RPG Patreon Ci-En Fantia Unknown/Hiatus [UraMomo] Sex Machine

[Aiolos1212]

Love the new demo!

Balance changes are great! Lots of good solutions there. I like that rouge is only toned down for the tutorial, I didn't want her to be a throw away enemy. You actually need to save and reload your game for her non-tutorial stats to take effect though, probably a bug. As far as skill uses go in this demo, I'm finding myself only using psyche up early on the top off any lost willpower, other than that I don't use the healing skills hardly at all anymore - mostly using a lot of focus, that seems to be a great standard go-to skill both for the strong effect and very cheap stamina cost. Maybe even too cheap, to be honest. Items are also pretty crazy powerful for their cost at the moment, I only use them against acier. Well, I'm sure items will be way more limited in the real thing though, either through much higher bit cost or a max limit of the amount you can carry - at the moment you can power through acier through a bunch of healing items.

Acier is fantastic by the way! I love that she has two phases with different animations and skills, that's great! Phase one is interesting in how she combines all the regular enemies skills in some dirty synergies, like sadism into merciless and such. I honestly find phase one much more difficult overall, it's a struggle. I really love phase two though - I like that she's more dangerous at low speeds! You want to use pressure to increase the speed to avoid tighten, but you can't go too high or leeway will heal too much. I overall really liked this fight, and I'm excited all over again for future content!

There are some bugs presently, though. Exhausting pound's stamina reduction is tied to the animation cycle from the instant she uses it, so even before the turn properly starts it already starts counting down your stamina, and continues to do so as you select skills and such before you even click prepare. The defeat flag also doesn't properly reset when you restart on a game over - you have to close the game and reopen it completely, otherwise when you enter combat again after restarting the gameover will still be there even with you at full life. I also don't know if assist flags are working...? Maybe I just have no clue how to do it at the moment, but I ran around bopping droids over and over trying to get assists and couldn't ever figure it out. I figured it had to do with beating certain ones a certain number of times, or maybe in certain ways, but I don't know...That uramomo art is too good, and I want my assists darn it! I'll keep playing with it and see if I can figure out the trigger.

Edit - Oh, and come to think of it - I remember you once asked me how many Bleu's, Vert's, or Rouge's I could fight in a row and I replied infinite, which you saw as a problem. If that's the case, then that's definitely still present here due to psyche up giving massive willpower heals during the early turns when you have no hearts. It's trivial to psyche up first turn to start each fight fresh to fight an infinite number of them. The enemies themselves are fine on the combat balance I think now, and psyche up was nerfed enough, but if you wanted overall map sustain to be an issue then maybe hearts do need to carry over until you rest at the shop droid?

 

[TheUnsaid]

Love the new demo!

Balance changes are great! Lots of good solutions there. I like that rouge is only toned down for the tutorial, I didn't want her to be a throw away enemy. You actually need to save and reload your game for her non-tutorial stats to take effect though, probably a bug. As far as skill uses go in this demo, I'm finding myself only using psyche up early on the top off any lost willpower, other than that I don't use the healing skills hardly at all anymore - mostly using a lot of focus, that seems to be a great standard go-to skill both for the strong effect and very cheap stamina cost. Maybe even too cheap, to be honest. Items are also pretty crazy powerful for their cost at the moment, I only use them against acier. Well, I'm sure items will be way more limited in the real thing though, either through much higher bit cost or a max limit of the amount you can carry - at the moment you can power through acier through a bunch of healing items.

Acier is fantastic by the way! I love that she has two phases with different animations and skills, that's great! Phase one is interesting in how she combines all the regular enemies skills in some dirty synergies, like sadism into merciless and such. I honestly find phase one much more difficult overall, it's a struggle. I really love phase two though - I like that she's more dangerous at low speeds! You want to use pressure to increase the speed to avoid tighten, but you can't go too high or leeway will heal too much. I overall really liked this fight, and I'm excited all over again for future content!

There are some bugs presently, though. Exhausting pound's stamina reduction is tied to the animation cycle from the instant she uses it, so even before the turn properly starts it already starts counting down your stamina, and continues to do so as you select skills and such before you even click prepare. The defeat flag also doesn't properly reset when you restart on a game over - you have to close the game and reopen it completely, otherwise when you enter combat again after restarting the gameover will still be there even with you at full life. I also don't know if assist flags are working...? Maybe I just have no clue how to do it at the moment, but I ran around bopping droids over and over trying to get assists and couldn't ever figure it out. I figured it had to do with beating certain ones a certain number of times, or maybe in certain ways, but I don't know...That uramomo art is too good, and I want my assists darn it! I'll keep playing with it and see if I can figure out the trigger.

