- Apr 10, 2021
- 179
- 150
Tier 1 breaks happen when a Chosen uses a tactic to reduce the amount of circumstance damage they're taking. This happens when a Chosen thinks they'll reach 10k circumstance damage, usually because you're doing a lot of damage and have several rounds left on your surround. Trauma doesn't play into breaks.I really wanted to like this game because it hits all my kinks, but honestly the early player experience is restrictively bad. Everything I need to know is so obfuscated and not particularly well documented or presented in game. I feel like I need a math degree to understand the core mechanics as there are so modifiers that are just about them going up and with very little feedback on how you are going (this coming from someone who plays dwarf fortress in its original ASCII). Even after following the tutorial and the guides people have posted here, I am yet to get a single break (even after getting the girls to hit 1k+ trauma in all 4 not a single one broke, so either I am not understanding what needs to happen, or something else is going on in the code, either way not a good experience). The game itself never explains that getting 200+ circumstance on a girl is important to gather EE and it never actually tells you the proper requirements to break T1’s.
One thing that really threw me early on is that there is not really a unifying method on which the mechanics work operate. Each one seems to have its own complexity that doesn’t really mesh well with the others. Take for example:
HATE: x2 all damage per level, or x4 for FEAR
PLEA: x4 all traumas per level, or x8 for DISG
INJU: x3 all circumstances per level, also x2 PAIN
EXPO: x2 all ally circumstance damage per level, also x2 own SHAM
Now ask your players if they are able to remember the above when making plans. What is the difference between damage and circumstances? There is nothing wrong with having complicated mechanics, but you need to be able to explain them well to the player.
Anyway, I do hope you continue working on the game. It has potential. However, I would urge you to pull away from complexity and go towards communicating mechanics properly. Also, as another note, “number go up” gameplay will wear thin if there isn’t something else interesting holding it up, there is only so much a number can go up before it starts to be meaningless.
You actually need 100 Angst to start generating EE and Angst is generated by unresolved Trauma, which 200 is the first magic number on that.
The difference between damage and circumstance, is that damage is all encompassing while circumstance is a type of damage. The types of damage are Trauma, and Circumstance. Trauma is what your basic actions affect (Fear, Disg, Pain, Sham) and Circumstance is what you deal to Chosen when they're Surrounded/Captured by a Commander (Hate, Plea, Inju/Anti, Expo).
If you'd like I can give you some in depth advice if you'd like to get a better grasp on the game. =)