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Spitballing some tweaks I'd make to the game for balancing reasons. These aren't really suggestions, more musings, which is why I'm posting them here and not anywhere it might be taken as official feedback.

First: Remove the 12 civics win state entirely. It forces a certain kind of gameplay that doesn't always mesh with the stories being told in the Mission Trees (since each Faction has specific methods of integration that don't always fit the paths you can go down) and isn't especially well-balanced anyway (looking at you, Federation). Make the win entirely about who has the most points, which can be gained through many, many different types of play-styles, including civic-grabbing if you like. I'd also open up all options to integrate civics to all Factions, with penalties if you use a style that doesn't match your current Faction's values, possibly to the extent of even locking you out of Missions down a branch entirely if you really break character. Like if you wage an occupation war right out the gate with the Federation. You can do it, but it's going to make things difficult for you.

Second: Some tweaks to the Mission Tree. As it stands, it feels a little awkward to me and not well-integrated to gameplay, so since all the Mission Trees basically only have two routes right now, I'd lean into that more. Give each Faction a starting, mutually exclusive choice. NOT a choice that makes the branches exclusive just yet, but a choice that blatantly favors one side or the other and makes going down the opposite route a little less optimal. This should give you an idea of the tone of your game, and make it more obvious that you have goals to work for.

Now for the factions. This isn't going to be 100% lore-accurate, but then neither is the game. I'm fudging things to give all factions a rough equivalent starting point.

Cardassians: Cardassian starting planets should be extremely resource thin, have a ton of blockers, almost no boosts, whatever. Each planet only have one or two Agriculture districts, a handful of mines, maybe some all right energy production, but that's it. Have all the slots be city districts. The point is that having Bajor already occupied should be a huge deal. Make it the only resource-heavy planet in reach.

The reason for this would be to make it really hard to decide to let it go, which is where the Mission Tree comes in. For the Cardassians their "starting choice" would be choosing to assimilate Bajor or not. Choosing to assimilate gives major boosts to Forced Labor that are only useful if you go down the canon side of the tree (since slavery gets abolished on the other side) and choosing NOT to gives somewhat more mediocre but more universal boosts to, say, Diplomacy or a one-time Unity/Influence boost (or just removes penalties for Diplomatic integration), but at the expense of permanently removing the option of assimilating Bajor. Picking one or the other maybe unlocks the entirety of the rest of the tree so you can start progressing. This is also why you'd need to remove the 12 civic win state.

Taking the option to assimilate Bajor should feel easier, because it is. That's why Cardassia did it. Choosing not to should be a struggle that only pays off in the long run, if you make it that long. Whichever you pick should have an impact to your early gameplay.

Romulans: Have the Romulans start after the star has exploded, not before. They start with a ruined economy and maybe some temporary population penalties. Since their tree seems to be "xenophobic or nay" have their starting options be whether or not they reach out for help (form 2 diplomatic pacts with another Power or something, something easy) or retreat to lick their own wounds and start obsessively re-building in anticipation of attack. I'm less sure what rewards for each node should be, but I was thinking: Retreating should probably boost defensive stats, either for Fleet power or in counter-propaganda or something, maybe some small, permanent resource buffs, and give Unity at the expense of a permanent Diplomacy debuff and having to take a longer early game growth period, while reaching out for help should give a good amount of starting resources (but no buff) and some Influence, at the expense of long-term self-sufficiency benefits and a slower military growth speed. Both should give the same decent Espionage boost.

Federation: Not many changes here, but for balance's sake (and to give a more immediate reason to choose one path or another) have the Federation start after encountering the Borg for the first time, maybe. Their science ships are toast, their Fleet is WRECKED, and their officers in the negatives right off the bat (but recovering). The decision for the Federation is whether they choose to start drastic militarization in response to this threat or if they take a more moderate approach in fear of losing the core of their Federation. Choosing the "Militarize" node should give massive boosts to officer production and ship building at the expense of a major Diplomacy debuff and fewer Science Leaders, and staying true should slightly boost Diplomacy, give more Science Leaders, and maybe some Unity in return for a debuff to ship building speed and much, much higher resource requirements for officer-producing buildings. Funding can only go to so many places, so the idea is that whichever you choose to fund has the easy road while you need to scrape and save to build up whatever it is you chose not to fund. Maybe both options change what sort of tech you can research right away (not remove options entirely, but shift the likelihood a bit), if they ever get around to actually weighting those randomized tech branches. Again, this choice wouldn't lock you out of either branch yet, but it should make choosing the opposite branch a struggle.

