Opinion Ask Janus!

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dirty2 said:
Any updates on ya game Janus ?
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I'm busy doing Windows Server 2016, CCNA, Security+ and CISSP certifications at the moment, so I don't have the time that I would like to spend on it.

I did speak to someone in Germany about doing some models for me (3D inventory that is droppable + buildings) and told him a rough outline of the plot and he couldn't wait to play it. So I know I'm on the right track with the story.

I did start writing out some of the quest lines though:

PRINCIPLE OF GENDER – Quests are Masculine/Feminine in Nature (that is, one is a path of Change and one is a path of Sustenance – Creation/Destruction vs Life. Player must learn that things staying the same isn’t wise…but neither is making too many changes)
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All starting quests in the hub do not require a weapon to complete (since it’s impossible to know which quests the player will decide to start from)

Greed/charity quests

Quest 1

Player is given a job where they must hand out flyers to NPCs around the station for an orphanage. A real estate developer offers the player money not to do it as they want the orphanage to go bankrupt and buy the land cheaply.

Player can either:

a) reject the mogul’s offer (diligence/charity), hand out the flyers (diligence) and take the money from the orphanage (greed)

b) take the mogul’s offer (sloth/greed), ditch the flyers and lie about handing them out (sloth) and take the money (greed)

c) take the mogul’s offer (sloth/greed), hand back the flyers (sloth) and don’t take the money (charity); or

d) reject the mogul’s offer (diligence/charity), hand out the flyers (diligence) and don’t take the money (charity)



Path A – Real Estate mogul is malevolent, Orphanage is ambivalent (you did the job, but that’s all it was) – Mogul will stop you unlocking hidden path (Orphanage won’t help to counter)

Path B – Real Estate mogul is benevolent, Orphanage is malevolent (Real estate mogul counters Orphanage – hidden path unlock (Vice)

Path C – Real Estate mogul is ambivalent (someone else handed out the flyers), Orphanage is malevolent – Orphanage stops you unlocking hidden path (Real Estate mogul won’t counter)

Path D – Real Estate mogul is malevolent, Orphanage is benevolent (Orphanage counters Real Estate mogul – hidden path unlock (Virtue)



Quest 2 (WEAPONS FREE)

Player is given a job to recover a memory chip from a local business from a secure office. The chip has the design for a vaccine that will help the most vulnerable. Chip has been infected with a computer virus that will target the system of any computer that reads it.

Since this is the second quest, it’s possible to simply shoot your way in to the office and take the chip (increases wrath). Will increase your notoriety, but is the easiest way.

The player can play smart and seduce the receptionist (increases charisma), who will leave the alarm off at night. This requires lockpicking skills for the backdoor.

Can also use UNEX service to send a package to the business with a ticking alarm clock inside it (purchase alarm clock from local vendor) – increases intelligence. This evacuates the building but increases security since the alarm will be active.

After retrieving the chip, a hacktivist group contacts the player and tells him they will pay more than the company to plug the chip into a public terminal and distribute the information open source.

Player can either:

a) not bother to analyse the chip on the office computer (sloth), reject the hacktivist offer (charity) take the chip back to the employer (sloth/greed)

b) not bother to analyse the chip on the office computer (sloth), accept the hacktivist offer (greed), don’t take chip back to the employer (sloth/greed)

c) analyse the chip on the office computer (diligence), reject the hacktivist offer (charity), take the chip back to the employer (diligence/charity)

d) analyse the chip on the office computer (diligence), accept the hacktivist offer (greed), don’t take the chip back to the employer (diligence/charity)



Path A – Pharmaceutical company ambivalent, hacktivist malevolent (hacktivist will stop you unlocking hidden path)

Path B – Hacktivist benevolent, pharmaceutical company ambivalent (the virus being free in the public domain unlocks hidden path - vice)

Path C – Hacktivist malevolent, pharmaceutical company benevolent (analysing the disc lets you tell the company that it’s actually a virus – pharmaceutical company unlocks hidden path - virtue)

Path D – Hacktivist ambivalent (you squeeze more money out of them if you know it’s a virus), pharmaceutical company malevolent (pharmaceutical company will stop you unlocking hidden path)



Virtue Path:

Path D in Quest 1, Path C in Quest 2

Street urchins become spy network. Pharmaceutical company helps with pharmaceutical costs.

