Happy Ending for Everyone

Magnificate

Happy Ending for Everyone

#1 by Magnificate - Jun 6 2014

I'm setting out to get the best possible ending. Let me know whether I'm missing something:

NOVA:
1. Nova loses no territories and gains Sedna.
2. Good relations with Talasse.
3. Good relations with Shanjia.
4. Alliance with Ixion.
5. Printing Press funded.
6. Hospital funded.
7. Both commoner and noble approval is high.
8. No issues with internal instability or banditry or stifled trade or empty treasury.
9. Old Forest is being cleared.
10. Elodie pushes for education in Nova. (I'm pretty sure 9 and 10 are mutually exclusive. Which one is better?)

CHARACTERS:
1. Elodie is happily married.
2. Joslyn is alive and unharmed. (I'm not sure whether I would consider Joslyn/Sirin or Joslyn/Brin to be happier endings than Joslyn not remarrying. Opinions?)
3. Charlotte is alive and Elodie's friend.
4. Lucille is alive and Elodie's lumen minister.
5. Julianna is alive and free to express her feelings.
6. Banion & Brin are alive. (I'm not sure whether the political Status Quo or Bennet as Duke should be considered a better ending. Opinions?)
7. Kevan is alive and assured that justice was served at the trial.
8. Briony is alive and reconciled with her mother.
9. Arisse is alive.
10. Adair is alive. (I'm not sure whether giving him to Adele is substantially better than giving him to Armand. Opinions?)

4Dam-Ghost-Nappa

Re: Happy Ending for Everyone

#2 by 4Dam-Ghost-Nappa - Jun 7 2014

I'm pretty sure it's impossible to get the High Lumen Approval Happy ending for Julianna and Selene without defeating Togami in the duel, which requires angering Togami's wife in Shaninja.

zonohedron

Re: Happy Ending for Everyone

#3 by zonohedron - Jun 7 2014

Magnificate:
NOVA:
1. Nova loses no territories and gains Sedna.
4. Alliance with Ixion.
9. Old Forest is being cleared.
10. Elodie pushes for education in Nova. (I'm pretty sure 9 and 10 are mutually exclusive. Which one is better?)

CHARACTERS:
2. Joslyn is alive and unharmed. (I'm not sure whether I would consider Joslyn/Sirin or Joslyn/Brin to be happier endings than Joslyn not remarrying. Opinions?)
6. Banion & Brin are alive. (I'm not sure whether the political Status Quo or Bennet as Duke should be considered a better ending. Opinions?)
10. Adair is alive. (I'm not sure whether giving him to Adele is substantially better than giving him to Armand. Opinions?)

N1. I don't think Nova can actually gain Sedna. Marrying Talarist means one of Elodie's children is likely to inherit it (but that might be problematic too, if the Sednans don't want a half-Novan duke).
N4. I think N1 and N4 are mutually exclusive; you cannot ally with Ixion without ceding the disputed area, as far as I know.
N9/10. I think education is better; it benefits more people than just those too close to the Old Forest, and it leaves the Old Forest as a symbol of what can go wrong with misuse of magic. (Also, if education is the theme of Elodie's reign, her heir, or perhaps her father's heir, can consider the Old Forest the project of that reign.)

C2. Joslyn/Brin is concocted to cover that Joslyn doesn't want to remarry and Brin doesn't want to marry a man, but since it will provide a heir for Caloris (so that Armand can concentrate on providing one for Mazomba!) and keep either of them from being hassled to marry, it may be better than Joslyn not remarrying, and is certainly better than Joslyn/Sirin.
C6. Deposing either of them isn't great for relations with whichever duchy is involved. (It might also make it look like you're trying to give Gwenelle's stepfather a position because Gwenelle's your friend.)
C10. I tend to think it's better to name Adele his regent; his father is pretty convinced that that's the better course of action, unless he thinks you want to marry Adair. He seems to have fun in Mazomba, and it might be better for him to be shadowing a duke so he can learn more about running one, but choosing Adele signals to the other nobles that you're paying attention to them and are likely to come up with good solutions to their problems if they ask.

