The Path of Light

Hosted Games
42

Let me list some complaints:

Your baseline stats from the intro are never called except to determine which specialty’ you take. This seems like really bad writing.
The custom name for your demon girlfriend is poorly implemented, sometimes just calling her by a different name
(Knowledge) is called but never set, so you can never recite the prayer over the mushrooms to make them edible
(hour) is called, but never set to true (that’s the rag doll) rendering the game unwinnable unless you’ve got a leg-up on wounds
The prayer for knowledge you have and the herbalist knowledge are both incorrect. They tell you to treat the symptoms one at a time, not all at once. Which is the wrong choice.
the whole thing is a mess of unintuitively named labels that bounce you back and forth. More intuitive names are better
Towards the end you get “Choice A” “Choice B” and “Choice C” instead of named choices: WTF?!
It would be better to add more favor at each scene change, and less at the start, so that the character always feels the need to strongly ration their favor

This is the worst coded hosted choice script game yet!

I played a generalist
I smote the guy (+1)
Used the icon (+1)
Used the holy water (+2)
Used the medallian (+2)
I petted the cat (+1)
I made the girl angry at her husband (+2)
and still died because (hour) doesn’t work, so Clarissa’s doll is inaccessible, and the guy takes somewhere around 11 wounds to kill!

(Please think: >9 means >=10 (that is to say ‘ten or more’) >10 means ‘eleven or more’ If you want nine wounds to be lethal it needs to either say >8 or >=9

If this was intentional, then it’s rediculious! You can only get 10 points if you have all the modifiers except zealot, or if you have zealot and only miss one one point modifier. Since you can’t get ‘hour’ which is a two point modifier

The writing is fine to clarify. It’s the coding that’s terrible. I sometimes use the words interchangeably. Sorry if the earlier version of this post was confusing.

43

Thanks for the time you spent analyzing the problems. I believe you could be a valuable asset to any beta test and I apologize for any negative emotions my game caused you.

The ‘baseline stats’… well, I don’t consider them that baseline. They don’t even appear in the stats section. Their purpose is really just that - to help you pick up the strength of your hero and generate some biography. That part does not exist in the Android version but I decided to add it to bring in a feature I consider to be typical of Hosted Games (and was heavily influenced by Life of a Wizard by @Lucid).

There was an issue with the names in the second scene but the update that went live about a day ago fixed it.

Talking about the update, it took me an hour to make all of the fixes. It took next to no time for Hosted Games to do their work. But, it took a whole week to the guys from iTunes to make it available.

The Knowledge variable is unfortunately still an issue I need to handle it next time, probably when part 2 comes out. It is not a game breaking bug… but still a bug.

The rag doll is usable now.

The issues regarding treating the first victim of the plague are now fixed.

The “Option A” and “Option B” choices are inherited from the Android version (the choice text appears on a button and its size is limited). I never thought that would be an issue.

The comment about the way favour is handled… I think it is more of a matter of personal opinion than on game design flaws.

Version one of the game may very well be the worst coded ChoiceScript game yet which is the result from my lack of experience. The most important issues, however, were fixed and I hope I will be able to look back to it as learning something the hard way.

I am happy that you liked my writing.

44

Guys, I would like to ask you to put a rating on the current version (if you downloaded it from iTunes). Their page now shows only the rating of the previous version that was plagued by bugs, so more ratings of the new are required.

Thank you very much in advance.

45

Im just curious, which path shall u use to get the token from bel daughter. Ive tried everything but cant seem to get it. help needed. thxs

46

You need to treat only one of the symptoms of Babel. This makes him awake in the morning after Clarissa / Cain cures the illness.

You get to talk to him, and you need to tell him that the Light will give him many days. That should be sufficient.

Strangely, one reader complained that he did that and still didn’t get it. It works on my iPad, I even checked the code to make sure. Oh, one more thing, you don’t get it immediately but just before you set off for Kalea’s place.

47

Hmm it doesnt work, tried everything.

48

Let me see if I can find the referent codes.

