Thanks for giving my WIP a go. You must just have the natural instincts of an orc shaman! There may be a few balancing issues I need to figure out, although I would say that once you get in with Krog, ‘you’re in with Krog.’ The warriors have more competition and few easy way-outs (be a smart and quick warrior with cunning and presence or a powerful warrior with presence and strength). A few of the checks, like with the dragon fight in the western caves, are of deliberately high difficulty. Only experienced warriors could deal with those things.
I thought I wouldn’t be interested in playing as an orc (well, it’s a thousand times better than a goblin). However in the end the game was amazing and i couldn’t stop reading it! I would like to know more about Krog, manage the new city with laws or conquer more kingdoms and and observe the consequences
Love that you gave the orc life a chance and loved it! I’ve been getting good feedback so far and think I’m really on to something that will be a fun and imaginative journey and game for many readers. I hope the future developments meet or exceed your expectation!
There are items you can buy which give bonuses and penalties. There is an artefact in the very late game, although I don’t have plans at the moment to add a variety of them.
This could be something I add once I have the game fully written, to add more depth and quests. I will have to see how I go and how complex all the different variables make things to know if it will be practical. It is definitely a good idea to scatter a few across the world for an adventuring orc to discover.
UPDATE 2 (30th June 2023): 57k words added. totalling 327k -Expanded the War Chief path in this update (which I will focus on for now until I reach the first story conclusions). After rising to be War Chief you will spend your time dealing with the surrounding lands through war and diplomacy with the goal of becoming a King. After this, you can finally deal with the elves, perhaps becoming an Emperor. -Added a checkpoint save system for use when the game is released since, as far as I know, Choice Of Games doesn’t have an inherent save system. In certain hub areas, you will be given the option to save your progress. At each new relevant hub, your game will be automatically saved. You will then get an option to SAVE or RESTART from your last saved position. This will mean that if you die, you don’t lose all your stats. In death scenes, you’ll also be given the option to RESTART your last save point (unless I missed a death scene.) This should not affect DashingDon saves. -To facilitate those orcs who wish to relish their conquests, I have added a map to the stats screen which should show the progress of your conquests after you have become a king. If you do not want to pursue the king’s path, the map will just show the continent as is. - Added the ability to keep your old epithet if you don’t like the new one offered. -Fixed a few issues with earlier scenes. Added a few new achievements. -Please feel free to point out any typos you find!!!
When I subjugate the elves it takes me to an end game screen, rather than kicking me back to the list of available conquests. (If it matters I threatened them into subjugation)
Some of the maps showing your initial conquests (as King) weren’t showing up. Think I’ve sorted that out now.
They should show a green tint over the plains when you become king, a stripe-shaded area if you grant a homeland to Dark Elves, an expanded green tint northwards if you mop up the final dwarven holds, a large expanse of green tint eastward if you conquer the elves and a slight decrease in the green-tinted area of the plains if you permit the elves to expand the Netherwood (with a few new trees popping up), and a combination of all the above.
Diplomatic and military conquest should result in expansions of your area of control on the map. If you simply make peace, there will be no changes, if it all works out.
*I think this would work better as two sentences, rather than with commas, and as a statement rather than a question. i.e “A true horde. In a time of war surely none could turn back this green tide.”
*Axe-head head sounds a bit weird. I think just axe-head works here. Also, I’m not really sure what the difference is between a staff with an axe-head and a normal axe is. Surely a stick with an axe head on it is just an axe?
*This is after I defeated the dwarves in the mountain and chose to remain in the armor of the Green Legion. Seems that choice doesn’t update your current equipped clothes.
*Despite the stat screen not updating to show I am wearing Green Legion armor and, earlier in this same run, Pithogorcas’s followers stating I was wearing shaman leathers, Nocan seems to think I am wearing Green Legion armor (which I should be as I chose to keep wearing it after defeating the dwarves).
*It would be nice to receive some shamanic support for your leadership, either based on your piety or based on whether you enlisted the following of Pythagorcas’s temple. In this run through I did have their loyalty and I had shaman’s show up to the battle with the barbarians but not to support my leadership challenge.
*Not sure if gurning is an intentional word choice or not. A google search says it basically means to pull a grotesque face, so I guess it kind of fits? I thought it was meant to be churning.
*forward
*Also I missed highlighting it, but their instead of there
*Another one I missed on first run through. Here he is named Wilderoc but later referred to as Wilderorc. Not sure which one is meant to be correct.
*Duplicate word with
*Repetitive word choice “swelling the unbearable sadness swelled within”. Maybe instead “swelling the unbearable sadness deep within”
*power and prestige
*this sentence is a little off. Maybe instead “making it as strong as the armour of the Green Legion, though much lighter”?
Just one playthrough using my preferred Krog favoured playstyle. I am a big fan of this WIP, hopefully the typo reports are helpful, very keen to see how this unfolds. The choices that currently lead to the end of the demo are very intriguing.
On a note apart from typos, going through this carefully made me notice some things I missed on previous playthroughs. I loved the three goblins in a trench coat gag that I somehow glossed over in every previous playthrough.
Wow! Thanks for putting in the time to find all of those, I really appreciate it. You are the most orcsome of shamans!
Such a big help here, Lance. Great!
I’ll think about adding help from the temple, during the Morcorc challenge. Initially, I didn’t want to provide their support as I reasoned they didn’t want to get involved in internal tribal disputes (what if they picked the wrong side), although they’re fine with getting involved against the enemies of Krog.
Thanks again. I’m very poor at finding my own mistakes. Really amazing help here.
