Thank you for your reply, sorry for my late reply.Your description of Paoni piqued my interest and it was also interesting finding out her fantasy race/species, since this either hadn’t been mentioned before or I didn’t catch it. It still remains to be seen whether she will be up my alley as a female RO, but it certainly did make me curious to try her romance path.
And just to be clear, I wasn’t really trying to suggest that you make the ROs gender selectable. Although I do personally tend to prefer gender selectable ROs in actual practice, if not necessarily in principle, I’m aware that COG and HG writers often have clear preferences when it comes to gender selectable vs gender-locked ROs, which in turn makes switching to a different approach hard. And since I assumed that this was also the case for you, I wasn’t really suggesting that you’d do that.
I did however think that it would have been a good idea, if that was workable, to add one more RO of each gender. Because when it comes to having ROs who cover enough bases for the readers/players there’s a clear difference between gender selectable ROs and gender-locked ones. In the case of gender selectable ROs ,four is usually sufficient to cover all or at least most bases, as long as you don’t make to many ROs who are too similar, since the players/readers can insure that the ROs in question is of a gender that they are attracted to. But when it comes to gender-locked ROs, those readers/players who are only attracted to a single gender will, unless they don’t mind playing a MC with a different gender or sexuality from their own, have a far smaller number of ROs to choose from. With such a small number of ROs to choose from, there’s a much greater chance of not finding a RO who really appeals to you, which can in turn, lead to disappointment. I’m well aware that it’s not necessarily easy and that it can maybe be even borderline impossible to add extra ROs when you already have so much of the story planned, so it may be that changing the number of ROs is not doable for you with this story. And if that is the case, I understand. But I think that, if you’re not already aware how the the number of ROs “hit” different when they are all gender-locked, compared to when all or even just some of them are gender-selectable, it’s important to make you aware of that, so that you know what you’re heading into, so to speak.
I also wanted to say that I liked and found it interesting when you wrote about how the vampires, demons etc in your WIP don’t really have the same origins as “regular” vampires, demons etc in most other stories. For one thing it is more original and for someone who is uneasy both about having creatures of evil from hell demons both as the main(or one of the main) antagonists and as friends/allies or even something more intimate, it is nice to be able to interact with demons who aren’t really of the creatures of evil from hell kind. I’m looking forward to see and learn more about your world building.
Don’t worry about replying late. I am not that good at checking forums either when it’s not something I’m actively engaged in. There is a lot of information I skipped when making the introductory post. Partially because it is better to let people slowly and organically learn about characters and the world than lore dump my novel sized doc. Instead I prefer to address questions as they are asked and slowly drip the lore when it’s relevant for the story.
The primary reason the ROs are the way they are is because they were not designed with romance in mind. They, as well as a few other characters, were drafted to fit a much different aspect firstly and weren’t at all romanceable initially (first draft Eri was even married). As I was expanding on their stories I decided adding that aspect won’t hurt their characters so it was included. I am aware it is impossible to appease everyone unless I make 10 gender selectable love interests which would clash with what I am trying to create. Even now romance is a very secondary thing when compared to what my main theme is, which is why it can feel like I am leaving some people out. None of the main four exist for the sake romance, they exist for the sake of the themes and morals I hope As Gods Fall will have once it’s concluded.
Lastly I am happy you got interested in how I decided to approach the various races of Etr. They come to be in the way they did because I wanted a more organic and immersive way of approaching diversity of characters. Instead of being different for the sake of being different I put together a world where those differences come from where the characters originate and show how they adapted to the conditions of their environment. The starting point were commonly seen creatures and races of fantasy, but each got molded with the intention of making them fit into a larger world while subverting some stereotypes and maybe expanding in a new way on others.
In a shameless attempt at refreshing the thread and making sure it won’t get locked from inactivity masked as a status update I’d like to inform you that the first scene of chapter 2 is written and used as an excuse to start the Patreon beta, which is a thing now. There’s not much in terms of content as it stands at 4500 words, but more updates to it will come as writing continues and a full public update will be made once a full chapter is done. That is all and have a nice day.
