It's not free, you pay 2 sparks a day for canned food. Canned food also makes it harder to raise your strength.
It's more cost efficient to start training immediately, if you can manage the slave well enough.
Yes, in early versions, you can train no slave, just increasing you fight skill at the beginning, then doing some save&loads patrolling along the edge(to train slaves for guild quests needs s&l as well), you can beat young fiend, get a nearly free slave, then sell her to Farid to get enough money for survival in this way.
I have some thoughts about the mist combats、mist combat profits and potions.
Although counting on mist loots seems a bit off this game's purpose, I won't prohibit players from becoming a bloody hunter, But surviving totally through this way is a point where unreasonable.
14 kinds of combats in the mist share a same random weight, from young fiend to huge fiend, even if you are well prepared for combats, you can kill young fiend easily, you still take risks because of several strongest ememies like werewolf 、4 beastmen. A second point about the mist combat where I think unreasonable.
Raising potion costs is a good idea, but maybe not by ingredients. The main cost currently is in the form of training an alchemist and renting a laboratory. We could add other materials requirements and maybe make the laboratory more expensive.
I win a combat, my loot is …… only a girl? A third point then. What I expected are meats、bones、bloods、broken weapons、worn armors etc. These can be added to potion brewing recipe.
Will doing this make brewing recipe too hard to remember? No, never would and should. It's your slave or assistant brewing potions not you, they should be tought the recipes through alchemy lesson, and they tell you to brew this one, what do you still lack.
I provide my designing thoughts about these three points.
Raising costs of weapons would, I think, make it even more likely that you'd save up for just that one top-tier weapon and skip the rest. Maybe we should make it so that you are penalized if you use a weapon above your fighter skill level, starting fights with distracted or unsteady or something like that. This would give a reason to advance through the weapon tiers instead of jumping to the end.
Firstly, about the weapon and combat starting. In the искусственный_идиот location we can see their attack and defend types are completely random.
Combats with strong enemies usually ends in 4 or 5 turns, thus it may not be worthwhile sacrificing one turn's damage in exchange for modifier+1. A stamina harm modifier is useless if the enemy defends with counterattack all the time.
That's where these three two-handed weapons Flamberge、Naginata and Greataxe have higher priority, they have the higher probability of gaining harm modifiers. Yes, they totally share both functions of a harm weapon and a secondary weapon.
The best secondary weapons are Brass Knuckles and Katana, providing the highest probability of harm modifiers for health harm and stamina harm. but they do sacrifice one turn's damage usually, so I strongly recommend, set the base harm of second weapon equal to the main weapon.
You are penalized if you use a weapon above your fighter skill level, it's a good idea to affect players' choice. harm = weapon_base_harm * modifier - armor, two-handed weapon share an average of about 10 base harm, while one-handed one share about 6~8, which is more likely to be offset by armor, especially when Ironclad have a 10 armor against crushing harm type, so if a one-handed + secondary weapon combination can't transform its modifier advantage into more damage in 2 or 3 turns when confronting low armor enemies, it's less worthwhile and should be replaced totally by those three two-handed weapons. Then no options any more, players should save money for the three too.
But I don't recommend designing a weapon proficiency system, it will increase the trial and error cost of the player when there's no chance to lose battle in mists.
Attacking and defending bonuses, they can't be obtained at the same time, players will always choose attacking ones. So Elven chainmail becomes the best armor, with dodge as your defend type.
Secondly, profits in mists combats, I won't prohibit players from becoming a bloody hunter, but it doesn't mean players should get profits through this way at the very beginning of a new save. Farid is a pfofiteer, selling slave to him won't make you rich. But we give players no choice, in the beginning players can only sell untrained slave to him, let players see what kind of person Farid is.
Then, conceptionally, guild contract privide you a free slave, where do these slaves from, yes we remind players via dialogs with Angelica or somebody else that, you may provide slaves for guild, after you gain enough guild reputation(C+ or B+ for example), provide several untrained slaves(over 3) to guild for quality inspection(at least one slave's min value above 200) with no profits, then you get a license, you can provide healthy and unpregnant untrained slave to guild for profits, it's a small business with quick turnover, like finishing C+ guild contracts. And we should set a number limit(3 slaves per decade for example), guild won't accept any slaves before current contracts are finished, to ensure players experience more contents of this game rather than hunting all days.
We can split the 14 combats into two groups, wandering near the base camp, and patrolling along the edge. The former less dangerous, but loot kinds much less and less worthy(excluding ingredients for Water of Lethe and Philtre, and weight for Powerful Aphrodisiac is lower). The latter on the contray, including all ingredients, and weights for Water of Lethe、 Philtre and Powerful Aphrodisiac are higher.
Milk license should be adjusted as well, it needs some simple inspections on milks, rather than spend $200 simply.
Other new loots in mist combats, temporarily considered non selling goods, waiting for more designing and testing.
Thirdly, potions, I'd rather say, the major cost of potions, maybe the energy cost when brewing potions. Potions should be more expensive, and brewed more bottles, consuming more energy once, instead of doing the repetitive work.
Ingredients for Balm, Tonic elixir, Bacchic nectar remains cheap and easy to get.
Those for Water of Lethe and Philtre should be quite expensive and rare.
Aphrodisiac can be more of use for men, while Powerful Aphrodisiac for women, and cannot be simply replaced by each other.
And all of these ingredients can be bought at The Rarity of Mystra, setting a limit buying number for ingredients of Water of Lethe、 Philtre and Powerful Aphrodisiac(1、5、15 every month), cause' they are really rare.
Monster Meat for Bacchic nectar, experience of crawling in mud boost your courage, fearless facing monsters. Needs your fighting skill, a sword or knife will fetch more for you.
Monster Bones Ashes for Tonic elixir, strengthen joint endurance and thus enhance your agility. Needs your strength skill, a blunt weapon will fetch more for you.
Condensed Monster Blood for Balm, monster blood stimulate your organs, blooming with stronger vitality. Needs your medic skill, a knife or whip will fetch more for you, vampire will provide more.
Male Monster Dicks for Aphrodisiac, male monster's bestiality stimulates your libido and desire to dominate. Needs your medic and fighting skill, a knife or sword will be more likely to fetch some for you, gangs will provide more.
Female Monster Vagina for Powerful Aphrodisiac, females monster's mating instincts fuel her reproductive desires. Needs your medic and fighting skill, a knife or sword will be more likely to fetch some for you, gangs with camps will provide more.
Souls for Water of Lethe, inspired by another game Amazing Cultivation Simulator, creatures leave a soul when dying, containing their emotions inside the soul, with the painful souls, Water of Lethe deprives her emotions form mind and flesh. Needs your magic skill, Lich will provide more.
Philtre, No idea lol.
That's all.