razzled

Newbie
May 27, 2018
80
40
Are you sure you've met all the characters? Make sure you check where it says "Hints to get started..." if you see it in the journal.

Did you take the easy hints or regular hints?
Beatrice, Erranda, Alisandra and Genny are on progress, the rest have no more content
32/57 events
 

Soniram

Creating EC:A
Game Developer
Apr 16, 2021
761
778
Could you do the shell users a favor and lose the '()' in the title, etc? These things have a special meaning in regular expression parsing so Linux folks and such have to take extra care to "escape" them from being interpreted that way. Suggest doing something like EC-TheApothecary instead.
I did not know. I will make the change for the upcoming 0.3.1.
 

Soniram

Creating EC:A
Game Developer
Apr 16, 2021
761
778
Beatrice, Erranda, Alisandra and Genny are on progress, the rest have no more content
32/57 events
Yeah, you are missing a couple of characters. The first thing you're going to need to do is:
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I am pretty sure that will be the answer. You really ought to have a line above where Beatrice's name is that says "Things I should check out..." that you can click on and bring up a list of other hints to help.
 

razzled

Newbie
May 27, 2018
80
40
Yeah, you are missing a couple of characters. The first thing you're going to need to do is:
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I am pretty sure that will be the answer. You really ought to have a line above where Beatrice's name is that says "Things I should check out..." that you can click on and bring up a list of other hints to help.
yeah i dont have that
 

Soniram

Creating EC:A
Game Developer
Apr 16, 2021
761
778
yeah i dont have that
I am 99.9% sure you need to do these things:

* Have at least one lavender.
* Have at least one withstand potion.
* In the morning, go outside and choose "Ring Cali's Bell".

There is a missing flag I will correct, but like I said, that's what you need to do.
 

phupdup

Well-Known Member
Oct 24, 2019
1,391
1,102
The garden mechanic is a bit wonky in the initial game as follows:

You don't enable the garden until your aunt comes around again. This gate doesn't make sense at all. MC is from the boondocks and doesn't know what a garden looks like the first time they check around the house? Odds are extreme they were following ma and pa around in the home patch as soon as they learned how to walk. They are cooking for themselves so obviously know how to cultivate all the usual suspects for salads, veggies and herbs to go along with the meat main course. That garden would have been discovered and put to use probably on the first day. There would be some obvious need for weeding, but rocks? That stuff doesn't move or get dropped by birds that fancy themselves as bombers. Those would have been removed by the aunt or the granddad when the shop first got established. OTOH there might be some fast growing, bird planted trees that need removal.

I think the garden arc should go as follows:

Garden is enabled the first day as soon as MC does the walkaround and thus finds it. He spends a day weeding and getting the compost pile set up again with the proceeds. Now the "check the garden for seeds" entry in your inventory will actually make sense rather than being some odd appendage on that page in the early game. The seeds in stock for the garden would be the usual suspects, but they may or may not be viable. The garden itself should have some basic perennials and self-seeding annuals that MC should recognize as herbs for cooking and pickling, good flowers for the pollinators, or deer and bug repellents. That would include the fennel and chamomile, sage, oregano, thyme, dill, chives, garlic, lemon balm, bee balm, rosemary, vines like blueberry, raspberry, blackberry and goji berry and pokeweed. I would argue that MC already knows about the chamomile being a relaxing tea as well as a pollinator flower. They use the fennel in pickling but may not know whatever mechanic it has in an apothecary. They probably know the pokeweed is a good way to keep birds around for bug removal so not really a weed. So auntie's return is now merely a way to find out about the apothecary uses for stuff MC already knows about.

--edit--

By the way, it's counterproductive to "churn up the soil" aka tilling. If any of my ranting is making sense for you IRL then you may want to look at the youtube channel. Here's how and why you do
 
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V4mpire

Member
Game Developer
Dec 20, 2020
147
269
The garden mechanic is a bit wonky in the initial game as follows:

You don't enable the garden until your aunt comes around again. This gate doesn't make sense at all. MC is from the boondocks and doesn't know what a garden looks like the first time they check around the house? Odds are extreme they were following ma and pa around in the home patch as soon as they learned how to walk. They are cooking for themselves so obviously know how to cultivate all the usual suspects for salads, veggies and herbs to go along with the meat main course. That garden would have been discovered and put to use probably on the first day. There would be some obvious need for weeding, but rocks? That stuff doesn't move or get dropped by birds that fancy themselves as bombers. Those would have been removed by the aunt or the granddad when the shop first got established. OTOH there might be some fast growing, bird planted trees that need removal.

