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A few in game questions


Adrian
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lol, yeah.

 

I kind of hope the player discovers that missing spell in the second or third step of the Y2 adventure, rather than have it conveniently handed to you on a silver platter by a deus ex machina.

 

But to be fair the reason why that spell is lost might have to do with Gates. At least that's my suspicion.

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Heh, I'm more interested in the travel/planar alteration part of Gates than any other aspects.

 

Regardless, I sincerely doubt that the Chaos factor was ever conceived as a way to bar access to Gates as for 99% of the time Gates still works as intended. The most likely situation is that something is affecting it in a way to bring about certain results and my theory on that is already posted.

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Also, Gates might make a better astromancer.

Interesting that you say that.

 

I very recently discovered a snippet that might imply a connection between Astrology and Gates. Tied into this was an as-yet-unseen professor that the legate has personally told me "is very likely to appear in Y2." :)

 

I won't say any more without the legate's permision.

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It would make very little sense for Slip the Master's Mark to be an intended let alone widespread thing. It's probably/hopefully either an in-joke by the team or a PC-only thing for...some reason or another. I personally suspect it's an in-joke because A: You can't actually get the ability ingame without mods, B: The Master's Mark is less restrictive currently than I originally intended, and C: The ability's description notes "It's also worth noting that you can now be sure they didn't magically alter your personality in any way with the Mark.", while An Outing... assumes that a Mastery learning PC did so solely to satisfy curiosity rather than anything mischievous that would necessitate (and make apparent) a change in personality.

 

That or Nhordum botched his Enchant roll when he applied the thing, which would be amusing but is not especially likely considering he's a trained Vernin graduate and all.

Will the level 11 Skills that official can't be reached in year 1 be changed in year 2?
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I presume he means to ask whether the skill level 11 unlocks in Y1 that you can't officially get (like Sync's Slip the Master's Mark) is/can be different in Y2. Incidentally if the answer to that question is "yes" I'd like to know whether Sync is one of the skills who's level 11 unlocks that is changed. And if the answer to that question is "no" I have a few questions about that ability...

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Why can the PC Slip the Master's Mark? Is the PC's Mark faulty? If so, how/why did Nhordum botch an Enchant check when he's a Vernin graduate? Is it something innate to the PC? If so, what? How does the PC do that, anyway, if it's tried to Sync 11? Will there be an opportunity to point this out to Leene/Nhordum/Gregory/someone and have the issue corrected if the PC cares to do so? Speaking of issues, does that ability in Y2 have the prerequisite of actually having the Master's Mark? It doesn't in Y1, which is a bug, but than you can't actually get the ability normally so it's a bit of a moot point.

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Maybe it has something to do with Sync being actually Mastery and so the seal isn't perfect ? magicwise the line between Sync and real Mastery could be very blurred and our student could take advantage of this ?

 

Maybe you can't really completly seal magic (pillar or all) completly with tatoos ? I mean it sound like the perfect punition to Masterers and Gates users instead of the harsh death penalty ?

 

Maybe the player's Master's Mark is a soft one as it seems sync student are usually older and maybe the real thing is more demanding on the physical side ? or the complete seal has some big undesired effect ?

 

Been a while since I played academagia but from what I remember the mark is more disturbing than sealing Mastery's use. So maybe the player can work around the disturbance for a limited time ?

 

Negation > All ?

 

All of those ?

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Either way, I still would prefer outright Mastery to beating around the bush using registered gray magic illegally like that. It's just asking for trouble in the future. In the end It's not the magic being used, it's the person using it and how they choose to do so.

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Maybe it has something to do with Sync being actually Mastery and so the seal isn't perfect ? magicwise the line between Sync and real Mastery could be very blurred and our student could take advantage of this ?

 

Maybe you can't really completly seal magic (pillar or all) completly with tatoos ? I mean it sound like the perfect punition to Masterers and Gates users instead of the harsh death penalty ?

 

Maybe the player's Master's Mark is a soft one as it seems sync student are usually older and maybe the real thing is more demanding on the physical side ? or the complete seal has some big undesired effect ?

 

Been a while since I played academagia but from what I remember the mark is more disturbing than sealing Mastery's use. So maybe the player can work around the disturbance for a limited time ?

 

Negation > All ?

 

All of those ?

Only the Embrace spell is Mastery, the rest are all Glamours. That one spell is the one exception.

