Thoughts on game play that aren't bug reports go here: frustrations, feature requests, ponderings etc.
It's currently just an on-off toggle for the hypno effects in combat. So for people who just find them annoying (or if you're trying to get to a certain point quickly for whatever reason), it's an option. Currently it makes the game a bit too easy, as I don't amp up the normal attacks to compensate. But I'll probably look into doing so in the future. Essentially though, it's a tool to let people choose their own playstyle: battlefuck included, or just enjoying the stand-alone scenes.
oh I kept getting one shot by his attack (and the look when I tried guarding) so I thought it was a fight you were only meant to lose
The tags in the main description cover most of it. It's a hypnosis/mind-fuckery game that's big on playing with loss of power and control, a lot of basic sub/dom stuff. A lot of "humiliation" but not watersports or anything like that, just in the sense of being knocked down a peg, shown your place. I think you could summarize both of these games as "A smug bunny gets taken down a peg, sexually (and struggles not to get addicted to it)."
Oh believe me, RNG is FAR better than it used to be. I say this a lot, but RPGMaker RNG is crazy. You can tell it to pick 1-3, and it'll give you five 1s in a row sometimes. I've had to get used to coding around it. And yeah, stun can be annoying, but it's needed, because without it it's far too easy to steamroll the enemies in the early/mid game. I also have a back-off built in on that so in theory once you've hit 3 battles with stun your third should be guaranteed stun-free.
But I would say in general, if you're managing your items carefully, healing with your skill outside combat etc, you should only have have to save-scum maybe two or three times in a typical playthrough (and sometimes never). And while not wasting items is important, I wouldn't worry TOO much about saving them once you hit the end of mid-game (right around the end of Entertainment District I). There should be plenty for what you need to do.
It's definitely and deliberately structured differently. The hyenas are weaker than the boars, but also lighter on their feet. As a consequence, the battles, and the hypno, are designed to hit weaker, but also much faster. Fights in CS1 were this long, dragged out thing. Whereas in GT, they go by pretty fast, and the hypno, while a little longer in some ways, is designed to really only happen once per battle, if it happens at all. Even the attack animations are edited to come in faster.
The consequence of all of this is that it's a little more light and airy: you can go from group to group, sometimes three at a time if you're feeling risky, without recharging in the early game. But because it moves so fast, you also REALLY have to know what you're doing with items and health management, because there isn't as much margin for error. It'd still call it far from punishing (I'm assuming you know about the heal ability outside of battle), and not so much save scumming most of the time as just proper resource management. Once you get the one-two-three punch of Hard Knocks, recharge and basic attack honed a lot of it is actually pretty easy. But again, fast means that everything tends to be resolved quickly, whether in your favor, or not.
I should also clarify that using items in battle is in no way "cheating," the system is very much built with the assumption that you'll be using full heals to buy yourself time in certain situations. Is winning possible without doing so? Sure, but that WILL take a lot of save scumming, as the balance wasn't designed with that in mind.
I imagine, with me desiring to play the game the way I want, I have to git gud
Thanks for being so mindful and writing replies! I'll be sure to comment if I get anything objective and constructive to add on it, I'm not playing Gutter Trash only once!
And to also clarify, the "itemless" comment was a challenge I did in CS:1, so not anything I'm arguing about, but yes, the game was not at all balanced around it - It was fun thought.
Wait, to clarify, is an effect persisting after battle and into the next? Because that absolutely shouldn't be happening. If you're just talking about avoiding going under the hypno during a fight though:
A little tip first: you can actually get the exact name of a status effect and what it does by hovering over it. They have tool tips now! I think you're talking about the "Open" one, the purple silhouette icon when submission gets to 100. There is indeed a way of dealing with it. Two ways actually. One is just to manage time: deal with the enemies before they can cycle you in. The other involves a special item. To find it, pay attention to the graffiti.
Nope. I left it on the sprite sheets just in case, but if "flash dodge" does show up, report it, because that's a bug. I know it's slightly immersion-breaking, but the idea I'm working with now is that he has a different extra skill each chapter that's limited to that chapter. Just one of those arbitrary gating things for the sake of gameplay, like losing your weapons at a certain point in an FPS. Plus trying to balance around an ever-increasing list of special abilities would be a nightmare. Ordinary combat + sex combat + ONE special is as much as I want to contend with.
Lot to parse here, so forgive me if I miss or gloss over something. In general, you should have quite a few opportunities to use Hard Times if you're saving it for ambushes and the big fights at the end. And those are exactly where it's needed, and should be used.
I should say that in the normal, middle-of-the-road fighting style for this chapter, you should expect some battlesex to happen. The goal isn't to avoid it, so much as to prevent it from backing you into a corner and forcing a loss. If you want to try to style and avoid it you can of course, but the balance, especially in the later game, isn't designed with that in mind, so it's going to be challenging. I can re-play the last three fights with hypno stuff on again eventually just to test, but from memory it shouldn't take more than one or two reloads to get past them if you're saving after each, and that's just if you're unlucky.
