The game hints at it, but your performance in the academy battles depends on how much combined intelligence and adaptability your character has. The highest, undefeated rank requires 130+ points between these two in total.
The full breakdown goes like this
The game is what the game is, and as battles come and go you find you do...
*if (intelligence + adaptability) >= 130
*set wins + 5
//...
exceptionally well.
//...
*elseif (intelligence + adaptability) >= 120
*set wins + 4
//...
very well.
//...
*elseif (intelligence +adaptability) >= 110
*set wins + 3
//...
quite well.
//...
*elseif (intelligence + adaptability) >= 90
*set wins + 2
decently.
//...
*elseif (intelligence + adaptability) >= 70
*set wins+ 1
worse than you would like unfortunately.
//...
*else
//...
very badly, losing all but two matches.
I really think there should be a trade off if you decide to be the top in academy, like having less relationship with your roommate when it comes to it and not having enough leadership. If I see no downside then it’s like did I ever do trade off since then it becomes the best path to choose and choosing any other is not a option. Having relationship effect with your roommate basically your best friend should be the biggest Trade off that really effect MC down the line, like get his help down the line in a crucial role that have massive impact on the story.
Whilst you can be friends (even start the romance) with your roommate and have the best record, it is very hard and I think requires perfect choices already, and your leadership does suffer so I think there is already a good balance, as long as leadership becomes important in later chapters.
If you approach these as GAMEbooks and not gameBOOKS then having multiple mutally exclusive points in the story where acheiving perfect success gives you more of a reason to replay searching for good builds.
Besides, mechanically having Dadmiral in your corner helps with recquisioning additional supplies in chapter 3, to the point where you don’t need a perfect record to get the most supplies, just the “very good” record you get at combined 110 plus winning both of the narrative battles.
Being top in the academy doesn’t really give you much compared to doing decently, the main thing it helps with is requisitioning stuff from the admiral so far (and you only need perfect scores in the academy if you want specifically the corvettes and the fighters), and I don’t think it’s possible to get much higher than 50 leadership with the build necessary for it.
It’s not about what you can get but also about player preference like a role play. You can decide how you want your character story to look like and I think that what matters, think about it in the game might not have effected like active one but if the game remember you top The class like the only one with a perfect score and down the line it it gives you interaction like young cadets basically treat you like a legend. Like a proper few pages and you can interact, it rather than giving the obvious reward use human behind the MC a sense of accomplishment. And it’s will add a personal choice do players go for top score to get that ego boost for there character or do they value there romemate friendship more.
Think of it not in terms of in game but rather what person behind the screen want. It’s a story in there own head so give them choice and rather than in game value what they value personal, like a accomplished character who in there or value a friendship with the roommate who is basically there first friend.
Whether they value their friendship more or not isn’t exclusively a role play matter though. Losing Lucas’s friendship would be a mechanical disadvantage. He already helps you lose more fatigue when preparing for the fight with Wagner and is likely to work with us in the future, making his friendship more likely to give benefits.
If his friendship were to be lost in the event of being top of the class, it would have to be offset with further mechanical advantages or it would be essentially punishing players for having a particular build, unless chapter 2 was massively altered to change how you become the best in class.
Maybe its best not to think of getting a perfect score as something to acheive but instead as a leg up for characters who tanked their leadership for intelligence and adaptability. Like future officers who idolize you as the first and only cadet with a perfect score could off-set loyalty issues you run into having a low leadership.
From a behind the screen perspective, its not a goal to strive towards, but a tool for the player to use in the future. If you want to focus on the gaming aspects of the book then maybe you could find enjoyment in plotting out the best routes instead of hitting every milestone?
Without giving too much away, you can expect a little slice of life downtime, some choices involving further self improvement or improvements to the Chamberlain, and an… encounter that definitely doesn’t have me pulling my hair out trying to keep all the branches organized.
I do have a question if you don’t mind, in chapter three when MC is on the ship there is a option to improve your skills but I never take it because I thought ship have to my priority. So at what skill level I should just stop improving skills and what ship performance mean and leadership in depth.
It’s worth noting that the option to take time for yourself also lets the ship XO to gain a level in autonomy, since you leave things up to him. This may or may not be beneficial.
edit: on separate note, it’d be nice/convenient if the Fleet Stats section of the Stats panel also included the extra forces you can request/obtain, i.e. the marines, fighter squadron and the corvettes. Also maybe a note if the player has successfully upgraded the power output.
