The Outer Worlds: Spacer's Choice Edition - Obsidian's first-person sci-fi RPG set in a corporate space colony

[IHaveHugeNick]

Why are military people drilled to salute other military people? Mental conditioning so you don't question your overlords. Same thing with religious greetings and same thing with TOW's company slogans.

Plus you can't break immersion in a game that isn't at all immersive anyway. And this is TOW's biggest problem. You never for a second forget that you're in a video game. On the abstract level nearly everything seems to be done well, but there's this uncanny valley feeling that never goes away.

 

[Quillon]

It's not that simple here, they are not just reciting a single slogan; they are trying to advertise various shit in between, like in the first convo, he says "all spacer's choice weapons are now 30& less likely to malfunction" then he recites the slogan. Ok I get why he's reciting the slogan but why try to sell shit when there is no buyer? And I don't believe they've been practicing their marketing skills for the unlikely event of a colonist from Hope dropping from the sky.

 

[DalekFlay]

It’s like going to Mecca and everybody says “Allahu Akbar” and “peace be upon you.” They’re not trying to convert anyone—everybody’s already a Muslim. If there were neutrals wandering around, it wouldn’t be much of a corporate controlled dystopia.

Good counterpoint. It's still tripping us up that it's a capitalist dystopia but functions more as a Soviet style bureaucratic dictatorship. My brain can't adjust!

 

[Vorark]

Okay the game hasn't done anything to justify the existence of the jump button so far but it's finally time for some floaty parkour action.

Yeah, there isn't much use for it, however I found an area you need to jump a couple of platforms and climb stairs to get a unique gun. Spoiler in case anyone cares:

Spoiler

 

[DalekFlay]

Oh god turn that HUD shit off bro.

 

[Daidre]

Strange that nobody mentioned that exp rewards are level scaled. My guess it uses MMO system where every quest has hidden level variable and reward for ones you outlevel are pitiful. Same with enemies.

It became painfully obvious when I got 24k exp for completing book quest for Max with level 3 character but all my later exp rewards in Edgewater never went past 10k even for main quest.
All loots also seems to be scaled and level gated. Like you get level 15 and all outlaws in the world suddenly start using mk2 pistols.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

Strange that nobody mentioned that exp rewards are level scaled. My guess it uses MMO system where every quest has hidden level variable and reward for ones you outlevel are pitiful. Same with enemies.

It became painfully obvious when I got 24k exp for completing book quest for Max with level 3 character but all my later exp rewards in Edgewater never went past 10k even for main quest.
All loots also seems to be scaled and level gated. Like you get level 15 and all outlaws in the world suddenly start using mk2 pistols.

Enemy and loot definitely isn't scaled, I was in my upper-20s when I went back to do some quests and enemies were dying in a couple hits and dropping low level gear.

 

[Daidre]

Enemy and loot definitely isn't scaled, I was in my upper-20s when I went back to do some quests and enemies were dying in a couple hits and dropping low level gear.

It is just more of the MMO systems where every area has a cap that enemies scale up to but never go past it. Like, for example, Edge-water is probably hard capped at lvl 10 so enemies would never upgrade to mk 2.

Edit: Deadfire scaling is the same. Obsidian even explained it somewhere.

 

[Xeon]

I don't know about exp from quests but enemies didn't seem to change, IIRC I got the same amount the exp from Edgewater as Monarch even tho the loot was a lot different.

 

[Wunderbar]

Okay the game hasn't done anything to justify the existence of the jump button so far but it's finally time for some floaty parkour action.

Yeah, there isn't much use for it, however I found an area you need to jump a couple of platforms and climb stairs to get a unique gun. Spoiler in case anyone cares:

Spoiler

pretty funny place. My party members kept falling into abyss, dying, and then respawning upstairs.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

I don't know about exp from quests but enemies didn't seem to change, IIRC I got the same amount the exp from Edgewater as Monarch even tho the loot was a lot different.

Lower level enemies give less EXP.

 

[Vorark]

Oh god turn that HUD shit off bro.

Wanted to but then I need to turn it on once combat starts, it's easier to just live with it. There should've been an option to hide it once your weapon is holstered or there are no hostiles nearby.

