The No Reload Challenge

[Gwendall]

I know that a number of us tend to save/reload as we get used to the game to figure out the mechanics of the system. Well with the new patch hopefully killing a number of nasty bugs, I was wondering who would be interested in making a dedicated character where we can't reload the game except for time constraints. I realize we all need to sleep!

 

There's no prize, not even bragging rights, but I thought it would be neat if we maybe made our own "Opening Class of 2010".

 

I figure at the minimum a person can post their Introduction (with starting stats & any lore you wish to impart), Midterm Performance (Saying anything of note), and Final Performance (With final thoughts)

 

Of course you can post about your trials and tribulations. Maybe collectively we might be able to help each other out of some predicaments we wouldn't normally know how to.

 

I would stress to post one message and edit it as the school year progresses.

 

What the heck, I'll make myself. : P

 

For a base template:

 

-------------------------

 

Alexander Xain - Vernin College

Arithmetic, Enchant, Astrology, Dialectic, Astrology, Revision

 

Fitness - 1

Finesse - 1

Charm - 2

Strength - 1

Intelligence - 4

Insight - 2

Luck - 3

 

Astrology - The Comet (I've always had an odd sense of luck...)

Omen: Shattered Mirrors (I truly broke the mold. Or so my mom told me.)

Heritage: Strozzan (I'm a great bird spotter, but boy do I love to argue.)

Station: Up from Destitution ( ;-; )

Discoveries: Libraries (I've always had a knack for research and information.)

 

Midterm Scores: Reserved for Future Edit

 

Final Scores: Reserved for Future Edit

 

Journal: Hi everyone, Alex here. The teachers at my old school said I should be transferred here, and my mom just jumped at the chance. We don't have much money, so the idea of a scholarship was a dream come true for her. For me? I guess it's something different. Back at our island the stars play an important role in navigation, and I suppose I think a lot of my luck comes from them. Astrology seems like something interesting to pursue. Overall though, I think magic is just a misunderstood force rather than something mystical. They told me that Revision would be suited to my nature. I suppose you don't need to know where this force comes from, just how to change it to suit your purposes.

[Legate of Mineta]

Gwendall;

 

Great idea! This is how I usually play my games, but I'll be eager to read what happens in yours.

[Draigh]

Still too much to do (work and study, and managing the wiki somewhere inbetween)

But will join this one when time permits! (probably somewhere october at it's earliest)

[Gwendall]

@Legate - I like to get a grasp on the mechanics of a game before I try to one shot it. Or rather in doing so I can better fit the world you try to construct. Some like to do it to power game the system, I like to do it for immersion purposes.

 

@Draigh - I hear ya, I have real world studies starting to eat up my time. The best thing about this is that you can post a guy and update as time permits. Nothing in the rules that it has to be updated with any regularity!

[Draigh]

My first character was a more or less no-reload kinda guy. When I do it, I can make a lot of time. Especially now that I know what I'm doing. ;-)

Just not sure what concept I'll be doing.

[Clio]

I'm always a no-reloader (after all, no do-overs in the real world), so I'll be interested to see other people who are playing it straight instead of powergaming. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

[Mikka]

Once we get the patch to fix up the various items being somewhat uncooperative, I'll gladly give it a try with ya. I like to doing no-reload challenges, because I usually spend a lot of time checking optimal routes and what skills are needed for adventures.

 

I also plan on doing a 'no magic challenge' with Aranaz. Actually, putting the two together might be fun...

[laclongquan]

People always say they play no-Reload

 

I always play with Reload. If you find a way to stop Save/Load, I WILL find a way around that.

 

So no, I am not with the No-Reload camp.

[Torolf]

Hmm; I usually have not reloaded in Academagia; though I have no problem doing so in other games. I think it's because of the genre. When the patch comes out; I'll post here, too.

[rideword]

My first try of the game was a "No Reload" thing. Unfortunately, I got whiff of "Consolidated Patch 4 and Content Patch 1" (new student here) and decided to just start all over from scratch. (Also, I managed to earn myself Detention until the end of the academic year. )

[Schwarzbart]

I think as soon one can disable the random events for the first month and also the Visit Rights work I also might thry it. (I think the char bevor my last one haved already nearly no relads after the first month.)

