Genocide

[Gamer-man]

I'd like to point out that there isn't really a reason we should belive the easiest way to win and the "path of good" must be one and the same. In fact, the obvious answer would be that those with the loosest morals have the easiest time accomplishing their goals (as they have more options to accomplishing it). I think better, in this case, is to make note of, if only in small part, some moral choices you made through the game. It doesn't have to be a judgement, but on victory, maybe have a list of the choices you made so you can feel the game aknowleged that you didn't doom the orc race, freed x number of slaves, saved melinda, and whatever else, and just toss it at the end of the character report for anyone who cares. The 'prodigy' is also a good idea, however. [prodigy is still a terrible name for capstones]

[Ramidel]

One other thing to note in the morality debate is that killing the Orc Mothers, while a bad thing for the orc race, is a mercy kill for the Mothers. Should the mothers be required to live in constant pain for millenia, popping out babies every few seconds, so the orc race can survive?

I like the idea that morality is up to the player to decide; do you want to stop Zigur's atrocities? The Grand Corruptor can help! You want to save the people of the Sunwall? The orcs have got to go! If they care about the lore and morality, players should squirm at the thought of slaughtering the orc race, even if there is literally no way to repair them and if their current situation came about as a last-ditch attempt to survive their race being wiped out the first time, caused by the one decent, heroic orc we know to exist. TOME4 is heavily inspired by Dragon Age, after all, and Dragon Age 2 has its own ugly, no-win situation near the end.

[Aerach]

If you find the murder of tortured mutant orc abominations abhorrent, do not murder orc babies. The reward is having not murdered orc babies. If it bothers you to do so, then this is a tangible (or some token roleplay, perhaps) reward. Gameplay wise there are alternatives for XP if you are struggling to be near 50 for high peak, else scaling has you covered. But... you spend the entire game murdering thousands upon thousands of people, so making this extra distinction about good massacre vs bad massacre is kind of hilarious.

[rjrrt]

Concerning the Orc breeding pits. Is this a guaranteed dungeon?
I just played a game and could not find it in the east. Is there some lore that's needed for it to spawn?

[Hunter]

Concerning the Orc breeding pits. Is this a guaranteed dungeon?
I just played a game and could not find it in the east. Is there some lore that's needed for it to spawn?

It's not necessarily easy to spot (in graphical tilesets, anyway.) It's a smoking pit/hole, which can be obscured when situated next to mountains. But it's somewhere, guaranteed (or so I assume, heh...I've never not found it.) Just caps-lock and scroll around the continent, hovering your mouse in the nooks and crannies if necessary until you get a result.

[achoice]

Im back from the east. I've read about "backup guardians". What are those? How do I find them?

[greycat]

http://te4.org/wiki/backup-guardians

[crushr]

I like to think of it as a genre parody --- the first half of the game the only motive is to "find treasure" and then you're kinda smacked in the face with these serious repercussions/quandaries... and are forced to just keep on finding treasure.

Also interesting in this thread is the profit history of the dwarves. Both the orcs and dwarves appear in their classic fantasy world role but then the orcs start mentioning their arts science and culture just after dwarves had been revealed as ruthless capitalists more responsible for the coming near-catastrophes than anyone else... but are strangely absent for the orc's account of history.

Your role then is as a servant to the dwarf-capitalist order, and end up maintaining their rule, while silencing their atrocities through your own reckless pursuit of profit.

I was upset when I first started playing this game just by the shit-quality of the plot/writing, but now I think it's actually pretty brilliant.

"If you're not okay with imperialism or genocide, then check your treasure hunting habit and work against it in the real world, where life can have other purposes but increasingly does not..."

Being able to choose to help the orcs would allow the player to pretend he isn't content just searching for treasure. It would lead to rationalization instead of re-examination. Wow! The more I write about it the more I dig the game's structure.