@@ZombieSashimi The coffin was such a great detail. Did you think of that first and then work to set it up? Or was it an invention that came to you later in the process? Not that it matters, but I'm I just curious.
@@erpagan it came as I was writing. I just started with a situation that gets Victor in trouble and let things run its course as I wrote. I remembered in Red Veil the Al Fasid was smuggled into Yu Jing territory hiding in a portable toilet. I took that humorous idea and thought what would be more harrowing for someone, and a coffin came to mind.
I agree with your point. But more than that I wanted to congragulate you on you courage. Very good story, nice voice acting. Kudos! Great paint job also :)
It was fun to have a go at writing a story. I have since written a few more and published them on my channel, alas they don't get much in the way of viewership, but I am happy that there are a few out there enjoying my efforts. Thanks!
i have always wanted a manga featuring, tenguska mafia, Zoey her father's assassination, and the Engineer group that adopted Zoey to conceal her, the creation of Zoey's zondmate Piwell. at the same time her friendship with Brando Castro who has more of a Aladdin story lab escapee, who lives off of stealth to survive in the substreets, how he met Zoey who became his first friend, but was discovered for his talent, captured and trained with Morlocks and Taskmasters until his skills are noticed by the SPkter branch starting up in Bakunin, he can be brought back into the story as the tripple zero. Brando and new allies (a fellow zero, miora hacker, sineater and a riotgirl BS with a tinbot back pack) rescue Zoey as the tenguska Mafia's hunt for her. the team escort zoey to Bakunin with great difficulty (sineater and riotgirl fight to the bitter end while attempting to escape) once on bakunin Zoey and PIwell are welcomed and protected by the MIoras leader Cassandra. while Brando still sneaks in for a visit. maybe the story can start with them reminiscing, and ends when they get caught by the mioras and Brando jokingly cloaks in camo and super jumps out of her window.
I did not know much about Zoe as I am not a Nomad player, but reading over the background on the store I can see how her flight from the mafia, while at the same time needing to treat her degenerative disease could make for a great cat and mouse story with constant tension. The disease needing treatment at the worst possible moments when the mafia are closing in on her. I would probably like to see a simple story that just works off the excitement of close calls and never quite feeling safe.
While Corvus Belli does a good job telling the lore of each faction they do a horrible job in describing the unit lores. You can take two random "unit lores" and they boil down to the same few points: "This unit is made from the most hardcore guys that do the best job for X and Y" and it's basically the same for every unit. Doesn't matter if they're telling about Tiger Soldiers or Wildcats or Sombras or whatever. That kind of makes me sad as I really enjoy reading the rest of the lore books.
They are pretty bad for that. They do get so excited for every unit that they make. It gave me an idea to try and make some short animations that compare the lore with the gameplay of such units. The first part showing off how amazing they are expected to be, then the second showing some of the more ridiculous things that happen in game because of crazy dice rolls and rule interactions.
This is so true! You nailed the unit lore style! I don’t care about named characters in what I want to be a war game, if I want bad character writing I’ll play magic the gathering, but I do want the regiments to have something to differentiate them instead of “these are the most best dudes”
This video hits the nail on the head perfectly, infinity is my absolute favorite game and has been for almost 2 years now but the lore is incredibly hard to get to. White Noise podcast is usually my source for Interesting stories that continue to fuel my love for the game until we get some official content one of these days!
I'm an aspiring author working on getting my first novel published currently. One of my little dreams is to write books for infinity because of how great the setting is. It really sucks how little lore the game actually has.
Thank you. I actually consider the paint job I did on Victor to be one of my worst in recent times. Really glad you liked the short story. I have some more stories I have been writing and putting into videos as well. The Fall of the Orpheus is the short story series currently running on my channel.
@@ZombieSashimi I've been wanting to do some Infinity fiction myself - I really enjoyed making my Quick Guide to the Human Sphere video, but as you say, Infinity needs more personal relationship development between its audience and its characters. Personally, I can't get enough of stuff like this. Would love it if you make more!
@@TesseractMinis Maybe that's what I should do rather than talk about the painting process for some of these videos. Could fit a nice niche and be a way to get the old creative juices flowing.
@@ZombieSashimi if you have the bandwidth to do that many short stories, I think it would be a really fun way to accompany the painting. I'd watch that format.
I've been trying to get into Infinity after falling in love with Malifaux and wanting to switch it up a bit, and am finding it a bit sad that the lore doesn't have the same depth. I hope they focus on this for Warcrow, because I think the success of that will hinge on story since there are so many other fantasy games they're competing with.
I agree wholeheartedly. We shall see about Warcrow. For me it will depend on quality of minis/game/lore. If any one of these is not up to snuff I will probably not dive into it.
I stumbled upon this video. Got me thinking about lore and expectations. As a RPG Roleplayer, I have all the Modipheus books. You know it's not all that bad NOT having a clear view of who these potential NPC Characters are.... Played many Star Trek and Star Wars RPG's and there is nothing worse than Portraying Kirk/Picard/Spock/Han/Vader/Luke and underwhelming your players with Roleplaying canon characters, but not quite getting all the "things" exactly right. (Player Thinking: I'm not really talking to Han Solo... I'm talking to discount-version Han... because the GM is messing this up) So having a clean slate and making Victor Messer however you see fit as a GM, is kind of nice. I think I'll do a video on this.
That’s all very true, however, I would say that in IPs like Star Trek or Star Wars there is a strong sense of what life is like for the people living in those universes. The trouble I have with Infinity is that without some stories on the micro scale, rather than macro, it is hard to relate and be invested or build interest as much as say Malifaux, warhammer or BattleTech. I think also the characters you name already have a very long history and strong identity in the minds across our whole culture, so of course using them in RPGs is not going to live up to peoples expectations. Since making this video there have been more novels and comics and they are helping me a lot more with what I felt was lacking in Infinity, so I have been very happy with where the IP is going.
@@ZombieSashimi Pls do! CB just don't give out any background , origin or short story's. It's a great game to play with beauty full Miniatures. But just so little info to the characters. That's why I really loved your Vic origin story .Keep up the good work. P.S. maybe CB would like them to , you never know ;)
I've played quite a bit of Infinity over the last 3 years or so, and haven't read one single bit of lore, and I don't really care to, but I think you are right that they could garner a bigger fanbase if they did a better job at the telling of the lore.
They still have some for a few characters and units. But they are still very short and lack a more personal touch. They generally touch on things that happen to characters, but don’t tell the experience. I think that is what I am looking for.
Totally get your point. Books in the infinity universe would be awesome. They did quite well with their manga I think. Think they planned a second one? Dunno. Also the Missionpacks are kind of fun.
I believe there are two novels at the moment with perhaps more in the works. They now have a third manga that looks really cool. They are certainly improving, but would still love to see more.
I agree! I have played Infinity for 3 or 4 years and many of thr models are names and stat lines that are all a vague blur. I know not having army books is a good thing for a lot of reasons but I sure would buy an army book that had the background on all the models of a faction.
It would be cool to have a book dedicated to the ‘characters’ of Infinity. Many of the characters are drawn from our own pop culture and history, so the writing for each of them can be approached very differently. An Odyssey for Steel Phalanx characters together, a Ciaphus Cain style story for a Yu Jing hero put up on a pedestal by the State Empire or a crusade against the Combined from Joan of Arc with questions of morale grey mixed in with her black and white view of the struggle against the EI.
