u/Nurglych

Finished with Act I yesterday, and I have some thoughts on characters' motivations.

>!First, Sewal. I kinda understand why he is pissed at Arthur and/or Kamelot, but he treats the personal slight as betrayal of all people. It feels like it's not about the larger state of Avalon, but the personal grudge, and not because Merlin turned Sewal immortal, but because Arthur "forgot" about him. Though I don't fully believe Arthur when he says that "he didn't know" or "he got distracted by the war" and other things. I feel like Sewal getting pissed at Kamelot not for personal reasons, but because of the way Keepers are treated would've been more in line with how he is characterized by other characters.!<

>!Second, Caradoc, when you meet him after pulling Excalibur out, he kinda changes his tune. In the beginning he is all "Arthur is the reason for Wyrdness, I need to kill him to save the land", and then he reveals that he is also immortal and he also has the same personal grudge as Sewal. I mean, he can have multiple grudges and just choosing to talk about this one in particular, but after Sewal he also comes across as selfish prick on the crusade against Arthur for selfish reasons, and I don't know if there is any indication that Arthur's resurrections have any effect on Wyrdness.!<

>!And third, Arthur. I can't help but not believe him, but even if he is actually an asshole, by what I've seen so far, he's done it all to help his people, not for personal gain, or at least not fully for personal gain. I would be kinda disappointed if in the end it would be revealed that Arthur is actually a full-on asshole and tyrant. !<

>!Overall, I can't help but feel that the current conflict is mostly fueled by kinda petty personal grudges for a story centered around basically an ongoing apocalypse. !<

UESP claims that besides disposition it also affects:

• Your ability to persuade people by any means.
• The ability to bargain, in tandem with the Mercantile skill.

I have no idea whether it's true or not and what is the formula - is it usual Attribute/5?

I've been thinking about how to make Nika feel impactful and less of an asspull, and that's what I came up with (it is all predicated on it not being a last-minute idea of course):

1. Expand on Awakened DFs early. We've known about Awakened Zoans since Impel Down (and I always thought that it's specific for Zoans), and we've seen first non-Zoan Awakening with Doffy in Dressrosa. Having other characters demonstrating Awakening would've helped to solidify this property of DFs. I'd prefer it being demonstrated earlier, of course - Marineford seems like the best place to do it, with the plethora of powerful characters that I assume has awakened their DFs.

2. Make Luffy (or his crewmates) mention it post-Dressrosa. Assuming that Doffy is the first Awakened DF user that Luffy had battled with, make him question how to Awaken his own DF. Or even just have Zoro or somebody ask Luffy: "so, do you know how to awaken your fruit?" or something like that. Just a throwaway line, with Luffy indicating that he has no clue.

3. Katakuri is explicitly said to be "similar" to Luffy. His Awakened ability might have had given Luffy an idea, but he couldn't make his fruit behave the same - maybe sensing something is off, some resistance, from the DF or from his subconsciousness. I know that we rarely (if at all) delve into what the fuck is going on inside Luffy's head, but maybe one instance of that could've given us a clue that something is wrong, either with him or his fruit.

4. We know that Awakened Zoans can "overwrite" or make the user go berserk. Use it to explain why Luffy couldn't awaken his DF - since it's a Zoan, Luffy was unknowingly fighting against its will (or instinct), hence preventing Awakening.

5. Nika's Awakening could have been re-contextualized as Luffy "letting go" or "winning" against DF's will - in the first case it could've been a sort of self-sacrificial move, risking his own ego and motivation for a chance of victory, in the second case it's a classic "fight within oneself", Luffy's will is stronger than Nika's and he makes it do his bidding. That way it's not a power-up out of nowhere, but a result of the prolonged "behind the scenes" battle of the wills and an opportunity for the actual character growth for Luffy.

Bonus: don't make Nika "sun god". Make it whatever else god. God of freedom, god of laughter, whatever. Sun motif is basically non-existent with present Gear 5. There is no good reason for Nika to have any connection to the Sun.

Played Exile Lands somewhere around 2020, finished it all, did all the achievements and stuff, never touched DLC. Now decided to come back, got the DLC, but began in EL to remember how to play and what's what (and good thing too, a lot of things are not like I remember them from 6 years ago). At level 20 decided to check Siptah out, teleported there and ran around for like 2 hours. And I have questions:

1. Obviously it's possible to play solo, but is it really balanced for it? Enemies quickly grow very powerful for a solo player when you travel seemingly anywhere from the starting beach. If you begin naked just like you do in EL, how do you even progress when almost any monster one shot you?

2. Is it just me, or does it feel a lot emptier? I mean, EL is like 50% desert, but it still felt much more "alive", with small NPC encampments, different animals/monsters, dungeons and stuff. Maybe it's just my bias because I know EL pretty good, ans Siptah is entirely new, I dunno.

3. It feels like there is no good place to start the base near the spawning point. Should I explore more? I found some iron, but the amount feels small, and enemies are much, much stronger than starting enemies in EL.

4. Is it normal that NPCs drop hardened steel items? Hardened steel is level 50 tech, and getting them now honestly feels like cheating. Did I wander into some high level zone by mistake? (It was a camp near the lake on some small island in the south-west corner of the map.

Current OpenMW Tamriel Rebuilt doesn't have custom spells/enchantments, but they put 900 enchant capacity into Wabbajack. What do I even put in there? I play monk-like character, so I use some staves, but mostly fisting enemies. I have no idea if I want to put a lot of damage into there, or some utility, or some constant effect restore health or whatever. Any interesting suggestions?