Ah, thanks for clarifying. In that case, might I suggest adding something to the orgy button to clarify that it will trigger dissociation? I find that they are the only chosen that I don't actively want to continue increasing their distortion. It reduces EE generation, removes the opportunity to further progress towards T4 breaks on them, and it can potentially reduce the trauma or T4 progress on your other chosen if you trigger it before extermination completes. Plus, being able to dissociate 1 turn earlier just increases the drawbacks, and if you can trigger a 5 turn orgy during the final battle, you can probably manage a 10 turn orgy. So it's not like the increased effect is actually helpful (unlike every other distortion).
It's at the point where I don't think not wanting to trigger the dissociation is an edge case. Instead, it's triggering it that's the edge case.
Side note - that might actually be something to revisit once all the bosses are fleshed out. Here's an idea - what if aversion had a minimum orgy threshold (5 turns) but also increased the effect of a chosen's angst? Essentially curbing the issues listed above, while also giving a thematic bonus to actually triggering dissociation by increasing the damage the chosen takes (and increasing the turns they can be surrounded for). The more you force them to dissociate with their trauma, the less opportunity they have to deal with the stress, and the more susceptible to further trauma they become. But give them time to rest, and they'll start being able to process that angst.
This is an interesting perspective. I think that Aversion and Negotiation are both probably due for a buff, just because the difficulty in later loops is so tied to getting more Evil Energy, and Rampancy and Temptation both help with that due to their big EE bonuses. I'll try to address this in one of the coming releases.
CSdev R58b repeatable crash bug, unknown cause.
It happens in the middle of Victory's Loop, during the first scene with Victory and Love, after the first Vulnerability Break on Victory. It may have something to do with loading a save that was originally created in R57 when Love wasn't implemented, or it may have something to do with a reference to her that was changed. I haven't dug through the source code to see.
As getting that first vuln break on Victory is kind of difficult, I've attached a turn-by-turn. Load save "in2 -- day 14", then:
Code:
Purchase: Passion Release, Reality Sealing (and all needed prerequisites)
Send Commander: EXPO Punish, PLEA Defiler, HATE Suppressor, 5 Turns, 3 Captures
Add Forsaken: Slayer (page 2)
Ambush Pounce
R1-R5 Barrier x 5
R6: Capture Victory
R7: Surround Pounce->Humiliate
R8: Pounce, Grind (Victory uses To The Limit)
R9: Swap commanders
R10: Capture Victory
R11: Caress Pounce
R12: Pummel Pounce
R13: Swap Commanders
R14: Capture Victory
R15: Barrier
R16: Slime Fantasia
R17: Taunt Fantasia
R18: Surround Pounce, Sodomize
R19: Attack Fantasia
R20: Swap Commander
R21: Capture Victory
R22: Attack Fantasia
R23: Threaten Fantasia
R24: Threaten Fantasia
R25: Do Nothing
R26: Do Nothing
R27: Broadcast Victory
R28: Capture Fantasia
R29-R35: Taunt Victory
Crash immediately after second part of Victory/Love flashback after end of combat.
Edit: Fixed in R58c.
Thank you for going to the effort of putting together the steps to reproduce this!
Request for a small bit more info to be added there--the bonuses from Releasing Forsaken can go in that interface without clouding it up too much, and it's another thing that I'd like to have handy sometimes.
I'm not sure exactly what you mean here, but if you can clarify, then I'd be happy to add some more useful info to that screen.
Have noticed a non-critical display bug, probably pretty obscure, with the item Hot Tag:
When used to deploy a Demon Knight (variable EE cost) alongside a Demon Commander, the displayed preview of Reputation Strength and EE cost effects are calculated based off of the remaining EE that the player has. My testing has me fairly convinced that in the actual fight everything is being calculated correctly (off of the cost of the Demon Commander) so it's just an issue with the preview, I think. I think the last save I posted should be fine for testing this as it has those key elements. I know it's definitely not subtracting all remaining EE. It would also be nice for their Punisher effects to be displayed correctly in this view.
In my current game, this means that Slayer will show up as:
Code:
Slayer
Stamina: 37.0%
Motivation: 142.0%
Cost: 20% Stamina, 698 EE
Gains 4.8% Motivation
Combat Style: Playful (100% HATE/EXPO)
Reputation Strength: 148%
Target Compatibilities:
Flare - Good (7 rounds)
Moo - Good (7 rounds)
Order - Average (6 rounds)
Notorious Publicist (+variable% own trauma damage per Parasitism)
But the Demon I'm sending her with costs 116EE, so her cost should be 116EE and her Reputation Strength should be notably lower (not looking up the formula right now).
