~ Suggestions & Improvement ~

[Albert]

I used the diplomacy option, it wasn't really evil but their own fear of what I was proposing made them turn on eachother and ended their friendships... All in all they ended up scared and lost.

 

I guess that's slightly evil...

[Legate of Mineta]

"It's not worth selling your soul. All magic has a price, and the magic of unlimited budget visits heavely upon one's soul."

 

True words.

[starcrunch]

I just want the people that made this to be able to make ends meet and keep making games. This was definitely one of the best game purchases I've made in... well a really long time. Not flashy, but a solid set of stories, amazing longevity, and load replay-ability. Even after all this time I still stumble across lore/spells/adventures I've never seen and flush out the world a little bit more. Now some ideas for the future:

1. I'll echo what others have said about organizing everything, but that's obviously a focus of the team for the second go around so I won't belabor the point.
   
2. Make cliques matter more than just skill bonuses. Here are a few ideas.
   
   • It's probably a challenege but writing from the perspecitve of a collective for some adventures would make them feel like more a part of the story, or even better having interjections that can be played by clique members, so if you have a clique and are on an adventure you see some extra text where they offer an opinion.
     
   • A huge challenge, but having some students react to your moral/ethical choices would also be nice. Don't want to overdo this, it seems like it should be limited to MAJOR points. i.e. If you have a student in your clique who doesn't like Mastery and you choose an obviously evil Mastery exit they like you less. Bonus if this could be mentioned in story.
     
   • Some students should not like you taking certain actions. This should be pretty limited, but proscribed spell casting and certain really illegal or negative actions should make some clique members like you less, maybe even a lot less. For proscribed magic I'm thinking that if you cast it outside of your room your clique becomes aware of your leanings. Some should like you more for these things and others shouldn't care. It'd be cool if there was a "talking to" event for each NPC where they react to learning about Gates/Mastery use. Maybe just a few generic ones and each student gets assigned the generic event that fits their personality best, to cut down on the writing. You could always still have unique events for the students that you had good reason to give such things to.
     
   • Students in your clique and other students that appear in adventures with you should get benefits from the adventures. This would help keep them from getting so run over by the PC power wise. There are very few adventures where anybody gets anything except the player.
     
   • Have adventures take clique members timeslots, and report on the clique members gains. The player should *probably* still run the show.
     
   • Have a few more attribute/skill gains for non-clique members to give a boost to other students.
     
   • Make it easier to determine the social and academic health of your clique, and if you're skilled in the proper areas make it easier to talk through problems and get people to at least get along.
     
   • Have a few short adventures or random events tied to having certain clique members at the same time. I'm not thinking every pairwise interaction needs something (after all writing 3500+ events would be impractical) but the specific ones that have a strong story component already should have one. I.e. Phillipe and Joana should have something special if you have both of them. Another way to do this might be to have a few more generic events that can apply to lists of NPC's with similar personalities or at least that don't have obvious character elements that preclude them from being the person described in the adventure.
     
   • Your clique needs a base of operations. A place that is unique yours. Could be a fun event. Bonus if you could choose it's nature to some extent or improve it.
     

[*]I'm a little less certain on this, but possibly making the Colleges more unique. I'm less sure because I'm not sure how to do this; I don't think any college should have cornered the market on any particular discipline. Maybe a college specific quest where you (and all your college mates) pick up a college specific bonus of some sort. I think this is really probably more of a flavor element than a stat based need. A couple related ideas:

• Have a modifier be applied to certain contested skill checks based on the players location when the event goes down. So if you get bullied while you're in a time block where you're on your college's grounds by a student from another college you get a bonus to the contested skill roll (if the bully is from your college you both get the bonus). The degree of the bonus would depend on the college you're in and the kind of action taken against you. So Aranaz would have good defence against bullying (and Befriend!) from others due to the insular nature of the college. Durand on the other hand might have better bonuses against thievery and pranks, and Vernin because of the large size of the campus and the nature of the students may not particularly help with either (it's hard for me to put a finger on what Vernin is).
  
• Make actions/abilities/spells that cause random relationship bonuses to choose from a more restricted pool if they're performed on a colleges grounds. So if I perform Fill the Sky with Stars (I think that's the spell) in the Vernin Common room the random relationship gain would come from the pool of Vernin students.
  
• Make some regents play favorites as far as Merit rewards... Especially Aranaz, Godinia, and Avila I feel like they're the most likely.
  
