Honor Bound: Creme de la Creme 4—Protect a boarding school as a military bodyguard! [OUT NOW]

[HarrisPS]

@feurio I’m so pleased you’re enjoying Fiore and Korzha! I really enjoyed writing them in this chapter. Fiore is very “I’m going to get a good grade in Party, something that is normal to want and possible to achieve” and Korzha is rather “serious face for serious business” and I just have a lot of fun writing both of them. I think they could get along well if circumstances were different. And it’s really fun that Catarina gets to join the ranks of Grunt, haha! (I love Grunt, he’s so much fun.) I think I’m going to change the wording to “if they want” for that Fiore interaction actually - I haven’t been doing it all the time for this game, but the moment is intense enough that I think it works better.

@AnneWest That’s fair! I hope to balance giving people options to befriend Catarina or not bother, while being in a close environment. I enjoy writing that group, it’s like they’re in their whole other story where everything is extremely high stakes and dramatic even when it isn’t always quite so urgent from the outside.

[HarrisPS]

Fortnightly update:

This is more of a “one day update” because I’ve only been back at work for two days and only one of those days was spent on Honor Bound, so! I have planned Chapter 8 - hooray! It was causing me a lot of difficulty but it’s now structured in a sensible way and is in shape to be coded. Those 622 words are code for the opening scene and I’ll be in a nice position to get properly into the code next week. I hope everyone’s having a safe and warm new year so far!

Honor Bound current wordcount: 282685
Honor Bound’s fortnight wordcount: 622
Honor Bound current average playthrough: 69536

[S_Missions]

Just had the time to really play it thoroughly so latest feedback :

“You’re growing closer to Ozera, now.”

The MC might actually be growing closer to Ozera, but I think in this case you mean “getting closer”

“Savarel goes to stand in the sunlight with her notebook while the peacocks peck at the ground and starts to read”

At first I was wondering when peacocks learned to read then I realized you meant

“Savarel goes to stand in the sunlight with her notebook and starts to read, while peacocks peck at the ground.”

Or maybe

“Savarel stands in the sunlight with her notebook and starts to read, while peacocks peck at the ground.”

“Can I help, Lieutenant?”

I feel like saying “no” lol.

Most people in this position would say “How can I help?” or maybe “How can I help you?”

“her eyes look almost black in the dusk light. But by the irritated expression on her face”

This probably should be

“her eyes look almost black in the dusk light, but by the irritated expression on her face”

“That’s reminded me that I wanted to talk to you”

seems that it would be better phrased like this

“That reminds me… I wanted to talk to you”

“Servants herd you into the opening hall” might be better as

“Servants usher you into the reception hall” - it’s unlikely that servants would herd elites like sheep

“You’d place in his fifties;” - there’s a “him” missing here

“Fiore shakes her head, pours your cup, and hands it over.”
should probably be

“Fiore shakes her head, pours you your cup, and hands it over.” Cups are kind of hard to pour

“Matia Matia’s brown eyes are bright in the afternoon light.”

[HarrisPS]

Thanks so much, I hope you enjoyed! Some of them are intentional (eg Korzha saying “can I help?” is them being abrupt) but most will be changed in the next update. Much appreciated!

[Patrick_Cody02]

If the game is finished, what is the maximum military rank the MC would achieve?

[HarrisPS]

The ending military rank will depend on where you started, and I haven’t completely pinned down what actions will lead to what exact promotions.

What I do know is that there will be various opportunities to become Honored based on what the PC does during the game - ie, getting a title, being officially recognised by the President, having a ton of doors opened for them, and basically being set for life (people with titles are awarded yearly stipends that allow them to live a very comfortable lifestyle even without a job). Depending on what paths are taken, achieving that doesn’t necessarily always have to involve having a high Military Reputation score, but that score will help a lot.

[furyleika]

Hi Hannah!

I’m finally getting a chance to play the newest update, and I think I found either a typo or a bug?

bug details

When I’m in the truck with Matia, heading out to find Saveral, there’s an option “I ask what need there is for a school nurse at Ozera. [+Medicine]” but it actually raises my sneaking stat. Variables changed: hb_sneak: +5.

It seems like something’s not working as intended there.

[HarrisPS]

Thank you so much, that’ll be fixed in the next update!

[HarrisPS]

I’m very pleased because this week I coded Chapter 8 and started writing! It’s going to be a big one - possibly bigger than Chapter 5, which is the largest chapter so far - and I’m excited to fully get into the writing of it for the second half of January. My goal is to draft it by the end of the month - fingers crossed!

[S_Missions]

yes!

[Rxpct]

Work has kept me incredibly busy but seeing another creme de la creme book is currently being written is great news

[HarrisPS]

Fortnightly progress report:

I’ve been working steadily on Chapter 8, and have been writing it since last Friday. I’m about 40% of the way through it now and it’s going well - I’ve ended up writing a lot of words in a day sometimes this week which is great.

While juggling some, er, not very pleasant real-world dramas (leaking pipes! rats! curtain rails falling down! …among other things), I’m very happy with the progress I’ve made and have certainly realised just how useful it is for me to get out in the fresh air first thing in the morning - it’s really helped my SAD.

Current wordcount: 304471 (past 300K! Bigger than Blood Money!!)
Fortnight wordcount: 21786
Current average playthrough: 74904 (getting into real novel-length territory now!)

[AnneWest]

I’m so glad I’m not the only one! (there’s a puddle under my radiator)

Ugh…

[LiliArch]

Stay safe!

[HarrisPS]

@AnneWest oof, I hope that gets fixed soon!

@LiliArch thank you! Luckily most of it is sorted out now, bar the pipe which will hopefully be fixed tomorrow…

[AnneWest]

The building just sold, so hopefully it’s on the list of the new landlord.

[HarrisPS]

Fortnightly progress update

The biggest thing this fortnight has been that the Royal Affairs epilogue coming out (which you’ll all know about as I’ve been going on about it all week!) I’m so thrilled that people have been enjoying it. It was a lot of fun returning to the characters and figuring out how they might have changed a bit in the year between the previous ending and the epilogue, and I’m just pleased to bits.

I’ve been working on Chapter 8 of Honor Bound this fortnight, and am so very close to the end of the draft. A couple of blips related to some frustrating real-life issues meant that I didn’t quite finish it in January, which I’d hoped to, but I hope to get it done and play it through next week. There are quite a few bits which are complicated and I want to make sure they flow properly before I send the chapters off to my editor.

At some point this month I hope to add more references in the demo to events of the Royal Affairs epilogue, as some of it will be publicly known by ordinary people and the media in the setting. We’ll see - fingers crossed!

Honor Bound current wordcount: 320948
Honor Bound fortnight wordcount: 16477
Honor Bound current average playthrough: errr, something longer than 75000 words. Chapter 8 is not passing RandomTest at the moment so I don’t know for sure!

[izzily]

I’m always that one gif pointing at the screen whenever a previous entry in the saga gets a mention, especially if it involves a former PC

[HarrisPS]

Hehe, amazing! The Royal Affairs PC is so famous that they’re generally more likely to be talked about, but some Creme PCs get a bit of time in the sun so far too - hopefully they’ll all be exciting!

[HarrisPS]

I’m going through a realisation today. I’d somehow managed to leave this element out until now, but having drafted a bit where sheep need to be rounded up, I’ve realised that Ozera needs some sheepdogs. So I’m going to add some in. I think it’s going to be something like an Anatolian shepherd and a collie. Or an Old English Sheepdog if I want to describe a very hairy dog. I need to get on and do that tomorrow!