[VX ACE] Conquest (complete game, but no cg yet)

[STR]

Okay, apparently, I thought I did, but I really didn't nerf it, or not nearly enough. My bad.
So, as the next version should be quite far away, I'll release a quickfix for the final boss right now (hopping that, you know, people actually manage to finish the game). Will also add a costy item to get the whole party rid of afflictions. Oh, and I fixed stun not being healed by the Great Cure. (And her new big sister, the Greatest Cure. I'm a very imaginative person.)

[Lucky777]

Hahahahahaha. I dig.

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

Err... "I approve of the changes and the naming scheme."

Fukken slang.

[AllenAndArth]

i'm not saying to make the game easier... the game being difficult is good and cool, but a game where you suffer for everything is not cool.
but did you know, really old school RPG, has a lot of "playing the game without seeing the game over screen", take final fantasy 1(that god dammed impossible game) you only had up until 99 pots...and they where expensive, any gamer who played FF1 cherished items in general and only used on bosses because they were hard to get and costly, only from FF4 or 5 I think that you could make a stock of items, it's kind of a bummer that every battle you have to use a bunch of healing skills and items, it makes seems that you're only leveling up to pass by scraps, it loses a great deal of the player's sense of development, and at least in my case it doesn't make me like the characters...they lose charisma, no matter how evil the char is, or if he's a villain, they need charisma, so that the players like to play the game, it makes a lot of difference, but like I said, that's what I think.

About routes...I'm going overlord route, it's pretty hard, anther thing I noticed is that when you said that it's a game where you use strategies, you completely eliminated other strategies (at least in the bosses, the saint Zaulus battle being an exemple) aside from what is necessary to win, in the saint Zaulus battle fro example as I said, there's one single strategy... I understand that you want the player to know that the skills you put in the evolution grid are there for a reason, but, you can't force them to use it, the whole point of thinking about strategies to win is that you have more than one strategy other than using "distract them" on the tank and healing him or spamming a bunch of items every battle, you said that you played the game tons of times right, I just want to alert you that some times you might be imprinting the way you like the most in the way of the battles, because those strategies are comfortable to you, it's just a commentary though, I don't intend to changed the whole to be the way I like it the most, it's just a suggestion for you to think about it, take it all or just a little or even nothing of it it's your choice

[Workdammit]

I like your game so far. I think your sense of humor is good, and I really appreciate it.

I have a thought, based on the fact that each area becomes its own campaign. I'll state upfront that I have no experience making a game with Game Maker, so this may be completely out of your control. The randomness of TP upon entering combat bothers me. If I'm leading an invasion and it's going well, my troops should be increasingly better organized and responsive as the invasion progresses. So perhaps there would be some way of carrying TP over from one battle to the next, or of setting opening turn TP increasingly higher as the campaign progresses. If I've found a strategy that works for engagements with these groups of enemies, why do I have to wait to be hit to get enough TP to execute it.

For instance: take the standard tanking strategy, with orcs (I would add a caveat that I have only finished the Goblin Castle so far): if the upcoming battle needs a tank to draw fire, and I know the battle is coming, I should at least be able to use "Distract Them" on turn one, not have to cobble together some way to get 10 TP, then start tanking on turn two. And I'd totally be fine with you using this against me, too. Surprise attacks should catch me off-guard, and consequently cut my starting TP to practically nothing.

Also, I'd be happy to proof-read for you.

[DeedlitdieElfe]

The game would greatly benefit from a character like the dwarven princess and/or the shield bearer Orc to learn an all guard skill which would enable them to be "blocker" Chars rather than meat backs in the army
After changeing my group a bit I found the battles of Saint Astha surprisingly easy (still played in the old version).
I just took every heroine with a healing ability in my Team (Alexia+Cemiel+Hilde) all lvl 22 with best equip; I used 3 stimulants +4 medpacks and 1 Full heal during the whole conquest of Saint Astha.
But I must admit that combinations with Mu and Labryl always failed me

[daydreamer]

thanks for the help

i finished the game.
now i like to make suggestion
1. please make some more save point. i know it reduces the difficulty but it can be done by unlocking a new save point after every new conquest. like after concurring dwarf city a save point will unlock in the city. its boring to come back and forth.
2.in the elf quest make the rabbit appear until the job done not only once.
3. let the mistress roam free at-list on the castle i feel sorry for them.

my overall review its a very good game for those who like to play a game not only view the h sins. i am looking foreword for the second part.
btw. will you still need the sprites?
i dont know a about art but made my first sprite. by using goblin template and human clothes. if you need it and i have time i can creat more by permutation combination.

