HTML Masters of Raana [v0.8.3.3] [GrimDark]

[Saburo. M]

This game is not a good sandbox game. And without a serious overhaul of mechanics, it's never going to be a good sandbox game. This is made all the more tragic because its a game with a lot of potential, but I don't think it will ever be allowed to simply be fun.

The entire point of a sandbox game is to let people play in the sandbox. This game looks like a sandbox, but its a sandbox where you're not allowed to play with the sand. At least not without filling out the appropriate paperwork and checking out a regulation-sized sand shovel.

Just read any of the "getting started" guides. They recommend:

• Extremely specific character background choices.
• Extremely specific skill choices.
• Extremely specific early game strategies.
• Extremely specific interactions with the harem.

Doing anything other than what is in the guide is basically pointless. You will either lose or lock yourself out of content.

Failing to properly employ these strategies leads to a slow death via bankruptcy. Non-standard strategies do not work. There are important skills for late game that you simply cannot get if you do not follow these procedures pretty much to the letter.

Even when you do follow these strategies, holy crap -- what a grind-fest. Why should I have to make a fully non-combat character and then rely on combat to make it through the early game? Why is non-combat not viable for early game? Why is a combat oriented character not viable for late game?

Why put us in a situations where we are obliged to make decisions that make no sense except from a game mechanics perspective? Why make the early game a complete struggle where you're constantly on the verge of bankruptcy, grinding, grinding, grinding in the hope that one far-off golden day you will be allowed to finally play in the fucking sand?

If I have to make a specific character, invest in very specific skills, and do very specific things at very specific times in order to be able to play, why even make a sandbox game? It's mind boggling.

I, like many others, find the "correct" way to play the game completely torturous. And if you're making a sandbox game with a "correct" way to play it, you're doing it wrong.

i kind of know where you are coming from and i think i agree; it doesn't really cater to my fantasies etc, i hate hentai game that involves combat tbh and i am often turned off by hentai games that does not have pregnancies. lol. my perfect fantasy would include erotic asphyxiation and other sick stuff so under normal circumstances i'll give this a meh but i am more than willing to give this an exception and see how far they can push their imaginations and put it into this game so please hear me out and hope you can understand what i am trying to convey as my English is bad.

When i look at the time and effort they poured into this game i have to a admit that they are just trying to realize a dream, yes, how they go about delivering it might not be the best or even the right way but to think about how much they get in return for this is absolutely not worthwhile their time, yet they are still doing it. That is a lot of passion there where money can't buy. i guess this is what i value most.

as of now after playing for a couple of months tho my wishlist is unlikely going to materialize in game i can't help but wanting to cheer them on and see their years of effort come to fruition. this might be the only time in their lives doing this. i hope the next game they make they would learn certain lessons from this experiencing that they created for themselves to make a better game that can blow my brain matter out of my ears.

so the last thing i want to do is to tell them how wrong their approach is and awful it is. instead i want to see their dreams realize thus they can be silently proud of themselves alone considering the nature of the game. i guess this costs me nothing so why not?

thats why i am cheering them on. it is far from perfect and its WIP. but i hope they have a good time enjoying the long excruciating(a new word i learnt from this game xD) process of developing something they deem worthwhile and who am i to rain on their parade.

i really look forward to see the end product and how this would turn out. I am saving my criticsm until they are done with the job. it would be sad for them and for me to see they abandon it halfway just because i think they are doing it all wrong. nothing positive can come out of such scenario.

life is short yo. when someone embark on something to achieve a dream, it is my policy to help them see to it. by then at least i get to earn my bitching right when i contribute little to help them put food on the table. the fate of the world and my happiness does not lay in a hentai game tbh.

my 1 1/4 yen of thoughts. less than 1cent USD. lol

 

[khumak]

Doing anything other than what is in the guide is basically pointless. You will either lose or lock yourself out of content.

Failing to properly employ these strategies leads to a slow death via bankruptcy. Non-standard strategies do not work. There are important skills for late game that you simply cannot get if you do not follow these procedures pretty much to the letter.