Magnificate

Re: Happy Ending for Everyone

#4 by Magnificate - Jun 7 2014

zonohedron:
N1. I don't think Nova can actually gain Sedna. Marrying Talarist means one of Elodie's children is likely to inherit it (but that might be problematic too, if the Sednans don't want a half-Novan duke).

Possibly. Then again, Elodie specifically mentions Talarist becoming her subject. That implies Sedna changes allegiance.

zonohedron:
N4. I think N1 and N4 are mutually exclusive; you cannot ally with Ixion without ceding the disputed area, as far as I know.

You can offer them an alliance against Terrax.

zonohedron

Re: Happy Ending for Everyone

#5 by zonohedron - Jun 7 2014

Magnificate:
zonohedron:
N4. I think N1 and N4 are mutually exclusive; you cannot ally with Ixion without ceding the disputed area, as far as I know.
You can offer them an alliance against Terrax.

How? I can threaten to ally with Terrax against them, but I can't offer to ally with them against Terrax, as far as I know.

Edit: also, Talarist becomes Elodie's subject if (and as far as I can tell, only if) he becomes the Duke of Elath, in which case it appears that the duchy of Sedna goes to his heir; Elodie even says something like 'let the King of Talasse find an new duke', I think. And in any event, he only becomes the Duke of Elath if Adair has been killed.

hanako

Re: Happy Ending for Everyone

#6 by hanako - Jun 7 2014

Sedna does not change allegiance during the game period.

As mentioned, you can make Talarist your subject, but that involves getting him to renounce his claim on Sedna. Now, it's possible that closer Elath-Sedna ties might make it easier to expand your territory later.... Or it might make it easier for you to LOSE your territory later.

Magnificate

Re: Happy Ending for Everyone

#7 by Magnificate - Jun 7 2014

OK, I'll cross out the "gain Sedna".

The same goes for the "alliance with Ixion".

However, I seem to remember there exist an ending with Elodie maxing-out medicine after the opportunity to fund the hospital has passed. In that ending Ixion gets the hospital and trades with Nova for rare herbs. I don't remember the exact wording, so it might not have been an alliance after all.

4Dam-Ghost-Nappa:
I'm pretty sure it's impossible to get the High Lumen Approval Happy ending for Julianna and Selene without defeating Togami in the duel, which requires angering Togami's wife in Shaninja.

Indeed, that does seem to be the case. This choice seems to be relatively straightforward, relations with Shaninja are more important.

zonohedron:
C2. Joslyn/Brin is concocted to cover that Joslyn doesn't want to remarry and Brin doesn't want to marry a man, but since it will provide a heir for Caloris (so that Armand can concentrate on providing one for Mazomba!) and keep either of them from being hassled to marry, it may be better than Joslyn not remarrying, and is certainly better than Joslyn/Sirin.

Joslyn/Brin is most likely loveless. Joslyn/Sirin is also most likely loveless. However in my view Joslyn/Sirin has more potential, since Brin is actually Elodie's love interest.

BTW, is N10 possible to acquire if Elodie is a Lumen?

zonohedron

Re: Happy Ending for Everyone

#8 by zonohedron - Jun 7 2014

Magnificate:
zonohedron:
C2. Joslyn/Brin is concocted to cover that Joslyn doesn't want to remarry and Brin doesn't want to marry a man, but since it will provide a heir for Caloris (so that Armand can concentrate on providing one for Mazomba!) and keep either of them from being hassled to marry, it may be better than Joslyn not remarrying, and is certainly better than Joslyn/Sirin.
Joslyn/Brin is most likely loveless. Joslyn/Sirin is also most likely loveless. However in my view Joslyn/Sirin has more potential, since Brin is actually Elodie's love interest.

