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February 17 Update (Patreon)

Published:
2019-02-17 22:43:30
Imported:
2026-06
Tags:

Content

Whew... this week was a busy one! Released the NGM audiobook, started publishing a serialized novel, and finally launched TLS on Steam. Doing this much stuff usually disrupts creative work, so I tried something different this time by editing between those tasks. It seemed to work well.

The story on RoyalRoad is off to a better start than I had expected. Conventional wisdom is that it's hard to get much attention before your first month, but it's getting some traction. The "top rated" category is basically just a popularity contest, but the story actually hit #680 already. I'll post according to schedule and mention it again in a month - that's when a surge could first put the story up on trending lists.

The image for this post is another two characters from Street Cultivation. Neither of whom has been officially introduced yet, but enjoy the preview. I have six images total for this story and from this artist, who was pretty nice to work with overall.

Of course, the biggest development is finally getting TLS on Steam! There was some weirdness with not being in Early Access that required contacting Valve directly, but for once they didn't hassle me. Just today I got that changed.

Anyway, we're up to 32 reviews already! If we can hit 50, that unlocks the "Very Positive" ranking, which will help the game a bit. Thanks so much for everyone's support!

Files

Comments

Decanter

Perhaps on RoyalRoad it helps to have a preexisting fanbase giving you favorites and such from the first. Quite the hips on left girl who I assume is Rick's previously mentioned sister. Overall can't say I'm feeling this artist as much as some other commenters. <a href="https://thelastsovereign.fandom.com/wiki/File:Nuanced_titfucking.png" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://thelastsovereign.fandom.com/wiki/File:Nuanced_titfucking.png</a> I'm surprised this wasn't one of your screenshots for the Steam page, as I've always felt it was a pretty good one-line summary of part of the game's appeal. Also the Arclent map, just so you can be like "look at me I have fancy custom graphical assets like a map!"

sierralee

Yeah, it's true that my initial rating isn't really "fair" compared to the average story starting out. There seems to be some organic interest as well, though. I welcome all feedback on this artist! I'm biased in favor of the guy just because his communication is good and he's fast - I contacted three artists at the same time and he finished six pictures before the other two artists even got me the first sketch. Art quality is what matters in the end, though. (And yeah, the one on the left is Rick's sister.) The Arclent map was actually a screenshot before, but Valve rejected it under their kneejerk "No prepared images, only screenshots" policy. Probably harmless to add it now, though. The other one... I don't remember my exact thinking, other than perhaps worrying it might attract the wrong kind of attention, but it might be nice to add now.

DukeLeto7

I'll note that the one negative reviewer got through exactly the first sex scene before declaring it a depiction of a war/sex crime and giving up. That's what subtle satire gets you, I guess. I'm kind of skeptical of the whole "trigger warning"/"disclaimer" scene, but there might need to be some hint that the first bit of the game is not to be taken as condoning Kai's behavior.

Ezzie

I like the art :<. a="" although="" artist="" artists="" as="" at="" better="" bunch="" but="" can="" continue="" develop="" downsides.="" exist="" fit="" for="" gets="" good="" have="" i="" if="" it.="" knows.="" like="" money="" more="" out="" own="" point="" probably="" reconsider="" seems="" she="" sl.="" so="" some="" stylistically="" the="" their="" there="" they="" to="" well="" who="" will=""> Edit: I have no idea what happened with this post but I don't feel like rewriting it.

sierralee

This is another way Patreon mysteriously garbles posts. Thanks for your comment, though!

sierralee

I'm open to (reluctantly) adding something along these lines, but I struggle to come up with anything that doesn't feel anvilicious to me.

DukeLeto7

The only thing I can think of is emphasizing that you are a female sex-positive feminist erotica auteur (if I don't presume too much with that description), but that may turn off the incel neckbeardy hentai loving demographic. I've been toying with the idea of trying to use my negative marketing skill to get Pepsi to pay me to advertise Coca-Cola products on the principle that I'll decrease Coke's market share by doing so, so take anything I suggest on marketing with an authentic imitation Lot's Wife pillar of salt.

Decanter

I think that happens when the comment contains a less-than symbol and it's not being used to start an HTML tag.

Quiet Stranger

Rather than a trigger warning, I would ambiguously encourage people to play to the end of the first chapter before they came to any judgement about the game. It'd be a shame if ANYONE judged that work of art based on its opening joke.