Quest – Player is given a mission from the Pharmaceutical company to convince orphanage to help with vaccine trial. Player cannot blackmail (only available if hacktivists unlocked). Must go around convincing older kids to volunteer (upgrades Charisma + Peace if treating kindly, upgrades Wrath if threatening)


Vice Path:

Path B in Quest 1, Path B in Quest 2

Hacktivists become spy network. Real Estate mogul helps with rent costs.

Quest – Player is given mission from the Real Estate Mogul to lower property prices at a local shopping district. Player cannot convince eJack customer that it has sold out (only available if street urchins are unlocked). Must use hacktivists to rig public ATM to dispense yuan to cause riot (upgrades Peace + Hacking) or start a brawl (upgrades Wrath).


Hidden Path:

If virtue for part 1 (help orphanage) and vice for part 2 (help hacktivists):

Quest – Street urchins hire you to help solve the problems that orphanage is having and attack the offices of the Real Estate Mogul’s lawyer to gain access to the deed of sale for the orphanage. Mission is to get deed. Hacktivists give you access (upgrade Hacking) (night/stealth mission)

Result: Hacktivists (infiltration of systems) and street urchins (spy network) become allies. Public network is infected with virus (impossible to hack into public systems). Effect on story: Spy network gives you crucial information about high level targets (passcodes etc). Both Virtue and Vice path are done.

If vice for part 1 (help real estate mogul) and virtue for part 2 (help pharmaceutical company):

Quest – Pharmaceutical company requires you to infiltrate patent office and delete the patent application for the vaccine that the company from the files of their lawyers, so they can distribute vaccine as a generic. Real Estate Mogul gives you access (upgrade Charisma) (day/adventure mission).

Both of these quests involve exactly the same building – it’s just the reason why you are there that changes.

POINTS AVAILABLE:

Virtues (2 in each = hidden path):

Greed - 4

Sloth - 4

Diligence - 4

Charity - 4

Wrath – 2

Peace - 2

Attributes:

Intelligence – 1

Charisma – 3

Hacking - 2

NOTE: All stations have a maximum of 4 points available across all 4 virtues. In other words, each of the 210 quests has 4 possible branches, with 2 of them unlocking the hidden path. In other words…you have a 1 in 420 chance of picking the right path if you just speed run through the game. A 0.24% chance.

I want to make it hard to find the true ending, but not a needle in a haystack type of deal.


As an aside – Wrath is the easiest vice to push over 75 and lock out Peace options later on in the game. This is because Wrath/Peace affects all missions – in the 25 quests per ring, there are a maximum of 42 Wrath points and 42 Peace points available. So if you went the Wrath route in the first two episodes, you would be locked out of Peace conversations (because you’re obviously playing a trigger happy character who shoots first and asks questions later)

Hidden path becomes important because while stealing patent/deed from lawyer computer, player stumbles across information needed to blackmail lawyer into helping someone later on (in the next ring) who is framed.



Lust/love quests

Quest 1 – Player is given the task of delivering a gift from a guy to a romantic interest female, who complains about the tackiness of the gift.

Player can either:

a) Deliver the gift (diligence), convince the girl that the guy loves her (love) and take her love back to the guy (love/diligence)

b) Deliver the gift (diligence), convince the girl to sleep with you instead (lust) and don’t bother to see the guy again (lust/sloth)

c) Substitute the gift (sloth) and tell her it was from the guy (love) and take her love back to the guy (love/diligence); or

d) Substitute the gift (sloth) and tell her it was from you (lust), resulting in her sleeping with you and don’t bother to see the guy again (lust/sloth)



Path A – Girl ambivalent, guy benevolent (guy turns out to be the vice president of a tech company, unlocks hidden path – virtue)

Path B – Girl ambivalent, guy malevolent (guy hates you for ‘corrupting’ the girl)

Path C – Girl malevolent, guy ambivalent (girl finds out that you tricked her into believing that this guy valued her more than he actually does)

Path D – Girl benevolent, guy malevolent (girl becomes first of several ‘booty calls’ – unlocks hidden path – vice)


This is where the Romance system comes into play. To Romance a character, a player must seduce them (say the right thing) – this unlocks them as a Romanceable character. From then, maintenance is important – the more time you spend away from a romance, the colder that romance becomes. But if you spend too much time with them, you will come off as clingy. Gifts are important too.