I kinda see a problem with the explanation of the werewolf. It says they basically have the stongest sences but the shapeshifters have equal sense. So i think the shapeshifters should have 3 sense and 2 dex because shape-shifting sounds like it would need sum flexibility especially when you start their choices description by saying you wake up and unconsciously stretch your arms. But your choice to change it. Just a lil thing i nosticed. Now back to the best werewolf warrior
You are partially correct (the best kind of correct as we all know), but the thing about stats is that they all serve more than 1 purpose. Sense isn’t just your physical senses, but also your “insight” and general awareness. Far as werewolf senses go they receive a passive bonus to perception which is applicable to most non combat sense checks.
Dexterity is a similar story, but in case of formis characters your flexibility is somewhat reduced by the general shape of your mask as well as the fact that speed is also a part of dexterity and this is what brings the formis back down in terms of stats. They’re just not as fast due to their anatomy.
Took a moment, but finally it’s ready. Chapter 2 is now available to play in full. I swear I’m normally not this slow to write stuff, but there’s been a truckload of stuff both professional and private that kept pulling me away from writing.
The new chapter comes to almost exactly 30k words bringing the whole demo up to 70k ish total and 30.7k per playthrough. There is an incredible amount of variation in the chapter so it wasn’t possible to me to ensure every single line and paragraph were tested so I do hope for active bug reporting.
New content involves the autopsy of a god, investigation of a cult potentially involved in the murder and a meeting with a shy but determined reporter.
As a piece of side news after being kind of bugged to do it I’ve finally made a tumblr for AGF which can be found here: @asgodsfall-if on Tumblr
Feel free to bother me with any asks and of course do let me know whether you enjoyed the update as a whole and if there’s anything you’d do differently.
Depending on the race that you play your abilities work and are used differently. Both human and demon characters can use an active ability to get a bonus to their next relevant check plus some flavor text. Every race has one active ability and one either passive that always works or contextual one that unlocks special choices during the game (beyond the few race specific ones that already exist).
I find stat check a bit tight. Looks like the game will end up suffreing ‘hard to pass stat check unless focusing 1 main stat’.
Awesome wip tho! Fantasy police is cool
Maybe there could be a better way for using these abilities than going to the stat screen, they could be permanent buffs for the selected species instead of this?
It is possible during character creation to get certain stats below 0. Strength and Dexterity most easily as picking between a lean and muscular build adds 2 points to one while adding 2 to the other on top of the -1 debuff you pick at the end of the prologue.
Unless I’m mistaken there isn’t really any other game that uses a similar system so I expected it to feel odd to most players. Hence I’ve spent a fair bit of time pondering how to implement a functional and interactive ability system within the limitation of ChoiceScript and that was the most efficient solution though I’m still not completely happy with it honestly. Turning those abilities into passive bonuses would be I feel to bland so as a compromise I’m planning to balance the game in a way that allows players to complete the game fully even without using those. So long as they do indeed use the leveling system, but that one is I feel more manageable to use.
Tldr: The system is a work in progress and will be worked on based on feedback, but making it a passive thing is just too basic for me.
Honestly, if a Wizard rolls a nat 1 on a strength check that should’ve been left to ‘Burgis the Barbarian Bulwark’, I expect one of two results depending on the DM:
Failing spectacularly forwards.
Or dying in the most stellar way possible that you can’t even be mad it happened.
The gist of this is that I agree with the author’s will to experiment a little, because the stat system here is interesting, and not unusable in the slightest. Non-standard, maybe, but that can only be a plus, imo.
I’m happy to finally deliver a brand new public update that concluded the core story of act 1 by adding chapters 4 and 5.
What you’ll get to do in the new chapters:
Chase down the few remaining leads
Witness a calamity that shakes the city further into chaos
Stand face to face with a goddess (and possibly receive her blessing)
On top of that the demo now includes the up to this point Patreon exclusive side content including a mission with Paoni and an opportunity to witness a vision of the future. The new total word count for the demo is now slightly over 113 thousand words including code.
With the main parts of act 1 concluded I will most likely use this chance to fill out the side content starting with most likely the opening to Mesar’s and the werewolves side quests. Unless there’s something else you think I should do first. Either way stay tuned and I hope you’ll enjoy what this update has to offer.