Joslyn/Brin is not a romantic pairing - they're not each other's love interest - but that doesn't make it loveless; someone marrying him because he is Duke of Caloris, the widow of Queen Fidelia, the father of Queen Elodie, is no more likely to be in love with him, and IMO Joslyn/Brin is more likely to end up friendly/affectionate. (And as for Brin, she has to produce an heir for Hellas at some point, too.)

We know divorce happens in Nova, and it doesn't seem heavily stigmatized, so if Joslyn were to end up meeting someone whom he does have a romantic interest in, he and Brin could divorce; from the epilogue where they marry, though, it doesn't seem like that happens.

Heartland

Re: Happy Ending for Everyone

#9 by Heartland - Jun 26 2014

I too am trying to figure how to get the best possible endings for everyone or almost everyone

myling

Re: Happy Ending

#10 by myling - Apr 14 2015

What makes Joslyn happy being alone or trapped in marriage ? I think Siren is a gold digger and Brin is your lover....i heard he can marry a priestess and they have a baby.wouldnt that make him happy but that requries a earthquake which makes everyone esle unhappy
I think there no way for everyone to become happy in one game play .

Tsunamiracle

Re: Happy Ending for Everyone

#11 by Tsunamiracle - Apr 15 2015

True -- I can't think of a way to improve Lumen opinion without burning bridges with Shanjia. It's possible to win the naval battle and do one of the new pro-Lumen events to get the same Everyone Loves Lumens ending. In this case, Togami lives and escapes to Shanjia, but financial and political troubles make rebuilding the warfleet slow. It's still not a good ending, but it's at least better than Junko sending decapitated heads to Nova. Maybe we can say Togami invades a second time off-screen and Elodie talks him down, I dunno. That's probably cheating.

I always got the feeling that all of Joslyn's potential marriages are done out of obligation, as two of them happen if he's put under extra pressure and the third involves someone who herself has problems with marrying, so none of the women are really better than the others in terms of how much love is in the marriage, at least not from what the limited POV tells us. (Hey, for all we know, Elodie might be wrong about Sirin's intentions.) The priestess only comes into the picture if Caloris is destabilized, though, so she can't be part of a golden ending.

Since the Sirin marriage seems to happen if Elodie does some marriage shenanigans of her own... Maybe Brin should marry the Ixionite (with Elodie advising her to get a divorce once the child is born), and Joslyn ends up with Sirin? That way Brin and Joslyn get their heirs, and Sirin gets her status boost. We never get to see how Ixion reacts to this loophole abuse, though, but since they don't invade or anything, I assume it wasn't too bad.

(On the other hand, I get this feeling that he personally might be happier with Brin, unless the idea of being legally married to his daughter's not-so-secret lover is too weird for him; Brin probably won't have any desire to be as loved as Fidelia was, so aside from the matter of heirs and keeping up appearances they probably won't have to struggle through physical affection they don't want to go through with. Of course, I don't think Joslyn absolutely needs to be married, especially if it conflicts with anyone else's interests. Him staying unmarried so that Elodie can have a not-so-secret poly relationship with Banion and Brin is also fine, especially since if Brin doesn't have the Ixion-Nova child, she'll adopt Banion's son for her own heir -- although I suspect that she considers that by default anyway and it's just never noted if both siblings aren't relevant to the ending.)

The biggest problem seems to be getting all the skills required...? There are just so many high-level checks needed, especially if you go the naval battle route, and in a lot of places there's no room for error: Right now I'm trying to think of how to raise Lumen opinion AND win the naval battle AND hire Lucille. And that's on top of somehow getting enough skills to help Kevan and Briony.

