...I really REALLY hate when people call that scene that.
Seriously, that shit was foreshadowed in the first scene of the anime(pay attention to the room) and in the first big character informing scene in the LN.
EDIT: if anything is Kirito Wankery it's the Gleam Eyes fight... and the finale, that was weird as shit. cool as fuck, but really frikkin weird.
...I really REALLY hate when people call that scene that.
Seriously, that shit was foreshadowed in the first scene of the anime(pay attention to the room) and in the first big character informing scene in the LN.
EDIT: if anything is Kirito Wankery it's the Gleam Eyes fight... and the finale, that was weird as shit. cool as fuck, but really frikkin weird.
I'm assuming that it's the "SAVE THE DAUGHTERU!" scene you guys are referring to. There was no foreshadowing, there was no sign of it happening before, it was the moment that the core concepts of the show were soiled the character turned into a living plot device and the story retroactively made pointless.
I'm assuming that it's the "SAVE THE DAUGHTERU!" scene you guys are referring to. There was no foreshadowing, there was no sign of it happening before, it was the moment that the core concepts of the show were soiled the character turned into a living plot device and the story retroactively made pointless.
didn't he learn about being adopted by hacking into something from the government? though that information might have been given later in the novels... and I might be misremembering, that was a long time ago
didn't he learn about being adopted by hacking into something from the government? though that information might have been given later in the novels... and I might be misremembering, that was a long time ago
You see, the limiting factor for me is lack of both discussion and content. One can survive without the other, but neither is a thread dying, thanks to every person not talking.
See above, it's good discussion. Admittedly though, it is a derail. So... why the heck does Yui look like Asuna and Kirito's kid this early in!?!?!?
A little tolerance for Meta is required, but without some license, stories would be less interesting and harder to follow.
Examples are; Alternate universe counterparts of characters having the same looks, first name and general outlook on life (unless that difference is what definines the counterpart.) And that name and look being unique to that character, as if having a dirferent child or different order of births causes the parents to reconsider a name. Even if they have different parents due to an alternate universe or crossover.
That would be the Doylist answer, but the Watsonian would be that all character models were designed by the Game Artists and Yui is simply a younger version of the standard female model that Asuna also uses, with a pallet that's compatable with many characters including Kirito.
That would be the Doylist answer, but the Watsonian would be that all character models were designed by the Game Artists and Yui is simply a younger version of the standard female model that Asuna also uses, with a pallet that's compatable with many characters including Kirito.
Which would be a viable answer if we didn't know that this is after Spiegeltag, as I'll call it. The day of shattering mirrors. From that day forward, everyone looked exactly like they did IRL, with the exception of minor cosmetic drops.
Then what the fuck determines HP? STR? That's retarded! Is it just a flat gain per level? How the hell do you make tanks then? WHAT IS THE POINT OF THIS!?!
That actually worked quite well in Macross Ace Frontier and Ultimate Frontier, so I wouldn't knock it. It makes more sense than a traditional D&D-inspired level system, at the very least.
That actually worked quite well in Macross Ace Frontier and Ultimate Frontier, so I wouldn't knock it. It makes more sense than a traditional D&D-inspired level system, at the very least.
Never played FFII, but I have around 350 hours between MAF & MUF. Also maxed stats on half a dozen characters in each except for the one that lets you block incoming attacks, because I'm crap at using block commands in action games and between the damage-reducing, dodge-increasing, and speed-increasing stats I dance between the bullets and can outrun missiles in Gerwalk, let alone Fighter. All those stats are increased by that kind of "train by using" method in those games and it worked really well, which why it annoyed me so much that Triangle Frontier changed them to point-buy based on performance in the high school dating sim mode based on the Macross Frontier filler episodes, and the otherwise awesome Macross 30 PS3 game backslid to fucking 1970s-style level based progression.
I'm also a big Disgaea fan, which surprise surprise, also increases your skills by use, although the classes and levels are as obnoxious as ever and only made up for by the humor and general ability to make any job or monster class as uber as you're willing to put in the time for. Elder Scrolls games, generally the same idea as well. Many tabletop RPGs that aren't as fucking backasswards as D&D also make provisions for at least getting a bonus to increase the skills you actually use rather than a stock list when you reach some arbitrary threshold of murders as well.
