you can add me as a plus one.
i have just given this a go and didn't make it very far as this aspect was seriously tedious for me.
i have also seen quite a few game feeds gain negative comments surrounding the 'single choice option' and find it a curious design choice. don't recall ever seeing a positive comment in support. not to say there was none, just don't remember reading any.
personally i find it the same as you, an immersion breaker and i only came to see if it changes in this release. seems not so i will just delete and play something else.
Seeing as how there are more than two people who don't like it, I came up with a solution, inspired by Hordragg .
Put the attached file in your /game directory, then enter the preferences menu and click on this option:
Mind, you need the attached screens.rpy, otherwise the options will work differently.
It's still experimental, but it should probably do the job in at least 9/10 cases.
If it gives you an error after installation, re-unzip the game and try again.
Seeing as how there are more than two people who don't like it, I came up with a solution, inspired by Hordragg .
Put the attached file in your /game directory, then enter the preferences menu and click on this option: View attachment 2182089
Mind, you need the attached screens.rpy, otherwise the options will work differently.
It's still experimental, but it should probably do the job in at least 9/10 cases.
If it gives you an error after installation, re-unzip the game and try again.
So you saw… …'twas a sad attempt at providing an alternative solution, really. Yours is leagues better. And it generally works like a charm, but on several of Ada's and Juno's events (see ada0, juno0, or bridgeWork, for instance) their dialogue will be shown behind the commander's, as you copied their preceding line into the menu choice to have it still be on screen. And while I fully agree with Malorn, this specific design choice I cannot really get behind. First as it's inconsistent with the rest of the game, and second as I took the say area disappearing to be my cue to focus on the center of the screen, making me miss the commander's lines at first. Alas, only a minor gripe, especially seeing how those events really are more about the reactions caused. And cause they did, cause they did…
Space combat felt very much like Space Alert (the boardgame), in that I had not the faintest idea of what to do at first, but a blast nonetheless. Though I'll probably do a full rerun soon, seeing as pirate raids can be turned into a profit given proper preparations. *forming a hand pyramid*I, Caitlin from the Ducal House of Kelest, formally take command of this station.
And it generally works like a charm, but on several of Ada's and Juno's events (see ada0, juno0, or bridgeWork, for instance) their dialogue will be shown behind the commander's, as you copied their preceding line into the menu choice to have it still be on screen.
Oh, good that you mention that, I will remove those. I experimented with that in 0.1 and didn't continue it later because it felt... weird, I guess. xD
Space combat felt very much like Space Alert (the boardgame), in that I had not the faintest idea of what to do at first, but a blast nonetheless. Though I'll probably do a full rerun soon, seeing as pirate raids can be turned into a profit given proper preparations. *forming a hand pyramid*I, Caitlin from the Ducal House of Kelest, formally take command of this station.
An observation, and by no means am I telling you to change the space combat. But if a player, of these adult genre games can't figure out what to do successfully within a few plays, the likely hood of them sticking around when there are so many many games out there isn't very high.
You may want to add in a "skip combat" and just reward them less.
Me...
I'll admit, esp in the early stages of the game, I'd prefer a skip combat. Add in the fact the combat explanation couldn't be done in about 4 clicks, you will lose a good number of people.
I figure I'll go back through later to try to make better sense of it from an earlier save before I lost lots of resources. just trying to repair to keep up.
Given what you've posted though, I'll probably wait for that 0.3 release.
So, I just discovered this game (and Sunville), and I really like both. I am quite partial to "npc dress-up" exhibitionism, and am looking forward to v0.3.
However, I do have some criticisms. I will try to make them constructive/actionable.
Navigation/Time-management is very clunky. You can only pass time in certain places, which are rarely accessible from the turbolift. It makes the late-game grind annoying.
There should be an option to pass time anywhere, and maybe some benefit to passing time in the places you already can.
Speaking of late-game grind, it stinks that the requirements of top-tier outfits are higher than the stat-caps. You grind all the way to max Exhibitionism, and Juno is still wearing panties.
Remove the caps!
Characters were far too willing to drop their towel.
