- Apr 22, 2019
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There was some talk of getting it to the play testers a couple of weeks ago, but silence since. I am unsure if it got that far.Any E.T.A. on new version?
- Apr 22, 2019
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Alas, the game is now effectively dead. Baal7334 posted the following on the discord.
- Dec 1, 2019
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Sad but not entirely unexpected. Apart from all "spaghetti code" problems you will face with such a long project, I expected it to happen sooner or later due to the RenPy problems he mentions. It is just not made for free roaming games with gazillions of stats and options.
Anyway, thanks for the ride, I thoroughly enjoyed
- The unique character models (even if our hero's hero part is wobbly)
- The interesting and deep gameplay
- The different characters and kinks included
- The freedom to do more or less whatever you want. (Maybe now is the time to start a "get all girls into my bed without using psychic powers" run?)
- And other stuff
- Jul 21, 2021
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- Sep 18, 2017
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I had been kicking around writing a breakdown of the game as is. Detailing what I see as flaws, potential oversteps, horrible nuances, and just huge freaking mistakes. But I didn't want to say any of that without proposing some kind of fix, and I'm with Baal7334 on this one: It can't be done.
The other reason I wanted to write that breakdown is that despite all those issues I wanted to know where the actual story of Billy was going to take him. The world is a little awkward, but you try to legislate powers in a bottle(or syringe). But getting to see a naive young man jump into being a superhero half-cocked(pun intended) and watch events shape him into the hero(or villain) he would eventually become was interesting and I wanted to find a way to encourage its development not criticize it into oblivion.
Thanks for the heads up. And I'll survive if you drop Ren'py immediately rather than try to put out one last update to put a bow on it. The sooner you get back to being excited about development, the sooner we'll see more exciting games.
The other reason I wanted to write that breakdown is that despite all those issues I wanted to know where the actual story of Billy was going to take him. The world is a little awkward, but you try to legislate powers in a bottle(or syringe). But getting to see a naive young man jump into being a superhero half-cocked(pun intended) and watch events shape him into the hero(or villain) he would eventually become was interesting and I wanted to find a way to encourage its development not criticize it into oblivion.
Thanks for the heads up. And I'll survive if you drop Ren'py immediately rather than try to put out one last update to put a bow on it. The sooner you get back to being excited about development, the sooner we'll see more exciting games.
My disappointment is immeasurable, and my day is ruined, but maybe it's for the best.
Thank you for your game, Baal.
Thank you for your game, Baal.
- Sep 7, 2019
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Superpowered is one of my favorite games. One of the main reasons for it is how well developed and complex system are, how much actual exploration of different mechanics you have to do to discover all, and how much progression ther actually is in the game. But as someone who just is thinking and planning his own game (to which SP is one of the inspirtations, especially when I dream what I would like to achive system-building wise) I can totaly see how creating very procedural-like model for interacting with girls, that REQUIRE you too fill ALL of this interaction can and will be a burden. I will say (even tho I enjoyed it as is to large degree) the system is both a bit bloated at one side and unflexible and lacking variety on another. It's fantastic (and something sorely lacking in most games of this type) that meeting a girl you really have a range of options, and you progres story using these and unlocking new ones. That's actual game in this game and again kudos to author. But story and girls personality could maybe be better expresed in interacions themselves if the ware more flexible and less procedural-like.
So I can totally see the problem author is facing, and mostly just wanted to voice my support. I trust He will not give up on system altogether, but will build smarter and more manageable (for him).
My sugestion will be to create some short but dramatic ending for SP. Billy revealed and captured by authorities or something. Or framed. Something that will explain story-wise proces of rebuilding, that will be happening. That would end one chapter and will be basis for new progression in next one. And possibly limit amout of variables that need to be caried.
So I can totally see the problem author is facing, and mostly just wanted to voice my support. I trust He will not give up on system altogether, but will build smarter and more manageable (for him).
