KickStarter Black Geyser: Couriers of Darkness - Tales of the Moon Cult expansion on the way

[Shrimp]

tart listing instances where you can refuse a quest reward.

Icewind Dale (in which it is literally forced upon you by game mechanics), Icewind Dale 2 Targon, Baldur's Gate multiple instances (e.g. Ankheg-quest), Pillars of Eternity most quests (e.g. The Final Act), The Witcher games multiple instances (e.g. To Bait a Forktail or Shrieker), almost all Dragon: Age quests (interestingly, this game will almost never penalize you for demanding a reward or benefit you for being charitable in keeping with the grimdark theme), Baldur's Gate 2 multiple instances (e.g. rescuing the harper, in which refusing a reward will actually net you the biggest reward), Neverwinter Nights 2 most quests (e.g. Bandit Camp/Liza).

In fact, I'd be hard pressed to provide an example of any RPG remotely like Black Geyser without reward refusal. Completely baffling to me that you'd view this as a unique feature.

I like the part where you purposely only responded to half my request and added a period to make it seem like it was the full request.
And again, it's not about "oh there's one quest you can refuse the reward", it's about it being something you can always do as part of your character.

Spoiler

Does the player's greed or altruism have any effects on gameplay outside of you keeping/not receiving certain items? I've tried to at least to some extend stay in the dark about the game's core mechanics but I remember the developers frequently mentioning that greed would be an important or central part of the game.

 

[KateMicucci]

the thief in my party is the highest level(8) despite having the lowest total amount of XP, he's now two levels ahead of the cleric and mage
the mage has the most amount of XP of anyone in my party and is the lowest level(6)

That makes perfectly sense. When someone mentions "archwizard", I see in my mind a really old dude who dedicated his entire life to the magic however the word "master thief" or "professional assassin" brings a very skilled guy in his 30s to my mind. Becoming an archmage should require way more time and effort or experience in game therms than leveling other classes.

That said, different classes requiring different XP to level up was a main point on how arcane magic works in Dark Sun setting, where defilers could level up extremely fast and preservers, extremely slow. Every class requiring the same XP to level up was a huge decline from 2E to 3E.

The word archmage comes from the wizard Archimago in The Faerie Queen. To my recollection Archimago was not described as an old man, and he behaved like a young, lustful and jealous man.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

The word archmage comes from the wizard Archimago in The Faerie Queen. To my recollection Archimago was not described as an old man, and he behaved like a young, lustful and jealous man.

the word archmage comes from arch+mage

 

[rusty_shackleford]

tart listing instances where you can refuse a quest reward.

Icewind Dale (in which it is literally forced upon you by game mechanics), Icewind Dale 2 Targon, Baldur's Gate multiple instances (e.g. Ankheg-quest), Pillars of Eternity most quests (e.g. The Final Act), The Witcher games multiple instances (e.g. To Bait a Forktail or Shrieker), almost all Dragon: Age quests (interestingly, this game will almost never penalize you for demanding a reward or benefit you for being charitable in keeping with the grimdark theme), Baldur's Gate 2 multiple instances (e.g. rescuing the harper, in which refusing a reward will actually net you the biggest reward), Neverwinter Nights 2 most quests (e.g. Bandit Camp/Liza).

In fact, I'd be hard pressed to provide an example of any RPG remotely like Black Geyser without reward refusal. Completely baffling to me that you'd view this as a unique feature.

I like the part where you purposely only responded to half my request and added a period to make it seem like it was the full request.
And again, it's not about "oh there's one quest you can refuse the reward", it's about it being something you can always do as part of your character.

Spoiler

Does the player's greed or altruism have any effects on gameplay outside of you keeping/not receiving certain items? I've tried to at least to some extend stay in the dark about the game's core mechanics but I remember the developers frequently mentioning that greed would be an important or central part of the game.

don't think I'm far enough in to notice it yet

 

[AwesomeButton]

The word archmage comes from the wizard Archimago in The Faerie Queen. To my recollection Archimago was not described as an old man, and he behaved like a young, lustful and jealous man.

