KickStarter Encased - isometric post-apocalyptic RPG under the dome

[Dhaze]

Yeah, unfortunately I've seen that talked about a fair bit in the reviews, and I don't doubt it's true.

In your opinion, is it worth it to push until to the very end to see where the story goes, or would it be wise to play until a certain point—when the game's quality really declines—then skim through someone's playthrough to see the ending(s)? Because if the 'bad parts' so to speak are relatively short, say 5 to 10 hours, I can trudge through them without regret, but if the latter parts of the game devolve into 20 hours of fetch quests with uninteresting dialogues, I would prefer to call it quit before that.

 

[Saduj]

I finished it so I wouldn’t say it gets unbearable. I honestly don’t remember much about the story. What I do remember is more about how the player’s actions affect the dome. I don’t remember if you get an explanation of what the dome, Maelstrom, etc are.

 

[Feyd Rautha]

Will there ever be a new update?

 

[agris]

Dhaze no, the juice is not worth the squeeze given your critical eye. Take it from someone who also went back to the gas station immediately after the prologue, noticed the same weird plot holes, then went to Magellan and proceeded to finish the entire game.

It just gets worse. Play something old and well regarded that you’ve had your eye on for a while, or new that doesn’t flash all the warning signs you’ve already picked up on with Encased. All aspects of the game get worse post-Nashville: challenge, chardev, itemization, quest design, writing, etc etc…

 

[Dhaze]

Well, between the "not unbearable" and the "not worth the squeeze" it's not hard to see the picture you guys paint.

So I've played some more hours and the game feels all over the place in terms of quality. It's such a sharp drop compared to the captivating prologue.

– The movement animations annoy me. There's a certain cumbersome slowness to it all. I can't just move from point A to point B and search a locker or bookshelf like in, say, Underrail or Baldur's Gate. Rather, from a standstill, it's: initiate movement animation > accelerate into a little jog > decelerate from that little jog > come to a standstill > transition into opening the locker.
And the character can't exactly walk diagonally. More often than not, she goes straight, then turns 90 degress, before going straight again; and each turn requires a transition from that little jog into an almost standstill before moving again.
It might seem stupid, but holy hell I swear it takes a lot of time to just walk somewhere, especially in small rooms with lots of clutter. It's like those videos of people replicating in real life the movements of a character from GTA.

– Some of the voice acting is so bland and monotone I can't help but feel the developers wasted their money, perhaps having caved to the ridiculous notion that a game must imperatively be fully voiced or indeed voiced at all. Yet a character like Henrietta Russo is very well voiced, with agreeable inflexions and overall good characterisation. The difference in quality is jarring.

– I keep getting distracted by descriptions that don't correspond to a given character's portrait, like this glabrous man who is supposed to have a beard or this black-haired woman whose hair is supposed to be sun-bleached. It reminds me of The Witcher 1 in which quite a few characters shared the same model, only here in Encased the devs could have simply used the partially blackened portraits more often instead of making descriptions and visuals clash with one another.

– So far the combat is honestly boring. Admittedly I'm still in the early game, but on the Classic difficulty setting there's not much going on in terms of necessary tactics or use of abilities and what I see can be further unlocked doesn't lead me to believe it'll get substantially better. Though I think I see the hint of HP bloat where enemies are concerned.

– Surely the whole Sneaking system has to be a joke. I refuse to believe a sane person thought this particular implementation was fine. That's just mental.

– Outside of Magellan, the maps—especially the open-air ones where enemies might roam—remind me queerly of Wasteland 2, more so its Arizona part. There's huge swathes of barrenness or small looping paths to traverse slowly, all peppered with a variety of briefcases, barrels, and other containers invariably full of junk to loot.

– Speaking of which, I'm not sure why there's so much collectable junk in hundreds and hundreds of containers. Questing left and right and not even bothering with half the containers I still seem to find an appreciable amount of upgraded weapons, thus I haven't yet needed to spend materials in order to upgrade what I started with, nor indeed to make anything.