My sugestion will be to create some short but dramatic ending for SP. Billy revealed and captured by authorities or something. Or framed. Something that will explain story-wise proces of rebuilding, that will be happening. That would end one chapter and will be basis for new progression in next one. And possibly limit amout of variables that need to be caried.
- Jul 31, 2018
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I actually consider this good news, not bad. Why? Because though I love the game's story, I find its implementation flawed at best. The endless and ultimately tedious clickfest before you can even begin getting into the story. The endless scrabbling after resources. The incomprehensible and nearly indecipherable methods needed to unlock the girls' kinks that essentially require a walkthrough. And most of all, the endless and ultimately tedious clickfest.
Let me tell y'all something: I cheat like a bastard at this game using the Radioactive mod. This is the only game I use cheats on, and I'm glad I do. I use nearly each and every one offered. Why? Because it allows me to bypass the endlessly boring clickfest required to acquire resources, and allows me to concentrate my activity on the endless clickfest required to actually advance the story.
So: I hope Baal is well and that moving over to Unity makes things easier and re-inspires him. I truly want to see more from this creator ... in this fictional world. But I also hope he rethinks some of the truly tedious, tendonitis-and-carpal-tunnel-syndrome-inducing clicking that's needed for every bloody interaction in this game.
Let me tell y'all something: I cheat like a bastard at this game using the Radioactive mod. This is the only game I use cheats on, and I'm glad I do. I use nearly each and every one offered. Why? Because it allows me to bypass the endlessly boring clickfest required to acquire resources, and allows me to concentrate my activity on the endless clickfest required to actually advance the story.
So: I hope Baal is well and that moving over to Unity makes things easier and re-inspires him. I truly want to see more from this creator ... in this fictional world. But I also hope he rethinks some of the truly tedious, tendonitis-and-carpal-tunnel-syndrome-inducing clicking that's needed for every bloody interaction in this game.
- Apr 22, 2019
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Meh. This'll be the third engine the dev has moved to. At one point, you have to recognize the tool isn't the issue when you experience similar problems with wildly different tools. Especially as the primary point of failure (writer's block and anxiety dealing with the large conversations) isn't confined to the language and the secondary complaint (the massive number of renders required per character) had passed the hump of dealing with all the school characters and only had a handful of undeveloped obvious characters remaining in total (Sophie, the scientist, and the Logistics admin).
There's some chance a SP2 will be decent (in a few years' time anyway). There's at least as great a chance it will more closely resemble Loser which is a game I do not enjoy no matter how many times I go back and give it a try.
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- Sep 6, 2017
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aaaaand another game that will never be complete...
And it kinda sounds like SP2 will be a DOA as well, part of the charm of SP was the interactions and stuff, if you strip that out it will be like that loser game he makes which is just bad.
I don't even mind the grindyness of it as long as it has progression, although some of it needed balancing, some of the random events were too rare. Oh well I hope it goes well for him but I doubt it.
And it kinda sounds like SP2 will be a DOA as well, part of the charm of SP was the interactions and stuff, if you strip that out it will be like that loser game he makes which is just bad.
I don't even mind the grindyness of it as long as it has progression, although some of it needed balancing, some of the random events were too rare. Oh well I hope it goes well for him but I doubt it.
- Apr 22, 2019
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Makes me glad I gave up on this game the last time an update killed my saves YET AGAIN- I was going to wait for it to be either finished or abandoned, and I was betting on the latter.
