I just thought about the fact that Outer Wilds is probably the only space game that lets you take a ship anywhere that it'll fit even though it's made for travel between planets. Most games that give you full control have limits like certain areas being blocked for your ship, or that you can't take it underwater, and may even limit where you're allowed to land. Meanwhile, Outer Wilds let's you wedge your ship into a gap between rocks and use that as your ship's landing location, or you can use it to handle your underwater travel instead of needing to immediately get out with it on land. I'm mentioning this because I appreciate the level of freedom that the player gets in how they handle Outer Wilds, and I thought this was a good example of that.
Edit: I remembered another detail. Outer Wilds is the only game I know of that doesn't prevent you from leaving in space, and one of very few that doesn't have you lose velocity when you aren't accelerating despite space not having air resistance. Even with there being things in the game that wouldn't work in real life (like the sizes of the planets), it still feels more immersive for space travel than Starfield or No Man's Sky, just to name the first things that come to mind.
I wonder if Gabbro, at some point, had hope. I wonder if, at some point, they started searching for a way to escape the time-loop. For a way to save the universe. To save their home. I wonder if, at some point, they thought that a life was possible for their friends. For their familly. For the hatchlings.
And if so, then I wonder...
...when did they start losing hope ?
When did they stop trying ?
When did they stop caring about their own fate ?
I wonder if, at some point, they cared about their own life.
How many loops have they seen?
How many times have they tried to understand, to fix, to do something, before losing hope and sinking into lethargy ?
À regarder la fin. Encore et encore. Et à attendre la fin qui mettrait fin à toutes les autres.
I know that technically the ancient glade does not have a name and is barely even a place, and that we call it like that bc the player probably took the name out of the quantum poem that Gabbro wrote on a day he felt particularly high inspired, but a tiny part of me sometimes whispers: "Gabbro Knows"
Ask games have been fun so far, and I kind of felt like making one. This time, it's character names. I don't mind if you want to just use the question sentences, the rest of each prompt is just context to help with answering the questions.
Chert: What's something that surprised you about the story or world when you discovered it? Whether it's something you didn't know about, or something that majorly affected your theories, or even just something you didn't expect that you found funny.
Esker: I can't really think of anything for Esker, but I'm sure they wouldn't mind a conversation. Free yap spot. This ask is repeatable because it's fun to yap and Esker deserves the company.
Slate: This ask has two options. What's a funny way your ship messed up, or what would you say was your favorite ship maneuver you've managed?
Riebeck: Was there a moment that you found particularly intimidating or scary during your playthrough? Whether it was intended to be scary or not.
Gabbro: What would you consider to be the most relaxing place in the game? Criteria for "relaxing" is up to your interpretation.
Feldspar: How reckless were you during your first playthrough? How Feldspar-y were you?
Solanum: Is there a point where you felt like you were stuck, or a point where you believed that you could have handled a particular obstacle if you just had enough information? It's okay if you were wrong.
Prisoner: I can't think of anything for the prisoner, so this is a funny spot. Share a time when a glitch or some weird timing gave you a laugh during your time playing.
Hatchling: I've seen one asking what got you to play, and one asking about the ending, so let's go in the middle. At what point did you go from just trying the game to feeling genuinely invested? What kept you "looping" back to the game?
You can reblog to show interest, and I hope whoever sees this and participates has fun with it.
I just wanted to say something to show part of how much I enjoyed Project Hail Mary and Outer Wilds. There won't be any spoilers involved, so don't worry about losing the interest of either by reading this.
First, Outer Wilds. I already enjoyed the type of game that Outer Wilds is anyway, so I had a feeling I'd enjoy it. Now before I played through Outer Wilds, I only felt emotional at the time of playing a game once, and it was when I was young and I was sad because I thought I destroyed a legendary Pokemon in Alpha Sapphire. Fortunately, this proved untrue because, in the process of closing the 3DS because I was sad, I messed up the closed the game without saving, so I accidentally got a second chance. Anyway, Outer Wilds, on the other hand, made me emotional while actively playing twice. The end of the DLC, and the end of the full game. And for the first time ever, my tears weren't because I was sad about the game's resolution, but because I thought the story was beautiful. This also strengthened when listening to an analysis of the music afterwards, where I truly understood how significant it was in the story.