Make the affection requirement slightly higher. Ada was willing to flash me the same day I threatened to blow up the station.
Combat
The Form Squadron button should not be hidden within the station menu
Squadrons should be formed in a staging area, where they blink like mad and prevent the phase from ending. From there, you can choose to attack or defend.
Incorporate the combat tutorial into the Initial Pirate Encounter (IPE).
Give Ada a fighter during the IPE to show players how to use them.
May require rewrites?
Grey out and disable energy control during the IPE. It currently looks more important than the fighters.
Maybe require you to increase sensor power for your fighter?
Management
It's a bit easy. I didn't really mess with it and I had more dough than I could spend.
Stretch out the ramp up period, for players to better learn why Landing pads, Markets, and Black Markets are important.
Would require plot rewrites and could slow down early game.
Okay, so that's a lot of criticism. Don't get me wrong; I love this game. It could just be even better.
So, I just discovered this game (and Sunville), and I really like both. I am quite partial to "npc dress-up" exhibitionism, and am looking forward to v0.3.
However, I do have some criticisms. I will try to make them constructive/actionable.
Navigation/Time-management is very clunky. You can only pass time in certain places, which are rarely accessible from the turbolift. It makes the late-game grind annoying.
There should be an option to pass time anywhere, and maybe some benefit to passing time in the places you already can.
Sorry for responding to the very first point in a curt manner already, but: I'll think about that. My plan is to put enough small events in the game to make clicking through days less... tedious.
In the meantime, you can try making smalltalk with an NPC, which will advance time as well.
Speaking of late-game grind, it stinks that the requirements of top-tier outfits are higher than the stat-caps. You grind all the way to max Exhibitionism, and Juno is still wearing panties.
I can't do that, for continuity reasons. In the pre-alpha stages of 0.1, there were no caps, and you had girls running around naked outside of events while magically wearing full uniforms during events, which was off-putting. And making the non-sprite-based events vary based on character outfit for 6+ characters is far beyond the scope of a single dev (in a reasonable timeframe).
If I did that, the start would become a slog. Requirements were originally higher, but it turned the early days into "advance time" spamming, which is something I don't want, because it would piss a whole bunch of people off for no good reason.
I could rework the entire starting phase to account for that, but realistically, I'd rather make new content instead of polishing functional old content.
The Form Squadron button should not be hidden within the station menu
Squadrons should be formed in a staging area, where they blink like mad and prevent the phase from ending. From there, you can choose to attack or defend.
Incorporate the combat tutorial into the Initial Pirate Encounter (IPE).
Give Ada a fighter during the IPE to show players how to use them.
May require rewrites?
Grey out and disable energy control during the IPE. It currently looks more important than the fighters.
Maybe require you to increase sensor power for your fighter?
Yeah, combat in general is a WIP. Just going to ping JoePlant here since he was talking about it as well.
I'm going to change the interface (significantly?) in coming updates (maybe in 0.4, but probably 0.5) so please keep the suggestions coming
The IPE has been a pain in my ass ever since I reworked combat, and I'm not yet sure what to do about it. Ada in a single fighter would get absolutely obliterated in "live" combat, so I'd have to script the entire thing - and maybe that's exactly what I'll do, but it's a pretty big time investment... I'll have to see what I can do.
I have to keep it reasonably simple on the surface, or my audience would drop to fraction of what it is, especially since many of them come from Sunville. If I was making a SFW game, I'd have gone all-in, since I love spreadsheet gaming à la Paradox. But as a porn game dev, I would be shooting myself in the foot if I made it mandatory.
That said, once you gain control over the planet in 0.4, you will be able to engage with its economy. It will be a significant boon, but not necessary, for reasons mentioned above. And later on, you will be able to organize your fleets and send them on missions through the sector, for loot and honor. lol
Thank you! I really appreciate the feedback and your brand of criticism is delightful, especially in comparison to getting rude demands in CAPSLOCK. lol
So far I am enjoying the game, the sandbox isn't too grindy or tedious but maybe having a map which expands into the smaller areas would help as it is a little confusing to navigate some times.
