Choice of Rebels Part 1 WIP thread

Did you not get the Plektoi spears delivered at the beginning of Ch 4? Anyone who didn’t interrupt the Harrowing and ended up passing through the Keriatou dungeon should get them.

Sorry, which one is this? I’m losing track of all the edits I made this time round. :frowning:

In the original version, he was asking for π of them.

I’m sorry – my plan was always for you to end this game an orphan.

What do folks think of the header icons and stats screen?

2 Likes

Oh, didn’t realise I was using those spears for normal fighting! But yes, correct.

The one where the guards are offered a spot in the rebellion. I was half-expecting them to desert at some point, but I guess my band of rebels was just too utopian for that. :stuck_out_tongue: The new “teach them how to read” decision is also nice, partly because it gives me something sensible to do when I have a mere handful of rebels left to do something with.

I like the new header icons and stat screen. :slight_smile:

3 Likes

Are we/will we be able to raise any of our stats?

Also, how about an option for all skills set at the intermediate?

You’ll be able to increase a stat by one each game, and there are five games planned, so a specialized MC could reach 6 in a stat. A generalist could presumably end up with a distribution of 3/2/2, and an MC focused on two stats could have a 4/3/0 distribution.

Havenstone has also mentioned that a 1/1/1 character wouldn’t survive this game. The MC needs to be exceptional in some way to survive the Plektoi at the end. There may be situations in future games where generalists (such as a 2/1/1 distribution in game 2, or even a 2/2/2 distribution in game 4) have a much more difficult time. I believe he also mentioned that (at least when starting out) a character with strengths and weaknesses is more interesting.

I look forward to testing this update!

2 Likes

I looked through the code a bit in bandits2, and noticed this little oddity:

 *if yeodonate <= 1200
    *set cred_y +round(yeodonate/12)
  *if yeodonate > 1200
    *set cred_h +round(100+((yeodonate-1200)/50))

The issue here is that there is a cred_h in there, when it should be cred_y, no? This means that anyone who gives the yeomanry more than 1200 drachems will instead give everything to the Helots, which seems a tad wrong.

1 Like

They look good.

I have a tedious complaint. Changing all the numbers from numerals to words makes it a little harder to size up the situation at a glance. For me, at least.

2 Likes

I actually like the text better :slight_smile: To each their own, I guess! Definitely liking the new header icons as well

2 Likes

I think I’ve spotted a gender bug here: “I said as much near an Alastor when I was small. She almost had my father flogged. Told him to make sure his daughter understood that there’s nothing worth seeing in the other provinces, let alone across a Border Ward. Barbarians, all of them, who’d be good for nothing but Xaos if it weren’t for the Hegemony.”
Happens when I play a male mc and he has no sisters, so it should be son there right?

I like the numerical values better for the stat-screen. Though in general XoR does a good job at making me choose organically with my main mc and not look at the stat screen. However when I do look at the stat screen I, as the player, want to be able to glance the most important stats quickly and easily. Having to read too much descriptive text, however nice it may be, is kind of the opposite of that.

1 Like

I enjoyed the option to bring the sellswords into the rebellion, getting asked if I wanted to sell mules after winter is fantastic, and training people in the alphabeta is a great counter option to combat training.

I noticed changes with extortion of Leybridge and wanted to let you know how it is playing. I had to raid the pass I think three 3 times with 12 mules to get the event to fire and I believe it used to be only once with 12. I’m also getting 40 bushels from her instead of 20. That means I’m first getting the shipments around week 8 typically and it’s covering about 1/2 my food in those weeks if I go full rations for everyone and 3/4 if I feed healthy for the sick and substance otherwise. Although that is without any focus on bringing in more followers.

I spotted a few bugs I gained 14 followers one week and lost -2. I fought the Architelone that week and added her guards to the rebellion, and that should have been the only combat I did to effect casualties. I had COM 2 and took everyone who could help. I think it was just Radmar and Zvad though.

