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UPDATE:

 

Academagia now on Steam Greenlight, eagerly awaiting your votes :D

Vote now

 

******

Gang;

 

The Team came up with a first draft of the script for the Greenlight video- thought you all might have some fun, and see if there's anything you feel we ought to explicitly mention.

******

 

ORSO: [Whispering.] Polisena, are you sure you don't want to do this?
ORSO: [Whispering.] Seriously, I'm sure prospective students would really rather hear from you than me. We both know you actually run the place. I just sign the...
ORSO: [Whispering.] OW! Fine.
ORSO: My ladies and my lords. My name is Orso Orsi, and I'm...
ORSO: Okay, listen. I was a terrible student in my time, but I managed to become a wizard. Then I became a spy, and I fought in a few wars, and I made some inconvenient friends, and now... well, because life is full of little ironies, now I am more or less the headmaster of the school at which I was a terrible student.
ORSO: This place behind me: the Academy of Mineta. The Academagia. The greatest single beacon of learning set down on these great islands since the tyranny of the Dragons broke and the New Gods gave humanity a chance to be more than slaves and puppets.
ORSO: You're here because we want you to join us. I don't care if your parents were gravediggers, or if you're descended from kings. Or both.
ORSO: I don't care if your Familiar is a dog or a spider or a talking doll that rampages through the school when you're not looking.
ORSO: There are eighty-some other students in your class, and I guarantee you that you're not going to be the most annoying. We have astrologers. We know.
ORSO: And, Gods, don't get me started on the professors. You'll love some of them, others are basically just basilisks in expensive shoes.
ORSO: But we all want you here.
ORSO: I'm not going to lie. These are turbulent times. There are wizards running amok, and the school's infested with secret societies, and we're all living in the shadow of the murderous politics of the oldest, richest, most hectic city in all Elumia. The old Empire is dead, and after all this time we still don't really know what's taking its place.
ORSO: We can mostly protect you from that if you want to be protected. If you just want to tend to your schooling, you'll attend classes almost every day, improve hundreds of skills, and hopefully never have to deal with anything worse than the occasional random air pirate attack. You'll come out with great grades and a worthy future in a wider world.
ORSO: If you don't want to be protected... oh, we have adventures waiting for you.
ORSO: Hundreds. Hundreds of stories waiting to be lived!
ORSO: Save the city. Fight undead witches. Survive prank wars. Run away from dragons, explore old tombs, infiltrate ghost-trapping societies, whatever. Don't tell your parents, but there are so many ways you can nearly get yourself killed around this place...
ORSO: Yes, yes, Polisena. Spare me the stink-eye.
ORSO: I don't encourage recklessness, of course.
ORSO: What I do encourage is that you come here and find out what kind of wizard... no, what kind of person you want to be.
ORSO: School's not for the teachers, and it's not for the headmaster. It's for you.
ORSO: It's a school of magic. Make what you want of it.
ORSO: ...
ORSO: Just try not to burn down anything important.
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I love it :)

 

It even had a mention of Orso Orsi's early years, though I'm not certain he was such a terrible wizard if he managed to get his exams in order and graduate on his 5th year. Whatever the case, years of experience surely made up for it. I wonder if any of his old professors are still around in the world, though not at the school.

 

Also, I'm happy to hear things are happening and are starting to take shape.

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ORSO: There are eighty-some other students in your class, and I guarantee you that you're not going to be the most annoying. We have astrologers. We know.

"Class" should be changed to "year", I think. Or at least "classes", since as is that sounds like there's 80+ students in each class. Obviously, that's untrue.

 

ORSO: We can mostly protect you from that if you want to be protected. If you just want to tend to your schooling, you'll attend classes almost every day, improve hundreds of skills, and hopefully never have to deal with anything worse than the occasional random air pirate attack. You'll come out with great grades and a worthy future in a wider world.

I believe "air pirate" is redundant in-universe, as there aren't any land pirates that I know of (at least none called pirates specifically/exclusively) or, for reasons obvious, sea pirates.