Pheebor

Perhaps if you say something like, "I respectfully ask that anyone who wishes to rate or review the game play at least until they see the words "Chapter 1" on their screen. It won't take too long and I promise you'll understand why when you get there!"

DuckTogo

I think the answer is the wait a bit and see how many more reviews show up. I doubt one negative review is going to take away 'Very positive' in the end. I don't think blatantly telling people how to enjoy a part of the game, through in-game means, is particularly helpful. Edit: We also managed to get him to play more of the game by telling him that this part is satirical in a friendly manner. Hooray civility!

Runcible Technician

I've always though the opening could use a bit more forshadowing. A couple more hints that Kai gonna die, Simon saying something more involved or nuanced, warning that the other chosen die easily for example. I like Altina's lines, it's clear she feels something for the lost elven empires just from one interaction.

DukeLeto7

Huh. Well, it seems that our esteemed waterfowl with the custom made M-16, in concert with other fans, has prevailed upon the negative reviewer to re-evaluate the game. Hurrah. FWIW, I'm keeping Steam at arm's length in order to preserve my probably meaningless but very flimsy incognito.

sierralee

It's pretty hard to do this right, but I'd consider something along the lines of an ambiguous statement like Pheebor mentioned. In any case, we'll see how much of a problem it is. I just looked up that negative review and it's nice to see that everyone was civil. ^-^ Hopefully he'll have a better impression of the game later.

onepot

<a href="https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198276433231/recommended/951830/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198276433231/recommended/951830/</a> That guy got more or less soft-bullied into changing his review from negative to positive though. Leaves a bit of a weird aftertaste for me, especially as I think his complaints aren't completely insubstantial. I refrained from replying there to not reignite the flame, but I wanna say here that I've lately felt knowledge of the hidden stats becoming more vital to making meaningful choices. Or rather, while at first those hidden stats were a means to reflect the impact of our decisions on the world, that relation lately sometimes feels reversed to me, having to check the stats first to know what I'm actually choosing between. Just playing and seeing where it gets you still works fine in terms of balance and such, but it sometimes may feel more like being the reader of one of those old interactive adventure stories with 'if you choose a, go to page x, otherwise go to page y', and less like actually playing a game. Which is my major preconception about visual novels btw, and why I tend to dislike them. That's only my opinion of course and I may be wrong, but I thought it might be worth sharing. EDIT: This was meant to be a comment to the chain above, but I guess it's fine as a topic of its own. EDIT2: I still love this game with all my heart, that should be out of question I hope. ^^

Decanter

It appears he withdrew his review rather than outright changing it to positive, so perhaps he just decided it wasn't for him or something. It is better than nothing, and TLS is back to 100% positive reviews.

sierralee

Oh, so that's what happened. I thought the numbers changed in a weird way once, but assumed my memory was faulty. I do hope the guy didn't feel pressured to change it. Not sure if I should say something to make it clear that criticism is fine. It would be rather belated, however. Regarding your primary criticism, it's a complex issue. My intended goal with the game is for past decisions to have a significant impact on future choices, instead of a string of unrelated decisions. If they produce a sense of invalidating the later decisions, however, that isn't what I want. My hope has always been that playing blind you feel like you're making a significant difference (even if you aren't in control of the exact consequences), but that playing as a hardcore minmaxer is challenging and strictly optional. >EDIT2: I still love this game with all my heart, that should be out of question I hope. ^^ I appreciate you saying it.

Sundance

I just joined up and started contributing. How do I get access to games and content?

onepot

Yeah, I'm not sure either if commenting there would be beneficial, but I thought you should at least know about it. Better you than me in any case. ^^ Regarding my primary criticism, I don't think you really got me there. I brought up that guy's review because his combined mentioning of hidden stats / lack of communication (which I would call lack of player guidance) / guide reliance stirred something in me, but he makes other connections between those topics than I would, and probably he has problems defining the underlying problem just as me. I'm mostly disagreeing with what he actually says, I just feel we come from a similar place and both don't know where that place exactly is. I've spent over 4 hours trying to formulate my thoughts now, and it's no use. Not because of the language barrier, but just because I fail to translate my feelings into comprehensible thoughts. It's frustrating. -.- I guess it has to do with approaching the game as a minmaxer or someone who plays the game blind and just enjoys the experience - I probably am the former and want to be the latter, which doesn't mix well. So it's probably really my (personality's) fault anyways. ^^ I'll bug you again when I feel I can say it better.

sierralee

Thanks again for your support! You should have received an automatic message from me when you joined that tries to explain some of how it works. Otherwise, you just send me a private message here on Patreon and tell me which game you want.

sierralee

I appreciate you taking the time to try to put your concerns into words. Even if it's hard to find precise thoughts, it can help me think further about the subject and I might be able to create better work in the future.

