Rambling, refer to coherent post (or read through this if you're so inclined. Putting it in spoilers to avoid taking up screen space.)
Spoiler (click to show/hide):
Also seems like when people come back from being injured or whatever, they should automatically be reassigned to whatever they were doing before.
Like, I have persons in my adventuring party, one gets injured at work somehow, and after being sent off to heal, she doesn't automatically re-enlist.
That got me killed once when I didn't notice; I do think there should be a fix applied to that.
...I'll PROBABLY summarise all these points in one post; usually I have time to kinda make notes (even publicly on the forum) and then edit them into a coherent form,
but this game has so much content that I've been at it for a solid number of hours and haven't reached the end of the main quest yet. SOME of that time's been spent on grinding, and some was just floundering around in various forms of swiftly fatal confusion at the beginning, but still. Pretty legit.
Having said that, I think it might be nice to have a way to gain mana more quickly than the drips of 7 or 6 at a time that you get from fucking your slaves.
The bonus to loyalty when they cum is a very nice touch, but to get a nice 500 mana reserve for adventuring takes a LOT of clicking.
Maybe some way to automate it so you spend like 60 energy a day fucking a selected target for automatic mana-gain or something.
...Perhaps having one of them share your bed DOES that, I didn't think of that, gotta check on it.
Now that I'm rolling in cash, it's an opportune time to spend some on that bed upgrade and check it out.
[Edit: NOPE. Not only do I get NO mana from having them sleep in my bed, but a personal room is apparently better.
And SO much better that mere commoners complain about sleeping in my bed; what the fuck kind of room am I sleeping in, anyway?
You'd think it'd be the MOST luxurious, wouldn't you?
Eh, maybe there'll be a mansion upgrade that will make it a tier better than the Personal rooms, later on.]
Well, maybe orgies will give a lot more mana.
...But what is an "Aphrodite brew"?
I thought it was just a mistype for aphrodisiac, but that doesn't appear to be the case.
I don't really think orgies should require some extraneous potion.
Much more to the point, though, I can't create it at my alchemist station anyway.
What gives?
Oh, and maybe the farm provides mana as well as milk, I don't know - I recall reading it was very stressful for the person being the cow, so I never bothered with it.
Also an option to trade some gold and energy for mana in the brothel might be helpful, for when you're starting out and your slaves aren't sexually obedient.
(In my case, by CHANCE I happened to have an aphrodisiac when I got Emily, because "hey, this is always a good thing to buy", so that wasn't a problem - but still.)
...Although to be fair, when you're starting out you don't have any gold to spare on whores anyway.
...Ooh, I took the time to raise my rep with Frostford for that one quest, and the result was great.
I don't even have that positive rep in my OWN home town, but it was very well worth it!
I do think the end of the quest should take into account the fact that you and/or your slaves have the heal spell though, and the mana to use it.
Actual spoilers follow, not one of the "neatness" spoilertags I sometimes use:
Spoiler (click to show/hide):
Even if they're not good enough to outright CURE the poisoned girl, they should at least be able to make it a cinch for the cure to succeed.
I don't know what would have happened if I'd chosen one of them, even though they have 115 hp (and are supposed to have the bonus from bodyguard, but don't).
Maybe its more likely for death to occur if it's not the main character, I dunno - just knew that I'd rather reload from a game over than lose one of 'em.
But regardless, I'd suggest that having MULTIPLE heal mages on the spot should certainly reduce the risk of fatality for anybody to absolutely zero.
... Might like to see a loyalty gain from all party members when you opt not to sacrifice them, too.
... All right.
So I've finished the main questline that's currently available.
ACTUAL COHERENT POST time.
Now see, these kinds of games are right up my alley, in everything from the Slave-fetish to the Sword and Sorcery setting, so I'm pretty damned glad I stumbled across this one.
I always keep Jack-o-Nine in mind as the gold standard for the genre, but there were some things I'd have loved to see in that game which I didn't see, like a combat usage for magic, and a party system for adventuring and combat.
Since those things are clearly very present in this game, this game is a serious contender for becoming "the other half" of the gold standard.
Jack for the complex breaking and training mechanics, this for the adventuring.
The breaking mechanics in this basically amount to "Stick 'em in jail until they're obedient, then convince 'em and fuck 'em until they're loyal."
Badabing, badaboom.
You're done.
So in this I think
it's not so much the actual taming and breaking that constitutes the gameplay, but more traditional questing and exploring.
That's fine; it's just a difference of emphasis between this and Jack-o-Nine.
I don't object to that, in fact, precisely as I stated, the combat and adventuring aspect is specifically something I had hoped for MORE of in J9.
And this game does it well.
