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Year 2 start


Albert

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Thanks for the answear, I hope we then can increasse the SS max of all SS via different methodes not like it is in year 1.

Also hopefull it get even more reduced from how time consuming it is, right now the best I have is 4.5-5 steps for a chance to increase the SS max and this mostly only for skills that are teached at the academy (execpt for athletics).

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If I recall it was mentioned that while skill caps do get raised the meat of skill advancement in year 2 is supposed to be the addition of "advanced skills". You see certain skills like your current Glamour, incantation, negation, etc. represents your mastery of the basics and as you move through the years your gain access to increasingly advanced forms of these skills and while it hasn't been confirmed to my knowledge I believe many of these skills will require a certain level of mastery in existing skills before they become available(after all you can't solve for the area of a triangle if you don't know how to multiply and divide). Also I recall it being mentioned that a professors mastery of the basic magic they teach is rated at around 18 and 7 or 8 is supposed to be the average level of proficiency on graduation so I can't imagine that they will raise it much past 20. Additionally many things that were only implied through skills or lore and were done a little half-handedly like dueling and rimball are supposedly going to get more fully realized in year 2 giving you more things to do and less time to spend on skill mastery.

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Being one of those few people who are sceptical about character transition to sequels in general, I just have to shower you with a servo of staggering questions. May I?

 

Anyway. Let's begin.

 

Can we start the game from year 2 (3,4,5) without an imported character?

 

If so, how are you planing to handle it?

What data will we be able to set? Adventures? Relationships? Other students data? Lore? Location knowledge? Recipes? Inventory? Inventory modifications? Anything else?

What's your stance on disparity between imported characters and fresh starts? How much the plain efficiency of fresh starter is going to differ from efficiency of both top-notch imported characters and average imported characters? How much the available content is going to depend on importable data? How noticeable will the difference be between the content available to "freshers", "oldies" and top-tier "oldies"?

 

If not, how are you planing to handle it?

Will the later games allow us to re-play the earlier years using later engine and database versions? (that'd take some sizeable work with importing early database, but results would be priceless imho) Or will we have to re-play early years without those cool features-to-be?

 

 

In general, I'm not as much interested in knowing what you'll be doing, as I am in being sure that you know what you're doing. Still, I wouldn't mind knowing your stance on the much neglected problems of character inter-game transfers.

 

The more impact the "past" has on the game content the more important it becomes to re-live that past. Either there's little importance to that past or there's a lot of potential inconvenience stemming from it's importance. Which do you prefer? Will we find ourselves constantly re-playing early years or will we forget about them in favour of later years?

 

An alternative of re-living the past is "quickly generated past", however the richer this option is, the less special your "past" feels. Which do you prefer? Will our character turn into has-beens, or will every alternative start of a recent year cost us a replay of all the previous ones?

 

The above problems apply both to content and training, but the choices can be taken separately. I'd like to know your stances on each field specifically (as long as they are different of cause)

 

Also, this is going to be a long sequence of games, which means that every issue and every little bit of friction is going to be felt worse as the time progress (the insignifice will grow even lesser significance and the agony of repetition will only strengthen as more iterations of games grow old). Do you plan to adjust your stance over time?

 

P.S. One last question, off the topic. Is there an option to place permanent enchantments on our equipment with phemes in this game? Every so often pheme description mention being "being added onto a spell or item", a lot of them mention bonuses I'd love to have on a permanent basis, there's a whole enchanting skill in the game, a number of spells and actions exist that improve existing items, and some phemes only confer bonuses meant for items, yet I found no way to put a general bonus of a pheme on an item and keep it there. Did I miss something, or was I searching for something that doesn't exist in the first place?

