Active Interaction & Stat Overhaul Update v1.1.8
Thanks to everyone for all the support so far! I just finished up the last of my essays and exams (yay!), so hopefully I’ll have a good amount of free time to write now.
This is only a partial update, just so that if you have any bigger suggestions I can implement them before the draft is finished. This update allows you to interact with the four of the five travellers on the road and also overhauls the stats. Any feedback, continuity errors, formatting errors, or bug reports would be helpful in these early stages.
I’ll likely update with a small patch in a few days for easy fixes, a larger one in week or two for bigger changes, and hopefully the finished act in a month or so.
Hope you enjoy! As brain-hurting as it is, I’m really having a lot of fun writing this!
Wordcount
The wordcount per playthrough is difficult to count because the added dialogues are partially optional. The almighty randomtest puts us around 9,500 words per playthrough, but it can vary by a few thousand depending on who you talk to and how much you ask them. Each traveller conversation averages to about 1,500 to 2,000 words per playthrough. With code, Act I is at about 60,000 words.
Summary of Major Changes
New Dialogues
These dialogues will play into:
- What type of relationship your MC will have with their new guardian (eg. Parent-child, boss-employee, ect…),
- Determine your “secondary background” within a background (eg. noble with focus on intrigue, noble with focus on combat, ect…),
- Have some effect the world (how you treat travellers even if you don’t go with them),
- Effect MC knowledge (very minor).
New Origins
So, you may not have even noticed this unless you checked the stat page at the end of the demo, but if you chose to go off on your own at the end, there were a few new names and titles for the MC. There are three unique origins if you head off on your own: beggar, stablehand/courtier, and hunter. And there is some variation within those based on your choices.
Providence & Volatile:Controlled
It’s now possible (but unlikely) to fail at convincing a traveller to take you with them. This is to introduce a stat I’m trying called providence. Providence is in essence, a second chance mechanic.
Volatile:Controlled is the ratio between all of your points in volatile dispositions and controlled dispositions. Right now it’s main purpose is to add possible consequence to using providence.
More information in the Understanding Stats page in game.
Stats
The stat system I’ve added (and need to improve on), was made to dissaude the reader against stat management and feeling the need to only use the same one or two stats in order to pass checks. Most stats are shown in rank rather than exact number and are not visibly weighed against each other. Still a major work in progress.
Right now, the stat screen is a bit difficult to read, and I am working on that.