>>80522

Just the transition into a very uncomfortable story/mood lighting.

Knit-i-Fine 2014/04/03(Thu)18:17 No. 80539 ID: 5ce288
File 139657425952.jpg - (101.08KB , 800x600 , Bonus KYQ 36 - Clearing Up.jpg )

I guess this would have been a better way of layering the most recent update.

Knit-I-Fine 2014/11/11(Tue)03:30 No. 86750 ID: 72c7be
File 141570542298.jpg - (115.12KB , 800x600 , Knit-I-Ghost.jpg )

I'm back with some updates for Save Yourself Quest and Kill Yourself Quest.

I took a break to deal with a bunch of personal stuff regarding motivation, discipline, and a bunch of other boring stuff.

But I return with fresh updates... when and if the quests get revived. Not sure how that works here. Depending on what happens I'll be making posts ASAP, starting new threads, or if all else fails moving on to the next quest.

Plan to be here to stay to share my art and storytelling for a good long time. But more on that later.

Brief status update over.

>when and if the quests get revived. Not sure how that works here.
Quests get revived at the author's whim and discretion.

If you're asking how to get a thread out of the graveyard: you need a mod to move it. Fastest way to get this done is to join the irc channel and ask.

Also, hey, welcome back!

I'm glad to see you back.

Alright, updates are a go!

Knit-I-Fine 2014/11/26(Wed)19:39 No. 87158 ID: 72c7be
File 141705959595.jpg - (523.96KB , 2016x1200 , Bonus SYQ 2.jpg )

I've been feeling rather ill all week. So I apologize for the slow quest updates. Not a lot of time when you go from sleeping 6 hours a night to 12 hours.

In any case, here's a clear image of the redrawn library.

Anonymous 2014/12/18(Thu)01:32 No. 87967 ID: 72c7be
File 141889513604.jpg - (217.44KB , 800x1200 , Bonus SYQ 3.jpg )

The next SYQ update is taking quite some time due to size and such, so to tide everyone over I drew this picture.

Because people kept talking about Pandora's Box.

The most complicated panel in the latest KYQ update has gotten a bunch of strange artifact corruption when I saved it so... maybe be a dely, might need to redo the whole thing.

Descension is on hold until I figured out how to get the dice to work.

Nevermind I figured it out... and that's... a lot of posts. Give me a while to figure out a solution.

After getting some advise on the irc I decided to do the random generation stuff on random.org, which unfortunately means you won't be seeing much of it. Sorry about that but the site wasn't really working out for the amount of dice rolls I needed to make.

Are we going to get any spoilers on what traits / jobs do? (I mean some things are self explanatory, but other things have me wondering). Or are we playing an unspoiled roguelike here, where we learn by trying and dying?

>>88418
Most of the information is intentionally vague roguelike ways. Custom building characters can help make things clear (some factors like how primary stats relate to secondary have to be immediately revealed to avoid an experimental back and forth draining energy from the thread for example).

However since people chose all random for the first run most of the stat stuff will even still be a mystery. That said I will endeavor to make sure you know what you can do when reasonable.

ex. Someone asked just recently "I take it a 0 in a stat just means really bad at it rather than being incapable of things related to it, right?". And I feel it would be deceptive to say you can't use a 0 stat.

You can use a 0 stat. It will suck, but it's usable.

^- I'll include this information in the main thread next post just in case they don't check this thread.

I'm very amused that right after our assassin implies he's friendly so people let their guard down around him, Albertina is cheered up by working with him anyways. And that we're apparently bonding with the priest who seemed to have had the harshest reaction to our making deals with monsters heresy, and the character I was expecting to have the most friction with. (Unless he is just trying to keep Albertina's guard down).

Just wanted to say I'm having a lot of fun with this. There's a lot more interpersonal dynamics than I expected for a bunch of randomly generated dungeon crawlers.

>I'm very amused that right after our assassin implies he's friendly so people let their guard down around him, Albertina is cheered up by working with him anyways. And that we're apparently bonding with the priest who seemed to have had the harshest reaction to our making deals with monsters heresy, and the character I was expecting to have the most friction with. (Unless he is just trying to keep Albertina's guard down).
It does have a certain fun irony to it, doesn't it?

>Just wanted to say I'm having a lot of fun with this. There's a lot more interpersonal dynamics than I expected for a bunch of randomly generated dungeon crawlers.
That was always the hope, to do something with the set up that couldn't be done as easily in other formats. I'm super glad you're enjoying it.

I'm not sure to writing as much as I need to for the SYQ update. So it'll come out story by story until all the chapters are done.

Haha, wow! I didn't expect to get the full lore on them all. I was expecting Alex to skim, or for the plot to step in and do something after only letting us read one or two.

Cool. The effort's appreciated.

>>88769
Glad the effort's appreciated. Sorry it's not coming out super fast. x3

Knitifine 2015/01/24(Sat)02:58 No. 88908 ID: 72c7be
File 142209708675.jpg - (84.71KB , 247x600 , BD2 - Albertina Out of the Shower.jpg )

So in Descension the people who are called 'Humans' are bird people. I've pointed that out a few times in the narration, but I guess on TGChan it's not really that surprising of a thing.

I started a sketch to explain it that eventually evolved into this. Anyways, here's Albertina showing some feathers, and other bird bits normally covered up by their clothes.

So. Lessons learned:

Not focusing fire is a bad idea.
Gravity is the best spell, and things go wrong when not using it.
Pushing people out of a (possible) frying pan into a fire is a bad idea.

>Not focusing fire is a bad idea.

