Oh you DM too? I did a lot of my mapmaking off of how I do it for D&D. Lots of squares and circles. I’m just not…artistic enough for otherwise. I have this beautiful idea in my head, but my physical capabilities do not match what is in my brain LOL sobs deeply
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Well if it makes you feel better Authors are artists. Weaving words into the hearts of many in a articulate manner takes a artistic mind. Drawing and writing are just two ways of expressing your vision. To have both excellent skill in writing and drawing/painting is just unfair 
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Hahaha! My ten year old sister is a FANTASTIC artist, and now she’s inspired by my writing and wants me to edit her writing for her…
And, as immature as it is, I always quietly think “not fair that she’s good at everything sobs”
but that’s true. Writing does require a certain amount of creativity. I’m immensely jealous of people who manage to find the balance between description and action. A lot of authors lean more towards one or the other. Reading twelve pages of descriptions cough tolkien cough is dreadfully boring. And only reading action makes you wonder what the scenery and people look like.
It’s aslkjfa;lskjdfa;sfj.
ANYWAY – despite it being my day off, I just opened up the files. I’ll try to have an update later today or tomorrow. Depends on whether I work on the scenes already within the game or the ones further ahead…hmmm.
The romances are not gender-restricted, as of yet–however, just like in Dragon Age Origins, certain things will be locked. EG: if you want to marry Evelyn, you’ll have to be male, however, it is possible to romance her. Just like how you couldn’t marry Alistair unless you were royal and human…I haven’t decided if I’m okay with poly or not, in this situation. It’s more about the personalities of the characters than my personal views of poly relationships.
There aren’t really defined sexualities, as most things are accepted, except in royal families, wherein an heir needs to be produced, so heteronormative relationships are expected.
The romantic options ARE gender-locked though–as in, they don’t switch genders.
They are:
Princess Evelyn Redmayne, female, human, 17
Prince Eliot Giscard, male, human, 24
Briala Vesli, female, human, 21
Derrick Vesli, male, human, 21
Leona Temrien, mtf, human, 27
Rylee Lavaborn, gender-neutral, dwarf, ??
Saaren Ambris, male, Elf, 173
and maaaybe, if I decide to add her in,
Ellarian of Felwood, female, Elf, 200
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David Weber Out does tolkien in the descriptions by miles. Wish little sis Good luck in her writing for me, its nice to hear about people who want to write or draw even if there is a little jealousy. This kinda story is in my top 3 favorite story types
*Anything with dragons that actually tells a good story
*The Mutant/x-factor stories (prefer when villains get upper-hand and writers dont use the cheap way of writing themselves out of corners)
*High Tech science fiction (provided they can at least sort of explain how things are possible and don’t use the unobtainium or exotic matter excuse to often)
Sigh…
Then there’s me, who’s pretty average at writing, and can only do technical drawing XD
Question, though, the part after the earthquake-like event, where we choose for who/what to worry about, some of the characters included haven’t been introduced yet. Is it intentional? 'cuz I find it a little weird to choose one person to “worry about”, when I (the player) don’t even know who it is.
I thought I removed all the options of people that haven’t been mentioned yet (aside from Evelyn, which is very much intentional).
Oh, I guess I did include Tennyson. I’ll add in a snippet about him. He’s not particularly important–just your coworker, which is why I lumped him with Briala…goes back to looking
the dragons haven’t been introduced yet, so I suppose I can take them out, but to me, that makes sense since your job literally involves taking care of them and making sure they’re safe…
and you had the option to speak with Derrick in the scene prior.
If you’ve suggestions, I’m happy to take them ^^
AND by the by, everyone thinks they’re average at writing. It’s good not to get a big head. But, just judging by your grammar–you can’t be that bad! Have faith in yourself 
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Is it just me, or is the layout of the game page… different than before? Like, it looks different from the standard dashingdon one. And the Consolas font (notepad’s default font) is a little odd to look at.
Gonna look through it again.
@ashestoashes018 Thanks XD Yeah, grammar is what I’m best at with regards to English. It’s more of the other aspects. But I can work on it. At least it’s not examinable now XD
Edit: Who’s Pellic? only ever mentioned right after Briala is first introduced.
And why would anyone ever call themselves a “Barbarian”, considering it’s (from what I know), a term people used for groups considered less “civilised” than them. Maybe give them a name, or something?
That’s actually explained in his character profile and will be further explained in the world history.
