Choice of Rebels: Stormwright (XoR2 WIP)

No country in the setting really has a “flag”, just banners and coats of arms. The CoA of the old de Syrnon house was the Gryphon-and-Great Eel, but we don’t have info beyond that. Get creative if you like.

(Great Eels are a sort of whale-like sea mammal, they’re hunted for all the products people hunt whales for.)

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@Havenstone
Would our relationship with states impact how much support we get from them in irduin, as it’s logically should.?
And would the comment in the Inn become supportive? Even cenneve and elder brausque become supportive of rebels if we are helot hero ballad level? And yeomens be more willing to rise in tax taking scene? Or strabuads like rebellion as hearing talks of our collaboration and smuggling with woman merchant in book1 whose name I have forgotten in synthechias blessing?
I should say being a helot and meeting helots in irduin was the most fun and intractive path for me. Really got surprised by Cerlota secret extraction and leaving after my order in name of supporting from distance til I change my order. When will we see her again in this case?.

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My current thought is that if you get through a whole game without a notoriety increase, it’ll go down a little – but anything you do to increase it will keep it from falling, and the decrease won’t be large. The Hegemony doesn’t let go of its grudges easily.

Thanks so much – that’ll be fixed in the next update.

Both CHA 2 and INT 2 singers can fail to join the phyle. And the runaway catcher can be bypassed without INT 2. Thanks for sharing how the stat play is feeling; there are a bunch of places where a 1 stat does make a difference, though, and a not-yet-released bit where having a 0 stat (any 0 stat) will automatically take you down a different, tougher route.

One of the last things I’ll be looking at is the balance of stats across the game. For now, feel free to keep sharing your thoughts on how things are feeling, but I’m going to wait until the whole draft is done before going through to assess balance in detail.

The Irduin order isn’t a rebel order. It’s an accommodationist order, and on certain tracks it should be possible to get it to accommodate itself to your rebellion. But to add followers and spread the revolt properly into the Southriding at this point, Irduin needs breaking.

I’m just not sure that’s true of joining the Hawk, and when it comes to the drapetekyne, I don’t think you should consider arousing his suspicions to be “losing”. For my money, the Mesniel story’s a lot more fun if you’re being actively hunted.

As and when you’re revealed as fname lname, the infamous bandit chief, your credibility with the different social estates will make some difference to the outcome.

Any MC who sends Cerlota away, at any point, for any reason, will run into her again in Grand Shayard next game.

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I couldn’t ever pass singing test with cha2. Maybe having breden is the only key to pass?
About the hunter, yes you can but not without raising suspicious and Cerlota intervention. I couldn’t with com2 or cha 2 even if int was 1.

Hardened path by 0 stat is all good but never felt I could do anything with 1. I was a bad failure when singing in merchants house with int2 cha 1 and other scenes like that Which I failed with 1 stats. So that makes me getting the feel that only if you have 2 stat you could actually do anything as it was obvious if you have int 2 cha 2 in hunter scene. Actually i felt thats the best stat i could pass irduin with. But, that means I won’t ever reach a high stat of int and become the most powerful theurge to fight thaumatarch or those factions lead theurges in last book.

Wouldn’t convincing de irde to actually helping us and having good relationship with those factions we spent time with reach to converting whole village to stand up against Hegemony? Doesn’t that mean they have become rebels? Or they are as you say Accommodating?

Even more if they actually know the goet rebel leader is the one they were hunting:)
.
Also I want to suggest you increase the number of factions we could spend time with in irduin or maybe just mandatory the Inn as we Are Living in there and we mention we are in the heart of irduin and we will understand more by living there, but that’s only true if we spend time with innkeeper, and it wouldn’t make sense if we live there and pay by helping but actually don’t talk or get to know innkeeper and his daughter(and baldassar tax reasons he tell there). Another reason is they are not a actual faction in grand things and who really like to sacrifice a really big and important faction for a minimal one timer family.
Soooo, i think if we are going to just choose 2 factions to get close and understand ,the innkeeper shouldn’t be counted. It’s already hard to choose 2 from 5 factions but then it increases to 6 after the first one. Also as the innkeeper is only available as secondary choice that means they CAN pass as not a faction choice. So in all, I ask humbly to _ increase the number of choices for time spending to 3 _ or keep 2 but then after choosing our 2 factions ask if you want to spend time with innkeeper too so if anyone doesn’t care or want to go for that path or if they would just get bored to have 3 type of scenes they could skip that, and the ones who doesn’t care about getting loads of scenes and info are happy too.

