Unity Completed Love of Magic [B1 v1.6.11f] [Droid Productions]

[Droid Productions]

(don't mind the insinuation that comes with the abbreviation), obviously pre-completion versioning is only used to approximate progress toward an end product, but given the completion of the story in this first part of the trilogy, is there still a fair amount to add to this first game before this is complete? Are there many QoL modifications planned before this is considered finished?

0.6.xx just meant it's a public build of Act VI. There's 1-2 QoL builds planned before I close the gates; achievements and balancing is the big one. Also some side-stories, and possibly some final Chosen or Redhead group sex before I close the Book for good. The current run is 0.9.xx (no, not because I've already finished act VII and VIII), and the final version will be 1.0.0 for steam, with possibly another content update in addition to bug-fixes.

As for Akane, I think for people who spend a lot of times playing the Poker game, there are 3 stages of Akane:
Stage I: I don't see the point.
Stage II: I see the point, but she's hard to use
Stage III: Omg, how did I manage to play without Akane?

Especially with Molly she's insanely OP, but you have to work a little for it: you'll never do less than a straight again, and with minimum negative penalties. Katie, on the other hand, is due a real update. She's had a couple so far, but she needs one after crossing the power threshold. Notice that you can upgrade Katie in Elsewhere with Dylan and Emily (at the rest stop) and with the flawless gem.

 

[-CookieMonster666-]

0.6.xx just meant it's a public build of Act VI. There's 1-2 QoL builds planned before I close the gates; achievements and balancing is the big one. Also some side-stories, and possibly some final Chosen or Redhead group sex before I close the Book for good. The current run is 0.9.xx (no, not because I've already finished act VII and VIII), and the final version will be 1.0.0 for steam, with possibly another content update in addition to bug-fixes.

I see. It makes sense; I already knew that pre-release builds didn't always line up to any kind of "percent complete" indicator. I'll look forward to the updates, then.

As for Akane, I think for people who spend a lot of times playing the Poker game, there are 3 stages of Akane:
Stage I: I don't see the point.
Stage II: I see the point, but she's hard to use
Stage III: Omg, how did I manage to play without Akane?

Especially with Molly she's insanely OP, but you have to work a little for it: you'll never do less than a straight again, and with minimum negative penalties.

Oh, I should try to use her in conjunction with other characters. I suppose that makes sense, but for some reason I only ever looked at coordinating a party member's ability with my own. Thanks for the tip; I'll try to analyze combinations during the next several battles I play to see what can be done.

Katie, on the other hand, is due a real update. She's had a couple so far, but she needs one after crossing the power threshold. Notice that you can upgrade Katie in Elsewhere with Dylan and Emily (at the rest stop) and with the flawless gem.

I must have missed this. Perhaps during the free time I needed instead to take them to the Lake or something to be able to upgrade them. I had spent the last few days before New Year's upping my charisma over 50, just to be reminded by passing the check that Kath was the clothing model on the computer. Lol. Perhaps not the best use of that time, although I now have a pretty decent score there, even if other skills have lagged little ways behind now.

 

[Droid Productions]

I must have missed this. Perhaps during the free time I needed instead to take them to the Lake or something to be able to upgrade them.

Yeah, there's quite a few resting area talks with the various characters; a nice moment with Emily and with Akane, one moment for when you're with all your Chosen, a moment with Dylan, a moment with Katie + Dylan and Emily+Katie. I'll likely add a Quest to try to direct people to them.

 

[John0123!]

Played ACT VI and it was great But i felt bad for Katie and her hints at the parties about the MC when she was wasted. Will there be more development with her and the MC or will it stay at this "awkward" inbetween state of best friends and being attracted to each other ?

 

[Droid Productions]

Played ACT VI and it was great But i felt bad for Katie and her hints at the parties about the MC when she was wasted. Will there be more development with her and the MC or will it stay at this "awkward" inbetween state of best friends and being attracted to each other ?

There's definitely more development for the First Knight, yeah; Katie's story is one of the center-pieces of Book 2.

 

[DA22]

There's definitely more development for the First Knight, yeah; Katie's story is one of the center-pieces of Book 2.

Well the original Lancelot went for the queen, so makes sense the female one goes for the King, just hope for a happier ending.

 

[John0123!]

There's definitely more development for the First Knight, yeah; Katie's story is one of the center-pieces of Book 2.

