There's a Patreon-only version that allows for bigger breasts, and to have more than one kink at the start.isn't it here?
Hear, hear!I share the concerns that many here have about the development of this game. It's one of the few games that have a real good and creative story that feels like it could really happen.
Implementing a random scene builder contradicts the strenghts the game has as of now. It's not the first game that tries to have sex scenes based on text snippets that are mixed together to tell a story, but these mechanics are not worth it imho. I prefer to have few, but well written sex scenes than tons of scenes that are all similar. The second approach leads to boredom and skipping all the text just to get over with it.
On the other hand, handcrafted scenes where the player only makes few, but important decisions (not clicking 20x on "give bj") are very much more to my liking. The scenes with the Swedish weapon dealer were good and enjoyable. The scenes in the bar where you pick up a guy were boring- you just click through the framework, skip the same texts over and over again and glance at the two or three words that are important. However, the surrounding idea wasn't boring. In my opinion the "test missions" would benefit much more if you would have two or three different, handwritten scenes per test, so only two or three possible partners instead of dozen of partners who obviously are just a collection of traits and variables, but no real characters.
Random generators and sex scene frameworks only make sense if you use them often in a generic fashion. This game lives from a well written story where scenes matter. That's a contradiction. It's no use to code something big for only a few scenes and it's boring to have too many scenes of the same kind.
It's the same with the relationships from her past: I would be fine to just click on the options "She had 2/7/132 different sex partners in college" instead of creating half a dozen forgettable random guys. And I think creating a feature that isn't benefical (and maybe even disadvantageous) for the game is just a waste of time and resources.
I mean, at the very least they could at least try to balance creating more actual content and following their roadmap. I certainly don't mind a variety in sex scenes but not at the expense of content! I can only repeat myself: the fact that after 2 years (I think?) of development time the character creation has more meat to it than the actual game is a joke. I really really want to see this game succeed and everything, because I do like it, but the way things go I just don't see it happening. How much patience do they think their patreons have? So little content in so much development time, in my eyes, is bad advertisement for patreon. Just like what Splendid Ostrich is doing with New Life. The way things go, I expect Bangkok around the end of 2020 earliest, which is disappointing. Absolutely disappointing. I honestly don't understand why they think doing all that jazz for the character creation first is the way to go. What good is all of that stuff for me when I can't even get anything out of it because there is nothing to do beyond that?Hear, hear!
I'm not really interested in random sex descriptions, and I've subscribed to this game because of what it offers outside the random sex scene content. Give me the few meaningful moments and let the unmemorable moments pass in a few lines of text. The strength of the game has always been the memorable moments, and it is a waste of developer time to try to flesh out the non-memorable moments.
Crush, please reconsider your priorities. Refocus the game on the story you started out to tell, and only add the mechanics needed to tell that story. The story is what counts, not the mechanics of a given blowjob or the appearance of a dress or whatever. Plenty of time to add chrome when the story is done, if you want.
Your opinion isn't counter to anyone's here, as far as I can tell. Absolutely no one is calling for "a rushed one," so your argument is a straw man.I just wanted to throw out a counter opinion that I really like the direction you're going, and I'm willing to wait for a really cool experience over a rushed one.
I think (and I don't know, so hopefully gobbet will poke back here), that his intent was to say "I like the random element additions, counter to what Joe Steel is saying". Full stop (hence the comma moving to a new point). Then goes on to add they (like many of us) are willing regardless to wait for the polish.Your opinion isn't counter to anyone's here, as far as I can tell. Absolutely no one is calling for "a rushed one," so your argument is a straw man.
The problem is that almost nobody scripted every move in a fight... not in P&P versions and not in digital ones. The only fights that can be scripted fully are with boss monsters. That is because the actual fight is not the goal, it's the obstacle on hero's path to achieving a goal. In the end fights don't matter... yes you need to defeat the monster to free the princess, reach some treasure and whatnot, but if you can achieve that without defeating the monster most DM's would actually award you more XP than you'd get by defeating the monster!Imagine the sex scenes in Female Agent being more like the fight scenes in a normal roleplaying game. A hero in an RPG might fight hundreds or thousands of enemies during a campaign. The DM or game designer doesn't hand script every move in every fight; instead they set up a fighting system, create the characters who will fight in the system, and then rely on PC/NPC decisions and a random element to create unique scenarios.
