~ Suggestions & Improvement ~

[Evil Midnight Lurker]

VC: Not all of us are born under interesting signs. Some of us have to settle for The Small Boring Group of Faint Stars.

[Schwarzbart]

I think it would be good if we learn about the Class rooms of the skills we have as class skills earlyer.

Some sugestion is that we actual learn fo them the first time we have the class or from Study level 1.

Its kind of strange to learn ie. about the Arithmethic Classroom not even 1 month bevore midterm exam because then you start to wonder where you was teached this topic bevore.

[Legate of Mineta]

Schwarzbart;

 

Hahaha! A very good point. We may revise that in DLC 2.

[wardrake]

Has everyone of you heard of the game "Space Rangers 2: Reboot", it is well known for its in-game text quests. Since academagia is well, text-based, it is a great idea to replicate some of that game's interesting points, in order to further improve this game.

 

Example: What if academagia has a special event like being imprisoned(assuming only, since the game already had a detension ), not just like an ordinary event wherein you select to observe first, and eventually use spell or runaway, but to have a similar one of those space ranger's text quest wherein you must create friends(within cell), bribe the guards, or even escape the prison when you accidentally find a small hammer!, well, for the full thought why not glimpse the said game.

[Legate of Mineta]

Wardrake;

 

We have, although I've never played it- I guess now's the time to hunt it down!

 

If I understand you correctly, you are suggesting multi-part Events. If so, I can't say if we will do it in Year 1, but probably Year 2 will allow this kind of architecture.

 

Thanks!

[wardrake]

Exactly!!

 

Thanks!

[tenchifew]

Tenchifew;

 

Thanks for the time and effort you spent writing this! We really appreciate it. Almost all of the points you have made have been requested by other Academagians, and are being considered for Year 1, if not Year 2.

 

Thank you for a great game and exemplary dialogue with the players.

 

 

I do want to respond to a two suggestions and thoughts you raise up, however:

 

Background Cost. There has been a lively debate about this on the forum, as well as internally during design. Ultimately, we decided to make all Backgrounds have a cost in order to have you, the player, make the choices most important to you, on whatever basis you use to choose. Well-roundedness comes from the experience of the game, how/if you role-play, and your character's goals. That said, it's a fair point.

 

I agree with you that choices must be important, i just wanted to have a smaller free fluff choices with +1 to 1 or two subskills besides the big defining ones, but i certainly am aware that it is a question of personal taste.

 

Tabs/Filters/Search Masks. It's clear that there needs to be more organization (preferably player-customized) for the various entities in the game. Some of that we will be able to provide with tabs or other devices, but true searching and customization is likely only to come in Year 2.

 

I look forward to part 2 of your suggestions, and please keep the suggestions coming!

 

I look forward to implementation, and will begin to tackle part 2 of my suggestions: familiars right now.

[Legate of Mineta]

Tenchi;

 

Great, looking forward to it.

[tenchifew]

Couple of things i read in the forum, totally agree with and would be happy to see implemented:

 

Exams as Adventures. Yes, please!

 

More control about your conduct in class (studious/social/relaxed...)

 

Possibility to redo failed random events as adventures.

 

More feedback about your achievements.

 

There are more, these were just from top of my head.

 

One question: how good is skill at 10? What is it?

To clarify: for example 1 history -absolute beginner knows only most basic facts

3 history - interested in history knows

6 -proficient - could work in the field

9 -master grade is behind you Dr. phil here i come

10+ world class

It was what i assumed in the beginning and was elated about my first 11 in a skill.

Then i wanted to run an adventure and my 11 skill with a 5 in corresponding stat appeared sa red choice. I was pretty discouraged. How can we understand the skill grades? because it seems that adventures want to see rolls against 16+ nearly routinely.

 

Another question:

is it possible to gain access to a clique ability of a student temporarily, using legal (persuasion, money) or not so legal (blackmail, bullying, mastery) methods? To clarify: i do not like my cliques to be bigger than 4-6 people. Now an exam is near. I would like to be tutored by Milena di Montors, but she is not in my clique. I would like to speak to her and offer her pims for couple of tutor sessions without adding her to my clique. Or to let Courtenay de Surval read my stars while we at it.

 

 

And now on to familiars. Really.

[Legate of Mineta]

Tenchifew;

 

Almost all of these have been requested, and are being considered. Regarding Skill grades, think of them not as 'degree of excellence' but rather 'how much you know' or 'how much you have experienced.'

 

Levels 5-10 are the standard amount of information that the curriculum demands of Students at the Academagia, but, as in real life, there exists a vastly larger domain of knowledge and experience that exists. Most Adventures demand a much broader set of experience, knowledge and ability and have correspondingly difficulty Rolls.

