@RedizE well I have finnaly got through my first play through of the latest update there is so much i want to say and in many ways find myself so very similar to my commander i played in this moment. Not having the full words needed to do proper justice for it all so let at least this partial rambling serve.
I did not encounter any game breaking errors in the playthrough nor did I encounter any inconsistencies as a result of coding so great job in that regard. There were a couple instances where word usage is in needing of correcting but a proper editing through should catch them so not to concerned in that regard.
Now to the very few things I noticed that need fixing or looking into as suggestions. Starting off in the stats screen i noticed a casualties tracker has made its way there but it doesnt start at the beginning of the game so my question is that intential? It seems to start after falling waters.
I know you use a form of rng system that randomized result of choices which ive come to find that I both enjoy and dislike in equal measure some choices you would think should be a lock or more likely to one. Fail more often then not far more common unless you save scummed to neutral or success choices.
As a result I think some should be more firmly doable than given a randomness. Cause when offically released unless you’ve built in a save system that allows people to go back as a example the start of a chapter. It might very well turn off potential players as a result so I leave that to you as some food for thought.
As previous poster mentioned being mistied eyed I have found my self in a similar spot exspecially being a student of history and american civil war history your game from the start has held my attention even being a alternate history of it. The work you’ve done truely does show and it hits those spots in a person its meant to hit and choices carry a weight to them from the big to the small and while I would love to see more to do with the brigade aspect of play and command I feel my connection to my regiment strongly an it gives a greater weight as I result to the last portions hold a greater quality to things so well done.
I’m glad I managed to bring 270 of my men back home and only lose 545 of them through all the worse of the war held in store for my regiment and that from start to finish honor was kept intact.
Yeah the casualty accumulation doesn’t include the prologue/very early game at the moment, I was so locked on writing the later parts that I completely forgot to throw it into relevant parts at the start. Regarding the RNG system - I’m torn on it myself. I both like that you don’t necessarily need to spec your character any which way to (in theory) succeed at any choice, and that you can still fail even with high stats. I think it needs some tweaking. Additionally, I do plan on implementing a checkpoint system before final release
For what little it’s worth – after that tweak where you get bigger stat gains for failure than success, i found myself actually enjoying the experience, in the sense than the fails almost feel “better” thanks to the stat bars going brrrr. And i normally absolutely detest the RNG.
(the threshold tweaks also made it much easier to pass the checks, to the point where “basic success” is the most regular outcome and i’d have to intentionally pick tactics my MC was weak at, in order to have some actual half-fails, never mind full disasters. So that helps, too)
It’s rather good that you can fail and get injured, it would lose meaning if you were able to steamroll everything, do what you want and don’t get injured or fail!
If you want some extra work, you could give an option to select a difficulty at beginning of the game which decides it; Militia, Regular, Veteran… IRON BRIGADE (Iron man difficulty) hahaha
It’s just so peak. There is very little else for me to say. Just like the commander couldn’t find words when he met the freedpeople, I too can’t find words when I finished reading the story.
Especially after the second act, when your command stops being just a moment of victory and more so about the cost of war, and how despite knowing how terrible it is all, you must still pay it for the thing to be gotten, the freedom of many many people, is simply worth it.
So many moments that made my eyes glistening with tears. The moment that truly broke the dam for me though was the old freedman asking the commander if his people and his descendants were truly free following the end of the war. And I had to look at him and tell the truth that no, they were not. Because as the reader I knew that even more than a century and a half later, People of colour are not free, truly.
There were also so many times I wished I was any good at art, so that I could draw the moments in the story. The burning of the slave plantation house near North Anna. The shooting of the bounty man near Waldon. The old freeman holding the Commander’s hand during the Union’s pursuit of Lee through Petersburg. Crawling under fire and in the dark to help the injured in Cold Harbour. The death of the boy looking at a bird.
I have my minor criticisms, like how my commander’s being from the south didn’t really affect anything other than some small internal monologues, or how the Rivalry with Hox felt slightly underdeveloped and less like a rivalry and more like a a jealous man trying to stop you, or how I wish I could’ve met Harrington and spoken to him one last time in the epilogue.
But those are very minor nitpicks. The story overall, the IF overall, is still excellent.
Final note, listen to the instrumental of “I vow to thee” by the Royal British Band. It fits so so so well.
Is getting married with kids like locks you off from romance? Haven’t checked with the nurse but can’t seem to get anything romantic out of Henry or Libby
Yiep, just replayed it and now I can do romance when I have no immediate family. Damn, really wanted family angst with that arranged marriage
Slavery is just one point regarding true equality between people, and the end of racism. The United States proves it quite clearly. Reconstruction following the US Civil War failed it’s black citizens. It did not allow them to prosper or even give them the opportunity to be able to do so. This ultimately led to the creation of the Jim Crow Laws and Segregation. And while again, Segregation is over nominally, if you look at the US today and take the statistics, you’ll realize that equality still hasn’t been reached and Justice is often delayed or not even given to America’s black citizens.
There is also another facet to this. The US 13th Ammendment doesn’t ban slavery from prison workers. And that is deliberate. For Profit Prisons in the United States have ensured that slavery remains in the US, and with Black people being incarcerated, often on minor or non existent charges, on a larger scale than their white counterparts, it is obvious to anyone that Race based slavery still remains and it has just taken a different form.
Slavery is still remains a highly political topic unfortunately, with so many Southerners, both civilians and those in leadership positions, talking about the US Civil War as if the Southern rebellion was for anything other than the continuation of a disgusting abhorrent practice. It was not for States rights. It was not for individual freedoms. It was not for the South’s Sovereignty.
There is always more to say and more to talk about, regarding Racism, Slavery, its effects etc, and I don’t want to expand on it anymore because this isn’t a political thread.
I’ve just gotten started on this, but I’ve noticed a problem on the first line of the opening page of the prologue. There should be a comma between Gettysburg and Pennsylvania.
I’m really looking forward to this, as I’ve long been fascinated by this era, ever since I read the gamebook Doctor Who and the Rebel’s Gamble in the 1980s. I’ve been wanting for decades to write something like this, though in my idea you would start at West Point in the 1850s, you could end up on either side (with former classmates as friends and foes), and it would go through the entire war. It would take me years to write it, however, so I decided not to do so as my first project (or my second, for that matter). The research alone would be an enormous undertaking.
My suggestion for you would be to write in the background or at least track it out so you have a better idea how it will all flow. Even if it will take time better to start and make progress even if slow lol but I would be interested in seeing a game like your idea for it would present a different kind of perspective.
Just thinking of the ending if I was to offer one note I think if you follow through on one if the romances you should have son. It would essentially be the reverse Gladiator leading your family through the field to see the marker for thr dead.
Patch 2 out. Expanded on a ton of the interpersonal arcs and branches, RO stuff, fixed a few bugs and typos. Expanded epilogue. Set the groundwork for future expansions. All feedback so far recieved is addressed and covered. More stuff that I’ll let ya’ll discover
Is your code intentionally hidden btw? It would be nice to be able to pop open the hood and see some of the underlying logic behind certain choices (without opening the console to do it).
it may be touched on in full-release