Others Completed Strive for Power [v1.0d] [Maverik]

[Fuzzcat]

I really don't mean to say that Strive is light on the sex content, but it does kinda feel like there are missed opportunities hanging around in a few places. I mean, I really give the guy props for getting the EraTohoK-type sex system in the game.

But yes, it is actually.
Sex it's so limited that it becomes frustrating.
The modular sex system* it's definitely an improvement. At first it was only a simple fixed sex-scene. Later it had some variants. Then changed again. But is still limited.

Mav started the game with JoNT and Free Cities in mind, but wanted more in-depth story than JonT, and not so much overdescription as FC ("I don't want to have every mole and pimp descripted").
Unfortunately, while sort in the middle, it falls short on most aspects.
I find it much more playable than JoNT (which has an entertainment value of maybe a couple hours, with zero replayability), and is faster and easier to play than FC but doesn't has it's rich complexity.

Yeah, sex is limited.
It doesn't matters if you're fucking or getting fucked (worsened by the fact that most content is aimed for a male player, with a slightly cruel behaviour), or it's a slime, a centaur or a fairy, the body shape and features barely play a role.
Aside of sex scnes, there's no "sexyness" around. It's a kind of generic game, with some sex stuck in some places (to justify certain actions).
There's no sexual attacks or skills for example, and no sexual situations (like getting out of a tight spot by fucking your way out). The story NPCs could fit any game, as they seems to be completely devoid of sexual intentions at all.
And the story itself is... pointless. It's just a situation that goes anywhere. More like "follow the dots" rather than true questing and exploring.

The problem I still think, is that Mav spent WAY too much time doing and redoing and over-redoing the system, so much that he lost focus, or forgot the point. Might even had no real general idea from the beginning.
I think also, Strive is more of a proof, and sort of testing for him, that carried over for way too much time.

There's a LOT of concepts and things already on the game, which are barely developed. Tattoos, offspring, NPCs interrelationships, a map... even the traits themselves, which become useless and pointless most of the time. Everything is there, but there's no real detail, and everything is hold thogether by the "sex game" premise.

Note:
I do like the game.
Mostly because the game format is simple to edit, fix or change, and because, overall (and despite not liking the CGs at all) it looks great, and it's easy to follow and not get lost among a ton of text options.

On the good side, he has made the game relatively simple to mod at least, and he's also relatively cool to approach and point out things.

 

[W65]

But yes, it is actually.
Sex it's so limited that it becomes frustrating.
The modular sex system* it's definitely an improvement. At first it was only a simple fixed sex-scene. Later it had some variants. Then changed again. But is still limited.

Mav started the game with JoNT and Free Cities in mind, but wanted more in-depth story than JonT, and not so much overdescription as FC ("I don't want to have every mole and pimp descripted").
Unfortunately, while sort in the middle, it falls short on most aspects.
I find it much more playable than JoNT (which has an entertainment value of maybe a couple hours, with zero replayability), and is faster and easier to play than FC but doesn't has it's rich complexity.

Yeah, sex is limited.
It doesn't matters if you're fucking or getting fucked (worsened by the fact that most content is aimed for a male player, with a slightly cruel behaviour), or it's a slime, a centaur or a fairy, the body shape and features barely play a role.
Aside of sex scnes, there's no "sexyness" around. It's a kind of generic game, with some sex stuck in some places (to justify certain actions).
There's no sexual attacks or skills for example, and no sexual situations (like getting out of a tight spot by fucking your way out). The story NPCs could fit any game, as they seems to be completely devoid of sexual intentions at all.
And the story itself is... pointless. It's just a situation that goes anywhere. More like "follow the dots" rather than true questing and exploring.

The problem I still think, is that Mav spent WAY too much time doing and redoing and over-redoing the system, so much that he lost focus, or forgot the point. Might even had no real general idea from the beginning.
I think also, Strive is more of a proof, and sort of testing for him, that carried over for way too much time.

There's a LOT of concepts and things already on the game, which are barely developed. Tattoos, offspring, NPCs interrelationships, a map... even the traits themselves, which become useless and pointless most of the time. Everything is there, but there's no real detail, and everything is hold thogether by the "sex game" premise.

Note:
I do like the game.
Mostly because the game format is simple to edit, fix or change, and because, overall (and despite not liking the CGs at all) it looks great, and it's easy to follow and not get lost among a ton of text options.