 

There is no way for you to gain access to a Clique Ability outside of your Clique presently, although the original design allowed for this under the 'Favor' system. That probably will return in Year 2.

[Mikka]

Doing the first Aranaz adventure (the one about taking over the wo- er, school, not about mucking with Durand)... I found myself nominated for student council by a member (leader, it seems) of our little group of crazy jerks, Emilia. Problem was, when I was trying to turn in the forged essay earlier to the journalism-people, it was Emilia who was in charge of it and would throw screaming fits at me trying to submit the essay for another student. It would be nice if it could be programed that she's not the one doing that, or if the leader selection is random, maybe if it could be programmed that it not be an Aranaz student. There didn't really seem to be an award for finishing the whole thing (unless I did miss it, but I don't think I did), which was a bit disappointing- maybe because I bluffed the end? Still, all that happened was Emilia got all happy-YAY, and I got nothing. I wanted a shiny Student Council (of Doom) badge. Or a 'We Have A Secret Society, Punks, That Is So Secret That You Can't Actually See This' badge, either would have worked. Or maybe that's something that will be consequential in year two? I hope there's no re-elections... I will guard my status bitterly! Bitterly, I say!

 

On the other adventure (the 'let's humiliate Durand' one), during the finale, I defeated the statue, by, er, hitting it with lockpicks. Sadly, it didn't inform me of lockpicks, which I really wish it would. I've been trying, but I can't seem to pick that skill up. Could it perhaps be informed by getting a bit in one of Sleight-of-Hand skills?

 

It would be cool if the Merit Display could be moved above the 'what other students are doing at the moment'- it's seven lines, compared to... um, the tons and tons of students. Picking up Elegant Service, I generally had the dirt of every house member plus a bunch of random cats that seemed interesting. Scrolling past allll of them to see how close House V is to taking our lead (or, that it already has) is a bit trying, as there's no drag and drop... rather you have to keep hitting the mouse real or holding down the button instead of a 'jump to'.

 

For the first time, I stumbled upon the You Are Being Watched adventure! I enjoyed it a lot, although the fact that you don't get to learn anything about the Watcher is a bit disappointing (of course, you are only a year one student...). I sort of wanted a follow-up where the student attempted to try and put the information together and track the Watcher down... or at least find out more information about him. Probably not a very smart move, but I wished for a bit more proactive adventure choices.

 

Stepping off of that, I wish there was a hover-over for Adventures, like there is with locations and phemes. Even a simple one line sentence: 'Vrenelle is demanding your help.' to 'Vrenelle needs help finding recipes.' to 'Vrenelle needs your help with framing the cooks.', etc etc. Even better if you could use that to mention how difficult the adventure is and what sort of skills are used ('This is a moderately difficult adventure that will put to use your ability to gather information from others'), but the information on what the adventure is about and reminder of what went on before (as after you start twelve or so adventures, it becomes very difficult to remember what you've been up to) would be nice.

 

Same for choosing a Shop. I'd like another UI hover panel there so I could see what shop sells what without having to cancel and scan through my locations.

 

Rhetoric, Rhetoric, Rhetoric! The only place I found that would give me a guaranteed Rhetoric raise was the Forum of Naxum. I would really appreciate a few other places where I could get up Rhetoric (Grammar has similar problems). Especially considering that there are around seven or so places where one can go to raze Dialect.

 

There needs to be a 'shove Aveline in a closet for a week' adventure. She is still Deframing her collage once a week or so. Unfortunately, becoming her BFF doesn't seem to stop it. Some days, just to annoy me I'm sure, she even deframes it on the same day that she competes for it. It's driving me to insanity.

 

...Still having a lot of fun.

[Legate of Mineta]

Mikka;

 

Thanks for these suggestions- we'll look at the Adventures you mention in DLC 2.

 

You haven't seen the last of the Watcher.

 

I'll peer into the db about Rhetoric- maybe we can fit that into DLC 2 or 3.

 

As for the rest, all of your suggestions have been requested by other Academagians, and are being worked on.

[Schwarzbart]

For the Itíneria Holiday I think a water or wind Incanation also could help cleaning up and for the candle holder some kind of cleaning enchant would be also a good idea.

[Legate of Mineta]

Schwarzbart;

 

Thanks, we'll look at it for DLC 2.

[Andor]

Okay, time to stop using my own little post and jump into the suggestions column.

