HTML Completed Mercanoid [v1.0.8] [Pyksies]

[Sabine Kline]

Looks good, I need to check this out!

I remember playing one of your Quest games on TextAdventures, The Flesh Cavern, way way back. Inspired me to make my own games on there under JenniferKline, though I never fully fleshed them out and finished them. Looking back, they're really rough. Recently got back into making stuff, though using Inform and Unity over Quest - and checked out my old games and The Flesh Cavern on a nostalgic whim and saw your recent update. Good to see you're still going strong!

 

[Pyksies]

Looks good, I need to check this out!

I remember playing one of your Quest games on TextAdventures, The Flesh Cavern, way way back. Inspired me to make my own games on there under JenniferKline, though I never fully fleshed them out and finished them. Looking back, they're really rough. Recently got back into making stuff, though using Inform and Unity over Quest - and checked out my old games and The Flesh Cavern on a nostalgic whim and saw your recent update. Good to see you're still going strong!

Always love to hear people interested in making their own stuff! I know you said you're using Inform and Unity, but if you're ever interested in Twine - which MERCANOID is made in - I highly recommend this

You must be registered to see the links

 

[Sabine Kline]

Always love to hear people interested in making their own stuff! I know you said you're using Inform and Unity, but if you're ever interested in Twine - which MERCANOID is made in - I highly recommend this

You must be registered to see the links

Oh, it's Twine? I tried out Mercanoid (very good) and was wondering how you managed to do that minimap navigation system. It's very nice. I prefer it compared to most text games, like the map setup in the Trials in Tainted Space rework. It's more visually pleasing and cleaner.

I've not touched Twine in a very, very long time, I think I gave it a spin just before I started with Quest. I'll try out Twine, though I might need to find a way to download this Sugarcube guide. Every browser-based game on Itch gives me a "No valid storage adapters found" fatal error, though it might just be my VPN or something. Thanks for the recommendation!

 

[Pyksies]

Oh, it's Twine? I tried out Mercanoid (very good) and was wondering how you managed to do that minimap navigation system. It's very nice. I prefer it compared to most text games, like the map setup in the Trials in Tainted Space rework. It's more visually pleasing and cleaner.

I've not touched Twine in a very, very long time, I think I gave it a spin just before I started with Quest. I'll try out Twine, though I might need to find a way to download this Sugarcube guide. Every browser-based game on Itch gives me a "No valid storage adapters found" fatal error, though it might just be my VPN or something. Thanks for the recommendation!

'No valid storage adapters found' is a problem with privacy-focused browsers or aggressive privacy/cookie settings. It's because the game has no access to store little bits of data it needs to work with. Needs whitelisting, basically.

And mm! All Twine. The map is pretty simple, it's a PNG built on a grid template (48px or 24px), then the markers are placed and positioned with a little bit of CSS, which I've since updated in the framework to be calculated through a function - I just tell it, say, '3' and '6' for moving to tile 3-6.

 

[W@rden239]

is there any hucow content in this game?

 

[Pyksies]

No, but I wrote a CYOA called 'Milking It' along those lines that was posted earlier in the topic.

 

[Devastator325]

Just finished the good ending, and I'm thoroughly pleased with how fun the game was, the writing was very competent and catered to a lot of the fetishes I enjoy. I found myself wanting to engage with the mechanics more, heavily enjoying the level up and weapon modification system.

My only big 'complaint' simply comes down to the scope of the game, I believe you mentioned this was somewhat of a proof of concept and framework, so I can understand why this wasn't a part of Mercanoid, but I would've loved there to be more sex scenes and interactions with the NPCs after you save them. I found all of them interesting and many of them endearing, so in future projects having some more interaction with those types of characters would be amazing.

I have a few minor nitpicks, but it didn't really detract from my overall enjoyment, I'll still list them for feedback.

Spoiler: (Plot Spoilers)

You don't have permission to view the spoiler content. Log in or register now.

I wanted to specifically praise your worldbuilding as well, the setting of Mercanoid was very interesting to me, and while I was initially worried at all the terms that were being thrown around, the discovery of the codex allowed me to clear up any confusion, and to dive deeper into the lore, though I most enjoyed hearing about such things from the characters you saved.

I'll certainly be keeping an eye on your future works, thank you for making such an enjoyable experience.

 

[Pyksies]

I'm glad you enjoyed the game! Thank you for the feedback. ♥

 

[coshbar]

Nice game, but the level settings arent working

 

[Zzyzx]

I have tried to reproduce the bug, but for better or worse, didn't manage it. Either it's just a too specific accursed set of actions for me to just find again or my browser just decided to do an oopsies back then.