Dark Art

If I may - I'd say definitely reply to that fella with 7/10 score. One of the main selling points (to me at least) is your excellent communication with the consumer. Its very rewarding to know that you are being heard and a simple "thanks for your input ^-^" that I've seen on your blog did just as much convincing as the product itself.

onepot

...case in point above. ;)

No Escaping Destiny

I think the reason some choices feel like they get invalidated is the sheer number of them that do not work in the long run compared to the very few that do work. There is only one or two paths to the best outcome before the first war but there are a whole lot of holes. I guess what I am trying to say is that their are a lot of choices but not a lot of paths to a positive destination. But that is just a casual observation, I know a lot of people on here go through every iteration possible and I could be wrong.

Dark Art

IMHO this view of "too many little choices" is faulty as faulty gets. There is a very good saying that describes this situation perfectly - even if every human in whole world starts telling you that they are ducks and you think they are crazy - you are right. For quite a few years gaming industry have been drifting into oversimplified, shallow products aimed at pleasing even the slowest horse in the herd, so when something new emerges that demands and rewards more, the slowest horse in the herd feels offended. Beggin' your pardon, but that horse can be run over by a truck, hang from a tree and burn to ash for all I care :) Ahem.. Where was I? Ah yes, choices. We need more products that encourage thinking and feel more like an interactive book and yet remain fun and engaging. The guide is needed only if you are a perfectionist, or on your 3rd playthrough and want to explore every nook and cranny. Overall, we need more products that have unique story and ask sometimes hard, sometimes silly and sometimes immoral questions and demand an answer. We need more titles like TLS out there.

