Downloaded the prequel just to see about the first trophy and the maze ! Found the first trophy, but the maze just doesn't make sense to me, I can't see nothing there I know where the talking bush is because I found it in the new game but in the prequel I can't even talk to the bush ;-; if someone knows even the logic to the bush think please share because its suppose to have something for us ! ;-; I just don't want to lose even more time trying to understand that ! (sorry if it's a simple thing, maybe I'm dumb)
I just want to say ta aside the 1 trophy I got the next 3 got to the pick wood and restore the floor quest I picked up every wood I could, but that didn't finish the quest and the other maid said she was sad that I left the other maid do the work, but I picked all by hand and at the end I stopped playing ! But I liked the game until that happened, so I will give another chance, I'm downloading it again! Just mention it because I don't know if it was a bug or something!
I'm glad you like the game! I'm sorry it got that frustrating. The goal of that section of the game was to help your repairs feel tangible and earned instead of just cutting to black and it's done. If you're in v0.4.1, there should be a notice that comes up in the first floor of your mansion if you've picked up all the wood and used it to repair as many holes in the floor as possible. If you picked everything up, used it all, and still aren't getting any notices, please let me know so I can look into it.
And thanks for the extra clarification! The master bedroom doesn't count toward or against the repairs, so that's fine. Just in case the notice doesn't pop up, after you've used all the wood you can find, you're supposed to go talk to Phoebe in your study.
This game seriously requires a walkthrough...
I have to repair the walls now and don't know how...I also have to decide a bedroom...no clue there either and the missing masters is pretty vague too...the church didn't help at all....
Being the only one making the game makes it hard to find time to write a proper walkthrough, but I suppose I've heard this enough that I can put a basic spoiler-free one in the readme. I'm trying to identify points where it becomes less clear on what to do next and adding dialogue to characters (your Maids in particular) to help clarify those points, but it's still a work in progress.
Getting your walls repaired is the next main goal, but that hasn't been implemented yet. It'll be the first thing that happens in v0.5. Getting the master bedroom cleaned up is also something coming in v0.5, and you shouldn't need to make any decisions regarding bedrooms (if that was called out as an objective somewhere, let me know; the wording might need updating). The priestess at the Augalamh church should outright tell you where to go if you're at the story point where you're trying to find the shadowy Maid. If she doesn't have a "Shadowy Maid" option and that's your next step, please let me know, something is broken.
I'm glad you're enjoying it! I've gotten the "maps are too big" feedback a lot, I'm working on shrinking down some of the smaller maps and putting more things to find in the maps I don't want to make any smaller, and doing my best to keep these things in mind when I'm making new maps. I'm also trying out some mechanical solutions to make getting around easier, such as the fast travel choices when you're on the region maps or old areas.
If you have any specific feedback, like which maps seemed needlessly huge or if some maps seemed empty or boring, I'd be happy to consider any suggestions.
I quite like this game, but i stopped playing it because im stuck.
In the second Hold of Viridius, after encountering the "ghost maid" for the first time, i simply cannot accomplish to leave this goddamn tree maze. however i set the switches, i cannot reach the southern end of the map any more... its ridiculous... why must it be so difficult? - why is there no "teleport me home"- Gem for the inventory or anything like that...
is it really supposed to be funny to run arround incircles in the same map like an idiot just to be able to return home!?
Downloaded the prequel just to see about the first trophy and the maze ! Found the first trophy, but the maze just doesn't make sense to me, I can't see nothing there I know where the talking bush is because I found it in the new game but in the prequel I can't even talk to the bush ;-; if someone knows even the logic to the bush think please share because its suppose to have something for us ! ;-; I just don't want to lose even more time trying to understand that ! (sorry if it's a simple thing, maybe I'm dumb)
You're not dumb, it's a type of blind maze that you can only really navigate by trial and error. It's meant to be difficult. In the prequel, you'll know you failed the maze if you get the dialogue about the state of the garden. After that, the maze is locked out and can't be completed. In the main game, you don't get any feedback, but you can reset the puzzle by returning to the starting point. You'll know you completed it when you interact with the bush at the end and you get either new dialogue (in Arrival) or "I didn't notice that before" in the main game. The maze is the same between both versions otherwise. There's also a hint at your uncle's estate in his garden, if you can call it a hint.
I quite like this game, but i stopped playing it because im stuck.
In the second Hold of Viridius, after encountering the "ghost maid" for the first time, i simply cannot accomplish to leave this goddamn tree maze. however i set the switches, i cannot reach the southern end of the map any more... its ridiculous... why must it be so difficult? - why is there no "teleport me home"- Gem for the inventory or anything like that...
is it really supposed to be funny to run arround incircles in the same map like an idiot just to be able to return home!?
That shouldn't be happening, sorry about that. Getting out is supposed to be easier than getting in, especially if you've gotten all the way to the end. I'm glad to hear you like the game, though! If it's any consolation, reworking that section is fairly high on my priority list. I'm aiming to have that done for v0.4.2.
For the current version, if you turn the two north-most switches off (one on either side of the vault, they should be dull in color to indicate they're off), you should have no problem leaving.
As for a "teleport me home" item, you get a broken one at the end of the story for v0.4. Repairing it is part of the story for the next main release.
Hello, Thanks for the Feedback.
I guess i'll replay this section then, i ran around so much in this Forest and flipped every switch countless times, that i guess simply turning the northern two off, wouldn't fix anything as the others are not the way thy were when entering the hold any more. Maybe it would be a good workaround to disable the switches alltogether or lock them in the "good" state upon exit from the hold...!? - this would prevent much hassle i guess.
Sometimes it is not easy to see if you can pass between two trees or you can not because of the perspective.
But i'm quite happy that you adress my issue here and give me hints on how to progress, thank you for this.
Overall this "Theurgy" and "Writ"s - Setting is very interesting. The only thing i wonder is, if "Mistresses" aka, wives of the Masters (like our own mother) are different from maids in terms of pact, can they use theurgy ? - can they seal pacts on behalf of their husbands? - ist this sort of an "upgrade" from a maid, or something entirely different? - i guess there are female "Mistresses" who are able to seal pacts? - or who would have butlers? - gay masters?
Hello, Thanks for the Feedback.
I guess i'll replay this section then, i ran around so much in this Forest and flipped every switch countless times, that i guess simply turning the northern two off, wouldn't fix anything as the others are not the way thy were when entering the hold any more. Maybe it would be a good workaround to disable the switches alltogether or lock them in the "good" state upon exit from the hold...!? - this would prevent much hassle i guess.
Sometimes it is not easy to see if you can pass between two trees or you can not because of the perspective.
But i'm quite happy that you adress my issue here and give me hints on how to progress, thank you for this.
Overall this "Theurgy" and "Writ"s - Setting is very interesting. The only thing i wonder is, if "Mistresses" aka, wives of the Masters (like our own mother) are different from maids in terms of pact, can they use theurgy ? - can they seal pacts on behalf of their husbands? - ist this sort of an "upgrade" from a maid, or something entirely different? - i guess there are female "Mistresses" who are able to seal pacts? - or who would have butlers? - gay masters?
