Yeah, it is pretty obvious how he uses wordiness and shiny videos to distract from his complete and utter failure to compile a compelling background - because he never cared for background and lore now, did he?Inside joke.
Yet, hi's trying to ignore it. Looking at you Mr. two post above this.
Now that's a mouthful! Will try to answer em all as best as I canPersonal thoughts up to Story 5.
There are my loose thoughts and suggestions. Mind two things tho:
Actually most of the things I put in here are somehow critical but it means I enjoy your game as a whole and would love to see it just a little better here and there (it also means I have far more important things to do and I found playing this game and giving such extensive feedback will be great procrastination occupation). You mentioned that you like feedback so yeah, here you go lol.
- That I said "my" so do not take it personaly if I do not like something.
- Currently according to journal I'm at Story 5 so many things I'm pointing here may be already improved in game. If that's the case I will probably mention it at my final conclusions if I ever write ones
Self-voicing
UI related stuff
- Many devs does not pay attention to fact that some people can use self-voicing in theirs games. It really pisses me off to be honest since I use it all the time but I get that probably I'm not in majority. By that I wanted to point things on the screen added by dev for some kind of better experience but that are readed aloud - in this case it is "Money: xxx" and "Morning/Noon...". I can live with the second one since it is visible only when choosing rooms but the first one is visible even during dialogues(sic!)... Like... why? Good thing is that we are talking about RenPy here and beside looking for it in files can be pain in the ass, it is still doable to get rid of that.
- On the contrary, MC's thoughts are implemented well since there is just blank space in character's name instead of "Name's thoughts" reading all the time. Probably this was not made intentionally like that for better self-voicing experience but still... I hope more and more devs will pay attention to that.
A: Tbh I rarely remember that such an option exits. But just tested in-game. Pressing the keybind "V" turns on the self voicing. Not sure if it works on all modes tho. Just texted a quick dialogue.
Others
Freeroam
- There is a scene where guy with mustache and bindi tortures another man hanging on chain. I know at this point all present characters are unknown but they should be better described like "Unknown man 1/2/3..." or "Hanging man/Man with mustache" or whatever, just to dialogue be more readable, without overthinking who said what since they are all "???".
A: I agree with this point very much. Going back to replay those sections and I tend to confuse myself. Need to be better to differentiate speakers even if unknown.
Don't get me wrong here, I know how hard it is to design and code something more than just dialogues with renders, I really do. But I'm perfectionist and feel obligated to point some of the non-perfect thing lol.
Characters
- Exactly my thoughts during freeroaming thrugh the city. I was kinda amazed by how fruitful descriptions of locations are, it really put my imagination to work. But at the same time I saw lost potential in there...
- Map as dots are okayish but how about geting a pencil to your hand, drawing some simple curvy shape, dividing it into sections and putting little sketches of market/grain fields/buildings/church to it? I know you(dev) are not Ubisoft so dots are fine, but it is just a simple idea of how to improve it for better experience.
- What was really annoying experience was not being able to save/load/get to menu... during city roaming. Forcing game to stop and launching it again is an absurd way to get to options. And save/load? I guess it can be related to malfunctioning day phases thingy but it should be redesigned immidiately... Some events are quite long and being unable to save/load/back is a no-go solution, sorry.
- My OCD gave me pain seeing text not being aligned to background frames lol. I know there are no "frames", it is just a render, but figuring out a way to put it in one that does not violate it's borders would be nice polish.
A: The whole text-based adventure is very much still work in progress. Icons for important locations are already planned for.
About the out of border, I think it may be a font thing. Have to see if I can make it work for all fonts and not just the one I mainly use myself.
Saving is going to be tough tho. As you said, would require the code to be totally redesigned and that is a bit too timeconsuming as I want to focus on season 2. Tho, having a way to save or check points or something would be good.
Database
- Many devs have different approach to it and my humble opinion is that DPC in last episodes of BaDIK achieved perfection of how it should look like. I'm not saying that you should copy his solution (not saying you should not lol) but info about characters in DeLuca are just simply not enough imo.
A: The character journal is meant to be short. It is just a way to see their current thoughts.
I was originally planning to add character section on the lore codex page but scratched it due to the amount of characters in the game. May be a thing I add depending on how many would actually want it tho.
Interactions
Renders
- And to expand my thoughts from above, I think that there are too little interaction with people... At the beginning I was hyped to see there are 3 guys fighting in the garden, visiting tavern or brothel, being able to "roam, know the city and help its people" so database like that would be much appriciated right? After couple hours of playing I feel scamed. Girls and Wilfred are the only people I can interact with and after basic few lines that's it... What's with the dancing stuff? I completed mission to learn dance, made one attempt to dance with Gracie, all seems promising and the next thing I can do is saying "Dancing?" each evening with dialog the same as at the beginning... All dialogues with rest of people are the same and it does not have any sense, they are not acting like a people (they should), not taking into account that we already know each other quite good (compared to first day in house) but all we got are the same, emotionless responses.
