Unity Portals of Phereon [v0.29.0.0] [Syvaron]

[AWolfe]

I'm of the opinion that when Syvaron (the dev) changed the breeding system to the current egg-laying/hatching mechanic he utterly broke/ruined the game. It ceased being fun to play, at least for me. The excessive hive spreading that was added in that same update just adds insult to injury. And the updates since that revamp have only made things worse, not better. Add to this that updates invalidate your saves (because of all the incessant redesigning of how the game works) and it's become a colossal waste of time to try to play. Why play a game when any given week the dev may, and probably will, radically change core functionality? Again. And again.

Best to just let this game bake for, say, another year or two until the dev finally figures out what they want the game to look like. Shame, since it's a really nice concept.

 

[dsp0]

I feel he/she just has too many ideas and could benefit from listening to people trying to play it / play testing it. I feel that the game could be quite good with some balancing and focus on progression and clarity with probably only just small changes. Maybe this part isn't really fun for him/her.... Do we know if he/she visits this thread?

 

[dsp0]

BTW, thank you for confirming my observation about 8.x version. This is particularly concerning since you clearly played this game more than I did. I might just go back to 7.5.1 for now until I get bored with it. I hope the dev. does not end up getting more off track and ruin the game.

 

[dsp0]

Well, I restarted a 7.5.1 version and the comparison with 8.3.1 is a lot clearer to me now. Despite some clear user interface improvements in 8.3.1, 7.5.1 plays a lot better overall. In addition to the aforementioned breeding rework / nerf, there are two brothel nerfs that I did not notice right away: slower training and lower income. All of these just made the new version a joyless multiple resource management simulator with many repetitive tactical fights. The game needed less not more of this. While brothel income is probably a little too strong in 7.5.1, it is just too hard to balance finances in the current version. The developer just needs to decide what he/she wants the game to be, it cannot be all things at once. IMHO it should be like a good old RPG where you progress from a weakling to a god like character by finding new species and hybrids and increasingly better items. Financial and other resource management (such as exhaustion, moral, crystals and on and on) need to be simplified and should relatively easily fall into place if following a reasonable progression. Why have exhaustion if I already have time in the day to manage anyway? More is not better in this case and just makes the game less comprehendable and ultimately less fun. This is too bad since there is definitely potential here.

 

[Onioon]

Let me start by echoing the frustration with excessive combat and other micromanagement in this game. However the game definitely has something that draws me to it despite the frustrations. It's probably its uniqueness. Regardless of my frustrations I am very impressed with a single developer pulling off such an ambitious project.

I started messing with 7.x version and would have given up if not for this forum, thanks people. I started to get some basics working such as resolving my financial difficulties with a few well trained prostitutes and was able to breed a few new characters. I still was not clear what my breeding priorities should be, or even how exactly the breeding worked, but it was a start. Given that it was a learning run I wanted to start clean anyway when I downloaded a new 8.3.1 version. Wow, did I get on the wrong foot with this one or is the balance is all different now? I am constantly teetering on the verge of financial ruin and juggling money, exhaustion and quests. It feels like the progress is just too glacial now. And now there is the new breeding mechanics...

Breeding to me is the most fascinating and unique part of the game and the reason for the post, but also the one that I understand the least. Unfortunately with the new mechanics it seems almost impossible to experiment with it now, at least not while having to micromanage a thousand other things in a day. Before, I could just accumulate 5 speed-up points and breed something in one go. Now I have to leave my better characters in the farm for weeks, and I am yet to hatch a single egg. I got one as a reward, but it was one of the size none as someone mentioned, so it did not hatch, and my first breeding pair is still at it in the farm. I suspect that I'd get bored with the micromanagement before I figure something out. Hence my questions.

- What are your early priorities for breeding, better genes, higher level, traits, unique hybrids?
- Are there endgame goals for breeding or just more of the above?
- Do you regularly cull your character pool not to run out of money/food? What's the best/most efficient way, tavern, library, something else? Do you just dismiss some of them not to bother?
- I saw several mentions of potions in regards to breeding, what are they? How do you apply them (in town, or is there a control on the farm screen that I did not see)?

I probably did not progress very far in the game yet, but the new breeding mechanics making it slower seems like a step in the wrong direction to me. What I feel the game really needs is more sense of progression and some balancing of the features that it has, not more complexity or impediments. But overall it is already quite an impressive game considering that only one person is working on it.

I don't know if this will be helpful, but you can unlock a starting profession called noble (I am not sure of which achievement unlocks it.). It gives you a lump sum of money to begin with,however, the big draw is that it also earns interest on your money, which effectively ends the money issue (Note: if playing in free play it is possible to gain to much money and end up rolling over into negative numbers, however this would take several hundred in game days). Additionally, playing as a Creation MC with the Experienced starting trait will enable you to focus solely on the breeding aspect of the game and unlock all of the hybrids. Of note doing so will cause you to miss some of the unique NPC that can only be gotten by the Evolution and Druid MC and those that are recruited from portal events. The potions you mentioned are referring to special options that can be used during the breeding process that allow for a higher level of control over the process as a whole, they are unlocked by purchasing the alchemy upgrades or by starting with the alchemist profession.

