Tenzhi

The transparent arm in Robot Arm 3 can pass for ice. I wish they would have done a whole torso, head, and legs like that.

People may understand the guy and he still might suck as an artist.

I would say it depends on whether you place more importance on what you say or how you say it.

I was familiar with it before I was into manga/anime. But I was a fan of martial arts...

And this may sound weird, but I'd almost rather see something like this as a ranged set.

I see, thankee. I must've missed it when I glanced over the notes and I've yet to have a chance to actually boot up the I22 beta since it started.

Yeah, I gathered that. That didn't really answer my question. Is it new (i.e. available now and I just missed it somewhere along the way) or upcoming (in a real, non-Super Pack Lottery fashion)?

It doesn't really work as a narrative reason. Doing twenty-two missions in-game could equate to days or maybe weeks of in-game time. That sun moves quickly. Arbitrarily being unable to find crimes through beating up criminals also doesn't really make sense from an in-game point of view. Ergo it's a meta reason the only purpose of which is to explain design reasoning or as a red herring of player pacification.

Assuming it's the latter, what's the supposed real reason? Time-gating the rewards isn't it as that can clearly be done without gating the content. And the phantom exploit reason postulated up-thread doesn't really fly unless side-switching can be done instantly, and even then it'd be kinda iffy. Is there an official reason other than the popular one we were given?

And heck, even if there's some sort of valid reason for not side-switching via Tips in a few hours, I maintain that the Tips should keep rolling in, but doing them should give no Alignment progression until the proper time elapses.

That would be relevant if I had a complaint about the in-store availability. I have no such complaint. Indeed, I'd like to see them take it a step farther and allow us to unlock Patron pools from the store. But that's another discussion.

And it's not relevant to the flipped complaint, as that isn't about *effort*. Twenty-two missions takes the same amount of effort whether you arbitrarily limit it by time or not. Well, actually, I suppose it could potentially take *less* effort if you stretch it out temporally, as it could allow you to auto-complete an extra time.

There's a difference between accepting a reason and liking the reason or the reason making sense. "Because I said so" is a reason that often must be accepted regardless of whether it's sensible or liked. A valid explanation for it may make the sensibility apparent even it continues to be disliked.

Is this "Olympian" set something new or upcoming? I'm unfamiliar with it.

Without the current time gate, you'd still have to do twenty-two missions in a row which is still paying for it with time. As I said before, or did you have trouble grasping that concept?

That was the given reason as I recall it: Switching alignments should take time because it shouldn't be trivial. I'd look it up, but the only dog I have in this race is a desire to continue doing Tip missions - I generally don't care about about alignment progress and I certainly don't care about alignment merits.

The given reason was nonsense when it was given, the in-store item is just an accent mark. I'm sure any other concocted reasons are equally senseless.

The store item invalidates the reasoning behind the time gate. And getting rid of the time gate doesn't invalidate the existence of the store item.

Doing twenty-two missions in a row without the current irritating time limits would still be far slower than switching instantly with a token.

Getting those Morality missions is part of the process. And since it perforce takes more than 24 hours to get them, switching sides takes more than 24 hours.

Deconstructing a story doesn't affect my belief in it any more than knowing the outcome affects my enjoyment. If the character's are believable from my perspective, then they are. If a story is enjoyable, then I enjoy it. I like muppets even when I can see the hand-sticks.

And while it's not particularly "compelling", IMO, I'm enjoying the SSA. Despite the fact that it's seemed a bit contrived and occasionally it seems pointless that my character is involved at all.

Oh, and unless the author directly tells you their intent it's nothing more than immaterial supposition. And even if an author tells me their intent it has little to do with whether I like their story. A chef's intent to serve me a delicious meal doesn't make their shoe leather any more palatable.

I can care about a plot device, if it's written in such a way that I like it. One of my favourite Dragonlance characters is somewhat literally a deus ex machina. There's nothing inherently bad about being a plot device.

All of this over the simple fact that fictional characters don't really make decisions or create dialogue.

P.S.: Wasn't insulted in the least. But I will blither on in these sorts of back-and-forths with little encouragement.

Yeah, I like them a lot and generally would like to keep doing them (irrespective of Alignment merits or changing alignment) but alas they nonsensically cease being available far too soon.

If that were an issue they could time gate the reward without hampering the rest.

What I mostly have to go on in this area is the knowledge of experience. And in the case of literature I much prefer it that way given some of the rules I've been exposed to.

A character has the personality the writer imagines it to have. How the reader relates to those traits - whether they find them to be good, bad, sensible, realistic, etc. - is highly subjective.

And a good writer may be able to hide the strings, but they're still there. You may call that outlook obstinately cynical, but I call it pragmatic.

I do not recall ever seeing a particularly compelling story in the game. Certainly not one compelling enough for me to specifically recall it. I have a sense that I kind of enjoyed the Faultline story arcs somewhere along the line...