- Sep 21, 2018
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So basically, you ask questions I literally gave you the answer to.
I gave you my point of view from someone who saw your game, tried it, played it, enjoyed it at first, and then instant-deleted it the moment he got time-gated. You have to understand that most if not all new players who will stumble upon your game won't read min-maxing guides and will just want to play the game. You've literally put a system in place which punishes playing the game, where you have to play the trigger instead, as I've said, this is bad game design. Go read some game dev postmortem, because you're doing some very common mistakes.
Oh and one last thing, because you keep re-iterating that "Because players keep playing the game past the end-point, when they return, it breaks the pacing and every thing happens at once", that's a design issue as well, not a player issue. One of the simplest fix would resetting the date of any save that is greater than the point they should be at when loading from a previous version. If you're having issues with scenes getting jumped over, then it might be time to rework your trigger mechanism. Many other games will use a trigger counter.
Bad example
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Except, as you can see, if someone grinded his lust to be 91, he would just all other scenes, which I am guessing is what you're doing.
That's why you have something like
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Oh no, it was definitely two waitresses, I need to look into this further as you say traps are easy to spot, well I have never spotted one and I have taken the time to read everything. You have (potentially) a great game here, but I sort of agree with others that it punishes the new player. I say this from experience, once a new player says fuck it, they rarely return to the game, this is a real monetary loss to you.
You do not have a mediocre game here, but something as simple as a flashing light or magnifying glass to alert players of an incoming attack would help, it only has to be once just to highlight what the player should be looking for. I personally hate games that try to give you the same bit of advice over and over.
Just before I go I just wanna say this... Regardless of anything to do with the game.. Please stay safe and well, I wish you and yours the very best through these trying times.
EDIT:- You're right, traps are easy to spot!!
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Apparently, people can't understand that they are playing a branching VN in progress and want everything at once, which is not possible when the scenes you may want have not been created yet. Of course, you have to follow the guide and read changelogs because the devs can only add so much in one update!
Since when did playing the game again become a problem when there is pace skipping enabled+save files?
People are spoiled with these shitty one-dimensional Ren'Py ripoffs that basically copy-paste the same story/gameplay from the top VNs and change the renders. I am glad the devs actually care about people who want more than just fap material you can get on any porn site and understand the importance of character development and player choices.
This is not for you if you want a Kinetic VN. Same thing I hate when people complain about HRPG games having "too much" gameplay and "having to replay" to unlock all scenes. Since when did replayability become a bad thing? This is written well enough to be replayed a lot. I even revisit the prequels because of how good they are.
If you don't like it then it's not for you, don't push it on the devs who have been killing it with these last couple of updates!
Since when did playing the game again become a problem when there is pace skipping enabled+save files?
People are spoiled with these shitty one-dimensional Ren'Py ripoffs that basically copy-paste the same story/gameplay from the top VNs and change the renders. I am glad the devs actually care about people who want more than just fap material you can get on any porn site and understand the importance of character development and player choices.
This is not for you if you want a Kinetic VN. Same thing I hate when people complain about HRPG games having "too much" gameplay and "having to replay" to unlock all scenes. Since when did replayability become a bad thing? This is written well enough to be replayed a lot. I even revisit the prequels because of how good they are.
If you don't like it then it's not for you, don't push it on the devs who have been killing it with these last couple of updates!
- Jan 18, 2018
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Yes, yes you did. And I asked you to give me a little more insight as to why that's a problem for you as a player. Is that such a big deal?
Now, let me pause here and say that none of this is meant to be pointed or shitty, I'm asking legit questions here, so neither of us should have cause to be angry with each other. Just saying that in case thats how it's sounding when read.
Except we haven't, and if you can give us more insight as to how it seems so, then that's a good thing and we might be able to learn from it. As I said, you don't need min-maxing guides, you don't need to be super skilled at it, you just need to have a sense of what you're doing and you can unlock everything there is. The guide, the skill of it, and the value of replaying with a better strategy are all things that can make it quicker/easier to get stuff, but that's the point of a game after all.
