AgentsOfHeels

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Game Developer
Jul 8, 2017
235
384
Game seems nice, however i don't get it how to play it safe ... tried about 10 times every time game ends with about 98-97k debt to pay...
Tried to change characters stats via Cheat Engine - and it works, but somehow some dialogues are blocked or skipped this way.
Tried to change debt to pay via CE and guess what ? game does not end :) game still goes even if you have -0 debt to pay

How deep is that story? i could manage to spawn strip/ car wash/ handjob event, also i could spy but that's all what i found...

Is there more?
Game is still in development, end "win" condition is not yet implemented and its impossible to get to 0 debt without cheats; thats why we havent implemented it yet. I think youve seen most of it if not all; i hope you managed to do it without cheats; but anyway you did it. Game ends after a number of days for now cause we dont know if we will implement fixed events on the future that have to happen at a certain day and we cannpt have players there (for example: at day 30 if debt is higher than whatever something happens).
 
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AMUR48

Active Member
Jun 24, 2018
798
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Game is still in development, end "win" condition is not yet implemented and its impossible to get to 0 debt without cheats; thats why we havent implemented it yet. I think youve seen most of it if not all; i hope you managed to do it without cheats; but anyway you did it. Game ends after a number of days for now cause we dont know if we will implement fixed events on the future that have to happen at a certain day and we cannpt have players there (for example: at day 30 if debt is higher than whatever something happens).
you have great characters, but I don't understand why you have so few rounds, maybe because of unity? Or maybe because of the engine mechanics ?? maybe it's just someone who doesn't want to play, but wants a scene right away ??? I don't know, but your characters are very good, I don't insist, but maybe you will try even on the block to do something temporary, not a sandbox, but so how is it there? what do you think ?? consult with your friend, because the timestamps also did not get it, then there was an income, I write through a translator
 

sbarabaus

Member
Dec 29, 2017
293
262
We said it several times already... theres a document inside the game folder with all the shortcuts to the stuff possible inside the game. Just Read it.

This was indeed fixed and you can now toggle that effect with T key on and off.

here, some moderator please put this on the top post:


VN Mode
- 'H' now toggles the hide feature
- 'S' now toggles the skip feature
- 'A' now toggles the auto-read feature
- 'T' now toggles the typewriter effect feature (thats the timed text reveal effect)
- 'L' now allows you to Leap, ie skip, a whole scene in its entirity (or to the next choice).
Doesn't effect the Management outcomes, use the Simulate Button for that.
- 'Backspace' moves the Text back one panel, as far back a the start of the current scene
- Both 'Enter'/'Return' and 'Space' move the Text forward one panel.
Unlike the left click which needs to be hovered over the Text area to register, these key presses work anywhere.
- 'Left Control' aka 'Ctrl' can now be used to activate a Fast Skip feature for as long as you hold down the key.
This is feature can only be used when in normal mode (not skip or auto-read). It is 4x faster than regular skip
Shouldn't you just show these options somewhere in the game?
 

AgentsOfHeels

Member
Game Developer
Jul 8, 2017
235
384
you have great characters, but I don't understand why you have so few rounds, maybe because of unity? Or maybe because of the engine mechanics ?? maybe it's just someone who doesn't want to play, but wants a scene right away ??? I don't know, but your characters are very good, I don't insist, but maybe you will try even on the block to do something temporary, not a sandbox, but so how is it there? what do you think ?? consult with your friend, because the timestamps also did not get it, then there was an income, I write through a translator
What i canpiece together by what you said is that you think the issue comes from having a gameplay at all and that our game would appeal to a bigger audience if it was just a simple plain visual novel. Sure, that might be true but our curse is that we like making games. We take risks and try and make something appealing while still having the sensation that the player is actually playing something; not just choosing "Yes!" to all sex scenes and be done... theres porn for years over the internet that already fulfils that role.

We might not have nailed down the gameplay just yet, but i think we can make something pretty cool happen with the core we have if we keep updating it and tuning it based on requests.