I went guard with com 2 and write the noble aritarch name myself to be correct but still it didn’t pass without suspicious. I tried every way, so don’t talk as if I didn’t test and took correct alibi when you don’t know what I did.

@Havenstone And what would even be correct alibi for cha2? I remember there were supposed to be a jongler type alibi but there isn’t. So what alibi could be appropriate for cha2 mc?

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Again this is a you issue. Both are entirely doable, you just need to pick better. The hunter checks different stats depending on the alibi you choose, don’t pretend to be an apothecary if you don’t have the knowledge to back it up, as an example.

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I would finish writing the game in 2029. :slight_smile: I understand the impulse, but sorry, it’s already taking me forever to do justice to the variations we’ve got.

Having to pick 2, not 3, factions out of 6 will keep the pacing of Stormwright’s back half from completely collapsing (hopefully!) and, more importantly, should nudge people further away from the impossible task of trying to fit everything in XoR into a single perfect playthrough. It’s meant to be replayed. It’s not meant to enable a perfect run.

And while I take your point on how it feels right now, the factions really are 6, not 5. The Tamrites will be a big-picture faction.

The jongler-type alibi is there – “I’m a roving play-actor and singer” – but that one’s admittedly a bit of a trap for the CHA 2 player. That alias, more than any of the others, is a hairs-breadth from admitting to vagrancy. If you claim it, it takes a CHA 3 MC to charm the drapetekyne enough that he decides not to take you in for questioning. That keeps the test from just boiling down to a “pick my strongest skill” check.

That doesn’t mean the CHA 2 player has no way through. If you’re CHA 2 INT 2, you should remember enough detail of e.g. aristarch names and Vaulens landmarks to avoid suspicion. Otherwise, if you’re INT 1 or INT 0 and can’t back up your bluffs with knowledge…it’s best to pick the alibi whose associated skills you’re least likely to be called upon to publicly demonstrate, and which fits best with what you’re (not) carrying.

I’m planning to adjust the checks on the drapetekyne intro in light of anarchy level when I write in the Rim sections. I’ll take another look at the plight of the CHA 2 player then.

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Not to undermine or discourage you it’s just my frustration, but it is already feeling I Will play the last book when I’m 50 and I’m 24 now. That’s if there wouldn’t be additional books like the next book that happened during this second book. And I love this game so much I would wait till then too. The pun is that I think my own country will accomplish a rebellion, sooner than mine in XoR would. :joy:

And I don’t think to available 3rd path that has been already written, adding 3 years to this book. As you only availabling what is there. It won’t add much new words and work. It’s only additional to readers as it would become lot more words to read. And for it being hard to have a perfect playthrough ,wouldn’t that get that much easier, as it’s still really hard to choose between 6 factions even in 3 .
And the replaybility wouldn’t get hurt as we HAVE a lot of possibilities in just pairing our choices not mentioning all book 1 different paths that continued to impact all paths differently or all different xaos and sojourn different paths. Like if you go noble merchant you get some different scenes as they accompany each other differently, as yeoman and merchants would and your stats would differentiate them in parallel of your book one choices. I couldn’t do anything more than only asking of you to please consider this. I think it would make the experience really better.

I have also suggested a good way to even lower the difficulty and work for adding this too, by the 3rd path be only Maurs as it’s the most obvious and logical faction that everyone would spend time with. As I said it would be strange to live and work and dine with them and never talk to them. For me, thats the best pace and I couldn’t believe that it would be too much for most XoR players.

Edit: I should add no one will ever fill satisfaction by one playthrough as story could play a lot different scenarios and those would mount up in each new game and each scenario would have different apeals. So yeah If I were you I wouldn’t fear replaybility of this giant story.

I don’t know if the game is broken for me or what but I never saw it. Will it only show on cha3?