This is why I created my own character, using the authorised bounty hunter limited edition pre order for the N3 rule book some years ago. He wears a custom variant of mobile brigada armour with pistol CCW and boarding shotgun. So far only two other members in the crew, bounty hunter on bike and a single Geko from corregidor, dual combi-rifles as my liner. I just add a hacker or a cube jager and they pack a punch.
Almost all the Lore I know, I know from Veteran Players, from my Local TT Club... It is great to listen, but as you say, would be hard to gather for me as a New Player. Good Fan Fiction, I enjoyed the little Twist, since I thought the whole time, why is VICTOR MESSER so "clumsy"! It all made sence at the end 👍
I am glad you enjoyed it. Tbh there is so much of that short story I don’t like and wanted to expand on more. But it was strangely cathartic to just knock it out in an evening, record it and send it out into the world.
I think this is something Degenesis does amazingly well although it is an RPG and not a wargame (but it would do wonderfuly as one I think). The game's PDFs are completely free and the factions are incredibly fleshed out but also characters in those factions. It's even because of those characters that specific events and inter-faction relationships happen. Absolutely worth a read, just for the lore and art alone
There is a huge depth to infinity lore with all the books, the manga outrage, Betrayal and now a novel. There also are all the rpg Books. Victor Messer agent of chaos, a shasvastii agent, was introduced during an ITS season. He is the one who released a lot of data in the human sphere about how big the combined army invasion was, revealing it to thé public. Je was also corrupting, kiss, an hacktivist, who was to become one of the most dreaded hacker in service of thé combined army, seeking revange for her fallen comarad switch and cypher, killed by panoceania.
Yes, my main complaint wasn't about the lack of lore for the universe of Infinity, but stories of the people that live within the universe. I have the RPG and some of the books that go into the details of the world and factions, and these are great, but even in the RPG book it is heavy on universe lore and not on individuals within the world. Thank you for the information regarding Victor Messer. P P also commented about his lore as well.
I think there is character information scattered about but collecting it would be a pain. The best bit of character fiction was on the recruitment of Bit with the video vignettes. There is character information in most of the ITS releases which guides the events (and rules) of that season. Only recently have they made the jump into different fiction types and with their deal with Flying Hussar going to be releasing more novels. I hope that with their continued growth they will get someone dedicated to this arm but I know that the vast majority of the setting is locked away in a single person's mind and he's often busy running the company. I've been a player of the game since it first released and, to me, what drew me in was the setting and the factions. I've played too many games where characters become the focus of the setting leaving an empty hole when they're not in it. (GW's WHFB comes to mind.) I enjoy the setting /events fluff more than character fluff for most settings but I wouldn't mind more like the graphic and non-graphic novels. But all my life I've been the GM (I'll just make up my own setting characters) and my degree is in History so I might be biased. ;) But wrapping all the meandering up, I honestly prefer a game with solid rules and little fiction to a game with an overwhelming amount of fiction and crap rules (no names need be mentioned).
I agree with a lot of what you bring up there. I was pulled into Infinity for very similar reasons. The depth of information about the factions and setting along with the beautiful sculpts was a big draw. I just like to have a few stories that put me into the setting. I wouldn't mind if these were stories about people in the universe that are not even represented in the game. I also do not want to see the game change to be a focus around named characters. I like it as it is, but I want to supplement my joy of the game, the painting and the setting with some more involved story telling.
@@ZombieSashimi If hope they make more fiction along the current lines which involve previously unknown characters that could eventually get a figure. I know more novels are already lined up. And if you haven’t read the current novel it’s really good on adding depth and knowledge of how PanO military operates and behaves.
For me the major gripe is the exclusive minis. I don't mind a repose or switching it's weapon from gun to ccw or pistol. I mean a completely different load out or a character. Like Fiddler with jack bots or the Ye Mao with missile launcher. Cool looking minis but hard to get now. I'm still waiting for that exclusive ninja with tac bow from operation red veil to return.
That ninja is very cool. Red veil was my first Infinity purchase, so I was lucky enough to get her. But it does suck when you miss out on really cool exclusive minis. When you get them you wonder if it was worth it, and if you don’t get them you can feel that if it was a model from your army it will be forever incomplete.
I know this video is old but I’ll still throw my take at it. Warmachine and Corvus belli infinity were my first tabletop min game. Covid hit my wife watched me lose my mind being inside and I started ordering to paint these cool figures. Warhammer style doesn’t fit my taste but love the lore. The problem with the two games I chose is, in the states not many sell play or even know any other tabletop other than warhammer. I agree 100% about infinity lore. The complexity of the game is amazing and I love a good learning curve. Why I should care about the faction or minis I pick is lackluster. The minis though, for both warmachine and infinity, absolutely blow warhammer away.
I am right there with you. I have absolute love for the minis, and I want to love the lore so much, they just make it so difficult. It is getting better recently with more comics and books, but that only goes so far.
I'm late to this channel as I've been on an Infinity break since ~2019, but I 100% agree on the lack of fulfilling story. I want to read the books, but so much of what's there is so dry, like a history book. Attributions to names of side side side side characters who'll never be mentioned again sprinkled in too. All that said, for Victor Messer, did you see his entry on pg.93 of Daedalus' Fall? It's actually written in first person, and it's....uhh....ok? It starts off strong, gets generic in the middle, then gets good again. Par for the course. Your story was MUCH better.
Thanks. I did not see the story in Daedalus Falls. I would love to get some of the sourcebooks, but as I am in Japan, the shipping is crazy and the space they take up is too much. I wish they would release digital versions to buy once the physical books have been out for a while. And thank you for listening through my story of Victor Messer, it was a fun one to write. I need to get back into writing some short stories.
The difficulty is that it is hard to control the content of what is essentially fan fiction. They do have a section on their forum for fan fiction and I will happily publish anything I write there. But I would like to see some official short stories in the future made more widely available. But I do think that if it something enough people feel strongly about, it is good to let Corvus Belli be aware, as that is what will likely make any change in the future.
Sure but it's not so easy. It's like homebrew rules - you think you came up with something good but it sucks. One needs a very high IQ to properly incorporate such complexities without causing plot holes and bugs in such a large system. These companies usually have a couple of geniuses with a legit 140+ IQ working for them on solving such problems
Thank you. I would be curious to know if you have heard similar from people before? I tend to enjoy getting deep into a games lore, and I love Infinity, but it has been the hardest of the games I play to really ‘feel’ the world.
I think you mean ‘Outrage’. I really want to get the comics. I would personally pay for pdf formats of their books on lore. Living in Japan though, the cost of shipping books is way too expensive and basically shuts me out of getting much in the way of the written lore. They have done a fantastic job of giving the big picture of their universe, but it lacks the stories that focus in on the lives of people in its universe. That is what I feel is missing. So far two comics and a book, with hopefully more to come will help change that.
@@ZombieSashimi I believe he was involved in the highjacking of some space craft, possibly related to one of the campaings. I'll make sure to find out and post it here.
@@ZombieSashimi Found it, it's part of the plot of ITS season 9 and described in some detail in the accompanying booklet. You can also find snippets in the summary of the N4 Core Book. The anti-establishment group and hacktivists "ALIVE" got their hands on a classified file ("Backd00r") from Paradiso High Command, but were unable to decrypt it themselves, so they passed it on to a contact on Svalarheima who managed to encrypt it. That guy was Victor Messer, who found that the B4ckd00r file contained detailed information about suspected collaborators with the CA within the human sphere, as well as Shasvastii agents who had already infiltrated human society and replaced people throughout various levels of society. Problem was, Victor Messer was a Shasvastii agent himself, so he used this knowledge to sow confusion and distrust among the humans by breaking the file into several parts and leaking it to the human sphere through various channels. Now all major powers were hellbent on retrieving all those fragments to secure the intel to protect and/or deal with anyone on the list, depending on their allegiances. ALIVE were eventually tracked down and captured, but their prisoner transport was attacked by the CA and ALIVE were killed, except for Bit, who is now working for the CA. Victor Messer has not been captured since.
