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[LordBucket]

It is an absolute democracy, which has been historically suicidal

Gestalt minds like that cannot come close to a single human in terms of effectiveness.

If the lack of cohesion is the problem, why not take advantage of the fact that we have so few suggestions right now due to people playing the new dwarf fortress release? We only have three action votes. If the three of you can come up with something you want to do without the interference of the masses, now's the time.

We pretty much had our chance to work with awesomicus and totally blew that when we couldn't come up with a quest.

The indecisiveness obviously hurt your case, but it wasn't the lack of a quest so much as the "winning vote" being to give him the exact same quest that you tried giving him in the previous episode, and that he obviously didn't want:

: "Well, not quite yet. First you have to gather up all your friends so you can fight him together."

: "What do you mean gather up my friends?"

: "Well, you know. Twilight's on here way now, right? And you said Pinkie has her own place by the lake. I know you said Applejack isn't here, but what you need to do is gather up all your friends who are, and-"

Awesomicus facepalms.

: "Celestia help me, Twi. If this was all just a dumb excuse to-"

: "Awesomicus?"

: "Twilight! Please tell me this game isn't just some dumb excuse to make us work together for a friendship report!"

He was obviously not receptive to the idea. And yet despite his reaction the biggest number of votes for the following episode was to repeat back the same exact quest to him and hope he'd suddenly be enthusiastic about it for some reason. I sometimes get the impression that a couple of our players just aren't paying very much attention. It's been a recurring problem since the beginning that an npc will leave the scene, but a couple people keep trying to talk to them after they've left. It happened with Vivec, it happened just recently with Clover, and similar things have happened throughout. So if we have a couple players who don't even notice when people leave the scene completely I suppose it's no surprise that they wouldn't notice that the thing they were proposing for Awesomicus had been proposed in the previous chapter and he wasn't interested. But it is kind of unfortunate. As above, we have reduced participation right now. I suggest you take advantage of it.

I'd understand if you said that we COULD be at their level by now

Sure you could have. Without being so specific that it becomes spoily, remember that your earliest indications of Clover/Awsomicus didn't even happen until episode 26. You had a pretty big head start. Also remember that Word of God has been given that this game was intended to reach a successful conclusion after about 20 episode over two months. In retrospect, I obviously underestimated. But since neither of those two even showed up until after a timeframe that I expected the game would be over by...I think it's reasonable to suggest that regardless of what their roles actually are, maybe they're not so plot-critical that you really need to worry about competing with them in terms of physical brawling ability.

Yes, they're stronger than you are. But why does that concern you?

I think largely though we have no idea what the hell to do.

Well, that's a more difficult problem. I think that a lot of our players lack some of the background required to make sense of a lot of what's going on. I was pleasantly surprised when you guys understood the symbolsim at work with with the apple, but there have been a lot of things you've missed. I've been going to great effort to avoid falling prey to the Law of Conservation of Detail, and consequently I think it's sometimes difficult to recognize what's "important" and what isn't. And yet, from my point of view, sometimes it's downright comical the things you guys don't notice. For example, remember that huge debate over which pony Awesomicus was associated with? And then he promptly showed up in an episode titled "Dashing through the ash, in a one-horse open sleigh?" Ok, maybe not definitive, but from my point of view I've been showering you guys in clues left and right, and it sometimes amazes me the things that nobody notices.

LordBucket is practically hitting us over the head with something, but because it's over our heads we can't see what it is for sure.

Exactly. But at the same time, I acknowledge that I have the benefit of knowing what's going on, and since Conservation of Detail is not in play here, it isn't always easy to distinguish the clues from the background noise if you don't already recognize them. In many games, only important things are brought into focus. Here, I think it's safe to say that everywhere you look, you find interesting things. Random "unimportant" background npcs have unique personalities and detailed life stories. For example, I didn't choose Draren to be a companion for you. You guys did. And then found that he had a rich family background and history, relatives with personalities, skills and emotional relationships.

Sort of like a fractal.

Wherever you look, there is always more detail available no matter how closely you examine it. As such, I think many of you are having difficulty answering the question of "what's important?" You're used to definite, pre-defined goals with definite, pre-defined solutions that are hinted at by definite pre-defined clues.

