- Aug 15, 2018
- 1,075
- 940
Some issues with character creation:
I love the concept of the character's background being developed along with the skills, but after playing with it longer than I'd care to admit it seems to me there's some balancing issues once you start playing the game. Now that I know more about how the system works it appears there's too many 'must pick' choices and I've managed to convince myself I will eventually be unhappy with my choices unless they are something akin to:
Scientist Parents
Embraced Science
Troublemaker
Attractive
Brainy
Gambler
Stocky (because Strength is harder to train than Dex and gives a bonus with girls)
I don't know if the other two matter much depending on your playstyle
True Love
Word Pleaser
This last one is subject to the most debate in my mind, but after trying other combinations and doing the academy courses and book reading I've come to the conclusion Charm is too damned useful and you get so much more Manipulate from books and courses you can get by starting with 30 or 35 until you get to the Academy and read some books.
The reason I've come to the conclusion these are the 'best' choices is--as I understand it--intelligence is what determines how much you get from academy courses and books, and there's precious few places to get it whereas with most other skills etc you can train them up pretty easily. For example you can start with a low willpower because it doesn't hurt you much in the very beginning and once you open up Crystal Hills you can get a massage and blow all over the poor slut's face and you'll get willpower often enough at least until 60 and 55 respectively. Odds are you'll be there on a regular basis anyway trying to get your slave's stamina back up when you're training or educating them.
Gambling is another stat that's damned difficult to get (and rather expensive) and which is pretty much useless until you get it to about 100, so taking 'Gambler' without having already chosen 'Troublemaker' is half-useless. Or not, this is debatable, the +5 INT is so useful you can ignore trying to stack the gambling skill, but if you take it, the courses and then read all the books eventually you reach a point where you pretty much win every time and can almost count on ~300 coin per night. If you don't try to max it however the best it seems you can do (on 1d100) is break even sometimes which is pretty much useless. Thus taking something like the failed businessman is reasonable to keep your manipulate score decent if you go for max charm but none of the others really measure up. In part that's because some them have work-in-progress quests thus that could eventually change, but as it stands I can't seem to justify in my mind choosing something else. Border Wars is kinda neat, but the main bonus there--the big Survival boost--is something you can pick up in about two weeks hunting no matter how low you start with it--provided you take Juno with you in the first slot.
I keep telling myself the problem here is me, I don't have to min-max everything and can enjoy playing any character I want and should relish the challenge of a lesser character, but I'm afraid I was born this way and it makes it very easy to quit on a character I know has a 'low ceiling' because of the character creation process. I do understand--and it does make sense--that intelligence (and willpower?) having a dramatic effect on learning ability is a reasonable way to do it, the problem is more along the lines that there's so few places to get INT in the character creation process and there seems to be nowhere else to get it. I think I read somewhere that going the University professor route allows a way to do it, but that's kinda gated by having to be able to get the stats necessary to qualify for that--which pretty much forces you to make more or less the same choices I detailed above.
Just a note, there's at least one calculation/display error, if you rebel from your military parents you're supposed to get +5 INT but you'll only be credited with 3. Also I cannot seem to fathom why anyone would choose to rebel from a 'Hunter' background, there's almost no difference in the stats given except you get less of them and all you get in return is +5 science. A Doctor background--even if you followed in their footsteps--gives no more INT than a Criminal background where you rebelled. That just seems weird and those two choices would be great places to add some more INT in the creation process.
It could also be a way of spicing up some of the choices later in the process that seem less likely to be chosen. Perhaps just as a placeholder for the ones with quests which are still WIP, (seems you'd need to be pretty smart to be chosen for those) and maybe Wealthy and Thief (you're a very good thief) could add a few points, and maybe some of the straight sex ones like pussy pleaser could add a point or two.
Feel free to tell me if I have this dead wrong, but the few times I've tried a character who didn't have at least 55 or so INT and tried taking courses or reading books I was gobsmacked by how much difference those seven, nine or twelve INT points make when you're getting your points at the end of the course/book. To the point where I couldn't countenance playing a character who I knew never really had a chance to do the things I wanted to with him.