 

One of the problems I had with the game was that the other students had almost no presence in the game as personalities or even really as people to interact with. Since I know you're familiar with King of Dragon Pass I'll use that as an example of a way to do bring them more alive. Recalll how during some events you'd have the village council pop up and all chip in their 2 cents/argue with each other? You could do something like that with your fellow students where some events would cause a group of them to pop up for a joint discussion before you select the next step on the path. There are three pretty obvious ways to group students for these events. Household events would involve the other students in your college having a powwow in the common room. Classroom events would be some of the students in a particular class meeting to work on a group project or find a missing bandersnatch. And finally clique events would be your small group of friends off on an adventure or at least playing a practical joke.

 

Probably not something small enough to easily drop into a DLC sadly, not least because it would need a new UI setup for the 'council meeting.'

[Legate of Mineta]

Andor;

 

While I don't quite accept that the Students do not have presence in the game, the very feature you mention was originally intended to be implemented in two ways: just regular hanging out, and during Adventures. It was pulled early in development. I can't say it will return in Year 2 yet, but there will be more 'group' interactions at the very least.

[tenchifew]

Ok.

Familiars.

Strongly setting dependent but very important facet of being a mage.

Familiars are a very unique and often overlooked part of being a magician. The bond between magician and his familiar is difficult to describe and so is often omitted in games and fiction. The social balance between familiar and mage (also between magician and intelligent persistent summonings [pact magic]) can be extremely complicated and fun given a dungeon master who is interested in such matters and knows what he is doing. Familiars can be and often are very intelligent, powerful creatures, with abilities above and beyond not only others of their art, but many common people sa well. This aspect is well represented in the beginning of the game, familiars having 12 attribute points, and a possibility to boost their attributes to 15 after investing 2 more points in them. Some familiars have Insight and Intelligence 3, with one more possible point in intelligence they can be more bright than vast majority of the students on campus. A remarkable individuum indeed.

 

But a familiar is more than that. Through the bond they are truly connected to the mage, while they have distinct personalities the mind of a mage and his familiar is uniquely connected, the connection getting ever deeper with increasing bond strength. Later the sharing of the mind often becomes so strong that it is possible for the mage and his familiar to telepathically communicate over large distances and share sensory input of each other without any spells. Familiar is also probably the most loyal companion the mage may ever have, since the well being of the mage and the well being of his familiar are so strong interconnected that a benefit for one of them becomes also the benefit for the other. But the opposite is also true. An unprepared mage whose familiar dies is in for a rough ride indeed.

 

So in the beginning of the game the mage has a motivated, intelligent, competent and loyal companion on his side. A being interested to learn more in order to become better than he is now and help himself and his bondpartner, the mage. A perfect upbeat for a wonderful future relationship with an invaluable partner, right? Sadly, wrong.

 

My loyal, motivated, intelligent, competent companion does exactly nothing the whole year long. Not one little bit. He is not with me at my lectures. He is not running around - since his athletics skill does not go up. He is not reading in the library despite his 4 intelligence and 3 insight.

Instead he only does something when i am actively "training" him.

If this would be a pen and paper RPG i would lead a serious conversation with my familiar, along the lines that if his atittude should not change at once there still is the possibility to sever the bond. It is not unbreakable yet. And this Pamela ghost girl is cute, lonely and is looking for a free mage. Then i would ask him if again catching mice to eat and forgetting how to talk are really his aspirations in life.

And then i would sever the connection had it not work.

 

These were the fluff reasons. Now to gameplay ones. The role of a familiar in gameplay should be to help his mage. But at the moment a familiar hinders the mage in his pursuits. Assumed any intelligent trainings regimen, a mage concentrating only on himself and fully ignoring his familiar wil be far more powerful at the end of the year than a mage who tried to do a balanced training with his familiar. Results will be far worse if a mage concentrated on his familiar - lets say for the quest. This mage will be lucky not to fail the finals, all for a very limited reward for him. This is not the presumably intended win/win mage/familiar relationship.

 

A familiar should strengthen his mage. The choice of a mage to concentrate his energy on his familiar should be a viable choice like choosing glamour or revision. At the moment it is not.

 

How to address the problem. I think ultimately the familiar needs his own training regimen. It is also possible to assume that by default the familiar is always with his mage, learning the same things the mage is learning - of course according to his own attributes, bond level etc.

One possible punishment for the mage could be barring his familiar from attending lectures.

Furthermore one higher tier bond ability should be a share spell ability - given that familiar and mage are literally of one mind each spell active on mage should also be active on the familiar.

 

I think it would go a long way in making the familiars truly useful.

 

I would be glad to hear what other Academagians think about this topic and my ideas.

Please write your opinions!

