Yeah it's part of the Lifepath. To get that assignment you need to be an Analyst/R Officer, and you need to be old enough to have been working at the agency in 2014.
HTML Female Agent [v1.20.1p] [Crushstation]
Yeah if your agent served in Ukraine she can recognise his accent.
It's just a small change to the dialogue in the next scene.
- Oct 26, 2017
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Let me just let you know where I am. I would love to support your development of the game. I really would. I have money and I like putting it to good use. I just am not convinced that any substantial new content that drives the story, advances the character and opens up the world is going to fight its way past all of the insanely slow art/code tweaks you keep slow rolling out. No - I could write 80k words for your game in a weekend. Hire 2-3 solid writers and pump a lot of quality content into the game. Hell - flesh out the character/game content in any direction you want - just ACTUALLY add to the content and not 400 new skills or a new shade of a tan.
If you come on here and say "well the patreons voted this way!" then good luck. Mob rule doesn't bode well for art and it definitely stifles artistic expression.
- Oct 26, 2017
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For reference. I have a friend who is a well known writer. He started writing a new novel series in August of last year when your last major update happened.
Last month Book 1 hit. This month Book 1 is on audible.
He finished writing book 2 and sent it to the editors.
See the issue?
Last month Book 1 hit. This month Book 1 is on audible.
He finished writing book 2 and sent it to the editors.
See the issue?
For reference: Stephen King writes 2,000 words a day, so if you write less than that you're slacking.
That's not how creative work gets done. It's a different process for different people. Also, writing a book is more static than writing a game that can go through different paths, you know.
This doesn't excuse the lack of updates in FA, but your answer doesn't address anything. It doesn't provide any valid basis for a conversation.
That's not how creative work gets done. It's a different process for different people. Also, writing a book is more static than writing a game that can go through different paths, you know.
This doesn't excuse the lack of updates in FA, but your answer doesn't address anything. It doesn't provide any valid basis for a conversation.
I mean, sure you can argue GRR Martin is taking years for the next book.
But in the past we've compared it to different games, including indie games, solo passion projects, AAA games...we've also compared it to other lewd games. We're now trying to compare it to books, and the common theme is: FA is developing slowly in comparison.
In fact, just to add more comparisons, I will say that many artists will consistently do between 3 and 6 high quality illustrations per month delivered through Patreon/Gumroad. If we're talking commissions, most don't give deadlines, true, but in my experience they won't usually take more than a week's worth of work on that commission (Again, one week of work put into that thing, not one week since they say "ok i'll do it" because they have other things to do)
You can mention but the creative process! if you want, but really, FA is developing slowly no matter how you look at it.
Now, just to not be a downer, I'll mention one case of a game that did develop slowly, but had great attention to detail, and the final product was (is) great: Cuphead.
I agree with you. I was just saying that the guy was making a moot point in a thread that has been escaling weirdly.
I like how transparent Crush is, though I dislike how much time it takes to write a single update. But by reading his sprints, I was able to see he has a lot of small tasks that, though time consuming, improve the game's engine. They are implementations that shouldn't be written again.
I know time will tell how good this game will turn out to be, but I can see how much progress is there from a version to the next. Is this progress worth 6 months of wait? I don't think so. But I do think the next update won't take this long (I'd guess something like 3 months once he gets to start it.)
I like how transparent Crush is, though I dislike how much time it takes to write a single update. But by reading his sprints, I was able to see he has a lot of small tasks that, though time consuming, improve the game's engine. They are implementations that shouldn't be written again.
I know time will tell how good this game will turn out to be, but I can see how much progress is there from a version to the next. Is this progress worth 6 months of wait? I don't think so. But I do think the next update won't take this long (I'd guess something like 3 months once he gets to start it.)
- Jun 13, 2018
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As said before, the codes, the engine, the coding and once again the engine. The code its OK. But this game need a good writing, good and interesting story, developing in maximum different ways from the scratch, branching and connecting. Something that I would like to explore and draw back if I feel this kind of branching story progress don't suit me.
If not, there is nothing. Even most elaborated coding won't be enough if not supplemented with excellent story writing. This update proof it, I am not in position to assess all that work on programing and coding, but as of story progress almost nothing. Therefore in that aspect simply a swizz.
If not, there is nothing. Even most elaborated coding won't be enough if not supplemented with excellent story writing. This update proof it, I am not in position to assess all that work on programing and coding, but as of story progress almost nothing. Therefore in that aspect simply a swizz.
- Jan 10, 2019
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The Bangkok mission will heavily rely upon Agent's skills and how much experience she has/how comfortable she is with various sexual acts and scenarios, both of these aspects are introduced in the Lifepath and form the foundation of what skills and experiences she will start Bangkok with. .
