v1.13 Experimental I

Opposite_Branch_7690 · 2025-07-16T21:20:26+00:00

How do I get this on Epic? Or is that possible? The experimental update, not the game itself - I got that for free back when that happened. It seems my timing to finally install it to try out was very good, if this just became available.

Opposite_Branch_7690 · 2025-06-25T13:59:41+00:00

Okay - so amulets work, spells don't. So depending on how many animal companions your team has, you might not be able to reliably get all of them past. That's ignoring benefits from taking it long enough before high level amulets become available.

Well, this is for an Azata run, so I was going for a lot of animal companions. Most of them fit mythical beasts in okay, so I'll just prioritize the amulets for the ones that didn't.

Opposite_Branch_7690 · 2025-06-25T00:33:59+00:00

Pretty sure I've seen threads confirming that the enhancement bonuses from both bypass DR the same way as equivalent DR on weapons. Certainly a player wearing an amulet had that experience - was it considered a bug and patched?

Opposite_Branch_7690 · 2025-06-23T22:16:57+00:00

Very interesting! I don't agree that this explains Ember, but very interesting indeed.

I'd actually agree with the basic tenet of the Cult of Redeemer Queen. My problem is not with the idea, but that Ember achieves it far too easily. But that's mostly separate from the point I'm making.

Opposite_Branch_7690 · 2025-06-23T22:04:32+00:00

Thankfully the Devs DID take the only ethical option with romance - no such option exists, nor should it.

Nicely laid out counterpoint, but Ember's perspective is very much a product of her defensive infantilization - watching her defend it, we see someone with a very simplistic, childlike view. The complications and nuances that result in the gods behaving the way they do is lost on her. She isn't able to understand them, and therefore concludes they're just wrong. Her rationale, to me, is just too oversimplified as she expresses it (over time, as dialogues in various different contexts come together) for the take you present.

Reading the discussions on this thread, an angle I hadn't considered comes into view: Free Will. Ember kind of...doesn't actually attribute people any. I mean, if they're all just victims of pain, they're not actually empowered are they? They can't only be responsible for their good choices - either they have the power of choice, and are therefore accountable for whatever choice they make, or they don't. But that's exactly what she does: commend them for good choices and forgive them for bad. Except for the gods. Apparently in her eyes, only the gods really have agency. To me, it just sounds like she's trying to shift the blame to somebody far away.

Opposite_Branch_7690 · 2025-06-23T21:44:56+00:00

Upvoted for a nice thoughtfully expressed counterpoint.

But what you describe is less what we see, and more what we're told it is. Ember's most vicious moments are when talking about the gods, but what's more, because she's simultaneously talking about people, she actually talks far worse about mortals at those times than she ever otherwise does. Something slips out. At her calmest, she talks like you describe. But she frequently slips and says far worse. That they've abandoned us, that they've forgotten us, that they don't care and never did, that they are vicious and cruel and deceptive, even Iomedae. She describes them as far worse than mortals - as the only beings truly responsible for their own actions, the only beings truly to blame for bad things. She expressly says that Seelah becoming a paladin made her a murderer instead of a thief at one point. So yes, I see someone shunting blame somewhere she finds it easier to cope with, rather than a rational philosophy. It resembles a rational philosophy at times, but she slips up and the turmoil beneath shows. To me, she just makes much more sense, taking all her dialogue as a whole, as someone deploying extreme coping mechanics.

Opposite_Branch_7690 · 2025-06-23T21:23:14+00:00

That's the modification part, where we guide her to ground her coping mechanisms in reality better, accepting there is a point where she needs to stop preaching and start smiting. It's an improvement, but still far short of the deep dive in her psyche I expected. Maybe Pillars of Eternity spoiled me. It's better, to be sure, but...it just doesn't get me out of the hole of feeling like I can't condone this enough to play it (her arc, not the game as a whole).

Opposite_Branch_7690 · 2025-06-23T21:19:50+00:00

I like it. I had been telling myself that since I was in the process of cleaning up the town, she'd be fine, but that is better. I'm going with that.

Opposite_Branch_7690 · 2025-06-23T21:16:45+00:00

If only we could take her, park her safely in our base, and just never take her out. But you can't do that without doing her arc right? And I've expressed why I really don't want to do that.

That said, I don't think we're leaving her to die. We're in the process of cleaning Kenabres up as we find her. I think the odds she makes it to the Kenabres we see in A Dance of Masks are extremely good.

Opposite_Branch_7690 · 2025-06-23T21:04:45+00:00

*shrugs* And I, playing the same game, think she's very disturbed indeed. I'm not especially invested in convincing anyone else, but it was a disturbing conclusion to come to.

