I appreciate everyone's feedback, I don't need to be defended, I am getting an overwhelmingly hopeful and positive response to what other people ALSO agree is a pretty good effort ALPHA. Please don't fight with one another, but know that I love your love and am charmed you want to keep me feeling positive. While I clearly need to be up front about what will be added and what direction we will be going in, telling other users they need to check the official Q+A is a valid response.
Oh sure, I agree about the evolution stones, I actually did that today in about 10 minutes. Next release the text pop will tell you what kind of stone you just looted, so you don't have to check your bag each time you find one to see if you got one that's useful. Please note that the stones will be much rarer in future versions and often hidden in chests that are in hard-to-reach places.
I don't want to give the player many recruit options yet, since you are fighting small simple enemy monster groups and theres only 10 unevolved monsters.
I will look into the game becoming laggy, I think there might be some bad loops somewhere? There's a whole world clock ticking you cannot see yet.
Thanks for the tip, that the monster X counter isnt counting down to climax. The X countdown is calculated after a turn is over, WIERDLY when you switch out a monster the game then immediately checks the speed of both monsters, and the one who is faster can go first. Ironically this means that if you had very fast monsters you could do 10 switches in a row and still have it be your turn. This will be an actual strategy as Keywords come to the fore and get explained. The timer resets because the monster has NOT succeeded in impregnating the scout with that climax. Each monster has a fertility score, so does the scout, and so if it doesn't succeed in impregnating the scout the timer resets. THIS IS NOT COMMUNICATED NICELY, because the game is an alpha. The BUGGER monster (green insect lady) has the OVIPOSITOR Keyword which means it takes longer to climax but is a guaranteed impregnation if she finished. She is the only encounter in the patch of grass beside where the player starts, she is also quite grabby. Each patch of grass can be loaded to deploy a specific set of encounters, as explorers will surely learn.
You'll also notice the player starts beside a tree they cannot walk through, a patch of grass with an easy encounter, a sub-level they can wander into, a path that leads to the future areas, and a suspicious looking stump (it has leaves so its a chest stump) with an item in it. Thus demonstrating most of the basic mechanics immediately.
LOADS of polish will need to happen, I think additional damage number text, super effective text, and impregnation failed text needs to pop out of the heads of monsters and fade.
Thanks, I am pretty resistant to negativity and open to love. I will always be catering to my patrons and people who like the game first and foremost. Don't need to be defended.
It will likely never have that, because redoing all the UI would be hell. HOWEVER, I can release a full screen version with blinders all around the current camera.
Today I set up all the player sprites to switch to the current scout correctly, so when the Aqua vote on Patreon is over I will just be able whip up her sprites in a day, slot them in, and it will work. I also fixed the evolution stones so when you loot them the text-pop TELLS you what type of stone it is. I doubled the number of doodads that can be spread around the ground as clutter, and will finish another pass on the Rosedew meadow tonight (I'll be deleting the bushes on the bottom right of the area, they feel out of place). I created a fruit plant texture, and I began to cobble together the scout selection screen that will appear after you select start (once Aqua is added) instead of just launching you into Rosedew meadow as Leaf.
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Yes, there will be many more areas to this game. Ignore any mention of a Hidden Base please. I will be henceforth denying any mention of its existence and it will appear in no future posts or maps. Also ignore that the map says "Surface" levels
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Here's what just my google docs folder for organizing the alpha of this game looks like. Weird there's a pokemon character in there, seeing how unrelated it is.
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