 

The death penalty is used because tattoo seals can be disrupted, removed, messed with, made inert, etc. A guillotine/noose has none of these problems.

 

I...eh...well...I...think, maybe? One would think that would have come up before this point, but I don't see anything factually wrong with that idea. It's true that most Sync users are years older than the PC is in Y1, heck Leene was a young student and she started studying in her third or fourth Academagia year. The PC really is an unexpected prodigy.

 

I honestly don't remember anything of the sort. The PC might have been disturbed by the idea, but considering the situation s/he's in when s/he first hears of the Mark that's hardly unexpected.

 

Oh, i got this one. Tattoo Magic its supposedly a specialized form of Orthography, possibly only available on advanced Aranaz classes. So when Nhordum used the Enchant roll instead of the Orhtography one while doing a tatoo, he got it wrong. B)
@isador - the mark is described as to give a major chance of failure when casting mastery spells ( 90% mechanically )
Also, i dont see how Negation > All , especially in this case, since the slip the master's mark looks more like a loophole in the Mark than the player trying to negate it.
Without the proper knowledge in Orthography, Negation and Mastery - since Vernin dont offer advanced classes for any of these disciplines - togheter with the natural holes in the knowledge of the pillars mentioned a few posts above, Nhordum's work would sure have loopholes.

 

Regardless of Nhordum, i just think the team has a darker path for Sync than Metis originnally intended, and that's why i believe the loophole stands for.

I suppose that is correct, but he's supposed to have learned how to place a Mark specifically to make amends with his parents for going against their wishes and joining Vernin instead of Durand. If Enchant can't set a proper Mark than someone would have realized it before the player showed up. I suppose he could have botched his roll, but he'd certainly have known if his roll was doomed from the start.

 

That and +1 Mental Bridging, yes. Originally it would have been 100%, BTW.

 

Loophole, yes. That's not to say the Mark can't be Negated, but doing so is...unwise.

 

The Master's Mark itself is a giant loophole - chop off your wrist, done. It don't think it's intended to have a loophole while still on your wrist, however.

 

It seems like everyone except me trying to twist Sync into becoming the school for mind flayers. Which it can't be by design. And trying to twist it's practitioners into secretly evil Masterers trying to take over the world or something to that effect. Which also can't work by (Sync's) design.

 

All I can say is: it's not innate to the Player and...surprise! :)

Not a fun surprise, honestly. Really, I just have to ask: Is the PC's Mark busted or is it part of the Mark's design that it can be so easily subverted? The former could be easily explained as Nhordum botching his Enchant roll, the latter wouldn't throw a wrench in everything Y1 established so much as a stack of TNT.

 

Man that's awesome, Academagia of Thrones for the win. B)

 

@ isador & free - i also believe it depends on the tatoo, but in this adventure in particular it does seem like a enchantment kind of tatoo, since he is a Vernin graduate and all.

Never watched/played/read/whatever Game of Thrones, so I fail to see the awesome.

 

I always imagined it as Enchant being used for (semi-)permanent stuff, and Orthography being used for one-time-use stuff.

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Agreed :rolleyes:. Zone of Calm is, lore-wise, probably my favorite spell. Not worth it mechanically, but that can be said for practically all spells not called "Cleanse and Remake", "6th Finger" or "Glow of Victory".

 

Eh, I still hold on to the idea that people involve in politics can by any two of "Honest", "Powerful" or "Alive". So that setting sounds like something I'd take one look at and immediately become convinced that someone going Old Testament on it would achieve a happier ending in less that 1% of the time it takes for mortal people to be done backstabbing each other until there's only one man left standing. Incidentally, Gregory would skimp out on the "Powerful" part - he has a reasonable amount of political sway he focusses on keeping his craft legal, which is sufficient for that purpose, but beyond that his opinions carries little if any weight.

 

Since you can't easily extract this from the mod tools, here's Sync's parent skill description:

Synchronicity, in this circumstance, refers to the magical skill and practice of aligning one's mind with another's - usually to shield against pain or to offer guidance against deeply held fears. The most exotic parts of the skill set is closely linked to Mastery, and though the Praetexta Court allows its study in strictly supervised environments, there's always the danger that law of custom will change - or simply be ignored in favor of preventative violence.

 

The Masters of Synchronicity accept the risk. They see the good the magic can do.

