itch.io

I tried clicking on the bench and never had anything happen. If I can upgrade, then that's what I was missing. Thanks.

Is there a sprint button? I keep dying to the green ghosts? They move faster than me and rip me to shreds before I can empty more than a clip or two. Are there speed upgrades or something? Fun game, good start, but I can't survive once those show up.

There's actually another way. The rebelliousness is like that for captured slaves on purpose. It's supposed to simulate them being upset about you kidnapping them, and resisting. After a while (usually a week or less) they'll let you go to max obedience. I always treat my slaves nicely. If you're worried about them running away, slap on a pair of handcuffs. Problem solved.

When her sister comes to get her, there are options. 1 sends her away, another sends her away, but gives them food (and I believe money as well),  and the last one has you refuse. If you did it right, you'll get the girl back eventually, if not, she's gone forever. It takes a little time to find out. If after a month or two (in game) she isn't back, you lost her.

level up, you get points to spend. To up your max you need to use the lab, if I remember correctly, I haven't actually played in a little bit.

yeah, seeing his response to me, that's definitely the problem.

It'd help if we had more information.

There should be a log, that'd help find the error, and then you could also tell us how you set up your game.

They get closer to each other if they live in the communal room together, and I believe they also do so when working the same job. As they become closer they stop having problems as often. Other than that, I don't know much about this topic.

I mean, if you have a slave on cooking duty, and a few as public entertainers for income ( a pretty good job), you can tell the game to buy 200 food if you ever end up low. I never really have much trouble with that. I put them into the commons, and interact with them a few times to max the loyalty I can get until they get used to things. I don't often get theft, and when I do, it's almost nothing. Basically, my jail would be better off remodeled and re purposed.

I agree with a lot of what you've said here.

• Potential things that could be done would include making energy matter more: penalizing 0 energy to prevent endless adventuring as well as making even basic attacks cost a little bit of energy. This would require some way to get out of combat that isn’t a 10 cost flee option as it then becomes possible to get into an auto-loss situation.

Just saying, you do get penalized for low energy. At a point, your characters get the 'exhausted' debuff, which decreases damage dealt by 33%.

• I’d like to see, is a way for Fear to influence Rebellion, as that does double duty in making Fear relevant while at the same time making prisoners worth spending some Interactions per day on.

I don't like the idea of being 'feared', so I always play the 'good' master. That said, I never keep anyone in the prison. I put handcuffs on them and throw  them into the commons. I do agree that fear is pretty much useless as it is. Be nice and, unless you keep them under their luxury requirements, you have a 100% loyal and loving slave after a few interactions (after they 'get used' to their situation.), and never have to worry about them again.

the .import files are fine, I only have those as well, so it's not an issue,

The only errors are in resource loader lines 149 and 186, and scene format text.cpp line 439.

Again, I don't have these errors, or the OS you're using, so I'm not a huge help, but I find that when I have errors (usually from mods) fixing one fixes others. For instance, at one point, I had like...20? or so errors (I had been trying to combine like 3 mod's files into one, since a lot of them overwrite the others, didn't work after like...a week of trying, so I gave up xP) and I couldn't find the errors being mentioned for most of them, so I found and fixed one that I could find, and boom, like, half the errors vanished.

1. SCRIPT ERROR: _process: Invalid call. Nonexistent function 'show_error' in base 'Node (LoadScreen.gd)'.
2.    At: res://files/scripts/LoadScreen.gd:50.

This is saying that there's an error in the LoadScreen.gd file on line 50 (the only error involving code, repeated for every time it tries to report an error, from what I can tell)), while most of the rest of the log is complaining about missing textures and images.

Have you tried re-downloading it? I don't have what you're running it on, so I'm not sure if that's the cause.

when you start up strive, it should open two windows. the game and the console. The console shows background stuff like errors.

Have you messed with any files (mods or just general manipulation)? Have you checked the command prompt that tells you what errors happen?

