Fates Weekly Update #53

Hello, folks. Chief here on his third attempt to write this update. I ran short on time during the first attempt early in the day before going to work and must have caught something during the second half because I couldn’t focus long enough to string two coherent thoughts together. I’m still not holding together well, but a short nap at least restored enough sanity to bring you this update! Fuzzy wasn’t happy with it though. I stole his sofa to take my nap on.

Wordcount: 5,553; Split focus this week between supporting materials and getting some extra scenes at the end out of the way. I’d love to talk about how the world ends, but I can’t do that without getting spoiler-riffic. What I will share is an odd observation. When I started writing the split protagonist sections, I was a bit worried that Name and Natalie might share too many similarities in how they do things, being sisters and all. Players don’t want rehashes of choices, but I was rather surprised as things got more tense how different they were despite their shared heritage.

At the end of Reborn, there was an end where Natalie carried a lot of guilt at what she had done. Many players thought it justified, but it was something that I could never write Natalie coming to terms with. Natalie just couldn’t accept that’s how things had to go down. Very noble and honorable in her views of the world, which is why she made such a good pair with Zuri and Sol. Even if he pressured her to do it, it was always heat of the moment with him.

Name and company aren’t quite as strict when it comes to things like that. A lot of the time, the ends justify the means and they are prepared to go that extra distance of moral ambiguity. Yoi in particular never let questionable ethics stop her in the past. It’s a bit disturbing to see how much of a bad influence they can be on the proper, by-the-book Name. Still, this means we can go into the darker ends of Fates without it being forced into a bad end because the team can’t really cope with what they’ve done. It does make me wonder what sort of team people would rather have protecting the world for them: those who have high standards but put the universe at risk to uphold them or the people who aren’t afraid to get dirty to ensure everyone is safe?

The Rising Angels Writing Contest is still going on! You’ve only got a few weeks left to get those entries in, so time to get those pens going!

Almost all of Act 1’s CG are done. We did a lot of bouncing around, but the first full act is done. Hopefully the other three will be done soon. As celebration, here is a WIP piece from one of my favorite parts.

We left off last week with Sector Seven, so this week we will continue our backstory development with the rest of the Katajion Directorship sectors. While most of the higher number sectors are a bit less important than the early ones, they are still critical members in the government and hold just as much authority of their charges.

8- Space Originally one of the smallest bodies of the Katajion Defense Force, Space has rapidly came into its own during the last few directors leading it. Space has the responsibility of protecting all planetary systems, both inhabited and uninhabited, and all space stations. Like the other sectors, Space is directly responsible for making its own craft, leading to an improved time at fielding new ships into the field. Some of these ships are transferred and sold to civilians through the economic sector.

Color- Red

9- Air Like its brethren in the above sectors, Air sector is a member of Katajion Defense Force. From ground level to the outer reaches of the atmosphere, Air has complete dominance. Many directors over the years have sought the merger of the Air sector into the Space sector as Space increased in numbers and power, but the balance of power between the sectors has lead to their continued existence.

Color- Bright Pink

10- Construction From military bases to housing developments to roads, Construction ensures that buildings and stations are made to standards. Construction of things like space ships, weaponry, personal items, and non-structure items are developed by their respective sectors, leading many to think that Construction is nothing more than architects and knuckleheads with sledgehammers.

Color- Dark Green

11- Research and Development Playing both historians and scientists, Research and Development has the task of pushing into the future and understanding the past. R&D works with almost every single sector to help improve and advance the knowledge and technology used by the Katajion Directorship. Because of this central collective, the Katajion Directorship was able to gain a technological superiority over its adversaries in the early days of the war and has maintained it since.

Color- Dark Blue

12- Foreign Affairs If Sector 1’s role is to manage the directorship’s internals, Foreign Affairs job is to manage its externals. While relations with several smaller planetary bodies and the Raltin Empire is strained, there are numerous allied governments, space stations, and nomads that wish to do business, travel, and seek refuge. Foreign Affairs also assists Katajions traveling abroad.

Color- Gray

13- Education Education takes the requirements that are given to it by the other sectors and uses that to help craft the people each sector needs to fulfil its role. Education works with children from a young age to help develop and craft their specific talents and gifts to help make them better at what the directorship needs. This helps ensure that each Katajion is specialized in their roles instead of being a generalized member of society. Transfers between sectors are uncommon, Education will help to train people into new fields if they show the basic aptitude for the job.

Color- Blue

14- Public Relations The masters of spinning the worst defeats into the greatest wins, Public Relations’s role in the directorship is to ensure the flow of information reaches all branches. While their primary role is communication, they also assist in creation of propaganda materials and psychological warfare against the Directorship’s enemies.

Color- Lime Green

15- Exploration The smallest sector and the one most often forgotten about. Exploration consists of units lent from the space and ground forces to explore unknown planets and planetary systems. Unlike the sectors it often borrows from, Exploration prefers to keep out of warfare and sticks to working in neutral and allied areas. Many top Katajion researchers alternate between Sector 11 and Exploration to further their studies in xeno fields.

