itch.io

Um... if I may, I want to ask about two things that catch your eye in LonaRPG.

 First, why can’t you pick up things while remaining in stealth mode, but at the same time you can throw a knife into the enemy's butt in a breath of steps, remaining unnoticed? Is it possible to make it so that you can pick up things in stealth mode?

 Secondly, is it possible to somehow make sure that the save on Doom difficulty is not deleted immediately after loading, but is only overwritten - after all, if the game closes before Lona goes to bed (Nuclear War, Attack of the Martians, Rising from Hell, Attack on Titans, regular blackouts, etc ..)...?

Thank you for your reply. It was clear to me from the beginning that there was no chance that such a system would be implemented into the game. I just wanted to show my point of view, because, in my opinion, players now simply have no incentive to suffer, exploring the world. I just hope that some of these ideas can find their way into this game. The maximum is that someone will make a modification someday.

As I suspected about Doom :)

And I'm glad that your page has been restored.

There is simply no motivation to play honestly in LonaRPG. On Hard/Hell difficulty, all suffering is eliminated by the Save/load system. So Lona will end up, for example, in slavery, only if the player is VERY bored. Doom difficulty- is generally the easiest of all for players. Doom is played only by hardcore players, who know almost everything about the game - bugs, glitches, gimmicks, exploits, etc. Are they suffering? -Do not make me laugh! Players simply have NO motivation to suffer. Why suffer in vain when you can just load a saved game? I’m generally silent about Doom - it’s not the players and Lona who suffer from the game, but the game that suffers from the players and Lona.

If a progression system like the one I described was added to the game, Hard/Hell players who get into trouble, WILL suffer until the very end rather than loading a save game, because there will be a reward for their suffering. And if there is a reward, then there is also motivation to suffer for it. Hardcore players will also suffer on Doom because they will become less careful and will start making mistakes that will land them in sticky situations. In addition, Doom will be played not only by hardcore players who know everything about the game, but also by less hardcore players - and there they will suffer from their mistakes and ignorance. They will suffer greatly. But not in vain. After all, there will also be a reward for their suffering. This means that they will not quit the game, but will continue to suffer.

I made a mistake - all my posts were written on behalf of a player who will try to play LonaRPG honestly and from scratch. Because of this, someone might think that I just want to make the game easier. But everything is somewhat different. I want to show my idea from a different angle: LonaRPG positions itself as a *game about suffering*. But there is simply no suffering in this game. And I'll explain why.

Great, here it is, my mistake. I'll try to explain below.

I have one question- you are a gamedesigner of this game?

I would love it if LonaRPG was more playable for many gamers without losing any of its hardcore appeal and brutality, and it was more like a game exacly. But if the goal is just to create a brutal, unforgiving gaming world inhabited only by a elite few hardcore players, who will dig into the game without asking for anything in return, then so be it. It's just a bit of a shame to see the wasted potential of a great game with deep mechanics that will only be played by few hardcore players (will explore the game anyway) and bunch fappers/shlickers (players for 1 hour).

Okay, super short version - now the game can only attract those who want to see Lona get raped, or the fierce hardcore players. The rest will simply pass through. if you need explanations why this is so, they are in my posts that no one reads.

I finally have  formed an idea that I want to convey - LonaRPG is a large and very complex and hardcore game. It's not meant to be played like a roguelike, but in its current form it wants to be played that way - it has a ton of features that take a long time to get to, and are very easy to lose if you make a mistake. But this is not Crypt of the Necrodancer, where the player loses everything upon death, but the races last 15-20 minutes maximum. Nor Dead Cells, where you can gain an advantage for future runs and accumulate progress even if you lose. Here you accumulate experience and prepare for a long time, and you can easily lose everything. This is extremely tedious and will turn off many players after a couple of attempts, who will get tired of losing everything and constantly starting from scratch.

If this game was intended to be that way - a purely hardcore game, purely for hardcore players who don’t need anything other than hardcore for the sake of hardcore, then fine. But if we consider LonaRPG specifically as *a game for players, not hardcore players*, then it has serious problems - it requires a lot of time and effort, but gives practically nothing in return. Game does nothing to motivate the player to explore her world. Game doesn't encourage player to try to figure it out. Game doesn't reward risk in any way. Game does not in any way encourage the player to go somewhere or do anything (unless they are complete masochists). *Why should I, as a player (not a hardcore player) play it, go somewhere if I know for sure that if I fail, I will lose everything, and then I will spend many tens of hours trying to restore it all, only to then lose everything the same way?*

 At the moment, all that the game can offer to smooth out this moment is to constantly save and load, when you save before some action, do it, then load if you don’t like the result (on Doom difficulty there is no such thing). And also giving birth to a child to have 1 (one!) chance of error, and this process can realistically last more than a week (unless you have a huge pile of money to buy keys at the hotel and just skip the time... but this pile of money I still need to get it somewhere). Or take advantage of other opportunities that you still need to find out about. Without a smooth system for saving and accumulating progress, this game does nothing to keep the average player engaged.

As a result, the game will turn into a huge sandbox with a huge range of possibilities, but only a few will be able to play it; the rest will simply get tired of standing still, even if they are doing something, because the game simply cannot retain players who want their efforts to be somehow rewarded. Play for a couple (tens) of hours to see how Lona is constantly raped in all positions - yes. But to try to understand the game mechanics deeper, the game simply does not give players the motivation to do this.

Well, it's all of i want to say. Good luck with this project.

