Larian Studios Forums Dragon Commander Dragon Commander - General Arc length for Princesses

It feels as though the princess arcs are really short. I'm on my second play through and I always finish the princess arcs before even leaving Act 2. The generals arcs last much longer (They usually end around turn 50ish for me while the princess arcs are usually done around turn 30ish). The general arcs aren't really much longer but since there are 4 of them rotating you tend to deal with their RPG aspects all the way until near the end of the game while you really only deal with your princess for the first half of the game. I would have really liked their arcs to be longer so you would deal with them throughout the whole game. What do other people think?

ya but if you sacrifice your wives to Corvus you can experience multiple princess archs.

Just saying :P Maxos actually gets some pretty funny lines if you do that after the first time. I messed around in one campaign (had like 120 turns at end) where i just delayed victory on purpose to get more event and decisions to experience.

Personnally, i think arcs are too short ...

With the concil, we have every 3 turn a choice to make, but princess and generals doesn't have a long arc ... Princess and general have a total of 50 turn combined more or less ... Because we have one turn whith the council, one turn with the generals, and one turn with the princess ...

Maybe it's because normally the game is supposed to be rushed (see enemy on the map, must annihilate next turn), but if you have problem in the campaign ... Time has passed, and your wife don't make anything, generals are in the bar and drink beer ... It's not pleasant.

So if i must whish for one thing, please think about a dlc with more possibility in the arcs and a better length ... More choice ...

That is the crutch of it. I really want to try the new improved hard mode but I know that if I come into real competition it will take so long that all the character arcs will be done in chapter 2 and chapter 3 will just feel boring. I wish they had all had long arcs but princesses in particular. All of the arcs are short but the princess arcs are so short that even rushing the enemy you usually finish their arc so quickly. I also wish that there was some plot that was act 3 dependent so even if act 2 runs long you can still have some plot going on during act 3.

I don't think we necessarily need more choice. The game provides plenty of choice, but I would trade some of that choice for longer arcs in a heartbeat. I get that Larian wants them to be quick enough that you will finish them over the course of the game and it's probably too late to change that (you would have to record whole new lines to flesh the arcs out and someone on the forum said that Larian won't release any new DLC for the game). The thing is while this works for the generals (on a quick medium difficulty game you only run out of plot for them in the last 10 or so turns), but the princess plot lines are extremely short. They tend to last around 20 turns tops. You would think such a politically important figure would receive a longer arc then 5 or so decisions.

I suspect that they didn't have the budget for more story. The biggest piece of evidence is the ending.

Yeah. I think you are right as lines are much more expensive when they are fully voice acted as opposed to simply written and shoved in the game. Shame though. I still wish they had maybe segmented some of the story so that some of it was saved till act 3 at the earliest. Or maybe tied certain plot advancements to when capitals in act 2 are taken as well (maybe a flag for when the event is allowed to enter the rotation?) so act 2 doesn't run out too early.

It's a real shame they couldn't have thrown in a ton more content at these and just made it text only. It seems like a few pages of written dialog shouldn't have been that expensive. The pacing absolutely wrecked the undead story, not sure about the others.

In a sense I would agree. I would trade fully voiced content for more content. Or just do what tropico did and only voice the first sentence or so. It seems awkward but it worked in that game quite well.

How did it wreck the story? I have never done the undead princess before (doing her now that I'm trying the new hard mode). The one's I have done have only been around 5 decisions (maybe 15ish turns of princess story, not 100% sure on that, maybe 20), which was way too short imo.

I personally felt greatly accomplished when Mrs Lizard said that she could eventually love me at the end. I was like, yeah. I'm totally melting the ice queen.

Oh, I'm not arguing that the plot's weren't rewarding. They were very well done, but they were just too short in regards to the length of the game. If the game lasted 20 or so turns for a whole game then the princess arcs would be a very good length, but on a game that tends to take me 60-70 turns to beat I felt that I worked through them WAY to fast.

I just started the campaign myself but I already feel that certain RPG elements come a bit too early.

This wouldn't be a problem if the story arcs spanned the whole length of the game but if they're as short as you say then I think they could greatly benefit from a slower, more drawn-out pacing or segmentation as you suggest.

For instance the second pair of generals arrived right after my very first RTS victory which I felt a little undeserved. I wouldn't mind having to show a bit more merit by winning half a dozen or more battles before attracting the attention of additional generals.

Similarly, if ambassadors didn't start arriving until their people were actually present on the strategic map or perhaps if they even waited 'till I capture a province their people inhabit, I'd be fine with that too.

There's no shame in not having an RPG event for each and every turn, but in that case, the content should be portioned and spread evenly throughout the length of an average to long playthrough.

It's not too bad in the case of generals as you only run out of their plotline with about 10 turns to go in an average playthrough. I also found that unless I went hell bent for a particular faction that I tended to mostly deal with their faction arcs in early act 3. The princesses however don't appear till act 2 and are usually already over halfway through act 2. It's extremely short. The main reason I suggest segmentation is that the plot lines seem to mostly last an average play through length (except for the princesses). However if you ever get held up and don't make progress on a map the RPG keeps rolling and you can easily run out of plot early if the enemy gives you really stiff competition. I would rather deal with small segments of no plot if I get held up then have a huge stretch of everything is done towards the end.

How did you do this? I deliberately chose her for the challenge of winning her over, but I can't seem to do it. What kind of interactions do you need with Camilla to romance her Mass Effect style.

I made only two or so choices and she started talking about love after I made the third choice, which was a little jarring to me. I'm not sure it was sarcasm, it didn't seem like it.

I'm quite happy with the story arc length for the princesses, except for the complete lack of her in the ending.

Give my princesses an ending and everything's just perfect as is IMO.

Did you make the cold lawful choices of the moral, sometimes unlawful ones?