• Rivalry... I'm not sure but I kind of think Aranaz/Durand as a sort of unique thing works fairly well. I can see the intellectual basis for the Avilia/Godinia rivalry but there doesn't really seem to be many students in either that would be interested in perpetuating it. It would definitely redefine how I see most of the students if it became a big deal. Vernin/Morvidus works a bit better maybe, but there are very few students in either (especially Vernin) that seem interested in rivalry. Sure Catherine and Corradin are unpleasant, but they're unpleasant to everyone.
  
• Rimbal! Not something any of my PC's have cared about, but it could be a source of rivalry. Plus Godinia could finally win something.
  
• Duels! Tournament style! Inter-college duels could serve another way to promote rivalry. Plus this gives Godinia/Durand/Aranaz another place to excel and get out of Morvidius and Vernin's Merit shadow (though Aranaz occasionally does ok and can be completely fine if the PC is in that college and helps a bit).
  
• Other forms of intercollegiate competition. Still can't think of any event that doesn't end in Avilia getting flattened.
  
• Better reporting on who is bullying my friends. It's hard to rescue them without knowing who's harassing them.
  

[*]Crime and Punishment could be expanded! Ideas:

• I think it's a bit too easy to skip class, or at the very least the cost/benefit analysis promotes skipping too much in my opinion.
  
• More unique punishments. I'm thinking a table of possible punishments for generic reprimands. Ideas for this include fines, community service, cleanup, cafeteria duty, religious penance. Bonus if some were only possible with certain professors or for certain crimes (i.e. fines only apply for trespassing off campus, etc.).
  
• Tithing based on the players allowance. There is a holiday event where it's mentioned this is your responsibility and it's a one time event, but I think it'd be fun to do this for religious characters. The player should gain something for it (skills maybe, but also I think at the very least visitation rights to various religious based structures as well).
  
• Ability to side with the Thieves Guild in related events. There should be very, very serious penalties for failing the roles though... Significant fines and major disciplinary action, possibly expulsion.
  
• Casting proscribed magic in open places should lead to major disciplinary action. If I gate something and a professor sees me it should be very, very bad news. It'd be doubly cool if this could play out differently based on how much they like me, sometimes. Basically the idea would be that if you're caught and the professor that would assign you discipline likes you enough you get a text based event where they talk to you, and then assign some lesser punishment than a hearing before the Prataxia (like detention/merit loss/other penalties). Unless the professor has a secret about how they feel about proscribed magic the player should have their favor wiped out as well with that professor. The favor you need with each professor to get this event as opposed to serious trouble depends on the professor.
  
• Using Mastery on other students should probably raise alarms if a PC or NPC ends up in the infirmary. This should lead to a global chance of detection on Mastery casting for some period in the future.
  
• Some professors should have a chance to detect on-going Gates spells. If Orsi reprimands you while you have a cooking sprite summoned... well there should be a chance he can figure it out whether or not it's invisible.
  
• A skill called Punctuality in School Survival. Until it's trained up the (N)PC has a chance of being late to any class and interrupting the professor and losing merit or on rare occasions a Reprimand. For added fun have this chance interact with other skills like pure luck, navigation, cartography, flawless timing, etc. that might make it easier for the student to enter class without interrupting and drawing the professor's ire.
  

[*]Separate parental approval from allowance. Allowance should be mediated by parental approval and parental means so that poor parents can like their children but they still don't have money to give them. I don't know most of my characters come from humbler backgrounds so it seems weird that they end up with huge allowances.

[*]Make it so station matters with respect to some relationships.

[*]Make it so you can find out about people around town. Doesn't need to be built up like Students/Professors but it'd be cool to be able to learn about some people around town and use that info for your profit. Thinking especially along the lines of business relations/blackmail/bribery/corruption as well as just learning more about prominent people in the setting. Even if it wasn't directly usable in any way it would make it seem like the Player is more part of the community. It'd also be cool to have your family here based on what you chose as your start/summer vacation. On the other hand perhaps best left to the imagination.

[*]If all item types have a unique icon for inventory it'd be easier to see what goes where. Pretty minor.

[*]A way to configure workstations and crafting tools that doesn't involve carrying around your anvil.

[*]More clockwork... Sorry I'm a sucker for Steampunk.

[*]Adventures where you aren't with your clique. Probably shouldn't be many, but a few like the "Watcher" adventure and the Gates background adventure don't really make a lot of sense as a clique based adventure.

[*]Familiar ideas:

• Cast spells on my familiar.
  
• Have my familiar cast spells on me.
  
