But I’m not evil, I’m complex! I’m in the position of wanting to do the right thing without being entirely sure what the right thing is, and also being a little bit cowardly because I’m rather fond of being not dead, but also being brave in a way that involves taking it for granted that truth and justice are the most important things in a way that sort of pricks people’s conscience. And the result is that everybody just sort of tolerates me. Except Richard. Richard really likes me, if you know what I mean.
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Can the MC be swayed over to Satia’s side? Or influenced by her. In the room at night if you decide to let the vessel out of the satchel the MC is in some trance saying that Satia just wants everyone to experience this peace and her will can’t be denied
Yes to the latter according to the code. There are a few choices including the one that you said that gets you a hidden flag called satias_whispers
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It’s not exactly the Imperial Valley, but I moved from northern England to Washington State in 2010 and the periodic week of summer where it’s 90-100 degrees is still quite an experience. I’ve been drawing on those days for most of the heat descriptions 
Is it too late to add a “choreography” talent stat and turn the climax into a dramatic dance-off? Alas, probably yes.
Petting animals was a fan favourite activity in Plague Doctor, but this is my second game so now those actions are HIGH STAKES!
Don’t worry, you may yet still be able to have a conversation with your horse.
Absolutely. By choice and by force.
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I’m sorely tempted to say “Oh, you sweet summer child,” but you’re really more like a sweet mid-spring child by Imperial Valley standards. (Kidding-ish. 90-100 is bad enough!)
Don’t forget Motley! Motley is a very good boy. (And if, during some future playthrough, I discover that Motley is actually some kind of hellbeast, that changes nothing. I have a dog in real life who is definitely some kind of hellbeast and he is also a very good boy.)
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hello my friend.
I absolutely adore your story and it’s been on my mind for a while, ever since playing a previous update, and I am as excited as ever to find my way back into this world.
my character stats
I found my way onto the Ipsden route, though admittedly I didn’t know that there were others. Though I haven’t made my way through the other route, I enjoyed my current one even with nothing to compare to, the confrontation of my Hexfinder with Herna felt fleshed out and real, the conflict isn’t something that can just be forgiven by the grace of saving just one person, though I have tried to keep everyone accused I’ve come across alive (successfully might i brag). In hindsight, my Hexfinder is fairly terrible at his job, for what the Hopequins knows of course.
A point I would like to point out though would be during my Hexfinder’s visit to Cold Ashby he refused to burn the hexcraft, though Dotty did anyway, but during the confrontation with Hopequins he claims that it was my Hexfinder that committed that act instead. Was this Dotty wishing not to take the fall or a coding crossover? Also after all this if you would entertain I would love to punch Hopequins in his smug face.
I can wait for what happens next of course, and I will he very excited for it.
Hi, may I ask why trying Grace raises the skeptic stat? It’s just that, I forgive Ursula, (having investigated both of them), and I know Grace or Celia did it. But my MC still believes in magic. I don’t want to let the actual criminal go free, and I don’t want to be tried for not doing my job. What should I do?
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That’s personally stats in a choice game for you don’t worry you can try to switch it back later
I just finished the WIP and wowee, that was amazing! And I thought the writing seemed familiar, I loved Mask of the plague doctor.
Not me trying to seduce Hoult… The soothsayer and her wife can say what they want, the only approval I need is from Hoult… pat pat the cat
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Hey-o!
You can now wishlist Hexfinder on Steam! (Even if you don’t intend to buy it there, it can really help.)
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I don’t think I will read a lot of this at the moment, seeing as I’m quite impatient and don’t like to be left hanging, so I prefer reading full games, but by Jove, I’m anticipated! It really seems like something that would strike my fancy… and Mask of the Plague Doctor is my all time favourite CoG. I truly look forward to this.
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Yes, please do this! Steam is a mysterious puzzle box, but it really helps a great deal to wishlist games and do other “engagement” things (urg, sorry), like leave reviews.
