Actually, kidding aside, your opinion is duelly noted and appreciated for what it details. At least you said why the game grated against your grazeeizzie. Inputs like that are helpful, even if the dev can't salve your feelings.
I have to say, I found this game extremely frustrating. From the prologue we get a ship and a crew in a linear play-by-play of past events - fair enough, as long as the actual story's gonna be much bigger and more epic than that. But surprise! Your crew of women consists of three lesbians, two bi girls (although possibly ALL of them are bi), and one love interest that's emphasized above all the others. That was pretty disheartening, to be honest. Furthermore, with this crew of "maybe/probablynots" you are cast adrift, with no guiding goal. "Go trade" seems to be the mission. That's really vague, but okay, I go out trying to raise a fortune. But there's nothing to spend it on, and jumping station to station for menial gains (or later scavenging for scraps more often than not) gets boring when there's no light at the end of the tunnel. What the fuck am I even doing? Day job simulator in space?
Even worse, the MC is Captain Bland. He's fine with being out of the military but has no aims or personal goals of his own, so he's like wallpaper paste that really does seem satisfied going back and forth swapping cargo with the Marvins. Where is this guy's ambition? What is he really trying to accomplish? If there really isn't going to be an over-arching grand storyline, can't we at least go on adventure episodes with an interesting character instead of a cardboard cutout? This guy could show up to a party, greet everyone there, stay all night, and still be asked the next day why he didn't come.
That's never more obvious than in the so-called main quests. When you realize there really isn't going to be an outside trigger for a main quest - you have to go to the gold star yourself to get anything rolling - you discover these main quests ARE OTHER CHARACTERS' STORIES. First of all, it might seem like admirable player choice to not start a storyline without the player's direct intervention - "the story waits for you!" - but it isn't. It leaves the player adrift, storyless, and only by meta-gaming do you instigate any sort of actual narrative. And in regards to these stories belonging to others, what does the MC actually do on his "main questlines"? You go sit on a couch while Tiffany develops and you help Lia become queen of her planet. YOU'RE A SIDE CHARACTER. And once each of those plotlines are over, there STILL isn't an overarching story for you or your crew, just the promise of some dude enacting a revenge plot against you while you go back to trading.
But aimlessness and a cardboard cutout of an MC are not even the end of the serious flaws here, because as long as you just actively pursue the map stars you'll at least have something to pass the time with. No, what really bugs me is the play-by-play prologue was indicative of the entire game's structure. There are hardly any choices aside from "which map star do you want to click now?". The only one I can remember supplying even mild variations in the entire main mission line was the Xylas base assault route, and it had no real weight in the end anyway. "Ya wanna go in the back or the front?" Who cares, it's the same result either way! Also, it really sucks to have no choice when you're forced to act stupidly; why the hell didn't we gather 3 crab bots from the get-go and deploy them all at once instead of blowing the element of surprise and waiting DAYS between exploding each enemy ship one by one IN THE EXACT SAME MANNER EVERY TIME? This was such a clever plan at the start, and then the execution...
"Hey, Cap, they figured out what we're doing! It's like trying the same tactic three times in a row isn't sneaky or something!"
Tl;dr: I hate that I have no control of my character's personality, and especially that he has no personality to speak of. I hate that there doesn't seem to be any compelling overarching story. I hate that the scant few choices are meaningless. And I dislike the MC not just tolerating but actively admiring characters I can't get rid of, as if the fact that I am forced to keep them around means I'm interested in pursuing a route with them. Any one of these aspects to a game would grind a person's gears, I think, but all of them at once really got under my skin (clearly lol). I played through twice, once basically avoiding the entire crew and once playing the way the game was intended to be played, and to be honest they were pretty similar experiences all told. That's no bueno.
I want to end off by saying despite how frustrating my experience was, I admired the trading system in place. I admired the forethought of including a map star system to limit sandbox boredom. I admired the creativity of the Faction system, even if I didn't like how it actually plays out currently. I thought the animations were really cool, the music was nice, and the plentiful references to other space fare was fun. I don't think this game is necessarily just not for me - which might be why I got so frustrated. There were diamonds in all this rough! But mining for them was absolutely aggravating.
