Ren'Py Abandoned A Robin's Flight [Chapter 2] [Aaron A. Aaronsen]

[Aaron A. Aaronsen]

Time for an update.

I have been working on the story for chapter 3 and I am currently planning the scenes. Chapter 3 and 4 will both take place in Borea.

Before starting the real work on chapter 3 I will however finish a feature update first. I am testing a proper build menu for Mara to remove the old one.

I am working on the code to upgrade mercenaries. It is planned that when a mercenary reaches X xp you can ask Elamir to upgrade the mercenary in one of two ways. I.e. a swordman can become a blademaster or a ... a.. mmm... another thing regarding swords. I don't know. Sword-salesman. Sword-swallower. Who knows.

I am also experimenting with backgrounds for the battle screens. I think it is much better for immersion if you have a background that reflects where you fight instead of a purpleish screen.

 

[Joe Steel]

I think that an interesting decision for the player could be created by having the player chose between making a unit better in combat (say, add a second armor type effective against) or upgrading the unit skill (either by reducing time to employ, or increasing effect). The player would essentially choose between making the unit intermittently very effective, or constantly moderately more effective.

Just some chrome, so not worth a lot of effort, but maybe fun.

 

[Proffejor]

Before starting the real work on chapter 3 I will however finish a feature update first. I am testing a proper build menu for Mara to remove the old one.

I am working on the code to upgrade mercenaries. It is planned that when a mercenary reaches X xp you can ask Elamir to upgrade the mercenary in one of two ways. I.e. a swordman can become a blademaster or a ... a.. mmm... another thing regarding swords. I don't know. Sword-salesman. Sword-swallower. Who knows.

Sounds awesome, I have been looking forwards to an update for A Robin's Flight.

As far as the Swordsman upgrades, with Blademaster being a generalist, perhaps consider specicialists of specific blades to get different paths?

A duelist or fencer would wield small fast blades, a barbarian (or Pict or landsknechte) could wield larger, slower blades. (like claymores or zweihanders) Alternatively, "knight" could represent a swordsman trained to fight while encased in a suit of heavy armor. (Although, as it's been a while since I last played the current build, and "knight" may be in use for other mercenaries already.)

 

[Jhonthedon420]

Look good

 

[Aaron A. Aaronsen]

I think that an interesting decision for the player could be created by having the player chose between making a unit better in combat (say, add a second armor type effective against) or upgrading the unit skill (either by reducing time to employ, or increasing effect). The player would essentially choose between making the unit intermittently very effective, or constantly moderately more effective.

Just some chrome, so not worth a lot of effort, but maybe fun.

Yeah. I am looking at the numbers and I want to make it feel like an actual choice. Meaning each option should really feel differently. Maybe I even add some downsides.

Some of the stories remind me of the legalized slavery universe that has a bunch of stories written and it blew my mind how well thats translated into the game.

Which universe?
I have to admit I really enjoy written stuff, which is part of the reason I am making this game. There are tons of games with great animation or art but I can't enjoy them because I don't like the story (i.e. the story is massively retarded). I love when the stories have a nice setting and some kind of arc. I want the characters to change. I want some escapism.

Of course in the end the games are still porn games and are somewhat carried by that. There is this concept of "suspension of disbelief" which says that people are willing to accept and ignore certain illogical things because they are being entertained. Take "Selena - one hour agent" as an example. She is a freelance crime fighting agent that has one hour (!) to solve murders (!) or the criminal will go free even if you catch him afterwards (!). Still the game works nicely because the scenes are good, the gameplay mechanic is fun and you want to find out who killed Selenas father. Of course you can also find examples of this in modern movies, if you start looking for them.

A duelist or fencer would wield small fast blades, a barbarian (or Pict or landsknechte) could wield larger, slower blades. (like claymores or zweihanders) Alternatively, "knight" could represent a swordsman trained to fight while encased in a suit of heavy armor. (Although, as it's been a while since I last played the current build, and "knight" may be in use for other mercenaries already.)

Fencer sounds good.

I thought of making one upgrade for Spearman a "Landsknecht" and giving him some type of polearm. Knight sounds cool, but clashes with the bandit/mercenary theme too much. I need something heavy but less noble.

 

[Jhonthedon420]

Why there is no patreon or anyother devlopment news site.

 

[Joe Steel]

Yeah. I am looking at the numbers and I want to make it feel like an actual choice. Meaning each option should really feel differently. Maybe I even add some downsides.

Downsides would fit well, as they do with the magic users facing certain kinds of magic. You could differentiate units by "reach:' ranged like the archer, short lie the assassin, and long like the spearman. When comparing offense unit vs defense unit, ranged has an advantage vs short but disadvantage vs long, short has advantage vs long but disadvantage vs ranged, long good vs ranged but poor vs short, etc. That would induce more retreats from poor matchups, I think.