Tsunamiracle

Re: Happy Ending for Everyone

#12 by Tsunamiracle - Apr 17 2015

Hm... Apologies for the double post, but I would like to know any opinions on this. I'm doing testing, and right now the first handful of weeks are giving me trouble, even if I DO cut major, hospital-shaped corners. Here's my plan right now, spoiled to be safe since a lot of this is recent stuff:

* Put Julianna in jail temporarily so that Charlotte can heal Elodie, then release Julianna afterward
* Have enough skills for the printing press
* Wear the necklace, threaten the Ixionites with it, and get engaged to Talarist (alternatives can happen depending on how much Court Manners and Presence Elodie has at certain key points)
* Use Internal Affair and Court Manners to appease Kevan
* Unlock Lumen powers quickly, but don't train yet. No time!
* Somehow manage to get 80 Meditation in time to talk to Julianna before the ball and unlock the letter to Charlotte, which in turn unlocks a conversation with Lucille
* SKIP THE HOSPITAL?? My reasoning for why this can be skipped is that if your highest category at the end is Medicine and you didn't build any hospitals, you find out that Ixion has invested in them. Elodie takes this as a chance to trade medical herbs to Ixion in exchange for knowledge. It can be assumed that the health system in Nova will quickly improve thanks to this, and it also gives something of an alliance to Ixion without having to give up Banion's territory. (Which, to be fair, I'm still tempted to do in preparation for the naval battle, but I haven't gotten that far yet and don't know if it's necessary.)

I'm not really sure what I can drop. I'm barely getting by as it is switching clothing when needed... This was my last attempt, and I'm just not sure where to go from here. Any ideas? My issue might be mood optimization, since I haven't kept track of that closely.

For what it's worth, it seems like early game is the hardest part? After this, the focus would be on Lore, Lumen, a bit of Intrigue, anything related to the naval battle, and then max Medicine for the final slide. I think there should be enough time for all of that once the gala is cleared. Maybe.

(and here I thought it was hard enough trying to figure out how to go to war with as many countries as possible in the ending... which i did figure out because i'm a horrible, horrible person.)

Mir

Re: Happy Ending for Everyone

#13 by Mir - Apr 19 2015

Tsunamiracle:
I always got the feeling that all of Joslyn's potential marriages are done out of obligation, as two of them happen if he's put under extra pressure and the third involves someone who herself has problems with marrying, so none of the women are really better than the others in terms of how much love is in the marriage, at least not from what the limited POV tells us. (Hey, for all we know, Elodie might be wrong about Sirin's intentions.) The priestess only comes into the picture if Caloris is destabilized, though, so she can't be part of a golden ending.

I think this is a really good point about his marriages (and might be a reason why I'd prefer him with Brin over the others, though we don't know how well Sirin or the priestess works out as a marriage). I agree that Brin wouldn't want to be loved like Fidelia was, and him being married to her would prevent him from being approached by other women. It also allows Brin to be close to Elodie and gives both of them heirs, so it's win-win. ....Assuming of course, as you said, he doesn't find being married to his daughter's girlfriend too weird. :p

Tsunamiracle:
I'm not really sure what I can drop. I'm barely getting by as it is switching clothing when needed... This was my last attempt, and I'm just not sure where to go from here. Any ideas? My issue might be mood optimization, since I haven't kept track of that closely.

Let's see... You're still trying to do a military victory and solve things for Briony and Kevan, correct? And get as many alliances as possible...

You're using Presence to get into the treasury, from what I can see. You can also get in there with 60 Accounting, and you need 25 in both Trade and Production to get Accounting that high, so you could potentially get the printing press on your way to get into the vault and just ignore Royal Demeanor completely. HOWEVER, the problem with ignoring Presence is that it can lead you to failing checks at the ball, lowering your noble approval and making civil war more likely. Do you need to make Ixion angry to get the ending with the herbs? (I've heard of that slide but I've never gotten it.) If not, you could just appease them with a payment - you should have enough economics skills to pay them half of what they owe (and if you have 60 accounting, you can raise taxes on week 19 to make up some of what you paid...though the problem is that your treasury isn't going to be too terribly full at the end, though you shouldn't be broke either).