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My suggestion about the questions above:

 

1. Fresh start: nonY1 students

Obviously that student is transfered from another school into Academagia. The character creation should reflect this in a few aspect:

Base stat: Y1 get 7+10 stat amounts. Y2 transferee should get 14+10 stat amounts, basically 2 per attribute and the same +10. The 7 point difference make it so that they got a few adventures in the old place. 7 might be too few but the versality of getting a cap+6 to each attribute should compensate for that. in plainer speaks, the possibility of getting a Strength 10 character should be a powerful incentive to play transferee.

 

Backgrounds perks: A few more should do it, to reflect the past schoolyear.

 

Starting item: More (pims, accessories).

 

Starting familiar: Stronger non-Pamela familiars. In a way this also an incentive to play new chars and reflect the last year playing around too much with familiar.

 

Starting subskills: Get 5 on ALL subskills. Minus the Gates and Mastery, of course. This will be quite attractive to a few players who didnt develop their char in an allround manner.

2. Adventures:

 

More rounding up the quests. Currently there's too few options. Half of the current quest get one investigative option to increase the chance to solve it. I'd like you guys to add at least one more, so that all quest get atleast one investigative branch to help ease the transferee into solving the quest.

 

3. Item crafting

 

Currently there's no usage for that aspect. The cost of time slot is too huge to even consider touching it: at least one time slot to search/buy materials, then one slot to Artifice it. To make it attractive, we'd like the gains must worth the cost:

 

2 timeslot = 6gains item.

 

for example: we can buff the Ring of Astrologers with Perfectly Revised (+1SS), Refractive (-CoD?)(+Conceal +Hide)

It can be horribly difficult but it must be possible, so that we can consider planning for it. The achievement of a second year student should be making one such ring.

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Red;

 

For your questions:

 

What data will we be able to set? Adventures? Relationships? Other students data? Lore? Location knowledge? Recipes? Inventory? Inventory modifications? Anything else?

 

None of these can be set for a fresh Character; instead, you'll have a number of Characters to play, each one different. If you want something more customized, you'll definitely want to import your Year 1 Character.

 

What's your stance on disparity between imported characters and fresh starts? How much the plain efficiency of fresh starter is going to differ from efficiency of both top-notch imported characters and average imported characters? How much the available content is going to depend on importable data? How noticeable will the difference be between the content available to "freshers", "oldies" and top-tier "oldies"?

 

Imported Characters will always be superior, since they are made to your tastes. This is true for efficiency, as well, since that is perceived by you, the Player, according to your goals. All content will be available and achievable by both imported and new Characters, although imported Characters will again be superior to your tastes.

 

Will the later games allow us to re-play the earlier years using later engine and database versions? (that'd take some sizeable work with importing early database, but results would be priceless imho) Or will we have to re-play early years without those cool features-to-be?

 

No, unfortunately that will probably not be possible. It would be awesome, though.

 

The more impact the "past" has on the game content the more important it becomes to re-live that past. Either there's little importance to that past or there's a lot of potential inconvenience stemming from it's importance. Which do you prefer? Will we find ourselves constantly re-playing early years or will we forget about them in favour of later years?

 

Adventures most strongly recall the past, quite apart from what you have done with your Character in terms of stats. Based on what you have done in the Y1 Adventures, you'll see many effects, most subtle, and some dramatic. There are also some 'Memories', which you may or may not experience.

 

New Characters, however, don't see too much of this.

 

An alternative of re-living the past is "quickly generated past", however the richer this option is, the less special your "past" feels. Which do you prefer? Will our character turn into has-beens, or will every alternative start of a recent year cost us a replay of all the previous ones?

 

I believe the simple answer to this is: if you want a rich past, you should probably play Year 1. A new Character, begun in Year 2, will have only slightly more past than your fresh Year 1 Character did.

 

P.S. One last question, off the topic. Is there an option to place permanent enchantments on our equipment with phemes in this game? Every so often pheme description mention being "being added onto a spell or item", a lot of them mention bonuses I'd love to have on a permanent basis, there's a whole enchanting skill in the game, a number of spells and actions exist that improve existing items, and some phemes only confer bonuses meant for items, yet I found no way to put a general bonus of a pheme on an item and keep it there. Did I miss something, or was I searching for something that doesn't exist in the first place?

