I would like to report what I think is a bug in chapter 4.
#“It would be marvelous for her to speak in town! Much more comforting than an armed guard.” I’ll argue Ravenna’s case until Em has to give in.
*set rel_em %-5
*set rel_rav %+5
*if (resolve >= 55) or (lively >= 55)
*set nat_standing %+15
*set sub_standing %-10
I think that nat_standing should go down not up.
Can anyone help me know how to increase Em and Natalia relation with each other?
The main source of Em and Natalie relation is through the meeting between two factions, the Natalie ( or Em ? ) pet scene and some other dialouges when we spend time with them
Thank you! A couple stat changes were actually off in that choice. Fixed this in my files, will upload a new version when I get the chance.
Some discussion about this elsewhere in the thread, but there aren’t really enough opportunities to do this right now and I need to rework some early stuff with them. At the moment, the main chances are the scene with both of them at the end of chapter 3 and the meeting they can invite you to in chapter 5. (There’s a test of their relationship stat to unlock the scene in chapter 5, but it’s currently a very easy test because of how hard it is to raise their relationship elsewhere.) There are a couple other stray chances in dialogue choices with both of them, but those are the biggest moments.
I just read what’s available of the Stars Arisen WIP and I love it! I can’t wait for it to be finished and out officially. Any specified date that it will be available yet? Can’t wait.
Glad you’re enjoying!
Hello all! The next chapter is currently with my editor. I’ll have some revisions to make after that, but I should be able to put it up here afterward! I don’t have an exact date on that, but should be fairly soon.
In the meantime, I’m curious about everyone’s thoughts on something. “Stars Arisen” has been the game’s title since the original pitch, and is essentially just some thematic words I threw together. It’s occurred to me while writing that the actual plot of the game is not particularly concerned with stars rising in any way - it’s much more about stars that have fallen, and will fall in the future. (Actual spoiler from the demo: The Remnant Stars aren’t even at the top of the Tower anymore, so they haven’t risen in that sense either!) So I’ve wondered if I should think about changing the title to something more accurate.
Here’s a poll! Stars Arisen as a title:
0 voters
(I’m aware that what the title would be changed to might be a factor for some people, but I don’t have a list of alternates yet, so this is just for thoughts on this title specifically. And I’m not looking for title suggestions right now - I’d prefer to brainstorm my own first.)
idk lmao- but it doesn’t have to be the Remnant Stars that are “risen”; could think of it being the MC who rose (overcame challenges, etc)?
…lol should I be sleeping more
This was my first immediate thought, too. If any of the theme is ‘changing of the guard’, pointing to the connection between the Remnant Stars and the MC, and suggesting that the characters are ‘stars’ of the story is a roundabout way of saying the title could be accurate.
Yeah, that was my best approximation of a way the title could still work too, I was wondering how legitimate it seemed.
Thanks to everyone who’s voted in the poll, super interesting so far!
Agreed. The big thing for me, though, is that something more accurate like “Star Fall” is quite cliche.
As @Mistyleaf123 alludes to, I saw the title as referring to the characters in the story.
Overall this is a “changing of the guards” or “shifting of the generations” themed story, and as such, stars arisen fits perfectly with new “stars” emerging to take over. Whether it is the Queen, or the Council, the old guard is transitioning into a new elite… and this is the story of the new heroes and villains.
Thanks to everyone who voted in the poll! No final title decisions yet and probably not for a while, but that’s very helpful.
In other news, Chapter 7 is now up! This one is super complicated, and I’m excited to see how it goes and what everyone thinks. It is very possible that there will be continuity errors, and I definitely want to know if there are. Also, there are a few places where there are a lot of things coming together behind the scenes in ways that make it really difficult for our automated testing programs to judge the difficulty, so I’m very interested to hear how hard they are. Those particular moments spoilered below (list includes things from right before the end of the chapter):
I’m interested in how the difficulty feels in general, of course, but those are the moments it’s particularly hard to run tests on. Also, for chapter 7, content warnings for widespread environmental disaster pretty much throughout and a very brief (couple of sentences) indirect reference to suicide in the conversation with Renard at the end of the chapter.
I’ve also tweaked a few things in earlier chapters in response to your feedback. This includes a couple more Em/Natalia moments. That’s still in progress, they’re pretty small and may still not be enough chances to work on their relationship overall, but there’s now a longer interaction between them when you first meet them in chapter 2 and options to discuss their relationship more directly if you meet either of them in chapter 4. (There always were, and still are, chances to discuss their relationship if you take their jobs in chapter 3 and the big moment between them at the end of the same chapter.)
