lxrt56

New Member
Apr 14, 2023
11
27
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.

it’s not a good game in its current state, period
it’s also REALLY content starved and that seems extremely unlikely to significantly change given the game’s track record and ocean wide, puddle deep philosophy
I’m subbed to the patreon because I really like the concept and the dev is constantly sharing updates and ideas, but it’s clear this will never be properly filled out or unslogged, for lack of better wording, it’s far beyond the dev’s capacity

These two posters are absolutely right. But as another poster mentioned "the grind" is the game. I wouldn't blame the dev though. Or are you talking about something specific?

That's what sandboxing is: you grind up your stats, over in-game months/years and in-real life days.

Problem with the sandboxed style is a lot of what you did in the initial days of playing is different from what you do later. You don't need training or skill books after they're done: Once you've charmed one girl you've charmed them all - the quests are fun the first time around. This is true of all sandboxes: repeatability is an illusion.

Someone mentioned skyrim: everyone gets the itch to play it once a year: you fireup the perk calculator and the modder and the setup takes a few hours: you play for 30mins tops. Its a meme at this point. All roads lead to 30mins of stealth archer.

I would suggest that you compare this game within the realistic scope of it being a twine game with daz3d pics that you found while horn dogging. You'll find that: Its a lot of fun playing around with different starting stats, different strategies, different first buy/get girls, etc.

Yes there is one optimal gameplay, yes Lovissa's ass is square and yes there maybe no depth to the play and yes the game's getting too complex for a p-game. But its a game you can spend a lot of (fun) hours on. The music is lovely, the game is almost 100% bug free and the concept rocks, the execution of that concept is excellent.

Play it like a game: for a few weeks/months and then move on. I played a lot of it over the 794 (Nov'2021) to 814 releases, had an absolute blast, now I'm moving on.

I wish good luck to you all. May the two moons smile on you.
 
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Strec

Active Member
Feb 20, 2018
576
367
That's what sandboxing is: you grind up your stats, over in-game months/years and in-real life days.
Not really. What you say may be a consequence of the gameplay choices offered by the developers but does not define a sandbox.

A sandbox is above all, but not only, defined by the multitude of choices offered and allowing a multitude of different gameplay. This is what also allows a great replayability of the same game.

For example, to stay in the field of classic games, let's take the example of 2 games allowing you to play a character focused on pure combat and another on stealth, in a context where you have to enter a castle to recover an object.

One can very well imagine a game where the two characters are from the creation at the maximum of their capacity and another where one must first train a long time before obtaining the necessary capacity allowing to overcome the obstacles.

In the first case the game, without grind, will have 1h of playability and in the second case the same game will have 10h of playability, with a lot of grind.

Obviously this example is very basic and simplistic, a real sandbox will be much more elaborated, but the idea is there, clearly it's not the grind that defines a sandbox but the number of choices.

The grind has 2 interests:
- To give the impression to the player that his character evolves through the work he does on it.
- Extend the life of the game, which is purely commercial.

If we go back to Skyrim for example, the game is the same whether you cheat on your attributes at the start or if you start with a normal character, the difference is in the time it will take you to finish the game, if you finish it.

In MoR we can very well imagine a character based on skill and strength, performing tasks himself, or a character based on intelligence and charisma, manipulating others to achieve the same objective, power.

In any case in theory, for the moment only one of the two choices is effective but the game is not over and it can improve.
 

Gojii

Active Member
Oct 29, 2019
904
1,305
tl;dr the combat is some of the slowest and most tedious I have ever seen, even editng your save to max stats a battle against 4 pleb units takes you like 5 minutes. Makes the game a chore and unfun.

tl;dr pt2. Seems like its just the city with hardly any other content outside the town, despite the game constantly referring to the Kingdom/etc I'm unaware if you can even go anywhere else aside the river outpost.


Long poast is long (STAR-TO!)

The fact you can literally have 999 in gun ability with 99 stats and still not oneshot most generic mobs with the best weapons in the game is bullshit. Game is tedious. I'm not even talking about the porn part, I'm talking about the gameplay itself.

