retired_deer

Has there been any attempt at a portable UI? In other words, a user interface that opens and we can select which episode of the series we want to play? You change the interface, but not the game's content.

It does, just make sure you put in on the bottom in the load order.

I like Panpiper's idea. He's definitely right. The research process is VERY unrewarding, except at the end. Granted, the flavor text is nice, and often well-written, but that doesn't detract from the point Panpiper brings up. As a grad student, I enjoy researching. But given that this game is in a magical universe, why not replicate that joy of research on the level of a wizard? There are many excellent library events that I found myself laughing at, such as the books fighting over shelf space. Things like that could make the research process both a challenge and fun to do. Maybe when you discover one of the libraries listed in the locations, you would gain access to a "Research at ____ Library" ability or action that then allows you to select from a list of associated skills. For instance, the Venalicium Library Forbidden Archives would be a good place to research Gates and Mastery skills. Other libraries that specialize in one or the other of those could do the same, though with different results. What I am envisioning is the skill selection would then begin an event/adventure of some kind that walks you through research in a magical library. A purely Gates or Mastery library would yield a completely different adventure than the Forbidden Archives. The adventure could be purely text (perhaps for preliminary research), then gradually includes skill challenges and rewards (as you move into field research), culminating in the last 2 or 3 difficult research adventures, perhaps with multiple endings or directions (similar to the familiar good, evil, neutral paths, or the paths in the Main Adventure listed in the modbase). This captures the varying conclusions that could be reached in answering a research question. The end nets you the 10th skill step, the bonus, and maybe a secret location or shiny token for your efforts. Maxing out cooking, for instance, could earn you friendship with a cooking-oriented student or faculty member, and maybe an amazing chocolate cake, so delicious and moist. The oddballs that stand out would be things like Diary of Edward Lamont. I'm sure something can be thought of for how to handle those. This would, of course, be a long-term project to initiate given how many adventures/events would have to be drawn up. But it provides a direction that could prove interesting for the game. Makes the whole experience more immersive. I'm not about to suggest the same be done for classes. Most of us probably don't want to sift through Professor Monetario's class notes.

Legate, I'm curious if many of the static abilities in Year one will change over time, or evolve into/replaced by better ones. I'm specifically considering the secret society abilities, memberships, etc.

Also, I'm rather surprised more memories weren't added for backgrounds. That has a great deal of potential behind it for unique adventures, actions, and abilities far in advance of simple skill points.

Legate, I think the engine limitation would necessitate many new memories being created and distributed to each event/adventure, which is the cumbersome part. It's doable, but a pain.

Had another idea while browsing over some of the event content submissions for DLC 9. I noticed that all of the events and adventures don't really have a follow-up, with a few exceptions. My idea was to have major random events and adventures launch into a mandatory adventure (providing all requirements were met) within a few days of completion or upon visiting a new site, and can be path-dependent if final adventure has different moral context (like the familiar adventures) or outcome. For instance, something that nearly destroyed the school might prompt a lecture by Legate Orsi a few days later warning about careless magic use. This would give a more contextual basis for adventures, rather than everything being isolated and unheard of throughout the remainder of the year. They might reward some skill/item or they might just be flavor text that is its own reward. Here's an example of what I mean: The random event where you break into a building and rescue a shopkeeper ends with your gaining access to her shop. What if upon the next time visiting her shop, flavor text would kick in and she runs up and hugs you, maybe giving you a treat (to simulate what is going on in the business). It might have no other effect, but provides a richness to the city. OR it could open up a mini-adventure path (1-3 levels) based on getting revenge against her kidnappers, which would have a reward... and a whole lot of sweets!

