Off Topic Discussion Megathread

[Caurcas]

We can thank ESO, and Starfield for that. Todd gave an interview recently, even citing both. It's funny, I still remember playing ES (Oblivion, Skyrim) on a really bad laptop back in the day, in bed, like when I was 17. Literally covered up with a blanket. Put tons of hours into them like that (offline, so they didn't even count on Steam). That laptop also had what I consider the best modlist I've ever used even. I was always too lazy to manually port mods to Special Edition, and similarly, I haven't even updated the game or upgraded to the 'Anniversary Edition' on Steam, because I don't want to break more mods.

Coincidentally, I did the same for FFXIV around 2017, when I was having RL issues. This laptop was so bad, that I would get hit by mechanics trying to do dungeons, at no fault of my own. It was so laggy, but I wanted to play FFXIV. Many of my early classes back in late HW, were leveled this way. That laptop was awful. The funny thing was, at the time, I had just built a PC, but I couldn't use it, because the place I was at didn't have grounded outlets, so it would blow up my desktop (literally) if I tried to turn it on.

Skyrim modding is its own saga unto itself. The Special Edition was worth it just for 64bit support and stability, but yeah alot of mods never got ported and self porting is time consuming and still tends to break. Everytime I play I usually spend 2-3 days setting up and testing mods before actually playing.

[Kaoru_Nagisa]

It's good to play a main entry SMT game again. Absolutely 100%-no-sarcasm missed the feeling of getting my crap kicked in by basic mobs on Normal Mode, and that satisfaction that comes with beating the first big boss by just spamming Tarunda and Rakunda over and over again while a mermaid throws ice chunks at it.

SMT5 is going great so far, and I gotta admit I do appreciate the random battles no longer being completely random as you wander the overworld - having the option to dip around mobs if I'm in a hurry or low on HP is great. All the little collectibles scattered everywhere are enjoyable to hunt, too, and the verticality afforded by the (admittedly basic) jump button is making things feel a little less restrictive.

Very slick interface so far, as well, and god - Sophia and the World of Shadows replacing the usual old man and Cathedral of Shadows was a major upgrade. no I'm not biased just because she's pretty, shhh

[TheMightyMollusk]

Found a bunch of Gunpla that I had on preorder in local stores instead. On the plus side, I saved a little on shipping, and one of the stores had a 10% off sale, so saved even more. On the other hand, two Master Grades (Barbatos and Eclipse) and two High Grades (Live Lance Heaven and Barbataurus) all at once. Oof, my wallet.

[Kolsykol]

I feel kinda vindicated seeing so many streamers enjoy parts of the story I see very vocal sections of the FFXIV community shit on constantly.
Lyse has been a recent example of this, sometimes I feel like either people have just forgotten or aren't paying any attention.
She grows A LOT in Stormblood and is a very different character at the end.
I get that Yda and Papalymo were a fun comedic duo and the initial disappointment but damn...
It almost feels like it just made people not give her a chance at all.
People kinda talk about her as if she didn't develop at all in Stormblood and I seriously wonder what game they were playing because just wat?
She goes through a huge character arc and is totally different at the end she steps up big time.

It kinda reminds me a lot of how people say that Y'shtola keeps '' dying '' and surviving when it could only really be argued as having happened to her exclusively in a scene once.
Every other scene it happens there are other characters too that looks like they got killed but then gets up the next scene and are fine, and the scene in question with Y'shtola causes her to spend almost an entire expansion at the medic.
And people also either having not paid attention or having forgotten how Flow actually works.

But yeah, maybe it's because people are playing the whole game without having to wait for patches so it's fresher in their mind I played NG+ recently too so that's the case for me.
But sometimes it feels like people in '' the community '' are just extremely negative about anything that isn't Heavensward and Shadowbringers in the story and then I watch streamers and think of my own recent experience and it's way more positive.

It's definitely interesting tho.

[Rinhi]

I agree there, hating on lyse has seemingly become a meme and I don't understand why, sure, StB writing isn't as good as parts of HW or ShB, but still decent overall
It's not like Yda and Papalymo were a huge part of ARR and considering half of their interactions were Lyse saying something smart but in simple words, Papalymo insulting her but saying the same thing with more complex words, it just begs the question how that is seemingly more funny than similar things happening throughout StB, just with different people taking on the role of Papalymo instead

[KizuyaKatogami]

I feel kinda vindicated seeing so many streamers enjoy parts of the story I see very vocal sections of the FFXIV community shit on constantly.
Lyse has been a recent example of this, sometimes I feel like either people have just forgotten or aren't paying any attention.
She grows A LOT in Stormblood and is a very different character at the end.
I get that Yda and Papalymo were a fun comedic duo and the initial disappointment but damn...
It almost feels like it just made people not give her a chance at all.
People kinda talk about her as if she didn't develop at all in Stormblood and I seriously wonder what game they were playing because just wat?
She goes through a huge character arc and is totally different at the end she steps up big time.

It kinda reminds me a lot of how people say that Y'shtola keeps '' dying '' and surviving when it could only really be argued as having happened to her exclusively in a scene once.
Every other scene it happens there are other characters too that looks like they got killed but then gets up the next scene and are fine, and the scene in question with Y'shtola causes her to spend almost an entire expansion at the medic.
And people also either having not paid attention or having forgotten how Flow actually works.

But yeah, maybe it's because people are playing the whole game without having to wait for patches so it's fresher in their mind I played NG+ recently too so that's the case for me.
But sometimes it feels like people in '' the community '' are just extremely negative about anything that isn't Heavensward and Shadowbringers in the story and then I watch streamers and think of my own recent experience and it's way more positive.

It's definitely interesting tho.

It’s mainly because in comparison to some of the male characters the female ones just kind of fall flat and fit a very small niche. Yshtola with the “haha funny sassy cat lady,” and Alisaie with the hard head strong lady appeal.

[Theodric]

I think people are free to like and dislike whichever characters and expansions they so wish. This is a game with a global audience, after all - so that makes for pretty broad tastes. Personally I'm pretty indifferent to Lyse and Ala Mhigo in general. I don't believe that Gyr Abania required three zones. Four, technically, if we count Rhalgr's Reach. Othard and Hingashi appealed to me far more and ended up having a lot more nuance, too.

I didn't hate Stormblood, though the Gyr Abania portion didn't captivate me to any major degree.

As for Lyse?

She had an inherently less interesting 'learning to lead' storyline than Hien did, as far as I'm concerned. For starters, she had no direct connection to the region she sought to liberate. Much of her life had been spent outside of Gyr Abania. Despite lying to the Warrior of Light, there's no meaningful option to express a dislike of her behaviour.

Characters that would logically step up and take the reins of leadership are conveniently side-lined or written out of the story and then there's that awkward moment when she complains that...unarmed peasants aren't rising up to fight trained soldiers.

She became more tolerable to me when I treated her as unintentional comic relief.

[TheMightyMollusk]

I don't believe that Gyr Abania required three zones. Four, technically, if we count Rhalgr's Reach.

I wouldn't really consider the Reach a full zone, any more than any other hub like Ishgard or Kugane or the Crystarium.

Semi-related, but I'd barely count the Lochs, considering that 90% of the story content in the zone is instanced. Aside from traveling between solo duties and two dungeons, we do very little there. (It's also one of the more obnoxious zones to collect aether currents, but that's a whole other problem.)

[Theodric]

The Lochs just makes me think of that statue that everybody seems to call Theodric instead of Theodoric.

[Knot_D]

The reason why you should complete Sightseeing Logs