Just to clarify something.
So Prefect of the State is like the Prime Minister/Hand of the King ?.
It seems like we have authority over a bit of everything (tho Julia is sick)
More or less, yes. Julia spent much of her reign on campaign, and recently she has been sick and hoping to hide that condition so as to not appear weak, so the MC has broader discretion with governance than most in their position.
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Mhm, so the skill distribution change really did a number on Watch Prefect playthrough.
Previously, if you took +1 skill over extra attention to Augusta, it was possible to have 4 Rhetoric, 3 Subterfuge in chapter 1 and get Economy to 4 at the start of chapter 2. This way you could outmaneuver the consul and please Ceto relatively cheap when siding with the senate, and in chapter 2 address 2 out of 3 economic issues. (and then close the remaining one in chapter 3)
But now youâre limited to either Rhetoric 3, Subterfuge 2 or Economy 3, and such skill level doesnât provide any real benefit at the times when it matters. As a result, youâre facing some 20-30 points of extra costs in various empire resources and/or opinion hits, because youâre forced to make at least one or more suboptimal decisions (on top of all previous suboptimal decisions youâd have to take even with the original setup)
The difference between Economy 3 and 4 in chapter 2 alone is 13 extra points in resources youâll see wasted, and on top of it youâre left with one issue still open and bleeding, because for some reason you donât get option to address it in chapter 4.
I feel the problem is partially in how Warfare currently seems very much inferior to all other skills, especially in the early part of the game â i donât think thereâs more than one point in game where alternatives gated by other skills donât provide cheaper/beater outcomes, and, ironically, the Warfare options for the most part cost you Empire power and incur heavy hits to military favor, which is pretty difficult to raise as it is. So getting that +1 Warfare at a start is very much just a handicap of not getting a point where itâd be more useful.
Oh well. Whine over ;/
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I see your point. Let me see if I can adjust some of those favor maluses/bonuses more appropriately. Warfare has uses for certain, and considering the coming military campaign it will play a larger role.
I can see that perspective. Though I should note at least on skill improvement that Iâm becoming more fond of âscaling stat checksâ where each level of the skill is accounted for rather than just a flat âyou succeed with a 4â kind of check. I figure the nuance with this mechanic allows MCs with lower stat investment to have an impact, while also rewarding investment in a stat.
So having a higher Warfare at the onset may lead to more positive results in certain checks, but that doesnât mean success will be locked to a certain number either.
Meant to put that in there, Iâve fixed that.
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Yup, i have no doubt that Warfare will be useful in actual oncoming war, itâs just the way the game is structured, starting in relative peace where other skills have many more applications, it becomes kind of obvious tactic for the player to start their character with skills other than Warfare and then increase their Warfare skills with the skill-ups over the course of the story, for the time where itâs needed. Which kind of puts the archetypes who start with higher Warfare at disadvantage.
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Iâm not sure I think upbringing entirely determines if you can be brave when afraid and know something is wrong.
Though despite her lack of bravery to at least not engage in the petty humiliation, I donât believe she deserves death. Tragic is a good way to put her fate either way.
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This story is so great. Especially love guiding little Empress Gus. Is there a way she will come and visit us after we get hurt?
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You know thatâs an excellent idea. Iâll go and put in a bit of text in that scene if you have high enough rel/raised her.
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Does Augusta only visit us if we have the wounded variable active? I did a couple tests with the no-warfare ârun awayâ option and the text did not appear.
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Thatâs correct. If you arenât wounded you go about your normal business, which includes tutoring Augusta. She only needs to visit you and offer support if youâre effectively out of commission recovering from a wound.
Got it, Iâll fix that.
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I ran into an error while playing as a sorceress just after meeting The Mother it says line 1977: No selectable options
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Number of people considering maybe they should let their MC be stabbed so they can get a visit from Augusta: not zero.
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Sheâs also fascinating because sheâs such a strong character, yet probably the most emotionally fragile of all the ROs. And those eerie hidden secrets about her. Letâs hope her non-biological eye not showing sadness over us is not a foreshadowing of what is to come with the secrets of the ancients.
Not necessarily. She would have been killed either way simply by being a daughter of the old Empress. She could be a puppet to any opportunist. She could have children with more of a backbone. It doesnât matter whether anyone believes she would mount a claim; the possibility alone is the reason.
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Oooo I like the idea of scaling stat checks. Will probably stress me out less when picking my skills: both because underinvestment might not be total failure and over investment might not be wasted.
Iâm being called out 
I always did the run away option due to having no warfare skills whatsoever.
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Yup, i really like the idea of scaling stat checks too. I guess the downside is the extra script needed to get that covered, but from playerâs point of view it could help a lot making things more flexible.
As for getting called out: hey, my MC runs too and the prospect definitely made me consider not to, for a change. /s
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@Azan Question: How rich exactly is a treasury MC, especially compared to the Consul and Julia? Would it be a good look to pay for the upcoming wedding ourselves instead of the treasury? This kind of feel like a good opportunity to openly bribe everybody.
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Yeah, I plan to add more of them (there are a couple in Chapter IV for instance) but they may not make up the majority of checks. This is what happens when you learn how to code Choicescript as you write haha.
Nowhere near as rich. Think of Consentia (and Julia by extension of being Empress, she wasnât wealthy prior to that) as like, billionaire rich to the treasurerâs millionaire rich (obviously these are exaggerations, but thatâs a relative comparison).
It would be a little funny, as it is a royal wedding, but maybe you can manage to pay for the wine 
History Corner! My inspiration for the murder marriage and swift wedding comes from a crazy bit of history involving the Byzantine Empress Zoe and her future husband and consort Emperor Michael IV. Zoe had an unhappy marriage with her husband Emperor Romanos, and eventually had an affair with Michael. He was a mere commoner, a money changer by trade (though some thought he was actually a counterfeiter, a rather sneaky guy that Michael) who came to serve as an official in the court of Romanos.
Zoe helped get Michael appointed to ever higher positions, and despite Romanosâ suspicions and accusations, Michael eventually became his chief servant. To what I am sure is your utter shock, Romanos died, supposedly either being poisoned by Zoe or drowned in his bathtub by his own servants. The very next day, Zoe and Michael were married after bribing the Patriarch with a sack of gold, and thus Michael became Emperor of the Romans. Very much a meteoric rise to power.
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Really cool inspiration!
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This is true, but it also drastically changes the current paradigm where you want your Prefect to have two or three focuses in favor of one where a Prefect with every skill at a moderate level is possibly favored.
That doesnât mean it shouldnât be done, or that there are no issues with the current system. A stat at Level II is exactly the same as having it at Level I, for example, with the sole exceptions of the Julia romantic deception choice or Augustaâs library training. And thereâs no use in overmatching a check so my Rhetoric and Economics Levels VI are essentially Level IV for now. Perhaps some flavor text for that would be fun.
I suppose it just personally feels more authentic that a Prefect should have a few exceptional talents instead of being moderately good at everything. It is possible to be able to string an argument together, to know the basics of financial literacy, to have some basic swordfighting skills and tactics, to be able to lie to a child, and know a few scholarly works. But that sort of generalism is unlikely to take one far in an imperial hierarchy where there are an abundance of people who are very good at one of those specific things.
Again, there is some merit to the scaling checks idea, but I donât know that it should be the majority of checks which are scaled.
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They wonât be, just something I want to mix in here and there so there is some nuance to skill distribution. The bulk of checks will still be âStat >= Xâ.
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