I said it myself about 100 pages or so back: the gameplay concept is interesting, the cast of girls is appealing and the graphics are good, but the gameplay is and has always been TERRIBLE. Every single thing has been made several times more annoying and inconvenient than it needed to be solely in the name of creating "gameplay", which is why the majority of actions have an entirely random chance to fail (and PENALISE you for failure!) AND Ren'py rollback was disabled so the only way to avoid being screwed is to manually save scum every single action, and everything takes literally 10 times as much grind as it needs to. Seriously, you could slash the endless spamming of job actions to grind up cash and faction points in this game to 10% of what it is and it would only improve it immeasurably. And there was NO balance. The only thing that made the grind bearable was the fact that your ability to chat, flirt and sext with girls on your phone was so completely broken that it completely trivialised developing a relationship with them, but this also rendered almost all direct interactions with the girls (e.g dates) completely worthless, since they took more actions (and often time segments) but generated drastically inferior results to just spamming them with texts.
The gameplay was not irredeemable, it could have been easily fixed with a number of judicious tweaks, but it was apparent that the insufferable things about it were acting as intended, which meant Baal WANTED you to have a frustrating and boring time grinding up forever and being screwed by RNG in the name of "challenge". Right, because what I want from a porn game is a sense of pride and accomplishment. With there being no intention of fixing the game's massive problems because he thought the problems were good, this game never really had a chance anyway.
- Dec 1, 2019
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While I agree with much what you wrote (OP phone/texting, too much work to get resources - though I would not say tenfold) I heartily disagree here
And yes, a sense of accomplishment in a game is very welcome. If I have to do nothing to just watch the scenes I'd be better off watching real porn. Better produced, infinite variety freely available at my fingertips.
And to me, these "problems" you mention in the end were one of the reasons I liked this game and spend more time here than with many a more refined program. It was a game, I could try stuff, I had loads of approaches, I needed to work to get these approaches and not just a "choose your scene" prompt. With all the faults it has in balancing, as said I agree there, it was fun to me.
That doesn't mean that you're wrong with what you feel. Your taste versus mine is undecidable. However, to me the "problems" you mention indeed were "good". And there are others like me. So this game had a chance. And the conclusion is somewhat strange anyway since "nobody played it" was not the reason for its end.
There's different strokes for different folks. First, games here are adult games. That includes porn games but is not limited to it. It can also be games with pornographic elements.
And yes, a sense of accomplishment in a game is very welcome. If I have to do nothing to just watch the scenes I'd be better off watching real porn. Better produced, infinite variety freely available at my fingertips.
And to me, these "problems" you mention in the end were one of the reasons I liked this game and spend more time here than with many a more refined program. It was a game, I could try stuff, I had loads of approaches, I needed to work to get these approaches and not just a "choose your scene" prompt. With all the faults it has in balancing, as said I agree there, it was fun to me.
That doesn't mean that you're wrong with what you feel. Your taste versus mine is undecidable. However, to me the "problems" you mention indeed were "good". And there are others like me. So this game had a chance. And the conclusion is somewhat strange anyway since "nobody played it" was not the reason for its end.
- Sep 6, 2017
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I agree, what made this game interesting was the progression combined with things like mind control, making choices and managing energy usage and willpower,
I actually wanted a game with more mechanics in it, why I'm sad he's gonna opt to throw it all out and start a new game with less. I was hoping there would be more things to do with the mind control ability, perhaps even having one girl as your own slave, make another ability where you can remotely control a girl (lots of willpower usage or something) get them to do jobs and other things.
Some features were broken / never finished, like the rent stuff and cleaning the house which was pretty much pointless. I guess the college is also pointless as well now.
I actually wanted a game with more mechanics in it, why I'm sad he's gonna opt to throw it all out and start a new game with less. I was hoping there would be more things to do with the mind control ability, perhaps even having one girl as your own slave, make another ability where you can remotely control a girl (lots of willpower usage or something) get them to do jobs and other things.
Some features were broken / never finished, like the rent stuff and cleaning the house which was pretty much pointless. I guess the college is also pointless as well now.
