Greetings coffee!
thank you for your swift reply! Playing your game is my pleasure and I greatly appreciate that you are making this otome and are so gracious as to post it gratis. Games take a massive amount of effort to make, and yours has the sprite animations (which I find adorable and are one of the features I greatly enjoy while playing) which make it even more work. So honestly, the thanks go to you!
I think it's great you're participating in the otome game jam and I wish you smooth sailing! The investigation into the potential combat bugs can easily wait until you have time to poke around and see if I failed another perception roll as I botched noticing the elite bond levels increasing at a slower rate than those of the common units.
I do want to report another potential bug which is: the double bonus seems to not be added to the total for players.
to give an example:
base rolls 1 + 12 + 12
with an element bonus of +1 and faction bonus of +1 which equals a total of 2
and double bonus which should double the sum of the bonus types [1 + 1] which should add another +2 to the total
1 + 12 + 12 + 1 + 1 = 27. It should have the added double bonus of +2 to make 29.
I want to say I agree with you fully that good side banter makes a game feel much more atmospheric and lived in as it gives some insight into the NPCs [for those not familiar with RPG [role-playing game] terms it stands for non-player characters], especially the LIs [love interests] and adds to the relationships. Your game is really good with that. The elites even sass each other and it's great! I really like seeing little bits of a character's personality shine through, especially in unexpected little ways the route talks don't get into that develop a sense of connection. And I must say, I was so pleasantly surprised to see the common units have bond level talks with the PC [player character]! I did not expect that and was so impressed especially given there are so many of them and each has his own story and things that matter to him.
To respond to your comment about being open to making adjustments to the grinding requirements, I want to say I find it really admirable you are open to listening and to potentially adjusting things based on player feedback. There are many developers who aren't as gracious nor accepting over adjusting functions of the mechanics so it's welcoming you're as nice as you are offering in earnest. Before I answer, I would like to make it clear I am well aware this game is a passion project you work on in your spare time and I wholeheartedly would like you to make the game you want to make rather than feel any pressure to accommodate this silly numpty who doesn't like grinding. With that said, in the spirit of honouring your efforts and not wanting to be obtuse, I will state I'd obviously prefer to have less grinding. Either in adjusting the loyalty required for bond levels 3 and up to be lower or to have more story induced combat rather than straight-up grind duelling. Though, to be honest, I'm not certain if the grinding I've done is actually necessary for story progression or if I only think it is. It's a bit opaque to me how to proceed at certain points so I'm taking a shot that Samuel has to be level 100 for the story to progress. I'm going to start a thread asking about this, actually. My point is: I'm aware I may be misunderstanding the story progression mechanics since I don't play phone-based games and am rather unfamiliar with that genre so I feel a little lost at times. That aside, it's a great game.
Thanks!