That tends to be a prevailing theory in most games I've played. Guess it's true here too.

>Gravity is the best spell, and things go wrong when not using it.
>Pushing people out of a (possible) frying pan into a fire is a bad idea.

I enjoy these superstitions. Who knows what would have happened if Gravity had been used in that fight.

Honestly, the first real mistake was I expected Mags to take one out of the fight. I forgot they were weak to gravity, not magic. (Which makes sense, I think. Bigger things being more susceptible). Which lead to not focusing in on one and... yeah. Fight would have been a lot smoother if we killed the southern one, and then only had to dodge the other.

But we had been leaning heavily on gravity in previous fights (smite targeting is so much more convenient that beam) and being afraid to use it here did hurt.

Hm. That gives me an idea.
Perhaps I'll put up the codex entries in this thread for reference.

I need to explain a thing about D221

This is likely my fault for now drawing the battle grid before.

>Albertina move to the hallway and throw a dagger at the Pursuer.
Albertina is 6 spaces away. It would be 5 spaces if they could cut around corners, but they can't. The move and attack could make up for that, but they have a dagger which is a secondary weapon. You cannot move and attack with secondary weapons.

Alfons can move and attack the pursue on account of being closer and having a weapon that can use the move and attack command.

But he wasn't asked to.

So I interupted this post as "someone attack the pursuer, someone else go cut it off, as AP allows.

If this is too liberal, let me know.

Sorry.

On another subject.

>...goddamn that AP expenditure to draw weapons is painful. It completely denies us the chance to do anything the round battle starts.

Do people think AP to draw is too high? It's suppose to make drawing on a friendly nontrivial, as well as give the secondary weapon an advantage. (easier to draw.)

If people think it's too straining, I may change it next 'game'.

>>88934
Adapting commands to try and fit intent if what we ask for can't be done, that seems reasonable. (For instance, I didn't think Alfons could actually close to melee range then. Although, considering how steep the to-hit checks are, attacking without aiming almost doesn't matter, anyways).

Maybe if you find yourself in a situation 'best fit' interpretation is different enough for the initial command, it might be appropriate to ask for confirmation before executing?

>>88935
Well, it's pretty painful in when the party is surprised. With the surprise round and the draw round, enemies effectively get to act with impunity for two rounds. Especially since we're fighting monsters, who use natural weapons, and never need to draw.

...which, again, emphasizes how powerful gravity is. Since Mags doesn't need to draw to use it, and targeting is largely arbitrary. We cleared maybe half the first floor with it, and it really hurts when we can't use it.

Although my expectations might just be off due to playing Crawl, where drawing a weapon is literally the fastest possible action you can take.

Overall, though, so far this is a pretty brutally unforgiving roguelike. A lot of my regular expectations don't apply. Most notably, resources are desperately sparse. Normally, a food clock serves to force you to explore, but here our hp does too. Damage forces us to run into danger, searching for resources to heal ourself with.

Honestly, unless we discover something we're missing, I don't see the group surviving this floor. We're too close to edge to be sustainable.

>Maybe if you find yourself in a situation 'best fit' interpretation is different enough for the initial command, it might be appropriate to ask for confirmation before executing?

I'll try to use good judgement then.

>Well, it's pretty painful in when the party is surprised. With the surprise round and the draw round, enemies effectively get to act with impunity for two rounds. Especially since we're fighting monsters, who use natural weapons, and never need to draw.

Very true. I was considering reducing the AP to draw by 1 for each type of weapon, which would for the players to draw a dagger, close the distance and attack in the first round. But I'm not sure, as the existance of certain classes my be distorting how powerful drawing is.

>...which, again, emphasizes how powerful gravity is. Since Mags doesn't need to draw to use it, and targeting is largely arbitrary. We cleared maybe half the first floor with it, and it really hurts when we can't use it.
It didn't actually occur to me until the quest already started that mages wouldn't need to draw their staff, since using it as a walking stick is so common. As for Gravity itself, without a variety of AoE spells (each specialization has one of the three shapes players saw) the mage might seem like a burden due to many enemies in the early parts using physical attacks and the mage having only 10 physical defense.

>Although my expectations might just be off due to playing Crawl, where drawing a weapon is literally the fastest possible action you can take.
I actually had to look up what Crawl is. For reference my roguelike experiences are: Binding of Isaac [Both Versions], Spelunky, Don't Starve, Rogue Legacy, This War of Mine.

>drawing a weapon is literally the fastest possible action you can take
Actually the clunky weapon drawing might be related to my experience in This War of Mine, where the awkwardness of switching between weapon and scavenge mode means you (or at least I) need to choose whether you're going to have your weapon out before the enemy sees you or risk losing the encounter.

>Overall, though, so far this is a pretty brutally unforgiving roguelike.
Yay! It's supposed to be. Which might sound mean, but I want to encourage exploring and unlocking more and more game elements. Obviously there is a limit to all of that, but I'm hoping a least a few runs will happen before the cycle breaks.

>A lot of my regular expectations don't apply. Most notably, resources are desperately sparse. Normally, a food clock serves to force you to explore, but here our hp does too. Damage forces us to run into danger, searching for resources to heal ourself with.
Having both food and health and having to balance between them is likely the result of time spent playing Don't Starve and This War of Mine.

>Honestly, unless we discover something we're missing, I don't see the group surviving this floor. We're too close to edge to be sustainable.
I agree, though I like this group a lot and want them to succeed the RNG didn't provide a Warrior or a character with high Skill, which makes combat so much more difficult.