Yes, this jumped out at me as well when testing your save. I can confirm that the in-battle performance is working correctly. It just needs some logic to make it look at the correct numbers when displaying the preview.
Another bug found, I think: Severe Castigation (with two Devils) is not working as described. In this save one Devil is doing a +5EE action, the Angel is doing a +2EE action, but the second Devil is doing a patrol (0EE) showing greater sins imminent for a reason I can't place. She has T1 and T2 Breaks in INN and DIG,
21.8M FEAR, 33.7M DISG, 21.8MPAIN, 21.8MSHAM, Total ANGST: 99.1M
Luxuries are only at about +400%, so by my understanding she should be doing a +5EE action. Even if that's not quite enough I'd expect at least a +2EE action. I know she was blocked from doing the Temptation downtime but there shouldn't be anything in the way of her doing a +5EE DISG.
Here's what I see:
Code:
Kasumi visits her friends for what would at first appear to be a normal social call, but by the end of the night, she has gone home with one of them. She remains completely in control of the situation, stopping before things can progress beyond grinding and heavy petting, but that's enough for her purposes. It's part of her plan to become more effective in the lewd situations Demons put her in, and it helps her feel closer to her friends, too. However, she is building a reputation as a slut.
"Okay, let's do this."
-19.7k ANGST, -2465 FEAR, -4930 DISG
Total unresolved trauma: 987MFEAR +1.69GDISG +1.29GPAIN +1.26GSHAM = 5.24G added ANGST
Total ANGST: 5.75G
Over 100M Unresolved DISG
It isn't enough. Artisan has tried to remain detached and objective about the deviant things done to her in battle, but she's still human. Psychologically, she has to come to terms with it somehow, and she's nearing her breaking point. The next time she is Surrounded alongside a highly-damaged ally, she should completely lose control.
+2 Evil Energy
+72 Evil Energy (returned by Energy Raider)
---
Climax returns to the site of the previous battle and makes a public spectacle of transforming and trying to blast her way into the tunnels through which the Demons attacked, warning the public that they had better not let themselves be Enthralled if they don't want this power turned against them. The flashy display is meant to hide her insecurity about how little she's actually capable of doing, but she's a bit disappointed at how difficult it is to dig more than a few hundred feet down without the hole collapsing in on itself. And no matter how great the destruction she causes, it doesn't stop her from feeling like she's a fundamentally weak person.
"L-Look, I'm not actually weak at all!"
-8960 ANGST, -123k FEAR, -123k DISG, -616k PAIN, -369k SHAM (action resolves 1.00M ANGST, extra ANGST resolution converted to trauma resolution)
Total unresolved trauma: 5.58MFEAR +2.84MDISG +5.08MPAIN +5.41MSHAM = 18.9M added ANGST
Total ANGST: 18.9M
+5 Evil Energy
---
Guardian volunteers for extra patrol duty, lending her help to police officers searching for Demonic infestation. She wants to devote herself completely to the war, and she doesn't realize how important it is to take a break every once in awhile. She muses out loud that the Demons aren't bothering her much. Overall, she seems to be looking forward to facing them again.
"How can I help?"
-493 ANGST
Guardian would rather slack off and stay home, but patrolling the city isn't entirely unpleasant. (Greater sins imminent.)
Total unresolved trauma: 21.8MFEAR +33.7MDISG +21.8MPAIN +21.8MSHAM = 99.1M added ANGST
Total ANGST: 99.1M
Yeah, this definitely isn't working correctly. I'll take a look at fixing it for R59.
As I'm catching stuff, I'll add it here until I see you've read it
CSdev. Found a missing word in one of the combinations of strings from Ego Murder:
Code:
Paradise is pulled to the ground by a Thrall, ending up on her hands and knees with her attacker under her. The Thrall takes the opportunity to fondle her chest and crotch, forcing her to moan and spasm. The other Thralls join in and help restrain her, twisting her limbs and locking her joints so that she is helpless to escape the groping hands.
Paradise tries to crawl away, and when the Thralls stop her, she sees no choice but to fight her way through. However, the Thralls soon catch up and pin her down as she freezes up begs for mercy.