Later on in the game it will be possible for female/gay players who want to hit on the guy instead to do so.

Levels for romance are as follows:

One Night Stand - quite easy to be blown off by any potential partner if you're not conscientious enough with remembering information that they told you during first seduction

*buddy - conversations never progress past the seduction level since the player is never around long enough to maintain an actual relationship. All interactions end with sex, as libido is at maximum.

Lover - romance starts to occur...player can now ask romanced character for information on a variety of subjects (depending on her or his connections, this can lead to new information). Jealousy begins to become an issue - if player spends too long away from romanced character, they will break up. Libido decreases due to familiarity - player needs to hit sweet spot of turning up at just the right time i.e. only visit when a quest takes them to that area.

Partner - the trust of the romanced character begins to build. Jealousy issues increase. Libido decreases even more. Now it’s the opposite - the player needs to check in pretty much all the time.

At this point the paths diverge, depending on player choice - they can either purchase an engagement ring or a collar. All romances are able to be pursued both ways, but the collar is the harder of the two.

If choose to give ring:

Engaged - romanced character moves into player’s apartment. All negative status effects are removed and health is restored when visiting apartment. They will give player quests related to wedding that must be completed before moving onto next phase.

Married - romanced character becomes a permanent ally and will always side with player in any decisions (this is important for end game).

If choose to give collar:

Submissive - romanced character only visits apartment when called. Player receives buffs from sex. Trust levels have increased massively and libido is through the roof - submissive will side with player on all decisions (important for end game). Player must find out romance character‘s kinks before moving onto next phase.

Slave - romanced character moves into apartment. Adds same effects of Marriage, but with one notable exception - player can have more than one slave. However, this can lead to bad outcomes with betrayal later on and make certain quests harder (but not impossible) to complete. Requires lots of diplomacy to make a harem work.

HIDDEN

Mistress/Master - it’s possible to marry a slave (or collar a wife/husband) and get the best of both worlds. This can be done by having ring/collar in inventory at point of permanent collar/wedding ceremony (and giving it to them instead of what they were expecting)

A Mistress/Master will move into the player’s apartment and will actively help to recruit all romance characters (male and female), who become submissive to her/him. This is literally the only way to achieve the true ending, since the player needs all romance characters to side with them during end game sequence.
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That should give you an idea on the tone I’m going for.
 

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So I've just come up with this really cool idea (well I think so anyway):

In this game (which I'm still making, but I'm busy with other stuff) it is theorised that black and white holes are the secret to generating enough speed to time travel, and that was always the purpose of stars being continuously created and dying. Imagine deploying a kind of interstellar anchor enables a space craft to whipsaw around the event horizon like a slingshot using the Penrose process, using the rotational speed of the black hole to generate massive momentum.

Now, if you can create a star, theoretically you can create a singularity - and artificial black holes have already been created in labs. Since a singularity is a place with a gravity so dense that light cannot travel faster than it, then time travel is indeed 'possible'. So what they do is deploy an artificial black hole in the centre of a Large Hadron Collider type setup. But what they discover is that it's literally a one way ticket - and once you go back in time, your atoms are moving with such momentum that you are literally invisible to everyone.

And this is where the phenomena of ghosts and spirits comes from. They use time as a prison - criminals and the like are sent back in time where they can interact with reality on a small level but no one 'real' can see them (these are demons) while they are under the supervision of guards who are able to keep them in line (these are angels).

Of course, there's a point in the game where you go into this Black Mesa type facility (called Hades) and you get your three choices (always three choices) - you can either destroy it (virtue path), leave it (vice path) or...well, that would ruin the surprise.

But this is how there is spiritual phenomena in this game - you actually end up having to do things with holy water (which is electrostatically charged water) to be able to see the apparitions in order to kill them, and you can't use the typical energy weapons that you get at the beginning of the game because the bullets phase through them...you need to use a katana.

