VN Ren'Py Imperial Chronicles [v0.8] [Lazy Monkey]

[Lazy_Monkey]

So, killing my sister because she threatened to kill everyone else in my family now means I am capable & willing to kill all the other family members for thinking I was wrong? Despite the fact, that the Queen Mother herself understands and "approves" of what I did to preserve the Golden Order. Right, fuck me for making a choice that LM gave, knowing that it will mean I get benched.

My friend... I do not condemn you for your expectations, but I think you are an adult enough to understand that expectations can be very different and from many people, I cannot fulfill them all, which means that the surest solution will be to work in the way that is сomfortable for me in the first place.

You correctly noted in my example that you do not have to stay at home at this time. But in my game world, you HAVE TO. Because as I wrote earlier, I can't work through EVERY choice. So yes. It is literally the author's canon that in the world of "Imperial Chronicles", if you

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, NOTHING happened to you until the very moment 0.7.
And please, never appeal to the fact that you "paid" again, my games are free, and all donations are voluntary. If you are really so upset that I did not add content for the route you are interested in, you are free to stop supporting me. This is your legitimate and just right, which I respect.

It's all. I don't want to discuss this ever again.

 

[envyNox]

+Elin please , nice update

 

[Filipis]

Sir this is a pirating forum

Jokes aside,

1. It's a work-in-progress
2. Story has extensive branching
3. It's a 2 month update

Your expectations are disproportionate to what's being offered. I honestly do not understand how you're so tilted.

That's funny, I don't remember LM saying that 0.6 will only have Coup content, and that players NOT on that path should be prepared to get nothing.

LM chose to include no content for us, not even any alternative scenes of something that might've happened during the time of the Coup. We got nothing with Queen Mother, we got nothing with Elis, we got nothing with LIa, we get nothing with nobody, while those on the coup path make a pretty serious advancement with the Queen Mother in this update.

I love this game, and the story it tells, but this was a serious blunder. The number 1 rule in interactive storytelling is "don't punish the player for giving them a choice" (getting characters in Until Dawn killed isn't a punishment, it's a consequence - there's a difference).

If I have a character walking down a bridge, and then give the players a choice "keep walking" or "stand on the ledge", where they will fall off and die in 2nd choice, is that a punishment or a consequence?

 

[DrakoGhoul]

Alright, so I finished three of my playthroughs now. In my experience, it's seems the best way to keep everyone alive and potentially on your side is to not do the coup and then join it in prison. Otherwise, refusing to do it at all kills a few people. Minus your sisters and mother. Not sure what I did previously that contributed to it but they get away. The guys aren't so lucky.

As for the killing Cass stuff. I feel like she's not dead on the one from last update. There's too much hints there about her wanting MC to know the location of her body and such. However, she's 100% dead with the Isis choice. That honestly was the most satisfying one. The husband and Wife duo was pretty hot.

 

[n00bPanda]

I want to keep the my royal blood pure instead of mixing it with the filthybarbarians. So no isis

Dude MC is an half elf what blood thy you want to keep pure

 

[kazama09]

Lazy_Monkey This is a Eternum Level game. Similar type of immersive experience. Keep up the good work bro and Eternum is no. 1 game for me.

 

[DrakoGhoul]

Speaking of half bloods. Do Dark Elves exist? I would assume some of MC and Isis children will have her skin complexion. Or would that just be considered hypothetical "Southern" Elves, if they existed? MC is half blood though, so I don't think the pairing would really make one. Since it would be mostly human. I would be surprised if they had elf ears.

That also brings me to another question. If half elves get it on with full elves, would the offspring lifespan be on par with full elves? Magic wise, we know there's really no great difference. As far as we currently know.

 

[destroyerofassholes]

This is not a precedent. This will happen all the time in the future. I'm not moving the story along the routes, because in my game I don't have separate routes that don't overlap at all. The in-game story moves through time, and as in real life. For example, if you do not go to school, it does not mean that you will spend your free time in the same amount of social communication. The intensity of events in your life literally changes depending on your choices. So if you need an equal amount of content for ANY choice, I can't help you. Perhaps you should wait a serious amount of time and return to the game, for example, in version 1.0. In this case, you will not know what content was added to which version of the game and you will not feel "under house arrest while other children are playing". I'm sorry to disappoint you, but this is how I plan to continue working on the game.

If it's gonna happen all the way in this specific form whew this game has bad days ahead. Feels like you wanna make more choices for the sake of more choices but not do the actual work that comes with more branching.

You put a choice for a coup in the game, all of it leads to a similar ending in which we take the crown so they're not super dissimilar, but with all the possible deaths of main characters in the scene there are potential routes that basically have nobody in them. If there is 0 benefit or tradeoff to a particular route, nobody will do it and it might as well not exist. You're not giving anything in return. Might as well not branch there.