If you have mods, or have modified the files personally, you might have some syntax errors in the files that it can't get past. Either way, the cmd window should show what's wrong, even if you can't understand it, copy/pasting it to show what's going on would help figure out what's going on.

perhaps, but there's no super obvious link to said wiki. I looked around, and didn't see a link. I could google it, sure, easy enough, but the point is this is out in front, at the moment, and easier to find if they're just looking through the recent threads.

I can't really help with cheats, but I can offer tips (though there might be a couple repeats).

If you started out in Wimborn (like most are apt to do) the best way to get money (in my opinion) is to get a slave with high beauty and make them commoner or higher (starting slave is a good choice, since you can give them the Natural Beauty trait, and they get the grateful trait eventually, allowing you to get them to Noble for higher stats without needing to worry about luxury., Maple is a good choice as well for it, when you get her), and set them as a public entertainer. It's probably not the best paying job, I'm sure brothel/sex related ones pay more, but it's pretty easy to get a slave started in it, and it doesn't have any potential downsides, nor does it seem to cause undue stress. I generally have 1-2 doing that, and I never really  need money. Keeping a slave one cleaning and another on cooking helps as well, so you don't need to worry about food, and the mansion is always clean.

For quests, it's not too hard, find the slaves you need as quickly as you can, the Human at the beginning is the only one with a slightly annoying requirement: 40 Beauty. Other than that one, you can just grab the first one you see and use them. Grab a slime and a demon as you can, the fluid substance and tainted essence are a bit tough to come-by and they are produced during sex with said races.

A tip for keeping slaves from running is to buy one pair of handcuffs for every slave you can't keep in jail. It's 100% no running away with a small stress penalty (in the beginning, they get a little stressed trying to do things with handcuffs on) that also raises obedience a bit per day. I personally only have one pair, but I take them off whenever they become accustomed to servitude, since then I just need to interact with them to keep obedience up while they start to like me. (I'm a nice guy, so none of my slaves are scared of me, my usual routine in the interactions for ones that aren't in love with me is 'Chat x 4', 'Comb Hair x 3', Hug x 3'. This gives a good amount of mood and no fear or stress, leading to love, rather than fear, and love, as far as I can tell, is quite good at keeping them in line. I never really need to do anything else with them once I get them to the point of love.

Finally, as I said in my post about racial stats, Wolves seem to be best for melee combat, not great for magic, but I usually don't use magic anyway. A wolf with 6 strength and a longsword has 37 power, whilea dragonkin, with it's natural +2 strength still ends up with 6 strength, and has 33 power. I can't really help with magic combat, but I'll give a quote from someone else.

Corruptedturtle: "As of last version however, I think fairy/drow with 6 ma, +tattoo, can pretty much 1 hit kill everything in the game with acid spit (except super golem and wyrm,  even so will take more than half its health)"

To upgrade stats, you have 2 options. 1) use gear that boosts it at the end of the day, or 2) use learning points. Learn points are easy to get, the best way I found is to switch to garden first while interacting with the slave (which adds a few 'turns' to the interaction, and then just spam the teach command. The garden, on occasion, lowers stress, meaning you get less stress from the teaching process. Do that until they're close to the top of the stress bar, but don't actually get to the top, then let them rest a few days to lower stress, preferably while doing the same process to other slaves. After all, max stats make all jobs more effective, since you can't do better than having the best stats for the job.

And that's about it from me for now.

Actually, a Wolf seems to be better than a Dragonkin. I have a Wolf with 6 Str, and a Dragonkin with 6 Str, both with a basic longsword, and the wolf does more damage. The wolf has Natural Beauty and Grateful (she's the starter slave) and the Dragonkin has Alcohol Intolerance, so they're the same aside from the the racial traits, and the Wolf's boost seems to outweigh the Dragonkin's +2 Str.

P.S. What if you don't have the race as a slave? You can't check what you don't have.

Oh, somehow overlooked that. Thanks.

Welp, I'll put the stats here to make it easier to find for others:

Human: Racial trait: Punishment expectations and praise lasts twice as long.

