IIRC (and can't look it up as I'm at work), there is a reaction by the MC saying something like, "Yeah, I already knew that," or similar. I made it a conscious choice that the MC would not espouse everything he knew to everyone or remark or "think" about things too much. Someone told me I did that too much and should cut back on the MC thinking to himself.
I could be quite wrong and there could be a mixup. I will definitely look if there are any contradictions. There likely are. My outlook was to kind of skip over a lot of these because it can drag a game down to explain everything to everyone (meaning characters in the game) and it allows the player to "think their own thoughts" instead of being told exactly what the MC is thinking... for the most part.
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I think I may have been one of those people. I personally think it happens way to often. I mentioned it in my review. I'll update it again after I finish this version but yeah, it gets annoying. Especially when he chimes in with just a single word right in the middle of a conversation. Or just keeps stating the obvious. It's one of my biggest grips with the game. I also wish there were more chances for the player to actually speak up. I notice that a lot of the scenes are very linier.
But the scene I was talking about he comes right out and says in dialogue that she sent the coded letter. And for me that happened before I even talked to Horace to see what it said.
For me: "Leaving for the city after talking about the coded letter." Then "Meating with Horace to actually decode it."
Line 162: mc "She wrote a warning on the last letter she sent me in a code. It said the guild was watching me. Looking into what I was doing."
Yeah, you've found one of the inconsistencies I have a hard time in recouping due to how the scenes line up. I try to make the game as "non-linear" as I can, though some scenes, such as the letter code thing, are there for a specific reason. I can try to push back to where you have to decode the letter first before going to Rilea and make the player wait to finish all the scenes before being able to move on.
When you made that content, I went back into the game and looked at extraneous dialogue, especially in regards to thoughts and "..." lines. A lot of them got removed, but several have remained. There are two reasons I tend to keep specific thoughts/emptys/etc in the game.
The first is for story. There are times when something important happens or I am trying to point the player's attention at something. For example...
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The other reason is to slow down the image changing on the screen. I try not to do one-line image changes.
Code:
scene background01
show genny at left
with dissolve
g "hello"
show genny02 with dissolve
g "how are you"
show genny03 with dissolve
g "Nice day we're having"I'm still going back and adjusting dialogue from the beginning every time I play it through. Rest assured, I feel the same way about inane thought speeches. It's often not easy to see it from a player's POV rather than the developer. I don't really get to "play" the game. I get to bug-test and search for typos and inconsistencies.
Hopefully it's at least a little bit better from the last time you played.
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In general it is. But no game is perfect anyway. I'm still noticing a lot of empty time though. It's a little odd because at the point I'm at the only person I'm not romancing is Genny but I still have to wait days at a time for the next event in most cases with nothing to do. I haven't even touched my garden in I don't know how long because I've been at max resources for a long time. The garden is better but still becomes obsolete very quickly because the carry limit is so low. Not to mention you lose anything you harvest that's over that limit so it really is pointless to use it after that.
I guess I could sleep with Goblin or Cali but the scenes are about non existent right now. I don't know if that changes but two short scene max gets repetitive quickly. On that topic, did you disable the breast physics in charastudio? I notice that there is no jiggle from what I've seen. It's also a little strange that at the point where I am it's either giving or receiving depending on the girl. Goblin is giving Cali is receiving.
I just did the scene with Erranda"s mother where you can let her in or not and I have to say if there were more scenes like that with actual player agency then I would have a more enjoyable time overall. It felt like "I" was actually doing something and not just going along for the ride.
I'm not sure if you restarted from the save file you sent me, but as I stated, the game isn't written for you to power through one character all the way through and then switch. It's designed for players to move between characters, more similarly to a slice of life type of situation. A friend of mine got through every character's (except Genny's and the girls at Velvet Desires) within 100 days. It comes down to how you play it. There are optimal and sub-optimal ways for any game.
If you started over and are still noticing large gaps, let me know. I'd be interested in knowing where those are at.
I'm still optimizing things like the garden, trading, and brewing. Trying to balance the game when I know how the mechanics work is not an easy job. More changes are coming in 0.7, and probably all the other updates, too.
As you've no doubt noticed, my animation skills are sub-par at best. The important thing for me, right now, is to get the game to 1.0 (have an ending) and then go back and give it the polish it deserves. There's also likely to be a lot more content added in. Like in 0.6, I added in a character that shows up near the beginning and then a few times later. Depth and content. Same thing is going to happen with the sandbox scenes. There's going to be a lot more of them.
I could stop producing the story that's burning my brain, crying to get put down on paper (Notepad.exe), and focus all my time on sandbox. I could decide to take eight months to complete the game, add all the sandbox content (at my current level of animation skills, shading skills, coding skills, etc.), and yell "Completed!" and move on to the next. I believe it will be better, in the end, this way, even if it costs me bad reviews and "gurlz dun look gud" comments.
Guess what I'm trying to say is I want to get to a point I can make good stuff for the sandbox. It's getting added slowly.
