Java Tales of Androgyny [v0.3.49.2] [Majalis]
- Mar 2, 2019
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Another HOTFIX this time with version number change and Changelog:
v0.3.37.5 Hotfix
Tried to catch it all, but was working down to the wire, so one slipped through - Hotfix v0.3.37.5 fixes the crash bug at character customization related to selecting a new "size".
Links here
v0.3.37.5 Hotfix
Tried to catch it all, but was working down to the wire, so one slipped through - Hotfix v0.3.37.5 fixes the crash bug at character customization related to selecting a new "size".
Links here
First off, thanks as always for the update drop Bob69.
Am I the only one baffled by how much work seems to be dedicated to the combat system? Every changelog at this point is like 80% about changing up numbers in the endless combat feature bloat. Its getting ridiculous at this point.
And if nothing changed since last time I checked, Majalis is still a two people team of artist and writer/coder, meaning all these changes come at the cost of slower writing progress.
Ironically, combat is by far the worst part of the game. Despite being so complex at first glance, it all boils down to: Armor Crusher -> Fast Attack -> Win. For every enemy, except the ghost. Worst of all, they seem to double down. I understand that it is a huge sunk cost fallacy at this point, but most of it needs to go. If they dont want to dedicate most of the devlog to shifting numbers around. The combat system should be FUN and tie into the gameplay/erotic scenes.
All the Magic rebalancing the game needs is:
-Simplify Magic, spells can be casted from any/neutral stance
-Instead double down on unique magic abilities instead of damage and their interaction with the different girls , like e.g. drunk spell makes Urka drunk super fast, after which she only uses erotic attacks which makes her easier to defeat, or alternatively leads to drunk sex defeat scene if she wins the grapple
Combat and enemy """AI""":
-Instead of working on some sisyphean "AI" rebalancing, just give each girl a simple combat algorithm fitting to her personality, which the player will learn with each playthrough
-Then start designing combat abilities around their combat strategies, the player must then find the best abilities to counter each respective girl
Like for example:
-Goblin: Attacks until lust max, then tries to seduce/rape the player ->Can be disarmed with parry, or easily overpowered
-Brigand: Uses sword abilities that make the player bleed and blocks attacks with buckler -> Player needs to parry, or have a fast attack that can bypass her shield
-Urka: Sizes the player up and then depending on his emdurance either tries to grapple and dominate him, or goes for aggresive attacks until either is defeated, with strong bare-fisted attacks even without flail -> Weak players should have magic/abilities/perks to deal with her grapple, strong players should disarm her and then grapple/fight her
Dark Knight: Heavily armored and aggresive attacks with dps, disarm resist -> Players should prepare with armor crushing abilities, or have magic to counter her (like e.g. Heat Armor which makes her take off her armor and try to fight you naked)
Like this, every ability would serve a purpose and give every girl a unique feel. This then could serve as a baseline, with future updates adding more girls with unique combat strategies and respective counterabilities and adding new and existing interactions between the abilities and the previous girls
I know It is easy to backseat, and I am sorry if I come off like a presumptuous dick, but right now the foundation of the combat system is just a mess which is a huge shame for all the work that is being put into it (I assume). Its as wide as an ocean and as deep as a puddle. You have all these stances, abilities, and in the end it all boils down to DPS. There are more than 40 (!!!) different skills in 11 (!!!) categories. Time was spent coding these in, testing if they work, fixing bugs. Then rebalancing them. Then again. Then again. Then again.
Looking at the sex stances, it is even sadder. There are over 50 (!!!) Sex abilities, with all of them serving no purpose at all. Its clear that the entire combat system is a giant sunk cost fallacy and with each number change iteration majalis hopes that *this* will be the change that will make it fun and engaging. I fear not. Its fucked.
Can't wait for the BIG MAGIC REBALANCE update that adds the long awaited, game-changing Cum Cannon spell that can only be cast from deep incantation while lying prone and does more damage to enemies the higher the cum meter is. The cum meter is tracked by a complex number algorithm that uses real-time deep neural network data analysis of Hiros diet and sex life and then predicts the density, potency and calorie count of his cum. And the meta would still be Armor Crusher->Fast attack.
Apologize for the longpost, It was on my mind for a long time.
So what you're saying is that despite that Hiro did NOT consent to a situation, because he seems like he enjoyed it, it's not rape?
I think the last guy that made that argument is still serving his sentence...
(Jokes aside, my post was more about adding endings that feel more like a reward, rather than a punishment. Like max out Kylira affection, save up enough money for an Inn, then get ending, vs lose against a centaur 3 times and get made into a permanent fucktoy).
