Ren'Py Parasite Black [Steam Demo v0.154] [Damned Studios]

[harem.king]

Added a traveling system: getting to remote locations has never been this exciting

The word you are looking for is grindy.
Now I need even more steps and more forced battles to travel from A to B. Making travel even more of a chore than it was before.

And the "auto skill target" functionality simply does not work at all.

 

[lostraven]

The word you are looking for is grindy.
Now I need even more steps and more forced battles to travel from A to B.
And the "auto target" functionality simply does not work at all.

It will not just be battles as you travel. Those are only the baseline events added.

We plan to add at least 50 to 100+ different variations to travel.

Which we believe it will make the world feel significantly larger and more alive.

 

[harem.king]

It will not just be battles as you travel. Those are only the baseline events added.

We plan to add at least 50 to 100+ different variations to travel.

Which we believe it will make the world feel significantly larger and more alive.

It does not matter if there are other random events.
the way you are handling travel right now is terrible. And you just made things WAY WORSE in the latest update.

Look, just try to travel from your home to to ves camp to talk to her. (lets not even get into the herculian task of coming back)

It used to be that to travel to ves I needed to do:
1. exit home
2. go down.
3. go left.
4. go down to exit city.
5. click on globe
6. click on valley of death
7. click on globe
8. click on ves' camp
9. click to enter her tent

which was already fucking obnoxious.

Now it is (using the shortest path):
1. exit home
2. go down.
3. go left.
4. go down to exit city.
5. click on globe
6. click on valley of death
7. click on step on route.
8. click enter.
9. do a fight
10. click on destination.
11. click enter. (I am now at equivalent of step 6 before)
12. click on globe. (equivalent to old step 7).
13. click on ves' camp
14. click on path.
15. click enter
16. do a fight
17. click on destination.
18. click enter. (equivalent to step 8).
19. click to enter her tent

This had a minimum of 2 fights. which each take many more clicks.
I used the shortest possible path. It can be way longer.
There is absolutely no reason it has to be this way.

In a standard RPG the way it would actually work is:
1. click on globe icon when there is no block on leaving the city. (ex: if at home and fasttravel_unlocked_city variable is true)
2. click on target (ex: ves' camp)

The game then rolls X random encounters based on the distance traveled and possibly settings (where you can disable random encounters or lower their frequency).

And when I do randomly encounter a combat, if it is a trivially weak enemy don't force me to make 20 clicks but let me click "autoresolve combat" button.

And people still rightly complain about how obnoxious those random encounters are in a normal RPG... yet you took that already tiresome mechanic and dialed it up to 11.

 

[MarianTheSharkFace]

wich character other than nijah has preggo content? Is there content for when the pregnancy is concluded? Like asking how the baby is or something like that

 

[Dontforget666]

It does not matter if there are other random events.
the way you are handling travel right now is terrible. And you just made things WAY WORSE in the latest update.

Look, just try to travel from your home to to ves camp to talk to her. (lets not even get into the herculian task of coming back)

It used to be that to travel to ves I needed to do:
1. exit home
2. go down.
3. go left.
4. go down to exit city.
5. click on globe
6. click on valley of death
7. click on globe
8. click on ves' camp
9. click to enter her tent

which was already fucking obnoxious.

Now it is (using the shortest path):
1. exit home
2. go down.
3. go left.
4. go down to exit city.
5. click on globe
6. click on valley of death
7. click on step on route.
8. click enter.
9. do a fight
10. click on destination.
11. click enter. (I am now at equivalent of step 6 before)
12. click on globe. (equivalent to old step 7).
13. click on ves' camp
14. click on path.
15. click enter
16. do a fight OR 2 random encounters that might roll a fights
17. click on destination.
18. click enter. (equivalent to step 8).
19. click to enter her tent

This had a minimum of 2 fights. which each take many more clicks.
I used the shortest possible path. It can be way longer.

There is absolutely no reason it has to be this way.
In a standard RPG the way it would actually work is

1. click on globe icon when there is no block on leaving the city. (ex: if at home and city_unlocked variable is true)
2. click on target (ex: ves' camp)

The game then rolls X random encounters based on the distance traveled and possibly settings (where you can disable random encounters or lower their frequency).

And when I do randomly encounter a combat, if it is a trivially weak enemy don't force me to make 20 clicks but let me click "autoresolve combat" button.

And people still rightly complain about how obnoxious those random encounters are in a normal RPG... yet you took that already tiresome mechanic and dialed it up to 11.

There can be enemies on the path between bw 2 points but devs usually implement shortcuts like teleports or just some mechanics like for example wear a goblin suit to pass through goblin hordes undetected. But yeah, having to do fights each time you go through a point can be grindy.

 

[harem.king]

take a look for example this

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check 4:42 timestamp to see fast travel in arcanum (which just copies fallout fast travel).
You click a destination. and your character fast travels to the destination. possibly triggering a random encounter on the way.

This is not to say you should never have exploration option. But you also shouldn't gate fast travel behind being forced into the explore map multiple times an taking many small steps.

 

[harem.king]

There can be enemies on the path between bw 2 points but devs usually implement shortcuts like teleports or just some mechanics like for example wear a goblin suit to pass through goblin hordes undetected. But yeah, having to do fights each time you go through a point can be grindy.

Yea. mechanics like being able to avoid certain random combats are always nice.

and they could just let us click the destination and then trigger the random encounters (assuming you are not using a method of avoidance such as the goblin suit) without having to go through all the sub maps. And then auto resolve easy combats.

 

[lostraven]

It does not matter if there are other random events.
the way you are handling travel right now is terrible. And you just made things WAY WORSE in the latest update.

