RPGM Completed Arenus [v1.1G] [Arvus Games]

[Experimantal]

Someone should also suggest adding an option to save the game normally.

Due to the amount of side activities (although most of the time is still spent running back and forth like a lunatic) some days can be quite long. It's really not fun to waste more than 30 minutes of game time (and good loot from infiltration mission) because Elona is weak and arena boss had a lucky roll and repeated his strongest combo twice. At the very least, you could add some autosave before an arena fight.

I would also like to suggest that the key characters write more emails, every time when some special dialog or quest is available. Players would then not have to waste an incredible amount of time visiting absolutely every location and every character every day to see if there is a special conversation or quest available on that particular day. That's really not fun!

By the way, space exploration is completely unexplained. I have no idea what it's good for, other than a waste of money, since monster loot on even the hardest planet can't pay for fuel expenses. If there is any reason why I should want to visit these planets, I would really appreciate it if someone explained it to me in the game, because I just don't get it.

Manual saving is a popular request, so it a "maybe", because in a way it'd allow save scumming, but you can backup you save, reload the week if you fail and more so...

Elona will be buffed next patch, look forward to it!

I'll also suggest an inbetween solution for manual and autosave, maybe a limited save per week ? Can be fun, where you're like "do i save now before infiltration so i don't restart all i did until now, or after to be sure to keep my loot if i have to restart" kind of deal. I know i loved limited saves in horror games, so it could work out, let me know!

Yes key characters do not write enough mail, I agree, we need more, exemple with Alliah's arcade, a mail for its opening, or when she's in front of the arcade on first week, an ad saying grand opening soon!

Yes some stuff lack bit of tutorials, they in the pipeworks, space exploration was one of the last additions, but there might be other stuff where tutorial is missing, thanks!

 

[anonym0u5]

My bad, my brain derped... I thought you meant the bug where some passive you buy at the gladiator can disappear after a boss loss!

Stat reset at each week reset, the end of day screen shows it in 1.0D version with a big pink text so nobody is surprised.

As you progress, you gain friendship with the NPCs of each training, alongside items to improve critical success chance, someone was even able to break the stat bar graphics due to the amount of crit they got (some people got good RNG).

Once you max out a stat you even get a permanant skill unlock to use for your gladiator!

It took me just a little over 8 hours of my life to unlock those permanent skills, what a great system! *cough* sarcasm *cough* And that was with cheats.

As I’ve mentioned before, the grind is “pure agony”. I wanna make save files for those that wanting full saves & I can’t keep my mentality up to make just 1.

Not to mention this upcoming 1.0E update will make your 1.0D progress irrelevant cuz saves are not compatible between versions.

Also when you get the amputated asshole to apologise to your gladiator, the Xeno girl sprite always shows regardless if you picked the human or the furry.

 

[anonym0u5]

Manual saving is a popular request, so it a "maybe", because in a way it'd allow save scumming, but you can backup you save, reload the week if you fail and more so...

How is that different than save scumming?That’s literally save scumming, with extra steps.

Also I don’t get the mentality of the people that justify “against” save scumming. If your gameplay is based on grinding to get better, then save scumming is what make it worth the grind. It’s not like when you reload the save, you instantly gets the loots. No! You still have to grind again & again to have the chance to get that loot, which you may not & will have to reload again. Without manual saves, not only it’ll make the game more tedious to play, it’ll just make it stale real fast & people give up on it easier & give in to cheating/modding.

Why do you think people are asking full saves all the time? Cuz they don’t have the patient like the save scummers (like me) that do the grind for them by save scumming.

Trying to make a system that punish save scumming is literally telling your player base to just cheat, it’ll much faster & easier. Don’t bother to play the game legitimately.

 

[Edvin]

Regardless I wish you all good luck in the bugfixing on upcoming days though since I know working at higher speeds to fix something post-launch is not fun. I'm looking forward to playing a more stable version of the game in the future, because my experience with 1.0A was horrid.

Personally, I think that every game developer should have this quote framed and look at it every day.

 

[Hauk]

How is that different than save scumming?

That’s literally save scumming, with extra steps.

Also I don’t get the mentality of the people that justify “against” save scumming. If your gameplay is based on grinding to get better, then save scumming is what make it worth the grind. It’s not like when you reload the save, you instantly gets the loots. No! You still have to grind again & again to have the chance to get that loot, which you may not & will have to reload again. Without manual saves, not only it’ll make the game more tedious to play, it’ll just make it stale real fast & people give up on it easier & give in to cheating/modding.

Why do you think people are asking full saves all the time? Cuz they don’t have the patient like the save scummers (like me) that do the grind for them by save scumming.

i have to agree, i dont see why devs treat giving players the OPTION to save scum is inherently bad, isnt the point of the game to have fun? if a player finds the game more fun by choosing to save scum, let em. theres no special sanctity about saving the 'right way', it doesnt matter, just let em save scum.