Even when you do follow these strategies, holy crap -- what a grind-fest. Why should I have to make a fully non-combat character and then rely on combat to make it through the early game? Why is non-combat not viable for early game? Why is a combat oriented character not viable for late game?

Why put us in a situations where we are obliged to make decisions that make no sense except from a game mechanics perspective? Why make the early game a complete struggle where you're constantly on the verge of bankruptcy, grinding, grinding, grinding in the hope that one far-off golden day you will be allowed to finally play in the fucking sand?

If I have to make a specific character, invest in very specific skills, and do very specific things at very specific times in order to be able to play, why even make a sandbox game? It's mind boggling.

I, like many others, find the "correct" way to play the game completely torturous. And if you're making a sandbox game with a "correct" way to play it, you're doing it wrong.

The newbie guides really just give you an optional plan that works. You don't have to follow the guide. You can make any kind of character you want and be fine. Any shortcomings your character starts with can be fixed via training.

I would say the closest thing to an exception to this rule would be intelligence. Raising intelligence is hard so unless you are set on playing a low int character for role play reasons the Brainy and Gambler perks are pretty much a given. You don't have to start as a Scientist though. I actually prefer a soldier start, but I do take Brainy and Gambler as well.

Combat is the fastest way to money and influence but you don't have to do any fighting at all if you don't want to. You could decide to make money via crafting or training up your slaves for jobs or sale.

Bankruptcy is mostly only a concern if you decide to hire all the expensive mercs and then not do enough fighting to pay their salaries. If you're not going to fight then you don't need mercs. If you're going to hire mercs then maybe you should do what mercs are meant to do, fight.

If you go around town making the various passive investments that are available you can get to where you passively make enough money from that to pay for the salaries of every merc in the game at the same time without ever doing anything to make money from that point on and in fact still be making a profit. That takes somewhere in the neighborhood of 90 days depending on your luck on drops and how much you're spending on salaries before you make those investments.

The same kind of idea holds for non combat stuff as well though. If you're going to focus on training the girls up to make money then you're going to be a lot more effective at it if you train up the relevant stats for that on your main (charm/manipulation/bondage/flagellation/etc).

If you want to focus on crafting then you're going to have to spend a lot of time making daggers/etc to grind up your artisan/blacksmithing skills high enough to make the high value items.

This is what my economy looks like on day 90 and I haven't even made all of the investments yet:

 

[der_selppa]

Sorry, no . Been wondering dat myself, but couldn't find the sugarcube variable. If you or anyone else finds out, please share.

If you haven't figured this out, I've got a quick way of doing it through the console. If you print out all of the variables (SugarCube.State.variables) and search the object it throws for Laika you can find her array (her variable name for me was is_1, don't know if this changes or not). The number directly after her name in that array should be the age. You can copy the array, change that number, then paste if back in if you don't want to figure out the position in the array. To just replace the number itself, you can just use it's position in the array (should be 3 but double check) and then use SugarCube.State.variables.<laika>[3]=18.

 

[FSDL]

I'm enjoying this game. I'm finding it difficult to relate to people who are complaining about "grind" etc. To me it feels more real that it would if I were an instant "GOD" who could 'win' everything without making any effort.

I also like that this game has a storyline. It even has a backstory, several in fact. There is a cohesive internal logic in the game that comes from the story. For me personally, that is more entertaining than the sudden shifts in fortune that are part and parcel of many sword and sorcery fantasies.

It appears that some individuals would prefer a different world than the one Grimdark is creating. That's fair. I don't see the point in speaking about the incomplete product though, in ways that are other than constructive. Pointing out bugs, plot inconsistencies, performance issues, that's constructive.

Cheats: Oh gosh. WHY? I mean to get back to a point more quickly for some reason, sure, but to start a game for no other purpose than to shorten the time to takes to "win". REALLY? NVM. We are not all the same.

For me at least, playing this game is an interesting escape adventure I can enjoy without getting bruised cut beat up jailed, or killed. The game mechanics reward the player who makes certain, can I say 'smarter" choices, as they penalize the player who makes other choices. That said, results that are penalties to some players might be perks to others.

I've decided to support the development of this game with other than my good intentions and hot air. I hope others do likewise.