– As in pretty much every game with such half-assed mechanics, Thirst and Hunger seem to be non-issues. Food and water are positively everywhere in abundant quantities, so... why is this even a thing? It's five seconds of busywork once in a blue moon. It is beyond me why some developers think Fallout would have been better had the Vault Dweller needed to stuff his face with Pulled Pork on a regular basis.
At least push the thinking further; introduce bodily functions. Perhaps my character is trying to be sneaky, but badly needs to take a piss, or needs to cough because there was too much pepper on the omelet she gobled five minutes ago, or needs to sneeze because she caught a cold standing in the rain, and now the sneaking attempt is ruined and there's piss and phlegm and snot everywhere. It would still be a shitty system, but at least it would be different from everything that came before.

– Likewise, I don't think Fatigue brings anything worthwhile to the table, only busywork.

Eh, I don't know. I got it on sale from GOG for 10€ so it's not like I broke the bank or anything, and I'm interested in the setting and main story so I'll probably push to the end before finally moving to Avernum.

 

[Sykar]

This game screams "wasted potential". I guess it is not as bad as a certain Cyberpunk game you managed to suffer through relatively recently though.

 

[agris]

Well, between the "not unbearable" and the "not worth the squeeze" it's not hard to see the picture you guys paint.

These aren’t inconsistent, but rather reflect a difference in philosophy. Not unbearable presumes games are worth bearing; I think that is a weak perspective that leads to wasting time, your potential and ultimately makes people more accepting of subpar products.

Not worth the squeeze presumes the game should earn our limited attention (and coin), not merely be something to tolerate.

They’re different ways to look at the same basic question, different evaluations of value.

Edit: hah, looks like I missed the “not” in your post. Disregard!

 

[Dhaze]

Well, between the "not unbearable" and the "not worth the squeeze" it's not hard to see the picture you guys paint.

These aren’t inconsistent, but rather reflect a difference in philosophy. Not unbearable presumes games are worth bearing; I think that is a weak perspective that leads to wasting time, your potential and ultimately makes people more accepting of subpar products.

On that subject, I have to say that from time to time I quite appreciate—not like, but appreciate—a tolerable game. It usually makes me think about what works and what does not work in said game. Then I come to the Codex, and often find a measure of comfort in seeing that other people have already voiced my thinkings.

This game screams "wasted potential". I guess it is not as bad as a certain Cyberpunk game you managed to suffer through relatively recently though.

Oh it's far, far above Mechajammer (except for the music). But you're dead right about the wasted potential. The incomprehensible experience rewards constitute perhaps the most egregious example.

Looting containers provides a bevy of xp; I think the exact amount is tied to the financial value of the items discovered, or something like that. But anyway, simply searching a few small rooms thoroughly can net me anywhere from 200 to 700xp. That's a whole lot of xp for doing nothing.

Scanning Relics or deceased bodies of personnel usually nets me 150 to 250xp.

The xp for finishing quests seems to vary a lot; so far I've seen anywhere from 50 to 1800xp, regardless of the quest's difficulty or length.

As for xp earned through fighting, Martin Kingsley tasked me with investigating four research stations with which communications had been lost. In one of them, I found that all personnel had succumbed to intense psi-induced paranoia, and had either thrown themselves or been thrown into a mysterious talking pit at the heart of the station. I activated a crane, and from the pit emerged an odious amalgamation of twisted bodies and flesh, accompanied by two minions. Lots of HP and lots of damage. And for killing them I got a little less than 2500xp.

Then shortly after that I destroyed a MOBIOS called Old Al. It was a super easy fight—literally no risk whatsoever—done in three turns with my energy weapon, and I received an astounding 15834xp!

That is more than an entire level worth of experience, all for killing a monster hardly more difficult than a couple of oversized cockroaches.

Now here's the kicker: instead of xp for quests or fights or looting any random container, imagine Underrail's oddity system in Encased. The setting itself is absolutely ideal for it! It would make so much sense that, when scanning or discovering Relics and various items or phenomenons related to the Forefathers, your character would learn more about how to survive under the Dome, or how to craft high tech weaponry, or even learn how to become more charismatic and influential through psi capacities linked to Maelstrom.

It could even have been tied to the CRONUS Wing your character belongs to. Let's take the MOBIOS I've just defeated; by examining it, doubtlessly an Orange with criminal inclinations would have learned something different than what a White with medical inclinations would have learned. If well implemented, this could have reinforced tenfold the character creation and overall ability to roleplay, though probably to the detriment of a bit of flexibility.

Really, that's quite a massive opportunity the developers missed.