Thats the problem with named characters. I remeber when reading codex orcs 5th ed, each named character has a lore page dedicated to it. Many of them never got any proper book, novel, short story and etc. Just their background and current agenda. Basically it's all needed for a named character to be special. You later discover that they later participated in famous events or battles, were mentioned in lore entry of a different units or even take place in unrelated novels as an ally or adversary.
It is something that GW do so well. There is so many small personal stories that make the whole setting feel alive. Infinity does the macro really well, but struggles with telling the lives of everyone within its universe.
My biggest beef with infinity is you can't by it. A lot of models are out of print. Doesn't matter good how defiance is. Didn't Kickstarter it, can't buy it. Never thought about the lore thing. The lore thing you doing is cool.
I do think they should stop or slow down on the Kickstarter stuff and focus more on dedicated games that continue to get support. It is also a shame when stuff goes out of print, but understandable for a smaller company that needs to sell the minis to succeed and keeping old casts that don’t sell would lose them money (as much as it is a shame for those who want to buy them).
I agree completely. There core books are written like a history book. Commenting on the political and national plots but rarely on the people or characters or the universe. I have seen a lot of more fan base stories out there. So maybe thats what CB is after. To inspire you as the player to build your world inside there's.
Wait a minute… are you saying Corvus Belli’s approach helps us build our own world inside there’s… has my argument just been outmanoeuvred in a game of 3D chess???!!! Well played CB… well played… 😂
I always thought this would be a good game to play with my brother.. narratively.. where we aren’t trying to cheese line of sight or cover.. but just actually seeing what is coming off..
It can be fun to see a story unfold if you are not playing too competitively, but for a game that can really play out like a story, I think Malifaux is better. I have had some really fun narratives just play out in the game organically.
@@patinho5589 It is a cool system that uses a deck of playing cards instead of dice. To see if you would be interested in the lore, you should check out 'the Breachside Broadcast'. It is a podcast that reads the stories from the Malifaux world.
I'm struggling to get into Infinity anymore . Location to play and people to play with is hard. The other issue is playing with people often turns into a debate on "Can this guy see this guy?" Another issue I run into is far to deep rules regarding encounters. I would like to see very slimed down rules. Maybe they exist now since I stopped playing more than... 4 years ago. Even so, the player base is so small in my area that I only have 1 person to play with. I quit playing after a year because it became more of a collection of things to paint rather then a game I can actually play.
I understand that frustration. I haven’t played an in person game for years. Being in Japan and not in Tokyo there are no players in my area. I do however play online on TTS and that lets me play with people back home in UK and other players around Japan. There is quite a strong online presence of players. But I must say these days I haven’t played and I am leaning back into playing Aristeia! more.
I agree with you on character story. I play Yu Jing which has few true Yu Jing characters. Most of the rest are mercenaries. Even then, unless they were an Aristea character, there's not much story. But I know very little about Yu Jing characters even though I've played them from the beginning of Infinity.
I feel like you could do some really fun stories told from the perspective of the State Empire. Really heavy propaganda type stuff about one of their heroes. Full of spectacle just to promote how great Yu Jing is along with their poster child. Would be a really fun fluffy way to tell a story.
@@ZombieSashimi I'd like something like sci-fi wuxia. Especially something about Jing Qo and Liang Kai. The whole current day china in space is a bit too obvious.
@@Space_Ranger that would be very cool. I am an Imperial Service player, so the whole ‘for the State’ thing is their schtick. Personally I would like to write my own Ciaphas Cain style short story. Perhaps the same events from two perspectives. The first from a State Empire reporter and then the other from a soldiers first hand experiences in a diary.
I would love some official character fiction, but when lacking it, gotta have a go at filling the void. Have a go, it is strangely cathartic... until you decide to publish it, and then it is anxiety inducing.
You're not wrong, although it's a bit odd to frame this as a problem they have when it's a problem they are actively taking steps to fix. I read Downfall and it crystalized an interest in Aristeia for me.
That is a great point, but I try to frame the problem as one for people who are beginning to take an interest into the hobby. There still feels a lack of personable stories within the universe to get people excited to play in the universe, rather than just to play as a game when you just do some research into lore. I really want to read Downfall, so I will try and pick up a digital copy in the near future once I am through the books I am currently reading. I would really want the comics as well, but without a digital copy that I could purchase, the shipping is too dear for me living in Japan. Glad you have taken an interest in Aristeia! That is my favourite 'board game' of all time. I never get bored of playing it. (And I have two battle reports of it if you want to check them out ;))
There's hints of character depth but not a lot of it. Very 'Stephen Moffett' - lots of possibilities but none of them explored or developed in the end. I think they need to change this.
@@OldManRogers there has been improvement since I published this video, but there’re could be so much more. With more novels, graphic novels and now the animated series coming in the near future, I hope we will continue to see more.
@@JazzNazz1 Oh right, yeah, of course. I often use it when I want a little lore about a character I am painting. They usually have a little bit about the characters or units in the Background section of each page, but it was here that I found nothing on Victor Messer. The video was originally intended to be a painting video on Victor Messer, but after trying to find anything I could about the character it evolved the video into a rant instead.
The focus on individuals is outside the "Scale" of the type of wargame it is. For that sort of granularity, you want the rpg stuff, tbh. That said, as a prior long-term 40k player before I started with infinity, I stopped paying attention to 90% of the fluff ("lore" gives it too much gravitas and makes it sound like a d&d nerd trying to justify something to me.) for any game because to be fair, most game writers can't write that stuff any well, and most gamers really won't care that much for it anyway. They just want rules and a bit of a justification to smush their little mandollies together like they used to do with their GI Joes.
I don't completely agree. But that is the whole reason I made the video when I did, it was an opinion piece expressing my opinion. The reason I got into Malifaux before Infinity was the large amount of lore that got me excited about the game and its world. It was the interesting art, beautiful minis and what I could learn about the world and factions in Infinity that got me into that as well. Since being into Infinity, for me, there is a lack of good stories that help keep interest high in the setting outside of the games played. Infinity will be fine without the lore, but it could be so much more to people if they did a better job with this side of the IP. And to be fair, since I made this video, they have been doing better with more graphic novels and books.
I can see that. I feel that it is more that it doesn't have a central anchor for stories to all be connected to. 40K has the whole end of the galaxy thing going on, so all stories are anchored to this, some more than others. Malifaux has soul stones as its anchor. Infinity doesn't have a central anchor bringing everything together, so it all seems more disparate and, as you say, harder to dig for the story.
Getting attached to individuals in Infinity is foolishness, unless they're Recreations, at least those are immortal. Not even factions last in Infinity!