 

[Experimantal]

It took me just a little over 8 hours of my life to unlock those permanent skills, what a great system! *cough* sarcasm *cough* And that was with cheats.

As I’ve mentioned before, the grind is “pure agony”. I wanna make save files for those that wanting full saves & I can’t keep my mentality up to make just 1.

Not to mention this upcoming 1.0E update will make your 1.0D progress irrelevant cuz saves are not compatible between versions.

Also when you get the amputated asshole to apologise to your gladiator, the Xeno girl sprite always shows regardless if you picked the human or the furry.

Permanant skills are permanant, only the stat ones reset each week (like the different milestone).

1.0E will be compatible with 1.0D saves.

Thanks for the sprite issue mention, it been shared and will be fixed!

 

[Experimantal]

How is that different than save scumming?

That’s literally save scumming, with extra steps.

Also I don’t get the mentality of the people that justify “against” save scumming. If your gameplay is based on grinding to get better, then save scumming is what make it worth the grind. It’s not like when you reload the save, you instantly gets the loots. No! You still have to grind again & again to have the chance to get that loot, which you may not & will have to reload again. Without manual saves, not only it’ll make the game more tedious to play, it’ll just make it stale real fast & people give up on it easier & give in to cheating/modding.

Why do you think people are asking full saves all the time? Cuz they don’t have the patient like the save scummers (like me) that do the grind for them by save scumming.

Exactly why my quote ends with "and more so..." because I am aware save scumming is possible so it a losing battle for our dev team. An insentive to not save scum is more fun than save scumming. You can save scum in resident evil 1 but it is more fun to not save scum and deal with the limited saves and deal with your own consequences after all!

 

[anonym0u5]

An insentive to not save scum is more fun than save scumming. You can save scum in resident evil 1 but it is more fun to not save scum and deal with the limited saves and deal with your own consequences after all!

I don’t think the dev team get how a game that centre around grinding works in general. Save scummers are the ones that actually played the game as it’s intended & legitimately “without” any cheatings or modifications.

The current game system is a giant middle finger to the hard working players that actually willing to grind. Just think about it, why bother stressing yourself out grinding when you can’t manually save? Just use a save editor to cheat your way through in probably less than 5 minutes. The system doesn’t give you any incentive to grind (& you MUST grind if you wanna get better in this game, other than just simply cheat) cuz it’s NOT rewarding to do so.

 

[sloopcool]

Permanant skills are permanant, only the stat ones reset each week (like the different milestone).

1.0E will be compatible with 1.0D saves.

Thanks for the sprite issue mention, it been shared and will be fixed!

Version 1.0D is much more stable and better than previous versions for this I want to say "Thank you!" I would really like pixel animation in sex scenes. The streets of the city are full of people but the buildings lack any "spicy content" in terms of animation of other characters and it does not have to be the MC. I think it would diversify the game and be the motivation to explore every day to see what is interesting and intriguing.

 

[Experimantal]

I don’t think the dev team get how a game that centre around grinding works in general. Save scummers are the ones that actually played the game as it’s intended & legitimately “without” any cheatings or modifications.

The current game system is a giant middle finger to the hard working players that actually willing to grind. Just think about it, why bother stressing yourself out grinding when you can’t manually save? Just use a save editor to cheat your way through in probably less than 5 minutes. The system doesn’t give you any incentive to grind (& you MUST grind if you wanna get better in this game) cuz it’s NOT rewarding to do so.

As an FYI, it isn't meant as a grind, but more of a daily task with consequences you must manage, the idea was to encourage player to deal with the consequences and adapt to what happens, good or bad, say you got bad rng and higher stress, gotta rethink the rest of your week. The intended way to play is to almost never reload and go forward only.

Sadly it indeed ended up being more of a chores than fun, hence why I am suggesting an idea of limited manual saves, you keep the consequences of your choices, without the game enforcing them on you

 

[jems666]

This game is so painful how everything is so damn slow and cant skip any of the repetitive crap good lord

 

[Edvin]

You can save scum in resident evil 1 but it is more fun to not save scum and deal with the limited saves and deal with your own consequences after all!

I'm sorry, but I don't understand this logic.

Let's say you have a very difficult game that only allows you to save the game once per mission. This will do several things. Players will be constantly stressed because the slightest mistake will lead to the loss of tens of minutes of game time. They will most likely die many times and be forced to repeat certain parts of the mission over and over and over again. How much joy will the player get from such a game?