Are you disagreeing that the current system has come at the cost of advancing the story?
This sounds like a lot of fun in theory, but there is a big problem with this and it's the reason I've been pessimistic about this game since the dev doubled down on the Lifepath material. The concept being proposed here -- a game with a branching story AND a character with an infinitely variable backstory -- will be backbreaking to write, and effectively impossible to write well.
One of the keys to good fiction writing is detail. The early parts of this game are a great example. The scenes involving the agent's recruitment and her initial forays into the mission are excellent because of this. But having an infinitely variable backstory will grind that detail out of the writing. Every scene will have to be written around a dozen variables. There's a reason Triple-A RPG titles have maybe a half-dozen backstories you can pick from.
Thanks to the lifepath, you can now have an agent who's nearly a virgin, or you have an agent with dozens of notches on her bedpost, and everything in between. OK, great. Except now, once you start writing a scene from that agent's perspective, there is a VAST difference in the internal monologue of those two characters -- not to mention every variation between them.
So now the writer faces a choice -- either write multiple scenes, or write around that internal monologue. Writing is a hard business as it is. Putting those kinds of handcuffs will make the work *extremely* difficult -- especially for one person working mostly alone.
Or take another example -- maybe you'd like to have a scene about what happens when the agent runs into a college friend while she is working in Bangkok. Fun, right? But this scene can not be effectively written in this game. The agent has hundreds of possible alma maters, and dozens of different "paths" -- different concentrations, cliques, jobs, etc. Now any conversation between those two characters must be written in a generic way, to provide for that variability. That puts a heavy burden on the writer and it will tend to strip the liveliness right out of the text.
The dev has built an impressive character generator with a fun paper doll system. But it's going to be incompatible with telling an engaging, compelling story about a female agent on a secret mission in Bangkok. If Crushstation doesn't already know this, I feel like he will soon.
You're also forgetting the third option, one that many triple A games take: choices don't matter. Condense the 40+ background "choices" into three, write only three. Honestly, most people won't care or even notice if there's no further mention to Kate being a rock chick during her early years.
- Jan 14, 2018
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I agree that this is one of my biggest worries about the game, but I also disagree that it necessarily has to be a backbreaking problem. Obviously, if the results are mostly ignored then it's a waste, and if the results are followed too in-depth then it's going to fractal into absurdity, but there is plenty of middle-ground; Not every scene has to rely on Variable X and Y and Z, but could have a chunk of text that changes on Variable X, another on Variable Y and a secret option for Z. Or we aggregate them in different areas - whether you went to a "good" or "elite" uni, what your bodycount was like in uni compared to before. So long as enough events do reference the different stats altogether, and we do get some specific/unique/combination events, I'd say it could keep up the illusion. Plus, there are a fair few fixed points to base her viewpoint on - she's still a beautiful, university-educated secret agent on a dangerous mission, not a complete blank slate.
That said: I'm not saying the game will definitely achieve this, just that it can be done, especially with that monetary backing.
For my two cents about the game, seeing as everyone seems to be chipping in: I kinda agree with both sides here.
Personally, I find the lack of forward progression frustrating, because I was looking forward to where the story was going... a year ago, or more, I don't remember the timeframe.
I'd be lying if I said I saw no work go into it though - the mechanics have expanded and there is a fair bit of story content, just not outward, but wider. I definitely see the benefit to preparing this stuff now, rather than waiting until we're halfway through Bangkok to redo everything.
Frankly, I feel better about this project than a certain other "female" MC TWINE game that seems to have been in development for forever - this one seems to have made tangible improvements since it started. Not that I'm saying X being worse makes Y better... but, for the most part, I'm just sitting back and seeing whether the game lives up to the hype.
I just do not speak English well, and Google translate selects the most popular words on the Internet, so I apologize if I sound negative.
- Jun 3, 2018
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Quick question - is anyone else getting broken images in the game? It's happening in the main window (for locations) and what I'm guessing is certain clothes items on the portagonist.
Also, sorry if this has already been answered, I only looked back a few pages in this thread.
Also, sorry if this has already been answered, I only looked back a few pages in this thread.
Yep, same thing happened to me: it got to the point where my agent was only wearing panties and a bra, no matter the situation. I had a quick look on Discord, though, and nobody else has reported it. I wanted to try again, but using a different browser, see if that would make a difference, but haven't had the time yet. (I used Firefox, BTW.)
- May 21, 2018
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None of the images are working. I think the site linked with images is no more.
- Jun 3, 2018
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I tried it on firefox (my default) and chrome - both had the broken image problem. Pretty sure it has something to do with the website the images are linked to, but hopefully the owner will recognize the problem and fix it.