RPG Unknown/Hiatus Malise and the Machine - Public Demo Available Now!

[jadex]

Re: Malise and the Machine - Public Demo Available Now!

So, Neon's top is indestructible, and Malise is the only one getting hit bit suicide attacks? (granted, I am not far in the demo)

The suicide attack is only initiated by the enemies being filled with breast milk, and since Neon's top can't come off, Malise is the only one who can get targeted by that attack.

 

[dd-209]

Re: Malise and the Machine - Public Demo Available Now!

Sorry if I missed this being answered already, but is there any update on possible 0.04 patreon release? No pressure, just asking

 

[PM21]

Re: Malise and the Machine - Public Demo Available Now!

Sorry if I missed this being answered already, but is there any update on possible 0.04 patreon release? No pressure, just asking

Latest news was April. Pushed back due to patching and correspondence resulting from the Public Demo's release, most likely.

 

[Ayra]

Re: Malise and the Machine - Public Demo Available Now!

Latest news was April. Pushed back due to patching and correspondence resulting from the Public Demo's release, most likely.

Aw, was looking forward to the update mainly so that they'd get my payment and I'd get the PDF. Ah well, have to be patient I guess!

Anyhow, out of curiosity I tried two quick playthrough of the demo. The idea was to play smart, but only use the ARIS unit when I first cross it since you never need to actually backtrack all the way to it. One playthrough was using the Active battle system (with manual struggle disabled since I detest it), one using Wait for Input.

Here's the results:

- Active makes regular battles harder and you generally take more damage, and get in bad situations more often.

- Active makes the boss easier, since you can delay a few seconds with Neon to see if the boss is going to do tentacles (in which case you interrupt) or something else. As you can't delay in Wait mode, you can't always interrupt it.

- In the Active playthrough, I did end up with three h-sequences and while I managed to stop all from finishing, two got all the way to the last stage. In the Wait playthrough, lust got to midrange but armors were not broken until the boss fight so got no h-sequences at all.

- If you are going to get H-sequences or not seems to depend mostly on what type of enemies you get. The two "bees" + big robot group is definitively going to raise your lust level quite a bit as you have to priories a tough enemy that deals a lot of damage if ignored. The robots don't deal any lust damage (do they deal armor damage?), and the flying teeth thingies die in instants. If you get the two bees + big robot group multiple times, you will very likely get forced into h-sequences even if you play smart.

- Playtime was about 25 mins per playthrough. Level 3 on both characters both times.

- Really weird bug on my latest save file: On my second playthrough, the regular battle music is always the boss music instead. That remains true even if I close the game and reload the save file. If I load one of my other save files, the music is normal. I believe that's caused because after finishing the demo the first playthrough, after returning to the menu I restarted a new game without closing the game.

 

[Eromancer]

Re: Malise and the Machine - Public Demo Available Now!

Sorry if I missed this being answered already, but is there any update on possible 0.04 patreon release? No pressure, just asking

We probably should have expected it, but it didn't register with us how much work it'd be on the PR side of things after the demo release. We were pinned down for a solid week answering emails / patching etc. That combined with the fact that for over a week prior to the demo release where we were both testing hardcore threw us off for a March release of V0.04. Expect some news on Patreon with artwork and what not from V0.04 soon (we've been holding onto everything V0.04 related aside from the interface overhaul until after the demo release).

Aw, was looking forward to the update mainly so that they'd get my payment and I'd get the PDF. Ah well, have to be patient I guess!

Anyhow, out of curiosity I tried two quick playthrough of the demo. The idea was to play smart, but only use the ARIS unit when I first cross it since you never need to actually backtrack all the way to it. One playthrough was using the Active battle system (with manual struggle disabled since I detest it), one using Wait for Input.

Here's the results:

- Active makes regular battles harder and you generally take more damage, and get in bad situations more often.

- Active makes the boss easier, since you can delay a few seconds with Neon to see if the boss is going to do tentacles (in which case you interrupt) or something else. As you can't delay in Wait mode, you can't always interrupt it.

- In the Active playthrough, I did end up with three h-sequences and while I managed to stop all from finishing, two got all the way to the last stage. In the Wait playthrough, lust got to midrange but armors were not broken until the boss fight so got no h-sequences at all.

- If you are going to get H-sequences or not seems to depend mostly on what type of enemies you get. The two "bees" + big robot group is definitively going to raise your lust level quite a bit as you have to priories a tough enemy that deals a lot of damage if ignored. The robots don't deal any lust damage (do they deal armor damage?), and the flying teeth thingies die in instants. If you get the two bees + big robot group multiple times, you will very likely get forced into h-sequences even if you play smart.

- Playtime was about 25 mins per playthrough. Level 3 on both characters both times.

