Dialog - To Stop Time or Not to Stop Time?

[ChrisPharmD]

I'm sure this is a preference question, but I'm curious as to what others think.

I know basically nothing about this game except that there's a timed mechanic which was spoiled for me, though I'm not too upset because that intrigued me to try this game.

I'm the type of person who exhausts all dialog, talks to the same NPC over and over again to see if there's any new dialog. It's almost like I have an obsession with ensuring I read every dialog option no matter how insignificant it is to the overall experience of the game.

I see the default settings, and time is set to progress even during dialog. Do you think it hinders the play through of the game if I opt to stop time while talking to NPCs?

So, now imagine my blind play through of Cave Story missing all the secrets while at the same time thinking I'm such a genius to talk to each NPC multiple times. Somewhat ironic.

[ChrisPharmD]

Messaggio originale di Quillithe:

Messaggio originale di ChrisPharmD:

I thought about shortcuts for the underground city since you escape near the gravity cannon, but IIRC you need to unlock a door to jump out of that. So, I just go through the distress signal area and try to get there as fast as possible. I can get there in 30 seconds to 1 minute.

Brittle Hollow is way more complicated. Trying to fly your ship down there is ridiculously hard because of the gravity from the black hole and hitting stuff. I always break my ship down there.

The only path I know is the Southern Observatory path because I attempted it like 10 times before I even realized there was more places to jump. I'm pretty sure the only reason I found the Hanging City was attempting to find either the Northern Glacier or the Southern Observatory. There's so much going on with that planet that I feel like I'm always lost.

Sounds like you're doing these both the hard way:

Brittle Hollow
First off, flying underground is hard, you can just land at the ruins with Riebeck and climb down the building and run down the road following the signs. But also if you enter through there and turn right there's an exit back to the surface in a tower. If you can remember where it comes out, you can just land there in the future.

Ember Twin (you pretty much know this one)
You don't need to unlock any door, you can just land at the gravity cannon and go right inside.

Those are the big places you're likely to need multiple trips so they have easy access like this right from the surface.

Also for brittle hollow there's a map of sorts near Riebeck that shows all the locations on the planet and how they connect.

Okay cool. Thanks for the tips.

Yeah, that path underground is a real pain. And the city down there is huge. When I first saw it, I thought it was a couple of rooms, but when I got efficient at getting there, I saw it all light up and I thought, "Oh crap."

Flying inside - yeah it's real hard. And Brittle Hollow is confusing because I try to look for the colors on the inside walls to navigate but I think it's opposite of the map. Not only that, but to realign myself, I have to jump out of the ship, look at the map and see what direction I'm facing, hop back in, and just try my best to make it to where I'm going. As far as I know, the planet map isn't shown while piloting the ship. And I haven't really figured out a way to tell which way is north and south except by landmarks.

When I tried approaching the Phantom Moon from the South, I basically just had to stare at it and keep bobbing in and out until I realized it wasn't ever going to work out.

I haven't figured that moon out yet. The Nomai seem obsessed with that moon. It seems like every tool they build to find stuff doesn't work. In the Southern Observatory, I spent a long time trying to figure out if the solar system display was a puzzle or if it was just trying to illustrate a point.

Oh and I'm not done with the anglerfish. I found the dead bodies of the Nomai crew, but I never found out how to access the Vessel. I shot the Scout into the seed, but it just shows a huge Nomadic Ship according to my log. I tried it on Timber Heath and nothing still.

I feel like I spent way more time in this game doing stuff I thought would be cool if it worked rather than doing stuff that your ship's log informed you to do. It just seemed like a cool idea to have the comet crash into a planet or have the ability to save yourself by being clutch and making a black hole leap or blowing up the lava moon with a shuttle. Stuff like that seemed interesting to me. So, I made slow progress. I mean, I still do stupid stuff just to try it out. But I'm having to be more strict now that there's less to experiment with.

[Quillithe]

Messaggio originale di ChrisPharmD:

Okay cool. Thanks for the tips.

Yeah, that path underground is a real pain. And the city down there is huge. When I first saw it, I thought it was a couple of rooms, but when I got efficient at getting there, I saw it all light up and I thought, "Oh crap."

