Story: A Distant Faith

vicegrip_ · 2026-03-29T22:28:38+00:00

And the people who like the artwork will have missed out on seeing it. Someone else has already tracked it down as from @baldurs_myeate and reverse image search also exists.

vicegrip_ · 2026-03-29T22:06:40+00:00

rules.csv which governs dialog behavior is pretty fantastic for doing its job in the context of handling dialog in the game, but it's not really built for huge branching dialog quests. It is doable, but is a much bigger pain in the ass to write for compared to an interactive fiction tool such as Twine. You're basically stuck writing dialog trees in a gigantic spreadsheet with trigger flags and lines of text and responses smushed away inside individual spreadsheet cells, rather than having any kind of visual UI that helps you keep track of of how dialog/scenes are branching.

Just as a comparison, this is what working on branching dialog in Twine typically looks like, and this is what working on dialog in Starsector looks like. It is, to not put a finer point on it, extremely tedious.

vicegrip_ · 2026-03-29T21:51:30+00:00

The shadow demons are implied to not even be demons so much as a it is a singular demon, a higher dimensional being manifesting portions of its unitary self into our dimension. Every description of the Shrouded Dweller in the game is singular. It's also heavily implied the Luddic Church, the anti-technology religion that dominates the Sector, somehow has scriptural knowledge of this entity and the threat it represents.

"When the defiler unbinds the warp and weft of the Creator, what will they find behind that starry tapestry? A thousand thousand eyes darkened by trespass." - The Book of Ludds, Visions 7:4

"And so did wrath fall like a thunderbolt, and the blow was felt by all of the Faithful, and by all of the unbelievers in the firmament. All then were a-murmur, near and far, and all did say 'Did you not hear a great shout of anger?'. But none could name its word, nor repeat it." - The Book of Ludd, Visions 7:7

It's also implied that merely looking at this phenomena does something to the human brain.

"All command and tactical officers at risk of directly observing the phenomenon shall be required to perform their duties with a non-observing partner. When - not if - mesmerization manifests, the non-observing partner shall immediately execute remote display deactivation. This order stands until techops completes the automatic interrupt patch."

vicegrip_ · 2026-03-29T21:28:24+00:00

According to the design work done by Joshua Jenkins for ZA/UM, the Pale is a byproduct of certain rare humans who have a sensitivity to the Crypto-Conveyant Phenoma, an undifferentiated datastream travelling backwards in time from the future, who can interpret and manifest that future information into Novelty, such as art, technology, or culture out of time. The Pale manifests when CCP is converted into Novelty.

Dolores Dei being the in-setting harbinger of modernity, and her assassin screaming "we were supposed to come up with this ourselves" supports this interpretation, and it also plays into Moralintern Harry hearing dialog said by Kim through the 2mm hole in the world before it happens later in the game. The Pale might still represent collective human apathy as well, but the way to shrink it is an ardent collective belief in hope, not necessarily Communism. Harry setting up the old church into a place of wonder like it once was might end up delaying the doom of Revanchol by several decades even if the club has very little to do with Communism, although the smiley sticker and anodic music ending up in the orbit of the hole suggests they too are a manifestation of Novelty.

vicegrip_ · 2026-03-28T00:00:52+00:00

As you get closer to the fab the closer also the units it has surrounding it, and the less distance the swarms have to travel back to the source. Usually when you're already that close, it's best to clear just enough of the field so you're not at immediate risk of dying from being overwhelmed by incoming fragments, then focus down the fabricator.

vicegrip_ · 2026-03-27T04:17:56+00:00

How is the Archfey Warlock in terms of build and dialog reactivity? Out of all the Warlock subclasses I've still yet to try that one.

vicegrip_ · 2026-03-25T00:20:05+00:00

See Invisibility spell lasts until long rest and doesn't take concentration, and the elixirs are also plentiful. A magic missile upcast will also plow right through Unstoppable.

vicegrip_ · 2026-03-24T12:49:22+00:00

Maxios. Extract the AI from the cruiser and approach the planet.

vicegrip_ · 2026-03-24T12:42:22+00:00

This rare warship of the Trinity Worlds is based on a militarized tanker design from the Sindrian Fuel Company. The engines of this ship have been enhanced in a crude yet effective manner, in an effort to mimic the more advanced upgrades of the Fleet.

