Honestly, I remember the first like 2-3 updates after the new rework being actually fairly quick. Started to slow down with the university stuff. 1.13 and 1.14 were released three months apart and if he actually manages to release 1.15 this month like he said it will be 2-2½ months so while the production speed isn't great by any means (especially for a game that doesn't require lots of big renders) it's not exactly awful either. I'd call the current pace mediocre.reminder that the new rework was meant to speed up development. it'd be interesting to compare old FA's progress after its first year and how much further we're at with MFAGA
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There is an argument to be made that his current slow writing pace is the fault of none other than D4n0w4r
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Imagine that his initial realese that he worked on it in his free time had more content than his 3 years of full time paid work.
berny
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The problem with the latest builds isn't necessarily the pace (although in my opinion mediocre is too positive for a very linear text game), but the content.
The current build lacks pretty much everything that peaked my interest in the first place.
You have no stats, no relations, no agenda, no choices and consequences, no way to roleplay, it's basically a kinetic novel with a completely passive MC. So either it stays this way, which would be a pretty big disappointment I guess not only for me but many others too, or we're heading towards another inevitable rewrite. And I'm willing to bet a lot of money the update times will explode once this actually turns into a game and not whatever it is right now. Just look at the latest dev post. If he is having that much trouble with a pretty "straightforward" sex scene, imagine what'll happen when he has to consider different routes and variables.
Just to be clear, I don't want the first version with its insane number of skills etc. back and I'm perfectly fine with a more linear approach, but the latest build just has nothing.
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I think the original premise for the game has been forgotten already.
The original premise for the game (or at least, what I understood from it and the very first few releases) is supposed to be "You wake up, what do you want to do? Options: Go to work to earn money/explore the city/do whatever. Choose for this day, next day you'll also choose whatever you want to do"
The current game is more like "Here's a novel, enjoy it"
Like, I know it might sound silly, but if instead of the linear walls of text, there were 2 options: "Go to work"/"Don't go to work" and he added a "Bad enidng: you're broke and starved to death in Bangkok", it would be more of a game (the game that was pitched) than what it currently is.
Joe Steel
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The game was never pitched as a sandbox. It was always going to be story-driven, with the decisions being about how to survive as a brothel whore while keeping body and mind intact, and at the same time being alluring/loose enough to attract the bad guy.
While the choices are not meaningful in the game yet, I frankly prefer that Crush just tell the main story now and add the decisions later. It's pretty clear to me that Crush doesn't deal well with uncertainty, so I will settle for a VN that makes progress even if it doesn't conform to the platonic ideal first pitched. Crush needs to earn to walk reliably before he tries to run. People for whom choices are all-important should probably unwatch this thread for the next two years or so.
While the choices are not meaningful in the game yet, I frankly prefer that Crush just tell the main story now and add the decisions later. It's pretty clear to me that Crush doesn't deal well with uncertainty, so I will settle for a VN that makes progress even if it doesn't conform to the platonic ideal first pitched. Crush needs to earn to walk reliably before he tries to run. People for whom choices are all-important should probably unwatch this thread for the next two years or so.
So far as I know, there was never anything concrete about the main game loop or any game mechanics. It wasn't clear if there were going to be time slots you planned out on a daily or weekly basis like in Newlife, if there was going to be a clock system like in Life Choices, a stamina system like Friends of Mine, or something completely different. What kind of actions, decisions, or options the player would have were never made clear either.
A long time ago, I suggested on the discord that Crush focus on figuring that stuff out rather than proceed linearly. It's very easy to insert scenes and pages into an existing sequence in SugarCube, so once you know exactly what you're introducing, foreshadowing, setting up, etc, you can slip some intro scenes in there. I explained that the whole character creation and lifepath system would be more straightforward to write and build if he already knew what the actual game would involve, what stats ended up being important, what traits impacted which scenes later on, and so on. His fans on the discord weren't having it, and all immediately dumped on the suggestion that the game dev design a game as though it's a game, instead telling me--prophetically, I might add--that Crush's development process was more like writing a novel.
Shockingly, Crush has produced a novel with some pictures.
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Are you sure about that? Check these messages by the one and only, I've put the relevant aprts in bold:
Thanks cd13. My goal is to make Bangkok an open world experience that supports content written by others (i.e. side quests written by fans or hired writers). So with the RPG system, I actively tried not to limit the skills to ones that I anticipate using myself.
I think your observation about the granularity of skills is correct and it's something I've struggled with. With firearms specifically, I've reduced it to 3 skills: Sidearm, Longarm and Sniper. There's an argument for reducing those to a single Shooting skill, but that felt a little too simple when I considered it.
In terms of combat in the story, action scenes are in fact a popular user request! One fan has already contributed a complex action scene for Operators who get deployed to Syria, so agents may get to put quite a few rounds through an M4.