On the good side, he has made the game relatively simple to mod at least, and he's also relatively cool to approach and point out things.

Now that you mention it, "unfocused" is a great way to sum up this game. It checks off a ton of trainer game boxes, and it's not scatterbrained or directionless like Portals of Phereon kinda feels, but it does feel like it needs to be better tied together.

I hope to heck the dev finds an engine he likes better than Godot and commits to a sequel. Heck, he could just remake this darn thing, work on more depth to all the various systems he has in place, make the races more meaningful, and he'd have a pretty good trainer game.

I've never brought this up, but the way he handled traveling around the area map (a number of encouters, or just bypass them with spells) is actually a lot more workable than I would've expected. I actually sorta like it, since it doesn't take a lot of effort or resources to bypass the random encounters when you don't feel like dealing with them. That's really kinda important when you consider that it's actually a major part of the game. It sorta helps the world feel a little larger than it actually is (because, really, it's a pretty small map).

The combat's pretty basic, but it's workmanlike and isn't obtrusive enough to be tiresome--I never really got comfortable with the three dimensional rock-paper-scissors thing Jack had going on, in contrast. Then again, I came from simple RPG land, so I'm not necessarily looking for that much out of the combat other than it not dragging on forever--which it doesn't in Strive.

The inventory system works pretty well, even if it's easy to forget to put stuff back in your pack before going out of town.

The energy and stress stuff is a little annoying to deal with until you realize that letting a few days pass doesn't bring the game crashing down around you. Then it just becomes a matter of managing it and accepting that you might have to have some less productive days if you accidentally run your combat group out of energy or stress too quickly. That's not a game-killer.

I mean, the game doesn't make any really major mistakes. My complaints are mostly just about things not having enough work put into them, and missed opportunities. I don't consider it a bad game at all, it just--I keep repeating myself, but I'm not sure how else to say it. It just tries to do a lot of different things, and doesn't really develop them as deeply as I think it should.

I really oughta subscribe to his Patreon and see what he's got coming down the pipe. I hope he keeps developing, because I actually like the game quite a bit, considering all the complaining I do about it.

 

[Fuzzcat]

I hope to heck the dev finds an engine he likes better than Godot and commits to a sequel. Heck, he could just remake this darn thing, work on more depth to all the various systems he has in place, make the races more meaningful, and he'd have a pretty good trainer game.

And that's another issue, indeed.
He started from zero. Basically, he had no real coding skills, so he learned. Hats off to that.
But the Godot system apparently sucks for what he wanted.

I mean, the game doesn't make any really major mistakes. My complaints are mostly just about things not having enough work put into them, and missed opportunities. I don't consider it a bad game at all, it just--I keep repeating myself, but I'm not sure how else to say it. It just tries to do a lot of different things, and doesn't really develop them as deeply as I think it should.

You pretty much nailed it exactly.

No, there's nothing really wrong with the game (aside some minor things), but it feels like a missed opportunity.
This is not meant in a bad sense: more often than not, we do things that came out fine, and later we said "damn, why didn't I did X instead of Y? Could had be great instead of just fine".

For example, questing.
You start a quest all giddity, and what you need to find is right there, in a special button that appears for the quest specifically. So you click the button, complete the quest and you're like "...is that all?".
Or the main story itself... is a mechanical thing to do, there's no real involvement. Someone appears and gives a quest, then somebody else appears to follow, and somebody else-else. There's supposedly this whole background of mages and conspirations, but all in all it plays no role in the overall game. It doesn't feels like a flaw, or a something particularly badly developed, just... it doesn't feels, period.

really oughta subscribe to his Patreon and see what he's got coming down the pipe. I hope he keeps developing, because I actually like the game quite a bit, considering all the complaining I do about it.

I think his idea is to start fresh.
On his blog he said that Strive was finished. It needed some fixes, but there was no more real content to add, and that he was starting off another project, with another engine.
I hope so too.

 

[TokuZero]

Hey do anyone knows where I need to place the Portraits and Bodies

 

[Evangelion-01]

indeed we do... and answered that several time in this thread... so use the search function

 

[Otomo]

you can defeat slavers/guys herassing passerbys with only 2 people (player + starting girl)... but it'll be extremly hard... after leveling you can go further.
I played the dragons nest, but with war hammers normal attacks work fine... it's certainly a jump in dificulty and more combatants raise your chances winning without loosieng even a single combatant... that area however is optional; for the story mode a combat team of 2 is actually sufficient

Hum...

