Triaina: Academy - WIP - Update 1.28 - (9/15/2024)

Hosted Games Works In Progress
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Progress Report
Heya everyone! There’s quite a bit I’ve done, so I’ll just get right into it haha

For starters, I’d like to say I anticipate an update next week, so be ready for that!

What will the update include?
— Revised backgrounds, with starting items. Among them being a worn training sword, a very valuable book, a set of lockpicks, or a performer deck of cards. These will play a role later on haha
— New classroom scenes. General education will now include Treyla Wunderkind, a child prodigy from Hearth’s aristocratic family. Lin, captain of the guard will now also be teaching combat training, aided in part by second years Juno and Rex. S and L will be in the class from the start of the year. Welcome two new faculty members! Simon, leader of a traveling troupe known as the Burmuda, has volunteered to coach your physical conditioning temporarily, aided by second-year Uno. Rosaline, a distinguished S.T.E.M. researcher has taken up the responsibility of teaching Introduction to S.T.E.M. with second-year student aid Acer.
— New specialization scenes: Now, MC specializations will be introduced by your respective instructors/mentors. Lin will offer to continue training military background MCs, Dr. Hoft will introduce orphan MCs to information regarding their dead parents, Rosaline will offer a pursuit of scientific inquiry to scientist background MCs, and Simon will offer guidance to performer background MCs.
— New misc scenes: Introduce yourself to P after a violent altercation, let Raven introduce themselves to you after finding them perusing your room, take Fiore’s matchmaking survey to find a suitable suitor for F, all kinds of fun!

This update will be pretty extensive, so look forward to it!

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Oh you absolute madman, you added more characters?

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Can’t wait, not sure what else to say about it just excited for more lol

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I don’t know if this has been answered, but is the Academy like a college or a highschool? Sorry if this has been answered already. :disappointed_relieved::sweat_smile:

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As I understand it from a semantics standpoint, college and highschool are the same thing across the pond in the UK. :thinking:

Facetious opening statement aside, and based on my impressions from reading T:A, it feels a lot like an ‘early placement’ program. Kids who would normally be in middle/high/school are set up in advanced (college level as far as the US would be concerned) educational programs with the possible goal of graduating–in T:A’s case–as ranked/specialized officers for their country’s army.

Naturally, we all know there’s a lot more to the story than this, but hopefully my answer helps LeoXII out.

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It’s like a college haha. All the ROs are in their 20s. The education system in Triaina is a little different, as it’ll be referenced a little later in the game. Most simply learn to read, write, and do basic arithmetic, then associate with the community/family for work/apprenticeships. Triaina Academy is one of the only establishments for higher education in the country, so most students that graduate do tend to be far more specialized than the general populace, with reserved spaces in the military, scientific, and mercantile community for them.

Hospur has more of an education system that’s familiar, with years of gradual progression of theoretical learning and rigorous testing for memory retention and problem solving skills.

Vestia has no educational basis. Most of the populace learns from word of mouth. Some, like V, do not know how to read or write, though that is more of an outlier case

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I’m pretty sure all education is one big kindergarten … :wink:

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Any education is Kindergarten if you try hard enough.

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This is probably the closest I’ve seen to a visual novel (minus the visual) that any WIP or published choice game has gotten and it’s absolutely majestic.

The biggest similarity is the handling and introduction of a relatively big cast of characters (and ROs), their traits and quirks make them very enjoyable and memorable. The tropes used (step-sibling with a crush, yandere stalker, kuudere war machine, etc.) mesh well with novel concepts and come off as fresh in how they’re presented or have an interesting twist that makes their use entertaining rather than the checklist I sometimes see in other products. Like many VNs in the genre, this game benefits greatly from putting the characters and their interactions at the forefront for the reader.

In contrast to VNs, the biggest difference is what makes this a good choice game. The customization of the MC is very thorough, I was pleasantly surprised that a different parent profession choice in my 2nd playtrhough changed the dorm dossier scene and the MC’s last name. That’s what ya boi’s looking for in his games. The different responses and corresponding personalities are a joy to play, especially the occasionally dense no-nonsense MC.

As much as I’d like to continue, I’ll be eagerly waiting for the upcoming update before deep diving into the ROs and figuring out who’s the best waifu/husbando.

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wow there is so many changes. i almost fail to recognize this game. sadly these changes made me less interested… anyway good luck

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Been so long since I played through originally, I’m not sure what all has changed. I know somethings are missing I do remember but such is the life of a work In progress I suppose.

Still enjoyed it. Seemed smoother then what I remember of the first. Better flow I guess.

I did really enjoy the socially nervous options I played through.

Looking forward to more.

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I still kinda remember the demo before, and don’t know how much you are gonna change it so I am going to use spoiler tags for some parts?

I will say I think I am going to like this just as much as before. However I will say one thing I am hoping for is that the way you find your power is changed. Cause I’ll be honest when my girl got hooked up for the first time, I didn’t even know that was going on. It wasn’t until much later did I find out.

Also one of my laugh out loud moments from before is when I had to choice to strip for Vin. With him being my favorite, I had to. XD Though I will say I was kinda hoping that he would shoot Raven. I will say before I wasn’t so sure if Raven was the one who killed the citizen before. Now I am more leaning towards thinking he is evil.

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@Jordan_Haley yeah in the old demo you got to kill one person with Raven then help them at the party. it all could go of 2 ways, with you helping Raven not kill people, or just go insane side by side killing for funsies

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I’ve just played the demo!

I like the setting and general concept a lot, and so far I enjoy the characters, especially Vin.
I’ve seen a couple of issues here and there though, and I also have some questions. Humor me please?