Should be "freezes up
and begs for mercy" Or you may want to rewrite that as if she's freezing up, she can't also be begging for mercy. Pick a reaction, Paradise!
Ooh, this is a rare Release 1 typo! Been awhile since one of those came up.
I may be stupid, but how do you turn on portraits? When I turn it on in the options, it reverts to OFF every time.
When you go to the main menu, it looks for empty.png in the portraits folder. If it doesn't find it, then it assumes that you have the portraitless version.
just downloaded the game and got some of the portrait packs that come with rosters files. i loaded these and then just deleted from the list in custom campaign until i had like 15 left. all toggled as included, however whenever i start i only get the default chosen and none of the custom ones i downloaded. during the inclusion toggle i get the portrait shown on the side so i know the files are where there are supposed to be but they just wont spawn for me.
For each team of three Chosen, the game follows a set of rules for how their personalities compare (because the relationship system requires that they "match up" with each other). So, it picks out one custom Chosen, then tries to find another whose personality is compatible with her, then tries to find another whose personality is compatible with both. If it can't find a custom Chosen who matches, then it generates a generic one. The generic Chosen always show up first, but every loop should have at least one custom Chosen (until they've all appeared).
I'm nearing the end of content on another long run, so as I only do these every few months, I'll provide some feedback and notes on my current run and new features that are here that weren't last time I played this deep.
CSdev I'm about to be in Loop 20 and I can choose Judgment or Love:
Code:
Saitama
Boss: Judgment
Damage Mitigation: 23% per level
Preparedness: Final Battle on Day 26
Luxuries: 792% Trauma resolution speed
Elites: 2 Angel Chosen
A battle against the leader of the Devil Chosen. Defeating a Devil protected by two Angels is already a difficult task, and Judgment's unique abilities will only make it harder.
15 Influence
Kyoto
Boss: Love
Damage Mitigation: 30% per level
Preparedness: Final Battle on Day 20
Luxuries: 233% Trauma resolution speed
Elites: 2 Devil Chosen
A battle against the leader of the Angel Chosen. Although Love herself is not a strong combatant, the support she gives to her allies will make them incredibly powerful.
15 Influence
I pathed through all loops 1-10 with no warps. I took Splendor first in Loop 10 and made her my Second-in-Command. I then took the warp from Loop 11 to Loop 14 to minimize the amount of time I spent with Splendor's motivation drain. In Loop 15 I took on Victory and distorted her through Megalomania, which flips two of Splendor's traits: I chose Motivation (of course) and Species Damage.
I got a really good assortment of items this run! Some might say it's
suspicously good. I'll come clean about this run in particular at the end of the post--it's not 100% legitimate, but it's probably 80-85% legitimate.
Items:
Code:
Tomorrow's Newspaper
All Demon Commander customization options are always unlocked.
When purchasing the upgrades which normally unlock those options,
an Evil Energy refund is granted with a maximum value equal to half
the number of items owned. [Currently: 5]
Reason's Pantsu
The highest circumstance penalty to circumstance damage will not be
raised by increasing PLEA.
Splendor's Pantsu
Caress deals +40% damage against targets using service.
Basis's Pantsu
Chosen relationship level no longer provides any protection against Defiler+
and Orgy actions.
Reign's Pantsu
FEAR, PAIN, and SHAM can provide 1 opening level even when their conditions
do not apply. The opening level cap on DISG is increased by 1.
---
Dowsing Rod
When gaining this item, pick one of three offered weak items to gain as well.
Executor Drone
The daily extermination requirement is increased by 100.
Psychographer's Thesis
Forsaken recover 3% Motivation per day.
Hot Tag
When deploying an upgraded Demon Commander, can also deploy a Forsaken of equal or lesser cost for no extra EE. Swapping between them consumes a turn and frees any Captured Chosen.
Broken Shackles
Begin each loop with +20 Evil Energy.
If you're super observant, you might notice that while this is the right number of Items for 20 Loops (10 Items, every odd-numbered loop grants one), the fact that I have Dowsing Rod means that I got two Items in one loop. I did turn something back in to Splendor for Influence, I don't remember what exactly (Inevitability maybe?) so that happened.
I'm basing my thoughts here on the idea that essentially all the "Heavyweight" items are supposed to be very powerful, game-breaking, etc. With that said, Hot Tag is really, really good at opening up options. I love it so much.