Thanks I think you can't go into more detail because of spoilers, but if you can will the MC be able to marry other characters or is that a thing that is exclusive to Emily ?

 

[Droid Productions]

Thanks I think you can't go into more detail because of spoilers, but if you can will the MC be able to marry other characters or is that a thing that is exclusive to Emily ?

Of course that is a spoiler... not telling

 

[John0123!]

Of course that is a spoiler... not telling

Haha worth trying anyway thanks for replying and for your great game ! The story is amazing

 

[JenusKudo]

Yeah, there's quite a few resting area talks with the various characters; a nice moment with Emily and with Akane, one moment for when you're with all your Chosen, a moment with Dylan, a moment with Katie + Dylan and Emily+Katie. I'll likely add a Quest to try to direct people to them.

Yes please to the quest so we don't miss out how to upgrade our power.... Also, it would be great if you force us to go somewhere specific at the right time so we can actually meet up with a new character. I was playing the game for the first time and I was completely clueless about who Bella is. Katie keep mentioning her. I was like, wtf... Who's is this Bella? I don't remember anyone with that name.
....
Also, Valerie, the chosen of Freya... I don't remember ever meeting her, but suddenly she appeared in the pub/home and started talking to MC like they have met before.

 

[Ghostlyunknown]

Well the original Lancelot went for the queen, so makes sense the female one goes for the King, just hope for a happier ending.

In this game, Emily is King Arthur, Katie is Lancelot, and MC is Guinevere . But yeah, I really don't see MC leaving Emily, and with her being tolerant of MC's... Horny nature, I think things will end well.

 

[Droid Productions]

Also, Valerie, the chosen of Freya... I don't remember ever meeting her, but suddenly she appeared in the pub/home and started talking to MC like they have met before.

There's a line between being a sandbox and being a VN/Kinetic novel. The game assumes you at least move around and do the non-combat actions. Val, for example, is encountered any day between 70-97 downstairs at Crowley at night. Obviously you could just skip past time and never go there, but you'd miss out of a lot of content (all the Crowley night-time activities, for example).

I mostly get inspired by Persona 4/5 for content unlocking; the core story is unlocked by timeline, key events are signposted heavily /show up in locations you're likely to be exploring often (grassmarket/crowley/starcucks/university), then finally the more obscure parts of the story (that are entirely optional) need to be teased out a little.

 

[QV]

Is there a way to check and see if you still have books you should be reading? Diana won't sell me anything new, and the message I should finish the ones I have, but when I go to the coffee shop to read I don't seem to have any...

 

[Droid Productions]

Is there a way to check and see if you still have books you should be reading? Diana won't sell me anything new, and the message I should finish the ones I have, but when I go to the coffee shop to read I don't seem to have any...

I should probably find a way to say "there are no more books available" instead. There are two more books in-game (Threads of Love and Art of War), but those are unlocked through story, not purchased.

 

[QV]

I should probably find a way to say "there are no more books available" instead. There are two more books in-game (Threads of Love and Art of War), but those are unlocked through story, not purchased.

Fair. And I've gotten both of those books, but I suspect I am event timeline bugged. I've been with the game from the start, so I suspect some crud has crept in. I've played out to Day 107 and I'm not seeing any of the events listed on the wiki. I just rolled back to day 81 and did not get the Bella date set up. Advanced to Day 82 and immediately on waking in the morning get a dialogue box of Booker saying "Okay, that's all for today. Take care, and try not to get yourself or anyone else killed before our next lecture." I have the option of saying "OK", but nothing else. And nothing happens if I go to the lecture hall. No Booker learns you are married event, etc.. And definitely no end of Act VI Day 97.

QV

 

[Droid Productions]

Fair. And I've gotten both of those books, but I suspect I am event timeline bugged. I've been with the game from the start, so I suspect some crud has crept in. I've played out to Day 107 and I'm not seeing any of the events listed on the wiki. I just rolled back to day 81 and did not get the Bella date set up. Advanced to Day 82 and immediately on waking in the morning get a dialogue box of Booker saying "Okay, that's all for today. Take care, and try not to get yourself or anyone else killed before our next lecture." I have the option of saying "OK", but nothing else. And nothing happens if I go to the lecture hall. No Booker learns you are married event, etc.. And definitely no end of Act VI Day 97.