I would love to have time time, patience, skills, and tenacity required to map out every single thing the MC says, making the choice dynamic and changing something in a later scene. It'd be great. Maybe they've coded that... I don't know. I know, right now, every option creates a different path I have to insert into each scene later that it may affect.
If we gave the MC options, say one every scene, of directing everything that happens after that point, that's a minimum of 170 paths right now -- adding in 0.7 would take that well above 200 -- to keep mapped and optioned with if/else's every subsequent scene. I have to draw the line somewhere. My sanity doesn't know its limits, but I'm not ready to test those. I have to finish this first.
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(1) I don't think I was "powering through" anything. Not sure how doing some scenes for a character before another would have such a drastic effect on the pacing. If anything it could be because I was waiting on an event to trigger that I didn't know about. It my fault I guess but it's also down to a not very great hint system. For the threads anyway. Like right now, I need to wait for two days to see the next scene which will unlock another with Horace. Then three days again for Erranda. They way they are clumped together relying on each other just locks up a whole other character altogether.
(2) Just starting out with studio and struggling with animation is understandable but there is nothing saying you need to make all of your animations from scratch. The studio has multiple dozens of pre made animations that you could use if it's too tricky for you right now. It's one of the strong point of choosing it.
(3) I didn't mean adding more game changing choices necessarily. Even just letting the player voice an opinion on the matter would go a long way. You don't even need ifs for those, just menu followed by a change of dialogue. Sure it's essentially a hollow choice but it would go a long way in making things feel less railroaded. You don't use a point system like what I'm working on but this is a work in progress scene from mine.
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I hope your not taking what I say personally. I'm far from an expert in these things, I was just telling you what my experience has been since trying it again When mine is ready to roll out you can come poke holes in it all you want.
In a way, yes, I am. That's not your fault, but mine. You're giving constructive criticism and it got me frustrated. That's on me.
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I'm not sure what happened but I just ram in to a scene with Genny. I haven't seen her since the beginning of the game and now she came by and said things are getting better for her after my fight with Valkan. I never had any kind of fight with him concerning Genny. Like I said, I haven't seen her since the start of the game. It's when she comes to talk about Dyder.
Noted. It's from another thread that opens up traveling back to Rilea, which includes that scene. Thank you.
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I found a typo in the first visit to house Bettin. Near the end of the visit. Also that end choice is very confusing. Interesting or Deplorable arent exactly clear reponses. So is it pursuing all the sevent's including a main LI, Iris, or none and locking her out completely? If it is that's like Genny's route all over again. Only this time your locked out of even more content.
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Curious how that typo hadn't been found before. Thanks.
The choice should be clearer, or just completely removed as it happens later as well. With that choice as it stands, it doesn't lock out Lerran. She is a "main LI". It means Iris and Nadine.
The way it is written out in dialogue is meant to be uncomfortable because Alisandra is a thoroughly unpleasant woman. That's why there's no choice that says "YES GIVE ME THEM!" It's just "interesting". I suppose I could write an internal monologue about what he's actually thinking...
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Huh. Yeah, that conversation is kind of hard to follow. It's a little odd that it's set up with a lock out like that. I don't see what's stopping the MC from trying to get with them outside of her deal. Your just not allowed. I thought she was a main with how the journal is set up it's hard to know who is "important".
Another thing that lock out did was add a lot more dead time in my game. The extra content there would have probably filled it out. I'm on morning of 86 and the next scene is on 92. Actually day 96 for four other characters because I have to wait for the Valkan quest to move forward with any of them. It would be helpful to be able to have some way to sleep until the next day or something. Having to pass each time slot of every day is very repetitive.
The game will have 'fluff' out stuff eventually that basically has no, or very little, impact on the game. Some of that was added in 0.6 as a 'test run' to be a proof of concept. A lot more is planned, but I want to make sure anything I do include in will add to the story rather than detract from it in a story-telling and world-building way. The game is still very much in development.
It's not allowed because Alisandra is in control of Thornhill. I could make it where the choice made no difference. Just let the player do whatever he wants because, well, the story means nothing. Or force the player to go through scenes and events they don't want to because they specifically chose not to. The choices are there to give the player some agency, but eventually, there has to be a point where it is either "yes" or "no".
I agree the conversation is vague and I've gone back and added some clarity, as well as explaining the choice I hope will impart more information -- including the fact that choosing 'interesting' allows the player the option to make an additional choice later whether he wants to continue with Iris and Nadine or stop.
ECA's story and dialogue has subtlety, intrigue, and subterfuge. Other people are going to lie to the MC. They'll not tell the whole truth. Double-meanings are everywhere. There are points in the game the MC might realize something before the player does because he's learning how to deal with these people.
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So I'm guessing the choice with Alisandra is also a deciding factor in Erranda's route as well? I rejected her offer and because of that I can't "fully" accept Errandas offer because I told her mother no. If she is in control of them how is it only allowed if you accept her off even though her daughters offer is much more consensual. It's a half lock in an unrelated route. She can be with them but you can't all be together because of a previous choice.
Or am I just not reading the dialogue right?
Or am I just not reading the dialogue right?