What are you talking about. Most of the changelogs don't include many combat changes, and small numeric changes don't require much time at all anyway. You are just... entirely, factually wrong about this - I'm not sure what universe you're posting this from. In this one, a frequent complaint - in fact, a complaint that was brought up multiple times on this forum in the week before this update dropped, ironically, is that not enough has been updated about the combat system lately. The rest of your post is this hyperbolic strawman about the Cum Cannon spell with overly complicated calculations that... doesn't resemble anything in ToA, at all. But I'm sure Angry Video Game Nerd would be proud.
I have one update with a bunch of combat changes exactly to address the issues in your post (simplistic strategies being too effective, variation of what's effective against each enemy type), and I'm talking about AI to address the issues in your post (not having unique AI per character), and... you yadda yadda over that to complain about it. Brilliant.
For what it's worth, I like the combat system; it puts the game up there with Portals of Phereon ala being a "Real Game". There's a lot of room for strategery, even if most fights can still be conquered via blitz stance.
Some of my friends have also noted this, they've joked that I suckered them into "playing an actual game" lol
Some of my friends have also noted this, they've joked that I suckered them into "playing an actual game" lol
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- Sep 25, 2018
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There's just no way to please everyone, that's the true sisyphean struggle.
- Sep 28, 2021
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Now that is a reference I haven't heard in a long time.
Is this when I complain about the extreme lack of my particular fetish, or the lack of updates geared towards my favorite girl?
- Jan 25, 2019
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You make Selkie cum, she's erect and ready to cum in you again. Sisyphean struggle.
You want to ask Alma for something, she immediately puts you in a dress. Call that the Sissyphean struggle.
Jess is the only Dark Magician who still knows that magical spell, one day she'll teach it to Trudy if she can stop fucking with him.
BRRRHHHIGGGGAAAAHHHNNNDDDDIs this when I complain about the extreme lack of my particular fetish, or the lack of updates geared towards my favorite girl?
Like I said, sorry If I come of like a presumptuous dick, but I still stand by my points. And I thought I lined out pretty well what my criticisms are. The cum cannon was intended as a humorous umbrella hyperbole for my frustration with the pointless feature bloat in the combat system over the years. Not in this specific update, but accumulated over the years. These features add little to nothing, but take up dev time with updates that dont adress the core issues. I can give examples in detail.
-After parry was implemented which was a simple "dodge and remove weapon from enemy if they attack into you during the stance" skill, it was overhauled with a weapon grip strength number tracking system which no doubt took a lot of thinking, code and testing to add. What for?
-The magic system for some reason was overhauled from a simple and easy stance and spell system to multiple levels of incantation, as well as multiple spell elements that in effect just mean more/less damage here and there. Once again (I assume) lots of work, for what? You changing it once again in this changelog illustrates my point. No doubt to be changed again afterwards after some time.
-The berserk stance an was added for some reason (again work) and exists in limbo since then
I can continue listing more of these examples that accumulated over the years of development. Haymaker, Wrist shot, Head shot, Ashi, Stonewall, the 50+ Sex stances, whatever. I don't even remember all the exact iterations they went through. I just wanted to illustrate that you dont seem to have a strategic design goal for the combat system.
These features add little. Instead, they persist and take up time when they are changed again and again and again. This changelog updated the haymaker, stonewall and whatever stance. Why do they exist in the first place? What do they add to the core aspects of the game? I can't imagine returning to an older version of the game and thinking "damn, things are just not the same without Haymaker!". Guys, does anyone here give a single fuck about Haymaker? The update where the magic attack was split into three elements and three stances? Why?
My criticism was that right now you could remove like 80% of all abilities that were added in the last 5 years and nobody would care. And I dont think the solution should be working around these abilities and tweaking their numbers to make them fit like you do now. Even if after countless iterations you find the sweet spot where picking haymaker, or going deep incantation+lightning is actually the optimal strategy, what purpose did it serve? It't an erotic game. I picked the drunk spell as an example because it is one of the few abilities that have an interesting premise. Same goes for the grappling stances and seducing stances. But they just get overshadowed by all the efforts to make the bloat work. My "strawman" was pretty apt tbh. Adding an unnecessary, overly complicated feature that doesnt add anything to the core erotic aspects of the game and ties up devtime with countless iterations is what happened time and time again. You could have replaced the "cum cannon" with "parry" and the "cum meter" with the "grip strength meter". I hope my examples cleared up what I meant.
Again, this very update added more to the weapon grip system, which is meant to add a layer of strategy to trying to disarm your opponent or avoid being disarmed. The same way that your shield takes damage from blocking whenever using a skill that has block on it (not just skills which exclusively use block), your weapon grip takes damage from parrying part or all of an attack. This means that using skills which parry (including just about any attack, since almost all attacks have 1 Parry and 1 Evade by default) puts you at risk of being disarmed, which can be capitalized on by an opponent, and vice versa. Since enemies also behave differently when disarmed - some try to re-equip their weapon, giving you time during which they're defenseless, some will change their strategy, like Urka wrestling you, and some will enrage, like the Ogre - this also ties into having different strategies for different characters. Note, the behavior I'm listing already exists, but there's more to come.