-=-=-=-

Speaking of Skill, how to people feel about it being the to hit stat? It and Strength form the "Combat" portion of the stats, and I'm wondering if perhaps people felt is was more fun for Mind or Strength to play a bigger roll in the non-rogue classes combat ability.

There are a few reasons behind this.
1. Mind is desired for puzzles (which lead to rewards)
2. Charm is desired for diplomacy (which can negate some combat all together, and even provide long term shopkeepers).
3. If Mind helped magic attacks, Mages would always want high mind, but magic isn't tied to intelligence in the setting's lore.
4. Another reason is, that would mean other classes would skip out on Mind and just rely on the mage to do it, and because the game has social interaction that would cut out simple mages and smart warriors/rogues/empaths as likely to be picked.
5. The other canidate is Strength, which one might expect to be the Warrior's to hit stat. Strength also effects other very important secondary stats though, but I'm not sure if players have figured out how so I'm reluctant to talk about it.

I would, by the way, like to express my amusement at the fact that even with the rng choosing for us, our first character still ended up as a diplomat who didn't buy into the system's dogma.

>Charm is desired for diplomacy
*looks over stats again* Oh my gods, our entire party is diplomats. Even the ones who want to commit genocide. No wonder this is so hard.

>Speaking of Skill, how to people feel about it being the to hit stat?
I guess it makes sense? Although to be fair, we haven't explicitly figured out many mechanics to judge it objectively by in comparison to. (Number of to-hit die equals 1 plus skill plus aim).

I might complain that it hurts or is weird for mages for them to need a separate accuracy stat, but in practice the fact that they often have plenty of spare AP for aim (due to less need to draw or move) largely negates it. Mag's initial hilarious inaccuracy almost felt like a tutorial on the importance of aiming.

If there's a to-hit stat, that suggests some classes have a stat that increases damage. The obvious candidate is strength (cause duh, and because our current 1 damage per hit wonders all have 1 str). Although, if that assumption is right, it's strange in retrospect that Mag's 4 mind didn't increase the damage of her spells above 1 (barring super effective hits).

And yeah, I know you can't comment much without spoiling stuff we're supposed to get the hard way, so this is mostly thinking out loud.

>Binding of Isaac [Both Versions], Spelunky, Don't Starve, Rogue Legacy, This War of Mine
Nethack, Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup, Spelunky, Desktop Dungeons would be the the only ones I ever really go anywhere with. And the ancient cave in Lufia II, which sort of counts. Dabbled with some other stuff like Brogue and Pixel Dungeon.

Mechanically, this actually strikes me as closest to desktop dungeons. Almost no resources, and exploring healing you. (Literally, in that one).

>No, your friend is right. I did die, the white of my scales isn’t paint like the black
Follow up on this. Since this is largely black and white, what's drakaina coloration look like, anyways?

>muses
We decided they're a reusable resource for puzzles so long as we don't kill and eat them. But what if they're non-renewable? The mirror room might be there to show us (over multiple sessions) that if we kill them they don't replenish.

Knitifine 2015/01/26(Mon)16:01 No. 88950 ID: 72c7be
File 142231691917.jpg - (36.59KB , 214x165 , BD3 - Colors.jpg )

>Follow up on this. Since this is largely black and white, what's drakaina coloration look like, anyways?
A lot of possibilities for Drakaina coloration. The clawed hand in a previous update belonged to a Drakaina for example.
Also here's a colored sentinel for another possibility.

Just realized I made a mistake with the dinner drawing in my rush to finish it. I forgot Melitta's second set of arms. XD

>>88948
Fortunately that is probably not the case, since Alb accidentally summoned some with the trap (fleeting the room before they finished coming out) and the muse room was full when we saw it later.

>footsie tailsy
Melitta likes Mags. I bet her ghost ends up as a familiar or something after their nigh-inevitable death.

>drakaina mate with monsters to make more mosters
I think the pursuer just jumped waaay up the creep factor list. Just imagine sex with a creepy staring eye that repeats your own deepest fears and most fucked up thoughts back to you.

>>88960
Pursuers are creepy.

While I'm letting people think about the puzzle for a while and taking a break from writing the SYQ updates I thought I'd doodle a god or two, since I have all the information for all but three of the gods in a big campaign setting document I made ages ago.

Is there anyone in particular people want to know about that's been mentioned thus far? (No Aeon, Telos, Gnosis, Chaos or Echidna though.)

Cheat sheet of gods mentioned already:
Ghaliya, God of Healing and Mutation
Ambrose, God of Wealth
Lu Si, God of Lies and Murder
Almas, God of Blood
Herodotus, God of History and Writing
Sage of Arziki, God of Lore and Guidance

Almas

Ghaliya.

Anyone got any clue for the puzzle? I'm 100% stumped.

>>89157
Yeah, drawing a blank here, too.

Part of the challenge is I'm not even sure if we have enough information to solve and we're just not seeing it, or if we haven't asked the right question yet (since the puzzle seems to be based in in-universe symbology and lore). So kind of resorting to fishing while thinking, for now.

Well that, and the fact is this a puzzle you can't solve via trial and error.

>Well that, and the fact is this a puzzle you can't solve via trial and error.

True and not. A false answer may lead to a game over, but no answer will lead to the quest disappearing all together.

