jthunderk89

Member
Dec 24, 2020
104
166
how much futa on male content is in the game?(if there is)
anywhere between none and a little. One optionally futa character that's mostly male on her, but there's currently a few scenes that have some futa on male options (you can give her a handjob, bj, and one scene with her fucking you IIRC)
 
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Oct 26, 2017
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Soniram I have spent well over 60 silver at Velvet on Jas as the Character screen indicates is required but I am not getting any option to speak to Isolde. Is it something thats going to be added later or is there something else I need to be doing? I attached my latest save file in case its a bug.
 

Soniram

Creating EC:A
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Apr 16, 2021
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Soniram I have spent well over 60 silver at Velvet on Jas as the Character screen indicates is required but I am not getting any option to speak to Isolde. Is it something thats going to be added later or is there something else I need to be doing? I attached my latest save file in case its a bug.
I'll have to take a look at it tomorrow. Are you sure you have the 0.7c version? There was a bug/mistake that was fixed in the latest version exactly like what you are mentioning.

BTW, I'm finally getting over an illness that's been hampering development of the next update. They say it wasn't Covid, but sure goddamn felt like it.
 
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Oct 26, 2017
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I'll have to take a look at it tomorrow. Are you sure you have the 0.7c version? There was a bug/mistake that was fixed in the latest version exactly like what you are mentioning.

BTW, I'm finally getting over an illness that's been hampering development of the next update. They say it wasn't Covid, but sure goddamn felt like it.

Sorry to hear you were sick, but happy to hear you're getting over it now.

But yeah, definitely 0.7c.

1701685252453.png
 

Soniram

Creating EC:A
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Apr 16, 2021
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Soniram I have spent well over 60 silver at Velvet on Jas as the Character screen indicates is required but I am not getting any option to speak to Isolde. Is it something thats going to be added later or is there something else I need to be doing? I attached my latest save file in case its a bug.
Okay, I found the issue. There's a clue not showing up correctly if you haven't run all three gillies' second scene. One little code issue. While it doesn't show up for you because Gisele's second scene hasn't run, just search around in the upper city during midday. You'll get the scene that opens up Jasmine's (and everyone else's) third scene.

If you are progressing with Gisele too, you will need to do her second scene before you get the third scene.
 
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OverLord gamer

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Nov 27, 2018
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Merry Christmas everyone.

The game has been updated to the 0.7d SE (Patreon) edition, which includes some extra stuff like the gallery, cheat menu, and some extra options in the preferences screen. Work on 0.8 is continuing. All of Endara wishes you a warm and happy holiday season.
Any ETA on the next public version?
 

Soniram

Creating EC:A
Game Developer
Apr 16, 2021
747
740
Ntr planned?
No.

There are characters in their own relationships, but no specific NTR (in any form) is planned.

Be aware, there are threesomes (and maybe more) where there is contact between two NPCs, who both are with the MC (or will be with the MC). I don't consider this NTR.
 
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LewdLewy

Newbie
Jun 29, 2021
55
154
Hello and Happy New Year.

The writing for 0.8 is complete and imaging and animating is beginning. There's a base of 38 scenes but a few of them are split up into sub-scenes. Others are quite long. The 0.8 version is quite different from previous versions in that half of it runs in a VN style progression rather than sandbox. More information will be posted later regarding how it's all structured as well as some adjustments to the story for fluidity.

There's no estimated time of release at the moment, but I'm thinking the alpha version for testers and supporters will be available sometime in February.
Hey Soniram, the I quoted mentions an extensive use of "VN style progression" in the next update. I'm hoping this is the start of a trend that recognizes the sandbox is getting in the way of the player's fun.

I ask because I love the characters and story, but the sandbox makes me hesitant to play again. I've already started over a few times because of bugs since I started playing when 0.4 dropped. 0.7 needed three hotfixes, and I don't think I caught up to 0.6 content before giving up again. With scenes showing up based partially on RNG, I have no idea if my playthrough is on track, or its bugged and I missed a scene which could impact things later.

Its so aggravating that 5-star content is locked behind a 2-star sandbox. I want to enjoy the story and the relationship dynamics of the characters you created, not have RNG or bugs determine when or if I get to see them at all. I sincerely hope you are moving towards a more linear type of progression, as it would help both for ease of development and player usability.

I know this post is just one person's opinion, but the Patreon page is currently sitting at under $200. I don't believe that amount represents this game's true earning potential at all. If you haven't already, please seriously consider adding an alternative VN or story mode. I'm sure if you run a poll, the patrons would agree.
 

Soniram

Creating EC:A
Game Developer
Apr 16, 2021
747
740
Hey Soniram, the I quoted mentions an extensive use of "VN style progression" in the next update. I'm hoping this is the start of a trend that recognizes the sandbox is getting in the way of the player's fun.

