CSdev

Member
Game Developer
Oct 14, 2020
163
540
There are too many posts to reply to them all, but I want to thank all of the players who are posting guides and advice for how to play the game. They're helpful not only to new players, but also to my own understanding of how people are playing the game and what issues they're running into. It's a very valuable form of feedback.
Also, to the dev, despite my struggles, I still want to make sure you know that your game is a great experience. I almost quit a few times, but the lewd mechanics and characters kept me going. That and plenty of help from your fans. :p
Thank you for the encouragement!
Is the cheat bugged? I can activate it in the options menu but when I go to play a campaign or single play, it disables itself - I saw the cheat button show up once when I was restarting trying to figure out what was going on, but in single play, and I'm really confused as to why this is happening.
The difficulty settings only apply when starting a new game. If you're loading a save, then it'll revert to the difficulty settings of that save.
I'm still forming a detailed opinion about Campaign mode, I really like it, but still gotta experiment a bit more.



I also learned something really strong, you can nuke tempted and T3 Chosen. So when you tempt a chosen all the trauma resets, but you can get to 1M trauma if you don't use it (at least until you get there) and then you still get T3, so she still can stack Hypnoze %. This is strong because it allows you to get high PLEA easily, so you can get stacking both hypnotize and tempt (unstack in this case?) earlier, and in the final battle, it basically takes down said chosen with not that many uses (max 3, and remember that she can't explode).



a quick snowball effect, that erases 1 (or 2) chosen in the final battle.



This is something that does not require a nerfed because it proves that there is a strategic side.
This is a favorite strategy of mine as well, I'm glad to see other people discovering it.
It really sucks that you lose the ability to tempt if one of the other magical girls busts in and fucks the girl you're tempting. Given it's extremely difficult to get all three girls tempted at once, it makes it a really tense wire to ride.



I do very much like the feature, and the fluff surrounding it. Anal isn't really my thing but I enjoyed it anyway - it'll be nice when you can get them to use all their holes. It'd be even nicer if you could plausibly tempt all three without needing some super precise stats.
The fact that you can't use Distortions on one of the Chosen whose Vulnerabilities have been broken by factors other than the player's actions is one of the kinks in the system that I want to fix. I'm still not completely sure how, but I've seen some good suggestions, so I plan on solving it somehow before the next Distortion is added.

There is one major gameplay feature coming which should make normal mode significantly easier in general, and that should also make challenge runs like "Tempt everyone" more feasible.
Does anyone know if it's intended behavior for Superior Chosen to not become more susceptible to damage as you break their vulnerabilities? I have one with T2 broken in Innocence but still zero pips in Pleasure susceptibility. I'd earmarked her for Distortion but it's looking to be impossible if her susceptibility to Pleasure doesn't improve with breaks.



On an unrelated note, is it possible to implement a single turn Undo function? I cannot even begin to count the number times I've reloaded because of a misclick.
Superior Chosen should become more suscpetible to damage as they're corrupted, but the difference is less noticeable because of the flat x1/3 factor they apply to the damage types they resist. A regular Chosen with Core Confidence might go from taking 9 base INJU damage at first to taking 58 base INJU damage after a T2 break. With the Superior modifier, she'd go from taking 3 base INJU damage to taking 19 - not even enough to put one notch on the susceptibility chart. I've Tempted Superior Chosen who resist PLEA before, but it requires endgame levels of EE investment. On the bright side, the +50% damage that Tempted Forsaken get and the +50% damage that Superior Forsaken get do stack multiplicatively.

An Undo button is a common request (along with a Restart Battle button). It's harder than it sounds due to the number of variables that can change during battle and the way that they're coded. I'd like to do it, but it's not coming anytime soon.
Whenever I start the game it just has a blank screen with no buttons or text, but when I remove my save file it works fine, is there anyway I can fix this without losing my save?
Unfortunately, there's no way for me to tell which line of code is causing the game to crash there. If you send me the save, I'll take a look and try to fix it.
how do i save my options settings? it resets everytime i launch the game
Options settings are tied to saved games. As long as you have any save files, it'll copy the options from the most recently used save file.
Ok, been busy these last weeks, but finally I can give some feedback.