[daydreamer]

by the way

check this link

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

http://www.rpgmakervx.net/lofiversion/index.php/t35720.html

[DeedlitdieElfe]

btw I found a "bug" or maybe a story inaccuracy in the Mistress route.
When you defeat the Coruptor in the Hellhole the Overlord jumps after him and finish his job, however if you visit the cave after wards there is a hole in the north wall, if you walk into it you are informed, that the supposedly dead Coruptor is sleeping down there and that "you can fight him to the end this time" on victory you get another fang from him.
I mean if you hadn't cut open his stomach befor in order to get Alexia's trust that wouldn't even be part of concern

[tshakudo]

I hit a brick wall myself after the Saint general fight. The general wasn't too hard, nor were any of the trash mobs until the captain..... then I got wtfpwned hard.

The two sheildbearers went first and stunned my overlord and Alexia, then the captain one shot Labryl with his double hit.
Then Hilde finally got to go and just sit there while my entire team were stun spammed and destroyed by that one move.....

Had I gotten Distract Them off, I may have survived, but with incredibly high initiative, the enemies got to go first and lock up my champs.

I have literally the best gear I can have without doing the demon tower at this point and my characters were level 21 before the battle at all......

Just saying, in world of warcraft, nothing sucked more then rng in the pre-bc raids.... it just sucked when your tank got rnged to death........ I feel that frustration in a lot of these fights with enemies that have very high initiative and great cc/burst....
Maybe make that sheild bash be used below the 95% hp threshold so they won't instagib you at the boss battle after a long hard fight to get there....

[Lucky777]

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

The final boss is beatable for sure, now.
The tail swipe may actually be a bit too weak, though.
If it did 1.5 or even 2 times the DAMAGE it currently does to my armoured characters, I might say it's at a good "final boss" level.
It's very strange that dividing the attack POWER by 2 actually seems to have divided the DAMAGE by something like 5 or 4 or so, but what can I say.
Rpg Maker works in mysterious ways.

There's just one thing I think ought to be drawn to your attention.

I played on what you considered "easy mode", and I found that the game had essentially the perfect amount of challenge for me.
That is: "Hard as nails, but not unfair. You've got to think and prepare, but when you DO, you'll win". (Except for the two last bosses prior to the fixes they got.)
So uh ... the "thing that ought to be drawn to your attention" is: "If EASY MODE is hard as nails, the other modes might be... actually ... a bit too hard, for reals."

Anyway, I'd test Mistress mode, but there's no fucking way in hell I'm leaving them unraped, and there's even less of a chance that I'm jumping through any hoops to convince them of anything, so that's out of the question for me.
All I can do is commend the other intelligent forum-goers' advice to you, I suppose. Seems like Speccy's has treated you well so far, just for example.

For the record, I didn't use "Distract them" except in the two battles I had to use it in, (Ver 24 Duellist, and Ver 24 Dwarf Princess, and in those two battles the command failed me most fucking grievously) - but that DOES mean that on the orc path, the rest of the game was easy enough to beat without much use of "distract them".
At the very least while the distraction skill is still busted, you might want to consider increasing the strength of the actually reliable defence ability, "Hold the line".
Well, that or giving orcs and mistresses some defensive abilities that STACK with it or something... I really just don't know, never having played with mistresses and all.
But yeah, good luck, and as far as I'm concerned, good effort.

Without animation or detailed descriptions I don't foresee the scenes being anything spectacular, but the game was certainly fun, and the scenes will doubtless be good enough.

EDIT: Oh, looking at the changelog, I see that there are now shiny new sidequests and skills and shit for the Orcs included in the game.
Well, awesome.
I carried saves from the 23 version to the 24 version and never saw any of them, so ... guess I'll play it again. : D

EDIT 2: OH RIGHT, I'd been meaning to suggest this for a long time.
You should have the imp's lectures somewhere where they can be reviewed, maybe have an option for him to repeat all of 'em, or just give you the relevant advice again.
Eg. Not everyone is going to have a memory like mine and just recall "OH RIGHT, GOBLINS THEN ELVES THEN DWARVES THEN ST ASTHA, GOT IT" after one quick reading.
It's true that you don't have to make games that encourage being dumb, but it's also true that you don't have to turn videogames WHOLESALE into an exercise in taking notes.
That's FAR too oldschool for me.