One of the stand-out good things going on in this game is the main quest, I'd say - and I only VERY rarely ever say that.
Firstly it functions as a bit of a tutorial with its earlier requirements, which is a pretty good idea.
But then secondly it actually gets pretty interesting as well in its own right.
I'm REALLY not particularly interested in getting into the vast intrigue and high-stakes shit that RPG plots usually end up devolving into, but I am at least invested in keeping the economies of the 3 main cities prospering peacefully. In that sense, the Frostford quest is probably my favourite.
ACTUAL spoilers again
Spoiler (click to show/hide):
Hopefully there'll be an option to have Hade thumped by the authorities and I won't have to do any really stupid or badly-written shit like oh, say "beating up an army of his followers, which clearly outnumbers and outmatches me and my party in all ways except being favoured by fucking plot-armour, and somehow apprehending him myself".
But I can't stress enough, apart from its tutorial value, the story is actually somewhat interesting, and that in itself actually adds playtime value.
As a matter of fact, I'd have been done with the currently available things in the game far earlier if it weren't for the main quest; I arrived at my own personal "victory condition" for these sorts of games relatively early. (That is, "sustainable income and health, acceptable fighting strength, collection of slave whores".)
Now, while the combat and the plot are some of the good stuff, there's no doubt ALSO some jankiness that needs to be addressed in this game.
Considering the quality of what's there already, though, I'm confident that it will be addressed in time, and competently so as well.
I'll be looking forward to that.
Some of the jank is littered above in random posts, and will be briefly touched upon in the Tl;DR suggestions and fixes sections below, but mainly it focuses on
Exploration, Slave levelling, and Player quality of life.
ExplorationExploration's ACTUALLY pretty ideal most of the time, and only becomes a problem when some random level-up requirement doesn't tell you where to find it.
It'd be nice to know which areas lead in to little towns so you don't have to waste your time exploring every dead end, though.
A map would probably be the cure to this.
[Apparently a change is incoming. Don't know how the rework will be, but that's cool. As it IS, I think it's nearly ideal with the addition of a map, but let's see how the rework goes.]
Levelling of slavesThe idea of specific requirements is one I haven't seen a lot, and one I very much like, but it needs a bit of tweaking for player quality of life and for immersion.
For
players' quality of life, the requirements should tell you how to obtain them.
For
immersion, they should be things that make some sense, like (arguably) the Specialisation and Essence requirements, and
very much UNLIKE the "clothing" and "detrimental potion" type requirements.
...(And the idea that specialising in Housekeeping could help make a person a better fighter is pretty silly, too. It's good that ANY specialisation (in fact actually just clicking on the specialisation button, even if you DO NOT specialise the slave) will suffice, but .... eh. Maybe that's intentional and not a bug, and the precise thing you're supposed to do is let the slave go with you and learn about the specialisation options, as opposed to actually putting her into any specific specialisation? If that's the case then... to look at it in immersion terms, maybe it gives the slave motivation, something to aim for, an idea of the things she can become if she tries?)
"Grade" requirements for levelling are a bit of a grey area.
From an
immersion standpoint, since "grade" refers to the kind of treatment the slave expects and the kinds of things it's able to do, I could see raising it as a requirement for up to "commoner" grade, since that is the grade at which all things are open to the slave, and the treatment requirements are neither overbearing nor negligible.
The individual is accepted for most or all jobs, and his or her requirements are food and shelter with a minimum of luxuries.
In terms of how this makes any immersive sense, I figure that at "commoner" level, they get good enough food and living conditions to sustain bodily and mental growth.
Perhaps instead of requiring an advancement in grade, beyond commoner status, that could be replaced with the vacation requirement, which SORT OF makes immersive sense in that it gives the slave time to reflect and relax. I guess.
I don't know.
From a
gameplay standpoint, it's a little weird that a slave would require grade advancement in order to gain a level, especially when you can then just bump them back down. Or probably, bump them DOWN and then bump them back UP to satisfy the advancement requirement.
A little janky... but making the requirement something like "raise grade TO RICH and keep it there" would be annoyingly inconvenient... and MAYBE un-immersive.
Player Quality of lifeA lot of effort has CLEARLY been put into explaining things in the tutorials, and assisting players with tool-tips.
That shit's legit, and it makes it possible to play this game without referring to a wiki.
As a matter of fact that's something that this game has, I believe, done BETTER than Jack-o-Nine.
But there's more ground to cover in this area, even so.
Essentially, it helps to idiot-proof your videogame.
- I nearly died because I didn't notice someone had already learned the skills I taught them, and I didn't notice that because the skills don't default to showing up.
Definitely my own fault, but I think the default should be that the skills SHOW UP in combat when bought.
