[RPG Maker VX Ace] Tarot Quest Raw

[mando]

Hey everyone, long time no see potentially.
Hopefully you recognize me from my RPG Maker VX game "The Way Home".
Well I've started another game and it's at the point where I feel I can begin sharing it with you all.

So here you go, enjoy
Tarot Quest
http://www.mediafire.com/?yz9p5jnz0no662i

This is a RPG Maker VX Ace game so you will need the ace RTP
http://www.rpgmakerweb.com/download/run-time-package

Obviously it's still a work in progress, but I think there is enough content at the moment where it will be enjoyable. A warning though, if you have played my old game and expect this one to have the amount of random hentai scenes you will be in for a surprise, sorry.

Hopefully there aren't any terrible problems with it right now, but if there are let me know and I'll fix them asap.

I welcome any comments/critique. Aesthetic things, inconsistencies, something is to weak or to powerful. Just let me know.

Version 0.2
http://www.mediafire.com/?bp29an31qb1aa9g

Raw Files
http://www.mediafire.com/download/dbj3j ... _Quest.rar

[moonblack]

I gave this a try. So far I have sen one major bug: When speaking to the prince he acts as if Jessica is in the party even though I have not met her yet (so I have no idea who Jessica is). To reprodice just leave town (once you can), go to the tower, and speak to the prince twice. The second time you speak to him he should act as if Jessica is present even if she is not.

Also, in the Prince's tower one of the chests changed sprite after I opened it. It was that small red chest on the table - suddenly after opening it was a big blue chest.

[mando]

Thanks moonblack. I just messed up a condition for that event. Both things should be fixed in the next update.

[Darthan]

So far it is an interesting game though I have only messed around a little bit.

A few things I noticed:

I am not sure if the opening speech the main character gives is important or not but it seems to go by too fast so I wound up only being able to read parts of it before it has scrolled of the screen.
The other thing I noticed is that some of the test is getting cut off on a few of the speech events because your line is too long for the text box. You may want to double check your events to make sure you are not exceeding the margin limits.

[mando]

Thanks Darthan

With the text cutting off, I try to fix it whenever I find it during testing, but that's contingent on me remembering when it occured.
It's hard for me to go through the events to figure out where stuff is getting cut off because of the way the codes work.
So the easiest way for me to fix these problems is if you tell me where they occur.

Like I said, I'll try to be active with it, it's just hard to catch all of them.

[Aetrun]

A good start, I like what I see, especially the use of Tarot as I am somewhat a fan of the system personally. I also like the menu interface overall, the differences are refreshing while not being unwieldy as is sometimes the case when people mess with the standard, nice job there.

First issue is that the guard who tells you to kill ten bandit parties and then doesn't do anything more. It sounds like a quest, so I would expect a reward.
Second issue is the Hierophant drop. Unless there is a specific condition that I missed the second time through, having to farm for it is going to be really irritating, I hate being forced to farm. I killed 10 parties of bandits with nothing before getting bored of the farming on my second run through.
Third issue was that when I went into the castle I did not yet have Ralph in my party, but when I went upstairs it acted as if I did when entering the room, even though there were no doors or sprites visible. Another conditional bug perhaps? Make entrance to the castle requisite on having Ralph in the party, not the Hierophant Card. Also, having a cue that I should talk to Ralph again would be helpful.

I think that's everything I noticed that wasn't already mentioned. Unless you have a different idea planned and just not implemented for the quest-guard I would suggest having him give you the Hierophant as a reward, possibly even have the accessory shop lady tell you she sold a Card to the guard stationed by the weapons shop if you do that.
Other than that I am guessing that we are confined in the little valley because the rest of the world is still under construction, and that Jessica, for the Prince, is past that guard at the gate out. If she is inside, I could not find her. Also, Adam and Lauren for Cards 3 and 4 if I'm not mistaken?

[cookie jar]

I noticed what i believe to be a minor glitch. You can turn in the miniquest with the missing kids multiple times resulting in an infinite money provider because you get the 30 gold coins each and every time you talk to the soldier.

[mando]

Thanks for the kind words Aetrun.

The variable that keeps track of how many bandit groups you've killed doesn't seem to be working for some reason. I should have a solution in the next update, but you're not really missing anything except 30 gold.

With the heirophant drop, it should always occur in the bandit encounter where you fight the Captain. And there is about a 1/3 chance of that happening. You have outrageously bad luck if you don't get that in 10 encounters. There's about a 2% chance of that happening if I understand the mechanics correctly.

