Diaspora - Updated 12 February 2024 [First Draft Complete!]

[Laguz]

@sharknap

Cormac does kind of feel like he’s out on his own.

Aisling bounces off the protagonist, but also Pan and Cormac and Izzy if you got them together. Izzy has her personal quest, and seems to be the general conversation starter in many group scenes.

Pan and Sang bounce off eachother: Sang doesn’t interact with many people by himself but this one constant is enough to keep him afloat. He seems to be okay with your mother, wish we’d had more scenes of that because he might not be a satellite character to the protagonist but that doesn’t mean he isn’t one to Pan.

If no one’s romancing Cormac, and you’re not openly antagonising Cormac at every opportunity he’s just… there. He used to bounce off Aisling early-game, but now she’s preoccupied with the magic part of the plot and healing and Pan and also her possible gf.

The island part gives a lot of characters good development but a) Sang still can’t go 30 minutes without mentioning Pan, godbless this man has no friends and b) this development only happens to the character that dislikes you.

Which is a great way to learn to like a character you might have been cold to, yes, and that’s great for the player to help them become more attatched… but for a character you’re cooly neutral to and doesn’t have much interaction with others… they’re just kind of there.

If you take a more plot-relevant character like Pan, Aisling or Izzy to the island… Sang and Cormac aren’t getting much show. I had the blessing of taking Sang, but Cormac I mostly agree with, so he’s just sort of existing to talk about Cine Things and not much else. If you don’t engage with Sang as much as possible he’s a PTSD autistic and Pan’s friend.

(kicks Cormac and Sang together) engage, bastards. you both don’t have friends. by the end of today i want you either besties or trying to kill one another

[AugustArria]

It’s been just about a month since our last update, and we’re happy to announce that we’ve got another one for you! Chapter 9 is Now Playable!

Pretty good speed for us, but it helped that this chapter is not one of our longer ones. Chapter 9 might be a little shorter, but it’s got several very important decisions to make, including the fate of a certain fiend of the depths, as well as something we’ve been building up to since the early chapters: your choice of who to speak to now that you’ve got the Eye. It should be pretty difficult to make it through this one without making any enemies.

Coming up next will be some personal quests that occur in the aftermath of your decision, starting with Aisling and Cormac. We hope you enjoy the update!

[Bugreporter]

@AugustArria @Jaybirdy
Typo in chapter 9.

It’s perhaps the most neutral route you can think of, and you feel it satifies your morals

Satisfies

[BrownBetty]

The new saving system seems to work! I haven’t saved with the new way of skipping to later chapters because I have three save files, but I have gone through the questionnaire to replicate specific playthroughs and ended up roughly where I thought I would, so I’d say it’s pretty accurate.

I just did one save file, I’ll do the other ones as I can.

Eithne

Summary

Start of chapter stats;

Summary

End of chapter stats;

Summary

I decided to use the Eye to kill the squid, told Aisling to shut out any attempt at communication, took the Eye away when she collapsed, gave it back when that appeared to have been a bad choice, told Aisling to kill it because it’s an abomination, and let her and Pan decide who did the storm, because the nosebleed made me nervous for Aisling. We were neither eaten by the squid nor dashed to pieces by the storm, so I feel good about those choices.

I didn’t ignore the Iskendi ship, asked Pan’s opinion, had them hide it, and here’s where I might be really dumb. I have met Elif before, right? That’s Bal’s niece, that we met right after going on that walk with the mage couple after the ritual? Am I confusing her with someone else? I’m almost certain we’ve met but it’s definitely a first meeting here.

In any case, I treated it like business, claimed the marvels of Cine engineering brought the ship out intact, honestly told her we’re going to destroy it, rudely told her to leave while I wan on her boat, was solemn when announcing myself, was thrilled to see Chief Mom because I am not a monster, got up when I couldn’t sleep, said that I had wanted to wait to burn the effigy until we could do it together, and man, I hope something really good happens for Roise soon. That poor woman. She has had a terrible last… Like. 10 years.

I really liked the “sparring” between Aisling/Cormac/Sang! I think I’ve said this before, but this really has some of the best characters I’ve seen in a GoC game. They’re not just props for the PC, but people I’m interested in in their own right and I enjoy seeing them interact.

I scolded Aisling for doing magic without me, because Eithne is, as I have established, a pill.

The Cine play rugby. Of course they do. I had Aisling freeze some water, because Eithne’s pill-ness about magic does not extend to sports, I guess. Also, I thought it would be more fun. It was. It was delightful. Aisling scores the winning goal! Sang mentions that the Empire has arenas in the capitol and he doesn’t consider what happens in them sport. Okay. That’s. Certainly something I’m going to be thinking about if our relationship with Castulia goes really sour.

“At somewhere around sixty summers, he would hardly have found himself with the title of elder, save for the fact that so few people of greater years survived the voyage.” Well that’s depressing. It also makes Leitis extremely impressive.