@start_up
*create mouse true

@demonologist (last scene)
*label tonetwo
“Actually, we will be able to handle ourselves, Won’t we, Brother”

Florence’s eyes express doubt, but he nods in agreement.

“We have three symptoms and three drugs. Cough - a decoction of Grannies salvation. Sore rash - Cream of pine bark. Palpitations - lavandorov dust. We can combine them.”
“I’ve never seen those combined before,” Florence murmurs.

“Ok, we can then start with the heart problem as it could be the most serious,” you say.
“As you say, Brother ${name}.”

You feel a sudden urge to get out of the infirmary. What directions would you give Florence before you go
*choice
#Treat all symptoms
*set mouse false
*goto tonefour

#Treat only heart pains
    *goto tonefour

…
*label tfivesev
You wake up on the hard wooden chair, distorted in crazy pose. Apparently, you were really tired to fall asleep like that. You look at the ward. The sick are still asleep. It turns out that the symptoms of the newcomers faded out, so you give them a blessing after waking them up and send them home.

Babel is asleep. He’s not fully healed. Some of his blisters closed, leaving ugly scars, but others are still bleeding.
*if (mouse)
*goto ronetwo

*else
*goto roneone

*label ronetwo

When you lean over him, he wakes.

“How is your heart?” you ask him.

“Better, Father,” he takes a hard breath, then get cramps and coughs. “Maybe it’s my time to take the dark tunnel.”

What will you reply?
*choice
*#“It’s too early for you I’m sure you the Light will give you many days.”
goto tfiveeit

#"I do not know, only the Light can say."
    *goto tfivenine

#"If it is what the Light decided, you should be prepared."
    *goto tsixzero

*label tfiveeit
*set ox true
The old man smiles. Half of his teeth are missing, but his face is radiant.

“Thank you, Father.”

Probably, he wants to say something else, but the cough would not let him. You hand him a cup of broth. The very first sip calms his breathing.

Before you leave the infirmary, you hear the snoring of Florence again. You wonder if you should wake him up, but then decide against it. For now, everything seems under control.
*goto tsixone
…
*label tsixfour
*page_break
**if ox
goto tsixfive

*else
*goto tsixsix

*label tsixfive
*set icon true

P.S.: I am sorry for the bad formatting.
In short, you start with a mouse true (if could be made false if you treat all symptoms). If it is still true, you get to talk to Babel, then set ox true, which leads to setting icon true.

49

Hey, Ivailo. I’m reading Path of Light and here are some typos I found:

“You descent,” should be “You descend,”

“a grotesque reminiscent of a human” it looks like something is missing between “grotesque” and “reminiscent”

" boy manages to put its forearm in front of his face just before it shreds it to pieces" should be “boy manages to put his”

“only a few second to do something, otherwise, the ghoul will finish him.” should be “only have a second to do something; otherwise, the ghoul will finish him.”

“know that it is you who make her confident and allow” should be “allows” and “makes”

“Father, can I count on your discretion. There is something I need to discuss with you.” You nod and invited him into the confessions chamber." (invited should be invite and discretion. should be discretion?)

Also, I would suggest fleshing out the choices a little bit, and arranging them better. I know they’re really succinct because you could only fit a certain amount of text in your old programming language, but you can fit any amount in CS.

And what I mean by arrange them better is like this instead of putting them like this

 
1.) Smite him 
2.) do something else 
     1.) you have a canine friend
     2.) you have Ulmia's knife

It should be:

1.) smite him
2.) call your canine friend to aid you
3.) Give Ulmia her knife

That’s another thing; I think some of the choices like that could be worded better. Instead of “you have Ulmia’s knife” and “you have a canine friend” it could be “Call your canine friend to aid you” and “Give Ulmia her knife” or something.

That aside, I am enjoying this!

50

Thank you very much, @Samuel_H_Young. Typos seem to appear all the time.