... That probably comes off as being more combative than I mean for it to be, but I am just so fucking done with class and level based RPGs. I get a little ranty about it when an opening appears, sorry.
To add on to what has been said, in the granddaddy of MMOs Ultima Online guilds have been known to trap monsters inside their guild halls just so they can have said monsters spit on them and gain resistances. (Fire, magic, poison, you name it...)
There's precidence, is what I'm saying.
Not sure why I have this in my watched list thou...
Huh. Intuitively, you'd think those would be switched: staying damaged for a certain amount of time would train your body to stay functioning despite damage, raising HP, and repeatedly getting damaged and healing it would train your body to heal more quickly, raising HP regen. Well, that's how it would work in a fictional game universe anyway, since neither of those really works in less than a minimal way in anything like RL physics, but this is a game where high-leveled characters become minor Brutes so it kinda makes sense.
Oh well, never read the SAO novels and it's been a long time since I watched any of the actual anime, so the freshest SAO-related material for me is the Abridged series.
I thought Kirito specifically hacked the Japanese child registry because he wanted to find out who his birth parents were?
Anyway, all this wankery about how saving Yui was unrealistic is all a bit off-base, IMO. In nearly all MMOs you don't ever save in-game items only on the client machine; a system like that is ripe for abuse by basement-dwellers with hex editors hacking themselves +10,000 Swords of Ultimate Phallic Might. The way you handle in-game items is to store them on the server, then mirror them on the client machine for local caching to minimize peak data usage.
Now, Kirito would know this, seeing as he was a budding hacker, on the beta, and a huge Kayaba fanboi, and therefore probably spent more time studying the Cardinal system and its underpinnings than anyone who wasn't employed directly by Kayaba's own company. So, for Kirito, the most logical way for him to save Yui's AI gestalt from being deleted, given that Yui oh-so-helpfully gave him an open admin console to fuck with, would be to copy or move her gestalt within the server to the area where his local game item data was stored, leaving a trojan in its place to be deleted, and put a fake wrapper around it that tricked the system into thinking the gestalt was an in-game item in his possession. The system would then do what it's supposed to do: spend the next X hours/days/weeks copying the data over to his local machine for local caching. Not a perfect solution, obviously: lucky for him Kayaba was already doing the full-immersion bit as Heathcliff or he'd have figured out the dodge fairly trivially, but it's not like Kirito could have done anything better while stuck in the game.
It's possible that this would have no effect on the transfer:
A) Kayaba seemed to trust that the Cardinal system would do its job and catch any such attempts, thus meaning that he would not look for unauthorized terminal use
B) Other than the whole death-game thing, Kayaba didn't seem to begrudge anyone else's happiness (YMMV, due to disabling Yui in the first place); if that is the case, then he'd probably leave things be if he determined that the hack would have no major effects
#my2cents
Huge data transfer (and of specialty AI code at that) to one of the players might even have been something he considered a useful decoy for the government cywar guys looking for him. As soon as they actually followed that lead it would be obviously false, of course.
[X][Food] Let Yui recommend something
[X][Update Action] Ask Yui about herself
-[X][Update Action] She seems kind of young to be in an MMO, much less a full-immersion VR game
-[X][Update Action] How'd she get her nerve gear?
[X][Update Action] Ask Yui about the game
-[X][Update Action] How does this game work? What is a nerve gear? No. of Votes: 7
[X][Food] Order something
-[X][Food] Pick what looks to be the most appetizing.
[X][Update Action] Ask Yui about the game
-[X][Update Action] Yui mentioned a beta
-[X][Update Action] Ask about game mechanics
--[X][Update Action] You only saw melee weapons in the shops
--[X][Update Action] Equipment
[X][Update Action] Spend some more time reading your status page
-[X][Update Action] See if you can find the manual
[X][Update Action] Ask Yui about herself
-[X][Update Action] She seems kind of young to be in an MMO, much less a full-immersion VR game No. of Votes: 2
[X][Food] Let Yui recommend something
[X][Food] Order something
-[X][Food] Different from what Yui recommended.