Edit - Oh, and come to think of it - I remember you once asked me how many Bleu's, Vert's, or Rouge's I could fight in a row and I replied infinite, which you saw as a problem. If that's the case, then that's definitely still present here due to psyche up giving massive willpower heals during the early turns when you have no hearts. It's trivial to psyche up first turn to start each fight fresh to fight an infinite number of them. The enemies themselves are fine on the combat balance I think now, and psyche up was nerfed enough, but if you wanted overall map sustain to be an issue then maybe hearts do need to carry over until you rest at the shop droid?

Nice catch on those errors!
I just fixed them. Thanks. Just redownload from the same link and it should come with the glitch fixes. (Well it's uploading right now, but it should be done in like 10 seconds...)

Yeah... items are kinda stupid right now aren't they. I'm definitely going to have to limit the amount you can carry.

Glad you liked Acier btw. New music, tons of health, and and multiple forms make her feel like a boss don't they

Regarding the Assist condition, if it's not glitched which... I checked the code and it really shouldn't be, you unlock the assists by defeating all of a certain type of enemy. Defeat all Rouge's and you get Rouge's assist.

Guh... the question of sustain is giving me a bit of a headache. I'll need to think on this, but yeah... I might need to make the hearts persistent until you get to the shop droid. I feel there might be a better way to deal with that though...

 

[Aiolos1212]

Hmm... yeah, that trigger for the assists is definitely not working for me. I cleared the whole map multiple times. I just opened it back up and fought all the Rouge's in a row to see if that was the problem and it still didn't open her assist for me.

 

[TheUnsaid]

Hmm... yeah, that trigger for the assists is definitely not working for me. I cleared the whole map multiple times. I just opened it back up and fought all the Rouge's in a row to see if that was the problem and it still didn't open her assist for me.

OH damn...
Yeah... I'm stupid, I found out what was causing the issue.

It just wasn't even pointing to the assist drawing menu...

That's fixed now... I've told Uramomo to update the link since Dropbox failed us, but I'm not sure if he'll get to it any time soon so I'll PM you.

 

[IAmAKi]

Alright, once again. I mostly haven't read what others have written, so I might be repeating stuff people have said.

How stuff feels:
- The normal enemies feel fine to fight and you can lose to them if you're not careful. Don't change the first three much from there.
- Having a save point, healing spot and shop on one npc is fine with me. No hastle to find what you're after plus you get an extra show + bit gain for it.
- Not a fan of how much damage 3rd consecutive orgasms now do, mostly vs the boss. I'd suggest making an equip to reduce the damage you take from them, even if it's just by a little.
- The boss feels way too hard for even easy difficulty. She'll finish me off while sitting mostly at full hp herself, and can force an orgasm in... pretty much three mistakes at worst. Stopping her speed and momentum is... extremely difficult due to her second form having speed+ skills. Spamming slow, items and meditate managed to get me to her second form, but that's as far as I've managed to get. With that said though, I think her extreme difficulty is due to psych up not healing back the amount it should be.

BUGS:
- After losing once, getting into combat with any enemy results in an instant game over. I know this one's been covered, but just confirming it's the same for others.
- Same problem for being defeated and restarting that the other guy said about.
- Frustratingly, psych up now seems to randomly (and often) restores below the minimum amount of willpower, even at low speeds while no debuffs are present. I'd say it restores about 5% minimum.
- You can't scroll through all of the items you buy, only the first six.
- Acier will randomly stop animating during the defeat sex sequence and the text cannot be advanced. I'm not sure why this is...

 

[TheUnsaid]

Alright, once again. I mostly haven't read what others have written, so I might be repeating stuff people have said.

How stuff feels:
- The normal enemies feel fine to fight and you can lose to them if you're not careful. Don't change the first three much from there.
- Having a save point, healing spot and shop on one npc is fine with me. No hastle to find what you're after plus you get an extra show + bit gain for it.
- Not a fan of how much damage 3rd consecutive orgasms now do, mostly vs the boss. I'd suggest making an equip to reduce the damage you take from them, even if it's just by a little.
- The boss feels way too hard for even easy difficulty. She'll finish me off while sitting mostly at full hp herself, and can force an orgasm in... pretty much three mistakes at worst. Stopping her speed and momentum is... extremely difficult due to her second form having speed+ skills. Spamming slow, items and meditate managed to get me to her second form, but that's as far as I've managed to get. With that said though, I think her extreme difficulty is due to psych up not healing back the amount it should be.