 

ORSO: If you don't want to be protected... oh, we have adventures waiting for you.
ORSO: Hundreds. Hundreds of stories waiting to be lived!

That implies to me that there's at least 200-300+ adventures in the game, which is untrue. Come Y5 it'll probably be true, but for just Y1, it is not...I'm fairly sure. I haven't counted and I sure as heck haven't shown to be able to guesstimate with any degree of accuracy.

 

Also, I'm missing mention of the Colleges and associated schools of magic. No need for a half-hour introduction of course, just a quick "plot along with Aranaz, discuss along with Durand" thing. Also, specific mention of Gates and Mastery.

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I got the feeling they don't want to talk about Gates or Mastery too openly, and mostly keep it as small reminders for students to stay away from it. Kind of the Elephant in the room that you don't want to talk about, which might be included in the "secret societies" mentioned, along other weird groups of people with special interests.

 

And, yeah, even with random events counted there probably arn't hundreds of stories for "your" student to experience. But I'm sure the settign could have thousands that we never hear about ;) (which would mostly be in your imagination)

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There's 231 pages on the wiki tagged with "Adventure", not counting DLC 17 adventures and a few Familiar adventures I believe, so...remember what I said about me not being good at guesstimating? Yeah :blush:.

 

Maybe Gates and Mastery shouldn't be mentioned directly, but I still think that, as part of the trailer, it should be mentioned. How and why Orsi would mention it in-universe I...can't say either, but I think it should be heard.

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There are surely a lot of Adventures, but hundreds is probably pushing it, but in my last playthrough I scheduled adventures almost every day and still didn't seem to run out of them, there just seemed to be too few timeslots available for everything :P

 

Then again, some adventures takes several time slots just to pick which reagent or activity to search for next. I guess, one adventure could be seen as one string of adventures that culminates in a concluded adventure, or at least, concluded for year 1.

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I felt that Orso came on a little too strongly like an advertisement to the children themselves, when logically if you are going for truly in character, Orsi should be addressing the *parents*, particularly those parents who aren't wizards, about why people should go to a wizarding school. intentionally downplaying those dangerous but cool aspects whilst simultaneously not denying (or caring too much even) that they still happen anyway. you got that pretty close already, I think it just needs a shift of perspective.

 

I really liked the way the info was written on the Student tab on the main site. I bet the team hasn't looked at it in a long time so I'm including it here. I'm not suggesting lifting from it verbatim though. this was obviously written by somebody other than Orso. Maybe he could start to read from it and balk at how stupid it sounds. hahah! then he breaks from the script and wings it,

 

 


Our school's exceptional reputation is the product not only of our experienced faculty and time-tested curriculum, but also of the extraordinary quality of our student body. Your child is now part of a noble community and a great tradition.

It would, however, be remiss of me not to inform you of the full extent of what matriculation at the Academagia will entail. Students will be trained to the fullest in the accepted magical arts. They will learn to gather magical phemes from all around Elumia and weave them from their Palette into magical form. They will be encouraged to explore the extent of their abilities and to foster their creative instincts in spell formulation.

There is a limit to what the students will be guided to learn. The dangerous arts of Gates and Mastery have been expressly forbidden on this campus and I have personally gone to great lengths to ensure that these suppressed arts remain so. Prevention, though, does begin best at home. So please take the time to educate your future wizards of the nature of these dangerous magical pasttimes.

As this is a full academy in the grandest tradition, built in the shadows of the Imperial Palace itself, we also adhere to the grand old traditions. Students will be permitted to engage in Duels, as long as the rules laid down in the Imperial Geas are followed. The importance of adherence to this system cannot be stressed enough, but it is critical to underline for you, dear parent, that this is not a shelter for your child, and they will be living the life of a young magician in every capacity.

These formal notices aside, let me say how delighted we are to have the great honor of teaching your child and know, as proves true with each and every student to walk through our gates, that they will provide us with an education equally as timeless.