• Give the familiar it's own time-slot where it can do certain familiar based actions, familiar adventures, etc. Neither the Familiar nor the player should be able to expand skills in any appreciable way from this slot and all the things you can choose for this slot should be things the Familiar can do for you without the player doing more than provide basic outline. i.e. your familiar should cast spells, use it's unique powers, and things of that nature.
  
• Have my familiar fetch/carry/deliver things and spells for me. Mostly thinking in terms of events and adventures.
  
• A few more Familiar based skills. Especially as relate to delivering/carrying things and spells for me.
  
• This is tougher, but making events that refer to your familiar respect the nature of your familiar. Most events in year 1 that feature a familiar assume your familiar is an animal of some kind, and it's fairly immersion breaking when you get these with the weirder familiars (especially troublesome are Shadow/Pamela as they are mass-less).
  

[*]More detailed class descriptions when choosing classes. Also time slots for when classes are offered that dictate what other students are in them could be interesting from a detail oriented standpoint. Though it could restrict choice, so maybe not.

[*]A formal system for societies/clubs/teams that allows membership and interaction. Even if membership list was limited to students in your year it'd be kind of fun. Could see it only being such that your societies are visible, or it could be that there could be an information system like for people. I think it'd be fun to know which ones your friends are in. I think each society should have at least one social based ability that allows access to something that is uniquely "theirs". Also society/club rivalries could be fun.

[*]Ability to improve your room and your common room, either via crafting or expending cold, hard cash.

[*]Kind of random, but start a student business. This would allow you to offer a service that would appear as a possible NPC action that they could select if you have inventory in stock or have spent time-slots to develop resources. So if your business is tutoring for instance, you would spend a time-slot "Developing Tutoring Materials" or something like that which would give the PC a certain "stock" of tutoring and then NPC's could use "Purchase Tutoring from A Student" and that would decrease the stock and the ability would vanish once all the stock had been purchased. Basically as a framework I'd see all the businesses working this way. The PC should probably get a very minor skill boost in some Economy related skill for spending time on administration and "stock" building. Probably lots of ways to go about this and probably too out there. The player can only have one of these as a time, a few low return businesses may not require "stock".

[*]Invest in a venture in the city. Where as the start a student business idea was mostly for the middle/lower class student, this is for the idle rich. Not much to it. You put money into a venture and it either appreciates in value or not. I think this works best as an adventure rather than any sort of system. Connections should matter here - you need someone to get you in the door, either the right family connection or the proper relationship from an Adventure - I'm drawing a blank but the only year 1 adventure I can think of off the top of my head that provides the proper level of connections is the Negation one where you go solve rich people's problems at the Cavalry Club.

[*]More interaction with professors, especially the regents.

[*]An implementation of negative character traits. I'm thinking particularly of those that might crop up from too much success... Arrogance, Gluttony, Greed. I don't know, it's tricky, you don't want to impose to much on the players imagination of their character, but I'm thinking broadly that high skills in some areas without developing the right ethics/character/morality can cause issues. Maybe another secret stat like Glory that tracks how helpful/harmful your character has been that determines these (and some positive emotions too).

[*]More lore on religion and astrology. Basically an expanded view of the mythopoetic backing story that people use to explain this world. This mostly just because this is one of my favorite thinks to study in real life.

[*]More lore on the religious practices - this is the nuts and bolts of faith. A wider societal benefit for the PC that adheres to the practices outlined for faith (unless faith isn't a critical pillar for how people view the world in Academagia). The practice of this should be separated from actual religious sentiment - i.e. the PC should be able to fake it. Penalties for openly dissident views would be a fun bonus. This could be way off base, I don't know that much about religion in this setting as I've never actually built a character that was really deeply into it (it's on my list).

[*]Relationship bonuses for language skills. Kind of minor but I've always though knowing a language should get you a few bonus points with other students who are native speakers of that language. Also I think the regional backgrounds should have larger bonuses to language if that language is the dominant language of the area. Not exactly fair, I know.

[*]Change in personality for students that have been affected by their quest if appropriate. For instance Neso should socialize better and be less timid in general if you do his quest. Not really doable under the year 1 engine as best I can tell, but I'm not sure what the year 2 engine will look like.

[*]More bad things for the player to do, with appropriate negative consequences, especially nice if those consequences blindside the player and have a random chance of happening. Don't want to go too dark on account of the audience, but one place I think it'd be fun is if every time you cast a Gates spell there was a chance on something bad happening. The chance for a really bad thing should be very LOW, but even if the player just reloads immediately it reinforces the setting if every once in a great while they cast a Gates spell and the world ends. If you meddle with these powers that's the risk you take.

