Monday, November 17, 2014

Did I mention how hard it is for me to write the romantic paths?

Because it's very hard! I finally finished to cobble together the improvements on Jane's and Piper's romances I wanted to add, and within a day or two a new closed beta will probably make its way toward the testers. Jane in particular was hard for me to tackle, and I ended up spending almost 2 weeks just to come up with an idea (and it's not even that huge change, all in all). Regardless, I think I am completely satisfied with Piper, and I don't think I would be able to improve more on Jane, so this is probably going to be the final word on this. I am going to work on the other stuff now, as this took me way too long (if things really don't satisfy me, I can always go back to it later on). I'll probably start with Darenzia's side quest, and see where things go from there.


Sorry for the underwhelming number of updates on the blog, recently, hopefully now that I switched to new stuff I'll be able to give you guys something more interesting to read.

As far as donations go, I received 10€ from K.E.,  5€ from M.Z., 20€ from A.C. and hopefully I am not forgetting anyone, nor making some obvious blunders, as I often do.

This should be pretty much about it. If I don't keep a weekly schedule for my posts, please start yelling at me, it will help me stay on tracks, I hope. ^_^

14 comments:

  1. "Hopefully now that I switched to new stuff I'll be able to give you guys something more interesting to read."
    Well, I don't know, I very recently got my hands on "Living Game"; it was much more expensive than I thought it would be. I have high hopes for it. ;) Good for you to help move world economies forward, Mdqp! ^^"
    --Commercial District Anon, "I saw a frog!" Anon, More Extranet Anon, Where's my Girl in Yellow Anon, Claymore Anon, Ice Cream Anon, et cetra, et cetra. ;P Hmm... I feel like I'm slowly losing the conceptional grasp of what an "Anon" means...

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    1. The real question is: could a person named Anon, from AnĂ³n, Puerto Rico, truly ever be considered a "Anon?"

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    2. The answer is a definitive, resounding maybe. :p

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  2. Just wondering much much of the game would you say is done?

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    1. I'd wager somewhere between 'much' and 'much-much.'

      Sorry, I made an oath to the grammar Gestapo and they don't take kindly to "free passes."

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    2. Eh, I don't have exact percentages in my mind (partly because even if I have a general idea of what's left to do, I still add details and "extras" on the fly), but I'd say the numbers for the version aren't too far from the actual percentages (so 0.8 was probably about 75% done, I'd say). It's still a rough estimate, and once I release a 1.0 it's not impossible that I might expand on things a bit more with a 1.1 update, so things are still uncertain. The main quests that are missing aren't too many, though, it's basically the finale, Darenzia's quest (which I am adding right now) and Piper's quest, so as you can see there isn't much in the way of the "core" content that is missing.

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  3. (Minor Spoiler) - Bug Report
    I'm not 100% positive as it could just be my copy of the game (version 0.8i) but it looks like something broke between versions. When attempting to do the Florence missions, after going through the station via the Assembly Line Path and then touching down onto the planet (going through the Canyons), the music and sounds for the game stops playing/loading. Soon afterwards, especially if you backtrack to your ship, the game "freezes"--all the buttons are grayed out. I thought maybe the first time was a fluke but I've reproduced this out of game break event twice (no loading, start from scratch with new game, no cheating, normal difficulty). Maybe I'll try different traits next, idk.

    Out of curiosity, are the population numbers "accurate" for your game universe? I feel like some of them are a bit low--especially the "Hub" planets; the pictures of some planets with all their brightly-lit cities seem to indicate a more robust population size, lol.

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    1. You know how Rags always modifies the source file of games after you play them? (Why Rags? Why must you do that?!) Yeah, so never mind. After that last freeze, it made the source file unreadable. So... I can't honestly tell you if it's a bug or not or just something that went wonky with Rags itself... :/ Fortunately, I make "clean" backups the moment a Rags file gets downloaded... but I think I'll just get another fresh one and start from there... *Starts a new game.*

      Btw, how goes your RPG Maker game? ;P And, I've always been curious, what made you choose English for the language considering that it's not your native one? Many users around the Extranet (See what I did there? Lol.) really appreciated this fantastic piece of work you've unleashed upon the world and your language choice that would have otherwise turned many users away. Did I happen to answer my own question?

      Dooo-dodo-dodooo~
      --Curious Anon (Probably loses too much money with the Slot Machines)

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    2. RAGS is very quirky, unfortunately. Did you load a save without loading the game first? That can fuck things up too, you know?