What I did find out during bughunt though is that the encounter rate option is incredibly unintuitive. I remembered that putting it to 0 stopped encounters and did for a bit of testing and so when i wanted to have a few for testing, i thought increasing it one step up from none would put in minimal encounters not maximum. I would recommend to change it so that you go from 0 to minimum encounters and not maximum if possible. Why does a bigger encounter rate number make encounters do go down even in the first place?

For future games some more clarity for how the combat exactly works would be nice. The numbers for like double tap with "Fire twice at -2/-4 Acc" is nice, but as player i find it hard to gauge what it does to my my chance to hit since it don't know how it's calculated. It could be like in DnD a roll of a d20 + my boni - my mali against the dodge of my enemy but it might also be a d40, without knowing the numbers aren't as useful as i would like them to be. I get if you want to obfuscate what exactly is rolled and calculated during combat for immersion, cleanness of the ui or something else but it would be nice if somewhere would be an explanation to how things exactly works in combat, for those that are interested.
Also what does Adv Range do for example? I think the torch kanabo is the only weapon that even does have it but i have not the slightest idea what it does.

While probably quite a bit of time investement a kind of bestiarium, where things you learned about enemies like weakness, resistances etc would be nice. Maybe also with the function of refighting them for fun, which would be especially interesting for unique encounters (ideally with things like their intros etc) as quite some writing went into them i imagine and having to juggle saves to refight is a bit of a hassle.

Also something rather minor, weapons have a stat called Def thats just the same as armor as far as i can tell and should probably be just merged into one term for clarity.

While for mercanoid it's rather unlikely that you screw yourself with a build that just get dunked on but for future, possibly bigger/longer games, what's your opinion on reskills?

(Also had a slight panic when i thought i accidentaly lost the almost complete post, getting things as concise as i want them as a non native speaker is already enough work lol)

Cheers

Nice game, but the level settings arent working

What do you exactly mean with that? The level cap option? That does work and prevents you from leveling before reaching certain story milestones but there is even if it is disabled a hardcap at level 10, which might be not clear enough (Edit: yes i also might have thought with the level cap option disabled it would be a possibilty to level to like level 100 with the only obstacle being my time and my sanity, before actually hitting level 10 lol)

 

[Dontfollowmeman]

Can Save the Screwed actually be completed or is that just to guide people to the good ending

 

[Zzyzx]

Can Save the Screwed actually be completed or is that just to guide people to the good ending

There are 12 people you need to save to complete the quest.

 

[Dontfollowmeman]

There are 12 people you need to save to complete the quest.

Then I'm missing someone but I don't know who

Spoiler: I've saved 11 people by my count

You don't have permission to view the spoiler content. Log in or register now.

and I'm pretty sure I've searched everything? Who's missing from that?

 

[Zzyzx]

Then I'm missing someone but I don't know who

Spoiler: I've saved 11 people by my count

You don't have permission to view the spoiler content. Log in or register now.

and I'm pretty sure I've searched everything? Who's missing from that?

Meh is missing in that list, she is in the top left chamber of the monster pens. From all the people for the quest she's a bit of an oddball since she's the only one you have to convince to go to the safe room.

Spoiler: To convince her

You don't have permission to view the spoiler content. Log in or register now.

 

[Kyrozoki]

Just wanted to say, this game was great. Better than some short novels I've read in the past.

The care you took in writing scenes well, descriptions of both characters and environments, the smooth gameplay with no discernable bugs, it's all extremely well done.

In fact, the characters are all quite well written, I hope to see them possibly in future games/additional lore!

(Though it's unfortunate that Mio doesn't have any scenes with 'Code Moo', haha)

Thanks for posting this!

(Also, while I didn't use it, I appreciate your consideration for content filters & warnings. I feel like more erotic games should incorporate this, or make it explicit that certain elements will be prevalent across the entire game/story)

 

[James The Mighty]

I'm the kind of freak who says he plays porn games for the story, so while I can't comment much on the sexual content thanks to not really enjoying Tentacles, even I'm impressed by how smartly the game handles the scenes, not only by giving content filters, but giving you the scenes if you pass the hazard, and even more incredibly the fantasize menu gives a rundown of fetish content in each scene as well, it's shocking how courteous the game is about helping players see the content they want (and avoid what they don't). the rest of the game follows a similar trend of being so polished you could eat off it (not that I'd suggest using twine for a dinnerplate) with the minimap and UI being properly responsive and looking sleek, the combat is designed funnily enough to really encourage you to really throw everything at the wall and not just mindless attacking, plus the way glow and flow works means I have justification for throwing out my strongest moves first is always funny. As for writing and story, I kinda regret skipping the intro, since some context is lost on me, but not enough to get in the way at all, and the world and characters written here are fascinating, from the almost paradoxical feeling of "consent and safety first" behind the company's actions, even if a large part of that comes from the product descriptions you'll only find by examining enemies, to that fascinating new term "buildborn" you use for robotic characters, I still don't think I understand what it means but it's basically the term for an artificial lifeform that's achieved sentience/sapience if I'm reading it right, all these many threads to write up and I'm enthralled to see what can be done with them.

