I would like to take a moment and talk about Bounties.
Robin and their Merry Men have bounties on them which increases or decreases depending on their actions. Currently the only way to know your bounty is to visit the guard office in Royal Oak.
However, I am considering adding it to your stat screen so you can always see it. Would people prefer that?.
That would be awesome, if you could do that.
Might be too much work, but getting it added to the stat screen only after you visit the guard office, and only updating after visiting again, would be an interesting way to make that element interactive. If the bounty were high enough, we may even have to sneak in with disguises.
That actually shouldn’t be too difficult.
Currently it’s just a Boolean (bounty) and a numeric variable (current_bounty).
It’s just a case of introducing a second numeric called (last_bounty) which is what shows in the menu and only updates to (current_bounty) when you visit the office or you stumble across a wanted poster.
The amount in the bounties could also be updated by offhand guard remarks if sneaking around after any curfews shows a difference from the last known value. Like it going up since the last escapade, but not otherwise having a chance to glance at the poster ourselves.
Heard some sad Robin Hood based news this morning. Apparently the large oak tree in Sherwood Forest known as the Major Oak has died.
It didn’t sprout this year. I visited it last year while doing some on site research for Quiver, and I was planned to go again now I’m nearly halfway through writing the game. I’ll have to keep an eye out.
Edit; I’ve heard they plan to keep the tree up so people can still see it. Its strange as this is now the second tree with something to do with Robin Hood, the first was the Sycamore Gap tree which was in the Prince of Thieves movie with Kevin Costner.
Hey I think I got a bug. I chose the Yeoman backstory but my Robin told the prisoners he is a Noble and later when telling the Viking, it says I’m lying if I tell the Yeoman Backstory.
Err wait that could be because I chose an earlier link, I didn’t see the latest one. I just saw you had this issue reported before.
I thought I’d fixed that. I’ll double-check later.
Edit: I’ve checked and did fix that issue but not sure why it showed up unless its a cache issue maybe?
On the priory origin, Henry goes from dead to alive as multiple paths seem squished together.
Something keeps you rooted to the spot; it keeps you in the carriage, but another part of you forces you to open the panel so you can see what’s happening outside. You immediately spot Friar Tuck standing over the soldier you saw earlier, although the man was now in a crumpled heap on the ground.
“What’s happening?” you ask, but Friar Tuck doesn’t reply; he is too busy staring past the soldier.
You look in the same direction, and you spot Henry, lying on his back, with a clean slash that had cut him from shoulder to hip. The guard’s blood was already seeping into the earth beneath him. Friar Tuck turns around and sees you in the window.
“We need to leave, now,” Friar Tuck growls. “We’re in danger if we stay here.”
Urgently, you grab your shortbow and quiver and clamber out of the carriage. Friar Tuck looks rattled, something you’ve never seen in him before. Beyond the friar, your eyes fall upon one of the soldiers crumpled in a heap on the floor, beside Henry. The guard had fallen on his back, a clean slash had cut him from shoulder to hip, his blood already seeping into the earth.
“What is going on?” you ask, confused.
Friar Tuck ignores your question, instead dropping into a crouch beside Henry.
“Is Henry…” you ask, your question trailing off.
“He’s dead,” Tuck says softly. “We have to go.”
You hurry over to Friar Tuck and Henry.
“What on earth is going on?” you ask, confused.
They both ignore you, Henry hurrying over to unhook the horses. You look for the other guards and find them locked in a battle with more soldiers. You look back at the dead soldier, uncertainty growing in your head.
“He was going to kill you,” you mumble.
“It’s done now,” Tuck says softly. “We need to take these horses and go.”
“Henry?” one of the other guards calls out.
“Focus, Marcus,” Henry orders.
You watch as Marcus bats away a swing from the soldier he’s facing, and then blocks another.
“Take Robin and go; they’re heading for the priory. We’ll hold them off here,” Henry explains
Thanks. I’ll look into that sounds like I missed a *goto somewhere
Edit: actually, it looks like a variable issue not being set properly. I’m fixing it now.
Edit2: This should be fixed now.
I’m working on a path where you end up surrounded by soldiers, and whoever you have the strongest bond with comes to rescue you.
