Because that level of outright sociopathy isn’t the kind of evil I’m interested in writing.
I also don’t think Evil Gandhi would find a way to poison kids without also poisoning able-bodied adults… and if Evil Gandhi didn’t mind losing a few adults along with the kids, she can do that with the game as it stands. All she’d have to do is underfeed the sick and within 3-4 weeks the parents will leave with all the surviving kids, once you’ve crossed the “too many of our kids are dead now” threshold.
To be honest, I personally would be somewhat wary of the stat-wrangling even if the difficultly was nerfed, because that’s just not what I’m looking for in a game. If I have to make my choices based on code and not RPing, the game is not fun for me. However, if the best possible scenario is to achieve a more balanced game, here are the things that are currently making me strongly reluctant to keep playtesting:
Mules - I see where you’re going with them and I understand why you want to keep them. But I think it’s time to face the fact that they just don’t work. Having the mules + food bringing by itself is an complex system, and coupled with the MANY other variables and elements it becomes impossibly opaque. Whatever they add narratively is not worth the hassle.
Margins - The current system is set so even doing everything right you will barely scrape by. That means that a new player that, for example, doesn’t know how many hunters a bear hunt requires, can basically ruin the entire winter for themselves with a bad choice in the first week. To alleviate that, I think the first attempt at anything - begging/hunting/raiding - should be more successful, maybe based on the element of surprise/no previous strain on resources.
Guidance - Right now there’s no way of knowing how and where to start untangling the mess of options that you are presented with when the winter starts. In theory you can learn by trial and error, but the tiresome nature of the gameplay coupled with the unforgiving nature of the first few weeks makes this a ridiculously discouraging experience. I really like the suggestion of your second-in-command taking charge: suggesting where to focus first, or advising on the numbers of people to send, or even doing something on their own - like hunting every week. The idea is to make the checklist of things you have to do every time shorter so it feels less like a pointless chore.
Sickness - As it stands right now, the point at which the sick will recover is basically the point where you are already stable enough that it’s not a critical issue. Either their death rate or recovery rate needs be changed because right now you might as well ignore them entirely, since you have so little control over them.
I gotta be honest here, the more I play this the less I like it. I don’t think it’s a good sign that a system that prides itself on replayability is so hard to replay. Casual isn’t a dirty word and CoG games just don’t need this level of challenge. Trim down this section and let the story shines - most of the audience is here for the tale and not the min-maxing.
Well I just replay and I had too much food that some get rotten also thousands of silver and I had twenty maces more than rebels. If game is too hard just had less rebels and not children . Children are harmful in a rebellion. I just lost people in a scout mission and against bears
Well, your case is a bit more extreme than usual, rusty maces and all. But yes, the more I play the more inclined I am to be ruthless and let everyone get killed. You didn’t like my scruples? Well you can ROT IN [lore appropriate afterlife]! This is quickly turning into the MC’s villain origin story.
Also, I always end up with too much money and not enough food. It’s like some sort of fable about the dangers of greed.
In fact evil Gandhi DOESN’T kill anyone at all. She is low anarchy (until she wins of course then she will show her real face) My character hates helots so she never save Ellery and the harrowing at all. So she doesn’t have the people in the square with her that bunch of useless children and elderly. She has the former warriors in the band 43 no children only warriors. So all is easy as hell and have more sense. A rebel in the woods doesn’t need smelly babies or elderly. Needs warriors.
But if playtesting it in its present state is a misery, keep an eye on the thread until I declare it’s in a state I’m happy with – then you can come back and see how much of your dissatisfaction was with my intention and how much was with my crappy execution.
I do like the idea of an idealistic MC being stripped off their scruples and turning so jaded they forget their original goal. It’s a good story, and like I said, the actual narrative of people blaming you for the deaths and having to explain your ideals to a mourning kid is great. I just dislike all the mess on the way there - a strong scene leaves me feeling weighted down with sorrow and then we get back to the laconic “btw X people died and Y people are sick” and it’s just a game of numbers again.
I would like to keep playtesting, at least on the ruthless part that should be easier. If I can’t make it through the easiest path, I can say for certain it’s not balanced yet - everything after that is more muddled. I just may have to take longer breaks between playthroughs to let my forehead heal from the bruise my headdesking has left it with .
EDIT: I remember now what was my first throught when playing this chapter - it gave me real Traitor Baru Cormorant vibes. Being lured by the numbers into making cold, rational decisions because you can’t see the people behind them anymore, and losing yourself in the “end justifying the means” scheme. It’s a powerful story, but I hope it’s not the only one this game can be.
Made it all the way through! Great work Havenstone. Only issue I had was checking the stat screen immediately after the tax raid sent me back to the beginning of winter with all the benefits of the raid (it was after hitting return to game after the raid) so that may be a tough little bug to find.
Otherwise it was great. I managed to make it through basically perfectly as well which was a nice bonus. The trick was selling weapons which is a tough trade off, but should be manageable depending on how the next chapter plays out.