I've already put almost 1000 hours into making the game, I feel like it'd be kind of a jerk move to not pay any attention to the people playing it. I want to make a good game that people like.
v0.4.1 actually did add a condition to the trees that removes them if the Hold is completed, but that only happens after successfully interacting with the headstone. If you encounter the interference, the Hold doesn't count as completed.
I'm glad you like the setting! I've done a lot of writing around how all this works to help keep things straight in my head while I'm making the game. I'll do my best to answer your questions without going into a giant wall of exposition.
In the setting, "Master" is a genderless term. Men and women are equally capable of being Masters, though they need to have at least one Master as a parent in order to be attuned to their ancestral headstone. Marriage in the setting is handled through a Pact of Marriage, and can either specify that the spouse either becomes a Servant and are to be treated as holding a higher position (and they would have Theurgy) or they would become equal to the Master (and be able to issue their own Contracts and Orders, but not have Theurgy). This is possible in any combination; a female Master could marry a Butler and keep him as a Servant so he keeps his Theurgy, for example. The trade off is that if someone is made equal to a Master, they typically lose access to their Theurgy (there are some small exceptions that can be made if the Pact of Marriage is written a certain way, but their Theurgy always becomes significantly weaker regardless of how strong it was before). Regardless of the case, if a spouse was not born from a Master parent, yes, they're effectively issuing Contracts and Orders on behalf of the other spouse.
It's a side-grade more than anything. To put it in D&D terms, think of it like taking away all of your levels in Fighter or Wizard and replacing them with an equal number of levels in Bard. You're not necessarily weaker, but you're not a front-line warrior and you won't be slinging anymore fireballs unless you find a really clever loophole. In exchange, you get a bunch of utility.
Yes, there are female Masters. The specific title can vary; Viridius for example uses Lord instead of Master. The Beauregard Masters (the ruins in the eastern swamps) also use Lord and Lady for titles. The story for v0.6 and v0.7 will introduce some female Masters, so I won't say much more than that for now. Same with Servants; Servant is the genderless term, Butler is the male gendered term, Maid is the female gendered term. If a Master chose, they could put women in a Butler's suit and refer to them as such, or a man in a Maid's dress. The same is true for sexual orientation, a Master could be a gay man, a lesbian, bi- or asexual, etc. and change their Estate to fit their tastes.
The twisted bit is that once a Contract is established, it can be modified. It might even contain caveats right away, hidden in obscure wording. This can be used to change the Servant themselves. Viridius uses this to turn all his Servants' hair green, but it's possible for Masters to write in anything. Not everything works 100% of the time - a Master can't specify the type of Theurgy a Servant manifests - but imagine clicking "I have read and agree with the terms and conditions" box and your gender changes, or you're suddenly incapable of making a decision more complicated than yes or no without someone else telling you what to do.
If you're trying to get into the area north of Ventire, just 10, or you can find the Child's Toy in the sinking house and give it to the trader's neighbors.
If you're trying to help them move, that quest hasn't been completed yet. If it isn't ready for v0.4.2, it will be implemented in v0.4.3 or v0.5, depending on time.
So with me being a bit of a completionist I was wondering if anyone had a quick guide on how to get all the trophies and which one's are missable.
For now I haven't gotten that far into the game though I've played 2-3 hours with it most of it spent running around in the forest looking for stuff and killing wolves + snakes.
The one's I've found so far are.
No.2 Taxidermy Rat (I believe I got this one with the title ratslayer or something, which I got from killing most of the rats in the mansion but a bit unsure.)
No.4 Preserved flower (gained by doing the little girls burial event)
No.5 Work gloves (gained this after repairing the holes in the mansion on my own without skipping, not sure if you have to do ALL of it but the save before when I just skipped I didn't get it)
No.6 G. Master Key (seriously the most annoying one to get so far, think I spent 30-40 mins alone on trying to find it you get it by talking to the maid on the right at the entrance in the garden and then by searching for it in the ridiculously huge mansion map with seemingly nothing in it except for this trophy and a tiny bit of background info on the MC and Melissa.
So yeah at this point I'm as mentioned unsure if I missed anything but it feels that way with how I haven't gotten trophy No.1 + No.3 but I am getting trophy No.4 + 5 + 6 already.
I'm glad you like the game! I'm sorry it got that frustrating. The goal of that section of the game was to help your repairs feel tangible and earned instead of just cutting to black and it's done. If you're in v0.4.1, there should be a notice that comes up in the first floor of your mansion if you've picked up all the wood and used it to repair as many holes in the floor as possible. If you picked everything up, used it all, and still aren't getting any notices, please let me know so I can look into it.
And thanks for the extra clarification! The master bedroom doesn't count toward or against the repairs, so that's fine. Just in case the notice doesn't pop up, after you've used all the wood you can find, you're supposed to go talk to Phoebe in your study.
Being the only one making the game makes it hard to find time to write a proper walkthrough, but I suppose I've heard this enough that I can put a basic spoiler-free one in the readme. I'm trying to identify points where it becomes less clear on what to do next and adding dialogue to characters (your Maids in particular) to help clarify those points, but it's still a work in progress.
Getting your walls repaired is the next main goal, but that hasn't been implemented yet. It'll be the first thing that happens in v0.5. Getting the master bedroom cleaned up is also something coming in v0.5, and you shouldn't need to make any decisions regarding bedrooms (if that was called out as an objective somewhere, let me know; the wording might need updating). The priestess at the Augalamh church should outright tell you where to go if you're at the story point where you're trying to find the shadowy Maid. If she doesn't have a "Shadowy Maid" option and that's your next step, please let me know, something is broken.
I'm glad you're enjoying it! I've gotten the "maps are too big" feedback a lot, I'm working on shrinking down some of the smaller maps and putting more things to find in the maps I don't want to make any smaller, and doing my best to keep these things in mind when I'm making new maps. I'm also trying out some mechanical solutions to make getting around easier, such as the fast travel choices when you're on the region maps or old areas.
If you have any specific feedback, like which maps seemed needlessly huge or if some maps seemed empty or boring, I'd be happy to consider any suggestions.
If you don't mind I'll input some (hopefully) constructive feedback to the game after my experience playing it. I'll keep most of it in spoiler tags since a lot of it is spoilerish and if I don't put it in tags the post would just become the wall of text that it is.
First of at the moment the game is fairly open and doesn't seem to explain much on what your supossed to do which is fine most of the time but at some instances it becomes a bit annoying. For instance at one point your directed to the swamp and thats pretty much it. You have no idea how many "holds" your supossed to look for or where they are at and just have to search through the whole swamp area and hope you find the right place and at the moment there are plenty of places that "holds" pretty much nothing.
This makes me want to talk about the maps and their structure and well a lot of the maps are to a degree pointlessly huge at least in my eyes since there is seemingly nothing to do in them and some of them are of the size of a large dungeon (or even several) in many games that is usually littered with enemies or items to find but in this game their littered with hundreds of interactable items or NPC's that fill little to no functions. I am pretty sure you've spent hours upon hours making these and for players (like me) they'll probably spend hours searching through these only to end up frustrated that there is nothing in them or at least next to nothing. This is especially noticable in games like this where enemies and items are limited in quantity.