onepot

@DaviceMathews: I guess it's a question of what you define as a 'working' choice or 'positive destination'. It's true that without a guide you are very unlikely to achieve optimal results most of the time, but also, the holes you speak of aren't that deep imho. I think Gawnfall has been the first time you even could get gameovers outside of battle (someone please correct me if I'm wrong), and as far as I've read, those were only 'achieved' by people who intentionally did bad playthroughs. I think the very most of choices/paths just lead to mediocre results, which for me is totally fine. Then again, I mostly made playthroughs (is that even a word?) already knowing the secrets of the wiki, so I can't be sure. But then again, those guys with the gameovers in Gawnfall at least made it there (with intentionally bad choices), and I've never before heard people say they really got to a point where they weren't able to move on. So I don't think there are likely chains of choices that lead to a point where you have to rewind several hours of gameplay to avoid a gameover. And that's really enough for me. The story will go on either way, and all the little details changing with different choices only add to its replayability for me. So I think it just depends on what one expects from this game, or a game in general. For me it's primarily about the story, although I also like figuring out battle setups or cracking my mind over the best choice of investments. The latter obviously not being possible without wiki knowledge though, which... huh. I just now realize may be one of the core points of my own misgivings. Investments are a big part of the game, and without knowledge of the hidden stats, there are too few ingame pointers as to what they entail. Some of them have dialogue that indicates a more economic direction of impact or benefits with certain social groups, but except the flower guy in Yhilin very early on, I believe there's none that doesn't seem to be worthwhile in some manner. There are really many of them, and to make meaningful choices between them instead of just picking randomly, I need to consult the wiki, and to measure the worth of the stats revealed there, I'll have to check the rest of the game on where those stats change. Yeah, that really is a problem, now that I'm for the first time even considering doing it completely without a guide. I relied on the wiki for investments from the start, but I didn't see it as an issue back then because it was mostly economical, with a few RP boni. When hidden stats entered the game, I'd already grown accustomed to it and didn't question it anymore, but with their importance gradually growing, this is actually probably the big issue nagging me the most that I wasn't able to pinpoint before. Thanks for guiding me to it! :D Aaaanyways, I still think that the game works well in terms of balance; inadvertent gameovers are virtually impossible imho, and while optimal outcomes are unlikely without guides, I don't see that as a major problem per se. Venturing to change the world, Simon should feel lucky to have any impact at all. From a player's perspective though, it sure can be frustrating to think you only got a suboptimal outcome and don't have a clue why - or too many, because there's just so many factors that MIGHT have played a role. I've gotta admit, I started this post meaning to invalidate your choice of words (working choices, positive destination), but I think I get where you're coming from now and that I probably misread what you meant to say. Words hard, me sorry. :> Are you by any chance the one whose Steam review I originally quoted? (While posting links feels fine, I don't want to support the communist NATO FBI algorithms by quoting nicknames.) @Sierra: Well, there you have it. I guess my major issue is the distinction between ingame and exterior perspective or, player guidance. I want to be able to play TLS without a guide, but that isn't satisfactory for me. As it turns out now, that originated with investments already (see above), but it's also things like the Kerannii deal conversation. I know I promised not to nag about that anymore, but I need to reference it as it's exactly about this. Sorry. :> The story is great and the underlying mechanics also are, but they don't connect well sometimes. The investments really are a big issue here, because there's so many of them and ingame, they just all seem good in some way and there's no way to really compare them against each other. I think in chapters 1-3 they still are manageable, though more info might be helpful and improvement of the ledger has been requested frequently back then already for a reason probably, but in chapter 4 it just gets overwhelming. It seems totally obvious to me now, but I'd grown so used to wiki use before that it didn't even occur to me up to this point. -.- I don't see a solution for that, though. Reworking all those flavour texts is the work of a lifetime by itself, and conveying their effects in text without breaking down to numbers seems impossible to me anyways. And the Kerannii thing (sorry again) isn't such a big thing by itself, only for nitpickers like me. The reason I was so overzealous about it though was that Gawnfall by itself is complex enough and at that stage, where everything is introduced, you need as much clarity as you can get about anything. Also the lingering feeling of already missing information, which I couldn't really pinpoint, but was probably mostly about hidden stats or rather, what is going on under the hood. I've grown used to play new sections for testing and then later replay them by guide for optimal stats, but usually they aren't that heavily reliant on the hidden stats from the start, and even if they are, I'll soon enough have the guide to adjust my mistakes. The Gawnfall guide still isn't up to date though, and through the several tweaks and updates, I've had the unusual experience of playing blind for a very long time. And at that Kerannii conversation, I still feel like the ingame information really doesn't suffice. I'm not saying this to convince you to change it again though, I've really done that enough. Sorry again. I just wonder if over the whole Gawnfall balancing - which you have done an EXCEPTIONAL job with imho - you might have lost track of the player's perspective a bit. Or really, over the most part of chapter 4, regarding those infamous hidden stats. Because you have always access to those, but we do not. I'm not meaning to criticise at all here, it's just that I blatantly overlooked the investments issue because I'd grown used to a status quo (taking wiki information for a given), and the same thing might happen to you. Just trying to shove input right into your face. ^^ Anyways. As it is now, I'll keep playing TLS using the guides. Investments in their current state actually make it impossible for me to do otherwise, and it's still up to discussion if that's really a flaw in game design or just my own flawed personality. Doesn't change anything about this being one of the gretest games of all time. ^^ ...also, I declare myself the champion of external monologue. :o [brought to you by OnepotTextwalls(tm)]

Dark Art

Guys, I think we are missing an elephant in the room here. Yes, it is a must to consult wiki for an obsessive perfectionist, but lets be honest, a proper, self respecting obsessive perfectionist will overthink each and every step and then consult a wiki anyway. A casual player will almost never bother with outside reference, so whats the problem? The complexity of the game strongly encourages multiple runs and that good. Variety of choices and real consequences is something most claim, but very very few actually have, so its good too, right? I mean come on, the game tries to emulate a complex mythical world with real economy, that a BIG thing to emulate, so yeah, some things will need planning and careful prep. In the end you have a rather unique set up with engaging story and meaningful (even if complex) mechanics and thats a very big good-good. If AAAs tried half as hard to create half as complex setups, we'd be swimming in excellent games, but instead we have dumbed down stories, oversimplified level design and almost always predictable or completely meaningless choices. Meh.... I'll take a title like TLS anytime over vast majority of crappy but shiny titles available.

