I need some advice here. In my game there are several types of creatures the player character can meet, and at first he/she doesn’t know what they are called, but can already have Qualities based on encounters with them. For instance, there are creatures the player is going to call "lizard men" and a Quality "Hatred of lizard things." When the player learns that they are called krmuth, I’ll swap this for "Hatred of krmuth" at the same level, and so on for other Qualities to reflect this new knowledge.
With combat I’ve run into a difficulty. Basic combat options when fighting these creatures, whether their name is known or not, will be mostly but not completely the same. But branch descriptions need to differ: at least the player will call these things krmuth now, not lizard men. To reflect this I’ve created two progress Qualities: Fighting a Lizard Man (when still in the state of ignorance) and Fighting a Krmuth (afterwards). Both represent how close the player is to defeating the enemy, and the combat storylets trigger off them. Now obviously the player can’t ever have both of these Qualities. How do I avoid duplicating every branch, result and consequence? Think also about all other creatures that may be fought, their name known first, unknown second. The amount of duplication would be crazy. But I value the immersion here, and the player learns their weaknesses along with the name. Any suggestions?
I have a vague idea that I might be able to use a single Quality for all monsters, in the known and the unknown state. One name for every level. I could call this Quality "Now fighting:" and then put "Lizard man" at level 1 and "Krmuth" at level 2, and all other creatures on the steps above. That way I should be able to check… But no, that wouldn’t do it, would it? I would still have to set up separate checks.