But that's not the way this game works. This world is more open than that. And maybe it's not up to me to answer on your behalf the question of "what's important?"

I have never played morrowind

Morrowind is a game with a definite beginning and a definite ending. It's a game with a story, and quests and villains. Yes, these things do exist in Morrowind.

But it's also a game where you can completely ignore all those things and do whatever the hell you want to do. The "official" story and the "main questline" is not at all what people love about Morrowind. The elder scrolls series is notorious for having an open world, and it's entirely common for people to play these games for weeks or months without ever engaging the "official" questlines. Personally, the first time I played Morrowind I think I made it to level 40 before I even did the very  first "go talk to that guy" step of the main quest. In a game you can beat at level 15 or 20. Or, if you're in a hurry, here's a guy who beat Morrowind start to finish in under ten minutes.

Point being, these games have always been largely self-directed. If you're looking for answers from npcs, well...yes, there is a "what's going on" in this game. And if you want, you can pursue it. But it would be completely contrary to the spirit of the elder scrolls series for me to be pushing you guys towards the "official hosted on bay12 Marooned in Morrowind main quest line." That's not, and never has been what Morrowind is about.

What you do want to do?

[LordSlowpoke]

Sing.

i'll never get an occasion to do this one indeed

[Sparksol]

Yes, they're stronger than you are. But why does that concern you?

We're very nearly at square one survival-wise; we're level 9 with skills and equipment that a new player fresh off the boat could match or beat. I'm not even positive we can make it to the plantation or Seyda Neen by ourselves if our traveling luck is poor. I'm trying to think if there's anything sitting around Pelagiad or inside the fort that we can take and use or sell (like that axe which was in the stump back in Seyda Neen) but I'm coming up blank on anything like that. I'd rather avoid dying again, but at the same time, we learned a lot the last time we died, even if Michael did go a little nuts with all the immobile waiting.

LordBucket is practically hitting us over the head with something, but because it's over our heads we can't see what it is for sure.

So long as it's not a Dying Dream I'm probably fine with it. Even if it is, in fact.

...these games have always been largely self-directed. If you're looking for answers from npcs, well...yes, there is a "what's going on" in this game. And if you want, you can pursue it. But it would be completely contrary to the spirit of the elder scrolls series for me to be pushing you guys towards the "official hosted on bay12 Marooned in Morrowind main quest line." That's not, and never has been what Morrowind is about.

What you do want to do?

I love knowing what's going on. Whether or not we "win" - although winning is a bonus. Even if we would have to figure out what constitutes "winning" in this case. (99.9% sure it's got nothing to do with Charlie Sheen...I hope.)

Problem is, I've got a few ideas on what to do in other circumstances, but I'm having trouble coming up with something right now that's less than 50% likely to get us killed again. My other ideas that I don't endorse at this moment include just waiting for Awesomicus or Clover to come back - we don't even know if they'll show up back here or not when they do come back; trying to talk to Imare if we somehow make it back to that boatman - although my only ideas about what we should talk about with her include teaming up for our own survival's stake and getting her to convince her friends that we're for real... not to mention talking to her could be like dealing with a less-powerfully scary Sheogorath (even if Imare is a werewolf, I doubt she can shake up our dead formlessness to the point that it hurts.) And of course, there's getting ourselves talking to Dagoth Ur. I'm reasonably sure he'd gladly tell us all kinds of things, but I'm also sure that if we just go up to him now, it's not going to look anything like a win condition from our point of view.

Seriously, other than checking the town's random crates and barrels for stuff that's probably already been cleared out, all I've got for right now is selling that fancy healing potion and buying a couple regular emergency healing potions. There should be someone inside the fort itself that sells potions.

Sing.

i'll never get an occasion to do this one indeed

If we should meet Imare in some situation where we're not just passing by or fleeing for our lives, there'll be singing alright. I'd hate to see someone try and stop her. What would you like to sing?

[birdy51]

I will support singing for no reason; mostly to see how the people of Morrowind react. We've tried many things, but singing is a fresh idea.

I'll agree with Sparksol though, it is your call on the song.

