Post by Lordclear in Dusken Blades comments

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I have just finished reading Ch 6 Easter Egg, and: wait, there are THREE different routes in the game already?? What are they and how can one find them? With this and hideen sidequest and 2 Easter Eggs already this game is such a Matryoshka doll, wow.

Ch 6 Easter Egg also hinted at future combat chapters and MC's role in them. Honestly, I wouldn't mind MC being in support role for the majority of the game, no other SRPG does that and it's a nice spin on the usual "overpowered hero" genre. But in the end, I trust author's vision and am just here for the ride.

A little rant about default controls: there is a lot of text in the game, and right now you can only advance it through left mouse button or central Enter on the keyboard (space and right mouse skip the whole dialogue tree). This is a default SRPG studio configuration, and while you theoretically can change it in "game.ini" file I had real trouble trying to tie "select" to any numpad key buttons (central Enter and z are just awkward to me if I have to press them so many times). If it was possible to use a button on numerical keyboard (like numerical enter or dot/del there) to advance text like with central Enter that would be great; don't know if this is even technically possible (right now I had to settle with binding select to right button, as it's closest to numpad), but if someone knows an easy solution here I would greatly appreciate that, as searching online brought me no results

Nameless_Scribe44 days ago(+1)

To be honest, I kinda flip-flop on whether I feel justified in calling them separate "routes," exactly. To not go too deep into it, it's less that the game has entirely distinct campaigns, and more that your branch approaches the events of the story from a different perspective, highlighting different sides of the characters depending on their mental state. I've been referring to them more as "permutations" in stuff like patch notes because of this.

Regarding the actual branches, currently the major branching point(s) concern the fate of an optional party member, and how that affects the characters and their dynamics going forward. There are three branches in the game at the moment, with some more planned for a bit further down the line, but I want to be careful about how I add more because each branch increases development scope exponentially.

Regarding the MC's role, I can't really say more than I have already in-game, but I thank you for your trust, and I hope I'll be able to deliver something worthwhile.

And on the topic of controls... Yeah, that's one of the bigger annoyances I have with SRPG Studio. It's kinda clunky to play using anything other than pure mouse controls, at least in my experience. I'll try to look into options to make keyboard/controller more viable, but that may just be an inherent engine limitation.

Lordclear44 days ago(+1)

About branches: I think I get the hint, since there is only one optional party member at the moment (I think), so two branches are whether you have him in the party or not, but what is the third branch? Is that just the branch where you manage to follow sidequest objectives (following Easter Egg hints) or is there something else I'm missing?

About controls: that was just a bit of venting on my part. I mean, I didn't even find anything about rebinding controls to numpad on the internet, and game.ini seems not to recognize these keys if you try to bind it yourself, so that's probably not even possible. It's more notable in Dusken Blades, since it is more text-heavy than other SRPG games that I've played, but ultimately it's not a big deal. Myself, I already did rebind controls somewhat to my liking (had to sacrifice right key button, worth it).

Nameless_Scribe43 days ago(+1)

The side-quest is actually its own plotline distinct from the main story "routes" (though not entirely independent given some of the objective requirements.) The condition for the third branch is still related to the fate optional party member, as there is one more state for them beyond recruited or not.

And yeah, I get you. Honestly, the inflexibility of the controls is something that annoys me a bit, too. The benefits of the engine definitely outweigh that annoyance for me, but I do want to keep looking for possible ways to make them a little more comfortable.

Lordclear43 days ago(+1)

Oof, so many secrets! Okay, I officially have no idea how to get to third branch then, lol

Nameless_Scribe42 days ago(+1)

Well, I wouldn't worry too much about missing secrets, honestly. I try not to include anything in the game that I don't think is worth your time, but I also don't want players to feel like they have to 100% the game either. Plus, I do think there is meaning in some things being hidden.

Still, I also know how powerful a driver curiosity can be, so if you do feel stuck and want the answer I'll put it at the end of the comment. (Hopefully spaced enough to be beyond the "Read More" dropdown.)

The current major "route" splits are based on said optional character being 1) Not recruited, 2) Recruited, or 3) Dead.

There are smaller differences in and between routes, as some other actions are tracked, and then of course there's the side-quest plotline, but those are the current conditions for the major "route" splits.

Lordclear42 days ago(+1)

Aah, I thought briefly about that! Glad I wasn't too far from the mark on the third branch, then.

Reiterating my previous thought: the amount of secrets and hidden things in the game is unbelievable. Very good for different playthroughs, but must be hard to keep track of all these permutations when developing (and it will probably be harder in future, as story and branching points go on).

Won't take any more of your time, thank you for the hints!

Nameless_Scribe41 days ago(+1)

Nah, don't worry about it! I'm just honored you've taken an interest in my game!

Oh, and I've been looking into keybindings for the engine, and while I still haven't found a way to bind actions to the numpad, I did learn something that might help a little. The "Cancel" action (which defaults to "x" or "ctrl") seems to be a relatively reliable fast-forward button which you can hold down to auto-progress text and animations. (Though it might make some more in-depth cutscenes slightly visually glitchy from my testing. Nothing game-breaking, though.)

Maybe you already knew about it, but if not it may help with the controls a bit. Definitely glad to have learned about it, myself, at least.

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