jack1974
Jun 05, 2015
Haha yeah. I really like the writing so far! There are some really dark characters, like Galan, he did TERRIBLE things in his past or grey ones like the Nagas indeed which are fighting against their own nature. It's quite cool. Honestly if writer can keep going like this, I think this game beta might be out early next year or even sooner
Sylrissa
Jun 05, 2015
Glad to hear it, it's nice to see some more grey area being tackled with personalities and actions etc.
*shakes pom poms* Go writer go!
jack1974
Jun 05, 2015
Speaking with a dev friend, discovered that apparently the CYOA guys are super protective of the term, so even if I was just using it as reference I'll stop using it from now... also because, this game has a party and a real combat later in the story, so using that term would be wrong anyway
Rebly82
Jun 06, 2015
Interesting layout of the characters you've shown us! (Blog post)
When you can, I hope we can get to see the rest of the recruitable characters (Pirates, Amazons, Nomads). It's a little exciting to think about what sort of party you'd like to set up, since you can only choose 1 from each group to join you.
jack1974
Jun 06, 2015
I have a correction to make, the romanceable character will be recruitable anyway. Like if you pick another one the first time, you'll be able to get them later in another quest (just the one which can be romanced).
kadakithis
Jun 20, 2015
Will that be true of regardless of character gender? Or all romance options?
For example a male character could still get the Amazon and Vaeril later, or just Nuala and Jasper? Also the Nagas are the same type and both romance options to everyone, just a little confused how it is all going to work.
jack1974
Jun 20, 2015
The Amazon is "fixed", since the other amazon character is Karen, but she won't follow you around (she's the Queen, oh!!
).
Right now of the finished recruitment routes I've read, they all have two characters but you can recruit just one:
Elves: Kusho OR Vaeril
Dwarves: Dasyra OR Galan
Nagas: Sylrissa OR Enok
and we were thinking to offer the option to recruit the romanceable character, no matter what you're playing. So in the example above, only the dwarves (both, since none can be romanced) wouldn't be available later.
However I can understand the player might want to recruit all the characters anyway, so that's why I was thinking to allow some "rescue missions" later to pick up the initially excluded characters, no matter if you can romance them or not. We need still to decide this.
Rebly82
Jun 20, 2015
Can you tell us the names of the other classes, and maybe type?
Like, For Nagas: Sylrissa (Blademaster) OR Enok (Battlemage)
How about Pirates and Nomands?
jack1974
Jun 20, 2015
I posted it somewhere in this forum, but in practice is (copy pasting notes I sent the writer):
AMAZON
Leena - Warrior
Very skilled warrior, Loren's trainer. Strong but also agile and very technical.
NOMADS
Amukiki - Barbarian
He is still a nomad so while has strength, he is not yet skilled like during Loren. I think his skills should be about brute force/intimidation mostly.
Nuala - Shaman
She is a good healer but also can deal good damage
PIRATES
Senya will be in game, but not as party. This to balance the fact that for the Amazons there's only Leena and not Karen.
I am going to ask artist to draw a pistol (like the flintlock, those pistols of late 800) so he can be a sharpshooter/melee fighter
Jasper - Sharpshooter
On a side note, just spoke with the writer who is currently writing the intro scene, and it's already 10,000 words long! It will be another SMALL GAME (tm)
Troyen
Jun 20, 2015
However I can understand the player might want to recruit all the characters anyway, so that's why I was thinking to allow some "rescue missions" later to pick up the initially excluded characters, no matter if you can romance them or not. We need still to decide this.
I actually think you should leave them out. It'd be different from your other games and it's a reason to replay the game - retry the story with alternate points-of-view. And it keeps the party from growing too large.
(Plus, if there's a character we really dislike, we can leave them out without negatively impacting our party power. "Optional" rescue missions really mean "do this if you don't want to fall behind on XP/Gold".)
jack1974
Jun 20, 2015
They would be optional indeed, so not required. And not easy either
I prefer to allow the choice to the player (for example if someone likes a specific Class in the RPG, but doesn't care about the character), but make it quite hard (more than normal quests).
kadakithis
Jun 20, 2015
I actually think you should leave them out. It'd be different from your other games and it's a reason to replay the game - retry the story with alternate points-of-view. And it keeps the party from growing too large.
(Plus, if there's a character we really dislike, we can leave them out without negatively impacting our party power. "Optional" rescue missions really mean "do this if you don't want to fall behind on XP/Gold".)