Here are my takes (this is for the campaign mode, and there is no particular order of priority)



1.- let me say: this is a great way to do campaign mode as you already have a placeholder for the fundamental things, just need to add more things and balance.
Thank you for the detailed feedback! I'll answer these individually. More features and balance adjustments are certainly coming.
2.- Need some second chance after losing, otherwise is too reliant on rerolling (save-scumming) and/or playing perfectly. Sometimes you underestimate the city modifier or are one of those unexpected teams, whatever is the reason, sometimes you just get bad combinations when you can't deal with it. I would recommend something like a defensive battle (although I don't know how would it work), or a multiple lives system (I like more the other idea but this can be a placeholder).
If campaign mode included an "ironman" feature to restrict savescumming, then I'd definitely want to give the player some sort of leeway for losing the final battle. But as things are, adding such a feature would just give the player incentive to savescum and save their "lives" as long as possible, then burn them on the last loops once things get unreasonably difficult. And with the game in its current unstable state, I can't restrict savescumming without punishing players who run into bugs. Something like this is part of my eventual vision of a finished game, though.
3.- I think that checkpoints of the achievements should give you different upgrades as you progress with them because eventually, they are going to be obsolete, mainly with Punisher achievements that if it stays the way it is, well, it will not be very useful. superior chosen is good as it is, the temp maybe but honestly i'd say is ok as it is, and the sacrifice forsaken one is also ok.
Right now, the punisher achievements feel somewhat underwhelming, but once some other major features are added, the player will be able to reach loops that last only 20 days. At that point, being able to cause a T4 break with only 250% punisher effectiveness will be incredibly important, since you have so few days to grind them up. I'm definitely willing to add and adjust the modifiers as we test them out, but I think it's too early to call this one.
4.- Superior chosen and forsaken are awesome and really strong. I don't have anything more to say about them, except to make them accessible in options and customization.
I've put a low priority on putting them in customization, because all they really do is make numbers bigger, and there are already cheats which functionally do the same thing. I'll definitely have them in once the truly special elites like angels and devils are implemented, though.
5.- maybe add 5 additional days AFTER beating a city. to train forsaken mostly, but if you add more things to do at the end of a city it would add more use to these days.
It's deliberate that the player has to earn every day they want to spend training Forsaken. Getting T4 breaks and buying Imago Quickening before the deadline is difficult, and the extra time is the reward. However, also note that it's intended for the player to spend days training the Forsaken during each loop as well. Part of the strategy is figuring out when you can leave the Chosen to percolate and generate EE for you while you train the Forsaken from the previous loop.
I don't think I have other points...



Great Update
Thank you for saying so!
Also, it says you can continue after the campaign is complete with the same characters to try again, but each time it just starts me over with three new chosen.
In Campaign Mode, it gives you a new group of Chosen at the end of each loop. In Single Play, you should be able to continue forever or start again from Day 1.
To add on some more specific thoughts, personally I would like it if some specific vignettes could tie to some achievements to motivate us to corrupt chosen in a certain way. the rewards could be something having an specific upgrade unlocked in the beginning of the new city. I don't think it should be an OP upgrade like networked consciousness but maybe something like causal projection or a early suppressor unlock. Honestly Idk if that would be possible or even game breaking but having some specific vignettes give a reward would be nice, especially if it was one that would take some effort to unlock normally.
I have some vague plans similar to this, sort of like a lite-version of the alternative corruption paths. Not firm enough to say more, though.
Some more thoughts from the recent update although its mostly tied to the forsaken. I think some of the fighting styles for the forsaken need a bit of a buff, specifically the low percentage ones like "careless" and "decisive" etc. The 5% to 15% ones

They really don't have too much utility even in the situations the game recommends them for as it can be accomplished with either another forsaken or even with a commander body, However I also understand I just may not know how to use these kind of forsaken.



Personally though, I try to train forsaken out of them immediately especially in the campaign mode as the loops become more difficult.



I'm currently on loop 6 of my first campaign run, its really dope and the scale in difficulty really had me using forsaken for battles, something I didn't really do too much before! Really looking forward to the other things like special battles and surviving chosen making new groups to fight you and their former allies and more chosen species types as the game is updated. Once the game gets a proper final boss I hope this version of the campaign will still be supported as some sort of endless mode or something.



I wish I had more time this month for playing but since csdev said the focus of this month's update is image support/ the portrait system I've been designing and drawing characters on my own to make an image pack to coincide for the release and that's sort of been most of my free time haha

Overall I really really love this update and excited to see how much further I can go in my run. I'm curious how far everyone else has gotten in their runs so please share if you don't mind! :D
The effectiveness of the different fighting styles is strongly related to the Disgrace of the Forsaken in question. Fighting styles which damage more circumstance types have a lower base damage, while those which damage only 1 or 2 circumstance types have a higher base damage. Similarly, Forsaken with low Disgrace have a high base damage, while those with high Disgrace have low base damage. These factors multiply each other. So, for Forsaken with low Disgrace, even the 15% combat styles deal enough damage to be worthwhile, and the 100% combat styles might not be as good since they only target 2 circumstance types. But for Forsaken with high Disgrace, the 15% combat styles take several turns to reach even Lv 1 damage, so they might be better off using the 100% combat styles. Tempted Forsaken and Superior Forsaken are stronger than their Disgrace would normally indicate, of course.

