#development asks

[guardian-of-time-if]

Will MC have more autonomy when she returns from the dragon seekers? Like with what they wear, certain decisions, etc?

MC will gradually gain more autonomy over the story, Anon, but it will be incremental at first. Lack of autonomy is one of the themes of the story, so MC will still struggle with it when she comes back, but I don't indend for MC to have all her decisions made for her forever.

[guardian-of-time-if]

hi there Reagan.

i found your IF today and just finished the demo. and i really loved everything. i was so immersed in your story, that for a few seconds i didnt realize that the demo was over.

i have a few questions:

if i remember correctly, then in chapter 4, we can choose options to increase/decrease MC´s personality stats. does this mean from then on future choices will not/only rarely change the personality stats?

also in chapter 4: during the fight against Sentinel we can choose between one of the three aproaches or choose to use Tempurions power. if i decide to choose to use Tempurions power, would the following fight scene/flavourtext change depending on which is your highest skill (e.g. the fight would be described different if MC has high Finesse VS high Might)? in IF´s with (combat) stats and MC having a special power, im always split on which option to pick. the special pwoer-options are usually more interesting, but a small part of me always tells me "if you pick this one in every combat, you dont really have much reason to also leveling up the (combat) skills"

after the water-incident at the (i believe) end of chapter 3/at the beginning of chapter 4, is it implied that MC have told her friends (Lukyan/Tzesar/etc, so their close friends) about their visions? i chose the "I want to talk with Cato"-option and i remember (maybe wrongly) that someone said, that "we can talk later about this" (or something similar like this). (b) also maybe i just dont remember it anymore, but was it ever said, what the reason/explanation is for MC to leave for a year or more (for her trials)? both for the public and the court/nobles?

are there any hints to know how good of a relationship MC has with the characters (specifically Lukyan)? for most of the story the relationship page for Lukyan said: "He's still not sure what to make of me, but he's tentatively hopeful we can be friends."; unless once (i think it was after a timejump when i noticed) where it said something like "He is as cold to you as to everyone else". i thought i have picked the "nice" options with him, chose to spend time with Luk if i had to choose, and after most options he was still friendly, but now im worried, that the whole game/IF i had a neutral/bad relationship with him.

relatively early in the story (when you decide your haircolour etc.) there are two options which say: 1) Someone could run their fingers through it. 2) No, they couldn't. could you explain what exactly this choices mean?

at some point (again i believe realtice early in the story) Cato explains to MC how the bond works. one sentence is: "The more you talk to one another, and take actions compatible with the other´s personality, the stronger your bond becomes." => is this just some lore or is this some actual gameplay feature? as in if my MC has a high confident-stat, but Tempurion doesnt, does this mean my MC´s bond is weaker? ==> i have made screenshots from the scenes mentioned in (5) & (6) if needed. i dont include them, since sometimes if my asks include images, the author dont receive them

do you have a regular update-schedule or is it more like "the update is done, when its done"?

thank you for your answers. im really excited how the story continues.

i found your IF today and just finished the demo. and i really loved everything. i was so immersed in your story, that for a few seconds i didnt realize that the demo was over.

Thank you so much! I'm glad you loved the story. The rest of your questions I'll answer under the cut since this was a rather long ask.

If i remember correctly, then in chapter 4, we can choose options to increase/decrease MC´s personality stats. does this mean from then on future choices will not/only rarely change the personality stats?

There will still be some changes to personality for the rest of chapter 4 (the next update) and potentially 5 (slightly undecided on what will be the cutoff), but after that personality stats will be stable. The questions are mostly there so MCs who have different personality traits as an adult than as a child will have a boost to their new personality stats.

in chapter 4: during the fight against Sentinel we can choose between one of the three aproaches or choose to use Tempurions power. if i decide to choose to use Tempurions power, would the following fight scene/flavourtext change depending on which is your highest skill (e.g. the fight would be described different if MC has high Finesse VS high Might)?