Flying inside - yeah it's real hard. And Brittle Hollow is confusing because I try to look for the colors on the inside walls to navigate but I think it's opposite of the map. Not only that, but to realign myself, I have to jump out of the ship, look at the map and see what direction I'm facing, hop back in, and just try my best to make it to where I'm going. As far as I know, the planet map isn't shown while piloting the ship. And I haven't really figured out a way to tell which way is north and south except by landmarks.

I never really tried flying under the surface, it's a pain. You should be able to get around fine on foot with your jetpack and boost. Also you'll have the planet map with the poles that way.

Messaggio originale di ChrisPharmD:

When I tried approaching the Phantom Moon from the South, I basically just had to stare at it and keep bobbing in and out until I realized it wasn't ever going to work out.

I haven't figured that moon out yet. The Nomai seem obsessed with that moon. It seems like every tool they build to find stuff doesn't work. In the Southern Observatory, I spent a long time trying to figure out if the solar system display was a puzzle or if it was just trying to illustrate a point.

It sounds like you might know what you technically need to know.
Did you track down all the quantum signals?

Messaggio originale di ChrisPharmD:

Oh and I'm not done with the anglerfish. I found the dead bodies of the Nomai crew, but I never found out how to access the Vessel. I shot the Scout into the seed, but it just shows a huge Nomadic Ship according to my log. I tried it on Timber Heath and nothing still.

I feel like I spent way more time in this game doing stuff I thought would be cool if it worked rather than doing stuff that your ship's log informed you to do. It just seemed like a cool idea to have the comet crash into a planet or have the ability to save yourself by being clutch and making a black hole leap or blowing up the lava moon with a shuttle. Stuff like that seemed interesting to me. So, I made slow progress. I mean, I still do stupid stuff just to try it out. But I'm having to be more strict now that there's less to experiment with.

Hint about the vessel
You can see where the scout is once you launch it

There is some unintended or alternate tricky things you can do for sure, as long as you don't get frustrated by trying to do them haha.

[ChrisPharmD]

Are you sure you don't have to unlock a door for the fastest route into the underground city?

Near the gravity cannon, there's a hole in the ground. You can land your ship over it and drop right through it. Then, there's a bunch of Ghost Material crystal like objects on the ground. You fly over it and come across a door to unlock. And bam, you're in.

I'm glad you made me think to try that because I wasn't doing it since I thought that door was locked and one-way.

[ChrisPharmD]

I'll list out what my log is telling me is incomplete:

------------------------

Sun Station - Orange - More to Explore

-------------------------

Ember/Ash Twin

Sunless City - More to Explore - Four Districts - Nomai perused Eye of the Universe. Nomai built Sun Station.

Lakebed Cave - Orange - Guy went missing. It mentions something about checking the North Pole.

High Energy Lab - Orange - Negative Time Interval after using White Hole Teleport

----------------------------

Brittle Hollow

The Hanging City - Orange - More to Explore - Nomai city suspended beneath northern glacier - 4 districts. I found a switch in the Meltwater District that raises and lowers the Black Hole Forge. The Nomai debated how to obtain the powerful, highly advanced warp core required for the Ash Twin Project.

Black Hole Forge - Orange - It's suspended below the Hanging City. The highest district in the Hanging City. Nomai named Poke planned to create a new advanced warp core in it. Nomai crafted warp cores before delivering them to Ash Twin.

Hollow's Lantern - Not even shown on my log. There's nothing there except an outline of the moon.

----------------------

Quantum Moon - Orange - Nomaion Brittle Hollow/Ember Twin observed moon that would disappear when nobody was observing it.

Solanum's Shuttle - Clear

Quantum Shrine - Orange - Nomai built a shrine to aid in the pilgrimage to its sixth location

Sixth Location - Orange - Quantum Shrine on the Quantum Moon must be on the north pole to access

--------------------

Giant's Deep (All clear except figuring out how to get past electricity)

Probe Tracking Module - Orange - Receiving data from launched probe, Any Nomai aboard the Probe Tracking Module would be the first to see the coordinates of the Eye of the Universe. Nomai computer reports the Probe Tacking Module as "Missing." I saw it through a Nomai projection pool. It looks like the module is underwater. I could see purple electricity outside the viewport.