Reaching loop 6 is quite impressive, by the way, so congrats! And I'm definitely looking forward to seeing what kind of content the playerbase can make.
The thing I think that would help with this games learning curve is if the tutorial could be turned into a complete run that goes from day one to day 50, guiding and explaining everything along the way to a victory, similar to what you just did for me, as well as a hint/tip button that can give helpful reminders based on the current situation.
The trouble with making a full 50 day tutorial is that the finer points of the run could be very different between two different Chosen groups, and it might be tricky to make sure the player understands which lessons are applicable across all runs. The idea of a hint/tip button is interesting, though. It'd be very nice if the game could run some basic checks on the state of the game and say things like "This Commander probably isn't powerful enough to break any of the current unbroken Vulnerabilities."
I will say that I repeatedly rage quit this game in the past few days due to getting tired of trying to figure it out, but that rage also kept me from dropping it entirely since I'm also stubborn and refuse to let any game beat me.

Thanks to the help I've received from the community here (also, nicest and most helpful community I've ever been in) I finally feel like I understand at least the beginning of the game and will definitely be playing more because the concept is great, even if the execution is more complicated than nuclear physics.



I'll also plug myself here and say that if this game is planning on moving forward with images or even just more writing, I am a professional writer/editor by day and an amateur artist by night, so if that becomes a thing development is interested in, I would definitely enjoy participating.
The way the game is coded, it'd be difficult for me to take writing submissions. Implementing them would be practically as much work as writing them myself. But the coming update will allow for easy integration of player-made portrait packs, so you can definitely feel free to contribute in that way if you like. I'd like to add links to player-made portrait packs on the blog (provided that I can confirm that they don't infringe on anyone's copyright).
My impression is that there's no learning "curve" - it's a learning step function, or a wall. Before you get over the wall, the game is difficult because the game doesn't tell you anything. Once you get over the wall, the game is trivial because it is deterministic.



Many aspects of this game are excellent - the writing, the customizable content (for those of us for whom the phrase "multiple organ failure" is not associated with sexiness), the variety of character interactions, etc.



But some of the fundamental systems are just not well designed - and the learning wall is just one symptom.
I agree with you insofar as the Single Play mode boiling down to one big learning step. It comes down to whether you understand the lesson of "Don't buy a Commander until you have the upgrades to make it strong enough to pay for itself." Players who don't understand that will have close to a 0% victory rate. Players who do understand that will have close to a 100% victory rate. Beating hard mode requires learning more or less the same lesson, although the sweet spot of "late enough in the game that you have the right upgrades to start snowballing, but early enough in the game that you'll have time to reach T4 breaks afterward" is narrower.

However, I believe that there's a lot more potential meat in Campaign Mode. Particularly once Superior Chosen start showing up, you can't just use a powerful Commander to break everything at once, and the player has to think about the order in which to meet each goal. The players who are able to penetrate further into campaign mode have definitely understood something on top of what's necessary to win a single loop.
 

Karnewarrior

Well-Known Member
Oct 28, 2017
1,216
1,368
The fact that you can't use Distortions on one of the Chosen whose Vulnerabilities have been broken by factors other than the player's actions is one of the kinks in the system that I want to fix. I'm still not completely sure how, but I've seen some good suggestions, so I plan on solving it somehow before the next Distortion is added.

There is one major gameplay feature coming which should make normal mode significantly easier in general, and that should also make challenge runs like "Tempt everyone" more feasible.
Well, the simplest way in my mind is to keep a bool along the lines of "has_been_tempted", and as long as it's true then the chosen can be tempted no matter what. Once they've accepted sex once after all it doesn't make quite as much sense that just getting fucked in a different hole makes them never consider it again.

Alternatively, since the difficulty of Tempting a fresh chosen is already quite high, you could change it such that breaking a vulnerability doesn't prevent you from tempting a chosen and instead only increases the threshhold by some large multiplier. That would mean that it would be possible, if still not advised, to break those vulnerabilities on an already tempted chosen, while an untempted chosen having a "bad" vulnerability broken would wind up being almost impossible to tempt until very very late anyway, once you're doing trillions of circumstance damage regardless.

