(WIP) The Ascendant | 3 Chapters done 80k+ words

Hosted Games Works In Progress
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I’ve begun work on my new game The Ascendant (title subject to change, it was gonna be something else but that was taken which I suppose says something for the originality).

Brief Summary

The Ascendant takes place in a world where there is significant hatred, bloodshed and warfare between the 4 known races that share the continent. Each race has their specialty, with the humanoid races of orcs, elves and lycans having enhanced strength, intelligence and agility respectfully. The humans on the other hand have the power of “Arts”. (There is a lore section in game but if you’d like more info in there or on here please let me know, I’m wary of boring people with too much)

Current Features
  • Be a male/female/non-binary person or input your own
  • Select your pronouns from a pre-set selection or input your own
  • Be a mixture of human and a fantasy race of one of 3 options
  • Build up your physical and mental abilities
  • Tap into your arts
  • Customise your appearance
  • Customise your personality
  • Choose between 3 weapons, or go without
  • Customise how you fight
  • Build relationships with the people around you

Currently it’s about (3.5 Chapters, 80k+ Words) done, and I plan on updating at least once every month.

I was initially going to wait until I had more words down before committing to a demo, but I was getting a bit desensitised to the mistakes already, so I thought I would open it up to some lovely people in the hope of some help :slight_smile: so yeah, try no to roast me too much but I’m open to literally any and all criticism as I strive to improve.

Also as a heads up, don’t expect much in the way of ROs right now, I am HEAVILY aro/ace so I’m not great with writing it, and the MC is a kid for now anyways. Final heads up, I’m posting this just before sleeping because I am terrified so I won’t be around long, please forgive me if I don’t respond for a while :).

So as you may be able to tell from, what I hope has appeared above my message or this sentence doesn’t work, I haven’t been actively involved in the forums for a while. It’s the classic “lurker for a while, decided to try my hand at writing”. Pretty much everything is subject to change, as my idea for the game changes quite a bit as I go through.

CoGDemos link: https://cogdemos.ink/play/will5738/the-ascendant/mygame/
(I tried a Dashingdon link too but for the life of me I couldn’t make it work)

Changelog
  • Initial upload - 25k+ words - 22/07/24
  • Lore change and extra exposition at the start - ~28k Words - 23/07/24
  • Tweaks to the tournament, large tweaks especially to the final fight - 30k+ words - 23/07/24
  • Fixed some gendered words, added outspoken/reserved, added flavour text to differentiate shy/reserved - 31k+ words - 23/07/24
  • Moved lore to stat page, added religion to lore, gamemaster mode, a little of the next scene - 53k+ words - 26/07/24
  • Couple fixes, new chapter - 59k+ words - 30/07/24
  • Bug fixes, achievements, cheat mode, extra option to deal with Cedric - 60k+ words - 31/07/24
  • Bug/typo fixes, change to start (roommates), change to Sir Hadrian’s reaction to training incident, made Ash gender selectable - 61k+ words - 2/08/24
  • Fight tweaks in the tournament and some other tweaks adding more customisation appearances - 69k+ words - 6/08/24
  • Added stat explanations - 70k+ words - 6/08/24
  • Minor changes, Randomtest fixes, Bug fixes, Backend fixes in prep for next scene/RO, extra cheat option for relationships -71k+ words - 31/08/24
  • Partial chapter, fixes, debug variable check -81k+ words -19/09/24
130 Likes
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very good, I will definitely be following

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I loved it and look forward to seeing more!

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Well let’s try this then

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@William5738 Havent finished the demo yet but ive noticed some issues but they are mostly small things. Right now there are two however that i deem bigger so will remark on them the lore section you have doesnt flow smoothly if its for learnibg about the lore of the races and places before hand. It would be better to be able to go through each section with out having to do the process you have in place currently. Basically make it separate from the the start of the game lol not sure if im explaining it correctly.

Now into the game itself im not sure how i feel about where we start if its a bunch of hate in the world between races and ignoring the fact of having this young of a child in barracks and learning to fight. Whats stopping those we share or someone else from killing us since half breeds are deemed unholy? Is it only by the grace of the duke are father?

I will say that im interested in the ways we can deal with the knight captain and his daughter that does give insight to how we can deal with others so far ive gone for the quiet shy responses. Will continue my play but a decent start so keep it up. :smiley:

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Yet another collection of my many wip book that I can’t wait

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Thanks for the feedback! I can definitely change up the lore section to be a bit more removed from the start, it was something I added almost at the end of what I have done so far as I realised there was a lot I hadn’t explained so I was anticipating something having to change there.

Also a big thanks for pointing out what you’d like a bit more info on at the start, I have this issue where I know what’s going on in my head so I sometimes don’t elaborate on things enough so I will definitely throw more background in at the next update.

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Also the fight thing in the tournament I have no problem winning but the fights could have been better

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I anticipated this, there’s a lot of variation in them and a big chunk of code related to it but if you focus on combat then it goes much easier and quicker than intended. I’ll definitely have to tweak that a bit, thanks for your feedback!

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I just pushed out a quick update changing the lore section to be a bit more self-contained as well as a couple extra sentences in the starting sequence in order to explain a bit more why you’re still breathing. I’ll be working on the fight sequences a bit more today before moving back to the next scene so any feedback/suggestions would be greatly appreciated, I’ll likely be able to fix and implement whatever it is very fast as I have a bit of time today to work on this. Thanks to the people who have left nice comments and thanks again to those who have helped give me feedback! :slight_smile:

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I pushed out another update with what I’ve managed today, it mostly focuses on the Ash fight, making it a bit more difficult and thus forcing a bit more of what I had already written as well as some more I wrote today to be used. I made a few changes to the second fight but I’m not entirely sure what I want to do with that so it will likely be changed even more in a future larger update. Side note, with this update I have crossed over into 30k words! Might not seem a lot but I’m proud of it anyways :slight_smile:

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Son referenced before I get to chose? Top of page 2, just immediately after picking Hunter, Starfire or enter own.

Seeing that immediately trigger thought, it may have issues pronouns and type. I will look further. When get the chance again.

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Ah brilliant thank you! I wrote that just before I had the pronoun variables and the like so just self-inserted. I’ll get it fixed, thanks again!

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And make sure the MC is getting bullied and we get a chance to retaliate and also is only humans think we are unholy or other races have thoughts on different mixed breeds

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Bullying is definitely different depending on bully and victim. I haven’t gotten thru enough to see much yet but will see how that is done.

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That’s a good shout, I had intended to have more off-time and making events like that but I got a bit sucked into getting the stuff I had in mind down. I will probably add at least one bully event to set the tone for how that goes. I will also add in somewhere in the explanation on the other races opinions on half breeds. I was going to wait until the player meets them in the future but on reflection it’s probably best to say it earlier. Thank you!

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Yes but the MC is a half-breed and it’s kind of a racist setting that is fueled by a religion nonetheless and we know how humans act when they are taught to hate something

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I have to read further than eye selection first. Also i need to check how this world treats people. I can’t say much more til i learn bit more.

Got to Ash and Father, Ash says “I brought him here.” Should be she.

I will keep an eye on it. Can’t continue now but will get back to it.

The idea of a bully, yeah, definitely agree with that as half breeds are so hated.

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Damn, I let another slip, thanks for letting me know!

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It felt weird picking “slowly walk” when meeting ash and it came off as being shy when i thought it was me casual calmly walking. You can be calm/reserved but still be confident. So maybe ad outspoken/reserved for the more calmer/stoic Mc’s.

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