I use Hot Tag to choose between any of these three possibilities:
- Usually in the early days of new Loops, I can send out a low-cost Commander with a Drain Punisher along with Slayer, my ever-reliable Undead Demon Knight who is massively specialized in Trauma damage. This is usually enough to get breaks right away and I start the next day with quite a bit more energy than the previous, because of the EE refund from Energy Raider. I like this but it may be a bit too powerful.
- After I get whatever +100EE Distortion I decide to go for (Tempted or Rampant), I can send out monstrous endgame Demon Commanders and Slayer can sit on the sidelines, watch, and give me back 90% of the EE I use for the Demon. This mode is the one that kind of breaks the game? 140EE Demon Commanders essentially cost 14EE when I can do this.
- I can use it for its presumed intended effect and send a powerful Commander that fills in the gaps in any particular Forsaken. This effect is powerful but not game-breaking in my opinion, and I really like it.
My suggestion for balancing: instead of the EE refund for Energy Raider, give them some other ability when used with Hot Tag. If you have a good idea, put it in here, but my own thought is to allow the discount that affects other Undead to apply to those summoned with Hot Tag instead of the EE refund. So if you send an Energy Raider out with a 10EE Commander, it'll calculate reputation strength as if it were sent out with 40EE and no EE refund. Because of the formula I don't think this would result in a big buff in strength--it gets harder and harder to raise Reputation Strength the further away from the "natural" cost of the Forsaken. Just a thought.
Thanks for the feedback. I'm really hesitant to add a special rule for the interaction between one item and one Distortion path, though. Overall, I'm just happy to hear that Hot Tag's general usefulness is still good enough to be worthwhile, since I worried that the action cost for swapping would make it impractical. Heavyweight items don't normally start showing up until you're recruting Angels and/or Devils, so maybe it's fine to just classify this interaction as something that potentially lets Undead and Demon Commanders both stay relevant a bit longer than they otherwise would. Even with the 90% refund, they'll definitely be having a hard time by the time we hit the proper endgame.
Broken Shackles is very nice and does what it says. It's made Sacrificing much less valuable but that's fine. It's very powerful with Tomorrow's Newspaper for starting out loops, but honestly, there are enough ways to get some EE at the start of Loops that this isn't a big deal. And, I wanted to really platy around with Despair, which is a newer mechanic that wasn't there last time I did a long playthrough.
Achievements:
Code:
Residual Energy
Forsaken Sacrificed: 11
Level: 3 (Next: 15 sacrifices)
Bonus: +3 Starting EE
The supernaturally-enhanced bodies of former Chosen make for excellent breeding stock.
This role prevents them from fighting in battle, but it can give you a head start in establishing
new bases of operations. And they tend to start enjoying it before too long.
Impregnation Specialty
Chosen Impregnated: 46
Level: 3 (Next: 60 impregnated)
Bonus: -600% Impregnation Threshold
As the Chosen hear rumors that you're able to impregnate even them,
their lack of faith in their own protections will cause it to become even
easier to do so.
Hypnosis Specialty
Chosen Hypnotized: 47
Level: 3 (Next: 60 hypnotized)
Bonus: -600% Hypnosis Threshold
Much of the difficulty in Demonic Hypnosis comes from finding exploitable weaknesses in the
target's thought process. But all human minds share some similarities, and the more you break,
the more tricks you figure out.
Drain Specialty
Chosen Drained: 63
Level: 4 (Next: 160 drained)
Bonus: -700% Drain Threshold
The Holy Energy which empowers the Chosen is inherently difficult for a Demon to absorb,
but whenever you do successfully begin draining energy from one of the Chosen, her aura
mingles with your own, and you find it easier to draw more of their energy into yourself.
Parasitism Specialty
Chosen Parasitized: 49
Level: 3 (Next: 60 parasitized)
Bonus: -600% Parasitism Threshold
The public loves to see the Chosen humiliated, and as it becomes more common for their
transformations to become corrupted by you, everyone's anticipation for the next such
corruption will do much of the work for you.
Tempting
Chosen Tempted: 50
Level: 4 (Next: 80 Tempted)
Bonus: Tempt requirement decreases 30% per use
The Chosen are carefully guided by their handlers and by society at large so that they don't
even consider the possibility of turning to the side of the Demons. But the more they see
other Chosen being treated kindly by the Thralls, the more willing they'll be to think of
you as a potential ally.