Stat potential: Strength - 5, Agility - 3, Magic - 2, Endurance - 4

-----------------

Elf: Racial trait: Preferred role based on confidence level.

Stat potential: Strength - 3, Agility - 5, Magic - 4, Endurance - 3

-----------------

Dark Elf: Racial trait: Temporal effects from potions and spells last longer.

Stat potential: Strength - 4, Agility - 5, Magic - 3, Endurance - 4

-----------------

Drow: Racial trait: sexual actions give 20% more mana.

Stat potential: Strength - 4, Agility - 5, Magic - 6, Endurance - 3

-----------------

Orc: Racial trait: wounds heal quicker.

Stat potential: Strength - 6, Agility - 3, Magic - 1, Endurance - 5

-----------------

Gnome: Racial trait: studying at Library twice as effective. 

Stat potential: Strength - 3, Agility - 3, Magic - 5, Endurance - 3

-----------------

Goblin: Racial trait: pregnancy progresses lot quicker. 

Stat potential: Strength - 3, Agility - 5, Magic - 3, Endurance - 3

-----------------

Fairy: Racial trait: build-up stress dissipates twice as fast.

Stat potential: Strength - 2, Agility - 5, Magic - 6, Endurance - 2

-----------------

Seraph: Racial trait: +4 speed in combat

Stat potential: Strength - 4, Agility - 5, Magic - 3, Endurance - 3

-----------------

Demon: Racial trait: laboratory modifications are cheaper.

Stat potential: Strength - 5, Agility - 4, Magic - 4, Endurance - 3

-----------------

Dryad: Racial trait: forage is 50% more effective.

Stat potential: Strength - 3, Agility - 4, Magic - 5, Endurance - 4

-----------------

Dragonkin: Racial trait: strength is increased.

Stat potential: Strength - 6, Agility - 4, Magic - 5, Endurance - 5

-----------------

Taurus: Racial trait: milking is more effective.

Stat potential: Strength - 5, Agility - 3, Magic - 2, Endurance - 6

-----------------

Slime: Racial trait: can't be modified in the lab, toxicity is nullified every day.

Stat potential: Strength - 4, Agility - 6, Magic - 3, Endurance - 3

-----------------

Boobsnek Lamia: Racial trait: Elongated Tongue.

Stat potential: Strength - 4, Agility - 5, Magic - 4, Endurance - 4

-----------------

Harpy: Racial trait: egg-laying is more effective.

Stat potential: Strength - 4, Agility - 5, Magic - 3, Endurance - 3

-----------------

Arachna: Racial trait: hunting is more effective.

Stat potential: Strength - 4, Agility - 4, Magic - 5, Endurance - 4

-----------------

Centaur: Racial trait: Increased Energy.

Stat potential: Strength - 5, Agility - 5, Magic - 3, Endurance - 5, Energy - 140

-----------------

Nereid: Racial trait: entertainment is more effective.

Stat potential: Strength - 3, Agility - 5, Magic - 5, Endurance - 3

-----------------

Scylla: Racial trait: cooking is more effective.

Stat potential: Strength - 5, Agility - 4, Magic - 5, Endurance - 4

-----------------

Cat: Racial trait: increased dodge chance.

Stat potential: Strength - 4, Agility - 6, Magic - 3, Endurance - 3

-----------------

Fox: Racial trait: escort assignment is more effective.

Stat potential: Strength - 4, Agility - 5, Magic - 4, Endurance - 3

-----------------

Woof Wolf: Racial trait: Detection bonus, Combat Power increased.

Stat potential: Strength - 5, Agility - 5, Magic - 2, Endurance - 4

-----------------

Bunny: Racial trait: prostitution related assignments cause only half stress.

Stat potential: Strength - 3, Agility - 5, Magic - 3, Endurance - 3

-----------------

Tanuki: Racial trait: store assignment more effective.

Stat potential: Strength - 4, Agility - 4, Magic - 4, Endurance - 4

Using this information one can decide what would be best for a combat team, a work force, etc. And this way no one has to look very far or hard for it.

