Incline Chris Avellone Appreciation Station

[Generic-Giant-Spider]

We will get banned in a week.

I am prepared to die.

 

[2house2fly]

Wtf is even wrong with the powder gangers? They're a bunch of violent assholes because they've been imprisoned, enslaved and worked like dogs. Some of them are decent guys, the loudest ones and the ones who siezed power are psychotic freaks. That such men are created under NCR rule is an indictment of the faction, as is the military's inability to contain them, to say nothing of the parallel with the Legion's use of slave labour. What, should they all be hippies who got arrested for picking flowers? Wow, wouldn't that be socially conscious and interesting.

 

[2house2fly]

And god bless Chris Avellone for bravely taking the opportunity to dunk on New Vegas by creatively interpreting the meaning of those tweets. I'm sure those circa-1999 design ideas for a gang of escaped prisoners from the guy who wrote "Myron tries to rape you if you're a female character" were exactly the level of socially liberal those guys and gals would want

 

[Fairfax]

Even worse that he bows to their shit.

Not really, though MCA doesn't help himself by not clarifying which opinions he actually shares. He said the FNV Powder Gangers are shallow (they are), and the second tweet has an open "I agree" (not clear if it's re: that specific tweet or the whole thread). He's criticised the Legion's design in similar fashion before, but he's said he prefers the independent ending, so it would be very odd if he agreed with "independent New Vegas is libertarian garbage" (unless he thinks the others are even worse).

 

[Yosharian]

https://metro.co.uk/2019/01/20/yout...te-father-ted-creator-graham-linehan-8367283/ some great game workers have got in on this, Chris Avellone should get involved!

Mermaids is a pretty dodgy charity.

 

[lophiaspis]

>Enforces official ideology of states, corporations and churches across Western world
>Anarchist

 

[ColonelTeacup]

Lord Avellone if you ever feel compelled to tell those FLUFFY BOYS how you really think (as in, "go seek a strong male role model you faggot") I will personally create a Twitter account and defend you to the DEATH against the onslaught of outrage.

And if worse comes to worse, we can blame your aggression on a Russian hacker. That's where Commissar Draco comes in!

We will get banned in a week.

Sooner than that. actually.Ive been banned within a day for following the wrong people. Also, unless you've a verified account or at least fairly large following, they'll ban you for committing wrongthink. Twitter did not become 99% left leaning organically. Theyve been pruning undesireables for a long time now.

 

[agentorange]

"Jackson (1) - This mean-spirited bastard used to be a foreman on the 215 Rail Line for NCR until
the contracts dried up and Dodge didn't have the money to pay the workers. It didn't take long for
Jackson to say "fuck this shit" and take to the desert with his crew, raiding wherever they found
caravans -- the groups that they fault for the problem. Over time, though, Jackson has become
desperate, and has turned his sights on New Canaan. Not being a tactical mastermind, he has
announced when he expects the surrender of the city's goods to him. Jackson wears metal armor
and a Kevlar helmet, and he carries a 7.62mm assault rifle, several frag grenades, and a .44
magnum revolver."

"Boilermaker (1) - A quiet, evil bastard, Boilermaker worked for the rail lines shoving precious
coal into the engines of the trains on their rare trips. However, like the others, he was out of a job
when the line work dried up. He suffered a lot of heat and smoke damage to his face, and he
wears a welding mask to cover it. He wears football pads on the rest of his body. Boilermaker is
huge and really strong, and he carries a flamethrower with plenty of ammo and a hefty baseball
bat. Boilermaker looks for the least heavily armored people and beats them with his baseball bat.
The rest he burns."

"215 Thugs (10) - Ten general assholes in Jackon's outfit. They're all equipped with a variety of
melee and thrown weapons: lawnmower blades, switchblades, sledgehammers, lead pipes, fire
axes, hatchets, spears, etc. They wear leather armor and construction helmets. As might be
expected, they close in to close range and try to "wolf pack" people down."