Knit-i-Fine 2015/02/16(Mon)23:40 No. 89205 ID: 72c7be
File 142415880745.jpg - (103.04KB , 432x594 , Almas Robed.jpg )

>>89110
Almas, God of Blood
Appearance: Almas is clad in white robes that have long since been soaked in their own blood. Their mask depicts a mortal in terrible pain, struggling to repress any sign that they’re actually suffering. Almas true form is said to be quite small, having been cut apart and twisted, yet even in this reduced state the sight of them is said to be horrifically incomprehensible to the mortal eye.
History and Legends: Almas is said to be encountered first by Ghaliya who attempted to heal the wretched soul. Almas could not be healed however and soon after discovering their nature Ghaliya abandoned Almas to their own devices. The cause behind the wounds of Almas is filled with speculation. Many believe they were wounded by creatures before they entered the world and other believing them ravaged by the natural beasts of the world during their initial exploration. Still a far darker tale exists where the half-mad Almas mutilated their own body in an attempt to mimic a humanoid form.
Worshipers: Almas is prayed to primarily by surgeons, doctors and patients. They are sometimes praised by warriors and others who are often wounded in their work, but perhaps the most troubling of their followers are those who try to twist their own forms into ones resembling their god. These followers are motivated by what can only be true madness, but perhaps that is what is necessary for a Celestial Pariah to smile upon you.

>>89203
Fair enough. I say we go for it even if we're not sure. "You miss 100% of the shots you don't take. -Wayne Gretzky" -Michael Scott

One last question, was my thinking for the previous riddle "right" or did I just so happen to come up with an unrelated plausible answer that just so happened to land on the right spots?

Feel free to answer after we pass/fail this riddle.

>>89203
Trying to guilt us into guessing. :v

Although with 6 'seats' and 3-4 people to place, that's still lots and lots of permutations. Even if we brute force it across multiple parties, that's going to take a while.

...I think I still don't understand how these puzzles even work, really. I still don't see where the solution in the first one came from. (The symbols had a common... Theme? we sorted them by?).

Regardless, it's kind of hard to order characters to near certain death. Loosing a battle is one thing, feeding them to a trap we see is harder.

>You miss [all] of the shots you don't take.
Mostly true.

>Trying to guilt us into guessing. :v
Sort of? I'm trying to negate the bystander effect. If no one posts I won't be able to continue the quest, and I love working on this quest.

>...I think I still don't understand how these puzzles even work, really.
Oh? Let me try to explain via the next green text then...

>One last question, was my thinking for the previous riddle "right" or did I just so happen to come up with an unrelated plausible answer that just so happened to land on the right spots?
There are basically two or more selections to each puzzle, there's the set solution and then there's "that sounds reasonable given the lore." Either way I give accept the solution, since my set solution might accidentally be unfair or too specific.

>I still don't see where the solution in the first one came from. (The symbols had a common... Theme? we sorted them by?).
Each was the Holy Symbol of an Elder God.
The Elder Gods represented certain aspects (seen at the start of the quest.)

Before there was anything, there was nothing. So that means Chaos comes first.
Now that there are living things the cycle of life is Birth (Aeon), Growth (Gnosis, via Knowledge), and Death (Telos).

This was one of the ways to solve the puzzle.

The set solution for the previous puzzle was based on gender.
Chaos (None). Gnosis (Woman), Aeon (All), Telos (Man).

The tricky part of that one was gonna be seeing if the players thought they should line up the players by their corresponding deity (Luise, Albertina, Alfons, Magdalena) or their coresponding gender (Magdalena, Luise, Albertina, Alfons). Either was correct (as long as it got explained) but I was curious.

Gnosis and Telos' positions could have been switched too. Anyways, no one asked the characters to elaborate on the relationship between the gods, so that facet wasn't revealed. They're also related in other ways that could have matched the pattern, including the one chosen for the solution.

>Regardless, it's kind of hard to order characters to near certain death. Loosing a battle is one thing, feeding them to a trap we see is harder.
Fair enough, but the deeper into the board the quest sinks the less likely people are to answer, until the quest eventually gets put in the graveyard.

Knit-i-Fine 2015/02/17(Tue)15:06 No. 89214 ID: 72c7be
File 142421439263.jpg - (98.07KB , 400x510 , Ghaliya Concealed.jpg )

Ghaliya, God of Healing
Appearance: Ghaliya wears a tattered grey cloak over a dull set of worn brown leather armor that outline a vaguely humanoid body. Her face is covered by a wooden mask that has an expression of sadness permanently carved into it. Ghaliya’s true form is said to be monstrous to behold, appearing similar to an amalgamation of organic tissue that should not twist and writhe the way it does.
History and Legends: Ghaliya is said to have come into the world riding on the back of a giant turtle, having already familiarized herself with the proper appearance for the world’s residents. This account has been disputed by some who believe Ghaliya stumbled into the world in her mortal form and scared no less than a hundred mortals to death. Regardless Ghaliya seems to have adapted quite well to the world, her myths telling of her assistance to mortals and immortals alike to overcome all sorts of injury. She is said to find the sight of a hurt mortal so unnerving that she has to walk with a staff around them.
Worshipers: Ghaliya is worshiped by doctors and healers are many sorts, but she has a few illness which she views as natural and thus not her place or the place of her followers to remove. The priests of Ghaliya refuse to alter the malformed or to remove a few sorts of ailments that are the result of natural mutation.

>there's the set solution and then there's "that sounds reasonable given the lore."
That's actually a lot fairer then what I thought it would be and a nice way of going about it.

Your set solution for the first puzzle was way off from what we were trying/asking about. I figured in the back of my head what genders the gods/goddess were but I never once would have thought of it in relation to the puzzles.