--------------------------

Dark Bramble

Inside the Seed - Orange

The Vessel - Orange

Escape Pod 3 - Clear

Nomai Grave - Clear

--------------

Interloper

Frozen Nomai Shuttle - Clear

Subsurface Energy Readings - Orange

[ChrisPharmD]

The High Energy Lab is impossible. I got from the starting point to the underground city in 30 seconds. That door is lying.

[Bobywan]

Messaggio originale di ChrisPharmD:

The High Energy Lab is impossible. I got from the starting point to the underground city in 30 seconds. That door is lying.

It's the bottom door in the sunless city, sand starts flowing around 2 minutes in so you have plenty of time if you take the gravoty canon shortcut.

I think you also have a lot of explring to do on ash twin as well. Just a small hint: everything important is located on the towers on the bridge, there is no hidden cave or things like that.

[ChrisPharmD]

Oh I found a faster way to the Hanging City. If you go to the Norther Glacier, there's a hole leading down into the City. It's really hard to find, and the best way to find it is to climb all the way up and out of the city itself. It appears like ice caps it off, but there is a small hole.

Definitely a 30 second start to Hanging City.

[Quillithe]

Messaggio originale di ChrisPharmD:

Oh I found a faster way to the Hanging City. If you go to the Norther Glacier, there's a hole leading down into the City. It's really hard to find, and the best way to find it is to climb all the way up and out of the city itself. It appears like ice caps it off, but there is a small hole.

Definitely a 30 second start to Hanging City.

Yeah that's the one I was trying to hint at in a spoiler. Honestly I didn't bother because I had a hard time finding the hole again and it's not too long to just drop down from the gravity crystal workshop and walk down the bridge.

Sunless city shortcut is amazing though because the normal path is so long

[Quillithe]

Looks like you're pretty far along, sounds like you have important things to find especially in
Sunless city, especially the path to high energy lab

Lakebed cave, though you might know enough to figure out quantum moon without it

Dark Bramble, there are ways to navigate
Those should point to some more stuff

[ChrisPharmD]

Messaggio originale di Quillithe:

Looks like you're pretty far along, sounds like you have important things to find especially in
Sunless city, especially the path to high energy lab

Lakebed cave, though you might know enough to figure out quantum moon without it

Dark Bramble, there are ways to navigate
Those should point to some more stuff

Man, I haven't come up with anything at all. I can't figure out what the black hole forge thing does, the Hanging City doesn't seem to have anything, and I had to look up a video on how to find the High Energy Lab.

Hear me out on the High Energy Lab. I was going to the same place every time, but I was paying attention to the pulsing blue wire and didn't even consider taking a right at all. The thought never even entered my brain. So, I kept getting stuck where the blue pulsing wire went into the wall.

I did the experiment where you see how the object comes out of the white hole faster than the object enters the black hole, and I saw the notes about finding a 22-minute negative time interval or whatever it's called.

I now see the symbols for each planet. One of the symbols is actually the symbol for the Probe Cannon. And the symbols in the Hanging City also represent the symbols of each section of the Probe Cannon.

I've just been launching into space and trying to land on the Sun Station. I'm getting bored. lol I'm starting to run out of ideas.

[Quillithe]

The High Energy Lab also tells you (if you didn't figure it out beforehand) that Ash Twin is a planet full of teleporters linking to the other planets. Might be helpful to figure out where they all go.


Here are some more helpful spoilers, increasing order of spoileryness on each topic
Dark Bramble
Figure out how to navigate

Use your probe and signalscope

You can track a signal in there that it doesn't sound like you followed, or shoot the probe through seeds and track it on your display


Quantum Moon
Find the cave on Ember Twin

You should know quantum things move when you aren't looking if you did the Giant's Deep tower

When you fly into the atmosphere, you don't see the moon anymore and it can move away. Is there a way to avoid this?

[ChrisPharmD]

Messaggio originale di Quillithe:

The High Energy Lab also tells you (if you didn't figure it out beforehand) that Ash Twin is a planet full of teleporters linking to the other planets. Might be helpful to figure out where they all go.


Here are some more helpful spoilers, increasing order of spoileryness on each topic
Dark Bramble
Figure out how to navigate

Use your probe and signalscope

You can track a signal in there that it doesn't sound like you followed, or shoot the probe through seeds and track it on your display


Quantum Moon
Find the cave on Ember Twin

You should know quantum things move when you aren't looking if you did the Giant's Deep tower

When you fly into the atmosphere, you don't see the moon anymore and it can move away. Is there a way to avoid this?

