AMA Explorer of Time's AMA [Round 2: 1000 Posts!]

[Alex_Among_Foxes]

I still have a hard time deciding, but probably Lord Viria Nysko, my Sith Warrior from SWTOR back when I still played it. I don't play a lot of villain characters, so she was really interesting to play since the Sith Warrior's storyline was built from the ground up for an evil player character, and I was able to make her the exact kind of Lawful Evil Sith Lord I wanted through dialog options and stuff. Bioware games always have great storylines and this one also gave me a lot of room to build a backstory without overriding it with a preset background. Even though I played a non-silent protagonist, it rarely if ever felt like like my dialogue was out of character for Lord Nysko and she even had an excellent voice actor, too.

I've also played a lot of Skyrim and it's very good for making preset characters, but it doesn't offer a lot of decisions to make beyond "choose which side quests to do".

I've not played any of the Bioware Star Wars games, but I've heard a lot of great things about at least one of TOR games, (not sure which between TOR and KOTOR though) and I have played enough of their other games to know they made some great ones in that era.
What inspired you to play a Lawful Evil Sith? I feel like if I was to play a Star Wars game like that, I'd either go with that, or whatever the closest thing to a Grey Jedi would be in whatever game.

From what I understand, you like to do hard game challenges. I've done a very hard one in Skyrim if you're ever interested in trying something like that out.
And I sadly agree, Skyrim's a fun sandbox, but proper RP isn't really there unfortunately.

I've never seen that clip, so I can't say much about it.

I'm not sure if you're the type to find odd voiceline readings funny, but here's the clip for the sake of education at the very least lol:

No, this was the team with the Clefable and Malamar leads. I saved a full replay of the match, coincidentally. It's attached to this reply in a zip file if you're interested in watching it.

That battle was intense! I don't think I'd have expected you to win once you were down to just Landorus at the end there, but that double hit on Mimikyu while her Torkoal spent a turn guarding was a great play, and the match itself was very entertaining to watch.

 

[Explorer of Time]

What inspired you to play a Lawful Evil Sith? I feel like if I was to play a Star Wars game like that, I'd either go with that, or whatever the closest thing to a Grey Jedi would be in whatever game.

Mostly the fact that the Sith are a big part of the setting, but most Star Wars media focuses on more heroic protagonists. Even though they're bad guys, the Sith have a lot of space for interesting storytelling, and the way they do the Rule of Two master/apprentice dynamic is fascinating and something I haven't really seen in any other setting. Given the opportunity to play a character in one of those dynamics, I immediately took it.

From what I understand, you like to do hard game challenges. I've done a very hard one in Skyrim if you're ever interested in trying something like that out.

I got into Pokemon challenge runs because changing up your party into something suboptimal and trying to win with it is something I find really fun, but Skyrim only gives you one character to control, so it's more the kind of game where I take it easy and relax. It's unlikely that I'll try your challenge run, but I'm still interested in hearing about it.

I'm not sure if you're the type to find odd voiceline readings funny, but here's the clip for the sake of education at the very least lol:

This isn't really my thing, and if there's a joke or reference here I don't understand it.

 

[Alex_Among_Foxes]

Mostly the fact that the Sith are a big part of the setting, but most Star Wars media focuses on more heroic protagonists. Even though they're bad guys, the Sith have a lot of space for interesting storytelling, and the way they do the Rule of Two master/apprentice dynamic is fascinating and something I haven't really seen in any other setting. Given the opportunity to play a character in one of those dynamics, I immediately took it.

I agree that the Sith don't seem to get very much focus in Star Wars beyond 'evil villain that has to be stopped'. And your mention of the Rule of Two gives me two final questions.
How much do you enjoy Star Wars, and what do you think of the current owners' interpretation of the universe?

I got into Pokemon challenge runs because changing up your party into something suboptimal and trying to win with it is something I find really fun, but Skyrim only gives you one character to control, so it's more the kind of game where I take it easy and relax. It's unlikely that I'll try your challenge run, but I'm still interested in hearing about it.

You can 'kind of' do that in Skyrim too with a bit of self-imposed limitations, but yeah, it's nothing like how Pokemon runs can change based on your team.