Cool, and yeah that's the plan! Hit me up on Discord if you'd like to talk ideas for content.
Great and unique game! thank you, Crushstation for job you are making.
Need to say that new missions are very appreciated))
if someone someday will ask my opinion, my erply will be about including more of sex scenes than dressing options, make ups and so on))) the attention to details is truly epic)
Need to say that new missions are very appreciated))
if someone someday will ask my opinion, my erply will be about including more of sex scenes than dressing options, make ups and so on))) the attention to details is truly epic)
Joe Steel
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Yes, I am sure about that. The messages you quoted say nothing about it being a sandbox game. On the contrary, the game was always pitched as a game about the female protagonist going to Bangkok to infiltrate a brother as part of an anti-terrorist operation. Thus the title, "Female Agent."
“The past was alterable. The past never had been altered. Oceania was at war with Eastasia. Oceania had always been at war with Eastasia.”
Joe Steel
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Yeah. The attempt to rewrite the history of the game and make it always about "You wake up, what do you want to do? Options: Go to work to earn money/explore the city/do whatever. Choose for this day, next day you'll also choose whatever you want to do" is weird. It's like some people don't even pay attention to the title of the game. It's always been "Female Agent," no matter what MiniTrue is now claiming.
I mean, I guess you can make an argument about "open world is not the same as sandbox", but one of the messages I quoted from him has the word sandbox in it.
Also, about the title thing, I didn't know games were defined entirely by the title...
Getting too far afield there, but your response is at least imaginative. You're having an entirely different conversation, but the quotes settled it for me.
The latter is a point that I almost made as well. I guess the idea is that we've hit a difference in definitions, but the world may never know. I think the idea in the posts that you quoted was that the protagonist would still be an agent, but that there would be sandbox elements happening, such as custom events that others wrote. It would be very similar to NewLife but with the exception that the protagonist is always going to become an agent, with a main plot, but also with some side events to add flavor and some choices that do not derail the main plot.
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What is diffrence if it is supposed do be open wolrd or sadbox? Do you have any of it?
This argues are more complex than game itself.
This argues are more complex than game itself.
I can be devil's advocate here, and I think it's a factor in a bunch of slow games that are too complex for their creator, their platform or both to handle: variables in text games can be painful.
You can write some great stuff, but then it feels nearly empty upon realizing that "well this character would say this word instead, if this variable is that value." Or, a whole conversation might never happen if a variable is a certain value. For some people, they just move on and don't worry about it. It keeps others awake at night, especially when we consider how choices can expand into vast numbers of possibilities that differ in many ways ranging from subtle to extreme.
One might ask, how can someone not worry about it? Well look at Interplay. They wrote some good text games, but they were by no means perfect. The point being: you want to have impact, not be perfect. As flawed humans, it is unlikely that we will ever produce a perfect product. We can make a fun and interesting product that is good enough that people will ignore or dismiss the imperfections.
If we want to give the player the reality of choice, and not just some sliders and radio buttons that do nothing, then these things are tough to handle when not managed properly. To me, it means, when a.i. starts to write text games well, it will completely outclass humans. It's not there yet, but it will be probably within most of our lifetimes.
You can write some great stuff, but then it feels nearly empty upon realizing that "well this character would say this word instead, if this variable is that value." Or, a whole conversation might never happen if a variable is a certain value. For some people, they just move on and don't worry about it. It keeps others awake at night, especially when we consider how choices can expand into vast numbers of possibilities that differ in many ways ranging from subtle to extreme.
One might ask, how can someone not worry about it? Well look at Interplay. They wrote some good text games, but they were by no means perfect. The point being: you want to have impact, not be perfect. As flawed humans, it is unlikely that we will ever produce a perfect product. We can make a fun and interesting product that is good enough that people will ignore or dismiss the imperfections.
If we want to give the player the reality of choice, and not just some sliders and radio buttons that do nothing, then these things are tough to handle when not managed properly. To me, it means, when a.i. starts to write text games well, it will completely outclass humans. It's not there yet, but it will be probably within most of our lifetimes.
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When AI starts writing games? Crush only just realised that you need emotion in their writing. I'm now convinced they are an AI learning how to make games through trial and error and everyone here is assiting in that process with their feedback.
Be careful for it will be the humans that make Skynet.
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Joe Steel
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He says repeatedly what he means by an "open world:" a world in which others can insert their own scenarios and plot lines. He talks about the open world being in conjunction with "a carefully written main quest but which also supports content written by others." If it has a carefully written main quest, it isn't a sandbox.
Joe Steel
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It doesn't really matter, except in that people are complaining about it not fulfilling expectations that it was never designed to meet. There are plenty of legitimate complaints about the game; no need to make up illegitimate ones.