Ren'Py Sovereign [v0.10.1] [Zinikis Production]
- Thread starter zinikis_production
- Start date
Phone - Characters - <character>. It gives hints as to what you need to progress.
eg. With the mom/landlady you need to learn massage from Jeanne (~10 lessons if I'm not mistaken) before you can level up.
For me, I worked on the sisters paths and Jill concurrently as they required less to progress. This built the control up to the levels required for other characters.
There is really no reason for single choice options to exist, and definitely not to exist so often.
Not going to post negative review just yet, will wait on future release, but damn, this one needs some BIG TIME trimming on click-fest.
Not fun, at all.
Not going to post negative review just yet, will wait on future release, but damn, this one needs some BIG TIME trimming on click-fest.
Not fun, at all.
Really love this game, since I´m fond of sandbox and corruption. I also have the problem after buying UP (an error displays and I cannot get out)
- Jun 15, 2023
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Thank to anyone who has been reporting the issue with the Nightclub. I have fixed the issue but you will require v1.2 of the game. It's available for free on my patreon page. I will also update the download link here as well.
- Sep 12, 2017
- 339
- 364
you should increase the amount of money we earn for working and maybe decrease the amount of mind it takes to work (or eliminate mind all together and just go with energy). My energy currently in game is 128 but my mind is 12...mind needs balanced or eliminated. Currently working more than 4 hours a day is almost impossible, and even when you've got the mind for it it means you get to do nothing the rest of the day. 200 bucks a pop for UP when you have to use it to get corruption and need 10 and only get 3 per dose is a LOT of grinding to get your girls to the second event. THat's 800 bucks per girl for level 2 and at 15 bucks an hour that's more than 53 hours of work per girl for level 2. somebody suggested a cheat console, but you could just balance it a little better so we don't have to grind for hours just to get the girls to level 2. I like to have to work for it a little bit, but this is a bit much. Otherwise loving what i've seen so far. English is a little rough, but not too bad. It's also a lot of clicking to get anywhere. i like the house interface (maybe put the girls pic on their location in the house when they are there?), but you need to add the downtown button to the menu in the house...maybe the work button too. Or just overhaul the whole outside system and put in a map with all locations on it.
Edit:
I've gone back and noticed that a lot of others have suggested the same sorts of things as I did...not surprising really. Just wanted to encourage you a little if it seems that this is all negativity. No one would be on here suggesting these changes if the game wasn't worth fixing. This is a solid foundation and I like the system. Just eneds some tweaks. Keep plugging away you're doing well for your first game.
Edit 2:
I'm an idiot...i was reading the corruption lvl 1 requirements and thought i needed all this to progress the girl to influence stage 2. Grind isn't as bad as i thought now that i'm in level 2 there are actions that can corrupt rather than just buy up.
Edit 3:
Needs to be a warning at some point about losing influecne when you don't have 200 bucks to start the week. I didn't even know that was a thing until I lost points...also, when i failed to have the money i lost 3 influence points with Emily THREE times for a total of 9 pionts. Not sure if that's an error and it's supposed to be 3 from each girl or what but that's really harsh.
Edit:
I've gone back and noticed that a lot of others have suggested the same sorts of things as I did...not surprising really. Just wanted to encourage you a little if it seems that this is all negativity. No one would be on here suggesting these changes if the game wasn't worth fixing. This is a solid foundation and I like the system. Just eneds some tweaks. Keep plugging away you're doing well for your first game.
Edit 2:
I'm an idiot...i was reading the corruption lvl 1 requirements and thought i needed all this to progress the girl to influence stage 2. Grind isn't as bad as i thought now that i'm in level 2 there are actions that can corrupt rather than just buy up.
Edit 3:
Needs to be a warning at some point about losing influecne when you don't have 200 bucks to start the week. I didn't even know that was a thing until I lost points...also, when i failed to have the money i lost 3 influence points with Emily THREE times for a total of 9 pionts. Not sure if that's an error and it's supposed to be 3 from each girl or what but that's really harsh.
Last edited:
- Jun 15, 2023
- 159
- 527
Thank you for playing and feedbacks. Yeah, I'm still ironing out the gameplay and grind session. At this moment it just feel more grindy cause you're still very limited in what you can do. As you said one you level up a bit things will get much smoother. I have also not implemented charisma gain yet but that would help with the grind as well.
Also, nice catch on the Emily bug. You're right, it should have been 3 for each girl. I will make sure to fix that in 2.0
- Mar 4, 2020
- 1,037
- 1,302
Been running around this sandbox for 15 minutes now and it's getting very clear to me.
Not my cup of tea.
Boring as hell , not too pretty ladies and this sandbox-thing.
Plus far too many clicking required but nothing lewd going on.
Exit.
Not my cup of tea.
Boring as hell , not too pretty ladies and this sandbox-thing.