>There are basically two or more selections to each puzzle
>sounds reasonable
Okay, wow, that makes a big difference. Assuming there's only one exact configuration made these a lot more daunting. (For instance, in the latest one, we guessed that it meant Alfons / Albertina were distinct (top panels), and Luise / Mags were together (bottom panels). That didn't tell us who was left or right, or what the spacing between the bottom was, though).

Looking for more information for greater specificity (and not finding it) was what was driving me crazy.

>gender solution.
...it didn't even occur to me to consider that the gods would have set genders. Geeze, Crawl has really colored my perceptions. Gotta get my classics goggles back.

I can't animate at all, but I made these as potential favicons for Descension.

Feedback appreciated. Also still taking god requests.

>can't animate
Sure looks like a blink cycle to me!

>>89261
Yeah, but I have no idea how to put it together into a gif or whatever.

Also sorry reposted the update because the last part of it that included the "input required" was missing. My bad.

>I have no idea how to put it together into a gif or whatever.
Oh, right, you need a software tool that does that. I know Riotmode uses aseprite to make his pixel art, and it can do animations.

>the "input required" was missing
Didn't help that the image was "the beginning of the end". I was waiting for the second half of the update where Alfons finally decided we were too big a heretic and strait up murdered us or something.

>>89265
Ah! Yes, sorry. The title refers to the thread, not the current run. My titles can be a bit... random and out of context at times.

Salestax 2015/02/20(Fri)13:47 No. 89290 ID: 5d2f8c
File 142446884626.gif - (535B , 16x16 , Hope its good enough.gif )

Yo, in case you still needed it; I compiled your images into a gif. Nothing at all special. I can alter the blinking speed and stuff if you want but it looked nicer as it is/was compared to what I tried. (including the double blink and the alternating gem color too) You still have to click on it for it to work I think. No clue how to make favicons.

>>89290
Oh wow, thank you!

I was actually going to see if I had the software to do it myself, but if you like I'll leave what I have planned here if you have the free time to edit it.

The first three and last three images were two separate versions. (one with the outline, one without it) I posted both to ask which people liked better. Feel free to pick one if you wanna do it.

As for the timing, my plan was this.

Open eyes - 4 seconds
Blink (both frames, split evenly) - 1 seconds

>No clue how to make favicons.
You basically just did, I believe. Just gotta get it confirmed and posted in the favicon thread.

Salestax 2015/02/21(Sat)11:49 No. 89305 ID: 5d2f8c
File 142454817668.gif - (1.42KB , 16x16 , this any better.gif )

Don't let me stop you if you wanted to try it a bit. Since I can't draw or write too well animating stuff is fun. Good way of taking what you want something to do and making it. I also use gimp to make them with layers because I'm a casual and it's free.

This one should do what you wanted then.

Riotmode 2015/02/21(Sat)13:48 No. 89306 ID: a19cd5
File 142455530568.gif - (10.99KB , 16x16 , save.gif )

>>89305
Tweaked it a bit to flow better animationways.

Knit-i-Fine 2015/02/21(Sat)13:48 No. 89307 ID: 72c7be
File 142455533353.jpg - (180.78KB , 1018x576 , BD5 - Sharing A Meal Revised.jpg )

Added the extra arms.

>>89306
>>89305
Thank you! This is perfect. I'll see if I can get it up asap!

Thank you everyone.

>>89307
Remains adorable. (And of course snake people wouldn't have chairs)!

Knit-i-Fine 2015/02/22(Sun)19:18 No. 89319 ID: 72c7be
File 142466151955.jpg - (157.73KB , 800x600 , BD6 - At this very moment, Gatinya burns_.jpg )

>just now noticing that thing on Alfons' head is a gear, and a religious symbol, not a flower.
The holy symbol is present on all Priest characters actually.
Alfon's wears his on his head, Luise wears hers around her shoulders, Magdalena's can't be seen by the coincidence of the mage outfit covering the markings on her stomach.

>the world outside the four civilizations: death, war, madness.
>They have power and technology that surpasses ours
>at least here I had a chance to escape, to think my way out of my fate.

The world outside the island Descension takes place on is called Gatinya.
The major continents of Gatinya are Midus, Ishatu, and Maphumi. (There may be more, but they haven't been developed yet.)
Descension takes place on a large island northwest of Midus, which is isolated from the rest of the world. (This island also does not yet have a name.)
There are a group of islands south of it that contain six more civilizations. Midus and Ishatu are home to ten major civilizations each, while Maphumi is home to twenty. Which makes a total of fourty established civilizations in the setting.

There are also like six other planes of existance.

If you guys want to know more about the world outside I'd be happy to answer any questions, but it won't really affect Descension. I do appreciate the attempt at worldbuilding, but I do actually have a bunch of documents on the world already.

>8 food remaining.
I miscalculated the food last time.

>Who's that in the picture
Pyralias, the Mad God of Arson. She's mean.

>Descension to the next floor.
The thread is basically over but I'm not going to report it until it's favicon gets added and everyone had a chance to see the update. The new thread will start on the 3rd floor, but I may take a short break to finish the long updates left for SYQ before continuing. It will continue though.

For the time being I'm open for question and the like on basically anything that I would be able to tell you.

The picture is a homage to the Guardian from Ultima by the way. If you don't get it looks up "At this very moment, Britannia burns."

>Consumed 6 cooked food
>Albertina notices that they've been eating more than the rest of the group, and can sense the others have noticed it as well.
>Even would be 1.5 each. What's the actual distribution?

Albertina consumes 5 food a day, the rest of the party consumes 2. This means Albertina eats 3 food at one meal, and 2 food at the next, but the rest of the party only consumes one for each.

That's... a lot more food than the rest.