[X][Update Action] Ask Yui about the game
-[X][Update Action] Yui mentioned a beta
-[X][Update Action] Ask about game mechanics
--[X][Update Action] Skills
--[X][Update Action] How combat works
-[X][Update Action] Ask about the setting; did you skip any cutscenes?
[X][Update Action] Spend some more time reading your status page
-[X][Update Action] While Yui is answering your questions, and be obvious about doing it.
-[X][Update Action] See if you can find the manual
-[X][Update Action] Investigate your other skills
-[X][Update Action] Do you have an inventory to go with your equpiment? No. of Votes: 2
[X][Food] Order something
-[X][Food] Fish
[X][Update Action] Ask Yui about the game
-[X][Update Action] Yui mentioned a beta
-[X][Update Action] WHAT YEAR IS IT
-[X][Update Action] Ask about game mechanics
--[X][Update Action] Skills
--[X][Update Action] How combat works
--[X][Update Action] Equipment
--[X][Update Action] Video game physics
--[X][Update Action] You only saw melee weapons in the shops
-[X][Update Action] Ask about the setting; did you skip any cutscenes? No. of Votes: 1
[X][Food] Let Yui recommend something
[X][Food] Order something
[X][Update Action] Ask Yui about the game
-[X][Update Action] Yui mentioned a beta
-[X][Update Action] Ask about game mechanics
--[X][Update Action] Skills
--[X][Update Action] How combat works
-[X][Update Action] Ask about the setting; did you skip any cutscenes?
[X][Update Action] Spend some more time reading your status page
-[X][Update Action] While Yui is answering your questions, and be obvious about doing it.
-[X][Update Action] See if you can find the manual
-[X][Update Action] Investigate your other skills
-[X][Update Action] Do you have an inventory to go with your equpiment? No. of Votes: 1
[X][Food]Let Yui recommend something
[X][Update Action] Ask Yui about the game
-[X][Update Action] Yui mentioned a Beta
-[X][Update Action] Ask about Game Mechanics
--[X][Update Action] You only saw melee weapons in the shops
--[X][Update Action] Ask about the Setting; Did you miss any cutscenes?
--[X][Update Action] Ask about the Event itself.
[X][Update Action] Ask about Yui herself.
-[X][Update Action] She was in the beta right? Ask if she's noticed any major changes... Besides the event logout thing. No. of Votes: 1
[X][Food]Let Yui recommend something
[X][Update Action] Ask Yui about the game
-[X][Update Action] Yui mentioned a beta
-[X][Update Action] Ask about game mechanics
--[X][Update Action] You only saw melee weapons in the shops
--[X][Update Action] Equipment
[X][Update Action] Spend some more time reading your status page
-[X][Update Action] See if you can find the manual
[X][Update Action] Ask Yui about herself
-[X][Update Action] She seems kind of young to be in an MMO, much less a full-immersion VR game No. of Votes: 1
[X][Food] Order something
-[X][Food] Pick what looks to be the most appetizing.
[X][Update Action] Ask Yui about the game
-[X][Update Action] How does this game work? What is a nerve gear?
-[X][Update Action] WHAT YEAR IS IT
[X][Update Action] Ask Yui about herself
-[X][Update Action] She seems kind of young to be in an MMO, much less a full-immersion VR game
-[X][Update Action] How'd she get her nerve gear? No. of Votes: 1
[X][Food] Order something
-[X][Food] One of everything!
--[X]No wait two of everything, that way Yui can eat too.
---[x]But what if you want more? Three of everything!!! No. of Votes: 1
[X][Food] Order something
-[X][Food] One of everything!
--[X]No wait two of everything, that way Yui can eat too.
---[x]But what if you want more? Three of everything!!! No. of Votes: 1
[X][Update Action] Ask Yui about herself
-[X][Update Action] She seems kind of young to be in an MMO, much less a full-immersion VR game
-[X][Update Action] How'd she get her nerve gear? No. of Votes: 8
[X][Update Action] Ask Yui about the game
-[X][Update Action] Yui mentioned a beta
-[X][Update Action] Ask about game mechanics
--[X][Update Action] You only saw melee weapons in the shops
--[X][Update Action] Equipment No. of Votes: 3
[X][Update Action] Ask Yui about herself
-[X][Update Action] She seems kind of young to be in an MMO, much less a full-immersion VR game No. of Votes: 3
[X][Update Action] Ask Yui about the game
-[X][Update Action] Yui mentioned a beta
-[X][Update Action] Ask about game mechanics
--[X][Update Action] Skills
--[X][Update Action] How combat works
-[X][Update Action] Ask about the setting; did you skip any cutscenes? No. of Votes: 3
[X][Update Action] Spend some more time reading your status page
-[X][Update Action] While Yui is answering your questions, and be obvious about doing it.