How important is making things go right on week 13 for you? The problem with that one is that you need 60 Court Manners (or 50 with the dress), so you need to raise ALL of your conversation skills to 25 or higher first, which is going to be difficult with trying to get up meditation. Of course, if your goal is just talking to Lucille and not tying into the previous Charlotte cutscene, you can hold off on Lore and just work on Lumen, getting that to 80. Unfortunately, ignoring Faith for the time being means you'll miss on sending Adair to Adele, if that's important to you. The good news is that you don't need to talk to Briony until week 28, so you have time to bring up Lore to 60 for that if that's the only use for Faith you absolutely need. Magic can help on the military battle (Wield Magic 60?) so you start building that up while trying to get Lucille.

Do you want Sabine? How about agents? You can actually win the Naval battle without recruiting soldiers via the printing press or allying with Ixion, so you can just print pro-Lumen propaganda. You need to recruit soldiers at every other opportunity (weeks 32 and 34) and get some naval warships built on week 24 (which can be done by sending your agents abroad or having a very very high Trade+Logistics score that week, so you'd immediately want to start building military asap for that). You need to have Military as high as possible and I've found passing that Climbing check can make or break you when you're at sea. Also, magic.

When you're cheerful for climbing, you can at least build up conversation to unlock the option to ask Briony about her family life. And when are you going to find time for herbs... This is tough. But surrendering Imbrium to Ixion is a massive hit to both commoner and noble popularity, making it harder to avoid civil war or a rebellion (someone on steam did report getting a naval victory and a peasant rebellion in the same game - that's rare but apparently it's possible).

Is any of this helpful?

Tsunamiracle:
(and here I thought it was hard enough trying to figure out how to go to war with as many countries as possible in the ending... which i did figure out because i'm a horrible, horrible person.)

...I-is it possible to have bad relations in the ending with more countries than Shanjia, Talasse, and Ixion? I've heard you can make things bad with Pyrias (or was it Tombula?) but I can't think of how to achieve such a thing, if that's even possible.

hanako

Re: Happy Ending for Everyone

#14 by hanako - Apr 19 2015

You can have problems with Tombula.

Mir

Re: Happy Ending for Everyone

#15 by Mir - Apr 19 2015

Awesome. I gotta figure out how to do that. Thank you!

Tsunamiracle

Re: Happy Ending for Everyone

#16 by Tsunamiracle - Apr 19 2015

These were my plans going past the gala:

I need to have my agents on the lookout for foreign threats, which requires just a little bit more Intrigue. At this point, I need to quickly start getting the rest of the skills up to speed; with pro-Lumen printing, I don't think I need to get Julianna's help with the murderer, but if there's time for it, it shouldn't be too difficult to get Sense and Wield Magic up juuuust enough to survive the encounter. Failing that, pardoning him is better because it doesn't lead to him publically destroying things with his magic.

The next major check is Briony with Lore, but with high Meditation, I think it can get boosted quickly. (My plan was humor her, then talk about her parents.) The rest is getting Naval Strategy/Logistics/Climbing/Wield Magic high enough to get through the naval battle, on top of recruiting as many soldiers as possible. Once those are finished, all that's left is grinding Medicine and hoping it's enough to get the medical epilogue instead of, say, the military one. Which might be easier said than done, to be honest... Still, I can't find any time at all to squeeze in enough medical knowledge for the hospital, even if I delay the offer with Talarist's visit. At least it can be inferred that Ixion will always get a hospital if Nova doesn't get one first, and Elodie just doesn't care enough to find out about it...

I was going to raise taxes and/or skip out on Sabine, as I'm a bit concerned about not having a lot of money to hire soldiers with in the final stretch, between the printing press and the warships; paying off Ixion worries me even more, even with the haggling. I'm not sure if Ixion needs any particular relationship with Nova in order to get the mention in the epilogue; I can't remember what I did when I got the slide on one of my runs, but I probably either punished Brin or intimidated the diplomat since that's what I usually do.