AoH was an ambitious project too when it started, had some gameplay behind it, had some weird format noone was using (comic display) and it still needs more improving for sure, but i think its original and fresh. If we all fall under the "easy" visual novel category, noone isgonna push the industry to the next level and it will eventually fall boring.

We have this curse/gift that we both were videogames programmers before we started with this and i think we owe it to ourselves to make something unique, great and ground-breaking. Maybe it's still a long way to go but we learn everyday by trying, so everything we do from this point onwards both to our current games and future will only be improvements thanks to those failures we have tried.
 

Alfius

Engaged Member
Modder
Sep 30, 2017
2,330
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She comes to see Noe after the street party and the scene with Brad in the kitchen after. The only prerequisite on her is the story and the debt being down around about $99,600 or so. Hold it below that and you'll get her. I'd suggest avoiding too many stat boosts early on until you get her, and if you can keep your stress for Noe around 60-80%, using the Park or TV Binging will reduced it enough to keep earning.

Hopefully that helps until we get a fresh round of balance on the gameplay in v0.6.
I had the street Party, We had some fun in the kitchen. My Money is on 98930, I'm already on Month 3 Day 20
So I'm panicking....:(

No Frankie, No Kelsey.... My stats are OK and I feel like I'm getting the upper hand against Sal. My Stats are better then him...Although when I re-loaded, his stats jumped back to 80%??

I don't like playing with a walkthrough, but it seems with this game I have to!?
 

Alfius

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Modder
Sep 30, 2017
2,330
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I'm a bit Anoyed with the game. I want to love it.

I loved the backstories, I love the graphics, I love the restaurant simulation... BUT

The time limit kills it for me. The worst part is that it seems like if you don't do certain things in certain orders, you just miss out on content. I was looking forward to having Frankie on my team, but I'm already deep into month 3 and she still have not showed up and Kelsey is still to come...I don't want to play with them for less then one month?

I dont mind some Time sensitive targets...like you have to make X Amount by month 4 otherwise you go bankrupt or something. This is like the LOP Games... Nice graphics, but eventually It was too much hassle to play them and I just stopped playing them.

So on a positive note, I love everything about the game, but it seems like if you are not using a walkthrough, you can miss some critical waypoints (Like me not getting Frankie yet)
I'm gonna try again, this time with a walkthrough, but it really detracts from a game for me, if you need a walkthrough.
 
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AgentsOfHeels

Member
Game Developer
Jul 8, 2017
235
384
I'm a bit Anoyed with the game. I want to love it.

I loved the backstories, I love the graphics, I love the restaurant simulation... BUT

The time limit kills it for me. The worst part is that it seems like if you don't do certain things in certain orders, you just miss out on content. I was looking forward to having Frankie on my team, but I'm already deep into month 3 and she still have not showed up and Kelsey is still to come...I don't want to play with them for less then one month?

I dont mind some Time sensitive targets...like you have to make X Amount by month 4 otherwise you go bankrupt or something. This is like the LOP Games... Nice graphics, but eventually It was too much hassle to play them and I just stopped playing them.

So on a positive note, I love everything about the game, but it seems like if you are not using a walkthrough, you can miss some critical waypoints (Like me not getting Frankie yet)
I'm gonna try again, this time with a walkthrough, but it really detracts from a game for me, if you need a walkthrough.
Dont worry; time limitations are meant to change in future versions. As we go through development we need to keep our players (the ones like you that are playing it during development) checked, so we know where and when we can put events. If we dont limit the playable time during development we will have people at day 15 and people at day 451 and it will be impossible for us to know a good pase for the game since feedback is corrupted (i dont know if i explain myself well, but basically is a way of keeping every player under a "safe space" we can manage and grow.

On future updates and obviously when the game is over you wont have that pressure that youre running against time that much since the timed events as you mention will have found its place in the game.

TLDR: We know for now it's tight to get the 4 playable characters and play with them for a while, but dont worry, thatll change in future versions as more content is added and time restrictions are wider.
 