onepot

@DarkArt: Of course you are mostly right. I love the complexity and all that. It's just that with investments, I feel I can't behave as a casual player. Take Tradesmasher for example: With only ingame means, you might find his profits increasing over time in the ledger, and you'll have no clue as to why that is. Or, if you don't pick the investments that boost him, he'll appear just as a bad investment and you won't fund him again in another playthrough. The inner complexity of the game is great, I just feel that not enough of it gets really communicated to the player. If I don't use the wiki, investing may often feel like randomly throwing money at people, instead of making somewhat strategical choices. I guess one could dismiss that, just dive into the story and go with the flow. But especially when I know the underlying logic of it all from the wiki, it feels like a great loss to me when the ingame experience kinda gets dumbed down to randomly choosing what feels right at a given moment. And except for ProN returns, most investments are very punctual in their shown effects. The War Monument in New Givini gets you a scene with Donovan in the Ardford succession crisis, but its other benefits are mostly hidden stats. Playing blind, without the wiki, you won't be able to appreciate its benefits, and throwing a million ProN at it will appear insane. As I can't say often enough, I love this game and that won't change. I just feel it throws away a lot of potential by handling the investments as it is now. There can't be done much about it anymore anyways I believe. Just trying to give feedback to Sierra to influence her future work. :> (Sorry for the many edits Sierra, I'm definitely done now. ^^)

onepot

...what might help a great deal here though and has been requested before from time to time, might be establishing something in the HQ similar to the noble liaison back in Yhilin. Iris would be perfect for that actually, giving a report paraphrasing the major hidden stats (E/S/R, country scores, Arclent Acceptance, maybe something I forgot). That would be quite a bit of writing work and I'm not sure how much of a headache it would be to define thresholds for stetements changing, but some ingame instance reflecting in what general ballpark we are playing stats-wise would really help a big deal imho. It also would help remind the casual player of what the major categories he deals with even are. From an ingame perspective, investments will mostly make you think of economy and ProN returns, but that Social and Religion keep playing a role is not that obvious oftenly. The core problem imho is the missing ingame presentation of that those hidden stats are even a thing anyways, investments only are the instance where it becomes most apparent to me. And while it would be tedious to check back to HQ after every single investment, and most of the time a single investment probably wouldn't change any of those statements anyways, it would improve the player's ability to grasp what their investments (and other choices) have added up to, and if there's a certain direction they still want to emphasize. Maybe you try to cover all bases and see your religious assessment is really crappy, so you'll go look for investments that might gain you favour with the church. Or you might be aiming for being the saviour of the plebs, but can't dismiss other concerns entirely. It would be nice to be able to check with Iris if starvation is still a common thing or if you can spare some funding to try and soften Ardoheim's stance towards you. This might already be too detailed and I really don't know how much work it is, but it would be a big plus in respects of roleplaying and giving the player the feeling that they know why they're doing things. And if we wanna go megalomaniac here, Megail might give short evaluations on each of our funded investments, especially the non-profit ones. ('Funding the War Monument in New Givini has been hilariously expensive, but it has improved our reputation all over Arclent in a BIG way.') One might argue that such statements would be more helpful BEFORE investing, and I think there are at least some investments that could use more infodump at funding negotiations, but what I find most compelling about this idea is having one place to reflect on all the investments we have done. Smut scenes get a Reflect skill, so the things that this game really is about should have one too. :P Also, it's only logical that a real evaluation of investment effects only can happen after the fact. This would also add functionality and meaning to the HQ, and again, in a much greater way than the hidden stats assessment, help the player understand what he was doing when he funded a given investment. I know this all would probably be really a lot of work, but I think it would be worth it. And I personally would be totally fine to just delay story progress for one or more update cycles, as long as it takes really. I'm actually offering my help at writing those Megail flavour texts or doing them all by myself, though I'm not sure my linguistical aptitude could live up to your standards, and my free time is often limited in the most unpredictable ways. Still, if I can do anything to help actually make this happen, please tell me and I will.

Decanter

Megail evaluating each investment would be a lot of work for questionable helpfulness, especially since the party tends to have a brief discussion of an investment's potential when they learn about it. It may be more efficient to point out any investments you feel aren't adequately discussed at the time. However, I think it would be both helpful and a nice flavor/character addition for Iris to give us reports on how things are going overall by various measures. Possibly with reference to any major decisions we've made with continuing effects, e.g. "Our ability to directly affect Zirantia remains limited, but societal and political change there is ongoing as the NUP gains power."

