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


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

Finished it too, after I got all the circuit boards I could open the elevator and go back to the first section of the map(demo) there I went on to fight the boss in elevator and finished it. I heard people talking about having to find where the monsters came from or something like that? Or following the robot? I forgot where he went because I was stuck so long in that maze. I don't think I ever did that, nor did I find the oil. Don't hope I missed something big there?


Honestly.... I am not really impressed where the game is going at the moment. Don't get me wrong, the art is amazing, and I like what they done with the RPG maker overhaul.... but gameplay wise.... I find it very meager, and not a lot of content. After the public demo, all there really is is 1 new enemy with H attacks and 1 without. (I do like the female enemy with armor, but kinda dissapointed she had no special skills).

What worries me the most is how the gameplay is being handled. In my humble opinion, this was just a grindfest. No more no less. Forcing the player in the same area with respawing enemies every 4 steps is, for me, not fun to play. It even could show bad game design to just give the game some length. It all started with the public demo. Good art, good enemies, good overall game. But I didn't like the puzzels there, just running around and backtracking all the time. Now its even worse, and I really don't like where it is going.

I understand a lot of work gone into story and programming, but now after the demo the real new content is quite small in my opinion...

Don't get me wrong, I don't think its a bad game. It's pretty good actually. But the way it is going, and considering how long it is in development... I don't have a good feeling about it anymore. I hope the developers can make a amazing game, and maybe I will support in the far future to get the game(pledged once now). But for now I think I'll wait it out.

PS: English is not my first language, so please don't hate too much on mistakes.

EDIT: @Rule 34, exactly my thoughts! I played almost 4 hours, 2,5 was in the maze at least.
 
Re: Malise and the Machine - Public Demo Available Now!

Rule 34 said:
With the pods, do you mean the big ones in the second area? All they ever did in my playthrough was drowning them, which I don't find to be especially titillating. So with that being the only new H-content and the unspeakable tedium of the fuse maze, I'm sad to say I'm not too thrilled with the new update. My playtime from start to finish was somewhere around 5 hours, what with fuse-farming and circuit-board searching.
And judging from what's in the demo, this is supposed to be one of the first areas a player sees. If that's true - if that's what new players get to see of the game - they're not even gonna bother powering through it to see the rest of it. They're gonna turn it off and start up something else.
Click to expand...

With Neon, if she's armoured you'll see the tentacles groping at her rear and mouth, and eventually just dunking her in the...uh, cream, maintaining the view of her breasts whilst she takes damage. If her armour is broken, you'll see the tentacles go for anal, and after she's submerged it'll focus on her ass being penetrated instead of her breasts being fondled. I think Malise always gets a titfuck and shows her boobs when she's dunked.


re: your criticisms, I did find going through the first area AGAIN pretty irritating, especially with the higher difficulty, but remember Patreon releases are also meant to help the devs test balancing and such with a wider audience.

I would agree that unless there will eventually be more monsters (with h-content) added, the maze fuse puzzle goes on too long when you consider most of the enemies have already been fought in the first area. I wonder if, down the line, going through these areas will yield more rewards than simply levelling up. One of the ways some JRPGs try to lessen the sense of grinding combat is by letting the player level up items or spells, or collect enemy abilities (e.g. in FF9), so that there's a stronger sense of progression. As it stands, once I'd seen all the h-scenes I found myself fleeing or reloading when I ran into any enemies that weren't going to drop fuses for the puzzle.

I'm personally ok with the releases so far. Whilst there's a large gap between content, we're only being billed per each new (major) version. Sure I'd like more frequent releases, but at the end of the day, Patreon users are paying to help contribute towards funding and playtesting the game. There's nothing stopping people from waiting until the public demos and/or final product before forking out cash.
 
Re: Malise and the Machine - Public Demo Available Now!

circuit board & item locations
Order doesn't matter, except for how efficiently you get there (if you have any circuit boards fused, it will make certain paths easier than others)

CBA - CB & Penetrating Oil
BBCC - NVG
AABB - CB
AACC - CB (definitely) & carbon suit (I think)
AABBC - CB
AACCB - CB
BBCCA - CB
AABBCC - Sweet Loot
 
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Re: Malise and the Machine - Public Demo Available Now!

Sheppard said:
I heard people talking about having to find where the monsters came from or something like that? Or following the robot? I forgot where he went because I was stuck so long in that maze. I don't think I ever did that, nor did I find the oil. Don't hope I missed something big there?
Click to expand...

I missed the path to Malise and ended up doing the entire maze, including powering up the escape elevator, before trying to leave. If you try to use said elevator, Neon says something like "I need to find the source of the bioreadings" and refuses to leave. Once I found Malise and came back to the area it let me use the elevator, return to the first area, and escape/fight the final boss.