And that soft lock on the final 3 fights when lacking the special Dazzle for Hard Times is intentional. Right now it's just a bit frustrating, but eventually it will end up forcing players who screwed up their item management to go the host club route instead.
Thank you for responding, I will address each paragraph in turn. To begin, would you be more specific? There are after all more Hard Times than there are ambushes, so do you mean to say than one should be used for any particular encounters? Seeing as one of the big fights is just a trainer fight is that a situation where Hard Times is intended to be used, since if so in my initial playthrough I did use one for each ambush and those fights. Though further elaboration leads into the next paragraph.
You cannot prevent it from backing you into a corner and forcing a loss if you cannot avoid it. This is why I was asking specifically for the "rate" you expect the player to go through. I would absolutely recommend playing the way the player does. To break down the combat from my experience:
1) For standard encounters you have one turn before they start building up submission (sub). If you defeat none that means they can catch you as early as that turn, but that is not usual. If you have 180 TP for three Hard Knocks there will most likely be one or two sub triggers on you, but the enemy will be down to one injured, and you can defeat them before they provoke a serve. If you can only afford two Hard Knocks (or miss multiple times with three) then one or two will survive and they will provoke a serve during your Focus or the following turn.
1.5) Either two or three standard fights are hard-coded to cause a stun on the beginning of your second turn, or its on some sort of invisible encounter timer. Didn't experiment much so don't know. Importantly its on "your" turn, interrupting your attack while all the enemies go as normal, and you take two turns to recover so that's three turns the enemy can do as they please, and since its the second turn that's when they begin building submission. Fortunately they can't hypno you even at 100 as long as you're stunned, but since you use a turn to lose daze they can just hypno you immediately following and provoke a serve. Either you use a Hard Times and take out one or two while you can, or you take the L.
2) Strikers, easiest to deal with since two basic mobs can't usually build submission faster than you can clear the encounter even with the Guard delays. Ideally you take out the basics since the striker never builds up.
3) Trainers. If you do not defeat the trainer on your second turn you will be made to serve. This requires hitting four hits (3/1, 1/3, 2/2) which is at a guess and incredibly low percentage chance. Hard Times reduces the odds considerably, but since that can miss-target or just plain miss as well it's not a guarantee.
4) Ambush. You will need a Hard Times to avoid serving, but from what I've experienced it's mostly safe after that as the subsequent Hard Knocks will take out enemies easily.
5) The final mob fight. If you do not have Hard Times it will be difficult to beat serving or otherwise, if its even possible (untested on my part). I used my Hard Times on the trainers and forgot to collect the one in the fridge so I was one short, though that wouldn't have helped much because...To avoid serving if you have one Hard Times you will need to reset many times since you absolutely need to defeat one of the strikers the first turn, low odds even with the extra attacks due to the extra spread. The strikers cannot do their combo a second time or it will be two late and Hard Knocks is too unlikely to finish them in the one turn you have to attack. With two a second Hard Times can decimate them.
6) Final boss. If you have somehow saved two Hard Times as I did through liberal resets then you can beat the boss without the musk item. It's possible that the final boss functions by HP thresholds so save your Hard Times until you hit 50-75% to maximize their value. With only one the musk item was used, but it came down to the wire.
Theoretically it would be possible to calculate exactly how many defeats the player will on average take based on mobs, but that does sound like a hassle. I wouldn't say it's excessive much since I was only on my second sub defeat in the soft lock.
Do you mean to say that regardless of my submission stacks it would have resulted in an instant defeat? If so I would say that's just going to far. You say its for players who "screwed up their item management", but from my experience it only takes a single mistake, which is a mistake the player has no way of knowing to avoid. I can go through the first game reliably without being defeated once. Conserving Hard Times I cannot see going through this without liberal resets and/or being pushed to the absolute brink, so even with item management the room for error is practically binary.
Hard times is most useful, and is most intended for use, with the ambush in Ent. Dist. I and the three fights in the gauntlet of Ent. Dist. III. If you have any left over, you can obviously use it as you like.
You should always go into a fight with full HP and Energy. Doing otherwise is risky. Having done that, it's all about crowd management and speed. It's a race to see who can get there first: you to eliminating the hyenas, or them to getting you under. If you fire off Hard Knocks until you run out, then use your single attack to pick of stragglers quickly, you should usually be able to eliminate a group of three before they get you under. Not always! But 80-90% of the time. The Dazzle stun (not the item) messes with this, and sometimes you get bad RNG. But it usually works fairly well.
The dazzle stun hard-coding is actually reverse: They're just prevented from using it until the second turn. After that, they use it whenever RNG dictates. They're also forced to use it at least once every five battles, and forced NOT to use it after 3 battles they have used it in, to guarantee some kind of relief from bad RNG.
