Morale Critical instant Game Over?

[Syluxrox]

Hey fellas,

I was really enjoying the game, for the first hour and a half, getting to know the NPC's that I came across etc. However, after spending almost an hour talking with the bartender, Kim, the lady you meet outside your room, getting several success checks and completing a few "secret" tasks, feeling pretty good about myself you know? I get to an 8% success rate check to convince Kim that there is a "sexy dark otherworldly twist" to the case. I knew there was little chance of me succeeding, but I wanted to try just for the fun of it. I failed of course, and all of a sudden I get a "morale critical!" message, and instantly am put into a dark mental state where my ONLY dialogue options are various ways of saying "♥♥♥♥ it I quit". There was literally no option to keep going, every one was negative. So I clicked the least negative sounding one, still failed, and got a game over screen.

Then I go to reload the game figuring the game would be kind and give me a relatively close autosave (I had done quite a bit of talking and experience gaining), but nope! The most recent save was when I first walked out of my room. What the hell game? If youre going to hit me with an instant game over for failing a silly dialogue check you should at least do me the courtesy of giving me an autosave close by so I dont lose an hour and a half of gametime. Is the rest of the game like this? Am I going to have to be manually saving every 5 minutes or risk losing hours of progress to a failed check?

I was really excited for this game but man that just put a damper on my motivation to jump back in.

[Du-Vu]

Do you by any chance have 1 PSY/Volition? Because that would mean you have only 1 point of Morale, which is basically one half of your hit points along with Health (FYS/Endurance). Not unplayable, but like a low-Health build has to avoid fights or overexerting their battered addict body, you've got to account for having a very fragile mental state.

You might want to bump up Volition first chance you get. But even then, I went through most of the game with 2 Endurance/Health, and I found a lot more chances to lose Health and a lot more drugs that restored Morale, so it looks doable to me at first glance. There are also thoughts that heal Health/Morale for passing certain checks and failing them, so don't be discouraged. Just understand that skills checks are the real monsters in this game. You fought a troll before leveling up, basically. But that check will still be there for later.

[jack_of_tears]

Conversations in this game are like combat encounters in other games, if you tackle a very difficult or stressful encounter with low health/morale, you will die. Be sure you always have a few bars of either one (Health/Morale) full before getting into conversations. You have a number of free heals each day, represented by the little number over your HP/Morale bar; pushing that button will use one 'heal' and replace 1 lost bar. In difficult conversations, be ready to push one of those buttons if you are low, so you can heal the instant you take damage and save yourself (like taking a potion in combat).

Also, it'd be wise to save every 15 minutes, just in case you run into something unexpected when talking - but frequent quicksaves are a good idea in any game, if you don't want to replay everything from your last Autosave (which happen much less often).

[OFF BEAT REHEAT]

i have this issue my moral is 9+ and health is 5, if i get hit for 1 of ether its game over

[Clown Reemus]

Maybe you mean your moral healing items are 9+ and your health healing items are 5+? Because what you say is technically impossible.

Originally posted by OFF BEAT REHEAT:

i have this issue my moral is 9+ and health is 5, if i get hit for 1 of ether its game over

[Clown Reemus]

Originally posted by Syluxrox:

Hey fellas,

I was really enjoying the game, for the first hour and a half, getting to know the NPC's that I came across etc. However, after spending almost an hour talking with the bartender, Kim, the lady you meet outside your room, getting several success checks and completing a few "secret" tasks, feeling pretty good about myself you know? I get to an 8% success rate check to convince Kim that there is a "sexy dark otherworldly twist" to the case. I knew there was little chance of me succeeding, but I wanted to try just for the fun of it. I failed of course, and all of a sudden I get a "morale critical!" message, and instantly am put into a dark mental state where my ONLY dialogue options are various ways of saying "♥♥♥♥ it I quit". There was literally no option to keep going, every one was negative. So I clicked the least negative sounding one, still failed, and got a game over screen.

Then I go to reload the game figuring the game would be kind and give me a relatively close autosave (I had done quite a bit of talking and experience gaining), but nope! The most recent save was when I first walked out of my room. What the hell game? If youre going to hit me with an instant game over for failing a silly dialogue check you should at least do me the courtesy of giving me an autosave close by so I dont lose an hour and a half of gametime. Is the rest of the game like this? Am I going to have to be manually saving every 5 minutes or risk losing hours of progress to a failed check?

I was really excited for this game but man that just put a damper on my motivation to jump back in.

This is a basic process of learning. You did a mistake, you did not thoroughly prepare for it in advance, now you suffer the consequence of (not saving frequantly enough). Is it not, frankly, just? Acknowledging one's fault and doing better next time is one of this game's running themes, after all.

[Snorri Nosebiter]

OP, use F5 to quick save. Also, make sure that you have health and morale healing items in your inventory. The numbers above your health and morale tell you how many you have. Just click on the number to use one if either becomes critical.

[Me]

Originally posted by OFF BEAT REHEAT:

i have this issue my moral is 9+ and health is 5, if i get hit for 1 of ether its game over

That's not your actual morale and health, that's just how many healing items you have for those. You actual morale is the number of blue bars beneath the number (so if there's only one bar, then you only have one morale).

