Amber Beta Demo (NOT full story!!) 0.7.6

A fantasy crafting/dating sim https://www.winterwolves.com/ambersmagicshop.htm
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Pace675
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Re: Amber Beta Demo (NOT full story!!) 0.7.5

Post by Pace675 »

Lol I just downloaded .74 >.>

Well bright side! I threw money your way off to work!
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jack1974
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Re: Amber Beta Demo (NOT full story!!) 0.7.5

Post by jack1974 »

Haha sorry, you know how it is in those early testing stages :mrgreen:
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Pace675
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Re: Amber Beta Demo (NOT full story!!) 0.7.5

Post by Pace675 »

Lol 5 minutes ..... XD that is fast XD...well really off to work now....ug....want to play! XD
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Franka
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Re: Amber Beta Demo (NOT full story!!) 0.7.5

Post by Franka »

Went back and finished the last few weeks of young age. For anyone interested in comparing, this is where I ended up (subject to changes between 4 versions, but I guess you can approximately compare). I could have sold my excess ingredients for an additional ~5000 gold, but I figured I'd wait and see...

Image

So, talking about the gameplay...

I don't mind the crafting and jobbing, it's not super exciting, but it's no worse than the event planners from your usual dating sims. I'm curious about all the recipes that are in the game, because so far I've crafted about 10 different items throughout the whole young age.

It's a bit annoying to unlock recipes that I can't use, either because my skill is too low, because they require ingredients I have no access to, or both. I've unlocked several talismans early on, but they all require settings, which I have 1 of... that doesn't fit any of the talismans. Looking at the recipes for sale at the Mage's Guild, it feels hopeless to ever reach the skill level needed, but things might happen at adult age...

I've barely gone gathering. The few times I went, it didn't seem worth it, investing large amounts of both time and energy to come back with items that were usually low quality or that didn't fit any of my recipes, plus you only gain XP, not skills, from gathering. Anything I needed for crafting, I bought in the shops, which cost almost no time, no energy, and just a little gold.

I didn't study very much because it took all day, though I did eventually find the trick of doing odds and ends until just before noon, then occasionally studying for the rest of the day.

So, essentially my routine was to buy stuff, look for jobs, craft as needed, plus a little extra, and occasionally studying. Many, many jobs were completed by simply buying all the beryl and garnet pebbles for sale, every single day.

As for the writing, I have no big complaints. The largest would be what I already mentioned, that it jumps between past and present tense from one sentence to the next. This happens throughout the entire script, so I gave up on listing incidents in favor of playing the game. I did take some screenshots of typos and name confusion, but I have to process those later.

There's not much drama so far, but I understand we're mostly introducing characters and relationships at this point in time. I do kind of miss toggling the otome content off, I don't want to
Spoiler:
be courted by Lair...
:lol: But that's minor. So far, I'm liking the Dark Plus paths.

And so, before I say something really dumb, I should get sleep. Looking forward to the rest of the game, and I should also do a Light Plus run when I have the time!
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BobTheMob
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Re: Amber Beta Demo (NOT full story!!) 0.7.5

Post by BobTheMob »

The Basic Fertilizer still can't be manually done; it still says that Animal Blood isn't available...

Is that something anyone else is seeing? Just on my comp?

Sorry to keep bothering ya Jack... :oops:
Astrala
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Re: Amber Beta Demo (NOT full story!!) 0.7.5

Post by Astrala »

Astrala wrote:
Secondly, I find it strange that the Alignment bars are different between Amber and her romances. Amber has "dark" on the right and "light" on the left, but it's reversed for Daniel, Ruby, ect.
jack1974 wrote:
Well you need to consider it like this: each character, so Amber included have their own alignment. They're influenced by Amber's choices. But if Amber makes a "light choice" with Daniel, why Bernard should change his alignment too? or Lynn, or Ruby? since they're not even involved in that choice.
It's a bit complex maybe, but I wouldn't be able to change it now :oops:
No, I understand the that scores between the individual romances are different. I was talking about the display. The Alignment display for all of the possible romances positions the circles representing "light" are on the right side of the screen and the ones representing "dark" on the left. Amber's Alignment display has the circles representing "dark" on the right, and "light: on the left. The difference in display is what I was trying to point out. Sorry for being confusing. :oops:
morgan502
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Re: Amber Beta Demo (NOT full story!!) 0.7.5

Post by morgan502 »

Looks excellent so far!
One thing I noticed so far though was that I was introduced to Anders twice. The first time was during the wind chime festival thing in the market, the second was when Amber paints the sign for Haros. Its a little jarring because amber acts as though they never met.
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jack1974
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Re: Amber Beta Demo (NOT full story!!) 0.7.5

Post by jack1974 »

