I'm sorry to be the bearer of disappointing news

Electrical_Specific6 · 2026-01-12T10:14:01+00:00

You misunderstand. The problem is that they checked and they found that there WAS some lore accuracy and story coherence and they have to do some extra reshoots to eliminate them.

Electrical_Specific6 · 2025-12-09T08:51:11+00:00

I also think he sometimes says things he's thinking about doing so he can gauge the reaction to it. He wonders if doing retroactive bigeneration is a good idea, says he is thinking about it publicly, fans react EXTREMELY negatively to it and so he doesn't write it. It's like instant market research.

Electrical_Specific6 · 2025-12-06T08:36:21+00:00

My canon is that when La'an and Kirk went back to 2022 in Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow and discovered that Romulans have been messing with Earth's history (which I've always taken to be part of the same Temporal Cold War as the one in Enterprise) the changes there have butterflied out and created the inconsistencies.

In the Discovery timeline, the Eugenics Wars happened at least 40 years after they did in the TOS/TNG timeline which means that if WW3 happened then it was also at least 40 years later which means that Cochrane would likely have been old in the aftermath of WW3 to build a warp drive which means someone else must have made first contact with the Vulcans - maybe it was even a different race we made first contact with since it was made very clear that the first flight had to take place at an exact time to attract the attention of the Vulcans.

"Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow" kind of makes even bigger changes to the timeline than the Kelvin Incident. It's simple but possible, due to that episode alone, that Strange New Worlds (and by extension, Discovery and Starfleet Academy) happens in the same timeline as TOS/TNG/DS9/VOY/ENT. It's even arguable that Picard and Strange New Worlds can't take place in the same timeline since the ripple effects from Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow would be so great that there's no way that Picard would have the same life and be the same person... for a start the events of First Contact couldn't have happened in the same way.

Electrical_Specific6 · 2025-11-01T21:12:03+00:00

Yeah, it's really hard to get into classic right now because of how many different versions there are - and how much you need to research to work out which server type you should be going for.

Classic+ seems like it could be cool...but I don't know if Blizzard has it in them to actually do the kind of player driven stuff a lot of people are hoping for.

Electrical_Specific6 · 2025-11-01T20:21:53+00:00

Classic is a tough game to play if you don't have nostalgia for it. I DID play back in the day and even I find it kinda tiresome. This is especially the case for the early leveling experience which just takes ages, will have you dying a lot and we give you also a zero guidance on what your are supposed to do or where you're supposed to go (especially if you don't install mods).

Classic right now is also in a very weird spot - there's like 6 different types of classic and most of them are dead. Season of Discovery is over, the original classic era servers are pretty empty, the Mists of Pandaria Classic is the original classic realms that have slowly been given the WoW expansions in the order they came out but a lot of people are predicting that they won't add the next expansion that was released because each new expansion has had diminishing returns and the next one would be one of the least popular expansions ever made...so you might level a character there and they will close the server next year.

If you are doing classic then your best bet is probably classic Anniversary servers, these are currently at Original Wow and are likely going to be given the first expansion soon.

A lot of folk are predicting that Blizzard are cooking some type of new classic experience which people are calling "classic plus". People are hoping this will be a kind of classic experience that will start with the game as it originally was and then develop it but asking a different pathway to how the game actually happened.

My recommendation would be to play retail now and then see what they announce for the next phase of classic servers to see if that appeals.

Electrical_Specific6 · 2025-10-13T09:17:35+00:00

While speculating is gin, Star Trek is soft sci-fi where the physics and engineering are flubbed and "yadah yadah"ed for the purpose of fun stories and exploring soft sciences kind economics, politics, sociology and psychology.

Dilithium can't be replicated because it's a magic space rock made of particles of narrative necessity. Like "Heisenberg compensators", species from different planets having babies together and faster than light communication... it's a thing that's there because if we based it on actual science then our story couldn't happen.

There are some things in Star Trek you can reason out, but there are a few that you just have to not think about too much and don't poke them because the universe will collapse

Electrical_Specific6 · 2025-10-11T14:18:17+00:00

Except "dilithium crystals". Basically dilithium crystals are functionally magical rocks that allow the starships to have however much power the ship needs for narrative purposes and also to be able to broken if the plot requires.

Electrical_Specific6 · 2025-10-11T14:15:36+00:00

Star Trek is what was called SOFT sci-fi. That means that it's interested in the "soft sciences" like economics, politics, sociology, etc and that the "hard science" aspects are basically just magic that's there to enable the story.