Hiding the fact you're studying Mastery behind Sync would be...and incredibly stupid idea. Especially if House Kazus gets involved. That would not work on so many levels I don't know where to begin.

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You can't access DLC 16 stuff from the modtools. Well, you could, but the modbase isn't updated to DLC 16 so you only have access to everything up to and including DLC 15.

 

As for that particular adventure stage, that option only appears I think if the player has the Secrets and Silence background. A different option appears if you don't have that background but you do have Mastery 2, and an entirely different set of options appear if you don't have either. In the last case you're also given the choice whether you want to learn Sync or not, and if you don't the adventure ends right there.

 

The thing is that the only reason Leene doesn't drag the PC to the Captain to be cloistered or executed - which is what she legally should have done in that situation - is because the adventure shamelessly assumes that a Mastery learning PC did so solely to satisfy curiosity. And if the PC doesn't have any evil intend for Mastery they don't have any need for it, because Sync will give them whatever abilities they want anyway. It's certainly possible that someone might find out about Sync and try to hide behind it, but any attempts to actually do so would be such spectacular failures that comedians will gloriously mock them forever more.

 

Well, you can trust their intentions. Nhordum at least will make a few boneheaded decisions in Y2, but he means well.

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The "safer with a mentor" option comes up without the background is you have mastery, or so I'm told, cough, cough.

 

I suspect that some Mastery users might try to forge a Sync tattoo either to pretend to be Sync not Mastery, or to cause trouble for House Kazus.

 

In terms of slipping the mark, I have no idea how constrained the availability is, the long term effects, etc - Academagia doesn't use the rule of three but the power could be more of an emergency hail mary (like a preserver using defiler magic in dark sun) than something used casually. Also, from a practicalities viewpoint, I suspect that at the very least anyone using mastery would be well advised to avoid an embrace with someone from house Kazus for a very long time afterwards...

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The "safer with a mentor" option comes up without the background is you have mastery, or so I'm told, cough, cough.

 

I suspect that some Mastery users might try to forge a Sync tattoo either to pretend to be Sync not Mastery, or to cause trouble for House Kazus.

 

In terms of slipping the mark, I have no idea how constrained the availability is, the long term effects, etc - Academagia doesn't use the rule of three but the power could be more of an emergency hail mary (like a preserver using defiler magic in dark sun) than something used casually. Also, from a practicalities viewpoint, I suspect that at the very least anyone using mastery would be well advised to avoid an embrace with someone from house Kazus for a very long time afterwards...

Really? I distinctly remember a Mastery 2 no Secrets/Silence background getting an option like "Actually, you'd really REALLY like to learn this side of Mastery, but you'd never admit it. Nuts.", resulting in the PC brooding a bit about whether Leene noticed their Mastery and what she'd do, with the respective answers being "yes" and "offer to teach the PC Sync after pointing out the alternative is death by guillotine".

 

I suppose some might, but there's very few people that actually know what a Master's Mark is and what it means. And those that do know what it means will generally not become less suspicious of you after revealing it, like the Captain certainly wouldn't.

 

I'm positive that the ability to slip the Mark is an accident on Nhordum's part, meaning only the PC can actually do so. There would be so much wrong with it being intentional on anyone's part that it's not even funny. That said it'll be what the PC makes it to be, either an opportunity to royally contradict their ability to learn Sync so effectively or an emergency panic button that would call into question how the PC is justifying the study of Mastery to actually make use of it while keeping it hidden from at least one person that's repeatedly Embracing him/her for various reasons. BTW, I know I'm late with stage12a of the Y2 follow-up to An Outing... (had a first draft that I had to scrap entirely and it's just been slow going afterwards), but that's the point where Leene will finally have enough time to train you personally. Through weekly Embraces, since that's the only reasonable way to learn how to Embrace someone, which is what the PC is trying to learn at that point.

 

I, eh, I've yet to come up with an explanation as to how Leene won't notice that bit with the PC's Mark during those sessions. The PC has a rudimentary knowledge of how to hide things during an Embrace and Leene won't actively be looking for something like it, so it's certainly possible for the PC to hide it, but if said PC actually does anything with Slip the Master's Mark...yeah. Leene may be trusting, but she's not stupid and Nhordum pulled that stunt with Rain recently even if she normally would be, so..yeah.

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