I can't seem to find anything when searching this forum, so I'm asking here (searched for stats, searched for wiki, etc.), and I haven't figured out which file has that information.

Is there a list of what each races max stats are? For instance, a fox has different max stats than a dragonkin. I'm trying to figure out what the best race is for combat.

I find physical races are the best, I rarely ever use magic, and when I do it's usually heal.

EDIT: After thinking about it, and being reminded that there's a wiki, I googled it and found the link, I couldn't find it easily in the forums, and there's no link (that I could see) on the main page or the devblog, so I'll put it here. That way it's front and center for a little bit.

https://strive4power.fandom.com/wiki/Strive4power_Wiki

I agree with Krill, the way you have it sounds less like conquering and more like 'become friends with this place so they're willing to sell you the authority".

For a true 'Conquer' feeling, I'd suggest something closer to this: The influence 'meter' could just be changed to progress, the job could be made so that it's high risk, high reward. And you don't have to pay when you finish conquering, instead you get a random slave to either keep, or sell.

The risk/reward feature of the job could be something like: High chance to reduce slave's health by a lot, based on their endurance stat, the chance of this happening could be reduced by high combat stats (Strength, Agility, and Magic). However, while there's a high risk to your slave, you get a 'good' slave when you finish. The quality, and maybe amount, increasing as you conquer more areas. And finally, you get a 'tribute' (ie: a small amount of income) for each area conquered.

My reasoning for these ideas is this: When conquering some place, you're usually fighting, thus there's a good chance the slave will end up in combat, and thus hurt. However, when you've conquered an area, you capture the one(s) in charge and choose what to do with them, keep, kill, sell. This way, instead of a way to waste your gold, it becomes a legitimate way to collect gold/slaves. You could even add basic loot random events (you get a random item now and then) when you have a slave working the job.

Just my thoughts on the idea.

so a 10/10/10/9 would be fine then? xP

You have to start it during the quest, but I don't remember if you have to finish it during the quest as well. All I know is that if you don't start it, you can't have it.

"Have the affection high enough, remove the slave brand, and then propose. "

You use bramds? Plebian! The most rewarding thing is to have a slave that is working for you of their own free will, even though the way you met is likely:

Bandit: Give Muns!

Player: Nah. *fighting sounds* You're pretty good looking, I'll take you!

Bandit: What do you...? Ropes? ........Oh....crap....

Edit: If it wasn't obvious, this isn't a serious post. Just making it clear to not cause hurt feelings xP

Based on the error, I'd say it might be an enchant on your gear that isn't working properly. I could be wrong, but I've had it happen before, though mine was an error that made fights not load properly. Check for any gear with bonuses and try removing them. With any luck, that might help. If not, then you'll need to wait for a response from the creator.

I didn't find the last quest that hard. Hardest fight, sure, but I just taught my battle party heal, and used that.

This is basically all I had to do after the first turn:

Attack, attack, heal, heal.

Heal, heal, attack, attack.

Repeat as needed.

And of course I had to be weary of the cooldown on the heal spell.

Won first try without losing anyone. First turn I just hit F and auto-attacked.

I had 'maxed' slave's, having upgraded them in the lab, and the best armor/weapons.

I don't usually pay attention to the descriptions that much, mostly just the hair/fur color/pattern to try and get portraits to match as best I can. 'cause I just feel like it.

Honestly, I look at their Beauty and Race, and that's pretty much it when deciding if I want 'em.

+1 to the catching beasts idea. It's actually part of my original post, more or less. I was thinking of the option to catch ANYTHING (wolves, bears, slimes, wyverns, etc.) with specialized capture items (bear traps, heavy rope, chains, etc.) and use them as guards or even just decoration to say "I've got pet dragons just 'cause I can. What about you?"

For a version before the old sex system was removed, just about any sex act boosted it a little. For example, I would just spam kiss a few days in a row to max a slave's charm for public entertainer.