Yeah when it comes to sci fi it's extremely important to have lore. With amazing games like bushido you don't really need it as much, it's japan you know? you can look up lore or well chances are if you are a gamer you got some stereotypical enjoyment of the theme. With infinity you have by far the best metal models on the market for a wargame, the most balanced wargame out there, a fantastic dev that cares... but it's completely void of that lore that say 40k has. 40k is iconic, as a game it's probably the biggest mess of a wargame out there with imbalance and a developer who frankly get away with murder, repeatedly. But the lore? there is no one out there worth their salt who would say 40k lacks lore. It's THE one saving grace of 40k. If only corvus belli could get there. If I want to play a game, infinity and bushido are totally my go to now. And they are the only ranges I actually finish painting, the GW stuff is my pile of shame for sure. I haven't tried star wars legion yet but that's about it for the non niche wargames. Another thing about corvus belli that I dislike is kickstarter in general. I don't want defiance, I don't want tag battle thing, I don't want to feel forced to pledge to get gorgeous alt sculpts... I want them to concentrate on infinity AND their new fantasy game. And for the love of god one thing I like more from gct studios with bushido than corvus is that afaik if there is a model I want I can buy it... I know you can proxy in infinity but I still remember the sad feeling I had when I saw neoterra bolts and thought "I'm gonna make an army with those they look awesome" and go to the store and see "discontinued 2020". How many times have I see on the corvus belli store the "discontinued" indicator under add to cart, more times than I'd like.
It is a shame when a model you like is discontinued. I wanted to have a go at making the converted o-yoroi with the pilot coming out, but the model is no longer available. They have talked about why they have to do so and with the number of models they are producing it is understandable for a relatively small company. It is just a shame. Perhaps with the introduction of siocast there could be an opportunity to offer out of print models in plastic as the molds and prints are much cheaper than they are for metal.
@@ZombieSashimi Issue with siocast is that it'll be many years before we see the smaller models being done in it, so far it's only very large models and what have we gotten since it's announcement and first model, two or three models total? the bearpode, the zond remote and vostok? I'm a massive fan of siocast, my introduction to it was the bearpode and i'm convinced. But from what I've heard from corvus belli, what you've said isn't a hope worth placing any bets in atm, which is a shame :( Siocast is a great technology that will revolutionize making mini's for small to medium size companies.... eventually? :(
@@nameisbad I am not putting any hope in it, certainly not in the near future. Even if Corvus Belli wanted to make a full switch, convincing most infinity players would be hard. They know what their capabilities are and have knowledge of the business realities they face. I am just a miniature hobby enthusiast who talks about what they want out of the hobby. It will be exciting to see what siocast does for the small/medium sized companies in the future and I look forward to the possibilities both with Corvus Belli games and other game systems as well.
@@lazarus30001 haha. Not sure how to take the comment about the story 😂 tbh it was written pretty quick anyway. Full on fanfic level quality. Thanks for the comment on the paint job!
I don't think there is an apples to apples comparison to be made. If I remember going back, there were still a bunch of stories back then, but also the setting of 40K was very tongue in cheek, whereas Infinity has pretty serious lore. This means that it was easy to write stories in the 40K universe back then without worrying too much about continuity. Whereas Infinity has a lot of historical and political lore and any stories written have to be very careful to follow that lore. I may be wrong, but I believe the RPG took a very long time to make because Modiphius had to get everything they wrote for the game checked by the creator.
@@ZombieSashimi yes there was but it was buried in the Rules, and Codexes much like Infinity and I think it’s a fair comparison because a lot of what you mentioned only showed up in the last 20 years or so.
@@edwarddeguzman3258 Gotcha, thank you for the clarification, that was not where I was reading your first comment from. Yes, makes a lot of sense. Though, that was a time when we did not have internet in every home. I imagine they had a few stories in White Dwarf, but yeah, pretty much exclusively to the rulebooks and codexes.
The biggest problem with you story is that it was too short. Thanks for leaving us with blue balls. haha. Seriously, well done, you should keep writing brother..
This was pretty much blasted out in an evening. I was so tempted to go back and add more to it, but I didn’t want it to make the run time of my video 40mins. I am certainly interested in the idea of trying some more stories based around Infinity characters and am already getting inspiration for story concepts. Thank you for the kind words and glad you enjoyed the story.
I love the setting but the lore is boring and what's worse, copy pasted. "This is an elite group. You wouldn't find better specialists to send on a mission, and you can be sure they are the deadliest out there." Which faction I'm talking about? What exactly makes them unique?
I think they are getting better. They have released a couple of novels, and now a third graphic novel. I have also heard they are commissioning more novels to be made. Still would like more though.
@@Nekhar1 I have defiance, but all there really is in that is: Victor joins as an ally, and lo and behold he betrays you! That is about it. I made a short story series including him about the Orpheus, the crew he was a part of with Aida, Rahman and Trishala. It was about how their ship came under attack from the Combined and gives backstory to why Rahman and Trishala are found on Paradiso holed up in a bunker. I split it into three stories following the same time line, but from three perspectives: Rahman, Trishala and the Charontid. Was a fun exercise in creative writing.
That is a shame, because it’s a really good game with very well defined factions and beautifully sculpted minis. But I so hope they work more on storytelling in the future.
I really enjoyed the story. It captures the Infinity feeling quite well. Keep more coming.
Thank you. Happy you enjoyed it. I have one more on the channel. Planning to get some more out in the future. ruclips.net/video/XaYkePiUzIU/видео.html
I do a lore channel for Infinity.
guess I'll do a video on Messer sometime
That would be cool.
Thanks for being brave enough to share your creativity. I really enjoyed it.
@@erpagan thank you. I have recently been getting the urge to try and write some more. We will see if that urge actually bears any fruit though…
@@ZombieSashimi The coffin was such a great detail. Did you think of that first and then work to set it up? Or was it an invention that came to you later in the process? Not that it matters, but I'm I just curious.
@@erpagan it came as I was writing. I just started with a situation that gets Victor in trouble and let things run its course as I wrote. I remembered in Red Veil the Al Fasid was smuggled into Yu Jing territory hiding in a portable toilet. I took that humorous idea and thought what would be more harrowing for someone, and a coffin came to mind.
I agree with your point. But more than that I wanted to congragulate you on you courage. Very good story, nice voice acting. Kudos!
Great paint job also :)
It was fun to have a go at writing a story. I have since written a few more and published them on my channel, alas they don't get much in the way of viewership, but I am happy that there are a few out there enjoying my efforts. Thanks!
i have always wanted a manga featuring, tenguska mafia, Zoey her father's assassination, and the Engineer group that adopted Zoey to conceal her, the creation of Zoey's zondmate Piwell. at the same time her friendship with Brando Castro who has more of a Aladdin story lab escapee, who lives off of stealth to survive in the substreets, how he met Zoey who became his first friend, but was discovered for his talent, captured and trained with Morlocks and Taskmasters until his skills are noticed by the SPkter branch starting up in Bakunin, he can be brought back into the story as the tripple zero. Brando and new allies (a fellow zero, miora hacker, sineater and a riotgirl BS with a tinbot back pack) rescue Zoey as the tenguska Mafia's hunt for her. the team escort zoey to Bakunin with great difficulty (sineater and riotgirl fight to the bitter end while attempting to escape) once on bakunin Zoey and PIwell are welcomed and protected by the MIoras leader Cassandra. while Brando still sneaks in for a visit. maybe the story can start with them reminiscing, and ends when they get caught by the mioras and Brando jokingly cloaks in camo and super jumps out of her window.
I did not know much about Zoe as I am not a Nomad player, but reading over the background on the store I can see how her flight from the mafia, while at the same time needing to treat her degenerative disease could make for a great cat and mouse story with constant tension. The disease needing treatment at the worst possible moments when the mafia are closing in on her. I would probably like to see a simple story that just works off the excitement of close calls and never quite feeling safe.