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Alfius

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Dont worry; time limitations are meant to change in future versions. As we go through development we need to keep our players (the ones like you that are playing it during development) checked, so we know where and when we can put events. If we dont limit the playable time during development we will have people at day 15 and people at day 451 and it will be impossible for us to know a good pase for the game since feedback is corrupted (i dont know if i explain myself well, but basically is a way of keeping every player under a "safe space" we can manage and grow.

On future updates and obviously when the game is over you wont have that pressure that youre running against time that much since the timed events as you mention will have found its place in the game.

TLDR: We know for now it's tight to get the 4 playable characters and play with them for a while, but dont worry, thatll change in future versions as more content is added and time restrictions are wider.
Thank you for the reply...

With regards to Frankie...On my first (now discarded) playthrough Sal did not show up after the street party.
I suspect that some condition were not met to trigger that. The downside is that Frankie is now also not introduced in the game. So I was 3 months into the game and no Frankie.

I now did a second playthrough and Sal showed up, and Frankie showed up a week later...unlike my first playthrough.
 
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RedGlow

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Aug 5, 2016
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Hi guys, i see some of you are having troubles with gameplay here. I would like to share a little bir of my experiance.

First of all, never use cheats!. They block you to see many of the contents. It's quite easy to manage without cheats anyway.
My second advice would be that never use "aggresive mode on waitress job" It always ends bad at least for me.

To destroy Sal's restaurant, go passive for a while after you got Kriem, use her on promotion job with shield. This will get you earn some points.However, the real deal starts when you are closer to Sal because then he will start attacking you so check on him almost everyday. You can go aggressive mode on promotion job time to time but i found it useless as well. Just use shield when he is trying to set you up and it will destroy his business while increasing yours. I ended up with 5 stars while Sal got 0 at the end of update.

As for contents, first of all, there is no ntr in this game tbh. It is cheating since we are playing female MC. But it would be if we see things from Brad's perspective. You can follow WT but it is quite easy to open every scene with only 2 playthrough. Play as a loyal future wife to see Brad's scenes (romance points needed) or play as a competitive girl who can't handle loses and see Back's scenes (Brad's best budy + competitive points will be needed). There are other minor events as well like spying Sal or catching your old waitress with a man etc.

Alfius , yes, triggering events are a little tricky and i think they need re-work or at least money requirement should be removed. I had those problems early on while trying to figure it out. Some events never happened. For example, washing beck's car never happened or last waitress Keasley? (forgot her name) never showed up. But it is good game overall.
 

Alfius

Engaged Member
Modder
Sep 30, 2017
2,330
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Hi guys, i see some of you are having troubles with gameplay here. I would like to share a little bir of my experiance.

First of all, never use cheats!. They block you to see many of the contents. It's quite easy to manage without cheats anyway.
My second advice would be that never use "aggresive mode on waitress job" It always ends bad at least for me.

To destroy Sal's restaurant, go passive for a while after you got Kriem, use her on promotion job with shield. This will get you earn some points.However, the real deal starts when you are closer to Sal because then he will start attacking you so check on him almost everyday. You can go aggressive mode on promotion job time to time but i found it useless as well. Just use shield when he is trying to set you up and it will destroy his business while increasing yours. I ended up with 5 stars while Sal got 0 at the end of update.

As for contents, first of all, there is no ntr in this game tbh. It is cheating since we are playing female MC. But it would be if we see things from Brad's perspective. You can follow WT but it is quite easy to open every scene with only 2 playthrough. Play as a loyal future wife to see Brad's scenes (romance points needed) or play as a competitive girl who can't handle loses and see Back's scenes (Brad's best budy + competitive points will be needed). There are other minor events as well like spying Sal or catching your old waitress with a man etc.

Alfius , yes, triggering events are a little tricky and i think they need re-work or at least money requirement should be removed. I had those problems early on while trying to figure it out. Some events never happened. For example, washing beck's car never happened or last waitress Keasley? (forgot her name) never showed up. But it is good game overall.
Yes, Everything worked much better on second playthrough... I left the poker games to late to get the very last Beck scene.

The game for me is a diamond in the rough... I loved the origins kinetic novels. (I see them as part of the game.)
I love every single character in the game...OK love to hate Sal.

