V 0.90d Thoughts:
First off, this version is one of my favorites in a while. The castle was possibly my favorite addition to the game ever. I think Slagblah has a couple of very good ideas with increasing the perk levels and scaling exp per level. It either forces a player to wait a long time to get their desired perk OR perks become more diversified in a run. In both cases, it feels like it adds another layer of strategy.
FatherDarkness also had, in my opinion, one of the best hotfix balances I have seen for this game so far:
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Increasing Zoe’s HP to 55 so Knuckles + Max Attack does not suffice in the Dark Forest and the Deep Forest / Swamp must be visited.
I wanted to touch on some current mechanics that feel like they are lacking compared to the newer content.
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Player Attacking Options:
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The player is VERY limited in their options while in a battle. They can really only attack, unless they want to intentionally fail. A player with high corruption can masturbate and gain HP but… it’s HP and that’s useless against meaningful girls so far.
I do not want to recommend any solution in particular, but it would be nice if this sparks a conversation for a possible solution.
I do know that the new option should avoid strictly doing damage. Maybe a girl could “lose” the same way the player can (going over max lust). Of course, some enemies could trick you when you fill their lust and become much harder to beat (like Laura).
Maybe it’s time to introduce stats that all girls have (this might also work well with the Codex). If stats are introduced, weapons and armor could keep their unique abilities AND include stats. Players may be able to have multiple types of attacks. I understand that this specific idea is a MASSIVE chunk of stuff to implement into a passion project, but I just love the idea. And again, hopefully these ideas can spark other short-term ideas that could realistically be implemented to diversify battles.
Recipes:
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I have been fighting for recipes to be buyable for many versions. It is so infuriating spending in-game days or weeks farming an area looking for one single enemy, then defeating her 10+ times, just to get an item that increases attack damage by 3. This is so specific because the first time I went to face the Castle, I wanted the Hammer so I knew I was going in with the best stuff. It took 15 kills and I only saw Ella just about once a day (I know, very unlucky but it is an example.)
I think weapons, at the very least, could be buyable after the boss of the respective area is defeated (dagger is buyable once Helen is defeated). Unfortunately, this idea always seems to get overlooked. So instead, I have a new idea with content added in this version.
Now that Kira’s newest functions have been implemented, I think this is the perfect time to propose an alternative: allow players to make ANY craftable item with or without the recipe unlocked. Kira’s new ability feels very niche since players can easily just buy materials from the forge and craft the items they need, but they NEED THE RECIPE. I would much rather go to the Blacksmith and buy the material I need since I don’t need to wait on an event.
Make the craftables crazy expensive if you want (double the cost of the material, maybe even more than that). I just hate waiting so long for such a minor upgrade. But now that the castle has been added, I would like to be able to smoothly transition from my dagger/sword to a hammer without spending an hour or more trying to get lucky finding one enemy.
Blacksmith Event
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I feel like I have taken the 50 gold route for the Forge ever since the addiction penalty got changed to Corruption. Maybe decrease the value from 5 to 3? This would also mean dropping the cost from 50 to 30, but it would better resemble the cost change the backpack just received. I just saw that the player now gets clothes after taking the Corruption route so maybe 50 gold/5 Corruption isn’t too harsh? I did not receive any clothes after the Blacksmith Event so maybe I read something wrong.
Final Score System:
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I almost never even look at this. Apparently, many other people do though. I think higher level areas should give more rewards, so, for example Laura (Forest) and Mia (Swamp) are not scored under the same scale.
I think the final score could be shown after beating a certain boss (or the castle). If this is already the case, my bad. I usually play slow since I like having the best stuff before taking on the last enemy of the version.
Also, totally agree that 15 days feels almost impossible. I don’t think I have enough confidence to try even if my run was going well enough.
Possibly Capping Stats:
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Once the game has leveled out a bit and new content slows down, a bunch of play testing should determine the max allowable values for HP, Lust, Corruption, Damage, and Addiction. I can get 800 HP and Lust if I really wanted to, but that takes away from the fun of the game. This it definitely too early to implement right now, but it’s worth thinking about, maybe writing down for later. You don’t want people to steamroll the final battles, especially if a save feature is in the works.
I also want to propose newer ideas that could be implemented as new content, and not an extension to existing stuff.
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“Good” Girls:
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I think a traveling nurse could be really cool. You would have to beat the nurse, but she would then reduce addictions (could be random, chosen, or corresponding to which nurse you defeat).
A traveling shop could be cool too. MAYBE this shop could sell new recipes. Or the shop could have reduced prices for materials. Again, the player should have to beat some sort of enemy to gain access.
Other “Good” Girls also sound fun. Hopefully others have good ideas to add in here, but adding positive interactions sounds fun, like a good change-of-pace.
The Castle:
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I love it.
That being said, I wish there was just a little more spice in each recurring boss fight. I was hoping Helen might squeeze some crazy amount of damage out of you or Sophie’s attacks did double lust. Sandy could keep on riding while Wendy sucks/grabs your balls (kind of BJ/HJ addiction?). Maybe Kira gets to summon a helper AND attack for some chip damage. I really can’t be mad, the last fight is super challenging if you are not prepared, so maybe making the prior boss fights harder could be a mistake.
Again, I love it. I just wish it was even harder because it would be that much more exciting.
Also, can we get a good ending after this? I think it’s about time the player gets the feeling off “beating the game” and the castle seems like a great final battle.
Interested to see what the honor system in v0.95 is. Looks like a battle system upgrade, at least from reading the Patreon blurb, which is very exciting since battling was getting a little stale just spamming attacks the majority of the time. New potions also sound really fun and interesting. I hope Kira or the Swamp witch has some relation with these.
I always love seeing new versions come out. Going around and finding all the new stuff added in is so fun, even if it is very time consuming. I hope development goes well and the community keeps coming up with great ideas and conversation. This game has come so far and the community has grown tons since the early versions. It’s funny to see how boring the Forest enemies are now compared to version 0.50 when those same enemies used to be the most exciting part of the game. You are really outdoing yourself, and I am all for it. Again, keep it up, and I will be waiting for the next version to come out so we can do it all again.
I also waited long enough to see on Twitter that you were able to go back and add some spice to the old Forest enemies. That feels like a huge win for diogaoo and the community since everyone wanted it but it did seem like a tall task. It just goes to show how interactive diogaoo is with the fans, and how impactful we as a community mean to diogaoo and the game as a whole.