Yeah, using the debug interface to jump around can definitely screw up progression. When you get an "OK" message, that usually means "there was at one point a conversation here, but it wasn't marked replayable, and you've already had that conversation line".

The other thing that can really screw up savegames is playing the beta builds from discord, since those will set the savegame as "act VI has started", even if it's not done yet. I kind of build forward, so the first conversations I wrote for Act VI was day 97 night, day 98, etc. At that point it's possible to run forward to day 115, but there's no way to rewind, since it's passed the last checkpoint. If you let us know what the last Act you played was, someone likely has an "End of Act XX" savegame they can share; then just change the names in the computer to be what you're happy with and keep playing from there.

 

[JenusKudo]

There's a line between being a sandbox and being a VN/Kinetic novel. The game assumes you at least move around and do the non-combat actions. Val, for example, is encountered any day between 70-97 downstairs at Crowley at night. Obviously you could just skip past time and never go there, but you'd miss out of a lot of content (all the Crowley night-time activities, for example).

I mostly get inspired by Persona 4/5 for content unlocking; the core story is unlocked by timeline, key events are signposted heavily /show up in locations you're likely to be exploring often (grassmarket/crowley/starcucks/university), then finally the more obscure parts of the story (that are entirely optional) need to be teased out a little.

About Bella, let's not forget about MC being part sorcerer. So, when it's the right time, you can make MC say... ''Hmm.. For some reason I really want to go to glassmarket right about now.'' It fits with voice leading him to meet one of the main character of the story, whom we most likely miss meeting for the first time.
..
And, about Val, it seems she only appears in the pub. But still, I missed her first time visit. It's not like I am always working in the pub. There's many things to do. But those first forced encounter will not change the game from sandbox to VN. On the contrary, it actually makes more sense that we actually met them first time, so we know them.

 

[Droid Productions]

About Bella, let's not forget about MC being part sorcerer. So, when it's the right time, you can make MC say... ''Hmm.. For some reason I really want to go to glassmarket right about now.'' It fits with voice leading him to meet one of the main character of the story, whom we most likely miss meeting for the first time.
..
And, about Val, it seems she only appears in the pub. But still, I missed her first time visit. It's not like I am always working in the pub. There's many things to do. But those first forced encounter will not change the game from sandbox to VN. On the contrary, it actually makes more sense that we actually met them first time, so we know them.

Bella has gotten that kind of upgrade, yeah... the very early builds didn't have her, and a lot of people missed her. I added three things to fix that:

1.Added more night time actions for Grassmarket (curries at the Khukuri, drinking and slice of life events at Grassmarket). I'd taught the player there's nothing to do there, which of course makes people not look there
2. He'll also talk to himself, a day or two after she's first available there, if he hasn't met her yet, saying "I should hit the grassmarket"
3. Finally, the follow-up meeting used to be just timed off the first meeting; I changed that so it became an Email, telling the player that she'd love to meet up with him later.

I could certainly add more little guides for that kind of stuff. Obviously that kind of thing doesn't have retroactive effect, and it's problem that I end up liking little side-characters enough that they get promoted into the main story (Bella, for example, was never supposed to be more than a side-character... I fell for her pretty fast, and so needed to make sure she was fully integrated). Similarly for Val and Matthew.

 

[poovey]

And, about Val, it seems she only appears in the pub. But still, I missed her first time visit. It's not like I am always working in the pub. There's many things to do. But those first forced encounter will not change the game from sandbox to VN. On the contrary, it actually makes more sense that we actually met them first time, so we know them.

I think that first Val event is bugged. Entering the pub at Night from Day 70 onwards is supposed to trigger the introduction event but it never did for me. You could try Loading from Day 70+ to see if you're able to trigger it, but I suspect you won't be able to either. Did you also start a new game playthrough on v.0.6.22?

 

[Droid Productions]

I think that first Val event is bugged. Entering the pub at Night from Day 70 onwards is supposed to trigger the introduction event but it never did for me. You could try Loading from Day 70+ to see if you're able to trigger it, but I suspect you won't be able to either. Did you also start a new game playthrough on v.0.6.22?

Sounds like something I need to check out, yeah. Thanks for the heads up.

One of the many reasons I want to split the books into different EXEs is just to simplify debugging... at 8-12 hrs core gameplay it's already a challenge to fully test the game for public releases, even with the amazing team of beta testers and supporters on Discord helping out.