I think the garden arc should go as follows:

Garden is enabled the first day as soon as MC does the walkaround and thus finds it. He spends a day weeding and getting the compost pile set up again with the proceeds. Now the "check the garden for seeds" entry in your inventory will actually make sense rather than being some odd appendage on that page in the early game. The seeds in stock for the garden would be the usual suspects, but they may or may not be viable. The garden itself should have some basic perennials and self-seeding annuals that MC should recognize as herbs for cooking and pickling, good flowers for the pollinators, or deer and bug repellents. That would include the fennel and chamomile, sage, oregano, thyme, dill, chives, garlic, lemon balm, bee balm, rosemary, vines like blueberry, raspberry, blackberry and goji berry and pokeweed. I would argue that MC already knows about the chamomile being a relaxing tea as well as a pollinator flower. They use the fennel in pickling but may not know whatever mechanic it has in an apothecary. They probably know the pokeweed is a good way to keep birds around for bug removal so not really a weed. So auntie's return is now merely a way to find out about the apothecary uses for stuff MC already knows about.

--edit--

By the way, it's counterproductive to "churn up the soil" aka tilling. If any of my ranting is making sense for you IRL then you may want to look at the youtube channel. Here's how and why you do
I will completely disagree with this and I feel this is just trolling. There is zero need to go in the way of RL setting, this is not RL, it's a game, nowhere does it state in the story the parents did gardening, if suitable and cheap enough trade it's un-needed.

Also, who's to say the Aunt actually used it, if she had enough connections etc, might have been simpler to just trade for all needed ingredients, there is no need for veggies or additional food items to be grown within the garden as this is un-needed as part of the story.

Remember it's an extra mechnic for the game, this extent of realism is not a requirement with the likes of elves, goblins etc and I very much doubt the developer will be looking to change when it starts or the "realism" in how the process goes.

I'm actually surprised you went through so much effort to write so much about it for a game that's not going for realism in the first place.
 
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phupdup

Well-Known Member
Oct 24, 2019
1,391
1,102
Call it a pet peeve. Call it a missed opportunity to get into the rapidly growing category of educational porn. Call it a way to distinguish your VN from the horde of gardens found in VN that have absolutely nothing to do with reality. So maybe it doesn't look like with the optional x-rated "Bales, Babes and Bestiality" DLC, but it could look more like the apothecary gardening mechanic found in Skyrim's Home and Hearth DLC running with a sprinkling of Loverslab mods for Skyrim.

I'm actually surprised you went through so much effort to write so much about it for a game that's not going for realism in the first place.
--edit--

Also the concept the concept that MC who grows up out on the edge of civilization basically was at a house that didn't have a garden is ridiculous. OF COURSE THEY HAD A GARDEN. Hell they probably a back 40. There's a comment about them being brought up in beehive country.

Unless there's a medieval version of walmart or costco that's less than an hour walk away from that homestead, how do they eat?
 
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Soniram

Creating EC:A
Game Developer
Apr 16, 2021
761
778
I listen to all criticisms and recommendations, and I have changed/added things that others have mentioned to me because they are generally good ideas, such as putting in a slider for the textbox opacity. It took me a few days to figure out how to do it correctly, but it was added.

When the game was originally outlined, there were, I think, 30 different plants to be harvested and dozens of different potions. As the game got into writing and coding, the original outline was just too vast -- especially for a first-time developer with limited knowledge of coding/scripting. For example, this release is an 0.3e version, so it required five major bug-fixes to become stable and it still had errors that needed patching.

I wish I had the time, energy, and ability to make a true-to-life gardening game, but this fantasy game isn't about the realism of gardening or botany. Keep the criticisms and opinions coming in, though. My ideas are definitely not perfect, and more than a few additions/subtractions/alterations have come from players and patrons.

Warm evening.
 
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phupdup

Well-Known Member
Oct 24, 2019
1,391
1,102
The gate for seeds is a bit over the top. MC has the garden ready and gets trolled about finding seeds, but we actually don't get to find any and don't even know about that until the Horace trading partner event happens? I was about to jump in and search the code to see just how rare the finding of seeds is or to find out whether I had hit a bug about it. Still waiting to see how bad the seed RNG is though. Also why have five different types of seeds that can be cultured, but there's only 4 "slots" to plant in the garden?
 