 

[True Ukrainian]

You haven't experienced the utter boredom and disappointment of what is clearly meant to be a major hub turning out to be a ghost town with no content or interaction.

 

[Alphons]

Looting containers provides a bevy of xp; I think the exact amount is tied to the financial value of the items discovered, or something like that.

Exactly.

I have no idea whether it still works, but when I've played I found out a way to earn over 100 000 EXP from one randome encounter. And each time you'd be getting even more.

After meeting random trader you'd give him almost all your stuff (aside from your main weapon and some ammo).
By doing it you'd effectively turn him into EXP pinata, ready to be harvested.

After short fight with him and bodyguards you'd get thousands of EXP, all your stuff and items from trader and guards.

And then you'd meet a new trader and repeat the process, but with the extra stuff you got from the previous one.

What about the negative Rep from killing traders all the time that should at some point prevent you from trading?
Giving stuff for free gave enough positive Rep to outset the negative one from murdering them.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Well, between the "not unbearable" and the "not worth the squeeze" it's not hard to see the picture you guys paint.

These aren’t inconsistent, but rather reflect a difference in philosophy. Not unbearable presumes games are worth bearing; I think that is a weak perspective that leads to wasting time, your potential and ultimately makes people more accepting of subpar products.

On that subject, I have to say that from time to time I quite appreciate—not like, but appreciate—a tolerable game. It usually makes me think about what works and what does not work in said game. Then I come to the Codex, and often find a measure of comfort in seeing that other people have already voiced my thinkings.

This game screams "wasted potential". I guess it is not as bad as a certain Cyberpunk game you managed to suffer through relatively recently though.

Oh it's far, far above Mechajammer (except for the music). But you're dead right about the wasted potential. The incomprehensible experience rewards constitute perhaps the most egregious example.

Looting containers provides a bevy of xp; I think the exact amount is tied to the financial value of the items discovered, or something like that. But anyway, simply searching a few small rooms thoroughly can net me anywhere from 200 to 700xp. That's a whole lot of xp for doing nothing.

Scanning Relics or deceased bodies of personnel usually nets me 150 to 250xp.

The xp for finishing quests seems to vary a lot; so far I've seen anywhere from 50 to 1800xp, regardless of the quest's difficulty or length.

As for xp earned through fighting, Martin Kingsley tasked me with investigating four research stations with which communications had been lost. In one of them, I found that all personnel had succumbed to intense psi-induced paranoia, and had either thrown themselves or been thrown into a mysterious talking pit at the heart of the station. I activated a crane, and from the pit emerged an odious amalgamation of twisted bodies and flesh, accompanied by two minions. Lots of HP and lots of damage. And for killing them I got a little less than 2500xp.

Then shortly after that I destroyed a MOBIOS called Old Al. It was a super easy fight—literally no risk whatsoever—done in three turns with my energy weapon, and I received an astounding 15834xp!

That is more than an entire level worth of experience, all for killing a monster hardly more difficult than a couple of oversized cockroaches.

Now here's the kicker: instead of xp for quests or fights or looting any random container, imagine Underrail's oddity system in Encased. The setting itself is absolutely ideal for it! It would make so much sense that, when scanning or discovering Relics and various items or phenomenons related to the Forefathers, your character would learn more about how to survive under the Dome, or how to craft high tech weaponry, or even learn how to become more charismatic and influential through psi capacities linked to Maelstrom.

It could even have been tied to the CRONUS Wing your character belongs to. Let's take the MOBIOS I've just defeated; by examining it, doubtlessly an Orange with criminal inclinations would have learned something different than what a White with medical inclinations would have learned. If well implemented, this could have reinforced tenfold the character creation and overall ability to roleplay, though probably to the detriment of a bit of flexibility.

Really, that's quite a massive opportunity the developers missed.

My brother you are probably better off playing Memoirs of a battle brothel.
I'd recommend Realms of Arkania HD, but you are not ready.

 

[Sykar]

Then shortly after that I destroyed a MOBIOS called Old Al. It was a super easy fight—literally no risk whatsoever—done in three turns with my energy weapon, and I received an astounding 15834xp!

That is more than an entire level worth of experience, all for killing a monster hardly more difficult than a couple of oversized cockroaches.