Can we even GO to the other kingdom, let alone any other settlements yet? Seems like you can sortof just go outside the town and visit the outpost down the river with the giant monsters in the woods and that's it?

Maybe I need to wrap up more content, but I'm not seeing much to do. Probably doesnt help that the quest about the brother at the game start was hardlocked in the version I DL'd? Idk.

As many said, I'm not going to waste days grinding. I save edited the shit out of it and idgaf. Its a few minute slog even battling average raiders because of how slow the combat is with max stats and the energy blaster cant even one shot low end mobs half the time, let alone the 30-06 or assault rifle.

Dev needs to realize with how slow the combat turns are they need an overhaul or to at least speed up the combat "turns." Shouldnt need a full minute for enemies to hop forward a space, and shoot their crossbows/rifles, deal like 40% damage with the best weapon in the game and repeat it like 8-12 times. Combat is utterly horrendous, ESPECIALLY for an H-game.Some fo the worst RPG maker grindfest porn games I've played aren't this bad in this respect.

I wouldn't one star the game, but I can at least understand why someone might do so. I have a hard time saying this meets a 3 star aside just how trash most h-games are, but man.... its so tedious to the point of feeling like a CHORE dude. I want to enjoy it, but it's just a funkiller at times. If I want to grind and sink hours with minimal progress on combat, I'll literally log onto an mmo.

The interactions with characters are the plus on my end. The worldbuilding seems good... but the mechanics bring it down badly. They have to really overhaul the combat. Just speeding it up and rewarding you for grinding should be far more rewarding than maybe a few more damage on the combat rolls.
 
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tarzan999

Active Member
Aug 11, 2016
938
2,151
You 'buy' her by rescuing her from the laundry and giving her a place to stay. You can indeed pay for her if you upgrade her apartment.
I get it, but you can set the tone pretty early on with most of the other slaves. Imagine if they make another god of war and Kratos's wife isn't dead. Just doesn't feel right. My main character would never say ' I will help you'.
 

fixet

Newbie
Aug 8, 2016
37
85
as another poster mentioned "the grind" is the game. I wouldn't blame the dev though. Or are you talking about something specific?
I don’t have a problem with the grind itself, but the content is abysmally minuscule in the scope of the grind, ie there’s content for something like <1% of the number of times an action is designed to be repeated, so very quickly the game devolves into you spamming buttons to make numbers go up instead of reading because it’s just the same thing repeated ad nauseam 3 minutes after you first encounter an action.
And that’s the problem, the scope of the game isn’t going to change, and I have absolutely no hope that the content is ever going to increase enough to alleviate the issue.
That sort of thing can be fun when the player actually has to do things through personal skill and/or the game actually reacts to you and poses a challenge, but MoR is basically a resource management excel sheet with a graphical UI. Nothing actually happens unless you click on a button that makes it happen, there’s no consequence to anything you do, the combat (when you click a button to make it happen) is just clicking attack on the guy with the strongest gun, there’s no tactics, no strategy, nothing. The economy is just selling whatever you picked up, the slave training is just dicking them down until they love you (unless for some reason you made the player character in a porn game really bad at sex), the quests are linear and might as well just be reduced to stories you read through with how much agency you have, etc.
The dev based the game on a day to day dealings over the scope of literal years, it seems, with no hope of ever building up the content to match.
I’m not shitting on the game or dev, like I said, I give the guy $25 (which is way, way too much money objectively, given the game probably shouldn’t cost that as a one time payment), but a full size studio would take many years to make a game this is attempting to be.
 
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Gunner Rey

Well-Known Member
Aug 15, 2018
1,065
933
I get it, but you can set the tone pretty early on with most of the other slaves. Imagine if they make another god of war and Kratos's wife isn't dead. Just doesn't feel right. My main character would never say ' I will help you'.
You want an option like there is for Juno to just claim her on the spot and damn the consequences?

I get that.
 