Absolutely insanely great work, though it did feel a little small at times, but when everyone's main complaint is "we want more" that's your proof you put out a damn fine work.

 

[Jef76]

I'm the kind of freak who says he plays porn games for the story, so while I can't comment much on the sexual content thanks to not really enjoying Tentacles, even I'm impressed by how smartly the game handles the scenes, not only by giving content filters, but giving you the scenes if you pass the hazard, and even more incredibly the fantasize menu gives a rundown of fetish content in each scene as well, it's shocking how courteous the game is about helping players see the content they want (and avoid what they don't). the rest of the game follows a similar trend of being so polished you could eat off it (not that I'd suggest using twine for a dinnerplate) with the minimap and UI being properly responsive and looking sleek, the combat is designed funnily enough to really encourage you to really throw everything at the wall and not just mindless attacking, plus the way glow and flow works means I have justification for throwing out my strongest moves first is always funny. As for writing and story, I kinda regret skipping the intro, since some context is lost on me, but not enough to get in the way at all, and the world and characters written here are fascinating, from the almost paradoxical feeling of "consent and safety first" behind the company's actions, even if a large part of that comes from the product descriptions you'll only find by examining enemies, to that fascinating new term "buildborn" you use for robotic characters, I still don't think I understand what it means but it's basically the term for an artificial lifeform that's achieved sentience/sapience if I'm reading it right, all these many threads to write up and I'm enthralled to see what can be done with them.

Absolutely insanely great work, though it did feel a little small at times, but when everyone's main complaint is "we want more" that's your proof you put out a damn fine work.

I love the term “buildborn”, I can’t remember the exact line but the buildborn rights lady explains it in the intro I believe if you watch the recording B4B3 has for you. They were built, then born when they achieved sentience.

One of the things that really endeared me to the characters is when they say “ah, you must be buildborn” to Mio, and their reactions to her when she says she’s not. They react with such empathy. i think it’s nice.

It’s also funny when that one lady calls her bimbot (and hot? for some reason)

 

[James The Mighty]

oh goddamnit the mystery behind the term buildborn was a little element that nagged at me the whole game trying to understand what exactly it means, of course it gets explained the one time i skip the intro
and yeah that sneerz lady was kinda amusing i'll admit. would've loved to fight with her (either as partners or opponents)

 

[Thriceborn]

As a person going through a rough patch right now, Mercanoid brightened my week.

• Mio: a fantastic and well written original protagonist. I fell in love with her straight away, and started to try to build her in Pathfinder for fun
• Writing: really well written. Your descriptions are vivid, interesting, and when needed, sexy. But what I loved the most was how well you were able to write emotions. I could visualize attitudes, reactions, blushes, frustrations, etc.
• Combat: easy and fun, made me regret not playing on Hard mode. I enjoyed trying the different weapons.
• Map: small but great. Lots of interesting locations. I felt nervous when I went into a few of them because of the buildup and written details.
• NPCs: a nice mix of character and personalities. I enjoyed them all, some more than others but I think you hit on a lot of different types there. Visually, most of them were not my type, but I loved how they each interacted differently with Mio
• Monsters: nice and well written, a tad too easy. I got one game over going through the game against a boss.
• Sex scenes: I avoided them really as I did not like loosing, and I roleplayed Mio as pretending to not be interested.
• Final battle: loved it, the scene, the interactions, the combat. It had a super anime vibe to it. But what I loved even more was the scene after that. It was very sweet for a sex scene
• Epilogue: got the good ending and I loved it. Was wonderful. Made me feel all gooey inside.
• Mio is now one of my fav characters in years

Wish there was more like everyone else, but I love that you brought out a finished game for your own satisfaction and pleasure. Great job.
I hope you make more; you are obviously very talented.

 

[James The Mighty]

y'know, just one little question since this is getting my inner gremlin acting up
I love modding the weapons, if only for how much fun the descriptions for some of them are (looking at you smartlink integration for the zapper)
what i wanna know is, where can i get more bits for modding them? I wanna completely overhaul my aresenal but i'm cripplingly low on bits, made only more painful looking at bio right next to it, and i've got 80 of that but only 10 bits.