- Really weird bug on my latest save file: On my second playthrough, the regular battle music is always the boss music instead. That remains true even if I close the game and reload the save file. If I load one of my other save files, the music is normal. I believe that's caused because after finishing the demo the first playthrough, after returning to the menu I restarted a new game without closing the game.

I'll send you a message on here to work out the PDF thing so you can check it out sooner.

You're right, changing the battle time mode settings definitely has an effect on difficulty, which is okay as far as I see it. A thing to keep in mind is that one person's experience on each may differ from someone else's (some people get absolutely destroyed on active time mode and find it pretty balanced on full wait, whereas at this point I actually play on fast forward with 2x speed on active time mode and find it too easy). The point is I've learned it's very important to take difficulty feedback from the entire player base as opposed to rely on what I think is right.

One thing you hinted at is that the configurations of enemies you encounter actually plays a role in what you'll experience as far as H content goes. This isn't terribly transparent at the moment, but this is due to the fact that some enemies (the robots) deal heavy armor damage whereas the biomonsters throw out a lot of Lust attacks. This will definitely be something to keep an eye on as far as balance goes, and I have ideas for adding a system of diminishing returns so that you don't encounter the same enemy troop over and over in random encounters (not sure if I ever mentioned that to AltairPL, but he'll learn about it here if not ).

Also, good catch on the audio error!

How long has this game been developed?

The first Patreon release was on April 1 2015. I had started working on various things like the art style and what not a year prior.

 

[AltairPL]

Re: Malise and the Machine - Public Demo Available Now!

- Really weird bug on my latest save file: On my second playthrough, the regular battle music is always the boss music instead. That remains true even if I close the game and reload the save file. If I load one of my other save files, the music is normal. I believe that's caused because after finishing the demo the first playthrough, after returning to the menu I restarted a new game without closing the game.

thanks - fixed and will be included in upcoming 0.0353 hotfix

(not sure if I ever mentioned that to AltairPL, but he'll learn about it here if not )

nope, you didn't, but I'm getting used to it

 

[CrazyPerson]

Re: Malise and the Machine - Public Demo Available Now!

This isn't terribly transparent at the moment, but this is due to the fact that some enemies (the robots) deal heavy armor damage whereas the biomonsters throw out a lot of Lust attacks.

Huh - I'd interpreted the bots to be mostly trashmobs, I'd expected something like "shred" to do the most armor damage.
Feature request: Provide a way to show the armor damage meters from the pause menu during combat.
Not that they're really that strategically relevant, but it'd make it a lot easier to learn the impact of enemy abilities -
you rapidly see which attacks do lust damage, but to estimate armor damage you'd need to keep pausing between battles and compare.

Speaking of the armor meter, I also found the color scale to be difficult to interpret - which shade is how far gone? Is this yellow yet?
Perhaps adding a border with a small number of discrete states (white/green: >50%, yellow: <50%, orange: <25%, red: breakable) would help allow more concrete interpretation,
while still keeping the non-numeric-gauge-ness of the current display...

 

[AltairPL]

Re: Malise and the Machine - Public Demo Available Now!

Huh - I'd interpreted the bots to be mostly trashmobs, I'd expected something like "shred" to do the most armor damage.
Feature request: Provide a way to show the armor damage meters from the pause menu during combat.
Not that they're really that strategically relevant, but it'd make it a lot easier to learn the impact of enemy abilities -
you rapidly see which attacks do lust damage, but to estimate armor damage you'd need to keep pausing between battles and compare.

Speaking of the armor meter, I also found the color scale to be difficult to interpret - which shade is how far gone? Is this yellow yet?
Perhaps adding a border with a small number of discrete states (white/green: >50%, yellow: <50%, orange: <25%, red: breakable) would help allow more concrete interpretation,
while still keeping the non-numeric-gauge-ness of the current display...

We still don't know how exactly, but armor indicators will be added to the battles sooner rather than later.
Probably some kind of numeric value will be added as well... for colorblind people as well as those who like numbers .
As for armor state, indicators are color-coded like this right now:
- white - 100%
- yellow - between 0% and 100%
- orange - 0% and not broken
- red - 0% and broken
They will probably change in the future, but for now they must do .

 

[dd-209]

Re: Malise and the Machine - Public Demo Available Now!

Nuts, was looking forward to 0.04

Thanks for the update though. It's not like we're paying monthly anyway, as with some patreons

Looking forward to the next teaser

 

[Mark3000]

Re: Malise and the Machine - Public Demo Available Now!

I just finished the public demo and I have to say it was really impressive. I remember reading about the project when you first announced it in 2014 and I'm glad to see it's come so far. I'll be sure to keep a closer eye on it as you progress.

 

[Slam Sector]

Re: Malise and the Machine - Public Demo Available Now!

As for armor state, indicators are color-coded like this right now:
- white - 100%
- yellow - between 0% and 100%
- orange - 0% and not broken
- red - 0% and broken
They will probably change in the future, but for now they must do .