And just curious for future content, will there be voyeurism and sleep content? Doesn't need to be sex, but groping and stuff is great
So far I am enjoying the game, the sandbox isn't too grindy or tedious but maybe having a map which expands into the smaller areas would help as it is a little confusing to navigate some times.
And just curious for future content, will there be voyeurism and sleep content? Doesn't need to be sex, but groping and stuff is great
I'm afraid I don't have any personal interest in sleep content, so it won't be part of the game. When it comes to voyeurism, I'm not entirely sure which direction you would like to see, since technically, the protagonist is already living the voyeuristic dream of a paradise full of space pirate girls with exhibitionist tendencies. lol
If you're looking for stuff like the protagonist sneaking around and spying on girls: That's just not their style, so you won't see it from them at least. Maybe you'll get to catch some of the girls spying on their friends though.
Seeing as how there are more than two people who don't like it, I came up with a solution, inspired by Hordragg .
Put the attached file in your /game directory, then enter the preferences menu and click on this option: View attachment 2182089
Mind, you need the attached screens.rpy, otherwise the options will work differently.
It's still experimental, but it should probably do the job in at least 9/10 cases.
If it gives you an error after installation, re-unzip the game and try again.
I appriciate the effort you took there. Thank you very much. At the part where I am, it worked like a charm. will be looking forward for the upcoming updates!
regarding the character sam, and the requirement to start building her exhibisionism stat, thereby enabling the upgrade of life support.
i know it's sam affected by some form of exhibitionism or teasng by her crew mates. this started her exhibitionism build up, and unlocked the life support upgrade.
the problem is, the saved games got screwed up by your bug, and now i can't remember the location, time (morning, noon, evening, night?), weekday or weekend, and personalities present during that event.
now i've been stalking sam all day everyday, all the time, everywhere (except her quarters), for a whole week, and i can't start sam's exhibitionism.
wtf? please help eh?
sam's story is blocking the way of the whole story unfolding. why did you do that?
never let one single element prevent the game from progressing.
anyway, some hep with sam please.
I'm afraid I don't have any personal interest in sleep content, so it won't be part of the game. When it comes to voyeurism, I'm not entirely sure which direction you would like to see, since technically, the protagonist is already living the voyeuristic dream of a paradise full of space pirate girls with exhibitionist tendencies. lol
If you're looking for stuff like the protagonist sneaking around and spying on girls: That's just not their style, so you won't see it from them at least. Maybe you'll get to catch some of the girls spying on their friends though.
I really adore your commitment to a 'classy' protagonist. It stands out against a backdrop of rather pathetic characters we often have to overlook.
I do agree with what others said about the start of the game is a bit more sudden than perhaps it should be, though it does make it less of a slog than some games. You might be able to fix the problem post-facto by the station AI revealing that she has been dosing the crew's water with aphrodisiacs or something like that. Nothing too overt on the mind control side, but enough to 'push' natural impulses and reduce inhibitions. The player could even have the choice to 'punish' the AI for it, leading to dom behavior towards the station AI as well. Maybe ordering the AI to stop, even in the late stages, might cost you 20 points with the crew as they are no longer being dosed, a temporary setback at this point. Just a way to have your cake and eat it too.
As far as management, from what I've seen management can be built into lewd games, it just has to involve some management of lewdity. Not sure if this is the sort of direction you want to go towards, but slowly corrupting the planet via various laws and such can be entertaining. Combine this with some 'background' scenes of random people in various situations that reflect the rules, and it can be immersive and keep the lewdity flavor. One could also corrupt the station using the same sort of logic, with rules about which genders are allowed on the station, or certain areas that require increasingly lewd clothing or requirements. All of this would 'cost' economic efficiency, especially at first, which would reduce the feedback loop and make the economic game more compelling as well. Games like Free Cities or Hentai High School have done this sort of management approach with a fair degree of success. (Though Free Cities especially is much harsher and darker than the tone you seem to aim for in your games, not saying you ought to emulate that part of it.)