There's a scope you can buy from the second Ordina that should help with mistakes, but yeah... I have some balancing work to do.
I'll release a code-only update sometime soon with an item limit, and balance changes.

BUGS:
- After losing once, getting into combat with any enemy results in an instant game over. I know this one's been covered, but just confirming it's the same for others.
- Same problem for being defeated and restarting that the other guy said about.
- Frustratingly, psych up now seems to randomly (and often) restores below the minimum amount of willpower, even at low speeds while no debuffs are present. I'd say it restores about 5% minimum.
- You can't scroll through all of the items you buy, only the first six.
- Acier will randomly stop animating during the defeat sex sequence and the text cannot be advanced. I'm not sure why this is...

Thanks for catching these errors.
-The first glitch I fixed when it was mentioned earlier.
-Psych Up's description changed. I don't think it works the way you think it does.
-Scrolling has been fixed for items
-Enemies stopping during the defeat sequence have also been fixed.

All these glitch fixes are available via the same link you used to previously download the latest demo.

 

[IAmAKi]

Sorry if I sound overly critical with my posts. I really am enjoying the way this game's turning out, so I'm just trying to catch issues wherever I can.

Also, is it going to be available from ci-en? Because I really, really do not like giving extra money to patreon when I donate. Plus I already donated to your ci-en anyhow.

 

[TheUnsaid]

Sorry if I sound overly critical with my posts. I really am enjoying the way this game's turning out, so I'm just trying to catch issues wherever I can.

Also, is it going to be available from ci-en? Because I really, really do not like giving extra money to patreon when I donate. Plus I already donated to your ci-en anyhow.

No, it's OK. I can tell you care about the game from the pure fact that you're engaging with it.
It's the exact same link as before so if you already did Ci-En or anything else it should auto update.

 

[TheUnsaid]

I just wanted everyone to know that I've released

You must be registered to see the links

. Here's the

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regarding that.

 

[Someone92]

Does the "Easy" difficulty actually makes the game easier or has it not been implement yet?

Cause I do not think I ever managed to decrease the boss' health by more than 25%.

 

[TheUnsaid]

Does the "Easy" difficulty actually makes the game easier or has it not been implement yet?

Cause I do not think I ever managed to decrease the boss' health by more than 25%.

It does make the game easier.

All enemies have at least 50 less willpower.
They all do less base lust damage.
You regen more stamina as well.

Acier is the last challenge for the demo though. I want her to feel like a wall you struggle to get past. For her the direct combat is not the only thing to worry about. You should also be worried about the macro game with assists, items and equipment.

 

[neutral]

I still really don't like the randomized guessing game combat system. I get that there's a "pattern", but, I just ain't seeing it. Guessing correctly isn't actually satisfying either. Feels like every success is a fluke. Meter goes fast enough, even if I wanted to see the pattern I wouldn't have time to study it. Not to mention...I don't want to. I'm not going to study an enemies pattern in a hentai game and commit it to memory. I can't be bothered to do that with "real" games.
Items are highly abusable and that's the only way I've won.

 

[TheUnsaid]

I wouldn't have time to study it.

Nothing forces you to press continue after the results phase.

Regarding not wanting to, I can understand. In fact, when the game was in its earliest phase all enemy habits were just completely random. And I mean COMPLETELY. I hated it. Even as the developer I was just not happy with the game....at all. That's why the enemies currently have unique patterns.

Stuff like the left half of rouge's habits are the same as the right side of rouge's habits.

The patterns really aren't all that hard to remember anymore. They're still randomized when you press New Game so even for me when I play the game I don't just know the enemy pattern, but I have no issues with defeating them.

Some advice if the game's giving you trouble. Don't look at Pink diamonds. They're just random. Literally no point in remembering them.
See if the arrows have any relation to each other. And that's it.

I wish you luck in learning how to play the game, and if you still can't find enjoyment in the game, than let's just say our tastes in games are different.

 

[Someone92]

The game still has the issue to give you a lot on information via text in the beginning, and then leave you hanging.

