I've been a fan of DD since the very early builds (before we even had Lola), and as time passes and new players come here to complain, I wanted to suggest some ideas to clear some of the confusion of the game:
It is always nice to see people taking time to write lengthy posts, thanks.
So I'll splice your list to give you better responds.
- How about allowing us to work during the weekend at the lab?
I already saw that suggestion and indeed it that is something I'll add.
- Grouping the items of the shop in packs could help us remember which to buy and avoid the need of a "shopping list" feature. Or else the store could "hide" the items until you ask about them, so the list can slowly grow and become more manageable. Again, it would be a script feature, instead of demanding more work from the artist.
- Can't we have some more dialogue with the girls and Kara during the day? It could improve the sense of corruption, as their dialogue becomes more and more slutty or they could tell naughty tales about their days. It would ease the player into talking to them frequently, and making the "school dialogue tasks" to advance the story way more discoverable, and also introduce hints to future events, like complaining about their parents views on their changes, hinting they are getting friendly with each other after the threesome, and so on. I reckon it wouldn't be too demanding to implement this feature, as they already have a good range of facial expressions, it's only dialogue on the script.
Well you suggestion about the sexshop is kind of already implemented and being tested in the playtest.
The sexshop inventory was reworked and the menu now shows the item you will need for the girls current stages.
But I also added a feature to mark the items needed for an event, so that should cover all the basis.
- Can't we have the locations listed like floating bubbles to the side of the screen, instead of the navbar? The bar doesn't close automatically upon dialogue, so when I'm with it open and I get a message, the navbar becomes stuck and lists locations that should be unavailable (and I exploit it a lot by working at the lab in the weekends during the day). The bubbles would be more noticeable, less prone to bugs and, as you hide most of the interface during the scenes, it would not overcrowd the screen.
I hate images.
I really hate images.
I kind of struggle not to include any image in the GUI, I only uses symbols from fonts.
Fixing/reworking the travel menu is in my ToDo list and it will be painfull. But there is a near zero chance it will take the form of a GUI I despise.
- As the devs seem to be against tinkering with the game (the not-plaintext files were a huge hint), how about a "hacking" menu at the lab's computer? It could even be Patreon-oriented, letting players get more income at the click of a button instead of annoying the devs in the forum about hacking or console variables.
I'm not against it.
I just don't like people complaining about the game being broken while they broke it themselves. And more often than not they are not even aware that they did it "because it work on every other games"
It's like always dropping your Nokia 3310 when you put it in charge. Then change to a smartphone and complain the screen is broken.
The more common example of people complaining the game is broken is the updater.
They extract the file from the archives plays the game on early minor release, before the bugfixes.
They encounter a bug and maybe report it. Shortly after I fix it and deploy an update.
They got the update notification and "update" their game.
But since the extracted file takes the priority over the updated archives the game is not updated and come here complaining about bug that got fixed sometime more than a week ago.
And that because they do things they don't understand.
I'm fine if they try to look at the code (most of them will probably get lost anyway). But the fact that they don't understand that the very moment they tamper with a game they can break stuff is an issue for me.
If someone come to report a bug and tell me what they did to the game I'll help them. It will probably take me the same time as for a non-altered game anyway.
But when they don't acknowledge their alteration as such until I ask them if they did that specific manipulation. Yeah I'm not happy.
Because it took me at least an order of magnitude more time to resolve the issue than it should have.
Even if my time is mostly free that doesn't mean I like to waste it due to pure ignorance.
As long as someone show me that they put some thought into what they did I'll most likely help them.
- Also, I couldn't help but talk about the income system. It's a very confusing mechanic, because it's not very logical: yes, an "income" prevents you from hoarding coins like "money" does, so it can be used as a governor device to avoid the player to go too far into the buyables until they get to the correct point in the story (like Magic the Gathering's "Land cards" govern the game so you can't win in the first turn), but someone's "income" doesn't reduces when you buy something, and yet my "income" is reduced when I buy a ballgag while at the same time it can't increase even when I work daily. It's a paradoxical system, and so it's very common for players to talk here about their confusion with the system. The first solution I can think for this problem is to go back to the money system, but make the sexshop menu a tree-like system, in which most options are hidden and you unlock them after buying some key items. You can have the seller improve the shop catalog as you sluttify her (as in, "hey, I went to Sex Convention and found this babies"), the Sybian being the most obvious option for that (she seems very shy about her uses of some of the toys, so it could make sense for her to buy one just after you sluttify her a lot). She could also procure the chemicals for the lab, after an injection of blue serum, so you could avoid the player from having too many serums simply by limiting the amount she could procure. As toys and serums are the only uses of money, the "income" system becomes irrelevant and the sexshop becomes even more important (demanding a daily visit). With the dialogue improvement I suggested above, it wouldn't be so "grinding", as the player can talk to the seller, buy items, buy chemicals, role play with her costumes, or see the girls helping with the store.
Well I cannot disagree on the fact it is confusing. People get confused by it so it is indeed confusing.
But I totally disagree that it is not very logical.
You don't lose income when you buy something you use it. That is why I names it "income" and not "funds"
And it is not because you work more than needed that you get more income. Teachers don't get paid for overtime, they get screwed.
So yeah I don't agree about the logical part.
You understand the reason behind the system as a gameplay mechanic. I must say that's nice for once to discuss it without explaining that point.
But when you suggest to go back to money you seem forget (or more likely you never read it) that the first reason I made the income system is because I had no idea of the state of the players finances and the fact you can start with any girl amplify that unknown.
Or you consider we could and should solely rely on the gating of the item and not care at all about the prices.
That would functionally work, but that makes any sense of money irrelevant.
I don't like it because that remove the need for generating money or income. There is no point for making a girl strip if there is no cash contrains.
It doesn't work with the story of the game.
The story of the MC is about being a quite senior scientist/biochemical engineer getting paid very well having to flee (and lose most of his wealth) to start over as a underpaid professor
If money is irrelevant then the "underpaid professor" part goes away.
I really love this game, and those above are just suggestions to make it more palatable to other players, so more people could play it and enjoy it as I do. Thanks a lot for this wonderful tale and I apologize for the awkward English, I'm not a native.
(On an unrelated note, Lola > Harley > Kara).
I would say that nobody would take the time to write a wall of text if they really disliked a game.
That is why I also respond to negative or "not constructive" posts as they also carry their share of information and responding also helps me think about the issues the game has or the solutions I want to use.
But you are really clueless, Chrystal is clearly on top.