Fight scenes are rarely interesting... they can be intense, difficult and whatnot but in the end, they're are just a mean to the end which is something else. In Female agent sex is a mean to an end (just like combat is in regular RPG), but the end goal is capturing Devilfish. How much sex she had while infiltrating the Hard Cock brothel and waiting for Devilfish to show up is ultimately up to agent herself.Some people might think that sex scenes in a game could never be as interesting as fight scenes in a game. But I think they could be in Female Agent. You'll get strategic choices, a gambling element (the dice rolls), rewards in the form of XP and (in the brothel) literally loot, character development as she levels up in a direction her parents most certainly never intended for her, and rewards in the form of sexy text descriptions and avatar images.
I feel that every player will enter "Jaded Hooker" mode sooner or later... especially on subsequent playtroughs where we'll test things to see if we can achieve the ultimate goal (capturing Devilfish) in some other way.Version 1.4 laid the foundation for this system by introducing version 1 of the SURPS ruleset. Version 1.5 gets us ready to provide visual rewards (like spank marks and O faces). The random NPC upgrade will give the NPCs SURPS stats, which will allow us to write the Sex Engine that can actually produce sex scenes you won't want to always skip through (but will also support Jaded Hooker mode for the times you do).
With English not being my first language I sometimes have problem expressing myself fully... I don't think Bangkok will be grindy. What I do think (know) is that Hard Cock scenes will be grind. Because no matter what you do, no matter how many different variations of the scene you write those scenes will not be memorable and will be something that players will start to skip rather fast.Hey Ripe: thanks so much for the feedback, I do take it very seriously and I appreciate you giving me things to think about.
I guess I don't quite get the thrust of your criticism. If you think that Bangkok can only ever be grindy, why do you want me to implement it next?
Is it that you just don't think any of the systems I'm trying to build to make it less grindy will work? Are there different ways I could solve the problem?
Or do you want the story in Bangkok to focus more on crafted story events (like the wet t-shirt contest at Oceana) than the repetitive bump and grind of the brothel?
Or is it something else? Help me understand where you're coming from.
But I am not arguing to do away with random elements entirely, simply that there is a finite amount of lifespan any designer can spend on a game, and that time spent on fleshing out elements are are, ultimately, unimportant to the all-important story is time that will never be spent on the story itself.I think (and I don't know, so hopefully gobbet will poke back here), that his intent was to say "I like the random element additions, counter to what Joe Steel is saying". Full stop (hence the comma moving to a new point). Then goes on to add they (like many of us) are willing regardless to wait for the polish.
Aside! on your point Joe Steel, while a single narrative path is of course valuable, games like this (CoC, TiTs, etc) of a more open nature tend to need those randomly generated story bits, as that's the feature that allows random encounters, without it all events must be scripted and any choice is limited to the constraits of the designer. And again, stuff like that is good (or at least, can be with a good writer), I've never had the impression that's what the design intent was with Female Agent, though Crustation of course can say to that (and/or change their mind about it either way). Using only scripted events largely shifts it into more of a Visual Novel, though in this case without much of the visual (interactive novel? Choose your own Porn novel?).
Which, assuming this is the path they're opting to develop along, might just mean the games core may not be for you.
I agree with this but think that, given that we all have finite time to spend on this, the dev's time should focus on the story, and add the chrome last, rather than first.I think a solution would be to allow players to entirely skip/auto-resolve the generic sex scenes somehow. Which I think Crush has already mentioned but maybe expand it even further and allow players to skip the entire day shift or even activities with a single click.
What argument? I was stating my opinion that I like the way Crush is going with development, which is quite obviously counter to a number of other posters who have been grumbling away. I'm not trying to persuade anyone of anything, just letting Crush know that I, at least, trust his judgment and development process.Your opinion isn't counter to anyone's here, as far as I can tell. Absolutely no one is calling for "a rushed one," so your argument is a straw man.
Chekov's gun isn't a rule, as these sorts of experiences don't have manditory rules. Yes, cutting out uncessary plots can help, but particularly in games and stories more than just the actions happening, these extra elements can flesh out worlds, characters and moods, even if the direct object isn't used (discounting Red Herrigns, which are ABSOULTELY useful within the contexts of mystery). In his noted example of the rifle (If you note a rifle upon the wall in the first act, it must be fired in the second or third act), said rifle can be used to imply the type of person who owns the house. Someone who displays a firearm, either for defense, pride in hunting, a former soldier, etc.This wouldn't be so bad if it was some optional chrome added when the game is done, but it's taking developer time that could be spent on the story. Remember the rule of Chekhov's Gun: if it doesn't add to the story in some fashion, don't include it.
TL;DR - Well that's just like, your opinion man.Excessive detail should be avoided and the game should focus on telling its story, because it is an exciting one with lots of possibilities.