A: I mentioned before I kind of regret not adding the 'smaller things' in the game. Not big stuff but just some minor interactions you can do in the freeroam part. The dancing is a good example or doing some quick yoga or whatever. Definitely something I am thinking about going forward with season 2
Locations
Avatars
- Overall they are designed "well enough". What I hate (in any AVN) is when dev implements some unrealistic and dumb concept. If game tries to be realistic and mature it should be like one. If it wants to be funny and comic, that's fine too, but please be consistant with your idea. Putting all kind of guns/rifles in Luna's room is the issue I'm pointing here - why? Do not treat player as an idiot, we can already know from interactions with her that he like weapons right? So you do not have to put it on her floor too, besides the fact that she prefers small guns/knifes and she would have these weapons nicely ordered, not trashed around...
- In-house render with fireplace is "from" DIK's mansion, park scenery is from every other game (lol) but at least you deleted tunnel, dinner room looks awesome, living rooms looks mediocre, MC's and office room looks good.
A: The game is unrealistic and meant to be a bit cartoonish. I wanted to make that clear as soon as possible and intrudced the weird serpents and fights early to showcase that.
With that said, the Luna room was pre-release (0.01) and basically my first time playing around with daz and wasn't even sure I was going to release anything. If I went back in time and had to do it again I would probably not make it like that, heh
Let's hope she has cleaned it up a bit in season 2!
"Characters moving"(?)
- These little avatars next to each room picture are awesome! Whoever did this, surely knows what he/she does and you should ask him/her about overal UI design improving.
A: I really like them as well and planning to make a Cordia one!
Mechanics
- Not sure how problematic it is to implement, the fact that people we are talking to sometimes(?) are moving a little but personally I didn't like it. And the reason of that is related to render quality overall probably? I mean the background render is meh and then you got Luna and Gracie somehow polished in front... The distinction is to great I think and them moving a little just makes it "worse", not to mention that their movement is not smooth. Perhaps you did it to reduce rendering time? Surely one background render and then "moving" character takes less time but at the end it also takes a lot of game experince.
A: Not so much render time but rather building my profaciancy with background movement. It's a learning progress and hopefully it get's better!
Overall
Save/Load
- Obviously you have problems with design/integrity of code in matter of day phases implementation. As I mentioned in previous posts, I had A LOT of bugs related to it. Mostly it was caused by triggering events at the evenings and it would be the first place to verify if I was dev. I pressume some events adds pre-assigned quantity of time "units" and there are lack of if-else safety conditions and some dialogues are available when they shouldn't.
A: I can't imagne it being related to the time as that is a seperated code and shouldn't effect the bugs that occur during text based adventure. It is something heavily looked into. In the steam version 1.0, there are no known major bugs as it seems it only occur during the lucania intro.
The last part is true tho. Probably some if-else statements that has been forgotten in some places that should be. So that's why it's important for the playerbase to report where it is so I can fix it quickly
- I already mentioned it but didn't want you to forget about it lol
A: Will try not to, heh!
Equipement
Stats
- I like concept of equipement. I would love to see more choices there (money-based, not story-based) and that whatever I bought has any impact to dialogues/story, not just stats. Like me having a gun but in dialogues MC still acts like he never hold one or there is no way for me to go to shooting range to train. Or Gracie mentioned about buying better clothes to train dancing, or MC having own car/bike, or basicaly anything really but meaning more than just stat change and look but only in equipement screen. There is just no interaction between that and the world
A: @JJJ84 Exaplined it well. It is simply a box that is too troublesome to open if I combine it. Especially now. It was also a personal choices at the beginning because I didn't want either part of limit each other too much. Now, having something from the quest be activated via buying something from the store, liken the example of dancing clothes, could be a good idea, I think it would be confusing to players since it was never needed before.
Also, Wilfred loves to give mc his packages.
Personality/Dispassion
- Firstly I was in love of that - I was promised freedom (freeroam), money, mafia stuff, training camp (wow) etc and at the end hm... One or two missions like bring wine or learn ballet gave me one or two points to skills and that's it. In the meantime I had to make missions requiring me to have high stealth for example and... It felt linear. I know it is AVN but I hate when devs comes with ideas they cannot handle properly. If we are implementing stats here - give me chances to improve them. If they even matter - give me different content according to them. Clothes changes stats? Ok, but give me choice of making money which is not story-related. If everything is story-driven anyway then there is no point in implementing RPG elements in the first place.
A: Hopefully we improve the text-based adventure enough that it would give those exact feelings!
Lore
- It is nicely described in "Help, tips & event" tab but in reality there is no such a thing or at least it is not visible at all for a player. To this point of the game my only choice was to either watch Luna killing mercenary or not and to look at dead traitor (forgot his name) or not... And it doesn't matter anyway since result is all the same and there are no stat related to it (at least yet)
A: It is mostly for the future. It's a bit of an odd way of doing it and understandably players will be feeling like the choices won't matter, but it will slowly define the mc for future seasons.
- First thing I find stupid was this whole hitlerjugend soldier theme. I'm okay that it is kinda of dev's art of concept but it doesn't have any sense for these people to wear clothes like that in daily basis like we could see in tavern.
- Money is another thing. It is nicely implemented, I love having "RPG elements" in AVNs but at the same time I'm there couple days/weeks and I feel like I'm the only one having money.