- I DID die because I didn't notice someone hadn't come back into the adventuring party when they returned from being injured (or maybe it was vacation), even though they Do stay in the party when they're undergoing modification or when they ...(whichever one it wasn't above, like ... when they're injured or when they go on leave).
My own fault for not gathering the party before venturing forth, but still. I put them there once. What the fuck are they doing not returning when they come back.
- I had to do an area over again because I didn't notice a slave had been delivered to my jail instead of the living quarters.
...I got careless in my exasperation and that was another death, too.
FIRST of all it should state where the slave has been placed when you get them from Sebastian, so that would be made clear.
SECOND of all I do think you should be able to sell slaves from your jail.
[Edit: Apparently you already can in an incoming update, or something.]
- Some of the stats could do with a bit more explanation, both in tutorials and otherwise.
I didn't figure out FOR A WHILE that if the slave has lower than max loyalty their obedience drops naturally.
Having figured it out it's no problem, and it does certainly make good sense that obedience cannot be lower than loyalty, but still.
- It doesn't seem to make immersive sense that Group Sex would require some random potion, and unfortunately that potion doesn't seem to be readily available.
Stating
how to obtain the potion might be a quality of life fix.
Removing the necessity for it, though, is my preferred option, for immersion reasons.
A lot of it really is just idiot-proofing, as shown by all those deaths that were my own fault, but I feel it's a quality concern moreso than the deaths I suffered while just beginning and not knowing how much damage I'd take or how much armour I needed, because really ... I feel like some of that stuff just shouldn't have happened.
SuggestionsIt'd be nice to see a way to raise a slave's magic affinity and endurance, and our own, just as there already is for hearing, strength, and agility.
It'd also be very nice for us to be able to forage and earn money etc on our own, ESPECIALLY in the early difficult parts of the game.
Properly built strong characters can do so by selling bandits, but if you specced into less combat-worthy options at the start, you're out of luck.
Working in the guild section, assisting in the mage's guild, hunting, trapping, foraging, basically ALL slave jobs would be cool for the MC to be able to do too.
...I did say BASICALLY all slave jobs.
I'm not sure submitting yourself for experimentation in Umbra is
ever a good idea, and I certainly wouldn't send any prized slaves to do it, either.
On a very closely related note, it'd be cool if killing wolves etc gave you some food.
Not bandits or sentients, if you're not minded to include cannibalism.
Not slimes, mutants or troglodytes, if they're ... fucking poisonous.
And I mean, you definitely can't eat metal golems.
: D
But yeah.
Killing wolves is ALREADY like "hunting", it's just hunting for much more dangerous game.
Bugs- It looks like you can only open the "unlock moves" menu for your own character once per level up or something like that.
That can't be right, even if it's intentional.
The level and stat requirements for moves are restriction enough, and hell, the LEVEL restriction might be unnecessary.
I don't think there's actually a level restriction for the main character, so that might be what this is intended to replace.
... I'd just remove it even if it is intentional though.
TL;DR Fixes- A map, so you know where is not necessary to explore, and where you have to explore in order to find towns.
[Maybe rendered otiose in a coming version? We'll have to see.]
- A tooltip telling you how to obtain the various slave level-up requirements
- Immersive and sensible slave level-up requirements
- Being able to sell slaves from your jail
[Apparently this has already been corrected for a coming version or something of the sort.]
- Specification of where to get the oblivion and aphrodite potions in the tutorial and group sex tab respectively, if the need for those potions continues to exist.
- When you learn skills, the default should be that they DO show up on your skill bar in battle, not that they DON'T.
- Members of the travelling party automatically go back into the travelling party when they come back from vacation or being injured etc.
--- Understandably, if someone else is already there, you won't be able to exceed your maximum, but hopefully you can account for this and just put a message that X has returned and is fit for duty in the travelling party but cannot join as it is full, or something like that. Don't go coding yourself into extra bugs, but still.
TL;DR Suggestions- Being able to visit the brothel for mana
- Not needing some random potion for group sex
- Loyalty bonus if you choose yourself for the Frostford quest
- ACTUAL SPOILERS
Spoiler (click to show/hide):
Zero percent chance of fatality for Zoe or you[rs] in that quest if there are mages with heal present; possibly a mana cost to show your magic aided with that.
- Would be nice to be able to raise the caps to slaves' magic affinity and endurance, and our own.
- Would be nice to be able to forage and earn money ETC on our own, for the difficult early portions of the game.
- Related: killing animals should net you some food.
ConclusionAbsolutely outstanding for a product not locked behind paywalls, and worthy in my own opinion to be the second half of J9's Gold Standard in this genre.
...Oops.
Seems the "newly registered post approval delay" has made me miss a few things.
I'll just go back through and try to fix the post to take account of 'em.