~ Suggestions & Improvement ~

[Schwarzbart]

Make sure that combination use of "Create Formal Invitation" and geasa are not become the ueber tool to control all students of your year.

If the Formal Invitation is enough that someone accept a onside geasa then it easy can break the game.

 

I also would love to see skills in the next years that can only be gained by Favor or taking the right class.

Reson for this request is that I think that Syncronicity lost much of its flair because you also could get it from other sources then the adventure.

[Metis]

Now, now, Schwarzbart, let the beta-testers have their fun before making the game fair. Besides which, I'm pretty sure mechanically CFI wouldn't affect a Gaes anyway.

 

The skill thing is a problem with Y1 - you can start the game with Sync/Gates/Mastery skill due to Station: Well-to-do, or get it in your first week through Joie de Vivre (Action). Skills don't need to be exclusive, they just have to be not handed to you on a platter because you rolled a 4 on a 1d300-something. At least as far as the supposedly rare/forbidden skills are concerned - legal skills (like, say, specific forms of Incantation) shouldn't be kept behind the same lock and key as skills you could get executed for.

 

Hey, Legate, how about for DLC 17 the team plugs that "random skill increases gives out illegal skills" problem? Engine limitations aside I've personally tested a mod that makes things like Joie de Vivre draw from a reference table and hand +1 SS to a random subskill from a randomly selected (Legal) parent skill listen in that table. It should work, I could send you the .mdm to test, although it's not perfect. I don't have a "+2 random skill level" table for Station: Well-to-do, I of course can't do anything with the Sphinx at all, and the one I currently have published isn't the latest version so I can't be entirely sure what I changed and what I didn't change...but it solves Joie de Vivre handing out +1 Mastery Phemes. In theory.

[freespace2dotcom]

Well, honestly, I kind of think something like joie de vivre giving out an occasional Mastery or even Gates subskill is not that terrible. You could bump into a glamour or other spell that would give you insight into the basic way forbidden magic works. The legate did say that a skill level of 1-2 is considered casual contact, and given how some Mastery phemes (and a few Gates phemes too, I bet) were reclassified into different pillars, the knowledge is out there.

 

That said, if it unlocked a "demonic possession" Gates/Mastery advanced combo skill, It would imply a lot about what the player does in their spare time, that would be better off learned from a specific action that denotes player choice.

[Metis]

Mastery/Gates itself is the kind of skill a Y1 character shouldn't just randomly encounter. What kind of Glamour would lead to a PC thinking "Oh, so that's how you draw a Mastery Pheme and study the rest"? As things currently stand you can get knowledge of illegal magic by just loafing around randomly (Joie de Vivre), watching a trial (Daribus Conley's Court: Observation Gallery), debating about it in the Academagia (Debate Club Meeting), talking to yourself inside a cave (The Broken Window), or spending time with a professor (Office Hours). Also, remember that all of the above don't inform you of the skill, they give you +1 random skillstep. You can set it up so that Office Hours teach you Freedom (Pheme), Seal Against Mastery (Spell), and Total Control (Action) by giving you that last skill step you need to get Mastery (Spells) 11.

 

Mostly, though, it's annoying to play a student that supposedly isn't interested in illegal magic and having Longshade just hand me Gates Methods just 'cuz my character apparently changed her mind or something. Sync's actually a bit of an odd case here, but details (since it's a DLC skill I couldn't include it in the reference table even if I wanted to anyway).

[Legate of Mineta]

Hahaha!

 

Thanks, Schwarzbart. I will point it out to them.

[Metis]

...I'll take that as a no, I guess?

[Legate of Mineta]

Metis;

 

Neither no nor yes- just not sure yet how much can be done to prevent this in Y2.

[Metis]

...I was talking about fixing the problem, at least part of it, in Y1 with DLC 17. Changing it so that stuff like Office Hours, Longshade or Joie de Vivre doesn't hand out Gates/Mastery steps any more. The whole "proscribed magic" thing falls kinda flat when it's harder to not learn it than it is to learn it.

[Legate of Mineta]

Metis;

 

Oh- I am not sure they'll tackle it at this point, but, you never know. I'll certainly ask!