All in all the way to not make maps feel too big is to fill them with stuff to do. In this case they become to big simply because there is nothing to do in them, if there were more items to find, enemies to fight, puzzles or side quests/content it would be more fun. But having to run through floor/room/area after floor/room/area with nothing to show except sometimes finding tid bits of background info or a single item or so just isn't fun.
Moving on from here with the game design of having limited enemies and items everything you can get your hands on makes a difference and upon entering the swamp area there will be a huge spike in enemy difficulty. At this point there is also no other way to enhance your maids power except by lvling since most if not all gear is pretty much the same except that they give different stat boosts and there is no improved versions to get yet (there are some better equipment by the end of the swamp area). So your main way to get stronger (outside of cheating) is through fighting enemies and in this case this mostly involves you having to go out of your way to search for enemies.
While my feedback is pretty darn grim these are the bad points of it. To give some positive feedback the setting of it all is interesting with there being a sort of contract heavy fantasy world. The maps are also nicely done and detailed, they really show that you've put effort into building them. If I look past the frustration I felt with the things I previously mentioned it is overall a pretty good game that seems well polished and I hope that you continue working on it.
Also sorry for any typos or incorrect grammar since I am a bit short on time so I can't reread and check for errors to much and english is also not my main language.
No.6 G. Master Key (seriously the most annoying one to get so far, think I spent 30-40 mins alone on trying to find it you get it by talking to the maid on the right at the entrance in the garden and then by searching for it in the ridiculously huge mansion map with seemingly nothing in it except for this trophy and a tiny bit of background info on the MC and Melissa.
Spot on, in both good and bad ways. The idea with the trophy is for it to be difficult to find without help, and talking to NPCs gives (some) useful information, and it's up to you to decide what is or isn't useful. I recognize that the current version doesn't give as many useful hints as it really should. It's intended to take maybe half of the time it took you; 10-20 minutes. I've got one or two other things to finish before I get to it, but once those other things are done, I intend to revisit that to make the hints both better and more consistent. If you have any suggestions on how to do that, I'm open to input.
And just to point it out, there are other things to find there. Some items you can't reach until you have the key. One bit that you don't is Melissa's old room. You can find armor there before you're able to buy it, though it is rather hidden away.
So yeah at this point I'm as mentioned unsure if I missed anything but it feels that way with how I haven't gotten trophy No.1 + No.3 but I am getting trophy No.4 + 5 + 6 already.
Trophy 1 is basically impossible to find if you don't know where it is. Arrival will tell you where it is if you visit the trophy room there. Trophy 3 is in Cumhaill, near Phoebe's old house. As an extra hint: that's no mushroom.
Trophy 7 and 8 are also implemented as of v0.4.1. One is part of Viridius' Ranch, the other has to do with Jenny. I won't give more involved hints than that since they're brand new, though I will say that the reward for Trophy 7 has to do with a mechanic that won't be introduced until the second act of the story.
If you don't mind I'll input some (hopefully) constructive feedback to the game after my experience playing it. I'll keep most of it in spoiler tags since a lot of it is spoilerish and if I don't put it in tags the post would just become the wall of text that it is.
First of at the moment the game is fairly open and doesn't seem to explain much on what your supossed to do which is fine most of the time but at some instances it becomes a bit annoying. For instance at one point your directed to the swamp and thats pretty much it. You have no idea how many "holds" your supossed to look for or where they are at and just have to search through the whole swamp area and hope you find the right place and at the moment there are plenty of places that "holds" pretty much nothing.
Some of that is on purpose; you have the same information the characters have. The rest is a design misstep. My idea was to borrow from classic JRPGs, where if you aren't sure what to do next, you should talk to characters or visit new areas. As development has continued, I've tried to focus more on "talk to your Maids" instead of random NPCs, but they only ended up giving hints on next steps in your Estate, which creates a lot of unintended running back and forth. I'm trying to find ways to update dialogue so they're a little more helpful than they currently are, and having them be present in more places, but I have a long list of other priorities I'm working my way through before they become more useful in that regard.
This makes me want to talk about the maps and their structure and well a lot of the maps are to a degree pointlessly huge at least in my eyes since there is seemingly nothing to do in them and some of them are of the size of a large dungeon (or even several) in many games that is usually littered with enemies or items to find but in this game their littered with hundreds of interactable items or NPC's that fill little to no functions. I am pretty sure you've spent hours upon hours making these and for players (like me) they'll probably spend hours searching through these only to end up frustrated that there is nothing in them or at least next to nothing. This is especially noticable in games like this where enemies and items are limited in quantity.
Like with the previous point, this is something I'm aware of and working on. Some maps I do intend to outright shrink or have already shrunk, others I intend to put more content into. I'm trying to create a sense of scale, but that absolutely falls flat when there's nothing interesting going on within those spaces. Especially with the newer content, where I had myself on a bit of a crunch trying to hit a Halloween release date. Though now I'm taking more time to improve the content there and restore the content I cut because I didn't have time.
This was an early map where I flubbed that sense of scale, and with it being optional content, it's hard to prioritize making any big changes to it over other more important content. I've got a few ideas to fill the space, but that still runs into the same "optional" issue. So no, you haven't missed anything.
However, I do intend to put more optional content there, with it eventually becoming it's own full side story. As far as that goes, the idea with the key quest is to get you familiar with the space so you know where you're going in the future. If that quest gets too easy, you'll end up lost every time you go there instead of just the first time. There's only so many compromises I can make without the whole thing devolving into either an unplayable mess, or it being something entirely separate from what I want to make.
Though you mention being starved for items; I haven't gotten that particular feedback before and I personally very rarely actually use items (in this or any other RPG; I don't think I've used an ether or elixir in any Final Fantasy game ever, and I've played all of them). If there's a particular type of item you're finding yourself short on and needing more of, let me know, and I'll hide more around.
You nailed it with that closing thought. This area (the Deep Wilds, for reference) is something I intend to put more into. More encounters, more items, more secrets, some side quests will take place here, etc. It currently feels like a pointlessly huge maze because it kind of is. Everything you care about in the current release is in the top third of the map. That, at least, is both on purpose and temporary.
All in all the way to not make maps feel too big is to fill them with stuff to do. In this case they become to big simply because there is nothing to do in them, if there were more items to find, enemies to fight, puzzles or side quests/content it would be more fun. But having to run through floor/room/area after floor/room/area with nothing to show except sometimes finding tid bits of background info or a single item or so just isn't fun.
I came to this realization myself a couple weeks ago. I literally have "make maps more interesting" as a point of order in my notes. It's a work in progress, and feedback like this helps a lot in terms of what to put there. I said it earlier in this post, but if you (or anyone, really) have any thoughts about which items you're short on or what you'd like to find, I'm open to suggestions.