His grandfather, Leofric I, was the leader of over 50 barbarian clans. Their strength allowed them to overthrow the Pellarin tyranny and create a sovereign province
Pellic needs to be taken out – he was initially going to play a larger role, but that role is going to go to the Citadel game I’m planning on the side (part of over 20k taken out of the game). He’s King Leofric’s personal dragon Thanks for pointing that out to me–I’ll remove it.
And the game layout shouldn’t be any different unless you played a few weeks ago. I haven’t edited the dashingdon files since yesterday, and even that was only mild coding.
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Small update to the currently posted link. Would have been more, but some stuff came up. Sorry 'bout that.
Added about 500 to 1k of coding plus somewhere between 300 and 800 words. I haven’t really counted.
there are lots of placeholders. you can get an idea of what happens, though ^^;
thanks, guys.
I like how it looks like
Also here:
Elanor? Where’s Evelyn? I thought the two of your were getting prepared to go riding in Evie’s quarters?"
Your too you
Just played this WIP for the first time. It is still young and short but I do like it so far!
My favorite part is the unfinished chapter! It is pure gold!
[spoiler]“Well, as you know, My Liege, I’ve been working on super secret experiments that will be explained after i add in the else statement and make sure it’s working.”
the king lets you into her chambers. placeholder.
placeholder [/spoiler]
Just a quick note though : it is sort of weird that the MC mentions some people that aren’t introduced yet. Also, I wish we knew more about Evelyn. Considering she is supposed to be our best friend, I would welcome some more context!
Anyway, keep up the good work!
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Evelyn not being introduced is still very much intended. Particularly since I want the ability for you to be able to just find her clingy and annoying. I plan on expanding on it, so thank you (all!) for your input on that 
Since it’s been mentioned so much, have a bit of a spoiler (read at your own risk 
)
[spoiler]Evelyn is gone for a good portion of the game. Based on my original manuscript (this was a novel before I decided to adapt it. The novel just had too much going on. I decided to change it up and make the Dannick character the You character, hence the set surname), she isn’t even supposed to be found by Dannick at all. She has some stuff going on that needs to be worked out.
So a lot of the interactions with Evelyn will be through flashbacks, which start a few scenes after the current stop-off scene. That isn’t to say she won’t be in the game…But, well, I think I’ve spoilt enough 
[/spoiler]
I actually have a Tennyson scene added in, and I will be extending the prologue bits a tad more (the scenes with Briala and Derrick). Most of what I have is more of a placeholder for coding, as well as snippets so I remember what I planned to put there. I jump around a lot in my writing, so the fact that I have anything remotely playable at this stage of my, I guess…creative process…is amazing, lol. I’m so proud of myself ;u;
ALSO I’m so glad you like it at all. You’re one of my cool frans on the CotG thread ;u;
so excite
also lol, I’m glad you enjoyed my placeholder 
There’s a lot of that in the scenes I haven’t added on dashingdon. Like I said, I jump around. A lot. That’s why I avoid writing normal novels and am officially just writing CYOA and CSgames. l o l
sobs
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Since you describe the story as a quest to find the lost/disappearing princess, I did guess that she wouldn’t be an active part of the story!
Yes, please! Do extend the prologue! There can never be enough of the story, and the characters! I loved the codex bit about the MC’s brother! Will the prologue include info on your family? Furthermore, how long do you think the WIP will be? Quite long since you intended it to be a book I imagine?
Also quick question about the ROs. If it isn’t to spoilery, if you had to describe each one of them with one word, what would it be?
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spoiler lol yes. The first real scene involving your family comes up in either a flashback OR you visiting them to check on them, which I think is coded into the public playtest already? I have it on my flash drive, but idk if I have it posted publicly… Your family plays a pretty large part. Not as large as any companions you can pick up…but…still important. Particularly Tarvin (hence the relationship bar l o l)
Considering the novelization was over 400k and wasn’t finished, I’ll probably have this iteration be about 250k, the next one probably twice that, and idk for the third one (all of the word counts for the games include code). This amount will likely go higher, by exponential amounts. I don’t think any singular game will be as large as Tin Star (1.8m, iirc), but I might get to the 600k+ mark.
Then there’s the Citadel game, which I think will be stand-alone, a sort of mix between Life of a Wizard and the Waywalker series. That’ll probably be upwards of 1m words by itself. I don’t currently see it turning into a series, though. I’ll actually probably start coding it soon, since I have a good bit of background written (i really, really jump around)
Evelyn would be underestimated.