Mindbreaking
Chosen with Aversion: 24
Level: 3 (Next: 30 with Aversion)
Bonus: Aversion requirement decreases 4 rounds per use
The Thralls you bring with you from city to city will gradually build their skills as they learn
how to cause as much suffering as possible to their victims. Every Chosen mindbroken is
a useful example of what techniques work best.
Persuasive
Chosen successfully Negotiated with: 19
Level: 3 (Next: 30 Negotiated)
Bonus: Every Negotiation grants quadruple the Resolve damage to Appeal
A reputation for being reasonable can also be useful for a Demon Lord.
As word spreads that Chosen can influence you by more peaceful methods,
the idea of fighting will become less attractive.
Provocative
Chosen made to Rampage: 21
Level: 3 (Next: 30 Rampaged)
Bonus: Rampage strength increases 20% per turn
When the Chosen completely give in to their violent impulses, they invite Demonic
energy into their bodies, allowing themselves to be corrupted. The more you observe
this process first-hand, the more you'll be able to speed it along.
Heroine Hunter
Superior Chosen Broken: 9
Level: 3 (Next: 15 Broken)
Bonus: Moderate increase to Resolve damage
The public may not know the difference, but the Chosen themselves are keenly aware
that some of their number are far more competent than others. As you prove that
you can convert even the best of them to the Demonic cause, they'll all lose hope
of ever winning against you.
Animal Tamer
Animalistic Chosen Broken: 7
Level: 3 (Next: 15 Broken)
Bonus: Each instance of circumstance damage deals at least 45 damage
Animalistic Chosen are special in that they draw their psychic energy from two sources:
humanity's sense of justice, and humanity's respect for nature. Even after becoming
Forsaken, they retain their connection to the latter source, and you can turn that power
to your own purposes, undermining the resistance of even your most resolute foes.
Ghost Buster
Undead Chosen Broken: 9
Level: 3 (Next: 15 Broken)
Bonus: Quadruples unresolved trauma when deciding whether to perform downtime
activities which generate 2 or more EE
The Undead cause subtle psychic disturbances wherever they go, inducing people to
feel subconsciously less secure in their emotions, and therefore more likely to to
act out in desperate ways. As you begin to bring more and more Undead Forsaken
with you from city to city, even the Chosen defending those cities will begin to feel the effects.
Devil Summoner
Devil Chosen Broken: 5
Level: 2 (Next: 6 Broken)
Bonus: +20% damage dealt by Forsaken
People always hesitate before committing evil, fearful of punishment either in this world
or in the world beyond. But as the Devils themselves fall under your sway, it will
become clear that those who serve you are beyond all punishment.
Angel Corruptor
Angel Chosen Broken: 4
Level: 2 (Next: 6 Broken)
Bonus: x3 bonus for sparing Forsaken, can spare Forsaken instead of sacrificing them
Angels are empowered to reward mortals, but those which serve the Demons can use
this ability in some creative ways. With Angels providing incentive for your minions to
work together, the Demonic hive can become its own twisted sort of 'Heaven'.
Competitive Workplace
Forsaken Recruited as Second-in-Command: 26
Level: 4 (Next: 40 Recruited)
Bonus: Second-in-Command deals +60% damage
When Chosen join you for the promise of becoming your second-in-command, they do
so for selfish reasons. But if they subsequently find out that the position has a high
turnover, they'll work harder in hopes of convincing you not to replace them.
Bringer of Despair
Chosen Defeated Using Accuse: 44
Level: 4 (Next: 100 Defeated)
Bonus: -1600EE required for Despair
Most methods of defeating the Chosen involve causing them to make some sort of
fatal, sinful error that tips them over the edge onto the path of evil. It's easy enough
for future Chosen to convince themselves that they won't make the same mistake.
But when the team seems to do everything right and still simply lacks the power to win,
other Chosen can't help but doubt their own power as well.
