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So what do we have to do to keep Blueshift from bailing on us, anyway?
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Feb 18, 2018 22:40
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Not have Anima taken away, probably. e: which probably involves not telling people the killer robot is becoming AI-like.
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Feb 18, 2018 23:04
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Well, that's about the same ending I got first time through. I'm glad I'm at least not worse at this than the collective goonmind.  I'm sure I had a bunch of questions about this originally, but with the thread dying and resurrecting I don't remember most of them. I would like to know though, what is the highest you can pump your stats, and what/where are the highest stat checks? I guess oneirophobia is max power (at least I'm pretty sure it was the highest I managed to get it) but the other stat cheevos are obviously not for maxing them. Leraika posted:So what do we have to do to keep Blueshift from bailing on us, anyway? Make sure his robot girlfriend doesn't get thrown in robot girlfriend jail. IIRC the upgrades and restoring her personality both increase the bravado skill checks during the tribunal section (I'm not sure how much the actual dialogue choices matter), and she gets taken away if you fail the checks. If you get her personality back but refuse to let her power up, you can get away with relatively low bravado, but if you do both you'll need a lot. Speaking of - someone said bravado is the best stat, and... yeah, it is rather odd getting a "final boss" that seemingly only checks one stat and the only way to "prepare" for it is to have knowledge of the whole game. ...I suppose it does fit the theme of the world, but it's a bit unsatisfying gameplay wise. Aside from that though, again, I had fun with this.
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Feb 18, 2018 23:07
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vilkacis posted:I'm sure I had a bunch of questions about this originally, but with the thread dying and resurrecting I don't remember most of them. I would like to know though, what is the highest you can pump your stats, and what/where are the highest stat checks? I guess oneirophobia is max power (at least I'm pretty sure it was the highest I managed to get it) but the other stat cheevos are obviously not for maxing them. Nah, that's for choosing the GIVE ME ALL THE POWER option in the Sentinel fight. We were close to having the maximum power but we missed one (using powers on Freddy) that would have taken us to 7.
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Feb 18, 2018 23:23
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I maxed Bravado on my personal run-through and kept the team together and Sentinel in prison at the end- that ending was much more satisfying IMO. Like Vikacis said, you need to keep Anima out of robot jail for that ending. I'm glad I played this game. Thanks for alerting me to it, Aesculus. Hope you have more fun next LP.
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Feb 18, 2018 23:42
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Leraika posted:So what do we have to do to keep Blueshift from bailing on us, anyway? It comes down to Blueshift performing both of the procedures and the Tribunal finding out. If he only does one of the two and they find out, she is taken and returned. They find out by either being directly told or the player telling too many lies that their bravado can't cash. It's okay to lie and fail the check (they realise you're lying in that instance), but not lie enough that they get suspicious that everything you've said is a lie and go back and verify. vilkacis posted:Well, that's about the same ending I got first time through. I'm glad I'm at least not worse at this than the collective goonmind. I think the highest checks are for convincing Courser to surrender and for beating Jotun with brawn. The highest you can get the big three stats is 4, I think, (before the endgame) which typically allows you to pass any check for that stat. Power can increase much more and should increase just about every time you use it. I think it can get as high as ten. quote:Speaking of - someone said bravado is the best stat, and... yeah, it is rather odd getting a "final boss" that seemingly only checks one stat and the only way to "prepare" for it is to have knowledge of the whole game. ...I suppose it does fit the theme of the world, but it's a bit unsatisfying gameplay wise. Aside from that though, again, I had fun with this. I agree. PC was driven by some strong thematic ideas in my head. I want to carry those themes forward into the sequel, but without the constricting feeling of being a bit of a cog in a machine. I want to do something bigger, better and broader -- which given I'm a lot more comfortable now with CS than I was when I started PC, I think I have a decent shot. There are a few things I'd do differently (beyond catching the small bugs here and there) but a lot of that comes down to not knowing some of the quirks of Choicescript when I started. Basically, I would have programmed with those quirks in mind which would've made my code a lot neater. For example, CS can only really compare two statements when you use OR (IIRC) so you need to basically word all *if statements in terms of two variables with brackets etc. Milkfred E. Moore fucked around with this message at 23:46 on Feb 18, 2018 |
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Feb 18, 2018 23:43
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Huh, well then!  Since the author did say they'd like feedback - I'll say I feel this worked much better as a story than as a game. The writing has been genuinely good, though I feel the storytelling style sometimes clashed with the CYOA bits - like when it had us react to Dawn's death before telling us what we are actually reacting to. Some of the choices felt a bit pointless or arbitrary by not making the results and consequences obvious, and I feel for a superhero "game" there should have been more action - especially since what was there was pretty back loaded. The final fight with Sentinel was pretty baddass, maybe we could have gotten an actual choices fight with Purgatori early on to pace things out a bit? As is I feel things didn't really start happening up until the fight against Maekyr team. Once again though, the story and setting were all pretty neat, so I would still enjoy reading a sequel if there is one.