Which universe?
I have to admit I really enjoy written stuff, which is part of the reason I am making this game. There are tons of games with great animation or art but I can't enjoy them because I don't like the story (i.e. the story is massively retarded). I love when the stories have a nice setting and some kind of arc. I want the characters to change. I want some escapism.

If you are looking for that in the written word, I'd recommend

You must be registered to see the links

by Ashley Zacharias. Really well-done, hot, very reasonably priced (the first book in the series is free) and the series tells a single story with character growth. The very opposite of massively retarded porn stories. The series would make for a terrific game, as well, as a slave tries to figure out what it will take to please her owners long enough to figure out how to get out of the situation she has brought onto herself.

I thought of making one upgrade for Spearman a "Landsknecht" and giving him some type of polearm. Knight sounds cool, but clashes with the bandit/mercenary theme too much. I need something heavy but less noble.

You aren't really using cavalry types and I think that you should probably keep things that way, for ease of design. You could always repurpose a lesser-used generic term like "freebooter" to indicate a heavily-armored mercenary.

 

[doedeldorf]

Which universe?

Hmm there are a bunch of them on literotica, but most of them can be found on the "stripsearchfantasy" forum. Bunch of different authors writing about a modern day world with legalized slavery that include gradings and auctions your story reminded me off

 

[w1nt34]

Why there is no patreon or anyother devlopment news site.

Attempts have been made by various fans to get the dev to start a patreon. He isn't interested and all updates are on this thread.

 

[Aaron A. Aaronsen]

If you are looking for that in the written word, I'd recommend

You must be registered to see the links

by Ashley Zacharias. Really well-done, hot, very reasonably priced (the first book in the series is free) and the series tells a single story with character growth. The very opposite of massively retarded porn stories. The series would make for a terrific game, as well, as a slave tries to figure out what it will take to please her owners long enough to figure out how to get out of the situation she has brought onto herself.

I think I will check that out.

literotica

Yeah, there are too many great authors to name on that site. "Joe_doe_stories" nicely fits the slavery theme. "Drazenpet23" has a currently ongoing story that is great.

Though, my favourite author is "Iwroteathing". Fantastic stories with tons of little details that make them feel real. You often have a character whose lust drives them deeper into a bad situation. His characters are slowly corrupted but often can't take the final step to ruin. So they leave that step to chance and slowly and actively worsen their odds. Or they give up power to someone else, who then pushes them further and further.

Attempts have been made by various fans to get the dev to start a patreon. He isn't interested and all updates are on this thread.

There are too many downsides for me to use that. There are developers who find a good balance but IMHO the majority of patreon developers are either scamming or burning out. Take RanneRo for example. The guy makes a great game (slow corruption heavily inspired by "Rhodes Fortress"), but the updates take a while. So he repeatetly stops the billing cycle because he feels bad and he writes about his anxiety. For me, a patreon would simply make game development feel like a second job. And don't forget that you have to modify (=censor) your game to fit the patreon TOS.


Anyway. Back to the update. Mara got a new build menu.

I am thinking of simplifying the battle system so that the damage type is only determined by the "offense" class. At the moment it makes sense to stack 3 times the same damage type to create a specialist team. Going one anti-heavy, one anti-medium and one anti-light make no sense. So there are tons of combinations that are currently simply straight-up bad.
After the change different anti-x classes in offense will then distinguish themselves via a damage range. I.e. a barbarian has higher max damage and lower min damage than a swordsman.

I am currently still implementing the mercenary upgrade code. Here is a list of names I thought of. I am happy with the casters and the rogues, but the bandit types (barbarian, berserker and beastmaster) will probably get some changes. There will be three elven classes for chapter 3, which probably will not get upgrades.

Base class --- Upgrade A --- Upgrade B
Swordsman --- Blademaster --- Bastard Sword
Spearman --- Pikeman --- Glaiveman
Skirmisher --- Warhammer --- Morningstar
Barbarian --- Waraxe --- The Cleaver
Berserker --- Blade of Rage --- Blade of Fury
Beastmaster --- Hide of Scales --- Hide of Fur
Assassin --- Swiftblade --- Venomblade
Arbalist --- Sharpshooter --- Repeater
Trapper --- Ambusher --- Sapper
Convoker --- Daemonologist --- Mistress of Flames
Trickster --- Mirage Weaver --- Keeper of Lost Thoughts
Witch --- Plague Binder --- Mistress of Frost
Stoneshaper --- Necromancer --- The Eternal Prison

 

[Joe Steel]

As I did with Ch1, I went back into Ch 2 and changed some of the text from external voice to internal voice for the MC. I also "jazzed up" some of the scenes with some additional dialogue and action. Only my changes to Ugnor's events much change the meaning of anything (his scenes in the base game are largely hidden because they are so secretive, so my stuff is definitely non-canon there). This includes especially his "support advisor" scene from Chapter 1.