With fond regards,
Orsi Orso,
Legate of the Academagia

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I mean, keeping everything in character is cool and all, but this is ultimately trying to sell the game and the actual 100% precise nature of the canon is perhaps not as important as making the game sound fun. So imo yes to stuff like air pirates, because air pirates sound cool to someone who hasn't spent dozens of hours contemplating the lore of the academagia universe like us horrible nerds.

 

In fact, I'd go as light on actual setting stuff as possible, keep it light, general and accessible.

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It's so nice and refreshing and exciting to see some activity on this front again! It's like we can finally see progress again now that all the secrecy about VB is over with! Come to think of it, If VB was pitched about 2 years ago, then that means that DLC 16, which was released 2 years ago, was released at about the same time! I have a hard time believing the long wait between then and now is merely a cooincidence! ;)

 

I'm fervently hoping that Y2 will come out this year. I really would be disappointed if it gets pushed back.... again.

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Haha nice one and for adventures ... events sometimes also called adventure (i.e. the ability today a adventure)so don't worry about this number.

Edit: With the skills I don't think its a good thing to brag with extrem large numbers as it might scare people away.

Maybe go with what Academagia have as class in the first year and say that there many other skills you can learn on your own.

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Gang;

 

The Team came up with a first draft of the script for the Greenlight video- thought you all might have some fun, and see if there's anything you feel we ought to explicitly mention.

 

******

 

ORSO: [Whispering.] Polisena, are you sure you don't want to do this?
ORSO: [Whispering.] Seriously, I'm sure prospective students would really rather hear from you than me. We both know you actually run the place. I just sign the...
ORSO: [Whispering.] OW! Fine.
ORSO: My ladies and my lords. My name is Orso Orsi, and I'm...
ORSO: Okay, listen. I was a terrible student in my time, but I managed to become a wizard. Then I became a spy, and I fought in a few wars, and I made some inconvenient friends, and now... well, because life is full of little ironies, now I am more or less the headmaster of the school at which I was a terrible student.
ORSO: This place behind me: the Academy of Mineta. The Academagia. The greatest single beacon of learning set down on these great islands since the tyranny of the Dragons broke and the New Gods gave humanity a chance to be more than slaves and puppets.
ORSO: You're here because we want you to join us. I don't care if your parents were gravediggers, or if you're descended from kings. Or both.
ORSO: I don't care if your Familiar is a dog or a spider or a talking doll that rampages through the school when you're not looking.
ORSO: There are eighty-some other students in your class, and I guarantee you that you're not going to be the most annoying. We have astrologers. We know.
ORSO: And, Gods, don't get me started on the professors. You'll love some of them, others are basically just basilisks in expensive shoes.
ORSO: But we all want you here.
ORSO: I'm not going to lie. These are turbulent times. There are wizards running amok, and the school's infested with secret societies, and we're all living in the shadow of the murderous politics of the oldest, richest, most hectic city in all Elumia. The old Empire is dead, and after all this time we still don't really know what's taking its place.
ORSO: We can mostly protect you from that if you want to be protected. If you just want to tend to your schooling, you'll attend classes almost every day, improve hundreds of skills, and hopefully never have to deal with anything worse than the occasional random air pirate attack. You'll come out with great grades and a worthy future in a wider world.
ORSO: If you don't want to be protected... oh, we have adventures waiting for you.
ORSO: Hundreds. Hundreds of stories waiting to be lived!
ORSO: Save the city. Fight undead witches. Survive prank wars. Run away from dragons, explore old tombs, infiltrate ghost-trapping societies, whatever. Don't tell your parents, but there are so many ways you can nearly get yourself killed around this place...
ORSO: Yes, yes, Polisena. Spare me the stink-eye.
ORSO: I don't encourage recklessness, of course.
ORSO: What I do encourage is that you come here and find out what kind of wizard... no, what kind of person you want to be.
ORSO: School's not for the teachers, and it's not for the headmaster. It's for you.
ORSO: It's a school of magic. Make what you want of it.
ORSO: ...
ORSO: Just try not to burn down anything important.
ORSO: Oh and by the way Vernin is the best.