You mean the fact that my mc can seem to get through the winter just fine while going easy on the nobles and clergy but not the yeoman and merchants, the groups he actually wants on his side.
The problem with that is that my mc knows full well he himself has no future worth even considering after the rebellion if he leaves the nobles and clergy in power, what with being a skeptical gay helot.
Oho, just figured out what was going on with something, I think. I noticed that recruitment missions seemed to be expanding my ranks much faster than expected, or than a cursory inspection of the code would suggest. Had me baffled for a bit, but I now realize it’s probably because of the way the missionrecr variable is used; specifically, after its beginning initialization at zero, it’s only ever increased, not reset. So every time you go recruiting, the results are built up higher and higher, based on the total number you’ve ever sent, rather than just the number you’ve sent this week. Easily solved by *set missionrecr 0 right after *set freefollowers -missionfoll
I did consider that possibility, but given the way other systems work and the structure of the code there, I don’t really think it’s likely to be intended, no.
The first playthrough went without crashing all the way till the end and I only noticed 2 or possibly 3 bugs. I enjoyed the first playthrough immensely.
I saw the outcome where none of my band gets incinerated by theurges for the first time. I found that outcome much more enjoyable than having my sick and wounded murdered before I can acquire enough mules from the hegemony to prevent it. I tried a second playthrough since the update and that one was as before the patch where my sick get incinerated before my mule scouts get back. I think in the future I’ll just restart until I avoid my sick and wounded being incinerated at the start. It is too depressing to be worth continuing that storyline for me.
The first bug is during the second temple raid, I tried to lead it myself and the text claims Breden led it instead but Breden was also still available for other assignment that week.
The second bug is after Hector raids my supply caravan if I send Elery to scout new routes, Ciels is still labeled as Breden’s lover even if Breden is the main character’s lover.
The third bug which I’m not sure is even a bug is that something happened to Zvad and he was replaced by the end but I never saw the text explaining what happened to him. The last I noticed, he was still alive when I took my second-in-command Breden with me to raid an alastor garrison. I think he might also have been usable when trying to protect the supply caravans after Hector’s attack. I lost 9 helots before Hector’s hunters gave up but Zvad was not listed among them. Zvad is also not listed among those who have died for my rebellion so I am not sure what happened to him. It is possible I just missed the notice of his death, but I’m not sure where it could have happened.
While handing over the reins to your deputy would fit well with some aspects of gameplay, it would require more additional coding than I want to take on unless all else fails. But I think getting some guidance at critical junctures from your 2nd in command is a great idea, and I’ll try to implement it in some form.
Decadrachms (without an e) is the intended spelling. And sorry, which bit do you have in mind where the other groups get mentioned but not yeomen?
No, the crest often stays the same when nobles Karagonize their surnames.
I don’t think I’ll do that, sorry. No offense to gj1998’s translation, but he himself was clear that they don’t translate easily or perfectly into Greek (modern or koine). In general, I’m going to stick with transliteration into English, not the Greek alphabet.
I’m referring to this line: “At the moment, the helots, nobility, priests, and merchants of Shayard have little reason to think of you one way or another.”
It’s not. I’ve done several successful nonviolent playthroughs, and before we’re done I’ll make sure it’s possible to survive without alienating merchants/yeomen/your base of choice.
Upthread a few folk have asked why the strategy breakdown is no theft, Hegemony theft, and everyone theft, rather than including an option for Hegemony-plus-nobles theft, or a nobles-and-merchants but not innocent-yeomen-and-helots option, etc. My answer basically is that you can pursue any of the latter strategies, but that once you’ve crossed the line from raiding only the servants of the Hegemony to those who have collaborated with it and benefit from it, the temptation will be there to raid others, including the innocent.
As to whether you could just raid the really mean nobles like the de Merre, I think it’s thematically interesting and I might try working it in, but I don’t think it would affect the stats very much. Neither the group you’re targeting nor the helots and yeomen will respond all that differently if you’re discriminate in your targeting. Basically, it would reduce your take from the noble barn raids, and in return you’d get to feel better about yourself…
I think others who know Greek could help with a better translation. Perhaps you’ll change your mind then. Lol, I’m too spoiled by Choice of the Vampire
I think being consistent in this regard will have benefits down to line when the rebellion gets more legitimate and if the MC tries to portray himself and his rebellion as honest brokers:
“We do not and have never targeted indiscriminately. This rebellion’s objective is to whatever, whatever not target everyone who is merely trying to survive with the Hegemony’s boot on their neck. Make no mistake there will be a reckoning, but since the first day of this rebellion to its last we will treat those fairly who are guilty of no other crime than being subjects of the Karagons. Join us now and tear down this unjust order blah blah blah!”
Also have you given any thought to the comment I made about a theruge actually locating and engaging the band. I don’t see how they could have escaped after that. I think it would be most consistent if they ran into a small alastor patrol or something.
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