[Legate of Mineta]

Schwarzbart;

 

Visitation Rights should be cleared up in Patch 5, but the scaling or disabling of Events is definitely in the further future.

[nightguard]

While I normally play with reload in strategy games, I usually pass on that in games of this nature. I've never thought of using backup saves as cheating, at least, no more than AI opponents get to cheat as well. However, for life sim style games, it seems to upset the flavor of the game enough that it winds up reducing the enjoyment for me.

 

While I'm definitely interested in joining the 'Class of 2010', I think I'll wait until they get patch 6 up, given that it's only about 48 hours away at this point. Once that's up, however, I'll see if I can cook up a character to share here.

[mecharm]

I would very much like to join this fine group of explorers, adventurers and gentlemen.

[OrangeKnickers]

Name: Marlon DiMarteley

 

College: Avila

 

Courses: Geometry, Astrology, Botany, Grammar, Rhetoric, History

 

Fitness - 2

Finesse - 3

Charm - 3

Strength - 1

Intelligence - 3

Insight - 3

Luck - 2

 

Background:

 

Astrology: The Comet

Heritage: Auncish

Omen: Shattered Mirrors

Family: Sports

History: Artisans of Skill

History: Descended of Traitors

Station: Wealthy

Prodigy: Center of Attention

Friendships: Actually, Bitter Hatred.

 

Midterm Scores:

 

Final Scores:

 

Biography:

 

Marlon despises any kind of magic. Whether it's revision, negation, incantation, enchanting, enspelling or glamour, he refuses to use it – ever. Considering this attitude and the slightly complicated history of his family it's kind of odd that he decided to attend the Academagia, and it's even more baffling that he was accepted. Probably the most charming, yet highly unpopular First-Year student at Avila, Marlon aspires to become an indispensable asset to his college, while developing friendships with students that would not even talk to him right now. Still his family's past might continue to haunt him, and his resolutions might crumble quicker than old cookies.

 

Diary:

 

5. Pramidi: When a storm is threatening your homework, knowledge of Revision or Incantation would have been helpful.

 

Personal Observations/Explanations:

1) I will never use any magic with this character during the whole year, except for Adventures/Random Events without any non-magic-involving exit (don't know if that even exists). That means no spells, no use of the magic skills, except for, maybe, if it works out, as is hinted in the bio, the forbidden arts. We'll see how that turns out, especially with all those negative relationships and a rather weak physical condition

[nightguard]

@Orange

 

One slight difficulty there is that Astrology is basically a school of magic itself, you realize.

[OrangeKnickers]

@Orange

 

One slight difficulty there is that Astrology is basically a school of magic itself, you realize.

 

Not really. I mainly wanted to exclude Skills with Phemes or Spells Subskills - basically all Skills unlock certain phemes, or spells, and I won't use those unlocked stuff either. But Astrology itself as study subject is more theoretical...at least in the opinion of my character

[nightguard]

Fair enough. Just remember that anytime you have an event with an Astrology exit, it's almost going to involve casting a spell from the Astrology school. This leads me to wonder, does your character view using astrology as magic, or just as a way of trying to stack the deck in his favor? What about praying to the 'new gods'? Is that magic or not? Mind you, I'm not being sarcastic in this, I'm actually curious. This could actually be a matter of academic debate, and where better for academic debates on the nature of magic in this world than Academagia?

[OrangeKnickers]

Fair enough. Just remember that anytime you have an event with an Astrology exit, it's almost going to involve casting a spell from the Astrology school. This leads me to wonder, does your character view using astrology as magic, or just as a way of trying to stack the deck in his favor? What about praying to the 'new gods'? Is that magic or not? Mind you, I'm not being sarcastic in this, I'm actually curious. This could actually be a matter of academic debate, and where better for academic debates on the nature of magic in this world than Academagia?

 

I think my character defines that rather pragmatic Praying is Religion, not magic, thus allowed, same goes for Astrological abilities and actions, as long as they don't require a wand or spells. Ironically, he just had an exit with Astrology --> casting a spell, (which was a blue choice), but instead he chose to wrestle (red choice)...with a rather unfortunate outcome He's now into the third month, and what surprised me, it was never required to use magic in any event. And none of my former characters have been in detention that rarely (only once) that early in the game.