Unless this is a known racial thing (humans have higher metabolism?) that really stands put.

Unless the priest background just trains people to get by with less (possible benefit of the faithful trait?) and we found an advantage in our random-gen party.

Or... if we want to fall back on tropes, they're pregnant and don't know it. There's a fun twist for a murder dungeon.

>That's... a lot more food than the rest.
>Unless this is a known racial thing (humans have higher metabolism?) that really stands put.
>Unless the priest background just trains people to get by with less (possible benefit of the faithful trait?) and we found an advantage in our random-gen party.
Food is affected by base stats and background.

>Or... if we want to fall back on tropes, they're pregnant and don't know it. There's a fun twist for a murder dungeon.
Albertina is infertile.
Also their food intake is normal for them, it's just that the combination of factors linked to the difference isn't clear because players chose random generation.

The reason the difference is pointed out is that it might cause some internal conflict.

Unfortunately there's not... a whole lot we can do about that. Hard to make a stats based argument in-universe.

Although, I sort of expect it won't matter, anyways. We're barely scraping by on hp- I don't expect the party to make it to the next end of level meal.

Uh, do you get morale for having a good breakfast?

Seriously, we need level ups in this game. Not for a level-up fill up, but maybe some extra perks, increased stats, morale increases, etc. Maybe for the next party.

>>89326
Level up! Hp and morale are restored to full!

...yeah never gonna happen, but we can dream.

>Unfortunately there's not... a whole lot we can do about that. Hard to make a stats based argument in-universe.
It's actually based partially on some things you could make an arguement for... but I feel like I can't explain that. Gonna have to think on that one when/if it comes up.

>Although, I sort of expect it won't matter, anyways. We're barely scraping by on hp- I don't expect the party to make it to the next end of level meal.
We'll certainly see.

>Uh, do you get morale for having a good breakfast?
Nope! Well, maybe, if you had a breakfast that wasn't super gamey monster meat.
You did get morale for sleeping that I forgot to note. So I'll write that down on the party screen for the next level.

>Seriously, we need level ups in this game. Not for a level-up fill up, but maybe some extra perks, increased stats, morale increases, etc. Maybe for the next party.
Descension, like many roguelikes, does not feature a level up system. Mostly because I don't have the ability to continue making up lots of unique abilities for each level up and the alternative is stat progression that lines up with enemy stat progression, which leads to numbers getting bigger, which isn't actually progression so much as it is "now it's harder for the noncomputer author to calculate things." Not that I'm ruling it out entirely, but the game is currently balanced around never leveling up. Feel free to give feedback on that.

>Level up! Hp and morale are restored to full!
>...yeah never gonna happen, but we can dream.
Real Talk: There's a super rare item that restores 3 HP, MP and FP in the game, it just has a really low spawnrate.

Stats
Specifically it has a 5% chance of spawning each floor.
Which I only tell you for two reasons
A. To tease you
B. Because there's no way you could get a larger enough sample size to reduce that statistic yourself.

Huh. 1 in 20 is actually far from super rare by roguelike standards.

Although that's offset by our pace and by the fact that item spawns are far and few between to begin with.

>Feel free to give feedback on that.
Well, I do feel particularly resource starved. It doesn't feel like we're netting new options or resources as we explore. Generally the idea is you start out with the bare basics, and try to survive long enough to assemble resources to keep yourself alive more reliably. The most dangerous part of a roguelike is the early game, where even with perfect play, survival may not be possible. As you advance, you acquire more options, so even against more dangerous opponents, you're effectively in less relative danger, because player skill / knowledge can be better brought to bear. (Well, assuming a spoiled / skilled / knowledgeable player, anyways).

Since that... doesn't seem to be happening here, that means it's starting to look like, for a party to survive, we basically have to master both the combat system and the char gen system. Through trial and error, figure out how to build characters and fight battles taking as little enough damage that the potion supply can actually keep up. (Instead of operating at a loss, steadily losing hp and morale faster than we can refill them).

Part of this may be our own fault, as we've refused to kill any people, so we haven't gotten to loot their bodies. It may be we effectively traded tangible resources off for lore by keeping the npcs alive. (Well, in this run. Shopkeepers and the like will offer more tangible benefits in future runs).

>Combat lessons / tactical observations
When fighting chargers: round one, we can move a melee fighter next to one, and attack, but there's no AP left to aim. If we miss, we can aim and attack next round, before it attacks. However: this is a bad idea. Since the first attack is likely to miss anyways, and we don't need the charger dead a turn early, we might as well move and aim the first round. The aim will stack, and we'll be even more likely to hit the second time.

(tl;dr- we need to be a lot smarter about using aim to make attacks count instead of just attacking).

In the case of multiple chargers, we should split the melee fighters between them, and have them attack first. Ranged attackers should go last, so they can blast whichever charger the melee fighters don't kill. A mage can change targets at range and still aim, a melee fighter can't run across the room, aim and attack. (Assuming they can even cover the distance to between chargers in one round).

We should always specify, exactly, how we want to split our forces when fighting multiple enemies. Don't trust the interface to choose for us. And don't split 3-1, assuming the one person won't miss. Anyone can always roll badly. (We either want to gang up on one target, or split forces evenly to counter misses).

Albertina should be doing more knife throwing. Since in one turn they can aim and throw, instead of moving to close and attacking without aiming. And since they're critical in hp and their move is limited anyways.

>combat suggestion
Could we you add people's AP to the UI? Sometimes we resolve whole turns at once, other times partial turns in steps, and this has lead to the occasional misunderstanding where I thought people could move who couldn't. A little number or icon or other visual indicator to show who can move or has already moved would help, I think.