- Sep 7, 2019
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Yeah, I already said, that I liked the game and I strongly believe that systems are a strong point in general. But there is also a lot of criticism that you are rising here that are very valid. I did play with guides provided here and Radioactive, tho I didn't do that much direct cheating other than applying mod rebalancing and save scumming. When exploring different options of interactions was fun mostly; hunting different story and character triggers, worrying about consequences of decision, that can very arbitrarily cut you out of desired outcome; and a lot of unnecessary randomness of interaction did bring experience down. And some stat combinations for every particular girl, to randomly trigger scenes, is straight up ridiculous to even consider making that much effort to unlock every one of them in one semi-natural playtrough.
And I consider very few games really replayable. Even less so in porn space. Even In big AAA titles, I mostly tend to strive to complete as much as is possible in one go. And where in this big titles being able to access some special places or events can be cool and define your class and skill set in fun ways, I tend to prefer the ability to unlock it in different ways depending on my class/gear etc. In situation of content scarcity, that affect practically all porn games without single exception that I can think about, locking people (and creators themselves, that need to support it) in different paths or requiring to hunt this slivers of content behind some silly conditions and numbers of repetitions/time-cycles/stat-configurations is not something I find appealing or consider good decision and design. Yes, give me some flavour based on my choices, I absolutely appreciate it, and even crave more, but don't content-lock me in porn game please?
As I already said, I liked interacting with systems a lot in general, and the sense of progression. And even "working for it". But RNG is mostly a waste of time here. Some games lock your progress in week-cycles to progress just a tiny bit a when you realize how little you can possibly progress and get rewarded in each cycle and how much chore it is to play the whole cycle it becomes mind-numbing and boring instead of enticing (and enticing is kinda whole point in porn game). And I think SP is not all that bad in this regard (not counting unlocking random scenes that I mentioned before). Not perfect, but mostly actually giving you a sense of progression, giving you new possibilities.
OK, I have written a lot again, to sum it up I will say that IMHO the formula is not all that bad, but can be improved in very specific ways:
1. Give player more feedback/clues about where he is and how to progress.
2. Don't create an overly complex matrix of triggers depending on myriad stats, just make it part of progression and let it unlock sequentially. Better yet, give the player more agency and make it less random.
3. Really think hard about RNG and what purpose it supposed to serve. I don't want to assume bad intentions, but in most instances randomness seem pointless and almost always punishing, almost never rewarding.
And I consider very few games really replayable. Even less so in porn space. Even In big AAA titles, I mostly tend to strive to complete as much as is possible in one go. And where in this big titles being able to access some special places or events can be cool and define your class and skill set in fun ways, I tend to prefer the ability to unlock it in different ways depending on my class/gear etc. In situation of content scarcity, that affect practically all porn games without single exception that I can think about, locking people (and creators themselves, that need to support it) in different paths or requiring to hunt this slivers of content behind some silly conditions and numbers of repetitions/time-cycles/stat-configurations is not something I find appealing or consider good decision and design. Yes, give me some flavour based on my choices, I absolutely appreciate it, and even crave more, but don't content-lock me in porn game please?
As I already said, I liked interacting with systems a lot in general, and the sense of progression. And even "working for it". But RNG is mostly a waste of time here. Some games lock your progress in week-cycles to progress just a tiny bit a when you realize how little you can possibly progress and get rewarded in each cycle and how much chore it is to play the whole cycle it becomes mind-numbing and boring instead of enticing (and enticing is kinda whole point in porn game). And I think SP is not all that bad in this regard (not counting unlocking random scenes that I mentioned before). Not perfect, but mostly actually giving you a sense of progression, giving you new possibilities.
OK, I have written a lot again, to sum it up I will say that IMHO the formula is not all that bad, but can be improved in very specific ways:
1. Give player more feedback/clues about where he is and how to progress.
2. Don't create an overly complex matrix of triggers depending on myriad stats, just make it part of progression and let it unlock sequentially. Better yet, give the player more agency and make it less random.
3. Really think hard about RNG and what purpose it supposed to serve. I don't want to assume bad intentions, but in most instances randomness seem pointless and almost always punishing, almost never rewarding.