Journey of the Vanguard (WIP) - Updated 6/27/16

I don’t know if anyone expected it so soon (and I certainly don’t want to set a precedent for this speed, but here it is! The new update. Everything coming your way has been included in the patch notes, located in the first post, as always, so now let’s get chatting.

This chapter is a pretty big landmark, since this is where the main storyline kicks in, and where most of the NPCs get introduced. Thanks to this, I can now talk about a lot of topics that previously would have lacked context, like:

  • NPCs, their stat distributions, and their prominence in each path
  • Romance options (tied closely to NPC topics)
  • How Valiant Academy works
  • Differences in paths going forward
  • The plot

And I expect to be doing a lot of talking about that stuff with everyone in this thread, because…

It could be a while before the next major update

There’s a few reasons for this. My initial plan for developing this game was to get one solid playthrough built from start to finish (This’ll be when we hit version 1), then go back and add the rest of the branches until all paths were built and the game was done. This means that at least through to version 1, things might seem a bit on the rails, since while there will be plenty of variance within each chapter, there will only be one major path available.

I’ve since decided to let the audience chime in, so that maybe we don’t get one group of people desperately wait for their branch to be built while people who are on initial build get to reach the end of the game.

In short? I’m putting up another poll so people can vote for what the next chapter released in an update should be. While the poll is running, I’ll still be working on the game, crafting sidequests and ideas, fleshing out backstories, hunting down bugs and typos, adding things that I left unfinished/unrefined in already released chapters (looking at you, drone sidequest), and of course listening to and responding to your feedback. Once I’ve decided the poll has enough votes to be decisive, I’ll move forward with writing that chapter, release it, rinse and repeat.

Prior to the release of each poll, I’ll do my best to explain as generally and spoiler-free as possible what players are really voting for, as I doubt “Survivor-City chapter” has any real meaning to most people. Hopefully, this arrangement will be acceptable to everyone, and make for a good game.


That said, let’s talk about the first update vote you’ll all be participating in! From where we’re at, the current options for an update chapter are: Survivor-Wild, Survivor-City, Student-Vanguard, and Student-Streets. Allow me to elaborate:

Survivor-Wild
Do you remember how after the crash, you were given a choice of where you crashed, but could really only choose one option? That wasn’t because of choices you made, that was because the other two options hadn’t been written yet.

This chapter will be pretty similar to the Survivor-Mountain chapter, in that the player will spend most of it alone, fending for themselves. The difference is that on the mountain, you were clear of monster territory for the most part, and as such only had to deal with the one that got too greedy.

If you crash in the middle of the Wilds, you will be dealing with a much more dangerous environment, and you will be driven from the crash site almost immediately. Expect fights (some of them brutal), haphazard attempts to keep yourself alive, and never feeling safe in a particularly long trek through the wilds while being hounded by monsters and the elements at every turn.

Bear in mind that this chapter update will also come with an option in the Survivor-Mountain chapter to give up on repairing the comms, and risk climbing down the mountian to end up in the Wilds chapter.

Survivor-City
This one will probably feel like the most different of the three survivor chapters, as the player will not actually be the only human around in this one. In this option, you crash just outside a Frontier town that has lost all communications and has no working long range transportation, effectively stranding the people there.

It’s also rampant with bandits and thugs, and most of the people live in fear for their lives that if the bandits don’t kill them, a monster attack will. It’s a harsh city environment that the player can carve an existence out of, and even try to become a local hero.

Bear in mind, the NPCs who live through this chapter are the ones you saw on the shuttle Ford picked you up in, so none of them are Vanguard or even individuals of similar power level. Depending on how attached we all get to them, there may be options to catch back up with them later in the game, but they will not be players in the main storyline. Potentially, key parts of the player’s personal lives, but no part in the main story.

Student-Vanguard
This one might actually be straightforwardly named enough that you can figure out a good chunk of what it’ll be about. Yes, this is the path where you choose to stay in Valiant at the Academy and become a member of the Vanguard. As such, the characters you are guaranteed the most time with are Anthony, Clark, Diana, your chosen mentor, and another female student.

Early on in this path will focus primarily on training at the Academy, and your choice of mentor (as well as other choices) will affect how quickly you join the hunt for the Phoenix artifact.

Later in this path, there will be ways to convince Marty and another female character to enroll in the school, and even though they never will, you will still on occasion run into Perry and Tayana. See the cast list in the first post to determine what that does to your romantic options.

Student-Streets
This is the other side of the coin to staying with the Vanguard. In this path, you join Tayana and her motley crew, and live and train with them in Westerra. In addition to not going through the mentor system of Valiant Academy, and thus get most of your training from your friends and the streets, you will become involved in the hunt for the Phoenix artifact much more quickly.

You take on a more active role from the get go in this path, but you are still inexperienced, and without the Vanguard watching your backs, you may find yourself in over your head. In addition, due to the somewhat harsh nature of how Tayana and hr crew live, there will less opportunities to simply enjoy yourself, and be young and carefree. You grow up a lot quicker and a lot rougher in this path than you do if you stay at the Academy.

The four NPCs you are guaranteed plenty of interaction with in this path are Tayana, Perry, Marty, and another female character. Later in the chapter, there will be options to convince Anthony and another female student from the Academy to drop out and join up with you, but you will still run into Clark and Diana every now and again. See the cast list to determine what this does to your romance options.

That about does it for explanations of the chapters
If you have any questions, feel free to ask them before you make your decision. Here’s the poll:

  • Student-Vanguard
  • Student-Streets
  • Survivor-Wild
  • Survivor-City

0 voters

As a last note before I go, is everyone okay with the public vote? I hope so.

7 Likes