(Oh, and it would be nice to have some in-game indication of all the little quirks like the fact that axes give a -10% to hit and shit, too.
Didn't know that, now I'll probably avoid them like the plague.
I fucking hate missing.)

...Third edit:

For real?
Really?
Are you... are you actually serious right now?
Okay.
Let's go through this tower shit one more time.

The Lich tower spits you to the east when you leave at this point, meaning that if you leave your boat in the north, south, or west, you are still boned.
When I said "on all sides" I should have said "in all directions", so that diagonals would have been included, but I (obviously wrongly) thought the problem's nature was clear.
THE PROBLEM IS THAT YOU CANNOT WALK ALL THE WAY AROUND THE TOWER, OR OTHERWISE ACCESS EVERY SIDE OF THE TOWER, FROM EVERY SIDE OF THE TOWER.
IF, ON LAND, YOU CAN ACCESS EVERY SIDE OF THE TOWER, FROM EVERY SIDE OF THE TOWER, WITHOUT EVER USING A BOAT OR OTHER VEHICLE, THE PROBLEM IS FIXED.
IF, ON LAND, YOU CANNOT ACCESS EVERY SIDE OF THE TOWER, FROM EVERY SIDE OF THE TOWER, WITHOUT USING A VEHICLE, THE PROBLEM IS NOT FIXED.

It is a problem because you may then be unable to get back to your boat; landing on the island for the first time is a gamble, and later it is a foolish trap for the unwary.
The shrine has the same sort of problem.
Any building that you cannot walk all the way around potentially has the same sort of problem.
You can use a remedy that does not involve changing the landmasses (like moonblack's, maybe, or putting exits from the tower entrance leading to each side of the tower).
Or you can just stop making goddamned landmasses and buildings like that before you stick one in the middle of a quest or something and get people genuinely annoyed.

As I had suggested, though obviously not clearly enough, one way to fix the tower is to expand the land in "ALL DIRECTIONS" from the tower.
I suppose "on all sides" could be construed as "Just from the 4 sides of the square the tower is on, because a cylindrical tower totally doesn't have 'sides' : o "
That was not the intended construction.
Out of an excess of caution let me restate over again once more one more time that this time on this occasion I am totally and explicitly including diagonals.
Moonblack also suggested making it so that leaving the tower puts you directly on the same square as the tower instead of beside it (or at least, I think that's what he suggested, though I'm not sure, since he used some type of co-ordinates in his proposed remedy.) That would also solve the problem of not being able to get to a specific side of the tower when you exit. (Well, unless it stuck you in an endless loop of entering the tower or something.)

[DeedlitdieElfe]

found one more bug in Mistress route...

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

After fighting my way through "Racoon City"...I mean "Castle Town"^^ I reached the king bedchamber...but when Erika talked to the king and blame him for the fall of Saint Astha and her fathers dead the face displayed in the dialog window is Lysia's...only from the things said it's getting obvious that Erika is meant to talk here

[STR]

New version will be up shortly. Quickfix again. The islands of course (me very very dumb), the wrong faceset used in that particular scene (SPOILERS DeedlitdieElfe, use SPOILERS!), and, and... I may have fixed the "Distract Them" skill. In my tests at least, the ennemy targeted the tank every single time. So, just tell me if that works or not.

AllenAndArth:

- Didn't get the link you try to establish between my combat mechanics and my character's charisma, sorry.
- Didn't really get the part about "eliminating strategies" either. I mean, sure, you have to use your "Distract Them" skill to win against quite a lot of ennemies. And you also have to use the "attack" button, the "guard" button, healing items, as well as a whole bunch of other skills intended to boost your damage output or to protect your party and, more generally, to make life easier for you... Is that also "eliminating strategies"? If it is, then you probably also have a problem with every other RPG Maker Game out there, because there'll always be only a limited number of different skills and items your characters will have at their disposition, and some of them will always be usefull more often than others. Sure, "Distract Them" was intended as an essential skill, and you'll have a hard time doing without it. But that doesn't mean you can't build different strategies around it (I mean, you only have to use it once every 5 turns, and with only 1 of your 4 characters, so it's hardly monopolizing your actions, is it?). So I see no problem here: that's just how things work. What would certainly be problematic, on an other hand, would be if you weren't using a given skill at all because it's not usefull enough, in which case I'd like you to report it.
- And, most of all, while I very well understood that you didn't like having to use "distract them" that much, you didn't propose me an alternative you'd prefer. Should I replace it with a powerfull healing spell? Or weaken all ennemies so it's no longer needed? Neither of those two options appeal me all that much, but fact is, I'm a rather unimaginative person. So, what would you propose?