 

Yes, you are able to Enchant Items in Y1. I personally find it very obtuse, though- you may want to wait for Y2. :)

 

Edit:

 

Hey, Lac, I missed you there:

 

My suggestion about the questions above:

 

There are some unique Backgrounds for the new Characters, as you suggest- but you aren't able to select them. They are fixed, as I understand it.

 

More rounding up the quests. Currently there's too few options. Half of the current quest get one investigative option to increase the chance to solve it. I'd like you guys to add at least one more, so that all quest get atleast one investigative branch to help ease the transferee into solving the quest.

 

As you will see, this is a bit different in Y2. :)

 

3. Item crafting

 

Currently there's no usage for that aspect. The cost of time slot is too huge to even consider touching it: at least one time slot to search/buy materials, then one slot to Artifice it. To make it attractive, we'd like the gains must worth the cost:

 

We want to boost that aspect of the game, too. I can't talk about this yet, but as you will find out there are several new options...;)

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What data will we be able to set? Adventures? Relationships? Other students data? Lore? Location knowledge? Recipes? Inventory? Inventory modifications? Anything else?

None of these can be set for a fresh Character; instead, you'll have a number of Characters to play, each one different. If you want something more customized, you'll definitely want to import your Year 1 Character.

For several other games with importing mechanics there were user-generated workarounds. Aka import save generators. Would you mind if one surfaced around here?

 

What's your stance on disparity between imported characters and fresh starts? How much the plain efficiency of fresh starter is going to differ from efficiency of both top-notch imported characters and average imported characters? How much the available content is going to depend on importable data? How noticeable will the difference be between the content available to "freshers", "oldies" and top-tier "oldies"?

Imported Characters will always be superior, since they are made to your tastes. This is true for efficiency, as well, since that is perceived by you, the Player, according to your goals. All content will be available and achievable by both imported and new Characters, although imported Characters will again be superior to your tastes.

There's a bit of a misunderstanding here. I wasn't talking about tastes, only raw numbers.

In other words, how easy would it be to raise a character from year 1 that surpasses a character from year 2 in every skill and asset (excluding any assets unique to y2 students).

 

Will the later games allow us to re-play the earlier years using later engine and database versions? (that'd take some sizeable work with importing early database, but results would be priceless imho) Or will we have to re-play early years without those cool features-to-be?

No, unfortunately that will probably not be possible. It would be awesome, though.

VERY unfortunate indeed... since the moment I read that some improvements (UI primarily) are not going to make it into Y1 I was hoping for a way to play Y1 with Y2+ engine.

 

The more impact the "past" has on the game content the more important it becomes to re-live that past. Either there's little importance to that past or there's a lot of potential inconvenience stemming from it's importance. Which do you prefer? Will we find ourselves constantly re-playing early years or will we forget about them in favour of later years?

 

An alternative of re-living the past is "quickly generated past", however the richer this option is, the less special your "past" feels. Which do you prefer? Will our character turn into has-beens, or will every alternative start of a recent year cost us a replay of all the previous ones?

Adventures most strongly recall the past, quite apart from what you have done with your Character in terms of stats. Based on what you have done in the Y1 Adventures, you'll see many effects, most subtle, and some dramatic. There are also some 'Memories', which you may or may not experience.

New Characters, however, don't see too much of this.

 

I believe the simple answer to this is: if you want a rich past, you should probably play Year 1. A new Character, begun in Year 2, will have only slightly more past than your fresh Year 1 Character did.

You're either misunderstanding the question or avoiding the answer. There's an unavoidable trade-off : the more influence the past has, the more of a disadvantage fresh characters get, buy not having access to that influence. Where's your "slider" on this scale for the nearest transition, and where are you planning to keep it for later transitions?

