Board Thread:Fun and Games/@comment-27460754-20160124200151/@comment-27861768-20160401174924

Argenten wrote: Dari is awesome, she's as perky as Qum and Nalili, but as bloodthirsty and aggressive as Histara and Aka when they get worked up. I have a feeling, based on her reactions as an Unwoman, that once she's cured she'll be giving Simon's IK endurance training a real workout. Wonder if all her sexuality and frustrations are building up like water behind a  dam or if she'll just be unused to dealing with it after her time without. I'm also curious as to what weapons she'll use or what abilities she'll have. She is at that. She isn't hateful or a blind fanatic, but she is sure without wavering about the rightness of her choice and of what she does. For me, I can't find her a sympathetic character because of the line about the innocence of a child and the wisdom of age that "sages spend their whole lives searching for.". My first response there is 'so you took a shortcut.' and that's what it feels like when we find out she had no great attachment to what she lost and didn't have to struggle for the 'enlightenment' she received. Carina, for all her faults, was willing to risk everything for what she believed in and put that into practice, including putting herself at the risk of death and corruption with the seed. Vhala feels like a person that took the easy/safe route. You lost me a bit here... you start talking about Dari and then suddenly switch to Vhala. I think you switched to Vhala at "She isn't hateful..." part but I can't be sure.

I don't think you're fair to Vhala... yes, she does seem to had "taken a shortcut" but at the same time, she's 70+ years old (making her 15 years older than Simon!) so in a way she did spent a lifetime seeking wisdom.

I also believe that a lot of her positions and beliefs came from the fact that she's an Unwoman for close to 50 years now (possibly even more than 50 years!) which gave her more then enough time to convince herself that she actually belive that. Especially considering she's also practically immortal. I mean, if she kept regreting her decision, if she kept missing what she gave up she would more then likely went completely insane by now.

I am certainly curious to see what will she choose when she's given a option to reverse her condition and became a "regular human" once again... will she choose to remain Unwoman or will she take it?

Argenten wrote: For Alanon, I don't think he was involved. He is apathetic to the point of nihilism, to the point where he is literally letting everything, including himself, decay  because he doesn't care and doesn't see the point in trying. The Cult, as loathsome as it's actions and methods were, was fighting for the future, the hope that they would be vindicated in saving the world (and their own pockets let's be frank.). They were fighting for their ideal future, even if it was an ultimately self-destructive one. That runs directly counter to the King's decision to let it all play out around him, he'd have to care and desire to punish the world by being involved with the cult. I think Simon was commenting more on that Alanon wasn't senile or hurt or anything, he just quit. Which, for someone like Simon who sacrificed so much in his life, would be an anathema. I'm not convinced he's as apathetic as he's like everyone to believe. Because if he really was that apathetic then he shouldn't have cared that Cult used his name to justify their action. But he did. He cared enough to declare them guilty before they could offer any kind of defense for their actions. And then he kept questioning them making sure everyone know it wasn't done on his order and with his approval. Maybe I'm too cynical but to me that's mildly suspicious...

Argenten wrote: I love getting him down to 100k, so satisfying to get a kingdom for the same price of an embassy as well as making a lot of the ladies in the harem happy. I am confused as to why investing in that bank for 800k gets a point more to economy than less. Yeah, the bank thing doesn't make sense considering only investing at 800k give you a point more to economy (investing at 1m give you same bonus as investing at 600k or less). I'd make an argument about investing more money into bank provide more money to be invested into community which improve overall economy but since investing even more money (1m) give you lesser bonus that' can't be the case.

Argenten wrote: Yup, the Dwarves make it possible to play politics without stepping on too many toes, assuming one has the coin for the merchant rep. The Derghalon representative seems like a safe choice with the Dwarf embasy but Rafael's point about the Aramite ambassador helping with more does make her superfluous. The Votes and their results I find as follows. The Unpeople vote: Vital to derail, will cause harm to both Simon's Doomed King plan as well as causing more harm down the line due to political and religious infighting over control of the legions as well as the proven capacity for gross misuse. In particular to Simon's plan, I can easily see their long term presence if the vote fails leading to more armies of them being used to both pick at the DK as well as the AoA, and later on being a potential bad end for Simon assuming Sierra goes for that. The orcs: I see this and the later vote as almost similar to the investments. It's great if you can pull them off but if not, it won't ruin gameplay. With the orcs, it's really a case of two routes to the same goal. If we get the bill killed, more minions for the army and a happier Bhalia, as well as less people harmed by raids and more by those same small bands. If it fails, orcs die, people aren't hurt by them anymore, and troops get more experience as well as removing potential fifth column. Either way, the orcs cease to be a threat to the common folk and merchants  and kingdoms in general, but the difference is in the effect it has on Simon directly. With the War Vaults, that was a pure reward vote. Some loot for Simon as well as the kingdoms in general and maybe more lore/plot advantages depending on how much Sierra wants to include. I think it's unlikely considering how tricky it was to pull off WITH the Dwarve advantage, which would make it punishing those who didn't get it afterwards. All in all, I really got the feel that the focus was on getting the Unpeople vote to fail with the bonus of the latter votes being something to either try to work towards or sacrifice the Unpeople vote for depending on the Dwarf embassy. The way I see votes, there are five "critical" votes (War Vaults being a nice bonus) and only two of those you can influence in any way. And of those five, the Orc extermination vote is the only one where it's not immediately clear what is the most beneficial to Doomed king plan.

If we defeat the bill, then we get more resources to build a bigger and stronger army to support Doomed King making it harder for other Arclent countries to attack us. Downside is that AoA could also use those resources to increase his army.

I we don't defeat the bill, then we effectivelly weaken all the other countries on Arclent (due to loss of life and resources used to exterminate orcs) which will also make it harder for them to attack us once we innitiate a Doomed king plan. Downside to this is in addition to them being weaker due to lossed suffered during extermination, scatering of the forces required would also make all those countries a lot more vulnerable to being succesfully attacked by AoA.

I went with defeating the bill but it remains to be seen if that was good decision.