Zero Summer Discussion Thread

OK. It’s reset now. thanks, and glad to help.

Let me please reiterate - Great towering piles of thank yous to our beta testers and patient players! You help us out so much and make it so, so much nicer to put out a game. :)

And now for something completely different…
Clicking the “varmint” job gave me the job quality for humanitarian aid
edited by Tamir Buchshtav on 12/30/2012
edited by Tamir Buchshtav on 12/30/2012

That’s caught. Unfortunately I need to reset your Job Quality entirely, as I think you accessed it out of order… character name again?

Tremir.

Tweaked.

(What’s supposed to happen is: there’s a Job in the main plot that serves as an intro. You need to play that first.)

Ah.
So I shouldn’t have been able to access the job board yet at all?

You should be able to see it but not select any of its branches, which I’ve fixed.

Guided Feedback for Day 2/Morning
(although of course we’re always happy to have whatever feedback you want to give…!)


1.) What do you think of your subplots this time around? Were they satisfying?

2.) What do you think of the Opportunity deck as it stands (with Allies, Antagonists, and Jobs)?

3.) Do you like the Reputation and Job systems? Do you like the available content? What are you looking forward to for content down the line? Do you have any suggestions for what you’d like to see?

4.) Are the equippable items satisfying? Are they priced properly? Do the Reputation items feel too expensive, or not expensive enough, or are they just right?

5.) What would you like more of?

6.) Anything you’re enjoying particularly? We love positive feedback, too!

7.) We’re currently considering other Nex transactions. Some things we’ve batted around: temporary Reputation boosts (you gain 200% Reputation from Jobs for 3 Jobs…); more and smaller Nex-locked content pieces (e.g. a four-storylet string for 10 Nex); outright sales of Dollars/Revolver Bullets/Reputation (which I am leery of). What would you like to see?

8.) What did you like best about Day 2/Morning? What did you like least?

EDIT


9.) Day 2/Morning should take longer to progress through than any part of Day 1. How do you feel about the pacing? How do you feel about the Menaces?

10.) We have intentionally spaced out each storylet in the main and subplots. Do you like the spacing? Would you rather have it closer together (e.g. Day 2/Morning lasts from Styles 18-32, so cluster the main and subplots from 18-26 and leave the rest for grinding)?
edited by levineg85 on 1/2/2013

I am just beginning Zero Summer – really, about 2 cards in – and my SensaWonder (or Suspended Disbelief) was shaken pretty early on by the mention of Tom Waits on “The Love Song of Amarillo, Texas”.

I love Tom Waits, a big chunk of family lives in Texas, I’ve lived in the American Southwest, and the phrase “Gunslinger” and all the description leading up to this made me think the (fictional) time was late 1800s. But Tom Waits isn’t then. So. I assume this is on purpose in some way (tangling time in some fashion). A quite skim-and-find-textstring in this forum thread didn’t turn up a mention of the astonishing Mr Waits. So… maybe you’d want to know the apparent anachronism jolted at least one player off her early engagement in the storyline.
edited by Kir on 12/31/2012

I seem to be unable to access any Day 2 content.
I have no current location, my time of day is evening, and I only have the Absolom the Tinker, The End of the World, Down for Maintenance and Retire your Character cards available.

@William: are you a closed beta tester? :)

@Kir: I’m sorry you felt jolted! But I think the Tom Waits reference did for you exactly what it was supposed to: fill in the details of when and where, exactly, you are. One of the big challenges of a storygame like this is giving players the information they need about the setting as early as possible. I think calling it a “post-apocalyptic western” does that for most people. Other details in the first 20ish storylets seem to have done it for the rest. :)

Thanks for writing!
edited by levineg85 on 12/31/2012

Ah, sorry about that Gordon. Just saw all the posts about the Day 2 things and jumped the gun I suppose. Still, cant wait to play it myself.

I understand completely! The content should be public sometime in the next few days. Hang tight!

Day 2 looks nice! Only caught a few typos so far:

In the first storylet “Open Your Eyes”, the sentence "The elative dryness of your throat " appears, “elative” should be something else. Relative, maybe?

On the card “JOB: Bullets for Pappy McCall”, the following sentence appears: “There’s a pervasive sense of old men nursing and old grudge” “and” should be “an”.

I haven’t gotten far enough into the new content to give detailed feedback yet, but what I have seen so far I’m excited about. There’s only a few things that look like they could be issues right now. I’m uncertain about the decision made with the doc grind, as it means I can’t actively pursue any of my subplots yet, I’m sure there’s a reason but it feels somewhat restrictive. The only other thing that occurs to me is an awkward moment that I suspect is caused by the storynexus system. When you gain the quality to progress your first job, it ends up saying “You are now bullets for Pappy McCall” I’m certain this isn’t actually your fault, but it reads weird to me. All in all though this looks really good so far and I’m looking forward to going through all of it.

@Cathy: glad you’re enjoying! Elative is actually correct there; it’s a reeeally arcane way of saying intense or absolute. The second one is a typo. Good catch. :)

@DoomIewa: which decision about the Doc grind? The Doc grind should be available; it’s the second part of Hallowed Ground that isn’t (until, like, tomorrow). The “you are now bullets for Pappy McCall” is a typo. I’ll go fix it right now. Thanks for the reports! Glad you’re enjoying!

Dear sir, I spent too much time in Rio Seco! My Doc has dropped to 16 (!) and I can see no way to raise it. Help/advice?
(my character name is also Ladymadsci)

That is HILARIOUS. I hadn’t even considered that edge case. We’ve fixed it for you now. Enjoy!

The Doc issue is bigger then that, I think.
I got to Day2 with 17 doc, and there’s no way to raise it for me. the doc opp. card only has the gambling option.
This is double the problem because my antagonist card can decrease it.