In terms of a fix, my proposal is simple: more choices (that actually matter) and a personal story for the MC to go on and grow on. The personal story will give him a personality. The choices will give the story weight. All the creative, interesting systems already in place will supplement the story nicely, and if you still can't refuse some characters at least you'll see why. Defining the MC - and having him be the actual MC - is paramount to player engagement and I really think will drastically improve the overall experience. Right now this is more Lia's story, and
I hope this feedback was constructive in the end... sorry for the length of the comment. If you've read this far, thanks for sticking with it! I am aware this game is in development and lacking content, I understand I am not owed anything, and I recognize that I am just one voice in the void. So all I ask is that you at least consider if I might be on to something here. If in the end you decide I don't know nothin' about nothin', well, fair enough.
Thanks for taking the time to provide detailed feedback.
First thing I would note, is that this is the first game I have created and I'm not coming from a writing background. Through the process of this game I am certainly learning new things and improving with each version. I am happy to admit that the start of the game is fairly weak. Much of this time, I was focussed on just learning how to program in Ren'Py.
Some of the things that I would like to raise to your attention:
Game design of this nature is challenging in the quantity of choices that you can make available to a player. Whilst trivial ones that may change a counter are easy, ones that have an actual effect on the game environment are problematic. With each real choice, you have to consider how much additional work is required in every single scene from that point onwards, as a result of the choice.
The relationship system at this point is only partially implemented. As romantic options become available with additional crew members and the system is implemented into other aspects of the game, it will feel more natural.
The nature of the game being story arcs within a sandbox environment is difficult to pace. By its very nature, the sandbox portion of the game places the pacing of the main story in the players hands. A linear branching game is far easier to control this pace, however I did not go down this route, as I see that style as a pick what you don't want to see adventure.
In relation to the MC, he was created as a blank slate, such that the player can determine his nature. You are correct however in that I need to give more player choices in terms of how he reacts with the crew. I will give some thought to how this can be accommodated.
There are reasons for why certain events had to take place, that will become clearer over the next couple of versions. The MC will play a far more central role in the late game.
I understand that my game won't appeal to everyone and that's fine. What I am trying to do, is create the most professional game that I can, in a genre that I enjoy. Hopefully a significant portion of the community will enjoy also and come along for the ride.
OooooOOooooooK ... sneaking my more than 2 cents in this here talks of ...
I will use my poetic license here: peace over little resentment for the attitude of our MC.
I enjoy this game. I like that it has genuine relationship bits and pieces here and there.
I feel pretty ostracized by the fact that by the numbers scenes are put into rotation,
waiting 4 Mc to make one or more steps on his path to actually unlock anything resembling
humanly interactions and not fkk off Bs.
There is this ”I will not be here, but forgive me 4 asking” MC dialogue of weaseling out of babes interactions.
Seriously? We spend most of our time replaying shower scenes and table talks that we do not care about,
which is odd considering MC is the captain and greets the crew, has nothing else, literally blank slate to do,
but says he will just leave them to their chit chat. Talk about being and going nowhere attitude if I ever seen one.
The relationship part is actually very lively and nice, but it gets through pretty distasteful bs from the gurls
before Mc can actually get the arc going with each gurl.
If you ask me, MC has a babe 4 himself, she is open to MC being with Lia also, she has a venture going on with the MC
and unresentfully acknowledges she fkks around and MC has a feel of himself doing that also.
Bothersome is why MC is hiding his flat shenanigans and all,
considering his beau is the reaosn they have a venture in the first place,
they aven have a talk about the gurls on display so she very well knows about the club and is invested in it.
Not to mention he talks about it to the whole crew ... we will see how these sparse talks tie into the story next.
I have to say, I found this game extremely frustrating. From the prologue we get a ship and a crew in a linear play-by-play of past events - fair enough, as long as the actual story's gonna be much bigger and more epic than that. But surprise! Your crew of women consists of three lesbians, two bi girls (although possibly ALL of them are bi), and one love interest that's emphasized above all the others. That was pretty disheartening, to be honest. Furthermore, with this crew of "maybe/probablynots" you are cast adrift, with no guiding goal. "Go trade" seems to be the mission. That's really vague, but okay, I go out trying to raise a fortune. But there's nothing to spend it on, and jumping station to station for menial gains (or later scavenging for scraps more often than not) gets boring when there's no light at the end of the tunnel. What the fuck am I even doing? Day job simulator in space?