Now, maybe it can be made easier/less punishing as you say on new players, without detracting from the longer term playing of the game elements, and that's what I'm asking you specifically on. If you've ideas or suggestions based on your recently first time play, great! Let me hear'um! If not, fine, we can skip this and move on.
And by all means, if you've got some post mortem articles you know of and recommend, send'um too.
I mention this point because it is the drawback to what you have suggested to us. We did have a system that didn't have a timed end, and that was one of the issues we had. Since you are a stern proponent of this way of doing it, why wouldn't I ask you about it and why, as well as ask anyone else who would read that part?
Now, I agree that the issue stems in large part from an early design flaw, one which we have in mind to put an end too properly if it comes to it, but that's not my point in all this. We're not dumb, we know how to add a cooldown to force the scenes to stay a part, but it doesn't address the main issue of what we put the end page in for. You get all the content, you keep playing on until you get debt to something like 50k (spending more time then you would need in later versions too), save and wait until next version and everything happens. No need to play the game at all anymore. Add the cooldown just means you skip a few days between scenes. When we remove any kind of relation between good play (I emphasis good, not great or perfect) and reward, then it becomes "this is just pointless grind". At that point, why not just make it a Renpy VN? (Answered that elsewhere).
So that's why I'm asking you specifically and others too. Why is it such a bad thing to you to have an end point, when all you've got to do is either wait for the next version for more days, reload an earlier point to try again since its a game, or if you really want the content get a save loaned or just cheat it? Why is protecting the gameplay point that much of a killer?
If you have any ideas as to how to avoid such a drawback above without having this kind of time gate, perhaps you can share it so we can make the game better for it... so far you've only pointed to what you'd like of it but not why it's better or how it would address the problems we had with it last time we implemented it.
Ah, I see, problem partly identified so. Thanks for the heads up, and thanks for the kind words of encouragement too. We admit up and down the thread pages we've got places to make improvement, so it's always good to hear people like what we do enough to want us to keep at it and help out in making it better.
I put it to you as well then my good Dr, if the game is punishing to new players such as yourself... How so? I see you've flagged the trap notices as a place of improvement (we've noted that) even though the edit says you've figured that out (?). Still, might be sensible to find a way to flag it the first time for people so they are more alert to that possiblity.
Any other player insights or feedback that springs to mind that'd make for a better experience?
- Sep 21, 2018
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Again, every questions you've asked? I answered them already, but it's not the answer you like, so you ask them again.
You want to control how the player plays. That's your problem. You're apparently upset that some players might get so far ahead that all content would pour in, yet you seemingly forget that they've already put in the "work" to get there.
I've left my review, and I am done with your game.
You want to control how the player plays. That's your problem. You're apparently upset that some players might get so far ahead that all content would pour in, yet you seemingly forget that they've already put in the "work" to get there.
I've left my review, and I am done with your game.
- Jan 18, 2018
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Cheers my good buddy! Glad that you feel the love for what we do with enough passion to say as much. Happy to hear you're hyped with the game and we aim to keep pleasing!
Now, I do think it work saying, you're not wrong in many respects because there are those exact people about and those misunderstandings too. Yeah, Noemi isn't going to be a game for everyone, especially those that want to pick up something and
smack it hard back-to-back-to-back, but we do think it should be enjoyable to a lot of people, more so if we keep working to make it better.
I just want to make it clear that what constructive feedback that is being given (particularly since the last update), and the patterns of people asking much of the same thing, are legit responses and we do take them seriously. There are ways we can improve, while hopefully not taking away the things those such as yourself enjoy about the game too, so that's what we're going for. The second post I'm quoting down below is a good example of that in fact. We aim to listen and take on board what we can, even if we don't change everything people call for if it's not for us, since it'll only make us better in the end. I hope that isn't lost sight of either. We'll keep trying to have it cool and constructive around here.