Against the boss there were two symbols next to the animation box, one with a x4 and one with a x1. Did not noticed them after I lost the fight, and no idea what they meant to represent.
Sometimes the input has white diamonds, sometimes pink ones, sometimes they have an arrow, sometimes they don't, sometimes its 3, sometimes its 8, sometimes you have more time, sometimes you have less time to react.
There is little indication after the tutorial why and when anything of that happens.

Slicing the enemy health bar in chunks would help to gauge when you use the self heal.
To make it clearer that you have to pay attention to the pattern of the white diamonds, maybe you could fill out the pink ones first, then the white ones one after another to make it clearer you have to follow their pattern.
If a skill / ability gives a buff / debuff, show its symbol for a second in the middle of the screen, then move it to the corner.

 

[TheUnsaid]

The game still has the issue to give you a lot on information via text in the beginning, and then leave you hanging.

Against the boss there were two symbols next to the animation box, one with a x4 and one with a x1. Did not noticed them after I lost the fight, and no idea what they meant to represent.
Sometimes the input has white diamonds, sometimes pink ones, sometimes they have an arrow, sometimes they don't, sometimes its 3, sometimes its 8, sometimes you have more time, sometimes you have less time to react.
There is little indication after the tutorial why and when anything of that happens.

Slicing the enemy health bar in chunks would help to gauge when you use the self heal.
To make it clearer that you have to pay attention to the pattern of the white diamonds, maybe you could fill out the pink ones first, then the white ones one after another to make it clearer you have to follow their pattern.
If a skill / ability gives a buff / debuff, show its symbol for a second in the middle of the screen, then move it to the corner.

The only way I could intersperse the tutorial with the rest of the game is by locking game mechanics until later fights.
Like if I made it so that action timers aren't a thing until you fight a later enemy.

The game is too short for me to do that and it would be a lot of work on my end as the programmer. I can't do that.

Yeah. Enemies gain states depending on their actions. If you read the skills though, it shouldn't surprise you. For instance, if you see three green bubbles on a unit in a normal rpg you'll just instantly assume that unit's poisoned right? There's no indication of what poison is nor can you check what the symbol means. The game tells you, "you've been poisoned" and then the symbol appears. Same here with enemy states.

Enemy states that last more than one turn say so in the description of the skill.

I actually like the ambiguity of enemy health. Not knowing if you can defeat the enemy in the next turn is what makes Victory Heal a dangerous ability that rewards you for getting a feel for an enemy's maximum strength. As you can see there are no damage numbers in the game for this very reason.

Sometimes the input has white diamonds, sometimes pink ones, sometimes they have an arrow, sometimes they don't, sometimes its 3, sometimes its 8, sometimes you have more time, sometimes you have less time to react.

Exactly, that's the game. Pink ones are random, white ones are habits. Free arrows are given to help out, but even if I gave no free arrows whatsoever it's still possible to guess most of the arrows correctly and win.

 

[Someone92]

even if I gave no free arrows whatsoever it's still possible to guess most of the arrows correctly and win.

How so? From how I understood the game mechanics you need at least one white arrow to deduct the input for the other white diamonds.

 

[TheUnsaid]

How so? From how I understood the game mechanics you need at least one white arrow to deduct the input for the other white diamonds.

No, it cycles between habits. The little squares on the top left of the action window shows you which habit the enemy is performing.

 

[Someone92]

No, it cycles between habits. The little squares on the top left of the action window shows you which habit the enemy is performing.

Interesting. So the game mechanics are a lot more primitive than I thought.

Read the tutorial again, this mechanic is indeed hinted at under "Extra".

 

[neutral]

As far as what can be done, I must say enemies heal way too much when you lose. Typically more than half or even all of their health. I'd recommend they heal anywhere between 20-30 % to avoid wars of attrition. It would help to alleviate some of my issues anyway.

 

[TheUnsaid]

Interesting. So the game mechanics are a lot more primitive than I thought.

Read the tutorial again, this mechanic is indeed hinted at under "Extra".

It is also directly told to you in the main tutorial. Screen darkens and highlights it.

As far as what can be done, I must say enemies heal way too much when you lose. Typically more than half or even all of their health. I'd recommend they heal anywhere between 20-30 % to avoid wars of attrition. It would help to alleviate some of my issues anyway.

Yeah that sounds reasonable.
I made the heal so high because if I didn't then mob enemies would only ever take one heart off of you. I'll play around with the numbers in the next code only patch.