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

Hosted Games Works In Progress
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Hello everyone! Back with another request for input. As will eventually be explained in-game, every person’s aura has a distinct feeling to it, which is inherently tied to their personality/tendencies/etc. This includes the MC. The exact feel to the MC’s aura will be different for different playthroughs. The consequences for this will probably be mostly cosmetic, but I’m thinking to tying them to romance paths as well (since having a certain feel to your aura could be either attractive or off-putting to potential partners), but I’m having a bit of indecision on what to base it on.

Current ideas floating around are:
Highest Utility Skill
Using the highest utility skill to determine the feel of a player’s aura seems like a good option because utility skills are a bit more diverse in terms of the interests they entail while Battle Skills are all inherently tied to fighting. I’d only have to worry about four possible aura vibes from a programming standpoint. But the player’s highest utility skill could potentially change, which means I’d have to create another “has a highest stat changed?” subroutine.

Player Class
Basing aura vibe off of player class offers the greatest amount of variety. 16 different options in fact which is a coding nightmare, I can tell already. This may be more trouble than its worth though, and a player’s class is even more prone to change than their highest utility skill. So there’s that.

A New Stat
I’ve been toying around with the idea of introducing either a Lawful/Chaotic or a Selfish/Selfless stat to determine how people without their own relationship stat react to the MC (sort of like a reputation, but except as an opposed stat). Since this stat would be broadly measuring MC behavior, it could be used as a way to determine aura vibe. It would probably take the most work to implement though. (And yet I’m probably going to end up adding this regardless of whether or not I tie it to aura vibe, so… I don’t know.)

Direct Choice
Alternatively, I could just let players directly choose the feel of their aura. This would also make the vibe of the MC’s aura relatively static, and give me much more control over when and if it ever changes. My main concern with this route is that it could break immersion, but then that’s probably just me being paranoid.

Thoughts?

  • Highest Utility Skill
  • Player Class
  • New Stat
  • Direct Choice

0 voters

@cabinpersephone Seems that the work currently going into that scene isn’t going to waste then! Enough people have said they would like it that I’m glad I’m adding it. Hopefully it explains things about aura a tad better.

@bl00dragon Probably would be a bit too big, given time and resource constraints. But funny thing you should mention eventually going back to it…

@RanchoJoe Hm. If I can think of a sentimental but nonessential object to huck into a river, I may add this one. Speaking of that equipment left behind at the end of the first chapter, yes, it does change based on choices. And speaking of that, I’m really curious to know which classes ended up with which piece of equipment.

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Hm, to me basing it off of a new stat/personality stat of some sort makes the most sense, because two characters might be of the same class/have the same highest utility skill and still be wildly different in the personal choices that they make in the game?

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Well my character’s an infiltrator and got the mom’s pistol , which is a fair combination I think. I unwittingly started to recreate my Infiltrator Shepard from Mass Effect XD

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But that doesn’t necessarily mean they will always follow just one path,they could have different reaction to different circumstances,imagine a (semi) neutral route, but I agree with your earlier point.

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yeah @Nightgazer has a point there, someone may want to change paths and they can do so freely which is a good thing, but on the other hand sticking to one path could be a good thing as well…I’ve confused myself into a corner again :confused:!!!

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Progress Report
Well, I nearly went and posted it last night, but the update is here! I was going to wait to release the survivor chapter until it was done, but an update with one new scene and some minor bug squashes felt pretty slim, so I’ve also included what’s done so far.

As you can see both from OP and now in-game, after the end of the Child phase, there are three different locations where the survivor phase can take place. Right now, only one is selectable, because right now it’s the only one with any working code in it. I’m working on finishing up that path right now, with the main obstacle so far being combating the “too much text, not enough choice” problem. I blame my writing style.

Anyway, update is out, patch notes in the OP, have fun! I’m off to work!

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I think less choices are perfectly fine as long as those choices are pretty important :stuck_out_tongue:

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I rather like the demo thus far. I’m looking forward to learning more about the world and the MC. A rather bittersweet if epic start off to the adventure. Keep up the good work…

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I’m still getting the mixed name problem. Is it happening to anyone else?

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Hm?

…well that’s embarassing.

Edit: Fixed it.

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It’s my first time playing it and I totally like it although I can’t advance after getting into the cockpit, I get an error

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I’m loving this game at the moment keep up the good work man also can we get a pet like before the crash you could have like a magical type of dog that survived the crash with you but he’s only a puppy so as you get older through the game he gets older with you and can help you in fights and stuff ?

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I got this threw my play threw, but otherwise looking forwards to play the rest of this

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Thanks so much to everyone who’s tried out the game so far (in this or any previous version). A special thank you in particular to the people who’ve voted on the poll. I’ll be adding the custom aura in the next update, but it will be the last thing I write up to allow people as much time as possible to get their votes in. So far though, it seems the majority is leaning the same way I am.

As for where I am in writing the current chapter, I’d call it… a third done? (Most of that third is playable right now.) I just crested a hump of (probably needlessly) complicated code, and now things are simple again, so I should be making more progress faster now.

That’ll do it for this post.

@RanchoJoe I’ll make a note of that. Most of the choices in the survivor phase are pretty self contained, with their consequences playing out within the chapter, but a few will come back up later in the game. Choosing which path you go down in each phase will be pretty important.

@chrisbat Glad to hear it! Thanks!