Moving on from here with the game design of having limited enemies and items everything you can get your hands on makes a difference and upon entering the swamp area there will be a huge spike in enemy difficulty. At this point there is also no other way to enhance your maids power except by lvling since most if not all gear is pretty much the same except that they give different stat boosts and there is no improved versions to get yet (there are some better equipment by the end of the swamp area). So your main way to get stronger (outside of cheating) is through fighting enemies and in this case this mostly involves you having to go out of your way to search for enemies.
This helps back up some other feedback I've gotten and connects a few dots for me. Leveling prior to the swamps is intended to be the main way to improve your Maids, but once you enter the swamps, the second tier of equipment is intended to offset the increase in enemy stats. If it feels like you aren't finding much/any of that equipment until after you've completed most of the swamps, that's relatively easy for me to fix.
It's hard to put into words how useful this is. It sounds like part of my intention landed exactly where I wanted it to, but the reaction is where I failed completely. You shouldn't feel like you need to kill everything and level up in order to get through the area, it should be a conscious choice that you set time aside for willingly with no perceived punishment if you choose not to.
For the last bit, I'm guessing you mean the very end. The boss you fight in v0.4 is the only enemy in the game so far that can do more than debuff you. The other enemies leading to that fight have half (to a third, depending on the comparison) of the HP of other enemies. If you mean the enemies in the Holds, those are supposed to be tougher (as in higher defense and more HP) but not hit as hard unless they randomly happen to take the exact actions that maximize their damage, which should be the exception, not the norm.
Though all in all, message received. I took a closer look at some things and did find that some stats were higher than they should've been from when I was playtesting a few things. It wasn't a huge difference, but those have been returned to their intended numbers, along with a few other stat reductions that should keep the same enemy feel but make them a little easier to fight. That's on me, sorry for missing that.
Dang there's a lot here. Seriously, thank you for taking the time.
Regarding the Deep Wilds Hold, that's supposed to be optional content. Yes, having those levels and that money early on makes a difference, but it shouldn't impede getting through the rest of the game. As for the Writ itself, it's at the end of a yellow flower path in the wilds immediately outside your front gate, with the box itself hidden behind a tree.
Regarding the healers - there's a narrative reason for that. I won't get deep into it here, but I have plans for Ella, and Alice is supposed to be a "sustain" healer; smaller heals with a cheap cost. Healers with the "high-cost, big heal" spells are incredibly rare in the setting. I haven't encountered it being a hinderance myself, but I think I'm discovering that the way I play the game is somehow weirdly optimized. I think I need to get a discord server or something set up so I can talk directly with play testers. I'll call this out again at the end of the post and update the OP once the server exists. Anyway, tl;dr - healing should feel more "precious" than "nerfed." I'll have to workshop this a bit.
Regarding your comments on Ella specifically, the short answer is I tried a mechanical thing on the back end and it didn't really work. I have plans to compensate, but those plans are tied to the story. The bit that did work is that Ella's Luck stat should be far higher than anyone else's, and her heals are capable of critical hits. That piece just doesn't work as well as I hoped it would. As far as her healing numbers are concerned, there's another mechanical differentiation that I made to try to separate that style of healing from the others. More on this in the spoiler below. In short, I know Ella isn't as useful as she feels like she should be right now. I have a number of ideas on how to handle that for the rest of the game (and just for reference, we're about halfway done with the first of three acts).
Related, Ella should also be able to heal even when she's not in your main party. Selecting Theurgy in the menu and scrolling down to find her should let you use whatever she has TP for. I just tested that on my end and it works in every version I tested, so if you can't do that on your end, please let me know what you're trying or send screenshots so I can look into it.
Regarding the last bit about Ella's stats being really low, even if you cheat to get higher levels - sort of intended, sort of not. That loops back to that mechanical thing that didn't really work. The game should end with characters being around level 50 (possibly higher, that's a projection I can't make accurately right now), and Ella is intended to far out-heal the others by that point. Saying more would be spoilers, and I won't spoil my story, but as far as the mechanics go...
There's a lot going on with the balance of the game that I'm rather conflicted about. I don't want players to feel like they're being forced to retreat, but I do want them to feel rewarded for exploring. Making combat difficult and limiting resources means every time you find a bed to sleep in is meaningful, and every hidden item is exciting. That makes going places you aren't explicitly told to go to still worth exploring. Enemies are also largely easy to avoid, so the risk of trying to reach new locations is minimal. On the other side of that coin is everything you're mentioning here, along with the resulting frustration. It's like a very careful balance to strike, and I don't want to over-correct and need to take things away later. But that's why I'm making all these releases public and free; I'm new at this and have a lot to learn, even if I have more ideas than I know what to do with.
Your first point here is an interesting unintended consequence. If I'm understanding correctly, I used the mechanics to teach you correctly, then dropped the ball by not rewarding you for using what you learned. I'm extremely curious if that's true for other people, because if it is, that's actually very easy (if a little time consuming) to fix, and fixing that issue will cascade into a fix for lots of the other issues you mention having. My concern is that it might create another issue and end up being a completely different problem that's much harder to fix. Either way, this is definitely food for thought, and I thank you for it.
Regarding the stone laying about when you need scrap stone, part of this is that I'm still introducing mechanics that won't really come into play until the second act of the story. I did find a bunch of things that didn't have events and added things to them, and I'm trying to be conscious of the fact that you need those supplies and are seeing them lying about, but there's a limited number of ways to tell the player "this wood good, that wood bad." I'm trying to be less arbitrary about it, but if I let you pick up all that wood, you'd be at max reputation with Cumhaill before I have all the relevant content implemented, which also feels bad. Or you'd have 99 scrap wood and nothing to do with it, which feels like a waste while also undermining how desperate you're supposed to be for supplies. Or you'd get your payment from the Holds in v0.4 and not be able to carry it all, wasting a giant pile of stuff and feeling cheated. I'm aware of these issues, but there's only so many hours in a day for me to work on things, so I need to prioritize. All I can do in the mean time is apologize for any frustration it causes and find solutions for the future.
As for the clocks, that won't change. I can understand it adding to the frustration when everything feels like you're digging for items and getting nowhere, but that particular aspect is supposed to feel like a treasure hunt that always results in the same extremely rare and valuable item. Changing that either cheapens the value of the item or the feeling of the treasure hunt. I still appreciate the feedback, though. Hopefully changing other things will help this particular piece feel more meaningful for those that share this sentiment.
Same with the number of interactive objects. Even if they don't give you anything, I'd much rather have a game filled with "It's a lamp" every time I try to interact with a lamp than have nothing happen when I try to interact with an item that looks like it might be worth interacting with and getting nothing. It's valid if you'd prefer there be nothing if there's nothing to gain, but I'd much rather use that opportunity to build on the game world, even if it's in small and inconsequential ways.
While my feedback is pretty darn grim these are the bad points of it. To give some positive feedback the setting of it all is interesting with there being a sort of contract heavy fantasy world. The maps are also nicely done and detailed, they really show that you've put effort into building them. If I look past the frustration I felt with the things I previously mentioned it is overall a pretty good game that seems well polished and I hope that you continue working on it.
Also sorry for any typos or incorrect grammar since I am a bit short on time so I can't reread and check for errors to much and english is also not my main language.