As for Week 13, I think I can cut a corner there as well and send the woman off to labor. This would put a big dent in noble opinion, though hopefully not enough to cause war (maybe I'd have to skip raising taxes?). It doesn't quite put the Lillah-Mead family at ease, but I'm also considering skipping the marriage with Talarist and getting enough Ciphering for Briony's message so that Kevan will be willing to marry Elodie. Although there's still a need for Conversation for Talarist and Briony, it's not as steep as the amount needed to keep Kevan happy in the trial. I can probably just bring Court Manners to the cut-off and all it a day.

(The other option would be to let the woman get herself killed, but that might be deviating a little too far from a golden ending.)

(Speaking of other marriage candidates, personally I'd prefer either having a good marriage with Kevan, or having the Banion-Elodie and Joslyn-Brin double marriage. One of them puts Kevan in a relatively healthier living situation, and the other lets Joslyn and Brin get their heirs with minimal fuss. Picking Talarist for my tests was a leftover from my failed attempts to get the hospital, and you only need a little bit of Court Manners to skip the necklace.)

(Of course, both of my preferred endings require MORE skillchecks, Ciphering and Court Manners + Intrigue respectively. Unless it's possible to have Selene as a mentor and still get her and Julianna married, so that I can send Julianna away and choose Brin with no further checks...? At least that should be easy to test on its own. I'll edit this post with the results, hopefully in a few hours once I'm done checking something on another game.)

I also planned to let Arisse continue caring for Adair. While she probably shouldn't have that much power at her disposal, the only real problem with letting Arisse take regency of Elath is if she begins a civil war. She will probably be able to keep Adair safe until he comes of age, and he seems happy enough with her. The only options off the table are sending him to either Erwin or Armand (since doing the latter annoys Arisse a lot). It'd be nice if I could make a compromise with Adele, but I don't think there's any way to get enough Divination for that in time.

It's been a long time since I did the accounting route for the crystal, so I might give that a try. I still think I'll use the agents for foreign threats, though; on my war run I had to get very high Logistics for that point in the game to notice Shanjia was up to something, and even with the relatively less hectic pace of mid-game, I'm not sure if I can get it high enough. I don't think there's much risk of a rebellion, unless I decide to throw all caution and rules out the door and give up land to Ixion. But part of the list does include good approval ratings by the end, and the nobles might still be stinging from early-game issues.

Thanks for the advice! I might tackle early-game later on from a different angle, and see what comes from it. If I still can't get it to work, I might cut out one or two other scenes so I can see if my endgame plan is even feasible.

re: Happy funtime war epilogue: Those were indeed the four countries I ended up at war with! You can also get in trouble with several unnamed nations if you do something really bad to one of the named countries.

EDIT: Fixing things in my Sims game took much longer than it should have. That said, I just did a speedthrough testing the thing I said I'd test: Yes, it seems like Julianna and Selene will still get married if Julianna was sent away. (Truthfully I went the dueling route instead of the naval victory because I wanted to go fast.) But I'm not sure if there's any big advantage to picking Selene over Julianna -- you immediately get to talk to Joslyn in Week 6 instead of having to talk to your mentor first, and it opens up the Brin endings without having to mess with the expanded dance list. On the other hand, this means you have to do the Lumen propaganda, since Selene is more secretive when dealing with the murderer, but without any Strategy it's not like the printing press can be used for anything better. The moods for plot-related talks might change a little with Selene, but hopefully it won't be game-breaking...

Mir

Re: Happy Ending for Everyone

#17 by Mir - Apr 22 2015

I think the only mood change you get from Selene is an Afraid point instead of a Willful or no mood change when talking about getting into the vault (though you get a Willful when you decide to hear her out) because she's like "well, if you can't get into the vault yourself, we're gonna have to kill the guards" and Elodie's like "wat". I can't remember if there's a different mood for dealing with the creeping shade, but since you're not going down that path it shouldn't be an issue. Otherwise I think their conversations are pretty similar, though obviously you'll be missing the one about discovering Selene at the chapel. You should be good, I think.