Eliot is very confident.
Briala is stubborn.
Derrick is chivalrous.
Leona is misunderstood.
Rylee is lost. Or maybe confused would be a better term? (Rylee is a very unique character. Moreso than any other, I think)
Saaren is awkward.
Ellarian is wild.
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Another set of questions for you:
-
I noticed that some companions are from other races than human. How many other races are there? Also are the different races the same as depicted in most high fantasy setting? ex: elfs are immortal and magical flowers, dwarfs are very long-lived and treasure hoarder and extremely innovative, etc
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What level of intelligence do the dragons possess in your story? Do they bond with their ridders? How long do they live?
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Being an avid Tolkien fan and an eager D&D gamer, I am very obviously influenced by traditional high fantasy.
The well-known races of Ellarya (the continent) are, in order of population count:
Sewer Rats (imsorryicouldntresist)
Humans - found in every province
Dwarves - most commonly found in Lochwell, within the northern province of Zarin (you may notice changing names for some provinces. I’ll get a final one eventually). Their life-spans are slightly longer than humans’, but not enough to be noteworthy. OH WOW I FORGOT TO ADD: taking an idea from Tolkien, I have made dwarves naturally gender-neutral. They are technically hermaphroditic, and can choose to be addressed by any pronouns, but most tend to just identify as gender-neutral and are fine with “they/them/their” pronouns.
Orcs - found in every province, though they aren’t quite as common as humans or even half-orcs.
Ogres - usually only found within the mountain ranges, but they have been known to travel.
Goblins - usually deep within the mines in the Ilyaaren mountains, though they are known to come out.
Elves - after some…events…Elves are in much smaller numbers than they used to be. Rather than be immortal, they age at 1/10 the speed of a human. So a 100 year old elf is the equivalent of a ten year old human; one caveat being that the first year of their life goes quite rapidly, so they stay at the “five year old equivalent” age from 2 until 50. (edit: I am very tired. I mistyped my notes)
Dragons - dragons aren’t superbly rare, but they are still rare enough to be a magnificent, frightening, and exciting sight.
Wyverns - dragons’ younger cousins have been hunted to very near extinction. Because dragons are considered too sentient to hunt for scales/teeth/blood, wyverns have been the substitute.
Trolls - a near-forgotten race of extremely intelligent, ridiculously tall, and horrendously ugly people. They hide deep within the Felwood.
That is a very, very good question. The short answer is above-human, yes, and hundreds of thousands of years.
The long answer would be…
[spoiler] Dragons are more intelligent than humans, but only because many of them possess very slightly prophetic abilities. White dragons more than any other breed, as white dragons are known for their magical ability. A dragonling will be over 500 years old. A full-grown dragon over 2,000. Dragons are the closest thing to immortals Ellarya has, aside from, perhaps, the Goddess and the Elven Pantheon.
As for their relationship with riders…Dragon riders are in fact very rare. Dragons look down on other species, because they are so short-lived and short-sighted. You have to earn a dragon’s respect to even get them to talk to you or allow you to clean their stables.
As of this game’s timeline, there are only three dragon riders, all of whom are very close confidantes to the king.
and that’s all I can tell you without spoiling anything majorly toooooooo much ;)[/spoiler]
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Also, none of the races are outright aggressive with each other.
Aside from, perhaps, ogres, who tend to use their large size to terrorize people of any race.
They just aren’t very intelligent and enjoy fighting.
I suppose you could call ogres chaotic neutral?
EDIT:
I’m currently working on a HUGE update. I wanna have it out by the end of the night (aka 6am on June 8th, EST), but no guarantees.
There’s gonna be a ton of content added, though not in scenes–it’s all going to be in the character profiles in the stats screen.
Have a preview.
i wanted everyone to know, bc i don’t wanna get a rep as a lazy POS
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Bump because major coding update.
Now I’m going to go pass out.
I’ll try to do some content updates with the current dashingdon link when I get up.
I really have taken note of all suggestions, and I’ll try to include them
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Updated! Added around 1,000 words, I want to say?
I wanted to put more in, but after the day I’ve had, I just can’t, lol. Lots of stress with my mom’s illness.
ANYWAY, I finally expanded the interactions with both Derrick and Briala, as well as expanding a few other pieces.
Some fun interactions based around your physical characteristics, blah blah blah
Thanks for your continued support, everyone
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