 

[Daidre]

I don't know about exp from quests but enemies didn't seem to change, IIRC I got the same amount the exp from Edgewater as Monarch even tho the loot was a lot different.

Outlaws I was killing in Edgewater was often worth 1k+ xp.
But ones in Roseway was mostly ~600 xp because I went there overleveled.

So when you go ahead of intended curve in TOW, game will gently scale you back with diminishing gains.

 

[Xeon]

Lower level enemies give less EXP.

You sure? I went there at Lv26-27 or something to get the items for the OP armor quest, all enemies from all planets seemed to give same amount of exp when I killed them farming for their items.

 

[The_Mask]

So when you go ahead of intended curve in TOW, game will gently scale you back with diminishing gains.

So is TOW the opposite of the Codex experience? One scales me back, while the other doesn't scale to my level?

 

[Kyl Von Kull]

Enemy and loot definitely isn't scaled, I was in my upper-20s when I went back to do some quests and enemies were dying in a couple hits and dropping low level gear.

It is just more of the MMO systems where every area has a cap that enemies scale up to but never go past it. Like, for example, Edge-water is probably hard capped at lvl 10 so enemies would never upgrade to mk 2.

Edit: Deadfire scaling is the same. Obsidian even explained it somewhere.

Deadfire’s level scaling is something you can toggle on and off. Also there are different settings: scale up and scale down, only scale up, or no scaling.

 

[Daidre]

Deadfire’s level scaling is something you can toggle on and off. Also there are different settings: scale up and scale down, only scale up, or no scaling.

Well, TOW is made for people who are less throughout about their difficulty options. So we got "optimal" experience out of the box. One more reason to dislike the game.

 

[Prime Junta]

Everybody gets into making games because they want to. At some point they stay in because that’s the trade they know. Tim stops writing, Josh starts to drink, Chris hires himself out as a stretch goal, Todd snorts a mountain of coke and starts an Aston Martin collection.

 

[Kyl Von Kull]

Everybody gets into making games because they want to. At some point they stay in because that’s the trade they know. Tim stops writing, Josh starts to drink, Chris hires himself out as a stretch goal, Todd snorts a mountain of coke and starts an Aston Martin collection.

Tim has never been a writer; he’s a programmer and system designer. The intro to Fallout is the only decent thing he’s ever written. They quickly decided he wouldn’t do any writing again after that. He only wrote for TOEE because Leonard and most of the narrative guys were working on Bloodlines.

 

[DalekFlay]

Wanted to but then I need to turn it on once combat starts, it's easier to just live with it. There should've been an option to hide it once your weapon is holstered or there are no hostiles nearby.

You can hide just particular elements using the .ini file. I have the health/power bars and crosshairs on, but everything else off. It's sooooooo much better.

 

[a Goat]

Because it's actually space USSR, not space capitalism. Rather than trying to advertise, they're reciting the party line at each other... Sometimes ironically, other times just to keep from being ratted out to the authorities.

I dunno if the writers did this on purpose (super unlikely considering who they are and which direction they lean, politically) or if they're really so dumb they don't see that their idea of "capitalism(?) (or rather, corporations) gone too far" was identical to their beloved communism all along.

Spoiler

The central issue is also related to famine hahaha

As I've said a while before, we're thinking about it in a kind of complex fashion, the ins, the outs the ideologies so we spot some inconsistency. Obsidian writers meanwhile had to read 1984 when they were making TRANNY so now they're just riding on all the wisdom of the 4th book they've read in their life.

 

[Junmarko]

Everybody gets into making games because they want to. At some point they stay in because that’s the trade they know. Tim stops writing, Josh starts to drink, Chris hires himself out as a stretch goal, Todd snorts a mountain of coke and starts an Aston Martin collection.

Don't put the Steve Jobs of gaming anywhere near those guys, Todd is just a snakeoil salesman.

 

[Prime Junta]

Don't put the Steve Jobs of gaming anywhere near those guys, Todd is just a salesman.

He's the one with the coke and the Aston Martins.

 

[Danikas]

The intro to Fallout is the only decent thing he’s ever written.

Then he has written something that is more memorable than entirety of TOW.

 

[Konjad]

Guys, please help me and gib screenshots pls

https://rpgcodex.net/forums/index.php?threads/request-post-some-screenshots-of-tow.130551/

Thank you