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

I believe Pan and Sangarinus are the most common choices that we’ve seen (at least in terms of the most vocal feedback). Not sure how Izzy, Cormac, and Aisling rank up after that.

We may or may not be doing a survey at some point to collect some data from our players on questions like this, as we’re extremely curious about a lot of things ourselves.

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I’ve seen Sang as the main bae followed by Pan. Someone mentioned Cormac was up there too but I haven’t heard much on Izzy and nothing on Aisling.

Aisling is a grade A waifu. Fight me.

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I think the reason not a lot of people romance Aisling, is because not only is she younger than the MC, you’re- like- in charge of her. Which I think makes romancing her weird for a lot of people, me included. Being someone’s guardian/teacher instantly puts them in the ‘younger sibling I must protect’ category.

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If you romance Aisling, the fact that you hold power over her is discussed and handled with a lot of tact. But yeah, I feel that way too: Aisling is my precious child and I must protect her.

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Aisling is definitely the best romance. I don’t remember ever reading about her being much younger than the MC. Regardless, she’s too sweet, caring and downright enthralled by the MC to ignore. The dairy entry alone shows how much she’s in love. PS, Cormac is badass.

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I like to romance Izzy

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@rosemary_and_sage and @pimenita Fair points! I actually totally forgot the MC was older her but it’s all good.

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Is there a limit to our stats? My character had the option to study at the library greyed out.

We made the decision to cap player stats at 5, so everyone would’ve had one of the four options unavailable. We talked it over, and decided that it wouldn’t be worth it for the player to raise a stat to 6, as that would only be useful if we were to make a check requiring 6, which would of course only be passable by a small percentage of players, and likely would just be used for flavor things.

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Wanted to give everyone a status update here: the next update is coming along quite well, though we had to do some adjusting to new schedules in August to find time to make progress. We’re rolling again, and we’ll be lumping in an interlude section along with Izzy’s personal quest in the next update.

Thanks for your patience!

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Okay first off I would like to say thank you :kissing_heart: @Jaybirdy for allowing me to romance Cormac as a guy being Pansexual myself I absolutely love it when the author allows this kind of romance.
Secondly a massive thank you for creating such a thrilling story that really draws in the reader and is kept interesting enough that people keep coming back for more.
Lastly I just want to say how much I freaking loved the part where you get to kiss Cormac in the rain :heart_eyes: I freaking live for scenes like that :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye: (come to think about it more books need scenes like that :joy:) p.s. Keep up the freaking awesome work :stuck_out_tongue_closed_eyes: can not wait for more and have fun writing out the rest of the story :wink:
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Oh also forgot to mention that you are one awesome author :grin: fine I also will say thank you to @AugustArria for helping to create this masterpiece :stuck_out_tongue_closed_eyes: love youse both big time :kissing_heart:

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Well you’re welcome, though as the primary writer for all things Cormac, August is definitely the agent of most of this happiness, so maybe thank him first and me second!

Actually, I’m not sure we’ve mentioned this here, but August mostly writes Cormac, Izzy, Daghan, and Adriana, and I’m usually responsible for Aisling, Pan, Sangarinus, Roise, and Baltasar. In case anyone was curious. MC duties get split pretty evenly.

Super glad to hear you’re enjoying the experience. We made the decision pretty much right off the bat not to exclude ROs based on PC gender, and I think it’s proven to be the best option for everyone.

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I’m really lazy, but I made an account to write this 'cause you guys are that great.

This demo is so ridiculously huge and expertly written it made me feel guilty for being able to have so much fun without buying it. I don’t understand how it doesn’t have more attention, but I’m certain this’ll become one of CoG’s most successful story games if it gets completed. Everything is a pleasure to read, from compelling dialogue and distinct character voices to exciting combat/action scenes to vivid descriptions that are evocative without going overboard. All that said, specifics; (may be off base about some things because I completed the demo like a month ago)

(And so, yeah, there will be spoilers from here on)

Text wall incoming

Criticism:

  • I think we should’ve had one more addition to our gang after the magic ritual meeting, one of the boat people (drawing a blank but you get me, the ones who aren’t us). Apart from giving us another companion to enjoy, this would make the choice of allegiance more difficult/interesting, imo. Maybe this is planned already? At this point, all of your friends except Cormac favor the Empire iirc

  • I feel like we haven’t seen as much of Izzy as the other four so far, so I hope for more from her later (I know the next thing is her personal quest, excited for that!). Maybe consider adding a scene or two with her involved somehow to the already written chapters?

And that’s all I can think of. Praise:

  • Like I said above, the writing in general is top quality, like a published book.

  • I was happy to see so many options for fleshing out your character, and all the wonderful stat tracking going on. The plethora of combinations to choose from stat distribution to humorous/serious disposition to diplomatic/aggressive negotiating style can make for several distinctive and unique MCs for a fresh experience. (I’m looking forward to doing both a sarcastic hawkeish and a ruthless badass playthrough).

  • I was also pleasantly surprised by the different ways you can succeed in combat. I really enjoyed using the intelligence stat to outthink whoever it was I was fighting (didn’t expect tactics from a viking dude, did you, huge guy I killed in one awesome maneuver?) I saw an option I can’t wait to try, in the duel with huge guy’s sister, to throw her off with insults; I hope there’s more opportunities like that later. Intimidation too. That fight was epic. I just remembered a nitpick I had: I wish our friends had reacted to that fight!

