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Vella -- No truthful way to answer her question

Discussion in 'Quests, Conversations, & NPC's' started by Bedawyn, Sep 11, 2019.

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  1. Bedawyn

    Bedawyn Avatar

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    09/11/2019 14:47
    Title: Vella -- No truthful way to answer her question
    Reproduction Rate: 100%
    Blocker? No

    Details:

    The guard Vella at the gates of Resolute demands to know where you are from. Specifically, she asks "Whence art thou from, stranger?" The dialogue gives you no preset answers for this; it's only freeform response.

    Set aside for the moment that it's forcing us all to play Outlanders; my native characters can't answer truthfully that they're from Ardoris without being called liars. But even my Outlander character can't answer without being called a liar! On my first playthrough, when I ran into her, I'd just come from Highvale so I said I'd come from Highvale -- and got called a liar.

    What else was I supposed to say? Even if randomly going around telling strangers you're from another world wasn't usually a bad idea (and at this point new players don't know interplanetary travellers are common and accepted in this world), there's no clues about how to phrase an answer that Vella won't reject. You're not going to say "I'm an Outlander" because (a) that's not a where, and (b) new players aren't going to be thinking of themselves that way yet. "Earth" is a where, but it never would have occurred to me (none of my characters are from Earth) and now that the intro vid is gone and (thankfully) the forced backstory with it, new players aren't told that they have to be from Earth until much later along.

    I'd rather the game didn't force us all to be Outlanders or Terrans, but if it's going to, it at least needs to give us preset options here so we know what kind of response the game is looking for.


    Steps to Reproduce: Talk to Vella at the gates of Resolute.

    User Specs:
    OS: Windows 10 (10.0.0) 64bit
    CPU: Intel(R) Core(TM) i3-8130U CPU @ 2.20GHz (4) System RAM: 8089
    GPU: Intel(R) UHD Graphics 620 GPU RAM: 2150
    SotA.Win.64.1035.Date.09.04.19
    Area: Novia_R6_City_Resolute
    Area Display Name: Resolute
    Loc: (-1.7, 77.9, -336.4)
    Debug: Tm92aWFfUjZfQ2l0eV9SZXNvbHV0ZXx8KC0xLjY4NSwgNzcuODk4LCAtMzM2LjM1Nyl8KDAsIDAuNTQ3LCAwLCAwLjgzNyl8MzU5LjcyNTZ8MTB8MS4yNQ==
     
    Bedawyn, Sep 11, 2019
    #1
  2. Sannio

    Sannio Lead Quest and Level Designer Moderator SOTA Developer

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    Thanks for the report! Issue #65699
     
    Sannio, Sep 20, 2019
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  3. Sannio

    Sannio Lead Quest and Level Designer Moderator SOTA Developer

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    @Bedawyn I've been thinking hard about this one. I've decided to not make any changes to the NPC's response. This is because the canon of our game is that every player's character came from Earth and is therefore considered an outlander. And, as an outlander, they are part of the avatar prophecy and candidates to recover the Shroud of the Avatar. Only outlanders have this quality. Most quests and NPC conversations don't drive this point home, but there will be times when it comes up. It's fine to consider your characters are from Ardoris or somewhere other than Earth, but as far as the storyline goes, the Oracle and a selection of NPCs have no doubt that your character came from Earth at some point in the past.

    (Some thoughts: Presumably your character is confident they are wrong about their Earthly origin, but what if they're not, or "not exactly"? What if your character did come from Earth but they don't remember it for some reason? Maybe they didn't start on Earth but did go there at some point, if even just for a moment? Maybe they crossed paths with someone or something that magically altered them to appear they are from Earth? There's a few ways to rationalize these types of conversations, if necessary.)
     
    Sannio, Nov 18, 2019
    #3
    Synergy Blaize and Jaesun like this.
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