Now that's a game I'd like to play :)
 
Cool concept for explaining ghosts in the game. Zombie movies always have these scientific explanations for how people turn into zombies, but that isn't really applied across the horror spectrum that much.

Depending on how much the "ghosts" can affect the reality they are sent to, I see a heap of potential for Day of the Tentacle style puzzles that need to be solved across different timelines. Parts of the game where you play the ghost in that timeline and have to use your ghostly influence to change the future so the player character can achieve what he or she is trying to achieve.
 
El_Scorcho said:
Cool concept for explaining ghosts in the game. Zombie movies always have these scientific explanations for how people turn into zombies, but that isn't really applied across the horror spectrum that much.

Depending on how much the "ghosts" can affect the reality they are sent to, I see a heap of potential for Day of the Tentacle style puzzles that need to be solved across different timelines. Parts of the game where you play the ghost in that timeline and have to use your ghostly influence to change the future so the player character can achieve what he or she is trying to achieve.
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Well, that's kind of what the third option is (though it requires you to do a whole bunch of stuff to unlock the opportunity to go back in time). While the other options continue the game on as normal (and you don't know the difference), with the third option you literally go through the game again and open areas that were unable to be unlocked in the first run through...so doors that were locked you can unlock (because you can phase through to the other side), you can write down key codes that were unavailable to you etc.

The upshot of this is this: on a player's THIRD run through (notice a theme here?) - because that section of the game is considered the second run through (while the original playthrough has optional adventure elements, as a 'ghost' it's basically stealth and adventure where you're trying to break free of the prison) - is when you can actually get the real ending of the game. Because a character that is required to make sure you have every faction on your side sacrifices themselves in the first run through, but after you go back in time and then 'escape' by starting a New Game+ (Think Tron - the player character at some point becomes acutely aware that you are its User...I always loved the MGS series and there use of the actual mechanics of the system in the game world itself), you find that hey, you actually KNOW the code to open the door that gets you the information you can give to so and so which recruits him to your side and makes it possible to succeed without the sacrifice of that character.

Whew. Hopefully that makes sense? The best part of the apparition phase is that you get to eavesdrop on conversations that NPCs have about you when you're not around, so you get a bit more of an understanding as to what their motivations are - which changes conversation options in the third run through.

Of course, its not all beer and skittles - in the third run through you get to fight 'possessed' enemies that were formerly friendly on the first run through, but which are being terrorised by the apparitions to kill you...so the gameplay switches from 'kill everything in sight' or 'stealth' to 'stealth kill every apparition'. Once you do that, the 'enemies' are no longer under their influence and become neutral.

So it goes from Deus Ex to an adventure style Bioshock Infinite to Thief: The Dark Project.

It's going to happen, I just don't know how long it's gonna take :p
 
Janus said:
Here's a simple test of football IQ: how many of the top eight teams had less than two defenders who averaged 2 or more intercept marks per game?

GWS - Sam Taylor (3.7), Nick Haynes (2.3), Jack Buckley (2.0)
Collingwood - Darcy Moore (3.6), Isaac Quaynor (2.5), Nathan Murphy (2.2)
Brisbane - Harris Andrews (3.5), Jack Payne (2.4)
Melbourne - Jake Lever (3.0), Steven May (2.5)
Carlton - Jacob Weitering (3.7), Brodie Kemp (2.7), Mitch McGovern (2.5), Caleb Marchbank (2.5)
Sydney - Tom McCartin (2.7), Nick Blakey (2.0)
St Kilda - Callum Wilkie (2.8), Josh Battle (2.7), Dougal Howard (2.1)

Port Adelaide - Aliir Aliir (3.1)...next best was McKenzie with 1.8 per game - 57th in the competition. Even at his best, Jonas wasn't what I would call an intecepting defender.

Add Ratugolea (2.8) and Zerk-Thatcher (2.2) and maybe next year we'll actually get somewhere with this 'gameplan that doesn't work in finals under a proven failure of a coach'.
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Is this the most pointless statistic that Janus has yet devised?

