CaptPretentious

My credentials are, I've watched all 3 series of Startgate, way to many times. For more than a year, I had PlutoTV just set to the StarGate channel. I also own the Blu-rays, but PlutoTV is convenient. And of course I've seen the OG movie several times (less then the SG-1 movies). But we will not speak of Stargate Origins...

I know some of these things aren't new. Some might be (the internet is vast... after all).

So, one thing I want to address actually "fixes" two things. For the Ancients, Furlings, and Goa'uld, fixing aesthetics and lore.

tl;dr The Ancients should have had a common Gothic aesthetic. The Furlings should be written back in and used to explain various aspects of the Goa'uld, and the Goa'uld should be way more fearsome (in the reboot).

In the show, I always hated how the Ancients were depicted. And it wasn't until recently that I finally figured out why. Nothing with the Ancients is aesthetically coherent. The various stargates we see, the various tech lying about, both old and new... none of it really lines up nicely. But it should have. Earth is covered with evidence of various aliens throughout the ages. Beyond the Asgard, Ancients, and Goa'uld, we know the Ohne were on Earth during the time of Babylon. Much of Earth's history and culture is derived from the various "gods" that we find out were various alien races.

So, lets fix the Ancients. Based on some tech we see, most notably the rings and DHD, the 'Repository of knowledge', and honestly Destiny, we get some ideas. So, Earthlings created castles, the whole gothic look... And I think, the Ancients' overall aesthetic should be closer to the Warhammer 40k Imperium (not exactly, but along those lines). Far more gothic. Their architect is big, bold, and intimidating. And we know humans didn't come up with it. In the episode 'The Torment of Tantalus' where we learn of the 4 races, we see... a castle. We can assume it predates humans and other than Ernest and SG-1, no human has ever set foot there. And based on what we know about Asgard and the Nox... that design must either be Furling or Ancient. And my next bit will describe why it's not Furling. But how we've seen the Ancients and their tech many times was just wrong. I believe, if Stargate got rebooted, if they stuck with a "gothic" design, things would line up better. We see castles in other worlds, too, like when SG-1 is tracking down Merlin (as well as many other examples).

So, a little setup for the next part. We know the Goa'uld are largely just scavengers. They're like the Borg of Stargate (assimilating technology and whatnot). And that would have been more true early on. The Goa'uld had a sort of symbiotic relationship with the Unas. We know the Unas are not a highly intelligent species as even today, they're still fairly basic (as in, despite all the time they still aren't in space). In the few times we've seen their homeworld, we see no technology. It wouldn't make sense that a lake snake-like parasite would just be swimming around thinking "Oh, if I get one of those Unas, I'm going to build me a spaceship!". I feel the Goa'uld when from 0 to 100 real fast as they are a real threat that several species have dedicated massive efforts to fight.

So if we extend that with what we know culters and whatnot were influenced by various "gods", we were told we "never saw the furlings"... I believe originally the Omeyocan (the Giant Aliens with the crystal skull), were the Furlings, but scripts as they are, that got changed. And the two names can co-exists because, as know, it stands to reason the Ancients weren't always called that. We see in the episode 'Crystal Skull', it has a giant pyramid, but not of Goa'uld design. I'm implying that the whole pyramid design and a good amount of tech was of Furling design, and it was stolen by the Goa'uld. We see in the episode 'Paradise Lost', the control panel has various shapes, including a pyramid, and it's specifically called out to be Furling. And in both episodes, 'Crystal Skull' and 'Paradise Lost', we see tech that allows for teleportation unlike anything the Asgard or Ancients used.

We also know, the Goa'uld would rather eliminate anyone they can't control. So it's very possible the "Giant Aliens" were physically incompatible with them. Hard to say. We know the Omeyocans were at war and were losing to the Goa'uld. So I think the pyramid ships and a bunch of Goa'uld tech are just Furling tech. And the "we've never seen the Furlings" still holds true as the "Giant Aliens" that we see could be a hologram or a form they currently are, or can take for humans.