I wouldn't call your feedback "grim" so much as "frank." I can tell by your phrasing that you ran into a lot of frustration (which was confirmed by you calling out that you were frustrated), and I think it's easy to forgive a person for being blunt when they're frustrated. I can also tell your feedback isn't actively malicious; I've done enough customer service work to recognize when someone just wants to make another person upset. People don't take the time to write giant posts like this without a reason, and I think F95Zone is a little too niche to do this much writing for the sake of "I want attention" like people do on Facebook or Twitter. That means something about your experience meant something to you, and that's why I write stories (or in this case, make games); to tell stories that provide meaningful experiences. Even if I have to draw people in with tits to get their interest first.
I have a strong distaste for unfinished narratives. If I have any kind of choice in the matter, I'll keep working on this until the story I want to tell is complete, regardless of how well it's received. If it is well-received, there's lots more I can do. If I'm lucky, I'll eventually have enough support that I can do something with all of the ideas I've got written down in my ever-growing list of story seeds.
And no worries about any typos or incorrect grammar. You being short on time and English not being your first language just makes me appreciate you taking the time to write all this out that much more. That tells me you care about this project and you want to see it improve, and that's important to me.
Now, I said I'd call it out, and I'll bold it for anyone who might be interested but doesn't want to read the full post.
If anyone is interested in helping me playtest Maids & Masters, please quote this in a reply, send me a DM, comment on my website (link in the OP), or support me on Patreon and send a message there. I'll let you know as soon as I get a Discord server set up and give you a playtester role to differentiate you from Patreon supporters where applicable.
As a disclaimer, this offer won't stay open forever, and I reserve the right to revoke this statement and any resulting benefits.
Splitting these into bits so it's easier to respond to individual points. Also deleting out the spoilers, I'll just leave the titles for those.
Spot on, in both good and bad ways. The idea with the trophy is for it to be difficult to find without help, and talking to NPCs gives (some) useful information, and it's up to you to decide what is or isn't useful. I recognize that the current version doesn't give as many useful hints as it really should. It's intended to take maybe half of the time it took you; 10-20 minutes. I've got one or two other things to finish before I get to it, but once those other things are done, I intend to revisit that to make the hints both better and more consistent. If you have any suggestions on how to do that, I'm open to input.
And just to point it out, there are other things to find there. Some items you can't reach until you have the key. One bit that you don't is Melissa's old room. You can find armor there before you're able to buy it, though it is rather hidden away.
Trophy 1 is basically impossible to find if you don't know where it is. Arrival will tell you where it is if you visit the trophy room there. Trophy 3 is in Cumhaill, near Phoebe's old house. As an extra hint: that's no mushroom.
Trophy 7 and 8 are also implemented as of v0.4.1. One is part of Viridius' Ranch, the other has to do with Jenny. I won't give more involved hints than that since they're brand new, though I will say that the reward for Trophy 7 has to do with a mechanic that won't be introduced until the second act of the story.
Pretty much all of this was constructive. A little blunt, maybe, but still helpful. Thanks a ton for taking the time, it helps a lot.
Some of that is on purpose; you have the same information the characters have. The rest is a design misstep. My idea was to borrow from classic JRPGs, where if you aren't sure what to do next, you should talk to characters or visit new areas. As development has continued, I've tried to focus more on "talk to your Maids" instead of random NPCs, but they only ended up giving hints on next steps in your Estate, which creates a lot of unintended running back and forth. I'm trying to find ways to update dialogue so they're a little more helpful than they currently are, and having them be present in more places, but I have a long list of other priorities I'm working my way through before they become more useful in that regard.
Like with the previous point, this is something I'm aware of and working on. Some maps I do intend to outright shrink or have already shrunk, others I intend to put more content into. I'm trying to create a sense of scale, but that absolutely falls flat when there's nothing interesting going on within those spaces. Especially with the newer content, where I had myself on a bit of a crunch trying to hit a Halloween release date. Though now I'm taking more time to improve the content there and restore the content I cut because I didn't have time.
This was an early map where I flubbed that sense of scale, and with it being optional content, it's hard to prioritize making any big changes to it over other more important content. I've got a few ideas to fill the space, but that still runs into the same "optional" issue. So no, you haven't missed anything.
However, I do intend to put more optional content there, with it eventually becoming it's own full side story. As far as that goes, the idea with the key quest is to get you familiar with the space so you know where you're going in the future. If that quest gets too easy, you'll end up lost every time you go there instead of just the first time. There's only so many compromises I can make without the whole thing devolving into either an unplayable mess, or it being something entirely separate from what I want to make.
Though you mention being starved for items; I haven't gotten that particular feedback before and I personally very rarely actually use items (in this or any other RPG; I don't think I've used an ether or elixir in any Final Fantasy game ever, and I've played all of them). If there's a particular type of item you're finding yourself short on and needing more of, let me know, and I'll hide more around.
You nailed it with that closing thought. This area (the Deep Wilds, for reference) is something I intend to put more into. More encounters, more items, more secrets, some side quests will take place here, etc. It currently feels like a pointlessly huge maze because it kind of is. Everything you care about in the current release is in the top third of the map. That, at least, is both on purpose and temporary.
I came to this realization myself a couple weeks ago. I literally have "make maps more interesting" as a point of order in my notes. It's a work in progress, and feedback like this helps a lot in terms of what to put there. I said it earlier in this post, but if you (or anyone, really) have any thoughts about which items you're short on or what you'd like to find, I'm open to suggestions.
This helps back up some other feedback I've gotten and connects a few dots for me. Leveling prior to the swamps is intended to be the main way to improve your Maids, but once you enter the swamps, the second tier of equipment is intended to offset the increase in enemy stats. If it feels like you aren't finding much/any of that equipment until after you've completed most of the swamps, that's relatively easy for me to fix.
It's hard to put into words how useful this is. It sounds like part of my intention landed exactly where I wanted it to, but the reaction is where I failed completely. You shouldn't feel like you need to kill everything and level up in order to get through the area, it should be a conscious choice that you set time aside for willingly with no perceived punishment if you choose not to.
For the last bit, I'm guessing you mean the very end. The boss you fight in v0.4 is the only enemy in the game so far that can do more than debuff you. The other enemies leading to that fight have half (to a third, depending on the comparison) of the HP of other enemies. If you mean the enemies in the Holds, those are supposed to be tougher (as in higher defense and more HP) but not hit as hard unless they randomly happen to take the exact actions that maximize their damage, which should be the exception, not the norm.
Though all in all, message received. I took a closer look at some things and did find that some stats were higher than they should've been from when I was playtesting a few things. It wasn't a huge difference, but those have been returned to their intended numbers, along with a few other stat reductions that should keep the same enemy feel but make them a little easier to fight. That's on me, sorry for missing that.
Dang there's a lot here. Seriously, thank you for taking the time.
Regarding the Deep Wilds Hold, that's supposed to be optional content. Yes, having those levels and that money early on makes a difference, but it shouldn't impede getting through the rest of the game. As for the Writ itself, it's at the end of a yellow flower path in the wilds immediately outside your front gate, with the box itself hidden behind a tree.
