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I got my card back, so bought it and going to start from the begginning to see if there are any problems, anything you want us to look specifically for Jack?

Mother... Father... This is awkward...



(When the screen fades in or out, the text box isn't there to cover the missing legs.)

BobTheMob wrote: Just wondering, will we ever have those kinds of things in RPGs again? B/c I loved using that in Loren.

Well in this RPG there's plenty of grinding! In future ones yes I don't see a problem to keep doing that, making them optional.

DarkWolf wrote:Regarding this, I also wanted to add that you are most likely going to finish all romance scenes during first 2-3 steps and see all robbery mission scenes by that time and therefore in second half of a game you want have much of a story in it.

Ah I see. The thing is that the romances aren't tied to the main plot step, but only on passing days.
Maybe I should tie them to that, like step 2 => allow romances up to scene 4 (for each character), or something like that. It won't change anything in the game term but maybe the "flow" will be better?

Harbinger1975 wrote: I'm just saying that the same missions over and over can get pretty monotonous fast. That's all. Again, not a complaint. Just an RPG player and tester trying to help out

No I understand what you mean. Indeed for grinding I refer mostly to do repeated tasks to level up. Your Skyrim example is not grinding I think, otherwise all RPG would be grinding! It's normal to do several task to level up.
Indeed as much as I tried to make different rooms, there are probably 20-25 unique ones, and you can see them all quickly. I'll need to think how to change this, probably that option idea, or simply raise the money even more.

There's already a multiplier in the game, so each completed step, you earn more money, but maybe need to make it more apparent. I'll think about something!

kadakithis wrote:I got my card back, so bought it and going to start from the begginning to see if there are any problems, anything you want us to look specifically for Jack?

Well if you want, the balance of the catacombs. I mean, not even playing in Hard/Nightmare, but just in Normal, you shouldn't be able to win easily a level "recommended for party of level 9" with a party of level 5 for example (even if depends also on equipment).
I think there are still some hidden bugs when one of your party member is removed (a bug Franka found a while ago), should happen in a military scene where you can duel against a "boss enemy"

Franka wrote:Mother... Father... This is awkward...

Haha thanks will check it!

Do you have a save when that missing window shows ? thanks

While I do enjoy grinding, part of the joy of the grind is to overcome the game. You want to grind so you are better and things get easier, but scaling for grind kinda defeats all the fun of grinding. Otherwise it would just be difficulty.

Some stuff I noticed-Siphon life on Headless corpse didn't cost SP.
The enemies counterattack in ruins stopped working at all.
Playing on normal; and while a bit of a slog, the ruins work just fine at recommended levels. I try to tackle the levels early and even being a couple levels behind is pretty darn difficult.

kadakithis wrote:While I do enjoy grinding, part of the joy of the grind is to overcome the game. You want to grind so you are better and things get easier, but scaling for grind kinda defeats all the fun of grinding. Otherwise it would just be difficulty.

Is this a general consideration, or referred to this game in particular?

kadakithis wrote: Some stuff I noticed-Siphon life on Headless corpse didn't cost SP.
The enemies counterattack in ruins stopped working at all.
Playing on normal; and while a bit of a slog, the ruins work just fine at recommended levels. I try to tackle the levels early and even being a couple levels behind is pretty darn difficult.

Thanks, will take a look. Cool that the catacombs at Normal difficulty seems good now!

I gave some thought:
- about the fact that you can see all romance scenes in step2-3, I'm going to keep that: since many provide a bonus related to the robberies, makes sense to have those unlock at that time
- about the last steps, you're right! in particular the last two steps are really big. The 50k money one... lol Even if I already increase the robberies money based on the step, probably it's not enough. It's also bad that by that time you've basically seen most scripted scenes, so there isn't even the "novelty effect".

One solution could be that slider that I talk about in today's blog post. I am thinking also to add a few tweaks, like:
- make the shop earn more each day, with maybe possibility to schedule X days. Like you plan to only run the shop for 10 days, and you'll advance time and get that amount. You can already get the money by just passing time now, but clicking end turn every time for a lot of times is a bit too much
- have the possibility to do auto-battle, for the normal robbery encounters, not the scripted scenes. I would simply compare sisters stats with opponents, and generate a % of victory. Then you could try "auto-resolve" and skip that battle but still get the money/XP and basically do the robberies faster

I think with those two addition probably the ending stages should be less bad than now?

That could work I think, Jack. Actually, the shop idea and auto battle sound like a good compromise.

Cool, I just started coding it today. Will probably do a new update tomorrow with this working

I am thinking to enable this only after step2 or something, otherwise seems like a sort of cheat-mode
But I think is a good idea, this way people who want to grind can, those who don't want can use this system. You'll still need to do some fights of course otherwise you get to the final battle underleveled.

I like it, Jack. And yeah, that makes a lot more sense. You can get money pretty fast in the beginning. So you're right. It would be like cheating.