I greeted the elders, agreed with Daghan that if we change we might as well have died up north, and here I got stuck. I really, really don’t want to get involved in this mess. Eithne has been consistently isolationist and just doesn’t care about either Castulia or the Iskendi. I reluctantly said to meet with the Iskendi, both because they’re more culturally similar except for the magic which is a pretty big deal to Eithne, and because I already had much higher agree and friendship scores with Bal than the General. I don’t feel great about this, but I would feel great about any choice here.

I was uncharacteristically deferentional and chose “I don’t mean to speak beyond my authority…” because Eithne respects Tradition and Tradition means deferring to the council of elders. Everything seems okayish as I leave.

A fairly short chapter, you’re right, but clearly a pivotal one. I’m more or less okay with the choices I made but uneasy about the events I can see coming down the pike. I don’t know if there was a way to stay out of the Iskendi/Castulia stuff for longer, but I don’t feel ready for a fight right now, even with the Eye.

[Jaybirdy]

@BrownBetty No you’re absolutely right that you’ve probably met Elif before. One of the things I realized I had to do for this chapter was account for whether or not the PC had already met her, as the scene where you do is entirely skippable. So I went back and added a variable for it, which defaults to false. So unfortunately those of you working from older saves are treated as though you haven’t even if you have.

Also, we totally understand that not every character is eager to throw in with one side or another here. For those of you hoping for a more neutral path through, hang tight. There will be options in the future that should open up some possibilities, but it’s naturally going to be a bit more complicated than just going in for an alliance and sticking to it. The need for a meeting was in large part itself a tactic to keep the wolves from your door a bit longer, at least as far as Roise was thinking. The choice will certainly have consequences, but no one is locking themselves out of a more moderate track just by making it!

@Bugreporter Grazie!

[stsword]

What the heck?

The game even gives us the option to state our intention to keep the eye for our own people, and in the meeting with the Council Elders we are forced to just sit there quietly while they act like giving it up is the only viable option?

Our father died for this, half our crew died for this.

And as the flashblack to our father shows, giving up the eye is not only giving up military might, but prosperity- plentiful farming, plentiful fishing, fresh water on command, forestry, animal husbandry. Weather control is like a cheat code for a Civilization game.

The Cine could even plan to go back home up North once the Eye is mastered.

[Jaybirdy]

So I think an important distinction to make here is the one between talking to someone about this and agreeing to give it to them. As Roise (I think) mentions during the meeting, whether or not the Cine keep the artifact or do anything else with it is a downstream decision, so to speak. No one in the MC’s group is currently anywhere near figuring out how to use the thing for weather control, for instance, or even its more powerful weapon-ish capabilities.

So the idea is something like “going to one of these groups and arranging a meeting for some point out in the near-ish future is buying time at the very least.” Clan Maghnus isn’t currently strong enough (or in possession of enough ships, for example) to head back north and do their thing, with no one having adequate mastery of the Eye to make up the difference. The Elders want a meeting with someone (and yes, some of them do want to give the thing up for various reasons, but that itself is not decided at this meeting), and they decide they’re going to have one, but whether the MC sees that as bureaucratic obstruction to their aims or exactly what it’s best to do is in fact totally variable here.

As I said above, this only determines who is going to be at a meeting a few chapters down the line. It does not decide the fate of the Eye, or the Cine. There’s going to be plenty more variation available when it comes to that.

[MichaelCrank]

At first, I wanted to use the Eye to establish some kind of control of the seas, giving the clan a huge advantage over the Empire and the Iskendi. As someone already pointed out, it would be a boon to our military power and could be used to improve our crops or have a better time fishing for food.

But now? After seeing what kind of effects that it had on Aisling and Pan, I’m leaning towards destroying the Eye. Yes, our father died for this. Yes, we lost crew members over this but the cost of using the Eye for the benefit of the clan far outweights the benefits in my opinion. The Empire basically has no Navy and their port has been destroyed, while the Iskendi seems to be well organized enough but I am sure there is a glaring weakness that they have which I didn’t figure out yet.

Without the Eye, having the clan build ships from the materials on the island, learning the local languages and having both sides come to teach the warriors in the ways of sea and land warfare, I feel like at this rate, we’d probably be okay for now.

I’d still need more time to make sure the clan is completely prepared for war against both but it’s still a far better choice than to use the Eye and possibly messing up on it somehow.

[BrownBetty]

Okay, so when I loaded my file for Riona it just showed the stats page and wouldn’t let me leave that, so that was infuriating a valuable opportunity to test the new chapter skipping system!

Summary

I ended up killing the squid because I just felt bad for it. And because mind-controlling a giant squid is definitely the action of a particularly weird Bond villain and things like that usually come back to bite you. I don’t think I realized that you could skip meeting Elif the first time. Is that only if you skip talking to the mage couple?