Yea, there's a conditional bug for that scene. It'll be fixed in the next update.

Yea, you're confined cause this is a work in progress.

Jessica is possible to get. She becomes available after the explosion happens.

[OmegaScales]

When the travelling merchant appears, you can actually buy several The Emperor's. Also, when I visited Paul after finding Strength, he wasn't in his house but I kept going up and pressed Enter and it acted like he was there... and I was talking to A TABLE!!! I was standing where Paul should've been. And conversing with Paul the Talking Table...
...
So yeah, I like what you've done so far. Good ideas, good potential, good porn.

[ker]

For rare drops/events what you can do is create a failsafe variable. Every time the character does the action the failsafe is incremented. If the failsafe exceeds a certain amount, trigger the event yourself.

So in code
Battle event - 'Turn 1x0' 'Span : Battle'
Failsafe + 1

Battle event - 'Enemy hp = 0%' 'Span Battle'
If Failsafe >= 10 then
Change items - Add item
Text - You found a 'x'

The vast majority of the time this will never activate. But if someone has pissed for the RNG gods lately, they'll still be able to progress the game.

[BlueBody]

just did all that i could do, got all the people and cards, stuck behind the soldier blocking the gate out of that valley.

quick note; once you save the family from rape, you can talk to the soldier endlessly for 30gold over and over. [NEVERMIND. I CAN'T READ STUFF THAT HAS ALREADY BEEN POSTED. ]

No other notes that haven't been mentioned already.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Re-edited post.
Ok, went back and thought about my gameplay thus far some more, and I came up with more pointers that you might find helpful.

I noticed that while getting the cards greatly increases your strength and functionality in battles, it also resets the level counter down to 1. This was a slight annoyance, seeing as how I had leveled some of the people to 4 or 5 in the process of getting the cards for the people who didn't have one yet. The problem is basically having to jump through so many hoops just to get a card for a person, and then losing the work that went along with the process. Not sure if this is intentional or even addressable, just thought I'd put that out there.

Also, the quest in the Apothecary, the one you get from the NPC on the right side of the shop involving the ectoplasm/snake-thing/spider-venom, could be improved. Two problems I had with it is that it is very easily forgotten, and I couldn't remember for the life of me what the NPC had asked of me. I had forgotten the NPC's quest in the process of recruiting the other party members, and the NPC only says "You're missing something" (or something to that effect) when you talk to him again. Perhaps you can change the dialogue so that he references what items you're missing, or at least remind you about the quest for three items. The second problem I had with this quest was that I could not find the snakes anywhere in the game. However, I can't say that I've thoroughly checked the whole game. Are they not implemented yet?

Another thing is that there doesn't seem to be (or any plans of there being) a "recall" function for the scenes that you've already experienced. Are they going to be a one-time thing permanently?
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Other Issues that have been noted by the others, but with more details:

The rape situation in the basement of the house, once you choose to ignore the crime, you can't go back down the ladder? I haven't tested it more than once, so maybe it should be looked at. Or maybe it's intentional.

The key left behind by the fisherman on the inner right side of the moat has absolutely no hint to check a house. Perhaps prodding towards the townhouses should be given? I wouldn't have known without trying to open every freaking door in the game, lol.

The bandit quest does work. At least, it worked for me. But I had burned through legions of them while leveling out of boredom and trying to get out of the valley, so they might be bugged. And the Hierophant dropped for me within the first 5 battles. I remember being really surprised by the drop, and I can confirm that it does work.

The guard's reward for the kidnapping case is indeed bugged so that you can keep talking to him multiple times for the reward over and over.

The merchant selling the Tarot Card does indeed let you buy it over and over. Also, can you give more details of when he arrives in town? I'm pretty sure I haven't seen him before in the first few days of the game, but he may have just been walking between the houses and it may just have been a mental blindspot. But there was no references given to his arrival.

[mando]

@Cookiejar - sorry I think I missed you, thanks for that bug. Should be fixed in next update.

@Omegascales - both things will be fixed in the next update.

@Ker - I would put one of those in, but because of the way random encounters happen I'd have to do it in a very painful round about way. I think at the moment, the way I have it now will suffice, if it keeps coming up, I'll look into a solution.

@Bluebody - Holy shit. I don't think there is anything I can do about your level resetting. I actually think that it makes sense though. The character is gaining experience with their new abilities.
With the apothacary quest I'm going to try to make it more obvious what you need. Also the snake is only available in one area, so I raised the chance it will happen. Might add some other places to see them.
I'll probably put a recall function in later.
Yes you can't go back down the latter. It was intentional. There's not much of a reason to.
Hm... I can't think of a good way to prompt people without being like "GO CHECK OUT A HOUSE"
Yea, there was a glitch with the way it was counting, should be fixed in the next version.