On the other hand, that's a big shift from your current path of highly focused on content on specific characters, and that is good content, so playing to your strengths may not be a bad idea. Certainly I would be sad to lose that specific focus in the process of any wider lens. Maybe something for a lot later in the development of the game, if then.
Just want to report a bug that has really annoyed me while I was playing the latest version today:
Idk why or how, but one time I entered the combat simulation and it simply bugged all saves after that. All my saves from that point onward would just lead me back to one specific save. Luckily I save and load a lot, so I didn't lose anything by being able to load a "safe save". But this can be a big problem if someone were to lose a huge chunk of progress.
I do agree with what others said about the start of the game is a bit more sudden than perhaps it should be, though it does make it less of a slog than some games. You might be able to fix the problem post-facto by the station AI revealing that she has been dosing the crew's water with aphrodisiacs or something like that. Nothing too overt on the mind control side, but enough to 'push' natural impulses and reduce inhibitions. The player could even have the choice to 'punish' the AI for it, leading to dom behavior towards the station AI as well. Maybe ordering the AI to stop, even in the late stages, might cost you 20 points with the crew as they are no longer being dosed, a temporary setback at this point. Just a way to have your cake and eat it too.
While I agree that a day or two of wind-up may have been good, I don't think that it needs any convoluted explanations. Ada and Juno are pirates, and they are by no means shy virgins. They know what they want, and they will go and get it, because tomorrow, they might be space dust. The protagonist "corrupting" them is not much more than a slight push in the right direction. And it certainly helps that the protagonist is part of the top echelons of society ^^
Shel is... Shel. xD
Sam is much more reserved and usually prefers her machines to human interaction, and Lili is actually shy unless inebriated.
As far as management, from what I've seen management can be built into lewd games, it just has to involve some management of lewdity. Not sure if this is the sort of direction you want to go towards, but slowly corrupting the planet via various laws and such can be entertaining. Combine this with some 'background' scenes of random people in various situations that reflect the rules, and it can be immersive and keep the lewdity flavor. One could also corrupt the station using the same sort of logic, with rules about which genders are allowed on the station, or certain areas that require increasingly lewd clothing or requirements. All of this would 'cost' economic efficiency, especially at first, which would reduce the feedback loop and make the economic game more compelling as well. Games like Free Cities or Hentai High School have done this sort of management approach with a fair degree of success. (Though Free Cities especially is much harsher and darker than the tone you seem to aim for in your games, not saying you ought to emulate that part of it.)
That is an immense amount of work you're suggesting there xD I do have something in that vague direction in mind though, for when I run out of other complex systems to experiment with.
Just want to report a bug that has really annoyed me while I was playing the latest version today:
Idk why or how, but one time I entered the combat simulation and it simply bugged all saves after that. All my saves from that point onward would just lead me back to one specific save. Luckily I save and load a lot, so I didn't lose anything by being able to load a "safe save". But this can be a big problem if someone were to lose a huge chunk of progress.
I'm aware of the bug, it's fixed for the 0.3 release. There is also a big disclaimer right above the downloads. Thanks for the report though, I appreciate you helping me look out for stuff like that.
the reason we use cheats and mods is because we don't have time to play the game, the way YOU want us to play the game.
those mods and cheats actually help us progress with the games you make.
if you're not gonna help because you don't wanna 'spoil' the game for us, then you're not only, not helping, but making it even harder for us to progress with your game.
it's your bug that caused us to lose our saves.
it's your bug that dragged me back to pre-life support game play.
and yes there was a disclaimer, but after posting that disclaimer, did you actually expect everyone to be happy that your bug ruined story continuity?
the reason we use cheats and mods is because we don't have time to play the game, the way YOU want us to play the game.
those mods and cheats actually help us progress with the games you make.
if you're not gonna help because you don't wanna 'spoil' the game for us, then you're not only, not helping, but making it even harder for us to progress with your game.
it's your bug that caused us to lose our saves.
it's your bug that dragged me back to pre-life support game play.
and yes there was a disclaimer, but after posting that disclaimer, did you actually expect everyone to be happy that your bug ruined story continuity?