Now, Little John prefers to only kill if he has to, and Friar Tuck doesn’t like to kill at all. (This is in contrast to Will, who prefers killing his enemies, and Alan, who will just kill them if it’s quicker.)
However, in this scenario, John and Tuck have to fight and kill their way through this crowd of soldiers to save you.
*else
You signal to the others, and they all immediately bolt in different directions. You manage to cut your way past one of the soldiers, but another two beat you back.
*if (john_bond1 > will_bond1)
*if (john_bond1 > alan_bond1)
*if (john_bond1 > tuck_bond1)
You fight as hard as you can, but there are too many, and they start to overwhelm you, so you're forced to focus solely on defending. Suddenly, there is a commotion to your right, and a soldier is almost cut in half. The guard drops, revealing Little John standing there, clutching a bloodied longsword.
"I came back for you," John says, only pausing to cut another soldier down. "Come this way!"
The look in your friend's eyes is hollow. You look behind him at what was left of the soldiers who tried to stop him.
*goto escape_path2
I’m wondering whether this should affect John/Tuck’s relationship with Robin, like it drops a little because of how many he had to kill to save you?
Would this feel harsh to you or understandable?
Was getting in that situation Robin’s fault, or at least something the character in question thinks is Robin’s fault? I’d think relationship dropping over something you had no control over would feel quite unfair, or at least require being able to express the character is being unfair.
If the situation is completely avoidable, then it could be considered a fair trade for the relationship to take a hit, but only if you’re not able to discuss it with the right gravity, and tact it is owed. I agree with Lili’s take that it being totally out of the player’s hands without some measures of mediation being a bit too far, so a Robin who is callous about it losing the points makes a bit more sense than one who is empathetic with their mindsets about killing.
It could be considered Robin’s fault, as this attack happens if Robin chooses to hit the same family’s carriage a second time. But it also depends on Robin’s luck. If you’ve got some luck left, your escape goes well; it is only if your luck runs out that they are forced to come back and save you.
Edit: After mulling over it for the past few days, I’ve decided that I’m not going to do this, as I feel that it could be unfair, as it’s not Robin’s fault enough to justify punishing them.
Little update:
I am working on the end of Chapter Six, and I’ve got a question.
As I mentioned earlier, Chapter Six features a raid on a carriage that can go well or badly depending on your choices. After the raid, a scene shows your lookout spotting a torch in the distance, and you and a companion go to investigate. Well, the torchbearer is a character you may have met already, and they drop a bombshell on Robin. My initial idea was to have Robin be able to respond immediately, but I am starting to think it’ll hit harder if Chapter Six ends on the bombshell.
What do people think of cliff-hangers in chapters?
If you need more details, here is the spoiler version
The torchbearer is Sara, the orphan girl from Little Tree, and the bombshell is that Sir Guy’s men have attacked the orphanage, killed the matron and taken the kids. Sara only escapes because she wounds/kills the soldier who grabbed her.
So would you prefer to leave Chapter Six to end on this reveal and then have Robin go rescue them in Chapter Seven, or would you prefer to be able to go and save them immediatelyin Chapter Six?
Update:
The first draft of Chapter Six is finally finished.
It brings the total word count to 194.089 words (story + code).
Here is the latest link:
Enjoy, and as always, feedback is welcome and appreciated!
Hey not sure if it’s been brought up but if you choose to take out the two bandits first at the beginning, it seems to read as if they’re still alive when you choose the furthest wolf or the cask.
I thought I’d fixed that. I’ll double-check the code. I might have missed something.
Thanks for bringing it up.
Oh dear, something DEFINITELY went wrong there. I’ll sort that out as well.
Thanks for bringing it up!
Edit: The black market merchant should no longer scam you.
@Shenice_L, the issue that you reported is taking a bit longer, as I’ve ended up reworking the code to make it less likely to get mixed up.
Edit: The bandit camp issue is nearly fixed; I’ve recoded it, rewritten parts, and added a bit here and there. I’m just trying to find a bug in randomtest, but it’s past 2 am here, and I’ve got work tomorrow. So I’ll continue fixing it tomorrow.