[*]Events/Adventures for high/negative professor relationships.

[*]Ways to end up on a professors "bad" side. Basically a vendetta with a professor. How depends on the professor, probably mostly through events or generic negative favor.

[*]Return of Monsters! If nothing else at least a return as lore so we can learn more about the setting.

[*]Synchronizing events with circumstance a bit better - mostly making sure events that are classroom based only happen when school is in session.

 

Thanks for such a great game. I'm really looking forward to year 2!

 

-Starcrunch

[Legate of Mineta]

starcrunch;

 

Thanks for the suggestions! Just a few casual notes:

 

5) Done.

 

14) I think you'll enjoy what we have in store!

 

15) Done!

 

Some of the rest we are working on, or are strongly considered. Others we won't be able to do, at least not in Year 2. Still, love to see this kind of feedback- imagination is the basis of the game.

[Adrian]

We already got 26, now I'd wish we had some quest to get AWAY from Sixt's bad side (J/K)

[Legate of Mineta]

Haha, well, true.

[Albert]

...

 

About Diavesque, Albert, better study your Gates.

 

Ummm yeah, I just had to check out the story so I got an extra save with that book in my inventory, im sure it will be an interesting adventure in the end, even if that book sounds like more trouble than it's worth tbh, from a bussines point of view, but im sure it will be interesting.

 

It kind of reminds of of that Djin that I tricked into entering his bottle, just before I sealed it.. The alternative of burying the book under the shrine didn't seem very smart either tbh... Seriously... That thing in the wrong hands? Not sure if there are any right hands, but in the wrong hands it could probably be extremely bad. Secondly what if that stupid third year bully goes back to check that thing?

[Legate of Mineta]

No comment.

[MadHatt]

I took it solely because I was making my own clique of magical beings. There was my familiar (a Shade), an unknown egg that I am adamant in hatching and a talking muffin up to that point. A talking book sounded like a cool addition. Plus, all the magical cool kids have talking artefacts. This one just happens to be Evil.

 

Although I wish it weren't possible for the book to turn on you, since I imagine my character forced it into a lot of tea parties....

[Legate of Mineta]

MadHatt;

 

That's *why* it turned on you.

[Albert]

Is there a continuation quest for the book in year 1? beyond the quest where you pick it up from the bullys?

[Schwarzbart]

albert as for many quests we will see a continue of them in a later year. For now be happy or unhappy with having this book in your ownership.

[Albert]

I was a bit dissapointed that I couldn't be the friend of both Orso Orsi and the Captain of mineta though, I did the captains adventures on one playthrough and had a lot of fun with his crazy goings aswell(earlier character).... HE EVEN TOOK ME TO THE ISLAND!!! Though, getting to know a Ilaro could be a good thing for a gates interested student...

 

How about becomming his secret apprentice/student and then he has his own exams and studying that you have to perform, just like any other class? Perhaps a few Adventres helping him with his research and stuff. (fortunately no classes that you have to visit on a daily basis though )

 

And maybe a follow up Adventure later on where Orso commes asking for Ilaro and demands to know where he is, apparently Orso caught Ilaros familiar as it was delivering a letter to you....

 

Anyway it would be ncie to get to know mroe about how Orso and Ilaro got to know each other, were they students in the same class? Formed a Clique? Good friends? Then they kind of had differences over gates magic...

 

Anyway Orso Orsi made it sounds like Ilaro wasn't really evil, just doing things he shouldn't.. Im looking forward to more on that in Year 2

[Legate of Mineta]

You will definitely see more about that in Year 2.

[Schwarzbart]

Can we get some kind of Favor in a upcoming year where the relationship with the Prof only drop by 1 or not at all but instead can only used once a month or so with a single Prof.

Or alternative split the Favor and Relationship into 2 different pools as I find it strange that your Favorit Prof. suddenly turns back to a Prof near the point where you dont like him just because you asked for some help how to get bether in the class.

[Legate of Mineta]

I believe it's intended to be more that you are trading on how much they like you so that they'll teach you something they otherwise would not.

 

That said, I believe there will be new ways to earn their Favor in Year 2.

[Albert]

I believe it's intended to be more that you are trading on how much they like you so that they'll teach you something they otherwise would not.

 

That said, I believe there will be new ways to earn their Favor in Year 2.

 

Professor adventures that when completed adds a small chance that the daily classes will teach you something useful or more likely add temporary buff since the professor likes you enough to be helpful and you arn't too afraid to ask for advice/input....