I mean for all that branching you don't even put the most logical of choices into the game: it is possible to both be heir and have a high enough cass relationship that she trusts you with her idea, and yet she still goes through with the coup even though you're already the goddamn heir.
The fact that Cass outright tells us she's gonna coup and the only choice you offer is to kill her rather than warn anyone is pretty ridiculous too.

What exactly is the point of all this? I enjoy your storywriting and most of the branching but this one ain't it. It's like you're showing off you're willing to go all in for no pay off.

There are a lot of choices, but they all feel very off.

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it really reminds me of the last game from this dev. forced excessive branching of paths.

Agreed.

 

[Filipis]

If it's gonna happen all the way in this specific form whew this game has bad days ahead. Feels like you wanna make more choices for the sake of more choices but not do the actual work that comes with more branching.

You put a choice for a coup in the game, all of it leads to a similar ending in which we take the crown so they're not super dissimilar, but with all the possible deaths of main characters in the scene there are potential routes that basically have nobody in them. If there is 0 benefit or tradeoff to a particular route, nobody will do it and it might as well not exist. You're not giving anything in return. Might as well not branch there.

What exactly is the point of all this? I enjoy your storywriting and most of the branching but this one ain't it. It's like you're showing off you're willing to go all in for no pay off.




Agreed.

Finally, someone who gets it. It looks like keeping Cass alive to ensure the Coup happens is the "canon" choice because you just get shafted with a lot of characters if you don't participate. Will the 0.7 update be focused around those that didn't have the COup happen? Of course not, because the dev himself states that "not all choices will be equally long". Which is eerily close to saying there are "game over" paths.

 

[Danv]

does v0.6 require new game or something? trying to continue from last choice of v0.5, but it clearly missing variable

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[Jaime Lannister]

Okay, there don't seem to be any complaints about softlock bugs, so I went to bed.

P.S - Guys, I read all the messages in this thread and I want to say - I will definitely try to make the game as branched as possible, but you must understand that I cannot branch the plot for ANY potential choice. It's just not possible until I reach a technological singularity and merge my mind with AI. But I will try my best! Maybe I'll implant a Neuralink in my brain.

If you think that something should be added / removed, be sure to write, I read everything. It's not a fact that I will do as you want, but for example, according to your advice, in this update I added the ability

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Thanks for playing my game.

Need gallery mod and walkthrough, too many sex scenes I miss and have to use renpy rpa unlocker to see images

 

[wizardcock]

Finally, someone who gets it. It looks like keeping Cass alive to ensure the Coup happens is the "canon" choice because you just get shafted with a lot of characters if you don't participate. Will the 0.7 update be focused around those that didn't have the COup happen? Of course not, because the dev himself states that "not all choices will be equally long". Which is eerily close to saying there are "game over" paths.

it's also worth remembering that the update was done in 2 months. only 2 months, Carl.

I've always disliked it when developers try to make every path the same length just to please all players, not because every path is explained with a solution and logic. In chapter 6 the finale is the coronation and everything leading up to it.
If we got to it by simply killing Cass right away - fine, since I felt a real difference in the solutions. Not killing Cass right away is a “movie decision”, it's illogical and in the spirit of emotional stuff: like she's my sister, I can't... etc. It leads to movie stuff like imprisonment and escape. The realistic and pragmatic solution is you killed the traitor right away, you got the coronation right away.

Also to be honest: well, what's stopping you from replaying another variant and getting the scene with the queen mother. Does that path really disgust you that much? It sounds good to me, too.

Also I liked Isis even more in this update.

 

[Penguin01]

Finally, someone who gets it. It looks like keeping Cass alive to ensure the Coup happens is the "canon" choice because you just get shafted with a lot of characters if you don't participate. Will the 0.7 update be focused around those that didn't have the COup happen? Of course not, because the dev himself states that "not all choices will be equally long". Which is eerily close to saying there are "game over" paths.

My man have you played Monkey Business, his previous game? It was exactly the same. You could say no to a character and miss tremendous amount of content and lock yourself from additional options/choises. LM percieves his games as solid projects, not as ongoing development/improvisation, he has room for whims but doesnt base his games on them. Some options lead to additional options, some to nothing. Let him cook.

 

[Christ P Bacon]

You caled yourself a ”murderer” , along with everyone who made the same choices as you.
The game seems to issue a time out penalty for the act of murder.
How am I saying anything else? Are murderers supposed to be rewarded?
Without Cass there is no coup - that is the power of your murderous choice.
There are consequences in this game for such atrocity and we all have to abide if we did the act.
Here is the proof:



You did the same thing Cass wanted to do - only to her.

Parricide is at least frowned upon anywhere you look and it means the same thing whether it is Cass or the king.
The game put a lot of weight behind your murder path -which also means you are going yourself into the Red King prophecy. Who is next? The king if he disowned you for parricide?
The queen if she was disgusted at your action?
Your sister for disapproving?

patricide can be beneficial for kingdom stability, The ottoman did it in middle ages to avoid bigger instability

 

[frozztie]

got some error on few choice but still one of the best game and dev ever exist. hope dev keep continue the game and not finish the story so fast.