A: I'm not sure I understand the hitlerjugend references.
This could be a little chaotic from my side, I wanted to polish it a little more at the end but then I noticed that I'm not even close to the end but at the same time I didn't want my current thoughts go to waste lol.
A: Thanks for the detailed feedback
!It's in the phone and it's fucking annoying cause it gives phone notifications when it updates.As you said, many devs approach character database differently.
But if you're citing an example, it's best that you provide a visual example using screenshots of the said game.
Otherwise people may not know what you're referring to despite you citing the game (heck, I don't even remember what the database of characters for BADiK looks like
Yes, of course you are right and that's why I was sorry about not polishing my post enough. It would take me a long time to download BaDIK so I just mentioned that. My intention was to point a well implemented database and I'm sure that if dev decides to change it a little he will be able to check it himselfAs you said, many devs approach character database differently.
But if you're citing an example, it's best that you provide a visual example using screenshots of the said game.
Otherwise people may not know what you're referring to despite you citing the game (heck, I don't even remember what the database of characters for BADiK looks like
And to be clear, BaDIK was just an example, I'm far from being DPC 's fanboy lolI'm prefectly aware of this concept and I'm fine with that, the problem I have with implementation tho. Let me rephrase it maybe or give some more examples...
There should be these little things you know, like a additional smile or touch, some words changed, all these dialog options could be even erased at some point... In my opinion, me being able to ask her everyday what is she doing and MC being surprised about her cleaning just kicks out of immersion. Surely changing these dialogues depending on if they are first time or not and removing come of them would give feeling of game moving forward.This part is tricky, I agree. Probably even impossible to implement at this scale, true. I think the gun was the thing that annoyed me the most... I mean, MC never had anything to do with gun and now he is able to obtain one. Despite fact him having gun, no one mentiones it, there is nothing like "shooting range is now available" or anything, just stats for mission. I get it, that was the only purpose of gear and I do not demand renders with every possible combination of MC's look
but maybe the gun could be introduced in a better way?Most of the day there is nothing to do really. Stats could be stretched a little (to the scale to 100 let's say) and MC could be simply be allowed to go for a run in the morning, use training base to improve agility or strenght, go to tavern and talk with some people adding some points to his charisma and people actually better know him, shooting range to train some shooting? Based on players focus during story missions simple if-elses dialogues would add a lot flavor like you were improving shooting skill so you managed to hit something more than wall or you didn't care about strength and you were knocked out by some random soldato resulting in 3 more renders and couple more dialogues that you should do better.
Well, it could be the colors and tie or them proudly representing community that in fact is build on evil foundations? Dunno, it came to my mind right after seeing Dominco
Sure thing! Do not feel obligated tho, but when you decide to do it anyway then be harsh and defend your statement if you think I'm wrong in there lol. I didn't wrote it to prove I'm right and you are not.Now that's a mouthful! Will try to answer em all as best as I can
Will write in the quote itself with red text
Which could be muted if I remember correctly? I don't remember it to be annoying in any way. What's more you have picture of every person met alongside with some info about interaction itself. There are moments where I simply do not remember all characters names and being able to check it quickly is something natural to me.
I tried to convince hopes to have the mc and luna watch deadpool on one of their movie nights. In spite of the fact that he agrees luna would love deadpool, he wouldn't go for it.
So we can pick the red ending, where MC destroys everybody, the blue ending, where he controls everybody, or the green ending where he "synthesizes" with everybody (nudge nudge wink wink know what I mean?). Yes, that went well last time it happened
Well, here you could possible have the steel ending, the lead ending or the love ending.So we can pick the red ending, where MC destroys everybody, the blue ending, where he controls everybody, or the green ending where he "synthesizes" with everybody (nudge nudge wink wink know what I mean?). Yes, that went well last time it happened
That sounds familiar.............So we can pick the red ending, where MC destroys everybody, the blue ending, where he controls everybody, or the green ending where he "synthesizes" with everybody (nudge nudge wink wink know what I mean?). Yes, that went well last time it happened
Yeah......It generally requires tons of work (as I've said in my reply to Impurity's post), and with VNs one needs to keep their expectations in control, especially when it comes to gameplay elements.
Well the question has already shifted. What colour(s) do the endings have?Yeah......It generally requires tons of work (as I've said in my reply to Impurity's post), and with VNs one needs to keep their expectations in control, especially when it comes to gameplay elements.
Majority of the devs with AVNs are solo devs (though there are exceptions of some who are teams), and there is limit to what they can do, compared to say, AAA games.
And we all know that Hopes originally had a much more ambitious version of the gameplay but he hit a roadblock with the limitations and had to temper his ambition a bit to settle for the current gameplay system.
Not to mention gameplay implementation took time away from him spending time on VN stuff; which I also addressed in that reply to Impurity.
Damn, I rambled on a lot in that one post didn't I?
That's not funny, I like both games.So we can pick the red ending, where MC destroys everybody, the blue ending, where he controls everybody, or the green ending where he "synthesizes" with everybody (nudge nudge wink wink know what I mean?). Yes, that went well last time it happened
