ifoz

One thing I just found out about just now that possibly points to a time period of the "old world": The Hanseatic League mentioned in the merchant set descriptions was a real-life merchant guild in the 1300's-1500's. They operated near Russia, fitting with the Great Steppe being in Eurasia. This likely points to the "old world" location that Falx and the Seraphs are from being somewhere in or near Russia in the 1500's or earlier.

I think I may have accidentally confused you sorry, there isn't a "recipe book" you can craft. I meant the survival guide, which you can access via the pause screen. It'll tell you how to get any item in the game. In regards to remembering things and not getting side-tracked, try leaving a specific block or item near your base or front door. You will later think "why is there a block of _____ at my door?" and then realise it's there to remind you that you had something to do. The ol' string on the finger trick! I hope this helps and clears up any confusion I may have spread.

I think if the loot was limited to clothes, books/other lore items, decorative blocks and gear that you would need to repair yourself, the issue of progression skipping could be negated. This is my dream, I love some of the class-exclusive clothes but I can't get them all in singleplayer without cheats! Please devs, just let me have my tailor jacket and mask, malefactor leather tunic and clockmaker wristguard! ------------------------------ I really like the instruments as voices as well, it's very reminiscent of Don't Starve. The devs could pull a meta move and make a tuning cylinder that at first listen sounds like a jaunty ragtime tune, but then you realise all the sounds are player voice instruments and it's actually a recording of people shouting and scuffling trying to force their way into the underground. ------------------------------ Imagine every trader with the generic male Nord voice. "Jonas save us! It's an Eidolon!"

I think the world was kind of 'scrambled' by all the temporal craziness, and has ended up unrecognisable from the old world. I hope that if there is some grand story, classes play into it a bit more. It could be really cool to see some major character like Tobias react differently to meeting you based on your class. I also had an interesting idea of something they could do with the story relevant to class, though I don't know how well it fits the game. I thought it could be cool if you could find a unique ruin of wherever our playable character lived before the calamity. You would probably have to go there for part of a main story event. A burnt-out tailor shop, a decaying blackguard barracks, a rundown and rot-infested hunting lodge, the possibilities are near endless, and I think it would add a bit more depth to our characters, truly cementing them as people who truly lived before the calamity and didn't just appear in the world one day because we joined the game. In regards to traders, I don't know! There is no lore mention of it, so I just assumed it was a stylistic choice. I like the way the seraphs look, even if it is a little goofy. I think it's endearing. I think all the traders are meant to be really old guys, so maybe they are just constantly squinting. (They haven't realised they need glasses yet).

Looks like we're posting screenshots! Here's one of my favourites that I've taken.

I think Sparrow was the leader of the 'local' branch of the Flock, and she is specifically mentioned to be a woman, tying in with the unidentified "she" in the Malefactor backstory. Initially I thought that Sparrow could be the falconer and that they are one and the same, though I doubt it when I think about it. Sparrow is said to be a woman of stocky build, most likely a mason or other manual labourer. I don't see someone of this description being a master with a bow like the falconer is said to be. I doubt the Flock would have any qualms with allowing a criminal to join their ranks, if said criminal was under scrutiny for trying to rebel against the upper class, and especially if that criminal is a master at foraging and scrounging for resources. I do get that from a design standpoint making clothes from a base helps things mesh more, but I just thought it was an interesting similarity regarding my earlier theory of the malefactor tying into the Flock. Looking at it from a lore perspective though, if the malefactor and Sparrow are from the same culture/region, then it is probably safe to assume they are from somewhere in upper Eurasia, as the real life Great Steppe is a vast band of land on the upper-middle half of Eurasia. This brings to light the question of if the game is meant to be set in the real world. I am led to believe that it is, as the copper torc and bracelet mention the Celtic Isles.

I never thought of this before! That actually fits really well! Also the different endings you proposed sound really cool. I always love when a game gives more than one ending, though it'll be tough for the devs to have any 'bad' endings as you'd still likely want to play on your save after beating the story. In regards to The Spy and the Sparrow, I have noticed some potentially interesting things about it. The Great Steppe set mentions it being owned by a humble falconer who was adored by the common folk. I was wondering if this falconer has any connection to the Flock, as the name of the group as well as Sparrow's name are both related to birds and a rebel group of commoners. Another wildly unlikely but still fun thing to think about is how the Great Steppe shirt looks a lot like the Malefactor shirt. Same size, same colour, same collar style, etc. I almost guarantee it's a wild coincidence, though I still thought it was interesting. The malefactor's class description mentions how "she is gone but you remain" and if all of these connections are true, then the "she" could possibly be Sparrow, and the malefactor may have been a member of the Flock. Just a crazy theory I came up with! ---------------------------------------------------- Great Steppe Shirt (left) and Malefactor Shirt (right) look oddly similar, minus the staining.