Now, Project Hail Mary. For some background, I got burnt out on movies several years ago. No movie held my interest, even ones I had already seen before, because I felt exhausted of movie watching. Besides, Hollywood was starting to feel like it focused more on inclusivity checklists than on actual story, and I felt that both suffered as a result. Project Hail Mary caught me off guard though. For the first time in a long time, even without the background of the book, the movie immediately caught my interest. And then it also had a story interesting enough, and effects that were subtle enough, that it maintained my interest throughout watching. After a long time of not enjoying any movies, PHM was finally a movie that I found enjoyable. And now, having started on the book, I find it interesting to see the story play out whole also noticing the differences between the book and movie. I'm less than half way, but I'm genuinely enjoying reading again.
Sorry to have gone on as long as I did, I just wanted to make it clear that, as someone who tends to just do something and move on, PHM and Outer Wilds felt special to me. I wanted to share that appreciation with others. Hope you have a good day.
So, spoilers for Outer Wilds/EOTE, but I think I figured out a mistake I made when trying to figure out the beginning of the DLC. Under the cut because I'll have some pictures/explanations that I got now that I'm trying a PC playthrough. (I'm following the roleplay idea I mentioned here.)
This is the picture that I was supposed to reference for the DLC. It shows that you see something significant at 40 degrees, and so should follow the satellite to that point to check it out. However, I didn't realize yet at the time that all of the planets were on the same plane, and somehow I didn't realize that it wasn't one of the already known planets, so I assumed that this was just a regular planet disrupting the view.
This is the image that I thought I was supposed to follow. The thing in front of the sun here looked wobbly to me, and has a strange blue outline, so I assumed this was what I was meant to see. Instead of waiting for the satellite, I just tried to figure out where this would have been and fly there myself. After that didn't work, I tried to wait until the satellite was approaching that angle and then join, stopping when I reached 0 degrees. As you can imagine, this didn't work out for me.
I just thought of something about Timber Hearth. We know that Hearthians use wood, fish, and minde materials thanks to the construction and the people who have clear resource-gathering related jobs. We also know that they have at least real life creation capabilities thanks to the houses, machines and gadgets, and the production of sapwine. But how do they get marshmallows? And how do they choose to eat their food? Food is a big cultural thing that we only know three disconnected details about. (I'm not considering this spoilers since it can all be seen within the starting area.) So, here are some Outer Wilds headcanons about food. It'll be under the cut so I'm not cluttering anyone's for you page.
First of all, since they have the knowledge to use sap to produce alcohol, I think they also know how to produce sugar from sap for the production of marshmallows. And if there's salt in some or most of the water, they probably also know how to get that salt out for the purposes of both water potability and seasoning food.
Related to the fact that they ferment things, at least for the sapwine, I think that they know how to get the edible parts of bark and turn them into flour. Bark bread is a thing in real life, and Timber Hearth trees grow fast enough to let travelers make use of emergency tree seeds, so I can see them knowing how to make use of the trees in as many ways as possible. This is related because alcohol production has a naturally resulting extra product that acts as a fermenter, like yeast, which could be used to produce bark bread and other related dough-using products.
Real life marshmallows use gelatin, but would the Hearthians know how to get that? I know there's a marshmallow plant in real life that used to be used for marshmallows, so I'm wondering if a gelatin-like plant is used to produce their marshallows. Mild spoiler here: That would explain how Esker has expired marshmallows in his cabin, since real life marshmallows last a super long time and he's surely having food brought to him by someone.
Finally, I'm wondering if they use plants they find to create their own seasonings. Like, "That's a neat leaf I haven't seen before. It doesn't look dangerous. Let me try putting a tiny bit in some food to see what happens. It tastes good and I'm not ill? Let me bring some back to put in the food!"
That's it for my headcanons. Feel free to use them in your own stuff if you want to, you don't need to credit me if these headcanons aren't part of the focus of what you're making, just please don't claim that what I mention here is entirely your own idea. I don't expect anyone to have a food scene with any of these details for a brief part, then have to give credit for it. That would make inspiration much more of a challenge.
yellooo ::]]] for your own ask game, i'd like to give you a feldspar and/or an esker !!
Hello there! ::)
Feldspar: I'd say that I had medium Feldspar-iness during my playthrough. I often preferred jetpack flight to normal walking, and I tried to use speed to traverse the Interloper. Funnily enough, the most Feldspar-y maneuver I did was when I found Feldspar. Outside of having the advantage of the signal scope, I pretty much got to Feldspar's camp in the exact same way they did. Came in unprepared, ran away from an anglerfish, and arrived with my ship decently damaged before getting out to talk to them.
