Breath of the Wild:  "Vegetarian" Link Part 1


Link reawakened in the Shrine of Resurrection after 100 years of sleep, and soon discovered he could jump of his own will and climb walls, rather than being severely restricted by the terrain like his previous incarnations.  On the Great Plateau, Link picked up his first weapon:  a Tree Branch.  No "It's dangerous to go alone!  Take this" pity sword for Breath of the Wild!


Instead of finding hearts by tossing around random jars and cutting grass, Link was forced to eat food to heal himself.  So he climbed a tree to gather some Apples.  When he ran across an Old Man sitting by a campfire under a rock ledge, Link gave in to his line's kleptomaniac tendencies and swiped his Baked Apple without asking for it.  "I BEG YOUR PARDON!  I do believe that is my baked apple!  You can't just go about taking whatever you please!"


But the Old Man was only joking, and wanted to inform Link about the downfall of Hyrule 100 years earlier.  He pointed to the Temple of Time ruins nearby, and of course I had to investigate.  A Woodcutter's Axe along the way made for a more viable weapon than the Tree Branch, and Link hacked apart some Bokoblins with it.  Link declined to take their horns as a trophy.  Using products made from his animal enemies would violate his variant taboos.


While searching around the Temple of Time, Link scavenged a Boko Club and an Ancient Gear.  Climbing to the top revealed a chest with a Soldier's Bow, with the values 0, 14.  One must refer to weapon power, and one must be for durability, but I'm not sure which is which.  Link had trouble getting down because of how the context-sensitive climbing mechanics worked, and fell down to lose most of his hearts.  He wolfed down some Apples and the Baked Apple, and his injuries were miraculously healed.


A Bokoblin camp of sorts was south of the Temple of Time.  One of them was an archer, so Link practiced with his bow.  Arrows had to be aimed above the target to compensate for gravity.  One chest had a Throwing Spear (3, 6), and Hylian Shrooms were a plentiful source of food.  Link didn't want to kill the bees guarding the Bomb Arrow chest, so he had to make a second trip to get to the box quickly enough before they stung too much.  


An abandoned house near the Bokoblin camp had a Farmer's Pitchfork (3, 7), more mushrooms, and a replacement Woodcutter's Axe.  A strange creature with a leaf mask flying with a leafy twig was a Korok, a spirit of the forest.  The Korok said Link wasn't a person named "Hestu", but gave him a Korok Seed anyway.


Trying to go to the south, or anywhere outside the Great Plateau was pointless because of the sheer cliffs.  Link wouldn't have the stamina needed to climb them, and a fall would have been fatal.  A laser statue zapped Link twice, searing him to death twice.  (Hey, I had to see if Bomb Arrows could kill them. . .)


DEATH COUNT:  2


Link slowly climbed the Great Plateau Tower since there was nowhere else to go.  A vision of Zelda warned of Calamity Ganon breaking its seal and ravaging Hyrule once again after 100 years.  The Old Man flew in with his Paraglider and promised he would give it to Link after clearing the Oman Au Shrine.  This dungeon contained the Magnesis rune for the Sheikah Slate tablet computer.  Unlike other Links, the Breath of the Wild version did not consume magic points at all as he pulled bridges and opened metal doors with his magnet powers.


But the Old Man wasn't satisfied with 1 shrine.  He demanded that Link clear 3 more in the Great Plateau region before surrendering the Paraglider.  My response was "That wasn't the deal!", to which he replied "Oh, well, I supposed I changed my mind".  Never trust bearded wizards!


Running away from some bats led Link directly into the path of another laser statue, which scorched him again.


DEATH COUNT:  3


Eastern Abbey contained the next shrine of Ja Baij.  A Soldier's Broadsword (3, 14) was nearby.  The next trial was for Bombs, which were an unlimited use Sheikah Slate rune with remote detonation.  One puzzle involved putting a bomb in a mechanical piston of sorts to launch it towards some breakable blocks.  Putting Link in one of these launchers led to a chest with some Amber.


Owa Daim Shrine was on top of a mountain, and one gap along the way had to be traversed by cutting down trees so they would form a bridge.  (Physics in a Zelda game?!)  The rune gimmick for this place was Stasis, meant to freeze the rolling boulders in place.  An Iron Sledgehammer (7, 12) and a Traveler's Shield (3, 4) were treasures here.  


Link stood in the path of where the boulders were falling, and was ground into powder.  He almost perished a 2nd time when the Stasis aiming was slightly off, but instead lost most of his hearts.