[Draigh]

Studying Astrology means studying your fate, after all.. its writting in the stars.

You might learn of it beforehand, but changing it would be magic.

You might attune to it though, learning what you are supposed to be doing instead of what you wish to do (you get a random astrology bonus, determining your future actions?)

 

Just my ideas.

I have yet to work with astrology, so not too sure how that one works.

Might make a character that does just that, trying to follow fate with prayer and looking at the stars for guidance.

[Torolf]

Bruno Barnes, Apprentice Bookbinder.

 

Hello, my name is Bruno, and I'm destined to be very popular; my uncle, a famous seer, told me so!

 

I know, this seems unlikely, because our family has a stain on our honor, you see. Apparently we backed the wrong side of a minor political conflict a long time ago, and the winners continue to hold a grudge, even though all we did was sell supplies to the fighters. Anyways, my uncle (also the guildmaster of the local Bookbinder's guild!) told me that the first step towards fulfilling my destiny would be joining the most popular college at Academagia, Aranaz. The students there are all so popular that they can walk up to random students, asking for pims and candy and actually get it! All I had to do was fill out the application, give him my life savings for the processing fee and he'd put in a good word for me.

 

Everybody except me seemed shocked when I received the acceptance letter in the post. I know that more than a few of them were glad to see me go, though. You see, in addition to having the stain on my honor, I'm also unlucky. I don't know why. In fact, I was born under a very lucky sign. I'm not at all clumsy, but delicate inks seem to spoil around me, rats get into the parchment stores, and the recipients of expensive commissions suddenly go bankrupt right before the books are ready. I've had to work long and hard to try to counter-act this bad luck, practicing from the bits and pieces of negation tomes I occasionally come across.

 

Anyway, before setting out to school, I did a little more research (sorry about that fire, uncle!) and discovered several libraries that would be glad to have an extra hand to repair some older works. My popularity is already on the rise! And my first day of school, I was met by some spirit named Pumice or something, and all I had to do get her to carry my things was point at them and look at her! The whole area got kind of quiet right then, probably because I was the only kid to have his things hauled around by a spirit. I can't wait to see what else my destiny has in store for me!

 

College: Aranaz

 

Courses: Calligraphy, Enchant, History, Revision, Negation, Zoology

 

Fitness: 2

Strength: 4

Finesse: 4

Intelligence: 1

Insight: 2

Charm: 2

 

Background

 

Astrology: Comet

Omen: Island Lights

Family: Sports

History: Artisans of Skill

History: Descended from Traitors

Prodigy: Bad Luck Magnet

Prodigy: Center of Attention

Prodigy: Negation

Apprenticeship: Bookbinder's Guild

Discoveries: Libraries

Friendships: Actually, Bitter Hatred

 

((This is my first strength-based character, played more for laughs and the sake of trying different things out, but I ended up having a lot of fun with this strong, gullible, unlucky bookbinder.))

[Gwendall]

Fantastic work guys! Been a bit busy due to college rearing its ugly head. (This weekend was STUDY - STUDY - STUDY / REST - STUDY - TAKE EXAM)

 

As for Astrology and "spells" you could always view it as a manipulation of probability and fortune via location and influences. Being in the right place, right time, and doing the right thing as divined in the stars would be powerful enough. You start to dig into what goes into a "spell" for the various vocations. Invocation it's pretty straight forward, but Astrology? There's a kicker. So for say Wrath of the Comet's Tail actually manipulating the comet off it's track to direct at your foe is one thing, but what if say you instead divined where a comet's negative affects were going to be and you managed to manipulate your foe into that area? Same effect, but situational manipulation versus spell manipulation.

[Mikka]

Alright, as soon as we get Patch 6 today, I'll start up a try, too. Like Toroff did (cool idea!), I think I'll try writing part of my journey as an in-character journal or letter.

 

Although with Civ V tomorrow, I may be a bit distracted...

[Torolf]

You're assuming that the launch proceeds smoothly tomorrow, even with the early preloads.

[mecharm]

You're assuming that the launch proceeds smoothly tomorrow, even with the early preloads.

 

Yeah, you should remember to think in ValveTime...plenty of time to play Academagia