For a version after it was removed, I can't help. My laptop is so old and messed up, that I can't play the newest version without buying a new one. I'm thinking about it quite hard...I miss being able to play games and watch YouTube without the threat of my computer suddenly shutting itself off... Minecraft, oh how I miss thee.

Everything you just said is my main playstyle.

I don't kill/rape/beat anyone, I don't use any sex related jobs, or any jobs, really, except Public Entertainer. The only time others touch my slaves is when I use the Interaction>Sex option for a 4some to get some Mana if I feel I need it. I so use the lab, but only for the  battle slaves so I can win the last fight of the game, which, even with maxed slaves and good equipment, is quite tough. I pretty much never use the Farm, and I only attack thugs/bandits. I also never buy quild slaves. It's usually easier to buy rope and grab one from the wild.

All in all, you're just like me xP

Yeah, I've thought of that too. But they're supposed to be rare in the lore of the game, so it makes sense you can't start as one.

I could have sworn you could add fur/scales in the lab, but after a quick check with a human slave, there doesn't seem to be. That is something I'm sure many would enjoy the ability to do. Even if only for the ability to then enhance it to make the slave more effective in combat.

I don't generally have anything to do with penises,  other than my own, so I never touch that option in the lab.. I like sexing 'em up with mah peen, but I also like boobs. Best of both worlds xP 

I prefer not getting 'em preggers, it's just a waste of time for me. I'm not a pregnancy fetishist. And I just don't see the point in pregnancy. You lose the slave for a few days, and get a randomly generated generic slave. Not really that impressive when you can get one that meets your standards by just hunting for 'em.

But that's just my opinion. Maybe you'll get your wish. As I said, this is just a place to post and discuss. Whether it's added is up to the creator.

This is true, the ability to raise beauty is quite lacking. There are 3 ways to do it, one being temporary.

1) as you said, lab. +20 is a decent boost.

2) the beauty mixture you can buy, it's temporary though.

3) you can use tattoos to increase it by another 15. Using a nature tattoo increases beauty by 5, and, upon a quick test, can only be stacked 3 times for a total boost of 15.

So, 35 is the highest permanent boost we can do at the moment.

It is possible for a perfect beauty score, but only if you find a 65+ base. Possible, but rare. Try the deep areas.

Edit: I believe certain equipment also boosts beauty, but I'm not 100% sure. Can't remember off the top of my head.

There are two ways to get upgrade points.

1) Do the Main quests. If you do the quests for the mage's guild, you get points. about 10-15 per, I believe.

2) Sell slaves. The better the slave's rank and stats, the more money you get. But you also get upgrade points for high rank slaves.

These are the only ways to get them. It's a little grind-y to get a decent number of 'em, but given time, you can get as many as you need.

Here's the best way I know of. It's really complicated, and hard to accomplish. You ready?

Keep their luxury higher than they need.

Simple as that. Get them to max obedience, and keep them in enough luxury that they don't complain. If you do that, they will slowly come to like you. I don't know if more luxury means faster love, but that's the best way I've been able to find. I think there's a spell that increases affection, but I can't remember off the top of my head. And, finally, you can temporarily boost their affection a bit by periodically, not too often, about once a week or so, giving them praise/a present.

It's not too hard, really. But if they ever start complaining about living conditions/quality of life, you need to add more luxury. As long as they're above that line, they'll slowly begin to love you.

That is correct. When you click on an upgrade, it should, to the left, give a description. It'll tell you the required points in green, and then mention the gold needed in yellow. You need both the money AND the points. It gets expensive :/

At the moment, there are very few ways to increase the maximum attributes. If you build a Laboratory you can use it to up a few attributes. There's a surgery/experiment for increasing Agility, one for Strength, Beauty, Awareness, Oral Sex skill, and, if they have scales/fur, one for Defense. You can change a few other things there as well, but they're pretty much all cosmetic and don't really affect anything.

Other than that, I know of no way to increase base attributes. So, if you haven't already, get a lab, assign a girl as lab assistant, and upgrade the girl you want. It requires Mana, time, and usually items. Don't spam it though, give a slave some time between operations. There's a feature in the game where if you use too many potions or perform too many operations in the lab on a single slave within a certain amount of time, they might end up mutating. Sebastion, who you meet during a quest where you need to make a potion, explains it.