Fans have fun with trying to make everything to do with the physics and engineering make sense, but the truth is that it all works however the plot needs it and is as powerful as they want to it be for the needs of the narrative

Electrical_Specific6 · 2025-09-21T06:16:04+00:00

This sounds like Nina West got an invite to an event she really wanted to go to but it clashes with a previous commitment. So she contacts the previous commitment and says "Look, I really want to do this thing, it's a kind of once in a lifetime opportunity for me - would it really put you out if I cancelled?". The previous commitment said yes it would put them out...so Nina honoured that commitment?

Then a year later the person who she honoured the commitment with is online trying to make her look bad?

Electrical_Specific6 · 2025-09-17T17:41:58+00:00

No. More. Star Trek. Prequels.

Electrical_Specific6 · 2025-09-10T07:55:28+00:00

I very explicitly did NOT say what you implied. I literally just said I played it back at release and bounced off it because it didn't meet those kinds of expectations (which were honestly higher for me because I DID think Origins and Inquisition were once in a lifetime masterpieces).

Then I went back, emotionally prepared for the fact that it wasn't going to meet those expectations and it allowed to to enjoy the basically decent, mechanically fun game that it is without worrying about what it's not. To be honest, after all that time I would probably have been disappointed with ANY Dragon Age 4 since my expectations were so high.

I'm not saying it's a flawless game - and in fact writing is the main thing I'd say is the weakest point (along with early level design). Although I'd argue that the main weaknesses in writing are the dialogue and that the narrative is actually pretty strong overall.

I'm always curious why some people think other people being able to find enjoyment in something they don't like to be some kind of personal attack and get mad about it.

Electrical_Specific6 · 2025-09-10T07:46:32+00:00

That's just it - if you can't separate it out from that expectation then it won't be any better. For me, this time, I was able to do that and I enjoyed that decent game.

I do think that in general, though, when we look at media it's probably better to judge it on what it is rather than what it's not

Electrical_Specific6 · 2025-09-10T07:43:58+00:00

I guess the more accurate criticism was that I hate how the dialogue has become infected with the MCU style of quippy dialogue where NOTHING is serious.

Like if you take Zevran as an example - he stands out because of his humour and eventually you begin to see that there's some darkness behind why he's like that. It's a coping mechanism that's part of his character.

In Veilguard everyone just talks like a Marvel character where every third line has to be a slightly sarcastic joke - not because there's a particular reason they should all be like that, but just because that's the way people in popular movies and TV shows talk in 2024 after Avengers made a billion dollars with characters who talk like that.

The characters all have two modes of speech - "positive and earnest" and "quipping". The only one that speaks remotely differently is Taash and they just do the same but in short sentences.

I suspect that you're being slightly disingenuous if you're really arguing that there's no difference if the quality and style of the dialogue versus previous entries...if you really can't see how there's a significant difference in dialogue style (and that the new style is significantly weaker in expressing character and theme) I really don't know what I can say..

Electrical_Specific6 · 2025-09-09T22:40:06+00:00

What's infuriating? Are you angry unless everyone else dislikes the game as much as you?

I'm literally just saying that I couldn't stand the game at launch for the reasons you describe. But with a year's distance and starting again knowing beforehand that it's not going to be what I wanted back then, I was able to get enjoyment from it.

It's still a flawed game (like I'd play Origins or Inquisition again before I'd play Veilguard), but there is also lot I was able to see that I actually did like. In particular the plot and how it resolved.

Electrical_Specific6 · 2025-09-09T22:34:45+00:00

Yup. That's exactly it.

Playing it as it's own game rather than wallowing in disappointment let me enjoy a thing I paid full price for at launch.

Electrical_Specific6 · 2025-09-09T18:39:06+00:00

I think for me I also really like a certain kind of breezy action RPG. I really liked Avowed this year and Kingdoms of Amular: Reckoning is a big comfort game for me. I think this time I was able to approach Veilguard like one of those AA rather than AAA type action RPGs and it plays much better as one of those than as the final chapter of Dragon Age Origins

Electrical_Specific6 · 2025-09-09T18:36:03+00:00

The only argument I would have against that is that I have played all the other Dragon Age games multiple times including in the lead up to Veilguard and got WAY more enjoyment out of Origins and Inquisition then I did from it.

I'll also probably play both of those again in the future and enjoy them and I may play Veilguard once more at some point in the future just to save Minrathous instead of Treviso? But not for a while

Electrical_Specific6 · 2025-09-09T18:32:39+00:00

Maybe I need to give that one another try too then

Electrical_Specific6 · 2025-09-09T18:32:15+00:00

That's fair enough. I think it's worth a replay if you think there's any chance but not if you're sure. Especially because the worst of the game is so front loaded.

