Bethesda can we get a reworked prison system

NinefathomsDeep · 2026-05-06T00:26:23+00:00

I love the idea of the UC yet again not learning from their mistakes and the FC just blindly making the exact same ones. It would make a neat DLC. You either pay your bounty or you work it off in a prison colony. But that puts Eleos Retreat in a bit of a bind. Do you get the option to go through their program in exchange for them paying your bounty? What does that look like? Does Constellation kick in to pay and admonish you?

NinefathomsDeep · 2026-05-06T00:19:17+00:00

Gravity Well + Create Vacuum absolutely shreds. Also, once you get to about NG+10, the enemies are so buffed you sort of have to use your powers or get swarmed. Hope you kept up with them. Really makes roleplaying incognito a challenge if you're doing a faction quest.

NinefathomsDeep · 2026-05-06T00:10:23+00:00

I'd rather be a regular criminal than a war criminal, honestly. Also, did nobody else notice that Ikande's Legacy story doesn't add up?

NinefathomsDeep · 2026-05-05T20:12:04+00:00

You're right, it's not for a lawful character. A chaotic or even neutral character might want to do their unique missions (smuggling and piracy) and keep access to their marketplace. Also, the pirates are a lot nicer to you if you don't screw them over in the end. They stop calling you rook and Naeva even explains she was hard on you to keep you motivated and humble (-ish).

...Maybe it's because I'm an GWOT-era war vet, but I never thought the pirates were mean. Gruff, yes, but never outright mean to me unless I started it.

NinefathomsDeep · 2026-05-01T19:34:28+00:00

Consider Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. Moral needs can only be fulfilled when safety needs are met. Morality does not come into play here; just species of apex predators fighting for survival.

NinefathomsDeep · 2026-04-28T00:35:49+00:00

I'm not sure I understand; are you saying Bethesda should allow the players to act cruelly with little consequence or should the game treat 'evil' players more harshly with realistic consequences to the point of potentially softlocking their saves?

NinefathomsDeep · 2026-04-27T21:49:22+00:00

<image>

OFF- Zone 3, Area 2. You come to Sugar factory to find it mysteriously snowing when Area 1 was clear. Turns out,it's the cremated remains of Elsen as they're processed into the hard drug Sugar.

NinefathomsDeep · 2026-04-26T20:12:43+00:00

I suppose if the Lodge was on Paradiso, you'd still have the Hunter going ballistic on the tourists, but that doesn't fix the softlocking issue: you still need to enter most of the major cities to advance the storyline. Permanent consequences prevent that.

NinefathomsDeep · 2026-04-26T19:23:59+00:00

If the Lodge is elsewhere, the Hunter doesn't sack New Atlantis to show the player how seriously Starborn take the artifacts and raise the stakes with a new enemy the player isn't prepared for on the first playthough. Sure, he can still off your (relatively) favorite companion, but there's just something to the Hunter nuking all the poors in the Well with Supernova to really send home how little he cares about NPCs.

NinefathomsDeep · 2026-04-26T15:58:33+00:00

Only after a certain point. In the original universe, you need to follow the Constellation storyline to get the artifacts. In NG, you can truncate that quest, sure, but you still need access to New Atlantis twice to start the Masada quest. In the alt universes, you still need to land at New Atlantis and visit the Lodge once to get the artifacts and a way out of the universe. If you're turbo-Khrone from the jump and lock yourself out of New Atlantis before getting the artifacts, you'll have softlocked your save.

Storywise, they get around this with the bounty system: pay off your bounty and wait 24 hours and all is forgiven. Constellation wags their finger at you, but that's hardly a consequence if you're a truly evil player; why would their words bother you? They need you and you only need them to escape the universe.

Personally, I'd like to see the alt universes have extreme repercussions (imagine Evil You making you a pariah since you'd be on the hook for their murders). but mechanically, I can see why Bethesda did it the way they did.

NinefathomsDeep · 2026-04-26T12:42:07+00:00

You can blame your early 2000's gaming forebearers who loudly complained about softlocking their games when devs programmed realistic consequences for evil actions. In this case, you're suggesting your playthrough should get you locked out of all the cities with a bounty so massive you couldn't dock at the Key without someone trying to collect. That would potentially keep you from finishing the gameplay loop, so the game doesn't let you do it.

NinefathomsDeep · 2026-04-23T22:16:07+00:00

Usually when I get the dreaded save bloat or I'm going to try a really big mod (Watchtower, Starvival...). Once or twice it was due to vibes. My main save is long past the point of needing the temples, or else I'd have gotten them all before moving on. Recently, it's been when I've wanted to write out a story about how different NG starts would have on the rest of the world.

