Others - Strive: Conquest [v0.9.1a] [Maverik]

I'll admit to being a bit flabbergasted that reviewers are giving this game two stars because the demo version doesn't have all the content contained in its completed forebear!

I think that, overall, this game has much more potential than the first game did. I think that it is more of a game and less of a spreadsheet management system. The quests aren't very balanced yet, but they are more varied than the quests in the first game.

Are is just background art so far, but there's a lot of room in the game for making a lot of variation in the looks of individuals. I like being able to add custom everything. What is missing now is extensive individualization of the slaves and trainers based on race and background - there's some of that, but one orc is much like another at the moment.

The weakest element of the game so far, though getting better, is the start. Players are given too many options and too little resources, with a huge (read: impossible) debt payment due only two weeks into the game. What the game needs is a "quickstart" mode with some characters and facilities already built, and the ability then to pursue some quests rather than spending time grinding the most basic capabilities (and often the wrong ones, because the player simply does not know how to tell the difference between what they need and what they don't).

Overall, I am much more excited about this game than I was its predecessor at the same stage of development.

Overall I feel that this sequel to Strive for Power is a lot less intuitive then the original game. It has less content (Removing loli and incest for example) and the interface is even harder to use and the last game had a bit of a learning curve but things at least were labeled and didn't require constant going back to the tutorial to figure out what does what and the conditions.

Also the quests it would be really useful if they would bring back the tooltips for when you mouse over pictures of items or requirements.

There is effort in this game and with it good potential but I feel that the original game is just the overall better game both as a actual game and as a adult experience.

TL;DR author treats this project as some test demoversion. You better spend your time playing original Strive For Power

Story: 0/5
- This game doesnt have any story. Its procedurally generated content. You just get random Quests (boring things like: train girl, do this, go there, etc.) and thats it. After some point it will get boring really fast.

Art: 0/5
- There is minimum amount of art in this game. Few NPC have images and you can upload your own picture to your slave girls (google something) and thats it.
- also uploading process is very annoying and buggy and it doesnt tell you why it wont accept some images.

Gameplay: 2/5
- When you start there is some fun in game mechanics and slave training system... but after some time it will get boring because of repetition.
- Same applies for Sex system. Bit fun at start, but you will quickly come to realize that it's endless repetion without any progress and you will start to get bored.
- Unfortunately this is some test version (author said it himself). Many game mechanics are very unbalanced, many actions are just waste of time, while important events have stupid limits to drag the time.
- There are Bugs.
- Early game is ruined by "debt" mechanism:
You have to overcome debt or you will end up with "bad end" at start of game. You have to understand game mechanics very well and push yourself hard at the start.
- Early game is ver very grindy!!

To sum it up:
I consider this waste of time.
Dont believe those 5 star reviews, they are usually fans of original game (Strive for Power) and they are just raising the hype (they say "game has potential"). Unfortunately current version of the game is huge disapointment.
But like I have said earlier, author of game was very clear and mentioned this is just tech demo. So dont have any expectations.

A procedurally generated slave trading game that always holds my attention for hours at a time - meaning, unfortunately, that whenever a new update comes out, I've played all of it the day of, and waiting for more once again...
The training mechanics are great, the battles are interesting, if somewhat repetitive, and the sex mechanics are incredible in that it allows you to pick each and every action without it becoming slow and tedious.
The dialogue is serviceable, and the procedurally generated quests weren't bad, though it felt like they were just about to start getting repetitive when the current build (v0.3.1) ended. Also, the Servant's Guild quests seemed impossible for the most part, requiring facilities you don't have built or slaves you have to train pretty damn quickly, from the very start. This may be intentional, I'm not sure.
A newcomer will likely be overwhelmed with the mechanics of the game. I had already played the first game so I was fine for the most part, though I haven't been able to find a way to improve a character's stats other than picking new Classes. There's technically a short tutorial when you start a new game, but by no means is it enough. I honestly have no idea how one would go about writing a tutorial (or even a fan guide) for this game, but I hope someone manages to do so. Other than that, the time mechanic is kind of wonky - I don't think the term "turn" had to be thrown in there at all, I think just the number slider and a "Pass Time" button underneath would work perfectly fine. Also, some attacks say they hit the whole "line" and some the whole "column", but actually, both of those kinds hit a whole column - I haven't seen any that hit a whole row. Lastly, the art is just not good. The procedurally generated characters don't have any and you can set your own images for them, so I hope Maverik either makes it so you can do that for every single entity in the game, or just hires a better artist.
Despite all these shortcomings, I do think this game could become one of the best porn games out there by v1.0, or hell, even in just a couple releases. The brilliant way Maverik has coded the dialogue for the procedurally generated characters makes each of them unique, and though the mechanics are a bit hard to grasp at first, once you get into it, you can't stop playing. When I think of what this game will be like when the art and missions are improved, and with the dialogue system expanded on a bit, I just can't wait for the next update.

This a great demo and very playable. The ability to choose what you want to do and where you want to go will make this game very replayable even while we wait for the game to progress. The artwork is a great start, and some of the initial game play is already sophisticated despite still being in a demo state. Good work so far!