The big new achievement that wasn't in last time is the Despair-related achievement, so after 20 Loops I'll give my thoughts--it's kind of boring, and the cost is way too high in late game loops. What Despair requires you to do is spend a bunch of days generating max EE, repeating yourself in a way that this game mostly avoids doing during Loops. There'll be an exact sequence of turns that get all the Chosen to do +50EE downtimes that you'll need to repeat whenever they heal enough trauma to start going to +15EE. Finding that sequence once can be an interesting challenge at times! I like finding that sequence. But I don't like doing it repeatedly. Last loop required 2950 EE in 29 days to get Despair on an Angel, a Devil, and an Animalistic (the Angel was converted through Megalomania, hence the higher cost). But once I worked out how to get 150EE and did the calculation on day 5 or so, I used Cheat Engine to just give me that EE because that is Boring as Hell to do 20 times in a row. I'd like it to not be, so here are some possibilities for you to consider that could enliven this discussion:
- Change it to something else entirely. Gathering a ton of EE through straight linear math is never going to be exciting in the way that new breaks are. I think a long time ago I suggested making something like a counter for how many times Chosen flip from friend to rival, but I'd really just like to see something else here other than gathering thousands of EE.
- Keep it the way it is, but start adding even more extreme downtimes beyond the 1T resolutions, maybe at powers of 10. 10T could be +200EE. 100T could be +750EE. 1P could be +2500EE. If you feel uncomfortable writing more stuff that's obviously going to be very dark just give the EE and don't make up new downtimes. It needs to not be 10 days of waiting after you've already essentially won. This has a side benefit of making Angels a bit more interesting since they can actually get rid of enormous amounts of Trauma. This gives you the option of writing more scenes, so your call really.
- The simple option: if you manage to get +150EE in Downtimes, they've given into Despair as much as they're going to. Just give the player the option of ending the Loop with Despair on all 3 Chosen at that point. Even the Chosen admit that their resistance is just a facade at that point of damage resolution. Give the player a button that ends the nightmare. There aren't any Chosen generating +50EE Downtimes that still feel "I'm making a difference!" (You'd have to do something else for Loops with two Devils I guess). Or, if you get them to +50EE, the Accuse option becomes available in the final battle. Remember that ending Loops early already requires an additional +300 EE or more because of Imago Quickening.
And thank you for the feedback here as well. There's one critical element which I think is important to keep for the Despair Distortion: you aren't just generating a lot of EE, you're also generating a lot of EE
early. It might be viable to change the requirement (or add an alternative way to trigger it) that just requires you to have two of the three Chosen perform +50 EE downtime actions on the same day, but it would also need to come with a shorter deadline. And, in that case, maybe the Despair achievement would just make that deadline more generous.
Other, quick notes:
It's really quite difficult to do Megalomania distortion on Angels, even with all the tools I have. If they start doing Invitation to Heaven they can fuck up your plans severely because they have to NOT be surrounded, and they can use that move to get themselves surrounded. It's not a bad interaction or anything, just making you aware of it. At some point you may (or may not) want to change this in some way for Angels specifically as Angels are specifically about giving up everything to protect their friends, and the Thralls running away and giving up at the sight of an Angel who kind of will let them do whatever they want to her just feels a bit... off. Maybe just a different scene writing in general could fix it? I imagine a scene something like the other two Chosen enjoying all the luxuries their status affords while the Angel is getting all kinds of fucked up in battle would be easy to write and fix some of the dissonance here, maybe with changing the button from "Retreat" to "Abduct (Angelname)" would keep the general feeling the same. And then the others don't even try to rescue her...
Splendor fight is still kind of a drag with a long period where the outcome is predetermined but scraping together 300+EE for Imago Quickening is tricky and getting Despair before the Undead drain grows too big is really difficult. It just kind of drags at the end, not sure what you'll do with this information.
The Victory fight is still by far my favorite as you slowly chip away at her resolve. More of this please.
I still hate Splendor's Motivation drain a lot but with warps I only have to put up with it for Loop 11, 14, and 15 if I fight her first. I do that by saving up tons of worthless Forsaken and then Sacrificing them one by one whenever I want to deploy a Forsaken that's inevitably at 0 Motivation. You
monster CSdev .
I'd like it if some sort of variety mechanic were included in Splendor's bargain system? You have similar code for a ton of other things in the game, from making sure Forsaken don't do the same T3 move again right away to putting "rejected" items into a pool that's only offered once the standard pool is exhausted. If I didn't want to make her fight for me on Day 22, it's probably a safe bet that I'm not going to accept her offering to fight for me on Day 23. Offer something else ya dumb bitch! (Obviously at some point she may only have one thing left to offer but this would make it better).
The game does actually cycle day-to-day through all valid things for her to offer you! So, if you saw the same offer on consecutive days, then either that was the only valid offer, or something broke somewhere.