So, first the few issues I’ve encountered:

  • When Emil asks if the MC is ready to go, and you ask as ready “as I’ll ever be”, on the next screen it says “You follow after her (…)” - should be him in that case.
  • I believe the choice with the bird doesn’t affect the personality, though I may be wrong.

Now, not truly problems, but things that I’d change or that I’d like to see, if you’d like to consider them:

  • The menus would be easier to maneuver if clicking on “show stats” would lead directly to the profile, instead of a submenu, and if you could select the options to switch to the other pages from there
  • You have a lot of love interests, and I see most of them (or all, if Raven is called that no matter what) have the option to be male or female. Would it be possible to get an option at the start of the game to choose if one wants to select the gender of each character as they appear or determine one single gender for all the selectable characters when starting the story? I only romance male characters so I basically have no use for the character specific choices, and I’m sure I’m not the only one. I wouldn’t be asking for that if they were not so numerous. It’s nice to have the choice, but selecting the same gender for all of them is a repetitive prospect.
  • Also, will we have a character customizer? You can select your name, gender and height, but it’s always nice to select hair and eye colors too.

Other than that, yeah, the questions I had!

  • I would like to know the mechanics of the game, personnality wise. You have these opposed stats for personnality, and it seems for each choice of tone/reaction to something, you get a small increase in one of the stats, and the opposite one obviously decreases. It’s an extremely straightforward system, but as far a I understand it, your choices only determine the personnality of the MC, and don’t interfere with the story in any way?
  • But then, how will the story unfold? Will we have skill and personnality checks at some points, requiring selecting stats we’re strong with? Or maybe it’ll be very RP oriented, with most actual choices being going here or there, seeing one character or the other…?
  • Do the MC’s background influence the story? Or is it solely for stats and flavor text?

That was quite long haha! Hope you don’t mind!
The game is enjoyable so far, can’t wait for updates!

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I’ll consider this high praise, and I’m absolutely grateful for it! Thank you for enjoying my work haha

That’s unfortunate to hear. I hope as I continue to develop the game you’ll find something of considerable interest. It may be nigh unrecognizable, but the core of Triaina Academy is still there haha.

I’m happy you’re enjoying the story and characters. I’d be happy to humor you, though my jokes aren’t very good haha.
Let’s see.

Got it!

It does, but it’s very minor haha

I’ve had a similar request. This change is already finished in the code, just waiting for the update.

Maybe, but I don’t see myself putting something like that in until I’m close to finishing the game, since it requires a bunch of redundant coding haha. For now I hope you can bear with it for the 8 times it pops up in the beginning haha.

This is also already implemented in the code, just waiting for the update. Specifically options for hair color, eye color, and hair length, on top of the height. These’ll be referenced through the game much like the height option already has been.

Yep, the personality dialogue options are specifically for RP purposes. No matter the personality you choose, you’ll still be able to romance any of the characters, and it will just be added flavor text within it. No story beats will change, though perhaps depending on the personality choices some story beats may be interpreted differently.

this one. My game isn’t meant to be heavily stat focused, so most of the story branching will come in the form of who you wish to see or what you wish to do.

Yes, there will be a background specific story that follows the beat of the main story depending on what you choose.

I don’t mind haha. Thank you for enjoying my work, and I hope my future developments will provide you even more entertainment going forward haha. I was supposed to update last week, but unfortunately all the time I had set for writing was eaten away by unexpected overtime. Rest assured I’m still hard at work with it haha.

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Take your time!
Being hyped doesn’t mean I can’t wait for you to finish the update and be happy with it!
And I’m happy this is more RP oriented. It’s nice to sit back sometimes and enjoy a good story without stressing over stats all the time.
Also, didn’t mention it, but Raven is creeping me out sooo much. I tend to like characters like him, so yeah, I’m impressed you managed to make me mostly creeped out. Though, it’s in a good way.

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That happens to be their charm, creeping people out so much that they fall in love with them.

I got to say, it’s working pretty well up until now.

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Salutations once more dear author, I was wondering if it would be possible for us to access and play the older version of this game. Specifically, the final version before the revision took place. Now you may be wondering as to why I desire this, and that I shall get into.

The first reason that I would like to do that is to compare and contrast the differences between this version and the previous version.And secondly, I admit that I would also like to experience more of your colourful cast of characters, Raven in particular, and to see how they are introduced, how they act, what are the things we get to do with them, and most important I reckon, the ways we get to Romance them.

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Haha, well the only problem with this is that the new revision is basically written on top of the older version, using it as a skeleton.

Of course, I’ve kept some of the older versions of some of the scenes and content, but up to the point I’ve revised I wouldn’t be able to really rewind and piece the scenes back together again.

I have everything from the first version beyond the first class, up to getting the specializations and etc, however implementing it would be…somewhat jarring, because the old version doesn’t account for newly implemented characters, ideas, and so forth.

But I’ll tell you what. If you guys really wanna be able to play the older version too, at least before it’s inevitably revised over, I can put in a small option after the demo that can let you continue it at your own risk, since I can’t guarantee that it’s code will mesh well with the revised counterpart.

You’ll all have to let me know what you think of that

@Eiwynn Ahh, that’s true, and you’re right, it could definitely screw with the development if people give feedback on the unrevised version haha. That being said, I’m not necessarily opposed to allowing access to the old version for pure entertainment purposes. Perhaps setting it to its own link and releasing it independently from this thread, perhaps on my tumblr, would be more of a compromise…

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I think it is a bad idea.

1: This is supposed to be for feedback on your current work, not give people access to old work that then will be commented on, confusing the feedback chain.

2: It really risks you migrating old material into the new without meaning to.

Yea. I think this might be a good solution; unless you get feedback from your tumblr audience too.

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