The oil just gives you better deals on fuses with the robot. I don't think it's content-related.
 
Re: Malise and the Machine - Public Demo Available Now!

(Copy of my comment from Patreon):

Sigh, why on earth did anyone think it would be a good idea start this game by overwhelming the player with these fuse puzzles...The first one was alright, but this second one...I also remember seeing an old video of the game with some sort of town (has it been removed along with the human enemies?) - that would have seemed like a better way to start the game, not just being thrown in a high tech dungeon with no backstory or context. I thought that dungeon area was chosen specifically for the free demo, but apparently that's where the game is actually supposed to start. I hope the rest of the game is not planned to be riddled with irritating puzzles in every new area and has some actual fun gameplay with exploration and stuff, like I would expect from an RPG game.

Furthermore, this game was always advertised as having hentai as part of the gameplay, but to get to see the good scenes, you need to find enemies which damage your armor to tear it off first, and then wait for a specific attack which constricts you - if you somehow manage to survive long enough to see the scene, you are pretty much dead afterwards, especially with a group of enemies. In order to see the scenes for a certain enemy I usually have to move around until I find an armor damaging enemy, let him tear the armor off, then run away or kill it, heal afterwards, and finally find an encounter with the enemy I had in mind. Rinse and repeat every time you enter an ARIS unit and get your armor back. Quite a long process to get to see the hentai - if you want to simply progress and stay alive, you'll have to avoid every hentai attack like the plague and resist - otherwise you're dead. Hope this is also rebalanced in the future...

Kind of disappointed for now, especially considering the price.I'll try to finish that puzzle later. Expected something more after 6 and a half months since the last official update, and I'm sure many others would agree - maybe open up a straw poll to check the general mood for the game right now?
 
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Re: Malise and the Machine - Public Demo Available Now!

Hm. Well I enjoyed the demo quite a bit.
I do think the circuit board puzzle is very annoying, its not something that can be done easily without looking at how someone else did it, and thats never a good thing for a game. There are just too many combinations to not make searching for the things feel like a grind, having clear paths that you know you have to do multiple times would be much better.

The new girl is pretty hot, I'm hoping she gets some hentai scenes in the next updates.

Otherwise, I'm a bit surprised that there aren't any hentai scenes involving the machines (particularly the friendly ones). Obviously machines don't have a sex drive, but in a lot of hentai games they have sex scenes for humiliation or demoralizing purposes.

But that being said I enjoyed the game. Took me about 6 hours to get through the demo and I was having that error message someone else had a few pages back on the final fight. Reloaded the final fight without having any clothes damage and didn't get the error. Looking forward to the next release.
 
Re: Malise and the Machine - Public Demo Available Now!

Sorry but I already put up with the fuse puzzles before can somebody please upload their save while into the new stuff if possible? Thanks.
 
Re: Malise and the Machine - Public Demo Available Now!

Are there suppose to be any enemies spawning while I'm dicking around with the curcuit boards? Like, I've gotten Malise, then there was a text-only cutscene and then nothing. I've gone through a dozen different combinations of curcuit boards without any random encounters...

EDIT: I would also appreciate a save for right after the fuse puzzle. This is ridiculous.
 
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Re: Malise and the Machine - Public Demo Available Now!

Allsop2604 said:
Are there suppose to be any enemies spawning while I'm dicking around with the curcuit boards? Like, I've gotten Malise, then there was a text-only cutscene and then nothing. I've gone through a dozen different combinations of curcuit boards without any random encounters...

EDIT: I would also appreciate a save for right after the fuse puzzle. This is ridiculous.
Click to expand...

Check patreon/messages again, v0.041 fixes enemies not spawning.

And someone above posted the solutions for the puzzle, copied below plus my own notes.

Can I also just say, that for either the next release, and/or for the final game, this new section could probably be simplified and shortened a whole lot. I found this puzzle to be extremely un-intuitive and time-consuming. I understand it for this release, because it helps add time/content, but in the long run it cause more headaches than it's worth.

Also, graphics/sprites for the fuse poop would be nice too.

SOLUTIONS/SPOILERS
Not necessarily in order:
BBCC (NVG)
AABBCC (loot)
CBA (circuit + oil)
AABB (circuit)
AACC (circuit)
AABBC (circuit)
AACCB (circuit)
BBCCA (circuit)

1st door - 5 amps
2nd door - 10 amps
3rd door - 15 amps
4th door - 25 amps
5th door - 35 amps
6th door - 55 amps

After you active a circuit board, you can place fuses into it for any circuit. These don't get reset after you exit the puzzle.