When selling the mules this sentence is not working right “Sixteen of your fifty-three mules wear the Architelone Xedia’s brand, and cannot be sold. Any of the others The last one could be fenced for around seven gold starters, or seven hundred drachems.”

The game still counts the cost for military training based on arms without a cap in the question about training. I don’t know if it is actually getting the correct cost but the choice option is not capped.

1 Like

My brain has an easier time picking out numerals from the sea of words. Normally it wouldn’t be worth mentioning but chapter 2 is a heavy numbers game so it’s something I noticed.

I had my most successful run ever last night as an INT 2 helot. Feels a lot more balanced now. It’s challenging without being grueling.

And teaching people to read and write is interesting. What’s it actually do, though?

1 Like

I think it helps if you are going with Breden’s plan to spread your rebels out across the Rim, you get more people out quicker, but other than that it does not seem to do a whole lot. In this game, at least. I imagine it will have more impact in the future games.

2 Likes

It helps move people into the Rim and I imagine it will have various uses in future games. Along the lines of the reasons listed for wanting them to learn how to read and write. I also bet that it will lead to Elery either being able to or more quickly learn Theurgy.

Heh, if my mc were to become a monarch (most likely in all but name) but even if it actually is in name, that budget would be near zero as the only changes my mc desires making to his wardrobe is to wear clean rags, instead of dirty ones.
The footwear budget would actually be zero cause he’s probably so used to just going barefoot that he really does have no need for fancy boots.

Wonder how the cash economy in the Hegemony actually works? I assume slaves are the most valuable assets followed by land, given the relatively strong central administration and moves away from feudalism I don’t know how much noble lineage is worth (it is likely to in any case become utterly useless if and when my mc does take over). On the other hand the central authority is extremely corrupt and inefficient so local bankers might place more stock in good relations with local nobles, though again how much freedom do they really have given the Hegemony’s likely oppressive regulation and taxation practices in all their provinces, except Karagond itself.

I don’t think Elery is one for theurgy, she seems to prefer combat and strategy, her blind brother is the theurge and I my guess is currect young Pin might become another in the future. The intellect and aptitude for magic, while more common than the Hegemony would make it appear in relative terms, is probably still quite rare in absolute terms.

For the moment not much, it would lay the seeds for a more educated general population down the road. Though of course a more educated population might also be a hindrance for those of us with more absolutist inclinations. It might even bite my mc in the ass if they start demanding more moderation than he’s willing to concede somewhere down the line.

Or possibly not, any helots caught possessing knowledge they shouldn’t have or being caught reading will likely be slow harrowed. i think making our followers literate will get the most bang for the buck if keep the group mostly together and don’t take too many casualties at the end.

Edit: I would also like actual numbers back in the numbers game, that is managing the band in chapter 2.

Also spotted another, well not so much of an error as a very inelegant part here:
_Somehow Simon keeps a rein on his obvious elation. “Is it true that, as _
_I’ve heard, these nobles tortured a young girl nearly to death?” _

“It is. And beheaded zero of our other comrades.”
Maybe skip the and beheaded none of our other comrades part here?

I’d also like to be able to loot 1-2 extra phials of blood from successfully attacking the theurges or else ot be able to try my earlier “circle of bloody hands” plan in order to stand a chance with my COM 0 theurge.

2 Likes

I still absolutely love this game.

@Havenstone Thank you for adding: the option to teach the Band to read, the summer achievements, the choice of what to do with phials of aetherial blood, and the option to give wealth to the yeomanry at the end of Chapter 2. The implementation of the literacy training did an excellent job of realistically dealing with being in the wilderness. The Cut the Line achievement is not triggering when I destroy the Phalangite supply caravan. Will Theurge-Bane be a possible cognomen in the sequels? I can imagine the rebellion liking that one.

I also would prefer the numbers instead of words.

Gorbel licks his lips. “Well and good. Come when you…” He pauses. “Come on the eighthth week of winter. I’ll have the warehouse space then, and my guards will be back from a trip to Aekos.”

