odd that someone who got an invitation to the Independence Day Reception for researching leukemia would keel over from a cough. Though by then he was in such a bad shape due to multiple sclerosis that even talking properly was hard. God or not, the genetic lottery doesn't care about your good deeds.

Grug no understand gunlance, Grug only use sword and shield to hunt.

I found the buffoons sitting on my side of the table more reprehensible than the people I'm supposed to hate. A pack of drooling imbeciles with an IQ lower than their shoe size blurting out galaxy brainfarts, so full of themselves they might burst if you as much as tickled them. That's the impression I was left with when the parley was over. When you have to put up with individuals undeserving of your respect or sympathy, the best recourse is to distance yourself from the action and don the mantle of an outside observer. But it was like, good writing or something because the plot advanced in the direction it was supposed to!

More roundabout beating around the bush? The side stories are mostly fine with a few notable exceptions, it's only the MSQ writing that's trash. And you can't improve if you don't even know how much you suck. Not so entertaining to hear, but is that not why you hired Yoko Taro?

What else... oh, right, what was up with that Hell Wyrm in Ridorana?

All lore is folly.

The Creation Shadowbringers - Bonus Round

Mead and funnel cakes, another year without a cap. And a slight delay this time, I've been putting off attending the Full Bloom Fest and the end date is approaching fast so I was busy working on a get-tickets-quick scheme over the weekend. Poked Blackveil and Namielle a bit and shanked Shara's ankles too.

Coil is kinda trash. I wasn't there, so it's never going to mean anything to me.
Crystal Tower is okay but O'riginal the Catboy is trash, what an insufferable tool and an entitled bootlicker.
Everything to do with DRK is trash. Everything else except the Moogles. The 50-60 part was less worse than the rest.
Hildibrand is alright but dude's got an unbelievably obnoxious fanbase.

It's a bit too late say this now but I'll do it anyways. You guys didn't really think this through. Anyone who actually enjoys that kind of crap would not have been able to see through the trick. Cute idea, A+ plus for effort, but it was doomed to fail because you don't understand the human mind as much as you think you do. I don't mind taking time off from my usual pursuits to gab about your artistic merits but guiding blind men to Mount Tai is tiresome and boring and the sheer ridiculousness of the predicament at hand isn't helping to make it any more enticing. May this little mishap serve as an object lesson about the dangers of stereotyping.

Like, seriously. What in tarnation were you thinking?

Game Dev Machine Lv.4

On the way out of the Bunker, stepping inside the elevator leading to the terminal room when the berserk units are still active can get you stuck in a stunlock loop. Three, four combat units is enough to block the way out and stop the doors from closing and the inside isn't spacy enough to get out of the reach of close-range attacks. With that many enemies throwing jabs there's no time to recover from a hit before the next one connects so you can't wind up a melee attack or fire the pod, and access to the pause menu is disabled if you're not standing still so the available options are to wait until the stock of healing items runs out or to turn off the console. I was laughing too hard to do the latter even if it took me a while to die.

Since the story in Automata felt like it was written by people who treat their audience like adults with fully functioning mental faculties, the worst I have to say about the game is that the scaling of hacking damage could have been adjusted a bit for the last fight of Route D. On a repeat playthrough overleveling cuts the experience a bit short. But to return to present matters, the rest of the Rhinegold should cover the expenses of deleting a datacenter. Maybe even all of them. Go on and take it, it's all yours.

On an unrelated tangent, since you're not going to stop pestering me about it until I spell it out for you, the best character is the Narrator.

As for the origin of the design... it was based on an idea more than on a person. The design document called for something with neutral tones that go well with a wide variety of potential color palettes. Over the years it developed into a go-to template that I tweak and modify as needed based on available models. Speaking of, the iteration some smartypants yoinked for research purposes is partially the result of an accident and if it looks like that to you, it's because that's what you choose to see. Black and blue, white and gold. Or white with a bluish shadow and black with a golden sheen. Maybe blue and gold if I have to pick just two colors. Animal Welfare Enthusiast II does bear a passing resemblance to someone I knew, but that's a different story and nothing too serious.

Last but not least, a super shocking surprise plot twist. The blond hair is a reference but not to Takano. Sure, that works too but it wasn't the intent behind the redesign. My character originally had the number 2 haircut with row 6 column 8 brown as the base color and row 2 column 8 brown for highlights. Sometime during the later part of 2.x patch cycle (I'll have to check the date from the filenames when I find the older screenshots) I switched to the current haircut and color combo. It wasn't supposed to be any kind of Deep and Meaningful Metafictional Commentary on anything at first but playing through 3.x is what made me stick with it. The rest of that tale will have to wait until I have time to do a writeup on the Firmament sidequests.

Man this timeline is so weird. I guess that's what happens when you mess around with meme magic too much.

Originally Posted by Lutefisk

[COLOR="red"]Everything to do with DRK is trash. Everything else except the Moogles. The 50-60 part was less worse than the rest.

Absolute Rubbish. Everything tied to DRK is stellar. It's like a miniaturized version of the events that unfold around Fei Fong Wong in Xenogears, right down to multiple personality disorder.

Silly Lutefisk.