Now here's the kicker: instead of xp for quests or fights or looting any random container, imagine Underrail's oddity system in Encased. The setting itself is absolutely ideal for it! It would make so much sense that, when scanning or discovering Relics and various items or phenomenons related to the Forefathers, your character would learn more about how to survive under the Dome, or how to craft high tech weaponry, or even learn how to become more charismatic and influential through psi capacities linked to Maelstrom.

It could even have been tied to the CRONUS Wing your character belongs to. Let's take the MOBIOS I've just defeated; by examining it, doubtlessly an Orange with criminal inclinations would have learned something different than what a White with medical inclinations would have learned. If well implemented, this could have reinforced tenfold the character creation and overall ability to roleplay, though probably to the detriment of a bit of flexibility.

Really, that's quite a massive opportunity the developers missed.

That guy was even easier with PSI. Like 1 or 2 rounds. It is astonishing how much extra damage you deal when you exploit weaknesses. I was actually exiting going into this fight and then I was like "That's it?!".

 

[Dhaze]

You haven't experienced the utter boredom and disappointment of what is clearly meant to be a major hub turning out to be a ghost town with no content or interaction.

Are you talking about The City? The place that was under quarantine, but is unlocked after the first interaction with the Emulator. Because I just got there and... where's everyone? This is hilarious; it's like episode one of a tv series where the protagonist wakes up and everybody on earth disappeared.

Exactly.

I have no idea whether it still works, but when I've played I found out a way to earn over 100 000 EXP from one randome encounter. And each time you'd be getting even more.

And here I was, wondering if I was right about the xp=value thing and how it could probably be exploited. I'm gonna have to try that.

My brother you are probably better off playing Memoirs of a battle brothel.
I'd recommend Realms of Arkania HD, but you are not ready.

You might be glad to know that Memoirs Of a Battle Brothel is on my to-play list.

As for Realms Of Arkania, if I remember correctly I played the original when I was a kid, in '96. Same year I played Hexen: Deathkings Of The Dark Citadel and Marathon 2: Durandal.

That guy was even easier with PSI. Like 1 or 2 rounds. It is astonishing how much extra damage you deal when you exploit weaknesses. I was actually exiting going into this fight and then I was like "That's it?!".

Same. I was thinking, "Ok, first proper boss, I'm surely gonna have to use some abilities and consumables." Nope.

Also I don't know what to think about the fact that there's a generator in that cavern which, once activated, powers some sort of pylon that periodically damages and weakens the MOBIOS who simply walks into the area of effect again and again and again. On the one hand, it's kinda nice since characters who suck at fighting can take it out this way (even if it's a stupid way); on the other hand, combat difficulty is so low I can't imagine a character who couldn't kill the MOBIOS.

 

[Modron]

Are you talking about The City? The place that was under quarantine, but is unlocked after the first interaction with the Emulator. Because I just got there and... where's everyone? This is hilarious; it's like episode one of a tv series where the protagonist wakes up and everybody on earth disappeared.

If you think The City is devoid of stuff you're in for a treat when you reach the I can't believe he's not Fidel Castro's military base area. The other faction Carmine Heights area is a little more fleshed out than those two but still lacking.

 

[Dhaze]

A few things real quick.

– Nakamura in the Council building tasks me with disposing of the seized selectrones. To do that, I have to travel north to Magellan, then way down south to the Crematorium, then go back north to the City in order to tell Nakamura I did as she asked. Only for her to explain that my next task takes place in Magellan... You one-eyed mongrel, I swear to god you're this close to getting your pockets stuffed with timed explosives.

– Totally-not-Fidel-Castro has a great fortress for his Phalanx. With, indeed, about five dudes to protect it. Out of nowhere the front gate was attacked by *checks notes* a pack of hyenas with mental powers and harness-mounted heavy machine guns. I observed from afar; the hyenas won.

– I met Victoria Legrand, deranged queen of the Fops. I killed a few guys and she quite liked that, so she invited me inside her trailer and I thought we were gonna test the suspensions. Sadly I was wrong: we only played with dolls. But that's okay; she's interesting and her aide is topless. Also why are the Fops so badly perceived? I mean, sure, cannibalism and all that, but they're way less bitchy and scheming then any other faction.

– Robokids. Kinda creepy though giving vague pedo vibes. Still, nice idea, perhaps a good way to skirt around the censors insofar as killing them wouldn't amount to killing 'real' kids?