Esker: Since it didn't end up happening in the last ask game, I kind of feel like yapping about the ending to Outer Wilds, so major spoilers under the cut. Also, it's kind of long. 😆
So, the hatchling has successfully gotten the warp core to the vessel, and now they're at the eye. Not yet aware of what comes next, they take a tentative step into the warp that will take them to the surface of the Eye, then drop into the Eye itself...
The Drop: It's interesting how, in a world that had such consistent patterns if you look hard enough, the source of it all would be so chaotic in appearance. Yet the patterns are still there, in the repeating space and the large curves that make up its appearance. I remember something I read in Minecraft: The Island when I was younger. "Just because the rules don't make sense to you, doesn't mean they don't make sense." I think this drop demonstrates this pretty well. While it's hard to understand how the space works, it's consistent with itself. It doesn't need your approval to exist, but you don't need to worry about why it exists either. "The universe is, and we are." From here, it has to be fully headcanon since there's no universally agreed upon interpretation of the ending.
The Quantum Museum: A conscious observer collapsing the possibilities is what happens at the final campfire. Your own perception of reality is what makes the new universe exist. I always thought of this museum, and the rest of the Eye, as the Eye itself communicating to you. So what's being communicated here? Each museum exhibit explains the history of your journey, the past and present of what you've discovered. You're not expected to be satisfied, you're just being given a conclusion to your own findings and major questions. If you missed something, it's too late now.
But there is a museum exhibit of note here. "Of all the life forms that will perish in the oncoming death of the universe, we will miss the anglerfish the least." Not that it won't be missed, but that it'll be missed the least. It's okay to be sad about loss, it's okay if you find it difficult to move on. Even the anglerfish weren't a complete waste of carbon, they had some form of value that you just couldn't see, so you can't be expected to be completely okay with losing what you love. And the same goes for you. You have value, even if you can't see it.
The Forest: Your home environment. A forest is what's most familiar to you, so it's how the Eye will work with you. The lights fade out, signifying the end of all the old universe's stars, and then you hear your own breathing. You, the last remnant of what was, and you are going to facilitate the creation of what will be. This time, the lesson won't necessarily be about yourself, but about demonstrating some last lessons to carry over through the help of your old friends. These lessons will serve the new universe in maintaining a good order to things, and they can give the player an insight into their own life. Most of the demonstrate a good and bad principal each.
Esker, the loneliest Hearthian. They're the ones to inform you that you can hear music. They're the first around the campfire, your indication that you're going to need friends. Total isolation can break a person, so it makes sense that one so lonely would be the first to hear the music.
Chert, the most scientific of the Hearthians by self proclamation. They were always looking through their telescope, always looking at what they couldn't affect. When their greatest fears came to pass, they were so used to observing what they couldn't affect that they didn't have the needed experience to contain their own emotions, one thing they could affect, causing a full emotional breakdown into numbness.
Riebeck, the Hearthian that was most afraid. They tried to stay in their comfort zone, built up walls that they hoped would keep them safe. Though it's good to be prepared, they were so reliant on the walls and comfort they had built up that everything came crumbling down when they were confronted with what they hadn't prepared for.
Gabbro, likely the most relaxed of the Hearthians. They were never concerned with what happened, all things pass after all. But they became complacent, doing only the things that weren't overly difficult, and leaving them unwilling to take action when it would have been most helpful to do so, even though they did have the tools they needed for it.
Feldspar, the bravest Hearthian. Their bravery was valuable, and it got them far enough to help make your journey possible. But they didn't guide their bravery into their reasoning, and in the end their own recklessness led to them being stranded without help.
Solanum, the last Nomai. The Nomai were incredibly intelligent, their technologies made the hatchling's journey possible. However, they went too far with this curiosity, being willing to blow up the sun if it meant achieving their goals, making them a danger to themselves.
The Prisoner, the only inhabitant of the stranger that had accepted the end. The inhabitants single mindedly pursued what they perceived to be best, destroying their own world in the process. When what they thought to be a blessing was found to cause destruction, the prisoner was the only one with the courage to keep looking, the only one with the courage to realize the truth and give others a chance to seek the opportunity themselves.
The Final Campfire: Here is where the Hatchling, and the player by extension, gets one final lesson. You can't do everything alone. If the hatchling had been on their own, the forest would have been the end. But they had friends and found new ones. With the help of those they know, the hatchling is able to make the new universe possible, make new life possible. As for why you can talk to Solanum and The Prisoner, I think the eye is giving you a chance to say goodbye to everyone. You decide when you've accepted this, and you decide who to say goodbye to. You don't get to decide how or when the end comes, but you get to decide how you treat the people in your life before you go.