Plus far too many clicking required but nothing lewd going on.
Exit.
It's a first release mate. How many linear AVN's have you played where you go several chapters before any lewd content occurs?
Sandbox fits for this game. Yes, it's a little clunky right now, but to stress my original point; it's a first release.
Plus, the primary language of the dev isn't English so the writing is a little deadening, but that'll change too.
- Nov 22, 2019
- 7
- 0
The Price Of tea Is $5 but the deducted balance is $2, And yea Cant buy "UP" cos Crash at nightclub .. when ignored you will stuck in the Nightclub cant get out somewhere else.. ( Sovereign V.1.1
- Nov 22, 2019
- 7
- 0
Joke On me, Damn I downloaded the Old Version,. Why Didnt you Upload at Gofile ... Sometimes Mega is Suck without Premium..
- Jun 15, 2023
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Sorry about that. I only control the Mega upload, everything else is from the admin help with additional upload site. Version 1.2 was a silent release to fix the nightclub bug so I didn't notify the admin.
- Sep 3, 2022
- 19,141
- 157,561
Sovereign [0.1.2] [Zinikis Production]
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- Nov 22, 2019
- 7
- 0
Nvm, Hope this game will be updated faster absolutely with the developer's health consent, Btw, I already finish it with 99999 money xD and FYI in this game version just have 1 SX scene (v1.2) hope that helps
The game has good bones to it. You can see the general intentions for characters and their basic story lines, and the general intended gameplay is there. But the thing with good bones, is that they're just that. Good bones. There's still a whole lot more work to be done on improving those bones.
To start with, the UI. It's bad. Real bad. To get from home to work takes three mouse clicks, then another click to choose to work, then another click to choose how long you want to work, and then yet another click if you roll the co-worker event. 6 mouse clicks total. It doesn't sound like much, but having to do that every day of the working week gets old fast. And that's just going to work, since going home is another three clicks assuming you don't go elsewhere first.
A map system would be a good way to cull the clicking, but getting rid of choosing how long to do something would also help too, since those options don't really add anything, and there's no real reason why studying can't just be a flat one or two hours, nor why working can't just be a flat, eight hours too.
Additionally, having to click on an interact button, then clicking on the girl you want to interact with, then on the interact option you want, only to then have to click on what sub-option you want is needlessly convoluted too. Cull it, it adds nothing. Personally, I'd have a list of the girls that can be interacted with in the bottom bar somewhere, and have the player either click on the girl in the bar, or the girl themselves, to interact with them. I'd also get rid of the menu system too, and strip it back to have just 'catch-up', 'flirt', 'touch/grope', 'sex', and the 'special' option.
Also, the game doesn't have a point to interacting with a girl more than once a day, since gains from interactions or specials are restricted to once a day. This is arbitrary, and only serves to pad out the gameplay with no tangible benefit for the players experience. My advice is to separate a day to morning, evening, and maybe even night, with gains possible once per time period.
Building on that point, I'd like to pivot into the masseuse skill, since that too suffers from painful content stretching. It'd be fine if you could train it more than once a day, but even then the player has no tangible way to tell how many times they need to train. My advice is to cut training to a flat three repeats, with dialogue hints to make clear what stage the players at. Doing that way would also allow you to keep it a trained-once-per-day skill without trying the players patience.
Finally, it took me til the end of content in version 1.1 for me to notice that the touch option became viable, allowing me to increase corruption without buying UP. That's an issue. It needs to be better flagged, although the fact touching unlocked before flirting did is the much bigger issue imo. Either way, increasing corruption shouldn't be smashing my head into a wall, and it really needs streamlining. The same goes for the Phone menu. Unless they're able to memorise names, a player has to flick through every girl's stats to find the one they want. This could be easily solved by adding a small pic of the girls faces next to their names. You could even make it more immersive/seamless by trying to emulate an actual phones contact screen.
In all honesty, my advice to the dev right now is to not work on any new content. The game doesn't need new content right now. What the game does need, is serious work on improving the player's experience of what's already there. As I've said before, the bones of the game are good. Real good. You just need to work on refining and improving the player's experience, like the ungodly amount of clicking, before building on it.
To start with, the UI. It's bad. Real bad. To get from home to work takes three mouse clicks, then another click to choose to work, then another click to choose how long you want to work, and then yet another click if you roll the co-worker event. 6 mouse clicks total. It doesn't sound like much, but having to do that every day of the working week gets old fast. And that's just going to work, since going home is another three clicks assuming you don't go elsewhere first.
A map system would be a good way to cull the clicking, but getting rid of choosing how long to do something would also help too, since those options don't really add anything, and there's no real reason why studying can't just be a flat one or two hours, nor why working can't just be a flat, eight hours too.