I had a Forsaken hit by Candle of Snuffed-Out Life so hard that she was for all of the rest of the Loop below her Tantrum threshold (she was Rampant so her Motivation deployment cost is negative). It was like less than half as bad as having Splendor damaging motivation but it still sucked. It really sucked that it continued even during the training phase--was any thought given to making this effect wear off after the battle part of the loop is done?
Having the effect end after the final battle would make sense. I'll make a note to change that.
Book of Inviolable Taboo is really really bad for highly specialized Forsaken. Even at level 1 it removes 24k of Expertise. Once you start getting much over 100k Expertise, this represents many full days of training (I consider a good day of training one where I get 8k useful Expertise). At high levels and multiple uses it takes Forsaken quickly from highly focused scalpel to blunt unsharpened butter knife in a single fight. I don't like it can you tell
It's fine to have things I don't like in the game though, it can be dealt with by just having some generic Forsaken sitting around with moderate cost and on an eternal training plan.
Other stuff I'd like while I'm compiling the CS wishlist:
- Make some ladies speak with an accent.
This is something I've been playing with a little - stuff like giving characters a random stutter rather than just manually writing a stutter into some of the (mostly low-Confidence) voice lines. Just have to be careful that it doesn't obfuscate what they're actually saying.
- Make some black and brown ladies. (Image pack modders plz?)
Yes, once I go back to adding more faces to the portrait pack, I'll want to add a couple of these too. First comes updating the existing portraits to look better, though. (I might have Edge lean further into the ganguro thing that the artbreeder portraits gave her, too.)
- Make relationships between Forsaken have some weight and influenceable by player decisions. (Slayer keeps tantruming? maybe the other Forsaken gang up on her and silence her more permanently.)
The game actually does have Forsaken relationships get impacted by tantruming already, but the effect is pretty minor, and the only effect that relationships have is that friends deal less Motivation damage to each other when tantruming, so it's not very interesting. The whole friendliness-between-Forsaken system is a relic of early development where I wasn't quite sure what I wanted to do with it. It's certainly due for a revisit.
- More interactions between Chosen and civilians, especially in combat. Make it feel more like combat in populated areas, not just full of Thralls fighting a few Chosen. The Capture/Surround text always makes it look like "oops, clumsy me dropping my rifle and slipping right next to a horde of Thralls with my dress pulled up" and never makes it feel like "I have to act immediately to save this poor innocent and I'll deal with the consequences later!" This is an opportunity to make Chosen feel more heroic.
Or, it could make the Minor Morality Chosen feel even more like assholes. Sounds like it could be fun. I'll add it to my list of stuff to write once I have time to delve deep into general flavor text.
- Negotiation: I have Victory defeated, so I would get the second form of this trait. Victory might be strong but she's also at -50% damage due to her being a defeated former Second-in-Command so in 20 day loops I'm not going to spend 6 days on her deployment to get her up to strength. Plus with no traits strengthening Love at all she's going to hit like a standard Forsaken so deploying her for free is less than ideal. Plus I can usually deploy her for free anyway with Hot Tag gee this is a lot of words about how much I don't want this one it's bad.
Oh, this is sort of an oversight. For the purpose of Negotiation Love, a former-Second-in-Command Victory should probably be treated the same as an Aversion or Breakless Despair Victory. (Meanwhile, Megalomaniac Love does indeed remove the -50% damage penalty from a former-Second-in-Command Victory when putting her back into the position.)
Again, unlike Victory, she doesn't have a generic "beat without Distortions for MOAR POWER" trait, so I don't see any reason to convert through 400% Morale instead of using a Distortion.
For the record, both Love and Judgment do have slightly stronger traits when not defeated with a Distortion. Judgment goes from +150% damage to +200% damage, and Love goes from x3 Spared bonus to x5 Spared bonus.
I rushed through this in various ways, most notably by giving myself (Cheat Engine) EE to afford Despair rather than playing through each loop to its natural conclusion. It's certainly "cheating" in a sense to realize that I could gain 1500 EE by playing a battle perfectly 10 times and then choosing instead to skip all of that mess. Even more so because I'm getting extra days of training (which don't mean all that much, my Forsaken are mostly trained how I want them, it just means fewer buttons to click over and over than skipping through combat).
