Strive for Power - Fantasy Slave Management game

[musical74]

Thinking she might have been commoner, but possibly rich. It was a gal that I rescued from bandits and she agreed to join, if that makes a difference. I got tired of her whining and sold her to the Wimborn slavers!

My battle group is myself, girl that starts out, and Emily. That's fine for Wimborn area, and maybe the Ancient forest, but some areas are quite tough to traverse, like when you are fighting 6 or 7 bandits at once! Other issue is things need to be in the backpack to work, I discovered this the hard way, having 3 ropes but not in the backpack was "you can't capture anyone". Hmmm...I tend to not put supplies in the backpack, that would probably make the areas after Wimborn wilderness easier to explore!

Side note: Chole is super-cute! Wonder if she eventually joins you? She seems like she'd be a good alchemist to have in the group!

[Lucky777]

Oh, it's combat, not just dodging bankruptcy and starvation.

Fair enough, but once you get everyone's hearing upgraded and get some agility, you can usually avoid the encounters, so you can pick and choose.
I THINK levels may play a part in the "awareness" stat too, but fuck if I know for sure.
(Like, I USED to always get jumped by mutants in a later area, and then I stopped.
I don't know why; it might just be levels, or it might have been something else.
*shrugs* Stuff for the wiki when it's eventually finished I guess.)

Also prolly best to hide from the Deeper areas too until you're maxed; that's what I did at least.
Searching for more slave-selling profit from higher grade captures might drive you in there, though : o
Good luck with that if it does.
And yes, once you carry at least 3 supplies to set up camp, and enough bandages, and own 5 food per party member, and enough mana for heals, you'll be fine as long as you don't die from full health in any one battle. (You can only camp once per day though.)

As to your 3-person party, I don't step into anything serious without a full 4-person one, so I can't say how that goes... but it's easy enough to just buy another girl.
Don't forget to equip 'em and teach your girls abilities : D
In my case, they all know just about everything I do, so I can actually play without any deaths if I'm careful these days.
Granted that main char exp gain seems to be kinda slow and strength is the last stat I max, they end up stronger than me for a while, too.
I still don't ever enable permadeath in combat though, because something could always go wrong.

"Unofficial Ironman" totally has less stress in it than an actual ironman run : o
It doesn't help that in this version bodyguard still doesn't provide the extra HP and you can't check if it's providing the extra armour so ... better safe than permadead.
XD

No idea about the rest of Chloe's quest; the furthest I've gotten it is when she leaves her house after giving you "Entrance".
Dunno if I was looking for her in the wrong forest or what, but I eventually shrugged and gave up.
Maybe she's lost in "The other forest" compared to the first one you found her in, or maybe she's in the same forest and I forgot which forest that was.

I don't think the fact that the girl was rescued from bandits makes any difference as to her demands.
... I've never tried to have a rescue-ee join me though, so don't quote me on that I guess.
I'd be shocked somethin' fierce, though.

[Briheas]

Why do you guys have so few characters? I have 28 currently and I wish my mansion could be made bigger than 30 so I could keep adding more people.

From my experience, commoner requires what I'll call 4 luxury: a personal room gives 4, lace underwear/golden ring gives 2 each, and each of the 4 luxury boosts in the customization menu gives 1 each. Or something like that. (Loyalty also counts for something. Capturing a noble means they're going to be pissed off at me until they're very loyal, even if I give them pretty much every luxury I have.)

Chloe joined me. There was 3 parts to her quest i think. You just have to keep going back and revisiting her to unlock later parts. Maybe you have to complete more of the main quest too, I'm not sure. I wasn't actively trying to recruit her, I just visited her every time I went back to her town, and there was usually a new step available.

I found public entertainer to be the best way to earn money. The only drawback is they need to be a commoner to do it, but they earn about 100 gold per day. Buying a commoner is pretty much the first thing I do in the game, it ensures a steady income stream.