I kinda agree but not having it those mention keep things neat and tidy they are in the background. Game don’t have to show these updates game can just add them and only check if you have it or not and give the options accordingly, I mean imagine you open it and there is a big list of things it just don’t add with the game theam of streamline design. And last I check correct me if I am wrong update to the engine was complete it it was just the section chief engineer that it was not optimal like some 1-2 percent it should be so not really a upgrade it was more of like what command a ship mean, I mean everyone wants that upgrade why not but it’s not really make a difference it’s like MC is a young captain and text book will say to optimise it but real world experience otherwise like your second in command.
That’s basically what i meant. E.g. if the player has obtained squadron of fighters for their force, then the Fleet Stats should imo have this mentioned. After all this is supposed to be Fleet stats, not “Just Your Own Ship” stats. You have spent “reputation currency” to buy yourself stuff, it’s nice to have the spending acknowledged and recorded so you don’t have to remember it. It’s not unlike your Equipment screen in any game with an ounce of management.
The improvement to engine output is larger than that. The 1-2% your officer mention is the difference between expected improvement and the improvement observed at the time you speak to them. If you give them free hand in this matter and postpone the departure, they manage to locate and fix an issue with this upgrade. Without it, you’re effectively traveling with a malfunction.
In any case, this bit takes enough of Chapter 3 (there’s opportunity cost between taking time to repair or arriving early and being able to give your crew some downtime) that taking a note of this would be imo beneficial, as it’s basically acknowledging player’s agency.
Every time any miniscule change happens, I g et that when I load ANY save. And it doesn’t restart chapter, it MAKES ME START FROM BEGINNING. All my saves get invalidated instantly. And I really can’t just replay this long game every time it updates if I only wanted to enjoy ch3
There’s really not a right or wrong answer here. It’s up to personal preference and goals. My hope is that there is not one single “optimal” pathway, but multiple viable and interesting paths that you can enjoy playing and tweaking over multiple, maybe even dozens, of playthroughs. That’s one of the things that made me enjoy the Dragoon Saga so much, and I’m trying to provide a similar feeling and experience here.
That’s good advice, I’ll probably implement that when I push Chapter 4. I do want to avoid having too much clutter in the Fleet Stats page, but a line or two talking about the resources at your disposal hopefully wouldn’t be too overwhelming, and would help remind the player of those resources.
Yeah, as LiliArch pointed out, I unfortunately can’t do anything about that. If it’s any consolation, my mother has tried to read Officer of the Fleet multiple times now, but she’s a busy woman and likes to take her time when reading. I’ve gotten a “Do I have to start over???” message from her more than a few times after I’ve updated the game lol. So you are not alone in your frustration.
I will say that because I’m aware of this I do try to limit the number of updates I push. You may have noticed that I update when I have a new chapter, take feedback for a week or so, and then implement that feedback in its own, fairly large, hot fix. I try not to touch stuff up too much between updates because, again, that messes with peoples saves. So, I’m trying to work around it as best I can. Also no shade to COGDemos at ALL, it’s a great site and I don’t blame them for how this works either. It’s just the nature of the beast when playing WIPs I think.
I do understand your inspiration from dragoon saga, I am also a fan just on the rebel side. But as you have said you might not make a sequel and this game take one or two year each chapter so age is not going to be much of a factor. But then what about choosing the age at the very start like a 12 old build and 18 will have no age related advantage other than cosmatic as we go on in the game but a 18 player is going to have better stats overall, only different was reputation boost in the academy after that it was all the same reputation when you become a caption and a 18 build can easily have height score so he too can get two reward from admiral. So what’s the limitations of age then if you don’t mind me asking.
Younger ages will generally receive higher rep gains in later chapters, as it’s more impressive for a 12 year old to do something than a 20 year old. Additionally, some romances with be locked to younger or older MCs to avoid any age gap weirdness. Also certain achievements will be achieved if you do things as a younger MC. And lastly, just offering a challenge in general.
Not everything is going to be perfectly balanced, and picking a younger aged MC is kind of a way to select difficulty. I want every option to be viable and more importantly fun, but that doesn’t mean I want every option to be exactly identical in difficulty, challenge, or experience.
Love this story. I wonder how far we are gonna be able to take our character when it comes to being an ambitious jerk. Can we go full Tarkin mode where we just claw our way to power and try win by being the wrose person possible all while looking down our nose at most people the whole time? ( Sorry for the generic example.)
Can you fix that?