I don’t know how granular the variables are surrounding Pythagorcas’ temple. Perhaps if you just study under Pythagorcas then they don’t support you, but if you take the opportunity to win the temple over to be under your control they do? You can leave there with the epithet “Chosen of Krog” if I remember correctly, so it would make sense for the shamans to back you, you’ve proven your piety and devotion to Krog at that stage.
Of course, completely up to you. I just like seeing all the groups you’ve interacted with come back to join you in the battle. Was especially happy when the Dark Elves showed up.
Well-reasoned. I’ll give it a look. Perhaps if it was not against Morgorc, such an established chief, they would surely help their ‘Chosen.’ They might even regard your victory as a formality, rightly or wrongly since you are Chosen. Though since the battle is not directly about Krog, but about your orc’s own desires, they may not see it as their place.
I will look through the scene again and consider your points. I also think it is a fulfilling event for a player to see their allies make a reappearance, particularly at a time of significance in your story. It gives meaning to your travels and meetings as a younger orc.
The Dark Elves are very useful allies. But perhaps increasingly demanding ones…
Thanks for investing your interest and time into this. I am always happy to hear your ideas.
UPDATE 2.1 (1st July 2023) (Just a quick one) -Since the shaman @anon12679161 found some of the keyboard-gremlin droppings during his playthrough, I have swept them away. Thanks, Lance, for helping me catch a few of those typos! -Added flavour text for diplomacy with other nations on the stats screen. It should be dynamic and change reflecting other nations’ opinion of you.
Note: The Lord of Lard (as mentioned in the flavour text) is a name you’ll become familiar with if you take the big belly path.
Just a quick note 2. If you achieve the right to use an epithet but don’t accept it in preference for your old one, you’ll still get all the options available as if you did accept it. This way you will not miss anything out because ‘what’s in a name.’
I don’t know if this is intentional or not, but you can do some of the Monster Time celebration actions twice. If you bypass the Green Gentleman Inn and go straight to the city and do all the Monster Time activities, then go back to the inn and speak with the conspiring orcs then the Monster Time celebration is magically back in full swing again.
Also, a couple more typos and potential bugs/questions:
*What stats are needed to be uplifted to a legend in the grub and grog tents? This has been the highest I’ve been able to get my appetite and constitution (the two stats I thought mattered) and I still end up dying. This is with goblin merchant charms and healing from the shaman.
Never mind, finally managed to get there in the end. May want to reconsider the stats required (or not if you want it to remain a difficult achievement). I feel like I had to do things pretty perfectly to be able to get up to the required level to survive, but that could have just been me.
*Given that this option specifically mentions eating them I would expect it to raise Appetite, but it doesn’t.
No screenshot for this one, but in any of the fighting sections, if neither of the options favour stats you use (or you just aren’t sure which is the correct one to choose) you can go to the stats screen and then back to the game and it refreshes the choices. You can do this as many times as you like with no consequences. Not sure if this is intentional or not. Also not sure if it is a Dashingdon specific thing.
So in my run I ended up losing presence but gaining strength over my initial starting stats. Not sure if this is intentional or a bug to do with how you handle the stats being adjusted with the blessing.
When you check your rankings in the grub tent they don’t acknowledge if you move higher than third place. Also the {title} placeholder looks like a coding error.
The below is from my “Loser” run, where I tried to fail as much as possible (without dying).
I’m not sure how but I feel like I discovered a loop. After I chose the goblin as my best friend it looped back to how you choose to spend your childhood. So I chose lazing about again, chose to flick my booger at the chief. Everything duplicated up until I got sent back to the long drop where it changed from shoveling manure on the cabborcs to dealing with the hogs.
Also had an issue where after the attack on the camp I had to choose where to help for the migration. I chose the shaman (knowing I would be a failure there) but rather than kicking me back to choose a different place to help it went back to this screen pre attack:
*This is after I have lost to the barbarian in an arm wrestle then followed him outside and killed him. He has been removed from the list of interact choices, but not from the room description.
This one seems to have some issues. I ate the poisoned food and then it presents me with the same choices again. If I choose to eat the poisoned food again:
I also have to applaud the depth of this WIP. I’ve done quite a few runs now and I am still encountering brand new things that I had no idea existed. This run was my first time encountering the demon in the north.
Absolutely great, mate. Some of the earlier coding errors were done when I was still learning the basics of choicescript and I found errors with the indenting. Due to the many paths, I find it very difficult to playtest myself to isolate those problems. Thankfully, with the baborc and child portions of the game, the paths are less varied and, since I wrote them first while still learning the basics of choicescript, more prone to mistakes. Sorted the loot and picked up the typos you identified.
Sorted all of those out now! @Lance_Heyden If you like, I will put in the final credits as a betatester since you’ve done such a great job. Up to you!
STRAY GOBLIN: A few points on some of the things you found, and for anyone else who is interested:
The section where the goblin attacked, which resulted in the text saying ‘Fill,’ is yet to be done. Under certain conditions, you’ll get progressively more vicious bounty hunters after your orc. That goblin is to be the first.
BELLY STUFF: Appetite is the most important stat here. Constituion does not have to be ultra high but must maintain a good level. All that grub really takes its toll and can kill you, if your constitution falls too low.
There is another factor. The most legendary tasks need a high Belly Rank score, representing the training your guts have had. I have now fixed the Belly Board!
STAT SCREEN AND FIGHTS:
At present, many of the fights use temporary random dice roll numbers to choose your opponent’s attacks. It sounds like clicking into the Stats Screen rerolls the die. This would probably not affect the more heavily scripted fights (like with Slappa when you confront Morgorc).
This could be solvable by making the die rolls a permanent rather than a temporary variable. I will put this on the list to check out at a later date.
As always, awesome work. I have uploaded the corrections and fixes.