Seriously though, cheers buddy, glad again to hear Noemi and her crew is for you!
Seems we're getting that a lot, so it might not be just you my friend. A tiered difficulty (Easy/Normal/Hard) be something we'll have to consider down the line. If you have any more specifics as to how you played or why it seemed to be a bit of a struggle, we can aim to address some of that in the shorter term through our version to version balancing.
- Jan 18, 2018
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Alright then.
Obviously we didn't see eye to eye on some of the stuff since you felt you had answered all my questions and I felt you didn't, but you're not interested in helping us shape up anymore than the stuff you pointed to, and I still don't get what your problem is with how we implemented the end point other than you have a strong personal preference to it.
I won't bother you anymore so, I'll just take the bit you've said here about wanting to control how the player plays and think on that, as it is something for us to reflect upon. Thanks for what help you tried to be at least, that's deserved and sincere, and off you go so. See you around the place then.
---
Also, to all, as Doctor Realgood said, we wish health, happiness and horniness to all here too. Stay well all, and all the best!
(Meant to say this bit above too, but I forgot by the end the post, so it's here instead)
I kinda agree with most of the new post here. The game isn t clear about what it wants to be. I appreciate that you trying something more than the usual VN stuff but having mix of management game and story related element in a "time Gap" isn t the way to go i think especially when you don t mention that anywhere in the game and the game is far from finished. If you want to go that way make it more clearer in the beginning of the game. I played this game twice(honestly i was close to saying im done with it the first time) without any walkthrough and to me its clear that the game is punishing to new players. Why? you will probably say or already said that before . You assuming too much that ppl will know straight away what they need to do and what they needs to be focusing on. The reality is that there is a lot of guides how to play the game but right now they are kinda useless. What i wanted to see (maybe that would break the immersion) but what i would want to know right away when I played this game first time is:
1. The game is time limited. (which is in my opinion not necessary or just too short especially when the players tries to know how the game works and learning through experience rather than guide)
2. Skills are useless (you need like 1 of each ? or something like that cause the rest you will just get by following scenes)
3. Scenes are money related which means that you need to have certain part of debt cleared by the end of it to see all the conent.
I know that now but boy it would be great if i know that right away when i first started it...
Its easy to get content if you know that ...
The game have great renders, good scenes , interesting story and overall i like it and see huge potential in it but im not gonna lie i was kinda angry when the game abruptly ended the first time.
1. The game is time limited. (which is in my opinion not necessary or just too short especially when the players tries to know how the game works and learning through experience rather than guide)
2. Skills are useless (you need like 1 of each ? or something like that cause the rest you will just get by following scenes)
3. Scenes are money related which means that you need to have certain part of debt cleared by the end of it to see all the conent.
I know that now but boy it would be great if i know that right away when i first started it...
Its easy to get content if you know that ...
The game have great renders, good scenes , interesting story and overall i like it and see huge potential in it but im not gonna lie i was kinda angry when the game abruptly ended the first time.
The game mechanic is great, no need for change there, the punishing part is almost that you get to familiar with it, for example... In the early stages you spend the most part jumping from one scene to another, which means you're doing good, making money, triggering scenes etc, but what you don't do is check on Sal every day because there is no incentive to do so, something as simple as adding Sal's quote of the day, or his specials board would give the player something to check up on, maybe give them a laugh, but it also highlights good practice. My hits came from the fact that I saw no need to check on Sal, why would I? I've never had to do it before!! It literally goes from nothing to full on, in your face mode.
I have absolutely no problems with the end game and I don't understand why it gets someones back up, this is no different from an early access game on steam (Which you may wanna think about). And if you think you have to play according to how the author wants, i.e scripted, then you've never played an EA Game.