Regarding the healers - there's a narrative reason for that. I won't get deep into it here, but I have plans for Ella, and Alice is supposed to be a "sustain" healer; smaller heals with a cheap cost. Healers with the "high-cost, big heal" spells are incredibly rare in the setting. I haven't encountered it being a hinderance myself, but I think I'm discovering that the way I play the game is somehow weirdly optimized. I think I need to get a discord server or something set up so I can talk directly with play testers. I'll call this out again at the end of the post and update the OP once the server exists. Anyway, tl;dr - healing should feel more "precious" than "nerfed." I'll have to workshop this a bit.
Regarding your comments on Ella specifically, the short answer is I tried a mechanical thing on the back end and it didn't really work. I have plans to compensate, but those plans are tied to the story. The bit that did work is that Ella's Luck stat should be far higher than anyone else's, and her heals are capable of critical hits. That piece just doesn't work as well as I hoped it would. As far as her healing numbers are concerned, there's another mechanical differentiation that I made to try to separate that style of healing from the others. More on this in the spoiler below. In short, I know Ella isn't as useful as she feels like she should be right now. I have a number of ideas on how to handle that for the rest of the game (and just for reference, we're about halfway done with the first of three acts).
Related, Ella should also be able to heal even when she's not in your main party. Selecting Theurgy in the menu and scrolling down to find her should let you use whatever she has TP for. I just tested that on my end and it works in every version I tested, so if you can't do that on your end, please let me know what you're trying or send screenshots so I can look into it.
Regarding the last bit about Ella's stats being really low, even if you cheat to get higher levels - sort of intended, sort of not. That loops back to that mechanical thing that didn't really work. The game should end with characters being around level 50 (possibly higher, that's a projection I can't make accurately right now), and Ella is intended to far out-heal the others by that point. Saying more would be spoilers, and I won't spoil my story, but as far as the mechanics go...
There's a lot going on with the balance of the game that I'm rather conflicted about. I don't want players to feel like they're being forced to retreat, but I do want them to feel rewarded for exploring. Making combat difficult and limiting resources means every time you find a bed to sleep in is meaningful, and every hidden item is exciting. That makes going places you aren't explicitly told to go to still worth exploring. Enemies are also largely easy to avoid, so the risk of trying to reach new locations is minimal. On the other side of that coin is everything you're mentioning here, along with the resulting frustration. It's like a very careful balance to strike, and I don't want to over-correct and need to take things away later. But that's why I'm making all these releases public and free; I'm new at this and have a lot to learn, even if I have more ideas than I know what to do with.
Your first point here is an interesting unintended consequence. If I'm understanding correctly, I used the mechanics to teach you correctly, then dropped the ball by not rewarding you for using what you learned. I'm extremely curious if that's true for other people, because if it is, that's actually very easy (if a little time consuming) to fix, and fixing that issue will cascade into a fix for lots of the other issues you mention having. My concern is that it might create another issue and end up being a completely different problem that's much harder to fix. Either way, this is definitely food for thought, and I thank you for it.
Regarding the stone laying about when you need scrap stone, part of this is that I'm still introducing mechanics that won't really come into play until the second act of the story. I did find a bunch of things that didn't have events and added things to them, and I'm trying to be conscious of the fact that you need those supplies and are seeing them lying about, but there's a limited number of ways to tell the player "this wood good, that wood bad." I'm trying to be less arbitrary about it, but if I let you pick up all that wood, you'd be at max reputation with Cumhaill before I have all the relevant content implemented, which also feels bad. Or you'd have 99 scrap wood and nothing to do with it, which feels like a waste while also undermining how desperate you're supposed to be for supplies. Or you'd get your payment from the Holds in v0.4 and not be able to carry it all, wasting a giant pile of stuff and feeling cheated. I'm aware of these issues, but there's only so many hours in a day for me to work on things, so I need to prioritize. All I can do in the mean time is apologize for any frustration it causes and find solutions for the future.
As for the clocks, that won't change. I can understand it adding to the frustration when everything feels like you're digging for items and getting nowhere, but that particular aspect is supposed to feel like a treasure hunt that always results in the same extremely rare and valuable item. Changing that either cheapens the value of the item or the feeling of the treasure hunt. I still appreciate the feedback, though. Hopefully changing other things will help this particular piece feel more meaningful for those that share this sentiment.
Same with the number of interactive objects. Even if they don't give you anything, I'd much rather have a game filled with "It's a lamp" every time I try to interact with a lamp than have nothing happen when I try to interact with an item that looks like it might be worth interacting with and getting nothing. It's valid if you'd prefer there be nothing if there's nothing to gain, but I'd much rather use that opportunity to build on the game world, even if it's in small and inconsequential ways.
I wouldn't call your feedback "grim" so much as "frank." I can tell by your phrasing that you ran into a lot of frustration (which was confirmed by you calling out that you were frustrated), and I think it's easy to forgive a person for being blunt when they're frustrated. I can also tell your feedback isn't actively malicious; I've done enough customer service work to recognize when someone just wants to make another person upset. People don't take the time to write giant posts like this without a reason, and I think F95Zone is a little too niche to do this much writing for the sake of "I want attention" like people do on Facebook or Twitter. That means something about your experience meant something to you, and that's why I write stories (or in this case, make games); to tell stories that provide meaningful experiences. Even if I have to draw people in with tits to get their interest first.
I have a strong distaste for unfinished narratives. If I have any kind of choice in the matter, I'll keep working on this until the story I want to tell is complete, regardless of how well it's received. If it is well-received, there's lots more I can do. If I'm lucky, I'll eventually have enough support that I can do something with all of the ideas I've got written down in my ever-growing list of story seeds.
And no worries about any typos or incorrect grammar. You being short on time and English not being your first language just makes me appreciate you taking the time to write all this out that much more. That tells me you care about this project and you want to see it improve, and that's important to me.
Now, I said I'd call it out, and I'll bold it for anyone who might be interested but doesn't want to read the full post.
If anyone is interested in helping me playtest Maids & Masters, please quote this in a reply, send me a DM, comment on my website (link in the OP), or support me on Patreon and send a message there. I'll let you know as soon as I get a Discord server set up and give you a playtester role to differentiate you from Patreon supporters where applicable.
As a disclaimer, this offer won't stay open forever, and I reserve the right to revoke this statement and any resulting benefits.
To be fair after reading your response I've noticed that there were somethings that I missed, was unaware of or I'd like to clarify since for instance.
When it comes to the uncles estate I actually searched through it quite a bit before I actually talked to the maid outside who was looking for the key and told me about it. So in my case when I finally got the key I was kind of sick of the place and just wanted to leave and didn't think to explore again and see if I could find anything new with the key.
The part with talk with your maids as you mentioned became a bit weird with how you always have to go back to the estate to to the maids. I believe this can probably be fixed by adding an item you can interact with that gives the same response as Melissa's tip on what to do, it could simply be something like I don't know a tea set to imply that your taking a tea breaking and talking with the maids and they then tell you as the player what to do.