On the other hand, if the player will have the option of unlimited game saves, it is not that the game will become automatically easier for him. This player just skips the boring part where it is necessary to repeat certain passages over and over again. But just like the first player, he must be able to complete the passages. Personally, I prefer when the game doesn't waste my time unnecessarily. Sure, the game might be shorter, but it's usually a lot more enjoyable.

If the developers want to extend the game time, they should add decisions that have some real consequences and entice us to start playing the game again. I remember when I first finished Planescape Torment, the very next day I started playing it again from scratch, with completely different stats, class, decisions, and morale. It was no less an intense experience than the first game.

 

[W0rld]

I see many people complaning about the gameplay loop, but not many point out what they'd change, if you guys got any suggestion, go ahead, we're always listening

As for the complaints of art being the same for all three gladiators, it is because art is expansive, especially of such quality, the game focus isn't just the scenes, if it was, the game would be a puzzle game where you get the full gallery in 10 mins then delete it from your harddrive. No the point here is the story, writing, being a gladiator simulator. Each character got their own personal story that unfolds starting late bronze/early silver leagues.

Yes I do understand the early gameplay is a slog. In the most recent update, fast travel for FREE (so not the taxi which cost credits) was implemented,there is also discussion to change how infiltration can be done so that it doesn't require returning there on specific days.

After the underground league, the gameplay do open up, I myself spent 6 hours yesterday grinding in the arcade minigames to sell legendary gear for credits .

There was an early concept for the gallery that caused issues, a mod is easy done, but when you seek to implement it properly into the game, can cause issues (unlock conditions, triggers, UI and more), so it got delayed to the steam release (in about a month/ a month and half).

Elona will get a BIG buff next patch, which will make her early game less painful!

Next patch should be the biggest one so far.

In all honesty, and humbly, we apologize for any issues encountered with the game, we playtested it, bug were fixed, release happened annnnnd... Bugs returned. We all pulled our hairs out when it happened....

But, also in honesty, whining and mocking an already stressed out dev team, who tried to not delay the game more, actually pressured into releasing it, isn't a good way to go either. You want quality games, but you also want them now. As seen with CP77, and some of our own bugs, both aren't compatible.

Could we have done more playtesting ? Definitely, even though, as said above, bugs were fixed within our internal build, but returned in release.

But now, more playtesting would mean bigger delay, which mean more crying, mocking, whining, it isn't healthy for any of us.

So now you got what was released now. An overhaul working game, with some bugs that the dev team are working hard to fix, alongside rebalancing, and adding more tiny QoL to the daily loop following everyone's feedback.

This game is a labor of love, I never want to see Kaliyo in the state he was in during development ever again. I wish everyone here could see it this way, but I doubt it.

Now, tomorrow will be the release of the 1.0E patch, no shame in sharing the info, y'all gonna get it from leakers soon anyway.

Personally my only complain about the game is that there are no hints or notification about the characters next relationship progress example Velissa or Nari it would be nice to have a log where the progress is being showed and where the character currently is maybe a upgrade for kiwi ?
The rest about the game so far is enjoyable since i always liked the ''grind and work for your reward'' style like gameplay sadly it connects with the complain that the ''reward'' is hard to find.
the artwork is 10/10 liked the pixel art style and the scene art style
Ps sry for bad writing its late here.

 

[anonym0u5]

As an FYI, it isn't meant as a grind, but more of a daily task with consequences you must manage, the idea was to encourage player to deal with the consequences and adapt to what happens, good or bad, say you got bad rng and higher stress, gotta rethink the rest of your week. The intended way to play is to almost never reload and go forward only.

That “idea” is bad, no caps.

FYI, porn gamers (majority of them) are already not on board of the idea of the game being heavily restricted in any areas (which why more people preferred Renpy over RPGM). Your game is trying to appeal to that group of audiences but at the same time is doing everything to push it away in the gameplay aspects.

You’re saying this is for the people to live with their consequences but think about it, why’d they? If they wanna redo a choice, they’ll go back a save at the start of the day to redo that (this is the current method of save scumming), which is the more tedious way to get what they want & doing that on repeat is the definition of insanity, NOT having fun with the game. It’ll give them the incentive to just cheat, quit playing & wait for someone (like me) to post saves.

Although, I’m insane enough to go through that hell cuz I want everyone on here to have my saves & have fun.

 

[Experimantal]

I'm sorry, but I don't understand this logic.

Let's say you have a very difficult game that only allows you to save the game once per mission. This will do several things. Players will be constantly stressed because the slightest mistake will lead to the loss of tens of minutes of game time. They will most likely die many times and be forced to repeat certain parts of the mission over and over and over again. How much joy will the player get from such a game?

