Relics 3: Ashes for Gold UPDATED 15th October, Final Update, see Post 741 for details

Thank you, that’s great, and thanks for spotting the error in the character creator. I’ll get on that asap!

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I won’t be playing Relics 2 until release to keep the experience fresh. Any chance of a Dad-that-looks-like-Sean-Connery in Relics 2 or 3?

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There’s a father-figure coming up in Book 3 Chapter 3, but he’s not your actual dad. Maybe I should make him look like Sean Connery. I could definitely make him Scottish.

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“She says that any chance of… wait, she shot you with a tranquilizer gun?”
My character is a man


It’s strange that is you don’t romance anyone, you can flirt with Cleo, but can do the same with Maria.
And Maria’s neutral conversation is kinda bland, it isn’t interesting as the hate conversation, maybe you could improve it somehow?


The selfish route send a little bipolar, one hour you are doing it for the money the other you aren’t doing it for the money. It was a little confusing.

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Great, thanks for those spots! I’ll go through it and throw in some variable text whenever it seems to suggest that the player isn’t doing it for the money, and I’ll fix the “she” thing too. I was planning on saving the Maria flirting for her chapter later, but I’ll maybe drop one in now (though probably not to the hate conversation - that’s prob a a bit too raw at this point!)

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I think the angry conversation is fine. It is entertaining and funny. The problem is the neutral one, it is kinda boring without anything going for it.

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I think you’re right, definitely! I enjoyed writing multiple different convos in that scene, but ngl some of them are just harder to make interesting than others! I could start improving it by adding a “flirty” option, and see what else I can come up with after that.

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Part 3 already :open_mouth: You are amazing! I feel like just last week I read Relics 2 haha

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Phone sex with Zhu. Yes! :heart_eyes:
So exactly how tight are the pants of his cute security uniform? :yum:

A gay wedding in the 1940’s eh? And a mixed race one at that too…possibly in the American South. Well fortunately my mc isn’t poor and knows somebody like Remy. So they should be able to dress it up as one of their parties as a cover. :thinking:

I also know that Zhu is probably going to get my poor mc back for that bit of hot and bothered at work phone flirting. :sweat_smile:

Also like the back story of our trusty old revolver…the only thing that it messes with is my 1899 birth year for Spillane…I suppose with the new info that does make my Spillane likely younger, not older than Zhu. But I guess I am happy enough with that tradeoff to have a more baby-faced pretty boy Spillane now. In any case it would make my Spillane living into the new Millenium far less difficult now.
If he lives to Kirk Douglas age he could even its entire first decade and live until 2012 or so. :thinking:

I always knew this was a series and I can take new canon information contradicting my headcanon. Spiritually Spillane can still be from the 19th century as much as Zhu is, if we take the 20th century to begin in earnest after WWI.
What is still just about salvageable is WWI vet, albeit an underage one, that is good enough for me.

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Yes, I can’t wait to write the wedding! Coming up, close to the end.

As for 1899: hmm, if Grandpa got in in, like, 1880 and immediately got busy with grandma, your MC’s parent could have been 18 when they had your MC, so an 1899 birthdate is (just about) still salvageable!

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Haven’t played 2 so I won’t be around much but wanted to just pop in and wish you luck on three and I am so hyped to finally play it and 2!

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Or maybe there can be a chapter where we play Spillane again when they are old themselves in the 70’s or 80’s. If you ever do any future project suitable to such a chapter. :grinning:

As for Spillane’s actual dad, maybe the adventuring spirit skipped a generation, eh? :sweat_smile:

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I foolishly asked the player to input a choice about their relationship with their parents back in Book 1, and forgot to track it with a variable, so it’s basically impossible for me to do anything with the MC’s actual parents now without risking player’s self-chosen canon. Damn, what an idiot I was back in the Book 1 days!

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You can ask it again or you can update the first game, it will not break anything because the save option isn’t out yet.

i wonder, will the marriage option be possible if you start the romance in book 3?

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No, although in that case you will be able to select an option in the epilogue stating that you get married in the future.

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If you really wanted you could do a minor retcon with an update to game 1. That way it would be possible to narrow down the choices and use Spillane’s actual dad…or mom. :thinking:
I mean nothing is final until the series is finished right? I think the players will understand that. In volume 1 you were just testing the waters and didn’t even know if it was going to be successful enough to even warrant sequels, right? That is why my headcanon has now shifted to a younger Spillane too, everything is in flux until the story is finished.

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I’ve done a minor update to the files, with a few changes. In addition to minor fixes, the main changes are as follows:

  • I added some variable text to some parts of the Prologue to make the motivation of selfish characters more consistent.

  • I added options for single MCs to flirt with Dominique in the Prologue and Maria in the Interlude.

  • I added an extra Sam scene to Chapter 1, because I was a bit worried that they were getting overshadowed by Bess and I wanted to explore some of the conflict they were experiencing in a bit more depth.

  • I changed Cleo’s hairstyle in the Interlude: time she got the chance to change things up a bit!

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The flirting with Cleo and Dominique raises their relationship. Shouldn’t the flirt with Maria raise her relationship too?

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Yes it should! Well spotted. I’ll put that change into the next update.

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Finally :sweat:, after completing the previous two games, I can say with certainty: this trilogy is interesting, but it contains details that prevent me from fully enjoying it. If you were to ask me which ones, I would say that the discursive snarkiness is the most obvious one. In my humble opinion, I understand that the story needs its characters to constantly criticise the “status quo” in which they live (in addition to their antipathy towards the Nazis), but throughout the plot it’s hard not to notice that personal comments on certain issues are introduced by mentioning them through secondary characters. I’m not saying it’s wrong, however, this practice tends to break the immersion one achieves with CoG/HG games; bias will always be an unavoidable factor, yet the subtlety with which it is expressed elucidates the skill of the creator. :thinking:

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