2117: Highway Wars (Submitted, closed)

Thanks to all who voted, it was really helpful to know where to focus my energy! Some of the lowest voted options will get some work, but generally I’m going to our most work into the first two options!

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And another poll! (basically I am trying to decide which of the navigators people find most interesting, in order to understand where to place most of my effort).

Which of the potential navigators do you normally go for?

  • -Sonia Garcia (militia) -good driver option-
  • -Joaquin Sanchez (militia) -good driver or knows area well option-
  • -Raquel Gomez (militia) -knows area well or good shooter option-
  • -Alvaro Lozano (militia), -good shooter option-
  • -I hire one of the militia options, but can’t remember which one (or change each time)
  • -Judy (English merc), experienced
  • -Bernard (French merc), experienced
  • -Paolo (young brazilian) inexperienced merc, free
  • -Brune (young german) inexperienced merc, free
  • -I hire one of the merc options, but can’t remember which one (or, I change each time I play…)

0 voters

Thanks for all the votes, it will help a lot when I start to code the extra dialogues with the possible navigators tomorrow!

There has been a few quiet updates over the course of the last few days, around 7,000 words extra, which complete the mountain base part (with a couple of extra scenes, let me know what you think…). which can lead into the conquering/warring part (only about 600 words of that) or a brief path to the colonization of Mars . Didn’t put much effort into that as most people indicated they don’t care much.

Can I ask though, how easy is it to get AIDAN to trust you? Are you mostly rejected? If so, do you feel there should be some extra dialogue options somewhere, to nuance your loyalty to the Free Cities? (or, do you feel things are good as they are?)

When i played through i felt like i left just barely being trusted by AIDAN. Even though i didn’t really do anything to be untrustworthy.

I just had them kill the bandit miners and talked about how we could pacify the region. But the robots would rather colonize mars.

I guess that means i was rejected? I left to fulfill my mission without any further aid. It’s been awhile since i played through though.

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I guess a few changes have been made to that part in the last few weeks, so you can now return to your original mission or continue with AIDAN. This leads to a couple of new scenes (about 6,000 words extra of code, I’m not sure anybody has come across this yet?), and then branches into either going to explore Mars or the conquering part of the game (this part only has around 1,000 words at present, and it’ll be the last part I’ll code).

However, I find it strange that nobody is getting through to this part. Basically AIDAN judges MC according to

((relationship_AIDAN + loyalty)/2)

So, basically the average from your relationship with AIDAN and loyalty has to be greater than 50, of it’ll refuse to allow you further. AIDAN tends to judge your responses according to whether it perceives you are a member of the UN or you say nice things, etc. Loyalty expresses how well you say during the game that you believe in the ideals of the Free Cities, protect them, etc, etc…

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I also just uploaded the last version of the game. It includes a re-writing of the original part where you have to choose your navigator and turret (and the military compound or the bar) to try to bring more life into the NPCs. The section where you shelter from the storm also allows you to ask them some questions, though I was not feeling particularly inspired (I might add some more to this later… but if anybody has any suggestion let me know!).

This was the second most voted feature. The Mars part was also added as an ending (though only a few thousand words, as it was not so popular). Thus, the only thing that remains is the conquering branch of the game. Anyway, the game should be fully playable now, so any comments would be welcome (or ideas for new ending/small branches?)

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A few things:

Summary

1
Navigator name.

2
My title is replaced by title?

3
Remnants of the gang of their slaves. If it’s slaves, leave out the gang bit. If it’s the gang, leave out the slave.

4
Relieved

5
AIDAN looks at you AND freezes?

6
Remove twice.

7
1 robot goes in (first underline), but they pull of the arm of several robots.

8
This last one, I think putting the Ending 10 at either the beginning or the end of the page would be better.

LOVE the new content and AIDAN finally agreeing to help!

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Thanks a lot for all these, I’ll correct them during the next update! Glad you liked the new part, though I’m sorry that you got killed by Dr. Wood (was that an unsatisfying ending?)

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Hi. Been lurking for a while to try to cut down on arguments I tend to get in to.

The new content is pretty cool, though I noticed an issue where if you try to approach Marias camp to speak to her it immediately cuts to the scene where you’ve spotted the attack convoy as if you never learned about Maria, also, if you choose the sneaky option and take the gunner with you your navigator doesn’t seem to notice when they don’t come back. On a similar note, it’d be really cool if we got a bit more from the second gunner Like, their introductions make them pretty interesting but then they don’t get to do that much. It’s be really cool if like you could choose to use nonlethal force like you can with the bandit later, and then decide what to do with them. Either leave them for the bandits to find, or take them with you and deal with them once you’re out of the camp… heck maybe even give them a chance at redemption.
The fight if you choose to defend the city ends up getting kinda buggy at the end when you face off against Teresa.
The options have some weird display issues, and they still show up after you choose them. As usual it’d be cool if you could choose how to deal with her if you win the fight.
Speaking of Doctor Wood, I might have just missed it but I didn’t see any part of that that explains why we can’t try to talk to Wood. I mean, I get that she’s apparently become like, animalistic or something, but that’s never made clear as far as I can tell.