I love the restaurant simulation, but I'm not sure if it's a feature or bug that Frankie did not show up in my first playthrough.
Someone less enthusiastic about the game than me, might have dropped it at that stage. You are basically missing 1/2 of your main cast for the whole game. (like Playing Witcher 3 without Yennefer or Tris)

If it's a bug, then I recommend them fixing it. If it's a feature, then I think it is maybe not a good feature. Only my opinion of course.

TLDR; Loved the game after my second playthrough, but fist playthrough felt like playing only part of the story... I knew these 2 characters must join the story...but they never do. So my first playthrough was not that enjoyable and did not leave a good first impression.
 

BeWilder

Member
Game Developer
Jan 18, 2018
488
1,179
Thank you for the reply...

With regards to Frankie...On my first (now discarded) playthrough Sal did not show up after the street party.
I suspect that some condition were not met to trigger that. The downside is that Frankie is now also not introduced in the game. So I was 3 months into the game and no Frankie.

I now did a second playthrough and Sal showed up, and Frankie showed up a week later...unlike my first playthrough.
Hey there Alfius! Firstly, before I go getting into one of my long point-by-point posts, I've seen the comments and reviews you've left on all the origin story Mini-VNs we've put out. Cheers for the kind words and feedback! Glad you enjoyed it all so.

To the points in your first post and reply, if I may...

Yes indeed, Frankie should have showed up by now for you. It is clearly a bug and an issue, but nothing on our side of the line shows it to be an obvious problem in the triggering, which is why we've asked a few folks here to give us some more detailed situation reports. You are actually the first to do so (unprompted even, yay!), so we might just get to the bottom of it yet. Perhaps if you're up for it, we can get some added heads up from you should we need it? Seems like with what you've posted above as your stats and the fact Sal didn't show up might just be what we need to get a better look at where the trip is. Let's see!

To the point on the timer, and needing a walkthrough... We make one for those that want it, but you are right that you shouldn't need it. Context in game and some of the info menus should be all a keen player needs. Unshi already covered the timer pretty much, but I'll also add that it's there to make sure players don't play far beyond the point where they are out of sync with the pace of the story. For example, you could play until Month 20 if you wanted, get debt down to near 0, and essentially mess up the flow of the game and scene openings after that... for no real reason since the more Gameplay Manager outcomes we add the easier is to clear that debt anyway. Suffice it to say, the more versions we rack up on the game, the less that time window should be an issue and by the end it shouldn't be mush of a barrier (if it's even there anymore). Still, good that we know how people feel on it.

To the next piece, onward!

Hi guys, i see some of you are having troubles with gameplay here. I would like to share a little bir of my experiance.

First of all, never use cheats!. They block you to see many of the contents. It's quite easy to manage without cheats anyway.
My second advice would be that never use "aggresive mode on waitress job" It always ends bad at least for me.

To destroy Sal's restaurant, go passive for a while after you got Kriem, use her on promotion job with shield. This will get you earn some points.However, the real deal starts when you are closer to Sal because then he will start attacking you so check on him almost everyday. You can go aggressive mode on promotion job time to time but i found it useless as well. Just use shield when he is trying to set you up and it will destroy his business while increasing yours. I ended up with 5 stars while Sal got 0 at the end of update.

As for contents, first of all, there is no ntr in this game tbh. It is cheating since we are playing female MC. But it would be if we see things from Brad's perspective. You can follow WT but it is quite easy to open every scene with only 2 playthrough. Play as a loyal future wife to see Brad's scenes (romance points needed) or play as a competitive girl who can't handle loses and see Back's scenes (Brad's best budy + competitive points will be needed). There are other minor events as well like spying Sal or catching your old waitress with a man etc.

Alfius , yes, triggering events are a little tricky and i think they need re-work or at least money requirement should be removed. I had those problems early on while trying to figure it out. Some events never happened. For example, washing beck's car never happened or last waitress Keasley? (forgot her name) never showed up. But it is good game overall.
Hello there too MWeb! What have you got for us here?