How to use:
1. Go to the following folder
C:\Users\[your user name]\AppData\Roaming\RenPy\TheFifteen-1587907487
Those are the saves in the system folder and over-rule the save folder. Rename it something else, temporarily. The game will create a new one. You can restore it when done.

2. Save a copy of the game folder so you can restore the real game later.

3. Unzip JSModCh2 into the game folder and overwrite.

4. Open the game. There should be two saves (if morre, they will be the first two).

4a The First save is the protagonist room. You can remember anything of the H-events that happened in the first chapter here, as well as call for the second chapter H-event "Find out how the advisor uses slaves."
4b. The second save is the "Use potion" event in Chapter 2. That's only available late-game so not in my first save.

The "support advisor", "Find out how the advisor uses slaves" and Ch2 "Use potion" events all depend on which advisor you had selected. In the provided saves, it was Mara. But I included a cheat to allow you to change advisors on the fly. Hit the "L" button on your keyboard and the Ren'py console will open. Type in the line below that corresponds to the advisor whose scenes you want to see. uCul is Ugnor, uMar is Mara, and uWis is Whispers. Capitalization and spaces count.

Advisor = u'Cul'
Advisor = u'Mar'
Advisor = u'Wis'

Let me know here if anything does not work right. Enjoy!

Edit: Version B addded. No major changes except the Ugnor scenes have a slightly different focus and, hopefully, feel.

 

[Aaron A. Aaronsen]

text

I will definitely check out the Ugnor stuff. I am interested to see what people think his motivations are.


Anyway.

I am finished with the class icons. On the left you see the base class and on the right you see the two possible upgrades. Each upgrade will slightly change the stats and replace one skill. That worked surprisingly well in some cases. As an example: a convoker can cast "scorch", "imp claws" and "fire shield". The daemonologist will replace scorch for something more daemonic while the "mistress of flame" will replace "imp claws" for something fiery.

I swapped some classes (One Trickster upgrade is now Hexbinder and one Witch upgrade is Bloodmage) and I decringed several names.

There are still 26 skill icons that need to be done. And I need to rebalance tons of skills.

 

[Joe Steel]

I will definitely check out the Ugnor stuff. I am interested to see what people think his motivations are.

Funny you should say that, because I'm re-writing the Ugnor portions to make his path less similar to the Mara path. I think that he is in service to some dark supernatural power, and his real target is overthrowing the Guilds, not the queen. It will be interesting (and revealing) to discover whether or not his acolytes are willing followers.

Anyway.

I am finished with the class icons. On the left you see the base class and on the right you see the two possible upgrades. Each upgrade will slightly change the stats and replace one skill. That worked surprisingly well in some cases. As an example: a convoker can cast "scorch", "imp claws" and "fire shield". The daemonologist will replace scorch for something more daemonic while the "mistress of flame" will replace "imp claws" for something fiery.

I swapped some classes (One Trickster upgrade is now Hexbinder and one Witch upgrade is Bloodmage) and I decringed several names.

There are still 26 skill icons that need to be done. And I need to rebalance tons of skills.

I don't think that the game needs the upgrade system to be too complicated, but I like that the player is forced to choose between upgrades rather than just having the upgrades all be sequential.

More important will be whether the player has the knowledge to make the upgrade choice a conundrum.

 

[Joe Steel]

Version B now added to my post above. Minor changes in the Ugnor H-scenes.

 

[Paperoniy]

hi there i've made an android port ch.2

You must be registered to see the links

no file(((((

 

[Aaron A. Aaronsen]

I think that he is in service to some dark supernatural power, and his real target is overthrowing the Guilds, not the queen. It will be interesting (and revealing) to discover whether or not his acolytes are willing followers.

I will neither confirm nor deny that.


Anyway. Time for an update.

I implemented the upgrade system. When looking at your roster, you will see mercenaries with an elite rank (50xp or more) marked in white (1). On the class screen (2) you can then choose one of two different upgrades. Each upgrade buffes one specific skill. E.g. a necromancer (3) can "summon a skeleton" as a strategy skill, while a petrificateress (4) can cast "improved petrify".

I implemented the skills and fixed some bugs that I found. Dodge does not work in the current version. Whoops.

There will also be some changes to make the game more clear:
-The class you select for defense will determine what armor you have - no change.

