Keep the existing jobs or have the PC become a fulltime detective in week 2?


  • Total voters
    44
  • Poll closed .

WendyTheRed

Member
Game Developer
May 30, 2017
410
1,139
Love your game, it's awesome! Can't wait to see more of how it unfolds.

Could you possibly tell me how the skill system works? Is it a random number plus the skill rating, or just a flat skill rating check against a number? And how exactly are the skill increases on resting calculated? I seem to sometimes get massive gains in one skill and other times almost no points in another. Is it random?

So when a skill check is made:

There is a default target number. Say - 50. If your attribute plus skill is higher than 50 you auto pass unless you roll a critical failure.

Rolling is a d100 check. If you don't auto-pass the check but manage to beat the target number by comparing random number + attribute + skill then you also pass.

You have a 5% chance of a critical failure or a critical success. Failing to beat the target number is, of course, a failure.

Every 5 times you pass a skill check of any kind (crit successes count as 2) you get to choose to raise a skill at night. I think it adds +3 to the skill if memory serves. Every 5 skill raises is supposed to let you raise an attribute but that's not working for some reason that I need to look into.
 

ffive

Forum Fanatic
Jun 19, 2022
5,258
11,405
So, a general observation after playing this: what the game tells you and the content appear to be at irreconcilable odds.

We're told out of three ruling families one has been spreading corruption and "poisoning" the town so to speak, one has been neutral, and the last one is basically the counter to corruption spreaders. Thus, increasing MC's corruption isn't just effectively "not doing her job" but quite the opposite -- she's tipping the balance of the town (even further) and helping the antagonists to bring about the presumably bad/dark end.

Which, as an option, is fine. Some MCs just want to watch the world burn (while the player jerks off to it) But if one wanted to play the game in a manner which the game itself suggests is right and expected from the protagonist, given her role etc, then they effectively have a game loaded with erotic content and the premise that the player should absolutely avoid all that content... which in the end doesn't really leave much of content to play with.

And that's a bit of a conundrum. ;/
 
Last edited:

LewdLena

Newbie
Jul 8, 2022
32
153
My congratuilations WendyTheRed, The Shadows Over Solomon Falls is absolutely remarkable.
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As the female part of the F95 society, I will admit that I am very selective when it comes to games on F95 site. I always prefer the storyline over the erotic aspect in games.
I started playing Shadows Over Solomon Falls sometime after 8pm and I just had to take a look at the game, because I planned to go to bed after 10-11pm. Nonetheless, this did not happen, because I kept telling myself, just a minute, just finish this dialogue and I'm really going to bed. In the end, I finished playing after 3am. I just couldn't take my eyes off it.
I honestly can't remember the last time I was so drawn to a game.
The worst moment for me was when I was going to the bathroom to take a quick shower and brush my teeth. Then I remembered the dreams Rachel had. My man was sleeping in the bed, and I was supposed to break through the half-light through the corridor to get to the bathroom and then get under the duvet in a dark room where fear has big eyes. I was psyched, I was scared.

The plot is absolutely epic.

Nevertheless, I would like to ask for something if possible.
English is not my native language and I learned German and French at school. So my English sah come from a "gaming environment". So I don't understand all the words exactly. Nevertheless, a simple tool such as google translator comes to my aid, with which I translate the text and paste the text in Speechelo software and I have a kind of audiobook.

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In my language I have a very nice voice of a woman who reads really nice. Listening to such an audiobook with a cup of hot late coffee can really brighten up the day.


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Why am I writing about this, well, translating such a text into my language, it's literally easy for me to understand what the plot is about.
"Problem" is with a dialogue with an unknown person in their dialogue box appear ???? as a name and translator reads this name as "question mark" it's quite understandable. So here's my question, would it be possible to change it ???? to make more sense -> Stranger or Stranger Person ? Please.

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And here is an example of an audio track where the AI says ? (question mark) as the character's "name".


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Dreams and Rachel's skill
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Regarding Rachel's sleep system and skills development, I think it would be more immersive if Rachel's physical abilities were acquired by going to the gym (once a day ).
Shadowy arts of thievery - Rachel could gain such skills by meeting some homeless criminal in the park. The teaching system could be quid pro quo (once a day - as is the case with Dark Alley).
Finding clues - while flirting with one of the policemen, she could learn this and that.
Talking People - Everyone knows that reading books is not only a form of spending time, but also a form of learning how to talk to people. How it's working ? The person who reads books have better vocabulary and knowledge base for conversation. As we learn more words by reading books, our pronunciation becomes richer, and our utterances become more wise, which makes people want to listen to us and consider possibilities even those that not so long ago they would not even consider. We reach them through the art of persuasion


Other than that, I don't really have anything that could be detrimental to the game. Everything is as it should be.

Also I found some bugs?
When I was looking someone to drink at the pub. This happened to me once out of two attempts.

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Misplaced Rachel's thoughts. Personally, I think the underlined text with a red line should appear below Mr. Roy Lacey's (librarian) dialogue text ? Or Im wrong?

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Also if someone is bothered by the lack of music, you can always go on yuoutube (as I do) search for the word relaxing music and set volume YT music on 10-20% volume, which will accompany you during the exploration of places during the game.