I ignored you because your tone was (and remains) aggressive. No point in interacting with you from my point of view, but hey, I'll humor you once. Seems like you got fucked over big time by a bug - do you expect me to grovel before you now, apologizing for my failure to deliver a perfect, free game?
I can't help you with your problem. The save is broken, you'll have to start over or stop playing for good. Such is the risk when playing a free game some random indie porn game dev made. I'm not going to beg you to play my content, and if you insist on being an asshole, feel free to fuck off.
Civil discussion, bug reports and feedback are always welcome, but you started off very rude even for f95 standards, so don't expect anything else from me.
I ignored you because your tone was (and remains) aggressive. No point in interacting with you from my point of view, but hey, I'll humor you once. Seems like you got fucked over big time by a bug - do you expect me to grovel before you now, apologizing for my failure to deliver a perfect, free game?
I can't help you with your problem. The save is broken, you'll have to start over or stop playing for good. Such is the risk when playing a free game some random indie porn game dev made. I'm not going to beg you to play my content, and if you insist on being an asshole, feel free to fuck off.
Civil discussion, bug reports and feedback are always welcome, but you started off very rude even for f95 standards, so don't expect anything else from me.
Don't mean to drag this, but yeah, people come complaining from a indie game in development, and the way it is made and is. Like they own it. Kinda like people who asks for certain content to be included. Don't like it, don't play it. Go find your thing.
Aside from that, I'm liking the game so far. Though that new combat system took me by surprise big time. Simply could not win lol. Had to load a save and hope to not get a random encounter until I was stronger. But I liked it, not that complicated, and just mechanized enough to be interesting. Better than the spam click and hope to win at an RNG lol.
Btw, since you said you fixed the bug I encountered earlier, you probably know about the "order" option with Ada bringing up options from that fighter outfit, even if she's not wearing it.
I'm looking forward for more updates. You've done a great job so far. And honestly I'm looking forward for other 2 Ren'Py games here. All of them with good lesbian/yuri content. Not many of those around, unfortunately.
Btw, since you said you fixed the bug I encountered earlier, you probably know about the "order" option with Ada bringing up options from that fighter outfit, even if she's not wearing it.
There have been a few (now fixed) bugs with the order system, but I actually didn't know about that one. I'll look into it, thanks
And I'm happy to hear you're having fun ^^ Small hint for the combat system: Fighters are really strong, especially with some energy put into sensors. I'll probably put more emphasis on that in the intro, if I can think of a good way to do it without having to rework a lot.
There have been a few (now fixed) bugs with the order system, but I actually didn't know about that one. I'll look into it, thanks
And I'm happy to hear you're having fun ^^ Small hint for the combat system: Fighters are really strong, especially with some energy put into sensors. I'll probably put more emphasis on that in the intro, if I can think of a good way to do it without having to rework a lot.
You actually made it very clear to me lol. Polishing my ego, I'd say I picked up on it quite easily to know that the sensors+a bunch of fighter is just OP. You kinda don't need anything else. I extended my playtime on your game, even when I reached the caps, so I had a lot of money. So I used it all on fighters, pilots and pilot capacity. Luckily I'm playing a neutral party with the station, so my chances of being attacked were pretty low, so I could easily build up my strength with no worry lol.
And about the bug. I did a quick test that might help you. As far as I know, this is the only outfit that has this problem. As the other version of it (the shorter crop top) didn't seem to have any issue.
This shows the path of dialogs and what I get after.
There is also a big disclaimer right above the downloads.
I usually don't pay much attention to these lol. But yeah, I've seen it now, I was just blind at the time. -.-
Since I'm already at it, one thing that you could add (if you haven't) is interactions between more than 2 character when you enter a room. Because 3 or more character don't play any interactions about their clothes. Either that, or do an RNG to select 2 random character to play an interaction.
Another suggestion is to make more stuff for 3+ characters, like threesomes (again, if you aren't already doing). Something like a chance for Ada and Juno to both knock at your door at night. Not because I want to (which I do), but because it actually make a lot of sense that things like this would happen. With all that's been going on with the story so far. I'm probably just stating the obvious and your future plans lol.