-The class you select for offense will determine which attack type you have. At the moment it is most effective to select three classes with the same attack type. Now you can combine what you think is best.

-The class you select for strategy will give you bonus loot after the battle so you can buff the loot you need a bit more. The classes associated with Elamir (Swordsman, Skirmisher, Spearman...) will give extra silver, Fera's classes extra materials, Whisper's classes get a percentage chance to capture an extra slave and Ugnor's classes get extra shrooms.

There is still some balancing to do, but I hope that I can upload the new stuff in a few days.

Regarding the story:
I have planned all the scenes for chapter 3 now and I am really looking forward to start rendering again.

In Chapter 3 our protagonists will need to find new allies in Borea and will search for another part of the Binding of Taleiya.

 

[Joe Steel]

I implemented the upgrade system. When looking at your roster, you will see mercenaries with an elite rank (50xp or more) marked in white (1). On the class screen (2) you can then choose one of two different upgrades. Each upgrade buffes one specific skill. E.g. a necromancer (3) can "summon a skeleton" as a strategy skill, while a petrificateress (4) can cast "improved petrify".

I implemented the skills and fixed some bugs that I found. Dodge does not work in the current version. Whoops.

There will also be some changes to make the game more clear:
-The class you select for defense will determine what armor you have - no change.

-The class you select for offense will determine which attack type you have. At the moment it is most effective to select three classes with the same attack type. Now you can combine what you think is best.

-The class you select for strategy will give you bonus loot after the battle so you can buff the loot you need a bit more. The classes associated with Elamir (Swordsman, Skirmisher, Spearman...) will give extra silver, Fera's classes extra materials, Whisper's classes get a percentage chance to capture an extra slave and Ugnor's classes get extra shrooms.

There is still some balancing to do, but I hope that I can upload the new stuff in a few days.

This alol sounds good. Interesting choices are the heart of any good game.

Regarding the story:
I have planned all the scenes for chapter 3 now and I am really looking forward to start rendering again.

In Chapter 3 our protagonists will need to find new allies in Borea and will search for another part of the Binding of Taleiya.

Please tell me that, in at least one of her trips, she has to go disguised as a slave girl (even better if its a disguise the protagonist chooses for herself). Maybe just in the Mara-as-advisor storyline, where the prot has been suitably trained to maintain the disguise.

 

[Aaron A. Aaronsen]

So it all took a bit longer than I would have liked, because I had a lot to do in the last few weeks. Here is the patch, adding some improvements.

You must be registered to see the links

Just put the "game" folder in the main folder and replace. Everything I tried works, but I did not test each new class. Expect some bugs. I did not fully rework the battle tutorial, but it should be fine as is.

Main changes are:
-new build menu

-new battle screen

-simplified team choice:
1) strategy choice gives additional loot depending on type of mercenary (Elamir's mercs -> silver, Fera's mercs -> materials, Whisper's Mercs -> chance for slaves, Ugnor's mercs -> mushrooms)
2) offense choice determines attack type (i.e. good against heavy, weak against medium)
3) defense choice determines armor type
4) The position still determines the type of skill that is being used

-mercenaries are now upgradable when they reach elite rank. Elite mercenaries are marked in white in the manage roster screen. There are two choices per mercenary. Each upgraded mercenary will replace one skill. That can be something simple like "improved block" or something new like "Summon Skeleton"

After someone tells me that it works I will update the OP. Feel free to give balance suggestions if you find a skill too weak or too strong.

Please tell me that, in at least one of her trips, she has to go disguised as a slave girl (even better if its a disguise the protagonist chooses for herself). Maybe just in the Mara-as-advisor storyline, where the prot has been suitably trained to maintain the disguise.

The Mara story line will for sure have some undercover slave action. Each advisor will start to tighten their grip on the protagonist in chapter 3.

I am already looking forward to design and render all the new scenes.

 

[abgazil]

Trying to construct a blacksmith seems to consume the resources but not actually build the building. Or at least the level counter and resource cost both don't increase.

Other buildings seem to work OK.

 

[B4MC]

Hey Abgazil, so I have noticed that if I click on a building to build and then back out, it spends but doesn't build, but it after I click to build, then I click on the screen again, it builds. So it looks like an edge case that got missed. Works on a few building types.
Otherwise to AAA (lol AAA games), thank you for this game. It is hitting ALL the right spots in my brain. I have been especially loving the advisors... The whole secret sub thing just *GETS* me. One thing I really love that I have a hard time getting back to is the moments when they talk about the PC behind her back. Those moments are so delicious, but I don't have those in the recollection. That'd be a nice to have - even though that's probably just me, haha.

Anyway, can't wait for chapter 3!