Ahhh- performance, I don't think it has to do with Unity, it's more that we haven't done too much in optimization right now and we do have a few graphic-heavy post-processing effects which could really surprise people on older hardware which you can turn down! The Fog of War I find really helps with my ancient R9 290x.
Splitting Whispering Brook up might... have been a lot smarter than what we ended up doing. We will have to address it, maybe make the area with Roddis into a rest and relaxation area where you can come back to, maybe have a little bartering. I was thinking of adding a few village members who are more under Roddis' influence than Mara's and they could be minor vendors etc. Maybe we could even add in some more side-quests to break up the main quest.
Hmmm, the artifact being an alternative key eh. Interesting idea, it could give a bonus to keeping it and another benefit to meeting Roddis even if you have given it over to them. That's a good thought! I'll jot it down.
-----
Combat is FUBAR atm! Well, not FUBAR but we haven't honestly addressed the issues of combat and such yet. So skills aren't at the place we want them to be currently, we do plan on addressing and solving this Soon.tm, there will be even more specializations and such and even skills you pick up for clearing companion quests, random quests... and even hidden diegetic lore-choices.
For sure we 100% plan out to include a tutorial at the start. We really, really, really should have done it already, or rather when we first made the game... but we were completely swamped and had no idea how we would evolve our combat system eventually.
We have some ideas around rest and recovery between fights etc and it will always be capped out to a maximum unless you come to a campsite and are able to rest up fully. It's part of our persistent damage and balancing thing to slow people down a bit and make combat really tactical and impactful, we do plan on having some more clever ways to save you from taking full out damage though.
Thank You for quick and detailed answer! Also good to know that some of my ideas were good enough.
Also I have found that turning down Fog of War to minimum does wonders to performance! However there is one strange thing - if you lower your "general" graphic settings to lower levels, it does not lower the Fog of War settings. Small oversight, but can be easily fixed I bet.
I already have a bunch of content written for Whispering Brook's aftermath states, Redemption, Corruption, and Death. Stage 1 of aftermath could be implemented at any time we get spare time, stage 2 is mostly finished and will be the permanent state of Whispering Brook as far as I have planned. You might have already seen that Mara shows up a couple of times after!
Oh I personally cannot wait for it! I have put so many saves and hours into it (including but not limited to seeing what will happen in Senate) that I am very interested on how much will the Whispering Brook change.
Also will we be able to return to the dungeon in it or nah? On my first playthrough I left quite a few goods over there, because I had problems with weight (haven't sold much, cause I thought some of it might be important). And a follow-up will we be able to return to the prologue location? I admit, I missed magical amulet, cause I was still "green" regarding combat and haven't tried to explore everything.
For LW, we plan to be able to avoid her scene at the beginning if the player doesn't want to snuggle. For the rest of the game we might add a way to rebel / betray her but obviously there wont be any way to outright kill her, since she is alive in the comic which is decades later.
Also very interested in it. I do wonder how will the resisting work towards dynamics of the pairing. Especially if You go for the Retribution in Whispering Brook. Not gonna lie, it was very strange seeing Lady Wolf smile and being happy as opposed to her usual cold/emotionless self from comics (even in disguise). Makes me wonder if something happened later in game (or between game and comic).
It can be difficult to move to tiles behind other characters, since you need to click on a part of tile of that isn't covered someone in front.
It can also be difficult to see which tiles are open, blocked or adjacent when someone is in front of it.
Regarding also that it is hard to see what targeting/maiming specific body part will do, cause it's often blocked by someone.
***
Also tried to re-do the quests with different characters in team, just to see more interactions. You put
a lot of thought and work into that and I absolutely love it!
And I tried to do what every player playing beta should do - which is breaking the game. I found it's possible to pay Osh'To before going to shipwreck (via gaining 100 silver coins from Whispering Brooks upfront payment like Samara negotiated), She's happy and all that but in later dialogue (during sex scene), there is still mention of the "Master" thing coming from slave disguise. Haven't checked it but if I were to guess, Lady Wolf will also mention that she did something, so the guards at the gate won't check the stamp etc.
***
Having said all that - I do have some questions. Some might have been answered cause haven't read all 106 pages of this post (and haven't finished the game yet, I'm gonna go on castle mission).
- Seeing as Samara is as big horndog as Redic - will we got some w/w scenes in future?
- this one is very spoilery probably - will bringing your companions to Senate where they will see Lady Wolf for first time have big story consequences? I know that
Samara is horny for her, Lady Wolf is interested in Hiho (also Hiho has seen through Mara disguise), Osh'To instinctevely knows something is wrong and doesn't trust her (and goes even more quiet if it's even possible!) and Scylla doesn't want to see her next time cause Lady Wolf suspects too much but I do wonder if this will have some consequences/follow-up?
- one more regarding Lady Wolf - will we get more options to talk to her? At some different times? On the one hand I know it's better to leave her a mystery since it's what makes her interesting, on the other damn, I want to know more and try to struggle against her more (or less).
- as stupid as it sounds seeing as it's porn game - will one be able to do "pure"/no-sex playthrough?
- how many endings you have planned or is it still up to the question?
- will we get a follow-up on our Phrik friend in the cave?
- and one last for now - how often do this game updates?
