Third Act Beta! - SOTW 0.8.38

[jack1974]

Will upload a new version in a few hours with a tons of fixes and tougher overall enemies

This just for Act 3?

Ahh yes yes sorry. Only act3, I am not going to touch again previous acts! They were officially OKed by the testing-duo fabula-yayswords

But then you'll be able to go over the limit if you choose BOTH the personal quests and NO romance, because that will lead to 12 completed quests. Can't the total quests be left at 12 and just exclude Chalassa's?

Ah yes sorry, I always forget that you can do both romance and vaelis/rowinda. My mind was stuck with what discussed by writer

[Troyen]

Yeah, I was watching the meter like a hawk. Plus, I can prove it by having the counter at 12/12 and no Vaelis' quest in the logbook (I did his quest earlier but then went back = reloaded a save - for Rowinda and Chalassa, so that's why it's not in this playthrough)

OK then going to lower total quest to 11 and not count Chalassa's one

But then you'll be able to go over the limit if you choose BOTH the personal quests and NO romance, because that will lead to 12 completed quests. Can't the total quests be left at 12 and just exclude Chalassa's?

Are you saying if you pick a romance, you can't get the exp bonus (or the achievement)?

[fabulaparva]

Are you saying if you pick a romance, you can't get the exp bonus (or the achievement)?

Yup. I think. Quoting from jack earlier

BUT you can't do BOTH Vaelis+Rowinda+a romance! this is on purpose, spoke with the writer about this when the game was in the works, I anticipated some people would be upset but that's how we ended up thinking the game. The idea was actually that you could do EITHER a romance or Vaelis/Rowinda. So if you already get a romance+one of the Vaelis/Rowinda sidequests is already an unexpected bonus

I guess that depends on how the maximum # of quests will be defined. Since we have 9-something visits to the bathhouse, It's possible to not romance anyone and get 12 quests done in Act 3 if you do both Vaelis' and Rowinda's personal quests (requires 4 visits to the bathhouse each). If you romance someone, and do either Vaelis xor Rowinda's you can get max 11 quests done.

If the maximum total limit would be set to 11, then you could get both romance and the quests-done bonus. => Problem, that's not the real maximum, as the meter can be ticked to 12/11 if you do both personal quests. Plus, it would seem unfair to get "all quests completed achievement" if you haven't really completed all your teammates' personal quests.

My reason for posting about the whole thing in the first place was that Chalassa's path was treated differently from the other romances when it came to completing the game as far as quests went. Otherwise, I think it's okay to a have the player choose between completing all (personal) quests or "completing" any romance. It's not like one can complete all the romances at once, either. Of course, it's all up to Jack to decide on how many achievements can one complete in one playthrough.

[jack1974]

Well for sure I want to encourage replayability, so not all achievements should be "achievable" (lol) in a single playthrough. Anyway assuming you answered correctly the romance dialogues in act2, you can just save at beginning of act3 and replay from there (so not from start). You'll have to replay from start if you want to see both gender romances.
Differently from Loren I can't add a "story mode" since there are several battles that have special conditions and skipping the battle would lead to bugs However playing in Easy mode should make it painless enough!

[Taleweaver]

By the way, I was initially very much against the idea that Chalassa should even HAVE a good ending! Thus...

Spoiler:

..the next best thing was making Deceit as hard to beat as possible.

[fabulaparva]

Nvm, I deleted a post just now, got the versions mixed up. "Save Chalassa"-ain't counted towards the 12 anymore. However, I can still do the quest as many times as I want on version 0.8.25. That's pretty fast level-up to 21 and above.


EDIT:

By the way, I was initially very much against the idea that Chalassa should even HAVE a good ending! Thus...

Spoiler:

..the next best thing was making Deceit as hard to beat as possible.

I just tested again on v0.8.25 both on NM and EASY-modes

Spoiler:

and considering what Taleweaver said...since this fight should be as close to impossible as possible, I'll change my mind from what I said previously. The fight is too easy on NM, after all. Well, especially since I figured out the Manticore Poison trick that debuffs their stats oh so effectively along with the other debuffs. Would it be possible to make Deceit and Jul immune to Manticore? Not all bosses, mind you, just these two? On EASY you can easily beat Deceit without the poison, anyway, so making them immune shouldn't turn that "cheat"-mode useless.

PS. He dodged one 300+ dmg predicted hit from Vaelis but lost anyway.

[jack1974]

Hmm it shouldn't appear anymore. You still see the red arrow leading to the battle? or the quest from beginning ?

[fabulaparva]

The red arrow is still there

[jack1974]

If you have a save with it can you please send it? is an easy fix but this time want to make sure it's really fixed!

[fabulaparva]

Sent two saves, one with a blue arrow before taking the quest and another with a red arrow after completing the quest.