 

Because at the moment the classes don't seem very useful, listening skills and study habits should help you learn from classes aswell.

I remember back when Iwas in school that the teachers realy did go through the important class related material and that it was useful, I din't have to study much to get good grades whiel others seemed to be slaving obsessively at homework and studying to get mediocre grades..

 

I once wrote a history essay about a few related even't of WW2 15 mins before class and almost got the highest grade, just a small notice from the teacher to refer to more sources Suffice to say my class mates were shocked when the essays were returned, they had all seen me scrible it down by hand, page by page I had been writign so fast that my hand was shaking when I as done I guess I was inspired, it's like I knew exactly what to write before I had even started, all I had to do was put it on paper.

 

 

Anyway, humm, come to think about it, maybe that could make a good daily event, for a random class, your friends suddenly remind you that an essay is due and you had completely forgotten about it

[Legate of Mineta]

A scary event.

 

Luckily, you know your WW2 well!

[Schwarzbart]

For the Forum I think it would be nice if it would be posible beside the normal View New Content to have one that is limited to just one of the Games.

[Legate of Mineta]

Hmm, not a bad idea. I'm not sure if we can easily arrange it, but I'll see!

[MadHatt]

In later years would it be possible to choose our Favour from the professors? I've tried to cash in on a lot of them and seeing as I only did that near the end game where it wouldn't influence my skipping class like a small delinquent, it was quite high. Yet, most professors just raised my parental approval (which I always interpreted as sending letters to parents) but ...if I play as a Black Sheep, that favour ends up sort of wasted. Same goes for raising a skill that is already at the max.

 

Also, could there be more hidden stats behind the teacher/student relationship to influence it better? Even if you cash on a favour, you're still fairly close to said professor. In game terms, I see why it goes back to zero, but as far as realism is concerned, asking an adult to show you more on ...say, Negation, even things he normally wouldn't show a lot of people, shouldn't affect the situation unless you blackmail them with something. And then it shouldn't ever go up to 10, not with him knowing what to expect from you.

 

I don't really expect to see it in Year One, especially with how complex the game is and will be, but it would be nice to have a more friend/mentor relationship with our favourite teachers.

[Albert]

In later years would it be possible to choose our Favour from the professors? I've tried to cash in on a lot of them and seeing as I only did that near the end game where it wouldn't influence my skipping class like a small delinquent, it was quite high. Yet, most professors just raised my parental approval (which I always interpreted as sending letters to parents) but ...if I play as a Black Sheep, that favour ends up sort of wasted. Same goes for raising a skill that is already at the max.

 

Also, could there be more hidden stats behind the teacher/student relationship to influence it better? Even if you cash on a favour, you're still fairly close to said professor. In game terms, I see why it goes back to zero, but as far as realism is concerned, asking an adult to show you more on ...say, Negation, even things he normally wouldn't show a lot of people, shouldn't affect the situation unless you blackmail them with something. And then it shouldn't ever go up to 10, not with him knowing what to expect from you.

 

I don't really expect to see it in Year One, especially with how complex the game is and will be, but it would be nice to have a more friend/mentor relationship with our favourite teachers.

 

Maybe you would have to earn that friendship

 

Like the Regent in Vernin, I did his quest that made him very happy and pretty much promiced to be his assistant in his crazy adventures, I'm not sure if he's gifted at anything though, the description said that he was good at fundraising, also apparently revision(maybe)... And he's learning his enchantments, since Vernin is supposed to be good at enchantments..

[Albert]

I can imagine the situation that would arise.... 5 Professors quabling about their need to get access to their apprentices time and then Ilaro walks in and declares that the student is his apprentice and that he/she has important gates research to conduct.... All the Professors mouths falls wide open!

 

Ok, now you're in trouble! (Doesn't Ilaro have any idea what "secret" apprentice means!!)

[MadHatt]

At a certain point, I imagine the Legate, the professors and the Captain along with the Elemental Warriors and other secret organizations having to fight over your PC.

 

Even in Year One, you can get pretty well known for the adventures and earn quite a lot of enemies. It's going to be quite fun to see who wins...

 

And adventures would be awesome, once we get to a 10 point relationship or so. Although I dread to think about what von Rupprecht's 'friendship' adventure might be. I hope it involves pies. The alternative would be to start overthrowing Orso.

[Legate of Mineta]

"The alternative would be to start overthrowing Orso."

 

As to Favor, yes, it will be a bit more directed as we go along- although in Year 2 there is still a strong random component.