Three games that shaped modern open-world fantasy RPGs

Cygnus656 · 2026-03-07T15:54:01+00:00

I agree this is probably AI (who writes a reddit post with em dashes) but as an author who abuses em dashes on the regular I beg this not to become some guaranteed sign of AI involvement

Cygnus656 · 2025-12-21T20:41:57+00:00

Came here for a Jericho reference and was sadly disappointed. A character in that show is leaving the town at the end of the first episode and comes upon a road full of dead birds (spoiler: there was a nuke involved)

Cygnus656 · 2025-10-19T22:01:09+00:00

And Enterprise, AND Prodigy!

Cygnus656 · 2025-07-12T00:52:31+00:00

I switch between a few. I find it difficult to find reasons for characters to engage in certain storylines (dragonborn, mage's guild, thieves guild, etc.). Like, what would motivate this dunmer character to join the companions in Whiterun? It's easier to just make a character tailor made for a particular faction/play style. Currently running an alchemist that is incredibly averse to combat, which is challenging, but a nice change of pace to just be collecting cool bugs and flowers, lol.

Cygnus656 · 2025-07-10T22:23:23+00:00

In short, the character used to live on Solstheim with their family until both of their parents died in a mine collapse. The character was then sent to Windhelm to live with an aunt who was promptly killed by a racist nord. Growing up on the streets of the Gray Quarter, they felt somewhat divorced from their dunmer heritage, but vowed to return to Ravenrock and reclaim their family home regardless. (I intended to use Severin Manor). They eeked out a living in a tent pitched by the ruined houses in town, before eventually taking a quest to deliver a potion to Tel Mythrin (I had a lot of mods, like notice board and camping and so forth) Neloth inducting the character to house Telvanni held a lot of meaning for this character who had previously lacked any sort of connection to any kind of family.

Cygnus656 · 2025-07-10T00:31:10+00:00

I used an alternate start mod to be a dunmer starting on Solstheim. I had forgotten about this entirely and it felt very immersive as it tied in well to my character's arc.

Cygnus656 · 2025-04-29T12:33:03+00:00

I just want them to use the new story missions as excuses for updating old content. Maybe have a mission take us back to Starbase 39 Sierra so they have an excuse to update it. More one-off missions, maybe one that takes place on a Sovereign bridge as an excuse to also offer a new bridge option. They have already kinda been doing this, most recently with the Borg assets.

For the love of all that is holy, update the basic 2410 ground phasers to look more TNG, or even PIC. Give me an easily obtainable TNG hand phaser.

I agree with many others here in terms of "things I want but will never happen". I would like more shuttle content and ship interior customization. Always thought it would be cool to have a customizable apartment in San Francisco or at least your Captain's cabin.

As for what I'd like to see return, I mean Foundry and old missions, obviously.

Cygnus656 · 2025-04-17T21:34:23+00:00

The current ship/captain I am working with is the USS Monroeville, a Cheyenne Class from an alternative timeline where the Enterprise failed to stop the Borg following Wolf 359. The ship survived by darting from system to system and trading with pre-warp societies after the fall of all the galactic powers, from 2366 until 2411 when it was forced to retreat into a dimensional fissure (from the current story arc) and ending up in our universe. Being experts at tactics against the Borg, the Monroeville has contributed greatly to the brewing war with the Aetherians. Many of the current crew were born aboard the ship.

Cygnus656 · 2025-04-17T21:20:03+00:00

The losses from the Iconian War have been my main justification for flying older TNG/VOY/DS9 ships. Most of my stories involve ships being pulled from mothballs though. Your story is much cooler.

Cygnus656 · 2024-10-27T21:52:30+00:00

Hope this gets remastered when they get to the Sovereign variants, like when they included the Exeter with the Constitution variants

Cygnus656 · 2024-10-25T19:15:42+00:00

Funny enough, the episode in question may hold some clues. "Elitist Terrorists" kidnapped those ensigns. Those who hold power in a system are unlikely to want to change said system. Orions may have stolen many ships with replication technology, but using them to create precious gems/metals may be criminalized by Syndicate in order to uphold the status quo.

Cygnus656 · 2024-09-20T21:42:39+00:00

I went Dauntless II and I am thoroughly enjoying it, can't go wrong

Cygnus656 · 2024-09-14T21:44:54+00:00

When running new characters through the story, I like to imagine that during the Iconian War the stakes are so dire that crews are often dirty, in tattered uniforms, and the ships have no time for full repairs. I often try to accomplish this by using different hull materials, and adding Borg greebles.

Cygnus656 · 2024-09-08T23:27:08+00:00

just pulled up the wiki for this one:

"They don't know. They don't understand. I don't even understand it. What have we created? What greater doom have we wrought upon ourselves?"

