It's been a long while since I've last played, downloaded v0.22b and gave it a quick spin. As much as I'd like to give the game a review that could hopefully take it a little further than the 1.5 stars it has on this site, I personally think it's still in too early of a state to actually affect any site ratings so I'll just post my thoughts here (starting with the gripes first)
- Right off the bat, the thing that sticks out the most to me is that the island itself almost feels too large, especially for a game of this scope. There's a part of me that'd prefer exploration done in smaller, sequestered areas with loading zones in-between, especially without any kind of LOD toggling for the far-off environmental objects. C'mon, how many polygons is that volcano in the distance? Does it really need to have so much detail and visibility at all times?
- I can't tell what exactly the photo-scoring system wants from me. I see that there's different objectives like getting pictures of the different colors/patterns for each species, activities, etc., but it also doesn't seem to give you any bonuses (or even an objective) for taking pictures of them in the middle of fucking? I've taken well-ranked photos just from being an idiot and running up directly to something and snapping a picture, but a carefully-obtained, difficult-to-make shot from the side of a futa fox using a bee girl like an onahole is only a C- because they aren't facing the camera?
- Speaking of pictures being difficult to make, the stealth feels practically nonexistent. In other games, crouching and walking into a bush would usually be considered perfect cover. Instead, crouching seems to make morenoise than regularly walking and the bush itself also makes noises that alerts everything within a 30ft radius, ruining your chance of snapping that photo of a bunny cumming her brains out.
- Only semi-related to this point but trying to actually get the thrown rocks to connect with the girls is near-impossible and doesn't seem to have much point, especially with how easily they can notice you and just bolt away.
- I do not like the day/night cycle, but only because this is at a point in development where the player does not have any tools to meaningfully interact with said cycle. If it gets dark, there's little point in doing anything besides warping back to home base and advancing time till morning again.
- That being said, I have a hard time thinking of reasons I'd want to try exploring at night. It seems like some of the animal girls are supposed to be more nocturnal, but I've seen them walking about/interacting/fucking in broad daylight regardless, and even if they're more active at night I can't see myself going out of my way to get a picture of bat girls having sex in worse lighting.
- Dear god please just give the player a jump button. The amount of finagling you have to deal with in basic traversal is insane, especially with things like 1ft ledges you can't get past.
Not sure if any of these issues have been fixed in paid versions but it sounds like one of my complaints (not being able to advance species relationships and having a better goal than expanding the radio towers) has been addressed already.
With all that out of the way here's stuff that I actually like about the game!
- I like the variety when it comes to the different types of animal girls. Normally stuff like this usually goes with more "basic" options for the animals, usually a garden variety of mammals like cats, dogs, etc. but I appreciate the early and consistent inclusion of reptiles, and the bees are a nice touch as well. I'd personally like to see an avian/bird of some kind, maybe a dip into the mythological/fantastical with dragons, gryphons, unicorns/pegasus, etc., or even prehistoric stuff like dinosaurs (even if they might look a little similar to the crocodile/alligator girls already in the game.)
- Being able to control spawn rates of futa on a per-species basis would be neat. Just something so you could have, for example, the rabbits at a high futa rate, foxes at medium, deers on low, snakes at none, however the player would want, really.
- One complaint I have in regards to the animal girls is that the rabbits feel like they have a slightlymore unique design compared to most of the others, and that the deer are almost too plain in comparison to the rest.
- To elaborate even further, the rabbits feel more like a Pokémon, thanks to the unique details on their ears and some of their more unique colorations. The deer on the other hand, while still being cute, don't quite have the same charm that some of the other more "plain" animals have, they just kinda feel like a standard "cute anthro deer girl." I think they could benefit from some more fun color variations.
- The voyeuristic nature of the game is really sexy and kinda underrated, imo. I know people would prefer to have a player character more actively participating, but it's kinda hot to just stumble upon a pair of animal girls having sex while three others are standing around, watching and masturbating.
- With that in mind, it'd be nice if the player had tools to facilitate the voyeurism. Items that could goad the animal girls into having sex/actively seek out a partner, better ways to hide and remain undetected so you don't interrupt the sex and can get close without having to zoom through the camera, stuff like that.
This is how you do feedback. Let me jump into this.
1. regions are small tbh, we scaled it back quite a lot since we felt that the player would spend far too long traversing instead of finding things to do. Once the full roadmap for early access is done there will be a lot of time based and environmental puzzles/events to interact with. Take a look at this roadmap, right now we are in the middle of v022 and we are building micropatches (which is what the a, b, c, stuff is are the end of the version number). In v025 the space and area will be filled with things like for example: a unique photo op at a fruit tree which happens at night, which is triggered by the player throwing rocks at fruit hanging from the tree to knock it down to the bats waiting blow, the feast and an orgy starts. Some of these events happen on a specific day, during a particular time (Monring, Midday, Evening, Night). These will fill in the exploration tab of the guide book. As for the volcano, its like 100 polys, its very very low on resources.