 

 

Now it looks good (and correct). :P;)

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I mean, keeping everything in character is cool and all, but this is ultimately trying to sell the game and the actual 100% precise nature of the canon is perhaps not as important as making the game sound fun. So imo yes to stuff like air pirates, because air pirates sound cool to someone who hasn't spent dozens of hours contemplating the lore of the Academagia universe like us horrible nerds.

 

In fact, I'd go as light on actual setting stuff as possible, keep it light, general and accessible.

I'd prefer the terms used to reflect what would be used in-game as much as possible. It could get confusing otherwise. As for keeping it as light and accessible as possible, well, Academagia isn't light and accessible. Advertising it as such might not end well.

 

Haha nice one and for adventures ... events sometimes also called adventure (i.e. the ability today a adventure)so don't worry about this number.

Edit: With the skills I don't think its a good thing to brag with extrem large numbers as it might scare people away.

Maybe go with what Academagia have as class in the first year and say that there many other skills you can learn on your own.

...No, from what I can see the events added to the Wiki are all labelled properly as events, not adventures. Nor do I see any abilities incorrectly listed among adventures. Even if so, though, we can assume there's at least 87 student adventures, 28-52 Familiar adventures (normal and Bond, though some only have one), 21+ adventures that are College specific (I think Avila currently still has the fewest at 3, so that times 7 Colleges), and IIRC at least half the classes have at least an adventure associated with them, which is another 8-9+. Yeah, that's a lot of adventures.

 

Mentioning there's hundreds of skills (the Wiki list 245 subskills/56 parent skills) might, indeed, not be the best idea, since those skills are by no means all equal in terms of being used/useful.

 

ORSO: Oh and by the way Vernin is the best.

Am I the only one here who isn't fishing for a stealth advertisement :rolleyes:?

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Ah, I see. Well, if you're also counting RE, than...yeah. There's tons of those, to be sure...

 

EDIT: Minor nitpicks:

 

ORSO: You're here because we want you to join us. I don't care if your parents were gravediggers, or if you're descended from kings. Or both.

 

I don't think there's an option for your parents to be former gravediggers, and in-game that background is called Family: Graverobbers, so perhaps "if your parents are grave robbers" would be better?

 

 

ORSO: I'm not going to lie. These are turbulent times. There are wizards running amok, and the school's infested with secret societies, and we're all living in the shadow of the murderous politics of the oldest, richest, most hectic city in all Elumia. The old Empire is dead, and after all this time we still don't really know what's taking its place.

Is that first "and" necessary, actually? Also, "what's taking its place" rather than "what's going to take its place"? Interesting phrasing there, I think...

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Fropm the Team:

 

"Oh, and tell Metis that there [/size]are other kinds of pirate. Heh, heh, heh."[/size]

 

Let's throw in an invasion of Space pirates! They get driven off by superior numbers and lack in understanding the dangers of wizards and magic since they don't believe in that. Their ship endsup falling over a ledge off the island after their engins fail.

This adventure has the possibility of teaching the PC how to build a battery and make a hand Shocker as a Prank item :P

 

 

23412-6.jpg

While the space pirates surely had more interesting and impressive tech it would be unrealistic for anyone to pickup all that knowledge from such a short exposure, but the pirates talking about amergency batteries and the need to rehydrate them and reapir them could give the PC some engineerign ideas for prank if nothing else, especialy if one of the pirates has an accident and gets small shock from the battery.

 

Then you patent it and become the person who invented alcaline batteries! Unless it already exists... Doubt it but it's possible, old betteries have been found on earth. Maybe a tazer as a more advanced app.... There might even be some commercial applications to those things :) For party people and guards.... Torturers....

 

Lets say one of those Nasty Gates accidents connected with their FTL drive and transported them here from a very distant part of space in a weird random accident.

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