 

If I understood correctly, the main difference will be felt in adventures. But how strongly will it be felt? The word "many" may have many meaning in a game with hundreds of adventures.

By a rough estimates, which percentage of adventures are not entirely experienceable by fresh characters? How many of them (if any) are not available to fresh characters at all?

While I'm at it, by your estimates, how many year 1 characters would it take to fully experience all the y2 content over any number of playthroughs? (assuming that the one making those y1 characters know what he needs and knows how to minimize the required number of characters)

 

 

P.S. One last question, off the topic. Is there an option to place permanent enchantments on our equipment with phemes in this game? Every so often pheme description mention being "being added onto a spell or item", a lot of them mention bonuses I'd love to have on a permanent basis, there's a whole enchanting skill in the game, a number of spells and actions exist that improve existing items, and some phemes only confer bonuses meant for items, yet I found no way to put a general bonus of a pheme on an item and keep it there. Did I miss something, or was I searching for something that doesn't exist in the first place?

 

Yes, you are able to Enchant Items in Y1. I personally find it very obtuse, though- you may want to wait for Y2. :)

*Sigh* And I've already made peace with the idea that my search was in vain...

 

Either there's a misunderstanding or I'm missing something obvious. Ok, so let's say I have a "minuitae" pheme (that's one of those who's description claims that I can "add it onto a spell or item"), I also happen to have a recipe of a random gimmick, all the materials for a random gimmick, even an extra copy of that gimmick already in my inventory. What do I need to do in order to get a random gimmick with a permanent +1 to forms, illustration, painting and forgery (the bonus that pheme claims to give when "added to onto a spell or item")?

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Red;

 

"For several other games with importing mechanics there were user-generated workarounds. Aka import save generators. Would you mind if one surfaced around here?"

 

Nope, one will almost certainly appear. :)

 

"There's a bit of a misunderstanding here. I wasn't talking about tastes, only raw numbers.

In other words, how easy would it be to raise a character from year 1 that surpasses a character from year 2 in every skill and asset (excluding any assets unique to y2 students)."

 

I imagine fairly easy for people focused on doing so. There are a lot of power leveling tricks the forums have uncovered. :)

 

"You're either misunderstanding the question or avoiding the answer. There's an unavoidable trade-off : the more influence the past has, the more of a disadvantage fresh characters get, buy not having access to that influence. Where's your "slider" on this scale for the nearest transition, and where are you planning to keep it for later transitions?"

 

The trouble with speaking about a disadvantage is that most of that is Player-perceived. New Characters in Y2 will have, for the most part, access to most all of the content. Y1 Characters certainly have the possibility of being more efficient, finding it simpler, or seeing more of it...but then again, depending on what your goals were in Y1, the reverse may equally be true.

 

"If I understood correctly, the main difference will be felt in adventures. But how strongly will it be felt? The word "many" may have many meaning in a game with hundreds of adventures.

By a rough estimates, which percentage of adventures are not entirely experienceable by fresh characters? How many of them (if any) are not available to fresh characters at all?

While I'm at it, by your estimates, how many year 1 characters would it take to fully experience all the y2 content over any number of playthroughs? (assuming that the one making those Y1 characters know what he needs and knows how to minimize the required number of characters)""

 

Almost all of the content will be available to new Characters. However, old Characters will have the benefit (or, as sometimes happens, the drawback) of having experienced the Y1 content, depending on their completion, success or failure. That can change the Adventures in terms of their starting point, endings, or branches along the same- sometimes subtle, sometimes fairly dramatically, depending.

 

If that makes more sense. :)

 

"Either there's a misunderstanding or I'm missing something obvious. Ok, so let's say I have a "minuitae" pheme (that's one of those who's description claims that I can "add it onto a spell or item"), I also happen to have a recipe of a random gimmick, all the materials for a random gimmick, even an extra copy of that gimmick already in my inventory. What do I need to do in order to get a random gimmick with a permanent +1 to forms, illustration, painting and forgery (the bonus that pheme claims to give when "added to onto a spell or item")?"