DEATH COUNT:  4



The final shrine for the Great Plateau was Keh Namut, in a cold region.  Link discovered how to cook in a Bokoblin camp that he cleared out.  Going into the inventory, selecting Hold, and putting mushrooms and apples in the pot near the fire made some dishes that could restore more hearts than Link had.  But these weren't only useful for dealing with combat injuries.  Link had to eat several Mushroom Skewers to mitigate the rapid heart loss from the low temperatures in the region.  (The developers must have been inspired by the Frostfall mod for Skyrim that people talk about. . .)


Running jumps were awkward when running was B and jumping was X.  So Link fell into the rapids and immediately died. 


DEATH COUNT:  5


The solution was to cast Magnesis to move the metal plates around to serve as a bridge.  This was tricky due to how the physics worked, and Link probably lost some hearts from the cold.  The Keh Namut Shrine itself was appropriately a trial for the Cryonis rune.  This spell made climbable ice pillars rise from water to either serve as platforms, or push up bars as I accidentally found out while trying to climb over them.


The Old Man still refused to give up the Paraglider, and instructed Link to travel to the area where the shrine locations intersected.  After incorrectly guessing the Shrine of Resurrection, it became clear that the Temple of Time was the place to go.  The statue there offered Link a choice of either a Heart Container or more stamina in exchange for the Spirit Orbs from the shrines, and I chose more health.


King Rhoam, the last ruler of Hyrule, was the true identity of the Old Man.  In a long cutscene, he told Link about excavating Divine Beasts (mechs), and Guardians (the laser statues) in an attempt to defeat Calamity Ganon 100 years ago, but Ganon took control of Hyrule's technology.  Zelda managed to restrain him for the next century, and Link was her resurrected knight.  Rhoam finally gave Link the Paraglider, giving him access to the rest of the game.


Rhoam ordered Link to go east to find Impa in Kakariko Village.  But the main quest is never the most compelling part of an open world action-adventure, right?    


One funny incident occurred when Link accidentally picked up a Roasted Bird Drumstick while looking for loot on the ground.  Since it counted as Food in the inventory instead of Materials, there was no way that he knew of to drop it.  The Roasted Bird Drumstick would remain in his item selection, always ready to tempt him to break the playthrough restrictions.    


(Link's vegetarianism is more like avoiding ritually unclean items rather than pacifism towards other life forms or anything like that.)

No Players Allowed!






Seriously, get out!






If you are playing in PBEM 17, get out!

EDIT: Felt like this thread deserved a more civ-centric title.

I feel like I'm 12 again.  





Also, there may be a civ 6 game reported in here later on.

Woden Wrote:Play Order/Civs:
TheArchduke: Russia
Alhambram: Australia
TheBlackSword: Cree
Kaiser: Greece/Gorgo
suboptimal: Nubia
pindicator: Khmer
Cormflakes: Rome

Alhambram: Inca, Persia, Korea, Australia

Hmmm...still don't know what to pick. Persia is out gates since I already played with them. Other three remains, I probably do some testgames this weekend to see whether one of three civs do match my playing style, if not then reroll.

Initial Civ draft lists are up, map details and turn order to follow:

(November 15th, 2019, 12:12)Woden Wrote: First round of picks:

Alhambram: Inca, Persia, Korea, Australia
Cornflakes: France, Macedon, Rome, Japan
Kaiser: Mali, Greece, Mapuche, Indonesia
Pindicator: Sweden, Georgia, Kongo, Mongolia
Suboptimal: England, Poland, Spain, Nubia
TheArchduke: Phoenicia, Scotland, Russia, Germany
TheBlackSword: Ottoman, Cree, Dutch, India

Now that pb44 has ended, is there any interest in another base BTS pitboss?

I liked the pick method/snake pick used from pb44. I would like to have a fairly balanced/reasonable map this time though.

Players-
Superdeath
Mjmd

Dedlurkers-
Zalson
Irismono

Anyone interested in a couple duels? I figure it would be PBEM, but im fine doing it however which way.

I'm thinking it might be High Elves, with +1 to-hit and high resistance on all units and Longbowmen being excellent early units that are still useful towards the end of a game and Elven Lords which just seem to destroy everything without taking any damage. A couple of adamatium Elven Lords can kill 11 Hammerhands without taking any damage. Pegasai seem too fragile and weak to be much use though.

Trolls are excellent too, with regen, high attack and health on most units and War Mammoths one of the best late game units.

Gnolls seem quite bad, with their best unit Jackal Riders having far too low resistance making them almost useless in the end game and no interesting abilities other than lots of figures. It feels like they have a unit missing somewhere too for a war race that has a bad economy. I've just started razing Gnoll cities now.

Beastmen aren't great either with Minotaurs being clearly worse than War Mammoths and the rest of their units quite boring. Maybe give them a bit more defence and perhaps give Manticores another figure.