So let's take one example, going off yours:
First turn, no daze, you get in a Hard Knocks. None down, but several weakened.
Second turn, daze. they get you up to 100 sub while you're stuck.
You come out of it. You do another Hard Knocks. Most of the time, this will take down AT LEAST ONE, often two of the three. Let's say you're unlucky and there are still two standing.
Could those two go 1. Open status 2. Hypno ? Sure, but that's unlucky RNG and it's not guaranteed. There's at least a 50% chance that they WON'T perfectly line up their moves like that.
Let's say they go Open, and the other whiffs with a regular attack. You can now unload with your last Hard Knocks, which has a good chance of taking them both out. If you only get one, can he now take advantage of open and pull you into hypno? Sure, but again, not guaranteed.
The general take-away here is that yes, some of this is dependent on RNG. That's intentional: there's supposed to be a certain amount of unexpected and uncontrollable risk. Sometimes you're just screwed (heh). But if played right, you should be able to mitigate the damage a lot. The overall goal for Ent. Dist I was that a player, trying moderately hard, should be able to get to the end with only one defeat (ie going back to the plaza). Trying a bit harder, that player should be able to get all the way through without any defeats, though this will require a few re-tries from saves. And in my playtest this seemed to be roughly the case.
Bottom line: you shouldn't NEED a Hard Times anywhere but the ambushes and final gauntlet, but since you have extra, you certainly can use it as a get out of jail free card to avoid having to savescum a particularly unlucky battle.
I will admit the Trainer mobs are a bit spooky, and if I was in a hurry that's probably where I'd use my extra Hard Times. Try legit, and if damage isn't happening fast enough, just say fuck it.
Using Hard Times on the boss is unintentional, and I'll probably gate off Dazzle Blast from that fight eventually.
Again, I think we may be defining "loss" differently: I mean actual defeat. You can go through a sub cycle and still win the fight. After...four cycles I believe THEN you lose, but unless you're really slacking it shouldn't get that bad too often. You seem really intent on avoiding hypno in battle altogether, in which case either use the charm, or the keys (italics to make this stand out in the sea of text, not to be snarky).
I don't entirely follow what you're saying in the last paragraph. What I was saying was that when the player comes to the final gauntlet, they'll need at LEAST one dazzle blast for Hard Times, ideally more. With one, it's possible but tricky. Without at least one, I'm doubtful it's possible. But there are MANY Dazzle blasts, and only one fight that you absolutely, 100 MUST use them on. I've won the ambush fight without using them (though it's a pain in the ass). So if the player comes to the final three fights and they have ZERO dazzle blast, they fucked up somewhere.
Overall, I feel like SOMETHING in your overall strategy is missing, though I'm not sure what, and I wish I could be more helpful. I've played through Ent Dist I multiple times from beginning to end with this play mode (regular fights with hypno), and while I did have to reload a few times (Maybe four or five overall?) it certainly wasn't to an infuriating degree. I don't just trust my own experience of course, but I'd expect my beta testers to give me an earful if it was as punishing as you're experiencing, and I didn't really hear anything. My general concern with that section was actually that it was a bit too easy, which is why the dazzle/daze ability exists.
Sorry I can't be more helpful though. I will make a note of all this, as one more data point, and if similar complaints come in I'll certainly consider reworking the balancing.
Galleries are soo good
I personally prefer saves since they put me in the moment
but a gallery allows to :
-Know which scene, which part of the content, you haven't discovered yet
-Being able to relax on the saves since you can see a scene without having to be concerned about saving before it happens ( Even though you don't know when will it happen)
-They can also serve as mini-guides inside the game instead of having to search a guide outside the game
But they can be kind of tricky in some aspect and we don't want to burden the Dev more than he is already with the first week patches/bug fixes.
wa
Save slots are just a hard cap from RPGMaker unfortunately. Keep in mind though that your saves are just files in the save folder: in theory there's nothing keeping you from copying them to a second folder, clearing the main one out and starting a new set. Bit of a hassle, but may help for some.
As for a gallery: a lot of people have expressed interest in it. What I did with the previous game to help a little was to publish a scene guide, so you could have some sense of what you had missed and how to get there if you weren't sure. I just haven't been able to settle on a way to do a gallery I'm happy with. Putting an option on the main menu requires an edit of it, and is universal rather than being save-specific. I could give an item that transports you to a room that lets you select scenes via interactible objects, this is how most RPG Maker games seem to do it. But I've never really liked the feel of that. I'm someone who cares so much about detail that I made sure the special stats in your status menu get crossed out during one of the bad ends for consistency. I don't like having an arbitrary meta item hanging out in the inventory.
At this point enough people have asked for it that I'm gradually coming to terms with the fact It'll have to happen eventually. Probably not until much later though, when all the intended scenes are finally in the game. Maybe I'll have some kind of intricate "secret" interaction code to unlock the item (that I'll share here of course), so you only get it if you deliberately seek it out.
