A short update on this (riot incoming! lol)

[Exizel]

Now that I think about it, will the new characters get a "leader",I mean Saren/Elenor can't be the only factor that brought them together and go on the quest because the story must happen even if Saren/Elenor are with the old characters? I mean I can imagine the old cast go on their quest without Saren/Elenor.It makes me wonder who they are? What are their goals ?Will they have interaction with old cast(3 of them already know some characters from past games)?

I'm glad that we'll get their game first .

[ShadowTime]

For certain Loren 1 characters maybe you could take a kind of Bioware approach and not do a full romance. Just have a scene with the Loren 1 romance in the beginning of the game, occasionally mention the romance throughout the game, and if the player character stays faithful have a scene with the Loren 1 romance at the end. If the player character was not faithful then you could have one of those classic "jealousy" scenes happen at the end of the game.

Just a suggestion, I am looking forward to the new Loren regardless. Sotw has many cool ideas, I can not wait to see a few of them be done in Loren.

[Legendzerox]

Sucks to see you revise the game, but its what you feel comfortable with. Instead of reducing the game to the point where it cuts short the vision you have for it and what we expect, why not like you said in the Elenor romance thread bring the rest of the game via expansion? Take part of the cast and label is core which would mostly be the original cast and those romancesfrom the first game and focus on them first and foremost and release the game. Then when that is done, begin work on the expansion and bring the rest of the cast and romances to the game via expansion. I have no qualms with paying 30 bucks for the base game and 20 or whatever the price is for the expansion to get the full game you envisioned.

To me that works out well with how you might want to do it, and everyone gets a cookie.

[Foelhe]

Eh. Good ideas if you desperately need to have all the characters in the same game, but I'm not sure they really address the underlying issue. Balancing sixteen characters is still going to be difficult if you're wedging in half of them through expansion/DLC (arguably moreso) and while adding in romance scenes in the end-game would be easier, it'd still be a lot of extra work for something that might not be very satisfying in play.

If you're looking for suggestions, Jack, something I'd thought of - I know a lot of people were curious about what happens to the player character we don't play (i.e. if we played Elenor through the first game, what Saren's up to in the meantime). It might not be a bad idea to have the "new" team lead by the PC that didn't go adventuring with Loren the first time around. That way you sidestep any cheating/separation issues. Not sure if the writer would be interested in approaching it that way, but it's a thought.

[jack1974]

For certain Loren 1 characters maybe you could take a kind of Bioware approach and not do a full romance. Just have a scene with the Loren 1 romance in the beginning of the game, occasionally mention the romance throughout the game, and if the player character stays faithful have a scene with the Loren 1 romance at the end. If the player character was not faithful then you could have one of those classic "jealousy" scenes happen at the end of the game.

Well that surely would be a good idea to solve many problems I am not sure what people would feel with the old characters treated this way, but in any case is not like we can redo the romance/get to know you stuff from scratch since already happened in the first Loren. However as Foelhe said, the main issue is not *just the romances*, but from "my point of view" of coder. Balancing 16 characters would be too much, considering all the troubles I had with SOTW. Even if Loren will be "less RPG" than SOTW, still 16 characters... too much

Sucks to see you revise the game, but its what you feel comfortable with. Instead of reducing the game to the point where it cuts short the vision you have for it and what we expect, why not like you said in the Elenor romance thread bring the rest of the game via expansion?

Uhm where did I say that would be cut short? what you suggest, is exactly what I HAVE PLANNED it won't be cut short, the only change to the original plan is that there won't be 16 characters all in one story.
Just to be clear:
ORIGINAL IDEA: all characters available, introduced slowly, game split in two parts/main quests, but still all characters always available. Major pain to write and balance the RPG part Much longer dev times too.
NEW IDEA: 8 characters available in one story/quest + 8 characters available in another story/quest. Much easier to write (writer will know exactly how many characters are in each quest, more interaction during scenes like in SOTW) and much easier to balance (like before, I'll need to balance "only" 8 characters for each game/quest). Dev times still long (SOTW took 1 year and was done VERY FAST!) but much smaller than before

If you're looking for suggestions, Jack, something I'd thought of - I know a lot of people were curious about what happens to the player character we don't play (i.e. if we played Elenor through the first game, what Saren's up to in the meantime). It might not be a bad idea to have the "new" team lead by the PC that didn't go adventuring with Loren the first time around. That way you sidestep any cheating/separation issues. Not sure if the writer would be interested in approaching it that way, but it's a thought.

Yes I thought about that, but since we're talking about parallel stories it wouldn't make sense anyway to do it even in the first game if you think about it: in a version of the "alternate reality", Elenor is with Karen, in another she is with Chambara. In one, she killed Mesphit, in another she sacrificed herself in the end. So, better spend the efforts in the game itself than worrying too much about those things after all

[vuikinh]

I'm confused. So Loren 1 is just another alternate reality, and it has no connection with Loren 2/3? Or does the story of Loren 2 pick right after the demise of Fost (Zeal's route) but in an alternative reality where Elenor/Saren didn't try to woo anyone?
PS: Could you also add more descriptions to the skills/stats for the sequel of Loren... Like I still have no idea what's the difference b/w attack and damage, the equivalent of strength & health, will & spell power... Just give us a little bit more clarity, so we can theorycraft

[Miakoda]

I'm confused. So Loren 1 is just another alternate reality, and it has no connection with Loren 2/3?

Lore 2/3 will be a sequel to Loren 1. However, not all the possible endings in Loren 1 will be encompassed in Loren 2/3. This isn't that big of a stretch as it seems since even in AAA titles with variable endings they have to pick one which is 'canonical' when doing a sequel.

[jack1974]

Yes as Miakoda explained
As for the skills yes, Loren 2 will be much SIMPLER to understand, and yet offer some interesting mechanics!

[iWeasle]

If this is a riot the forum must live in Seattle...

[DarcieCobalt]

It looks totally fine to me. It would indeed take several years if you wanted to include so many paths in one or two games. It made me think of the latest Dragon Age game, in which you have to choose whether to side with the mages or the templars and how this one choice changes the whole story. Personally I prefer to have an old romance part 2 and then the posibily of a new romance then having an old romance, a new one, and then back to the old one (this makes it look as if you're cheating and then get back together again). On a side note, I think in Elenor's case it would make perfect sense for her to move on to a new romance, elves live for a very long time afterall.
In any case keep up the good work, I'm looking forward to it already