Because of how it for now revolves around triggers in my case (if I remember correctly) at one point I had Melissa tell me to go to the masters estate (forgot his name) that gives you Alice. Upon returning I went and checked with her what to do next, and she told me the same thing which made me at least at first think I had missed something over there so I should go back. But then I thought that can't be the case so I instead went and talked with Alice and also the merchant maid who then got her shop set up. After this some trigger seemed to have gone of that let me proceed forward.
When it comes to item starvation, I also usually never use any items in most RPG's I play and they mostly just fill the inventory until I get the message I can't pick up anymore potions. Here however, and this might depend on me going the wrong way or just being out in areas to long, I often found myself going low on hp and not having any TP to heal myself so I became forced to use healing items unless I wanted to go back to a bed. Which felt a bit like a chore to run back and forth all the time. For instance in my case the only place of healing I could find, and I have no idea if I missed a bunch but I probably did, were at our own estate, the friendly masters estates and Cumhail. So especially in the swamp area I had no way to heal myself outside of the priestess that could remove poison.
On the healing of Ella while she's not in the party that was a miss by me since I just assumed that was the case after having Jenny be greyed out in the party screen which usually means from my experience in JRPG's that their unavailable in anyway. I am also aware of her higher luck but unless I just got really unlucky it just didn't proc much for me in the game. I'd probably take a guess that only about 1/20 heals would heal as a crit. I can also say that I had no idea that healing was tied to a targets M.def as well since I've never ever heard or played a game that went like that, though I believe I've played a game that had M.def factor into the users healing factor. In other words Ella having high M.def + M.atk would result in a higher healing amount. I believe the game went something like let's say 1 point of M.def = 3 points of healing while 1 point of M.atk = 10 points of healing, because stacking M.def on the healer would make them almost immune to M.dmg so to compensate it gave a lower amount of healing.
On the clocks part I gotta admit that at the point of writing I was as you probably guessed feeling a bit frustrated and I believe it came of a bit wrong with that while at the point I did find it frustrating at the same time it was also one of the few times in the game when I was told, interacting with this object might give you stuff. Being someone who has played A LOT of RPG's I'm used to running around and interacting with things to find hidden side quests, content, items or what not. Usually if let's say I play I don't know FF I go into a village and there might be 5-10 huts when I enter. Usually the only things you can interact with are the NPC's and items that hold some kind of significance or something that gives you something. So in those huts only about 2-3 items are interactable with usually a NPC, a cupboard that gives you a bit of money or an item and lastly there might be an item of note that once you interact with it will tell you some lore, let you see an action or just be the MC contemplate on how good they look in that mirror. Here instead while looking for the key for instance I found myself interacting with every single pot on the top floor and have the game go, this is a pot there is dirt in it, 180 times and each time it happens you will get locked in place and have to press away the prompted chat bubble before you can move on.
Again not sure how this went for other players but I am used to having a game early on teach me "this thing" = stuff or just go and try to interact with everything and you might find something! While in this game it as mentioned seemed to early on tell me everything is useful so always try to look for stuff! So there isn't anything bad about everything being interactable and I have to agree that I also prefer that way of thinking it's just that there should be a clear way for the player to know what should I interact with if I hope to gain something. Or do I really have to interact with 300+ flowers cause there might just be something in one of them. The clock mention is again in my opinion a very important addition and I personally believe this whole thing can be solved by simply having things like that happen naturally early on.
Like for instance when the master say's why he looks through clocks it might be easy to for instance include something like.
"Melissa you know what? Boxes are great! People always put their belonging in boxes or store stuff in them" and then have the player find one or more items from boxes that they might need or want. But then it needs to be consistent that you find stuff mainly in the mentioned iteractable item.
I do think it's great you've taken the time to add the interactable part to everything.
To be fair after reading your response I've noticed that there were somethings that I missed, was unaware of or I'd like to clarify since for instance.
When it comes to the uncles estate I actually searched through it quite a bit before I actually talked to the maid outside who was looking for the key and told me about it. So in my case when I finally got the key I was kind of sick of the place and just wanted to leave and didn't think to explore again and see if I could find anything new with the key.
The part with talk with your maids as you mentioned became a bit weird with how you always have to go back to the estate to to the maids. I believe this can probably be fixed by adding an item you can interact with that gives the same response as Melissa's tip on what to do, it could simply be something like I don't know a tea set to imply that your taking a tea breaking and talking with the maids and they then tell you as the player what to do.
Because of how it for now revolves around triggers in my case (if I remember correctly) at one point I had Melissa tell me to go to the masters estate (forgot his name) that gives you Alice. Upon returning I went and checked with her what to do next, and she told me the same thing which made me at least at first think I had missed something over there so I should go back. But then I thought that can't be the case so I instead went and talked with Alice and also the merchant maid who then got her shop set up. After this some trigger seemed to have gone of that let me proceed forward.
There must be a gap in Melissa's instances. I'll have to fix that. But yes, there's a progression thing tied to Emily's shop so that the story won't continue until you go into the completed shop.
For the rest, that's what the Homing Stone will be for. It'll let you teleport home, and if I manage to do it right, will also let you track quests without needing to teleport home. It isn't a quest log, so it's tricky to manage, but it should be at least a little helpful.
When it comes to item starvation, I also usually never use any items in most RPG's I play and they mostly just fill the inventory until I get the message I can't pick up anymore potions. Here however, and this might depend on me going the wrong way or just being out in areas to long, I often found myself going low on hp and not having any TP to heal myself so I became forced to use healing items unless I wanted to go back to a bed. Which felt a bit like a chore to run back and forth all the time. For instance in my case the only place of healing I could find, and I have no idea if I missed a bunch but I probably did, were at our own estate, the friendly masters estates and Cumhail. So especially in the swamp area I had no way to heal myself outside of the priestess that could remove poison.
Both of the Estate ruins in the swamps should have a place to sleep. Not every bed gives the option, but I'll have to double check to make sure those that should have it work correctly.
Part of this is intended game feel. You're coming up from nothing, which is a lot of hard work. It should feel like the whole world is against you. That said, the actual gameplay shouldn't feel tedious or overbearing. It should still be fun first. If it's not, I have more work to do. That's why feedback is so helpful; I playtest a lot on my own, and I enjoy the gameplay plenty. Feedback points out things that I'm too close to the project to see otherwise.
On the healing of Ella while she's not in the party that was a miss by me since I just assumed that was the case after having Jenny be greyed out in the party screen which usually means from my experience in JRPG's that their unavailable in anyway. I am also aware of her higher luck but unless I just got really unlucky it just didn't proc much for me in the game. I'd probably take a guess that only about 1/20 heals would heal as a crit. I can also say that I had no idea that healing was tied to a targets M.def as well since I've never ever heard or played a game that went like that, though I believe I've played a game that had M.def factor into the users healing factor. In other words Ella having high M.def + M.atk would result in a higher healing amount. I believe the game went something like let's say 1 point of M.def = 3 points of healing while 1 point of M.atk = 10 points of healing, because stacking M.def on the healer would make them almost immune to M.dmg so to compensate it gave a lower amount of healing.
