Hall of Paintings / Discussion

This is the discussion related to the wiki page Hall of Paintings.

page 1 of 3123next »

bigalphillips 12 Nov 2012 04:02

There seem to be some screwing conditional on the paintings. Anecdotally, the parasol painting seems to come up a lot less, but that might be just me reading into the fact that it's described as hidden in the corner. I do recall on halloween it taking 40+ energy for it to come up though. I've had it come up twice in ~4 turns though, so probably not a minimum wait between it, more likely just a flat rejection rate.

So I started looking into it and collecting some data. With the following bonuses (neither of which seem like they should apply)

Greatly [6] Increased Chance of Combat Encounters
Highly [4] Increased Chance of PvP Encounters

I got the following encounters:

Nothing Too Dangerous	35	4x
Starry Sky	10	1x
Parasol Portrait	6	1x
Recommended Donation	37	4x
Large Landscape	20	2x
Sunset Painting	7	1x
Suckling Pig	9	1x

The choice encounters definitely seem to come up a lot more often than the others. It's hard to tell if Emily's painting comes up less often than most of the other paintings with this limited data.

Last edited on 12 Nov 2012 19:47 by bigalphillips Show more

Erenoth 12 Nov 2012 15:56

Does entering the museum take an energy, because I was at full, entered, then got the dripping with gore encounter and was at 98 energy.

bigalphillips 12 Nov 2012 17:59

Arkaim reported that getting all tangled in gore takes two energy.

Magnifico 10 Jan 2013 14:34

This is the lamest kind of anecdata, but I have a suspicion that which painting comes up depends on your highest buffed stat. When I was wearing my red lensed goggles because — hey, Science! — and Perception was my highest stat, I got the Large Landscape 13 times, the Parasol Portrait twice, and all of the others about 5 times each. I switched my gear to make Reflexes my highest buffed stat and all of a sudden I got the Parasol Portrait. Like I said, anecdata, but might be worth more rigorous testing.

Magnifico 18 Jan 2013 14:51

I had Perception 14, Reflexes 11. I then took some cut Nova, which gave me Pep In Your Step and +3 Reflexes. With 11 (14) Reflexes, I suddenly started getting the Large Landscape many times in a row.

EDIT: Other stats were Strength 8 and Will 9.

Last edited on 18 Jan 2013 14:52 by Magnifico Show more

Magnifico 18 Sep 2013 02:34

A cryptic hint, courtesy of Vague-Man:

There are a couple cycles in the museum. I loooove cycles. There's an unimportant point where symbolism may not be coming through. And a more important point where the cycle is a clue that there's a puzzle there, which unlocks another puzzle to complete another cycle.

heriodule 24 Sep 2013 01:05

So we're apparently missing the starry sky etheric version. I noticed that the Stories At An Exhibition story connected to it mentions music that resembles the description of Spooky Music, so that might be worth a try.

Last edited on 24 Sep 2013 01:05 by heriodule Show more

heriodule 24 Sep 2013 15:40

New burst of spading from Argeth that's not had any results:

Fighting Skeleton King with hounds, both inside and outside the painting, both knocking off and not
Fighting Phoenix with ranged and Channel The Deeps, with Against The Sun
Adventuring with spooky music and containment suit while etheric; killed skeleton king.

Now, Stories at an Exhibition has two stories apparently linked to the painting, possibly three if you count the Well story.

Every night, we wish for the sunset to last forever. Every night, its red light bleeds into the ocean. Every night, the perfection stretches over moments without count.

But every day is different, filled with petty concerns and true suffering. The rich fret and the poor die. Children are born screaming before they even understand the true horror of their birthright and the old fade from every memory.

We can only hold truth when the sun goes out. We can only truly know each other in the haze. Happiness begins and ends in those blood-red moments, while suffering pours down like arrows in the rays of the noonday sun.

As the stars slide silently across the night sky, they pass from one shape to another. Every minute of every night, they show a new face and a new pattern.

Locked in each pattern is a song, a mad construct of shrieking strings and silent voices. Anyone can learn the song and anyone with a little skill can play it, but few do.

Why is that? It's not because they don't believe, oh no. Everyone who could play it knows, deep in their heart that the song's out there, waiting to be played.

It's because there are other things out there that know the song, things that move in the depths. And they do not like competition.

So I'm pretty sure that it's necessary to kill the Phoenix (noonday sun) in some manner to unlock the stars painting. Unfortunately, we don't seem to have much to go on. Cold Depths might be it, but otherwise I have no idea.

Magnifico 24 Sep 2013 16:21

There are some interesting tidbits about the art museum in the Shared Files. The most obviously relevant is this one:

The video moves through the museum, finally stopping at a painting of a sunset. The view warps strangely, like ripples of heat. The cameraperson curses explosively and tosses the camera to the ground. Your last view is a figure hurling itself out of the museum and dropping to the ground to roll.

First of all, this tells us that there definitely is an etheric version of the sunset painting. (If only we could ask the students how they got to it …) It also suggests that the phoenix lurks in it, which makes me think maybe the key is not killing it but rather something else.

This one also interests me, because it doesn't refer in any obvious way to anything we know about in the museum:

The video moves through the museum, finally stopping to point into a dark corner. The cameraperson mutters "staring back at me, staring back…" then screams and drops their comm on the way out.

Fop 24 Sep 2013 17:53

I still think the key to the Phoenix is not its death, but it's rebirth. Not that I have any ideas about that outside of the abstract.

I still don't think that any unearthly item will ever be required for a puzzle. But the cyclic sketch did give me a pause for thought.

You stare into the sketch, tugged into the cycle of death and rebirth through time and fire.

That is remarkably close to the mythology of the Phoenix. If there isn't an interaction, there probably should be….

page 1 of 3123next »