Firstly, yes you're right, no cheats! Not that we mean to be preachy, it's just you shouldn't need them really. I think it's worth noting that the reason Downtime Options are removed is not because of cheating, its that people are obviously setting them higher than the max values, so the auto close is kicking in. That's there to stop players who get stats to the max wasting their days off on unneeded activity and also to keep the values within the ranges we're set to handle without errors... and yes, jumping stats will make you miss content like that since they are stat value reliant, once more of the content is added over time of course.

The waitress Proactive (aggressive) should be helpful in fact, but being proactive will reduce your Rep since it basically means be a bit more of a slut for money in front of the community. We'll see more of that as more Outcomes are added as well. I figured that's worth a noting is all.

As for the gameplay, you've got one of the better strategies nailed down well it seems, kudos! Worth giving try if people are stuck and such. You're right in that the higher your rep, the more Sal will have to take you down than spend time boosting himself, and the lower his rep, the less he as to lose so the bigger he'll swing (lucky for players though, those are still on the implement list)!


The discussion with content being ntr fetish or not is one we've had a long time ago so I'll not rehash it, but you are right that it should be to most people's tastes for the most part, and we've learned by experience for future endeavors. Eventually there will be more than Brad and Beck content arcs to find (the list is already in the game), but you are right in that it shouldn't take more than 2, maybe 3 playthroughs to get everything by the time we're done, should all work out.

The triggers might seem a big tricky, and by all means we're open to play testing balances that make things better for the player (we get little constructive feedback on specifics that helps that though, so it's good when we get such detailed heads up). Money really is the only trigger for most scenes, aside from the arc specific stat, as it is as close an estimate to how well Noe's battle against her debt/her fight against Sal/the resolution of the game's premise is, given people can be at wildly different points in that battle but be on the same day and all. As for the time requirements, scenes only take place after given days, not before, as a way of spacing out the development of the arc over time (we don't want it to go from first meet Beck to fuck him wild in 1 week, you know?). There shouldn't be a case where you have to have done something by a certain day or you lose out, and we wouldn't put that in by design for sure. If you see something like that, flag it and let us know yeah?

One thing that I should disclose here on the trigger topic though is that only a few scenes have a prerequisite scene requirement other than the ones before it in the arc. All so far (v0.8) are because characters like Frankie and Kelsey are in those scenes or mentioned by name, so they have to be unlocked. Another one to come requires Frankie's story to be progressed to her 2nd scene, so that's why it has a pre-req. That's why it seems little content is available if Frankie doesn't appear, but it's there. So let's get Frankie fixed, shall we? (That's an open invite to folks who'd like to help find this issue).


And yes, her name is Kelsey. She's a terrible person, and yet one of my best girls. Feel free to love her or loath her as you wish!

Now, moving on!

Yes, Everything worked much better on second playthrough... I left the poker games to late to get the very last Beck scene.

The game for me is a diamond in the rough... I loved the origins kinetic novels. (I see them as part of the game.)
I love every single character in the game...OK love to hate Sal.

I love the restaurant simulation, but I'm not sure if it's a feature or bug that Frankie did not show up in my first playthrough.
Someone less enthusiastic about the game than me, might have dropped it at that stage. You are basically missing 1/2 of your main cast for the whole game. (like Playing Witcher 3 without Yennefer or Tris)

If it's a bug, then I recommend them fixing it. If it's a feature, then I think it is maybe not a good feature. Only my opinion of course.

TLDR; Loved the game after my second playthrough, but fist playthrough felt like playing only part of the story... I knew these 2 characters must join the story...but they never do. So my first playthrough was not that enjoyable and did not leave a good first impression.
Hello again, long time no talk!

Glad it worked out better the second time round. Now all we've got to do is make it so the first one worked better!

Super stoked to here you and others are liking it that much though, so cheers for that. Let see if we can't parley some of this love into a better game all! Hope you and all the fans of Team Noe stick around and we'll surely see that it does become better all the time!

In fact, I'mma go make it so right now! (After some Agents of Heels work of course). Hurray!



(Note: I've put some parts of this response in bold to make those points more prominent and easy to find in the text, rather than make them seem yelly or pointed.)
 