In any case, I'm just waiting warmly for the chance to have a magical girl deflower themselves, or better, eagerly join in on corrupting her teammate into a slut in a way that doesn't involve breaking into their house with a dildo.
 
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tpk

Member
Aug 24, 2018
126
106
There are too many posts to reply to them all, but I want to thank all of the players who are posting guides and advice for how to play the game. They're helpful not only to new players, but also to my own understanding of how people are playing the game and what issues they're running into. It's a very valuable form of feedback.

Thank you for the encouragement!

The difficulty settings only apply when starting a new game. If you're loading a save, then it'll revert to the difficulty settings of that save.

This is a favorite strategy of mine as well, I'm glad to see other people discovering it.

The fact that you can't use Distortions on one of the Chosen whose Vulnerabilities have been broken by factors other than the player's actions is one of the kinks in the system that I want to fix. I'm still not completely sure how, but I've seen some good suggestions, so I plan on solving it somehow before the next Distortion is added.

There is one major gameplay feature coming which should make normal mode significantly easier in general, and that should also make challenge runs like "Tempt everyone" more feasible.

Superior Chosen should become more suscpetible to damage as they're corrupted, but the difference is less noticeable because of the flat x1/3 factor they apply to the damage types they resist. A regular Chosen with Core Confidence might go from taking 9 base INJU damage at first to taking 58 base INJU damage after a T2 break. With the Superior modifier, she'd go from taking 3 base INJU damage to taking 19 - not even enough to put one notch on the susceptibility chart. I've Tempted Superior Chosen who resist PLEA before, but it requires endgame levels of EE investment. On the bright side, the +50% damage that Tempted Forsaken get and the +50% damage that Superior Forsaken get do stack multiplicatively.

An Undo button is a common request (along with a Restart Battle button). It's harder than it sounds due to the number of variables that can change during battle and the way that they're coded. I'd like to do it, but it's not coming anytime soon.

Unfortunately, there's no way for me to tell which line of code is causing the game to crash there. If you send me the save, I'll take a look and try to fix it.

Options settings are tied to saved games. As long as you have any save files, it'll copy the options from the most recently used save file.

Thank you for the detailed feedback! I'll answer these individually. More features and balance adjustments are certainly coming.

If campaign mode included an "ironman" feature to restrict savescumming, then I'd definitely want to give the player some sort of leeway for losing the final battle. But as things are, adding such a feature would just give the player incentive to savescum and save their "lives" as long as possible, then burn them on the last loops once things get unreasonably difficult. And with the game in its current unstable state, I can't restrict savescumming without punishing players who run into bugs. Something like this is part of my eventual vision of a finished game, though.

Right now, the punisher achievements feel somewhat underwhelming, but once some other major features are added, the player will be able to reach loops that last only 20 days. At that point, being able to cause a T4 break with only 250% punisher effectiveness will be incredibly important, since you have so few days to grind them up. I'm definitely willing to add and adjust the modifiers as we test them out, but I think it's too early to call this one.

I've put a low priority on putting them in customization, because all they really do is make numbers bigger, and there are already cheats which functionally do the same thing. I'll definitely have them in once the truly special elites like angels and devils are implemented, though.

It's deliberate that the player has to earn every day they want to spend training Forsaken. Getting T4 breaks and buying Imago Quickening before the deadline is difficult, and the extra time is the reward. However, also note that it's intended for the player to spend days training the Forsaken during each loop as well. Part of the strategy is figuring out when you can leave the Chosen to percolate and generate EE for you while you train the Forsaken from the previous loop.

Thank you for saying so!

In Campaign Mode, it gives you a new group of Chosen at the end of each loop. In Single Play, you should be able to continue forever or start again from Day 1.

I have some vague plans similar to this, sort of like a lite-version of the alternative corruption paths. Not firm enough to say more, though.

The effectiveness of the different fighting styles is strongly related to the Disgrace of the Forsaken in question. Fighting styles which damage more circumstance types have a lower base damage, while those which damage only 1 or 2 circumstance types have a higher base damage. Similarly, Forsaken with low Disgrace have a high base damage, while those with high Disgrace have low base damage. These factors multiply each other. So, for Forsaken with low Disgrace, even the 15% combat styles deal enough damage to be worthwhile, and the 100% combat styles might not be as good since they only target 2 circumstance types. But for Forsaken with high Disgrace, the 15% combat styles take several turns to reach even Lv 1 damage, so they might be better off using the 100% combat styles. Tempted Forsaken and Superior Forsaken are stronger than their Disgrace would normally indicate, of course.