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And in the second browser window in Youtube type scary dreams music ( for Rachel dream )

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Keep it up doing great work.
Regards
Lena

Edit:
I edited the post because I found some mistakes. Well, I'm just a human who makes mistakes.

Nobody is perfect... I wish I was nobody ;)
 
Last edited:

WendyTheRed

Member
Game Developer
May 30, 2017
410
1,139
Which, as an option, is fine. Some MCs just want to watch the world burn (while the player jerks off to it) But if one wanted to play the game in a manner which the game itself suggests is right and expected from the protagonist, given her role etc, then they effectively have a game loaded with erotic content and the premise that the player should absolutely avoid all that content... which in the end doesn't really leave much of content to play with.

And that's a bit of a conundrum. ;/
Corruption in my game does indeed have dual uses. (I'm working on a way to get more content for corruption playthroughs actually!) It has the standard erotic game use of "girl becomes more wanton" and as you observed, more literal corruption. Now, all that said, if you avoid corruption, you don't have to avoid content. The dom and sub options are totally separate from corruption and are other ways to interact with the erotic content.

My congratuilations WendyTheRed, The Shadows Over Solomon Falls is absolutely remarkable.
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Thank you! I'm glad you like it! I work hard on it and sometimes lay awake at night unable to sleep because I'm thinking about how I want to tell the next part of the story or whatever. And thinking about the "universe" I've made in general. And what the potential sequel game will be. ;)

As the female part of the F95 society, I will admit that I am very selective when it comes to games on F95 site. I always prefer the storyline over the erotic aspect in games.
I started playing Shadows Over Solomon Falls sometime after 8pm and I just had to take a look at the game, because I planned to go to bed after 10-11pm. Nonetheless, this did not happen, because I kept telling myself, just a minute, just finish this dialogue and I'm really going to bed. In the end, I finished playing after 3am. I just couldn't take my eyes off it.
I honestly can't remember the last time I was so drawn to a game.
The worst moment for me was when I was going to the bathroom to take a quick shower and brush my teeth. Then I remembered the dreams Rachel had. My man was sleeping in the bed, and I was supposed to break through the half-light through the corridor to get to the bathroom and then get under the duvet in a dark room where fear has big eyes. I was psyched, I was scared.
This is a bigger compliment than I can even put into words. Thank you so much.



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While I am not opposed to this I need to think it over. I'd have to track down every instance of that and change it and the game has hundreds of passages now. I need to figure out if I can reasonably do it without losing a couple of days of progress towards the next update.


Regarding Rachel's sleep system and skills development, I think it would be more immersive if Rachel's physical abilities were acquired by going to the gym (once a day ).
Shadowy arts of thievery - Rachel could gain such skills by meeting some homeless criminal in the park. The teaching system could be quid pro quo (once a day - as is the case with Dark Alley).
Finding clues - while flirting with one of the policemen, she could learn this and that.
Talking People - Everyone knows that reading books is not only a form of spending time, but also a form of learning how to talk to people. How it's working ? The person who reads books have better vocabulary and knowledge base for conversation. As we learn more words by reading books, our pronunciation becomes richer, and our utterances become more wise, which makes people want to listen to us and consider possibilities even those that not so long ago they would not even consider. We reach them through the art of persuasion
Originally I had more of a "you can only raise skills you use" system. So, if you succeed in, say, investigation, you got points towards raising that skill. The two problems I had with that system was the skill uses aren't super balanced. That's on me and I hope to fix that. But basically investigation gets probably the most use of any skill in the game with thievery getting the least use. Your idea is quite nice and would have been a good way to do things. Now it'd require me to add new content and rewrite how existing content works and would take me a few days to accomplish probably.


Also I found some bugs?
When I was looking someone to drink at the pub. This happened to me once out of two attempts.
This is already fixed. I think my Patrons have a fixed HTML available which I guess I never posted elsewhere.


Misplaced Rachel's thoughts. Personally, I think the underlined text with a red line should appear below Mr. Roy Lacey's (librarian) dialogue text ? Or Im wrong?
You're right! Wow, that one has gone unreported for a long, long time. Months! It's now fixed. Thank you!


Keep it up doing great work.
Regards
Lena
Thank you Lena, I'm glad you enjoyed the game! Hopefully you'll like the next release as well!
 

ffive

Forum Fanatic
Jun 19, 2022
5,258
11,405
Now, all that said, if you avoid corruption, you don't have to avoid content. The dom and sub options are totally separate from corruption and are other ways to interact with the erotic content.
I'm afraid i don't understand. What the game has told and shown me led me to believe that since corruption is increased and/or reflects the MC enjoying sex, simply having sex increases it, regardless of picked options (other than "abort and get out") because the MC certainly gets off on it. Also, since dom/sub activities are as much about power play and as such are considered "kinkier" sex, how does it make any sense to require the MC to take these routes if she wants to avoid corruption? If anything, wouldn't these increase her corruption more?

If this is how it works in the game, then it is completely counter-intuitive and opaque; i'd have never guessed it if you didn't tell me this here.
 
