I don’t understand why in the world a player would “have to” replay the whole game just because they failed one task. I mean, I simply don’t understand that.
Frogs
62
Some people are completionists and want to earn every achievement lol
Not to completely derail the topic away from RNG, but re: character creation
Speaking as someone with no coding experience, just sort of my suggestion as a way to go about customizing your species–you could layer the questions so it’s like, “question 1: is your species basically a human or are they more alien,” and then branch to “question 2a: if you’re basically a human what’s different about you” and have the insert skin color, or pick horns option or spots option or what have you. Then “question 2b: what makes you look different than humans” and have mandibles, extra eyes, wings, tail, whatever? And this is assuming you want the player to be able to customize their own race, rather than choosing from a group of pre-set species
3 Likes
Yes that makes the most sense to branch it like that. I like that setup.
And yes players can customize their race, call it whatever they want, etc. I don’t plan to make the MC’s race/background an issue in the story, since there are billions of planets and it’s all random that the six of them end up together. I might let the player pick an “odd cultural custom” for fun and rp purposes, but I probably wouldn’t take it further than that.
2xs
65
Here is my thing about RNG, if it impacts your ability to complete the game with a good ending or if it can block from an achievement then I don’t think it belongs in a CYOA story. Any time the fun can be ruined because of random chance is extremely negative. If the random chance isn’t affecting the outcome of the story or preventing access to an achievement then fine no big deal. However if it can prevent you from having fun through no fault of your own, many people will get frustrated, angry and quit and never come back. I loved the story of Great Tournament, but because the Random Number Generator kept messing up my plans for getting to the final tournament I quit playing and didn’t buy the second book.
Now this is your project, and you can choose to make it more of a game than a story, but understand that most people on this site are here for the story. If we want real gameplay there are far better outlets available.
Frogs
66
Actually the RNG wasn’t that bad in The Great Tournament, mostly because combat was pretty long with hitting and getting hit and not a one choice thing, and with high enough stats it was actually possible to get 100% success at some things I think. Still I remember I had to restart like 10 times to beat Varys in the darts and get the agility boost so it’s kinda annoying.
Great, I was just being a little bit insecure there because I tend to dislike all of the all-female “space babe” races who pretty blatantly exist only to cater to the male gaze, even worse if they are the only sexy alien race in a setting.
Also great! And to the reader who actually mentioned Spock it might be funny if that party actually needs to visit our backwater (we do get flung to the edge of the galaxy to what are, presumably, sparsely inhabited and very much uncivilized backwaters on the edge of the galaxy in the beginning of the game), lost human world of Earth and go “undercover” on something like a comic-con where the sexy alien, mc just so happens to look like a character from a wildly popular sci-fi show. 
Well there are subtle differences. For example let’s say our aliens have blue or green blood, then if they have a hard night out on the town partying where our eyes become redder theirs would turn more blue or green, also if the tongue works largely the same a healthy alien one would be blueish or greenish in colour, instead of our pink . Not Earth-shattering differences but they’d be there and when utilized well would help make the mc feel more alive and more alien at the same time. 
TSSL
68
Another point about randomized stat checks—set stat checks can easily look like that for first time readers anyway. Unless you’re checking the code as you play, you’re not going to know what the thresholds are, so you can just say that in certain cases the MC “rolls high” or “rolls low” and have some checks that are automatically easier to pass and some that are automatically harder to pass, which will keep the playthroughs consistent, but still make it so someone might still dare to use their low stat for a higher reward—because hey, maybe this check will let it work—and someone might still fail with a high stat—because maybe this check is extra hard. You can simulate randomness by making your thresholds more variable.
One other reason I, as a reader, really don’t like random checks is because I like to have the feeling that once I’ve done a playthrough I particularly liked, I can still reach that playthrough… that if I go through the same way again, it’ll still be there. If the story ends up contingent more on the random number generator than on my choices, that is no longer the case.
On a different topic, I do have to raise the question: if the aliens are so close to humans, why are they alien? 
I always have trouble suspending my disbelief for the idea that something so incredibly convergent on humanity developed entirely separately. Unless it’s more of a fantasy (or superpowers) in space, in which case I’m operating under a different set of expectations anyway.
Why not have them actually be human variants, whether from a long future history of separation, or through ancient spacefaring/transplantation, where they’ve diverged, naturally or by genetic engineering. If the aliens all seem to be modified humans, why not write them as modified humans?
