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

I really enjoyed the demo you have here. I’m excited to find out more about the world you’re building, and look forward to what comes next.

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I am just so thrilled and excited with this.

I played the demo and was immediately drawn in. Quality writing, first of all, and a good overall flow with it, too. The characters are done well (I took an immediate liking to every single one of them introduced in the demo) and I feel like you’ve already set a really good balance and pace. If the rest of the story sticks with it, you’ve got a fantastic work of art on your hands.

I am just off-the-wall bouncing over this! I can’t wait to play the full version!

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This was a really interesting beginning and I can’t wait to see where the story goes!

The writing really draws you in and the world and culture we’ve seen so far seems to be really well-developed. All the characters introduced so far feel organic and I’ve been having a lot of fun making my PC flirt with anyone and everyone. :grin:

I’ll be happily following this WIP from now on.

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Hi everyone,

Many thanks for all the feedback so far. It’s been great getting your thoughts and impressions; a couple times, we’ve definitely had to pause and think about something we hadn’t yet considered, so our gratitude is yours. We’re working on chapter two at the moment, and once the full segment is done, we’ll be updating the WIP so everyone can play a bit further into the adventure and tell us what you think.

Cheers.

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Loving the fascinating depictions of culture-clash and the differing peoples, ran into the game-ending 404 error around Chapter 2 but not anywhere else. Looking forward to further updates.

Also interested to see what the MC will make of the new land. Maybe he’ll do like the Mongols and transition from nomadic to imperial government.

The Chief’s Priorities List, In Descending Order:

1)Secure the clan’s position on this unknown, potentially unfriendly territory.

  1. Deal with the militarily powerful empire you just made an enemy of.

  2. Get laid. (Mission-critical.)

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Very polished demo. Characters grabbed my interest from the beginning. The title itself was interesting to me, as this is a concept being taught in one of my classes. The Norse/Celt (or Saxon) dynamic was icing on the cake.

I think the one thing that kept popping up in the back of my mind is: “What happened to dad?” Mother kept speaking of grandparents but I am more curious about what happened to him.

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I love the writing style! I’ll be looking forward to seeing more of this demo c:

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I’ll bookmark this topic. Nice and polished demo, good writing and characters with interesting personalities already.
Questions:
Is there going to be any further (physical) character customization? Or is MC’s appearance left to the player’s imagination entirely? (I normally prefer it that way, so long as there are no specifics in textual descriptions that might accidentally contradict the player’s vision).
Also, are the stats (basics) “set in stone” for the rest of the game after the opening sequence?

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Hey all,

I’m the other writer on this little project here, just wanted to say thanks for all the great feedback so far. It has been really helpful as we start to push into our second chapter. I’m glad the idea/premise seems to have captured the attention of more than a few awesome readers.

We definitely have plans for this in mind, and info regarding the PC’s father should start trickling in soon, probably after the more pressing matters are dealt with.

[quote=Ekaterina]Questions:
Is there going to be any further (physical) character customization? Or is MC’s appearance left to the player’s imagination entirely? (I normally prefer it that way, so long as there are no specifics in textual descriptions that might accidentally contradict the player’s vision).
Also, are the stats (basics) “set in stone” for the rest of the game after the opening sequence?[/quote]

We’re not planning on putting any more physical character customization in the game, as we’d prefer to leave it up to the player’s imagination as well. As for the stats, there will probably be one or two opportunities to increase a stat of your choice by +1, but not enough to let the PC have no weaknesses. Nor will there be any kind of “respec” option, so the PC will not be able to drastically change what their base 4 stats are after the start.

Thanks again for the reads and replies, all. We’re looking forward to getting more of this into your hands!

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I was intrigued by the plot and am impressed by the quality of the writing, I really like what I’ve seen so far! But, when I was about to start chapter 2(?): Envoy, I got a 404 error

Its the end of the demo

Can we conquer the island and cement our Duke by marrying a noblewoman of some importance?

I have my fingers crossed for more of a mercantile or mercenary path (along the lines of the Varangian Guard). Still, the story has given itself a lot of potential paths to go down and I am looking forward to seeing our options.

