Very interesting storyline, played for the first time today!! Looking forward to seeing sparks develop in the story haha. Keep up the good work!!
Well, I think the only problem with the stats you have is if the MC character knows or learned Latin.
Maybe, since knowing Latin is such a priority in the game, have it where during the boat ride the player has a chance where one of the slaves they can befriend will teach them just enough to understand their captors
As for how I did in chapter 1 amd 2
chapter one 1:
Summary
I used caution going into the ally to fight the gang.
Summary
Took a defensive stance, then charged when the leader showed up.
Summary
Looted the bodies, and used my influence to send the leader into slavery
Chapter 2:
Summary
Befriened the female slave
Rufused to scrounge for bread, but accepted the peice my friend offered
Stayed silient knowing the fight was a trap, but volunteered when my friend was about to be picked
Used the sun to my advantage, then used a defensive stance to tire my opponent out before using a submission hold to end it.
As for why I snubbed the second guy, since it was my first play through of that chapter, I didnāt know how many buyers there woyld be so when i failed to grab the attention of the first purple robed guy I thought there may have been another opportunity.
On the matter of the Brutus path I was never given the choice to say she wasnāt my wife. It just said is that your wife and thatās it. Unlike the Cato path were I choose if she was or wasnāt. And even if I had to have her tag along I felt like my MC was pushed to having sensual feelings when he was looking at her even if I didnāt feel the same. Especially that bath scene.
Also Im a gaul
my stats for that fight were
leadership 30
Strength 62
Charm 34
Intellect 32
I focused mainly on strength and tried ever combination of choices I could yet still nothing worked. And places were strength should of worked didnāt. Iām just overall confused as to how I could have won that when everything I did was countered.
Ah, finally! I won! Thanks for the help.
Everyone else is doing a bio of their MC so Iāll do that too:
Asheal (Female)
Gaulish
Merchant background
Leadership: 15%
Strength: 50%
Charm: 62%
Intelligence: 28%
This is my general strategy going into these types of games: a high charm/charisma with combat/ strength coming to a close second. Sometimes in reverse.
My learned friend here is right about that, though I can understand the reasons for the married scam, the forced attraction is very jarring to me too.
Iām glad youāre trying. Actually on the lower class path, for those of us who didnāt choose the (attempted) seduction options during our youth that bit of fantasy could easily be made into a seamless orientation choice by letting us freely choose between the different versions of the fantasy and maybe add a third bi option where both genders are present too.
Iāll try a ānobleā character next, with my usual lower-class characters it is impossible to get the Cato path in the first place, since that requires both high int and the mc knowing Latin.
I will say though that while both of the current masters have very cute sons, that Decius would pretty much be my canon and thus lower-class mcās dream guy.
I know, that was also a bit of sarcasm. Playing a smart lower-class mc is a challenge I gave myself here. The only thing that sucks at the moment is having to forego a stat-boost in the tutor scene to learn simple, conversation Latin, not even reading and writing it but simple conversation skills.
On the other hand you could help equalize this temporary deficit later on by having subsequent tutoring in languages where we learn to read and write Latin and/or our mother tongue give modest Int boosts in addition to literacy, that the already literate nobles cannot get (presuming that we get another opportunity for tutoring like this before any eventual manumission that is). This would symbolize the non-noble mc, who is thus inclined belatedly ācatching-upā on being educated.
@Kungfuboom this game doesnāt reward over-specializing in any one stat, try to have at least two decent ones, as this one tends to be slightly more realistic then always choosing the option linked to your highest stat and expecting to win every time. With my own character he really did feel street-smart at times, so even without formal education intelligence is far from useless.
Hmm them maybe Iām understanding these Stat checks wrong because even with a intellect greater then 40, over the < 30 margin Iām still stumbling. I must be missing something and I have been choosing different weapons to see if that changed anything.
Edit: and apparently you can say you donāt know your best friend you just need to know Latin which is only doable if you pic the intellect option from the noble path. Not sure if you can get enough strength from the merchant path to go Brutus. Still master Brutus spoke to me in gaulish later on in the story so this requirement is still puzzling.
@Valerie_Koh
Thank you so much for your kind words Glad you enjoyed the play through!
This is actually intentional on my part. Then, as of now, knowledge is power, and while intellect is not defined by literacy, I def. want to make the language barrier real and tangible so that MCs with poorer backgrounds will suffer. There will be chances to pick it up, but then itāll come at a cost.