I thought it comes from the conjunction of the Ancient Greek prefix for "extreme", "utter", "supreme", with the English word for one able create magical effects.

 

[KateMicucci]

The word archmage comes from the wizard Archimago in The Faerie Queen. To my recollection Archimago was not described as an old man, and he behaved like a young, lustful and jealous man.

the word archmage comes from arch+mage

The word archmage comes from the wizard Archimago in The Faerie Queen. To my recollection Archimago was not described as an old man, and he behaved like a young, lustful and jealous man.

I thought it comes from the conjunction of the Ancient Greek prefix for "extreme", "utter", "supreme", with the English word for one able create magical effects.

Spenser combined the words Archon + Magi to come up with Archimago's name. But this was in the 16th century. The first use of the word "archmage" was by Ursula Le Guin, who got the idea from Spenser.

 

[AwesomeButton]

Interesting, I thought the modern day usage arose independently, but maybe there is a tradition.

 

[pomenitul]

Rusty’s takes are routinely terrible and he’s a typically bigoted, unhinged assclown, just like most Codexers, but let him express his views on RPGs proper, as he’s actually engaging with these titles in what appears to be good faith. To echo what Grunker said, this is the only thing that makes this website worthwhile – others tend to be far more superficial and undemanding in this regard – so let’s not take that away from him.

That said, this game is utter trash and the amount of solicitude it’s receiving is absolutely hilarious and symptomatic of where the hivemind’s biases lie. I tried playing the demo and the ‘writing’ (I’ll never let go of scare quotes when talking about this turd) was so awful I marvelled that such a thing was even possible although I’m sure some of you will argue that low-effort poo burgers are tastier just by virtue of not trying (aT LeAsT iT’s HoNeSt). Imagine being this beholden to the jank.

 

[agris]

fair point at the top, but I don't see much/any solicitude here (nice two dollar word, btw). anything that purports to be an IE-like and is actually being developed is going to get attention here given our interests, and the drama from the opening of the thread just poured gasoline on the fire. it's fairly basic coverage now like rusty's hot takes and fedora's.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

Rusty’s takes are routinely terrible and he’s a typically bigoted, unhinged assclown, just like most Codexers, but let him express his views on RPGs proper, as he’s actually engaging with these titles in what appears to be good faith. To echo what Grunker said, this is the only thing that makes this website worthwhile – others tend to be far more superficial and undemanding in this regard – so let’s not take that away from him.

That said, this game is utter trash and the amount of solicitude it’s receiving is absolutely hilarious and symptomatic of where the hivemind’s biases lie. I tried playing the demo and the ‘writing’ (I’ll never let go of scare quotes when talking about this turd) was so awful I marvelled that such a thing was even possible although I’m sure some of you will argue that low-effort poo burgers are tastier just by virtue of not trying (aT LeAsT iT’s HoNeSt). Imagine being this beholden to the jank.

it's better written than pillars of shiternity

 

[pomenitul]

Never change, rusty, and make sure you keep that portrait.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

Never change, rusty, and make sure you keep that portrait.

do you want me to just call you retarded or do you want an 8 paragraph long screed including an explanation of my hand movements and facial expressions?

 

[pomenitul]

Nah, it’s cool, there’s plenty to read between the lines already.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

Nah, it’s cool, there’s plenty to read between the lines already.

So why don't you explain why it's bad writing with examples?
I can explain why pillows has absolutely terrible writing, all you can say about this game is "muh bad writing"

And I find all the comments about spelling/grammar errors amusing as I have seen exactly one so far.