[Lucky777]

I like to manage 'em individually, max their loyalty and unlock their actions so they're adequate whores; any more than 3 at a time and it gets a little tedious.

That and the food costs involved in feeding more'n about 6 peeps max just make me very sad, although the earning potential of each slave tenfold exceeds the cost.
Tied into food there's also the roleplay reason that I'd actually prefer not to have a fuckin' giant truck of stuff delivered every week; could attract thieves' attention.
That's got no in-game standing, of course, but hey, immersion is how I get more enjoyment out of these games of text and numbers.

I also very much prefer to see the servants as individuals rather than numbers in a spreadsheet, and when you have more'n about 3 to 5, that gets difficult for me.

I wouldn't even have 6, but Maple took a liking to me for some reason when I hit the middle or max of "Great" rep with Wimborn, and I mean ... cute fairy.

Damned cool, though, that the game is flexible enough to accommodate both playstyles acceptably.

[musical74]

Same thing as Lucky, I prefer small groups. Large groups I find really difficult to control, I find the probability to be high that I missed someone and that someone's whining because they need a rest and I just didn't see it. Games that use a similar style of needing rest occasionally (Sim-Brother, Whore Master) are like that too *shrug* Different play style, but still works!

Oh, visual bug: when you capture a fairy the captured fey becomes "My Fairy"

[Lucky777]

... ... I just got 20 upgrade points from nowhere.

Got 'em 10 at a time it seems, and they came after completing Chloe's "get me an antidote" quest the no-tricks way, ie just getting her one.

I don't think they came DIRECTLY at the end of the quest though, so I'm not sure they're a replacement reward... though I suspect they are???

And yeah, Chloe was in "the other forest".

Like, you find her in Ancient, and you find her again in Eerie.

[Briheas]

Aside from my adventuring party, I find that none of my other characters ever get tired enough to have to rest or anything. The only managing I really have to do is responding to the daily report, switching around jobs so they can train up mental stats, and perhaps random praising if I have left over energy. But probably more than half of the characters just do the same thing every day, so there's not a whole lot to do.

I only really care about the characters with some story. That only amounts to 9 of them I think, and I do tend to give them special jobs. But the rest... Sorry, random lamia that I captured and put to work hunting for food every day, I don't really have much of an emotional investment in you. You can go commiserate with the other 5 lamias that are in the same category.

Honestly, I wish I could have even more characters. At 27 characters, 1/3 are doing support/management/adventuring, meaning only 2/3 of my characters are earning money/food. If the cap was, say, 50 instead, only 1/5 would be support/management/adventuring, so 4/5 could earn money/food, giving me much higher returns.

[Lucky777]

...So I had written a bit here about how you could have 70 servants, 'cause there were 30 personal rooms and 40 communal beds, but I am apparently a fucking madman who was betrayed by his memory, because that is wholly wrong. Let's just...
...Edit that out real quick.

Do you have to keep the occupants of the communal rooms as slave-grade slaves for them to tolerate it, or do the "poor" accept it if you give them all other luxury?

I like this game but I'm far too lazy to get 30 slaves in order to find out.
-----

That said, I'm currently amusing myself trying to figure out how a physically weak mage would make out in combat in this game.
The answer seems to be that she would not, because the fact of the matter is that there is little attacking magic.
Actual Lore "spoilers" that you can get by unlocking the full library:

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

I know truly devastating attack spells are covered in the lore, and we can't do them anymore because humans never could, and elves somehow lost a war despite
their exclusive ability to do them (fucking no, lol - and I don't care what plans or artifacts anybody found) and got modified so they also can't do them anymore.

I'd have hoped we'd still get some little fireballs and shit, elemental magic, but that appears not to be the case.

"Spit acid for about one fifth of the damage of a big sword to the face" is the best our attack magic can do, I guess, and I don't think it's affected by magic affinity.
And I mean, to be fair, if I throw some acid in your face, it makes SENSE that it would do less damage than a giant sword, unless it was some of that really scary acid that you probably don't want to be conjuring in your own fucking MOUFFTH for whatever reason in the first place. Sad, but fair enough.