Alright, Whew!
So here's my progress report.

Added more stuff in. So far one more scene. Working on more characters and cards as well.

Side note - god damn it is difficult to find hentai that represents the cards well. Like I'm really struggling with the hermit right now. It's really annoying how hentai really doesn't ever focus on the males. If anyone wants to help me with the picture search for the cards just shoot me a PM.

But yea, working on the outer world. Castle, forest, another town or two, that's what you all have to look forward to. More story as well.

[scott_wollman]

master roshi, the turtle hermit? dragonball z theres your hermit

[Lucky777]

Yes you can't go back down the latter. It was intentional. There's not much of a reason to.

To have a look/participate.

I may not be speaking in context, since I haven't played the game yet.

[BlueBody]

Yes you can't go back down the latter. It was intentional. There's not much of a reason to.

Ah, guess we can't change our minds then. I'll have to be careful in the future.

Can't wait for the next update! Really looking forward to an interesting world outside of that valley and those gates!

[mando]

@scott - I'm trying to go more for the ideals of the card, but nice try.

@Bluebody - Yea, what's the point of making choices if you can just double back on them?

So I was working on the game a little bit. And wondering if I should put out an update or not. The update would have four new characters (two without their cards) one new town. A few other zones to explore, more cards to get, two new scenes, and biographies for the characters (in the status menu). If I were to wait I would include another character, the cards for the two characters without, two side story arcs, and one or two more scenes.

Also I'm going to put up a poll on which character/card you guys would prefer in future updates. Obviously there are different directions where you can go with each cards, so let me know if you have any really sweet ideas.

[SpectralTime]

Comments, written as I go in a very stream-of-consciousness way.

First, holy balls the opening.

The text is WAY too fast. I had to restart the game twice just to keep up. Yes, pressing "A" (or "Enter" in this case) is annoying as all get out, but at least the exposition dump isn't THIS difficult to keep up with. As to the content... well, it's complex, it's convoluted, and the player has little context. I hesitate to say that we have "no reason to care," as I find that giving game designers the benefit of the doubt here is almost always a pretty good idea... but in the OTHER RPG Maker games on this site, there's either changing backgrounds to give the player context, or it's short, sweet and to the point, and if you want more backstory you can look it up later.

Second... well, even if I dislike the implementation, I like the framing device. The applause is nice, as is the people's reactions. You've good sound, even if I'd prefer more music.

Your grammar is... rough, but I'm not gonna get too down on you for that. I'm willing to forgive a few messed up spaces and modest, common spelling errors if it means the text is readable and makes sense.

The bar's a little cluttered, with too many people with nothing interesting to say. That one's a minor nitpick though, so don't take it personally.

However... Damion's character portrait seems too... youthful and happy, considering he seems to be an older, jaded type if the sad story and gratuitous f-words are any indication.

Heh. Damion's reaction to the card was amusing. I hope it was meant to be funny, because it certainly was.

Oh, hey. The Fool. The hero ALWAYS gets the fool... well, except in JoJo, but JoJo never really did anything with the tarot motif except steal the names and appearances.

Also, why not just start with your gear equipped? Save us the trouble...

Heh. I always appreciate it when the hero runs into locked, unimportant houses that cannot be opened.

The game as a whole has a certain rough, choppy feeling. It could use a little smoothing in the script department. However, I find it gives it a certain homemade charm, like a Wallace and Gromit short compared to a Pixar film.

Wish the run button wasn't also the skip button. It makes it easy to miss something.

The battle music is kickin'! And the animations are fun, even if the fight itself is... well, having debuffs stacked on me thick as rain isn't very fun.

Wait, did I just change skills mid-battle? What?

Oh. Skills and Advantages are DIFFERENT.

And now I'm dead. Le sigh.

Going to the apothecary for potions in advance this time, since that "Pitiful Sight" Advantage is WORTHLESS when you're fighting enough enemies at once to make you LOSE HP in the deal.

Oh, God in heaven. A stupid, grindy, farmy MMO-style "Bring me twenty bear asses from yonder wood"-style fetch quest. I hate those, is what I'm subtly getting at.

I'druther we not have to sleep before going to see the Oracle, but that's just me.

Also, isn't the image on "The Fool" better suited to "The Lovers?"