Stealth Mode = Slut Mode, and once you're in you're in on that save. No way out but through! This is assuming of course that you arrived there the intended way (losing to the mobs 3 times). If you ended up there some other way, that's a bug, so let me know. Also "stealth mode", ie trying to sneak around the hyenas, is only a thing in Ent. District I. If you're having trouble interacting after that, again, bug, let me know.
The two endings currently are just win/lose to the boss, with different outcomes. Eventually, there will be another ending for "losing" or "winning", however it turns out.
Thanks for the in-depth feedback, I always appreciate people taking the time relate details like this.
Really glad to hear you enjoyed the music. English sites for this stuff are universally terrible (sorry Kevin MacLeod). They all SOUND like royalty free stock music, painfully so, and they lack so much soul. Luckily I've been able to source a bunch of non-english sites, and the difference is dramatic. It's still not perfect; you are working with stock stuff at the end of the day, and occasionally you just have to settle for something that's good enough. But I've been really happy with most of what I've been able to find.
Similar thoughts on the SFX, though freesound is actually pretty good if you're able to do some basic edits and mixing. The choice to not have any "sex" sounds is mostly a deliberate one. VAs were completely unaffordable and not worth the hassle of course, but it's kind of a "Freeman doesn't talk" thing. I enjoy these kinds of games better without any voiced lines. And the actual sex sounds...experiments were done, but I just wasn't happy with any of it. It ends up taking you out of it more than adding anything. Sometimes imagination is better. I AM very happy with those slaps though.
I had to laugh at the comment on the writing, because to my mind it's about the same, maybe even worse in some areas because there was so MUCH of it to do. But that's just it: there is a lot, and maybe that gives the player a better sense of what I'm going for overall, or gives the writing more of a chance to shine. This isn't grand literature for the ages, but a lot like the sound and music I want something that enhances the experience and doesn't get in the way of it. Also writing is the "cheapest" of all the assets, time and effort-wise for me. Just sit down and type for a while.
"to even the point where I was making sure I'd closed the door to the hideaway behind me so nothing bad happened to Scratch"
Ha! Glad I'm not the only one. I considered tying something to that, but I haven't. YET.
"there's enough depth there to keep me looking for scenes in weird locations or odd predicaments because little things seem to hide around every corner, or at least produce opportunities for them."
So good to hear this. That's exactly what I'm going for. The Japanese games that inspired this always amazed me with all the little bits and side bits and side bits of side bits spiraling out of each other. I love the moments were I'd see a thumbnail for a scene, go "wait, where the hell was that?", check the guide and it would be this fucking arcane series of events that led to it. You'd constantly stumble on to little thing in a corner that you could have easily missed. Never essential, but just neat. And it struck me that a lot of those were fairly "cheap" art-asset-wise but added so much to the fun and life of a game.
That said, there is a limit to just how far out that spiral can go, especially when you're actually drawing scenes. So I have to be very deliberate on where I want to invest that art "budget", not of money, but time and effort. There are many, MANY possibilities, but they get pared down, and down, and down. And I think some of that's healthy anyway; restriction leads to better focus and helps weed out the chaff. BUT as I've said, I do definitely plan on filling out the content a bit as we go forward. Estimates are hard, but I'd say I have somewhere between 75% and 50% of the content I ultimately want to have in the game (just talking GT).
Mmm, no scene with Mahir yet, though there's an obvious slot for one, and it's definitely on the list.
Going through the hypno cycle...four times I believe is a full down/defeat. To avoid that, avoid going through the cycle so many times. The keys can help, or just some care and the occasional save scum. The kind of "average" playthrough of Ent Dist I is that you end up full losing once, but it's certainly possible to avoid that.
Thanks for the feedback!
Puzzles are always tricky, because there's always going to be a range of skill, and ways people think about things. I'm not too worried, because you're the first so far to have trouble with recorder, and you did figure it out eventually. But I'll keep it in mind if others bring it up.
Glad you enjoyed the stealth bits! I could have gone really ham on making those elaborate, but I didn't want to burn TOO much time. I settled on something I felt was a reasonable challenge without being absurdly complicated, but I have worried it may be a bit too simple. Glad it was fun for you.
I am pretty proud of how the porn shop stuff ended up. I generally think of a framing, and a scene, and then have to work out the details afterwards as to how I'm actually going to ramp into and out of the scenes. I was pretty smug when that setup occurred to me.
"my only real wish is for more enemy variety, like hyenas that dress even more obnoxiously..."
What, mustard-yellow shirts aren't obnoxious enough for you?