I ask because I love the characters and story, but the sandbox makes me hesitant to play again. I've already started over a few times because of bugs since I started playing when 0.4 dropped. 0.7 needed three hotfixes, and I don't think I caught up to 0.6 content before giving up again. With scenes showing up based partially on RNG, I have no idea if my playthrough is on track, or its bugged and I missed a scene which could impact things later.

Its so aggravating that 5-star content is locked behind a 2-star sandbox. I want to enjoy the story and the relationship dynamics of the characters you created, not have RNG or bugs determine when or if I get to see them at all. I sincerely hope you are moving towards a more linear type of progression, as it would help both for ease of development and player usability.

I know this post is just one person's opinion, but the Patreon page is currently sitting at under $200. I don't believe that amount represents this game's true earning potential at all. If you haven't already, please seriously consider adding an alternative VN or story mode. I'm sure if you run a poll, the patrons would agree.
I definitely appreciate the feedback. There have been all kinds of bugs and problems along the whole development line, which I think anyone could have probably anticipated. Being a first time developer, I tried to take too big a bite. It's common for people getting into the practice to aim too high. This is why a lot of projects never reach a final update that finishes the game.

The 0.8 update does have a second half that is basically a VN style, and I'm not for certain how the later updates will compile. There are still quite a few bits of the story that need to be wrapped up. But I'm not going to go back and redo everything now.

However, I probably won't do another sandbox game... at least not for a long while. What started as a project to simply learn the process of how the backbone of RenPy/Python work, as well as familiarizing myself with both KK and HS/HS2 became a wild tapestry of "choose your own adventure" sandbox-ish style requiring a lot more logistical and planning involved than I ever thought possible. The next few projects I do will be in the VN/KN category. Even thinking of doing another sandbox makes my eye twitch.

This isn't to say The Apothecary won't get a VN version, either. Once the whole thing is completed, I may go back and construct a VN-style that goes scene-by-scene without any of the gameplay elements to see how it plays out. Personally, I'm not sure it would hold up in that type of situation, as there are sometimes jumps of days or weeks that happen between scenes of particular characters and... well, a lot more duct-tape-code than I really want to think about at the moment.

To quell a couple things you mention...

Bugs are going to be common. Yeah, there are hot-fixes because when there's a bug, especially a nasty one, I tend to panic and find the fix as fast as possible and get it fixed. A lot of the times, I am building the "new" version when another bug will be reported and... it's a cycle. I'm new and learning. The CYOA/sandbox structure only gets more complicated as more gets added, creating even more bugs... and then more bugs.

RNG has very, very little to do with the story/thread scenes. In fact, it is nothing minus some random dialogue in NSFW scenes, especially in the later versions. It does factor in the gathering ingredients and such, but there are enough bonuses from items to easily reach a 100% success rate early in the game (as of 0.7). A lot of things have been added over the entire length of the development to make the "gameplay" as grind-free as possible.

Scene triggers are specific and required to start scenes, and none of them have anything to do with RNG. I've tried to make the hints in the Journal as bare and specific as I can (using the easy-hints mode), but sometimes it happens where a hint is either coded or worded wrong, and others when it is completely missed and not added. It's why I appreciate the game-testers going through and testing updates. They run into so many bugs and problems I am not sure how they can effectively enjoy the story because of how it jumbles up.

A lot of the bugs, omissions, errors, and frustration can be wiped out by going VN style. I'm with you on that, and if I were starting over, I would make a VN game, not a sandbox. I can't go back now. If I do, it won't ever finish, and this will be just another phase of my life that died out. I've already got several more ideas for stories on file, and none of them are sandbox. All are VNs.

I could go on for pages and pages, but I'll stop now... otherwise I won't.

Again, appreciate the feedback and completely understand where you are coming from. This whole thing has been a giant learning experience on many, many different levels.
 

LewdLewy

Newbie
Jun 29, 2021
55
154
I definitely appreciate the feedback. There have been all kinds of bugs and problems along the whole development line, which I think anyone could have probably anticipated. Being a first time developer, I tried to take too big a bite. It's common for people getting into the practice to aim too high. This is why a lot of projects never reach a final update that finishes the game.

The 0.8 update does have a second half that is basically a VN style, and I'm not for certain how the later updates will compile. There are still quite a few bits of the story that need to be wrapped up. But I'm not going to go back and redo everything now.

However, I probably won't do another sandbox game... at least not for a long while. What started as a project to simply learn the process of how the backbone of RenPy/Python work, as well as familiarizing myself with both KK and HS/HS2 became a wild tapestry of "choose your own adventure" sandbox-ish style requiring a lot more logistical and planning involved than I ever thought possible. The next few projects I do will be in the VN/KN category. Even thinking of doing another sandbox makes my eye twitch.