Reaching loop 6 is quite impressive, by the way, so congrats! And I'm definitely looking forward to seeing what kind of content the playerbase can make.

The trouble with making a full 50 day tutorial is that the finer points of the run could be very different between two different Chosen groups, and it might be tricky to make sure the player understands which lessons are applicable across all runs. The idea of a hint/tip button is interesting, though. It'd be very nice if the game could run some basic checks on the state of the game and say things like "This Commander probably isn't powerful enough to break any of the current unbroken Vulnerabilities."

The way the game is coded, it'd be difficult for me to take writing submissions. Implementing them would be practically as much work as writing them myself. But the coming update will allow for easy integration of player-made portrait packs, so you can definitely feel free to contribute in that way if you like. I'd like to add links to player-made portrait packs on the blog (provided that I can confirm that they don't infringe on anyone's copyright).

I agree with you insofar as the Single Play mode boiling down to one big learning step. It comes down to whether you understand the lesson of "Don't buy a Commander until you have the upgrades to make it strong enough to pay for itself." Players who don't understand that will have close to a 0% victory rate. Players who do understand that will have close to a 100% victory rate. Beating hard mode requires learning more or less the same lesson, although the sweet spot of "late enough in the game that you have the right upgrades to start snowballing, but early enough in the game that you'll have time to reach T4 breaks afterward" is narrower.

However, I believe that there's a lot more potential meat in Campaign Mode. Particularly once Superior Chosen start showing up, you can't just use a powerful Commander to break everything at once, and the player has to think about the order in which to meet each goal. The players who are able to penetrate further into campaign mode have definitely understood something on top of what's necessary to win a single loop.
to be honest, some points that you mention in the answers to my feedback didn't occur to me.

but yeah, I see the point that it would need more patches before we could say anything in the balance/achievements, I didn't think of that with the days and training forsaken (I mean, I did it anyway, but didn't really account for it in my gameplan).

and there are really going to be demon chosen? I would imagine that it would be a distortion (alternate path) that would make them a demon.

btw found a bug (it exists, but shouldn't be possible in normal plays anyway): if you end the battle earlier before the first intermission (day 10) the game gets stuck (not crashing) and it does not allow you to click any button.
 
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11011

New Member
Feb 24, 2020
5
2
There are too many posts to reply to them all, but I want to thank all of the players who are posting guides and advice for how to play the game. They're helpful not only to new players, but also to my own understanding of how people are playing the game and what issues they're running into. It's a very valuable form of feedback.

Thank you for the encouragement!

The difficulty settings only apply when starting a new game. If you're loading a save, then it'll revert to the difficulty settings of that save.

This is a favorite strategy of mine as well, I'm glad to see other people discovering it.

The fact that you can't use Distortions on one of the Chosen whose Vulnerabilities have been broken by factors other than the player's actions is one of the kinks in the system that I want to fix. I'm still not completely sure how, but I've seen some good suggestions, so I plan on solving it somehow before the next Distortion is added.

There is one major gameplay feature coming which should make normal mode significantly easier in general, and that should also make challenge runs like "Tempt everyone" more feasible.

Superior Chosen should become more suscpetible to damage as they're corrupted, but the difference is less noticeable because of the flat x1/3 factor they apply to the damage types they resist. A regular Chosen with Core Confidence might go from taking 9 base INJU damage at first to taking 58 base INJU damage after a T2 break. With the Superior modifier, she'd go from taking 3 base INJU damage to taking 19 - not even enough to put one notch on the susceptibility chart. I've Tempted Superior Chosen who resist PLEA before, but it requires endgame levels of EE investment. On the bright side, the +50% damage that Tempted Forsaken get and the +50% damage that Superior Forsaken get do stack multiplicatively.

An Undo button is a common request (along with a Restart Battle button). It's harder than it sounds due to the number of variables that can change during battle and the way that they're coded. I'd like to do it, but it's not coming anytime soon.

Unfortunately, there's no way for me to tell which line of code is causing the game to crash there. If you send me the save, I'll take a look and try to fix it.

Options settings are tied to saved games. As long as you have any save files, it'll copy the options from the most recently used save file.

Thank you for the detailed feedback! I'll answer these individually. More features and balance adjustments are certainly coming.

If campaign mode included an "ironman" feature to restrict savescumming, then I'd definitely want to give the player some sort of leeway for losing the final battle. But as things are, adding such a feature would just give the player incentive to savescum and save their "lives" as long as possible, then burn them on the last loops once things get unreasonably difficult. And with the game in its current unstable state, I can't restrict savescumming without punishing players who run into bugs. Something like this is part of my eventual vision of a finished game, though.