At level 1, i have only a knife, and 75 of health...i can't face 2 bandits alone. With my orc girl, it's very hard to win...

 

[Evangelion-01]

you should invest your starteing stats into agi and buy 2 longswords instead than, get 3 ropes to capture the slavers and you can take that money back within 20 days maybe

 

[AWolfe]

At level 1, i have only a knife, and 75 of health...i can't face 2 bandits alone. With my orc girl, it's very hard to win...

At the start of the game you'll need a party of 3 characters to be able to defeat level 1 bandits: the MC, starting slave, and Emily. Put your 2 starting points in Agility. This makes characters harder to hit and it allows you to use longswords. Longswords allow you to take out the enemy quicker (so that you can win before your own characters fall) and punch through bandit's leather armor. It's possible to win 3 on 2 using just daggers, but you have to have a bit of luck in the battle.

 

[a1fox3]

Hum...

At level 1, i have only a knife, and 75 of health...i can't face 2 bandits alone. With my orc girl, it's very hard to win...

Get a set of chainmail and skip the first 2 bandit groups and hit the 3rd one, first 2 are harder to kill at 1st lvl but the 3rd group is easier to kill but still hard.
Keep working at it and you will get there. ( You may have to run a few times but you are gaining xp so just keep working at it.)

you should invest your starteing stats into agi and buy 2 longswords instead than, get 3 ropes to capture the slavers and you can take that money back within 20 days maybe

Nope see my answer above, you need to put them in str and end. because if not you will have no chance at the Dragon Nests area.

At the start of the game you'll need a party of 3 characters to be able to defeat level 1 bandits: the MC, starting slave, and Emily. Put your 2 starting points in Agility. This makes characters harder to hit and it allows you to use longswords. Longswords allow you to take out the enemy quicker (so that you can win before your own characters fall) and punch through bandit's leather armor. It's possible to win 3 on 2 using just daggers, but you have to have a bit of luck in the battle.

See my answer above.

Chainmail and dagger is all you need to get started with and once you can start to hold your own then you start getting better and better people for you house.
For me I only keep humans with "pretty" or above.
For all other races its cute and above that I keep but there mainly for money.

You have limited space and with the nine main NPC's you get and if you want each one to have a child then you are at 18 with them.
I have a sister with me and get her pregnant to and I get a dragon girl to start my fighting force out of, so with all that you are at 23

Now for the Umber area, when you go there and trade your magic items in just remember that it must be 3 of the same type items, IE: 3 daggers, 3 long swords and so on.

 

[AWolfe]

Chainmail costs 250 gold. Sure, it makes your characters almost immune to damage from level 1 bandits, but you can't afford to buy this in Story Mode unless you cheat or you spend many days doing nothing sitting in your mansion while you very slowly try to build up money faster than you're spending it. If you buy the chainmail right at the start you won't have any money to buy ropes or anything else.

If you start in Sandbox Mode then you can buy chainmail and longswords for your entire party. And you're still better off putting 2 in AGL for each party member than you are bumping STR and/or END at the very start of the game. Please remember that we're talking about the start of the game, not the end of it. Dragon nests is endgame content. By then you should have all stats at boosted max. (Increase the caps using magical genetic modding.)

 

[Evangelion-01]

Nope see my answer above, you need to put them in str and end. because if not you will have no chance at the Dragon Nests area.

Dragon nest is not available until after the main story is completed... and at that time your combat party should already be maxed out... if you are referring to sandbox mode that wouldn't even compare, since your starteing conditions are completly different

 

[a1fox3]

Chainmail costs 250 gold. Sure, it makes your characters almost immune to damage from level 1 bandits, but you can't afford to buy this in Story Mode unless you cheat or you spend many days doing nothing sitting in your mansion while you very slowly try to build up money faster than you're spending it. If you buy the chainmail right at the start you won't have any money to buy ropes or anything else.

If you start in Sandbox Mode then you can buy chainmail and longswords for your entire party. And you're still better off putting 2 in AGL for each party member than you are bumping STR and/or END at the very start of the game. Please remember that we're talking about the start of the game, not the end of it. Dragon nests is endgame content. By then you should have all stats at boosted max. (Increase the caps using magical genetic modding.)

