Choice of Rebels Part 1 WIP thread

Its heading to private beta testing now - so the link was taken down.

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I agree wholeheartedly with what @Nonvita said about replayability. The very beginning makes it more than clear that there are several ways to go about your playthrough. Helot or Noble? Pious or Nefarious? All For One or One For All?

As the story develops and more branches appear you’re left with a feeling that each choice matters. When you see this come to fruition right before your eyes it really makes you want to explore other avenues to see if they are just as thrilling. Honestly, one of the first IFs that felt like an actual game and I really enjoyed that.

I most definitely will buy the polished piece and playthrough it several times. I mean, it took me at least 3 times to get ‘Winter’ right before I even allowed myself to delve more into the story. :laughing:

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I fully agree with pretty much everything here.

News like this always makes me think of XoR now and those kinds of real life examples are certainly a big part of why my mc is as radical as he is when it comes to dismantling the Karagond/ Xthonic caste system. While India is my main inspiration when it comes to dealing with the caste system I imagine Nepal being a former Hindu Kingdom is certainly not immune, right @Havenstone?

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Dear friends,

We’ve survived the pun rebellion and four years of slooooow authorial progress. Now at long last it’s time for official beta testing.

Of course, plenty of you have done more than I could ask already. But if you’re up for providing thorough feedback via Jason, please let him know.

We’re almost there!

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It’s almost surreal, thinking the first part of this insane story is nearly complete.

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@Havenstone Oh Em Gee…This epic saga is in the beta queue, good show! Huzzah! Congratulations, well earned and deserved!

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True enough, and if my mc does succeed enough in that game his repudiation of the Hegemony will be severe enough that he will make it legally so that the Hegemony never even formally existed by legally having his new order claim to be the successor state of the pre-Hegemony states, but not the Hegemony itself. Mostly since claiming successor state status over the Hegemony would mean having to recognize it as a valid state in the first place and that would mean owning some of its institutional decisions and polices, which would be something my mc would categorically refuse to even contemplate.

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Reviewing for continuity mistakes?

Hunting for Ghost Breden?

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Folks, with beta testing well underway, I’m going to close the WIP thread down now. We’ll open a new thread for the actual game once it’s published.

Just wanted to say what I’ve said before, and on other threads: the conversation over the past four years on this thread has been tremendously enriching and made Choice of Rebels a far stronger piece of work than it otherwise would have been. Thank you all so much for all the feedback you’ve given, the questions asked, the advice offered.

Look forward to hearing what you all think of the final version when it’s published! (And then of course I’ll eventually start a thread for Part 2, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves).

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While the copy edit is underway, I’ve tried putting together a draft list of thankyous. Below you can see the section I’ve written for CoG forum members, divided roughly into three categories based on how much people’s feedback and participation shaped the final game.

  • If I’ve left you out, I apologize! Please PM me and let me know about it.
  • If you think I put you in the wrong category, I apologize. Please PM me and let me know.
  • I’m generally using forum names in the thank you section. If you’d rather I used a different name, including your real-life legal one… please PM me and let me know. EDIT: Per Jason’s email below, please send me your real name for purposes of game credits.
  • Where I’ve remembered a particular idea of significance that someone contributed to XoR, I’ve added it to the thanks. For several of the most active and valuable members of the XoR community, though (e.g. Lys, Norilinde, Sneaks) I’ve struggled to think of one outstanding idea with their name on it, even though their feedback and participation have been rich and frequent. Or if I did think of a specific thing they recommended, it felt a bit too small to do justice to their contribution. Skimming through the whole thread, I’ve probably missed a whole lot of trees for the forest… Anyway, if I didn’t add a specific thing to your name and you can think of something I clearly should have? Please remind me by PM.

And thank you again - thank you all so much.

