What's the Point of All the Watchers?

Think they're there to annoy me. When they slow me from walking by I feel compelled to pull out my sword and slay as many as I can, then I feel better.

 

They are so creepy, I will continue to kill them.

 

I have had 3 of them running towards me from different directions to snag me and start their sniffing protocol. I always have auto attack on now and kill them at first sign and at distance which helps movement around towns.

 

ROFL! That's so fitting !'



~Time Lord~

 

I've taken to running through town with my sword out, any watcher gets near me, gets put to the blade.

I think they are part of Crime prevention. E.g. Even though the shop keepers won't see you steal their wares the watchers will.
Which will cause a virtue hit.. (whatever that does)

They said they are looking at the amount of slowing NPC's, animals, and watchers cause in town, and may change it.

Personally, I find that just running around in combat mode, mowing down anything in your way, is a lot more effective.


I know they are "employees" of the Oracle, but no idea what virtues do or don't do for us.
Just know they take a hit, when we are seen doing bad stuff. (Stealing stuff around town and looting the dead)

 

Yes it does.

Two handed sword with whirling blades, worrks pretty good, but a bow with auto attack on ensures there will never be anything killable alive in your path.

I have no idea how mages can stand it... stopping to cast to clear the path is probably just as annoying as getting stopped to begin with.


Now if only they'd let me loose on those gaurds once, I'm pretty sure they wouldn't be a problem anymore either.

 

Consider them the NSA of the game.

 

Robots are people too. Especially considering the Oracle is part machine herself, that makes her programmed minions, basically slaves. When do we get to judge her? If there's one thing that physics have taught humanity, it's that observing alone does still affect the outcome, and so observing the evils of the world without acting is in itself an action that can be judged as severely as the evil itself. What say you?

 

~You Will Face Many Dangers and I will Be Watching~



In some ways, our Oracle seems to take the place of an inner Time Lord's voice as guide to what may be needed...
Yet part machine and seemingly an actual entity, our Oracle could seem to be toying with us here...
Could the Oracle turnout itself be the true enemy here and the cause of all these problems?
~Time Lord~

 

I can't stand them myself. I actually wondered if the developers have been using them as stand in players during development/testing.

Reduce their numbers by 60% - 80% and reduce their hitbox and I'd be happy/OK ; but, arachnophobics would never be.

I'd love to see a kill the watcher day or event. Too bad you can't harvest watcher oil or a gearbox etc.

Evil pests they be.

 

This. The oracle reminds me of Blackthorn from ultima 6 was it? A false path.

 

~The Echoes Into Our Very Progressive Future~

I like the way you think @Tiki Pirate
Ultima 6 was one of my favorites among the others because it addressed social intolerance. Ultima 6 in many ways, was the beginning of we as players being provided a second set of eyes to begin questioning our world. I think it's important to note that it was always Lord British's intent to eventually address all social issues and culminate them into one master work, which I believe our SOTA to be the greater part of that very ambitious goal. I believe that our "learned assumptions" from what we now see as MMORPGs is all wrong when looking back at what the RPG part was all about.

Here's some early Lord British talking about such a progression which I feel is very relevant to our current SOTA and how we should re-evaluate many of our MMORPG thoughts when it comes to comparing our game's plan to others.

















When we reflect on all that's been said throughout these videos, we can almost predict our destines here within our SOTA
The watchers fall under what category of progression in all of this ?'
It's a question well worth the wondering !'
~Time Lord~

 

The Oracle is not part machine, it is a machine, and the watchers are remote input devices. The watchers are no more slaves than your TV remote control.
If you tell the Oracle you value love, but you leave a little girl to die, she can point out that your actions are not consistent with your words.
Do you judge your mirror good or evil for reflecting your image?
It's up to you to change the world, and the Oracle a tool to measure your progress.

 

I'd say that's a fair "assumption" Sir Frank
~Time Lord~

 

I think the number of these watchers should be cut in half, at the very least. They are FAR to obtrusive and your avatar ends up being scanned far to many times.

It's highly annoying to be working at crafting stations only to be descended upon by many of them, all screeching that loud, obnoxious screech noise. Those watchers are almost enough on their own to push me to spend less time in the game.

 

I can tell you what I use Watchers for...

http://bit.ly/2bXfT8z

 

They are handy quick kills as I search through towns.