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Feb 18, 2018 23:48
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I too would enjoy a sequel, and I agree this game needed more action.
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Feb 18, 2018 23:58
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Avalerion posted:Huh, well then! Yes, please, I'd love feedback. The feedback I've had is quite positive, outside the usual suspects saying I'm an SJW. The grave scene is one of a half a dozen images I had in my head when I first started (another was Exarch's costume design, another was Superman frowning in a schoolyard). There's a semi-sequel happening as a web serial. It's set in Paradigm two weeks after Sentinel is taken away. The update tomorrow will feature Aegis and co. returning to the city. It's not a direct sequel (doesn't feature the PC protagonist or deal with the particulars of PC) but more of a sidequel. Given that the PC sequel will pick up two years after PC, it gives me a bit of leeway. And it allows me to play with a lot of the ideas that I cut away from PC for fear of boring the audience or giving them worldbuilding that didn't directly matter, thereby allowing the actual sequel to focus more on a reactive, branching story.
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Feb 19, 2018 00:01
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So...how and why was Blueshift this random turbo Hitler with mind powers? How did he even get on what amounts to the super police? He wasn't even in a disguise by most descriptions. And who/what was Anima?
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Feb 19, 2018 00:08
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Avalerion posted:Some of the choices felt a bit pointless or arbitrary by not making the results and consequences obvious I think this is my major issue with the game. I can't tell which of the choices were consequential and which ones were just there for flavor.
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Feb 19, 2018 00:31
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Galick posted:So...how and why was Blueshift this random turbo Hitler with mind powers? How did he even get on what amounts to the super police? He wasn't even in a disguise by most descriptions. And who/what was Anima? Blueshift was a powerful person with the ability to control gravity. He spent time as a cult leader in South America before he was press-ganged into SOLAR (by Sentinel and Aegis' team). Blueshift was recruited and not imprisoned/killed due to his interest in the genesis of empowered individuals, as well as his powerset. The official line was that Exarch was killed by Sentinel and Santiago -- now Leland -- was given a new identity, but it was basically an open secret that persisted only while Blueshift played by the rules. There are a few outcomes for him where you tell the Tribunal that he did bad things and he gets sent away, and some where they just slap him on the wrist. Anima depends on your perspective. She's a powerful war machine constructed by one of The Seven, who are basically the world's worst villains. Ada was a technopath and a member of Aegis' team who, shortly after Blueshift joined, ran an experiment on one of the Engineer's recovered war machines. She linked her mind to it to try and figure out the secrets of The Engineer, and experienced a violent seizure, dying in the process. Later, the machine began exhibiting a sense of Ada's personality. The world is desperate for any knowledge they can get on The Seven, which leads to IPSA putting the Ada-machine under the supervision of Aegis, who rescued Ada from a mass grave in Arusha, and Blueshift, who was in a relationship with her. The question is whether Blueshift was calling the shots, or whether Anima was -- even prior to her personality reasserting itself. If it's even her at all, and not something wearing her as a disguise. I've always been fascinated by the result of power and obsession and what both to do a person's mental state. In my mind, Blueshift basically shrugged and went 'Well, okay, you take her away from me, I'll take everything away from you'. Sentinel was obsessed with restoring the Golden Age, when it really just allowed him to be used as a bit of a patsy. Without his power, Sentinel would just be someone, I don't know, writing op-eds about how much better the world used to be. With it, he can be a monster. Without power, Blueshift would only just mope or maybe kill himself, but with it, he can become a monster. And a thing about superheroes is how their individual power can rapidly outstrip anything reasonable.