 

[Onioon]

I'm of the opinion that when Syvaron (the dev) changed the breeding system to the current egg-laying/hatching mechanic he utterly broke/ruined the game. It ceased being fun to play, at least for me. The excessive hive spreading that was added in that same update just adds insult to injury. And the updates since that revamp have only made things worse, not better. Add to this that updates invalidate your saves (because of all the incessant redesigning of how the game works) and it's become a colossal waste of time to try to play. Why play a game when any given week the dev may, and probably will, radically change core functionality? Again. And again.

Best to just let this game bake for, say, another year or two until the dev finally figures out what they want the game to look like. Shame, since it's a really nice concept.

Playing as the creation MC prevents Hives from spawning and is actually beneficial to the breeding process as a whole (missing if you a missing a species you want to breed, you can just create one). Also if the MC has high virility/fertility genes the offspring will as well which when leveled (which can safely be done at the arena) can often times give multiple eggs in one breeding session.

On a different topic, I actually like the egg mechanic as it allows someone interested in getting characters with perfect genes a realistic way of reaching that goal. However I do dislike the hatching egg limit, I think that it should be improvable like the housing limit is.

 

[Onioon]

If you start a game with a difficulty of <100%, but then edit it back up to 100% via save-editor, would that allow you to unlock things?

Failing that, is there any way to use cheat-engine to give yourself more stat-points in chargen?

Normally I wouldn't care, but constantly having to restart every time the game updates is getting on my nerves.

Editing the difficulty will allow you to unlock most things, however there are some achievements that may be locked in as unbelievable (The one about winning a game at over 200%).

 

[dsp0]

I don't know if this will be helpful, but you can unlock a starting profession called noble (I am not sure of which achievement unlocks it.). It gives you a lump sum of money to begin with,however, the big draw is that it also earns interest on your money, which effectively ends the money issue (Note: if playing in free play it is possible to gain to much money and end up rolling over into negative numbers, however this would take several hundred in game days). Additionally, playing as a Creation MC with the Experienced starting trait will enable you to focus solely on the breeding aspect of the game and unlock all of the hybrids. Of note doing so will cause you to miss some of the unique NPC that can only be gotten by the Evolution and Druid MC and those that are recruited from portal events. The potions you mentioned are referring to special options that can be used during the breeding process that allow for a higher level of control over the process as a whole, they are unlocked by purchasing the alchemy upgrades or by starting with the alchemist profession.

Thank you for the suggestions and the explanation about the potions (option). I actually already figured it out. My issue was related to the user interface. The potions field on the farm / breeding page starts off blank and does not look like it would be clickable at all, particularly since the other similar boxes had clickable text in them. I was just looking and not seeing it...

 

[AWolfe]

My issue was related to the user interface. The potions field on the farm / breeding page starts off blank and does not look like it would be clickable at all, particularly since the other similar boxes had clickable text in them. I was just looking and not seeing it...

That drove me nuts for many weeks when I first started playing, until one day I accidentally clicked inside the potion box. The game needs better documentation. Still.

 

[Sausekay]

are the arena fights supposed to kill ur characters?

 

[AWolfe]

are the arena fights supposed to kill ur characters?

Yes, if you're not tough enough. There are no 'practice' matches. They are all to the death.

 

[Tsugumi]

Not sure why the game removes all EQUIPPED items when you Recall Home, but that just made my experience with the game even worse than it already has been.

As I tried to leave one of the portals, I got a "Portal closed. Recall home". When I did, I found out that I lost my whole party AND all equipped gear - strike ONE. I reloaded the last quicksave and rushed to the portal (with ~2 hours of travelling, not portal time, left) - nope, didn't make it. Then I thought to reload the autosave, but then big surprise: the last time it triggered was when I clicked Recall Home earlier, so it became useless - strike TWO. After that, I noticed I could recall the party members individually, yet the gear on main character was still lost because after party recall I still had to Recall Home the main. That bitterness** along with the time and effort spent on micromanaging the game in the beginning (on default difficulty settings, no less) made me feel like it's enough for strike THREE. So, I'm out [of the game for good], unless someone knows a way to save Main's gear. So, here's the reason I wrote pretty much everything in this post: does this "way" exist?

The game feels like it's pushing the management aspect extremely heavily, and punishes just as much for random missteps. Not entirely sure how much of it's the game and how much of it was ME, but if there are "good" elements of it in there, I never got the chance to see them because I never got past the "bad" ones.

**Ironically, one possible way might've been the Teleport Stone, something I felt smart about not getting in the beginning (in favor of...well...favor), so..."Touché, Pussy Cat", I suppose.

 

[AWolfe]

Lesson 1: save, save, save. The only time you cannot save is while in combat. ALWAYS save before a combat.
Lesson 2: use several different saves, and alternate between them.
Lesson 3: there is an option button for each character to set or clear whether items are unequipped on that character when you exit a portal. Make sure this option is set how you want it to be before you enter a portal.

