I'm at scene 08 right now, which is one of the first "flashback personal quest" of the plot.

In practice, one character (Riley in this case) will tell a story about his past, fight several battles, etc. Like Loren's personal quests but with just one character.

Now in this case is even more complex because they're flashbacks, so they can't have the current items I have already asked Anima to make me some functions, I can strip a character of the current possession, give some new ones (you can imagine as that character's possessions at the time of the quest/story) and then once the flashback is over, he'll get back his current stuff.

The problem is another one. What should I do with skills ? in theory, the character should be weaker or different from now. However I'm not sure if is possible to just create a "temporary Riley" (to keep the current example) and then switch back to the regular one.

This way though, the XP earned through the flashback is also lost.



I was thinking, even if is unrealistic, to keep the current character skills/attributes and even add XP at the end of it. Or it sounds really a TERRIBLE thing to do?

it will not break the suspension of disbelief if the flashbacks are done with the current attributes. - after all, the complete Act 1 is a flashback and no one expects to be downgraded to level 1 again for the following parts in the arena

I think renke made an excellent point there.



Alternatively though, you could use a temporary Riley and just give quest exp at the end. Then Mr. Temp Riley could have a skillbuild designed for the flashback, and you could design the encounters so that you need to use that set of abilities right, instead of worrying that they have to be beatable however you built your Riley.

I vote for keeping the same stats, if for no other reason than it would save on extra coding on your part.

I vote for keeping the same stats, if for no other reason than it would save on extra coding on your part.

That's sure

Also since all quests happens time ago, you can always use the excuse that time has passed and they're not in shape, etc OK will do that then, thanks



I wrote this explanation, is clear enough:



"{i}Please note: the following quest is a flashback, and will feature one character only. The shared inventory and his/her possession will be temporarily emptied, but you'll get back your items and the equipment at the end of it{/i}"

I think renke made an excellent point there.

Alternatively though, you could use a temporary Riley and just give quest exp at the end. Then Mr. Temp Riley could have a skillbuild designed for the flashback, and you could design the encounters so that you need to use that set of abilities right, instead of worrying that they have to be beatable however you built your Riley.

Admittedly, I don't know anything about the inner workings of RenPy, but I do like yayswords' suggestion on Mr Temp Riley.



I guess it would depend on the specifics of the flashback story whether or not having the current attributes would be completely unrealistic or not. So, it might very well be okay to keep the current build and only limit access to their weapons and whatever else items they would've accumulated during the main storyline. Some RPGs make the skill learning a definitive part of the story, eg. it is stated out loud character is suffering from amnesia and as the story progresses from day one, they reacquire their magic spells as they fight in battles. From what I've seen, in SotW, this has not been the case, i.e. you level up your character and gain new abilities, but it's not pinpointed in the dialogue between the fights. Hence leaving the current build is less of an issue here. But it would be odd if during the flashback Riley would have access to, for example, all scrolls Althea/Shea bought in Act I/II.

If I was coding the game, I would create a new character, TempRiley, give him a couple of skills and his own inventory, leaving RealRiley untouched. I don't see the problem with TempRiley's XP being lost. If they're that important, just add a fixed amount to RealRiley's XP upon completion of the flashback.

I am trying, but I think might break all the old saves. Because of how it was coded, adding a new temporary character is not a problem but when you access the character selection screen before the battles it crashes

skip the pre-battle screen? party positioning is rather boring with only one party member

Yes will be only shown the first battle

In other news, I'm at scene 09, with some cool arena fights against beastmasters. Still about halfway coding the NORMAL PLOT. Then I'll have to add the tileset and random encounters/small sidequests/shops etc. But I shouldn't be too much behind in the schedule after all!

Good news, I can't wait til throwing money at the screen works



Regarding flashback: Logically it does not make sense to develop Riley in the flashback, but in this case the effort needed for a "TempRiley" is not worth it.

If I was coding the game, I would create a new character, TempRiley, give him a couple of skills and his own inventory, leaving RealRiley untouched. I don't see the problem with TempRiley's XP being lost. If they're that important, just add a fixed amount to RealRiley's XP upon completion of the flashback.

I concur, But since but since this is a scripted event, we do know what the XP total sum is, so why can we not issue that at the end of the flashback as quest completion XP. That way way both sides can be happy.

The main issue is that creating the tmpRiley has "side-effects" even if is a beta I don't want to break the system or maybe risk future problems during saves/load. Scary stuff

How about treating trmpRiley as a creature mob? That just can be used on the player's side? I am assuming you can add creatures without breaking any saves right?

No is more complex than that, but honestly in past 2-3 days didn't had much time to test (busy with other stuff). Will make another try with tmpRiley next week

Good news, I tried again today and the tmpRiley hack seems to work. I tested his full quest and even did a fight after that to make sure the other party members were re-added properly. I'm 99% sure it's working fine now

The only caveat is that you can't see the pre-battle screen, but since there's only one character, is not a big deal.

Hooray!