-[X][Update Action] See if you can find the manual
-[X][Update Action] Investigate your other skills
-[X][Update Action] Do you have an inventory to go with your equpiment? No. of Votes: 3
[X][Update Action] Ask Yui about the game
-[X][Update Action] Yui mentioned a beta
-[X][Update Action] WHAT YEAR IS IT
-[X][Update Action] Ask about game mechanics
--[X][Update Action] Skills
--[X][Update Action] How combat works
--[X][Update Action] Equipment
--[X][Update Action] Video game physics
--[X][Update Action] You only saw melee weapons in the shops
-[X][Update Action] Ask about the setting; did you skip any cutscenes? No. of Votes: 1
[X][Update Action] Ask Yui about the game
-[X][Update Action] Yui mentioned a Beta
-[X][Update Action] Ask about Game Mechanics
--[X][Update Action] You only saw melee weapons in the shops
--[X][Update Action] Ask about the Setting; Did you miss any cutscenes?
--[X][Update Action] Ask about the Event itself. No. of Votes: 1
[X][Update Action] Ask about Yui herself.
-[X][Update Action] She was in the beta right? Ask if she's noticed any major changes... Besides the event logout thing. No. of Votes: 1
[X][Update Action] Ask Yui about the game
-[X][Update Action] How does this game work? What is a nerve gear?
-[X][Update Action] WHAT YEAR IS IT No. of Votes: 1
[X][Update Action] Ask Yui about herself
-[X][Update Action] She seems kind of young to be in an MMO, much less a full-immersion VR game
-[X][Update Action] How'd she get her nerve gear?
[X][Update Action] Ask Yui about the game
-[X][Update Action] How does this game work? What is a nerve gear?
You settle into a chair across from Yui. You spend a brief fraction of a second wondering how you know how to settle gracefully into a chair like that, then shake it off and move on to why you came: Food.
"Can you recommend anything?"
Yui looks at the wall.
"Uh, nnno, I haven't actually been here before. But more expensive is usually better!"
That seems surprisingly simplistic. Especially compared to everything else. Yui must catch something, because she continues onward after a brief pause.
"A permanent crafting NPC like this will give you almost the same thing every time. I'm not sure why. Zone event NPCs like food carts in cities and hunting campfires are the opposite, they're really super random."
You nod in comprehension. This is a game; players often won't want to bother with hunting down a good solution and will just click the "buy" button. The very best food, on the other hand, would be something to hunt for.
Now to acquire the best food in the establishment. A problem arises, of course.
"How do I check how much money I have?"
"It's on your inventory screen! Click on 'equipment'."
She pouts.
"You might not have any. Uhhh. I guess I'll pay! I spent all morning grinding, it's not expensive."
"Okay. I guess…"
You think about what you saw on the board, looking for the most expensive item, then realize you should probably actually look at it.
"…the beef stew, then. How do I or- ah."
The waitress – you briefly wonder if the perfect timing is coincidence, good estimation, or the Hand of Cardinal, then dismiss it as paranoia – is already halfway to your table. You commend the game designers' dedication to immersion as the waitress puts down glasses of water and cloth napkins.
"May I take your order?"
You shove down another thought about the ethics of simulating Turing-test capable NPCs and answer.
"Beef stew, please?"
She nods, then turns to Yui.
"Cheese! And bread!"
The waitress smiles at the irrepressible little girl.
"Sounds good! That will be 25 col."
"I'm paying!"
Yui swipes the air to bring up her status screen, then pokes at a few buttons. A few moments later the screen closes, followed by a cartoony jingling noise as a stereotypical leather drawstring bag falls out of the air and into her hand. She hands it to the waitress, and the bag disappears into the same thin air it fell out of.