Your problems are more from not understanding how to play the game than from the game not working well. And while you're learning how to play a game expect that you'll make mistakes. Which is why I call your attention to Lessons 1 & 2 again.

 

[W65]

Not sure why the game removes all EQUIPPED items when you Recall Home, but that just made my experience with the game even worse than it already has been.

As I tried to leave one of the portals, I got a "Portal closed. Recall home". When I did, I found out that I lost my whole party AND all equipped gear - strike ONE. I reloaded the last quicksave and rushed to the portal (with ~2 hours of travelling, not portal time, left) - nope, didn't make it. Then I thought to reload the autosave, but then big surprise: the last time it triggered was when I clicked Recall Home earlier, so it became useless - strike TWO. After that, I noticed I could recall the party members individually, yet the gear on main character was still lost because after party recall I still had to Recall Home the main. That bitterness** along with the time and effort spent on micromanaging the game in the beginning (on default difficulty settings, no less) made me feel like it's enough for strike THREE. So, I'm out [of the game for good], unless someone knows a way to save Main's gear. So, here's the reason I wrote pretty much everything in this post: does this "way" exist?

The game feels like it's pushing the management aspect extremely heavily, and punishes just as much for random missteps. Not entirely sure how much of it's the game and how much of it was ME, but if there are "good" elements of it in there, I never got the chance to see them because I never got past the "bad" ones.

**Ironically, one possible way might've been the Teleport Stone, something I felt smart about not getting in the beginning (in favor of...well...favor), so..."Touché, Pussy Cat", I suppose.

Hm. I don't really remember there being much in the way of great gear in the game. Have you considered cheating? Personally, if a single-player game (especially a porn game) pulls out shit I don't feel like dealing with, I just cheat. This game really does like making you lose stuff. You can lose crap from running away, too, which is kinda irritating to deal with in a game with random battles. Juggling the resources is enough of a hassle without dropping them all over the place.

Also, I stopped going into portals that aren't stabilized if there's any chance I'll get screwed. I spend way too much time in the game watching the clock already.

Lesson 1: save, save, save. The only time you cannot save is while in combat. ALWAYS save before a combat.
Lesson 2: use several different saves, and alternate between them.
Lesson 3: there is an option button for each character to set or clear whether items are unequipped on that character when you exit a portal. Make sure this option is set how you want it to be before you enter a portal.

Your problems are more from not understanding how to play the game than from the game not working well. And while you're learning how to play a game expect that you'll make mistakes. Which is why I call your attention to Lessons 1 & 2 again.

I agree with a point you made a few posts ago that this game could use better documentation. I remember a few versions ago it was possible to permanently give away unique NPCs to the library, and without it really being clear that you were actually going to lose the NPC. Heck, you might still be able to do this, but I think they at least give a confirmation prompt now.

Not that the designer has to warn the player before every situation in which they could lose progress, but I really don't remember it being spelled out that you could lose stuff if you stay in a portal after its time elapses. It might be something the new NPC says, or it might be in the infodump help thing in the home screen. I dunno.

Also while I agree "save early save often" is good general advice it doesn't really get the guy out of his current situation. I'm not sure of a way to do it, which is why I advocate just cheating.

 

[Tsugumi]

Lesson 3: there is an option button for each character to set or clear whether items are unequipped on that character when you exit a portal. Make sure this option is set how you want it to be before you enter a portal.

Actually, that's what baffled me when I first clicked Recall Home: the game did NOT return the equipment of party members that disappeared, and the Setting related to item-keeping has been unticked from the beginning (the only one I changed was EnemyFocus, after I saw what it did). And it says "for new characters", anyway, so I wouldn't expect it to ever "protect" Main's gear...unless switching forms (my Main was Evolution) counted as "new character" somehow.

Have you considered cheating?

After what happened? Naturally I figured I'd try the save edit website thingy, but when I saw all the...options?....not even sure what they're called properly...all those switches/variables/whatevers, I realized how many there are to go through. Although, after recovering from the piled up negativity, I sifted through them and - after breaking several copies of the save- managed to change portal's timeout to a later date, which got me the time I needed to get out of the area.

 

[W65]

[...]

managed to change portal's timeout to a later date, which got me the time I needed to get out of the area.

Wish I'd thought of that. I figured you were going to have to eat the loss and just cheat yourself equivalent stats to the old equipment you had. Glad you figured out something simpler.

Going forward, yeah, it's probably best to keep a bunch of saves. I usually end up with ten or so that I rotate through in games like this. That, or I just rotate through all the slots, for games that have them.

 

[Deleted member 770309]

Any cheats for this.

 

[AWolfe]

Any cheats for this.

You must be registered to see the links

.

 

[Deleted member 770309]

You must be registered to see the links

.

Well thank you for the link.

 

[reallybadman]

You must be registered to see the links

just dropped.

Need someone with magical powers to update OP.