6/10 teams that didn't make the finals:

GC: Ballard (3.5), Collins (2.7), Powell (2.4), Andrew (2.4)
Rich: Balta (3.8), Vlaustin (3.4), Broad (2.1)
Geel: Stewart (3.4), Sav (2.8)
Freo: Pearce (2.5), Cox (2.3)
WB: Jones (3), English (2)
Ess: BZT (2.2), Redman (2.1)

So 14/18 teams achieved this feat.

Yep, that's definitely the barometer for who wins and who doesn't.
 
Janus said:
Here's a simple test of football IQ: how many of the top eight teams had less than two defenders who averaged 2 or more intercept marks per game?

GWS - Sam Taylor (3.7), Nick Haynes (2.3), Jack Buckley (2.0)
Collingwood - Darcy Moore (3.6), Isaac Quaynor (2.5), Nathan Murphy (2.2)
Brisbane - Harris Andrews (3.5), Jack Payne (2.4)
Melbourne - Jake Lever (3.0), Steven May (2.5)
Carlton - Jacob Weitering (3.7), Brodie Kemp (2.7), Mitch McGovern (2.5), Caleb Marchbank (2.5)
Sydney - Tom McCartin (2.7), Nick Blakey (2.0)
St Kilda - Callum Wilkie (2.8), Josh Battle (2.7), Dougal Howard (2.1)

Port Adelaide - Aliir Aliir (3.1)...next best was McKenzie with 1.8 per game - 57th in the competition. Even at his best, Jonas wasn't what I would call an intecepting defender.

Add Ratugolea (2.8) and Zerk-Thatcher (2.2) and maybe next year we'll actually get somewhere with this 'gameplan that doesn't work in finals under a proven failure of a coach'.
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Thanks for the clarification. I was previously dissatisfied that we've won 2 finals in 9 years but now I see it's just McKenzie averaging 0.2 less intercept marks than Nick Blakey.
 
Schulzenfest said:
While you're at it Janus, could you re-do those numbers for 2021 and 2022, other years in which we didn't win the premiership? I'm sure you'll come to the same numbers, because this is clearly an ongoing pattern, and not just some bullshit you've dreamed up to justify your eleven years of desperate defending of this dogshit coaching group?
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I’ve been calling for more intercept marking for a long time.

2020 premiers - Vlastuin 2.6, Balta 2.0, Astbury 2.0

2021 premiers - Lever 4.1, May 2.5

2022 premiers - De Koning 2.9, Stewart 2.8

Around 6 intercept marks from your key defenders per game seems to be the premiership standard. You can disagree with me all you like, it’s a statistical fact that you ain’t winning s**t without at least 2 decent intercept marking threats in your side.
 
Schulzenfest said:
Okay, so to be clear, the reason we didn't win the flag this year is because Trent McKenzie took one less intercept mark per five games than Nick Blakey?
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No, it's because Aliir and McKenzie averaged 4.9 intercept marks per game while McCartin and Blakey averaged 4.7.
 
Janus said:
I’ve been calling for more intercept marking for a long time.

2020 premiers - Vlastuin 2.6, Balta 2.0, Astbury 2.0

2021 premiers - Lever 4.1, May 2.5

2022 premiers - De Koning 2.9, Stewart 2.8

Around 6 intercept marks from your key defenders per game seems to be the premiership standard. You can disagree with me all you like, it’s a statistical fact that you ain’t winning s**t without at least 2 decent intercept marking threats in your side.
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2021 Port Adelaide - Aliir 3.6, Clurey 2.5, McKenzie 2.0

Poor old Hinks had a premiership standard side and still couldn't make a GF.
 
Duck Farmer said:
2021 Port Adelaide - Aliir 3.6, Clurey 2.5, McKenzie 2.0

Poor old Hinks had a premiership standard side and still couldn't make a GF.
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Clurey and McKenzie didn’t play in the same side as far as I recall.
 

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Janus said:
Clurey and McKenzie didn’t play in the same side as far as I recall.
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Correct. They've only played in the same side once since the 2020 prelim.
 
Janus said:
Yes, he would have been much better with us next year if he had stuck around. He chose to take the limp dick option and leave - he could have easily said 'Nah, I'll stick around and see out my contract next year' for the reasons I laid out.