While Corvus Belli does a good job telling the lore of each faction they do a horrible job in describing the unit lores. You can take two random "unit lores" and they boil down to the same few points: "This unit is made from the most hardcore guys that do the best job for X and Y" and it's basically the same for every unit. Doesn't matter if they're telling about Tiger Soldiers or Wildcats or Sombras or whatever. That kind of makes me sad as I really enjoy reading the rest of the lore books.
They are pretty bad for that. They do get so excited for every unit that they make. It gave me an idea to try and make some short animations that compare the lore with the gameplay of such units. The first part showing off how amazing they are expected to be, then the second showing some of the more ridiculous things that happen in game because of crazy dice rolls and rule interactions.
Ever thought that this is by design? They give you the universe background and you make your own story for the characters? I'm considering the ifs.
This is so true! You nailed the unit lore style! I don’t care about named characters in what I want to be a war game, if I want bad character writing I’ll play magic the gathering, but I do want the regiments to have something to differentiate them instead of “these are the most best dudes”
This video hits the nail on the head perfectly, infinity is my absolute favorite game and has been for almost 2 years now but the lore is incredibly hard to get to. White Noise podcast is usually my source for Interesting stories that continue to fuel my love for the game until we get some official content one of these days!
Thank you. I shall have to check out white noise. Thanks for the recommendation.
I'm an aspiring author working on getting my first novel published currently. One of my little dreams is to write books for infinity because of how great the setting is. It really sucks how little lore the game actually has.
Great job I quite enjoyed the fiction. Keep up the good work!
Thank you. I haven't had time recently to write anything, but I want to get back into doing some creative writing again.
Great story! Will def listen to more if you have plans to extend this series.
Thank you. I might have to try once in a while. Don’t know how many stories are in me, but will be good to stretch the creative muscles.
Great paint job and thanks for the short story. Great job!
Thank you. I actually consider the paint job I did on Victor to be one of my worst in recent times. Really glad you liked the short story. I have some more stories I have been writing and putting into videos as well. The Fall of the Orpheus is the short story series currently running on my channel.
This story was actually excellent and I really enjoyed it! Thank you!
I am glad you liked it. Tbh I was pretty anxious about publishing it and wasn't sure anyone was going to hang on for long enough to hear it.
@@ZombieSashimi I've been wanting to do some Infinity fiction myself - I really enjoyed making my Quick Guide to the Human Sphere video, but as you say, Infinity needs more personal relationship development between its audience and its characters. Personally, I can't get enough of stuff like this. Would love it if you make more!
@@TesseractMinis Maybe that's what I should do rather than talk about the painting process for some of these videos. Could fit a nice niche and be a way to get the old creative juices flowing.
@@ZombieSashimi if you have the bandwidth to do that many short stories, I think it would be a really fun way to accompany the painting. I'd watch that format.
@@TesseractMinis I would probably limit it to special characters I paint up that I feel inspired to write about.
I've been trying to get into Infinity after falling in love with Malifaux and wanting to switch it up a bit, and am finding it a bit sad that the lore doesn't have the same depth. I hope they focus on this for Warcrow, because I think the success of that will hinge on story since there are so many other fantasy games they're competing with.
I agree wholeheartedly. We shall see about Warcrow. For me it will depend on quality of minis/game/lore. If any one of these is not up to snuff I will probably not dive into it.
They have a lot a lore, but it's not at a character level. I like it but it's a bit generic. It would help if they did more blog posts with stories.
I stumbled upon this video. Got me thinking about lore and expectations. As a RPG Roleplayer, I have all the Modipheus books.
You know it's not all that bad NOT having a clear view of who these potential NPC Characters are....
Played many Star Trek and Star Wars RPG's and there is nothing worse than Portraying Kirk/Picard/Spock/Han/Vader/Luke and underwhelming your players with Roleplaying canon characters, but not quite getting all the "things" exactly right.
(Player Thinking: I'm not really talking to Han Solo... I'm talking to discount-version Han... because the GM is messing this up)
So having a clean slate and making Victor Messer however you see fit as a GM, is kind of nice. I think I'll do a video on this.
That’s all very true, however, I would say that in IPs like Star Trek or Star Wars there is a strong sense of what life is like for the people living in those universes. The trouble I have with Infinity is that without some stories on the micro scale, rather than macro, it is hard to relate and be invested or build interest as much as say Malifaux, warhammer or BattleTech.
I think also the characters you name already have a very long history and strong identity in the minds across our whole culture, so of course using them in RPGs is not going to live up to peoples expectations.
Since making this video there have been more novels and comics and they are helping me a lot more with what I felt was lacking in Infinity, so I have been very happy with where the IP is going.
Great work, love the story. I would love to hear more story's like this.
Keep it up.
Thank you. I was honestly so anxious about releasing this. But the positive feedback is making me seriously think about trying to write more.
@@ZombieSashimi Pls do! CB just don't give out any background , origin or short story's. It's a great game to play with beauty full Miniatures. But just so little info to the characters. That's why I really loved your Vic origin story .Keep up the good work.
P.S. maybe CB would like them to , you never know ;)
As far as I'm concerned, your story is lore now.
Ahhh shucks. Thanks a lot.
I've played quite a bit of Infinity over the last 3 years or so, and haven't read one single bit of lore, and I don't really care to, but I think you are right that they could garner a bigger fanbase if they did a better job at the telling of the lore.
I know a lot of Infinity players aren’t so interested in the lore, but as you say, it would help to bring people in.
I remember few years back they used to have short pieces on those units in the website which are now found in the rule books
They still have some for a few characters and units. But they are still very short and lack a more personal touch. They generally touch on things that happen to characters, but don’t tell the experience. I think that is what I am looking for.
Totally get your point. Books in the infinity universe would be awesome. They did quite well with their manga I think. Think they planned a second one? Dunno. Also the Missionpacks are kind of fun.
I believe there are two novels at the moment with perhaps more in the works. They now have a third manga that looks really cool. They are certainly improving, but would still love to see more.
Valid points. I really think Infinity would benefit from releases like the Heavy Gear storyline books..
I don’t know them, tbh I have not heard anything about heavy gear for a very long time. Might have to check them out…
I agree! I have played Infinity for 3 or 4 years and many of thr models are names and stat lines that are all a vague blur. I know not having army books is a good thing for a lot of reasons but I sure would buy an army book that had the background on all the models of a faction.
It would be cool to have a book dedicated to the ‘characters’ of Infinity. Many of the characters are drawn from our own pop culture and history, so the writing for each of them can be approached very differently. An Odyssey for Steel Phalanx characters together, a Ciaphus Cain style story for a Yu Jing hero put up on a pedestal by the State Empire or a crusade against the Combined from Joan of Arc with questions of morale grey mixed in with her black and white view of the struggle against the EI.
This is why I created my own character, using the authorised bounty hunter limited edition pre order for the N3 rule book some years ago. He wears a custom variant of mobile brigada armour with pistol CCW and boarding shotgun. So far only two other members in the crew, bounty hunter on bike and a single Geko from corregidor, dual combi-rifles as my liner. I just add a hacker or a cube jager and they pack a punch.
Awesome. I would love to see a picture of him! Did you give him a name?
@@ZombieSashimi Madox, I even had a custom patch made.
@@michaelstefanou7744 awesome!
I'll add, as you did, that it's an opportunity for fan-fiction. I've seen some great stories too.
