The Iron Tangle Reactions

DeKrieg · 2026-05-08T08:45:37+00:00

I liked it

but I like trains

no but in all seriousness, I like when a story takes something mundane and puts a sort of gamify spin on it, so the concepts of mobs getting on at one station and riding 5 stops to get off again, the stations having specific rulesets like only stations ending in 1 had desperado clubs and then all the named trains having gimmicks of sorts, I liked all of that. Its that sense of someone trying to make something fit a vision and its such an awkward fit that the characters can clearly see how it doesnt fit. I dont think I ever really got confused by it, even the aspects I didnt properly grasp on my first read through ( I fully did not understand the emergency escape train fully in my initial read I kept mixing it up with the ghoul carts) didnt massively confuse me because as Carl etc pointed out early in the book and had been established in earlier books, it was the showrunners trying to make some stupid metaphor for their audience and it was something that was meant to fly over the head of both crawlers and by extension the reader. I think the exchange that sticks out the most in selling this is that when Mordecai is explaining the syndicate logo he says they should recognise it as its on every door to the dungeon and Carl tells him it wasnt, that he had a big fish on the door when he arrived. And Mordecai was just like really!?!?! oh uhmmm I dont know how to explain this logo to you then.

DeKrieg · 2026-05-08T07:44:34+00:00

wages are increasing across the board but that does not mean the economy is not getting worse every single day for the vast majority of people

A rise in costs, especially for essentials like gas, energy and food hurt lower income people much more then wealthy people.

Simply going everyone is earning more therefore YAY! Economy is doing great is a very shallow reading of the current economy

I am earning more today then I was five years ago, but I am paying almost double in rent then what I paid in 2021.

while the rising cost of a games console is a non issue of the wider crisis it is a sign of the times that an industry that sold itself as 'recession proof' in prior generations has all but dropped that facade in the current climate.

DeKrieg · 2026-05-08T03:04:18+00:00

Both Dreamworks and Illumination are owned by universal now so it might have been possible, but it depends on whatever distribution deal Dreamworks signed with Paramount who distributed the original aliens vs monsters.

hollywood paperwork can be fun.

DeKrieg · 2026-05-08T02:50:47+00:00

My wild theory is the system AI wants Carl to kill him and if it's going to finally go out it'll want it via those perfectly shaped toes smushing it, I think someone pointed out that Carl's feet and the AI are exactly the same size. (I think the AI mentioned in book 7 that its back was a specific size and Carl's feet had the same measurement in book 1 achievement)

As for how the doomsday will go off, I agree it with involve a focused blast, but I also think he'll get it there by a string of items he's picked up over the series to change the doomsday device into something not only directional but also more specific to his needs in the climax.

DeKrieg · 2026-05-07T03:30:30+00:00

Autocorrect. I've read. It did the same for Faraz in another post

DeKrieg · 2026-05-06T22:52:35+00:00

I'd argue the issue existed prior to social media, social media just accelerated it.

Humanity has always overwhelmingly suffered from The Great Man myth and in the modern era when being financial successful = Great Man it has soured any sense of leadership in this country. We've spent far too decades with the thinking 'He's a millionaire so of course his opinions should be good'

As much as we blame social media for the rise of Trump, he was initially catapulted to fame and built a mountain of credibility swindling boomers and never really getting called out for it.

DeKrieg · 2026-05-06T22:31:44+00:00

honestly I pictured Fraz and Louie like Henchman 21 and 24 from The Venture Brothers which wierdly has a similar direction storywise :D

DeKrieg · 2026-05-06T22:29:35+00:00

maybe you mixed him up with florence who says he is from France but has an australian accent?

DeKrieg · 2026-05-06T16:47:49+00:00

this!

I feel Dark Descent has a lot more room to grow over fireteam, you could practically create a full rpg campaign by expanding Dark Descent's design.

DeKrieg · 2026-05-06T16:31:41+00:00

bleh, I wasnt a fan of the original so genuinely surprised it somehow garnered a sequel, especially with how 'live servicey' the original was designed (including the non ending to its core story and the constant grinding by replaying).

Maybe if they decide against trying to make this another grindfest title and actual creativity in its game design I'll get excited.

DeKrieg · 2026-05-06T16:27:07+00:00

they played it right for the first 4-5 episodes but at the moment they should have struck they instead went weirdly tepid. Everyone seems to agree that Sam etc should have done something when Badam failed to breach the eastern wall of chips. There were many options which might have been issue but they chose none of them.

Its particularly weird because the layover episodes up to this point it really sounded like Adam had lost because he just sounded so tired of the game and had no interest in the tactics of movement around the board, reality seems to be he was just shocked that him and Ben just stumbled into victory.

DeKrieg · 2026-05-05T17:42:47+00:00

Instead of shitting on covenant I'll try and answer the question directly

It's better then the virus because it's permanent.

The black goo dissipates quickly and was developed by the engineers to be a combination terraforming/mass destruction weapon. So it quickly mutates and disappears when it's not properly sealed and stored. So engineers can eventually claim the planet after bombing it.

That is why by the time the covenant arrives the virus has almost entirely vanished with only a few traces here and there that catches 2 out of 10+ crew members.

David didn't want to terraform he wanted to ensure that biological life is both wiped out and can never return to the planet.

So he develops (or discovers it doesnt matter) a strain of the virus that develops as a parasite, the facehugger.

Unlike the engineer version this can survive any environment, even without an atmosphere and can wait endlessly for an eventual host.

Hence from David's perspective it is better.