 

[Filipis]

My man have you played Monkey Business, his previous game? It was exactly the same. You could say no to a character and miss tremendous amount of content and lock yourself from additional options/choises. LM percieves his games as solid projects, not as ongoing development/improvisation, he has room for whims but doesnt base his games on them. Some options lead to additional options, some to nothing. Let him cook.

My memory of MB is not that great, but it was a good game overall. If what you say is true, then that would be bad as well - but only if there was nothing else to compensate for that "loss".

In IC, it's looking like LM really wants the Coup to happen.

Which begs the question, why even give players the choice to "end" the Coup right there and then, if it means you get shafted on content because "your choices have consequences"... by that logic just let me kill everyone from the start, those would be some real consequences...

Those that choose the way of the Coup get rewarded, while others get shafted = not a meaningful choice at all.

 

[Filipis]

it's also worth remembering that the update was done in 2 months. only 2 months, Carl.

I've always disliked it when developers try to make every path the same length just to please all players, not because every path is explained with a solution and logic. In chapter 6 the finale is the coronation and everything leading up to it.
If we got to it by simply killing Cass right away - fine, since I felt a real difference in the solutions.

Just because the devs fail to explain alternative paths, doesn't mean they're de facto inexplicable.

For instance, why does killing Cass in 0.5 end the Coup? AFAIK, she is not alone in her scheming, probably even has allies among some of the folk. Why not write the "alternate" path (Cass dead) that still includes the Coup attempt - except this time, it's someone else from Cass' conspiracy that acts out her plans?

Because as far as I am aware, even the Coup itself always ends the same way, with MC being crowned. So, the destination is the same, the path to get there is different, and presumably, the path after will be different as well. This was a decision that carried the same magnitude if LM offered us a way to not get married at all - something many of us argued here would create too large of a difference in branches, a prospect no dev can handle. Yet LM does it with the decision to kill Cass or not. So, where are all those people now?

But those that killed Cass in 0.5 don't get the Coup and all the character development that happens with it - no alternatives, no trade-offs or benefits for going either way... just shafted. Players on the Dead Cass route are now a significant step behind in their relationship with the Queen Mother, and thankfully, that's the only LI that got some scenes on the Coup route.

Once again, for all those in the back, listening: Locking content behind decisions is fine, as long as there are trade-offs for following every decision possible.

And as far as the timeline of development goes: that's irrelevant to the point being made here.
Lazy Monkey has now publicly declared that not all paths will be equal in content (nobody expects 100% equality, that shit is hard to quantify exactly in order to be able to balance it properly), and something tells me he implicitly means avoiding the Coup nets you exactly ZERO "benefit", which is akin to declaring a path "canon"... in an interactive novel. Great.

 

[wizardcock]

And as far as the timeline of development goes: that's irrelevant to the point being made here.
Lazy Monkey has now publicly declared that not all paths will be equal in content (nobody expects 100% equality, that shit is hard to quantify exactly in order to be able to balance it properly), and something tells me he implicitly means avoiding the Coup nets you exactly ZERO "benefit", which is akin to declaring a path "canon"... in an interactive novel. Great.

No, development timelines matter. If it was for example 4 months, surely LM would have added some extra scenes for kill_Cass path. But when it's 2 months, he has to make sacrifices and the path of killing Cass is just the one that can be shortened and it will look at least. logical. A coup without Cass is unlikely...at least for now.

 

[Penguin01]

My memory of MB is not that great, but it was a good game overall. If what you say is true, then that would be bad as well - but only if there was nothing else to compensate for that "loss".

In IC, it's looking like LM really wants the Coup to happen.

Which begs the question, why even give players the choice to "end" the Coup right there and then, if it means you get shafted on content because "your choices have consequences"... by that logic just let me kill everyone from the start, those would be some real consequences...

Those that choose the way of the Coup get rewarded, while others get shafted = not a meaningful choice at all.

you know I dont want to speculate untill the game is relised, or at least untill a couple more updates. Maybe he will "compensate" with more content for no-coup path in 0.7 idk
MB was smaller though

 

[DrakoGhoul]

For instance, why does killing Cass in 0.5 end the Coup? AFAIK, she is not alone in her scheming, probably even has allies among some of the folk. Why not write the "alternate" path (Cass dead) that still includes the Coup attempt - except this time, it's someone else from Cass' conspiracy that acts out her plans?

Get the Isis ending this update. She pretty much explains it well. Cass doesn't actually have real power. Her "allies" will leave her to die in a heartbeat as soon as she fails. Her dying is the signal that their fun is over. The only thing is that they still accomplished their goal of poisoning the king. That's honestly what happens when you have too many people with their own goals on your side.

If there was one "negative" aspect, it would be that you can't really get the full picture with one playthrough. For me, it's not really negative, but I can see how if you only played once the scene feels hollow. This is just my perspective on it though. You have every right to feel left out of content by your choice.