JJATH

Active Member
May 2, 2017
523
412
I find the seed stuff to be fine really. When I play games like this I usually just follow the flow and hope for the best.

Looking forward to the Next update...

Warm Night
 

Soniram

Creating EC:A
Game Developer
Apr 16, 2021
761
778
how do you get ginseng?
Getting ginseng requires a Beatrice scene. If you are needing a grips potion, you can talk to Horace/Yanwei outside evening by waiting for her. She will sell a grips potion for either 7 or 8 silver depending on your knowledge stat.
 

JoePlant

Member
May 2, 2017
304
302
I wish I had the time, energy, and ability to make a true-to-life gardening game, but this fantasy game isn't about the realism of gardening or botany. Keep the criticisms and opinions coming in, though. My ideas are definitely not perfect, and more than a few additions/subtractions/alterations have come from players and patrons.

Warm evening.
Then you may need to take a moment to replan. As of right now the gardening has a lot of steps that are unncessary given the lack of farm focus. Repetitive actions that are un needed only push players away. In a game like this, there really is no need to actually tend to the garden once seeds are planted. See the game Mist for an idea of such.

Now that said, lets say you do allow for tending of the garden. Maybe that could lead to critical success of the plants for extra harvest. Or maybe doing such that instead of harvesting, you let it go to seed to collect seeds.
This could mean the MC could grow from scavenging parts to growing parts and being self efficient. Character growth if you will.
 

Soniram

Creating EC:A
Game Developer
Apr 16, 2021
761
778
Then you may need to take a moment to replan. As of right now the gardening has a lot of steps that are unncessary given the lack of farm focus. Repetitive actions that are un needed only push players away. In a game like this, there really is no need to actually tend to the garden once seeds are planted. See the game Mist for an idea of such.

Now that said, lets say you do allow for tending of the garden. Maybe that could lead to critical success of the plants for extra harvest. Or maybe doing such that instead of harvesting, you let it go to seed to collect seeds.
This could mean the MC could grow from scavenging parts to growing parts and being self efficient. Character growth if you will.
I'm always open to ideas to adjust functions in the game. The game is still less than one-third completed, so there is room for evolution. All ideas and suggestions are taken in and considered. Thanks for the ideas. :)
 

Shagrynn

Active Member
Apr 3, 2018
705
711
Horace sold me the recipe for the grips potion, or the potion itself i don't know, for 8 silver. Nowhere to be found, no potion or recipe.
Well, got the goblin anyway (named her Sweetpea). The lines in the whites of her eyes are off-putting
 
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ChopTheHead

Newbie
Sep 15, 2021
23
25
I seem to be stuck. My progress is at 56/57, but there are 3 characters with more scenes according to the journal. Alisandra and Lerran's pages both say "I need to progress with other characters first", and Genny's page says "I should stock up on some potions and go to her house". The problem is that I've tried going to her multiple times with 2 of every potion but Fulcrum and all I get is the generic interaction menus.
 

Soniram

Creating EC:A
Game Developer
Apr 16, 2021
761
778
Horace sold me the recipe for the grips potion, or the potion itself i don't know, for 8 silver. Nowhere to be found, no potion or recipe.
Well, got the goblin anyway (named her Sweetpea). The lines in the whites of her eyes are off-putting
Yeah, it isn't noted in your inventory but is set as a flag that changes several things in the game, including the goblin scene.

I seem to be stuck. My progress is at 56/57, but there are 3 characters with more scenes according to the journal. Alisandra and Lerran's pages both say "I need to progress with other characters first", and Genny's page says "I should stock up on some potions and go to her house". The problem is that I've tried going to her multiple times with 2 of every potion but Fulcrum and all I get is the generic interaction menus.
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ChopTheHead

Newbie
Sep 15, 2021
23
25
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Thanks, I'll try that.

Edit: Okay, it worked, but now there's supposed to be another scene with her that happens outside in the morning and it won't trigger. I also ran into some bugs attempting to talk with the goblin:

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and another one:

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Soniram

Creating EC:A
Game Developer
Apr 16, 2021
761
778
Thanks, I'll try that.

Edit: Okay, it worked, but now there's supposed to be another scene with her that happens outside in the morning and it won't trigger. I also ran into some bugs attempting to talk with the goblin:
Try being in the shop. I think that's a typo in the hints screen. I'll get that fixed.

The bugs... huh. I see the error. Trying to figure out how it didn't bug out on my and my alpha testers' versions. Thank you.
 
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