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RetroGuy

Newbie
Nov 26, 2022
51
143
Hello,
I'd like to say I really love the game.
It's a solid mystery with nice graphics and system of statistics that any mainstream RPG wouldn't be ashamed of.

A bit weak part as other said is corruption. It's an erotic game after all and to keep corruption low you need to avoid sex. Something better would be vanilla sex vs some kinky sex or so in order that each path gves you some nice content.

The are a few bugs, mostly with the girl wearing a wrong dress at the picture. I guess it must be a pain doing a different picture for each dress and she has quite a few.

I have recently seen a horror movie callled "Population 436" with a bit similar motive - an isolated town that nobody can leave. I wonder if it was an inspiration for the game.

I waiting for more anyway!
 

WendyTheRed

Member
Game Developer
May 30, 2017
410
1,139
I'm afraid i don't understand. What the game has told and shown me led me to believe that since corruption is increased and/or reflects the MC enjoying sex, simply having sex increases it, regardless of picked options (other than "abort and get out") because the MC certainly gets off on it. Also, since dom/sub activities are as much about power play and as such are considered "kinkier" sex, how does it make any sense to require the MC to take these routes if she wants to avoid corruption? If anything, wouldn't these increase her corruption more?

If this is how it works in the game, then it is completely counter-intuitive and opaque; i'd have never guessed it if you didn't tell me this here.
Generally when you have a potential sex scene you have three options

1) A sort of passive let it happen option. This is the submissive branch. It increases your submission.
2) A more active agreesive option. This is the dominant action. Increases dominance.
3) A sort of slutty getting off on it action. This is the corruption action. Increases corruption.
4) A chance to say no. Sometimes will end all future sex content with that character. This is primarily so people can play pure lesbian playthroughs and/or if they're simply not interested in that character.

They almost always are done in that order well. Sub action. Dom action. Corrupt action. No sex action. There's not a specific reason other than I am a bit of a creature of habit. Sex in general does not increase corruption. Generally acting slutty in your responses will as well as a few other actions.


Hello,
I'd like to say I really love the game.
It's a solid mystery with nice graphics and system of statistics that any mainstream RPG wouldn't be ashamed of.

A bit weak part as other said is corruption. It's an erotic game after all and to keep corruption low you need to avoid sex. Something better would be vanilla sex vs some kinky sex or so in order that each path gves you some nice content.

The are a few bugs, mostly with the girl wearing a wrong dress at the picture. I guess it must be a pain doing a different picture for each dress and she has quite a few.

I have recently seen a horror movie callled "Population 436" with a bit similar motive - an isolated town that nobody can leave. I wonder if it was an inspiration for the game.

I waiting for more anyway!
You can partake in sex without increasing corruption as long as you go either a dom or sub route. Notice that these don't specifically refer to BDSM dom/sub in most circumstances, it's just how your character reacts. (Sometimes it is more BDSM focused with a few specific characters however.)


Submission does have its own pitfalls however. In some scenes if you are super submissive you don't get an option to say no. I don't think there are a ton of them in the game but there are a few.

As for the girl wearing the wrong dress in the pictures, if you have examples, please let me know. That's an easy fix though it shouldn't be happening at all. (An easy fix assuming I didn't mess up the render at least...)
 
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RetroGuy

Newbie
Nov 26, 2022
51
143
As for the girl wearing the wrong dress in the pictures, if you have examples, please let me know. That's an easy fix though it shouldn't be happening at all. (An easy fix assuming I didn't mess up the render at least...)
Sure, I'll try to deliver something soon
 

WendyTheRed

Member
Game Developer
May 30, 2017
410
1,139
Waiting for game now.
Pretty Excited !!!!!
Any news of the update?
Well, I'm done with all of the job stuff. New dream is done. Quite a few activities post-job are also done. There is some branching in this update that will probably eat up more time. I'll toss in a few previews though to wet the appetite!

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WendyTheRed

Member
Game Developer
May 30, 2017
410
1,139
Any news?
I told my Patrons that I am hopeful for a release to my $10+ Patrons by the week of March 20th. Please don't take this as a guaranteed release window. I think it is quite possible for me to hit but real life has a way of laughing at my plans and throwing roadblocks I don't expect.

In the meantime, here is another batch of previews!

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max27

Member
May 28, 2017
203
153
I told my Patrons that I am hopeful for a release to my $10+ Patrons by the week of March 20th. Please don't take this as a guaranteed release window. I think it is quite possible for me to hit but real life has a way of laughing at my plans and throwing roadblocks I don't expect.

In the meantime, here is another batch of previews!

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Hey man hope your plans stay on track, absolutely love your game and you are easily one of the best developer on this site.
 
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WendyTheRed

Member
Game Developer
May 30, 2017
410
1,139
The game has gone out to my $10+ Patrons today minus part of the Deputy Parker date which I'll patch in Monday.

The release schedule is as follows:

$10+ Patrons March 24
$5 Patrons March 31
$3 Patrons April 7
$1 Patrons April 11
Public April 14

If you'd like to play it before the 14th feel free to join us in my Patreon:

And here are a few more previews to tide you over!

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4.80 star(s) 13 Votes