The leech-life ability also isn't affected by magic affinity (at least the damage sure isn't), so magic really doesn't matter to damage-dealing in combat.

I like the "not muscular but magically very dangerous" character archetype, but I dun' think that actually exists at all in this game.
This came up in my mind because I was thinking of doing a non-canon Melissa roleplay, since she says we remind her of herself.
Buuut since I don't see Ms Olympia muscles on that chick, then unless she managed to keep a bunch of buff bodyguards in line with sex and/or the "fear" spell, I'm assuming her rise to power didn't involve too much combat.
Might still do a run with a waifish female knife-wielding mage and some strong Zweihander-wielding bodyguards, though. Could be interesting.


EDIT: Wait, Maverikk, mute slaves talk.
: o
...That can't be right.
Anyway, these "disabled"-type traits like "Mute" and "Scarred" are sorta downers; it'd be cool to see some way of repairing 'em.
I mean hey, in this world we've got magic, right?
: D D :
(You can already help the beauty part of 'scarred' to some extent with the laboratory, though I think you can't undo the max confidence hit.)
Edit: Wait there's no MAX confidence hit at all!
I guess -confidence just means either the current confidence at the time you buy them, or the confidence growth, is decreased.

[Briheas]

I can keep commoners in communal rooms without them getting angry at me, as long as I give them lacy underwear and a golden ring. I give rich a personal room + lacy underwear + golden ring, and they're happy with that. I give nobles the same as rich plus personal bath and cosmetics, and that keeps them happy.

[Lucky777]

Sweet.
So nobody even needs full gear + room + FULL luxury rules, that's just overkill?
Maybe that was for the "Royal" slaves I've seen stuff about in other threads, or maybe those are just another way to refer to "Noble" ones.

EDIT:

So about those level-up requirements.
Some of them require ingredients you can't get until Amberguard is un-gated by the main plotline eg; "fluid substance".
Oblivion potions, to reset level up requirements, also require Fluid Substance, and you also can't get those until Amberguard is un-gated by the main plotline.
I suspect you see where I'm going with this.
The requirements AND the backup method of resetting them shouldn't both be impossible to accomplish, surely.

This is compounded, of course, by the fact that you have to walk to various places to further the main plot, but walking there is nigh impossible without levels.
It's taken quite a few restarts for me to actually ENCOUNTER this catch-22, so it's not like a failure to foresee it is particularly gross or anything.
And the player can still solve the situation as-is by playing the lottery with bought slaves until they get suitable level requirements.

But it still seems like the situation is no good.
The first few level requirements should probably be of the sort that you can accomplish no matter what, like the vacation requirement.
Actually, given how many saves had that as one of the first requirements, I THOUGHT THAT WAS THE CASE.

Also, it'd be nice if we could use some items from the victory screen, like bandages.
Having to choose between tossing a bandage on the ground and ditching a piece of loot doesn't seem right, when you could just apply the bandage and grab the loot.
*shrugs*

[musical74]

I was wondering where the heck the fluid substances were! That makes it REALLY tough when the first level-up is "need 2 fluid substances" - or tainted substances, but thinking those will be slightly easier. That's one reason why my "start" save is before anyone levels up, winning a fight or going on vacation is easy enough, but when the first level-up requires you to get to Amberguard, and you can't do that for awhile...

One other issue is trying to maintain good relations with the various cities, which means you need to balance lone travelers with bandit groups, or things get tough. OH! Bug report: you can Mindread after winning a fight, even though at first you don't have it...

