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Poll: Improve the game?
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Hell yeah!
20.83%
20 20.83%
Nah lets forget about the game..
29.17%
28 29.17%
No, it's fine the way it is! (added by pluto)
50.00%
48 50.00%
Total 96 vote(s) 100%
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Disappointed with AAMFP
Kreekakon Offline
Pick a god and pray!

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RE: Two levels in and bored..

(09-16-2013, 03:13 PM)Fortigurn Wrote:
Spoiler below!
So I'm somewhat skeptical about the idea of a saboteur stopping the entire machine and it not working anymore.

[spoiler]Actually I think it's definitely possible since throughout the course of the game the machine seems to be quite a delicate piece of hardware that can be screwed over quite easily.

(09-16-2013, 03:13 PM)Fortigurn Wrote:
Spoiler below!
Additionally, it's odd that Mandus (who created the machine and who clearly knows a lot about it from the written records, audio flashbacks, and phonograph recordings I keep coming across), is apparently ignorant of the machine and so horrified by its appearance.

Spoiler below!
Well, I think that's where Oswald's amnesia, whatever caused it, comes in. He forgot how horrible the machine was.

[Image: Tv0YgQb.gif]
Image by BandyGrass
09-16-2013, 03:23 PM
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Tesseract Offline
Senior Member

Posts: 498
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RE: Two levels in and bored..

(09-15-2013, 10:56 PM)Trueblue1878 Wrote: I am wondering if this is all you get? Where are the puzzles, the inventory system and the oil for lanterns, laudanum etc? Those little things made TDD interesting but this one just seems to be all about the story so far.
Nothing to pick up.. what is the point of opening drawers etc? All I can find so far is journal pages. Bleh..

Please tell me it gets fun?

You didn't really follow the development very closely did you?
09-16-2013, 03:49 PM
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Fortigurn Offline
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RE: Two levels in and bored..

(09-16-2013, 03:23 PM)Kreekakon Wrote:
Spoiler below!
Well, I think that's where Oswald's amnesia, whatever caused it, comes in. He forgot how horrible the machine was.

Very long commentary follows.

Spoiler below!
In the bilge pump room I finally found the first hard evidence of sabotage; large cogs removed from the mechanism, with tools nearby which were obviously used to remove them. The hallucination of one of Mandus' children appearing and then exploding into a cloud of blood confirmed that they're already dead (whatever happened to them). Here's my working hypothesis so far, after six hours and having just finished the bilge pump room.

1. Mandus was a high achieving 19th century industrialist of the 'Better Living Through Steam' school of thought. He was already a bit of a nutter for progress through industrialism.

2. At some point he went to Mexico, where he found a massive ancient pyramid (images and models of which can be found throughout the game), and had an arcane and probably supernatural encounter through which was revealed to him the design of a great Machine, which he realized could fulfill his vision.

3. He returned to London and built the Machine. It appears that people (especially children), from the nearby workhouse (and probably from the church as well), were used as a source of raw material for the Machine, the function of which was to create a large, cheap, powerful, and servile labour force by taking people (mainly children), and transforming them into human-pig hybrids, with most of the features of a pig and severely (probably permanently), reduced mental capacity.

I'm still not sure why he thought this was a good idea, or what work they're supposed to do, especially since pig trotters have basically zero dexterity in contrast with human hands. When not working, they are kept in cells, where they sob mournfully, play simple games, attempt to read, or simply sleep. It is clear they are not enjoying themselves, and the game attempts to evoke our pity at this point.

4. The local church was co-opted to support and promote Mandus' vision through a radically modified Christianity. The original priest either couldn't handle this or found out too much, and was promptly fed into the Machine (or fed to the pigs).

5. The government's interest in Mandus' Machine grew past the stage of admiration to the point of suspicion, and he was investigated (probably more than once). The investigators were either convinced that all was well or were quietly Machined.

6. At some point Mandus' mental state became completely unhinged, possibly as a result of the death of his children (which obviously took place before the game begins). They may even have been Machined. In the process of absolutely doing his nut, he decided to shut down the Machine through various acts of sabotage. He then went to bed and promptly forgot all about it.

7. The result is a Machine which is no longer functioning, and a human-pig hybrid labour force which is clearly no longer where it is supposed to be, and clearly not doing what it is supposed to do.

8. This leaves the question of where the human-pig hybrids are, and what they are doing. My guess is 'Somewhere in the city outside the Machine', and 'All kinds of unpleasantness'.
09-16-2013, 05:08 PM
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Alardem Offline
Senior Member

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RE: Two levels in and bored..

I guess you haven't finished the game yet - that'll provide more information for you to chew on. I'll add to your breakdown with a little more detail on the Man-Pigs:

Spoiler below!
At least some of the victims were taken from the asylums (or "Bedlam Houses"), which would explain their limited mental capacity. There actually isn't anything indicating that children themselves were turned into Pigs - only that they were used as expendable labor and that any witnesses were fed to the Pigs.

Many of the upper-class were abducted by Mandus when he invited them over to dinner, upon which they were diced up and turned into food for both people and Pigmen to feast upon. I don't think that the rich became Pigs. They simply became food for the poor Pig-Men to eat. (A just fate as far as Mandus is concerned.)

Being turned into a Man-Pig is intended as a sadistic punishment, something that Mandus perceives as deserved by humanity. The Pigmen should therefore be clumsy and retarded as it would be more humiliating and miserable for the human they had once been.
09-16-2013, 05:56 PM
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Fortigurn Offline
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RE: Two levels in and bored..

(09-16-2013, 05:56 PM)Alardem Wrote: I guess you haven't finished the game yet - that'll provide more information for you to chew on.

Correct, I haven't finished yet, I only just completed the bilge pump room. Thanks for the additional background. Smile
09-16-2013, 06:09 PM
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Ghieri Offline
Posting Freak

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RE: Two levels in and bored..

It seems there are two schools of thought with the game:
Spoiler below!

1. That everything in the game actually happened.
2. That everything in the game was an illusion.


I'm starting to hate how open-ended TCR made this story. I wanted something definitive, damnit!

[Image: tumblr_n6m5lsQThQ1qc99nxo1_250.gif]
09-16-2013, 06:13 PM
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Googolplex Offline
Banned

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RE: Two levels in and bored..

(09-15-2013, 10:56 PM)Trueblue1878 Wrote: Nothing to pick up..

Great game at all, but that you can't pick up objects like in Dark Descent or Penumbra, really is a bad thing.
09-16-2013, 07:04 PM
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Yuhaney Offline
Hello Friends!

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RE: Two levels in and bored..

You can. Just not as much. But I agree.

09-16-2013, 07:29 PM
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pinkribbonscars Offline
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RE: Two levels in and bored..

You're bored because you can't pick up random bottles which serve no purpose?
09-16-2013, 07:33 PM
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Cuyir Offline
Senior Member

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RE: Two levels in and bored..

(09-16-2013, 07:29 PM)Scraper Wrote: You can. Just not as much. But I agree.

Yeah. Something nobody has brought up is how less physics affected items made it a taaaaaad less scary than other games with full physics and stuff.

How?

I would always trip over items, backpedal towards items and etc. and scare myself. I miss that. haha.

Happened quite a bit in Penumbra and TDD.
09-16-2013, 07:35 PM
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