Even worse, the MC is Captain Bland. He's fine with being out of the military but has no aims or personal goals of his own, so he's like wallpaper paste that really does seem satisfied going back and forth swapping cargo with the Marvins. Where is this guy's ambition? What is he really trying to accomplish? If there really isn't going to be an over-arching grand storyline, can't we at least go on adventure episodes with an interesting character instead of a cardboard cutout? This guy could show up to a party, greet everyone there, stay all night, and still be asked the next day why he didn't come.
That's never more obvious than in the so-called main quests. When you realize there really isn't going to be an outside trigger for a main quest - you have to go to the gold star yourself to get anything rolling - you discover these main quests ARE OTHER CHARACTERS' STORIES. First of all, it might seem like admirable player choice to not start a storyline without the player's direct intervention - "the story waits for you!" - but it isn't. It leaves the player adrift, storyless, and only by meta-gaming do you instigate any sort of actual narrative. And in regards to these stories belonging to others, what does the MC actually do on his "main questlines"? You go sit on a couch while Tiffany develops and you help Lia become queen of her planet. YOU'RE A SIDE CHARACTER. And once each of those plotlines are over, there STILL isn't an overarching story for you or your crew, just the promise of some dude enacting a revenge plot against you while you go back to trading.
But aimlessness and a cardboard cutout of an MC are not even the end of the serious flaws here, because as long as you just actively pursue the map stars you'll at least have something to pass the time with. No, what really bugs me is the play-by-play prologue was indicative of the entire game's structure. There are hardly any choices aside from "which map star do you want to click now?". The only one I can remember supplying even mild variations in the entire main mission line was the Xylas base assault route, and it had no real weight in the end anyway. "Ya wanna go in the back or the front?" Who cares, it's the same result either way! Also, it really sucks to have no choice when you're forced to act stupidly; why the hell didn't we gather 3 crab bots from the get-go and deploy them all at once instead of blowing the element of surprise and waiting DAYS between exploding each enemy ship one by one IN THE EXACT SAME MANNER EVERY TIME? This was such a clever plan at the start, and then the execution...
"Hey, Cap, they figured out what we're doing! It's like trying the same tactic three times in a row isn't sneaky or something!"
Tl;dr: I hate that I have no control of my character's personality, and especially that he has no personality to speak of. I hate that there doesn't seem to be any compelling overarching story. I hate that the scant few choices are meaningless. And I dislike the MC not just tolerating but actively admiring characters I can't get rid of, as if the fact that I am forced to keep them around means I'm interested in pursuing a route with them. Any one of these aspects to a game would grind a person's gears, I think, but all of them at once really got under my skin (clearly lol). I played through twice, once basically avoiding the entire crew and once playing the way the game was intended to be played, and to be honest they were pretty similar experiences all told. That's no bueno.
I want to end off by saying despite how frustrating my experience was, I admired the trading system in place. I admired the forethought of including a map star system to limit sandbox boredom. I admired the creativity of the Faction system, even if I didn't like how it actually plays out currently. I thought the animations were really cool, the music was nice, and the plentiful references to other space fare was fun. I don't think this game is necessarily just not for me - which might be why I got so frustrated. There were diamonds in all this rough! But mining for them was absolutely aggravating.
In terms of a fix, my proposal is simple: more choices (that actually matter) and a personal story for the MC to go on and grow on. The personal story will give him a personality. The choices will give the story weight. All the creative, interesting systems already in place will supplement the story nicely, and if you still can't refuse some characters at least you'll see why. Defining the MC - and having him be the actual MC - is paramount to player engagement and I really think will drastically improve the overall experience. Right now this is more Lia's story, and
I hope this feedback was constructive in the end... sorry for the length of the comment. If you've read this far, thanks for sticking with it! I am aware this game is in development and lacking content, I understand I am not owed anything, and I recognize that I am just one voice in the void. So all I ask is that you at least consider if I might be on to something here. If in the end you decide I don't know nothin' about nothin', well, fair enough.