[Lucky777]

I mean, you don't have to "balance" lone travellers with anything, just DON'T randomly attack travelling civilians like some kind of wacko XD
Small packs of wolves are good for grinding exp before you can fight bandits, if that's your concern.
You never need to attack a traveller (and it'd be nice to eventually get some interaction options besides run and fight, across the board).
(Additionally, raising reputation will get easier once capturing bandits boosts your rep again, as it used to and it should.
That's already on the menu for the next build, we've been told : D )

But yeah no that "level up requirement" thing needs some serious de-janking.
I'm glad I actually ran straight the fuck INTO it on my numerous attempts to do an Iron Melissa run.
The potential for trouble was hovering in the back of my mind but I thought Maverikk had actually kept it under control since I never encountered it.

And yeah tainted essences also suck; you can buy them at the Gorn Alchemist, but GUESS FUCKING WHAT: that too is blocked off by story.
Game design yaaaaaaay!
*Kazoos and Confetti*

The "essence" stuff isn't a problem for me at all from an immersion standpoint, just an availability one.
You can get a demon and fuck 'em repeatedly until they drop tainted essence though.
So there IS at least that.

- Also, there's no option to sterilize the Female Player Character OR male slaves; both should probably get some looking into.

- Aaaaalso the player's stress doesn't go down when you rest.
It doesn't MATTER but it's not right to see that max 150 stress all the time. '
... You'd get heart-attacks!


- Wandering around at level 1 also highlights why it helps to be able to rest on command or retreat from areas.
Say you go to the marsh because you want to get to Frostford; buying bestial essences will make it easier to perform some operations, and you're level-blocked.
OH HEY you get jumped by a giant spider - and OH BOY are those things fucking tough at level 1 ... but you manage to get away.

You're one screen into the marsh, and out of energy.
Better rest so you have enough energy to run from the next spider, right?
Wrong, you can't.
Better go back the way you came so you don't get jumped by another spider, right?
Wrong, you can't.
Well hey, let's blunder through the Marsh some more and get eaten by spiders, because that's a really great fucking idea, right?
WRONG, IT ISN'T.
I guess you thought you were taking a walk.
But unbeknownst to you, well, you were signing, stamping and sealing your own Spider Death-Warrant.

Again, the ability to teleport out with seals DOES ameliorate this.
It's absolutely good that preparation can help with the problems even as the game stands.
... But you really gotta TELEPORT instead of just sitting down, or just going the opposite direction?
(Casting invigorate also helps with the rest on command thing, but I don't see SEDATE on the out-of battle menu.
I have yet to test if casting it on your own party members IN battle will reduce their stress as well as making them unfortunately sluggish.)

[Briheas]

I tend to farm enemies for my essences. Wolves from the forest is probably the easiest place to farm beastial essences, and tainted and fluid essences drop from oozes at the sea. I don't really know where to farm for magic or nature essences though, those I usually have to buy.

BTW, the "learn a specialization" requirement to level up is bugged. You get credit for it when you go into the specialization menu; you don't actually have to learn it.

[Lucky777]

I believe fairies give magic essences sometimes when you fuck 'em; I'm not sure whether it's magic or nature essences, though.

If it's magic essences, then I don't know where to get nature essences; probably from dryads(???).

Eerie grove/"Far eerie woods" is home to both.

(Anyway, 98 energy seems to be enough to make a mad dash though any one area; just walking takes 4 per tick, running takes 10, and it's like 7 ticks max per area.
If it's anything more than that there's a bit of a problem, since you CAN'T have more than 100 Energy going into any one area.
Invigorate to the rescue again in that case, though.)

Iron Melissa has revealed certain things so far:

JOB ONE get a point in endurance and agility, endurance so you don't just die, agility so you don't just miss.

JOB TWO unlock prostitution, so you don't starve or suffer bankruptcy
Keeping at LEAST 100 Gold and checking the slavers' guild every day for "Custom requests" for a wife, which only require eg a 50G girl and a 50G hairdye helps too.
Thank fucking GOODNESS the guild does its work right, and sells the slaves already sufficiently obedient.