I don't want to keep playing dumb bimbo, horny teenager trying to fuck his Mom and sister, corruption games that you have no say in. Most games on here state that you're choices matter, in 9 out of 10 they most certainly do not, you will still end up in the same place. I want to play a game that feels like a game, something to get involved in and makes you feel invested in the game and it's characters, so far you are doing just that and like any other good game (of any genre) I find myself calling me a numpty on more that one occasion.
- Jan 18, 2018
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Alrighty, some good feedback to get the teeth sunk into. Fabulous!
So straight to it. Yous say the game is punishing on new players and I ask why? You've been so kind as to lay up some helpful follow up already, but I still want to ask you this question specifically. I'm interested in if it's mostly or totally an issue of not knowing what to do for a good while of playing so you feel directionless, or if it's also a mix of the requirements being too stringent in that you figure out what to do but it's too hard to do it by the time you figure it out (maybe the game end wouldn't be such a big deal if more people got all the content first time I mean). Get what I mean? Both are fixed in different ways, so that's why I'm particularly interested in the distinction. I'll let you mentally chew on latter part of that while I do the same on the first bit since you did a good job of laying that out already.
To the specific points you point out so:
1 - Fair point, very fair actually. The game doesn't tell you there is a stopping point directly, it's just a part of the Progress Tracker. It is likely wrong of us to have assumed that's as clear as we thought it would be so your suggestion of some sort of intro to that concept on New Game start would perhaps cushion that blow some. I do think the game start experience is a little abrupt (New Game -> Oh a menu? Ok -> Ah, first scene), but I didn't really think to ever put a kind of notice there before. Could help deal with both issues, so cheers for that. Gonna give it a think.
2 - I'm not sure what you mean on this one actually? You mean that training skills on days off is pointless because you get points from scenes too? Is that what you mean? You do get some points from scenes, but there are points where you do need to train too in order to get the requirements for other scenes, and the skills effect the game play itself too, so they are good to have. If that's what you're getting at, maybe tackling that as a point in itself would be helpful to me. That balance is something I'll keep in mind anyway.
3 - This might be resolved at the same time and in the same way as point 1, but I do think it is pointed out already in the game as the gameplay starts, on the tutorial board. Obviously, I seem to be wrong if you didn't pick up on that relationship between debt and scenes, so something should be done about it. I'd like to think the tutorial boards are helpful and informative, are they not? I kind of feels like maybe they are not...
Anyway, cheers! I've already got a good idea out of this feedback and so for that I do thank you.
I getcha', I getcha... It all seems so obvious in hindsight, but not so much before hand... Isn't that always the way? As I mentioned above, I was relying on the tutorial board popping up to explain traps at the point they start activating, (after the street party aftermath scene), but I can see now that it's not such a clear cut connection as to what it means in the game. I can work with this, certainly.
I do think Sal's side of the board is a little bare, and I certainly like your suggestion about him having jokey specials to see each day (very much so), though I'm loathed to give the artist any more UI work than he need since he busts his ass all the time to make our renders. I'll think of a way to make it more interesting or at least make that link clearer for future play. It's a small but good step towards a better game for sure. Cheers indeed.
As for the game end issue you touch upon, I'm with you wondering why it's such a problem for folks, but I don't want to discount it either. It's an opinion that could well be valid, I just don't see what the upside is. That's why I pushed on it a few posts above, I'd like to know why it elicits such a strong response and maybe there are right that it can be done better, but until I can get my head around a way to do it without making the game simple a "keep grinding days until you get everything" and thereby just making the gameplay a time waster (which we all hate), I'm not going to go about changing it.
As it was said earlier too, we do have an element of trying to control how the players play with respect to when they stop, but it's only to stop them doing things that are only a detriment to playing for their experience, and for ours too. It's something to ponder at least, what we'll do about it if anything will be more informed based on general feedback factors though.
Interesting thought on the Steam Early Access too. I'm not so familiar with Steam as most, but I know games on there that are in Early Access tend to be very polished and well made games already (thinking of say Gordian Quest which is very recent as an example). Am I wrong? I was once part of an indie project that was to be on Steam one day too, but it was always pointed out that Steam can be a very hard place to overcome a tricky start too. If you get a bad rep to begin, you almost cant recover I'm told. My info out of date there? Just curious, as it might be a longer term prospect than a short-to-midterm one.