Color- Orange

That’s all for this week! Time for me to take another nap so I can get back to work in the morning. Until next time, Chief out!

 

Video o’ the post is a question for you all.

Fates Weekly Update #52

Hello, folks. Guess who is finally back from his romp around the world. I was starting to think that I was never going to make it back. Fuzz hasn’t allowed me out of his sights since I got home. I don’t think he knew what to do with himself with me gone. It’s the first time I’ve ever came back from a romp around the world and had someone there at home excited to see me back. Quite a nice feeling. Oh, we are also at #52 for our updates! That’s right, we’ve been updating every single week for the last year straight. Time to pop open a bottle to celebrate consistency!

Wordcount: 7,729; Most of this week was spent more on the codex and other material for backers than the actual story. I’ve been trying to catch both sides of the house up so things don’t fall behind any further than they have so far. Part of the problem is that every time I get a decent way through a short story, I have this inexplicable urge to turn it into a visual novel. It’s dawned on me that I’ve been writing visual novels so long that it has basically overtaken traditional prose as my default style. So part of me has been considering turning the book of short stories into a book of short kinetic novels. While that would be fun, it also is a money pit as art is not what you’d call cheap and nobody has ever wanted to play a game drawn by me.

The story taking up my writing is quite a fun one that really would play well as a visual novel. It’s the story of the greatest hero of them all, Kika Starr, as she is beckoned through time and space to represent her galaxy in the interdimensional mech fighting tournament. With her sponsor, Old Man Chief, she fights to again prove that her position as the Starr. Then, after I got absorbed by the idea did I remember that Kika, despite being a navigator, has never actually piloted again. She doesn’t even know how to drive the car because everyone has always chauffeured her around. I was a bit disappointed there for a moment as I was ready to drop Kika into her first battle that she couldn’t win without deus ex machina… so I decided to drop her in anyway and watch the great hero figure out what stick did what. Turned into a pretty nice story about Kika facing something she had never had before, putting pride slightly aside, and trying to become the hero she thinks she is. And giant robots. Giant robots are awesome.

We are going to continue our lead up to Fates’s release with a couple of contests. The second contest is everyone’s favorite, a writing contest!

Theme: Challenges to overcome; One of the reoccurring themes in all Rising Angels games is that the world isn’t there to just give things out to you. Hard work, dedication, and that little ounce of luck are the driving forces. Sometimes those challenges are easy, sometimes those challenges are not killing Stan. Either way, a challenge is what awaits you, dear writers! Now overcome it!

Eligible games to use characters from: Anton’s Vacation, Rising Angels: The Red Rose, Rising Angels: Reborn, Rising Angels: Fates

Prizes, what you all are interested in! Both the writing contest and art contest have identical prizes. Now, I’d like to give out more than large cash prizes, so if there are any donations to our contest, I’ll welcome them. I’m chatting with a couple people to see if they would be willing to lend some aid, so prizes may increase.

First place: $200 USD via Paypal

Second place: $100 USD via Paypal

Third place: $50 USD via Paypal

Contest officially starts on September 19th, 2015

Deadline: October15th, 2015

Results announced: October 17th, 2015 during our regular Fates Weekly.

Judging: All pieces will be judged on creativity, relation to the theme, grammatical accuracy, and plain old awesomeness. All pieces will be reviewed by the dynamic IDHAS trio: Chief Editor Komi and his two bumbling assistants. Depending on the number of entries, we might include a fan vote in there as well.

Art contest rules:

1. You must have at least one character from either Rising Angels: The Red Rose, Rising Angels: Reborn, or Anton’s Vacation. You can include other characters, if you wish.

2. Proper credit must be given to all characters. (Mostly if you include characters that aren’t yours or the studios.)

3. You must include the theme in some way, shape, or form.

4. You can submit up to two pieces for contest.

5. Keep it under XXX rating. IDHAS has never been a family friendly studio, but let’s keep the smut out of this one. You can toe that line, just don’t cross it.

Either post entries or send them to overwatch@idhasstudios.com . Winners will be announced on the website and e-mailed.

Okay, time for some learning time! This week (and next because this turned out to be really long), we are going to talk a little bit about the arrangement of the Katajion Directorship and its sectors. As those of you who have read some of Reborn’s codex or listened to Faye in Red Rose, there are fifteen different sectors in the Katajion Directorship. Each of these sectors has a unique purpose and responsibilty to help manage in the directorship. In addition to their duties, each sector has a unique colored uniform to help differentiate them at a quick glance. For example, blood red is the color of the Katajion Space Sector. While this is a short summery of the first seven of the fifteen sectors, I hope it is interesting. Next week, we’ll cover the other eight.

1- Governmental The first and most powerful sector of the Katajion Directorship. Governmental is responsible for the integrity and unity of the fifteen sectors. When a proposed rule change by a sector is announced, it is up to the Governmental sector to ensure that it meets the outlines laid out in the charter. Day-to-day operations of the administrative side are part of the core responsibilities that the sector manages.