Since you're curious, it's a one life playthrough, so if you die the character gets deleted. (which is made worse with how glitchy Skyrim can be) You start on Novice difficulty, but every 5 levels (except the first time, since you start at level 1 the first bump happens at level 5) you tick up the difficulty by one setting all the way up to Legendary. The goal is to do every main quest, faction quest, and DLC quest under those circumstances, with a few optional objectives thrown in as well, such as getting the full crown of Barenziah, all the Dragon Priest masks, the completed Gauldur amulet, and a few others as well. The challenge comes from picking what to do when, and while you're at a low enough level to not get OHKO'd because your gear isn't ready for the spike in difficulty. I even did a few attempts where I spun a wheel with every level up-able perk tree and the only things I was allowed to do (or put points into if you want a lighter version of this) were the 6 things it landed on. Though the challenge is more than hard enough without this, so I eventually stopped and just used whatever I wanted. I've only completed it once, and it was using a 1 handed sword + shield build with light armor, and I have NO idea how it went so well lol. I'd say the fun of the run comes from the sheer build variety you can pick from that can drastically change the way a run is tackled and in what order you need to do certain quests. I guess I just love the idea that everything I do in a session comes with a cost, 'do I open this locked chest for the chance at good loot, but risk gaining a level from Lockpicking going up?' stuff like that.

This isn't really my thing, and if there's a joke or reference here I don't understand it.

It's used in memes (or at least it used to be when it was popular) but otherwise it's just a funny line reading is all.

 

[Explorer of Time]

How much do you enjoy Star Wars, and what do you think of the current owners' interpretation of the universe?

I like it a lot, but mainly the old Expanded Universe, which I'm currently reading through. I tend to like the setting more the further one gets from the actual movies, though. The Old Republic era is my favorite part of the setting, with the Legacy comic era as a close second, and I have high hopes for the New Jedi Order era once I catch up enough to read it. The New Republic era is also great since it's a really realistic deconstruction of how overthrowing an evil emperor would actually happen, with a succession crisis upon Palpatine's death fracturing the Empire into warlords that get gradually chipped away by the Rebels/New Republic.

As for Disney's new canon, I've watched all the movies and a couple of the better TV shows like Andor and the Clone Wars series, but I don't watch very much TV so I feel like I'm getting left behind by the pace at which Disney's releasing new shows. I prefer books and video games for my entertainment, so switching from a series primarily advanced through these formats to one primarily advanced by television shows is by its very nature going to be less appealing to me even if it's of higher quality than it used to be. (Which, so far, it hasn't been)

Apart from that, the Sequel Trilogy itself kinda screwed up the worldbuilding that I liked about the old EU, and also doesn't function well as a trilogy because JJ Abrams and Rian Johnson undermined each other at every possible opportunity, ignored each others' plot hooks, et cetera. I fundamentally have no idea how to even fix the Sequel Trilogy era and make it an interesting setting, since what worldbuilding there is, especially the First Order and New Republic's political situation, makes no sense. The Prequels, for all their faults, provided a great setting to tell new stories.

 

[Diamond 97]

What's your favourite sandwich?

 

[Explorer of Time]

What's your favourite sandwich?

I like the Reuben, though I prefer it with less meat than most places use for it. I could take or leave the dressing, too.

 

[Explorer of Time]

This is my 1,000th post on PokeCommunity! I've been a little slow to get here compared to some of you, since I don't post much in Trivia and Forum Games, but all the time I've spent here has been wonderful!

 

[Delta Crowned Sword]

This is my 1,000th post on PokeCommunity! I've been a little slow to get here compared to some of you, since I don't post much in Trivia and Forum Games, but all the time I've spent here has been wonderful!

Congratulations for reaching the milestone.

It's amazing experience from my end as well to get insights from your behalf regarding the sections where you are active/interested !!






With that said, I also need to maintain the idea of this topic, hence the question which I will ask is:

Which Forum Game(s) you find bit tricky to get into ?

 

[𒈟Lavemu𒐫]

congrats congrats! <3

What are your favorite memories here?

and random, but what is your favorite weather to go outside in?

 

[Explorer of Time]

Which Forum Game(s) you find bit tricky to get into ?

Most of them, really. There's only a couple I participate in with any amount of frequency and they get a bit stale after a while. I prefer more slow-paced topics where I have to think more before writing.

What are your favorite memories here?

Each of the challenge events I've participated in has been wonderful, as was Devalue's recent Archipelago, but I think my most treasured memory here is helping run the Baton Pass challenge from this year's Get-Together. If you count offsite activities with PokeCommunity members, the battles with Sweet Serenity I mentioned earlier in this thread were amazing.

Speaking of battles, I'd love to battle other people here on Showdown if anyone would like to do so. I don't like playing multiplayer with strangers that much, but it's much more fun when playing with people I know, such as the other forumgoers here. (I'm fine with any format, but I'd need time to build teams for most of them.)

and random, but what is your favorite weather to go outside in?