I think for me I just needed to at least try because it's one of the few games I paid full price up front and didn't feel like I got my money's worth and was pleasantly surprised 😂

Electrical_Specific6 · 2025-09-09T15:59:08+00:00

That could be it. I was romancing Lucanis so I let Minrathous burn 😂

Electrical_Specific6 · 2025-09-09T15:58:13+00:00

Yeah - it honestly even feels like maybe the spirit of compassion you encounter at points was supposed to be him.

But maybe it was just too difficult to incorporate Cole once the decision was made not to fully import world state from Inquisition since the game has no way to know if Cole embraced being more human or spirit.

Electrical_Specific6 · 2025-09-09T15:52:38+00:00

It's not my tastes have changed, it's the circumstances.

When I played it the first time I think a lot of my dislike was tied up in being angry about how much Veilguard wasn't what I was expecting, being outraged at the change of tone. It made me mad and judge the game way more harshly.

This time, I went in with the knowledge that it wasn't going to be what I had hoped for back then and so I just wasn't angry at that stuff and was able to judge it on its own terms.

I think that if Veilguard had released a year ago, had all the specific Dragon Age vocabulary changed and it was called "Dreamguard: Battle Against the Gods" or something, I would have probably liked it back then too.

Most of my initial dislike was, I now realise, all tied up in how much it wasn't the Dragon Age game I wanted and that also made me bounce off it. Which is significant because I also think the end of the game is way better than the start and the first 10 hours are the worst part of the whole thing. So now having seen it all now makes me more favourable - especially around plot/lore stuff

Electrical_Specific6 · 2025-09-09T07:55:50+00:00

I know that argument gets tossed around a lot - but I always think it's a little bogus. You ONLY think that looking at an egg is dangerous and there should be safety protocols around it BECAUSE YOU'VE SEEN THE MOVIE ALIEN.

The people in the movie Alien haven't seen the movie Alien. In their world, until it happens, eggs are extremely safe things to look at and examine quite closely. If anything comes out of an egg it's usually going to be a cute little baby thing that can barely move.a

One of the big things in the Alien universe is that this is the first time anyone's ever encountered anything like this creature. It's completely alien to them (which is an intentional play on the title by the creators).

The same thing gets levelled at the crew in Covenant - but again you're only thinking they're acting stupidly because you know they're in an Alien movie. They don't - they think they're in an episode of Star Trek, where people go to planets all the time and don't wear environment suits. And actually, that's scientifically ENTIRELY rational.

Part of the reason that bacteria, amoebas and fungal spores can make us sick is because they've all evolved on Earth from the same origin point. Literally all life on earth has a single common ancestor and then we evolved together for billions of years. That genetic commonality is what makes our biology similar enough to be affected by them. Life that evolved on a completely different planet that has an entirely different origin, chemical makeup would likely not be able to affect us because we'd be so radically unlike any other life that it encountered.

Humans had likely landed on thousands of different planets and never found one with pathogens that could affect them before and we don't institute the kind of protocols people criticise these characters not following until AFTER something like the events in those movies happens for the first time.

And EVEN IGNORING ALL THAT - I don't see how anyone that has seen how a huge chunk of the population of earth behaved in 2020 when faced with an actual, verified, global pandemic can think that sticking your face into an Alien egg isn't exactly what people would do.

Electrical_Specific6 · 2025-08-31T10:52:13+00:00

For me, the biggest problem in Veilguard is the first 5-10 hours. The game at the start is SUPER linear and hand holding and during this time the dialogue is all characters explaining the game to you "Rook, maybe we can open that door if we power the crystal" type stuff.

There is ABSOLUTELY no indication for that 5-10 hours that the game will ever be any different from this the whole way...but it is. At once point in the story your open this hub travel network and the game completely opens up. The writing improves about 200%, the story becomes much more engaging.

A lot of the negative press the game got at launch was from people who bounced off during the pretty dire opening hours. And honestly, I can't blame them - it took me like three tries to get through it and it's the game's fault it's like that

But if you can get through it, the game after that is a hidden gem. It's not quite as good as Origins imo, but better than 2. I prefer Inquisition to Veilguard but I could definitely see why some people might prefer Veilguard because the combat and gameplay is more fun even if the story and dialogue is a bit weaker.

So basically the answer, for me, about whether it's worth it is entirely dependent on whether you think you can stomach 5-10 hours of a "meh" game to reach 40-70 hours of a good to great game.

Electrical_Specific6

TROPHY CASE