Gunner Rey

Well-Known Member
Aug 15, 2018
1,065
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It's a very good sign for a game when this high on my list of complaints.
I wouldn't be surprised if Grimdark added something like that. He added the possibility of selling her back to Old Cooney not that long ago. I'd never do that, but I did like reading what Michelle's punishment was going to be. Funny thing is she gets pretty much the same from me, I'm just nicer about it....
 

lxrt56

New Member
Apr 14, 2023
11
27
I don’t have a problem with the grind itself, but the content is abysmally minuscule in the scope of the grind, ie there’s content for something like <1% of the number of times an action is designed to be repeated, so very quickly the game devolves into you spamming buttons to make numbers go up instead of reading because it’s just the same thing repeated ad nauseam 3 minutes after you first encounter an action.
And that’s the problem, the scope of the game isn’t going to change, and I have absolutely no hope that the content is ever going to increase enough to alleviate the issue.
That sort of thing can be fun when the player actually has to do things through personal skill and/or the game actually reacts to you and poses a challenge, but MoR is basically a resource management excel sheet with a graphical UI. Nothing actually happens unless you click on a button that makes it happen, there’s no consequence to anything you do, the combat (when you click a button to make it happen) is just clicking attack on the guy with the strongest gun, there’s no tactics, no strategy, nothing. The economy is just selling whatever you picked up, the slave training is just dicking them down until they love you (unless for some reason you made the player character in a porn game really bad at sex), the quests are linear and might as well just be reduced to stories you read through with how much agency you have, etc.
The dev based the game on a day to day dealings over the scope of literal years, it seems, with no hope of ever building up the content to match.
I’m not shitting on the game or dev, like I said, I give the guy $25 (which is way, way too much money objectively, given the game probably shouldn’t cost that as a one time payment), but a full size studio would take many years to make a game this is attempting to be.
Thanks for a detailed reply, I totally agree with you.
 

Gojii

Active Member
Oct 29, 2019
904
1,305
I wouldn't be surprised if Grimdark added something like that. He added the possibility of selling her back to Old Cooney not that long ago. I'd never do that, but I did like reading what Michelle's punishment was going to be. Funny thing is she gets pretty much the same from me, I'm just nicer about it....
On that content, could make it so if you are high enough in some stats (Charm, Manipulate/Willpower even?) you get the option to do so and claim her right away.
 

Gunner Rey

Well-Known Member
Aug 15, 2018
1,065
933
On that content, could make it so if you are high enough in some stats (Charm, Manipulate/Willpower even?) you get the option to do so and claim her right away.
Essentially all you have to do now is show up at her apartment and she's yours, regardless of stats. I gathered that Tarzan wanted an option akin to grabbing her by that cute little ponytail and saying 'this one's mine now' as opposed to saying 'I'll help you.' You can do something of the kind to Juno, you just get a happiness/affection penalty from it.
 

czertik

Active Member
Apr 25, 2018
822
263
it is here feature for merchants to replenis thiers inventory ? i hate it when i see top ammo gets more and more expensive at certain trader, with stocks depleting, without any new ammo so far. thats mean at some point in game, you will simply run out of ammo.
 

Gojii

Active Member
Oct 29, 2019
904
1,305
Essentially all you have to do now is show up at her apartment and she's yours, regardless of stats. I gathered that Tarzan wanted an option akin to grabbing her by that cute little ponytail and saying 'this one's mine now' as opposed to saying 'I'll help you.' You can do something of the kind to Juno, you just get a happiness/affection penalty from it.
Oh I'm aware. Been playing the 814 version.

My main gripe with the game is how tedious and mediocre the combat is. I grinded repeatedly the combat and it makes virtually zero difference in your damage output. Did a save edit to move stats to 80s+ and gun skill once a realized it went over 255 edited to like 900s and theres virtually zero difference in damage output being proficient in weapons. You can use the energy gun or coilgun and still need two hits most times to kill the weakest mobs. Its deadfully bad, let alone trying to kill the monsters at that random river outpost.

Idk, like if youre going to have the combat system at all, at least make it not garbage? Its hardly even worth killing mobs as what you get in drops/money rarely even makes up for expenses in ammo, if not an outright loss.

Like I havent gone deep into the slaving questlines, but is there even anything to DO aside that? The area outside the city just goes to that deadend river outpost. For all the lore chatter about the war and factions it seems like they arent even there at all aside from fluff reasons.