I only play story mode and yes chainmail cost 250 and with that and a dagger you can win the 3rd group of bandits with running a few times.

Dragon nest is not available until after the main story is completed... and at that time your combat party should already be maxed out... if you are referring to sandbox mode that wouldn't even compare, since your starteing conditions are completly different

Not true, I got it when I went down to Umber just before the Gron Mountain fight and got the stone at lvl 15.

I can finish the story by lvl 15 easy but dragon nests you need to be over lvl 25 to even have a chance and you must have a lot of mana to go with it like over 5000.
I was able to get in and kill the dragon but them lvl 27 cultis are something else to deal with and I had to flee, will go back in when I get to lvl 30 on my MC and try it again. This will make my dragon girls at lvl 33-35 or so, so I think I will have a chance to see whats behind the cultis.
You must have upgraded hammers and platmail to have a chance in there.
With living armor the dragon welps do 42 points a damage each and they never miss, with platmail they do 22-24 damage each and still never miss.
There is anywhere from 4 to 8 dragon welps for each battle.
Yes there is a spell that will allow you to skip the area but not all battles.

 

[Evangelion-01]

hmm... are you sure that it triggered on your first visit?
I haven't tested this with a new game, but the changelog mentioned
0.5.22

• Added new endgame area with 3 bosses (can be unlocked at Umbra)

So I am not sure if what you encountered is a bug or if it just mean that you shouldn't go there until your level is high enough

 

[a1fox3]

hmm... are you sure that it triggered on your first visit?
I haven't tested this with a new game, but the changelog mentioned
0.5.22

• Added new endgame area with 3 bosses (can be unlocked at Umbra)

So I am not sure if what you encountered is a bug or if it just mean that you shouldn't go there until your level is high enough

It was not my first visit to Umbra but it was just before the finale battle for the main story, I was to go to Gron and then to the mountains to fight. Before I went I went to Umbra to trade in some magic items and that is when I got the stone for Dragon Nests.

Dang "3" bosses, I only did one and had to leave back to home because of running out of mana.
Well looks like I need to build up about 10k worth of mana, I hope the girls are ready.

 

[Fuzzcat]

How do I find the Elf girl around Amberguard?

I have the place unlocked already, and ran thru the zone a lot, including the deeper regions, but no luck.
The elf teams are always just a pair of generic elves, I didn't find any other elf encounter aside of them

 

[Evangelion-01]

there is a slight chance for a story encounter on the road to the caves... can be repeated twice if you take the correct options, otherwise she will keep comeing until you take the correct options to advance her story

 

[Fuzzcat]

there is a slight chance for a story encounter on the road to the caves... can be repeated twice if you take the correct options, otherwise she will keep comeing until you take the correct options to advance her story

Ah, it's between Amberguard and the caves, gotcha.
Thanks!


About looking around... I can't seem to find the girl missing from Shaliq.
It says "look thru the forest" but there's nothing like a special encounter. And the encounters of "X bullying/attacking someone" are just generic encounters.
When I went to Shaliq, for pure coincidence a couple quests got accumulated to complete there. When I arrived, it was a barrage of quick pop-up windows, with the different events. Could it be a bug? I'm not sure what's bugged on these newer versions.

 

[AWolfe]

About looking around... I can't seem to find the girl missing from Shaliq.
It says "look thru the forest" but there's nothing like a special encounter.

Most of what you need to know is in the

You must be registered to see the links

. The site is outdated (for example, some of the item stats are wrong), but most of the quest info is correct. When you need to find out about what to do with a particular NPC, go to that character's page.

 

[Fuzzcat]

Most of what you need to know is in the

You must be registered to see the links

. The site is outdated (for example, some of the item stats are wrong), but most of the quest info is correct. When you need to find out about what to do with a particular NPC, go to that character's page.

Oh, I always do.
But this part of the quest has me stumped, since there's nothing to find (If I recall correctly, Cali's quest was pretty simple and straightforward to complete, since when you need to find something, there's a specific new button-option)

 

[a1fox3]

Oh, I always do.
But this part of the quest has me stumped, since there's nothing to find (If I recall correctly, Cali's quest was pretty simple and straightforward to complete, since when you need to find something, there's a specific new button-option)

You just need to come back to the forest area and fight some bandits for the answer.