In a similar vein of "rushing" to get to Loop 20, sometimes, rather than finding the absolute narrow combination of factors to trigger Megalomania vs. Angel Chosen, I would sometimes make changes to the number of Surround turns if I was like close to triggering it rather than reloading a save, trying slightly different Demon Commanders until I found the one that was just perfect. I never did this to give myself a Megalomania that I felt I couldn't have earned, I just wanted to get to this place more quickly.
There is one thing that happened that is truly cheating, but surprisingly it didn't involve Cheat Engine at all. At the start of one particular odd-numbered Loop, I think it was during one of the ones that I had earned an "alternative exit" but I'm not 100% sure, I saw the offered items, went into another menu to check something about my Forsaken, and came back to see different items. "Did those items just change?" I wondered, trying it again and seeing a different set of items there. "Yep, that happened." So at one particular point during the game, I was allowed to just... keep cycling through the item pool until I saw something I actually wanted. I should have kept a save and posted it, but at the time I was only thinking of the opportunity to set myself up with one of the good Panties for a good Heavyweight item. I think that was when I picked up Basis's Pantsu, not 100% sure.
If I notice it happening again I'll try to keep a save there and see if it's repeatable. But that probably won't happen until the next time I try a long run--if you can find this and fix it with this info
CSdev that's great otherwise you might have to wait.
Since it means that I get more useful feedback for improving the game, I certainly have no complaints (especially if it helps you avoid burnout - the new boss fight coming in R59 will be a recurring one that starts in Loop 7, and I'm already looking forward to hearing what you think of her).
And thank you for the bug report as well! I know exactly what's causing it. I put in some save compatibility code which was meant to trigger if the game wasn't able to generate items for the next city, but it looks like it was a bit overzealous.
that's for the wrong version, the save doesn't work
Saves have generally been backwards compatible--have you tried it to see? I'm seriously not doing that much work again unless and until I get something bundled with the game. I might see about getting the old version (nopics) bundled with it on the page if it's no longer loading in R58. Most of the changes since R58 are not affecting the basic "single play" scenario and are intended for campaigns so I'm going to ask you to try it and see if it loads in R58 and let me know if it doesn't so I can get the right version bundled with it.
This is a sneaky save compatibility issue which is happening because the game looks at the list of items when trying to "repair" Chosen from previous versions, and the list of items doesn't get updated until later in the save file repair process. I'll have it fixed in R59, which means that your old save file will start working on the current version again.
Picking this up again ever so often but I still really struggle in later loops (3 upwards). It really feels like the balancing is designed around 100% perfection, where deviating from the "best" decisions in any given day will come bite you in the ass later, sometimes a few runs down the line, because you lost out on Forsaken training time, spent too much EE that one day, picked a wrong distortion yadayada - as evident of the feedback above where a very experienced player is complaining that lucking out on a perfect combination of items (what are the odds) will drop the challenge a bit (I mean, duh
Would that be so terrible to be ahead of the curve for once, IF you get that lucky?)
I don't wanna resort to outright cheating as that truly trivialises it, but just a shoutout to the Dev to ease up a bit
Totally fair feedback. I'm always turning up the difficulty on strategy games to see how far I can take it. That's why I:
1) Recruited Splendor first
2) Made her my Second-in-Command
3) Hit every "alternative exit" (warp) on the way even if I didn't use them
For context, I play Slay the Spire on Ascension 20, even though I don't regularly win.
I'm pretty sure
CSdev is planning some less difficult options other than turning difficulty modifiers completely off, but I'm also fairly sure that something like that will not be implemented until it's much closer to its final state. I could be wrong though. In the meantime I know there's a way to turn loop scaling off, I remember it being implemented somewhere, but I can't find it in the Options menu.
I do intend to tweak some stuff and add an Ascension-like system once campaign mode is completed, and the "Ascension 0" difficulty probably will be a decent bit easier than the current experience.
There's no "win" condition, so all you can do is go further and further into more and more loops until you eventually *lose*. I kind of like it that way honestly, it's a bit hopeful that every Demon Lord eventually gets bested, in a game that's otherwise very dark.
CSdev make sure you implement an "endless mode" after you have the game in a more finalized state. I will be...
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Hah, that's probably a good idea. I'll probably do something analogous to the single play "continue after the final battle" option, where you can keep doing loops even after the end of the world. This would also be nice as a way to let you recruit Reason and Wisdom onto the same Forsaken team (because otherwise you don't have time to reach them both before the ending in Loop 35).