Ah man, I just woke up. I'm pretty sure I played Outer Wilds yesterday for maybe 25 hours and then I slept for 18 hours.

I was close to looking it all up, but I didn't. I might play something else a little bit today to break it up because I'm getting a little burnt out. I need to do a true ending of Cave Story (heh, yeah right. I could never do that.)

I'll report back when I try some quantum stuff. God I hate quantum stuff! lol

[Quillithe]

Messaggio originale di ChrisPharmD:

Ah man, I just woke up. I'm pretty sure I played Outer Wilds yesterday for maybe 25 hours and then I slept for 18 hours.

I was close to looking it all up, but I didn't. I might play something else a little bit today to break it up because I'm getting a little burnt out. I need to do a true ending of Cave Story (heh, yeah right. I could never do that.)

I'll report back when I try some quantum stuff. God I hate quantum stuff! lol

Yeah don't burn yourself out.

As you've noticed, your log is divided into four (I think four?) colors with different mysteries, and once you find out about all of them you should be at least close to figuring out the ending
I'll leave you some spoilery comments here for each:

Ash Twin Project:
Check out all the teleporters on ash twin, also the quarry on timber hearth. After that you should have some idea of what to do, though there are some tricky steps involved with parts of this

Vessel: track your probe to it

Probe tracking module: There's an island on giant's deep that tells you Feldspar managed to figure out how to get to the core before flying off into Dark Bramble. Track him down for help

Quantum moon:
If you REALLY give up on how to land here's how

take a photo with your scout and then land

[ChrisPharmD]

Messaggio originale di Quillithe:

Messaggio originale di ChrisPharmD:

Ah man, I just woke up. I'm pretty sure I played Outer Wilds yesterday for maybe 25 hours and then I slept for 18 hours.

I was close to looking it all up, but I didn't. I might play something else a little bit today to break it up because I'm getting a little burnt out. I need to do a true ending of Cave Story (heh, yeah right. I could never do that.)

I'll report back when I try some quantum stuff. God I hate quantum stuff! lol

Yeah don't burn yourself out.

As you've noticed, your log is divided into four (I think four?) colors with different mysteries, and once you find out about all of them you should be at least close to figuring out the ending
I'll leave you some spoilery comments here for each:

Ash Twin Project:
Check out all the teleporters on ash twin, also the quarry on timber hearth. After that you should have some idea of what to do, though there are some tricky steps involved with parts of this

Vessel: track your probe to it

Probe tracking module: There's an island on giant's deep that tells you Feldspar managed to figure out how to get to the core before flying off into Dark Bramble. Track him down for help

Quantum moon:
If you REALLY give up on how to land here's how

take a photo with your scout and then land

I saw a tape player that Feldstar left behind, and it said he lived and crashed 0 times and his last destination was Dark Bramble. Is that the same thing you're talking about? No, it can't be because it didn't tell me how to get to the core.

Okay, here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to go straight to my log and do the North Pole thing for the missing lakeside guy. I'll go from there.

Not gonna lie, I'm so lost on the Quantum Moon concept that your direct instruction on how to land on it is completely lost on me. I have thought about that moon zero percent of my run so far. lol I only tried to land on it once and that was because it presented itself to me and I was like "Aight I'll bite. I'm gonna try to land on it once." lol

I'll work on it!

Thanks!

[ChrisPharmD]

OMG I cannot believe it. I found Feldspar. I cannot believe I didn't think to use the signal to track him down. I thought that because the harmonica was coming from so many different directions that it was useless to chase after it.

I found his ship and read the note about the jellyfish. So, you use the jellyfish to insulate yourself from the electricity.

But in my excitement, I tried to fly so fast to my ship that I hit a vine and died. RIP

Now, I have to figure out if I want to go back to talk to him or if I want to go straight to the island and see if I can't get in the jellyfish.

Also, I *think* the vessel is in the comet. There were roots in the comet and from the images I saw shooting my Scout in there, I either saw the inside of the comet or simply Feldspar's ship.

I dunno. I now have some things to try! But there might be a fast way back to Feldspar if you locate the jellyfish and walk back through the vine. I'll have to try it.

I would have never figured it out if it weren't for the advice to look for the Scout's multiple signals.