Right now, the punisher achievements feel somewhat underwhelming, but once some other major features are added, the player will be able to reach loops that last only 20 days. At that point, being able to cause a T4 break with only 250% punisher effectiveness will be incredibly important, since you have so few days to grind them up. I'm definitely willing to add and adjust the modifiers as we test them out, but I think it's too early to call this one.

I've put a low priority on putting them in customization, because all they really do is make numbers bigger, and there are already cheats which functionally do the same thing. I'll definitely have them in once the truly special elites like angels and devils are implemented, though.

It's deliberate that the player has to earn every day they want to spend training Forsaken. Getting T4 breaks and buying Imago Quickening before the deadline is difficult, and the extra time is the reward. However, also note that it's intended for the player to spend days training the Forsaken during each loop as well. Part of the strategy is figuring out when you can leave the Chosen to percolate and generate EE for you while you train the Forsaken from the previous loop.

Thank you for saying so!

In Campaign Mode, it gives you a new group of Chosen at the end of each loop. In Single Play, you should be able to continue forever or start again from Day 1.

I have some vague plans similar to this, sort of like a lite-version of the alternative corruption paths. Not firm enough to say more, though.

The effectiveness of the different fighting styles is strongly related to the Disgrace of the Forsaken in question. Fighting styles which damage more circumstance types have a lower base damage, while those which damage only 1 or 2 circumstance types have a higher base damage. Similarly, Forsaken with low Disgrace have a high base damage, while those with high Disgrace have low base damage. These factors multiply each other. So, for Forsaken with low Disgrace, even the 15% combat styles deal enough damage to be worthwhile, and the 100% combat styles might not be as good since they only target 2 circumstance types. But for Forsaken with high Disgrace, the 15% combat styles take several turns to reach even Lv 1 damage, so they might be better off using the 100% combat styles. Tempted Forsaken and Superior Forsaken are stronger than their Disgrace would normally indicate, of course.

Reaching loop 6 is quite impressive, by the way, so congrats! And I'm definitely looking forward to seeing what kind of content the playerbase can make.

The trouble with making a full 50 day tutorial is that the finer points of the run could be very different between two different Chosen groups, and it might be tricky to make sure the player understands which lessons are applicable across all runs. The idea of a hint/tip button is interesting, though. It'd be very nice if the game could run some basic checks on the state of the game and say things like "This Commander probably isn't powerful enough to break any of the current unbroken Vulnerabilities."

The way the game is coded, it'd be difficult for me to take writing submissions. Implementing them would be practically as much work as writing them myself. But the coming update will allow for easy integration of player-made portrait packs, so you can definitely feel free to contribute in that way if you like. I'd like to add links to player-made portrait packs on the blog (provided that I can confirm that they don't infringe on anyone's copyright).

I agree with you insofar as the Single Play mode boiling down to one big learning step. It comes down to whether you understand the lesson of "Don't buy a Commander until you have the upgrades to make it strong enough to pay for itself." Players who don't understand that will have close to a 0% victory rate. Players who do understand that will have close to a 100% victory rate. Beating hard mode requires learning more or less the same lesson, although the sweet spot of "late enough in the game that you have the right upgrades to start snowballing, but early enough in the game that you'll have time to reach T4 breaks afterward" is narrower.

However, I believe that there's a lot more potential meat in Campaign Mode. Particularly once Superior Chosen start showing up, you can't just use a powerful Commander to break everything at once, and the player has to think about the order in which to meet each goal. The players who are able to penetrate further into campaign mode have definitely understood something on top of what's necessary to win a single loop.
Here is the save file.
 

loshad

Newbie
Jun 25, 2020
80
229
However, I believe that there's a lot more potential meat in Campaign Mode. Particularly once Superior Chosen start showing up, you can't just use a powerful Commander to break everything at once, and the player has to think about the order in which to meet each goal. The players who are able to penetrate further into campaign mode have definitely understood something on top of what's necessary to win a single loop.
I haven't played through the Campaign Mode, and to be honest I do not think that I will.

As you say elsewhere regarding the Superior Chosen:
all [Superior Chosen] really do is make numbers bigger,
and for me, that's not an exciting proposition from a gameplay perspective. The game's relevant numbers already range from the tens to the tens of billions - there are some diminishing returns on the excitement generated by each additional zero at the tail end of a Big Number (TM). Nor do I see these bigger numbers as changing the nature of the learning "curve" - yes, the wall is higher, but it is still a wall.