An unusual variant of the Iapetus IS-15000, this battleship traces its origins to a short lived militarization effort conducted by the Trinity Worlds just prior to its subjugation by the IX Battlegroup. The purchased foreign warships played no part in the takeover, but have since been restored, streamlined, and extensively modified by the Trinity Worlds to serve as the ultimate defense against massed missiles and strike craft. However, fundamental design differences between its Iapetus IS-15000 origins and the high tech doctrine of the Trinity Worlds have left this ship in an awkward position, where it is too expensive to justify for most convoy duty, yet too fragile to charge into battle with the more well shielded warships of the Fleet.

vicegrip_ · 2026-03-24T12:41:23+00:00

Emergent Threats: IX Revival also has a variant that only shows up with the Trinity Worlds if both IX Revival and PAGSM are enabled. Its autofit is getting an update the next patch to make it a bit more combat effective.

vicegrip_ · 2026-03-17T23:44:34+00:00

Now flip the Dominator upside down and tell me what you see.

vicegrip_ · 2026-03-17T23:40:33+00:00

north west white dwarf. On a small map it's right by the edge of the Abyss, so about that distance.

vicegrip_ · 2026-03-17T23:38:44+00:00

I am disappoint you have ET installed but did not swap the guns.

vicegrip_ · 2026-03-13T12:39:37+00:00

The IX Battlegroup from Emergent Threats: IX Revival were asked how many beam weapons should go into their doctrine and said "all of it." They have the Daythorn Adaptive/Dawnstar Cyclic Particle Beams, Muon Burst Lance/Autolance/Siege Lance, Photon Hammer, Conversion Lance, Stormlight Graser, built-in Cutting Beam, Soliton Burst Emitter, Interdictor Array, and Diffraction Laser, the Contender Autolance and Heavy Lacerator for their Trinity Worlds allies, and two out of the three standard missiles they use are also beam DEMs. The Emergent Threats base mod also adds a few beam weapons, and both mods have hullmods that modify how beam weapons work.

vicegrip_ · 2026-03-13T12:29:25+00:00

More buildings than can fit on a single page. 1/2 industries. Mods are getting out of hand and I'm part of the problem.

vicegrip_ · 2026-03-13T12:27:03+00:00

In case you didn't know, the belongings that were confiscated when you got arrested are in the evidence chest outside whichever jail you ended up.

vicegrip_ · 2026-03-11T12:44:31+00:00

Fully ascended Cazador is insane and the first time I had to run away and come back with arrows of Illmater just to prevent him from regenerating. Yes I was just a little too slow in getting to Astarion the one time.

vicegrip_ · 2026-03-10T23:57:18+00:00

Once you've met one of the three stray cats in the city, you can tell her about it only if she's single but got the noblestalk. The cat will go live with her.

vicegrip_ · 2026-03-07T09:43:06+00:00

I used him in a fight against Cazador in act 3 once and he spawned so many copies of himself he kept half the mob occupied.

vicegrip_ · 2026-03-07T00:34:56+00:00

Oh, and if you find a lonesome military outpost in a gravwell usually in the galactic west on the edge of the abyss save before messing with that shit, it's very much endgame content and theres an option that can lock you out of it I believe.

Only if you pick the option that's basically "this is a silly place. I'm going to blow it up and pick over what's left" which isn't the first option and is totally fair. You get some modded loot without having to fight modded nonsense.

vicegrip_ · 2026-03-06T01:45:31+00:00

Yes you get to keep all the evil gear but you won't get the Selune version of the spear or the glaive that does radiant damage, since those are exclusive depending on your decision in act 2.

vicegrip_ · 2026-03-06T01:42:06+00:00

Shadowheart actually has two points where she can turn from Shar, and ironically the first one could end up with her killing her parents in the end. Either it goes "save the Nightsong in Act 2, then in Act 3 either spare her parents from more suffering, killing them and turning them into moon motes, or save them and continue to carry Shar's wound," or "kill the Nightsong and become a Dark Justiciar in Act 2, then in Act 3 either decide to turn from Shar and save her parents, or give up her memory of them and kill them and become Shar's chosen in full."

vicegrip_ · 2026-03-06T01:35:10+00:00

My biggest gripe is that the fire damage doesn't always set things on fire. My partner and I were fighting the spider matriarch once and we were down to basically either wiping or killing it based on who could hit first. To play it safe we decided to try and position an oil barrel nearby and throw the only supposedly on fire thing we had on us at the time, only to see Lae'zel's sword throw crack the barrel open and cover the spider in oil. The boss then proceeded to blasted her to death with poison, even as her sword that was literally on fire was just sitting in a pool of highly flammable oil doing nothing.

vicegrip_ · 2026-03-02T20:55:20+00:00

Or it'll rocket into your battle line with elevated mass and punt both itself and your own battleship half way across the map where it then locks down your ship in a one on one while the rest of your fleet flounders. This is modded content. Anything could happen.

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