Do you mean pinning them to a page in the recipe book or keeping the recipe book open when crafting? If it's about just keeping it open when crafting, that is possible. If it's about having a "pinned recipes" page, then no, that is not yet a feature.

Looking good! Personally I would add Chisel Tools to the modlist, it's such a huge quality of life addition if you love building.

The Forlorn Hope were a band of knights brought together by wanting to wield the Prima Materia directly. Whatever the Prima Materia is, Jonas discovered it, and in the right hands it could have brought about "heaven on earth" (quote from Schematic D tapestry). It seemingly made certain humans into Seraphs, as it made them "miracle workers" and "sorcerers" (also quoted from Schematic D). The Forlorn Hope basically saw that everyone was going to die and banded together in a quest to somehow obtain the Prima Materia in an effort to save humanity. We don't know if they were successful or if they failed. Perhaps they obtained it and created the Seraphs, or perhaps they all succumbed to the rot. The Forlorn Hope estoc says that it is "an elegant blade" but "was of little use against what was coming for them", which seems to say that the drifters or the rot may have gotten to them first. The chestplate description leaves it open though, stating that they may have "found their salvation or met their ruin", and that it is unknown which happened. I don't know if they were antagonistic to Falx or not. He seemingly had some limited (not full) access to the Prima Materia, and they wanted it. They could have either worked with him or tried to take it/commandeer it from him. Whatever the "new faith" was (I'm assuming it's belief in the Prima Materia) the Forlorn Hope were fanatical defenders of it. They also "put their faith in the blessed device to deliver them from imminent death" which I assume refers to the Salvation Engine. (quoted from Forlorn Hope pants). I'm assuming the manipulation of the Prima Materia is what has led to all the temporal craziness in the world that persists to this day. [Also, I'd just like to add that I love your theory of the playable Seraphs being a ragtag band of common folk who aligned themselves with Falx. It fits why they know of what he said "in private" (dangers of temporality tapestry) as they would have been his friends or at least some of his followers].

The old alchemist (Jonas?) refers to the people "dying like mayflies" as "we" and the book "The Patronage of Tibalt Amaro" mentions Falx's name despite it being set "before our dark age" and it's contents being only heard of in an old children's tale, leading me to believe that Jonas is immortal and therefore a Seraph, so the "we" he mentions is referring to the Seraphs. (Another minor detail that to me hints at this is the "Holy" tapestry that depicts a stylised Jonas. There is a large gear icon on his chest, and Seraphs regain stability with temporal gears. Coincidence or not, I thought it was worth mentioning). I assume "turning" is the process of becoming a drifter, who are the victims of the rot. The hunter and tailor classes wear masks to try and avoid catching the sickness, assumedly from when they were human, as Seraphs do not seem able to properly "die" to the rot. (Tobias mentions himself dying to the rot in one of his books, and then coming back). I also assumed the person he was talking to while recording may have been his friend and companion Tobias who is distinctly noted to be a Seraph as he tells of "returning" to the world (something only the Seraphs have been through) in his lore books that he wrote.

In the vanilla game drifters cannot open doors, fence gates or trapdoors.

I love the archives and the lore of this game! (Also, really cool lore post and theories!) One thing I would like to mention is that the archives seems to be sort of fundamentally altered by Jonas' temporal exploits. The repeating hallways and rusty tendrils are a sign of this, but the largest highlight I have found is this one room in the Commons which has an identical layout upside-down on the ceiling. The beds, tables, chairs, skeleton, etc are all copied upside-down on the ceiling, alluding to some temporal-related event messing up the archives in a reality-warping way.

There is a piece of clutter called the "ruined assembler" and this got me thinking. What could a functional assembler be used for? You would make the assembler with things like brass, metal parts and iron, gating it behind the iron age. Initially I just thought of an auto-crafter, but quickly realised that this would be massively game-breaking and encourage people to set up really grindy and un-fun auto-crafting farms, essentially encouraging the min-maxing of crafting, which I do not view as a good thing. So then I got to thinking, the assembler looks like a lens with a reflective plate. Perhaps it could be used like a magnifying glass, and be used to craft small and finicky things. This led me to my eventual idea of a functional assembler being able to 'transmute' Jonas parts. You would put in any Jonas part, some metal parts, a cupronickel ingot and maybe a temporal gear, and be able to turn a Jonas part into any other Jonas part. This way, with the right resources, you could get that last Jonas part you've been needing, without having to rely solely on RNG. What does everyone else think of this idea? The ruined assembler as it appears in-game.