"Will she be able to not fall into the dangerous downward spiral of drugs, sex, prostitution and the like? It is up to you."
Unfortunately, it's not just me.
The reason is that the player has no chance to stay afloat with honest work because the money is not balanced.
The rent costs 150, - per week. With an initial job you can receive only 160, - per week. But then everything has to be perfect and you have to balance extremely well what you can do to make your heroine, so that not one of their statistics falls too far, so they would lose a day's work.
In addition there is the weekly meal of 49, -. and the makeup, without which you can not meet the requirements for the florist. But how does she want to increase her statistics if there is no money left for toiletries and cosmetics?
There are enough incentives in the game that you want to make more money. And you could also create additional incentives here. For example, the dream apartment mentioned at the beginning and associated furnishings.
But it should also be possible to do so legally, even if that would inevitably take longer.
Of course, this is primarily a NSFW game and there are plenty of ways to incorporate this from history.
My suggestions:
Increase the earnings of "normal" jobs by 50%
Do not start basic statistics at 0. I mean, look 0 at the beginning? Set that at least to 50. If she does not care, the value drops, otherwise it increases to a known extent by sports, cosmetics, hairstyle, ect
If not already present (have only reached 2 bad ends), trap traps. The handsome boy in the club slowly corporates her. The caretaker, who initially increases the number of kitchen services, then later wants sexual favors. Does not have to be a blowjob right away, but if she can not pay the third time, he could just ask for a clean house cleaning.
That in turn could see their roommates.
The alternative of asking her photographer for more explicit shots. Or if she could recommend another photographer.
As I said, I have not achieved anything by far, but so far have always played normal. Apparently, I have to try it on the lighter levels, even if it affects more than just the money.
Hey Mercedes,
Thank you for taking the time and post about your findings and your thoughts. It always helps me to finetune the game here or there, or make adjustments if needed.
Some remarks/hints/replies below:
It was possible to stay afloat with V0.0.4. In that version you started with 35-180 Euros less, depending on difficulty setting, Makeup was way more expensive, Morale had a way bigger influence on the payroll, there were no side jobs to earn extra cash, base pay per job was a lot lower and more. So basically what I am trying to say is that you absolutely should not have a too hard a time to stay afloat in this version. Perhaps it is just a matter of restarting the game a few times and getting to know the mechanics a bit better.
Basically back then it was pretty damn difficult to stay afloat, now it really is very easy (in my opinion), especially on normal to having a laugh difficulty setting.
Some suggestions:
- Try getting through the first 2-3 weeks (keep in mind Lizzy is in a new town and inexperienced regarding everything the world outside her little village has to offer) without spending too much.
- Try the Balans job as a start. You do not need any makeup the first three to four weeks, so you do not need to spend any money on that.
- Try and keep your morale high (above 70) to not get any penalties on payout
In regards to your comment about the dream apartment:
You are absolutely right. This needs to be incorporated, and it will, but not just yet. I've got the planning on that done; how it will work, what the requirements are etc, but I need to implement other stuff first. And for sure it will be possible to get it legally. I'm planning to implement 'good' paths in all 4 main jobs in order to be able to reach this goal.
There are a lot of traps in the game already
Some examples:
- Try the loanshark for example
- Seek out Henry the caretaker in the entrance area and follow the story
There need to be more, I agree, and there will be more trust me!
Hope the above helps a little!
BurningSun
Ps: Edited this post 30min late