Any that you recommend and where to find them? Would love to check out any recommendations.
@@ZombieSashimi On the official forum there's a fanfic thread. I really like the Wreaking Belles.
Almost all the Lore I know, I know from Veteran Players, from my Local TT Club... It is great to listen, but as you say, would be hard to gather for me as a New Player.
Good Fan Fiction, I enjoyed the little Twist, since I thought the whole time, why is VICTOR MESSER so "clumsy"! It all made sence at the end 👍
I am glad you enjoyed it. Tbh there is so much of that short story I don’t like and wanted to expand on more. But it was strangely cathartic to just knock it out in an evening, record it and send it out into the world.
I think this is something Degenesis does amazingly well although it is an RPG and not a wargame (but it would do wonderfuly as one I think). The game's PDFs are completely free and the factions are incredibly fleshed out but also characters in those factions. It's even because of those characters that specific events and inter-faction relationships happen. Absolutely worth a read, just for the lore and art alone
Thanks for the recommendation. Having a quick look at their website has coloured me intrigued!
There is a huge depth to infinity lore with all the books, the manga outrage, Betrayal and now a novel. There also are all the rpg Books.
Victor Messer agent of chaos, a shasvastii agent, was introduced during an ITS season. He is the one who released a lot of data in the human sphere about how big the combined army invasion was, revealing it to thé public. Je was also corrupting, kiss, an hacktivist, who was to become one of the most dreaded hacker in service of thé combined army, seeking revange for her fallen comarad switch and cypher, killed by panoceania.
Yes, my main complaint wasn't about the lack of lore for the universe of Infinity, but stories of the people that live within the universe. I have the RPG and some of the books that go into the details of the world and factions, and these are great, but even in the RPG book it is heavy on universe lore and not on individuals within the world.
Thank you for the information regarding Victor Messer. P P also commented about his lore as well.
I think there is character information scattered about but collecting it would be a pain. The best bit of character fiction was on the recruitment of Bit with the video vignettes. There is character information in most of the ITS releases which guides the events (and rules) of that season. Only recently have they made the jump into different fiction types and with their deal with Flying Hussar going to be releasing more novels. I hope that with their continued growth they will get someone dedicated to this arm but I know that the vast majority of the setting is locked away in a single person's mind and he's often busy running the company.
I've been a player of the game since it first released and, to me, what drew me in was the setting and the factions. I've played too many games where characters become the focus of the setting leaving an empty hole when they're not in it. (GW's WHFB comes to mind.) I enjoy the setting /events fluff more than character fluff for most settings but I wouldn't mind more like the graphic and non-graphic novels. But all my life I've been the GM (I'll just make up my own setting characters) and my degree is in History so I might be biased. ;)
But wrapping all the meandering up, I honestly prefer a game with solid rules and little fiction to a game with an overwhelming amount of fiction and crap rules (no names need be mentioned).
I agree with a lot of what you bring up there. I was pulled into Infinity for very similar reasons. The depth of information about the factions and setting along with the beautiful sculpts was a big draw.
I just like to have a few stories that put me into the setting. I wouldn't mind if these were stories about people in the universe that are not even represented in the game.
I also do not want to see the game change to be a focus around named characters. I like it as it is, but I want to supplement my joy of the game, the painting and the setting with some more involved story telling.
@@ZombieSashimi If hope they make more fiction along the current lines which involve previously unknown characters that could eventually get a figure. I know more novels are already lined up.
And if you haven’t read the current novel it’s really good on adding depth and knowledge of how PanO military operates and behaves.
@@wyrdhunter Great. I will try and pick up an ebook of it. If it scratches my itch I will be very pleased!
For me the major gripe is the exclusive minis. I don't mind a repose or switching it's weapon from gun to ccw or pistol. I mean a completely different load out or a character. Like Fiddler with jack bots or the Ye Mao with missile launcher. Cool looking minis but hard to get now. I'm still waiting for that exclusive ninja with tac bow from operation red veil to return.
That ninja is very cool. Red veil was my first Infinity purchase, so I was lucky enough to get her. But it does suck when you miss out on really cool exclusive minis. When you get them you wonder if it was worth it, and if you don’t get them you can feel that if it was a model from your army it will be forever incomplete.
I know this video is old but I’ll still throw my take at it. Warmachine and Corvus belli infinity were my first tabletop min game. Covid hit my wife watched me lose my mind being inside and I started ordering to paint these cool figures. Warhammer style doesn’t fit my taste but love the lore. The problem with the two games I chose is, in the states not many sell play or even know any other tabletop other than warhammer. I agree 100% about infinity lore. The complexity of the game is amazing and I love a good learning curve. Why I should care about the faction or minis I pick is lackluster. The minis though, for both warmachine and infinity, absolutely blow warhammer away.
I am right there with you. I have absolute love for the minis, and I want to love the lore so much, they just make it so difficult. It is getting better recently with more comics and books, but that only goes so far.
I like their comics a lot. They should come up with at least one per year.
I really need to get their comics. I may try and see if I can get them without an exorbitant shipping rate.
I'm late to this channel as I've been on an Infinity break since ~2019, but I 100% agree on the lack of fulfilling story. I want to read the books, but so much of what's there is so dry, like a history book. Attributions to names of side side side side characters who'll never be mentioned again sprinkled in too.
All that said, for Victor Messer, did you see his entry on pg.93 of Daedalus' Fall? It's actually written in first person, and it's....uhh....ok? It starts off strong, gets generic in the middle, then gets good again. Par for the course.
Your story was MUCH better.
Thanks. I did not see the story in Daedalus Falls. I would love to get some of the sourcebooks, but as I am in Japan, the shipping is crazy and the space they take up is too much. I wish they would release digital versions to buy once the physical books have been out for a while. And thank you for listening through my story of Victor Messer, it was a fun one to write. I need to get back into writing some short stories.
Perhaps us players can get in contact with CB and offer to write short stories?
At least for those who enjoy writing.
The difficulty is that it is hard to control the content of what is essentially fan fiction. They do have a section on their forum for fan fiction and I will happily publish anything I write there. But I would like to see some official short stories in the future made more widely available. But I do think that if it something enough people feel strongly about, it is good to let Corvus Belli be aware, as that is what will likely make any change in the future.
Sure but it's not so easy. It's like homebrew rules - you think you came up with something good but it sucks. One needs a very high IQ to properly incorporate such complexities without causing plot holes and bugs in such a large system. These companies usually have a couple of geniuses with a legit 140+ IQ working for them on solving such problems
Very cool video and interesting points about the Infintiy lore.
Thank you. I would be curious to know if you have heard similar from people before? I tend to enjoy getting deep into a games lore, and I love Infinity, but it has been the hardest of the games I play to really ‘feel’ the world.
Yeah but the lore they do have is grand, and defiance was such a memorable comic. Knauf was such a good character.
I think you mean ‘Outrage’. I really want to get the comics. I would personally pay for pdf formats of their books on lore. Living in Japan though, the cost of shipping books is way too expensive and basically shuts me out of getting much in the way of the written lore. They have done a fantastic job of giving the big picture of their universe, but it lacks the stories that focus in on the lives of people in its universe. That is what I feel is missing. So far two comics and a book, with hopefully more to come will help change that.
I could swear I've read about what Victor Messer is all about at some point, but don't ask me where. I guess your point stands :P
If you ever find out where, let me know. I would love to know more about him.
@@ZombieSashimi I believe he was involved in the highjacking of some space craft, possibly related to one of the campaings. I'll make sure to find out and post it here.