This isn't to say The Apothecary won't get a VN version, either. Once the whole thing is completed, I may go back and construct a VN-style that goes scene-by-scene without any of the gameplay elements to see how it plays out. Personally, I'm not sure it would hold up in that type of situation, as there are sometimes jumps of days or weeks that happen between scenes of particular characters and... well, a lot more duct-tape-code than I really want to think about at the moment.

To quell a couple things you mention...

Bugs are going to be common. Yeah, there are hot-fixes because when there's a bug, especially a nasty one, I tend to panic and find the fix as fast as possible and get it fixed. A lot of the times, I am building the "new" version when another bug will be reported and... it's a cycle. I'm new and learning. The CYOA/sandbox structure only gets more complicated as more gets added, creating even more bugs... and then more bugs.

RNG has very, very little to do with the story/thread scenes. In fact, it is nothing minus some random dialogue in NSFW scenes, especially in the later versions. It does factor in the gathering ingredients and such, but there are enough bonuses from items to easily reach a 100% success rate early in the game (as of 0.7). A lot of things have been added over the entire length of the development to make the "gameplay" as grind-free as possible.

Scene triggers are specific and required to start scenes, and none of them have anything to do with RNG. I've tried to make the hints in the Journal as bare and specific as I can (using the easy-hints mode), but sometimes it happens where a hint is either coded or worded wrong, and others when it is completely missed and not added. It's why I appreciate the game-testers going through and testing updates. They run into so many bugs and problems I am not sure how they can effectively enjoy the story because of how it jumbles up.

A lot of the bugs, omissions, errors, and frustration can be wiped out by going VN style. I'm with you on that, and if I were starting over, I would make a VN game, not a sandbox. I can't go back now. If I do, it won't ever finish, and this will be just another phase of my life that died out. I've already got several more ideas for stories on file, and none of them are sandbox. All are VNs.

I could go on for pages and pages, but I'll stop now... otherwise I won't.

Again, appreciate the feedback and completely understand where you are coming from. This whole thing has been a giant learning experience on many, many different levels.
Thanks for responding.

Let me clear up what I meant by RNG, I should have said "feels like RNG" because the sandbox gives me a general sense of unease, as too often I think "oh good, this series of steps leading me to this scene didn't break the game". As you can imagine, that's not a good feeling for a player to have. I understand that redoing everything isn't feasible, but even a simple scene or path checklist would be an immense help at finding out if something has gone awry.

As an example, the player chooses to keep the goblin around but sees a check on the scene checklist next to a "Goblin absent" scene, then the player would know for sure something is wrong and it would be extremely easy for them to give a bug report. The same would apply for scenes that should happen in a specific order, if there was a check to next to "Sex Scene 2" but not "Sex Scene 1" then it would be obvious something went wrong along the way.

I recognize that adding anything is more work and your plate is mostly full. However, I think making it clear to the player what should have happened would do wonders for you in tracking bugs down (while also avoiding spoilers). And players would have the piece of mind by verifying which of their saves were affected and can load one before the bug happens. Regardless of how basic or ugly it looked, I believe some kind of checklist system would save you time and effort in the long run.

Sorry if I'm harping on this point too much, but I really love this game and I'm sure more people would be willing to give it a chance or second chance if they knew there was an easy way to keep progression on track.
 

Soniram

Creating EC:A
Game Developer
Apr 16, 2021
747
740
Thanks for responding.

Let me clear up what I meant by RNG, I should have said "feels like RNG" because the sandbox gives me a general sense of unease, as too often I think "oh good, this series of steps leading me to this scene didn't break the game". As you can imagine, that's not a good feeling for a player to have. I understand that redoing everything isn't feasible, but even a simple scene or path checklist would be an immense help at finding out if something has gone awry.

As an example, the player chooses to keep the goblin around but sees a check on the scene checklist next to a "Goblin absent" scene, then the player would know for sure something is wrong and it would be extremely easy for them to give a bug report. The same would apply for scenes that should happen in a specific order, if there was a check to next to "Sex Scene 2" but not "Sex Scene 1" then it would be obvious something went wrong along the way.

I recognize that adding anything is more work and your plate is mostly full. However, I think making it clear to the player what should have happened would do wonders for you in tracking bugs down (while also avoiding spoilers). And players would have the piece of mind by verifying which of their saves were affected and can load one before the bug happens. Regardless of how basic or ugly it looked, I believe some kind of checklist system would save you time and effort in the long run.

Sorry if I'm harping on this point too much, but I really love this game and I'm sure more people would be willing to give it a chance or second chance if they knew there was an easy way to keep progression on track.
If someone wants to code it, I'll find a way to implement it. Myself... I won't do it. Would rather keep my sanity, and actually complete this project.
 
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4.40 star(s) 18 Votes