Actually, kidding aside, your opinion is duelly noted and appreciated for what it details. At least you said why the game grated against your grazeeizzie. Inputs like that are helpful, even if the dev can't salve your feelings.
Thanks for taking the time to provide detailed feedback.
First thing I would note, is that this is the first game I have created and I'm not coming from a writing background. Through the process of this game I am certainly learning new things and improving with each version. I am happy to admit that the start of the game is fairly weak. Much of this time, I was focussed on just learning how to program in Ren'Py.
Some of the things that I would like to raise to your attention:
Game design of this nature is challenging in the quantity of choices that you can make available to a player. Whilst trivial ones that may change a counter are easy, ones that have an actual effect on the game environment are problematic. With each real choice, you have to consider how much additional work is required in every single scene from that point onwards, as a result of the choice.
The relationship system at this point is only partially implemented. As romantic options become available with additional crew members and the system is implemented into other aspects of the game, it will feel more natural.
The nature of the game being story arcs within a sandbox environment is difficult to pace. By its very nature, the sandbox portion of the game places the pacing of the main story in the players hands. A linear branching game is far easier to control this pace, however I did not go down this route, as I see that style as a pick what you don't want to see adventure.
In relation to the MC, he was created as a blank slate, such that the player can determine his nature. You are correct however in that I need to give more player choices in terms of how he reacts with the crew. I will give some thought to how this can be accommodated.
There are reasons for why certain events had to take place, that will become clearer over the next couple of versions. The MC will play a far more central role in the late game.
I understand that my game won't appeal to everyone and that's fine. What I am trying to do, is create the most professional game that I can, in a genre that I enjoy. Hopefully a significant portion of the community will enjoy also and come along for the ride.
I understand that my game won't appeal to everyone and that's fine. What I am trying to do, is create the most professional game that I can, in a genre that I enjoy. Hopefully a significant portion of the community will enjoy also and come along for the ride.
Xavster, this game is the best, and I don't care who complains about what or how much criticism you get. You clearly have put a lot of thought and heart into it and it is amazing, especially for a first time game development out of the gate.
What I love most is how smart the game is, in addition to it just being sexy as all get out. And the sex/romantic scenes are totally appropriate and tasteful. (I especially appreciate that there are not constant scenes of anal and everything going up someone's ass every single second like you see in so many other performances.) And making the player think strategically in both mini games (like the basketball game, for ex - great stuff) and main storyline by making them need to think ahead about decisions, or even do something as simple as math calculations, is a testament to the credit you give to your audience's intelligence. And those of us players who are as smart as we are horny, we appreciate it.
I'm sure you are open to occasional pointers on things, and maybe even some tough feedback now and then, but it also is important for you to hear what you are doing right, and I have ZERO negative things to say about this game and your work. I played it for 6 hours straight the first day and then started over again before I even got through many of the quests, because I can't wait to take part in the whole thing from start to finish (whenever we shall be graced by that finish line... in the meantime your continued development is eagerly anticipated). You're doing everything right. Keep at it.
I'm trying to get myself out of serious economic and financial issues due to the pandemic but as soon as I'm able I hope to be able to lend some support however I can. In the meantime I left you an absolutely glowing review on this thread in hopes that it will help. Thanks for your creative work! A+
I've got to say, I'm quite happy to have found this under rated hidden GEM.
I'm not sure WHAT it is doing so low on the weighted ranking board, considering this has one of the most polished story, art and animations in AVNs I've played to date (and we're talking a couple of 100's at this point ^_^.)
The prologue, was exceptionally enjoyable, even if there's no choice at that point.
But, the animation, and attention to details (the sun shadows moving slowly to follow the sun's movements during some scenes was a very very subtle yet noticeable thing.)
The only thing that bothered me, was the navigation within the ship, and finding the interactions available... until I remembered the "you are here" button. My suggestion, would be to remove the actual navigation of the ship, and just leave the ship's map. Considering how much more practical it is
But this little gem, is clearly not getting the exposure it deserves.