onepot

Hmm, well. First of all, those brief discussions only happen once and are not replayable. And some of them are really rather obscure, so if you miss any subtle hints from that short conversation, you won't remember it later. And there are too many investments anyways to remember all of those conversations. I'll stay with the NG War Monument example: If you know its hidden benefits from the wiki, you _might_ imagine some very subtle hints about them in the flavour texts, first when you're about to invest and then when you visit the finished monument for the first time. Very, very subtle though. Now imagine playing completely without the wiki. You won't be able to get any of it, because you don't even know of those hidden stats that the game evaluates your work with. In which categories you have to think to influence the _game_ on a _gamer's_ level. That's why I feel Iris (or whoever) giving a breakdown of the hidden stats being so important. To communicate to the player at all that those are the categories to think in. Of course terms like 'the economy' have been brought up and played a major role endless times in the story, but so have sex, orcs, levels of godlike power, and brooms. Going through the story blind, you aren't really able to make out what of those is a plot element and what are the handles by which you play the game. And the Megail thing I'd find very useful because a) as already said, those conversations only happen once and are easily for- / not gettable, b) you won't get info from the ledger about what non-profit investments you've done at all, which can become increasingly problematic after several replays (at least for my shattered mind), and c) all what I said about it in my previous post. Also, what I maybe didn't make clear enough there while it's really all this is about, those Megail statements all would in some way reflect the hidden stats benefits of the investments (as well as the non-hidden of course); again, to make more clear to the player what profits he actually gains for investing his resources. And again, hammer home what kinds of profits short of monetary ones you even can look for in investments. And yes, I'm planning to go through all the investments to point out where I feel more pre-investment clarification might be needed, but I won't be able to start with that before March 6th, when I'll get 2 weeks of vacation. Importance of those would decrease though with that whole Megail thing. Still, I want an in-game means to convey those actual (if watered-down by transforming numbers into text phrases) investment results to the player, not just possibilities and what-ifs. And lore-wise, that would have to happen after the fact, unless Megail (or whoever else is part of that pre-investment discussion) have some kind of supernatural foresight. A problem I didn't consider before is RPGMaker's restriction to 4 menu choices, as originally I had imagined being able to pick an investment and get Megail's statement. But I guess a scrollable list of all availabe statements, just like the ledger, would work as fine. I have no idea about PRGMaker coding, or very little coding in general. I also like your idea about Iris, but not as a replacement for mine. I hope you didn't consider this as an alternative, because it's really totally different things. :) EDIT: I'm asking anyone who contemplates my drivel to go through the War Monument investment with what I wrote in mind. I think it's a very good example for my point, but one might dismiss it without going back there and really seeing for oneself. EDIT ELEVENTY: I'm also aware that adding those things won't change anything about the gameplay experience before Chapter 4. That's alright and even a plus though imho, because this dependency on hidden stats I've felt only lately, throughout the latest chapter and it's open world environment. In earlier chapters, choices of investments have been compartmentalized into rather manageable groups, and their implications were at the very least guessable. And from a story perspective, I find the idea rather appealing that after a bit of fumbling around in earlier times, Simon's group now would get a more professional grip on the whole investments / world situation analysis thing. Sorry again for multiple edits, I'm done now. I'll make sure in the future to just write my posts up in a text editor and screen them more thoroughly before posting.

sierralee

As a general statement, I'm very open to making the effects of investments clearer beforehand in 95% of cases. Some I just wasn't clear enough, in others people pointed out that it should have other effects and I didn't change the intro conversation. I'm always open to these if reported. Making a larger change is a larger endeavor, of course. Megail evaluating each investment strikes me as a fairly tall order. I'm open to the idea of a way to get hints about your current invisible stats, but feel like it should be reflected throughout the game. I really don't have it in me to review everything, get the appropriate ranges, and then make events for them. Reports on how things are going strikes me as a potentially neat idea, but I'm not sure how I'd actually set it up on a technical level. >I'm actually offering my help at writing those Megail flavour texts or doing them all by myself, though I'm not sure my linguistical aptitude could live up to your standards, and my free time is often limited in the most unpredictable ways. Still, if I can do anything to help actually make this happen, please tell me and I will. Appreciate the enthusiasm, but don't go investing any time yet. Writing the dialogue would not be the main time consumption here, it would be getting good data for the ranges and setting up all the event conditionals. Then fixing misplaced lines, adding omissions, and having one more thing to potentially forget each time I add new investments. >A problem I didn't consider before is RPGMaker's restriction to 4 menu choices, as originally I had imagined being able to pick an investment and get Megail's statement. But I guess a scrollable list of all availabe statements, just like the ledger, would work as fine. I have no idea about PRGMaker coding, or very little coding in general. This is an obstacle, though probably a passable one if a coder helps. Right now, this scrollable window would be extremely long and it would come in slow due to how the game handles the text.