On the other hand, if the player will have the option of unlimited game saves, it is not that the game will become automatically easier for him. This player just skips the boring part where it is necessary to repeat certain passages over and over again. But just like the first player, he must be able to complete the passages. Personally, I prefer when the game doesn't waste my time unnecessarily. Sure, the game might be shorter, but it's usually a lot more enjoyable.

If the developers want to extend the game time, they should add decisions that have some real consequences and entice us to start playing the game again. I remember when I first finished Planescape Torment, the very next day I started playing it again from scratch, with completely different stats, class, decisions, and morale. It was no less an intense experience than the first game.

It isn't about game length but dealing with your choice and their consequences, like my exemple resident evil 1, do you save now in case you die because you're on low health, or risk it and save when you got better health, more ammo etc.

Arenus isn't meant to be overly difficult either, most players I encounter on discord win vanilla difficulty on first try (which ios the difficulty of the second round against the monster in hardcore).

So my idea would be that, like Resident evil, you choose your fate, save now since you got good loot but high stress and see if rest of week goes well, or save later once yèou're more comfy.

Of course unlimited saves is also an option, but then no matter your choice in game, you would feel like you got 0 insentive to deal with it "oh no got a trouble and she did overtime at office, reload", "oh no i didn't get a crit success, reload", and that isn't fun either.

Finding the perfect mix of consequences and player agency isn't easy. Hence why I gather opinions, and i might also be bad at explaining my view of my idea, but I'm not the game designer either, so I don't have most experience in such domain beside my own passion!

 

[Experimantal]

That “idea” is bad, no caps.

FYI, porn gamers (majority of them) are already not on board of the idea of the game being heavily restricted in any areas (which why more people preferred Renpy over RPGM). Your game is trying to appeal to that group of audiences but at the same time is doing everything to push it away in the gameplay aspects.

You’re saying this is for the people to live with their consequences but think about it, why’d they? If they wanna redo a choice, they’ll go back a save at the start of the day to redo that (this is the current method of save scumming), which is the more tedious way to get what they want & doing that on repeat is the definition of insanity, NOT having fun with the game. It’ll give them the incentive to just cheat, quit playing & wait for someone (like me) to post saves.

Although, I’m insane enough to go through that hell cuz I want everyone on here to have my saves & have fun.

I agree, the idea as it is isn't fun, and you explain exactly what I said is happening now.

We're also catering not to just the porn gamers, but porn gamers hungry for true gameplay, not JUST porn for the sake of porn, there's many out there, Arvus ain't a shovelware, CoC clone, cheap puzzle game type of dev...

It ain't easy finding the balance, but we're trying, experimenting, and I hear you when you say that porn crowd is hungry for porn (duh). Really trying to balance it out so that it is fun to play, while keeping the game vision. Sadly, not everyone might like it. Hell you'll never see me play Football games even if it was warhammer theme, because it ain't my cup of tea (sorry bloodbowl)

 

[anonym0u5]

We're also catering not to just the porn gamers, but porn gamers hungry for true gameplay, not JUST porn for the sake of porn, there's many out there, Arvus ain't a shovelware, CoC clone, cheap puzzle game type of dev...

You said it yourself, you wanted “true gameplay” right? Save scumming is the purest definition of “true gameplay”.

As of currently, the game doesn’t give you any incentive to grind or do anything for that matter (cuz it doesn’t feels rewarding in the slightest). Cheating & modding (or wait for a finished save) is better & that isn’t “true gameplay”.

 

[Edvin]

Of course unlimited saves is also an option, but then no matter your choice in game, you would feel like you got 0 insentive to deal with it "oh no got a trouble and she did overtime at office, reload", "oh no i didn't get a crit success, reload", and that isn't fun either.

You can never avoid that if you base your game on random rolls.
But there is a way to have unlimited game saves and prevent players from save scum.

Just make a hidden roll at the beginning of each day for all activities
The player will still be able to choose which activities to engage in, but their outcome will be decided in advance for the given day. This way you can have unlimited game saves without it being abusable.

Simple solutions are often the best.

 

[Experimantal]

You can never avoid that if you base your game on random rolls.
But there is a way to have unlimited game saves and prevent players from save scum.

Just make a hidden roll at the beginning of each day for all activities
The player will still be able to choose which activities to engage in, but their outcome will be decided in advance for the given day. This way you can have unlimited game saves without it being abusable.

Simple solutions are often the best.

That is a good idea indeed which I had thought of, but then could also lead to frustration, thanks!

Another good fellow on discord suggested, like fire emblem does, to implement two modes: one vanilla with save system as meant to be, and one easier mode with unlimited manual saves, that way everyone can be happy, gameplay purist and fellow perverts

 

[sloopcool]

In version 1.0D it is impossible to complete the mission to help Venaara escape, in the space port when opening the security door I get an error.....perhaps someone has already received this error? Previous versions did not have this error.