 

[pomenitul]

Reread that dialogue screenshot you posted. It’s so astoundingly pedestrian it hurts – literally zero editing, just the first thing that came to their ESL brain, rivalling a 12 year-old’s vocabulary at best. It’s not a controlled instance of stylelessness or tautness like in IWD, it’s not even serviceable, it’s just pisspoor, with no upsides unless you view it as art brut. ‘Less is more’ is a perfectly fine lodestar and I get being annoyed with PoE’s more baroque leanings, but you can absolutely fuck up a minimalist approach. Black Geyser appears to have achieved just that.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

It’s so astoundingly pedestrian it hurts – literally zero editing, just the first thing that came to their ESL brain, rivalling a 12 year-old’s vocabulary at best.

So the definition of good writing for you is picking up a thesaurus?
You're a special kind of ESL cringe.

 

[KateMicucci]

Reread that dialogue screenshot you posted. It’s so astoundingly pedestrian it hurts – literally zero editing, just the first thing that came to their ESL brain, rivalling a 12 year-old’s vocabulary at best. It’s not a controlled instance of stylelessness or tautness like in IWD, it’s not even serviceable, it’s just pisspoor, with no upsides unless you view it as art brut. ‘Less is more’ is a perfectly fine lodestar and I get being annoyed with PoE’s more baroque leanings, but you can absolutely fuck up a minimalist approach. Black Geyser appears to have achieved just that.

Even the screenshots posted that are supposed to show of the "bad writing" don't seem that bad.

If you want to complain when it's fully released go ahead. We all complain about everything here. No one is going to stop you or call you an idiot, although they may call you a graphics whore, which you are. look at kingmaker, the only complaint you can get away with here is that it's buggy/was really buggy at release, you'll be able to shit talk this game all you want after it releases. It's nice that you made it into a comic but it doesn't really mean anything. You won't be attacked the same for a complaint about an early access vs a full release despite your cute comic.

Weird seeing this here. I drew this when Fallout 3 was in development, which was like, 14 years ago?

 

[pomenitul]

It’s so astoundingly pedestrian it hurts – literally zero editing, just the first thing that came to their ESL brain, rivalling a 12 year-old’s vocabulary at best.

So the definition of good writing for you is picking up a thesaurus?
You're a special kind of ESL cringe.

This is wilfully obtuse and you know it, since you’re studiously avoiding the rest of my post just to score a point against a straw man, per Codex tradition. But you do you.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

It’s so astoundingly pedestrian it hurts – literally zero editing, just the first thing that came to their ESL brain, rivalling a 12 year-old’s vocabulary at best.

So the definition of good writing for you is picking up a thesaurus?
You're a special kind of ESL cringe.

This is wilfully obtuse and you know it, since you’re studiously avoiding the rest of my post just to score a point against a straw man, per Codex tradition. But you do you.

That was the point of your post.
This is from the most recent NPC I talked to:

I'm sorry, but I don't see "bad writing" here. If you don't like generic fantasy, then yes, you will dislike it.

 

[pomenitul]

That one is actually fine – I agree.

 

[KateMicucci]

Have you tried soloing, Rusty?

 

[AwesomeButton]

It’s so astoundingly pedestrian it hurts – literally zero editing, just the first thing that came to their ESL brain, rivalling a 12 year-old’s vocabulary at best.

So the definition of good writing for you is picking up a thesaurus?
You're a special kind of ESL cringe.

Gentlemen! There is time for Disco Elysium and there is time for "go for the eyes, Boo!"

That's to remind you that we should be so happy we've played games with great writing such as BG and BGII. Think how bad it would have been if they didn't have writing this good...

 

[gurugeorge]

I must admit I quite like the look of the dialogue options; the alignment of the option is easy to spot, and the "naughty" option is usually a bit florid, almost in a Vancian way.

 

[Jenkem]

Why did you post something that you can't even read? This is not a positive review.

thumbs up = positive in steam's rating system and algorithm, so yes, it is a positive review regardless of what the text says.

this you?

so you give a positive rating to absolute broken popamole dogshit game and a negative review to based yakuza 7...

and you have the nerve to call rusty a shill? lmao

 

[ImprobablePause]

i've played a bit of early access version already and the first impression is that story feels like it was written by a schizophreniac.

I'm touched that you feel I am creative enough to think everyone's out to get me.