At the risk of making this run on even longer than my normal posts... I'm with you on the bimbo/teen point too. I like to at least try to do something different, and hopefully better, when all is said, done and labelled v1.0. Our game Agents of Heels:MoAR, was specifically written around the fact that choices matter quite a bit, and I like to think that the game is all the better for it, and better than most in that aspect at least. It seems a lot of fans think so too, so that's something to be happy about, and something to strive to keep going forward (although Noemi is build on a different structure of parallel character arcs rather than mostly a main story with side events, but if all goes well there will be more games than just these 2 some day.)
So... um... yeah... Cheers for the help to you both! Helpful indeed it was! Yay!
- May 6, 2017
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i hope that maybe in the future when the game is done and u have a better pc so that u still can put in those animation this update was really a good update to be honest this game deserved the best
- Jan 18, 2018
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Hopefully so, hopefully so. I myself am not really a fan of animations, since they usually have a very uncanny feel to them that make them immersion breaking to me, but I know they are very enjoyable to some folks so they are on our radar for future stuff if we can make them so. Glad to hear you enjoyed the latest bash of stuff from us too. Good stuff!i hope that maybe in the future when the game is done and u have a better pc so that u still can put in those animation this update was really a good update to be honest this game deserved the best
- May 6, 2017
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So I'm gonna give my opinion regarding the whole punishment/reward aspect of the game. As I've had multiple playthroughs/restarted multiple times, and I gotta side with the concept that the game is more punishing then it should be. Now I don't think the management system is bad, its fun but it doesn't allow the player to do much outside of very specific things or else you'll end up struggling. I believe this stems primarily from the core of the game, and that's Noe's stress level.
Now the point of the game is to drop Noe's debt, that's what the story and everything revolves around. For Noe to drop that debt she needs to make money, she can only make money by working (and side stuff during breaks but I'll come back to that). She can only work efficiently when she's not overly stressed, as too much stress has her fail the jobs of Kitchen/Entertainment/Promote/Floor Work. But the game only provides two times in a week to drop that stress level to allow her to continue to work throughout the week. This I see here is where the extra layer of punishment comes in, if the player chooses to do any side activities like poker/car wash or try and raise Noe's stats or even the other girls stats you get a small drop in your stress level. So when doing these actions you now come back into the work period at a disadvantage, for the simple choice of not picking yoga/park/watching tv.
This wouldn't be so bad if doing other actions during the work period didn't ramp up stress so hard on Noe. For example after multiple times playing this and starting at the beginning, it becomes painfully clear that having Noe do any other action during the work period outside of Floor Work/Entertainment will only hurt the playthrough more. Even when Kriem comes in the amount of stress added during Promote is too much for Noe, as the player can choose when Kriem takes a break due to stress but not Noe. So as a player your now stuck keeping Noe a waitress and trying to build rep with Kriem. This still holds true even when the other girls are introduced, only now you can do entertainment with Noe as it doesn't build stress as fast as Kitchen/Promote.
However even though the other girls can be used through the work period, it doesn't get around the main issue of dropping Noe's stress levels. As I said earlier it only now adds more to the punishment as trying to build up the stats of the other girls so their better at different jobs only yields a small drop in Noe's stress levels. So Noe's back to being punished throughout the work period. I honestly feel the game needs something ease up off of Noe's stress levels, as that makes up the entire experience playing.
In truth I'd probably recommend a random event that can happen between the Sat-Wed and Wed-Sat times that drops the stress level of Noe by 20-25 points. This way it's not more then a drop in stress during the breaks, also the event during these times could be on a on very low roll so it can't be counted on in terms of strategy for your management. But something like this when it happens would feel like a reward and give more incentive to try a different Wed/Sat event to help build the characters stats.