[Hex: Onii-Chan]

This is most r3tarded mechanic I've ever witnessed. "Hey, let's tie a pseude-health stat to a random stat and not tell the player that if he has it low, he just automatically gets a game-over from the tiniest thing"

Why is it even allowing you to have only 1 Morale, if you can randomly lose it and get a game over? Lemme guess "Cuz no handholding, hurrdurrdurr" - that's not "no handholding", that's just being silly, forcing the player to restart the entire game, because you wanted to be an edgy gamedev.

[Lannister]

No problem with this mechanic at all you can get a lot of healing items for free or just buy it cheap in Fritte. Also quick save/load avalaible for diff dialogue options. Only weaklings whine about it.

[Du-Vu]

It says it right on the skills screen, and there's only a few things that can even damage you on the first day. It's not any worse than playing a wizard and dying to a pack of wolves or goblins. Just reload and go a different way until you level up or find some more healing items.

[Halko]

Originally posted by Hex: Onii-Chan:

This is most r3tarded mechanic I've ever witnessed. "Hey, let's tie a pseude-health stat to a random stat and not tell the player that if he has it low, he just automatically gets a game-over from the tiniest thing"

Why is it even allowing you to have only 1 Morale, if you can randomly lose it and get a game over? Lemme guess "Cuz no handholding, hurrdurrdurr" - that's not "no handholding", that's just being silly, forcing the player to restart the entire game, because you wanted to be an edgy gamedev.

If you had read through the stat and skills as you were making your character it implicitly states that endurance grants you health and volition grants you morale. Its not a no handholding situation your just not actually reading the information presented.

[Hex: Onii-Chan]

Originally posted by Halko:

Originally posted by Hex: Onii-Chan:

This is most r3tarded mechanic I've ever witnessed. "Hey, let's tie a pseude-health stat to a random stat and not tell the player that if he has it low, he just automatically gets a game-over from the tiniest thing"

Why is it even allowing you to have only 1 Morale, if you can randomly lose it and get a game over? Lemme guess "Cuz no handholding, hurrdurrdurr" - that's not "no handholding", that's just being silly, forcing the player to restart the entire game, because you wanted to be an edgy gamedev.

If you had read through the stat and skills as you were making your character it implicitly states that endurance grants you health and volition grants you morale. Its not a no handholding situation your just not actually reading the information presented.

It doesn't say that i will start with ONE and literally get a game over in every 2nd conversation. Like, I've talked to 5 people and lost a point 3 times. Sometimes even without a check - just for the lulz of it.

So what's the solution? Oh, right, F5 infront of EVERY npc and interactable object. So immersive, much wow

[jabberwok]

Originally posted by jack_of_tears:

You have a number of free heals each day, represented by the little number over your HP/Morale bar; pushing that button will use one 'heal' and replace 1 lost bar.

This has kind of been said, but I think you're referring to the healing items. I don't think these are free heals per day, but are the healing items you've picked up in the game. Nosaphed, and other meds. I don't think you're automatically granted more when the day changes.

[Du-Vu]

You could just stop doing things that are going to damage your Morale until you increase it or find some healing items. You're in a fragile mental state. You chose to be. But you can easily shore yourself back up, and until then, you don't have to save scum if you just roleplay the character.

You drank so much you can't remember anything, and you can nearly give yourself a heart attack just by reaching for your tie on the fan. This guy's in bad, bad shape. He's going to need some time to recover.

[Hex: Onii-Chan]

Originally posted by Du-Vu:

You could just stop doing things that are going to damage your Morale until you increase it or find some healing items. You're in a fragile mental state. You chose to be. But you can easily shore yourself back up, and until then, you don't have to save scum if you just roleplay the character.

You drank so much you can't remember anything, and you can nearly give yourself a heart attack just by reaching for your tie on the fan. This guy's in bad, bad shape. He's going to need some time to recover.

There is no indicator to what does what. Some things that look borderline insane are not harming the protagonist, others just straight up do. Why would it hurt my morale to suggest something supernatural is going on more than to be rejected by the blonde after utterly fumbling the pickup line? Why isn't it hurting my moral yeeting myself into a somebody in a wheelchair? Or walking around picking up empty bottles in my underwear?

It's arbitrary and the player is left to guess. Better example yet of this are the books and boardgames you can buy. Do they do something? Maybe? Maybe not? They cost a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥, so they should be valuable, right? Maybe? Maybe subverted expectations? Aren't we original and special?

Sorry, I'm too old for childish "gotcha" mechanics that are just there to annoy and force to reload. I don't mind chugging away money in something like Fallout NV or Pathfinder Kingmaker, where I can just make it back, but here it's a valuable resource that apparently just gets wasted on the stuff you buy in the book store. Or maybe it doesn't. Olololol, so random.

Hell, even the skills you level don't do ♥♥♥♥ or are harmful half the time, like with the quiz and your Encyclopedia knowledge, which just gives you wrong answers, despite being at 5.