Also, by popular demand I have followed up on the book you can steal from the Tower archives in chapter 4. I will tell you up front that it is definitely not the Sorceress’s diary, and it offers no significant lore or plot development at all, but it is extremely silly. (You will not see the silliest version unless you avoid getting captured while escaping the Tower and have a high relationship with Vivian.)
Is there any chance you’d consider adding the dashingdon save system to the demo? The device I play on has a tendency to reload my internet pages without my input and the restarting can make playing through pretty tedious 
The update is lovely and really builds tension.
What happens when you get to the Tower?
I get into the tower without a problem because I convince the guards with a creative story. Only Natalia is arrested. I convinced the guard to show mercy by allowing her mother in. Then I persuaded Erin to let her go and they agreed.
What happens when you get to the tunnels at the end of the chapter? Does Renard immediately catch you, do you notice him chasing you down, or do you find him at the tomb?
I didn’t take any detour when I entered the tunnel. I found Renard in the tomb and successfully used creative solution to get past him
I loved this chapter (and I love this story in general). Everything is coming together so nicely, and this chapter especially felt very atmospheric.
And I really enjoyed that extra bit with Vivian in chapter 4 about the book we stole.
Should it not be ben_mother plus 15 after meeting the strength stat check?
Missing closing speech marks at the end of the sentence.
The @ at the end of the paragraph.
Here I essentially told Harper nothing, so the last dialogue option confuses me because…what truth would be sharing with the public, given that I haven’t shared it with Harper?
Thank you! I’ll fix the typos. The ben_mother thing is not an error - that choice increases the Vindictive Goddess side of the stat, which for an opposed stat means that the Benevolent Mother stat is lowered in the code. And yeah, the Harper thing is weird - I think I might have mixed up what Harper can know there and what the public knows there. (It’s possible that you told Harper the truth earlier on but decided not to reveal it to the public here, which I think is the scenario I intended that option for. But if you didn’t tell Harper anything, then yeah, it’s a strange thing to say to him.) Might need to poke around at the various who-knows-what variables to figure out how I want to revise that, but I’ll try to have a better version up soon.
Regarding the Dashingdon save system, maybe! I’ve been holding off because if I put in a save system, I want it to be something I can publish the game with, due to its length. But it’s probably going to be a while before I can implement something like that, so I’ll consider it in the meantime. (None of this is a final decision re: any particular save system, for the moment.)
First I need to say that this was a very evil cliffhanger you left us with.
I got into the tower just fine after a bit of persuading (I used magic in the plaza to help people, and no one really seemed to know what to do with that). Natalia got arrested but was released because I was friends with Em. Then I ditched everyone, spoke to Baz (but left him there), found Renard at the tomb and tackled him to the ground. At every important scene there was at least one stat check I could pass. But that’s probably because I’ve played the demo so many times I’m at expert at min-maxing now. A perfect outcome is difficult to get, but not impossible. I also burned one star sliver.
But the most difficult part for me was that I really needed to get my priorities straight: Doing the most to help everyone on the way just doesn’t work if you want to deal with the main issue in a timely manner. So even though I did manage to get through it fairly well and could tell I was passing stat checks, it left a sour taste. But in my opinion that’s exactly what such a chapter needs to make the stakes feel real.
Uploaded a few quick fixes for the typos and the Harper thing reported earlier, thanks again for those! I think the Harper dialogue at that point should now make more sense in relation to what he knows about you, but I haven’t had to fiddle with some of the relevant variables in a while, so let me know if it’s still off.
I’m curious to know if anyone has ever actually gotten arrested at the Tower entrance in chapter 7. It’s an inconvenience that makes some things harder, but it’s not as big a deal as you might think, and I wrote a lot of content for it that I would like some people to actually see . Also, because of the thing I mentioned where it’s hard to judge the difficulty based on automated testing, I think I may have overcompensated and made it easier to avoid that it needs to be.
Exciting chapter with the cliffhanger with Renard. I do have a question when will there be another chance at starting a romance with Vivian I missed out on it due to going to the meeting between Em and Natalia to get them together.
As for what happened I got into the tower no problem due to threatening Harper. Em and Nat were on good terms and I was able to get them to admit their feeling for each other. I was able to sneak up on Renard at the tomb door.