Also you could really tie it into the player experience by making it more tailored toward peoples play style, like a higher romance state would see Brad as the one providing the drop in stress like a message or something. But higher Open Mind could see a different person, hell you could even just reuse the dude at the beginning that she could potentially think about when staring at her tattoo. All in all I think the management system is fine, but needs to allow the player a chance to experiment more.
Now the point of the game is to drop Noe's debt, that's what the story and everything revolves around. For Noe to drop that debt she needs to make money, she can only make money by working (and side stuff during breaks but I'll come back to that). She can only work efficiently when she's not overly stressed, as too much stress has her fail the jobs of Kitchen/Entertainment/Promote/Floor Work. But the game only provides two times in a week to drop that stress level to allow her to continue to work throughout the week. This I see here is where the extra layer of punishment comes in, if the player chooses to do any side activities like poker/car wash or try and raise Noe's stats or even the other girls stats you get a small drop in your stress level. So when doing these actions you now come back into the work period at a disadvantage, for the simple choice of not picking yoga/park/watching tv.
This wouldn't be so bad if doing other actions during the work period didn't ramp up stress so hard on Noe. For example after multiple times playing this and starting at the beginning, it becomes painfully clear that having Noe do any other action during the work period outside of Floor Work/Entertainment will only hurt the playthrough more. Even when Kriem comes in the amount of stress added during Promote is too much for Noe, as the player can choose when Kriem takes a break due to stress but not Noe. So as a player your now stuck keeping Noe a waitress and trying to build rep with Kriem. This still holds true even when the other girls are introduced, only now you can do entertainment with Noe as it doesn't build stress as fast as Kitchen/Promote.
However even though the other girls can be used through the work period, it doesn't get around the main issue of dropping Noe's stress levels. As I said earlier it only now adds more to the punishment as trying to build up the stats of the other girls so their better at different jobs only yields a small drop in Noe's stress levels. So Noe's back to being punished throughout the work period. I honestly feel the game needs something ease up off of Noe's stress levels, as that makes up the entire experience playing.
In truth I'd probably recommend a random event that can happen between the Sat-Wed and Wed-Sat times that drops the stress level of Noe by 20-25 points. This way it's not more then a drop in stress during the breaks, also the event during these times could be on a on very low roll so it can't be counted on in terms of strategy for your management. But something like this when it happens would feel like a reward and give more incentive to try a different Wed/Sat event to help build the characters stats.
Also you could really tie it into the player experience by making it more tailored toward peoples play style, like a higher romance state would see Brad as the one providing the drop in stress like a message or something. But higher Open Mind could see a different person, hell you could even just reuse the dude at the beginning that she could potentially think about when staring at her tattoo. All in all I think the management system is fine, but needs to allow the player a chance to experiment more.
- Jan 18, 2018
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Liking the Beck arc then are you? Sweet.i hope there are more bet's coming next update
We've not set our full script for the next update yet (we'll do that next month when it's NTR time again, right now it's AoH), but it'll likely be time to see another character get a splash of content. Noe's still going to put her body to use in nice ways for us though. That's why we love her!
Interesting. Very interesting indeed.
First off, thanks very much for such a detailed and through post on your thoughts. Even more so because it helps shed some light on a new area to think about.
It was mentioned a while back (I think v0.7-8) that Noe's stress was a factor in people finding it difficult managing the girls, and so I did try focus in on that a bit. I upped the stress relieved from days off and flattened that all out but maybe it wasn't enough. I did leave Yoga as a high relief activity, but it to make it so people didn't just spam that every time it still had a cost, now it's flattened out with the others. Likewise, the things that earn you stat points or cash need to have some downside (right now less stress relief) but the rate at which might be too stringent?