[Svinik]

Given the number of times in adventures that the professors imply that they know a fair amount of the so-called proscribed magic I suspect that the whole "if you can string 3 phemes together we kill you" thing is a device the adults use to dissaude the kids from experimenting - you may see some "legal avenues" opening up in later years that explain why odd bits of gates/mastery lore are dotted around academagia.

 

Otherwise there should be a steady stream of students being hung from the local scaffold...

[freespace2dotcom]

Yeah. I get the vibe that even though the law may be 100% against it, many underground societies exist that do not abide the law except as an expedient way to stay under the radar.

 

The practitioners have been at it for so long that they understand the rules of how to exist without getting caught. And Magistrates, mostly unaware of the existence of such users, simply pass them by.

 

But if every kid started trying to learn such magics, the magistrates would start kicking over rocks, and sooner or later a nest would be found. So it's obvious that every illegal mage would uphold the ban. It's why Schohanwicht's professors willingly destroyed public knowledge of Gates. If there are no obvious practitioners, there must be no practitioners at all. It's an extension of the old adage 'if you don't want them to look for you, make them think you're dead.'

 

In order to really learn these magics you must gain acceptance into one of the circles and abide their own rules as law, until then, they know 'nothing.'

[Metis]

Would explain why it's just as hard to break into the Forbidden Archives as it is to break into the kitchen, even though only the former carries a potential death penalty with it. Gates/Mastery might indeed be more common than one would expect, it still shouldn't be possible for a twelve-year-old to learn how to Master people by talking to him/herself in a specific cave. Or by just casually chatting with a teacher. Or by attending a public trial. There's a difference between the ban being exaggerated to scare kids and it being ignored by everyone.

 

Besides which, plugging this problem in Y1 means you don't have to resort to save/load abuse just to avoid coming into Y2 with illegal knowledge. Y1 might not care at all about enforcing the ban at all, but IIRC Y2 won't be as forgiving.

[Svinik]

Would explain why it's just as hard to break into the Forbidden Archives as it is to break into the kitchen, even though only the former carries a potential death penalty with it.

 

 

Have you tried the cafeteria food? And that's the stuff that passes muster well enough to be served - the death penalty is merciful compared to the terrible things that could happen to those who tried the other food (or stuff prepared for the menagerie)

[Metis]

Yes, I do know about the "bonuses" the cooks get when they complete their jobs without capping their budget. Why do you think Professor Vickery says Cooking is an unappreciated skill during An Outing...?

 

And for a suggestion, in case I didn't bring it up in this threat before, how about Y1's Banquet (Action) being given a serious buff in DLC 17? Currently the action, unlocked by Cooking 11 (which, I should add, requires luck to even be able to get in Y1) and which costs 100 Pims per use, only raises one random relationship and one fellow college member of choice's relationship more than Anecdote (Ability). Which costs nothing to use and is unlocked by Befriend 2. Especially with the state of the Academagia's cooks being what they are before Vrenelle's adventure, Banquet clearly should do a little more than what it does currently.

[Svinik]

Yes, I do know about the "bonuses" the cooks get when they complete their jobs without capping their budget. Why do you think Professor Vickery says Cooking is an unappreciated skill during An Outing...?

 

And for a suggestion, in case I didn't bring it up in this threat before, how about Y1's Banquet (Action) being given a serious buff in DLC 17? Currently the action, unlocked by Cooking 11 (which, I should add, requires luck to even be able to get in Y1) and which costs 100 Pims per use, only raises one random relationship and one fellow college member of choice's relationship more than Anecdote (Ability). Which costs nothing to use and is unlocked by Befriend 2. Especially with the state of the Academagia's cooks being what they are before Vrenelle's adventure, Banquet clearly should do a little more than what it does currently.

 

I'd like something which binds clique-mates together and reduces fragmentation - +1 for all clique-mates to all clique-mates to represent a party/etc that went well would be very handy for people with big cliques.

[Metis]

I'd want more than just +1, for a parent skill 11 unlock that costs 100 Pims per use and a 1/week limit. I do like the idea of it being able to bind a clique together, especially so thoroughly, though I wonder if there aren't any easier ways to do that. I really don't know, since the only ability I can think of that expands non-PC relations is Gossip (Action), and while that's a potential +3 that's only if you pass Charm/Gossip v25. Good luck with that

[Schwarzbart]

Possible Solution for the Familiar Bond Adventure Strange Doll.

