Progress Update, and a really cool hidden online feature of Elden Ring
Added 2022-06-23 03:46:13 +0000 UTCSo the upcoming episode is roughly halfway done in the video editing stage, I'll be aiming for a Saturday or Sunday release!
But if you haven't seen TheFifthMatt's tweet about it yet, he recently discovered a really neat aspect of an obscure online feature of Elden Ring:
https://twitter.com/thefifthmatt/status/1539338794356178944
Basically, it was already reasonably-assumed that the Great Jar Knights you encounter while online are copies of other players, given the "random" nature of their builds. And by the same token, this was suspected of Fia's Champions.
The code responsible for this stuff has been located by TheFifthMatt and I found how Fia's Champions were handled really cool: It copies and uploads your build when you get hugged by her! I just kinda assumed it was going to take your information after you win that boss fight, or perhaps unlock the nearest site of grace, not really expecting the "work" to be done in a different area of the game.
The game could've done this at any time really, but there's just something really novel to me about it being done during her hug. I know a lot of players don't notice the debuff her hug causes until much later, which re-contextualizes that encounter for many. Now we have another layer beneath that, where a lot of players are going to learn that their "essence" is being stolen at moment as well, turning you into an NPC mob in someone else's boss fight.
This might not be quite on the level of Vagrants, Gravelording, and Miracle Resonance of Dark Souls 1 but it's certainly the weirdest online feature they've had in a while and I find it really cool.
Comments
This is exactly why I follow and support your Patreon. You do the kind of stuff in these games that reveals the layers of thought they put into strange aspects of the game, and that in turn helps further theories with the lore. You're vital to this fanbase ecosystem and I appreciate the hell out of ya. (I know this wasn't technically your discovery, but even then you help inform us when someone else discovers stuff too. Really great stuff, we are not worthy of such a great creator in this space for so long)
Nerd Fiction
2022-06-24 11:22:14 +0000 UTCabsolutely love it. I miss vagrants so much but this scratches a similar itch. I knew from the moment I first got to the Great Jar and saw a Kratos NPC invader that it was likely the game somehow read someone's build and used it. As cool as it would have been for all the knights to be randomly generated and for From to have snuck in some easter eggs from other games, that just seemed too unlikely. much cooler this way. Also that Kratos absolutely destroyed me and I never saw him again. 10/10 From Software experience
Karl Germ
2022-06-23 15:14:50 +0000 UTC