So, armor doesn't just break when the durability reaches 0. Do the lust statuses have an effect on armor breakage chances? Because it seems like completely sober heroines are impervious to nudity.

Also, are there any plans for items to reduce lust build-up? That seems to be the primary factor in how long you can go between save-point visits, at the moment.

Also, does weapon choice (between main and sub) have an effect on defensive characteristics? I'd imagine wielding swords would make someone trickier to grapple or strike, while hoisting around a minigun would be a liability in melee. Not that it's something I'm really expecting - you're already going well above and beyond how good the combat system of an RPG Maker game ought to be.

 

[Takohead]

Re: Malise and the Machine - Public Demo Available Now!

This is a better way for patreon to work, only taking money when a MEANINGFUL update is released.

It just bypasses all the feelings of the developer only doing it out of greed,

also negates all the people feeling pissed off when the developer doesn't put anything out for awhile, just makes more sense to me to do it this way, i'm not the only one right?

Cracking game by the way Eromancer you're doing the devils work, keep at it

 

[Eromancer]

Re: Malise and the Machine - Public Demo Available Now!

So, armor doesn't just break when the durability reaches 0. Do the lust statuses have an effect on armor breakage chances? Because it seems like completely sober heroines are impervious to nudity.

Also, are there any plans for items to reduce lust build-up? That seems to be the primary factor in how long you can go between save-point visits, at the moment.

Also, does weapon choice (between main and sub) have an effect on defensive characteristics? I'd imagine wielding swords would make someone trickier to grapple or strike, while hoisting around a minigun would be a liability in melee. Not that it's something I'm really expecting - you're already going well above and beyond how good the combat system of an RPG Maker game ought to be.

Yes to all of these actually.

The easiest way is to think of broken armor as the cause of an Exposure status effect as opposed to its own effect. It's mentioned in the Lust Sickness tutorials, but Exposure is directly linked to Lust Sickness. For some armor types, Exposure occurs automatically on a given body part when a certain Lust Sickness level is reached. For others, Lust Sickness simply gives the enemy the opportunity to break weakened armor (durability 0), thus causing Exposure for a body zone. Also, the type of attack the enemy uses also affects whether or not armor will break. Some attacks have the capability to break lower armor, while some can break upper armor, both, or neither.

Regarding Lust build up: there will absolutely be passives and equipment bonuses geared toward reducing lust build up as well as suppressing the negative effects caused by high lust.

Regarding weapons, the differences will largely surround the skill sets available to each weapon type. Malise's katana type will likely have defensive and counter attack skills which can be further bolstered by one of her armor types. In contrast, Neon's minigun will likely be based around the concept of heavy AoE damage at the cost of tactical capability.

 

[honjcat]

Re: Malise and the Machine - Public Demo Available Now!

Hello, first time poster, short-term lurker! First of all, have to say the game is looking fantastic and I have high hopes for it.

For Eromancer: I have a 2-point critique/idea spoilered below for lust and H-attacks if you're interested, as long as it doesn't conflict with something else you had planned.

Also a question: Can you describe what's going to happen with the bukakke system you have planned/what effects it's going to have?

Spoiler

So after playing the public demo, I was wondering if you're planning to make H-attacks and lust "matter" more?

Currently, having high lust gives you:
Armor break/Exposure
More H-attacks
Harder struggle
Lower armor

That's fine and dandy, but these seem like minor downsides currently. Maybe with tougher enemies the reduced armor will matter more, but right now it's not a big deal, it just slows down the battles somewhat.

The issue in my mind is that H-attacks only matter in the battle scene when something else is also doing damage. Besides that, they don't build up to anything, except for the self-destruct finisher. So a solo enemy doing H-attacks hardly causes any issue, at any lust level. Since I'm not sure what you have planned, I thought this suggestion was worth bringing up.

I would suggest that there be a more serious negative impact at 1000 lust in order to make it matter more. And since you said there will be ways to mitigate lust sickness, there should be (IMO) a more pressing gameplay reason to keep lust in check.

For example, a successful finisher at max lust could leave the affected heroine in an "ecstasy" or "lust coma" that leaves her knocked down for the rest of the fight, but she can't be targeted/damaged.

If both go down this way, there would be a soft not-quite-game-over with an additional H-scene based on the remaining enemies, and you recover the heroines mostly as they were: slightly less HP/energy, but with lust at the first or second threshold instead of max.

This might complicate scenarios where one of the heroines gets the coma while the other one doesn't, or one is in a coma and the other reaches 0 HP, but I feel like there has to be some kind of outcome for max lust in order for lust and H-attacks to be more compelling in terms of gameplay.

 

[D-D]

Re: Malise and the Machine - Public Demo Available Now!