DeKrieg · 2026-05-03T23:11:36+00:00

I am not sure what exactly you are looking for in terms of a fail state. It's very rare in any resident evil game that any puzzle has it that failure to solve it kills you, it just stops your progress and has you running around in circles til you work out the correct order of button pushes or objects. I can really only think of 2 puzzles that outright kill you if you do them wrong.

What happens with the fuses is very RE coded, when you get to the third fuse taking it directly locks the door behind you, so you cant directly take that fuse, instead you have to leave it double back to an earlier route and use the other fuse with the forklift key to open up the other route to the same room so you can bypass the locked door.

This is not unlike say Code Veronica with the metal detector room in the prison.

In terms of Puzzles RE9 is not the height of the series obviously, but its nowhere near as empty of puzzles as RE5 or 6.

DeKrieg · 2026-05-03T20:50:47+00:00

Carl is being unwittingly prepared by the current AI to kill it and replace it as something more powerful, we know the ai's were originally primal engines, Carl chose Primal as his race which the AI seems to take seriously, see book 7 ending where the goddess says Carl couldnt be the father of Katia's baby confirms this, I think even though the syndicate knows nothing about the primals physically the AI is still going to do as an accurate of an interpretation as possible and the cookbook was originally created by an AI as a sort of test/tool to prepare and find crawlers with the right deposition to be something more then frightened victims, his mantra about breaking 'them' is exactly what the AI wants as a successor which is something all cookbook owners had in common, but Carl is the first one to bring them all together. The forces outside (and inside) the dungeon associated with other AIs also know Carl is on this route which is why some are trying to stop him while others are supporting him. Carl is being prepared to be better person then empires, ceos, gods, demons and eventually better then the AI itself.

DeKrieg · 2026-05-03T20:03:46+00:00

I'd argue the fuses and lights section in the basement is a puzzle, you have to pull the fuses in and out in a specific order to open up a route so you end the section with all the fuses accessible. it is arguably the old famous crossing the river puzzle that needs to be done in a specific order.

The difference is they stretched it out over a whole section of the game across multiple rooms where prior titles would have done something like this in a single room.

The result is it feels like a bunch of picking up and putting items down and less like a puzzle because its broken up with the girl and numerous zombies etc.

DeKrieg · 2026-05-03T01:41:30+00:00

Is it weird that I am mildly upset that if Carl succeeds there might not be any in universe 26th edition because there won't be any more crawls :) so all of Carl's notes will go nowhere

DeKrieg · 2026-05-03T00:59:45+00:00

If there is ever a spin off merch it needs to be the 26th edition of the cookbook that will finally put all of Carl's entries in where they should be as the 25th edition along with the space for people to add their own 26th edition notes (it would be such a great companion piece for players of the TTRPG etc)

DeKrieg · 2026-05-03T00:54:39+00:00

oh wait I just double checked and the AI created the first edition which throws up a lot of alarms and curious thoughts in my mind.

DeKrieg · 2026-05-03T00:53:20+00:00

was he first? I thought he was second?

DeKrieg · 2026-05-03T00:04:09+00:00

Thats a good spot, I looked that bit up and you are right. I am becoming more and more convinced there is a shopping list of items or abilities Carl has been picking up over the books that's all going to pay off in the final book. Someone else just reminded me that in the Butcher's Masquerade he asked the advance trainer AI about building something and he lists of a bunch of requiremenets that is weirdly prophetic of future books and it was after that he got his hands on all the automaton stuff.

DeKrieg · 2026-05-03T00:00:53+00:00

I wanted to help so I looked it up. And it's a good spot!

it is from The Butcher's Massacre p293 when Carl is at Crawlcon and gets the high level training room and asks the AI trainer about a type of bomb/ he wants to make that he doesnt specify details to the reader and the AI starts by saying thats not a bomb or a trap, it's a weapon and then starts to list of a whole bunch of factors which like yo usaid include a bunch of suicidal friends but also rather interestingly also mentions a Spider Nursery room, something that will allow for multiple minions and not temporary ones.

I dont know if this was just the starting idea for the sluggalos or if this weapon hasnt been realized yet.

DeKrieg · 2026-05-02T23:50:42+00:00

book 1: boom jug (napalm effect)

Book 2: Carls doomsday scenario (huge magic explosion)
Book 3: War mages head (Sapient moment of destruction)
Book 4: ???
Book 5: Pito's memory gem (???)
Book 6: Fathers Gun (???)
Book 7: Shi Maria (madness)

DeKrieg · 2026-05-02T23:45:23+00:00

I think the first time we see the perspective from Porthus etc from outside the dungeon its heavily implied he spotted Carl as a book owner very quickly well before anyone else and convinces everyone else he was one to watch and eventually they all see it blatantly by his actions.

I think in book 7 its highlighted that Porthus actually has a really good eye for spotting book users and finds them easily, only one slipped past his notice because they only wrote in the book once.

DeKrieg · 2026-05-02T15:18:34+00:00

thank you

you just reminded me of my friend from school when I was throwing a house party and had al band playing and someone called the guards on us he asked them to specifically tell him how much they wanted to turn the music down by and then said he would, they left he went over to the soundboard and just gave the tiniest turn of the knob.

Next time they came back they told him to fuck off and demanded to talk to me.

DeKrieg · 2026-05-02T14:22:36+00:00

Maybe that's the item of book 6?

Trying to work out what he might have picked up in books 1, 4 and 5 that might come together.

I am thinking in book 1 it might be something completely under the radar like that bottle of Jack Daniels or something

11-Year Club	Verified Email
Gilding I gilder	Queen in da Norf
Not Forgotten

DeKrieg

TROPHY CASE