@@ZombieSashimi Found it, it's part of the plot of ITS season 9 and described in some detail in the accompanying booklet. You can also find snippets in the summary of the N4 Core Book.
The anti-establishment group and hacktivists "ALIVE" got their hands on a classified file ("Backd00r") from Paradiso High Command, but were unable to decrypt it themselves, so they passed it on to a contact on Svalarheima who managed to encrypt it. That guy was Victor Messer, who found that the B4ckd00r file contained detailed information about suspected collaborators with the CA within the human sphere, as well as Shasvastii agents who had already infiltrated human society and replaced people throughout various levels of society.
Problem was, Victor Messer was a Shasvastii agent himself, so he used this knowledge to sow confusion and distrust among the humans by breaking the file into several parts and leaking it to the human sphere through various channels. Now all major powers were hellbent on retrieving all those fragments to secure the intel to protect and/or deal with anyone on the list, depending on their allegiances.
ALIVE were eventually tracked down and captured, but their prisoner transport was attacked by the CA and ALIVE were killed, except for Bit, who is now working for the CA. Victor Messer has not been captured since.
@@PP-th4ft Brilliant. Thanks for finding this wonderful little tidbit!
Thats the problem with named characters. I remeber when reading codex orcs 5th ed, each named character has a lore page dedicated to it.
Many of them never got any proper book, novel, short story and etc. Just their background and current agenda.
Basically it's all needed for a named character to be special. You later discover that they later participated in famous events or battles, were mentioned in lore entry of a different units or even take place in unrelated novels as an ally or adversary.
It is something that GW do so well. There is so many small personal stories that make the whole setting feel alive. Infinity does the macro really well, but struggles with telling the lives of everyone within its universe.
My biggest beef with infinity is you can't by it. A lot of models are out of print. Doesn't matter good how defiance is. Didn't Kickstarter it, can't buy it.
Never thought about the lore thing. The lore thing you doing is cool.
I do think they should stop or slow down on the Kickstarter stuff and focus more on dedicated games that continue to get support. It is also a shame when stuff goes out of print, but understandable for a smaller company that needs to sell the minis to succeed and keeping old casts that don’t sell would lose them money (as much as it is a shame for those who want to buy them).
I agree completely. There core books are written like a history book. Commenting on the political and national plots but rarely on the people or characters or the universe. I have seen a lot of more fan base stories out there. So maybe thats what CB is after. To inspire you as the player to build your world inside there's.
Wait a minute… are you saying Corvus Belli’s approach helps us build our own world inside there’s… has my argument just been outmanoeuvred in a game of 3D chess???!!! Well played CB… well played… 😂
I always thought this would be a good game to play with my brother.. narratively.. where we aren’t trying to cheese line of sight or cover.. but just actually seeing what is coming off..
It can be fun to see a story unfold if you are not playing too competitively, but for a game that can really play out like a story, I think Malifaux is better. I have had some really fun narratives just play out in the game organically.
@@ZombieSashimi I’ll have to try malifaux one day perhaps
@@patinho5589 It is a cool system that uses a deck of playing cards instead of dice. To see if you would be interested in the lore, you should check out 'the Breachside Broadcast'. It is a podcast that reads the stories from the Malifaux world.
I'm struggling to get into Infinity anymore . Location to play and people to play with is hard. The other issue is playing with people often turns into a debate on "Can this guy see this guy?" Another issue I run into is far to deep rules regarding encounters. I would like to see very slimed down rules. Maybe they exist now since I stopped playing more than... 4 years ago. Even so, the player base is so small in my area that I only have 1 person to play with. I quit playing after a year because it became more of a collection of things to paint rather then a game I can actually play.
I understand that frustration. I haven’t played an in person game for years. Being in Japan and not in Tokyo there are no players in my area. I do however play online on TTS and that lets me play with people back home in UK and other players around Japan. There is quite a strong online presence of players. But I must say these days I haven’t played and I am leaning back into playing Aristeia! more.
I agree with you on character story. I play Yu Jing which has few true Yu Jing characters. Most of the rest are mercenaries. Even then, unless they were an Aristea character, there's not much story. But I know very little about Yu Jing characters even though I've played them from the beginning of Infinity.
I feel like you could do some really fun stories told from the perspective of the State Empire. Really heavy propaganda type stuff about one of their heroes. Full of spectacle just to promote how great Yu Jing is along with their poster child. Would be a really fun fluffy way to tell a story.
@@ZombieSashimi I'd like something like sci-fi wuxia. Especially something about Jing Qo and Liang Kai. The whole current day china in space is a bit too obvious.
@@Space_Ranger that would be very cool. I am an Imperial Service player, so the whole ‘for the State’ thing is their schtick. Personally I would like to write my own Ciaphas Cain style short story. Perhaps the same events from two perspectives. The first from a State Empire reporter and then the other from a soldiers first hand experiences in a diary.
Lol I litrally had the same thought of just making up my own cannon for the game.
I would love some official character fiction, but when lacking it, gotta have a go at filling the void. Have a go, it is strangely cathartic... until you decide to publish it, and then it is anxiety inducing.
How dare he encroach upon the secrets of the Might State Empire!!!!!
Even Carlos Bostria couldn’t have said it better! 😄
@@ZombieSashimi Damn, he got picked up by Aida and anal probed by the Shas :(
You're not wrong, although it's a bit odd to frame this as a problem they have when it's a problem they are actively taking steps to fix. I read Downfall and it crystalized an interest in Aristeia for me.
That is a great point, but I try to frame the problem as one for people who are beginning to take an interest into the hobby. There still feels a lack of personable stories within the universe to get people excited to play in the universe, rather than just to play as a game when you just do some research into lore.
I really want to read Downfall, so I will try and pick up a digital copy in the near future once I am through the books I am currently reading. I would really want the comics as well, but without a digital copy that I could purchase, the shipping is too dear for me living in Japan.
Glad you have taken an interest in Aristeia! That is my favourite 'board game' of all time. I never get bored of playing it. (And I have two battle reports of it if you want to check them out ;))
@@ZombieSashimi i will check them out. Downfall is fine, but I agree they need short stories, like micro one page stories like GW used to do
@@TylerProvick I think that would do them some good. Helps put people into their world.
There's hints of character depth but not a lot of it. Very 'Stephen Moffett' - lots of possibilities but none of them explored or developed in the end. I think they need to change this.
@@OldManRogers there has been improvement since I published this video, but there’re could be so much more. With more novels, graphic novels and now the animated series coming in the near future, I hope we will continue to see more.
@@ZombieSashimi Absolutely I'm hopeful for the future of infinity
I find Human Sphere a great resource for (although limited) background
Yeah. I have that book. And there is loads of great lore that gives history and overview of factions. I just wish there were more character stories.
@@ZombieSashimi sorry I meant the Human Sphere Website
@@JazzNazz1 Oh right, yeah, of course. I often use it when I want a little lore about a character I am painting. They usually have a little bit about the characters or units in the Background section of each page, but it was here that I found nothing on Victor Messer. The video was originally intended to be a painting video on Victor Messer, but after trying to find anything I could about the character it evolved the video into a rant instead.
The focus on individuals is outside the "Scale" of the type of wargame it is. For that sort of granularity, you want the rpg stuff, tbh.