[Arcvasti]

Singing "Let it go" again isn't a terrible idea. There's no real reason NOT to do that. As for time... I don't know. We're talking to you somewhat... diagonally would be the closest word. Morrowind's in-game time system can't properly be parallel to "real time". Anyways, Micheal, what do you actually WANT here? Do you want to escape? To the life that might not even exist? Do you want to become an adventurer like the ponies? How long will that last you over the YEARS you'll probably
be here? Do you want to settle down here? After all, this IS a world of its own. And you are its only "native". Living here might not be a bad idea. But for now, since we know the password to Pinky Pie/Imare's castle thing, why don't we go there? Its a decently short walk from here, I think. And also safe. Absolutely NO chance of dying on that trip. Or at least, not twice in a row. Plus Imare is decently helpful and knows more then she should.

[QuakeIV]

Evidently the madness is setting in. 


Anyways after some searching we should go to seyda neen.  Our buddy draren is probably there so we can have a quick chat with him before setting off, then we can silt strider our way to victory.

[WillowLuman]

Last we checked, Michael wanted to pursue wealth and power here, though that was a long time ago. Is that what you still want, Michael?

Say, if we find someone willing to use the console, this one might be interesting:
Set timescale to 1

I support turning 1 potion into several, cheaper ones. It's possible we could do it by just diluting it into more bottles, rather than trading. Depending on its power we could make more.

[Baffler]

Nalcarya mentioned that she dilutes most of her potions so they're at a level useful to the average person, so it's most certainly possible. The question is, what with? Urine perhaps? She said that was the "base" of potions. Or just regular ol' water? Can the potion be contaminated?

I'm also more than a little curious about just exactly what it is that the Ascended Sleeper was offering us. Sure Dagoth Ur is the "bad guy" but this is far from how he treated the Nerevarine, and went about achieving his goals, in the base game. Can we even be sure that his goals are the same? Maybe we could see if the Dreamer in Pelagiad in the base game is still there once the PC's get bored of us.

[IronyOwl]

Nalcarya mentioned that she dilutes most of her potions so they're at a level useful to the average person, so it's most certainly possible. The question is, what with? Urine perhaps? She said that was the "base" of potions. Or just regular ol' water? Can the potion be contaminated?

I'm in favor of it, but this does concern me too.

More immediately, we don't have any bottles to dilute it into. We can just carry it around as a panic potion for the moment, but until we can loot a trash can or something we're not in a position to divvy it up.


Beyond that... any animals have probably respawned and our gear is worse now, so hoofing it to Seyda Neen is going to be tough. On the bright side, it's been a few days, so Draren is probably ready to go home if he hasn't taken a free teleport already.

If we're really concerned about it, we could see if Pelagiad has a spare healing potion for sale. Assuming vanilla potion strengths and costs, Standard is probably the most gold-efficient for us, restoring 50hp for 35g. Add in the fact that the shopkeeper's not running a charity, and we likely either can't afford it or would mostly bankrupt ourselves getting it. Bargain is 5g for 5hp, and Cheap is 10g for 10hp; more affordable, but as mentioned less efficient.


Other than that, I say we find Draren or confirm with his sister that he's already left. If located, and if he's ready to go, head with him back to Seyda Neen, harvesting the crap out of everything we can without getting ourselves eaten by a kagouti. Maybe even do a few more swamp runs when we get back.

If he's already gone... I dunno. Don't think we can get anywhere else without a pocket healer, don't think we have much choice. If he's there but still wants sister time... butter up some guards? We've proven pretty personable, all things considered, and having someone who doesn't hate us in the plantation might come in handy.

[WillowLuman]

Hopefully a month-long break has helped, though if not we can wait longer. And if that's not on the table, well, it's been a fun ride.

[IronyOwl]

Might also help if we had any consensus on a major action. So far it's still basically "go to the one place, possibly do something with the potion."

[LordBucket]

I'm still here. What do you guys want to do? Participation took a serious hit when DF_40 was released. If there were an update now, it would be "sing and go to Seyda Neen" but I'm not seeing many actual votes.

What do you guys want to do?

[QuakeIV]

I maintain my previous opinion.

[WillowLuman]

Alright. For starters, I say we either dilute or expensive potion to make several lower strength ones, or sell it for the same. And I still ask that question of Michael, his priorities may have changed.

Rereading for more ideas...

[Baffler]

Whoops, edited instead of quoting. post is kaput.