So if, for example, you, dear thread reader, played Mask of the Plague Doctor on Steam and enjoyed it, well…
Something else I can share today is the full cover art for Hexfinder. There’s a smaller version on the Steam page, but here’s the complete piece!
Chapter Nine will be added to the WiP pretty soon (along with a few corrections/fixes to the prior chapters).
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Just played the wip and immediately recommended it to all my if-reading friends😚 Really really really love this work!!!
(Me after hearing that there may be a hexcrafter in the court be like:
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How do we raise Arcane Affinity? The first time I tried this IF I only played half way through and got my affinity up to 35. But then I decided to stop where I was and restart; going for the Occult and Bad penny route instead(seemed more fitting for someone with arcane affinity). Yet my affinity is still stuck at 20%. Idk what I did different.
Being an Occultist will definitely help you boost the Arcane Affinity stat in some situations. Bad Penny will have one long-term path which could pay off in that area too (but it’s in a later chapter)…
In general (and the caveat here is that stat changes are not final at this time, so it may get easier later) if you want to up the Arcane stat then do what you can to embrace and get involved with any weird mystical stuff you come across. Side with people the Order would consider blasphemous practitioners of sorcery.
Find a creepy bowl that talks to you? Great! Keep it. Sleep with it under your pillow. Absorb all that lovely arcane resonance.
There might be a consequence or two, of course.
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Suggestion, would it be possible to add something to the stats screen like what professor of natural studies does? Basically, you get the staff percentage, and then a phrase, telling you how good your stat is in terms of passing checks during that specific segment of the game. For example, if you have a 40 and some thing, in the early sections, You’ll have the percentage and then something saying that your stat is good, but that goes down the further you proceed in the game if you don’t raise your stat.… I’m probably explaining it badly.
This is amazing, I didn’t think playing as a witch hunter would be this fun, but the many ways I can go about it and the quality of the writing is proving me wrong.
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I think I understand what you mean (after a quick peek at what PoNS does); basically an indicator by your talents (say, Occultist) that lets you know that ‘50’ equates to ‘Skilled’ (likely to pass relevant checks) in chapters 1-5, but by chapter 5+ ‘50’ may now equate to just ‘Mediocre’ (not so likely to pass checks).
I’m not sure I’d go about it like that, exactly. I’ve toyed with the idea of using word descriptors instead of numbers (so the indifferent-zealous scale would go something like Avatar of Apathy to Generally Unenthused to Moderate Temperament to Intense to Swivel-Eyed Zealot).
I have also read some good discussion elsewhere on the forum about the merits of signaling what type of check each test is, so at a choice it might specifically say:
[Scrutiny] Look around for clues of nefarious hexcraft.
[Accusation] Threaten the inhabitants.
[Occultist] Recall a relevant text on the matters of ritual.
Again, not sure about that yet. It’s something that I think might be cool to ‘unlock’ once a player has completed the game, perhaps? Do not consider this a promised feature! It’s just stuff I’m thinking about. Got to get the actual game written first…
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Excited for this
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Happy summer solstice eve, everyone!
Chapter Nine has been added to the WiP, so you can now play through the full second act of the game.
Do I base 70% of my significant updates around summer/winter solstice dates? Yes.
The usual save system is in place. I don’t know what will happen if you try to load a save from the previous build in this one. It might be okay (I haven’t done any drastic restructuring), but odd things out of my control may occur.
This brings Hexfinder’s WiP up to 515k words (average playthrough 90-100k).
Quite a few typos and grammatical issues have also been addressed. For example, I was previously using ‘Benandanti’ as both singular and plural. No longer! When referenced as such, Nico is now a singular Benandante (thanks to @AletheiaKnights for the prompt on that, and several other things!)
Chapter Ten is still in progress, currently at 36k. I’d say that’s about the midway point of the chapter. Lots still to do. I’ve spun rather a lot of threads that need to be tied up and I’m committed to making each potential conclusion a satisfying one in this third act (10-12). But I’m afraid that does mean you’ll need to settle in for a bit of a wait… 
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