A forum isn't the best place to get into a discussion on the finer points of algebraic equations, so I won't get into the nitty-gritty here, but I appreciate the input. You're right in that she has a lower crit chance than she really should, and that's something I haven't been able to figure out from a back-end perspective. RPGM seems weirdly protective of how the math for critical hits is done. At risk of sounding like a broken record, I have plans for Ella. She'll get better. I promise.
On the clocks part I gotta admit that at the point of writing I was as you probably guessed feeling a bit frustrated and I believe it came of a bit wrong with that while at the point I did find it frustrating at the same time it was also one of the few times in the game when I was told, interacting with this object might give you stuff. Being someone who has played A LOT of RPG's I'm used to running around and interacting with things to find hidden side quests, content, items or what not. Usually if let's say I play I don't know FF I go into a village and there might be 5-10 huts when I enter. Usually the only things you can interact with are the NPC's and items that hold some kind of significance or something that gives you something. So in those huts only about 2-3 items are interactable with usually a NPC, a cupboard that gives you a bit of money or an item and lastly there might be an item of note that once you interact with it will tell you some lore, let you see an action or just be the MC contemplate on how good they look in that mirror. Here instead while looking for the key for instance I found myself interacting with every single pot on the top floor and have the game go, this is a pot there is dirt in it, 180 times and each time it happens you will get locked in place and have to press away the prompted chat bubble before you can move on.
No worries, I get you. The uncle's Estate is probably going to serve as a great example of things I tried to do and didn't quite get right for the entirety of the game. I'll likely rework it someday, but there are so many other things to do before I can justify taking the time. This is still useful feedback, though, it helps reinforce what I should avoid doing in future updates.
Again not sure how this went for other players but I am used to having a game early on teach me "this thing" = stuff or just go and try to interact with everything and you might find something! While in this game it as mentioned seemed to early on tell me everything is useful so always try to look for stuff! So there isn't anything bad about everything being interactable and I have to agree that I also prefer that way of thinking it's just that there should be a clear way for the player to know what should I interact with if I hope to gain something. Or do I really have to interact with 300+ flowers cause there might just be something in one of them. The clock mention is again in my opinion a very important addition and I personally believe this whole thing can be solved by simply having things like that happen naturally early on.
Like for instance when the master say's why he looks through clocks it might be easy to for instance include something like.
"Melissa you know what? Boxes are great! People always put their belonging in boxes or store stuff in them" and then have the player find one or more items from boxes that they might need or want. But then it needs to be consistent that you find stuff mainly in the mentioned iteractable item.
I do think it's great you've taken the time to add the interactable part to everything.
Gotcha. I do try to do that with a few things, like the clocks, or yellow flower paths, or talking with NPCs giving you side quests. The trouble with all that right now is the tight development schedule I had put myself on, and now there's giant chunks of the game that didn't get the kind of attention they really should've. That means there's fewer yellow flower paths than there should be, and basically zero side quests. I do see that as a missed opportunity, and it's currently my main goal to add all that content in, but that all comes down to things taking time. Though I suppose if nothing else, I appreciate that the complaints have more to do with the gameplay than the lack of lewds. Even if it does make me wonder if I should've set my priorities a little differently for v0.4.2. I suppose I'll find out after I put out that release.
Tl;dr, more is coming. More loot, more side quests, and that's before all the actual new story content and new areas. And after v0.5, there won't be any "time sensitive" releases until next Halloween, so crunch time causing these misses shouldn't be an issue going forward.
Thanks again for taking the time! It really is super helpful.
So with me being a bit of a completionist I was wondering if anyone had a quick guide on how to get all the trophies and which one's are missable.
For now I haven't gotten that far into the game though I've played 2-3 hours with it most of it spent running around in the forest looking for stuff and killing wolves + snakes.
The one's I've found so far are.
No.2 Taxidermy Rat (I believe I got this one with the title ratslayer or something, which I got from killing most of the rats in the mansion but a bit unsure.)
No.4 Preserved flower (gained by doing the little girls burial event)
No.5 Work gloves (gained this after repairing the holes in the mansion on my own without skipping, not sure if you have to do ALL of it but the save before when I just skipped I didn't get it)
No.6 G. Master Key (seriously the most annoying one to get so far, think I spent 30-40 mins alone on trying to find it you get it by talking to the maid on the right at the entrance in the garden and then by searching for it in the ridiculously huge mansion map with seemingly nothing in it except for this trophy and a tiny bit of background info on the MC and Melissa.
So yeah at this point I'm as mentioned unsure if I missed anything but it feels that way with how I haven't gotten trophy No.1 + No.3 but I am getting trophy No.4 + 5 + 6 already.
hy please help me find key, i tried to find it in 3f storage room as metioned but i couldnt find it so if possible send me screenshot of where it actually is.... thank you
Seems I've encountered a bug of sorts. Melissa tells me to check on Emily, which I've done several times, but game won't progress.
Have cleared the hold in the Deep Wild and bought 2 of each item Emily sells now, and gotten the stuff from her once already, but now it seems nothing progresses any longer.
Have gone over the walkthrough in the readme file, and all the mentioned things up to where I am have been done, but Melissa still wants me to check on Emily instead of letting me choose a plan.
Seems I've encountered a bug of sorts. Melissa tells me to check on Emily, which I've done several times, but game won't progress.
Have cleared the hold in the Deep Wild and bought 2 of each item Emily sells now, and gotten the stuff from her once already, but now it seems nothing progresses any longer.
Have gone over the walkthrough in the readme file, and all the mentioned things up to where I am have been done, but Melissa still wants me to check on Emily instead of letting me choose a plan.
Came to say this. After the tour I talked to the other maids then went to see Emily. After the sex scene I bought what I could and went to talk to the maids again, but they're all giving the same dialogue as before I sealed the pact with Emily. When I went back to the shop there were items from the contracts I bought and the chest had another 9 silcrow in it. Phoebe has stopped telling me to check on Emily but otherwise still says she doesn't have any plans for what to do next. Nobody else's dialogue has changed.
PS. Is it possible to find the little girl before going to Cumhaill in order to save her? Some of the elder's comments seemed to imply that but it's such a scripted sequence I figured that's unlikely.
I'm working on improving the NPC hints there for the next update. If talking to them isn't enough of a hint and you don't want to wait, ixcez made a post above, quoted below.
Came to say this. After the tour I talked to the other maids then went to see Emily. After the sex scene I bought what I could and went to talk to the maids again, but they're all giving the same dialogue as before I sealed the pact with Emily. When I went back to the shop there were items from the contracts I bought and the chest had another 9 silcrow in it. Phoebe has stopped telling me to check on Emily but otherwise still says she doesn't have any plans for what to do next. Nobody else's dialogue has changed.
Found the problem, that is a bug. One that seems to lock progression. Fixing it now, I'll get a patched version uploaded ASAP. That'll teach me to implement something without playtesting it. Thanks for calling it out!
Do you know what I have to do after emily settles in the house? my main language is Spanish, so there are things that happened to me, I think there is a missing quest follower in the game ...