Color- Black

2- Judicial Judicial acts as the hand of the Governmental and is responsible for policing citizenry and judging those who have been found guilty of violating the laws of the charter. Due to the loose confederation of sectors, Judicial often has trouble enforcing laws in several sectors due to the power that those sectors hold. Most of the time, Judicial only deals with the crimes of the lower ranks of Katajions.

Color- Brown

3- Intelligence Intelligence holds a high position in the directorship for one reason. Where Judicial fails to hold sway, Intelligence is there with both a secret and a knife. While their primary mission is to constantly watch the stars to ensure the safety and security of those who would seek the downfall of the directorship, Intelligence often takes it upon itself to police those who would seek to abuse their power. Many corrupt directors have fallen to the stalwart guardians of the Katajion Directorship’s Intelligence Sector.

Color- White

4- Economic Though the title of Economic sector sounds like a regimented and controlled sector, the independent nature of the Katajion Directorship has turned the Economic sector into more of a massive collection of guilds, businesses, and individuals than a united sector. While they serve under a single director, planetary councils and guild heads often have more control over businesses and practices than the figurehead director does. All commerce falls under the massive sector.

Color- Light Blue

5- Medical A relatively small sector, but one that enjoys the full support of both the Katajion Defense Force sectors and that of the general population. Directly working with Sector 11 to advance their medicines, Katajions enjoy plentiful and advanced medical treatment in most fields. Unlike other sectors, the charter was written so that medical treatment was considered a basic right and that its funding is a paramount responsibility of the economic sector. However, that hasn’t stopped the economic sector from occasionally branching into Medical’s territory.

Color- Purple

6- Ground Together with Naval, Space, Air, and Intelligence, Ground is a key member of the Katajion Defense Force. Ground is responsible for planetary defense against all ground threats.

Color- Dark Green

7- Naval Another member of the Katajion Defense Force, Naval is responsible for all activities on and below liquid bodies. For most planets, Naval has a very small influence and is often subservient to operations and command by Ground forces.

Color- Yellow

That’s all for this week. Get those writing entries in! Until next week, Chief out!

Video o’ the post this week is a Jpop song stuck in my head. Don’t ask.

Fates Weekly Update #51

Hello, folks. Chief here. Today is going to be another short update since I still haven’t managed to get home yet. I’m trying and making slow progress, but my home and Fuzzy still remain half a world away. For someone who used to travel a lot, the last couple weeks have been painful.So, the fun announcements are going to have to get pushed back another week.

Wordcount: 2300; like I mentioned last week, it is really hard to write on this keyboard, so I spent the time working on outlines for the kickstarter side story and some of the other bonus stuff. I started writing a short story about Kika been pulled into a giant mecha fighting contest, a bit as a joke really, but the idea fleshed out quite nicely. The problem is that I’m now tempted to make it a visual novel, which doesn’t exactly fit into a book of short stories very well. That’s gonna be an interesting problem to sort out…

Story contest: The Rising Angels Story Contest has been delayed one last week. This is the final delay for I shall be home and able to run a contest then.

Rising Angels: Hope: We are finishing working out the fine details with our new artist, but progress has once again resumed. The old man has not given up on seeing this story to its completion. Faye deserves to have a proper ending to her Academy days. I’m very much looking forward to getting it into your hands soon. Probably as a bundle with Fates.

Once again, too short, but good updates will be coming soon. Home is just on the horizon! Until then, Chief out.

Video o’ the post… Roll on, chief, roll on…

Fates Weekly Update #50

Hey, folks. Chief here. You might have noticed that this entry came out a bit earlier in the day than usual. While it may appear that way, I’m actually in Germany at the moment and it is roughly the same time I normally write things. However, because I have been trapped in Germany for most of the week with a laptop that turned out to be terrible for getting anything done on, progress was less than expected this week. Someone else was supposed to write a guest entry, but rampaging alien robots from the future struck and they were unable to get to me. So you’re stuck with old chief this week on a keyboard that is barely better than a glorified phone keyboard.

Wordcount: 944 (Pretty pitiful amount, but it was all I was able to get done before I had to leave on Monday. I was supposed to be home by now, but that’s how things go… Most of the writing was focusing on cleaning up some problems in Act 4. Like I’ve said before, Act 4 is way too long and some late nights led to some less than stellar grammars. Lots of little spot cleanings in the script to make sure it is readable.

Also, we are going to be looking for some additional help soon to assist with the coding in of emotions and voices. If you’re interested in some easy though tedious work, please let us know at overwatch@idhasstudios.com. We’ll have a job posting up for it soon.

Writing Contest: Due to the whole Germany thing, we are delaying the start of the writing contest until next week. We’ve settled on a theme though! The writing contest theme will be “Challenges to overcome”.

Sorry for the short update, but there’s not much I can do this far away from my workstation. I didn’t even bring a camera to show how pretty Germany is (even though I’m technically working, I did manage to get out for some food). Next week has something special for you all though. Chief has been planning this one for a bit. Until then, Chief out.

For the video o’ the post, we’re dedicating a song to the days ahead of me.