I haven't been following the general reactions to the new patch, but fair warning going into this that I personally was pretty disappointed in it from a story standpoint.
I was very pleased with Soto overall, and I think they seriously improved on many of the issues I've had with the writing over the years, but I can't help but feel that somehow it has regressed in the newest patch.
The crux of my issue is that I want to distrust peitha and keep her at arms length, but it really feels like the story is making it crystal clear that I'm not allowed to feel that way. The speed at which not just my character, but even the astral ward, an organization dedicated to stopping her kind for thousands of years, is happy to not only help her, but to frequently espouse how much they trust her completely. I don't think I've ever felt less connected to my character.
I was hoping for the story to keep her in a suspicious and interesting place, where we're helping her for now but no one is sure what to think yet. Instead we're back to the often hamfisted story telling of the end of dragons era, where it feels like every character is to be taken at complete face value.
To be honest I hope she does betray us, because that would at least be an interesting direction, and something to shake my character's naive level of confidence. Though if they do go that way at this point they laid it on pretty thick with the implicit trust angle.
I'm curious if anyone else feels the same, or differently. Would love to hear other's takes on it.
SotM: Love Spooky Season (@avater)
I also didn't feel the impact on Peitha of the death of this random Kryptis. What helped a little bit is reading a story journal descriptions of those chapters. It contains more insight on what commander is thinking and Peitha's feelings. This leads me to believe, that their direction is actually that Peitha is a good one. But again, it is obvious that gameplay needed one or two more instances and more dialogue to properly show this story and portray Peitha's feelings and motivations.
If it was some other game, like cyberpunk, we would have dialogue choice to express lack of trust even after this. And even if it wouldn't change anything in the story, it gives us flexibility to express our feelings as a character.
That random Kryptis death was a new speedrun record.