2. We build the photo scoring based on a method of photography called "the rule of thirds" meaning it needs to have subjects that take up 3 of the 9 possible grids on a 3x3 grid. There is a lot of cumbersom feeling to it atm, and we do not reward the player enough fo just taking a "clean" shot of girls doing their thing. So it will be re-addressed at some point. I do feel it, and my intention is to have the player take photos that rank up to B very easily. After the player rescues the behaviorist scientiest in the main story they will unlock functionalty called "perfect photo" or PP for short. These are specific points in a animation that are the perfect time to take a photo, which elevates the score by a significant margin. The player is capible of taking this shot without the unlock, but the unlock will make those points visible.
3. Stealth is not so much based on visiblity more that it is based on the animals sixth sense. If you enter their radius while not crouching the awareness bar fills up faster, being crouched increases it a lot slower. Being inside a bush while crouched turns off the awareness accumulation but right now it standing in a bush does nothing. If a girl spots you the awareness bar fills up way faster, if they become aware of danger (the red state) and they visibly spot you, they flee. We will have tools and such to help with this feedback loop later, like a fake bush you can wear, and bait to distract. Rocks right now are mostly tools to interact with the enviroment and to knock ai out of states. In v022c it will be used to turn off agressive plants, and to scare away predators from hunting the player. In v025 it will be used to interact with event sites, like knocking apples outta the tree etc.
4. You are correct about the night cycle. Right now the game has a enviromental puzzle that can only be completed at night (special glowing rune stones) which activates a night only spawn called Malous. Later tools will include better night vision, illumination tools, photo styles for night photos, etc. The fox girl will only hunt at night, and the snake will only hunt during the day. The bats only spawn at night but can sometimes appear during the day. We will be addressing the rates for all this in v022c.
5. Honestly I am pretty against the jump functionalty being implmented but I can see your point about hickups on the landscape. I will discuss this internally, as locomotion and such needs to be implmented correctly, it also has a possibility of other unintended game breaks related to photography or ai. Just know we actually avoided including it.
Just as a note here, they talk about familarity (the concept of girls becoming more okay with your presence on the island) yes it will come in v022e.
6. The species is interesting discussion point so my goal is to eventually include more and more "supernatural" designs, both mythic and pokemon like. The plains is for this purpose is the entry point to the game, were the deeper you go, the more intense the monster designs get. Each region (of which there are 5 planned) will have 9 unique monster designs, these designs can cross mingle into different biomes and such. Along with standard girls having more unique varients. For example, we plan to include a variation of the bunny girl in every biome, so a snow bunny, fire bunny, sand bunny, etc. This will happen with other mons as well to a degree. Each region will also include some sort of unique spawn related to ghosts and hauntings as well. Hopefully this addresses your concerns about this, as varients are going to be a big thing for photo ops in the future. Like finding the ruby bunny girl might be a vary rare chance. And the deer varient for the snow having massive antlers with a big fat body.
7. Futa rates per species is something no one has requested except for you. And honestly that is something I could see added to sandbox mode post game completion. Futa is needed for a lot of our photo ops, and while we do allow it to be turned off, it does affect our goals a lot. Something to consider though.
8. I am glad you like that aspect, but allow me to detail some plans you might like. Via familiarty a lot of things about the girls change. So the very core of our experience is tied to the player taking photos while NOT disturbing the natural way of things. If however you do make them aware of you a couple things happen. At low familiarty they will simply flee (exactly how it works now), at medium familirity they will strike sultry poses like models do, perhaps even tease you with their butts and make lewd gestures at you. But getting too close after that has them flee. At high familiarty the mons will allow you to approach and interact with them. However these photos you take won't work for a majorty of the monpedia entries. On top of this we have global events like the Pink Moon event (based on lunar cycles) which activates the spore plants and drugs everthing on the island into a very lustful state, this increases spawn rates, decreases awareness, increases sex acts, and even drugs the player and gives them a chance to surrender to the island and join the orgy.
As for tools to not be seen, yes. We have those planned. Bait, camoflague, etc. So we have a lot to do.
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This sort of post i love, as it shows player involement in the process, I am aware we have some things to correct, and a lot to add to the base game before I would consider it ready. We also have a main story line which is fully voiced and ready to be implmented but sex mechancis and base systems come first. I hope you continue to give feedback like this in the future.