Horizon Zero Dawn/Horizon Forbidden West

Same. Though Bloodthirsty Techno-conquerors from Outer Space seems to be a little outside of Horizon's themes and tone. And just another enemy faction group seems like a waste of the plot thread.

Bet's that we'll have to fight a Titan properly? Maybe not a fully operational Horus, but one coming online?

As for the Odyssey, it COULD fit the theme of Mankind Not Learning From Its Mistakes; the fanatics of the original game weren't really acting with any intent, just blind faith in their "god".

I feel like it really risks Outside-Context Villain almost verging on Alien Invasion and that feels like an obvious and boring use for them? Plus, I feel like they'd need to end up being Hyper-competent villains in that case which would feel really strange if, gameplay wise, they're just NP Cs in a different outfit for you to go defeat with little difference between the normal clans.

They risk just... handing everyone the answers/technology and uplifting them too. And that doesn't feel in line with the first game really.

we know the signal must come from

1) something complex and intelligent, because randomness doesn't give subservient functions independent AI

2) something GAIA compatible, if it interfaces with her correctly.

The only thing I can think of is the Odyssey project that might fit these two criteria.

It could also be something Ted Faro-related.

In any event, I doubt the Odyssey's descendants will be the antagonists for the sequel.

It was my understanding that the subservient A.I.s were not any less advanced than GAIA. The signal didn't upgrade them, and they're not malfunctioning, exactly. They're doing what they're supposed to do, just without GAIA's oversight.

I also doubt that the Odyssey crew will be the antagonists in Forbidden West; as mentioned above, it just doesn't fit somehow with the theme or flavour of the game, and would potentially be a bit of an 'outside context' thing.

To be clear, I'd love for the Odyssey to be used in the future. It's an plot hook. Just, not in that way.

Ted Faro always seemed like the obvious culprit to me. He's got a lot of immortality references around him, we very conspicuously never learn his ultimate fate, basically everything is already his fault, and he's one of the few powers that (if he had survived through cryosleep or whatever) would still care about screwing with GAIA after a thousand years.

I feel like the Odyssey doesn't have enough of a motivation. If they're still around after a thousand years, then they have to have a somewhat stable situation, which implies they wouldn't just kick over the anthill for giggles. If they came in as conquerors, maybe I could buy it, but trying to roll back the terraforming is a zero-profit move. It's a Ted Faro "stupid idea built on stupid ideals but there's no one around to stop him" thing.

Plus with Faro, there are some additional implications that he was up to some stuff at the beginning. Such as how he was retooling his company to produce weapons for humans instead of drones before people found out about the glitch.

Plus if the Odyssey descendants were gonna use the signal as the precursor to an attack, they're kinda taking their time.

As I recall, the signal was sent some 20 or so years before the game proper.

Maybe the AI on board of the Odyssey was the culprit.

The subfunctions were not sapient. They aren't "just as advanced" as GAIA, they are pieces of GAIA.

Yeah, the signal made them self-aware and unregulated. Then HADES used a virus to free "himself" and the others from being physically tied to their location. It all happened rather quickly, too.

It could be some kind of V'Ger situation with the Odyssey. The files in the first game said it had an alpha build of Apollo with incomplete safeguard protocols, meaning that the people who use it could become radicalized by learning things without the proper context, or learn how to do something without learning about the risks involved, or something like that. They could build or modify some AI, AI evolves on its own into something crazy, decides to kill all humans.

Edited by shigmiya64 on Nov 8th 2020 at 3:57:05 PM

All of that is possible, I suppose, but I don't think that's what they're going for.

i mean

that is literally the plot of the first game tho

Yes, but I meant specifically in the context of Odyssey's crew being the ones doing it.

Though I'm sure someone will discover who sent the signal in the sequel. Probably Sylens.

Wow banuk weapons are absurdly powerful

Just picked this up in the past week on PC and having a blast with it. However, it seems I'm having trouble upgrading weapons and armor which require specific materials garnered from robots that are way above my skill to defeat, yet I know I'll need these upgrades to make battles with them easier. Sucks having to run from 70% of what's trying to kill me out there because I don't have enough of what I need to get better shit.

Like...do we even have the ability to upgrade the spear you get from the start of the game? Seems like you should, but I haven't found any traders or option to do so.

Eventually, but if I remember correctly it takes a while.

Sylens eventually gives you his lance, which does a little bit of electrical damage on contact. DLC has spear upgrading slots added.

Yeah, spear upgrades are plot and DLC related, but oh so nice when you get them.

As for struggling to fight stuff before upgrades - only advice I can give off top of my head is take advantage of elemental weaknesses and weak points, and once you have a bow that can shoot them, take full advantage of tearblast arrows. A few well-placed shots with those things will completely change your fight strategy.

Meh. I always found it more expedient to just use the sniping arrows. Except for a few rare cases, where the tearblast could deny the enemy their own offensive abilities, like with the Ravagers.

MY advice is lay traps. Avoid being ambushed by using your Focus, and scout the area for hiding places and lay down some traps between where you plan to snipe, and where the enemy is. Then, snipe, and lead them into the traps.

And if you really want to cheese the system, you can lead them to the edge of their range, beyond which they will not go no matter what, and snipe them from there.

This is the only way to defeat the horrible mole shark robots

Mole shark robots...

:|

Thanks.

Yeah, I made the horrible mistake of attempting a behemoth and I paid for it dearly. Because it alerted three others in the area and I got murdered.