 

[luwinkle]

BTW to those complaining about grind and the like: If you have any meaningful ideas to lessen it join the discord and suggest it to Grim. He's very open to suggestions/ideas. If they make sense and can be worked in they probably will be. *several* of my own were added.

 

[luwinkle]

You know nothing then!

Lol in response to you shooting down all of his points he just copy-pasted his original post as a 1 star review.

 

[Ennoch]

Lol in response to you shooting down all of his points he just copy-pasted his original post as a 1 star review.

I think the game will survive it somehow

 

[bradstev]

Do we know what the new changelog is?

 

[LizJ]

Do we know what the new changelog is?

Changelog for v0.8.1.5b(Public)?
See https://f95zone.to/threads/masters-of-raana-v0-8-1-5b-grimdark.100207/post-10590337
("Spoiler" at bottom of post)

 

[LizJ]

Version: 0.8.1.5b(Public)
Issue: I am not seeing an image for the Cultist Monk in Stokke Hills.

The code calls for <img src="Pics/Combat/emelee.PNG">
That folder contains "emelee.png"
and the screen shows a broken image link.

(If it turns out that the code is case-sensitive, please note that there are two other upper-case images called at other places in the code:
/Pics/Combat/eauto.PNG
/Pics/Combat/won.PNG

 

[Hargan2]

Version: 0.8.1.5b(Public)
Issue: I am not seeing an image for the Cultist Monk in Stokke Hills.

The code calls for <img src="Pics/Combat/emelee.PNG">
That folder contains "emelee.png"
and the screen shows a broken image link.

(If it turns out that the code is case-sensitive, please note that there are two other upper-case images called at other places in the code:
/Pics/Combat/eauto.PNG
/Pics/Combat/won.PNG

Are you on linux, by any chance?

 

[itszadam1992]

cheats?

 

[rndmann]

Adding more virgin girls planned? Possible candidates: teenage girls, slaves that whose past experiences aren't mentioned in their backgrounds or girls with Pure trait (only Caitlin at the moment?).

 

[tarzan999]

Is the list of slaves in the wiki uptodate? And is there a guide that mentions what content is there to do with each girl?

 

[Gunner Rey]

Adding more virgin girls planned? Possible candidates: teenage girls, slaves that whose past experiences aren't mentioned in their backgrounds or girls with Pure trait (only Caitlin at the moment?).

Yes, there's more virgins coming, it's being alpha tested now.

 

[Gunner Rey]

Is the list of slaves in the wiki uptodate? And is there a guide that mentions what content is there to do with each girl?

The wiki looks to me to be up-to-date to the newest alpha, which is Rachael and the rest of Eliana's with a bonus here and there like a new Lovisa pic because she's Grimdark's fave. Although I will note there's a pic here and there missing, like a training pic for some of them (Juno?).

You can peek into the pics file and see which ones still have a plethora of generic 'WIP' placeholders and which seem to be completely filled out.

 

[fregreger]

Yes, there's more virgins coming, it's being alpha tested now.

Is it just the random girls or more characters?

 

[behindmoon]

Random slaves have had text content updated with pretty much every update since the concept has been introduced. There's also a fair gallery of basic pics and I think some have been added just recently to the alpha releases.

I mean randomly refreshed slaves
Now after buying a random slave does not refresh a new slave
Of course, I still prefer to capture slaves in battle

 

[Gunner Rey]

Is it just the random girls or more characters?

I was referring to randoms, I gathered that's what he meant. Otherwise I've read Lovisa is a complete virgin and Michelle is an anal virgin if you start a run in the latest alpha, but I haven't restarted yet and couldn't tell you for sure.

 

[Gunner Rey]

I mean randomly refreshed slaves
Now after buying a random slave does not refresh a new slave
Of course, I still prefer to capture slaves in battle

I think I read capturing slaves in battle is something he's considering for the combat update.

Otherwise I don't understand what a 'randomly refreshed slave' is. Unless...there's about ten or twelve pics that the girls share (some of them extreme hotties) and even if you get the same pic two or three in a row like I've seen sometimes that's just the luck of the draw.