A spelling error probably related to the switch away from numbers.

At the moment, of the band’s six mules, one are reserved for the sick. You change that to a total of:

Subject-verb agreement issue. If needed, it could maybe be avoided by saying “…of the band’s # mules, the sick have reserved #”

Zvad loses one outlaws on his raid of a noble House’s winter barn.

Another subject-verb agreement case.

When the MC convinces the Archetelone’s guards to defect, even an openly skeptical MC talks about the rebellion being the will of the Angels.

Hurrying into one of the larger caverns, you find your followers on the verge of a rout. Only Kalt seems to be keeping them from scattering to the winds. He grips the shoulder of one wavering bandit and speaks in a voice loud and cutting enough to be heard over the babble. “Run, and you die. They’ll pick you off one by one. And then they’ll take the elders and children. Your only hope is to stand with me—here, together, now!”

My MC’s Band had chosen to disperse and all of the children were already gone.

Before Breden questioned you that first time by the river, you hadn’t realized how deep your rage went. Now it rushed back in full force, familiar and glorious. “You think I fear a helot rebellion?” you demanded, your voice harsh to your own ears. “I want to see the Hegemony burn, Breden. What the Pelematou just did to Poric—it was an abomination. It has to be stopped. And no, ‘my kind’ aren’t going to do it. But maybe your kind will.”

“Will we now, Alya?” Breden said softly.

Xthonos, I hope so! And I swear I’ll do whatever I can to help.”

Even a skeptical MC swears by Xthonos instead of Rhupos here. I am grateful that the other instances of that happening have been fixed from what I’ve seen.

I like that noble MCs now have the option to plunder the noble houses at the Fourth Harrowing. If a noble MC does plunder the noble houses at the Fourth Harrowing and if the MC chooses to keep both family blades, then I think something should maybe be said at the end of Chapter 4 about the fate of the father’s blade.

On the subject of who to suspect during the food poisoning in Chapter 4, given that the MC is told that the MC’s father is not eating, that moves the MC’s father to at least the top 3 list of my MC’s suspects in the whole Band. He is certainly spiteful enough to try to poison everyone.

2 Likes

bandits line 25194: Invalid expression at char 15, expected OPERATOR, was: VAR [modulo]

Hit this near the start of chapter two, twice, once playing from the beginning and once starting from chapter two. It might be a specific combination of choices causing it if no one else is finding it, I’m not sure. Otherwise, love the new headers.

1 Like

Hm, yeah I only recently found out that he kills followers in the assasination attempt if your characters com stat is too low. I’d definately leave the decision to the moot in that case (I like that new option a lot btw, despite never choosing it XD)

Ooh, never noticed that. Is there some flavor text I somehow missed or do you know that from the code?[quote=“Vertigo, post:7939, topic:1601”]
Great.

Now I owe you ten bucks.
[/quote]

Payable via Western Union or Moneygram. We don’t take any other payment options, too easy to track. Wait! no! I meant to say, uhhh, too easy for people to hack…

2 Likes

I see the price of mules has gone down. Related to this, if one lacks sufficient funds at the beginning of the week to buy enough food the text says something like “you can trade in mules for food, each will get you about 63 bushels worth”. Not the exact wording but you get the idea I hope. Problem is that 63 bushels is how much each was worth under the old prices, now it’s only 40-somethingish.

2 Likes

I reported the bandit line as well, and I got it near the start. If I have time today, I will try to narrow down the list of choices which led me to it.

Been replaying the game since the new update came out. It’s good - looking more like the finished product. The font is not what I had in mind, but I think it fits.

Some people commented how they prefer the numbers, rather than the words on the stats. Why not both? Like this: “You’re unlikely to win a fight and lead others to victory (1)”.

3 Likes

I would recommend this course of action. Some people love to read text, and puzzle itself out.

However, with games with a very simulation aspect (like the winter scene here), then actual numbers will work better for other people.

1 Like