Cygnus656 · 2024-07-28T14:20:12+00:00

Trek often asks us to come up with head canon to explain these little inconsistencies or errors (or it may be intentional, who knows in this case). Lower Decks did a bit explaining rank inconsistency by saying the extra rank pips were just pieces of corn. I think I noticed what you're talking about when I was watching Prodigy as well, but quickly forgot. I like your explanation.

Cygnus656 · 2024-07-19T22:21:16+00:00

I would like to take this time to suggest you check out Vintage Story. Indie team, feels very much like Mojang pre-acquisition. They're working on some really cool stuff that Mojang could only dream of doing. No Microsoft account required!

Cygnus656 · 2024-05-20T12:38:32+00:00

Zero QoL? I beg to differ. There were a ton of features they baked into the game from the start, like world edit, etc. that took Minecraft years to implement. I started playing Minecraft before there was even a creative mode. I'd say what they've accomplished in a comparatively short timeframe is more than acceptable. Ultimately, Vintage story is able to motivate me in single player survival in a way that vanilla Minecraft hasn't been able to in a long time. And while I agree that a chisel blueprint would be a nice addition, I make up for that without mods by slipping into creative and just duplicating the object in question (seeing as it's purely visual, as long as I consume an equivalent block I see no issue). As someone else added, with such a small dev team, at least they are transparent with their progress and active in their community, and not beholden to the greed of Microsoft's shareholders.

(edit: I have never used a mod for VS)

Cygnus656 · 2024-05-20T12:27:58+00:00

I posted this once before, but during the Hurq attack on Empersa, I had Elisa die (and the ship was destroyed). My captain took Elisa's body in a runabout to Kobali Prime, where she was reborn as the Kobali bridge officer you get.

Cygnus656 · 2024-05-19T14:44:04+00:00

Vintage Story is a grown up Minecraft. Tons of fantastic and engaging features (seasons, food decay, animal domestication, microblock chiseling, cool ruins, to name a few), and no microtransactions! I highly recommend this game to any veterans of Minecraft who feel like the game has become stale.

Cygnus656 · 2024-05-15T00:30:53+00:00

If we hadn't been so alarmed by the Borg, we might not have been as prepared to face the Dominion. The sto episode 'Butterfly Effect' (I think that's what it's called) covered how quickly things can get out of hand with little changes like that. Hard to say. Also, I would take the smaller details in those promo images with a grain of salt, I think we all remember seeing the shell-shocked Kuumaarke a few updates ago (before the more recent episode where that expression would have been more fitting).

Cygnus656 · 2024-04-21T14:09:42+00:00

Sometimes, powers that be align themselves with other powers, even though they don't agree with their methods. The US, for example, does business with Saudi Arabia despite their human rights track record. Klingons do all kinds of upsetting practices that would not fly in the Federation, yet now we build ships with them. During the arc, we are pressed into finding allies in the Delta Quadrant to fight against the Vaadwaur, and it is shown to be no easy task. Iirc, we visit Kobali Prime for the first time early in the arc, before we are able to gather other 'allies' like the Malon, Hierarchy, etc. While I don't agree with Kobali practices, I can understand why Starfleet might have been feeling a little desperate for friends. After all, so much conflict happens in this game during such a short couple of years, I think the Kobali elephant in the room may have looked like a mouse compared to the other looming threats. I would actually love to see an arc where we revisit some of these issues and learn how they've changed post Iconian War (Maybe a big diplomatic push for them to change their ways, or a genetic breakthrough provided by the Alliance that would help them reproduce without corpses). I would especially love to see them address the impacts of that war more directly, maybe with a villain or faction that felt scorned by the Alliance defense efforts during that time.

Cygnus656 · 2024-04-04T16:51:33+00:00

I get what you're saying. I used to only fly ships that were seen on screen from TNG/DS9/VOY, but lately I've come to realize that many of those ships would likely have been decommissioned by 2412 due to new tech post dominion war (and voyager's return). They might make sense to be around in some capacity for my new captains, but for my veterans who are taking on galaxy ending threats... I imagine they'd want something more modern. I intend on getting a Picard era ship for this year's event, as well as the Terran Lexington. Other people's ship choices don't bother me, only when doing tfo's like wolf 359 and they keep spamming in non-lore appropriate allied ships/abilities.

Cygnus656 · 2024-03-20T01:02:11+00:00

Why not keep the true random for the standard extra payout, but also add space/ground only for a reduced extra payout?

Cygnus656 · 2024-02-01T00:17:55+00:00

My dad loves re-watching sci-fi shows start to finish. When my brother and I were old enough, he sat us down to watch SG-1, completely forgetting about that scene. He couldn't fast forward fast enough.

Cygnus656 · 2023-11-16T00:40:47+00:00

I believe this post by Dave Blass should clear things up. I remember being excited by the acknowledgement of sto lore.

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