No, if you use Tempurion's power there's only the pass version and the fail version.

in IF´s with (combat) stats and MC having a special power, im always split on which option to pick. the special pwoer-options are usually more interesting, but a small part of me always tells me "if you pick this one in every combat, you dont really have much reason to also leveling up the (combat) skills"

That's fair. I hope to make all of the options equally interesting, but I do understand that time powers probably seem a lot cooler than the other options.

after the water-incident at the (i believe) end of chapter 3/at the beginning of chapter 4, is it implied that MC have told her friends (Lukyan/Tzesar/etc, so their close friends) about their visions? i chose the "I want to talk with Cato"-option and i remember (maybe wrongly) that someone said, that "we can talk later about this" (or something similar like this).

The only people who know about the visions are: Igor, Amalia, Ilarion, Emperor K, Gulin, Cato and Mercy. And if you chose to tell Luk at the end of chapter 3 then he knows.

When MC tells them they can talk later it's more a way of disuading questions until she can talk to Cato.

also maybe i just dont remember it anymore, but was it ever said, what the reason/explanation is for MC to leave for a year or more (for her trials)? both for the public and the court/nobles?

Now that you ask this, I'm actually not sure if I mentioned that or not. Basically when MC is at the stage of leaving for her trial, everyone is made aware that she is undergoing training with the dragon seekers. There's no major announcement, just everyone stops being secretive about it.

are there any hints to know how good of a relationship MC has with the characters (specifically Lukyan)?

Just what's in the relationships page of the stats screen. :)

for most of the story the relationship page for Lukyan said: "He's still not sure what to make of me, but he's tentatively hopeful we can be friends."; unless once (i think it was after a timejump when i noticed) where it said something like "He is as cold to you as to everyone else".

"He is as cold to me as everyone else" is actually what Luk starts at, and "He's still not sure what to make of me, but he's tentatively hopeful we can be friends." is one step above that. So these are both more nuetral with him, but I don't think you're doing too badly for this point in the story.

thought i have picked the "nice" options with him, chose to spend time with Luk if i had to choose, and after most options he was still friendly, but now im worried, that the whole game/IF i had a neutral/bad relationship with him.

He's always fairly polite, but distant towards MC before he leaves at the end of chapter 3 unless you got pushed out of the tree and told him you'll never forgive him. His relationship stat won't really matter until chapter 5, so it wouldn't change scenes. (Though there is at least one instance where it changes MC dialogue to him.)

But going by your description, you don't seem to be doing anything wrong, Luk usually responds well to MC being nice. And if you've picked him every time you had a choice, it probably should be higher. Unless you're lying to him? Those are usually the choices that cause large approval drops with him.🤔 Typically Luk has very few large approval increases or decreses, so it's possible that you're picking options that annoy him in equal measure with kind options?

relatively early in the story (when you decide your haircolour etc.) there are two options which say: 1) Someone could run their fingers through it. 2) No, they couldn't. could you explain what exactly this choices mean?

It's mostly a hair texture question, but I put it at the end of the hair section of the character creation scene instead of directly after the texture question. Essentially it's just a variable to distinguish whether it would be realistic for someone to run their fingers through MC's hair with the hair texture chosen.

is this just some lore or is this some actual gameplay feature? as in if my MC has a high confident-stat, but Tempurion doesnt, does this mean my MC´s bond is weaker?

The bond does affect gameplay, but it isn't connected to stats, just MC's actions. If MC conistently acts in a way Tempurion disapproves of, you're bond will weaken, and your powers will either fail or even be greyed out as options.

do you have a regular update-schedule or is it more like "the update is done, when its done"?

I update when the chapters are done. :) Right now that's about twice a year, but I'm trying to get it down to every couple months.

[guardian-of-time-if]

Mc will make it to the end of the book

i'm sorry but just to clarify does this mean there won't be endings where she dies at all? you mentioned appreciating endings like that so i've been worried for a while myself ;-; (and you saying that anon was assuming mc would survive long enough to have children)

I will give you a more detailed answer Anon, but I want to start by saying that I do not want you guys to be concerned by the possibility of MC's death.

i'm sorry but just to clarify does this mean there won't be endings where she dies at all?