How about disconnect the 2nd step like you did with the Botany Extra Credit Adventure and make 2 different 1st step and both set the same Flag when finished.

One of the first step automatic start when the game starts as it do so fare.

The other only becomes available when the Flag is not set and the player have the familiar.

The second part only become available when the Flag is set.

 

This way could work for the other familiar that have the bound part started when arriving at Academagica.

[freespace2dotcom]

This was probably discussed early on but I haven't discussed this recently. (if at all, I'm not sure, I know I haven't brought it up in memory) I would like the ability to choose where to save my character save files. I know that the current location is a default save location that windows probably assigns, and also that it's easier on development if that's it, but I detest the user directory. It's basically hidden, and an idiot friendly way of moving people to the 'cloud' where they don't even know where the data is.

 

I'm the only person who touches my PCs, and I'm pretty old school to boot, and personally believe that having the game's cache data, the main program, and save data in all different places to account for multiple users is annoying.

 

...I'm sorry, I just cleaned out my drive, and found that my save files for the game totaled 700MBs. Which I probably would have cleaned out earlier had it been easier to access... Maybe you could arrange an .ini file for us nerds to assign a folder for the game to look in for these things. I'd prefer them all in the program files directory myself...

 

Just a friendly venting and suggestion.

[Schwarzbart]

@Freespace Sadly its a Windows requirement implemented with Vista to my knowledge that save files can only be put in the user directory. As soon you save in other locations chances are extreme big something don't work.

(The save file size of Academagica makes me remove all of them from my OS directory as soon I have backed up the last days)

[freespace2dotcom]

I'm a little too young to remember it save for the very end of it, but I long for the days when Windows was just an extension for DOS. Apart from minor things like compatibility with more complicated hardware and software, Older systems were superior because you had more control over your system. It just drives me nuts.

[Albert]

You don't want to know how massive my large amount of saves got...

Also, I agree that Banquet should do more considering the money and skill needed, which is also very specific and rarely used. It's also limited to your own college only.

 

Maybe your skills could affect the amount of people you can "serve a Banqet". +1 for Greengrocery V 5 and +1 for Green Grocery v 10.

(The better you are at greengrocery the more and better stuff you get for your money(less waste), it was after all a good skill for people from families with low budgets to learn how to shop your vegies and other ingredients)

Even if it's good for others aswell, by helping you find the best ingredients.

 

Your Negotiate v 10 could add one more, because if you got a better price then you got more ingredients. +1

(Not a cooking skill but it still seems relevant if you have to buy your ingredients and you are a student on a budget)

 

Recipes V 8 could add one, the better you are at recipes the more ideas you will have to accomplishing a delicate Banqet with your budget without having to go for all the most expensive alternatives. It might also teach you ways to turn the "leftovers from creating one dish" into creating another. (You made freshly squeezed orange juice for your guests? Then chop up your Orangepeals and use them with the frosting for one of the pastries or spungecakes. +1

 

Baking v 10 should give +1 (since you have less accidents with your Oven meaning you got more food of sufficient quality to serve.

 

Also, your invited guest could get +2 relationship points instead of one if you manage a Cooking v 14 roll. Simply because your food is just so incredibly good.

 

Maybe a +1 with your regent if you pull of an etiquette v 10, just because you informed him/her about the upcoming college event and keept your crowd civil.

[Metis]

I would honestly prefer Svinik's idea, especially because while there are a large number of things you can do to increase relations with or without having to make rolls and/or get other stuff, methods for increasing non-PC relations is significantly less all over the place. Besides which, having Cooking 11's usefulness depend on Negotiate and Etiquette is, while sensible in character, not really fun mechanically since you put in all that work to get something so you can either put in more work or accept that the return is not as good as it could be.

 

As for the save files, you know you can just make a...a...oh Pete's sake what's it called...shortcut? I don't know what it's called exactly in English, actually.

[Albert]

A party with your Clique should probably be a separate skill from Banquet. A skill of it's own.

 

Maybe Banquet should be a way of promoting a college bond between the participating students aswell.

[Schwarzbart]

Party is a complet seperat action under Social Skills 10

[Legate of Mineta]

I don't think Saves are handled differently in Y2, but I'll ask, certainly.

 

Otherwise, keep the suggestions coming.