So, yes, you will have extras, but at the moment, you'll only be able to increase Strength and Agility via the lab, both of which go up by 2, meaning anything above 4 extra points are a waste of time. When you have 4+ points you can't use on an unmodified slave, just ignore their levels from then on, unless you feel you just want to.

They're called 'free' but you still need to pay for the upgrades. Make sure you have the gold to get it. Don't worry, I was slightly confused about it at first too. xP

recently there has been a change in the way it's done. I don't know what version you're playing, but here are two ways. Check the other if one doesn't work.

1) In slightly older versions you would go to their interaction screen, and there would be a button for changing their gear.

2) I'm not 100% sure if it's been done to the public build yet, hence my mentioning the first option, but in more up to date versions you equip items in the inventory screen. You would open it, click through the tabs to sort the items, and click on the slave you want to use it on. Some options will show up, allowing you to use/equip the item.

Ok, so you increased her grade. Higher grade slaves require more luxury, which can be gained in a few ways.

1) there are items you can buy to equip to her that can increase luxury. The first, and easiest to get, is the silk underwear/boxers from the market in Wimborn. They increase luxury for the slave it's equipped to.

2) in Frostford you can buy a Gold Ring. Identical to the underwear, but uses a different equip slot.

3) There is an upgrade to increase the luxury of all residents of the mansion in the upgrades menu. There are 2 levels to it, and it's a bit expensive.

4) And finally, giving them their own Personal Room increases luxury.

I might be missing something, but I can't think of anything else. I generally give my girls a ring and new underwear, upgrade the mansion, and leave it at that. If they still complain, I'll give them a personal room.

There are also traits that reduce, or, I believe, outright remove the luxury requirement even if they're high grade. Maple, a unique fairy slave, has one that decreases her luxury requirement, so, even though she's Noble rank, the highest one, she barely needs any luxury.

As for a list of the Ranks, if you click the magnifying glass next to a slave's name, and hover your mouse over their current rank, it'll show the list of ranks at the top of the pop-out. And I'll post the list here as well:

Slave>Poor>Commoner>Rich>Noble

A note I feel you might want to know: The higher the girl's rank, the higher her max Beauty (and other stats) is. So, when you're out hunting slaves, the higher their beauty, the higher their rank might potentially be. Also, there is no downside to dropping the rank of a slave.  If you get a slave to Noble, max it's stats (courage, confidence, wit and charm) at 100, you can then drop it to slave to reduce it's luxury requirements and it will keep it's stats. But if they ever drop, you will need to up their rank to get it back up.

Hope this helps.

*realizes how long his post is and starts freaking out* I always do this! And this isn't helping! *runs off*

If you're playing a version before the old sex system was removed, as it sounds like you are, there is a sex tab on the slaves themselves. You go there. It starts with just kissing and massage I believe, but each action gives a little affection. After enough affection (the highest needed is 20-25) you can click on 'unlock sex' or whatever the button says, and use the affection points to unlock more advanced things. Petting (fingering/handjob/other hand related acts), basic sex (missionary/anal/other basic penetration acts), Bondage (self explanatory), etc.. It's not really needed, but it's one of the only ways to get the more, niche sex acts.

In the interaction mode, the most extreme you can do is whipping, really I believe, otherwise it's just fondling, kissing, fingering, etc. Nothing real extreme. It needs to be fleshed out, but it's not bad. It gets you lots of mana for almost no effort, doesn't take your energy, and can get foursomes going without having to unlock it with affection.

Basically, this sex mode is for generating tons of mana, while the other one is used mainly for intimacy purposes, say, for when you like a girl(or guy/futa, your preference xP) and want to do specific things. Not that any of them are particularly descriptive.

Anyway, long answer short, If you're playing a version from before it was removed, there's a tab for sex on the slave page, looks like 2 hearts. If you're playing a version from after it was removed (patreon only at the moment I believe? I could be wrong) then they haven't removed the references to the system.