 

I don't recall that the Enchanting system quite works like that- you first need an unenchanted Item, then access to certain Abilities to Enchant, and finally a Spell to add. It's the Spells which are Enchanted, and the Phemes you add are those required by them.

 

If I remember correctly! Personally, I found it overly difficult in Y1. :)

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Oh! If I remember correctly, Y2 was planned to come out at the end of this year. Now I'm curious as to how much that has changed? I know at least one more DLC is coming out so the original plan is moot now. I'd just like to gauge how much time I might still have to write a Y1 adventure.

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I hope that BCS manage to keep the time betwean the release of each Academagia Year to be at a maximum of 3 years as I think still having to wait 10 years is long enough to see the end of this series.

Especial considering that Year 1 is already incompatible with the newest Windows OS and so a complet playtrough of all 5 years is probably imposible on the same computer when year 5 get out.

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Dissecting my own quotes from your responses, is kinda bothersome. >_< Do you mind doing it before they are all mixed up?

 

"For several other games with importing mechanics there were user-generated workarounds. Aka import save generators. Would you mind if one surfaced around here?"

Nope, one will almost certainly appear. :)

So it's not a principal matter? Great!

 

"There's a bit of a misunderstanding here. I wasn't talking about tastes, only raw numbers.

In other words, how easy would it be to raise a character from year 1 that surpasses a character from year 2 in every skill and asset (excluding any assets unique to y2 students)."

I imagine fairly easy for people focused on doing so. There are a lot of power leveling tricks the forums have uncovered. :)

That was expected. What about people NOT focused on doing so? I'm trying to get a general idea of where to the Y2s land compared to Y1 PL and Y1 casual.

 

"You're either misunderstanding the question or avoiding the answer. There's an unavoidable trade-off : the more influence the past has, the more of a disadvantage fresh characters get, buy not having access to that influence. Where's your "slider" on this scale for the nearest transition, and where are you planning to keep it for later transitions?"

 

"If I understood correctly, the main difference will be felt in adventures. But how strongly will it be felt? The word "many" may have many meaning in a game with hundreds of adventures.

By a rough estimates, which percentage of adventures are not entirely experienceable by fresh characters? How many of them (if any) are not available to fresh characters at all?

While I'm at it, by your estimates, how many year 1 characters would it take to fully experience all the y2 content over any number of playthroughs? (assuming that the one making those Y1 characters know what he needs and knows how to minimize the required number of characters)""

The trouble with speaking about a disadvantage is that most of that is Player-perceived. New Characters in Y2 will have, for the most part, access to most all of the content. Y1 Characters certainly have the possibility of being more efficient, finding it simpler, or seeing more of it...but then again, depending on what your goals were in Y1, the reverse may equally be true.

 

Almost all of the content will be available to new Characters. However, old Characters will have the benefit (or, as sometimes happens, the drawback) of having experienced the Y1 content, depending on their completion, success or failure. That can change the Adventures in terms of their starting point, endings, or branches along the same- sometimes subtle, sometimes fairly dramatically, depending.

 

If that makes more sense. :)

You're really starting to persuade me that you ARE dodging the question.

 

The distortion of the final result caused by our perception doesn't cancel out the possibility of measuring the matter we perceive. Content CAN be measured. Written text by words or lines, choices and adventures by numbers. Which percentage of adventures and which percentage of text can't be encountered without a Y1 character? (Answer BOTH parts of that question, please.)

 

"Either there's a misunderstanding or I'm missing something obvious. Ok, so let's say I have a "minuitae" pheme (that's one of those who's description claims that I can "add it onto a spell or item"), I also happen to have a recipe of a random gimmick, all the materials for a random gimmick, even an extra copy of that gimmick already in my inventory. What do I need to do in order to get a random gimmick with a permanent +1 to forms, illustration, painting and forgery (the bonus that pheme claims to give when "added to onto a spell or item")?"