Slightly off topic, but I thought about removing penalties for choosing to engage in an occupation war if you hit the militarize node, but chose not to. I feel that would have to be THE choice that locks you out of the canon path later. The point of no return, if you will.

Klingons: Less sure about the Klingons, but I'd say no debuffs to start for these guys. The Klingon choice comes down to what you decide to do when you're surrounded by weakened neighbors. Do you choose to conquer or assist? Do you feel like you must take these civilizations under your wing for their own protection, all under the Klingon banner alone, or do you wish to help them back to full strength first, and along the way perhaps find an...ally? I feel like the rewards should be pretty clear. The only twist I might add is that going down the Assist path eventually gives a Unity buff/a buff to all resources gained/something like that while at war if you go to war with a power that is at least Equivilant to your own. Now that they are back to full strength, perhaps it is time for glorious battle?

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That convo was so funny to me for no reason

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Finished my very first go at Into the Tower! The worldbuilding is interesting and some things were legitimately creepy. Not sure if I want to go for another run, though. It was fun, but it didn't really get its teeth in me, you know? We'll see. As it stands, we emerge victorious! I played the Sailor (because of course I played a sailor) and (spoilers)

managed to recover the violin and rescue their father and they're friends with the king of woodlice and they got out with 100% of their stamina (because of the aforementioned friend of the king of woodlice event that happens, but still!). Not bad for a first go, I think.

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It’s just…one time, just once, Hawke shouldn’t have been the one making the sacrifice. Just once.

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Friendly reminder that if Zevran is saved in dao, in his da2 lore he begins single-handedly taking down the Antivan Crows from the inside. He either buys or assassinates all the leaders, and nobody even sees him coming before their entire squad is dead. He’s literally assassinating the most famous group of assassins on his own and if you don’t think that’s some badass shit right there then we can’t be friends

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i love zevran because when you ask him about his adventures he’ll tell you about the time he fell off a window into a river and got robbed by urchins and he’s like that’s i t, that’s my awesome life, stay tuned for more exciting adventures with zevran arainai

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А little bit of Zevran to make your day better

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zevran tarot card shall be my first drawing of the year!

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This little scenario with Mirkon and those harpies is very, very bugged lol.

The harpies kill the kid, and I mean obliterate them, and I get a notification that they've been ~*~saved~*~. Wyll gets inspiration, even. He's very proud of himself. This happened twice. I reload both times, because that's obviously not right. Decide I'm going to have Astarion knock them out right out the gate so they can't go get themselves attack-of-opportunity-ed for the thousandth time, and I triple-check that non-lethal damage is on. I send Astarion in.

Get a journal notification.

Kid's dead.

I'm looking at their 1HP right now.

Larian, istg, what do you want from me.

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Started playing Sunless Skies and now I'm over here with a pile of Port Reports clutched to my chest too afraid to turn them in to anyone.

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Played the ES... I am just so profoundly uncomfortable with that story and not in the good horror way. In the oh God no this feels racist and bad- way

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I've been dipping my toes into Solo RPG and found Iron Valley! I just started my first playthrough today and am almost done with the first day. Took a bit of a break because I'm having trouble moving the story, but I'll get there.

This is Mushroom (though he doesn't have his name yet), my entirely randomly rolled character. He abruptly found himself wandering the wildest parts of the Rosy Bastion arboretum one fine morning with no idea how he got there, where he came from, or what his own name is! He managed to locate the settlement, but unfortunately for him he's been having a really hard time explaining what happened, which isn't very surprising, since it's hard to explain yourself when you don't remember what happened! Probably not helped that the first two townies I rolled (at least the two who are adults and therefore the ones handling this) are both probably the grumpiest and most suspicious characters in the town, maybe. Really! They all really just want answers to the exact same question, but none of them really, really believe that the other guy doesn't have those answers! So they keep asking each other the same questions over and over! And getting the same answers! Over and over! For basically the whole day!

I think I'm going to have Roja, the mayor, finally call it for the night, actually. There's only one tick left in the day and they're all too tired and worked up to make any progress, and Mushroom still needs a place to sleep! They could all use a night, actually! They'll give Mushroom a tent and some supplies because that's what I randomly rolled the town is definitely not set up to house a whole additional adult person out of nowhere! Don't worry, Stranger, they'll give you a really good sleeping bag. They feel kind of bad about this. Only kind of, though. It is a very nice sleeping bag.