"Perfect. Your food will be ready in a few minutes."
You nod, and the waitress turns and heads for the kitchen.
While you wait for the food…
"Mind if I ask how you got into this game? You seem to be a little bit young for it."
"My Dad builds MMOs!" Yui proclaims this fact proudly.
Interesting. You'll have to find a way to ask about the technology on display here. Even if it's another Tinker's work, you've been able to extract important details from alert lab assistants before.
"So you grew up around them? That must have been an interesting childhood." You think back to your experiences moderating Parahumans Online. "I'm surprised he let you actually play, though."
Yui grins sheepishly.
"This is actually my first time on my own. MMOs are family time and Dad blocks people aaaaaall the time." She brightens up. "But SAO has Cardinal! So I'm allowed to play by myself as long as I keep the bad-words filter on and report people."
She sits up straight and pouts at you.
"But that doesn't mean I'm a noob! I'm already level two!"
You wave your hands defensively and find yourself smiling at her adorable seriousness.
"I wouldn't have dreamed it. I don't play video games, remember? If anybody's a noob here, it's me."
You can almost feel the lightbulb that goes on above Yui's head.
"Ooh! I can teach you! Want to go kill things once we're done eating?"
You did decide to try to enjoy yourself.
"Maybe. I still haven't even figured out what kind of game this is yet. But yes, I should actually try playing it."
Yui throws up her hands in celebration.
"Yay!"
You catch sight of movement from the kitchen; Yui notices you looking past her and turns to look too.
"Food! Double yay!"
The waitress smiles as she sets down a plate full of bread and cheese in front of Yui, then turns to place your bowl of stew, along with a plate with a few pieces of bread, in front of you.
"Do you need anything else? Drinks?"
You and Yui chorus a negative, and the waitress departs.
Yui grabs a chunk of cheese a loaf of bread and starts eating. Following her lead, you pick up the spoon that came with the plate and grab a bite yourself.
It's good. Words could describe it. You've idly read enough cooking and eating experiences that you can infer which of these flavors are savory and salty and distinguish the potatoes and the carrots and the beef. But why would you? You revel in the sensation.
…
"Come on, it's not that bad."
Wha– oh. You finish the spoonful of stew to reply. The taste lingers.
"Uh. Sorry. Not bad. Wasn't expecting that."
She must see something in your expression. Again. Traitorous automatic face. You're used to expressing emotion manually; this is going to take some getting used to. Still worth it. "Are you okay?" She snaps her fingers at you, then waves and watches your eyes as you follow the motion. "Are you experiencing any synesthesia? They said they'd fixed that."
"What? No, no, I'm fine."
How to explain.
"I was born without a sense of smell." It's true, albeit misleading. This won't be the first time this happens, either, so you might as well establish it as a permanent character trait. "So I'm not used to tasting things. Whatever they're using to send sensory stimuli apparently bypasses that. It was kind of intense."
Yui winces sympathetically.
"Oh. Wow. My cheese tastes a teensy bit like cardboard. If your beef stew is intense, uh, that sucks."
You smile wistfully.
"It does. But I'll be okay." You think. No harm in admitting that you're enjoying yourself. "Especially if I can figure out what's going on outside and come back later."
Yui's grin returns in full force.
"Mhm!"
You return your attention to your spoon, which you notice you'd been holding aimlessly as you talked, and you dig in happily.
The simulation even includes an extremely satisfying sensation of satiated fullness. You know that you should be worried about what what's going on with your thought processes, but you already decided that you couldn't do anything about it yet and you'd deal with it when you logged out. Instead, you stretch out in your seat contentedly – again with the instincts! – and feel relaxation flow through you. You'll have to figure out how to replicate this outside the simulation; it's almost as good as a good book or some successful tinkering, and it's so easy! The human body has all the drawbacks you'd expected, but the upsides so far have been more than worth it.
You hear Yui giggling at your open display of sloth.
You crack an eye open to give Yui a look.
"Hey, you try finding out what beef stew tastes like."
You settle back in as Yui's giggling redoubles.
"Mmm. I'll be good in a few minutes."