Additionally, having to click on an interact button, then clicking on the girl you want to interact with, then on the interact option you want, only to then have to click on what sub-option you want is needlessly convoluted too. Cull it, it adds nothing. Personally, I'd have a list of the girls that can be interacted with in the bottom bar somewhere, and have the player either click on the girl in the bar, or the girl themselves, to interact with them. I'd also get rid of the menu system too, and strip it back to have just 'catch-up', 'flirt', 'touch/grope', 'sex', and the 'special' option.
Also, the game doesn't have a point to interacting with a girl more than once a day, since gains from interactions or specials are restricted to once a day. This is arbitrary, and only serves to pad out the gameplay with no tangible benefit for the players experience. My advice is to separate a day to morning, evening, and maybe even night, with gains possible once per time period.
Building on that point, I'd like to pivot into the masseuse skill, since that too suffers from painful content stretching. It'd be fine if you could train it more than once a day, but even then the player has no tangible way to tell how many times they need to train. My advice is to cut training to a flat three repeats, with dialogue hints to make clear what stage the players at. Doing that way would also allow you to keep it a trained-once-per-day skill without trying the players patience.
Finally, it took me til the end of content in version 1.1 for me to notice that the touch option became viable, allowing me to increase corruption without buying UP. That's an issue. It needs to be better flagged, although the fact touching unlocked before flirting did is the much bigger issue imo. Either way, increasing corruption shouldn't be smashing my head into a wall, and it really needs streamlining. The same goes for the Phone menu. Unless they're able to memorise names, a player has to flick through every girl's stats to find the one they want. This could be easily solved by adding a small pic of the girls faces next to their names. You could even make it more immersive/seamless by trying to emulate an actual phones contact screen.
In all honesty, my advice to the dev right now is to not work on any new content. The game doesn't need new content right now. What the game does need, is serious work on improving the player's experience of what's already there. As I've said before, the bones of the game are good. Real good. You just need to work on refining and improving the player's experience, like the ungodly amount of clicking, before building on it.
Personally I don't mind the number of times I have to click to get home -> work. Zinikis has already stated that it helps to prompt interactions that may otherwise be forgotten about or missed.
The time setup I also don't have an issue with. It allows for future content expansion to be broken up easier, so multiple threads can be played simultaneously, among other things.
I do agree on the interaction clicking points though. It is clunky, and can do with streamlining.
The points you made with regards to interacting being restricted to once a day actually ties in with how Sovereign powers work, in accordance with the basic storyline. In her summary of how the powers work, Jasmine states that "interacting with someone (with regards to building influence), will often only happen once a day".
That said, I did find a slight workaround on my playthrough where I could build influence twice a day on most of the starting LI's.
I also believe it is possible to introduce new content while refining the play experience, as most other devs do. A complete rework at this stage isn't required. The dev can make minor changes/updates, and just mention that prior saves won't work if/when he changes the UI.
- Jul 30, 2019
- 148
- 516
This game definitely has potential but right now the gameplay needs a lot of polish.
Every time you enter a room, you have to wait for the screen to fade in, then the character in the room has to fade in, then the options show up with another delay.
When you finally get to that point, you have to click "Interact", then click the person you want to interact with even if apart from the MC it's the only person in the room, then "Hello MC" has to fade in, then you have to click anywhere to see the interactions menu, then you click an interaction, then you click a sub-interaction...
You get exactly one point for an interaction, so multiple this by 30, because that's how many points you have to get to reach the first scenes. Those scenes actually show nothing, they are just a step towards another 30 points of the same toil. It gets repeatable very fast and feels extremely laborous. I hope the Dev figures out a beeter UI.
Every time you enter a room, you have to wait for the screen to fade in, then the character in the room has to fade in, then the options show up with another delay.
When you finally get to that point, you have to click "Interact", then click the person you want to interact with even if apart from the MC it's the only person in the room, then "Hello MC" has to fade in, then you have to click anywhere to see the interactions menu, then you click an interaction, then you click a sub-interaction...
You get exactly one point for an interaction, so multiple this by 30, because that's how many points you have to get to reach the first scenes. Those scenes actually show nothing, they are just a step towards another 30 points of the same toil. It gets repeatable very fast and feels extremely laborous. I hope the Dev figures out a beeter UI.
- Jun 15, 2023
- 159
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Sorry for not responding for a while. I was focusing on releasing the new version before the month end. The new version should address a lot of feedbacks about the core gameplay and navigation. Now, moving around and interacting should be much smoother, hopefully. Also special thank to Doggs133 for helping proofreading the game texts and dialogs. I have updated the prologue with new navigation/interaction system along with newly updated dialogs, things should flow a lot better now. You can check the changelog on main page for more info on what was added.
- Jun 15, 2023
- 159
- 527
The UI and core gameplay loop is definitely something that I will try to improve over time. I have refined it a lot for version 2.0. I don't think this will be the final implementation for the gameplay but thing should be a lot smoother now.