3 Likes
I mean alien is pretty subjective. You can either choose it to mean “unlike me/us” or “completely different from me/us”. It’s like an American in Europe. They are an alien in Europe. You could also say and alien is a 38 legged, androgynous, sea creature that lives in liquid nitrogen on planet BS-F 38. 
I guess it’s up to @Eric_Moser to decide how “alien” is applied.
@idonotlikeusernames Yaaaas give me the stuck up alien race in some primitive planet. I want to see him shooketh to the core.
shook nasty
1 Like
Could you add a customization option for a synthetic species (like the geth, or reapers from mass effect). Or even something like the borg?
Could you make a synthetic race(e.g. geth)as a customization option? I find that aspect of speculative fiction neglected in space operas for some reason.
It’s like somehow robots, automation, drones, cyborgs, and AI just stopped being a thing at some point in future history, I find that difficult to believe.
Frogs
72
What year is the game set in
Hey all, I’ve read all the comments, which I appreciate, but I really do need to concentrate on getting some writing done or else this will stay a hypothetical game.
I’m closing the thread for now; will likely start a new thread if/when I get something up and running soon.
12 Likes
I’ve been working on this for the past few days. Before I go too far down the rabbit (worm?) hole, I wanted to ask for feedback on my desired Episodic approach because it will affect how I write the story, how I plot, etc.
For now, I intend to write the pilot, 3 additional episodes, bundle them, and submit to HG.
Then the idea would be that I could treat it as a side project moving forward, writing maybe 2-4 episodes (40,000 to 50,000 words total) at a time, and submitting them in batches like that.
This means that there wouldn’t necessarily be an explicit “story arc” for the first four episodes.
The Pilot would introduce everyone and set the stage, but after that the Episodes would be mostly “Stand Alones” in that each Episode would have its own plot focus that would be wrapped up by the end of the Episode. So I’d be taking the “TV approach” instead of the normal “novel/movie approach.”
Assuming you find the story sufficiently fun and enjoyable, would you potentially support such an Episodic Approach?
- Yes, I would potentially support an Episodic Approach, but I would prefer to “Pay as I Go,” paying for each additional Installment as it is released.
- Yes, I would potentially support an Episodic Approach, but I would prefer to pay just once, upfront, with the expectation that future installments would be free to me.
- Yes, I would potentially support an Episodic Approach, but only if I was assured that additional Episodes would be released within a reasonable time. Therefore, I would tell Eric to write at least 6 Episodes to start, thus guaranteeing at least one 2-Episode future Installment would be ready to go.
- No, I would expect a distinct story arc with resolution of said arc by the end of Episode 4.
- I might potentially support an Episodic Approach, but I would warn Eric that customers will likely expect that their initial purchase price to include all future installments, so he would have to charge a lot up front and then be SURE to follow up with more Episodes to keep most people happy.
2 Likes
2xs
77
I think the only fair way to do it would be the first option, simply because you, yourself have said this is more of a side project, and I doubt you really want to be tied down to some kind of schedule. As long as the episodes were priced appropriately, I would buy each individually, but I would not be willing to fork out a larger sum when there is no guarantee. I don’t do it with Telltale games even with their track record of delivering, I just wait til all the episodes are out and buy it then. @Eric_Moser
2 Likes
Wally
78
Would it be possible to do both the first and second option? Allowing those who are interested to buy everything upfront and just increasing the price as more content gets released, while still having an option for those who only want to purchase a few episodes at a time?
While this probably only worked because it was Zombie Exodus, the pay for each episode separately is how the first ZE game did it and that worked out well in terms of being able to stay engaged and get a good value for what I put in. Though I wouldn’t mind paying a larger up front cost to support the project if it meant the future updates were free of charge.
Yes, Jim had/has a track record of delivering, so I think that probably helped a lot.
I think the biggest roadblock (for me) to the “Pay upfront for everything” approach is that I would be writing all future content for free, UNLESS I was able to snag brand new readers into the series.
And I’d also have to charge enough upfront to make it worth my time upfront. You can’t charge $2 and say, “Hey I’ll be writing more stuff for months and years on end, and it will be all be free!” But on the reader’s end, I can see being skeptical about paying $5 or $6 for something that’s not lengthy now, but promises to be lengthier in the future. That trust level is difficult to build and would be destroyed if the author didn’t follow through (and as we all, life happens. I could be hit by a garbage truck today).
8 Likes