I told Aisling to concentrate on her healing so instead of the sparring scene I got a cute coconut healing scene. Is one of you a Princess Bride fan or am I just trained to make that association when anyone says anything remotely like “It’s only mostly dead”? Anyway, the shaman test. From what Aisling said about her mentor’s test it doesn’t sound like a particularly perilous or even high-pressure situation under normal circumstances. But with the way the story is heading I’m wondering if her trial will be saving the clan’s collective behind when the Castulia/Iskendi conflict flares up. And there have been either two or three fairly extensive branches where you try to undermine Aisling’s confidence in herself and that has to pay off at some point.

I keep looking at this and I can’t tell if it’s right or not. I’m parsing it as “Wrestling does draw blood.” And I don’t think that’s what’s meant. “Only a few do not”?

I suggested we meet with Castulia and I’m planning on trying to keep the Eye. So I guess this is where that Daghan relationship meter really comes into its own. I don’t want Daghan as an enemy, both because he’d be a formidable one and because I’m really fond of him. If Cormac is the ultimate Big Brother, Daghan is the ultimate Grumpy Uncle. I think Daghan has two intertwined but separate concerns. First, that if the clan changes he won’t be useful anymore. He’s devoted his entire life to the clan. If he can’t help by raiding or fighting or any of the things he’s spent the last 40 years doing, what exactly is the point of him? Second, he really does think allying with Castulia will force the clan to change in ways that will make them no longer Cine. I don’t expect I can convince him to truly support changing how the clan operates (no raiding, all trading) but I might have a chance convincing him to at least not publicly oppose it if I can convince him that it’s the only way for the clan to survive as a group. We’ll see.

Interestingly, for someone so committed to tradition, Daghan seems to barely care about magic one way of the other. If you did the blood ritual he basically shrugs and he doesn’t say much about the Eye beyond its use as a bargaining chip. So not all of the clan have strong opinions about magic. Hm.

[Drakeye]

If you were already in the stats screen when you hit save, it will glitch most of the time and do that. it’s like that for all games with it.

[anon57188313]

Not only in the states page, it also happens when you back to the game right after you check out your states.

[BrownBetty]

Oh, yeah, that’s been a problem forever, but I saved that file at the landing screen thing. But my third file, also saved at the landing screen, loaded fine. So I don’t know what’s going on there.

[Jaybirdy]

Hey all!

So if you follow the tumblr you may have seen this already, but for the sake of varied input I’d like to ask here too.

Suppose your MC had the opportunity to consult briefly with the spirits of their ancestors. They can ask one relatively short/simple question (simple in the sense of not needing a highly detailed answer). What, if anything, would they ask?

[FutbolDude21586]

Where’s mah daddy!!!

But seriously, “What guidance can you give us moving forward?”

[SmileDoge]

“Why does it feel as though my life has no meaning”

All jokes aside maybe ask for some forgotten ways of craftsmanship or sth (If my phrasing is weird it’s cause English is not my first language)

[Eiwynn]

@Jaybirdy

Suppose your MC had the opportunity to consult briefly with the spirits of their ancestors. They can ask one relatively short/simple question (simple in the sense of not needing a highly detailed answer). What, if anything, would they ask?

Do they agree that aligning with (chosen faction) is the right choice for the tribe’s survival?

[Laguz]

Were we destined to settle, or are we meant to keep on roving?

[squarelyblue]

Questions at the top of my head:

Is peace possible?

Do you approve of the RO? (Whether on a personal basis or for the good of a tribe sort of way)

Is the MC worthy?

[sharknap]

For clarification, do the Cine believe that our ancestors can give them hints to the future or is this more like asking your elders for advice?

And are we asking every single dead clan member collectively? Past chiefs or the mc’s relatives? I don’t know how much I’d care to just ask the hive mind. Someone specific of authority or deep wisdom that has passed would be very valuable though. (aisling’s mentor would be super cool, just saying)

How much information do these ancestors have at their disposal? Can they tell us if someone has been deceitful (like say Baltasar or Adriana)? Or is this more just Clan History and Values?

questions, though these would change depending on the answers to the above:

• the clan is changing, what are the core values we need to hold on to and what can be let go?
• should we be in the south or are we meant to return north? (my mc is still doubtful of this entire endeavor)
• has magic always been verboten or was there some event in the past that changed things?
• what is currently going on in the north with our enemies
• secrets/information about the eye
• war intelligence in general if that’s possible (like say Baltasar’s weaknesses or something)

[Crow]

@Jaybirdy

Suppose your MC had the opportunity to consult briefly with the spirits of their ancestors. They can ask one relatively short/simple question (simple in the sense of not needing a highly detailed answer). What, if anything, would they ask?

“Am i doing the right thing? For our people?”