The only thing that bothered me, was the navigation within the ship, and finding the interactions available... until I remembered the "you are here" button. My suggestion, would be to remove the actual navigation of the ship, and just leave the ship's map. Considering how much more practical it is
Well, for what it's worth... small detail. I find having both options to be very helpful. Sometimes I like to walk around the ship in blunt fashion, sometimes I like to navigate via the map. Different players think in different ways. Some people are linear in their thinking, some are spatial. Either way, it's probably good to have both. But good point you bring up.
As far as progressing certain relationships, this changes course a little with 0.50. Previous to this the relationships were fully plot driven, however I am introducing a new relationship system that will allow you to opt in or out of any relationships. From this point onward, progressing the main story will deepen the trust you have with other crew members, however it will be your choice on how far to take it.
To clarify the above, it is essentially a tracker that shows your interest in certain parties. You have the three main central characters and then the others whom hold some allegiance to central characters. As you focus on one sector the index increases (with changing colour and facial expression), however decreases in the other sectors. Essentially at any given time you may be in the good books with one sector and out of favour with others. This is not static, and will change with every interaction you elect to undertake with crew members.
The index will control what lewd content is available at any time and will also be used to tailor the crews interactions with the player. Additionally I will use it to trigger certain events between crew members, such as Tiffany perhaps wanting to play a prank on Lia given the relative relationship score above. Whilst it will be possible to experience all of the lewd content in the final game on a single play through, it will require you to switch your love interest several times during the game. Also if you want to play like a monk from 0.50 onward that will be possible also.
I like the love index and think it's a nice addition to the game. I'm only barely starting to figure out it. I also like the idea of using different strategies when going through events again to see what actions I take might raise/decrease characters' affections. I still don't completely understand it yet, but I know right now I'm red hot with Lia and Tanya! (If even if the rest of the girls hate me!)
I hope at some point we will be rewarded with scenes of intimacy with the other and/or certain characters, especially as a result of being able to turn certain relationships around. Kara of course would be awesome. And Alice the "ice queen", whoa nelly would that be fun to finally win over her affections!
So it's a well-educated, grammatically correct wall of text. If I have to scroll that far to reach the end, it is quite literally a wall of text. I will give minimal credit for spoilering some of the mass. I can understand why Xavster appreciated the critical feedback, but to me that seems exactly the kind of post that should be in the "Reviews" section, not the "Discussion" section.
So it's a well-educated, grammatically correct wall of text. If I have to scroll that far to reach the end, it is quite literally a wall of text. I will give minimal credit for spoilering some of the mass. I can understand why Xavster appreciated the critical feedback, but to me that seems exactly the kind of post that should be in the "Reviews" section, not the "Discussion" section.
I provide a weekly update on Patreon as to my current development activities. This update includes a progress report and forecast release dates. The release date moves around a little, dependent upon progress achieved to date and the forecast time to complete remaining activities.
Patreons receive the update 1 week prior to the public release. This public release is current forecast for early April.
Stuck trying to do the mission that shows in the hold (gold star) but whenever I talk to tiffany she just brushes me off saying she's looking at stuff on her pad
Stuck trying to do the mission that shows in the hold (gold star) but whenever I talk to tiffany she just brushes me off saying she's looking at stuff on her pad
There is only 1 gold star quest in the hold, which should initiate if you click on Tiffany. If you can forward a save game I will take a look for you. Also a screen shot of the quest tracker page would help.
There is only 1 gold star quest in the hold, which should initiate if you click on Tiffany. If you can forward a save game I will take a look for you. Also a screen shot of the quest tracker page would help.
It was the very first quest but buy jumping around with the ship I managed to unlock myself. Great game for a first seriously, loving the content, not a big fan of how tedious it is to maintain your relationship with all the girls at the same time haha. Looking forward to future updates though!
As a recommendation, I suggest you don't even try. The system is designed to give a more personal feel to the ship with crew members reacting in accordance with their relationship level (still implementing customisations). Some of the content in the game also requires the relationship level to be low on the central girls.
Note that the relationship level is representative of what has happened fairly recently. There are also decisions in the game which permanently affect overall ship happiness (main story / side stories). Note that ignoring a girl for a period and having her score drop really low, does not have a permanent impact.