P.S. Players say that Dark Souls 1 is a *hardcore game*. I will say that Dark Souls 1 is not a *hardcore game*, unlike Dark Souls 3, but a *game with bad game design*.

This isn't noticeable right now because updates are released frequently, but the closer the game gets to its final form, the more this issue will pop up.

Well, i say all of i want. In my opinion, the current system wastes too much of the player's time, which causes game fatigue and greatly discourages players who want to join this game, and in fact they cannot even leave the city without being immediately sold into slavery or dragged away into the cave, where Game Over will begin for them. It’s not for me, of course, to decide how to further develop the game, but I sincerely believe that the system I proposed would stimulate the interest of most players in exploring the game, and not just the hardcore ones. At the same time, the hardcore nature of the game will not suffer, only the convenience of gameplay will increase and the players will have at least some goal other than *go wherever you want, suffer whatever you want for the sake of suffering*.

But if game has progress system. *If i went out into the street, i died or fell into slavery. I want to play it safe - I’m sitting in an inn and farming experience and children. I gave birth to a child, now I can go out, but only to find out that I didn’t grind enough. Died. Wait... i can save 12% of my previous XP after reborn? Not so much, but still... I be solded to deepones- i gave birth deepone baby- i try to escape- i died. Wait, i can reborn as human or smelly human? And i can save 22% of my max XP? Not bad. I immediately went out of city after reborn- i I ended up with goblins- i give up- wait, i can reborn as human or smelly human? But in this run i have no babies? Also i can save 25% of my max XP? Good! If i reach any new end, even bad end, and born children from different races, i can increase saved % of my max reached XP? I want to explore this game! Also i dont need so hard grinding at start the new run. Damn! I was die in puridicator.... HOW?! I got achievement... *purified*... you kidding on me. Now i can reborn as human or smelly human, and save of..... 26% of my max XP? Even so? Cool! Even achievements in this game does matter!*

I know it. Also you can switch to *Hard*, gave birth in 10 game days, and then switch to *Hell*. But it's just exploiting of game mechanics. On *Hell* you need at least 70 (10+60 for human baby) days to born (140 keys to skip) 120*550= 77000 TP. You can reach them, if you colleth them on *Hard* and then reborn on *Hell* difficulty. But if you start at *Hell* without this sum, and you dont know of all game possibilities, you doomed to very long grind through prostitution (and this can work only 1 time- for 2 times, you need to earn *2 more money)

This wouldn't be a so big problem if the game provided all the features on *Hard*, but it only reveals all its features and mechanics on *Hell*

Your view of the game is that of a professional who knows every pixel in the game. My view is that of a novice player who knows almost nothing about the game.

From a beginner's perspective, the game doesn't reward me in any way for exploring it.*If i went out into the street, i died or fell into slavery. I want to play it safe - I’m sitting in an inn and farming experience and children. I gave birth to a child, now I can go out, but only to find out that I didn’t grind enough. Died, reborn. Repeated. I repeated it again. I decided that i sick of this grind - I immediately went out in search of adventure outside the city - I ended up with goblins - I died - I lost all my progress. I sick of this inn, i sick of this babymaking, i delete this game.*

But if you die without having a baby, everything is wasted. This is not for additional bonuses, but in order not to waste time, and to give players an incentive to explore the world. Otherwise, most players will never be able to get to 90% of the content of this game. Of course, you can indulge in savescumming, but it will no longer be a game, but an abuse.

I’ll try to give an example - if you find yourself in slavery in a mine, without having high skills to get out, or a child to be reborn, it’s easier for you to load a save than to try to somehow survive. Thus, this scenario simply does not make sense. And if there is a progression system, the player will already know that he will not lose everything he has, and will try to survive as long as possible in order to, at least, transfer as much experience as possible to the next rebirth.

You can say - *just have a baby and everything will be ok*, but on *Hell* it’s about 4 days of time (not game days, but real days), and on *Doom* it’s more than a week. This is a waste of time when you don’t play for several days, but just grind experience, waiting for the birth of a child, for fear of losing all your progress. And you need to repeat this EVERY run.

   Good afternoon. Sorry for Google english. I've been following this project for a long time, and I had an idea (I don't know if it was already proposed). What if Lona had a progression system similar to the one in Wizard's Climber? There, at each new start, the player could save part of the accumulated experience (15% initially) without any conditions. At the same time, for certain achievements, the amount of transferred experience increased. In addition, the percentage was taken from the maximum experience achieved on best run, not from the previous run. Also there, when certain actions were performed, it was possible to start another run under different conditions.

   As I see it, the initial transferred experience is 0%. If Lona can give birth to a child, then this will 1- permanently increase the percentage of transferred experience (for 10%, as example), 2- will give a constant opportunity to be reborn into this race, regardless of whether Lona gives birth in the future. With the increase in the number of children from different races, the possibility of constant rebirth into them is added, and an even greater increase in transferred experience (from each race only once). And also the transferable experience increases from achieving new endings (once for each ending). To keep everything fair, you can introduce such a system only on difficulties 2 and 3. Or make sure that each difficulty has its own indicator. Perhaps all this can be built into the game’s achievement system.

   Why am I writing this - most runs in LonaRPG begin with the fact that *Lona goes to the nearest bar, where she makes a backup copy of herself with the first guy she comes across, so as not to lose experience points after death*. And the progress system, in my opinion, would allow us to avoid this, which would add incentive for players to try different approaches to the game, without fear of resetting all progress (sitting in a bar and waiting for the birth of a child for several days in real time on 2 or 3 difficulties is not very funny).

  Thank you for your attention and hard work. I wish you good luck in the coming year.