My posts about strategy, tactics and list composition are based on the idea that the player is giving his all, is doing his job and actually wants to be there. Neither you nor I are privy to what goes on behind closed doors and the attitude each player has - but his lackluster performance at the B&F (which is information I didn't have at the time of posting) tells me that his attitude was poor to average at best. The fact that we didn't do what Melbourne did with Petty and say Duursma is a required player tells me that at best it was mutually agreed that it was beneficial for both parties if Xavier left.

I changed my mind about Duursma not because he got traded, but because he asked to be traded while under contract from a club that had finished top four with little to no input from him as a player. I believed that he would have been disappointed with his season and want to make amends.

I was wrong.

If it had been a case where we had done what Hawthorn did to Burton in the Wingard trade, where Duursma didn't want to go and we had to convince him, I stick to my original assessment that getting rid of him would be a mistake (though in terms of actual structure, getting Zerk-Thatcher to act as that athletic 'third tall' Lever type to Aliir and Ratugolea is probably more important). It's the ease of which he left the club after consecutive poor seasons - he didn't have the fight to say 'Nah, that's not the player I am, I'm much better than that and I'm going to show it next year now that we're getting another defender or two.'
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This line of argument could easily be made about Ratugolea, asking to leave while under contract a Premiership club when he could have stayed and fought for his place and tried to improve.

But apparently Ratugolea is going to be a difference maker and his attitude isn't in question?

Funny how it works with an incoming v outgoing player.
 
El_Scorcho said:
This line of argument could easily be made about Ratugolea, asking to leave while under contract a Premiership club when he could have stayed and fought for his place and tried to improve.

But apparently Ratugolea is going to be a difference maker and his attitude isn't in question?

Funny how it works with an incoming v outgoing player.
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Janus said:
I’ve been calling for more intercept marking for a long time.

2020 premiers - Vlastuin 2.6, Balta 2.0, Astbury 2.0

2021 premiers - Lever 4.1, May 2.5

2022 premiers - De Koning 2.9, Stewart 2.8

Around 6 intercept marks from your key defenders per game seems to be the premiership standard. You can disagree with me all you like, it’s a statistical fact that you ain’t winning s**t without at least 2 decent intercept marking threats in your side.
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Putting aside the fact that you've arbitrarily decided that 2.0 intercept marks is good while 1.9 intercept marks is bad, and also putting aside the fact that you've included the games McKenzie went off injured in his average, you still haven't actually answered my question.

Let's look at 2021. Since you haven't answered, I'll answer for you. 2021 intercept marks per game: Aliir 3.6, Clurey 2.5, McKenzie 2.0, Jonas 1.9. Why didn't we win the flag that year? Why did we instead lose a prelim to the Bulldogs by 12 goals?

Incidentally, did you know the Bulldogs didn't have a single player on their list average 2 or more intercept marks a game that year, whereas we had three? And yet they beat us by 12 goals in a prelim. Interesting.

We don't fail because of some arbitrary measure you've dreamed up where the key to success is taking 2.0 intercept marks per game rather than 1.8 intercept marks per game. We fail because the loser coach has bred a mental weakness in the team that rears its ugly head every single time we make the finals. No change we can make to the playing list will ever change that. There's only one thing we can do to give this club a chance of ever winning a flag, and we're at least two years away from doing that thing.
 
Janus said:
I’ve been calling for more intercept marking for a long time.

2020 premiers - Vlastuin 2.6, Balta 2.0, Astbury 2.0

2021 premiers - Lever 4.1, May 2.5

2022 premiers - De Koning 2.9, Stewart 2.8

Around 6 intercept marks from your key defenders per game seems to be the premiership standard. You can disagree with me all you like, it’s a statistical fact that you ain’t winning s**t without at least 2 decent intercept marking threats in your side.
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So Gold Coast, Richmond and Geelong were premiership standard in 2023?

On SM-G975F using BigFooty.com mobile app
 
Enviable Tradition said:
So Gold Coast, Richmond and Geelong were premiership standard in 2023?

On SM-G975F using BigFooty.com mobile app
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No…why are people overthinking this? I’m pointing out one aspect of a premiership side that you can’t win the flag without. It doesn’t mean if you fix that you’ll win anything - you need all the other stuff too. But it does mean if you don’t have it you’re not winning anything cause it’s pretty ******* important when most teams play a front half game.
 
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