"Encounter 1: Powder Gangers (4 times max) - A pack of 5-10 powder gangers. These jackasses
are similar to the 215 Gunners and Thugs in the New Canaan monster roster."

Yeah, a very complex tapestry of characters these Powder Gangers were in Van Buren. But I'm sure the design documents available just don't get across all the incredible depth this faction was meant to have. Shame on Sawyer for reducing these poor innocent prisoners to being nothing more than wasteland gangsters!

Additionally, does this idiot know that there are two groups of Powder Gangers? The ones who left for the vault can actually be made good.

No. Like most people who whine about games on twitter I've doubt they've played the game. Certainly not enough to know about that side quest.

 

[Infinitron]

tfw when you insert subversively illiberal themes into your game and Chris Avellone gets blamed for them

 

[2house2fly]

Avellone's liberal characters like the muscular black man with dreadlocks who can't talk in complete sentences

 

[Roguey]

And god bless Chris Avellone for bravely taking the opportunity to dunk on New Vegas by creatively interpreting the meaning of those tweets. I'm sure those circa-1999 design ideas for a gang of escaped prisoners from the guy who wrote "Myron tries to rape you if you're a female character" were exactly the level of socially liberal those guys and gals would want

The Daughters of Hecate would have been great for angering both sides of the horse shoe.

The most powerful tribals in the American Southwest are the feared Daughters of Hecate and their slave tribe, the Vipers. Led by an aging, possibly insane woman of fearsome presence, the masked Daughters of Hecate collect tribute from almost all other tribes in the regions they control. Failure to obey the mandates of Hecate often results in crop failure, poor hunting, disease, and barren wombs. The Daughters of Hecate reserve a special hatred for Caesar's Legion because the Legion rose to power during the time of the Twisted Hair; a tribe that regularly raided other tribes for supplies and slaves. The Legion taught the other tribes to fight back and soon the Twisted Hair tribe fled. The Legion then set upon the Twisted Hair tribe, almost utterly destroying it apart from one woman, who managed to escape; in time, she became the Goddess Hecate, eponymous leader of the Daughters of Hecate.

The Hounds of Hecate are a tribe of males who serve the all-female Daughters of Hecate. The Vipers are feared warriors, mostly feared for their uncommonly excellent health and large numbers. The Vipers often travel with Daughters of Hecate, protecting them from outsiders or foolish tribes who choose to stand up to Hecate.

The "Iron Lines" resist the Daughters of Hecate and have remained largely immune to the plagues that haunt other tribes who go against Hecate’s wishes. However, the Vipers never pass up an opportunity to butcher any Iron Lines they discover.

After Hecate braided her hair in the fashion of her lost tribe, painted her face so that none could recognize her, and then left the Nursery. She traveled to the very same tribes that had rejected her and aided them with her new found knowledge of midwifery and herbal medicine. Once she gained the trust of a tribe, she began to preach her life/death/rebirth religion. She asked that young women of the tribe join her and aid her in helping all the tribes of the wasteland. Thus the Daughters of Hecate were born.

Eventually the Daughters began to decide who could marry and who could not, who could have children and who could not. Only a Daughter was allowed to deliver a child into the world and it was done in a birthing tent set apart from the rest of the tribe. No males were allowed in or near the tent. Anyone who disobeyed their edict was either stricken with impotence or their wives bore sickly children. If a Daughter was ever harmed or killed the, men of the tribe were rendered impotent until a new Daughter was assigned to them. And so the Daughters grew in power and infamy.

Unbeknown to the tribes, the Daughters were taking the best of their children and replacing them with the weak or infirm. The best of the males were taken to the Ouroboros to become warriors in the Hounds of Hecate. The best of the females were taken to become Daughters. Over the years Hecate watched as the tribes grew subtly weaker and her followers grew stronger and stronger. Soon, vengeance would be hers.