Alfius

Engaged Member
Modder
Sep 30, 2017
2,330
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Hey there Alfius! Firstly, before I go getting into one of my long point-by-point posts, I've seen the comments and reviews you've left on all the origin story Mini-VNs we've put out. Cheers for the kind words and feedback! Glad you enjoyed it all so.

To the points in your first post and reply, if I may...

Yes indeed, Frankie should have showed up by now for you. It is clearly a bug and an issue, but nothing on our side of the line shows it to be an obvious problem in the triggering, which is why we've asked a few folks here to give us some more detailed situation reports. You are actually the first to do so (unprompted even, yay!), so we might just get to the bottom of it yet. Perhaps if you're up for it, we can get some added heads up from you should we need it? Seems like with what you've posted above as your stats and the fact Sal didn't show up might just be what we need to get a better look at where the trip is. Let's see!

To the point on the timer, and needing a walkthrough... We make one for those that want it, but you are right that you shouldn't need it. Context in game and some of the info menus should be all a keen player needs. Unshi already covered the timer pretty much, but I'll also add that it's there to make sure players don't play far beyond the point where they are out of sync with the pace of the story. For example, you could play until Month 20 if you wanted, get debt down to near 0, and essentially mess up the flow of the game and scene openings after that... for no real reason since the more Gameplay Manager outcomes we add the easier is to clear that debt anyway. Suffice it to say, the more versions we rack up on the game, the less that time window should be an issue and by the end it shouldn't be mush of a barrier (if it's even there anymore). Still, good that we know how people feel on it.

To the next piece, onward!
Thanks for the reply. Happy to help in whatever way you guys want. I love the concept and story of the game.
I did not understand part of your hints in your progress display initially.. The game concept was a bit overwhelming.

So I did not understand, the debt levels and the minimum days initially. Once I understood those and actively tried to reach the goals, all the stories seemed to trigger correctly.

I'm speculating that another trigger was reached, basically bypassing the initial trigger, causing that whole storyline not to trigger anything further.
 
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BeWilder

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Jan 18, 2018
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Thanks for the reply. Happy to help in whatever way you guys want. I love the concept and story of the game.
I did not understand part of your hints in your progress display initially.. The game concept was a bit overwhelming.

So I did not understand, the debt levels and the minimum days initially. Once I understood those and actively tried to reach the goals, all the stories seemed to trigger correctly.

I'm speculating that another trigger was reached, basically bypassing the initial trigger, causing that whole storyline not to trigger anything further.
Sweet. We'll call upon you with a mission, should we need to, via direct message so as not to clog up this chit-chat-show. Likely next month as we put this back in prime development (currently AoH is on top). You've already given me a good place to home in on though. Frankie may just be the symptom as her entrance scene is the one people know they are missing, but it won't turn up if Sal doesn't show up to (re)declare war Looney Toons style first. So that might just be the issue. I shall give it a good look indeed. If I can't sort it (it does work for us, but we know what to be aiming at when we play anyway) then I'll call back.

Alright, good to know about the overwhelming start. We try to stagger the info in the tutorial and pop-up the list as needed, but perhaps we can make it come in a more digestible package. Given the attempted depth of the management elements (for an adult game), I guess there is always going to be a bit of a learning curve, but that's not to say we can't make it a tad easier to get your hands around Noe and her friends/foes/staff (and those who are all 3!).
 
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RedGlow

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Aug 5, 2016
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nother one to come requires Frankie's story to be progressed to her 2nd scene, so that's why it has a pre-req. That's why it seems little content is available if Frankie doesn't appear, but it's there. So let's get Frankie fixed, shall we? (That's an open invite to folks who'd like to help find this issue).


And yes, her name is Kelsey.
I've never had a issue with Frankie. She always showed up in my game no matter what. Such a good girl!
On the other hand, i had issues with Kelsey for a while but then she came around nd all good now.

I would like to help you but as i said before, Frankie always showed up. However, will try different routes, choices, nd skill points or.. even different strategy in order to mess with Frankie route if i had a playthrough without her. I'll let you know how it happened.
 
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