And lastly, the Goa'uld in SG-1 are not as threatening or powerful as they should be. For that many species to be at war with them, they should be a bigger threat. I think if they reboot it, they should come to find out that killing Ra was a fluke. That they caught him off guard because he didn't predict Earth's military to show up. So he didn't have his normal fleet/guard/etc. and his guard was dropped. The fact that we got a nuke on his ship and blew him to hell.... pure luck. We did what the other System Lords couldn't do.

This might not be the best place for this question but I honestly can't think of another place, but if you know of one please let me know. But I figured someone here might have the experience I'm looking for.

I own the discs for various Star Trek series and everything Stargate. What I'm trying to do is use handbrake to encode them to put them on Plex. But everything I try, it just looks worse. Is there a repository of like recommended settings for various media?

I'll try to keep this short, sweet, and to the point.

I, like so many of you, love this game. Possibly more than we should. But for me, before this game, I had truly lost most of my interest in video games as a whole. Every year, various problems get worse and 2023 was the final straw for me. Ever increasing greed (Blizzard, Unity, EA, just every studio really). To say they came out in a lazy, incomplete, greedy state undersells it I feel. I truly feel we're still on the brink of another video game crash. Because the crash wasn't just one game (E.T.) but was the general greed and terrible quality of the industry back then. Pushing new products (games, consoles, accessories, etc.) just to push new products with crazy turn around time all in the name of profit. And this year, just stacked with all prior years, I had enough.

This game is so good in all the right ways. The writing, the acting, the world feels alive. NPCs respond differently based on who you are and what you've done. Even banter between your party. A truly impressive amount of thought put into things allowing you the player to really play however you want. It's not a mad loot carousel because your character power isn't based on gear directly and is tied to the character which allows for far more interesting items. There's no greed either, no stupid 'sEaSoN pAsS', no excel spreadsheets worth of 'versions', no subscription, no shop using real money for gear/cosmetics, no 'planned DLC' that's obviously content they cut out in order to sell back to the consumer. Heck, this game supports multiplayer... REAL multiplayer in that I don't believe you ever actually need a dedicated server. I believe you can do direct remote, split screen co-op, and LAN play... what other game in the last decade does that?

It reminds me of how games used to be before Bethesda broke the seal with horse armor.

BG3 is just a complete, high quality game, for gamers. It feels like it was made with love, care, and respect. And playing the game brings me joy.

Are there any good collections anyone might be aware of, for EA information or datamined information.

I'm curious to see what ideas got scrapped and how things changed. I know of a few things, like a little on Daisy. How certain abilities were actually going to be handed out.

But places like Grymforge really elude to something... there's a bunch of stuff hints that something might be near. From whatever caused some of the destruction you see. Because I refuse to believe it's all a vague reference to Yurgir.

And then there's some MTG pictures I saw, that list someone has potentially the main villain, in the very least a bad guy, and in the current game plays a very different roll.

Edit: Added spoiler tag just in case

So, after playing many hours and just recently starting Act 3, there's been one thing that's been bugging me and I finally have it sorted out.

The whole "rarity" attached to gear is really dumb and misleading.

It's using the overly used grey/green/blue/'purple' coloring and naming that's common and many other RPGs. But in those games, it's somewhat reflective of rarity... which is what it's described as in BG3, the rarity of an item. But it's a lie.

Example Periapt of Wound Closure is an item that's sold by a vendor. How is it rare? As far as I can tell, there's just one in the game. But every named item I have, there's just one in existence.

I think labeling things as common/uncommon/rare/ etc. is wrong and thus makes people think certain items are better simply based on the 'color' of the gear instead of considering what the gear does. I've already had this conversation with multiple friends who absolutely think they're going to give a "stat stick" to their caster, because they're so used to Blizzard's way of thinking. Or that they 'needed' new gear because they leveled up and now must replace gear asap (even in Act 1). The fact I showed videos of some guy soloing the game, or beating the game as lvl 1s, or a video of some guy causing havoc by chucking potatoes and only potatoes... falls on deaf ears.

I think if the naming was swapped from 'rarity of item' to 'quality of enchantment' it would make more sense, but I still think it's not necessary. Or if it was standardized to like normal gear (nothing special) remains grey, gear that's just slightly enchanted (like +1 Sword) is green, and all unique named items are blue. Since you certainly can get lots of grey, fewer greens, and only one named. But that's just an idea.