I'm sorry, the magic system went from "simple and easy" to... not that because of the addition of one extra casting stance, Deep Casting, which was added early in development? The elements absolutely do not just "add damage here and there" - Chill/Frostbite and Overheat hurt Agility (an important stat) and Stamina Regen (more important now), and Ablaze can potentially do a ton of damage over time while destroying your opponent's armor - something mages are typically weak at. Shock attacks can paralyze your opponents entirely. I also did not "change it once again", I added new perks to the kit to make magic as a playstyle stronger. Game in development adds new passives - news at 11. I spent 1 week - 1 - on a balance pass, and that's when you chose to post this. Your principle thesis, here, that we're constantly doing major overhauls is wrong. So anything following from that premise is similarly incorrect.
Your point about Berserk is... what, exactly? It's substantially stronger as of this patch. I have no idea what you mean by "in limbo". The original design of the game involved 3 basic combat stances (Defensive, Balanced, Offensive), along with 3 advanced defensive stances (Counter, Focus, Stonewall), and 3 advanced offensive stances (Blitz, Berserk, Haymaker), making up the core combat stances. And we've added sex stances over time... so? Are you aware what kind of game this is?
As for whether people would care if we removed 80% of the abilities... that's wrong. To the extent that it's true, it's true we could remove *100%* of the abilities and some people wouldn't care. Some people would much prefer if the game had two buttons that said "Win Fight" and "Lose Fight", and those people will be happy when we get around to letting you choose the battle outcome to skip it entirely as a part of cheat mode. And sure, there's people in between who want a simple battle system. But I'm not making the combat system for those people.
So I'll say it loud for the people in the back: I don't remotely care if you don't want to have an interesting combat system. I could have easily made an RPG Maker game where you select Fight - Defend - Magic - Run; they're not alien to me. I don't live on another planet; I know some people want an erotic game with no frills combat that ferrets them from one Fuck to the next.
I just don't care. Their opinion is irrelevant in regards to the combat system. They can turn it off, if they like. The people who want a fantasy combat simulator where they might be parrying and disarming their opponent's weapon one moment, and the next moment find themselves with a fat set of orcish nuts in their face is who I'm trying to provide fun for. So when you say the "core aspect" of the game is fucking-as-battle, you made a wrong turn at some other game, and now you're at my complaint desk, and I absolutely cannot help you with your problem. The core battle system of this game is Fighting And Fucking.
Though, while I have you here: if you're thinking, "THIS time could be better spent adding cool stuff like character's acting drunken and flirty when they drink, or characters who are disarmed or overpowered suddenly trying to flirt with you instead, or characters responding to you losing your weapon by humiliating you about your small penis" - that's what the AI work is for.
Hey, did you know if you hit the Golem with a shock spell, she'll get a boner and malfunction? Did you know if you chill the Naga enough she'll fall asleep? Hey, maybe next if you burn off a character's clothes, they'll surrender. Oh, wait, that's in my notes! Maybe if you hit the Fire Elemental with a fire spell, she'll grow hotter. Yep, that's in there too. Here's a fun one that I didn't have time to get to this week while I was implementing the new enemy armors and hand/head/feet interactions - when you hit the Dullahan's hand, she drops her head, and her body goes Berserk, as she has a tendency to do, and her head calls after you while she goes wild with you. That's the fun of making a system with a lot of moving parts.
Counterpoint: I like how you've cleaned up the UI/made character reactions/actions more responsive, and would love to see a more in depth tutorial once the gameplay is in a state you think will be final.
- Sep 25, 2018
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We all have that special someone, i'm not jugding anyone about that.Is this when I complain about the extreme lack of my particular fetish, or the lack of updates geared towards my favorite girl?
Yeah, an optional tutorial battle that'll walk you through a basic battle you can access from the Help menu is something we have planned, but it's lower priority.
Yeah, the combat system feels a bit confusing/bloated but only because there's so much, knowing is half the battle
- Sep 25, 2018
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- Dec 31, 2022
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I think the point is: "Combat feels bloated" And personally, I agree. You can have all the awesome flavor of Naga going to sleep when chill and all that without 9 different stances with blurry diferences. Combat depth is having cool and unique interactions with your easy to understand abilities, being able to combo one into another and having different responses depending on the enemy. I think that's partly what we're getting with the AI update and I'm looking forward to it. But at the same time, there's too much fluff in the combat system and what Tenty says (I think) is that some of it could be trimmed to make it more elegant and intuitive without losing depth.
In my opinion, it's a well formulated critique, and there's no need to get mad about it.
In my opinion, it's a well formulated critique, and there's no need to get mad about it.