1 Like
51

Here are more:

“got his legged badly hurt” legged should be “leg”

“It takes a lot of preying” preying should be “praying”

52

“heruns in that direction and you are certain its intentions are pure. The problem is that he is too injured, hismefforts” (hismefforts and heruns)

Also, just a friendly suggestion - maybe you should consider doing at least one big proofread. There seems to be many cases where questions end with periods, and the dialogue is oddly placed. (like, for example, two people’s dialogue would be in the same paragraph instead of separated.)

53

“You stare in dismay as her cassock falls on the ground. Sister Ulmia is dressed in only two pieces of cloth, covering her breasts and loin.”

I’m not dismayed at all. :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

54

Yeah, what they cover is self-explained. Besides, it is so little it doesn’t matter :smile:
By the way, what do you think about the Light?

55

I haven’t finished re-reading it, but I like it! There are some typos, and I think the choices themselves overall could be “cleaner,” but the writing and the story are good. I especially like Growler and the she-bear!

56

It seems that typos are like the demons in the Abyss (smite them as much as you can, there will be enough to take their place).

Growler is to make a brief appearance in part 2. If there is a part 3 it will most likely be about the conflict between fangbearers and woodcutters.

I like Alarra too, she deserves a bigger role :slight_smile:

I was asking about the sort of religion. I tried to make it as pure as possible, but I know you have a strong opinion on such beliefs.

1 Like
57

Yes, I know this all too well. :stuck_out_tongue:

Awesome :slight_smile:

Yeah, definitely!

Oh! I accidentally read it as, “What do you think of the Path of Light?” In fantasy stories like this, there isn’t really anything wrong with religion in general because the deity/deities kind of prove themselves through magic. I didn’t necessarily like when, for example, Ulmia’s coming back safely from spying on the battlings was attributed to the Light, (because I believe she did so through her own skills) but I do like what the religion stands for.

1 Like
58

“We have a patient with multiple complains.” (complains should be complaints.)

“Where is Kalea” you ask Florence. (should be “Kalea?”)

“Splendid! Now you have to do without herbalist.” (should be a “the” or “a” before herbalist.)

Also, I’m a healer but it said I didn’t have the knowledge to use the correct herbs to heal Miller.

1 Like
59

Thank you, Samuel.
Do you refer to this moment?

“Where is Kalea?” you ask Florence.

“I sent one of the boys to get her, but she is gone. She left a note and the kid brought it to me. It said that she would be gone for a day or two.”

Splendid! Now you have to do without the herbalist.

You’ve never seen a case like this, with so many symptoms that may be somehow related to each other. You can pray for knowledge, relying on the Light to show you what herbs to use (if you are a healer, you already have that knowledge). Or, you could also say the prayer of healing diseases, however, it is far more complex and taxing in terms of favour than the one dealing with wounds.
*choice
*selectable_if (healer) #Use your knowledge of herbs
You really need to concentrate on one symptom at a time, for combination of the drugs needed to heal his illnesses can be dangerous and can actually deteriorate his condition.
*goto tonetwo
#Pray for knowledge
*goto toneone

#Pray for healing
    *goto tonethree

#Administer herbs
    *goto tonetwo
60

Yep, that’s the one.

Also, there appear to be some extra words here: “Maybe I should long talk to you, but …I feel have doubts you can understand.”

“Father, have you ever wanted to achieve something really badly but not known how?” (should be “didn’t know how”)

“The Darkness also helps sometimes. About a month ago, I found a spell book over there,” Cain points at a bush.

“You feel a strong suspicion that Cain found the book rather than being given by someone, but you decide not to bring it up.”

That’s what Cain said. xD

"The boy looks at you with a serious expression on his face. You…

asked him not to cast spells
asked him not to do harm"

Okay…both times this occurred, it didn’t make any sense to me.

Also, after I talked to Cain to have him try to help me heal the disease, he didn’t tell me anything. But then it says that at least I know what I’m dealing with, but I don’t.

1 Like
61

“I don’t know, Cain. But I know that the path of Light is created to bring joy. The path of Darkness - distress and pain. When you think about her, what do you feel?”

Not to cast any more spells
Not to cause harm to anyone

This one, especially, didn’t make any sense to me.

1 Like