Iām trying to make this difficult for players, because realistically speaking, it would have been insanely difficult heh. So in a way, the frustration with literacy/skills that youāre feeling now is a very real manifestation of social privileges, albeit in-game. Very SJW, I know, but this game, for me, is a satire to communicate certain ideas I have and I hope that it adds to the realism and immersion for you!
Great play through so far, Iām going to tweak some of the events based on your feedback, especially the market scene. Thank you so much!!!
Like I said, since mcās from poorer backgrounds already have to forego other opportunities in order to catch-up on literacy, have their adult literacy learning at least give an int-boost once we finally get to that point.
Another thing is that I would have liked for the intelligent lower-class mc to have an opportunity to pick up spoken Latin more surreptitiously, since as you say knowledge is power and so is not having the masters know youāve learned or at least understand their language, which is currently impossible to avoid if weāre learning it under the watchful eye of the masters.
Though I suppose my mc could flat-out refuse to speak it during his gladiator days if and when master Brutus sells him onto the Colloseum and pretend he doesnāt understand it then.
I realize Iāve mostly been critiquing but I really do love this wip and thats why i must post hehe X3. The only thing I will say is I think merchant strength/charm is the easiest duel ability to get in Game rn. Maybe balance out the choices Stat distribution but other then that really canāt wait for more ^^
This is highly peculiar. That was definitely not how I intended it to be! Hahaha thanks for letting me know, I played through it again, it should look something like this:
I definitely did not take this into consideration. Thanks for letting me know, I would hate to railroad the MC and force you into having sensual feelings when you donāt want to.
This is for the jumping back stat check? Haha well, the fight scenes are quite complicated, thereās quite a bit going on in the back so itās never very clear cut, which is how I intend it to be haha. To be honest, I think stats make it easier/harder but if you play to your strengths, you [i]should/i be able to win! Iām rooting for you!!!
Was it Master Brutus or the administrator? Could you point me to this? Itās definitely a continuity error Iāll fix it! Thank you for pointing it out!!
No worries! Bad feedback is the best feedback. Iāll definitely look into the stat distributions! Was actually thinking of playing around with the Charm stats to add fun deceit options muhahaha
@Phoenix_Wolf
Awesome!!! Haha I think your character can lead to some very interesting options
@No_This_Is_Patrick
Yep, definitely! Stats make it easier/harder, but Iāve tried to make it more balanced so that you donāt have to grind the perfect stat combination Hope you win your duel!
Iāll check back on the marriage scam. I think it should be fixed such that itās similar on the cato and brutus paths!
Hmm, Iām sorry I donāt quite get this! So if someone doesnāt choose the (attempted) seduction, how can I ascertain their orientation?
Yes!!! Haha Iām glad my descriptions have not failed me. Hmm, it seems that people are prefering Decius/Aurelia to Titus/Horatia I wonder why hahaha.
That being said, romance is uncharted territory for me and Iām definitely going to struggle with that. So hopefully youāll like what options come out!
This is an interesting challenge. Great to hear that youāre playing around with the classes Hmm I understand where you are coming from, Iāll definitely consider it!
But language is definitely not an easy thing to learn, I mean, conversational language takes years of practice, so with the tutor scene itās already a bit of a stretch. But this is a very interesting notion that could have unexpected repercussions next time. You just gave me a brilliant idea!! wicked smile
By giving us a choice of what the mc fantasizes about in gang scene/robbery/loot scene. Currently you base whether the mcās fantasy has a harem of cute guys (yay!) or a harem of women (meh) based strictly on the mcās gender. Simply make it a choice and youāll allow us to choose our orientation during that scene. For example my mc would like to fantasize about a harem of cute guys.
You can even have my gay mc lustfully stare down his youthful nemesis, as Kraterousā involuntary nudity there would be infinitely more appealing to him then seeing his female best friend naked.
I do agree with @Kungfuboom on the bath scene too, my mc again wouldnāt have much of a reaction, let alone an erotic one to seeing his opposite sex best friend naked there. Heād be much more uncomfortable being naked with his older, but still male master than any women would make him.
Iām glad youāre willing to try and Iāll be sure to provide my feedback on any same sex m/m relationships you try your hand at.