Overcast skies, with temperatures around 50°F/10°C to 60°F/15°C.

 

[Alex_Among_Foxes]

Speaking of battles, I'd love to battle other people here on Showdown if anyone would like to do so. I don't like playing multiplayer with strangers that much, but it's much more fun when playing with people I know, such as the other forumgoers here. (I'm fine with any format, but I'd need time to build teams for most of them.)

Does this include other games besides showdown? Because I'm sure there are other games people would be willing to play with you as well depending on your tastes.

Also, you haven't struck me as the type, but I figure I may as well ask anyway and see. :p Do you have any interest in sharing music with other forum people? Cause you might have fun coming to the site's Que Ups if so.

(now for a less social question) How did you get so skilled at writing synopses of games? Was that something you've always liked doing or something more recent you've gotten into?

 

[Setsuna]

It was cool to see you play Starcraft in the Archipelago, what about it appeals to you? Or since you mentioned you picked it because it was one of the only available strategy games, what appeals to you about the genre as a whole?

 

[Explorer of Time]

Does this include other games besides showdown? Because I'm sure there are other games people would be willing to play with you as well depending on your tastes.

It depends on the game, but I assumed that Showdown would be what people here would most want to play that I'm both decent at and have access too. I haven't had an actual Switch in a couple years, so ever since Nintendo shut down 3DS online services I've pretty much only had access to multiplayer for my PC games.

I also don't like voice chat (and don't even have a mic or camera on my gaming PC) so I like that Showdown has a text chat built-in. It's also turn-based, which I like in multiplayer games since it's more strategic and my reflex speed is mediocre.

Also, you haven't struck me as the type, but I figure I may as well ask anyway and see. :p Do you have any interest in sharing music with other forum people? Cause you might have fun coming to the site's Que Ups if so.

Not really my thing. I have a really hard time with understanding voices when there's any kind of noise going on at the same time, which makes music with lyrics much harder to listen to. I do listen to some instrumental music, mostly Classical and video game soundtracks. That being said, the next QueUp session is when I'm normally eating lunch in my time zone, so it's quite an inconvenient time for me. If it's consistently at that time, it's not going to work out, even if I do share musical tastes with the other people using it.

(now for a less social question) How did you get so skilled at writing synopses of games? Was that something you've always liked doing or something more recent you've gotten into?

I've been doing it for my Pokemon challenge runs for as long as I've been doing them here. It's been a bit briefer regarding story stuff compared to the synopses I've been doing, since I think most people here already know them for anything Pokemon-related, so I've mainly been focused on team composition and boss battles rather than story events and locations.

Up until now, I haven't really been doing any character roleplay like I did with the Starcraft archipelago, but that was quite fun, so I think that might change starting with my next HeartGold run.

It was cool to see you play Starcraft in the Archipelago, what about it appeals to you? Or since you mentioned you picked it because it was one of the only available strategy games, what appeals to you about the genre as a whole?

A couple things. First, is scale. Most games, you control at most a few people at a time. In most Real-Time Strategy games, you control dozens or hundreds of units, and build up entire towns and military bases. Apart from simulation games like SimCity, there isn't really much out there apart from Strategy games that lets you manage such large groups.

Second, positioning. I enjoy spatial thinking and a huge part of strategy gameplay is figuring out where to send your armies, where to place your buildings to make a defensible base and gather the most resources, et cetera. The environment and maps matter a lot here in a way they often don't in games where you only get one character to move around, or party-based games where you move the whole party around at once. And in most RTS games, you get precise enough movement that positioning units even a few steps differently can matter a lot, such as blocking off a chokepoint. I like game design that makes the environment matter, and here it's as important as your units are.

Third, they reward flexibility. Though they don't offer quite as much variety as Pokemon games do, there's a lot of different ways you can win missions since you can focus on building different units. And if I'm having trouble with my current tactics, I can switch up my army composition so long as I have enough resources gathered to do so. Archipelago specifically made this interesting by restricting which units I could use, so for a while I had to rely on units I don't normally use much, like Ultralisks.

Finally, nostalgia. I was hugely into RTS games as a kid and StarCraft 2 in particular was the first one I actually got good at playing. I'd likely have picked it even if there were other RTS games available.

 

[Alex_Among_Foxes]

It depends on the game, but I assumed that Showdown would be what people here would most want to play that I'm both decent at and have access too. I haven't had an actual Switch in a couple years, so ever since Nintendo shut down 3DS online services I've pretty much only had access to multiplayer for my PC games.