You could always just throw the condemned man in jail. I think since that's less public it won't lower Lumen approval ratings, but it will cost you money.

If you'd rather marry Kevan or Banion/Brin, I'd skip the Talarist marriage, personally. As long as you don't offend him or marry Adair, there don't appear to be any canonical consequences to not getting married to him (for example, I've never seen him upset about Elodie getting engaged to Banion instead of him unless Elodie is dropping him for Banion). You can get enough Court Manners to avoid the necklace in a single week taking one class as long as you're not Depressed. Using his visit to delay the hospital woman gets a bit trickier, though...

The problem with the Naval Battle is that it gives you a lot of Cheerful points over the course, and Medicine is boosted by Lonely. If you knock out the Military and Lumen stuff first and then work on the Climing/Athletics next, you could do a lot of walking in the gardens to get your Cheerful and Lonely maxed out, and attend services to knock off a single Cheerful point to turn your mood to Lonely to get the bonuses? Would that even be feasible...?

Heh, once someone pointed out using accounting to get into the vault and not having to completely turn your mood around from yielding for Demeanor, I never went back. Though...if I do follow a path where I need presence, it gets a bit tricky sometimes. :T

Honestly the best ending I ever got was getting the hospital and printing press, ending the Ixion conflict bloodlessly by paying off Ixion at a reduced rate, having the condemned woman accept prison and appeasing Kevan (this might have actually been the hardest to pull off), recruiting Lucille, raising taxes to make up what I spent in a way that wasn't obvious, defeating the condemned man, recruiting Sabine as a spy (she had nothing to do, but it's nice to have a competent agent?), keeping Adair alive, getting Briony's family to communicate again, resolving things peacefully with Togami, having Elodie happily married, and Elodie's economic skills raising the standard of living for all of Nova. It's pretty sweet, but I wasn't able to get Julianna and Selene married, Briony wasn't adopted as her aunt's heir, and Lumens still weren't well-liked (at least there was no mention of Julianna getting pelted with vegetables, so small victories). I don't see any reason why Elodie couldn't have some strings pulled to have Selene stationed in Ursul or why Julianna wouldn't adopt Briony anyway (since she's not going to have any of her own children - though Corisande might not be as for it if Lumens aren't as highly regarded in society), but it's...it's not the same. I could have all that happen if I try it again now that there's been an update and beat Shanjia at sea, but I think resolving things peacefully with Togami is better for more people in the long run, so... (Also, while I'd rather marry Talarist if I can't be with Briony, marrying Kevan is probably a better alternative for him and his family, since there's no other way to get him into a better living situation. You really can't do everything right in this game.)

Tsunamiracle

Re: Happy Ending for Everyone

#18 by Tsunamiracle - Apr 23 2015

I think I got it. I even managed to get that dang hospital.

First: OH MY GOSH, thank you for the Accounting advice! Elodie is so much better suited for a run with Intrigue and Military when she's not so deep into Yielding. Usually I rely on Royal Demeanor to carry me, but that was completely the wrong idea for this plan. I ended up with an Elodie that didn't really look at all like a queen, but knew how to get things done.

Fun fact: Apparently you can get into the treasury and grab your crystal early if your Accounting is high enough. You can skip talking to Joslyn and reporting back to the mentor this way, and the only requirement is having Julianna/Selene say "hey you need to find your crystal". This is ridiculous, Econoprincess is too good.

Being able to switch into Willful quickly also let me raise Lumen enough to detect Lucille directly instead of having to mess with Meditation. For flavor reasons, I decided to go for the History epilogue, which meant picking up 90 Novan History for Briony along the way instead of going for the lower but less-convenient Lore check. Sorry, Selene, I'm in it for the magic and not the religion.