JOB THREE get a party, swords and armour, don't get beaten up by every random guy ... and this applies even if you're blocked at level 1.

JOB FOUR Ensure peeps are trained with skills in case they need 'em, whatever skills they can get hands on at that level.
Heal and debilitate are like the only level 1 skills but they're ACTUALLY PRETTY GOOD. (And this even though my slaves'll never be able to get heal at level 1 because fuck wasting a stat point in magic at that point.)

JOB FIVE make fucking sure you the PC have heal and invigorate.
(Sedate is optional for now since it's not on the out of combat list).
Edit: Sedate DOES stack with Debilitate, which is pretty great news, so it might actually end up being mandatory : D

JOB SIX get at least 200 mana

JOB SEVEN Obtain teleportation seals, supplies and bandages before setting out

JOB EIGHT progress the story enough to alleviate the level blockages if any.
And this is a problem because I think there's at least one fight that IS NOT MEANT to be done at level one.
We'll have to see how that goes.
Knowing that fluid Substances drop from oozes at the beach (and presumably marsh) certainly helps, though I've never gotten one.
Tooltips or something explaining where to get the level-up items (and items in general) would certainly help.
It's good to know that the fluid substances are at least AVAILABLE if the story hasn't been progressed.
But still, though, you can buy 'em at places, I don't think those places should be hard story-locked when you can easily need the things they sell.
Edit: Yeah no, that one plot-related fight appears to be pretty much 100% fucking impossible at level one.
Good thing you can allegedly get fluid substances from the oozes at the beach, though they are also NOT ACTUALLY SUITED to being fought at level 1.

Never yet made it TO that last point but I feel like I can, without needing any luck.

Considering the fucking drop rate for fluid substances (if they even drop) and the fact that oozes aren't suited for level 1 fights, I guess REPLACEMENT JOB EIGHT is
"Get a party of at least level 3 peeps by hook or by crook, by playing the lottery with the slave market lol."
I do find that to be completely unsatisfactory, but it is what it is for this build of the game.

Finding out that sedate and debilitate stack... helped, but it's not enough.
Oozes are still no cakewalk and THAT ONE PLOT-RELATED FIGHT is still an absolute run-stopper if you're level blocked at 1.
EDIT: ... Well, maybe I'll try with someone at level 2, because after the time taken to level 'em up that high, theeeeeey got something that requires Fluid Substance as the gateway for level 3.
... Is this actually a fucking joke?
Well, anyway. 3 level 3 party members properly built is fine for "That one Plot Fight". Had NO IDEA it could be such a stupid challenge to ACQUIRE that though.
(You can get fluid substances at the alchemist a day after the fight, so slightly before Amberguard, my mistake. Wasn't off by much, though, as that's next.)

JOB NINE will be to get all genetically modified and later-game armoured, and see if that allows this build to actually make it through.
I have yet to see if her puny level of strength (to which I'm keeping her because of Melissa's lack of large muscles) will make anything unwinnable.
Just 2 Str is still enough to swing a Zweihander.
Maybe I'll get her AT LEAST that : D
...Maybe not, but hey, maybe.

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

...Oooh on this playthrough that fucking over-persistent misguided elf bitch is going to be a GENUINE nuisance, isn't she...
Her showing up so many fucking times in one single day is definitely a bug, right?
...Right?

- When you click on "deeper area", there is not an immediate "return to central area" button, like the other "oops" buttons that exist.
(Like the underground hall, this can potentially be a very bad situation.
Didn't cost me anything, as it turns out, but still.)

[Briheas]

I just tested out buying food as opposed to gathering food from hunting/foraging, and I think either food needs to be more expensive, or hunting/foraging needs to be more efficient. My bad hunters gather only 20 food (10 if they fail a courage check) while my bad workers still make 40-80 gold minimum, depending on their job. My best hunters can gather a lot more, around 140 food, while my best workers make about 160 gold (this is without specialization, with specialization I can see hunting being higher than gold). But since 2 food can be bought for 1 gold, this heavily favors making gold and buying food. Either hunting and foraging needs to give double the food it currently does, or food needs to cost 1 gold each. That's really the only way to make the 2 comparable.