@darren_muir I’ve actually had a pin in the idea of a pet for a while now, but I’m still not sure if it would fit with the tone of the entire story. So, I’m not sure if I’d introduce one for a chapter or for the game or if I should at all, but it’ls definitely something I’m looking into. It probably won’t be a “magical” pet though. Aura is viewed by many to be a natural and even by some scientific phenomena linked to the human condition in Echo, and magic on whole is believed by many to not exist. There are truly fantastical creatures in Echo, but they invariable seem to want to kill humans.

@Baam @CrimsonGoddess I think you guys may have stumbled across the same bug. The good news is it isn’t blocking you from continuing the game, that’s actually the end of the “finished/playable” portion. The bad news is error messages are ugly. While I figure out how to fix it, I’ve added it to the list of known bugs. Thanks for finding this.

@SwankyPants The Medic stat wasn’t really designed with that in mind. If making explosives or other weapon modifications is what you’re hoping to do, I’d recommend focusing on your Engineer stat, as that’s sort of their entire M.O.

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how are you today ?

i figured its time to stop asking about the story and ask more about the man/woman behind the story.

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Greeting sir, I have just started reading your story and it already seems very interesting. I love how involved the family is in the development process. So far I noticed two typos that I thought I should alert you of.

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first would be that you accidentally placed 2 e’s in storied.
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The next was writing “graze” when I believe you meant to say “grave”
Keep up the good work friend.

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And I’m back with another update! Now, the patch notes for this update are (as usual) in the first post of this thread, but I’d still like to take a few sentences to voice some things not covered by said patch notes.

That fight scene was a nightmare. The majority of the chapter, I wrote just fine. Then the fight scene hit, and I wanted to die. That said, it was a learning experience, and hopefully future fight scenes will be written with slightly more coherent code. Hopefully.

Speaking of coherent code, this chapter sort of broke quicktest, which is my primary bug squasher tool. That said, it spotted a bug I’m pretty sure isn’t actually a bug, so I’ve had to resort to testing the thing by hand. So far, I haven’t hit any crashes, though once, checking the stats screen caused me to time travel (I’m going to say that that’s not my fault…), and before it decided it wasn’t having any of my shit, quicktest did track down and help me squash plenty of bugs pre-release. Hopefully I can get it back on my side by next update. So be warned, this update may be a tad buggy.

Speaking of bugs, I’m fairly certain there aren’t any continuity errors in the fight scene of this chapter, but if there are any, please, please, please point them out to me, because I’m paranoid that they somehow snuck past me.

Speaking of tangential segways, there is a poll regarding the development of this game that I’d greatly appreciate more votes on. If you have any questions about what that’s all about, I’m happy to answer them. But a character’s aura is a large part of how others seem them, and I think the players’ voice should be heard regarding how their aura is assigned.

Anyway, that’ll do me for now.

@darren_muir Who, me? Well I’m fine, thanks for asking, At least, I am now that I can finally take a break from writing that fight scene. For clarity’s sake, I suppose I should just confirm now that I am a guy. I’d rather not turn the story thread into an AMA, but if you really want to get to know me better there’s always PM. Or Twitter. I’m getting back into Twitter.

@Sancroix Glad to hear you like it! And my thanks to you for the screenshots of the typos. Made it the easiest two typos I’ve ever had to track down.

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Okay i LOVE the new update i only want to change one thing at the end it says when you leave the mountain and the hearthfire behind that you start crying… i didn’t like that i’m trying to make the ultimate badass i think we should get a choice on what to do like

  1. Say “i love you one last time”
  2. Grin knowing your finally off this hellish mountain
  3. Cry
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I went into this actually making Ruby Rose my character and to my surprise it was so much more fitting than I thought it’d be haha. Talk about coincidence! That being said, TheWaffle was right that you might wanna change it up just a tad more. The beginning didn’t seem too obviously RWBY-influenced to me, aside from the wild uncle, warm mother, and overprotective dad of course. The aura thing is fine and while similar to RWBY I don’t think it’s just a copy; it’s got it’s own unique details to it. In fact, I can’t really come up with specific examples besides the very familiar family set-up. The ghouls made me think of zombies so that’s different… And the tesla snake I wouldn’t have connected as a grimm creature without hearing that RWBY was your influence so I think you’re safe there as well. The woman that kills your mother made me think of Cinder though, so maybe change that character up? Like an appearance change or a gender swap.

Basically, I think that this is on it’s way to be a great game and while the NPCs so far seem very RWBY influenced, I think the world and the creatures are different enough that there’s no need to change up anything outside of character personalities or appearances. Overprotective Dad and Warm/Caring Mom are typical enough that they’re everywhere and therefore don’t scream RWBY, but the uncle is a bit of a giveaway. Maybe make him a grandfather? Wild grandpa is definitely enough of a mold breaker, in my opinion. Anyway, great work so far and I can’t wait to see more from this!

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dude why make him go and basically change the whole thing and yes he said it was influenced by rwby but do you know how many anime, movies, tv shows,books there are in which the family ket killed off by an evil woman bloody millions you cant just compare EVERYTHING to rwby and ask him to change it next your gonna say the guy in the green jacket and black pants that comes to your rescue in the principal of rwby’s school dont get me wrong i LOVE rwby and i love this game but asking him to change almost every character is a bit much dont you think

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