[Legate of Mineta]

Tenchifew;

 

Thanks for your thoughts on Familiars.

 

They do have some uses, and do intrinsically make their owners more powerful- but perhaps not in a very visible or very reactive way.

 

We've completed the Familiar portion of the Year 2 design, and I think you'll be pleased. Among the new options, Familiars will not have a training regimen per se, but they will now get up to activities during the day- some good, some amusing.

[tenchifew]

Hallo Legate,

thank you for your answers.

 

Hope the "Favor" mechanic will make it in year two - would be really nice.

 

Tenchifew;

 

Thanks for your thoughts on Familiars.

 

They do have some uses, and do intrinsically make their owners more powerful- but perhaps not in a very visible or very reactive way.

 

Could you hint in which ways the familiars do "intrinsically make their owners more powerful- but perhaps not in a very visible or very reactive way."?

Would really like to know , since i really want to pour 3 points into my familiar but right now the arguments of my min/maxing self have so much more merit than my fluff self that i cannot bring myself to justify it.

 

We've completed the Familiar portion of the Year 2 design, and I think you'll be pleased. Familiars will not have a training regimen per se, but they will now get up to activities during the day- some good, some amusing.

Maybe any hints? Pretty please?

 

On another note: how do rolls exactly work? As far as i am understanding the mechanics at the moment roll vs. 12 = skill+ rnd{1 to 2*attribute}.

But there are couple of abilities in game which are spoken about in %. (For example born under comet +1 luck +1% success on any roll or bad luck magnet -5% success.)

At the moment my hypothesis is this: skill 7 attr 3 against 12 12-7=5, random roll is 1-6, so 5 or 6 is successful, P[%]=33% further modified by godd/bad luck etc. Is this correct?

 

 

Another thing i would like to see is more negative picks at the beginning. There should be a maximum takeable for example 5 to prevent the 20 negative picks characters, but only bad luck, family of traitors, black sheep and bitter hatred are somewhat limiting.

examples: Enmity with a teacher - Teacher xy is a rival of your father. Now he sees his chance for payback coming -5 relationd teacher xy.

or sickly - you are more prone to sickness than your fitness suggest. only takeable if fitness>=2 -2fitness -2 vitality permanently.

...

..

.

[Legate of Mineta]

Tenchi;

 

Half of your Familiar's Skills are added as a Bonus to relevant Rolls. So, if you have a Familiar with a 10 in, say, Glamour, your Glamour Skill is effectively +5.

 

Hints, hints...let's see...Familiars will become very important in Artificing, Enchantment and the creation of Geasa.

 

For Rolls, the Chance of Success (or Failure) occurs before the Roll ever takes place; it's not a part of the actual Roll.

 

We have a few more negative picks coming along. I like the Enmity of an Instructor, that's amusing.

[tenchifew]

Tenchi;

 

Half of your Familiar's Skills are added as a Bonus to relevant Rolls. So, if you have a Familiar with a 10 in, say, Glamour, your Glamour Skill is effectively +5.

 

That i knew about, but since it takes so much time to train skills with your familiar it tends to be far more efficient to train your character

in more skills. Than i would not have glamour effectively 15, but glamour 10 and 2 or even 3 other skills on 10. This is far more efficient, point for point and gives the broader skill base necessary for adventures. Familiars really need possibilities to train skills faster and/or more efficiently.

 

 

Hints, hints...let's see...Familiars will become very important in Artificing, Enchantment and the creation of Geasa.

 

sounds nice, can't wait... especially the bit about Geasa...

 

For Rolls, the Chance of Success (or Failure) occurs before the Roll ever takes place; it's not a part of the actual Roll.

 

What about multiple rolls? for example 1% chance comet, 1% chance shattered mirrors, 1% chance (some enspell ability for spells)

will 3 1% rolls be made?

 

We have a few more negative picks coming along. I like the Enmity of an Instructor, that's amusing.

 

Glad you liked it.

Am already curious about the new picks.

Thank you for your answers.

[Legate of Mineta]

Tenchifew;

 

Only one is made, I believe, for the whole Action.

[Nikolaj]

I can't remember if this has been mentioned yet, but how about adding an ironman mode? I very much enjoy playing certain types of games in ironman mode, but I usually don't have the spine to go through with it if I have the option to reload. It's not a huge deal, but I think this game would lend itself very well to that type of play.

[Legate of Mineta]

Nikolaj;

 

It hasn't been requested, but disabling saving is easy enough. We'll look into it as a lower priority.

 

Thanks!

[Schwarzbart]

I think Ironman is more like Loading and Saving is disabled ingame and the game automatic overwrite one save after each processed turn.