  • The interludes, the quiet and reflective moments with the crew, are probably most of my favorite parts of the story. They’re all so well-characterized and interesting, it’s the most fun to be had in the game to get to know them better. I want you guys to have an interlude between every single chapter, including those written already. Okay? Okay! (If not okay, I can be placated by more scenes like the card/dice game bit, where everyone’s hanging out together).

  • The plot is engaging; reform your people’s ways or stick to tradition in an unfamiliar world. I can’t wait to see how it all turns out, and I’m also intrigued by our father and his background, hope we learn more about him. The part about his last memory being that of Roise was great. It feels almost like an obligation in a story, but I hope Roise doesn’t die! Maybe she can retire instead?

  • Every ‘companion’ has an intriguing and nuanced backstory that they don’t just regurgitate right away. As I learn more about them, their personalities become more and more fitting, and I enjoy them that much more. more more more

  • Also, I like that both factions have good and bad points, so neither side is really the ‘right’ one, and they each have merits and downsides. Along with going it alone, there are many interesting directions to explore in the future!

No, this isn’t quite long enough yet. On the main cast:

Isadora Cimber: Cool name! I like her, and I can’t wait to find out more about her and her criminal background. I liked the scene where she opens up a bit about her past and her history with the noble dude; it’s great to play a paragon Shepard type and be all “you don’t have to tell me your painful backstory if you don’t want” while totally expecting them to spill, and they don’t disappoint! I love shows of trust toward MC (if they deserve it!)

Speaking of, Panegyris: How’s that pronounced? PAN-eh-JER-is? Anyway, they had a similar great moment on boat people island, that was fun. I’m really fond of this character and their lighthearted bantering; there are fun dynamics to be had with the MC whether you’re humorous (mutual exchange of banter!) or stoic (teasing an overly serious MC). I wish I could recall specific moments I enjoyed, but it’s been a while and I haven’t had time to replay yet. I will say I grew to keenly look forward to conversations with Pan, who is written with exceptional wit and charm. I eagerly await another game of Castulian chess.

Cormac: The open-minded bro who’s got your back, whether he agrees with you or not. I love that you can present a series of arguments over time to change his opinion on the direction of the clan. The Bioware influences were so clear throughout this game, and it’s fantastic.

Sangarinus: This guy is pretty mysterious and intriguing so far. I do wonder about his background, his experiences in that secret agent training camp. The way he’s written in conversation made me give him Fenris’s voice from Dragon Age 2 in my head. The sparring scene with him and MC was a fun read, and the little detail of his nearsightedness is a pretty cool addition. The scene where he, in his own subdued way, stands up to his aunt in on my behalf was awesome.

Aisling: Best for last! I’m drawn to sweet and isolated characters like her, and I love the writing for her. She’s adorable. I look forward to improving her position in the clan, maybe helping them get over their fear of magic; we haven’t seen magic go wrong yet! I really felt for her at the beach dance party where people avoided her like the plague. Her practicing magic with Pan made me smile, it was great, and that wasn’t even the best part of that scene! She let me read her freaking diary! I pursued her romance as a serious MC, and the entry she wrote about MC was incredibly heartwarming. That scene is what sticks out in my memory the most, my number one favorite moment so far.

This has been too long already, so I’ll just say again I love everything about this, and I’m endlessly excited to buy the finished product. Thank you guys!

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Hide details. Just put the text in there.

This wip (and all wips) need more comments like yours. And yeah, the guys have a special love for DA :heart: Check their tumblr.

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Hey thanks! Edited. Only took me four tries.

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I love this soo much and I can’t wait for it to be finished.

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Hey guys, I haven’t posted here in a long time and the guilt has left me feeling pretty bothered about it. I throughly enjoyed the WIP back in April and I have to say I neglected checking on your progress often enough. With that being said I invested some time into reading it again and I’m enthralled once more.

I just wanted to know if you guys have any plans on creating a patreon or a way of supporting you pre-release?

Wanted to wait until I could have a chat with Kiku before writing up a response here regarding the Patreon thing. It’s a thought I’ve had before, but I don’t think I ever took it seriously before now. I never thought people would send us fanart of our work, and I’ve been proven way wrong since we put up our tumblr page. That said, it would help if we could test the waters here to figure out how receptive you guys would be to something like that before we consider trying it.

We don’t want to suddenly lock previewing the game behind a paywall or anything, so we wouldn’t do that. We’ll have to close things off at some point before we’re finished, of course, but that’s still a ways out. We discussed some potential ways of providing extra content to patrons, the first that came to mind being smaller side-stories involving the major characters of the stories, probably flashback stories from their POV, and I imagine we could let you guys vote on who you want each month.

That’s the most likely example of what we’d enjoy providing for patrons, but I’m sure there are other things we could do, and we’re open to ideas. Before we decide on anything like that, though, we do kind of need to determine if the extra time spent on that would be worth it, which is tricky to figure out.

So I guess what we’re looking for is some feedback from our regulars here if they’d be interested in pitching in something monthly like that in exchange for some extra content from us. We’re new to this, but it’s admittedly difficult to turn away the idea of some extra support while we work on the game.

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I would definitely shell out money monthly for extra content and to support such a great story. :slight_smile: I am already a patron of two other CoG authors with WIPs. What’s one more?

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It’s ultimately up to you. If you think deciding to add more content about the characters and lore of the game, whilst being paid, is a good idea, go for it. Alternatively, you can always use other methods, like say establish a wiki, although I know that may be a bit too much. End of the day, considering doing something of that nature will help build further interest for the game, which in my opinion is good.

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