My guess is that Parker got a cousin in NY that used to fight too. In a Spider-person pajama!
wispers: "emissary from hell SUPAIDAMAN!
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The game crashes on October 1. I’ve refreshed it several times but it keeps crashing.
Thanks - I can’t reproduce the October 1 crash, but if you see it again, can you screenshot the error message?
So far, all your opponents seem to be good people who you get to befriend and learn from. Isnt it time to include a rival/villain character? Someone that the MC is driven to defeat at all costs? Just to add a new focus to the story and an element of urgency in the narrative.
I’m going for a “Man vs self” conflict here, just because of my personal preference in what kind of story I want to see in games. There is an overarching plotline which will be introduced after Camille and before Caitlin, which explains the supernatural abilities. I will put in more details earlier on in the chapter so that the reveal isn’t too sudden, though!
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Since we were talking about art on the support thread…
ChanceOfFire, this is incredible! I’d like to ask just to make sure - is it ok if I use this in my game? I’d like to use it as the cover picture, and/or as the first image players see in the game. Thanks a lot, I really appreciate it and it makes me really happy that you’ve made this!
Are the pictures working?
I will fix the images in an upcoming build. I put it in a separate folder, but cogdemos seems to only support same-folder image links.
Currently, I’m rewriting all the fights. The current flow is:
- End of month, calculate the player’s fight power
- Based on the fight power and aggressiveness setting, decide which fight outcome the player gets (major loss, regular loss, narrow loss, narrow victory, regular victory, major victory)
- Each outcome has its own scene, which has very limited interactivity (page breaks and fake choices)
After consideration, this is not immersive enough. The new flow is:
- End of month, calculate the player’s fight power
- The fight power translates into a “fight skill” for the upcoming fight. This is a number that ranges from 0 (weakest) to 5 (strongest)
- The fight is only a single scene instead of multiple scenes. Within this scene, there are several real choice points. The player rolls a random number from 0 to 5, and then adds this to their fight_skill. This number is compared to determine the outcome. For example:
*choice
#Good lord! Use a ${block} to weather the impact.
*if dieroll > 3
You set your guard firmly...
*else
You raise your defense too late...
*set fight_balance -1
#Touching that energy projectile can't be good. Attempt a sidestep.
*if dieroll > 7
Your legs move by instinct...
*set fight_balance +1
*elseif dieroll > 5
You manage to dodge most of the energy wave...
*else
You try to evade the energy wave, but you're caught off guard...
*set fight_balance -1
#Throw a quick ${jab} to disperse the Energy Wave.
You throw a jab directly into the energy wave...
*set fight_balance -1
Each choice within the fight modifies the fight_balance. At the end, the result is determined by the fight balance. I think this should make the scenes much more interactive. And it will strike a balance between having stats matter, and having player choices within the fight matter. I’ll upload an example with Eric’s fight soon!
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Go ahead. 
Sources (Attribution is not required, but always remember to check the licenses)
https://pixabay.com/vectors/boxing-gloves-boxing-fight-fighting-159920/
https://pixabay.com/vectors/city-night-lights-cityscape-urban-4024886/
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Thank you. I am extra motivated to keep writing and improving this now!
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Thanks - this appears to be a cogdemos server issue. I’ll try and host it on github pages. I need to do this anyway because I want to modify the style.css.
Here’s a WIP of the rewritten Eric fight scene. It is now fully interactive and the decisions matter! It’s hosted on github pages because it needs to be the correct font for the Balance of Power to display correctly.
https://dozendietcokesaday.github.io/Below-the-Skyline-compiled/Below_the_Skyline.html
Please let me know what you think of rewriting the fight scenes in this way. It’s a bit more work (this took me 4 hours), but I hope it creates a higher quality game, and it moves away from the linear story that the text is based on!
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So we still can’t change our name?
Is it currently possible to win the first fight it seems no matter what my stats are I keeps losing most skill checks
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I haven’t learned how to let the user input their name yet! Will get around to learning how to do it later.
It’s possible to win the first fight. You need to be lucky because the combat involves a d6 die roll. I think you need to roll a 4 or better on one of them to win.
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This is vastly superior to the linear fight in the original text. Choices feel good and impactful and its not too overwhelming for the 1st fight. This should be the way forward for all fights and I’m excited to see how you implement it in the future fights.
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Thank you! I’m currently improving the prose - I had an editor friend review it and they were very critical and pointed out a lot of weaknesses! After that I’m going to put in gender choice support and then write the second fight and Eric’s character subplot. Lots to do!
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That makes sense to me because this is our first fight but will we have to be this lucky in future fights?
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No! Future fights will generally be much easier. My idea is that the intended winning chance for an average character will range from 40% to 80% (except for one character that is an autowin). The purpose of the first fight being tough is 1) to highlight that the player is an inexperienced fighter, and 2) to show that losing fights will still allow the player to progress through the story, and that it won’t lead to a game over.
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Hi, Author.
I tried out “Below the Skyline”. My impression: The game is unlike anything I’ve played before (in good sense).
I’ve made Stock Male MC’s appearance in Character Creator, and I’d like to know: Are you interested to see it?
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I’m not entirely certain how I feel about dice rolls being involved in the success rate of choices, I dropped a different IF for that reason before since it ended up making my specializations feel irrelevant when I low rolled checks of my best stat several times.
It’s too early for me to feel too strongly one way or another here yet, so I’ll watch and see where it goes.
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Thanks for your compliment! If you don’t mind, could you tell me in which way it’s unlike other games you’ve played—is it the setting, the gameplay mechanics, the writing, or something else? Just a brief description would be really great.
And yes please, I would love to see your impression of Stock Male MC! I’m always interested in what readers’ view of the MC is. It gives me very good feedback on whether the character hints are too strong, too weak, or just right!
I am not sure about this either. The positive is that it increases some replay value. The negative is that it can become frustrating when the game is big—replaying a chapter a few times is tolerable, but replaying a huge game several times is tedious. I’m also thinking whether saves after each chapter could mitigate this problem.
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“Unlike anything I’ve seen before” part: It’s more or less realistic fighting career. No Big Bads (yet), no fighting dramas, no enemies from past, just semi - professional career where everyone wins and lose at some point.
Stock Male MC’s appearance. Name: Steve Parker
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This is really cute! I like the determination along with the innocence in his eyes. Exactly what I feel for the MC too!
Yeah! This is a deliberate choice. Western stories always have some kind of Big Bad or Hero’s Journey kind of thing. This story is more like a slice-of-life like in Japanese mangas. It’s possible to make an engaging story without high stakes conflict
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