Yui skips ahead of you as you wander out of the tavern, heading back toward the lift at the center of the town. You catch up as Yui, seeing that the lift has gone back down to the base of the plateau, seizes a cord hanging on a post you didn't see earlier and yanks on it excitedly. You listen for what must be a bell below, but you can't hear it over the crowd.
As good a time as any to start the conversation back up, you guess. And you did want to see what you could get out of Yui…
"So what is all this, anyway? And how does it work? You mentioned something about a 'Nerve Gear'?"
"Yep! The NerveGear-" You hear the emphasis this time- "is the first second-generation full-dive virtual reality device. Some amusement parks have been using it for a few years, but the first-generation version was too expensive to be successful. Now it's available to anyone!"
You nod.
"It uses low-power microwaves to read and write to neurons in your brain." You raise your eyebrows. That's impressive, if true. You can see a path from the space-division multiplexing trans-cranial magnetic stimulation technology you'd bought from Cranial to– no, tinkering later. "They waited to release it until they could do all of the major senses and sensations, even taste and stuff."
That makes you grin, and you pat your stomach.
"I noticed."
Yui sticks out her tongue at you, then goes back into lecture mode.
"Sword Art Online is the launch title for the NerveGear and it's amazing. You know that you're one of the first people in the world to get to try this, right?"
"You'd mentioned that there were only ten thousand of them on the East Coast." You pause and consider. "I wasn't aware it was the first consumer product using the technology, though. This is amazingly advanced for an initial release."
"The inventor is a genius. SAO is his, you know? He did the AI and the NerveGear and everything."
You blink. Almost certainly a Tinker, then. And an amazingly powerful one at that. You need to find him. This technology – the mind boggles.
"Wow."
Yui's interrupted by the arrival of the lift. The stairs fold down to the ground and the gate opens, and the operator smiles at you and Yui.
"Going down?"
"Mhm!"
Yui hops up the stairs and into the lift and spins in place, apparently just for fun. You follow her up at a more sedate pace.
The operator calls out. "Anybody else? Last call!"
He waits for a moment, then, seeing nobody running to catch the lift, pulls the lever. The gate closes, the stairs fold up, and the lift jerks into motion.
Yui's found her way to the edge and is staring out over the green, sunlit landscape. It's a beautiful scene, but with the recent conversation about the NerveGear, you can't quite enjoy it. The NerveGear is designed for humans. You aren't human. Or, as you're starting to worry, you weren't human. Hooking you into this simulation isn't just a question of feeding you the right perceptions. You didn't even have many of these senses until you woke up less than an hour ago. You'd been investigating the task yourself and you'd barely known how to get started. Qualia were… difficult. And yet here you are.
You're jolted out of your musing by the lift reaching the ground again. The operator tips his hat at you as you depart, and you nod a good day to him. Yui, contrary to your expectations, pauses just outside the gate instead of running out to frolic in the lush grass.
She brings up her fingers and swipes at the air, and you realize what she's doing moments before she's surrounded by a glittering, multicolored cloud of polygons. Her hair billows out behind her again and the special effects coalesce out of the air and resolve into… a suit of rigid leather armor. It doesn't cover her entire body, but it does fully cover her torso, plus pieces for her shoulders, upper and lower arms, and tubes going all the way around her upper and lower legs. Underneath all this is a full suit of padded, quilted fabric, from her heavy boots to her neck.
You stare.
Yui grins at your expression and taps again before planting her feet and holding her hands out, one to each side. She's posed as if she's expecting to receive more items, and she does, two more clouds of polygons forming into a round wooden shield and a hammer. Yui spins the hammer, not lightly, but also not particularly slowly or heavily. It's completely unlike what you saw in the shops, barely bigger than what you'd see at a real-world construction site. Well-balanced, sized for her to use, and a head that's heavy enough to build up energy but light enough to be moved quickly. The shield is similarly reasonably sized and shaped, being big enough to have some weight behind it but not so heavy that she can't move it.
Yui bounces on her toes, shaking herself into the armor, and she lights up with a kind of evil, satisfied glee. She's still tiny, but it's a very different kind of tiny now than it was a few seconds ago.
