Thank you, this means a lot to me. I’ve been a fan of Cataphrak and his work for many years, and the Infinity Series heavily inspired this WIP. I’m glad I captured some of that feel while telling a story in a very different setting. So thank you and I’m glad you’re liking it!
On a different note, with balancing in mind, I’d like to ask another couple poll questions for those who have finished the demo. This kind of feedback is exceptionally useful for me to balance stuff. My intent is that Wagner is a difficult challenge at the end of Chapter 2. I want you to feel like you’re really working for a victory and even a close defeat can be seen as a win. With that in mind…
Final Battle Result Poll
What was the result of your battle with Wagner in Chapter 2?
There’s an intentionally bad initial build I did, designed to fail despite playing conservatively. Please note the still very respectable reputation due to young age. Now here’s a blurb prior to the fight with Wagner.
“It’s your last match against an incredibly challenging opponent. Your last opportunity to save your future from disaster. True, there are other cadets in your cadre with worse records than you, but you can count them on one hand. You’ve only managed to win about 20% of your matches, and that fact alone may very well be enough to tank your career. There is no chance of you obtaining a captaincy after graduation with such a record, and while you will still be assigned as a Commander somewhere, you suspect such an assignment would likely be on some backwater ship with little chance of promotion.”
A couple of things:
20% was what I had my first playthrough at 18, with basically the same allocation, which is probably the biggest arguement that age feels too minimal an impact.
The blurb about no chance of command seems to be based on the record rather than factoring reputation, as anyone a decade younger than his peers would certainly be given a chance for advancement down the road.
Third, would I be correct in assuming that adaptability is the most important in the demo?
The whole premise of this just reminds me of the First Contact War with the Turians in Mass Effect more than anything in my opinion but this is pretty fresh and I’ve enjoyed what I’ve seen so far
As a Mass Effect fan myself, this makes me happy. Thank you!
Fair point. I’ll probably tweak the negatives for a younger MC in the next update. Maybe not a ton, but definitely a little.
Yeah you’re right and I agree. This is only based on your record but some consideration for reputation should be given as well.
Maybe… It’s pretty close between Intelligence and Adaptability. A little insight under the hood here the combined total of intelligence and adaptability is what determines your record outside of the two matches you fight manually. Outside of that, adaptability is likely checked more, but that doesn’t mean it is the most important. The better plans that intelligence unlocks can have a major impact and there are more than a handful of other checks that include intelligence as well.
Yes. If your Intelligence + Adaptability >= 110 then you’ll have a winning record at the start of Chapter 2
Odd. Could be a bug or just an inconsistency in the writing. Either way thanks for pointing it out, I’ll look into it. Thanks!
@T_Chaney enjoyed the demo and looking forward to more though did have a question of sorts. Is it possible to have a winning record going into the last battle against wagner?
Through out the story had a 500 record then for some reason it stated had 0.85 going into it.. perhaps thats a bug? In any case adaptability and wise choices had me winning my first and last battle i could actively participate with.
My perception was that with int, you have to choose the best strat pre fight THEN choose the best adjustment to get the most out of it. Adaptability, you just kinda auto-win the final phase of each engagement, and it’s clearer which option benefits you.
Of course, this isn’t a bad thing, with adaptability mattering more as an individual combatant, and intelligence factoring more heavily in academics and proper command. Just was curious if it was intentional.
And thanks for the under the hood insight, helps when troubleshooting system issues.
It is to a certain extent. Intelligence helps you plan. Adaptability helps you when things start going wrong. As for under the hood insight, no problem, thanks for your interest.
If you want more inner workings, you can add “/scenes/chap_1.txt” or “/scenes/chap_2.txt” to the end of the URL while playing the demo and it will bring up all the back end code for that chapter. This works for all hosted games, not just mine, and it shows you everything if that’s something you’re interested in. Thanks again for all the feedback, it really does help!
Awesome demo! I like that you have the infinity saga as an inspiration and doing a space military twist of it. Can’t wait to see what you do with it in the future
You hit the nail on the head! Winning the first battle is meant to set your wins to 1. Which means that when combined with the check at the top of Chapter 2, you could have a win variable of 6 and a perfect record. Easily fixed and will be once I push the update. Thanks for the code diving!
Welp… it would appear I didn’t find and replace well enough. I changed her first name as kind of a homage to the first woman in space, Valentina Tereshkova. Once again, easy fix and good catch
Speaking of code diving, while I was looking through things just now I think there is also an inconsistency with Wagner’s name, in chapter 1 she is called Alexandra but in chapter 2 she is suddenly Valentina. Unless her secret is that there is two of her I imagine this is a mix-up.
Though im pretty sure of the anwser will ask anyway lol ive noticed in relationships we only really seem encounter 2 of the listed people im assuming the others are after academy people we deal with?
Yeah. I have all eight chapters coded and outlined so there are a lot of people and variables that just don’t come into play yet in the demo.
I could probably delete them or at least hide them for the time being, but honestly it’s a little fun to give you all a bit of a hint as to what’s around the corner
Yeah that shouldn’t happen. I’ll look into it. Do you not get an option to say no, or does the story just ignore your decision? Any detail would be very helpful thanks!
The best way to get around this is either ringed space ships (i.e. a ship with rotating sections along its length that provide gravity via centrifugal force) that split the ship into gravitized and zero-G sections, or magnitized boots and the like that allow spacers to anchor themselves within a zero-G environment. Either would let you have a story where folks are rarely floating, while reading as much more ‘hard sci-fi’ than just handwaving in spontaneous gravity generation.
The centrifugal force method of a spinning ship is the most realistic option, you even see an example of an old station that used such a method in Chapter One. That said, I just don’t like the visual of warships all requiring their vessels to be made of spinning rings.
This is a solid idea, but I kind of like leaving the Raptors and their tech a complete mystery. At least for the time being.
I have another idea, along the lines of magnetized boots but with a little bit of sci-fi mumbo jumbo thrown in. I think it will allow me to stick to my original vision while also explaining that artificial gravity isn’t actually control over gravity and therefore not a universe breaking technology.