I just wish there would be scenarios where losing a fight wouldn't end up as a Game Over but as a H-scene and the heroines ending up captured and transferred to some jail room.

 

[bleahblah]

Re: Malise and the Machine - Public Demo Available Now!

I agree with this post. I personally would prefer if upon losing a fight, you have to endure debuffs acquired from that fight plus an additional debuff. That debuff can slow your movement rate out of combat as punishment with things such as pregnancy, being filled with eggs in various locations, soreness, or some other body modification. That makes for fun uninterrupted whoring but you still have to win fights to level and stand a chance against bosses.

Probably a bit late into development to worry about that though.

At the very least let the fight go on after the player has lost but enemies do H-attacks until the player manually gives up.

I just wish there would be scenarios where losing a fight wouldn't end up as a Game Over but as a H-scene and the heroines ending up captured and transferred to some jail room.

 

[ulmf987]

Re: Malise and the Machine - Public Demo Available Now!

Agreed. Instant Game Over after losing a fight is overdone and I don't like it that much, even if there is a good CG to be had. In the description you especially emphasized hentai being part of the gameplay. For me also losing is part of the gameplay and having real (different) ingame consequences to losing is much more fun than just "try again". It also adds to the RPG part of your game quite a bit of content. For example imprison the girls, change stats/money, make the characters more vulnerable to the same type of enemy, if they already beat / raped you etc. I'm really hoping it's something you're still working on.

 

[Demontom]

Re: Malise and the Machine - Public Demo Available Now!

They've already said though, that they don't want the game to be a case of... "New enemy, time to be a punching bag until they defeat me so I can get all of the CGs." Which I can respect, they want the H aspect to come from progressing in the game rather than intentionally losing to the enemies. Though if the current demo is any indication, there's certainly going to be some scenarios where even though you won the fight, the monster's not quite done with you yet, and it'll feel like you lost.

As for there being further consequences to getting hit with H attacks, they've already said that they're going to be making the attacks bestow negative status effects that'll compromise their fighting ability in some way. Right now, these demos are about getting a working framework to build everything on and aren't indicative of the final product.

 

[ulmf987]

Re: Malise and the Machine - Public Demo Available Now!

They've already said though, that they don't want the game to be a case of... "New enemy, time to be a punching bag until they defeat me so I can get all of the CGs." Which I can respect, they want the H aspect to come from progressing in the game rather than intentionally losing to the enemies.

Yes, they did. But, you know, you can also lose unintentionally sometimes and it doesn't necessarily have to mean Game Over. If the game continues even if you lose, it's a win/win in my book. I really don't see a contradiction here, it's just like "another path" with different H-scenes perhaps.

As for there being further consequences to getting hit with H attacks, they've already said that they're going to be making the attacks bestow negative status effects that'll compromise their fighting ability in some way. Right now, these demos are about getting a working framework to build everything on and aren't indicative of the final product.

Yep, and because it's still early in development it's exactly the right time to express these concerns and raise those questions. I'm certainly interested, if there will be any effects changing character stats and having an impact on the world around or later encounters/fights (bosses, factions, neutral people) etc. It's just that, in recent years Indie and early access games (porn or not) seem to do a better job at these details than even AAA multimillion dollar games (looking at you Fallout 4) and I'd like to see MATM be one of those that get it right.

 

[Ayra]

Re: Malise and the Machine - Public Demo Available Now!

That takes a LOT of development time though. While I agree that it's very nice not to get slapped with a game over, I'm not sure it's a good idea to implement it in this game. It's the kind of things that can be a "project killer" from a development standpoint.

Take for example Dungeons and Prisoners: upon the very first few releases I was absolutely stoked for the game. Great strategic gameplay, interesting story setup where you really felt super bad for the main character's bodyguard, pleasing art: basically a dream game. I lost faith in the project very soon afterward though, when a ton of people started requesting specific kinks, or expanding gameplay after loss.

I thought the scope was getting way too big and that the game was not going to be finished, especially not within the expected timeline. What happened was that most of the development time then went to fulfill those specific kinks, or expanding upon the loss condition to an impressive level... All that at the cost of the game's actual progress. The actual story of the game, gameplay area and so forth did not expand since the development time was sidetracked to the loss situations. There's also the problem of expectations it create: Dungeons and Prisoners loss situation to the bandit group was massive, with different gameplay outcome. People got to expect that future losses in the game would have similarly developed content; you can imagine how much development time that would add.


Personally, I feel that the way they are doing Malise and the Machine right now is the best way: They can focus on making a fun game, where the player tries to win and put the h-content there. So this way, they can have one development track, instead of having to build effectively "two games", with one that expects the player to lose and one that expects the player to win. It's their game of course so it's their decision, but my advice (for what it's worth) would be to file the "Gameplay after loss" idea under "Would be a nice to have, but too costly in terms of development time".