I want to emphasize again - there are aspects of the game that I find to be very well done. For example, the quality of the writing is heaps better than the vast majority of the games found of this site.

But some of the core underlying game systems, and the larger framework that integrates those systems, are just not fun - again, for me.

Take the learning "wall" issue. It's created because the game systems are opaque, relatively complex and extremely rigid (i.e. deterministic). As I said before, that means that initial difficulty is high - much higher than it would be with a slightly more informative interface. But once the player climbs that wall, finds those optimal (or sufficient) tactics - the challenge is gone. And it stays gone - the same approach that took down that first team of Chosen will work for the 10th team of Chosen, with very minor tweaks along the way.

Now, on its own, this is not necessarily terrible.

What makes it really stand out is that the game makes zero concessions for the player that did climb that wall.

The game becomes trivial, yes - but it still requires virtually the same time investment, the same amount of clicks, the same amount of scrolling through walls of text that you quickly learn to ignore.

Getting a Surround that lasts for 5 turns the first time you do it is cool. Making a Surround last for 15 turns for the 10th time is just boring.

By the way, I'm not blind to the large fanbase that the game has gathered. I'm completely open to the idea that this game is just not for me - and that's absolutely fine.
 

BerglorMan94

Member
Apr 10, 2021
179
150
I haven't played through the Campaign Mode, and to be honest I do not think that I will.

As you say elsewhere regarding the Superior Chosen:


and for me, that's not an exciting proposition from a gameplay perspective. The game's relevant numbers already range from the tens to the tens of billions - there are some diminishing returns on the excitement generated by each additional zero at the tail end of a Big Number (TM). Nor do I see these bigger numbers as changing the nature of the learning "curve" - yes, the wall is higher, but it is still a wall.

I want to emphasize again - there are aspects of the game that I find to be very well done. For example, the quality of the writing is heaps better than the vast majority of the games found of this site.

But some of the core underlying game systems, and the larger framework that integrates those systems, are just not fun - again, for me.

Take the learning "wall" issue. It's created because the game systems are opaque, relatively complex and extremely rigid (i.e. deterministic). As I said before, that means that initial difficulty is high - much higher than it would be with a slightly more informative interface. But once the player climbs that wall, finds those optimal (or sufficient) tactics - the challenge is gone. And it stays gone - the same approach that took down that first team of Chosen will work for the 10th team of Chosen, with very minor tweaks along the way.

Now, on its own, this is not necessarily terrible.

What makes it really stand out is that the game makes zero concessions for the player that did climb that wall.

The game becomes trivial, yes - but it still requires virtually the same time investment, the same amount of clicks, the same amount of scrolling through walls of text that you quickly learn to ignore.

Getting a Surround that lasts for 5 turns the first time you do it is cool. Making a Surround last for 15 turns for the 10th time is just boring.

By the way, I'm not blind to the large fanbase that the game has gathered. I'm completely open to the idea that this game is just not for me - and that's absolutely fine.
Although current Superior Chosen are only beefier Chosen, they also make for Beefier Forsaken, and that adds an extra layer of achievement on top of just beating them. Besides, that's just how Superior Chosen function for the moment. Different versions of them will be added in the future. I do recommend Campaign mode because it starts making you reevaluate your approaches because of the additional modifiers you get from each city, whether that be addition damage reduction, having Superior Chosen be in the line up, or having fewer days to accomplish your goal. It makes strategies that are simply passable obsolete, and I find it pretty refreshing to have an actual need to evaluate my play patterns more closely. That said, taking a bit of a hiatus on actually playing the game, then coming back fresh later could be quite fulfilling. I do that with a lot of the games that I follow and support, like CoC2, Tales of Androgyny, or Karryn's Prison. Sometimes you just need a breather from it all. Perhaps you'll find more enjoyment from playing 6 months from now.

You're points are also valid by the way, although I disagree on the game becoming trivial. The lack of direct feedback for your accomplishments can make some moments feel a bit more hollow. Getting better at the game doesn't actually make the game shorter like most games, but it takes longer because of how much you can accomplish in a single day. While making a surround last 15+ turns has lost a bit of its luster I don't think it's boring, I just wish there were more text for each of the actions you can make. Cycling through the same 5 lines while I have been Inseminating one of my Chosen for 15 turns leaves me wanting more.

