Someone's gonna have to explain this to me (Cronley/Town)

[RyuKaiser29]

So, as you know, there's a guy name Silas in the Town camped by refugees being extorted by Cronley. I chose to kill him, that way when he saw the smouldering, burning wreckage of his former base, he wouldn't try to axe everyone. I bee-lined it straight for their camp, leaving a path of complete and utter destruction, clearly feeling the need to quickly save those people. That and I was sure the devs would pull some sort of stupidity if I chose to stop the game there (come back to flaming ruins).

I jumped in the mine, killed every last enemy I could find, adn I butchered Darius using my Dive Bomb Rogue build (teleport attack and poison + freezing spinning blades and lucky gambit attacks). Beat him. Alright, yay me, the village is saved. I walk out the door and find a boy... who says he just saw me in the town.

... Ok. I'm pretty sure I would have seen a bunch of bandits carrying a boy up the road past me on my one way path of slaughter. So I free him, and send him to town. I exit the mountain, ready to be embraced by the people I just saved.

... Flaming Ruins.

Oh look. That's adorable. They're trying to be edgy.

Honestly, I could leave it alone if I felt that I had wronged somewhere, but I literally shot straight for the enemy boss, butchered him and his forces along the way, leaving absolutely NO ONE to relay information or even try and make for a revenge killing. So I want to know: Did the devs screw this up in the worst of ways, or did the bandits somehow figure out instant messaging, and I'm simply not seeing the cellphones? Because otherwise, I'm calling shenanigans.

[Ryu_Sheng]

thats quest consequence for you. Pick one route and itplays out in a certain way, regardless of what you do next.

it's one of the flaws in ALL rpg's and it's not something that will change

[Daft Gamer]

Yeah. If this were a tabletop, then rushing through might have worked since the DM would grasp the speed that you responded. However, with PC games, unless the dev puts a timer on it(hate those quests personally) it's going to have to go to one state or the other. Thems the breaks about binary choices.

[Fendelphi]

To be fair, the villager tells you that "they are watching from the cliffs" and "would surely retaliate if we do something", or something like that.

As you leave the village to go after Cronley, the "watchmen"(ie, those bandits you didnt see) killed the refugees and burned down the village in response for killing Silas, as they have been ordered to do so.

So you gambled the villagers life, thinking you could save them if you only could get to Cronley fast enough. Unfortunately, you lost the gamble. Such is life.

There are a few of these "what is right and wrong" quests, where the consequence of your actions might turn out differently than you perceived.

[RyuKaiser29]

Fend, your comment would make sense if Silas wasn't standing completely blocked off by a large building, and that I saw absolutely no enemies on the cliff, given you pretty much have to clear the cliffs to get to the village (not to mention that the only thing up there are wasps and the like).

If they're talking about the mountain area, most of their camps are far, far away from any cliffs whatsoever, so unless they have someone just standing there, staring at where Silas is supposed to be (and able to see him through walls, and in non-ant form), then by all means. The game completely took me out of my hero fantasy, and I ended up dropping a character because of it, simply because of how ridiculously stupid it was.

I feel that if I try to be the badass lone gunman you see in Cowboy flicks, I'm going to be absolutely punished for it. I can't be the growly voiced badass that makes the lives of everyone better, I have to be a whimpering, bartering coward that throws all the money bad people want at them. I redid the quest with another character, and had to give Silas the scrap, then go kill the enemy. Silas happily gets away with it, unless the villagers murdered him after seeing the bandits running out of their hideout.

Unfortunately, they never mention anything like it, so yeah.

[Insubordination]

This greatly disappointed me as well. I even tried a second time. First I ignored the village but went to kill cronley and everyone then came back to "save" the village. It was still on fire later. Who set it on fire? The spiteful ghost of Cronley? I feel like there's an option that could be included that would be the "best" option and it's just not included because they want the atmosphere of the game to be helpless but with all possibilties for this scenario it just seems unrealistically helpless for the sake of being helpless.

