Gaia worship is also kind of a “new age” term. Considering the matriarchal society and some sort of past cataclysm is it possible this is far into the future Earth and the ruins are modern buildings? Basically, we are in a uno reversed Caesar’s Legion from fallout!
1 Like
I should say for clarity’s sake and in the interest of avoiding any confusion that this story takes place in a fictional world that only takes inspiration from real life history on our planet. The geography and so on are fundamentally different, along with certain other things. It would be a lot more clear if I ever get to making a map of the Empire, hopefully I can do that eventually lol.
24 Likes
Just a thought, but maybe using something like Inkarnate would allow to bang one out quickly, and still have it look pretty decent.
2 Likes
Yeah, I’ve used Inkarnate before back when I ran D&D campaigns, so I probably will use it in some capacity for this. I wouldn’t expect a map for a while though, probably not until I finish Act I.
15 Likes
That’s one of the theories floating around, but I’m not sold on it. A couple of the largest obstacles to that are the existence of many historically inspired civilizations with no knowledge of their possible predecessors and the different geography of the world instead of our own.
This could either be a futuristic civilization instead of a modern one that performed large-scale terraforming on Earth, or a much larger time could have passed to allow for tectonic drift, but the first theory is sufficiently contrived as to likely have simpler alternatives, such as a fictional universe, and the second means existing ruins are very unlikely.
2 Likes
There’s a few minor errors in the demo, though pretty much limited to text variants. On the Stats/Relationships screen:
*if imperial_favor >= 25
You are the Empress' chief advisor, and she has listened to your counsel on occasion.
*elseif imperial_favor >= 50
You are the Empress' chief advisor, and she listens to your counsel.
*elseif imperial_favor >= 70
You are the Empress' chief advisor, and she respects you and your wisdom.
*elseif imperial_favor >= 85
You are the Empress' chief advisor, and she follows your counsel frequently.
*elseif imperial_favor >= 90
You are the Empress' chief advisor, and she trusts you implicitly.
For the favor of 25+ the game will always display the first variant and never the “better” ones, because first positive evaluation ends the chain and so none of the elseif gets tested. The tests should be arranged in reverse order, or reworked into < 50, < 70 etc.
This issue affects also barbarian_favor, senatorial_favor and ceto_opinion displays.
On a different note, while not a bug per se, the display of Augusta’s future inclination fails to take into account situation where tyrant and paragon meters are equal. (and doesn’t print anything in such case) Which perhaps should be instead a third outcome, given it can be discussed as such during the early lecture on rhetorics (the “Prince” model of a ruler)
5 Likes
Alright, those should hopefully be resolved.
The lack of printing is an oversight, I added in a section of text for alignment ties, though in the scene where her alignment calculates and locks in, I will add a “tiebreaker” choice as well.
As for an option like that, it would be difficult to implement as an exact tie of Paragon/Tyrant would be hard to actually expect a player to end up with, well an exact tie, and that it would require an entire new Augusta to write. After her personality locks, much of how Augusta acts and talks will be determined by which of three alignments she ends up with, and that will affect how the story develops.
4 Likes
That could be resolved fairly easily, by adding some margin of tolerance, e.g.:
*set augusta_inclination (tyrant - paragon)
*if (augusta_inclination < -2)
// ... paragon
*elseif (augusta_inclination > 2)
// ... tyrant
*else
// ... prince(ss)
which would let the player get the “middle way” as long as one of the variables didn’t exceed the other by 2 points. I do get the effort involved with all the extra writing though, that can be very much a showstopper. Alas.
2 Likes
Unfortunately it is, especially in a story that will be as long and branching as this. Thank you for the suggestion still, though. I feel as though the Tyrant/Paragon/Puppet trichotomy represents the ways that Augusta can not only react to the MC’s teachings but also confront her own issues. She’s a character of her own, of course, not only molded by the MC’s actions.
One example that I’ve touched on briefly already is how her relationship with her mother might change depending on which of the three she leans towards. A puppet Augusta might be cowed and simply do what she’s told, a tyrant Augusta would idolize her mother and seek to emulate her, and a paragon Augusta might seek to reject the harsh rule her mother stands for. All with varying consequences. That becomes more complex to handle the more variations I throw in, so three should suffice I hope.
18 Likes
If the other characters had traits like the MC (Death and Taxes for example), what would their names and abilities be?
Quite random question and certainly useless, but that’s the way things are 
3 Likes
I’d love to list what they might be, but some of those might be spoilers…
10 Likes
I only just recently realized Julia is only 8 years older than the MC. I realize she is sick but age difference is much smaller than I expected given the dialog.
Yeah, sometime the game make it sound like she’s 50 or 60.
Mainly due to stress, I had thought I had written in the story. Managing an Empire ages you terribly over a decade. For a real life example, look at how Presidents change in eight years, then add in constant warring across the known world and then becoming sick. Julia has had a great deal on her shoulders.
18 Likes
I suppose but this line is just between the two of you in private if you are having an affair with her “You should be off, Tiberius, if you want this old woman to get that rest.” I suppose she might be joking or feeling her age but it seems a little corny given how close they are in age. Feel like my crippled veteran MC should be saying “If age is why you need to rest then I’ll join you!”
I mean, yeah, it’s both a joke and she’s feeling her age all the more while being sick. In that scene she also realizes, however begrudgingly, that not resting puts her health more at risk. Someone still needs to do the business of empire, though, and that’s the MC if it’s not her.
3 Likes
Fair enough and maybe my general illiteracy is to blame, but I’m on my tenth go at it and only just realized the age difference wasn’t 15 years or more as I assumed.
1 Like
Well, that would be very on brand for Roman politics.
1 Like
Just look at Emperor Hadrian and his almost 20-year-old lover Antonius. Talk about age difference there — 35 years or so. He sure loved the young man, building a city, holding games and creating a cult in his honour. Truly, the best way to show your love of someone is to make them a god.
1 Like
When going along the “fake” romance route via subterfuge with the empress is it possible to fall in love with her after? like a “normal” affection