>Huh. 1 in 20 is actually far from super rare by roguelike standards.
Well, to be fair most roguelikes aren't 100 levels long. It's super rare in comparison to food (20 acquired last level) and Herbs (9 found in the first level).

>Well, I do feel particularly resource starved. It doesn't feel like we're netting new options or resources as we explore.
Very true, this is mostly because the party is taking more damage than is assumed per floor. (4 damage per floor is the assumed normal.)

>for a party to survive, we basically have to master both the combat system and the char gen system. Through trial and error, figure out how to build characters and fight battles taking as little enough damage that the potion supply can actually keep up. (Instead of operating at a loss, steadily losing hp and morale faster than we can refill them).
Somewhat true, it should also be noted that players are playing very safe. Making healing potions instead of poison, etc. Defensive strategies will always have slower climbs to success than offensive ones.

>Part of this may be our own fault, as we've refused to kill any people, so we haven't gotten to loot their bodies.
I actually have a sneaking suspicion the players would refuse the loot that's generally rewarded from killing Drakaina at this point.

>Combat lessons / tactical observations
All good advice. And I encourage people to post strategies like this here, it might help other players.

>Albertina should be doing more knife throwing. Since in one turn they can aim and throw, instead of moving to close and attacking without aiming. And since they're critical in hp and their move is limited anyways.
This seems to come up a lot, which perplexes me. Albertina has one dagger, and isn't any better at throwing daggers than anyone else. So throwing daggers a lot more would require confiscating everyone elses backup weapon. That said, I have no idea if it would work or not, it's not intended design but feel free to try it if that's what makes sense to you all.

>Could we you add people's AP to the UI? Sometimes we resolve whole turns at once, other times partial turns in steps, and this has lead to the occasional misunderstanding where I thought people could move who couldn't. A little number or icon or other visual indicator to show who can move or has already moved would help, I think.
This is a wonderful idea, I'll work on a template.

>4 damage per floor is the assumed normal.
Dang, that's a lot of combat cleared flawlessly and traps not triggered.

>actually have a sneaking suspicion the players would refuse the loot that's generally rewarded from killing Drakaina at this point
I'd agree. But if I'm try to analyze the system, we are missing certain resources not murdering the shopkeepers. (The adventuring model rewards psychopaths, anyways). It's not the game's problem the players took a moral conduct.

>Making healing potions instead of poison, etc.
I wasn't aware poison was an option!

Although nearly everything we've faced has had one or two hp. Poison as damage over time would really only have helped against the pursuers and the drakaina, if we'd fought any? Maybe with chargers, if the poison bypassed or had a lower dodge / failure chances.

...gassing a room though a keyhole would be really convenient.

>This seems to come up a lot, which perplexes me. Albertina has one dagger, and isn't any better at throwing daggers than anyone else. So throwing daggers a lot more would require confiscating everyone elses backup weapon.
Well, the obvious first question would be if there's any value to the others even having backup weapons in the first place. We haven't seen them used much. Possibly useful against something resistant or immune to a specific damage type (can blunt or magic? Stab). Possibly useful if we run into something that can break / disable weapons (corrosive slimes, rust monster?). Alfons might be better at assassinating sleeping / unawares things with his dagger. And characters might not be able to butcher monster corpses without a blade. (So if we put all our knives in one basket and get that basket falls through a pitfall trap or something, everyone starves).

Albertina mentioned the dagger was quicker to draw, but I haven't noticed dagger-drawing make a difference in a combat action yet. And reach seems to have been abstracted out since the first combat.

The impulse to make a dagger thrower is understandable, at least. We get to attack at range, we get to aim and attack on the first round without spending AP to close, and we run less risk of taking damage.

I suppose even if Albertina doesn't have a special skill for it, we'd naturally assume a thief would be more handy at that kind of thing? And so far as I can tell, we roll 2d6 for attack and throw, so it's not as if it's a worse option.

The 1hp thing really reinforces it right now, too. If Albertina's move rate is crippled, they can't reliably close to melee . Which means we kill monsters slower, and they get more attacks in.

...possibly we could have been making throwing knives or darts something out of monster bone / horn / teeth as we'd been going? Then we wouldn't need to reallocate daggers. Although that kind of crafting might have taken time we didn't have to spare. Then again, I guess the non-alchemists could have done it while we were potion brewing?

>Poison

Yes. Poison can be made by Albertina and Sustenance potions can be made by Luise. In addition to each being able to make healing potions. I mentioned this in an early help menu but maybe should add it to the character sheet.

>...possibly we could have been making throwing knives or darts something out of monster bone / horn / teeth as we'd been going? Then we wouldn't need to reallocate daggers. Although that kind of crafting might have taken time we didn't have to spare. Then again, I guess the non-alchemists could have done it while we were potion brewing

This is the kind of thing that would require a trait specifically for crafting.

Knit-i-Fine 2015/02/23(Mon)15:36 No. 89343 ID: 72c7be
File 142473457460.jpg - (177.36KB , 720x720 , BD7 - Party Screen Update 1.jpg )

Quick Attempt at Updating the Party Menu, now features too screens, which may be bad. I dunno.

Hmm. It's less cluttered, but not getting all the information at one glance is less than ideal.

If you wanted to save space, maybe you could abstract out or abbreviate some of the headings? (For instance, sex / sexuality is pretty easy to infer without a heading. Class / specialization / background a little less so). Or you could replace the words for stuff like health, food morale, with small icons so you could fit them on a line.