I agree, it seems to make it more important, and while "bonus" missions are technically extra, it will always seem the correct way to play, especially those who view it as a "moral" decision. It also adds variety. Making the romances available (or telling them they are a romance(?) seems enough and adds replayability.
jack1974
Jun 21, 2015
Well since the "rescue quests" will be independent, for now we won't write them then, and focus on the main story. I'll see if during beta I get another kind of feedback
The main issue is that it would limit the classes, for example if you pick both Galan, Kusho and Amukiki, you would have no healer in your party. But I'm thinking anyway to make the game more similar to QoT, so with limited healing anyway. We'll see, is obviously a bit too early to draw any conclusions about this
Rebly82
Jun 21, 2015
The main issue is that it would limit the classes, for example if you pick both Galan, Kusho and Amukiki, you would have no healer in your party.
Times like this you need a manual or instruction set, so people will know that having unbalanced classes may lead to huge challenges within the game! Or people can find out about it the hard way, like those who went for an all-rogue/warrior party in Dragon Age Inquisition with no mages/classes they didn't pick, to their dismay realize you do need their skills and the class itself to overcome a few quest obstacles.
jack1974
Jun 21, 2015
Yes, or I can balance the game so that no specific class is absolutely required
Worse case I could allow healing potions again. But in general if the healing is going to be like in QoT where you can't "spam healing", then even having a healer Class is not as important as it was in Loren/SOTW.
kadakithis
Jun 21, 2015
That makes sense, usually in a choose between two scenario, they have similar stats(classes) but different personalities. So I get Healer 1 or 2, a roleplaying choice that affects roleplaying, vs a roleplaying choice that changes mechanics, healer 1 or warrior 2
As far as Inquisition, classes were actually needed to continue some quests because they had exploration skills, including warriors/rogues/mages, any class left out could hinder a quest (and in one all 3 were needed to complete it), but it totally was possible to beat things with all one class, so as long as Jack doesn't have a "must have healer to get past dungeon" we should be fine.
jack1974
Jun 23, 2015
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CILuRlyUsAAhUPQ.jpg:large" style="max-width:100%">
I'm reading the intro chapter right now. I love Karen
and what she says. One sentence is above. Another epic one is this dialogue between her and Grimoire's council:
council leader "How is it that you came to know this?"
karen "As I said before, the growing mists around N'Mar are a growing concern for the Amazons as well. We have been flying surveillance missions over those fields for many moons. All, of course, to further the shared interests of both the human empire and the Amazons' domain."
council leader "Why did you not relay this information to the council?"
karen "My people have reported everything we know to the council through proper diplomatic channels. If that information failed to reach you, you have only your own bureaucratic inefficiency and political idiocy to blame."
"People around the council chamber begin to murmur."
She's quite blunt. Definitely now I see where Loren caught it from!
P_Tigras
Jun 26, 2015
Tell me that Valerie the Vampire is in this one too and you'll have me sold right there. Her reaction to Mesphit in the N'Mar expansion for Loren was priceless!
And yep, I can see that Loren is certainly a chip off the old block...
jack1974
Jun 26, 2015
Hmm Valery... I didn't think about her, but there might be a cameo or something. A "problem" when making this game was to not break what happens in Loren. For example, Karen knows about N'Mar, and it's good because in Loren game she says it. Same for Apolimesho.
However, I had to be careful, since they don't know the castle. Indeed in this game, both Karen and Apolimesho aren't recruitable in the party. Otherwise, they should be familiar a bit with the castle, being there already (obviously, being there once doesn't mean they know it by memory, but still).
A lot of small things that I had to catch, another example I initially included Rei, but then I remembered that Rei and Amukiki met for first time in Loren. So wasn't possible to have them both (even just as party members) in this game. So I picked only Amukiki because it also ties with the fact that he became a gladiator after the events of this game. And so on. Had to do some "research"
edit: lol and now I just checked the Amukiki's personal quest in Loren, and can't work with what happens in this game. Well, not a big loss since he wasn't romanceable anyway! I'll find another Nomad to replace him then.
P_Tigras
Jun 26, 2015
Valery and Zachary don't appear outside the N'Mar expansion, so there isn't a whole lot of game text needing to be checked, and two years ago I could probably have told you everything that was in the game about them. lol. Unfortunately my memory has since fogged over a bit and my saved games were lost in a hard drive crash. It certainly makes sense for them to be involved in the story somehow since they take over the castle once all this is over.
I'm trying to recall if the game related whether Zachary had turned Valery or if she was already a vampire when they got together, but I'm drawing a blank. I'm also drawing a blank on just how old the two of them are. There are quite a few interesting permutations on how these two could potentially be inserted into the story depending on the answers to those two questions. Meeting a still human or perhaps single vampire Valery would be rather intriguing. Perhaps she flirts and whimsically starts getting involved with the MC only to drop him/her for Zachary in the very next scene. So it wouldn't be a real romance. And even if the two vampires are already paired, there is still a great deal of room for fun banter or even negotiations of the sort that took place in N'Mar, ie. the MC wants something from the vampires, while Valery wants a sip from the MC or perhaps a companion that has caught her fancy in return. lol.
