Board Thread:The Last Sovereign Discussion/@comment-35006067-20180712181054

Taking on DukeLeto7's suggestion, a thread to discuss the possibility of making a good, prescriptive, step-by-step walkthrough.

First, what do we want?

I've made the following assumptions: We want to give the player as little choices as possible. If they wanted to think thoroughly about each little thing, they wouldn't be using this walkthrough in the first place. So, in each case when one alternative is indubitably superior in the long run, we will tell them to take it. Neranda will receive letters, the Impaler will live, Altina will be saved. We should be as agnostic as possible about possible previous choices. A player should be able to take the walkthrough for the part there are playing and just roll with it. However, as we are but humans, we won't handle extreme cases (like the player going to Ardford without a single ProN), and we will assume that, for a given section, they've followed the walkthrough from start to finish (no half-walkthrough half-homebrew Simon's route). When in doubt, go for the choice with content as opposed to no content (Rake or no Rake for example).

With this in mind, I've subdivided the game (up to the end of Chapter 3) in four categories.

First, the parts where it's possible to be very straightforward: "do this, do that, collect rewards". No questions asked, things always happen roughly the same way regardless of previous choices.

Prologue Chapter 1 up to Stineford (there's technically the choice of who to help first in the slavers incident, but I cannot imagine a situation where you don't want to go for Aka) All of Stineford except for the big deal of whoring Qum or not (same, we won't damage Aka/Robin's RP in Yarra's favor as they're far harder to get) The remaining of Chapter 1, except for investments The beginning of Chapter 2, except for Altina/Varia fate (sparing the Impaler, getting Stark, not searching for lost luggage) Yarra's route (Fulminato's calculator seems to point there's a generic optimal order to do things regardless of Yarra/Qum mood; sleep on the first available night, Fheliel on the second, end with Fucklord's room) Aka's route (amplifying the spell is the coolest therefore the superior option) Megail's route except for investments The sidequests of Ardford (wait to Vhala to be part of the group, then do then all) Zirantia (no support) Yhilin III+ Eustrin Yhilin IV

Next, the parts where there are a few non-trivial changes, but they can still be handled with a few "if you did" boxes.

Simon's route: Linear walkthrough, with a few "skip if day count is already XX or more" (Nalili's three days' training will probably be the sacrificial lamb here). Research order: Essence shielding, Dari's condition, Orc evolution, then the other two (skip the first one if Simon's route went badly; war will be harsher but we won't miss Orcent's transformation, Dari's transformation in Chapter 4 or the final trial) The summit: I guess we can trim this down to two routes, depending of if the Embassy was funded or not. If the second case, I'm for letting Unpeople mention pass in favor of preventing Orc Extermination and opening the Vaults, as we won't miss anything permanently that way (Rake, the helmet). Elven forest: Straightforward variants depending of our chosen one. Yhilin I: Some variants depending of the city state, but nothing insurmountable. Yhilin II: Same.

Then, the nightmarish parts with some much legacy of our actions going on:

The Battle of Yhilin The War

And finally, the crossroads of ultimate destiny, the big choices that shape the game and are heavily debated:

The fate of Qum, Altina and Varia: A table explaining the pros and the cons of each option? Reunion's girl: It depends so much of the playthrough up to this point I have no idea how to deal with this. Maybe we could ask the player to save before it, choose Megail, look at her RP value after the scene, then "if Megail is not at XX or more, reload and choose Aka instead"? (they're probably the only two we should care about… or are they?) Every single investment: Damn. Goddamn. I guess we could provide a base of "must buy" investments (the Mine and the Bank in Chapter 1, the Embassy in Megail's route, all the mercenaries and the Guild Membership at the end of Chapter 2), then a few thematic combinations for the remaining ones? Yeah, that's pretty vague. Discretionary funding: Priority list? Do these ones first, then try to do all of the ones in this list, and, if you still have money, here's a few extra and their respective benefits?

…

Yeah, that's a lot of text. Hope it helps somehow. 