...or you could exploit the infinite canvas and just combine all the data in one panel by making it wider and adding another column.

How about putting items on the first screen and only showing that one for most status updates.
The second screen stuff (primary stats, backgrounds, traits, ect) are not gonna be changing enough that you'd need to redo them every update.(maybe just when it's pertinent or dawn of the new day. It'd make it easier to find if they were at set times for the most part.)

Knit-i-Fine 2015/02/24(Tue)01:25 No. 89357 ID: 72c7be
File 142476993980.jpg - (111.79KB , 800x600 , Bonus SYQ 4.jpg )

Some good ideas. I'll work out a solution before Descension resumes.

Didn't get to do a lot of work today unfortunately, but I did get to do some work. Hopefully the SYQ update will be up tomorrow/later today. Same deal, short story, three images. Here's a dumb preview.

Knit-i-Fine 2015/02/25(Wed)20:41 No. 89386 ID: 72c7be
File 142492569675.jpg - (38.58KB , 127x147 , Bonus SYQ 5.jpg )

Got more work done than the last time I was a day late, but it's likely gonna be sometime tomorrow I actually finish this one. Some editing and two more images to go.

Huh. The grinning serpent is the first one that didn't end as a tragedy (at least not for the protagonist). Or where foolishness / ignorance didn't come due.

Bodes well for trusting Morgan, I suppose. Although I suppose we might want to be careful about what sacrifices she might be willing to make, or how she might go about passing information. A benevolent trickster is preferable to the alternative, but still something to be careful around.

Father's tale / totem fits. Pride coming due, not being satisfied with what he had, infidelity.

Still impressed you're actually giving us the whole book. And you've definitely got the feel of old timey fables down.

>Huh. The grinning serpent is the first one that didn't end as a tragedy (at least not for the protagonist). Or where foolishness / ignorance didn't come due.
:3

>Still impressed you're actually giving us the whole book.
I'm still working on it I promise, just stuck on the most recent chapter. It will come out by the end of the week though.

>And you've definitely got the feel of old timey fables down.
Thank you! That's the goal.

Popped in to tell everyone I'm currently stuck on writing the most recent chapter, I don't want to skip around because then I won't have any other content to show you. I'm taking a break from trying to force the writing for the next chapter and drawing up Muerta and Lu Si, so those should be posted in the next couple days.

If you have any suggestions/requests feel free to pop them in here. I can elaborate on any world aspect of either quest as long as it's not spoiler-ee (ex, I can't tell you anything about the world of the fey, or the tower itself, but I can tell you about Avalon City and Gatinya.)

Regular updates of SYQ to resume next week, got over my writer's block too late so I'll be working on the update over the weekend. A bunch of medical stuff came up too, so that's why no Muerta or Lu Si were posted.

Sorry friends.

I will attempt to update ripple no more than once a day.
I will also attempt to update this thread no more than once a day.
Questions are welcome.

>>89540
Oh hey, welcome back!

>>95361
Thank you, though the post you are replying to was made several months ago. I currently have no plans to continue SYQ (though I will eventually) because I am doing college classes. Just to clarify.

>>95366
Whups, just lumped those two posts together in my head, I guess. Still welcome.

Turns out photoshop can't understand object rotation for some reason, so animating this next panel might take a bit...

For those who seem curious, all the playable characters in ripple (Alba, Claire and Boarkiller) are women.

Hm. Looks like we're all tied up on which memento to pick.
Ironically it seems to be split right down the middle the afternoon crowd all wanted locket and the night/morning crowd wanted gun.

Felt like giving a breakdown of stats to add a little more time to get a tiebreaker to the thread. I'll add this to the wiki once we get a page. It should all be fairly familiar to those who've played DnD/Pathfinder.

STR - Strength, determines what a character can lift, what type of weapons can be wielded without penalty (and thus indirectly, damage), skill defaults for Climb and Swim.
DEX - Dexterity, determines accuracy of melee attacks, and skill defaults for Acrobatics, Contortion, Stealth, and Ride.
CON - Constitution, determines Health and Health Regeneration. Also factors into a number of stamina pools (such as Outburst).
AWR - Awareness, determines accuracy of ranged attacks, determines skill defaults for Perception and Insight
KNW - Knowledge, determines maximum number of spells known, determines skill defaults for Appraise, Arcana, Craft, Engineering, Heal, History, Linguistics, Nature, Profession and Religion.
CHA - Charisma, determines skill defaults for Deception, Intimidation, Persuasion, and Perform. Also factors into a number of stamina pools (such as Audacity).

Knitifine 2015/10/09(Fri)22:28 No. 95412 ID: 72c7be
File 144445491074.jpg - (824.92KB , 1024x768 , Map of Midas.jpg )

Ripple takes place in Midus, which is part of Gatinya, the same planet that Descension takes place on. I've drawn you all a continental map of Midus as well as an arrow pointing to the general direction of Descension's inhabitants.

I updated the wiki for you guys.

Tgchan.org/wiki/ripple

Knitifine 2015/10/13(Tue)15:48 No. 95488 ID: 72c7be
File 144477649092.jpg - (816.08KB , 1024x768 , Language Breakdown of Midus.jpg )

Here's the most common language breakdown by region as well as the starting location of each protagonist.

Alba = Magenta
Claire = Cyan
Boarkiller = Yellow

Knitifine 2015/10/16(Fri)21:51 No. 95573 ID: 72c7be
File 144505748637.jpg - (725.21KB , 800x600 , Rixple 017 - Charity.jpg )

My friend twoturu insisted Alba have a photorealistic squirrel for a pet.