That said, as a prior long-term 40k player before I started with infinity, I stopped paying attention to 90% of the fluff ("lore" gives it too much gravitas and makes it sound like a d&d nerd trying to justify something to me.) for any game because to be fair, most game writers can't write that stuff any well, and most gamers really won't care that much for it anyway. They just want rules and a bit of a justification to smush their little mandollies together like they used to do with their GI Joes.
I don't completely agree. But that is the whole reason I made the video when I did, it was an opinion piece expressing my opinion.
The reason I got into Malifaux before Infinity was the large amount of lore that got me excited about the game and its world. It was the interesting art, beautiful minis and what I could learn about the world and factions in Infinity that got me into that as well.
Since being into Infinity, for me, there is a lack of good stories that help keep interest high in the setting outside of the games played.
Infinity will be fine without the lore, but it could be so much more to people if they did a better job with this side of the IP. And to be fair, since I made this video, they have been doing better with more graphic novels and books.
I want to them to have more lore on the character second from the right at 0:23.
Cheeky :p
Another issue with it is it has almost no presence... Like... Imo you dig harder for the story of Infinity than you do for 40k.
I can see that. I feel that it is more that it doesn't have a central anchor for stories to all be connected to. 40K has the whole end of the galaxy thing going on, so all stories are anchored to this, some more than others. Malifaux has soul stones as its anchor. Infinity doesn't have a central anchor bringing everything together, so it all seems more disparate and, as you say, harder to dig for the story.
Getting attached to individuals in Infinity is foolishness, unless they're Recreations, at least those are immortal.
Not even factions last in Infinity!
I detect an Aleph player… :)
@@ZombieSashimi as well as Nomads and Tohaa. Barely played since second tho.
@@emdeo well, I enjoyed your comment. It brought a smile to my face.
aside from Ariadna, most units have cube backups so individuals can be reincarnated
Yeah when it comes to sci fi it's extremely important to have lore. With amazing games like bushido you don't really need it as much, it's japan you know? you can look up lore or well chances are if you are a gamer you got some stereotypical enjoyment of the theme.
With infinity you have by far the best metal models on the market for a wargame, the most balanced wargame out there, a fantastic dev that cares... but it's completely void of that lore that say 40k has.
40k is iconic, as a game it's probably the biggest mess of a wargame out there with imbalance and a developer who frankly get away with murder, repeatedly. But the lore? there is no one out there worth their salt who would say 40k lacks lore. It's THE one saving grace of 40k.
If only corvus belli could get there.
If I want to play a game, infinity and bushido are totally my go to now. And they are the only ranges I actually finish painting, the GW stuff is my pile of shame for sure. I haven't tried star wars legion yet but that's about it for the non niche wargames.
Another thing about corvus belli that I dislike is kickstarter in general. I don't want defiance, I don't want tag battle thing, I don't want to feel forced to pledge to get gorgeous alt sculpts... I want them to concentrate on infinity AND their new fantasy game.
And for the love of god one thing I like more from gct studios with bushido than corvus is that afaik if there is a model I want I can buy it... I know you can proxy in infinity but I still remember the sad feeling I had when I saw neoterra bolts and thought "I'm gonna make an army with those they look awesome" and go to the store and see "discontinued 2020".
How many times have I see on the corvus belli store the "discontinued" indicator under add to cart, more times than I'd like.
It is a shame when a model you like is discontinued. I wanted to have a go at making the converted o-yoroi with the pilot coming out, but the model is no longer available.
They have talked about why they have to do so and with the number of models they are producing it is understandable for a relatively small company. It is just a shame.
Perhaps with the introduction of siocast there could be an opportunity to offer out of print models in plastic as the molds and prints are much cheaper than they are for metal.
@@ZombieSashimi Issue with siocast is that it'll be many years before we see the smaller models being done in it, so far it's only very large models and what have we gotten since it's announcement and first model, two or three models total? the bearpode, the zond remote and vostok?
I'm a massive fan of siocast, my introduction to it was the bearpode and i'm convinced. But from what I've heard from corvus belli, what you've said isn't a hope worth placing any bets in atm, which is a shame :(
Siocast is a great technology that will revolutionize making mini's for small to medium size companies.... eventually? :(
@@nameisbad I am not putting any hope in it, certainly not in the near future. Even if Corvus Belli wanted to make a full switch, convincing most infinity players would be hard.
They know what their capabilities are and have knowledge of the business realities they face. I am just a miniature hobby enthusiast who talks about what they want out of the hobby.
It will be exciting to see what siocast does for the small/medium sized companies in the future and I look forward to the possibilities both with Corvus Belli games and other game systems as well.
I've heard far worser stories; great paint job ;-)
@@lazarus30001 haha. Not sure how to take the comment about the story 😂 tbh it was written pretty quick anyway. Full on fanfic level quality. Thanks for the comment on the paint job!
Sooo Infinity is where WH40K was in 1994?
I don't think there is an apples to apples comparison to be made. If I remember going back, there were still a bunch of stories back then, but also the setting of 40K was very tongue in cheek, whereas Infinity has pretty serious lore. This means that it was easy to write stories in the 40K universe back then without worrying too much about continuity. Whereas Infinity has a lot of historical and political lore and any stories written have to be very careful to follow that lore. I may be wrong, but I believe the RPG took a very long time to make because Modiphius had to get everything they wrote for the game checked by the creator.
@@ZombieSashimi yes there was but it was buried in the Rules, and Codexes much like Infinity and I think it’s a fair comparison because a lot of what you mentioned only showed up in the last 20 years or so.
@@edwarddeguzman3258 Gotcha, thank you for the clarification, that was not where I was reading your first comment from. Yes, makes a lot of sense. Though, that was a time when we did not have internet in every home. I imagine they had a few stories in White Dwarf, but yeah, pretty much exclusively to the rulebooks and codexes.
@@ZombieSashimi and usually the WD stuff was reprinted from the books
The biggest problem with you story is that it was too short. Thanks for leaving us with blue balls. haha. Seriously, well done, you should keep writing brother..
This was pretty much blasted out in an evening. I was so tempted to go back and add more to it, but I didn’t want it to make the run time of my video 40mins. I am certainly interested in the idea of trying some more stories based around Infinity characters and am already getting inspiration for story concepts.
Thank you for the kind words and glad you enjoyed the story.
I love the setting but the lore is boring and what's worse, copy pasted. "This is an elite group. You wouldn't find better specialists to send on a mission, and you can be sure they are the deadliest out there." Which faction I'm talking about? What exactly makes them unique?
but having that said, I'd prefer infinity to be less character oriented in terms of lore
Those blurbs on the store page all read like that. It does come across as a but lazy.
yep. damn CB just needs get over their ego and open up thier ip to other writers already. just hire some actual writers.
I think they are getting better. They have released a couple of novels, and now a third graphic novel. I have also heard they are commissioning more novels to be made. Still would like more though.
@@ZombieSashimiVictor has some lore now, if you haven't found it yet, lol. I think it was Defiance that his story got some details.
@@Nekhar1 I have defiance, but all there really is in that is: Victor joins as an ally, and lo and behold he betrays you! That is about it. I made a short story series including him about the Orpheus, the crew he was a part of with Aida, Rahman and Trishala. It was about how their ship came under attack from the Combined and gives backstory to why Rahman and Trishala are found on Paradiso holed up in a bunker. I split it into three stories following the same time line, but from three perspectives: Rahman, Trishala and the Charontid. Was a fun exercise in creative writing.
That is the main thing that kept me away from the game.
That is a shame, because it’s a really good game with very well defined factions and beautifully sculpted minis. But I so hope they work more on storytelling in the future.