Shepherds of Haven (WIP) (DEMO UPDATE: 3 Aug 2021)

@Otaku_King Oh, duh, I’m really dumb. :expressionless: I didn’t reupload the startup file along with the new chapter file! It should be good now! (Fingers crossed)

Well, like I said before wouldn’t it be possible to meet a cute gay during the course of our mc’s investigations?
i admit he’d have to be an entirely new character but that doesn’t seem quite so impossible to me. Or you could make Trouble an RO.

From the point of view of being a traditional writer I get that you’ve conceived the characters in a rather particular way, but retooling an existing story into a game will inevitably require some (narrative) compromises.
Still excited for this though even if you don’t want to introduce a new character may I at least suggest having both Red and Ayla always show up anyway, that way there will be at least one gay guy in the cast on every playthough and that would do a lot to make us feel represented over just having only another girl preferring “bi” guy be the only one guaranteed to be there.

Of course my mc is still likely to be pining for Trouble in any case. :crying_cat_face:

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@idonotlikeusernames I do really like the idea of encountering a gay character during the investigations. My worry is that if they’re not a Shepherd recruit (as all of the other ROs are), it will be difficult to have a relationship that is as fleshed-out and central as the relationship with the other ROs! (Because you spend so much time with other Shepherds, whereas you would see the other character more occasionally). Would that feel unfair in that case, or is representation more important?

And I’m thinking about making Shery and Trouble ROs! :sweat_smile: No promises yet, though! If it happens, I will probably get to it way down the line. :slight_smile: But it’s not impossible.

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If you do and make them exclusively lesbian and gay respectively then the problem would be solved neatly.

It is at least a hell of a lot better than having no (guaranteed) representation at all and compared to the other ro’s their outsider perspective could be refreshing.

As in spend as much of my mc’s free time as possible with them, honestly that’s fine and I’ve personally never romanced a workplace colleague and we do spend on average a depressing 1/4th of our lives at our workplaces, so again no trouble on that account with both lovers having separate jobs as that’s the way a great majority of relationships, gay or straight seem to work.

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True, but it’s still pretty badly imbalanced, especially if the “straight guy” is the most important person in the Shepherds… :confounded: Of course, if Trouble and Shery were upgraded to exclusively gay ROs, then there wouldn’t really be any problem. :smile:

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I think I will be making Trouble a romance option for both, Shery an exclusively lesbian option, and Riel an exclusively gay option. Thanks you two, you helped me find a way! :sweat_smile:

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Aww…I hope Trouble will at least be a gay-leaning bi guy in that case and who is Riel?

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I just wanted to romance him as a dude! I don’t really care if he’s bi or not, personally.

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Its probably the old Bioware games that have given me an aversion to nominally bi guys who only ever mention their prior girlfriends and comment only on feminine beauty and often have to be really pushed into a relationship with the male player. I know bi guys with a female preference exist in real-life but i’m a bit tired of them being the sole media representation of bi guys.

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I hear you loud and clear. My real life partner is that bi guy. I’m cool with it but sometimes I wish he’d just can it about ladies.

That being said, there are also bi people that have no preference. I’d be fine if he was that type of bisexual. Admittedly, I would also prefer he be a male preferring bisexual. Tip the scales a little bit, at least.

But whatever the Author choose, if I can romance him as a guy then I’ll be happy. There’s just always something about dating someone and not being their preference that ends up making the romance uncomfortable, ya know?

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THANK YOU!!! :heart_eyes:

well, no problem :grin: as long as he isnt straight :wink:

w… WHAT ?! :astonished: but i… well, no matter… Lavinet sounds interesting enough :thinking: , or maybe my MC will be gay in every playtrough :joy:

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I noticed an issue where once you arrive at the city gate and you didn’t choose to ignore the boy, the option to threaten the guard no longer shows the outcome. It goes to the next part as if you just bypassed the scene entirely. Before the update, it would show him somewhat scared by you and tells you to go on in but to be good, or he’d deal with me himself.

Edit
After you join the Sheperds, is that the end of the demo currently? Just making sure it is and not a bug etc. If so, I eagerly await your next update.

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@Otaku_King You’re really good at finding bugs! :sweat_smile: I just took a look and I accidentally coded the outcome of that scenario as either (courage >=10) and (ruthless > x)
or (courage <= 10)… so long story short, I think you literally only could have gotten that bug if you had your courage exactly at 10! :joy: Thanks for noticing that, I’ve fixed it now!

And yes, after you join the Shepherds, that’s the end of the first chapter and the demo! The last line should be “Welcome to the Shepherds” or something like that. Thanks so much, the next chapter is well underway! :smiley:

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Glad to hear you found the issue. As for my courage, at that time it was 14 or higher. And I’m leaning towards ruthless. I think only the opening choice affects it currently?

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Great story. Though am i supposed to have a negative amount of gold when i decline the shepherds offer? Or a decreasment of words of power?
Anyway keep up with it

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merchant

He falls silent. Then, when you glance at him from across the flames, his eyes suddenly flash to you. “Speaking of the Autarch, I heard you talking to the boy,” Ebert says, his voice suddenly tight and low. “Talking to him about the Autarchy, and the Castigation? Now who went ahead and gave you the right to do that?”

“The boy asked me about it,” you begin, taken aback.

“Doesn’t mean you ought to go whispering poison into his ear. Hael, someone like you ought to know better,” Ebert snaps.

I took the option to not tell him yet this conversation feels like I did tell him about the war.

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@Otaku_King I’m not able to look at the code at the moment, but I do know other choices affect ruthlessness. Off the top of my head I believe ditching Caine because “you’re tired of him anyway” and trying to sneak off before the first revenant (in your hometown) notices you affect ruthlessness. Also focusing on self-preservation in the church!

@Noah Hm, I’m not sure why you would have negative gold, you shouldn’t! I’ll have to look at the code when I get a chance. Your words of power should only decrease to 5 if you used one to save people from the Endarkened at the church! It will always decrease to 6 after the flashback. Edit: Oh, you know what? I think what happened was that I uploaded a new version of the game while you were playing. Did it restart on you? Because I’ve found that the stats will stack in that case, so instead of losing gold on the guard just once, you restarted with that (lesser) amount of gold and then you lost more on the second round! That’s probably why. Same with the words of power!

@Logan3000x That’s just Ebert using any excuse to spin things out of proportion and be a bigot. No matter what you tell Caine, he still won’t be happy about you associating with his apprentice and will use any excuse to say you’re a bad influence on him.

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love the up date but got man how we all now if you play up date that kill me for helping save life is a dick

Yes in fact it did, i thought it was myself being paying no attention to what Button i press, but that would explain it

This is really unique. Reminds me a bit of the witcher series. Great story so far. Seems really cohesive and original. Words of power seems pretty cool. Characters are really interesting and is there a chance to get back at ebert? Interested to see what comes next.

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