[DeMasked]

If you ignore the village and kill Cronley, Silas leaves and then you get a reward.

If the village was set on fire most likely someone in your game killed Silas.

[Daikaiju]

So let me get this straight. The game makes it clear to you that if you kill a character, there will be consequences. You kill the character, and then complain when bad things happen?

Just lol.

[Fendelphi]

Originally posted by Ryu Kaiser:

Fend, your comment would make sense if Silas wasn't standing completely blocked off by a large building, and that I saw absolutely no enemies on the cliff, given you pretty much have to clear the cliffs to get to the village (not to mention that the only thing up there are wasps and the like).

If they're talking about the mountain area, most of their camps are far, far away from any cliffs whatsoever, so unless they have someone just standing there, staring at where Silas is supposed to be (and able to see him through walls, and in non-ant form), then by all means. The game completely took me out of my hero fantasy, and I ended up dropping a character because of it, simply because of how ridiculously stupid it was.

I feel that if I try to be the badass lone gunman you see in Cowboy flicks, I'm going to be absolutely punished for it. I can't be the growly voiced badass that makes the lives of everyone better, I have to be a whimpering, bartering coward that throws all the money bad people want at them. I redid the quest with another character, and had to give Silas the scrap, then go kill the enemy. Silas happily gets away with it, unless the villagers murdered him after seeing the bandits running out of their hideout.

Unfortunately, they never mention anything like it, so yeah.

The enemies on the cliffs are simply hiding(ie. enemies you cant kill). And if they dont see him walk around(because obviously they dont stand still 24/7), they quickly realize that something is wrong. ;)

That is how it is with most games. The NPCs somehow know what you have done, and the predefined consequences for the action follows.
GTA, TES and other games have similar "rules" when it comes to consequences.
If you commit a crime in GTA, eventually you get stars, even if no police force is there to see it.
In Elder Scrolls, you have to be spotted in the act, but after that, every guard in the world knows that you are a criminal.
That is gaming logic. Real world logic does not apply.


The point is, the game tells you that if you do this, there will be consequences, and it is up to you if you want to take that gamble/risk. In some situations it pays off, in others it doesnt.
I too was taken by surprise when I did that option in the quest, thinking that I could still save the town. And truthfully, I too was a little disappointed at first.

But then I thought how well it reflected how little control we really have in this world.
We aim to do good, but we dont fully know the conesequences of our decisions.
Similarly, some choices we do earlier in the game might have consequences later on.
For instance, the traitor in Devil's Crossing might appear in Cronley's hideout, depending on what option you choose when you expose him.

This is an apocalypse. Even if you aim to do good and be a badass gunman, things dont always go the way you want them to.

[powbam]

But hey, if he happens to know how to program real life, on-the-fly cause and effect consequences into video game AI, I imagine Crate, and others, would love to hire this guy :)

[Not a Snake]

Late reply, but the most obvious assumption: The bandits had spies/traitors INSIDE the village itself. You know, like how there was a traitor in Devil's Crossing.

[Anathema]

Really? You think your comment was so necessary that it warranted a 3-year necro bump? Everybody's moved on, and so should you.

[Ryu_Sheng]

not quite 3 years yet so he's good :P Nothing like a bit of necrophilia on a cold christmas morning

[powbam]

well then

[Anathema]

Originally posted by Rhenthyl:

not quite 3 years yet so he's good :P Nothing like a bit of necrophilia on a cold christmas morning

Uh, no. I'd draw the line at like, a month. After that, I'm pretty sure nobody cares anymore.

[RyuKaiser29]

Wow. I keep getting booped with comment notifications.

Yeah, I've been past this for a while. I just stopped giving a damn about the story and click through all the text. I don't even go to the village anymore, I just beeline to Cronley. Game has amazing mechanics, but if I wanted that much edge, I'd read fanfiction about Sasuke Uchiha.