Expensive skills with a chance to miss are worse than cancer-AIDS. ESPECIALLY when your stats are being drained away left and right...

Oh God, Healing Salves are WORSE than that stupid, useless heal move.

This fight is neigh-impossible unless you get UNREALISTICALLY lucky. I should not be saying this about the first fight of the game.

I revise that statement. The fight is neigh-impossible if you don't know what's coming, get modestly lucky, and have a good game plan going in, and annoying as piss regardless.

Writing's getting better though. Also, I don't think I've EVER disliked a character with that oracle's sprite and portrait.

Another argument to just having him go to her house: so there's a reason to assume the card sharp is still there.

Seriously. Healing Salves are STUPIDLY useless. Why even have them? Who the BALLS ever needs the tiny little bit of health they provide... ESPECIALLY when they cost as much as they do?

Huh. Kari seems... oddly okay with you "helping" the shopkeeper. I guess they HAVE just met, and she doesn't really have any reason TO have a problem. But, why is there even a choice? I mean, since you HAVE to do it to get the card anyway...

Sex scene was... eh. Pretty rushed and generic. Not AWFUL, just not... great either. A competent effort.

Seriously. I cannot overstate how useless healing is and how easily every enemy can WORK me. It's awful.

I'm frustrated and done for the night. Hope I was helpful.

[Lucky777]

About the Main character's portrait, yeah, doesn't seem to match the character's personality very well.

Yeah, the skip and run buttons being the same thing is a bit of a shame. I missed a good deal of text that way, meself.

Not a fan of grinding quests either, but I don't mind this first one overmuch, since it lets you get acquainted with the battle system a bit better.
...And yes, the enemies kinda roflstomp you with their stat-down effects, and you can't outfit yourself properly beforehand, as far as I know.
Got no "ability recovery" spells either, so ... shitsux, though your "TP" abilities are cool even when you're status-screwed.

H-scene in the back of the shop was decent.

The free healing in Kari's house is neat, but it doesn't work when you have too large a party. Make one of 'em sleep on the floor or something, fuck if I care, mang.

Dunno why a key to a house is hanging around near the castle, but it'd be cool to know that it IS a key to a house in the village by some means other than reading the forum.

Also, yeah, not being able to go back down to the basement and have a look at the pic again is a pity.

Adding some kind of feature that can let you check what you're supposed to be doing would be pretty neat too, especially since you tend to skip ALL the text with dat run key.

Anyway, I may play a bit more tomorrow if I have time, but I'm out for the night.

[mando]

Okay Spectral I'm gonna try and sum up what you said, let me know if you want me to address anything specifically. What I'm getting from you is...
Backstory dump is to much at the beginning.
-I actually agree and I might go back in and try and shorten stuff, but we'll see. I realize the text scrolls a little quick, but when I had it slower it just seemed to drag to me.
Script needs work
-I wish I was better at writing, but I'm not. With my last game I tried coordinating with a writer but it was a horrible experience and slowed the game production down way to much for me. So I hope it's not terrible.
Healing is non-existant and there are tons of debuffs. Battling is tough.
-This is a difficult balance to strike. My last game was WAY to easy, so I'm trying to make this one actually a challenge. It's balanced with a few things in mind. Healing is easily accomplished with sleeping, you can have a shit load of party members to switch in and out, and the priestess is a pretty solid healer. So obviously it's a little rough at the beginning, but I think I'm okay with that. Also are you guys seriously having trouble with that first battle? Of the 900+ times I've played it I've never lost. And the healing item might suck, but there will be better ones later on.
Certain things are annoying
-Yea, most of the time I can't do anything about it. Dashing/skip text is hard wired into the game. Can't do anything about the equipment because your initial class "mortal" doesn't have the right proficencies, and then it changes to "fool" which does have the proficencies.

@Lucky-
I see what you guys mean about the portrait not fitting, I might change it... but the sprite fits reaaaally well I feel.
I'm pretty sure that's the only grinding quest I have planned and I feel it's justified since you get the Heirophant through it. The reward for the quest is actually secondary.

But thanks for the feedback guys.

[Lucky777]

Yeah, I've no problem with the sprite at all, it's just that the portrait looks really happy compared to the FUCK THE KING DISHONOURED ME RRRRGH dialogue.

Also, can't you have the opening text in a "Push button to advance text" format? I'm no slouch at reading, and I got most of the stuff the first time, but it was PRETTY HARD.

Personally, I didn't mind the amount of backstory in the text-scroll, as opposed to the blistering speed of the thing.