Franka wrote:Went back and finished the last few weeks of young age. For anyone interested in comparing, this is where I ended up (subject to changes between 4 versions, but I guess you can approximately compare). I could have sold my excess ingredients for an additional ~5000 gold, but I figured I'd wait and see...
Haha very impressive. I even give a bonus of 1000/2500 gold (depending on difficulty) at beginning of adult age to get things going !
Anyways, I see you are level 12, so you'll pass the alchemy exam at first attempt (it's in 25 days from that screenshot's date). So maybe at least I got the level right for that "check".
Also, a savegame at end of demo would be appreciated :)
Franka wrote: I don't mind the crafting and jobbing, it's not super exciting, but it's no worse than the event planners from your usual dating sims. I'm curious about all the recipes that are in the game, because so far I've crafted about 10 different items throughout the whole young age.
There are 200+ recipes (don't remember the exact amount but little more than 200, could be 210-212 or something). When you say you crafted only 10 items, you mean because of the tasks you got, or the materials you had available?
Franka wrote: It's a bit annoying to unlock recipes that I can't use, either because my skill is too low, because they require ingredients I have no access to, or both. I've unlocked several talismans early on, but they all require settings, which I have 1 of... that doesn't fit any of the talismans. Looking at the recipes for sale at the Mage's Guild, it feels hopeless to ever reach the skill level needed, but things might happen at adult age...
I see, indeed the recipe you unlock while studying or leveling up are randomized within your skill levels. But those talisman require same skill as the setting, only in different field (Setting start from Metalworking 50, while talisman start from Jewelcrafting/Enchanting 50).
From your screenshot, I think the skill increase is still too low. At end of young age you should be 100 all skills.
Since in adult age 2 years (or more) have passed, I could also automatically increase all skills to 100, that would be a good solution to avoid grinding, since we assume Amber kept training in those years :)
Franka wrote: I've barely gone gathering. The few times I went, it didn't seem worth it, investing large amounts of both time and energy to come back with items that were usually low quality or that didn't fit any of my recipes, plus you only gain XP, not skills, from gathering. Anything I needed for crafting, I bought in the shops, which cost almost no time, no energy, and just a little gold.

I didn't study very much because it took all day, though I did eventually find the trick of doing odds and ends until just before noon, then occasionally studying for the rest of the day.

So, essentially my routine was to buy stuff, look for jobs, craft as needed, plus a little extra, and occasionally studying. Many, many jobs were completed by simply buying all the beryl and garnet pebbles for sale, every single day.
That's interesting. I guess I need to make gathering or studying more "powerful" to make them more appealing!
Franka wrote: As for the writing, I have no big complaints. The largest would be what I already mentioned, that it jumps between past and present tense from one sentence to the next. This happens throughout the entire script, so I gave up on listing incidents in favor of playing the game. I did take some screenshots of typos and name confusion, but I have to process those later.
I'll be grateful for any report about that :)
Franka wrote: There's not much drama so far, but I understand we're mostly introducing characters and relationships at this point in time. I do kind of miss toggling the otome content off, I don't want to
Spoiler:
be courted by Lair...
:lol: But that's minor. So far, I'm liking the Dark Plus paths.
Yes drama comes in adult age! Well, in particular in the dark endings :)
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jack1974
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Re: Amber Beta Demo (NOT full story!!) 0.7.5

Post by jack1974 »

BobTheMob wrote:The Basic Fertilizer still can't be manually done; it still says that Animal Blood isn't available...

Is that something anyone else is seeing? Just on my comp?
I'm going to add an option: kill Haros and use his blood to make the fertilizer!!!!!!! :twisted: :twisted:
Jokes apart works here: following the tutorial, you can do it 3 times. First auto-low, then auto-high, and lastly manual crafting. I just tried it. Maybe you crafted two times in automatic? Otherwise should work, you need to restart the game though to see the updated materials (so not using a save before the tutorial).
Astrala wrote:Amber's Alignment display has the circles representing "dark" on the right, and "light: on the left. The difference in display is what I was trying to point out. Sorry for being confusing.
Ahh yes!! Now it's clear. Indeed Amber's alignment was inverted (that's how originally was, but when I changed the characters alignment I decided was better to have dark on the left and light on the right). Will change it, thanks :)
morgan502 wrote:One thing I noticed so far though was that I was introduced to Anders twice. The first time was during the wind chime festival thing in the market, the second was when Amber paints the sign for Haros. Its a little jarring because amber acts as though they never met.
Ah I never noticed :oops: Going to look, probably it's enough to remove the second introduction when painting Haros' sign :)
Troyen
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Re: Amber Beta Demo (NOT full story!!) 0.7.5

Post by Troyen »

jack1974 wrote:I see, indeed the recipe you unlock while studying or leveling up are randomized within your skill levels. But those talisman require same skill as the setting, only in different field (Setting start from Metalworking 50, while talisman start from Jewelcrafting/Enchanting 50).
From your screenshot, I think the skill increase is still too low. At end of young age you should be 100 all skills.
Since in adult age 2 years (or more) have passed, I could also automatically increase all skills to 100, that would be a good solution to avoid grinding, since we assume Amber kept training in those years :)
Don't know about that, since it would kind of cheapen any effort you expend in the young years. Maybe just rebalance the lower skill level requirements/gains so you reach 100 quicker?

Alternatively, if you want to represent the "kept studying" part, how about a flat +50 bonus to all skills in the adult age (less if you adjust the skill gain rate)? That way your work has meaning and if you spent all your time on a few skill categories, that would carry over to the adult phase (instead of being reset by an equalizing 100 all).
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