Kaed wrote:I think you all might be looking at this the wrong way. All this talk about Loyalty Buffs and Checks and such is a neat, but have you considered that perhaps it is simply psychology that caused Ossomer's turn, not some magic statistical attribute?
Think about how Ossomer was treated from even before the moment he was Decrypted - like a prisoner, summarily executed without even bothering to try and talk to him first. Then he was brought back, and treated like shit continually afterwards. Whereas Wanda showed respect of a sort to Ansom, she felt Ossomer was 'a chunk of meat' and not worthy of her attention. Instead of letting him participate in any battle 'for the Titans', she sent him to sit up in the air and stare at his father and listen to him talk about honor and all that shiz.
I think what's going on here is everyone who is Decryped has a single-time equivelant of a Loyalty boost in which they come to understand they are serving the will of the Titans. Since almost all of Erfworld seems to be highly religious, that would make them feel like following Wanda was the best idea ever. Or in the case of the Archons, kind of divided on that since Charlie used to be their entire world, not the titans.
However, with how much Ossomer has been mistreated, when Wanda finally leaves the hex(which I'm sure he would feel since he's a Warlord) that was the final straw. His loyalty finally broke with her cowardly abandonment of the battle, dispelling any 'doubts' he had about her dishonorable conduct.
It's cool but the reason it's probably wrong is just the way the words and events are arranged in the update. The way Parson was talking about Wanda losing her bonus an- Ansoms turned! is a narrative technique to help us link the two together and it's something of an anti-climax or a disappointing miss of an expected event if the two aren't connected that way.
I think the way Erfworld works is that real life and stats are two sides of a coin. Apart from some of the things that can't be reasoned (like popping) there isn't segregation of the two. So a loyalty stat is what dictates a units loyalty but at the same time, it's also just a reflection of the psychology of the individual that leads to that loyalty. It even goes further, Wanda leaving and so reducing her dominating presence and influence is just the other side of the coin from "losing bonuses". So you are completely right, just not in suggesting that stats don't have the same weight either. Parsons MMO is to explore how reality and mechanics relate and abuse that where possible
Brucester wrote:vintermann wrote:A third possibility, is that the magic kingdom negates the effect of the pliers somehow. It was mentioned that Wanda didn't visit the magic kingdom at all after getting the pliers, so if whatever powers the MK blocks the power of the (other?) tools, we wouldn't know about it. Charlie does not visit the MK either. Maybe Wanda knew there was a potential problem. She could have had predictamancy on it, or she could just be concerned for some magic-theoretic reason.
If the pliers don't reach outside the MK, it could very well be that more decrypted than Ossomer are free ... it could even be all the currently decrypted. Wouldn't that be fun?
My money is on this one. The Magic Kingdom is a place where casters are summoned from, or return to. It's outside the side - it's outside the game. Effectively a caster in the MK is *not in play*. Therefore magics employed in the MK do not affect the outside world.
Hence Ossamer turns, Ansom turns, Sylvia turns. And the decrypted units will either croak or turn.
Strange update really. Wanda was very stupid. Surely she would know that the decrypted must stay in the same proximity (same hex?) as her. Even Gillian was trying to get Ansom out of range for him to turn.
I doubt this is true, again from a narrative perspective, (although the point about thinkamancers and the fact that Charlie can use his arkendishen powers(or charlie is the arkendish
) in all but the temple of the Kingdom are good arguments too) but the whole thing about Ossomers loyalty being much weaker than others and how he's been plagued by doubts has been built up for a while. If none of that is true and just every decrypted has turned it would lose all it's meaning and impact, and thus disappoint us by robbing us of a conclusion we thought we were going to have.
Also the way the page displayed was OMG it's OSSOMER! which is difference (and misleading/unsatifying) if it's actually everyone. It's also cuts short Ansoms arc and would ultimately feel too much like a Deus Ex Machina that turns the tide of the war because Rob couldn't think of how to do it else (GK would lose almost all their army). On the other hand, that would set up a pretty epic conflict for Parson to solve, so it's the weakest of my arguments
But I think it's a good guess that its power weakens when Wanda is quite far away, like in MK.