– Found the Miss Norway relic I had previously heard about. Presently, all it does is spawn two ethereal projections who keep enemy aggro. Most unique relic I've found so far, but iff that's really all it does then that's a big missed opportunity for a companion linked to the Forefathers or Maelstrom.

– In some places like Magellan, there's a female voice coming through speakers who constantly repeats two sentences on every floor. "Please handle relics carefully. In case of damage, your life will be forfeit," and "Remember: our honest work will make the world a better place. World, a better place." Constantly. It's even more grating that Ana Laird in Driftwood's market, in DoS2, the woman who kept repeating "Keeping it together, Bree?"

And this:

Light blue tablecloth? Come on devs, seriously, the entire point of adding pictures to text is to complement, not deviate or contradict. It happens too frequently in this game.

And I'll note that a similar thing also happens with lines read by the voice actors, as said lines regularly do not match what's written. At one point Russo—who truly has great characterisation—punctuated one of her lines with the french "Eh! bien," but the text read "Cool," which is a very strange editorial choice.

 

[Sykar]

– So far the combat is honestly boring. Admittedly I'm still in the early game, but on the Classic difficulty setting there's not much going on in terms of necessary tactics or use of abilities and what I see can be further unlocked doesn't lead me to believe it'll get substantially better. Though I think I see the hint of HP bloat where enemies are concerned.

Oh boy I totally overlooked this. Classic difficulty is not Classic. It is easy. It gives loads of bonuses to you and maluses to enemies.

From earlier posts of mine:

Now I see why this game is easy. The Classic difficulty STILL gives you hidden bonuses like increasing your and your companions hit chance by 20% each time they miss, enemies dealing 25% less damage and have 10% less accuracy and you and your companions also have 25% more health.
Only the Tactics difficulty removes all hidden bonuses and mali. In other words Tactics is normal difficulty, the rest are variants of easy to piss easy difficulty.
This would not be so grating if the Classic one did not proclaim that it is a "Challenging mode" for those who have being playing RPGs for a long time and love challenges.
At least you can check the details what each difficulty entails so they are transparent.

Classic difficulty is even easier in the release version:
At Deaths door status has no countdown (so cannot die basically)
Enemies deal 30% less damage
Your group has 25% more health
Each miss increases your and your companions next attack by 30%

Seriously? And this is for "hardcore RPG players"?

And a picture of the lowest diffiuclty:

Iirc people were complaining earlier and the devs answer to the complaint was to give one normal difficulty, the highest, and made anything else varying shades of easy, with the easiest one being brain dead.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

– Found the Miss Norway relic I had previously heard about. Presently, all it does is spawn two ethereal projections who keep enemy aggro. Most unique relic I've found so far, but iff that's really all it does then that's a big missed opportunity for a companion linked to the Forefathers or Maelstrom.

all the anomalies/related shit boils down to "oh wow a small bonus in stats" or "oh wow, a small puddle of damage"
it kinda hurts seeing a game like this being made and it turns out to be so painfully subpar

 

[Dhaze]

– So far the combat is honestly boring. Admittedly I'm still in the early game, but on the Classic difficulty setting there's not much going on in terms of necessary tactics or use of abilities and what I see can be further unlocked doesn't lead me to believe it'll get substantially better. Though I think I see the hint of HP bloat where enemies are concerned.

Oh boy I totally overlooked this. Classic difficulty is not Classic. It is easy. It gives loads of bonuses to you and maluses to enemies.

Yes, and it really confused me when I started the game. Stupidly, I took it to mean that the highest difficulty, Tactician, was so hard every other difficulty below needed to provide the player with bonuses.

At least the game doesn't lock you into a difficulty since you can change it at any time through the menu, but still, the combat remains very easy even on Tactician—the only noticeable change being enemies becoming a bit damage sponge-y.

– Found the Miss Norway relic I had previously heard about. Presently, all it does is spawn two ethereal projections who keep enemy aggro. Most unique relic I've found so far, but iff that's really all it does then that's a big missed opportunity for a companion linked to the Forefathers or Maelstrom.

all the anomalies/related shit boils down to "oh wow a small bonus in stats" or "oh wow, a small puddle of damage"
it kinda hurts seeing a game like this being made and it turns out to be so painfully subpar

This Miss Norway relic in particular hurts more than any other I've found so far.