Dark Art

Since you are considering providing a more detailed report, consider this: you've already done a map of the land and if it would be possible to make that map interactive, I think it could work well for this. If that is technically not possible, then a selection of the region with two or maybe three stats displaying influence in ranges of low-mid-strong. As far as detailed info on the status of investments I would argue against giving more than initial appraisal that's already given - like I said earlier, anyone who cares enough to be bothered by it, will check the wiki anyway and everyone else will hardly benefit from more info and added work on your end. Besides, I really wish I had the luxury of checking the wiki for end results when I made my own investments few years back, the bank was strongly against that for some reason., so I had to rely on my own research and gut feeling, much like in TLS case :)

onepot

@Sierra: I'm not sure you got me about Megail's investment assessments. > Writing the dialogue would not be the main time consumption here, it would be getting good data for the ranges and setting up all the event conditionals. Just to be clear, I just imagined static statements that reflect the result values of each investment. There only would be one static text statement per investment that wouldn't change throughout the game, the only variable involved would be a boolean checking if the player has funded the investment or not, so only the funded ones get displayed. (Well, except Tradesmasher I guess, where the profits are variable depending on other investments done, which would make sense to get reflected with changing Megail statements, but if that's too complicated I think it could be missed as long as it allows the general idea to be implemented.) I don't think there would be any ranges or event conditionals needed, maybe you mixed that up with the idea about Iris reporting on hidden stats? Or it's just coder language I don't get because I ain't one. ^^ > I'm open to the idea of a way to get hints about your current invisible stats, but feel like it should be reflected throughout the game. I really don't have it in me to review everything, get the appropriate ranges, and then make events for them. Sorry, I don't think I get you there. What do you mean by 'but feel like it should be reflected throughout the game'? I'll try to think of better ideas of course, but I really don't understand what you're asking of us there.

sierralee

>Since you are considering providing a more detailed report, consider this: you've already done a map of the land and if it would be possible to make that map interactive, I think it could work well for this. Sorry, but interactive visual features are on the more difficult end of potential additions, since they're usually well beyond my limited coding ability. >I don't think there would be any ranges or event conditionals needed, maybe you mixed that up with the idea about Iris reporting on hidden stats? Or it's just coder language I don't get because I ain't one. ^^ The ranges part would be for the economic/social/etc variables. As for the rest, it would mainly be just the large amount of conditionals. I'm not saying they're impossibly complex, but there are more exceptions and variations than you might think. >Sorry, I don't think I get you there. What do you mean by 'but feel like it should be reflected throughout the game'? I'd want more than one NPC reporting variables throughout the game. If the hidden variables are going to become less hidden, I think it would be strange to wait until Chapter 4 to suddenly start mentioning that they're being tracked.

onepot

> The ranges part would be for the economic/social/etc variables. Again, I don't get why there would be ranges. For example, the War Monument in NG gives +5 Arclent Acceptance (amongst other stuff). I think it's always gonna be +5, but even if you intended to change that amount later, that wouldn't matter, because Megail's statement isn't supposed to reflect if the Arclent Acceptance plus is in the 0-5 or 6-10 range or whatever, but simply the fact that Arclent Acceptance is what gets some kind of boost here. Hence my earlier proposal for her statement on the Monument: 'Funding the War Monument in New Givini has been hilariously expensive, but it has improved our reputation all over Arclent in a BIG way.' Using the term reputation to mirror Arclent Acceptance and all the country scores, because these statements really aren't meant to tediously dissect every particular number, but just give the player a general impression what kind of benefits he got from investing. (And in the War Monument case, that he got benefits from it at all.) So that, when he checks in with Iris (or whatever other means you might come up with to check the hidden stats), he has at least a general idea where some of those developments stem from, without really destroying 'the magic' by giving away actual numbers. Sorry for rambling again, I just don't see why there would be any ranges needed (for Megail and her investment statements), so I wanna make sure you understand what I'm proposing. But probably it's me who doesn't know the first thing about coding so I just don't get it, and if that's the case, sorry for spamming. ^^ Also, now it occurs to me that another major improvement would be to just give an 'Explain' option to ALL the initial investment discussions, just like with the House Of Petitions in Yhilin. Making the explanations repeatable would already help a great deal especially with the crapload of investments that get dumped on us at once when free roaming starts in chapter 4. Does that sound more realizable maybe? Still fond of the whole Megail idea though, as it several other major benefits imho. > I'd want more than one NPC reporting variables throughout the game. If the hidden variables are going to become less hidden, I think it would be strange to wait until Chapter 4 to suddenly start mentioning that they're being tracked. I wouldn't find it that strange, actually, though one might implement it already in chapter 3 with a random liaison NPC in Yhilin Palace. Yeah, that might be better. But in chapters 1 and 2, the hidden stats really don't play that much of a role from the player's perspective, they mostly get influenced by story-driven / role-playing choices and just work as a mechanism to build a world reacting to our choices. I'd find it very fitting to only 'officially' introduce them as something we're able to monitor in the 3rd chapter then, as it would portrait the change of scope we're dealing with. I said something along those lines in one of the above posts already I believe. I'd have to scrutinize the guide again to be 100% sure, but I don't think players would need to feel 'betrayed' when they'd be confronted with stats in chapter 3 that unknowingly got influenced by them beforehand as, again, those decisions were mostly story-driven. The problem as I see it only starts with investments becoming more reliant on hidden stats, which only became obvious to me in chapter 4, but probably starts out in chapter 3 already. Anyways, I'll likely stay silent for the next 7 or 8 days as I'll be travelling. When I'm back, I'll start checking investment conversations for possible improvements i.e. clarifications, and what else might come up. Thanks for staying with me on this so far, and see you in a week. o/