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I’m honestly hoping to be able to be granted land on the border of the empire who’s job it is to hold back the other “barbarians”

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Hey all,

We’re definitely still thinking about paths and such, but it’s been interesting to hear all the ideas and hypotheses you’ve been coming up with. Can’t confirm or deny anything yet, but we’re making pretty steady progress on the second chapter, which will do a lot to establish how the PC’s relations with Castulia start off.

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@Jaybirdy i stumbled upon your wip in dash and was surprised how good it is, i love war themed wips, but still im pretty disapointed that i cant make threat to Panegyris, i choose to go strong on them and intimidating, but it seem like our mc have to suck to them anyway… whats the point in that choice if the outcome is the same?

i mean even if they are an empire (they are still having a war with those barbarians, they have “slaves” so why cant i still win them over ,a reply like this —>

“I wouldn’t be so sure of victory if I were you.” They do look rather certain through, and it’s frustrating to see that your words aren’t having the desired effect. “Clan Maghnus will not be beaten easily.”

Pan sighs. “Lady’s Flames, I’d hoped for more from this, I really did. You cannot threaten us, Ismael. I’m sure your people have fought many wars, but compared to those of the Empire they were small skirmishes.” They shake their head. “If you want us quaking in our boots, you’ll be disappointed.”

"Oh, really? because i know you people are already in a war with “those” barbarians and have many slaves in your empire, for each one of us that you kill, well free hundred of slaves, kill as many of those people you call nobles and if that is not enough we can always ally with “those called barbarians”.

hope you add some option in the future to change that, i hate playing a weak mc. :wink:

Hey, so. Thanks for the feedback. :slight_smile:

We’re still tweaking Ch 2 before the official announcement of the update, but you can actually succeed at that intimidation check. It’s just that it is a check, and therefore can also be failed. If your Intimidation score isn’t high enough, it doesn’t work, just like diplomacy will fail if your diplomacy score isn’t high enough.

The intimidation check is hard, but that’s because it would reasonably, we thought, be hard to scare a representative of an empire as large and powerful as Castulia. The successful result from that check does in fact follow a line of reasoning a bit similar to yours, which I won’t spoil here.

So the answer, I suppose, is that the MC in that situation isn’t weak, really, they’re just in an inferior negotiating position and not sufficiently scary to push their way out of it without a higher stat. The game as a whole is meant to be a serious uphill climb for the Cine, and at different times, different approaches will make that climb easier or harder.

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Hey all, updating the thread to let you know that Chapter 2 is now up and playable and ready for feedback! It includes your first diplomatic encounter with the Castulian Empire, which can end in a variety of flavors, and will have approval and friendship consequences for all characters.

Deciding what to put skill checks at has been one of the more difficult things to manage, especially for the ones we want to be tough. We usually have a rough idea of what the maximum possible skill is in a given category, but it’s hard to gauge what players will usually go for in a playthrough. So if you happen to fail a skill-check that you were fully expecting to succeed at, please let us know. Numbers are one of the easier things to tweak, and something we’ll be looking at going forward.

Next up will be an interlude where the player can interact with companions of their choice for some background and a chance to develop their relationships further before the plot surges on.

Thanks for playing, everyone!

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then it may be too high since i picked intimidation to be my main stat , how can i fail it?

Name: Ismael

Strength: 5

Dexterity: 4

Intelligence: 3

Charisma: 2

Demeanor

Aggression: 53% Peaceability: 47%

Humor: 62% Solemnity: 38%

Abilities

Diplomacy: 5%

Intimidation: 34%

Intuition: 1%

to have those 4%+ in intimidation i have to be an asshole to lizz and thats mean im forced to play a bad mc, i know 37% is the check you have in intimidation to success but i think you should atleast drop it to >= 34

Interesting plot line you have. I actually really enjoyed these few chapters, the characters really grew on me (especially Izzy.)

And not to be one of those people but I think I caught a spelling error on one if the choices when your character is discussing terms with Pan.

“If they planned for this to work, they’ve got another think coming.”

Great job so far though, I’m definitely gonna keep an eye out for this one :slight_smile:

1 Like