I love the concept of the character's background being developed along with the skills, but after playing with it longer than I'd care to admit it seems to me there's some balancing issues once you start playing the game. Now that I know more about how the system works it appears there's too many 'must pick' choices and I've managed to convince myself I will eventually be unhappy with my choices unless they are something akin to:
Scientist Parents
Embraced Science
Troublemaker
Attractive
Brainy
Gambler
Stocky (because Strength is harder to train than Dex and gives a bonus with girls)
I don't know if the other two matter much depending on your playstyle
True Love
Word Pleaser
This last one is subject to the most debate in my mind, but after trying other combinations and doing the academy courses and book reading I've come to the conclusion Charm is too damned useful and you get so much more Manipulate from books and courses you can get by starting with 30 or 35 until you get to the Academy and read some books.
The reason I've come to the conclusion these are the 'best' choices is--as I understand it--intelligence is what determines how much you get from academy courses and books, and there's precious few places to get it whereas with most other skills etc you can train them up pretty easily. For example you can start with a low willpower because it doesn't hurt you much in the very beginning and once you open up Crystal Hills you can get a massage and blow all over the poor slut's face and you'll get willpower often enough at least until 60 and 55 respectively. Odds are you'll be there on a regular basis anyway trying to get your slave's stamina back up when you're training or educating them.
Gambling is another stat that's damned difficult to get (and rather expensive) and which is pretty much useless until you get it to about 100, so taking 'Gambler' without having already chosen 'Troublemaker' is half-useless. Or not, this is debatable, the +5 INT is so useful you can ignore trying to stack the gambling skill, but if you take it, the courses and then read all the books eventually you reach a point where you pretty much win every time and can almost count on ~300 coin per night. If you don't try to max it however the best it seems you can do (on 1d100) is break even sometimes which is pretty much useless. Thus taking something like the failed businessman is reasonable to keep your manipulate score decent if you go for max charm but none of the others really measure up. In part that's because some them have work-in-progress quests thus that could eventually change, but as it stands I can't seem to justify in my mind choosing something else. Border Wars is kinda neat, but the main bonus there--the big Survival boost--is something you can pick up in about two weeks hunting no matter how low you start with it--provided you take Juno with you in the first slot.
I keep telling myself the problem here is me, I don't have to min-max everything and can enjoy playing any character I want and should relish the challenge of a lesser character, but I'm afraid I was born this way and it makes it very easy to quit on a character I know has a 'low ceiling' because of the character creation process. I do understand--and it does make sense--that intelligence (and willpower?) having a dramatic effect on learning ability is a reasonable way to do it, the problem is more along the lines that there's so few places to get INT in the character creation process and there seems to be nowhere else to get it. I think I read somewhere that going the University professor route allows a way to do it, but that's kinda gated by having to be able to get the stats necessary to qualify for that--which pretty much forces you to make more or less the same choices I detailed above.
Just a note, there's at least one calculation/display error, if you rebel from your military parents you're supposed to get +5 INT but you'll only be credited with 3. Also I cannot seem to fathom why anyone would choose to rebel from a 'Hunter' background, there's almost no difference in the stats given except you get less of them and all you get in return is +5 science. A Doctor background--even if you followed in their footsteps--gives no more INT than a Criminal background where you rebelled. That just seems weird and those two choices would be great places to add some more INT in the creation process.
It could also be a way of spicing up some of the choices later in the process that seem less likely to be chosen. Perhaps just as a placeholder for the ones with quests which are still WIP, (seems you'd need to be pretty smart to be chosen for those) and maybe Wealthy and Thief (you're a very good thief) could add a few points, and maybe some of the straight sex ones like pussy pleaser could add a point or two.
Feel free to tell me if I have this dead wrong, but the few times I've tried a character who didn't have at least 55 or so INT and tried taking courses or reading books I was gobsmacked by how much difference those seven, nine or twelve INT points make when you're getting your points at the end of the course/book. To the point where I couldn't countenance playing a character who I knew never really had a chance to do the things I wanted to with him.
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