At this point, MC is guarenteed to make it to the last chapter of the game, and for most players how she dies will be a choice in the epilogue. There will be one possible route where MC can die in the final chapter of the game, but it should be very obious that it will lead to a bad end. There won't be any suprise random choice getting you killed. Think more DA:O where if you refuse Morrigan's ritual and choose to kill the archedemon yourself you die (direct result of actions you know will lead to death) than low stats giving you a bad end type of deal.

you mentioned appreciating endings like that so i've been worried for a while myself ;-; (

Noo. I don't want you to be worried, Anon. I do appreciate endings where the MC can die, when it fits the story, and when it's done well. But I do get frustrated when I didn't see it coming or it wasn't signaled well. I didn't really put options like that in Guardian of Time because I don't think they would make sense. (Except for one, but I promise it won't catch you by surprise)

(and you saying that anon was assuming mc would survive long enough to have children)

That's because I was going to include some epilogue choices where MC can die young, so maybe she does die before she can have children. (Or maybe she picks the one route that she can die on.)

[guardian-of-time-if]

Hello! Patreon members get additional insight into these characters, so my question is, will all this information ever appear in game as well? Patreon's blocked in my country unfortunately and seeing all these asks with people changing their stance on Amalia after reading the content there I had to ask

Hi Anon. I can’t really give you a concrete answer because some of the information on Patreon will appear in the game, and some of it won’t. Even the stuff that is in game will be filtered through the MC, so it won’t be the same as getting that character’s POV. I’m sorry that you can’t access Patreon in your country, but the whole draw of joining is to have those extra insights into the characters that won’t be in the IF.

[guardian-of-time-if]

I have to ask -- I'm maining magic (cuz... Who wouldn't ? I MEAN ?! WHO WOULDNT ?! ) and I was wondering whether or not we'll have an option to boost our other stats, cuz by god do i want to get a cool sword ! Just you wait Sentinel, one day I'll straight up kick your ass. (lovingly. I am a simp, fr fr.)

I'm maining magic (cuz... Who wouldn't ? I MEAN ?! WHO WOULDNT ?! )

I hoping to make all three appraoches equally interesting, but it does seem like magic is the most popular. (Although personally I prefer playing stealthy characters.)

I was wondering whether or not we'll have an option to boost our other stats,

You'll have the option to raise your skill stats, but not your approach stats. So after chapter 4, you'll be locked into whichever approach is highest.

cuz by god do i want to get a cool sword !

So, uh, funny you should ask this because you do not in fact need to be combat focused to get a cool sword. And I just finished working on this recently (sneak peak of code below the cut):

(Option 1 is a two handed battle axe, which is currently selectable by all MC, but may require a might stat check 2 is a sword, 3 is a pair of daggers, 4 is a bow, 5 is using magic in place of a weapon and only magic MCs can select it, and 6 is hand to hand combat/self defense for pacifist MCs)

Just you wait Sentinel, one day I'll straight up kick your ass. (lovingly. I am a simp, fr fr.)

You can certainly try, but he has been training for a good 200 years longer than you and has specialized training. (This is me trying to prepare you for the fact that you probably cannot kick his ass, but trying will amuse him.)

[guardian-of-time-if]

Different anon, but speaking of sexuality, is MC locked into being straight? There's no female ROs but can MC be into women anyways

Hi Anon. You can check out some previous asks here and here where I talk about that question.

For now, I'm going to say that there will be no options in game to explicitly state that MC is attracted to women, and the narrative will assume that she's attracted to men, but you're free to headcannon whatever you wish.

[guardian-of-time-if]

anon who wanted to report some typos and grammatical errors here. Sorry, please disregard that ask of mine. I don’t have a google account nor can I create one due to my country limiting access to, I’m not sure what exactly, to google I guess. I was planning to send those typos via tumblr anon like I usually do so writers can ctrl+f them in their text 😅

Hi Anon. Thanks for writing in.

If you don't have acess to google, you can send them via Tumblr. I just prefer the form because typo reports clog up my ask box, and I prefer to adress them in batches rather than as they come in.