Workdamnit:
For those cases where you start without enough TPs on your overlord, there is the "strategic positionning" skill, that will both give you 10 TPs and up the chances of your overlord surviving to the next turn to be able to use them.

As for setting the number of TPs to a fixed amount in the beginning of a battle... Well, there is probably a script out there that does just that, but I'm not all that sure about implementing in the game at that stade. It would require some drastic change in the balancing I think, and it would annoy me a bit to have to redo it all just when I feel I'm starting to see the end of the tunnel. ^^'

If you are ready to proof-read stuff, I'll make you the same answer I gave Nice and Blue: start the game, take a pen and some paper. Once you've noted everything not right in a scene or two, come back there to report everything so I can include it in the game. Simple as that, really. Once some part of the game text have been reviewed, I'll probably start putting together a list of places that are ok and shouldn't need corrections anymore, but until then, everything is open.

DeedlitdieElfe:
- I'm effraid I don't get what you mean by "all guard skill". Are you referring to something in another game? Currently, you've got the"distract them" skill, so ennemies concentrate their attacks on your choosen tank, and the "guard" command, so they take less damages... What more would be needed?
- About the boss of the Hellhole: that one was known already, and should have been fixed since the 28 version. Thanks for reporting it anyway.
- About that scene near the end of the game: you are right, I used the wrong portrait, and that should be corrected as of today's release. Thanks for pointing it out. But, seriously, when talking about story points like those, please use spoiler tags.

Tshakudo:
Thank you for the feedback. The 28 version should have done a lot to ease that part in various way though. Read the changelog if you need details.

Daydreamer:

1: Actually, making savepoints in places you already conquered (like in the towns inns, for exemple) wouldn't reduce the difficulty at all. The only reasons I didn't do it are that:
- The world map is very small, so it shouldn't take that long to travel from your castle to... anywhere, really.
- Even if I put more savepoints accross the world, you'll still have to go back to your castle on a regular basis to discuss strategies with Yulgoblund and see the scenes you unlocked.
But if there is a demand for them, I can make savepoints in conquered inns. That's not a lot of work anyway.

2: I... kinda though that one was obvious, really. But if anyone else comes here telling me they missed it too, and you turn out not being an exeption, I'll certainly see to it.

3: Already got something like that planned. Rather than letting them walk around full-time, I'll build some one-time little slice-of-life scenes where you'll be able to see them going about there business, discussing with orcs and other mistresses, that kind of things. That way, it should be obvious to the player that his mistresses do not spend all their days locked away in their rooms.

About the sprites: I'd very much like to have a look at that sprite you made, and anymore you'd be willing to do. For more infos on what it is that I need, see the first post. But, yes: all the help I can get on that field will be welcomed with open arms. Also, about the link: I think I stumbled uppon it some time ago, but the main problem is that those male goblins do not have the dimorphism I'm looking for (they look too human, basically). Thanks anyway: there are some interesting ressources there.

Lucky777:
Er... yeah. What could I say... Stupid me is stupid? Should be addressed in today's quickfix. I hope. 'cause if it's not, I'll need a very deep hole in the ground to hide myself in.

About game balance on the other routes: the Mistresses one as a lot of different characters with a lot of different skills to build strategies with, so I'm not worried too much (hell, just look at the answer DeedlitdieElfe found: I myself probably wouldn't have tried to make those three characters work together to begin with (especially not Alexia and Hilde)). The one that's worrying me the most is the Overlord route. And I'll probably have to do a full game on it myself to see if that works or not in the current state of things, as I got very, very few returns on that subject.

