Deleted 1 year ago
I can agree with these points. As I've said earlier, Lipstor should be discussing their mental health in private, either with friends, family, or professionals. I think you're right that it's probably not best to post one's personal mental health issues online. After all, not everyone wants to hear about someone else's struggles with mental help, especially in a forum that has nothing to do with the topic. I agree that the dev should have more respect for their own views and goals for their game. I did mention earlier that "I think the most important person to please in this situation [individually developing a game] would be yourself [Mofu]." Especially since I don't think it's possible for the dev to please everyone in this situation, at least not in a reasonable time frame or manner. I do wish to caution you however, Yamaho, that I think it would be best for you to make sure that you're not contributing to off-topic or otherwise hurtful discussion. Just, try to be mindful and civil and to stay on the topic of the game's development. Thanks for taking the time to read my comment.
Thanks for the information Lipstor and I'm sorry for your situation. If you have more private means of communicating with Mofu and others who have concern for your wellbeing, you may want to use those channels instead of this open forum, though. I would still urge you to find more professional help though if you're still having suicidal thoughts. Resources for mental health varies depending on one's location, so I would like to suggest you take some time to take care of yourself and seek whatever help you think you may need. I would also say it may be wise to take a short break from this forum to help you reduce what seems to be a large stressor for you.
I do have a question, though. Why can't you delete your own comments? Or is there some misunderstanding? I ask because I was just able to make a post on the comments and then delete it. Refreshing the page doesn't even show a "message deleted" notification either. Do you have any ways of proving that your message was deleted directly by an Itch.io moderator? I've reviewed the Itch.io community rules at the following link: https://itch.io/docs/general/community-rules and it is possible for Itch.io moderators to remove and even suspend accounts if certain posts are deemed too inappropriate. I just wanted to point out a possible discrepancy with you claiming that you can't delete your own posts.
Lipstor, I'm curious about Cynthia's event. What fix exactly does it require? I just tested the Cynthia event on the latest version as of now and didn't notice any clear major bugs with it. The only thing I can note is that after defeating Cynthia, there is an exit to the left that is not active. I know the game's not complete so I expect there to be some loading zones that haven't been implemented yet.
Ah, I get it. You want there to be something that hints the player that they should bring the dog with them before entering Cynthia's area. I can understand that idea. The wall idea is one solution, but I'm sure there's other solutions as well that Mofu may be trying to test. Mofu did mention adding some sort of quest log. Maybe the quest log could hint towards needing the dog to trigger the event. I wouldn't say that adding a wall is a "fix" to Cynthia's event, rather that what triggers Cynthia's even should be more obvious, expecially if Cynthia will be a required fight to progress. I can understand that you're frustrated since you have to often answer the question of how to initiate Cynthia's event, but maybe Mofu will think of some way to indicate to the player that the dog is necessary in future updates where Mofu adds more story or mechanics.
The idea seems sound, but if Mofu doesn't want to add it, it is ultimately their choice. I don't think Mofu means any disrespect to you when they decide that they don't want to add something you suggest. It may be a bit dissapointing, but I don't think it's anything to need to continuously ask for. If Mofu said they're not interested in the choice before, they probably won't change their mind now.
Lipstor, I understand that but the game still is in beta, so we don't know if the dog mechanic may come up elsewhere or if Cynthia is even a required encounter to finish the game. In other words, we don't have the full context of the game yet. Besides, It's not uncommon in games to have secrets or situations where the solution is very vague and even nonsensical. When thinking about this my thoughts immediately go to Super Mario RPG Legend of the Seven Stars, a game for the Super Nintend or Super Famicom. In that game there is a hidden quest to obtain the ultimate equipment, however the game never obviously mentions or hints at this quest in any way. The quest is not necessary for finishing the game, but there are very slight hints to its existence. At a certain point in Super Mario RPG Legend of the Seven Stars, the player gets a key item that has seemingly no use at first. Later in the game, there is a secret path that has no indication that the player can walk onto it to find an NPC that gives the player another item that would seem like it has no purpose if not for the fact they had the previous item. In order to make use of the two key items, the player has to back track to an area that they had already visited and then find a secret path that wasn't there when they were in that area before. After presenting the two items to another hidden NPC the player has an event that eventually leads them to the secret ultimate gear.
Like I said, the sequence of events in Super Mario RPG Legend of the Seven Stars to get the ultimate gear is very vague. However, by giving the player the knowledge that there is something that they have yet to find a use for, they start wondering what they can do with this one hint that they have. Cynthia presents a similar situation. An average player may not think to have the dog trail them to Cynthia. Once the player finds Cynthia and sees that they have no way to further interact with her, they begin to wonder what the solution could be. Now this is where the player could do a multitude of things. The player could go onine and ask how to progress with Cynthia, as you, Lipstor, say man people do. Another possibility is that the current player is very persistent and actually likes to try to figure things out themself. So, this persistent player begins testing things on Cythia, such as weapons, gear, actions, items, and whatever else they can think of. Eventually they may give up and go complete other content. At some point the game tells the player that they can have followers, and they may also remember the strange dog that they didn't interact with earlier. The player then may try interacting with Cythia while they have a follower. Maybe they'll try with a puppet first, and see nothing happens. So then the player goes back to the dog and tries to see if they can get it to follow. Once the player gets the dog to follow they then try to interact with Cynthia and realize they've found the solution. This whole scenario tells the player that they are rewarded for attempting multiple different interactions. Maybe they are a bit annoyed that the quest was so vague, or the opposite, maybe the player is satisfied that they figured out the solution on their own.
Both the possible players I presented for the Cynthia sequence, are the same possibilities that occured from the Super Mario RPG Legend of the Seven Stars secret quest. I think both those possibilities are good for the game as a whole. In the possibility that the player decides to go look up the solution, or ask for the solution online, the player sparks conversation about the game. That's good! It's good for players to go online and ask for advice or talk about the game, it helps to keep a community. The other possible player that decides to continue to find their own solution for Cynthia's even will feel good that they figured it out on their own and that the game didn't disrespect their capabilities by making the solution too obvious.
I'm not saying that making Cynthia's event solution easier is a bad thing, but I can see why Mofu may not want to add such a hint as well, since it is a common thing in a game to add content that's so well hidden that players may not find the content for a long time. Regardless, the game is still in development and maybe the context of the rest of the game may make Cynthia's event more easy to solve. Like I said, I don't think Mofu means to disrespect you by not adding your solution. I think it's good that Mofu is actually deciding for themself what they want to do with Cynthia's event. It shows that they may not be as pliant as we think. I think you, Lipstor, in particular should be glad, since you've always seemed so worried that Mofu may add whatever is asked of them to the game. Mofu saying that they don't think the issue that you've mentioned with the Cynthia event is important shows that Mofu still has his own vision for what they wants to do with the game. Maybe all the other suggestions Mofu did add before might of been because the game is still early in development and that Mofu views now as a good time to experiment with certain content and abilities. Mofu could also be a bit over zealous and was trying to add too many ideas at once. Maybe now Mofu is realizing that they need to be more concise with their own development, and work on larger scale problems and content before trying to correct minor things. I hope this may help you consider other possibilities for development, Lipstor. Thank you for reading.