But yes, it is somewhat limited. I was able to expand variety a bit from 1, but it's always going to be somewhat limited, because each new enemy means a new standee, and each new TYPE means a whole fresh slot on the sprite sheet. Compound this with the fact that because of the way I'm doing things narratively I (mostly) can't reuse enemies from earlier games and have to start fresh each time, and the time budget for them is somewhat limited. "Clients" (the dobermans) were originally intended as a sort of enemy type, and I still have the center path to develop. We'll see. But combat will probably never be super fancy in these games: the aim is just to have enough to grant some challenge and give risk for the scenario to hang on.
Again, thanks for taking the time to lay out your thoughts. And for buying the game!
Excellent. I think what I was aiming for in general was to make it both harder and easier, more properly balanced overall. Better challenge on the enemies, but avoiding situations like the stair guard. But thanks so much for the kind words! It's been a long time in production, so it's great to see people finally getting, and enjoying it.
Edit: Actually, stumbled on some info recently, and it seems this may be easily tweakable. Keep an eye on future releases.
Limitation of the engine, unfortunately. Keep in mind that the save files are just that, however. If you really want to, there's nothing stopping you from creating a block of them, copying most into a sub-folder in the save folder, and then continuing on to create a new block. Bit of a hassle to swap the blocks out, but better than nothing. In the absence of that, I'd recommend saving only when you're about to do something potentially risky, and having a revolving "progress save" as you work your way through a given combat map. Although there are a few surprises, in general I try to signpost major events somewhat.
Make sure you're fully healed and...energy-d? before the fight. Do you mean you're going into that fight without Blast? Probably out of luck then. The "right" way to fix it would be to start from an earlier save and manage your items better. But if you're feeling impatient and have the Charm, use that to disable the hypno for the fight, which should help considerably. That said, I'm not sure that fight is winnable without Blast. My gut says probably, but you'll have to make several attempts with the charm on.
I can't say in terms of it adjusting or not. In theory RNG should be the same regardless, a fresh chance every time you try a battle again. But there are a number of timers in the game: one that ensures daze happens at least once every five battles, for example. So if you happen to be lined up with one of those, yeah, it'll be a bit tougher.
Really though, this one's on you. No game should ever be played on a single save.
Ah gotcha, yeah i wasnt managing to win if daze triggered so id reload till i got through the fight without it happening. Also yeah i know i should have made more saves, just really didnt think about it at the time. Thank you for info tho.
This is by design. It's supposed to be a challenge, to make the host club a tempting alternative. Of course the club isn't in yet, so it's just extra punishing for now, but that'll be the structure of it eventually. You really should have at LEAST one Dazzle Blast at that point unless you've been wasting them though. The game gives you a ton. Some people were even carrying them over to the boss until I prevented that.
I kind of figured that the alley is supposed to be the hard mode for when you have abundant combat resources to spend while the other route might have it's own deterrents.
I got stuck in here as well, I didn't realize it was asking for something to be typed in instead of giving a list of options, I just pressed esc so didn't know it was prompt box, thanks for the clarification.
You can save your existing save files to a sub-directory and swap them out as needed if you want. Apparently there's a fairly simple engine tweak that can increase the number of slots, so I'll be looking into that for the next version release.
1. I may not know enough about RPG Maker mechanics to answer this accurately, but from what I understand it's always in the same order: enemies do their moves, if able, in sequence, then you go, then they go again (Unless the game maker tweaks it, which I haven't). So I don't think the daze really "takes priority" over your turn: when it's their turn, and they can use it, they may use it, same as any other attack.
2. In my mind it made sense to have a null move to keep track of when each round of turns ended. Now that you mention it yes, it might be more elegant to just skip player turn, so I may look into that. There's a good chance I'd have to redo a number of other things that are relying on the timing to be as it is now though, so we'll see.
3. This is both by necessity and design. Designing super complex and satisfying rpg fight mechanics isn't really my forte, and I actually think it detracts from this kind of game. Grove for example has a lot of things going for it, but its battle systems are so complex they require multiple tutorials, and that ended up being a wall for me when I tried to play it.
I don't want to make things TOO simple, and I haven't. CS combat isn't just "Hit the enemies with your one attack until they die", there are some considerations for timing, whether you should recharge Hard Knocks, heal, or just go for a regular attack, whether you should risk more aggressive play to end the battle sooner or play it safe to avoid the risk of hypno, when's best to use the Dazzle Blast attack, and so on. And I do regret not being able to do a LITTLE more in terms of enemy variety.
But even if I could make the battle mechanics exactly as I wanted, with a bunch of new enemies and art assets, I still wouldn't make the mechanics all that much more complex. This just isn't that kind of game. The battles in CS are meant to provide some degree of challenge and risk and aid in the story that's being told. They're not meant to be the centerpiece. Or at least, not in terms of complexity and depth.
So the answer is that they're as good as I can manage, with my small brain. And they're as good as they need to be to make the game work overall. That's not to say I don't want to improve them: I'll continue tweaking here and there. I think GT's combat is a certainly improved from CS1. Just don't expect anything TOO elaborate.
