Maybe i’m wrong but it feels like the Republic = entirely Plato. I’m not sure it’s a matter Socrates would touch on. In fact it feels like a subject written after he was executed.
… for some definition of “people”.
That’s part of the problem for me, at least, not being strictly a philosopher myself. In Republic, Plato’s words come through Socrates’ mouth, his and those of the other participants in the dialogues that compose the book. Plato, being Socrates’ student, presents things as coming from his teacher, but of course Socrates wasn’t exactly able to comment on this.
Socrates is Plato’s sock puppet, in (probably) many cases. Still, when compared with Xenophon’s writings about Socrates, certain character traits do appear consistent.
Dude, sign me up for commanding a Viking raiding ship. I see an AC game exactly as @kristina said above. Though I have some slight additions. I would super love if you could gather food/resources for a viking feast, and this provides some kind of bonus and some nice minigames during.
You have a little village you are based out of, and go on raids. You upgrade the village like in AC3, fleshed out a bit more. Maybe a keep or great hall eventually, though you should start out with some kind of smaller hall. Upgrade blacksmith, upgrade arrow stores, upgrade everything.
Raids instead of conquering. You raid a base’s treasure chests and such and try to get the maximum out of it instead of killing anyone. Perhaps a reinforcement timer when the brazier is lit and much more reinforcements show up so you are forced to retreat or have a hell of a battle.
DEPLOYABLE and UPGRADABLE crew. Your crew will follow you around for a bit, maybe this is timed and up-gradable like the distraction power in Odyssey. But you can have say, up to 4 crew follow you around, for up to 5 minutes at max upgrade.
World class fur ruffling physics or pre-baked animations.
Much more storms and dynamic sea. They have been playing around with sea mechanics for years, Black Flag and Rogue had some great sea mechanics in the form of waves that could damage your ship. Flesh this out a bit more. Make wind direction a little more important.
Rival Viking factions. Have a few war chiefs with lieutenants you have to take down. Rival captains that goad you like the Nemesis system in Shadow of Mordor. Also, have your ship be boarded more frequently. I want my crew to defend her.
I just finished this (the base game, not the Atlantis stuff). Gotta say that I really enjoyed it. I’m definitely taking a break, for now–I put in something like 60 or 80 hours (over a couple months, given my schedule) and that’s definitely enough stabby-stabby for now. (I can see how people would reach “Oh, you want me to clear another fort?” after so long–but for me that would be true for any game.)
As silly as the plot was (there are aliens?!) I was definitely looking forward to the story beats in the game–mainly for the characters. It was very fulfilling to get the family back together (even if there was a bit of whiplash at the very end) and then drop off Herodotus. Fittingly enough, the day that I finished Herodotus’ last quest, I also came across a brief mention in Thucydides of the Persians making an abortive attempt on Samos (though it was at the beginning of the story, not the end).
I don’t know when or if I’ll go back for the Atlantis content (I guess that came with the freebie?), but it has inspired me to next go back to Zeus (the city builder).
Yeah, I need to get back into this. I feel like I’m about halfway or so through the story. Assassinating the cultists is great fun.
The trick for me was to just ignore the stuff I didn’t like. I played it on whatever the default or “intended” difficulty level was, and I found that I didn’t have to sweat about min/maxing, gear collecting, side quests, timed quests (ugh), etc. Just the stabby-stabby. Which was great.
What?
Where did you drop him off? Not that I want to, he’s still on my boat and I like him there. But I don’t have any quests with him? DID I MISS SOMETHING!
Also I’ve heard you can have Hippocratos on your boat, but I never got the option to invite him there =/
Same for me. Timed quests?? Sucks. But now I want to get all achievements so I’ll have to do some more boring quests.
One thing I never did (unless prompted from a few quests) - burn silos. Seriously?? Just the worst asshole-thing to do.
He gets a letter which starts a new quest chain, it was actually one of the more interesting side quests, imho.
I googled it, and its part of the Lost Tales of Greece free post release content they put out.
It triggered for me when I had finished everything else: lost tales, family quest, cultists, and closing off Atlantis.
For Hippocrates, I think maybe I transported him to Athens (for the plague?), and that was it. Or maybe I’m misremembering.
Hmm ok, I’m done with cultists and family but not Atlantis or Lost tales. I’ll keep stabbing.
Le sigh.
I figured I’d play some more of this today (I’ve barely scratched the surface-- found the spear of Leonidas for the temple priestess but not much else) and fire up Uplay only to have it tell me that it can’t find the game. So I point it at the installed game, and it says it’s going to verify files, but I click the button and nothing happens. No progress bar or anything.
Windows 10’s Task Manager reports Uplay is using 4.5% of CPU but for all I know that’s just what it consumes in the background anyway.
Well, I had to re-download 20-some gigabytes. Here’s hoping Uplay in its stupidity doesn’t make me start the whole game over again (as it has sometimes with other games).
I agree that the best games can combine good writing with good systems, although if forced to choose I think I will always lean toward systems, because narrative tends to be less interactive (except for a choose-your-own adventure element) and I have books and movies for that. Specifically with RPGs, the backstory/lore/overall ‘world vibe’ is usually more important to me than quality of dialogue, characterization, plot development, etc. I cut Elder Scrolls a lot of slack in that respect.
yep, I had this exact problem. It doesn’t affect my save game though.
Yeah, thankfully my saved game was unaffected. Kinda BS though, having to redownload everything.
History channel Invicta invited me to share my thoughts on Assassin’s Creed Odyssey’s version of Knossos, the so-called “palace of Minos” on Crete.
Video and many words here: https://www.ancientworldmagazine.com/videos/assassins-creed-odyssey-exploring-knossos/
That was great, thanks! Like I mentioned upthread, the game inspired me to pick up Herodotus and Thucydides, so mission accomplished re: your closing remarks.
That’s great to hear!
I’ve often said that games like this (and movies, graphic novels, etc.) are “gateway drugs” to further engagement with the past, so I’m happy that the game’s inspired you to go and read Thucydides and Herodotus. I always find Thucydides a bit dry, but Herodotus is exciting stuff. ;-)
I was already 2/3 through the Persian Wars, but I’d put it down, so that was easy. I actually liked Thucydides but only got through a couple books before I had to return it to the library.