Super boring. Its ostensibly a sex game, yet I can barely have sex. How many times you can do a sex scales to con, but then whoever you fuck probably can't do it much. And when you do go ahead and do a sex, its just boring. You just select x does thing to y, then it says they did it. This is a text based game, so the writing should be making up for the lack of art, and it just doesn't. Its like fapping to a flowchart.
There's combat in the dungeons but its boring, slow and tedious.
Not really much to do in town.
Not really much to do anywhere.
You train the slaves via just spamming X per day options in a menu, which give the same reactions when used on anyone, so most of the game is just skipping days out of sheer mind numbing boredom reading the same ****

The common misconception that took me some time to realize about this title is that this game is NOT a sequel to Strive for Power. This title is, as the descriptor states, a tech demo to experiment with new ideas and figure out what works and what doesn't. Treated as such, I can say that the added complexity does not make the game better and, worse, distracts from the core that made the first completed version fun to play.

I've played Strive for Power—it was good, four stars—and I truly think Strive Conquest is a big step... in the wrong direction.

There is a demand—and I guess a desire many authors intuitively have as well—for more sophisticated trainer games. And it's a common mistake to achieve extra complexity by adding systems that are not directly tied into the training process, making it closer to a 4X game.

Stop.

I'm not saying you will fail at making a 4X, rather, the effort is misplaced. We have tons of great 4X/sanbox/sim games. I can name several studios dominating entire strategy sub-genres, and it would take tens of thousands of hours to play them all. There's just one catch, those aren't porn games. So while there is some value in making yet another grand strategy, the value of making a good strategy with a heavy focus on training and sex is way way higher.

But that is what Conquest decidedly does not do. There's probably one single bit of advancement compared to For Power, that your slaves now have two attributes relevant to how well they respond to punishments and rewards, and ultimately have two end states (max loyalty or max submission). But even these stats aren't very relevant and I've noticed my own tendency to ignore them after a couple of weeks of in-game time.

Everything else looks like a setback. Where Strive had basically dates or training sessions, this game just gives certain character classes special discipline skills that can be used 1 or 2 times per day. It's not a satisfying system, it's a grind, and the grindiness is compounded by a badly designed hastily ported UI. Where Strive had a global map—no matter how simplistic travel graph it had— Conquest doesn't have even that, and instead offers this new clunky non-immersive travel system that feels like managing some excel tables and less like travel. But hey, this new system allows multiple parties travelling at the same time, isn't that great? No, it isn't.

All the other systems (plot, factions, NPCs, crafting) are too bare-bone right now due to being early in developenent (v.0.2.1) but mechanically none of them really wows me.

So I don't know, for me it looks less enticing than the previous installment, even if I give a free pass on the bugs, clunky UI, and low amount of content.

And another update.. also v0.3.1 related:

Version management is.. well.. a bit messy.. another v0.3.1 has been released which makes a huge difference.. the game is well playable and definitely a step forward, so.. well done! Up from three to five stars again afaic..

Update as of v0.3.1:

After three months the screens look absolutely nicer and more polished. However: for me, using the Linux version, the game is unplayable. I can not even reach the menu (the button does nothing) and for example choosing an occupation is sometimes possible, at other times the button looks unconnected to anything.

So for now: down from 5 to 3 stars.. hopefully things will improve, I still do like the concept and art..

related to v0.2 gameplay:

This is my first review and probably for a while my last one.. just because I think most of the offered games already have the right exposure and/or do not make the difference this one does in my humble opinion.

After having a great time playing Strive for Power for quite some time I was happily surprised noticing this 'sequel' being developed. And yes! It has similar game play, some changes, for the bad or good for some perhaps but.. it is really enjoyable to spend your time with..

It is kind of challenging, there is REAL game play to be found here, I love the strategy parts myself a lot, and yes.. this is probably grahically not the most exciting fap-game around but.. if you are looking for something differing from a visual novel where everything is about 'click this so many times to get laid' this might be the gem for you too..

Alright, still in development, not everything always (although pretty close to) perfectly smooth perhaps, but.. if every game in progress would offer this much already I am sure we would need much more time to play..

So far the major issue I think worth checking is the roaming option in missions.. with a capable team behind you it is possible to do that endlessly which makes it (too?) easy to reach your goals,

I can only recommend to give it a try.. runs great on Linux too and.. even pretty compact..

I know, it's too early to be rating this game but I feel I must. First of all, S4P was an excellent game and going into this I had high hopes. Not like CoC 2, that was an utter disappointment imo. At the first demo version it looked good, many added features the other did not BUT the only part that repelled me was the constant decay of Obedience and Fear. I literally said to myself if this was going to be permanent I would say ADIOS MUCHACHO! But I'm glad I stuck around because now on 0.03b it's now Loyalty, Obedience AND Submission. Loyalty doesn't really go down, only if you do mean things to her like Public Humiliation and Public Sex Humiliation. I love the fact the even your girls can train other girls, having the same skills their master has from acquired Classes. Even without a "Story" I love this game, I can't stop playing this. I love the race specific Classes like Dragon Knight. You could really power these girls up. I love the fact that you can make your own weapons, armor, tools, food and alchemical items too. You can mix two different kinds of crafting material to get weapons and armor with different effects.
I'm looking forward to the future on this one and hopefully I can add one more star for my rating.

well, similar to the last one but with an interesting class system added,
it is still a bit buggy as of 2b, i stunned an ennemy and i think it wouldn't pass his turn because the game froze, i didn't do a quest in the time limit but the location for it stayed added.
that aside the UX is still a bit ugly but keep in mind that we are still in beta.
also the character creation screen is better (in my opinion) than the previous one, but i don't like the fact that fear and obediance are lowered so often.
some might like it but having to every 5min go to all characters to use their skills on one another is not my cup of tea.
anyway i enjoy a lot the combat system , the dungeon idea can be great and thats all for me.