Also unless I'm forgetting something, you shouldn't be getting one-turn-subbed, or at least one-turn-hypno'd, unless you're referring to the trainers. Daze does usually get your sub to 100, but "open" can't be applied until you're out of it, so you don't go from 0 to locked into hypno without a chance to fight back.
The force daze after 4 fights of not being dazed happens at the start of turn 2 instead of during the enemy action, which interrupts the player action effectively adding an extra turn of stun. It's extra punishing but when it happens you just went 4 fights without being dazed so it's not too bad. This appears to be the only place where enemies act first. In other circumstances you choose your action, then you act, then the enemies act.
Tested this out, fighting and letting myself gradually accumulate the hypno statuses.
Out of the battles accumulating the statuses, I got dazed once, and it was never an issue (IE, could have easily won the fight without hypno if I had wanted to).
Once I got to "Slipping", I saved and replayed the next battle several times:
-First time, no daze, no hypno. Defeated enemies without issue.
-Second time, defeated the enemies rapidly (3 turns), no daze, no hypno.
-Third time, no daze, no hypno. Defeated enemies without issue.
Given, this was an unusually good string of RNG. But the point is it's just that: RNG. There's no hard-coded system that ensures there's always a daze on the second turn (again, unless you happen to be on the fifth battle without daze, in which case, bad luck). And in general, the balance of the RNG isn't too brutal. Sometimes you'll get good strings, sometimes bad, but if you're managing time and items properly, you shouldn't be reloading THAT much, especially on the first half of Ent. Dist. I.
Thanks for the feedback, and glad you're enjoying it so far.
1. No really worth the hassle in terms of complexity and the potential to throw off balance. In general it's much easier to "clean slate" each game. That's why what I did choose to carry over is story-related, rather than gameplay.
2. Again, once you start modifying stats with accessories that's a whole 'nother level of complexity to try to balance and play test. It also means an impractical level of sprite work, since I don't "layer" my sprites like some games. This means I have to do a new sheet for every combination if I'm going to represent it visually, which is obviously untenable. A few costume changes are doable, especially if only one shows up in fights, but not so much for the rest.
3. Already in, check out the DataCrystal stuff if you haven't. And I plan to build on this in future chapters.
That's Haven, but don't worry, I had a few mangled words in the game myself before some of the bug testers pointed them out. If you don't know what to do next in Haven, pay closer attention to what Mezz says at various points, that'll point you in the general direction of what you're doing next. Other than that, just explore: make sure you've gone everywhere and talked to everyone. Worst case, talking to every NPC in Haven only takes a few minutes.
Glad you're enjoying the games so far!
The ending with the scene is a dead-end, yes. There will be another once I finish up the slut mode content. As for the fight itself, which hypno-immunity item? The good luck charm won't help with him, you need another. If you ARE using the one specifically for him, defeating him shouldn't be that difficult. Keep in mind that it's a multi-use item, and you have to re-up as the fight goes on.
Oh thank you, I didn't notice it was multi-use, thought it was a one time consumable.
Keep up the good work ^^
Wow, this post puts some of mine to shame for thoroughness. Love it! Let me dig in here.
Glad you're enjoying the non-sex battle mechanics so far. IMHO they're still fairly simple, and that's largely an artifact of me not being an RPG nerd. And also, as I've said elsewhere, I feel difficulty and complexity in a game like this has a sweet spot: it needs to be a LITTLE challenging, so it doesn't become boring, and so you can bring elements of the narrative and characters into it (hyenas do small damage, but they do it fast, they go down quicker but there are more of them, etc). But not overly complex, because that distracts from just enjoying the game. I'm glad what I've got so far is jiving with you.
A few thoughts on the puzzle idea. I'm actually a big fan of "real hypnosis" too, and what's in the games definitely isn't that. But that's a deliberate decision: real trance guidance takes two to five minutes at least, and I don't even want to think about the nightmare that would be trying to squeeze that into RPGMaker's nightmarish text formatting.
Of course that's the extreme end. It's obviously a spectrum, and I do try to push what's in the games beyond just "and then mind control." The fun of this kink is the process, and I do spend a fair amount of time in the proper scenes dwelling on the experience rather than just the bare bones of what's happening.
Here's the thing with battle mechanics though: they've got to keep moving. My original plan for the new GT stuff was even more elaborate. The general idea is that GT is about learning SERVICE rather than SUBMISSION like CS1 was about, and to that end there was this whole elaborate element of turning the battles into whoring sessions. But it DRAAAAGED way too much in practice, and the initial draft was also too...voluntary, which sucked some of the fun out of it. There has to be that loss of control, that floor-dropping-out moment. I was actually concerned that even what ended up in the game might be a bit much for some people, but I think the game moves fast enough that the amount of time you spend with the mechanic isn't TOO bad, isn't enough to make it start to feel annoying or samey.