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Feb 19, 2018 00:37
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Avalerion posted:Since the author did say they'd like feedback - I'll say I feel this worked much better as a story than as a game. The writing has been genuinely good, though I feel the storytelling style sometimes clashed with the CYOA bits - like when it had us react to Dawn's death before telling us what we are actually reacting to. Some of the choices felt a bit pointless or arbitrary by not making the results and consequences obvious, and I feel for a superhero "game" there should have been more action - especially since what was there was pretty back loaded. The final fight with Sentinel was pretty baddass, maybe we could have gotten an actual choices fight with Purgatori early on to pace things out a bit? As is I feel things didn't really start happening up until the fight against Maekyr team. This is probably my main gripe here too. Going back to the team fight against Blueshift and co, you could go with a plan other than Courser's but still fight Anima that would achieve is giving you an extra set of fake choices before you lost. It's a bit weird how the extra choices are there in the losing route, but don't exist even as flavour when you do go with Courser's plan. That and the long stretches of choices where all you did was interact with some people were probably what made the LP drag on a bit. Overall though it was quite fun and good! If anyone has any interest in showing off the 2(i think?) bad endings, I'll probably make some short posts on those but otherwise stay tuned, goodbye, and goodnight.
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Feb 19, 2018 01:58
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Sure I'd be interested in seeing the other endings if willing. Also bookmarking this.
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Feb 19, 2018 08:23
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The first possible bad ending is failing to graduate, and has some pretty specific requirements. We'll be skipping over most of the early-game choices for the sake of brevity:quote:You're six years old. quote:Even at such a young age... quote:What did you tell Sentinel? quote:You focused on the heroes who... quote:It seemed like more young people like you would arrive every month. It was almost a Capetown constant. They weren't all young children though, not like you had been when you arrived. There were always those people who suddenly came into their powers during their adolescence, something triggered in their neural structure by rampant physiological changes. At least, that's the prevailing theory. Just because we didn't choose him in the previous playthrough. quote:You had eyes for Alan. Turns out he has the exact same powerset  quote:It boils over in Alan first. quote:Summoning your power is as easy as snapping your fingers. And so, you do, and direct the energy that crackles around your forefinger to arc into Frederic's chest, no more difficult for you than dragging a pen across a page.
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Feb 20, 2018 00:04
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Is there anyway to escape with Dawn?
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Feb 25, 2018 06:17
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HPJoker posted:Is there anyway to escape with Dawn? Negative. It was cut because it ended with you getting caught and the O'Connell twin sort of leaving you in the dirt. Felt bad and I feel the core idea of the player being a bit of an unknowing cog in the machine was sort of harmed by it. I'm actually working on another WIP which is far more of a conventional superhero choice game. I'm opening the prologue and chapter 1 for testing and feedback by the end of this coming week. If people in this thread are interested (even if just to see how a Choicescript game develops from beginning to end), I'll drop the link here. It really is much quicker to code something once you have a complete project under your belt. I've made something in two days that goes well beyond the first chapter of PC as far as complexity and reactivity goes. PC was fairly linear with, in my opinion, a strong thematic idea -- my hope is for this new project to have more points of divergence and more chances for the player to have a story that feels personal and unique.
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Feb 25, 2018 08:27
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