One of the things we want to do on the next version gameplay wise is to fill out more of the Downtime activity outcomes so they are not all repeatable 1's, that as you raise stats you get more outcomes. For things like Poker/Car Wash, that'll earn you more money, and for all they will tell little developing mini-stories on their line, but perhaps those higher chain outcomes for Yoga/Park/TV etc could earn you more stress relief? Not unlike how Lv2 resting outcomes for Kriem/Frankie/Kelsey have better outcomes. How does that sound, based on your experiences?
What I find interesting the most about your post is that I find that Noe is easy enough to keep her stress down, but the other girls needed to be cycled in and out more for me. It especially helps that scenes where Noe has some kind of sex also helps reduce her stress some. I do like your idea of some kind of stress drop event like Brad and Noe getting a little busy while at work, but I'm hesitant to drop more events that pop at random which the player will grow to skip (basically come to annoy them I fear). Maybe we can find a way to reduce the stress load on Noe via my suggestion on the Downtime activities and some other user friendly way to so some growing relationships... also maybe making the stress gain on outcomes scale up with rewards level too (as in Lv1 or Lv2) so the girls don't get so overwhelmed to begin with... That might also be prudent. Thoughts on that?
Anyway, again a serious and sincere cheers for the effort and the heads up on this. I appreciate it a bunch, and I'm glad you like our stuff well enough to contribute as much. Good fellow!
If House party and love and sex: second base (£15.49) Can make it onto steams early access, I see no reason that you can't, it's not as stringent as it used to be and plenty of NSFW games are getting greenlit.
This may help:-
Just as an edit and after reading the post above, thwarting Sals attempts at sabotage should give a very smug stress relief.
This may help:-
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Just as an edit and after reading the post above, thwarting Sals attempts at sabotage should give a very smug stress relief.
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Fascinating. Thanks for the link, it makes for some interesting in reading and some potential future plans if all goes well in time. Delightful.
And yeah, when you reverse a trap it tends to be a lower stress gain for that day with comparable or better outcomes than a good day. Still, as any good game of limbo teaches us, you can always give going lower a try. Might be worth adding a few extra points to the drop... Especially when we get to the Lv2/3 versions of those outcomes where Alice, Beth and Sal himself can be foiled in the act... muhahaha!
Honestly I find the amount of decreased stress being 35 for other activities that yield cash fair, and things like the Yoga dropping the stress by 60 also fair as there should be some downsides. Which is the main reason I didn't look at the amount they were decreasing stress as the issue, but Noe accruing quite a bit during the work period as more of the reason the gameplay gets caught in a cycle. It's the main reason I think having a random event as kinda a reprieve at times to give the player a little breathing room could help. Also just for more clarity, when I say random event I mean more like a repeated event/image that just shows up on occasion. I didn't mean like a host of different event chains, just something simple. So not like the Bank event, more like Noe sips her favorite wine after the shift now she has 20 less stress and that's it with any other occurrence literally just being the same thing.
So the mini stores thing sounds great! Personally the stuff with Beck has been the most interesting side story stuff, so I wouldn't be mad about more. But the part regarding the Yoga/Park/Tv again I really don't see the amount of stress they relieve during breaks as the issue, but if you went down that road I'd probably cap it at 70 max, cause it'd most likely end up taking away alot of the challenge. At the end there should be some need to continue to try and manage your stress levels, anything more and the player could just abuse it.
Using the other girls on a rotation wasn't really much of an issue, I could do what I need them to accomplish then rest them up. I could easily keep them all low stress especially after rotating them on increasing the stores rep or damaging Sals. For Noe it's manageable for the most part if you've at set goal in mind on how to use her. But I just felt more constrained to play around her stress levels, as the current system just doesn't feel like it gives enough of a chance for the player to try different things with her.
That might work with it leveling up on the downtime actives. Again I like that there's some need to manage, so I'm just more hesitant on increasing the numbers for them. As you said earlier there needs to be some downside. I guess it mainly comes down to what the numbers would look like for each level.
In truth I'd rather see that on the work period activities. Like leveling them up would see a small decrease in the amount the girls gained in stress.