As I said I saw that the best stat to almost pass all checks in irduin. Specially if you are a helot, and acting as a office holder

Actually I don’t understand. Cause I did com 2 and it couldn’t pass even as a guard still. If I understand you correctly you mean com 2 should act like a tutor for example? As I remember that tutoring had a mention of not carrying books and, Still cause Mc couldn’t suggest a book name, and that who he worked for last ,it raised sus.
I think it’s best to wait for stat balancing and then see what the experience would become.

What I started this discussion for was exactly that cha2 isn’t adding that pass. So the real soft skill here is only considered as int2. As I said it needs waiting till more worked out stats in later updates.

(I can’t believe I edited this post 15 times to polish and rephrase sentences or adding 《,》 and more) :saluting_face:

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That’s okay, as you can imagine, convincing someone who thinks you’re a runaway slave requires a decent level of soft skills, so if you don’t have at least 2CHA or 2INT, it’s impossible for you to get through that without having the Drap suspect you. Being a guard is the right choice, but you need cunning or charm to make your alibi really believable.

Ignore the charm, that requires cunning. What any moron can do is abuse a minimum wage worker, which, a Drap probably kinda aligns with. It does require you to be a noble though, so you have experience berating those beneath you.

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descarga

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That makes sense, the whole reason the Commotion was able to get off the ground was because Rim Square is awful for the helots and yeomen who live there. My pacifist MC was hoping to turn Irduin into another foothold for conversion (gotta keep winning souls for Kenon), but I suppose shoring up the Irduin order instead will look good on my CV when it’s time to get the aristos and merchants onside.

Speaking of converts, how are those Brecklanders who visited us in Uprising doing? They seemed like natural candidates to spread the word back in the Brecks. Are they doing any proselytizing?

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“You don’t understand, my character really just is a freak of nature and has a 150 IQ and is incredibly charismatic, honest! I had no choice but to edit the game code to give them 3 INT and 3 CHA!”

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Ha! Although tempting it might be, that plans falls appart for me due to 2 big issues.

First, that Havie is already implementing checks that make a max stats save edited character not so good.

And second, that, I don’t know how to…

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It’s what your alibi is if you’re a helot with not great INT who says they’re a tutor

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Yeah, so let’s not make it 60 :stuck_out_tongue:

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@Havenstone Do the people of Irduin know that swearing by “kenon” (oath) and “sweet kenon” (sweetoath) is tied to the Rim rebels? If they do, the MC shouldn’t say it openly. But even if they don’t, using these would sound strange and suspicious to locals, so it should probably raise the ird_sus variable. Either way, openly swearing by kenon feels risky for the MC trying to stay hidden.

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@Havenstone How tied in are the iconographies of our rebellion and any religious movement we may have founded? Is the symbol of the rebellion used as a sort of shibboleth among religious followers (who may not themselves be rebels per se) ala the ichthys?

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Hi Havenstone!! I wish that this message finds you in good health. I’m just wandering if this game is already finished and out in google play? I just finished the first game yet again and i have to say, there’s always something new for me with the choices everytime i played it and this playthrough has been my best so far, so i’m actually excited with how my saved record would fare with the 2nd installation.

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There is a beta on cogdemos, Havenstone is finishing writing up the last chapter, and I think(?) he’s also revisiting earlier chapters to flesh out a couple of characters more now that we aren’t going to meet them in Grand Shayard in this game

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Tell me about it. :smiling_face_with_tear: 50’s right around the corner for me. I hope I’m all finished before I turn 75.

A COM 2 character should be able to be convincing if they don’t try to pretend they have hidden knives (which your sparse clothes and baggage won’t plausibly conceal). A CHA 2 COM 1 character can similarly be convincing enough to shut down the conversation. Try the “my bare swiving hands” option.

They will be, yep.

They will soon if they don’t already. Most of the oaths in Irduin are mentally spoken to yourself or to your companions, but I’ll do a runthrough and sort things out so a kenonist isn’t continually giving themselves away. :slight_smile:

Pretty closely tied, I think – otherwise I’d need more variables. :slight_smile:

Thanks for the good wishes, and welcome! As @Kevrj explained, the game’s still in progress, but I’m getting it closer to done as quickly as I can. :slight_smile:

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Ah, so we’re gonna be building churches with a sickle and hammer in a cross-like position.

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