Depends on the person, some people pick it up more easily than others. Now that doesnāt mean youāll be able to have major philosophical or political discussions or be able to win debates against seasoned debaters, but understanding and making yourself understood, if need be, seems to be a skill some people can pick up quite easily.
Besides if it becomes necessary the high-level conversation stuff could be handled later on by a more formal education in rhetoric.
That doesnāt take away the fact that perhaps the most joyous moment of my mcās life may well be when heās finally able to read something. As that would compete directly I think with finally getting his revenge on Kraterous, the ānobleā who had him sold into slavery in the first place.
Sure and Iām really not implying that our mcās should speak it flawlessly and without any noticeable accent, but picking up an understanding, even if a basic one, ought to be possible. Unless thatās what the tutor is focusing on, teaching us to speak flawlessly and without accent, in which case I withdraw some of my previous comment as accentless Latin would indeed be beneficial enough to forego other stat boosts in that scene.
Strictly first impressions, Titus seems literally more brutish, however their appearance is all we currently know about the cute boys. If Titus has the better or at least more compatible with my mc personality, his rival being slightly more handsome wonāt matter all that much in the long-run as they are both cute enough.
Also two errors here:
By the end of the day, you were exhausted, bruised and completely ready to go back the plantation. And you thought this would be easy. At least you were now onto much tastier rations of meat, vegetables and potatoes. Master Brutus was really nor sparring sparing any expenses in the efforts to train the lot of you. But youāre not going to complain about that. You wonder how important this munus thing was. Romans and their stupid politics
One tiny spelling error, pointed out above and one historical/continuity one. The ancient Romans did not have access to potatoes, although for understandable reasons they would likely dearly have loved to. Although if you really want to keep the potatoes, I suppose you could make it alternate history.
Though Iām sure the actual historians on this forum such as @ruhenri could be more helpful on these historical accuracy issues.
Words first, then fist!
Actual that was a fault of my own I thought it was Brutus speaking and not the administrator after the storage room scene. Still itās confusing to me only because he has a personal translator at the time, just not sure why I canāt communicate my sentiment at the auction scene through his advisor. But I do really like the idea of language barrier playing a part in this story. I work in the medical field were language is crucial and if they donāt speak the same language it can be difficult at times to get what you need from them information wise, and vise versa for the patient. I really connected with the MC when he was speaking broken Latin just like how I speak broken Spanish X3
The irony here is I am a Hispanic male who was never taught Spanish heh
Honestly it took me a good month to pick up the basics of what I needed to know in order to understand bits and pieces to communicate. And a lot of it was just listening to native speakers. Iām sure if youāre proficient at learning you could even pick up more. So itās not without plausibility that the MC can learn a form of Latin in a short amount of time
I would highly recommend against it, given that this is passed in Ancient Rome. And as @idonotlikeusernames explained, the Romans didnāt had potatoes. Europe only got to taste those divine things when the Spanish reached Americas and imported it from there (funnily enough, people disliked it, and it took a while until Europeans started to eat them, porks got to fill their bellies with them before that). Writing about cuisine in Ancient Rome is really tricky. If you want to do it, you have to do some research on it. Their eating habits, their aliments, their meals and the type of food they ate was really different from ours. Suffices to say that they didnāt eat many flesh, preferring fish. Still, vegetables and fruit were the basis of their eating regimen, and obviously bread. I guess it might also be useful to mention that they didnāt had pasta or rice, in terms of carbons you can only put them eating bread and cereal porridge kind of stuff (the correct term doesnāt want anything to do with me at the moment, but I think you get the idea).
So yeah, if you are not down to make some research on the issue, and the specific meals that Romans cooked (quite different from ours), you should skip any type of description of food.
I would be happy to do that, even if I am starting to have a chronic lack of time, so I might take my time.
I ended up at the work in progress at the end of Chapter 3.
@nauhziy I enjoyed the update, but I must say one thing bad about it. You should really tone down the random elements in your game.
It is already tiring trying to get to house Cato, and now the fight is tiring me too.
I won the first time, but the second I did everything equal and lost because of RNG, even when I used my highest stat and always succeed.
Now I would need to restart my game and try to get to house Cato again, but I donāt feel the need to do it again, because Iām tired of restarting the game.
At least I found a bug:
The Brutian pulls back the sword. The last thing you hear is Boadicea screaming your name.
ā{name}!!!ā