Plan is to have another chance at starting romances in chapter 8, yep!
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Was vaguely frustrated tonight when I realized I had to code a particular moment in a way that means our automated testing program will kill a certain NPC, like, way more often than I want said NPC to be dead, statistically speaking, if that gives some idea of the stakes weāre working with in chapter 8. Things pretty much only escalate from here.
However, I am in fact writing the game for real people, and not for automated testing programs, no matter how much I personally love Randomtest. And on that note, Iām interested in running another favorite character poll, now that thereās been more time to get to know the characters. Also including non-romance options this time. Let me know what you think!
Favorite Character?
- The Sorceress of the Skies
- Baz
- Vivian
- Natalia
- Em
- Harper
- Ravenna
- Renard
- Other (please elaborate below!)
0 voters
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Hey if itās not too much to ask could you add a save system? The game has gotten fairly big and itās kind of difficult to get all the way to the end repeatedly.
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Thatās come up a few times in this thread, and yes, itās something Iām considering.
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That was a fantastic demo canāt wait for the full release.
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So Iām on chapter 6 right now, and according to the code, if you managed to get Em and Nat to ally with each other you should be able to explore the tunnels with both of them, I managed to get the alliance, yet for some reason, Iām only exploring the tunnels alone with Em, (ie I got set tunnel_buddies 1 instead of tunnel_buddies 3) was wondering if I missed something here
Edit: Basically for some reason emnat_allies is false even though Iām 100% sure I managed to get them to ally
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Did you do it by having Natalia heal Em? It looks like that version managed to skip setting emnat_allies, but that should be fixed now. Thanks!
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Hello all! In what I guess is either a belated Halloween gift or an early gift I am giving to you for my birthday, which is tomorrow, I have not one but two more chapters of Stars Arisen available at the link in the first post! That said, the double-chapter nature of this gift is not exactly intentional, in that I originally wrote this as one gigantic chapter and then my editor and I decided to split it in two afterward.
These chapters deal with some major events, and are very complicated. There may very well be continuity bugs or other issues, either from regular coding mistakes or because I messed something up when I split the chapter in two. Please let me know if there are, with as much detail as you can - screenshots or direct quotes are best where possible. Iām also very interested to know how these chapters feel generally, and if there are moments where you wanted to do something that wasnāt available. Because of the ways that these chapters are complicated, I may not be able to implement all suggestions right away or at all, but I definitely want to hear them and think about how they might be worked in. It might also be easier to work some things into the remaining chapters than it would be here - Iām already planning some things like that. (Yes, this is a very vague description, happy to discuss in more detail once people have actually played these chapters.)
Iām aware the game is huge, and I know people would like a save system. I havenāt put one in yet for a number of reasons, mostly because if I do, I would like to design one that the game can be published with rather than using the Dashingdon setup, and making one while the game is still being written is complicated because the variables and code structure of the game are still in flux. I donāt need further comments or suggestions about this, but itās very much on my mind.
Also, this isnāt fully determined yet, but these might be the last chapters I put up on this developer thread, with the remaining ones saved for the official beta (which you are all welcome to sign up for once itās available). If thatās the case, this thread might go fairly quiet for a while as I work on the endgame, and Iād be interested in know if thereās anything about the characters/world/writing that people would like to hear about during that time.
Parental issue content warning for chapter 8 in that you can fight your mom, physically or otherwise, though you certainly donāt have to. Also, the widespread environmental disaster one from chapter 7 still applies throughout this part of the game.
I also made it slightly harder to be accepted at the Tower entrance in chapter 7, because Iām not sure anyone was actually ever getting fired and/or arrested there, and itās supposed to be at least somewhat challenging. Still interested to know what results people are getting at that point - thereās a lot going on there in the code, and I anticipate playing with the difficulty there some more.
Thank you so much for all your thoughts so far! Excited to hear what you think of these chapters - they were pretty challenging to write.
28 Likes
Wow. Okay. This is a lot. I will try giving detailed feedback later once Iāve gotten past chapter 8.
I did two playthroughs and will probably go code-diving before Iāll try a third, because so far I havenāt found a way to, um, settle that one dispute in a way Iām satisfied with. I donāt want Renard to die, but I also donāt want him to walk all over me and Mom.
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Interested to hear more about this afterward - itās a complicated scene for sure, but itās not supposed to be too hard or confusing to keep him from dying if you donāt want him dead.
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Still working on it.
I just wanted to add that I think my problem is that I thought I could successfully talk people down just because we used to have a pretty good relationship before I betrayed them. The betrayal costs a lot of relationship points, so many that I canāt pass the following relationship checks. That makes the other checks - the actual skill checks - seem easier in a way.
I would like to know if anyone else had the same problem or if itās just me.
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Thatās definitely a fair point - I might be able to adjust the balance with that in mind.
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Toughest decision in chapter 9 for me was definitely deciding whether to tell Em and Nat the truth about Renard being responsible for the storm or have sex with them in Emās office haha. Can I just say I love those two and their poly route so much <3
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Great update I am really immersed in this story! Very captivating. I will read through the new chapters again. That scene with Renard and the sorceress is intense.
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Alright, I tried again and got through the confrontation in chapter 8 okay in different variations, now without trying the relationship checks. Those other stat checks were possible, even in the three-way fight.
There was just one incident when I though the Sorceress was acting really weird: When I fought Renard for her in a non-lethal way and then argued with her when she tried to kill him anyway, she acted as if I had betrayed her I left the cave. That felt like a bug to me because it didnāt make that much sense. Back in Kelestri she seemed happy to see me, though. Her behavior seemed a bit erratic in general.
The electoral ball blind-sighted me a bit. I felt that this was the entirely wrong moment in the game for a celebration of any kind, so I was glad I had the option to mostly avoid it by talking to Em about Renard instead. Donāt get me wrong, the whole ball is very well done in all its variations, itās just that the whole idea of a ball doesnāt really fit for me at that point of the story.
Also, ghost sex with Vivian was both sweet and absolutely hilarious.
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Do you happen to know more specifically what the Sorceress was saying when you left the cave? There are a lot of variations on that, itās possible something isnāt lining up right or is unclear.
Regarding the ball, it is supposed to feel a little incongruous, itās the Assembly trying to hold on to a tradition/restore a sense of normality when that doesnāt really mesh with the current mood of the city. Some characters will discuss this more than others, and I think thereās probably more that can be done to establish it, and also to emphasize more leading up to the end of the election that the ball is coming.
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To answer your question, I think the Sorceress didnāt say much of anything. If I remember correctly she just looked at me and I told her something like āwe donāt have to be enemiesā, even though we werenāt really fighting. I can understand that she wasnāt quite happy with me because I didnāt want to kill Renard, but I did convince her that it was for the best to let him live, so I thought we were cool.
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Iāve been working my way through my first playthrough of this game for the last three days and am totally in love with it and in awe of the wonderful writing, world building, plot development, and characters! In particular the lore is incredibly interesting and itās been a lot of fun puzzling out the secrets!
Also! This game is legitimately challenging in a way I often donāt find with IF games and I found I enjoyed it much more than I thought I would. Figuring out the balance of skills and attributes that suit my character and having to commit to those so that I can actually pass the checks makes them feel more meaningful and my character feel more established in this reality.
Also also, just wanna say that Baz and Vivien are my favorites. All of the characters are wonderful but those two especially I really enjoy!
Thank you so much for sharing this wonderful story with us! Your hard work and passion is seen, appreciated, and adored~
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Just finished playing through. I loved this game. And as an aromantic person, I also liked that I could not bother with romance routes and it felt totally natural to do so.
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