Here's the hilarious part: Somehow, I got away with not having any Climbing at all. And, on closer inspection, I also failed Wield Magic during the battle since I forgot Elodie was right on the edge with Wield Magic and needed to have her Lumen outfit on. And, yes, I tested it without either her Lumen or Military outfits, and she still won the battle.

I can't believe this.

On a side note, using the gardens and toys to boost both Cheerful and Lonely was indeed useful in quickly boosting Medicine, although if I remember right there need to be some skills in it to begin with. Ultimately I dropped the Medicine Epilogue plan when I realized that changing the way I approached several scenes freed up enough time to grind for the hospital.

List of things I managed to pull off:
* Printing press
* Paid off Ixion at the lowest price
* Peacefully resolved the trial
* Hospital
* Danced with Brin
* Lumen Minister
* Exposed the murderer for what he was and killed him
* Left Adair with Arisse
* Hired Sabine as a spy
* Helped Briony reach an understanding with Corisande
* Did not publicly humiliate Elodie at the tournament
* Somehow won the naval battle despite failing the Magic and Climbing checks
* High Lumen approval
* Married to Kevan; all other listed marriage candidates are in good standing, and the double marriage is possible
* History epilogue

Here's my latest run for anyone curious about what I did (warning for descriptions of everything in Kevan's backstory). It's not fully optimized since I realized some things can actually be skipped, but beyond a bit of changed priorities I don't think I'll alter this much. The only issues I can see with this playthrough:

* Debugging shows that Noble Approval is a little on the low side -- failing all the grand ball checks chews it up, and they're the ones footing the bill with adjusted taxes. But at least it's in the positive numbers; this run ends with it at 10, which is about 30 points higher than what it usually ends at in my runs.
* Money is a tad low at a little over a thousand lassi. It's something a year or two of higher taxes could easily fix, though, especially since Nova won't be facing another invasion in the immediate future. The blow could be softened picking a respectable feast, but I do love splurging on fancy food.
* Not enough skills to successfully meditate between Lieke and Gwenelle. I think it might be possible to get enough Flattery in time, but I'm not too bothered by this since there aren't any lasting consequences for siding with Gwenelle. I mean, I suppose it makes Lieke and Bennett feel like trash... It's not a priority, but if it's possible to handle this better then that would be nice.
* Elodie can't do much at the tournament. Not going at all drops approval, as does totally failing at an event -- except for falconry, in which case her tutor stops her from competing, saving her reputation and, more importantly, her falcon. (On that note, you could increase noble approval by competing in the falconry tournament, but this requires max Falconry and may not be possible in a History Epilogue run.)
* Leaving Adair with Arisse is a questionable political choice, since Arisse probably should not have so much power. However, there shouldn't be any major noble unrest within the next three years, and no matter what she's always going to be able to influence him as his stepparent (especially since it sounds like he spent a lot of time with her and her younger children).
* Shanjia is, as it always is, a very grey area. Is it right to give them the manpower for their military if it means keeping the rest of Shanjian society stable? Is it better to conscript the poor, possibly separating them from their families, while also triggering civil unrest in Shanjia with financial strain, if it means it takes Shanjia even longer to build an invading force against Nova or any other nation? Should the soldiers of Nova and the reputation of Lumens be sacrificed so that an alliance can be made? In hindsight, I'm not sure if Nova and Shanjia could ever reach peace if they're too busy sending warfleets at each other, so when considering the future making peace is probably better than trying to make a few individuals happy.
* Elodie didn't get a chance in early-game to hug Joslyn and tell him she loved him :' (

I agree, though -- there isn't a way to get a "perfect" run, since a lot of things are mutually exclusive. A lot of it is balancing the good of a nation with the good of an individual. And it makes sense to me that there is no one single "correct" way to rule Nova and win the game, where it's absolutely wrong if Elodie doesn't check off every box on the list of people she has to help. It's certainly fun to see how much can be improved in a single run, though.

Hanako Games