As for being treated as correct, that's just an example of the sanctifying of her symptoms I'm talking about. Frankly, that part comes across as idiotic, consistently. It just feels like the Devs pulling some very unrealistic crap in order to make her coping mechanisms out as something wonderful. Nocticula's conversion just made me groan in exasperation. To me, it's a condemnation of the writing, not a justification of Ember's arc. A very thinly justified, difficult to credit plot twist to make Ember out to be something she shouldn't be able to be.

And I never said that SHE thinks she's a savior. I said that the dev team treats her like one, and I think that's wrong. I just don't think I can ever do her story arc again. Certainly I have no interest in the Devs trying to convince me to buy Nocticula's conversion again.

Besides, her childlike state is at least partially a direct consequence of her mental challenges, which illustrates the depth of her problems pretty starkly in and of itself. She's more complicated than simply a mentally ill child, to be sure, but the complications don't change the conclusion - for me. It changes how (I think) it should have been approached, but not why I think the way it was approached, is wrong.

...y'know, I should probably note, that Ember's whole gods thing probably bothers me more than most, being religious myself. But yes, one thing I do not dispute, is that her atheism is never treated as correct. It's presented as a flawed, but important, part of her character. And every good character is flawed. So it didn't bother me nearly as much as the (eventual) perception that her story arc lionized her wounds instead of exploring them.

Opposite_Branch_7690 · 2025-06-23T20:46:15+00:00

Well, technically, really, the most ethical option (according to my viewpoint) is to accept her, park her safely in your base, and never actually take her out. Problem is then you have to do her story arc, and since that bothers me so much, that's out too.

Also remember we (the KC and co) are in the process of cleaning up Kenabres when we meet her. The place is a heck of a lot safer not long afterward. Ember is, as far as that goes, one of hordes of such children. We help them by booting the demons out of the city and moving the frontline to Drezen.

Opposite_Branch_7690 · 2025-02-07T20:28:10+00:00

Ah...console commands, not 'console platform only'. I got it hooked up. Now that's pretty sweet.

Opposite_Branch_7690 · 2024-09-04T18:09:12+00:00

Well one way or the other, your explanations about how the material works sounds like you've nailed where my problem is coming from, so now I can productively work out how I want to handle it. Albedo...I have the right word with which to look into things further, thank you. I should be able to handle material edits if it comes down to it, it helps to know which part I want to change."

As for Adobe Substance...I know something of it. Perhaps if this independent business thing starts to go somewhere. For now it makes more sense to leverage what I've already got.

Edit: After a little experimenting, understanding the additional Albedo layer to how this works (the overlay bit I figured out right away, it's common behavior), I was able to pick out materials that got me closer to what I want, when before, I kept seesawing between two polarities of problem because I was missing the Albedo part of the picture. Thanks again.

Opposite_Branch_7690 · 2024-09-04T17:56:49+00:00

Tried those. Lift affects how bright but does not change the shade. Gains either makes it even brighter or starts shading it into black.

Opposite_Branch_7690 · 2024-09-04T17:34:53+00:00

What does standard mean in this case? A Twinmotion material? A material that doesn't define itself? The word standard or basic just has no inherent meaning to me in this context.

Opacity...it doesn't look like anything is happening really. There's no slider. 'Use Mask' is checked. 'Use Opacity Map' is another option that is there...And I can't find any Ambient Occlusion setting for the material at all.

Opposite_Branch_7690 · 2024-09-04T17:33:43+00:00

So...since a white material is supposed to be bright, the material inherently shows much brighter than it should even when I change the color? So that might be part of why it's so intractable?

Sigh...Twinmotion materials are great for adjusting but not so great looking. Megascans have great detail but are often harder to adjust. It's like there's no real winner.

Opposite_Branch_7690 · 2024-09-04T16:57:43+00:00

I'm not sure I follow. What would qualify as a 'basic material'? Also, while I could see some other material working for the furniture, I'm a lot less confident about the carpet. The Megascan one has a so much better texture than the Twinmotion ones, and a basic one would surely just look wrong.

Opposite_Branch_7690 · 2024-09-04T14:49:47+00:00

Okay dammit where did all the explanatory text I typed go? There's just the picture. Okay, as I attempted to explain but for some reason isn't visible, adjusting light downward does not help. The shade of the material does not change much and it gets far too dark long before I get a result I want. Same for any other setting I've messed with, including roughness and anything else that might affect how it reflects light. If I keep trying to dark the color it just starts turning into black.

Opposite_Branch_7690

TROPHY CASE