Edit: About the lectures. Yes, you're making a point here. I'll see to put a compendium of advices of sorts somewhere (though not on the imp itself: it would quicklly get annoying if he were to ask you "Do you want to review my advices, or are you here to advance the plot, Master?" every single time you talk to him. ^^'

Edit 2: And there is an indication in-game about axes (and hammers, for that matter) reducing accuracy, though it's obviously not as obvious as I'd imagined, so I'll have to put in some visual clue or another, I guess. But seriously, you see a goddess-damned teddybear in an evil fortress full of orcs, and you don't even try interracting with it? What is wrong with you people?!

[Lucky777]

I ....
A... a teddybear?
I'm... going to go check out that fortress again, I get the feeling I might have missed something. : o

EDIT: Ahahahahahahahahahahahaha
Yeah, there's no way in hell I'd have thought of trying to talk to that, it's just a funny decoration on the table.
...If I HAD clicked on it by accident the result would probably have been even funnier than it is now, but yeah ... I do think that info needs to be made more obviously available.

Wait, no, that's not right either... the last line seems familiar, the mass destruction.
I think I DID click on it, the very first time I ever played the game, and I just had no idea what the text meant.
Then I clean forgot it was there, later on, when I would have had better terms of reference, having seen some of the available weapons and what they did.
...Maybe.
My memory might actually be playing tricks on me at this point; you might not be the only one going senile at a young age D :

[Arlanae]

Any idea how to get the Saint General to talk to you after you're told to go to the town and look around?

I saw someone posted earlier about going to the Garrison in the town and finding her room. I went to the garrison, looked in what I assumed was her room (the room at the far end of the top floor, yes?), clicked on everything in it, wandered around the rest of the Garrison clicking on everything and talking to everyone, still nothing.

Did I manage to miss it, somehow, or is it bugged?

[nweismuller]

Arlanae: there's an entire wing of the garrison east of the part you've seen, containing a training hall and several screens worth of barracks for the knightly order. The General's room is in the final screen of the knightly barracks.

[daydreamer]

i am new to sprite making here is 2

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

[img][IMG]http://i954.photobucket.com/albums/ae22/d_dreamer44/Riderorc_zps42c1756c.png[/img][/img]
[img][IMG]http://i954.photobucket.com/albums/ae22/d_dreamer44/GoblinKnight_zps763311ed.png[/img][/img]

[daydreamer]

here the sprite i made

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

[Arlanae]

So there is, how embarrassing, don't know how I missed that.

Edit: By the way STR, have you ever considered using Offbeatr to try and raise funding to pay some artists to do the sex scenes for you?

Perhaps even to finance doing the rest of the game.

If you posted this up there and said this was the first chapter of the full thing, but you needed funding to get proper artists and such, you could probably raise a fair bit.



Also, do you want me to do a run-through of all the dialogue and try to fix any spelling errors and such? I've noticed a fair few in the game, as you said, and I'm pretty handy at proof reading, useless skill though it is in most situations. If you have the text of the game in a word document format or something it would be quicker than going through the game picking them out as I play.

[AllenAndArth]

troublesome...
-it's not that's the skill is not useful, is just that I don't like to use always mount strategies around one skill, it's like mounting a yu-gi-oh deck around exodia(I couldn't think of a better expression, sorry) it becomes, tiresome after a while.
-the charisma and game mechanics question...let's say that game mechanics help improve or decrease a character charisma, if the way to play the characters is tiresome they lose charisma...not sure how to convey effectively
- 1 action out of 4 every 5 turns may not seem much, but, that's only in short term, if you put that perspective in a long battle for example it becomes a lot.
- A healing skill or weaken them...I don't like those options either, it think that: a skill that boosts the char(either speed or defense)would be good, or the prospect of weakening them is also nice(but using skills that lower the enemy defenses and such), or giving speed a little bit of more importance(so that actual dodging isn't such a difficult thing to do)

[command]

Finally finished the game.

It's really good.

I will say that there is one group of girls I didn't get it was right across where the Mistress you get from the giant snake. I'm not sure where that group is located.

Next with the Zombie area in the castle it would be great if you showed the ork army the overlord brings with him rushing ahead of him and while your going through town rescuing civilians you see the Orks also fighting the Zombies as well as protecting townsfolk from them as well.



Also it's to bad about no extra mistress's but I hope you keep the idea of the armored one in mind for the sequel.