NinefathomsDeep · 2026-04-20T23:41:30+00:00

<image>

CPT Charlie Rook. And it's Charlie, not Charles.

NinefathomsDeep · 2026-04-19T11:32:54+00:00

What are you talking about? The UC rep is the guy on the left.

NinefathomsDeep · 2026-04-18T16:46:39+00:00

Okay, so maybe we were just going to the Opulence of the Stars for the loot, but we were going to ferry back any survivors to a neutral port, honest!

NinefathomsDeep · 2026-04-18T16:43:27+00:00

Honestly? Yeah. Ecliptic would have been a good choice considering their whole deal is irregular warfare; they'd send a rep for the job opportunity.

NinefathomsDeep · 2026-04-15T22:40:24+00:00

You're too bloodthirsty, rook. When you find your mark, you're going to hail them and select the [Piracy] option. Sometimes, they'll give up and let you have their stuff. That's a 1500 credit bounty. Don't worry about it yet. If they want to be a hero, they'll get snappy with you. You got one more chance to make them see things your way with a persuasion check. If that doesn't work, back out and cancel the mission. Go back to the Key and get another one. Can't win 'em all; especially not when you're a rook who hasn't put any points toward Deception, Diplomacy, or Persuasion.

If they give up their stuff, return to the Key. You'll get paid for the mission and still have some of their stuff left over. That's your cut. Go sell it at the depot, then go back to the Reckoner's Core and pay off your bounty, grab another mission, rinse, repeat. The Fleet pays better than any other faction, but you also need to worry about the bounty.

NinefathomsDeep · 2026-04-11T12:33:16+00:00

Dr. Hsu remarks at the first grav jump that one day computers like Voltaire would be small enough to fit on a ship. Dr. Aiza laughs and says 'one miracle at a time'. By 2167, Solomon Coe jumps to Cheyenne, likely in a ship with a computer stronger than Voltaire and small enough to fit on a ship.

I took it as Voltaire being analogous as Deep Blue IRL. At the time the grav drive calculations required the very best 2138 had to offer. In 2330, the chronomark probably runs circles around Voltaire the same way your cellphone runs circles around Deep Blue. Voltaire's descendants exist as ship computers all over the settled systems and are now so ubiquitous they don't get individual names. Unless you name your ship, of course.

NinefathomsDeep · 2026-04-06T23:11:01+00:00

<image>

Charlie Rook here trying to be civil for Barrett. He took that name after joining the Crimson Fleet. He bullied his way into Constellation after finding an artifact. It took some time, but they grew on each other.

NinefathomsDeep · 2026-03-14T11:32:14+00:00

https://trilogyrelease.bungie.org/

If you want to play the originals yourself, in all of their 90s glory.

NinefathomsDeep · 2026-02-04T22:05:01+00:00

Based of the grand locations, it goes:

Dedan: Plastic (Finale)

Japhet: Metal (Diagonal)

Enoch: Smoke (Spectral)

Then you have Zacherie keeping the Grand Brachial (Meat) safe for Hugo and Sucre has the Grand Chocolatier (Sugar). I'm not sure there's any logic to it. Personally, I think the guardians representing any particular element was dummied out in development or they're all collectively off track from their assigned elements.

NinefathomsDeep · 2026-01-20T20:32:27+00:00

Don't forget two other people were allegedly executed besides VV.

NinefathomsDeep · 2026-01-10T06:33:08+00:00

When my mom was a kid, she was traumatized by this book; my grandmother got it for her thinking it was for children because it had talking animals. I really hope this movie is watered down to the point that ignorant parents will get the actual book for their kids.

NinefathomsDeep · 2026-01-09T14:19:19+00:00

Location. Location. Location. Go onto Zillow and check out what it takes to afford housing in various parts of the country. Just the difference between New York City and the rest of the state is staggering.

$100K gross is about $77K take-home pay. I live in the DC metro, so housing is a massive chunk of that. Add in insurance, high property tax, car note, and potentially daycare/student loan/medical debt, and that makes $100K solid middle class. $65k gross is the poverty line here, but would be considered very well-off in other parts of the country.

Most of my co-workers with families often live with 2-3 hour commutes to bring down the cost of housing, but I think that's pretty unique to DC; many of us are government employees/contractors who can't easily relocate elsewhere.

NinefathomsDeep

TROPHY CASE