Giving the oil to the robot lets you trade 10 amp fuses for 20 amp fuses.

NVGs are useful.
SOLUTIONS/SPOILERS
 
Re: Malise and the Machine - Public Demo Available Now!

To everyone having a crash or similar problems:
AltairPL said:
BUG REPORTS
I would like to ask a favor from everyone who stumbles upon a game crash. Most of you, who played the demo didn't encounter any crashes at all, which is a good thing, but it also means that bugs still out there are very hard to find and fix, so whether we want it or not, we must rely on you to provide us with as much information as possible - it takes only few minutes to create bug report, but it can save us hours to fix a bug with minimum amount of info. Please follow this few steps when reporting a bug to make our lives (or rather my life ;)) much easier:
1. if game screen is not empty - make a screenshot (preferably with error message out of the way),
2. add description - where error occurs, what was the last action (or few last actions) - more details, the better - it doesn't have to be a novel, but every detail counts,
3. send description along with !Error.log and Options.ini files (both in System folder) and optional screenshot to us ([email protected]).
Click to expand...
Thank you very much in advance.
 
Re: Malise and the Machine - Public Demo Available Now!

I personally enjoyed the puzzle, though I'm also of the type who likes figuring things out for the sake of understanding it, so ymmv.
 
Re: Malise and the Machine - Public Demo Available Now!

Feedback time.
  1. The door signs indicating fuse type and number are 10,000% more readable. Thanks!
  2. I agree that the fuse puzzle is long, grindy, frustrating, and liable to make people quit the game. It would make much more sense as an optional side-quest/dungeon that the player can choose to go through in order to unlock some nice loot--maybe a snorkel that can be equipped to grant immunity to asphyxiation. You can keep the pervy robot king, but have the main quest split off from his questline after Malise's introduction. Have Malise be the "questgiver" for escaping the tunnels, and have the pervy robot king's questline remain as an optional challenge.
  3. Meanwhile, the fuses breaking every time you leave the maze seems unnecessary and reeks of padding.
  4. Also, the labyrinth is poorly explained. I had to figure out that the same doors in different order led to the same place through trial and error supplemented by reading other players' comments here. There was very little room to apply logic, which contributed a great deal to the feeling of grindiness and the sense of content padding.
  5. I was also frustrated by the spike in combat difficulty. More than anything else, though, I found that there was a huge increase in the correlation between getting grappled and losing. Like... it was almost GOR. The only difference was the order of the GO and the R. As long as I didn't get into the sex, I was fine, but getting grappled was almost a death sentence. This was even more pronounced than in previous iterations, and I'm not 100% sure why, but feel like I should blame the added miss/evade chance somehow. I know there were at least a few times where I had one shot after coming out of one grapple to interrupt the next one... only to miss my interrupting shot... and the incoming damage during grapples was such that I could only survive one round of getting grabbed. I understand that combat isn't finished and won't be balanced until it is; this is just feedback for the... uh, brain... furnace... thingy. I just want to let you know how this iteration felt and what issues may have surfaced this time around.
  6. On a less serious note, the camera zooming in and out and sliding side-to-side in the fleshfather "cinematic" kind of ruined it for me. I would have liked it much more if the camera just stayed put and let my imagination do its job.

The rest of my thoughts are unimportant stuff like "that's not my fetish," and "that's also not my fetish." On the whole, I still have great faith in this project and will continue to support.
 
Re: Malise and the Machine - Public Demo Available Now!

Wow... this puzzle. I've had to look up a solution and even then it's still getting to me. I feel it's just been really over thought.

I think the way that's it's been laid out is just to long and grindy. Even with solutions to hand I've just quit it. I really think that it needs to be shortened quite a bit and explained a bit better. At first I thought I just had to get through the doors in the correct combination. It was only later I discovered that there's loot in those different combinations. I felt it just added too much unnecessary trial, error, repeat.

On a plus note, the new enemy looks good with it's attacks.
 
Re: Malise and the Machine - Public Demo Available Now!

So is there any update on the plot breaking game bug with that mystery assailant turning one of those flesh pods into swiss cheese yet?
 
Re: Malise and the Machine - Public Demo Available Now!

Heya guys! I definitely want to respond to everyone's posts, but still have to knock out a lot of release related stuff. These two summarize the key points I want to make at the moment--

BlockHead said:
Wow... this puzzle.
Click to expand...

Heh, that seems to be the general consensus. Not to worry though. This was as experimental for us as anything. Remember, audience input is important for us and helps drives the direction of the game, and we hear people on this!

Junk-Hobo said:
So is there any update on the plot breaking game bug with that mystery assailant turning one of those flesh pods into swiss cheese yet?
Click to expand...