Oh yeah, it also feels a little off when you brain people people with a blackjack since it’s not really designed to be able to kill people.

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Getting killed by the doc kind of sucked, but I would have been surprised if I didn’t get killed, or at least beaten within an inch of my life. I saw the result of my decision before I made it, but went with it anyways.

Minor update that takes care of some bugs:

@Classified
-Thanks for reporting the bug of reception, it seems this meant that MC could not access the first aid room to heal a bit, this has been not corrected

@FutbolDude21586
-All the bugs are corrected, thanks so much!
-All ending numbering now appear at the very bottom of the final page

@Shoelip
-Fixed bugs during Teresa fight
-Added an option to try to talk to Dr. Wood not that this will change anything, she is too far gone… however, I also added an extra explanation by AIDAN

Knows outstanding issues/bugs/threads to be finished:

-Oil subroutine (the MC should check oil before leaving Magaz, and if he/she does not have enough this should open an extra miniquest to buy/get more oil)
-The sequence talking to Maria is not finished (so the game incorrectly sends you onto the final part).
-No chance to talk to Teresa at the end. Should add an option not to kill her.
-Threads adding the possibility of getting Teresa to join you (path 1), Burgos militia to join you (path 2) or AIDAN to join you (thread 3) in a conquest war. These 3 threads join, and the beginning has been coded only for the case of AIDAN.

Aside from these issues, what is the feeling that you get from the general game?

  • The game already feels like a finished product
  • The game feels like a finished product, but some of the endings already there are unsatisfactory (please let me know which ones)
  • The game does not feel finished: it is not long enough
  • The game does not feel finished: the endings do not seem logical
  • The game does not feel finished: I expected the game to lead to something else (please let me know)
  • Other (please give me details)

0 voters

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Did a bit more coding today, and finished the dialogue with Maria, and included the possibility of Teresa ceding you control of her army. I need to tie up a couple of other threads, and then will get going on the final branch of the game…

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I feel like the endings could use some more work. Like for example with AIDAN you are in control of the last of the UN’s forces small but still stronger than whatever the savages left living in this world have. You should be able to have the ending choice of having AIDAN obey you and either taking control of the world and creating a new world order. Or simply going on as a mercenary and use the resources at hand to protect what’s left of the cities.

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Just saying I like having AIDAN around there was a book I got him from he is insane and yet completely logical. Obsessed with fulfilling his orders. Crazy but very admirable.

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Yes, I am currently coding all that part. Basically there will be several ways to go about it, one is with AIDAN, others with Teresa or Burgos. I am expecting this will be a major new addition to the game, probably about another 20,000 words, which should take the story forward another 5000-6000 words or more.

But, how do you feel about the other endings? (or, they are just not as interesting as this potential path?)

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I feel like this pOint in the story is the most telling point. It contains a lot more excitement than all the other endings.
And most of the other endings you end up dying anyway. Besides world conquest is awesome who doesn’t want to do it?

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Small update, the ending in Burgos now allows the possibility of the MC to ask to lead the militia, recruit a (small merc army, if they militia will not join you) or end the game.

This will finally allow me to start concentrating on the conquering section! I am hoping to work on this hard during the next two weeks, and then the game will probably be in a “finished” state…

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And another small update, taking the “conquering” part of the game about 2,000 words further into the story (up to the first major battle). Not much, but something is something.

Another small update, taking the game 2-3 choices further down the line. Also, I have been reading some of the chapters and polishing the grammar (about 100 changes to the text or so, mainly in the part around Simancas and the starting chapter). I’m in the process of starting to re-read the entire game, as I’m finding many grammar mistakes (to be honest, I’ve never re-read some of the passages in the text, which indicates there is much to be improved…)

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And another small update, the game is almost 150,000 words, and the MC can finish conquering the first village, deal with payment to mercs (if any) and start to talk about what to do next. Hopefully some of that will get coded in the next few days. Otherwise, I’m continuing reading through the entire code (finding quite a few bugs and grammar mistakes) and doing my own playthrough (which I am somehow enjoying, as I had forgotten some of the scenes! But, finding more instances of poor grammar, so I think the style might be a bit more polished now, at least for the beginning of the game)

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