Or do I need to progress that plotline to be able to visit the other kingdom and the space station place? The prostitute gives you that key or whatever, but idk if that even goes any further than that. Feels like the brother questline is pretty important, but its hidden via the 814 version that was posted here.

Its a bit frustrating how a generic raider needs two three shots with the supposed best weapons to go down tbh even with max stats. Major oversight in my opinion that grinding has minimal if any benefits.
 

Gunner Rey

Well-Known Member
Aug 15, 2018
1,065
933
Oh I'm aware. Been playing the 814 version.

My main gripe with the game is how tedious and mediocre the combat is. I grinded repeatedly the combat and it makes virtually zero difference in your damage output. Did a save edit to move stats to 80s+ and gun skill once a realized it went over 255 edited to like 900s and theres virtually zero difference in damage output being proficient in weapons. You can use the energy gun or coilgun and still need two hits most times to kill the weakest mobs. Its deadfully bad, let alone trying to kill the monsters at that random river outpost.

Idk, like if youre going to have the combat system at all, at least make it not garbage? Its hardly even worth killing mobs as what you get in drops/money rarely even makes up for expenses in ammo, if not an outright loss.

Like I havent gone deep into the slaving questlines, but is there even anything to DO aside that? The area outside the city just goes to that deadend river outpost. For all the lore chatter about the war and factions it seems like they arent even there at all aside from fluff reasons.

Or do I need to progress that plotline to be able to visit the other kingdom and the space station place? The prostitute gives you that key or whatever, but idk if that even goes any further than that. Feels like the brother questline is pretty important, but its hidden via the 814 version that was posted here.

Its a bit frustrating how a generic raider needs two three shots with the supposed best weapons to go down tbh even with max stats. Major oversight in my opinion that grinding has minimal if any benefits.
Note the date of this post from the Discord:

GrimDark06/03/2022 8:24 AM
Version 0.8.3 - Combat revamp. Implement combat AI, states, special attacks, AOE weapons, etc

A combat update is coming, it's been planned for nearly a year or so. I'm sure suggestions here or the Discord are welcome.

If you're not making money on combat now you've not mastered the system. There's also strategic considerations so you do ensure your booty surpasses your ammo (and merc salary) costs.

The game is still a work in progress. Currently the focus was on catching up on slavegirl renders, he's almost finished with that. When I started playing regularly late last summer only Lovisa, Juno, Aria and Michelle had much in the way of sex renders.
 

Gojii

Active Member
Oct 29, 2019
904
1,305
Note the date of this post from the Discord:

GrimDark06/03/2022 8:24 AM
Version 0.8.3 - Combat revamp. Implement combat AI, states, special attacks, AOE weapons, etc

A combat update is coming, it's been planned for nearly a year or so. I'm sure suggestions here or the Discord are welcome.

If you're not making money on combat now you've not mastered the system. There's also strategic considerations so you do ensure your booty surpasses your ammo (and merc salary) costs.

The game is still a work in progress. Currently the focus was on catching up on slavegirl renders, he's almost finished with that. When I started playing regularly late last summer only Lovisa, Juno, Aria and Michelle had much in the way of sex renders.
I'm assuredly exaggerating (sitting on a few dozen thousand atm in the file from repeatedly wiping the enemies that pop up in the base, and selling weapons at the river outpost), but you're basically forced to use the weaker guns (30-06/assault rifle), as the two higher ones (coilgun and the energy weapon) rounds are disproportionately expensive compared to a marginal increase in damage they deal to just normal mobs in the city. If any thing should change its the increase in damage the main character is dealing when combat proficiencies are in the hundreds. I shouldnt have to waste two rounds with the "best" weapons in the game on any of the guys using crossbows with supposedly minimal armor.

If the player is more or less max stats, given all the effort you ordinarily would have to go through, and fighting just the regular mobs in the city are a slog..... Should be SOME disparity that rewards all the grinding you do. I got to like 600 or so with the longguns/rifle proficiency or whatever before i even cheesed the save.

I think if you manage to beat those beasties in the woods of that island outpost there should be a better reward. Now don't get me wrong, things like the hunting and the like seem to be very useful.
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4.50 star(s) 117 Votes