@GloriaRose No, Lucifer is not a RO. However, you will be seeing more of him, depending on how you play. I won’t say why at the moment because, spoilers darling.
@CaesarCzech The Might vs Strength is supposed to be similar in name. Both stats are more representative of a brute force character, hence the similarity in names. Strength however is for physical and might is Grace (or angelic magic). I am open to suggestions that might make this clearer though, as choosing the labels for these particular stats involved several conversations with an English Major so they may very well be too subtle of differences.
As for the stat screen, I would love to hear more feedback on this. Personally I hated the long stat screen and prefer multiple subcategories, but if the majority prefer everything on one screen that’s easy enough to fix. I split it up with the idea of primary and secondary allocations as the main screen deals with the primary stats that will, in essence, effect survivability. Relationships and skills play a part but these are what I consider less essential stats, in that playing without paying attention to these stats is possible. In particular I want players to be able to gauge their relationship and skill levels from the story itself, using the bars as confirmation of the way they are being treated.
What specifically about the approach made it seem heavy-handed to you? Was it just the ‘both’ branch? (That would be the one I would assume would feel heavier handed compared to the others as the way it was structured led to more nested choices). It’s supposed to feel a little stilted–this is a character who has not really considered the ramifications or meaning of selecting a gender identity and is doing it under the sudden prodding of an archangel (who does have a reason for prodding you but I’m trying to avoid spoilers). It’s not exactly a normal situation. One of the reasons it is so complex for the angel identity is because the mortal shell has to be strictly male or female.
[quote=“CaesarCzech, post:12, topic:15298”]
Leadership char and i had to spend time clicking all the 4 options and looking at the two suboptions of each choice. This is pretty inpractical
[/quote] If you were trying this for the options in the chaos plane, there is no leadership bonus as you probably noticed. A couple of things on this. First of all, the first part is not meant to focus on your stats and traits. It will give you a boost but it is not a definitive playstyle at this point. The first four options correspond to the four skill points you can pick, with a boost on the two types of fighting style associated with each of those skills.
The first of the more defining traits comes into play with your wing and weapon selection and I attempted to make that very clear as to what skills were gaining with each choice, though you do have to select a choice to see what skills can be gained from it, but there is the option to change your selection. The purpose of this is that a) I want people to be able to know what skills they will be increasing while b) not directly telling the player “psst! For leadership click me!” I want a more organic character evolution with the choices made for the choices, though I can understand the frustration when attempting to level a certain skill.
What I will say for certain is that there will be opportunities that almost explicitly tell you what skills you will be leveling. Example: (The format, not the exact words/situation) There is going to be a police raid on a warehouse full of drugs. You:
A: Volunteer to lead the raid yourself.
B: Carry the battering ram to break down the door.
C: Slip in the back door with a smaller team.
D: Plan out the attack and hang back so you can make modifications on the go.
Not all options will provide the opportunity to level all stats. For example, the previous four choices are A. Leadership, B. Strength, C. Agility, and D.Ingenuity. However, the opportunity for gaining stats will be equal in that stats not represented here will potentially be leveled elsewhere. Reading the explanation of the traits/stats is supposed to help players identify potential situations where they might increase a stat if they are having difficulties.
Again, the skills are currently a WIP. I am focusing first on the story as the stat checks don’t really come into play until the second half of the story which is a ways off. Currently my system of stats is an incremental system based on percentages so that it gets harder to level certain skills the higher your rating. I may change this to a much simpler system of flat values that would (potentially) allow you to exceed 100%. In the future I may post the demo without the corresponding stat changes based on decisions because I am still tweaking them.
@T_bonez Thanks for the comment! I think that I may have confused people when I said linear–I was referring to timeline, less so plot line, though the first half is a little more straightforward than the second-half. There are plenty of choices with ramifications in the first-half, from selecting the cop you partner with to deciding how to deal with your local demons. My goal is that players can fall wherever they want on a ‘goodness’ scale. I don’t want to give away too much but I do want to make it so that replaying the game with different choices actually changes the way the game feels, rather than trying out different stats for different battle techniques. Because the second half of the game really delves into alliances the branches diverge more dramatically, but I’d like to think that the first half will still offer plenty of choices and noticeable differences for various playthrough styles.
This brings me to one other point: I have difficulties playing evil or dark characters. I’m the type of person who kept reloading while playing Halo because the marines died . I do have a roommate who plays evil incarnate characters attempting to check that I do have a viable ‘dark’ path… but if you notice a distinct lack, feel free to point it out.