Most if not all of these things are planned to be addressed in the future, and it takes time. The scope of this project is MASSIVE and CSDev is but one person. They've accomplished a lot, and I believe they will continue to accomplish so much more. Post's like these (meaning yours) are way's for them to know what they may need to improve on. It's a little late to rehash the core gameplay mechanics, but they'll continue to be fleshed out, enhanced, and expanded upon. Heck, something completely new could still be added further down the line, just like Forsaken were! I feel like I'm starting to lose focus on the topic so I'll end this simply by saying, thank you for your input. Hopefully Corrupted Saviors can still hold your interest, if not now, then in the future when it's closer to completion. Have a good one, loshad. =)
 
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Karnewarrior

Well-Known Member
Oct 28, 2017
1,216
1,368
I can't play campaign because I still struggle to beat the chosen before they giga-blam me in the finale, unfortunately.

I like the idea though. It'd be fun to take my Madoka Magica forsaken and pit them against the Yuki Yuna girls. Though it'd be even nicer to have a bit more control over their personalities in the editor...
 

BerglorMan94

Member
Apr 10, 2021
179
150
I can't play campaign because I still struggle to beat the chosen before they giga-blam me in the finale, unfortunately.

I like the idea though. It'd be fun to take my Madoka Magica forsaken and pit them against the Yuki Yuna girls. Though it'd be even nicer to have a bit more control over their personalities in the editor...
I'm willing to offer my assistance if you're interested. =)

I believe more in depth customization options are on the to do list in the future, but it will probably be a little while unfortunately.
 

tpk

Member
Aug 24, 2018
126
106
I really wish I could make more specific tips, but if I'm honest, my style is just winging it except in the important parts.

like, I don't do the math, so when I try to break something I save and go for whatever works. that was how I learned and it worked for me xD
 

tpk

Member
Aug 24, 2018
126
106
btw does anybody know how the increase works for superior forsaken?

I got 'purity' tempted so she has an extra 50% PLEA/EXPO, does that get added (to a total of 100%) or multiplied (225% total)?

just so you know: superior forsaken get an extra 50% extra damage and tempted forsaken also get a 50% but only to EXPO and PLEA
 

BerglorMan94

Member
Apr 10, 2021
179
150
Any ETA on when peps will be able to make their own portrait sets?
With ver 23 the portrait system has been implemented, so if you'd like to add custom portraits for your forsaken I recommend going to the Subscribestar for more accurat information on how to do so. =D
 
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MSGTNP

Member
Feb 5, 2020
406
355
With ver 23 the portrait system has been implemented, so if you'd like to add custom portraits for your forsaken I recommend going to the Subscribestar for more accurat information on how to do so. =D
Oh well, I know that, just saw that, hence why I was asking out of curiosity lol
What is Subsribestar? Never heard of it.
 
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BerglorMan94

Member
Apr 10, 2021
179
150
Oh well, I know that, just saw that, hence why I was asking out of curiosity lol
What is Subsribestar? Never heard of it.
It's a subscription platform similar to Patreon. It's linked on the first page of this thread. You don't have to actually subscribe to CSDev to see any of the updates though, and they post a progress report once a week on there. It's the best way to stay updated with the production of Corrupted Saviors, and you can tip if you feel so inclined. =)
 
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KordNTR

Member
Aug 7, 2017
131
408
I really wanted to like this game because it hits all my kinks, but honestly the early player experience is restrictively bad. Everything I need to know is so obfuscated and not particularly well documented or presented in game. I feel like I need a math degree to understand the core mechanics as there are so modifiers that are just about them going up and with very little feedback on how you are going (this coming from someone who plays dwarf fortress in its original ASCII). Even after following the tutorial and the guides people have posted here, I am yet to get a single break (even after getting the girls to hit 1k+ trauma in all 4 not a single one broke, so either I am not understanding what needs to happen, or something else is going on in the code, either way not a good experience). The game itself never explains that getting 200+ circumstance on a girl is important to gather EE and it never actually tells you the proper requirements to break T1’s.

One thing that really threw me early on is that there is not really a unifying method on which the mechanics work operate. Each one seems to have its own complexity that doesn’t really mesh well with the others. Take for example:

HATE: x2 all damage per level, or x4 for FEAR

PLEA: x4 all traumas per level, or x8 for DISG

INJU: x3 all circumstances per level, also x2 PAIN

EXPO: x2 all ally circumstance damage per level, also x2 own SHAM

Now ask your players if they are able to remember the above when making plans. What is the difference between damage and circumstances? There is nothing wrong with having complicated mechanics, but you need to be able to explain them well to the player.

Anyway, I do hope you continue working on the game. It has potential. However, I would urge you to pull away from complexity and go towards communicating mechanics properly. Also, as another note, “number go up” gameplay will wear thin if there isn’t something else interesting holding it up, there is only so much a number can go up before it starts to be meaningless.
 
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