So that's one of the big reasons I avoided doing anything overly complex. I don't want it to drag, and I don't want the sex mechanics to be overly complicated, any more that I want the normal fight mechanics to be overly complicated. I want the whole thing to flow, for it all to be fairly intuitive for anyone with a reasonable amount of functioning neurons, without needing a tutorial. IMHO if your mechanics need a tutorial, you've failed (at least for the kind of game I'm trying to make). No one wants to read a manual for a sex game. I realize what you're suggesting isn't SUPER complex, but it is still another layer.
Another reason is that any of these mechanics implemented have to fit with the flow of the story and character. Minigames as I'm envisioning them would be a little too abstract, though there might be possibilities if done in a really clever way.
And third, I'm not a super fancy programmer. Most of the stuff in the game is just clicking plugins together like lego bricks (though I DID make something I'm pretty proud of that will hopefully be in the first content pack). So doing anything in battle mechanics beyond the basics gets to be tricky fast.
That said, it is in the back of my mind. I saw an explicit fan-made Undertale fight recently that was...wild. And while I doubt I'll be doing anything that elaborate, it does give some good inspiration. We'll see what develops in the future. To be clear though, fight system for GT is probably in its final form (at least the main one).
I AM an RPG nerd so if you ever want advice feel free. I come for the lewd for these types of games, but I stay for the gameplay. The gameplay is definitely a bit more polished than the previous installment, and it's impressive that you were able to create such a fairly balanced game with little RPG knowledge under your belt.
And I agree entirely on the fact it needs to strike a tight wire balance. :) Anything outside of that is what difficulty sliders are for, but against common believe, making enemies damage sponges and hard hitters doesn't make an RPG more difficult, it's just the illusion of difficulty. An RPG at its core is about tactics, strategy, and having options that you need to use for the most optimal solution to situations you're involved in, compared to action games that require you to know the fundamentals of your dodging and hitting and various skills. Someone familiar with both game designs can easily make genres crossing these, similar to something like Parasite Eve 2.
You have a pretty good idea of what makes an RPG tick already, having enemies with different methods of operation, but that's true of many games. Where it gets really difficult for RPGs is the balancing act as you add more elements, elaborate on pre-existing elements, etc. Keeping it simple, but allowing for depth is where the cool factor comes in. Such as an ability that makes an attack guaranteed hit next time - this may not seem like much, but given there's sometimes an opportunity to miss there are circumstances where planning ahead can come in clutch, it's all just a matter of knowing exactly what situations it'd be used in. After all, it's easy to have moments where you're about to die and RNG just isn't on your side and you lose in traditional RPGs - in harder challenges with Pokemon for instance especially you need to play around crits and misses and have back up plans and prepared for each situation, very rarely letting RNG have its way with you like an unscrupulous dom. :^)
I agree. Though to be fair I also have the ability to fall into trance just from sheer energy space alone, even if I don't go fully deep. But I'm also prone to wanting to relax, even if I try to resist. There are a lot of elements to hypnosis, and it impacts everyone differently. Which, while this is clearly fictional hypnosis in the regard that you can't really just throw someone under who's not wanting to (not without putting them through a whole load of stuff in forcibly relaxing them - drugs, binaural beats, occasionally visuals, certain comforting touches (given there's a type of hypnosis that relies on pressure points) - and even then it sometimes has to be consistent to really ingrain. So don't even worry about trying to squeeze it into text, there are other ways.
Personally, I feel like you do a good job as is with the extrapolation on the process. The gradual brainwashing and trigger-inputting process you get in the darkened room cutscene is pretty peak, and I feel like the nature of the art and various stimulus that cases the art to change is good enough to make the triggers feel real, palpable, etc.
I love doing hypno in roleplay and irl, I may be a bit of a Hypnospace Cadet. :^)
If it helps, while I tried to avoid it as long as possible (the game's pretty easy currently as far as mechanics go for someone like me, so long as I don't act like an idiot) once I finally couldn't stand it anymore and really just wanted Mezz to go under and forced the issue I really enjoyed the choices you had. Even if it doesn't really make a difference mechanically I do genuinely believe you should keep those. We play NSFW games for NSFW, and ultimately this is a consensual experience. We are roleplaying a noncon experience because horny brain is horny brain. So never worry about it too much. I know you gotta strike the balance, but that's also what tags are for, so people know what they're getting into. I felt it was just voluntary/involuntary enough as it was to be hot. And it didn't need to be fully fleshed out. I feel like the sheer breadth of the fact Mezz is clearly a heroboy who is being put under against his will, at least initially, especially due to the dialogues he has with other characters, makes it pretty clear what this game's main fetish is - resistance play + being a cute herosub. Or as some might put it, a Gyro. :^)
Besides, you got time to potentially do so, no need to rush it all. This is only the second chapter, you got time to futz with the mechanics and extrapolate on the basics over time. Especially since programming will get easier the more you practice, to the point you can start implementing those more complicated things. And the more code you have, the more you can start copy/pasting and reusing coding assets but changing bits and pieces.