Acknowledgments

In addition to those thanked in the game credits:

For helpful feedback on e.g. typos, coding and continuity errors:
Adamantine
Alion1
askuse
BAPACop
Beezlebub
beyonce
Blazerules
Bloodwyche
bluephoenix32
bobsmyuncle
Bugreporter
CaballeroDeAndromeda
cabinpersephone
Cadmuss
CaesarCzech
CaledonianMafia1987
CamilaCantThink
ChoiceofManning
Chowka
Coyoteclaw11
cptowe
Craz
Crotale
Crow
DarkSpeck
Dark_Stalker
Darth_Revan
djisma69
djma46
Dloc
Drakeye
Drbg
Dreckitt
Drini7
DUNGEON_MASTER
eqs189
faewkless
Firetrout
Flux
freelance
friendzone
Frogs
FutbolDude21586
GenerikB
God_of_Demonz
Golthar
Got99
Gray
Headhunter180
HomicidialFrog
Iggles
Its_Lit_Fam
Jaxx
jcury
Jeremy_Alexander
Jesse
Jjcb
jl_
Johndn90
JTAL
JVM
KailasMenon
Karl341
KC1372
kingzug
KuraiHeka
Lazerith
Lillian
Lithophene
Lizzy
LordOfLA
Lord_of_the_Galaxy
lovinglydull
LtRipley
Lucien
Matteller
mistylavenda
Monk65
Morgan
Morphine
msangelareyes
Nasdaxow
Nonvita
noogai
NotABumblebee
odessatales
OkidOKi
OtherGrimm
Outrageous
PenguinSoup
Pepper
piggleywinks
Pocky
Pqfire09
Quaintrelle
RanchoJoe
Random
RedRatatosk
Ringleader
RingoStar
Sally11
sammyboy
SammySam
Sid
Scrivener
Sleepyowl
SpiritWolf91
Swiftflame
Sylfaen
Taylor_Enean
tee
thatdodgymoggie
timmy
Urban
vampierkid222
Xhandas_Antonidas
Xt1000305
ZoilusthePedantic
2dlastresort
57Faults
817819

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REAL NAMES PREFERRED FOR CREDITS.

Please send Havenstone your real name if you’re on that list.

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Thanks to all who’ve responded by PM so far.

By the way, I’ve just seen some draft cover art for XoR… and I think it’s looking great. :slight_smile:

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Over the last three weeks, I’ve heard from a lot of the people I wanted to thank – but not all. So if you’d like your name in the credits of XoR for your contributions to this thread and/or the beta testing, please get in touch by PM.

I’m told the copy edit is almost done, and the very tentative release date is 9 Nov (though of course that’ll be down to Apple and other factors beyond our control).

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Here we are at long last! I’ve fed back on the copy-edited version–warmest thanks to the longsuffering copy-editor–and sent off my final draft to CoG.

Now… well, on to writing Part 2, I guess. :slight_smile:

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More than three years ago, I said I’d finish this bit of my story

Well, I gave George a run for his money, but unless Apple takes an inordinately long time to approve the manuscript… :slight_smile:

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I see the targeted release date is November 9th. Congratulations and thank you for including me on your journey. :two_hearts:

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I just updated the full outline and plot schema of Choice of Rebels, and thought I’d share a game and chapter list, expanding the one I offered four years ago. Most of the chapter titles are pretty opaque (and of course subject to change if I come up with a better one), but I figure in combination with the game titles they should give a decent idea of the arc I mean this series to take.

Game I: Uprising
Prologue
Ch 1: The Fourth Harrowing
Ch 2: Outlaws of Whendward
Ch 3: Strangers in the Woods
Ch 4: Hounds of Karagon

Game II: Stormwright
Ch 5: Chaos and Telos
Ch 6: Dance of Shadows
Ch 7: A Glorious Season
Ch 8: The Archon’s Choice

Game III: Omphalos
Ch 9: Master of Fragments
Ch 10: either Among Forgotten Gods or Sparks of the Scouring
Ch 11: The Heart of the World
Ch 12: Shadow Against the Stars

Game IV: Downfall
Ch 13: The Broken Bridge
Ch 14: The Unraveling Web
Ch 15: Talisman and Sacrifice
Ch 16: The Siege of Aekos

Game V: Hegemon
Ch 17: Ashes at Dawn
Ch 18: The Sanguine Tide
Ch 19: The Shattered Field
Ch 20: To Strange Horizons

A good friend of mine bet me a bottle of Scotch that I wouldn’t keep it to five games. That’s a bet I fully intend to win. Five games is plenty.

Still rolling toward publication… hope to feature in one of those interview announcements in a couple weeks’ time. :slight_smile:

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And… we’ve got the nihil obstat from Apple. See you all on a new game thread next week. :slight_smile:

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