When I'm not doing a 'unique girls only' run, I generally just go for one of each race (including the uniques, which I still grab). My character and starter are chosen to maximize early combat potential (either cat or wolf, usually). After that I get a third decent combat race, and then just play leisurely until I have a slave of each race. That's my 'usual' play-style. But I've done it so often that it's almost second nature at this point, hence my 'challenge runs'.

Tossing your first slave? Kinda harsh in my opinion. I know it's just a game, but...they're like...your closest friend in most of the options (family, even, if you want to go that way). I just can't do it. xD Good way to up the difficulty though.

Progression is a little...jumpy and not super rewarding, I agree. The only places that unlock via the story are the areas in the Elven territory. I can't remember if you can revisit the cave from the second to last story mission...not that there's anything there to find.

I typically ignore Strength until I have Endurance/Agility maxed. I feel they're the most important stats. Magic Affinity? Not so much. I haven't been able to make a magic build really viable yet. I always end up defaulting to melee. Not to mention how tedious it is to have to choose a target every time. It's sooooo much easier to just hit F. xP

Nah, It's not just you. The start is always a bit slow. Hunting is one of the best things you can do for the first job for slaves, since in the beginning the first few slaves'll probably be your battle slaves, if only for a bit, and fighting gives courage which boosts hunt productivity. I usually do this until I can set a few to public entertainer, one of the best, and easiest, jobs to make money from. Then I just set someone to cook and boom! Self sustained.

As for the other points: I do agree with a few of them.

Food: Definitely a tad annoying. You lose sooo much just 'cause you have a lot of it.

Rope: I always end up forgetting to take some and end up missing a great find :/

Communal Limit: A bit annoying, true, but it makes sense. There's no way you could fit infinite amounts of people into a single room.

Fights: You can win in the beginning, but yes, it's harder than it used to be.

Upgrades: It is a bit annoying to get the points to upgrade, but not THAT hard. I farm basic thug encounters around wimborn for slaves and sell 'em off. Only when I REALLY need to upgrade. Most of the time, I just get the luxury upgrade, the lab, the alch room, and start upgrading living space. I ignore most of the other upgrades unless I feel I NEED it. The Farm upgrade, for instance, I don't like being a jerk, so if I ever use it, I make it not break the girl you put in.

And that's about it.

So, basically, your answer to the topic question is: It's too hard/time intensive.

One thing you can do about the time issue is: build up the slaves required for quests early. For example: When you have a chance, go out and collect slaves. If you see a traveling taurus, or happen to be training in the area where fairies show up, nab 1 or 2 for later. While you don't need 'em, you can keep 'em for yourself. Then when you DO need 'em, you can go 'Oh! That's right! I have 'name'! Quest done!' It'll let you proceed quicker. If only a little. I can beat the game pretty quick by just remembering the requirements for late game quests. My only stumbling block is the Golem, honestly. It hits hard, and doesn't drop easy.

Quick note though: You can lose the chance to get the unique slave Maple if you just instantly turn in the fairy quest. Talk to her first. I don't know if you have to do all the talking before you turn it in, but you have to at least start the side-quest for her during that quest.

I'm just curious. How do you all see the difficulty of the game? Is it Hard? Too easy? Somewhere in the middle?

I personally find it quite easy. Fun, but easy. I can beat it so quick, with little to no real effort put in. To make up for this, I have played through while starting in Frostford. Hard start, but once you can get to another city it starts...'snowballing' *budum-tsh*.

I've also tried only using unique girls (yris, maple, trish, emily, etc.), but that too eventually gets too easy. The hardest fights in the game are the golem and the last story fight. But as long as my party all has heal, I can have 2 heal and 2 attack, and sort of alternate. While still not easy, per se, it does make it less difficult. I won without a single casualty.

So, I'm asking you. Do you have 'rules' you play by to make the game harder? Or do you find it hard enough as is? I'm just kinda curious.