It was definitely not too much for me. :P
If it helps, I wasn't referring to the sex mechanics themselves, just the entranced part. Because there's the bit where first they flash signs at you or click a clicker, and it's not only RNG whether or not they proc it, but after your Submission is up it's complete RNG whether or not you are able to get up out of trance after dropping. And that's where my suggestion comes in, so you can make the chances of them trying such a thing a bit less rare (I had it happen maybe twice in three times as many battles, and the second I just reeeeeally wanted to... you know), and also makes it so you don't have to rely on RNG alone to get out of trance while in it. But with the difficulty increasing with just small visual affects, you can ultimately make it less likely for someone to get out of it if they keep putting themselves in situations where they get to 100% Submission. Or, you know, don't wear the charm. :^) And if you do this you can also include items like the charm that make it easier to do those puzzles, even outside of the options allowing you to turn that off to return back to the basic coding the way it was originally.
You are right though, no one wants to read a manual for a sex game. It's why all of my dice games, especially my Brain Tamers one, is rather simple all things considered. All dice games and NSFW games should be simple enough to read half a page or two pages (or pick up on what is going on fairly fast, like how elements in a Mega Man game start isolated and separate, but eventually combine in later parts), but complex enough to have depth, with occasionally some extra stuff to use for people who want more of a thing to their thing. :^)
I remember when this game first came out - the first chapter. It was how I found you as an artist originally, through some fanart of Cruel Serenade. I looked into it and you a bit after that, how you'd never programmed before and this was your first real foray into it. All things start somewhere, the fact you have enough passion to have fun with it and feel proud of your accomplishments and milestones (which you absolutely should, no fucking doubt about that, coding and programming is really hard mate), is what really matters at the end of the day. And I'm happy to follow this game no matter where you take it or how you take it.
Always let your inspiration run wild. Even if it ends up not going the direction you wanted it to go, you may still be able to use pieces of what you came up with for something else. :)
Excellent then, glad the mechanics were clicking for you overall.
"but after your Submission is up it's complete RNG whether or not you are able to get up out of trance after dropping...that's where my suggestion comes in"
I should clarify, CS1 and GT have very different mechanics here. CS1 allows for a lot of struggle up front, as it's supposed to be more slow and plodding. I wanted the fights in GT to be fast and snappy, so there's deliberately no way to escape once you go under: you're going along for the ride at that point. Some degree of struggle will probably pop up again at some point though, so we'll see.
What do you mean by dice games? Software, or something more IRL like a D&D session?
And aw, thanks, appreciate it. I have my weird little space where I make my weird little games. They're still pretty humble, and I work to gradually improve as I can, but I'm glad people are enjoying what I've got so far.
Huh really? I thought I was able to break out of trance by chance after like two times trying with the elipses function. Was that weird or am I misremembering?
Actual TTRPG dice systems, but meant more for text than face to face, as writing is more effective for lewds than just saying what you're doing unless you're excellent at phone sex. :^)
Np at all. And humility should always be kept. It's about the passion, not the glory. About the fun and the arousal and the enjoyment of the process, not the ego. At least imo. I am enjoying it alo. :) <3
Np. Hmm... odd. Did you by chance change the old Struggle to ...?
It's neat. Dice are suggestions, not rules in circumstances like those, since it's an organic, constantly growing thing with people rather than something that needs concrete rules.
Np.
Okay! So. Figured out it was the dazed status effect, not the trance itself, I was confusing the two. :P
But also I found something really funny!
Also it was interesting. The scene here and everything after it that I'm showing was both... familiar and also uncomfortable. But also arousing. It was like a very tender scar that hadn't fully healed yet but felt incredibly sensitive to the touch and nice. But it also actively made me more desperate to not play anymore games and actually beat them all up. The recording of Mezz's trance and getting to watch it back is also hot 20 ways from Sunday and something I've wanted to play before. It's just, you know, quite darker here. :^)
The game's incredible in every way, and I too as a fellow heroboy cannot determine whether or not I wanna give in or keep fighting. Because both extremes are tantalizing. There's a lot of realness in it. And that's what makes it arousing. Yet at the same time it's not too real to be unpalatable, just real enough to be uncomfortable and still arousing, and arousing because of that discomfort, while also still being uncomfortable, if that makes sense.
Ahh, that makes sense then.
Ha! For what it's worth, I did wall off a bunch of stuff for that brief moment you have the hyena in your "party," but it's hard to think of everything. Easy enough to fix though.
And thanks! Connection with Mezz was definitely a priority while making the game: that's why there aren't any dumb jokes at awkward moments (plenty of dumb jokes at appropriate moments though :D) or other stuff that takes the player out of it. He's definitely intended as something players can self-insert into, potentially without even realizing it at first, rather than just a character to control.