ːsummer_magicː OTHER ISSUES OF THIS BLOG
ːQuestionsː CONSOLIDATED Q&A THREAD
It was great to see your response to the first issue of the blog – here on Steam and on the game's official Discord server. All those comments definitely makes us feel more responsible about sticking to the weekly schedule =). In today's blog, we talk about the very start of the game: what exactly happens when you push the :turnon_lightning: START NEW CAMPAIGN :turnon_lightning: button?
THE THINGS THAT YOU CANNOT CHANGE
There's a few things that are a given for this game, at least if you'll be playing the core game and not one of the mods:
- you are a practicing mage with years of work and study with the Guild
- you already know some secret magic
- you are quite old (i.e. "fewer days left to live than days you've already lived")
- you just ran away from the Guild
- you just erected your very own magic Spire
- you are pursued by the Inquisition (not on the heels... but they are looking for you!)
No matter how you start the game, these things will always stay true. You will always be an old mage. You will always be a runaway mage. And you will always have the Inquisition looking into your whereabouts.
THE THINGS THAT YOU CAN CHANGE
Let's start with one of the most frequently requested issues:
- you get to choose your mage's gender! yes!!
- you get to choose your mage's character portrait!
Following the choice of gender and portrait, you'll be set on a text quest that will determine:
- the exact age of your mage
- the exact state of health of your mage at the start of the campaign
- the circumstances surrounding his/her escape from the Guild
- some of the major events in the world that happen prior to your escape
- all of your mage's stats and skills
- all of your mage's possessions at the time of escape
GENERATING YOUR CHARACTER THROUGH THE TEXT QUEST
The campaign begins with the generation of your character, which takes the form of a text quest. If we put two players next to each other, and have them generate their characters – they will end up with 2 really different mages, reflecting their personalities and the roles they choose to play.
Important: this phase determines both your mage and the world around, as your answers will define both personal and global events that would have happened before your campaign begins.
Each question during this phase describes a situation followed by several possible choices of actions, one of which you must choose as the decision of your own mage character. We expect a total of 10-15 questions during the generation phase. The questions come from a fairly large base, and it is unlikely that you will be presented with the same questions when starting your next campaign, or the one thereafter.
A common question is: so what if someone keeps re-starting the campaign, and writes down all the possible choices and their consequences? To address this: firstly, it will be a hell of a job, since certain answers kick in new branches of events during the generation phase; and secondly, yes, it is possible that someone will eventually establish a link between what you have to choose, and what sort of character you'll get at the end.
But does this approach offer any tangible advantage? Not really!
Until you play the game, and figure out your personal strategy that you'll decide to pursue as the most effective one, it will be impossible for you to say what kind of character is better: with a higher Charisma, but older and more frail; or with an extra progress in Monstrology, but short on Intuition and having no possessions from her Guild days.
Our advice? We suggest to just follow your heart, and choose the actions that reflect the role that you're willing to play in this game during the current campaign!
WHAT SORT OF QUESTIONS MAY YOU EXPECT?
Let's look at a possible question from this stage:
The Guild instructs every mage to undertake an additional study of Botanics.
YOUR ACTIONS:
ːsummer_magicː Follow the order and put additional time into studying the subject, as is expected from any obedient member of the Guild.
ːsummer_magicː Ignore the order and instead hole up in the Guild's Library to continue your search for the prohibited knowledge.
ːsummer_magicː Ignore the order and instead spend more time hanging out with your friends from the Guild, visiting pubs and brothels.
The first option will increase your character's Willpower (since you demonstrate the capacity to follow orders, regardless of personal likes or dislikes), as well as increase the skill of Herbalism at the start of the campaign.
The second option may generate a new pre-campaign event (such as: "a guard found you reading a prohibited book in the Library"). It will also increase the chances of gaining a perk of Bravery, plus will increase your mage's magic skills in some specific areas. Finally, choosing this option will lead you to escape the Guild earlier than usual – since you would accelerate the study of the secret spells – so that you'll start the campaign at a relatively younger age, with a few extra years of life as a bonus.
The third option will increase your Health stat (fresh air and, uhm, pubs!), but will decrease your Willpower – since you're "going with the flow" here. It will also provide you with some friends early on, who may be involved later in the character generation process (for example, helping you escape the Guild) or even early on in the campaign (for example, these could be your students who will come with you to the Spire to become your disciples).
The other thing that is affected by the character generation quest, is your mage's starting possessions: what exactly did you manage to bring with you, when you ran away from the Guild. This is the subject of the last part of the character generation questions, that specifically deal with the event of you preparing your escape.
CHARACTER STATS
The stats of your mage are the same as the stats of your disciples: it is the same system for everyone dweller of the Spire.
On a scale from 1 to 20, your mage will have:
HEALTH
INTELLECT
MEMORY
WILLPOWER
CHARISMA
INTUITION
Every stat is shown as a value (e.g. "3/20") as well as a descriptive ("e.g. "frail").
While HEALTH and INTELLECT are pretty obvious stats, let's talk more about MEMORY: Memory is something that affects learning. When you learn, you combine Theory and Practice. For example, you could know all about casting swords, but never have cast a sword in your life... so your skill will not progress with further theoretical knowledge until you actually engage in some real-life practice.
Having a great Memory allows your characters to progress further on the Theory scale while Practice may still be lagging behind.
Now, the WILLPOWER: this is your character's ability to do unwanted things. It's great when it means that your disciples, or your own mage, will pursue the order – no matter what their personal preference... but it also has the other side: it leads to stubbornness. And so in a critical situation during an expedition, for example, a disciple with high Willpower may refuse to listen to his colleagues who would be suggesting (rightfully so!) to change the course.
As to CHARISMA, it defines how attractive your character appears to the others, which is essential for negotiation, trading and deceit. If you need to establish good relationship with a faraway dwelling, you'll be best served by dispatching there a likeable disciple – regardless of her other skills. High Charisma can also be dangerous: if a disciple at the Spire will stage a rebellion against you, and his Charisma will be higher than your mage's... he is so much more likely to attract followers.
Finally, INTUITION: this is the ability to make correct decisions without having the necessary background information. For example, a party is sent to bring back a certain treasure. As the party enters the underground caves, there is a fork in the path. A character with high Intuition value will suggest to the group the correct decision, tapping into the global knowledge of the world that his character doesn't really have.
CHARACTER SKILLS
In the conclusion of this week's blog, let's talk about the skills of your mage (just briefly; we will focus on them in more detail in one of the later blog posts). The skills come in addition to stats, and they develop as the game progresses; they are measured on a scale from 1 to 300.
Different character actions require different skill levels to perform them. For example, to turn tosljuk's horns into silver powder, you'll need Alchemy to be at least at 120. The higher your skill value, the more the chances of successful action – if your skill only just meets the required level, then it's not much likely that you will succeed at the action at the first try.
Here's how skills are connected to character stats: The progression of each skill is influenced by –
INTELLECT
INTUITION
Intellect and Intuition determine how your character's experience translates into increase of your skill.
And for your disciples, there is a third value that will affect their skills:
INTEREST
It can be a bonus (someone's not really talented in magic, but they are very interested, and thus will progress faster) or a penalty (someone's real talented, but... they simply don't care about the particular discipline).
***
That's it for today, and we wish you a very happy weekend ahead! We look forward to hearing your questions and comments here on Steam forums, or on the official Discord server.
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