Her plan was simple. When the tribes were weak enough, her Hounds would sweep down upon them and annihilate them from the face of the earth. The same would come to pass with Caesar and his legion. When all who had wronged her were gone, she and her people would march upon paradise and reclaim it as their just reward.

Extreme left: How dare you depict women as this monstrous
Extreme right: How dare you depict women as this capable

 

[fantadomat]

both sides of the horse shoe.

Meh a term used by sad and empty centrist that are baffled at how people could have an ideological believe. While in the same time they do the same shit as those people,everyone that doesn't see the world as me is X people.

 

[Chaotic_Heretic]

Just a reminder that Chris Avellone , your (false) god has not written anything significant and worthwhile in over a decade.

Well maybe a companion or two here and there.

And his latest "appearances"a re just PR.

 

[frajaq]

Chris where is Dying Light 2 already

 

[IHaveHugeNick]

Chris where is Dying Light 2 already

My sources say Dying Light 2 was delayed while the team scrambles how to make more leftist and socially conscious zombies. Current idea submitted by legendary designer Chris Avellone is that zombies will only eat rich white people.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

My sources say Dying Light 2 was delayed while the team scrambles how to make more leftist and socially conscious zombies

How is this hard, use actual lefties as stand-ins for the zombies.

 

[Fairfax]

Yeah, a very complex tapestry of characters these Powder Gangers were in Van Buren. But I'm sure the design documents available just don't get across all the incredible depth this faction was meant to have. Shame on Sawyer for reducing these poor innocent prisoners to being nothing more than wasteland gangsters!

These are from the New Canaan design document, which was written by Sawyer.

 

[user]

I fucking hate it when people pretend to think fiction is a literal reflection of the author's opinions 100% of the time. Are they really too dumb to realise that Caesar approving of slavery doesn't mean that MCA does? It seems like they just want to be offended.

Even worse that he bows to their shit.

They obviously are and it's true that he shouldn't even reply to these comments because they are ridiculous. They can't grasp that a writer creates a fictional character who can have his own opinions, personality etc, because they are too hung up on their PC culture. "Slavery isn't justified" - no shit Sherlock.

 

[Zakhad]

Chris where is Dying Light 2 already

My sources say Dying Light 2 was delayed while the team scrambles how to make more leftist and socially conscious zombies. Current idea submitted by legendary designer Chris Avellone is that zombies will only eat rich white people.

Zombies: are unattractive; possess a foul odour; attempt to embrace those who do not wish it; are unlikely ever to be hugged by a willing woman.

Zombies are incels.

 

[Temenos]

Chris seems like a cool dude.

 

[agentorange]

Yeah, a very complex tapestry of characters these Powder Gangers were in Van Buren. But I'm sure the design documents available just don't get across all the incredible depth this faction was meant to have. Shame on Sawyer for reducing these poor innocent prisoners to being nothing more than wasteland gangsters!

These are from the New Canaan design document, which was written by Sawyer.

The New Canaan document has the most details regarding powder ganger members. Their only other mention in the docs, as far as I could tell, was in the Burham Springs document, which has this line: "With no one to protect the community, it became vulnerable to attack by the powder gangs of the wasteland (the powder gangs were old railway workers left jobless and helpless by NCR)," and talks about how the NCR blows up a mine to try and finish off some of the gangers. From these few details I don't think it's unfair to extrapolate that the core concept behind the Powder Gangers was basically similar to their presentation in FNV. The only difference may be that in Van Buren they were paid labor rather than prisoners, but the end result is the same.