Decanter

>Again, I don't get why there would be ranges. For example, the War Monument in NG gives +5 Arclent Acceptance (amongst other stuff). I believe SL means the ranges for overall reports from Iris or whoever on how we're doing on the hidden variables, not for reports/explanations of individual investments. "We are an economic powerhouse." "Our influence on Aram's affairs is more significant than most observers realize, especially given the small amount of damage they sustained in the war." "New Givini's development is progressing well, but still can't support everything we might want to do." That kind of reports. With the exception of a few complicated investments like the Givini Orc Merchant, single investments don't have ranges of results. >Also, now it occurs to me that another major improvement would be to just give an 'Explain' option to ALL the initial investment discussions, just like with the House Of Petitions in Yhilin. Making the explanations repeatable would already help a great deal especially with the crapload of investments that get dumped on us at once when free roaming starts in chapter 4. Does that sound more realizable maybe? It at least wouldn't involve writing a bunch of new text in a gargantuan new decision tree, and is already precedented and in place for some investments. A better idea, imo. >I wouldn't find it that strange, actually, though one might implement it already in chapter 3 with a random liaison NPC in Yhilin Palace. Yeah, that might be better. Rather than a random NPC, which would be kinda lame, I nominate Janine for this role, given how focused we are on Yhilin up until Chapter 4. Besides, it'll give her something to do and help counter the perception I see in players that Janine is useless. (I also support sending her with us to Eustrin or something later, but that's a separate discussion.) >I'd find it very fitting to only 'officially' introduce them as something we're able to monitor in the 3rd chapter then, as it would portrait the change of scope we're dealing with. I agree that early on there's not much range to report on, but I would say the change of scope begins with the reunion in Chapter 2. I would propose Janine start introducing such reports then.

sierralee

Sorry for the delay on this, I've been consumed by preparations for the upcoming release. >Also, now it occurs to me that another major improvement would be to just give an 'Explain' option to ALL the initial investment discussions, just like with the House Of Petitions in Yhilin. Making the explanations repeatable would already help a great deal especially with the crapload of investments that get dumped on us at once when free roaming starts in chapter 4. Does that sound more realizable maybe? Though this one is also a pretty sizable chunk of work, I'm open to the possibility. >I believe SL means the ranges for overall reports from Iris or whoever on how we're doing on the hidden variables, not for reports/explanations of individual investments. Yeah, that's what I meant.

ety

I realize this is from two months ago, but I wanted to add a quick thought to it. This game is long and only going to get longer. It is entirely possible to make a choice and then only see the consequences of that choice 20 hours of gameplay later. For a game as long as this one the butterfly effect choices stuff is in some regards a real detriment. It is entirely possible to make a series of choices that you have to effectively start over to undo if you're playing without a guide that explains those choices and replaying a 20, 30, 40, 80, 160, 200 hour game *multiple* times just isn't something that a lot of players are going to be willing or able to do. I'm not at all going to suggest that's something you should change from the ground up (that's neither practical or even really possible at all nor is it an outcome I'd even want) but there are a couple of areas where it does matter in my opinion and in the context of this particular game I think the biggest of those is character relationships. The more choices and potential for gaining points in each of the relationships you add the less of an issue it will be, but last I checked there were a handful of characters with very very little leeway for maxing or getting as near to max as they currently can and put as vaguely as possible... it was very possible to miss unclear choices from hours back that would prevent you from getting points towards their relationships.