At the very beginning of the game, in the Concord Station, I overheard two people talking; one White named Ed argued that a particular Relic is actually conscious and talking to him, while another White whose name escapes me retorted that no, they've been over this, it's some sort of subliminal wave field messing with his head. Later, a text accompanying a loading screen mentioned Relics who project 'beings' that pass the Turing test, and the name given to one such Relic is Miss Norway.

To me, that seems like the perfect setup for a Relic companion, and more insight into the Forefathers and/or Maelstrom. But so far, nope; it projects two decoy images at the start of each fight and that's the extent of Miss Norway.

 

[agris]

To me, that seems like the perfect setup for a Relic companion, and more insight into the Forefathers and/or Maelstrom. But so far, nope; it projects two decoy images at the start of each fight and that's the extent of Miss Norway.

The distillation of the Encased experience: unrealized potential

 

[Sykar]

If the game were at least complete content wise. Mods can fix the most egregious stuff like the stupid XP rewards from simple looting or easy bosses. Probably can fix stealth too. But you will be hard pressed to fix unfinished content.
Frankly I liked the old skill and ability system more which were far more flexible than what we have now, even if it looked less polished but you had so much more freedom in choosing your abilities by gaining ability points every x amount of skill points and then chose what you wanted.

 

[Dhaze]

I absolutely agree about the game being the quintessence of unrealized potential, but also about it being fixable if only it was complete content-wise.

Stealth might be the easiest thing if not to fix, at least to greatly improve. For starters I would make it so that the red detection circle around an NPC becomes as wide as the current white circle; that alone would go a long way into making stealth less stupid.

Also, has anyone noted that the woman who drives you from Concord to Nashville, Clara Morgan, is the namesake of a famous french porn actress from the noughties, Clara Morgane? Admittedly it might be a coincidence, but given that the devs don't shy away from mentions of porn and the like, I have a feeling it's intentional.

 

[Dhaze]

In an attempt to deepen immersion, I have taken to modding the game.

Here is one of many unfortunate oversights by the devs: the NPC is described as having glasses, a mustache, and a beard, but alas none of these are reflected in his portrait.

So here is the mod:

Of course this is a work in progress, but [insertinspirationnalquotebyBobRoss] and [howtoscamretardsbyChrisRoberts], so I feel v0.8 is ready for the Kickstarter. v1.0 will only be released if the first stretch goal—enough money for the Pantone licensing fee—is reached.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

what a ridiculous oversight, why would they include portraits that clearly contradict the text? Just use a silhouette of a person instead.

 

[Dhaze]

I have to say there is a huge number of unique portraits, many of which are attached to characters who have almost no importance whatsoever; so it's possible the devs wanted to have a unique portrait for every single character in the game. Especially given the fact that every character has his or her own name, rather than being called things like 'guard', 'merchant', or whatever.

But the description-not-matching-the-portrait affair is made even weirder by the fact that, from time to time, they do use somewhat silhouetted portraits:

And then, you have things like this:

A cheerful housewife from a magazine cover? What the fuck, is this drowning under five layers of sarcasm, or lost in translation, or what?

On another topic, while ammo for High Tech weapons was as straightforward as can be—Weapon Power Cells for every weapon—the ammo situation for Heavy Weapons is... somewhat weird.

Princess – Tactical Rifle – requires Handgun Cartridge (ammo described as 'a standard pistol round' and crafted with pistol bullets)
Drakon – Machine Gun – requires Handgun Cartridge
Monarch – Machine Gun – requires Rifle Cartridge
Serp – Machine Gun – requires Assault Rifle Cartridge (ammo described as 'suitable for use in both rifles and pistols')

Also, while the ammo required by the Serp has, according to its description, a lower powder load and thus reduced range, at equal level/quality the Serp in fact seem to have the longest range amongst Machine Guns (though perhaps this changes with the latest quality upgrades?).

So basically, there's little rhyme or reason to the whole thing.

Oh and Weapon Repair kits are never used to repair weapons, whose condition does not degrade, but rather they are used to upgrade weapons.

 

[agris]

Dhaze im afraid you aren’t going to get the response to your insights with encased that you did with mechajammer. Encased was decently played upon release and these faults fairly well documented.

The game is a middling failure, cause of death presumed to be insufficient vision and lack of spine. Next of kin: Fallout was recorded as refusing delivery of funerary urn.