Corruption and Defiance
Added 2024-04-09 14:51:36 +0000 UTCI'm implementing a change to the game's relationship mechanics today.
Previously: If you embrace Order or Chaos, it makes it much easier to convince the Old Ones who are aligned to your corruption. Since the corruption options are auto-wins, you can make more mistakes and still have them trust you, because you've shown you're willing to become more like them. The tradeoff is that when it comes time to pick allies, you won't be able to forge an alliance with the opposing Old Ones. Only a pure human can reach across the faction divide.
Now: The same system, but with a twist -- each Old One has an individualized hidden "defiance counter." Buddy will hint at this but it's not going to be explicitly tracked with pop-up notifications. Each time you leverage your web research to confront them about their assumptions, each time you challenge their statements, you increase the counter. You can increase it once a night. If by the end of your journey, you have 4 defiance points or more and are still human... even if you lost a lot of trust with the Old One, they'll acknowledge the strength of your convictions and decide to help you anyway.
The goal here is to provide alternate win conditions. You can ride along with an Old One, agreeing with them, being corrupted by them -- or you can stand against them, lose trust, and still win their favor in the end because you were consistent and steadfast.
My hope is that people won't feel like they need a FAQ or a guide just to play the dang game, that they can be themselves and have a greater chance of getting the ending they're seeking. We'll see if that works.
