KVVRR
Learned
- Joined
- Apr 28, 2020
- Messages
- 618
I know about the ending cutscenes, that doesn't change the fact that the system is doomed unless somebody fixes the soil situation -- which afaik this doesn't happen if you side with the board -- and that the board itself is INSUFFERABLE during your entire playthrough even if you side with them from the start. I personally don't care about wiping out edgewater, I'm the kind of player Tim specifically designed the "no unkillable npcs" design rule for, but when you have planets like Monarch still up and about despite "branching" away from the Board for years and with a leader that effectively also wants nothing to do with it, who DIDN'T rise to power in what's effectively a coup by an outsider, getting that as your first real board mission does nothing but make the board seem like incompetent and malignant fools. The town itself realistically had nothing to do with it, yet they're being punished all the same. So why would you ever send the one guy who caused the problem in the first place to deal with it instead of punishing him? What does the Board gain by wiping an entire colony off of their star system?Read the endings in my spoiler box. Your idea of how things work out is wrong.I've said this before but this doesn't work for The Board. The appeal of an evil or selfish playthrough like that is to rule either by yourself or amongst the best; to cast the plebians down to the pits where they belong and pound them with an iron fist as you see fit. You don't get this with the Board. Any material wealth you could amass with them is rendered useless both gameplay and in universe by halfway through the game when the starvation issue becomes clear, and the board itself is just way too incompetent for anyone to realistically want to side with them. This isn't New Vegas where you can be seduced by the appeal of power Mr House has in his own little town, with him showering you with caps and promises of a great future together as his second hand; this is a place where you're unironically going to be a wagie no matter how high you rank up, and your best hopes are to be frozen while somebody else fixes the problem, maybe. And as Lemming said, their quest is locked behind so many roadblocks -- not JUST the genocide or how it's set up, you can't even walk up to them in the first place and rat Welles out, you have to go through another incompetent manager first who also hates your guts -- that even I had to force myself to go through a board playthrough instead of just shooting everyone and getting it over with.The Board path isn't for you. It's primarily for those who put self-interest above all. Ruling in Hell instead of serving in Heaven.
Additionally, as I said, there is no "genocide" if you're not a schizo who helps out a woman who is so very obviously hostile to the board.
Arcanum's evil path legitimately does require you to destroy an entire town for the dark hippie elves. This isn't like that.
And mind you Akande is the one board member who seems to be halfway competent. Every other board faction member seemed to be written to be dumb funny first, an actual character second. Like I said before, the game prevents you from ratting Welles out, board's public enemy number 1, asap despite you knowing where he is hiding. The reason? Management incompetence.
It's been a while, but I also remember there not really being a good in-universe incentive for the player to side with the Board itself. From all you know at the start if the Board finds you out you're as good as dead, you're actively working with a terrorist and belong to the class of people the faction is going to dispose of to make room for themselves. Again, would money really be a good motivator when for all the player knows the system is going to fall into ruins very soon?