      Re-downloading is probably a good idea, sometimes files can get corrupted.

      The population numbers are fairly accurate (in my fantasy world :p), but I might have picked images that are cool, instead of considering if they fit the numbers (you can still ascribe those ligths to futuristic, gigantic machinery if you want to, though). The numbers are a bit low, because I don't expect we'll start reproducing like rabbits again, in an advanced society, so colonization is a bit slow, so to speak (we are still talking about big numbers, though). The home planets are densely populated, on the other hand (although I can't remember if I ever added extranet topics for those).

      My RPG maker game is doing fine (altough I have a rule about not working on it unless I have done x amount of progress on TOTDC, and getting stuck on Jane's romance slowed down progress on that game as well). I have some interesting mechanics I am using for the outside of combat gameplay that I hope people will like, and will help me add longevity to the game and interesting puzzles as well. I have the general idea for the combat in place, but I still have to add/test a few features, before considering the framework done. The sexy parts should be interesting too, but I am having troubles figuring out how to deal with the visuals/sounds for those: right now, I simply fade to black, add some moaning sounds and a rhythmic pink flashing of the screen, which seems to work pretty well in supplementing the text, but it might be too plain for the average player.

      Making maps is super fun in RPG Maker, and I have made already half of the big city where you start (including NPCs for all the interiors), I have a first quest in place, the basic functions for one of the guilds I have in mind, the various shops, houses, etc., you'd expect from such a game.

      I have some general mechanics for the "usual suspects" when it comes to MC (willpower, inhibitions, intelligence). I was considering making a system that takes all these 3 stats into account to see what are your options when answering to people/planning your actions, but it might be needlessly complex to work with, and maybe people could find it too obscure to really appreciate it, so maybe I'll drop it (right now, inhibitions are what rule the kinky stuff you can do, and I am going to make it so that the game isn't punishing, but in fact it might even reward you sometimes for being kinky, by allowing you some easy way outs, if you have low morals). There are also already in place with certain scenes alternative dialogues if you are hypnotized. Right now, you can only get the status if you wear a cursed necklace, but it might or might not get expanded). When you have the status hypnotized, you usually get completely subservient whenever someone uses an authoritative tone, so you instantly submit to drunken slobs asking you for sex, instead of having the chance to consider it, and having to check for inhibitions, for example.

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    3. The plot will be a bit generic fantasy, but with a few twists. As per usual with my games, you aren't the chosen one that will save the world, but your actions will be far reaching. I have in mind a system of factions with goals and objectives. By getting involved with the world, you will either hinder or help those factions, and at specific points in time, the conflicts will resolve and shape the world from that point on. Of course, you can also ignore everything, and these stories will resolve themselves without you having any say in the matter. There aren't going to be any "end of the world" plots, but there will be coup-d'etat and such, for example, merchants guilds warring each other, and some big twists on the world of magic within the setting, just to name a few things.

      Sorry for the laundry list, since the game is just in the early stages it's hard to discuss it without rambling and such. Take all of this with a pinch of salt, as some features (especially the long term ones) aren't in the game yet, and what's there might be subject to changes.

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    4. Yeah, the main reason for using english is that 1: I can reach a larger audience and 2: I started on the Hypnopics Collective, which is an english board, so it seemed natural at the time. :)

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    5. For some inspiration, you can check games like rape quest, despair labyrinth, conquest of avindale... they are all unfinished games with some good concept ideas and gameplay.

      For me, all games with a strong dominance/submission/humiliation themes are good :)

      Cheers and keep up the good work.

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    6. Sorry magma but tthose are kinda awful examples. :(
      Avindale looked great, but iirc it crumbled under the evergrowing planned feature list and the dev moved on to a different game. And the other two are just bad.

      If you really wanted to look at a good rpgmaker game which is actually done - how about Embric?
      Or if you wanted those wip, how about Fairy and the Abyss, plenty of S/D in that one for you... Or N-Wrestle? Maybe just take a looksie @hongfire.com/forum/showthread.php/407862-List-of-Free-English-community-made-RPGs-%28RPG-Maker-or-similar%29

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    7. To Magma and Anon: I actually know most of those games, although for the gameplay I would like to do something "Zelda-like" for the puzzles, while using the classic turn-based combat with a few twists. I will probably draw inspiration from everything I know, in order to write the sexy parts.

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