A Caliross Analysis: Missing Factions (Patreon)

Hey guys, finally back again with more info and details about Caliross. Specifically, I wanted to talk about either cut content, or stuff that never really made it past the planning stage. One of the big things I considered for a long time, but which I had to ultimately drop from my plans, was some sort of affiliation with the underworld of Tarkas. Specifically, I wanted something as a (mutually exclusive) alternative to the noble path. As you know, it's actually possible to never become a countess in Caliross, however right now there is basically no reason not to (you CAN fail, but I assume most players who are committed to it will be able to get it done), the "criminal path" was going to be the alternative, providing a slightly "edgier" path in the process.

Since it never made it into the game, I also never settled some of the ideas I had for it (I was debating for a while if I wanted it to have mind control in it to influence Erica or if our protagonist was going to be completely aware of who she was dealing with), But I knew a few things:

1) It would feature our boy Gaspar and his boss: Gaspar was going to have a slightly larger role originally, where he would get into trouble with us more often, and the relationship between him and the protagonist would evolve over time. There are parts of it in the game, but I kind of wanted him to develop some proper respect and a better relationship with the protagonist, beyond what we have now.

As for his boss, he would be the main leader and point of contact with the criminal faction. The idea would have been to have some "gray area" quests, to get our protagonist slowly but inexorably tangled with the mobs, until it would be too late to completely cut ties.

2) Like other factions, it would introduce changes to quests, but more often than not it would be in the form of "opportunities", getting easier solutions for obstacles as they help you as a reward for your work (as an example, I was thinking about them smuggling you into the ruined temple, as an alternative to getting the Emperor's permission to enter, or having an easy alternative to getting the trade permit to go through the military outpost, or even some unique services and shops).

This was also going to tangentially touch with the League of Merchant, to make it more obvious that the League isn't ran by saints. I wish I remembered more about my plans, but it's been a while and as I said, it never got to the point of being added to the game in any form, so the idea is a bit fuzzy in my mind.

Another piece of content that was floating around for a while was something extra for Solina's beach. Those who played the game over the years know about the bridge there and how it teased some more content in the future. I had 2 ideas over the years for it: in one version, it was going to lead to a villa with some wild parties you could possibly join, but the one I considered more often was a nudist area. I think it sorts of make sense in an adult game, but at the same time it might have been too clichè? It never was going to be core content, so it was easy to postpone working on it over and over until the window closed and it wasn't really a good idea to spend time on it anymore.

A couple of miscellaneous things that never made it into the game are other towns and places: I wanted to have a tiny village to the remote south of the continent, in the snow (this was actually going to be the birthplace of the first Emperor at some point, or at least a village close to the actual birthplace). Honestly I didn't have huge plans for this, but I wanted to showcase the various cultures in the continent, as well as make use of the snow maps assets a bit more (I like snow IRL and I LOVE snow in videogames, it's one of those things I always find atmospheric, for some reason).

Other areas included the islands around the continent (you can see one to the east, and there was another further away to the north-west): the one to the east was the one that got the closest to actually being included. It was going to feature some suggestions I got over the years (something akin to a sex cult for the Goddess Santhora, some mysteries involving the inhabitants and the ruling noble of the place, plus some other stuff I don't remember at the moment), but this too was one that kept being sidelined in favor of more pressing matters, until it was time to remove it from the plans. The island to the north-west was a bit more vague (as I mentioned in the past, it was the original testing area for Caliross, where I tried the mapping tool and some mechanics that didn't make it into the game), but I wanted to have something there, like an ancient building that wasn't related to the Shapeshifters that Erica could explore. I probably would have added a new summon there, if I ever got to the point of adding it in.

Something that is in the game in part is the ship, as I was planning to have it work as a "regular" vehicle, originally, but since these areas off the mainland never got included, a regular vehicle felt even less important overall. Plus, I am a big fan of Morrowind, which is why I like movement systems that aren't instantaneous and ubiquitous, so I wanted to keep the carts and the ships "network" as it is. Of course, there are other considerations, like the fact that I don't have many spots outside of the cities/towns to explore, so exploration in general is a bit underdeveloped. Anyway, back to the ship: I also wanted to have you explore the ship itself whenever you wanted, talk to the crew and familiarize yourself with them a little. In the end, we got the super-condensed, cliffsnotes version of it, but I tried to make up for that by attaching several unique things to it, but the ship experience is probably a little too messy as a result (and so is the Sleeping Bear, which you can find only by learning about it on the ship).

There is more, but those were at the top of my head and the post is already long, so I'll stop here for now. Next I'll probably try to remember more of the missing stuff plus some niche topic in case I am a short on interesting bits of content that never saw the light of day. See you guys soon, and don't forget to ask questions in the comments (if you have any)! ^_^