The NCR was using prisoners for free labor, neglected their security in the prison due to requiring more manpower at Hoover Dam, the prisoners bust out and take matters into their own hands, attacking settlements while the NCR is tied up at the Dam. The whole situation gives depth to the NCR, as well as the the Mojave as a whole, by highlighting the NCR's lack of ethics and resources in the face of their thoughtless expansionism. The NCR isn't above using questionable methods like prisoner labor despite trying to look progressive and idealized (you'd think twitter sjw types would have gotten a kick out of the parallels to America's own use of such labor during the building of the railroads, or the general idea of all great civilizations utilizing slave labor, but that would require actually playing the game), and when it backfires in their face they prefer to ignore the problem rather than spend the manpower on dealing with it; or are unable to deal with the situation even if they wanted to due to expanding far beyond the range that they can adequately manage. The most they can do is send a token group of unorganized and under-equipped NCR soldiers to try and retake the prison, who are almost guaranteed to die unless the courier helps. The NCR's single minded defense of the Dam means the rest of the Mojave suffers, and so on. Much like America the NCR is perfectly willing to start a problem and is then willing to leave it to fester when the situation becomes untenable.

If Avellone really had written some sort of elaborate backstory that fleshes out the powder gangers beyond what we got in FNV then we just have to take his word for it. Also if he really did design the powder gangers in VB then Sawyer was writing his own descriptions based off that design. (although I can already see Avellone's response: "Sawyer just didn't listen to my amazing design idea, the crazy kid disregarded my genius, socially acceptable ideas and did whatever he wanted! It wasn't me I swear!")

Edit: In writing all this crap it made me realize how really effective all the environmental story telling in FNV was. No single character stands there and exposition dumps the significance of the Powder Gangers to you, but paying attention to details and making sure to find stuff like the side quest Roguey mentioned clues you into how much depth even a minor faction can add to the overall story.

 

[PulsatingBrain]

Chris seems like a cool dude.

It's almost as if there's a thread based around appreciating him

 

[Fairfax]

The New Canaan document has the most details regarding powder ganger members. Their only other mention in the docs, as far as I could tell, was in the Burham Springs document, which has this line: "With no one to protect the community, it became vulnerable to attack by the powder gangs of the wasteland (the powder gangs were old railway workers left jobless and helpless by NCR)," and talks about how the NCR blows up a mine to try and finish off some of the gangers. From these few details I don't think it's unfair to extrapolate that the core concept behind the Powder Gangers was basically similar to their presentation in FNV. The only difference may be that in Van Buren they were paid labor rather than prisoners, but the end result is the same.

The Burham Springs document was also written by Sawyer. It's possible the core concept ('unpaid railway workers who became criminals') was MCA's, but we don't know his original plans and characters. Even if it is MCA's, it's a significant difference already.

If Avellone really had written some sort of elaborate backstory that fleshes out the powder gangers beyond what we got in FNV then we just have to take his word for it. Also if he really did design the powder gangers in VB then Sawyer was writing his own descriptions based off that design. (although I can already see Avellone's response: "Sawyer just didn't listen to my amazing design idea, the crazy kid disregarded my genius, socially acceptable ideas and did whatever he wanted! It wasn't me I swear!")

Sawyer was already changing MCA's original concepts back then:

One of the few big things I did on Van Buren was taking an organization Chris invented and changing it (perhaps mangling it in the process) into a neo-Roman slavers' legion with all the weird titles, makeshift costumes, and traditions of that group.

As MCA said in one of the tweets, Sawyer took their names and/or 1-line concepts and made completely different factions in FNV.

 

[PulsatingBrain]

Are they really too dumb to realise that Caesar approving of slavery doesn't mean that MCA does?

To expand on this a little, I stopped listening to the PC Gamer Podcast when one of the idiots on it called the Witcher games racist and most of them agreed. There's racism in the fucking setting. The main protagonist freely and openly associates with every race and nationality and is a complete outcast himself. It was one of the most retarded things I've ever heard

 

[ColonelTeacup]

Discovering that Avellone had little to no influence on FNV has shaken my faith in him to a considerable degree. Sure, Dead Money is my favorite expansion, but he also made lonesome road, and Ulysses, who were both the worst aspects of the game, and now to discover he not only did not contribute to one of my favorite rpgs main dish, but also wanted to remove all the darker aspects and turn it into a disney level adventure is jarring.