I don't recall that the Enchanting system quite works like that- you first need an unenchanted Item, then access to certain Abilities to Enchant, and finally a Spell to add. It's the Spells which are Enchanted, and the Phemes you add are those required by them.

 

If I remember correctly! Personally, I found it overly difficult in Y1. :)

So I can't add "minuitae"'s bonus as a permanent item bonus, but I can change item's size or durability through appropriate phemes, right?

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Red;

 

"That was expected. What about people NOT focused on doing so? I'm trying to get a general idea of where to the Y2s land compared to Y1 PL and Y1 casual."

 

If you are a Y1 casual, you can expect the same level of difficulty- I think you are asking if the challenges are created with power gamers in mind? No, not really. :)

 

"The distortion of the final result caused by our perception doesn't cancel out the possibility of measuring the matter we perceive. Content CAN be measured. Written text by words or lines, choices and adventures by numbers. Which percentage of adventures and which percentage of text can't be encountered without a Y1 character? (Answer BOTH parts of that question, please."

 

Red, honestly, it's not possible to measure- the game is not complete! This is your answer, at least at this time: "Almost all of the content will be available to new Characters."

 

"So I can't add "minuitae"'s bonus as a permanent item bonus, but I can change item's size or durability through appropriate phemes, right?"

 

To the best of my knowledge, no- as I understand it, it must be a Spell.

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This is generally what I think he meant and something I'm curious about. I'll use an example: say, a Y1 character found a book that would get him into trouble. In Y2 you have an adventure based on said book. For a newly imported character, could you find said book in Y2 and do the adventure or are you forever locked out of it?

 

Same with a certain tower...Do you redo the adventure in Y1 and continue with the Y2 one or do you just not have access?

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Red;

If you are a Y1 casual, you can expect the same level of difficulty- I think you are asking if the challenges are created with power gamers in mind? No, not really. :)

Nope, I'm trying to compare the potential of Y2 characters and Y1 characters. Challenges difficulty is a bit different matter. So If I understand you correctly, Y2 skill levels should more or less resemble skill levels of a casual Y1 student, right?

 

Red, honestly, it's not possible to measure- the game is not complete! This is your answer, at least at this time: "Almost all of the content will be available to new Characters."

There, that wasn't to hard to answer, was it? :P No offence, it's just that getting this out of you was almost an exercise in stubbornness...

 

To the best of my knowledge, no- as I understand it, it must be a Spell.

That's what I've figured, still with all those "use pheme on item" claims in description of otherwise normal phemes I was beginning to doubt it. So what (if anything at all) do such descriptions refer to?

 

Anyway, sorry about making you go through this "interrogation", I hope I'm not bothering you too much with it. Am I?

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There, that wasn't to hard to answer, was it? :P No offence, it's just that getting this out of you was almost an exercise in stubbornness...

 

You know, Red, I really couldn't tell any difference between the answer you found satisfactory and the previous two. I think perhaps it wouldn't have hurt to have rephrased your question. Perhaps asking why the previous answers were lacking would have been a bit more productive.

 

I'm just saying this because you did come off as a *tad* bit agressive. :)

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Red;

 

"Nope, I'm trying to compare the potential of Y2 characters and Y1 characters. Challenges difficulty is a bit different matter. So If I understand you correctly, Y2 skill levels should more or less resemble skill levels of a casual Y1 student, right?"

 

Essentially, yes.

 

"That's what I've figured, still with all those "use pheme on item" claims in description of otherwise normal phemes I was beginning to doubt it. So what (if anything at all) do such descriptions refer to?"

 

I'm not entirely sure myself- I think the original intent may have been Pheme enchantment, but I am not sure.

 

"Anyway, sorry about making you go through this "interrogation", I hope I'm not bothering you too much with it. Am I?"

 

Nope, questions are good! :)

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