We're still looking into this one! It's definitely conditional (doesn't happen all the time), but is currently our #1 bug at the moment.
 
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Re: Malise and the Machine - Public Demo Available Now!

I enjoy this game a lot. But it's incredibly frustrating that the enemies not doing sex stuff to the girls continue to spam damage - on the opening level with just Neon, fighting two or three H enemies in a group and missing one shot is a death sentence.
 
Re: Malise and the Machine - Public Demo Available Now!

No probs as I just gotta see the finale scene! Also yeah I'm not even gonna speak upon the puzzle as yes grindy by hell also making sure Malise and Neon doesn't become rape bait as well so hell no probs.

Also all and all an update well waited in my opinion as I hope to see more pl0x of that mystery assailant as well. Figure out that bug and we'll be golden!

v_0.041
rate it a 4.0/5

Could use more h-enemies as yes a h-counter system would be nice as well as maybe some effects from certain enemies as a passive lust build when around them triggered by how many times they got raped by them within succession. But hey that's just my suggestion so plz no bully fellow peeps.
 
Re: Malise and the Machine - Public Demo Available Now!

I've only played public demo so maybe the below is already obselete:

I think some "quality of life" equip would be nice and I'm always happy to see them in H-games, or basically some sort of mechanism that gives player some control on how much combat H they would like.

Ex. Equips that do things like increase or decrease the chance of enemy using grapple and H-attacks against the equipped heroine, in New game+ may even be items that turn off H-attack or ensure 100% H-attack. I like how players can customize the H part of the game to their mood of the moment.

Others could include accessories that enhance dodge vs grabs and/or increase struggle effectiveness. Things like increasing defense while grappled would be interesting too. Having 2 or more accessory slot can allow for some interesting combinations. Like increased H-attack + def up when grappled to set up a bait while having a decreased H-attack on the other to be the stick, while getting some eye candy time along the way. You can control which heroine get more H-action this way also, if one has a certain preference.

Of course such equip takes planning to balance, alternatively it could be an item or skill I suppose, whatever gives player some control over the proportion on type of content they're in the mood for :p
 
Re: Malise and the Machine - Public Demo Available Now!

Eromancer said:
Heh, that seems to be the general consensus. Not to worry though. This was as experimental for us as anything. Remember, audience input is important for us and helps drives the direction of the game, and we hear people on this!
Click to expand...

My suggestion would be to try and break it up somehow. Have the player solve half of it (grab a Circuit Board and boost the voltage outside of the puzzle) then go do something else for a bit before coming back and finishing the puzzle.

I didn't look at the hints feature, but if it isn't already in there, I'd also suggest being a little more heavy handed on telling the player how to progress. I can imagine a number of players running through the gauntlet a couple times and then stopping because it doesn't look like they're making any progress and the thought of having to try every door combination can be overwhelming.
 
Re: Malise and the Machine - Public Demo Available Now!

Wuumaster said:
My suggestion would be to try and break it up somehow. Have the player solve half of it (grab a Circuit Board and boost the voltage outside of the puzzle) then go do something else for a bit before coming back and finishing the puzzle.

I didn't look at the hints feature, but if it isn't already in there, I'd also suggest being a little more heavy handed on telling the player how to progress. I can imagine a number of players running through the gauntlet a couple times and then stopping because it doesn't look like they're making any progress and the thought of having to try every door combination can be overwhelming.
Click to expand...

Honestly, I think the encounter rate should be lowered for the area, or maybe just a bit in general. I love the combat system AND the difficulty (For the most part.) But when combat actually takes work, it needs to be spread out.

I also think there needs to be a way to alleviate lust buildup, I personally think would suggest a slow drain when not in combat.

Miss chance is frustrating, Personally I recommend 100% accuracy and enemies just having dodge chance. (Like the leeches)

I like the enemy H-attacks, and I like the difficulty in getting out of them, but either the frequency or the damage needs nerfed. I think when an H-attack is broken, that girl shouldn't be able to be affected by another H-attack for a turn or two. This prevents the ever frustrating 'I can't do anything cause rape', while still allowing the current frequency and difficulty of H-attacks.

Combat speed should be adjustable IMHO. Personally I was running x3 speed (Cheat engine) for awhile, though that made combat scary, it made everything else much less tedious.

To summarize:
  • Lower encounter rate
  • lust management
  • Accuracy/dodge
  • H-attacks
  • Combat Speed

If you're around I'm more than willing to discuss or even test things out for you, at the risk of sounding pretentious, I do alpha/beta testing for a small game company, so I have a bit of experience with this kinda stuff.
 
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