I also don't like voice chat (and don't even have a mic or camera on my gaming PC) so I like that Showdown has a text chat built-in. It's also turn-based, which I like in multiplayer games since it's more strategic and my reflex speed is mediocre.

I'm sure you can find some people around who'd be interested in playing Showdown with you around here lol. (not my cup of tea though, sadly) But in the event there's a PC game you'd like to try in multiplayer, I'd be interested in talking about it with you to see if it's something we'd both be interested in if you want. (or I can just point you in the direction of some PC Showdown players, I know a few by name lol)

Not really my thing. I have a really hard time with understanding voices when there's any kind of noise going on at the same time, which makes music with lyrics much harder to listen to. I do listen to some instrumental music, mostly Classical and video game soundtracks. That being said, the next QueUp session is when I'm normally eating lunch in my time zone, so it's quite an inconvenient time for me. If it's consistently at that time, it's not going to work out, even if I do share musical tastes with the other people using it.

I can't speak on the issue with hearing voices with stuff in the background, but I will say that Que Up sessions go on for much longer than just an hour. The one today lasted around 9 in itself lol, so in the event you ever feel like checking it out, as long as it's not the next day or something (and some have even gon that long lol), you can still find people in there.
Anyway, it's cool if it's not something you're into, I just wanted to check.

I've been doing it for my Pokemon challenge runs for as long as I've been doing them here. It's been a bit briefer regarding story stuff compared to the synopses I've been doing, since I think most people here already know them for anything Pokemon-related, so I've mainly been focused on team composition and boss battles rather than story events and locations.


Up until now, I haven't really been doing any character roleplay like I did with the Starcraft archipelago, but that was quite fun, so I think that might change starting with my next HeartGold run.

I'm not usually in the Challenges section, so it's very new to me. It's cool that you've started branching out more in other sections to show what you're capable of to more people beyond the challenge section users.


I suppose to keep with the theme I'll ask one more question. Are you planning on doing more than one game in the event there's another Archipelago?

 

[Explorer of Time]

I suppose to keep with the theme I'll ask one more question. Are you planning on doing more than one game in the event there's another Archipelago?

If the next Archipelago is during the GT, no, since I'll be busy with both playing and running the GT challenge. Otherwise, I plan to also play Doom 1 if I can get it working right, and I'm interested in a couple other games like Rogue Legacy and Sonic Adventure 2 Battle.

 

[Fleurdelis]

What is your favorite race to play in StarCraft?

If you had the power to get one RTS game remastered, which would you choose?

 

[Explorer of Time]

What is your favorite race to play in StarCraft?

I mainly play Starcraft 2 rather than Brood War, but haven't played much Skirmish since the WoL days, so that might color my answers somewhat. That being said, I enjoy playing the Terrans the most, with the Protoss as a very close second. I could never really get the hang of Zerg larva management since my macro isn't that good, and the game really punishes bad macro as Zerg with the 3-larva-per-Hatchery limit outside the HotS campaign (which has a more reasonable 9-per-hatchery). It's a bit of a shame because I love the Zerg as a concept and think they're the coolest faction, but they're easily the one I'm the worst at playing.

If you had the power to get one RTS game remastered, which would you choose?

Most of my favorites have already been remastered (ah, the perks of being an Age of Empires series fan. My favorite RTS game, Age of Mythology, just got its second remaster), but there's one particular example that hasn't gotten a remaster treatment yet, or even a digital release: Rise of Legends. Microsoft has been stupidly refusing to give its older PC games digital releases without a remaster, and of all the RTS games from my childhood, this is the only one without a digital release at all.

I tend to prefer original graphics over remastered graphics (I even played the Tiberian Dawn remaster with the original pixelated graphics), so I don't care much about remasters unless there's either gameplay improvements or a digital release that the game didn't previously have. Microsoft owns the rights to Rise of Legends, and they've done an excellent job with all their Age of Empires series remasters, so I'd have high hopes for it if it were to be announced.

 

[Arcaneum]

What is your favourite meal of all time?

 

[Explorer of Time]

What is your favourite meal of all time?

My current favorite food is Pad Thai, which I usually get with tofu (not a vegetarian, I just love tofu). There used to be a Thai restaurant in my city that I'd walk down to quite frequently after school, but it's sadly closed now. There are other Thai restaurants that offer it in nearby cities, so I can thankfully still get it, just not as often.

I also loved Afghan food back when I had access to it, but the restaurant I ate at closed over a decade ago and I can't find anything else like it nearby.

 

[Diamond 97]

Do you have any pets?