Juniper, the farmer whose kid found Mushroom, considers for .5 seconds offering her couch, but like. She's got a kid. She's not inviting strange adults into her house just yet. Sorry, Stranger From The Arboretum, you'll survive one night on the ground. Gran, the kid in question who has been left alone to stew over this juicy new development while the adults all ineffectually panicked in a closed room and rolled the 'romantic' trait: Parental Figure You Have Rescued A Man From Great Adversity. Can You Not See This Is Your Spouse. How Could You Condemn My Future Father To A Night On The Cold Hard Ground.

Mushroom, holding his new tent and sleeping bag and flashlight and some granola bars because he might get hungry or something and a toothbrush and some toothpaste and four (x4) water bottles because that was what the office fridge had in it and zero (x0) answers against his chest and too emotionally exhausted to function at the moment: This Is Fine.

...Oh, cool, I typed my way out of the floundering I was doing. Yay! Off to see if Mushroom finds a good place to sleep or a GREAT place to sleep. Does Mushroom know how to set up a tent? I suppose we will find out. If he rolls a miss he's just going to fall asleep face down on top of the packed up tent somewhere. I wouldn't be surprised at this point; man's had a Day. He'd be fine, probably.

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I UPDATED TOO SOON EARLIER

I got my first Making Your Name 7!

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I got my first Making Your Name 7!

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Played Thousand Year Old Vampire for the first time. Wow! My character only made it maaaybe 150-ish years, depending on how I count the events, but considering I dropped her right at the tail end of the Neo-Assyrian Empire and turned her loose from there I can't say I'm surprised all the wars eventually caught up to her. Good job, Dwura. You had a good run.

Highlights:

The Laughing Face In the Water who turned Dwura being I imagine just an ancient as fuck shrunken and desiccated corpse who just scuttles about on its ungodly little limbs doing whatever. They know nothing but being a shit and snack time. Cue Dwura's entire life falling apart in the background.

Dwura's life becoming the yakety sax song as I promptly get several prompts in a row all checking a skill. Every single one. Barely keeping her head above water over here, is Dwura.

Cue our leading lady escaping Nineveh by crawling along the bottom of an aqueduct after being (totally accurately, to be fair) accused of killing her best friend.

Escapes into the villages of peripheral Assyria. A woman alone. Yay.

Eventually meets another vampire. Vampire tries to eat her one (1) friend and also steals the beads her mother made for her. And checks a skill. Like a SHIT.

Dwura takes in these few decades of experiences very, very calmly and makes the totally rational and reasoned decision that picking All the Fights There Ever Was And Could Possibly Be is Good Actually. Don't you just want to go apeshit.

Takes advantage of her immortality and the growing desperation of various locales caught in the middle of the increasing social instability to create a one-woman messenger/delivery service through the increasingly shitty war-torn areas. Half-heartedly pretends to be a man, but that's mostly just taking just enough steps to let people pretend they don't know what they know. Everyone needs this too much for their own various reasons to question the Many, Many Obvious Problems Here. Which is good, because Dwura cares less and less as time goes on. You want to run her down? Run her down! It's not the first time she's been chased out of town! She had six skill checks in a row one time. She's not scared of you!

Dwura, for her part, loves the work! The challenge, the travel, the interesting people, the finding of straggling survivors from the isolated fields of battle or the sacking of villages left unguarded by the troubles, the- (they are not survivors for very long.) It's not like anyone's going to notice a little less blood on the ground than there should be amirite?

It's better if she cuts them down herself, though.

Starts getting a little too into the FIGHT KILL DEATH thing over time, which is fine, but also maybe she needs to chill. Escapes scrutiny/death at one point by joining in with a group of women doing the laundry and ends up helping teach a young girl. Is immediately struck with memories of the best friend she murdered teaching her the same things when she was young. Haha.

.

She would like to return to fight-death-kill now.

That friend who almost got eaten a couple-ish decades back? Well he returns, once again being almost eaten! By Dwura this time, who let herself get a bit too hangry. He once again is not actually killed though, he's just a vampire now. Oops.

And we will never know where that was going to go, because then Dwura landed on a prompt that specifies her need to escape the increasing presence of the war (like that hasn't been her entire life), but she has no skills left unchecked and no more resources. So it finally gets her. I imagine she has no regrets, though.

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In news entirely unrelated to certain recent game events I found When Montezuma met Cortés by Matthew Restall in my Libby app and it's going great. I wanted Mesoamerican Voices but this is fine.

Fifth Sun by Camilla Townsend is wait-listed out a whole month, but it's on the list. Figure this one I've got should keep me busy for awhile, though.