Look, just try to travel from your home to to ves camp to talk to her. (lets not even get into the herculian task of coming back)

It used to be that to travel to ves I needed to do:
1. exit home
2. go down.
3. go left.
4. go down to exit city.
5. click on globe
6. click on valley of death
7. click on globe
8. click on ves' camp
9. click to enter her tent

which was already fucking obnoxious.

Now it is (using the shortest path):
1. exit home
2. go down.
3. go left.
4. go down to exit city.
5. click on globe
6. click on valley of death
7. click on step on route.
8. click enter.
9. do a fight
10. click on destination.
11. click enter. (I am now at equivalent of step 6 before)
12. click on globe. (equivalent to old step 7).
13. click on ves' camp
14. click on path.
15. click enter
16. do a fight
17. click on destination.
18. click enter. (equivalent to step 8).
19. click to enter her tent

This had a minimum of 2 fights. which each take many more clicks.
I used the shortest possible path. It can be way longer.
There is absolutely no reason it has to be this way.

In a standard RPG the way it would actually work is:
1. click on globe icon when there is no block on leaving the city. (ex: if at home and fasttravel_unlocked_city variable is true)
2. click on target (ex: ves' camp)

The game then rolls X random encounters based on the distance traveled and possibly settings (where you can disable random encounters or lower their frequency).

Thank you for your feedback, I think your correct about the amount of clicking becoming tiresome.

My immediate thoughts to help mitigate the issue:

>Implement a button that allows a player to immediately exit any city to it's 'outskirts' regardless of where they are. (Excluding story/gameplay relevant moments where it would be briefly disabled).

>Implement an 'auto route' select, allowing the player should they wish to sit back and let the game choose the travel route for them.

There can be enemies on the path between bw 2 points but devs usually implement shortcuts like teleports or just some mechanics like for example wear a goblin suit to pass through goblin hordes undetected. But yeah, having to do fights each time you go through a point can be grindy.

I was considering a limited amount of expensive teleporations between the cities/select locations - though undecided on this.

I decided against the idea of random events just playing at once as you move between locations as it I feel removes player agency too much, the idea is that a player will strategically pick which routes they take, "Do I go left and just deal with the brute force fighting? Or do I go right and risk whatever unknown awaits?" and hopefully, this will give the world a much greater feel of breadth.

 

[harem.king]

Thank you for your feedback, I think your correct about the amount of clicking becoming tiresome.

My immediate thoughts to help mitigate the issue:

>Implement a button that allows a player to immediately exit any city to it's 'outskirts' regardless of where they are. (Excluding story/gameplay relevant moments where it would be briefly disabled).

>Implement an 'auto route' select, allowing the player should they wish to sit back and let the game choose the travel route for them.

Both of those would be a huge improvement and massively appreciated. thank you.
Autoresolve combat too for weak enemies.

 

[Denny112233]

What's a cheat code?

 

[harem.king]

What's a cheat code?

letters and numbers you type somewhere inside a game in order to activate cheats that were pre-programmed into the game by the developer for people with those codes.

 

[Denny112233]

Is available for Compressed version?

 

[WadeWilsoon]

Why is this happening?

 

[lostraven]

View attachment 3298144
Why is this happening?

Delete consistent data. Use a fresh save and the quickstart feature to go back to where you last played.

See if the issue continues.

 

[harem.king]

Delete consistent data. Use a fresh save and the quickstart feature to go back to where you last played.

See if the issue continues.

BTW. quickstart gives you some XP based on the quests chosen. But it does not give you any inventory items based on quest chosen. even if some quests are pretty grindy and surely you must have gotten more than 25 gold by that point.

 

[lostraven]

BTW. quickstart gives you some XP based on the quests chosen. But it does not give you any inventory items based on quest chosen. even if some quests are pretty grindy and surely you must have gotten more than 25 gold by that point.

It should award you gold, XP, and any relevent items. Though I will look into it.

 

[harem.king]

It should award you gold, XP, and any relevent items. Though I will look into it.

I picked most (but not all) quests as being finished already and it started me on level 18 with an inventory of:
25 gold
2 minor potions
1 regular potion

 

[lostraven]

Alderian News!

Hello everyone

Remember, if you haven't already, please wishlist Parasite Black over on steam! Every wishlist helps! Link here:

You must be registered to see the links

First and foremost, assets and various things are still being gathered for the next update, we'll have a lot of fun and exciting things to show you guys soon!

Another look at one of the Parasite's homeworlds - Above (WIP)

Just to be clear once more on the release schedule:
1.) -Mages of Palam and Captain Nyx update next (This update may be split into two depending on size, with the stories of both being wrapped up ... for now).
2.) - Wrapping up Act 1 (A major focus on Regina update and moving the story along).
3.) Dependent on how the other two updates go, we may do an additional update prior to the steam launch to add hopefully atleast another dozen events to the travel maps feature as well as polish any remaining old content!

On the coding side of things, we've taken on some feedback, and one thing we're now looking into is implementing some stuff to reduce the amount of clicking around the map/traversing around the world, (no more aching wrists from excessive clicking!) We've also implemented an auto-party assigner for combat that can be turned on and off and are looking into whatever else we can to improve the player experience.

Improving combat, such as enemy AI, the flow of combat, and allowing the player to transform into his parasite form during combat is still the main priority for the next update!

(Shani revamp above - WIP)


That's all the news for now,
thank you all so much for your support, you guys are awesome and without you,
this wouldn't be possible!
Love,

-The Damned Studios Team

 

[lostraven]

I picked most (but not all) quests as being finished already and it started me on level 18 with an inventory of:
25 gold
2 minor potions
1 regular potion

Odd ...we'll take a closer look when we get the chance.

 

[WadeWilsoon]

I'm asking this to myself everyday either. And struggling not drinking at the moment