Investigation Outlining

[Jean Of mArc]

Investigation outlining

One of the more challenging aspects of designing an AAO case is the Investigation. Of course, this part is optional, as terrific court-only cases exist. However, I am currently trying to find an effective way to outline the investigation, such that the variables are easy to manage, the flow of the investigation is easy to see, we can glance at when the evidence is revealed, etc.

The method that I have created (which is incomplete) is a chart which demonstrates the flow of the investigation. It is a spreadsheet, and only contains important information which is required to make the case advance. This means that it does not contain, for example, areas of the screen that you MAY examine, but are completely optional.
It contains the following headers:

Location | Character | Talk | Present | Examine | Information | Opens talk | Opens location | Court Record

Each header would contain, under it, the following input:

• Location - The location that the player is in. If it is the same as the previous cell, it is left blank.
• Character - The character who is present at that location. If there is no one present, or if it is the same as the previous cell, it is left blank.
• Talk - The subject used for a talk. Each talk subject has its own row in the spreadsheet.
• Present - The piece of evidence or profile you must present to the character present.
• Examine - Something on-screen that must be examined.
• Information - The information gained from the action performed. This should be filled in for almost every row.
• Opens talk - This indicates that the current action will open a new "talk" conversation. Shows the subject of the talk.
• Opens location - This indicates that the current action will open a new location for you to explore.
• Court Record - This indicates that a new piece of information is added or update to the Court Record.

Here is an example of the first investigation from case 1-3. Of course, it contains full spoilers for that particular investigation:

https://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key ... utput=html

I show you this layout so that you may use it for your own cases, and also to suggest how it could be refined to work better. For example, this does not include any Psyche-locks yet.
Feedback is welcome.

[mAc Chaos]

This is a good idea, although investigations are so open ended that it's kind of hard to make a "template" for them. I have a much harder time writing investigations than court scenes. You could do pretty much anything so the possibilities are endless. At least in court I just have to worry about the prosecution coming at the defense with both barrels and then worrying only about that.

[Ryu Ushiromiya]

This is a great reference to have. But I'm still undecided on whether to have investigations or not.

[Jean Of mArc]

This is a good idea, although investigations are so open ended that it's kind of hard to make a "template" for them. I have a much harder time writing investigations than court scenes. You could do pretty much anything so the possibilities are endless. At least in court I just have to worry about the prosecution coming at the defense with both barrels and then worrying only about that.

Hmm... yes, Investigations are much more open-ended and difficult to plan than courtroom scenes, which is why I think an outline/aid is a good idea. Still, there is only so much the game system will allow you to do, so as long as the template has all the features, it should suffice to make it easier to create them. In particular, you have to make sure that your conversations go in the right order; this will help you make sure that the requirements are met first.

Ryu: I understand your hesitation. Investigations are really hard to make custom versions of. This is not because the system is lacking; it's not. Rather, the scenes themselves have to be custom-made to your own trial. It doesn't make sense to re-use an old investigation scene for a number of reasons, including the fact that since the scene is familiar, it is hard to separate it from the case it originally came from. Also, the scene is already set up in such a way, which you'd have to force your trial to fit around.

I plan to try and create my own custom investigation scenes when I finally get around to making a "regular" AA case (as opposed to the Omniscient Game) but I will have to take my time to make them.

[E.D.Revolution]

You might want to add something about presenting evidence and examining the scenes that may reveal storyline-important details and conversations.

[Jean Of mArc]

You might want to add something about presenting evidence and examining the scenes that may reveal storyline-important details and conversations.

Thanks ED. That was essentially the intention of the Information column. For example, if you need to present "Evidence C" to "Character A" in "Location G" to learn "J was lying about Q", then a row would be:

Location | Character | Talk | Present | Examine | Information

Location G| Character A | | Evidence C | | J was lying about Q.