First, to clarify, both Teren Leilatou and Prince/ss Nip–aka, the Diadoch Phaedra/Phaedros, for anyone interested in a more dignified name–will share Breden’s sexual orientation (i.e. toward whatever gender the MC is) and gender (i.e. whichever is the MC’s own primary preference…though I feel like maybe I should spoiler that out to keep authorial intent from further disturbing the reading of the I’m-straight-for-Suzane crowd). Kala and Simon are at present the only romance characters who are set to be the opposite sex from a non-bi MC’s orientation. That’s not a dynamic I feel any need to write for more than two potential interests.
Well, yes, from the POV of Enguerrand. But wouldn’t Enguerrand’s story be more interesting if you the reader/co-author decided he would fall head over heels for the foreign agent? 
@Kuria_Aliki, responses like yours make the whole seven year writing process worthwhile. It means a tremendous amount to have a reader engage so thoroughly with my work and enjoy the game enough to try out so many ways through. I hope I finish Game V before you’re middle-aged and I’m retired. But regardless, I’m not abandoning it–don’t worry!
This is a writing flaw of mine, which my friend @Eric_Moser also pointed out ages ago. (Btw, you should go read his Community College Hero if you haven’t already, it’s excellent.) The difference in idiolect between helots and aristos should really be greater, as should the difference in language between a CHA 2 and CHA 0 character (besides in the flavor text when the latter is specifically failing a stat check). All I can say in my defense is that I do want to finish this series before I die, and writing significantly different dialogue would have added a lot of time that I felt could be better spent on finishing the game.
Coding in some special responses for readers who choose to give themselves names that already exist in the gameworld would be fun; maybe I’ll do it one day. But again, I’ll probably decide to put that time into finishing the game. Or trying to write all those future romance options I promised a few days ago.
I’m using a bit of authorial prerogative here to suggest that even non-arrogant aristos will often think of their comrades with that qualifier. Not because they’re people of ill will, but because they’ve grown up in a culture in which the “helot” category is all-important, and there’s only so much we can do to escape the mental categories we grow up with.
I think there’s a reading of the story that’s consistent with that, and it’ll become even clearer in Game 2, when you can start moving the focus of your rebellion away from helots if you choose to.
@Ramidel’s responses to 5-8 are spot on. Not every choice will come with a prior indication of the risk involved, and not all skill checks lead to good consequences. Like life, XoR is not always fair, and occasionally awful.
While that would add realism, I’m putting a low priority on coding in responses to players who are essentially messing with the game. If you make a silly choice, you’ll get a silly-sounding story–which to be fair is one of the less-appreciated pleasures of CoG. (Heroes Rise gives many of my favorite opportunities for this–though picking “You and me baby ain’t nothing but mammals” as my parents’ wedding song proved unexpectedly poignant in the end, a sort of comment on the limits of superhero-dom.)
Later, you may be able to get away with this, if you go down the charismatic religious leader track. (It’s a likely sub-plot for Game 3 Ch 1.) But if you tried it now, you’d just fail.
I felt that a comment on the final outcome of the literacy lessons fit better at the beginning of Week 10 than it did among the stuff at the end. It flowed better. In-game, perhaps you can assume that the happy advent of spring has left no one able to concentrate much on something as dead boring as alphabeta practice.
12-13: I refer you to @Ramidel.
Your band wouldn’t take it well if you tried to turn someone away just because they were harsh on the nobility. When someone’s made their way all the way out to the wilderness, wanting to join the Whendward Band, it would be a huge deal to turn them away, massively scandalizing outlaws and helots alike. I’m comfortable saying that your MC has a sense that it would go badly, and so doesn’t seriously consider rejecting Kalt.
Changing your first name as well as your last name would be one more headache to code. I appreciate that it would be satisfying, but I don’t think I’m going to implement it.
You make a good point with 16…and it’s worth some further speculation on what might be going on there. 
On 17, you’re right that this is incongruous; I really should at least add a line in there echoing Ramidel’s defense (“there’s a moment of hesitation as people remember all the deaths of the winter…but those who were completely disillusioned with you left then, and those who remain want desperately to believe”).
If you have Linos proclaim you Eclect, it does limit how badly you can treat him. I’m comfortable not giving every terrible-for-morale choice (especially as having “bad options” is against CoG game design doctrine–a doctrine I obviously break at times, but I don’t want to become wanton in doing so).
I’m afraid writing the helot MC as having had a past fling with Calea would add too much work; but as has been mentioned, it will be a possibility to have a new one in Game 2.
That would be nice to have, but I’m not sure it’s going to be a priority to add.
Sadly, that won’t work with the flow of the story. Is there a reason you wouldn’t sell those mules and buy arms back in Ch 2?
The Hegemony draws on different bits of Greek history–some ancient, some Hellenistic, some Byzantine. And the surnames are a modern element in that mix. The Hegemony’s campaign to give people surnames as part of their schema of social control will feature more prominently in Game 2.
They’ll usually look for a child from a noble family rather lower in the social hierarchy, who sees the name-swap as an opportunity. As the noble MC’s father at one point tells Horion, “My mother’s sister and brother desperately sought adoption into larger Westriding Houses—and when they succeeded, forsook every connection to the Rim. Meanwhile, Mother hunted for years to find a husband from a weaker House to keep the ${orig_lname} name alive.” They could adopt from a non-noble free family, and Houses of lower social standing will sometimes do so.
It’s theoretically possible.
No short name. It’s the Truth, it’s the Canon, and from the Hegemony’s perspective it doesn’t need any other name. Nor do its rivals, other than “heresy” and “blasphemy.”
It’s kind of hard to rank magic-tech by era. Plektosis doesn’t have a tech equivalent in our world–I’m not sure we’re going to be there by 2040. But yes, Grand Shayard should feel a bit Dickensian, as will Karagon.
The countries in the gameworld are a mix of features I find interesting from real-world cultures. So Whendery is a bit like Poland overlaid on Afghanistan. Nyryal and Halassur are more Turko-Persian, but wildly remixed against a fantasy background. Shayard is Anglo-French. Erezza is Italianate. All of them have South Asian elements, since I grew up in South Asia, currently live and work there, and continually run into things that I find interesting and want to work into the books.
No, that’s definitely Choice of Robots. XoR did have the best first-day sales at the time it was released, and has I believe been holding up a bit better than usual in terms of continuing sales. I’ve got my fingers crossed for a nice review somewhere on a gaming website that gives it a second wind…from what I understand, that’s part of how Metahuman Inc. became another CoG bestseller! But since I’m writing sequels, I also take the long view; if the series gets more widely discovered in Game 2 or 3, that would be just as delightful.
A companion book will I think not be a priority until I’ve finished Game V, if then. I’d rather channel my energy into the story rather than a pure world-building supplement. If anyone wanted to start an Infinite Sea-style wiki based on what I’ve said in the forum threads, however, they’d do so with my blessing.
Please don’t! Even when I don’t implement all of them, I still appreciate them. And in particular, please keep an eye on the forums for when I finally start the Stormwright thread, and start feeding back on that game while it’s still in progress.
I think English is definitely our world’s Koine–and you write it extremely well!
Indeed.
Fair point. I’m not sure I’ll change it now to add that choice–especially since every time we update the app, it effs up a whole bunch of people’s games-in-progress–but it’s still a good point.
Sexist and pro-natalist (just about any empire has to be the latter in a blood-fuelled world), but not otherwise homophobic. And comparing themselves to the Hegemony, Halassur takes pride in their lack of slaves.
Hmmm. Well, maybe I got my vision for Elery and Yebben confused, and she’s straight and he’s bi. We’ll see when I get to writing it.