"But– The shops–"
"Vendor trash! At higher levels the crazy stuff works and you can use it, but for now we're still solidly human and the crystal swords shatter. Now come on! Come on, comeoncomeoncomeon, equipment! Tap on slots to equip things!"
You do, bringing up your status page, then tapping on your Torso slot to see what you can equip there. To your surprise you're presented with a selection.
Starter Set One-Handed Sword Starter Set Rapier Starter Set Halberd Starter Set Two-Handed Sword Starter Set War Hammer Starter Set Hand-Axe Starter Set Dagger Starter Set Spear Starter Set Light Shield Starter Set Heavy Shield
"Okay! Just tell me what you think you'd like and I'll show you how to do it! And you can switch later, it's not like a few hours will do anything."
You're going to cover everything, but what do you want to ask Yui to focus on? Ranked voting!
[] [Update Action] Skills. What do skills do? What skills are available? How do they work?
[] [Update Action] Fighting. How does combat work? What works and what doesn't?
[] [Update Action] Equipment. What are all these items? What do the numbers mean?
[] [Update Action] Questing. You'd just get bored grinding. You want to do stuff too!
[] [Update Action] Non-combat gameplay. How does community work in this game? Money and shops and crafting imply an economy.
[] [Update Action] Optimize. You don't expect to be here long, but you picked up a habit for efficiency from Colin.
Just for now, while you're reading and talking to Yui, what do you want to equip? Not your final answer, just what to try first! Approval voting! The tally will be partitioned by line, so vote for everything you'd enjoy and the most popular wins. Write-ins welcome, but Yui might veto them.
[] [Equip] Sword and Board. A classic. (Heavy tank)
[] [Equip] Swordsman. Simple but effective. (Medium DPS)
[] [Equip] Halberd :3 (Heavy DPS)
[] [Equip] Big sword, heavy armor. (Heavy balanced)
[] [Equip] Dagger. Stabbity stab stab. (Light, close-in DPS)
[] [Equip] Rapier. En garde! (Light, highly mobile DPS)
[] [Equip] Axe and shield. Chop chop. (Heavy balanced)
[] [Equip] Spear. Keep your enemies close, but not too close. (Medium, highly mobile balanced)
[] [Equip] Nothing. You ARE the hidden Dragon. (Light "tank")
Credit to @Alivaril for kicking me back into gear on this.
[] [Equip] Spear and shield. Feel the phalanx. Be the phalanx.
[] [Equip] Big sword, no armor. Where's the blue facepaint when you need it?
[] [Equip] Greatbow What do you mean, this game doesn't have ranged options?
I'm pretty much just voting in the order of what I think we probably need to know about the most. We can do optimization ourselves later while equipment and fighting probably don't need more than a cursory glance for us to get the idea.
[1] [Update Action] Skills. What do skills do? What skills are available? How do they work?
[4] [Update Action] Fighting. How does combat work? What works and what doesn't?
[6] [Update Action] Equipment. What are all these items? What do the numbers mean?
[2] [Update Action] Questing. You'd just get bored grinding. You want to do stuff too!
[3] [Update Action] Non-combat gameplay. How does community work in this game? Money and shops and crafting imply an economy.
[5] [Update Action] Optimize. You don't expect to be here long, but you picked up a habit for efficiency from Colin.
[X] [Equip] Sword and Board. A classic. (Heavy tank)
[X] [Equip] Swordsman. Simple but effective. (Medium DPS)
[X] [Equip] Dagger. Stabbity stab stab. (Light, close-in DPS)
[X] [Equip] Rapier. En garde! (Light, highly mobile DPS)
[X] [Equip] Spear. Keep your enemies close, but not too close. (Medium, highly mobile balanced)
[X] [Equip] Nothing. You ARE the hidden Dragon. (Light "tank")
Reasoning: The easier it is for Dragon to react to new changes in the environment, the better. That generally means we'll want to be using either light or medium loadouts, I expect. Sword and Board is included despite the heavy armor since I think Dragon will likely be better at multitasking than most puny humans. Speaking from IRL experience, independently operating a sword and a shield could make a pretty big difference.
If I could only vote for one, I'd probably go for spear. I'm a bit iffy on the unarmed combat, but if we can get it to work, that means more money we can spend on things other than weapons.