In fact, even if they did get to the same level, gold is still more valuable due to its versatility. I can convert gold into food, but i can't sell food to earn gold. Excess gold can used to buy other things, while excess food just rots. So it should actually be more efficient to hunt for food than work and buy food. Either that, or there needs to be a mechanic where we can sell excess food for gold.

[Lucky777]

These are luxuries you can consider when you live in Wimborn (and maybe Gorn), I seriously am not planning to fuck with the Frostford life D :

That said, if you haven't unlocked prostitution and you have a passable hunter, you make much more food (like 40) than you could buy (10 G working at market).

Because I don't fancy sending people out to hunt (the roleplay, man, they could be killed by wolves!) I prioritise and rush the prostitution unlock these days.

I wouldn't mind being able to sell food though.

Hell, since even relatively untrained slaves cook well enough to nourish us equally from fewer raw materials, there could even be a "public Cooking" job : o


Anyway, the latest Iron Melissa run has successfully gotten to the point of opening up all the cities; now just to TRY NOT TO DIE.
Really and truly this should be easy, because I can build the bodyguards precisely as I usually would.
The fact that I can't do much damage (if I stick with a knife and don't get a Zweihander) really shouldn't even matter.
The challenge on these runs came ENTIRELY from "oopslol, you finally got fucking levelblocked, and it KEEPS ON HAPPENING. How's the game at level 1? IT IS HARD."
Well, apart from a few deaths caused by my own clumsiness.

- I don't think the Gorn Alchemist's quest specifies a number for the magic affinity she requires, though 4 is enough.
Either her text doesn't, or the questlog text doesn't, or else... I just missed it.
That's kinda very possible, that last one, but eh.

[Briheas]

I generally use public entertainer as my source of income, and that's at least 60 gold per day for a random level 1 character straight out of the slaves guild. To match that, a hunter would need to get 120 food per day, which I only get out of level 5-6 hunters with a high courage stat.

I plan on restarting a new game to take advantage of this, and only use hunting as a way to build courage and make people civilized.

[Lucky777]

Cool. (I haven't messed around too much with getting "uncivilised" to drop. I don't really like the mindwipe potions, so I'll probably have a specialised tamer.)

Unless you have a MUCH better memory than I do, though, you should get someone to be a cook, since that automates the buying of food.

I keep forgetting to buy food from time to time myself, so I end up getting people half-starved, injured, and less obedient sometimes, at the end of the day.

(And of course the magical ability to make less food feed more people is really nice as well.

That improves with a couple stats mentioned in the game, agility and wits I think, though I don't recall off the top of my head.)

EDIT: I got 40 gold with a random level 1 commoner, but it scales off charm, courage, agility, AND beauty, so there's a lot of stuff you can pump to increase output.
Hunting in the meantime is only Agility and endurance, with low str and low courage being penalty stats, it looks like.
Hunting scales off stuff you need to level to increase, apart from courage, while public entertainer scales off 3 things you can max at level 1.
Pretty cool.
(Just for flavour reasons I like prostitution much better, but it's nice to know Public Entertainer can be so useful.
Escort appears to be able to top 'em all in Gold output, but I leave 'em as common prostitutes, again for flavour.
I can't even think of what "Public entertainer" would be, immersively speaking; she's not miming for pennies at THAT pay rate, so ... recitations from ShakeElfSpeare?)

It's a good thing the Wimborn public is so cultured.

[CloudRipper]

Has there been a walkthrough made for this game by chance? Or somewhere people can make a walkthrough for it?

[Lucky777]

Eh, you can probably get enough knowledge by bumming around in this very thread; if you want it conveniently all in one place though, I've got no idea.