I had an idea for skills. Obviously the idea of creating so many skills was to try to make perfection of all an impossibility. I have found that you can gear a character in a certain direction, such as an astronomer, a spy, or a fighter type, very similar to the classic RPG classes that someone has posted about with a list of some criteria. I wanted to expand on that idea with what I call "shadow skills." These are not related to the shadows, but rather act much like the skills of familiars (trained, but only given half). These would be skills that build character depth. They are not broad by intention and have no direct use in events by themselves, though some locations might be associated with them. Take one of the deleted skills: "Opticks." This might not merit a whole skill associated with itself as it is too narrow, but an astronomer would have use of it. They would provide a small bonus to the basic astronomy skills. If you wanted to create a philosopher character, you might be able to specialize in certain kinds of philosophy for a small bonus to logic rolls. Another example could be applied to botany. Though you have divisions between seeds, flowers, roots, and agriculture subskills under the Botany skill, shadow skills that might impact them could be related to hobbies (gardening, landscaping) or interest (e.g. Tropical plants). Linked to playfulness or creativity and others could be Roleplaying or Chess or Card Games (as opposed to just gambling). What do you guys think?

My guess would be that he didn't use the "research" option, but something else. Maybe "set" or "expand". If you create an effect and set it to "expand," you can find research skills listed under the parent list of skills at the very bottom. Should look like this, using Acrobatics as the subject of research: [Expand]Expand Subject/Skill Step/Selection of Skill/Selection of Research Skill/Acrobatics (Skill) Again, selection of research skill is at the bottom of the Skill Step skill selection list. Just scroll past all of the deleted and reserved skill spots.

You're welcome, Zelefis. It's a problem that has been bugging me for a while. I passed my Observation + Intelligence vs 20 roll for the week! Too bad I'm not a programmer or I would read through the support file to find the problem. But at least you can play with random events and all skills now. If you feel like torturing yourself, you can also look up the first names of adventures in the Modbase... but I'll wait for the patch.

Thought I'd let you guys know that I found a work around, but am unsure of the extent of in-game effects as of yet. Apparently if you do a fresh install and patch all files EXCEPT Storage.dll, you can get the mod and the DLC to work together, but the Mod must be above the DLC, not below, and both selected. Oddly, though, backgrounds of 0 or negative points appear twice. Doesn't seem to affect gameplay, though. Everything has worked so far, with DLC 7 content, including skills, cheats, events, and shops. Adventures are a mess, though. Huzzah for jury-rigging games! What is the Storage.dll supposed to do?

For once those change logs came in useful.

You're welcome. And keep up the great work! Everyone appreciates how attentive you are to the concerns of niche gamers like us.

Apparently all the links to previous patches are down. I cannot access them to perform the tests. If you guys have the patches going back to the DLC 5 release, you could probably see if keeping the Mod file the same while changing the directory files has any effect. Barring none, mess with the update files in each of the patches, but keep the latest content (DLC 7) as your control file to observe when the vegetarian and cheating backgrounds are no longer present together. Personally, I think Zelefis probably has a lead with the loading order bug, perhaps when the scroll buttons were added or updated.

I figured something out. At some point there is incompatibility between the patches (not the DLC, per se) and the mods. I did a reinstall and was able to put both the cheat mod and DLC 7 in the mod folder without updating the rest of the files in the directory. This was prior to a scroll button being added to adjust the location of the mod on the mod screen. As a result, I had to run the mods in this order: Cheat Mod on top, DLC below. Both the DLC's backgrounds and the Mod's backgrounds appeared when both were checked and loaded. Using v1.0, I saw that the Update folder didn't disappear. This might have something to do with the problem (what is in the folder, I mean, not its lack of disappearing). To make sure this was the case, I updated the directory files, moving the default files, as Legate suggested. This effectively updated to patch 33, replacing the update folder with the hidden GCC file once the program is started. This time I loaded the files in the same order as before: Mod on top, DLC below. It failed (only DLC), so I reversed it and only got the Cheats. Same with just the DLC and just the Mod, as stated in an earlier post and echoed by Zelefis. I will try to carry out further tests with earlier patches and see if I can isolate the patch where it stops working.