Hey Majalis/Tales of Androgyny Team Members! (Sorry for the impending walls of text!)
First of all, let me just say that I think it's great that you're interacting with your community and audience so intimately and readily, it's seemingly an unfortunately rare sight in certain crowds and areas where video games are concerned it would seem, so it's refreshing to see a team that not only creates great content, but also one that's ready to take input from the community!
As I played your game I found that I couldn't really get enough.. Hell, I'm not a patron at the moment, and considering my financial situation that might not even be possible for another while at least, but if when that time comes you guys are keeping up the good work, I would be more than happy to donate a little a month for the good of the project.
Now, onto the crux of my post; as your game is in early development, and most features are still being actively developed, I understand that perhaps this time, if any, would be good for taking in feedback in suggestions? As it happens, I do have some feedback and ideas from my own perspective.
1. Sex and Combat - I feel this is pretty well done so far, although what the player is capable of doing feels somewhat limited at the moment. Initiating actual sex with your opponent is almost a waiting game, and because the player (seemingly) can't initiate a grapple/wrestle with the opponent, I found myself having to roll the character around on the floor awkwardly hoping that the opponent would join the wrestle were I would promptly perform a reversal, and hope they would grind their cheeks against my prodding stick so I could do the dirty.
Also the combat sex is not always intuitive.. Seems like sometimes, when my character is aroused, I can initiate penetration with an opponent if I'm in the correct position, other times I can't.
1. B) To develop a little from this, I currently don't see how an enchanter/pure charisma run would be feasible in the late game, especially seeing as how if certain opponents are sated they merely wander off leaving the player with no exp boost whatsoever, and others, such as Arachne, can't even be beaten in this manner at all; you can seemingly get them to ejaculate as many times as you like, and still they remain unsatisfied! I understand that in practicality, it can be easier in combat to arouse your opponent and start rubbing them off than it can be to actually fight them if you string taunt, slide, grab, jerk together. I understand that thus far, Charisma seems to have been tailored more about avoiding fights and combat in general rather than getting involved with them, but since these encounters offer no progressional value (xp) the player will never be as competent as high leveled combat-centric players due largely in thanks to this. Also, Charisma by itself is no substitute for stats such as Endurance, which can be used to resist grapples and maneuvers which could help you to bleed out. To counter this, and make Charisma an effective stat in battles as well as outside of them, would you consider perhaps including a Domination and Seduction meter in combat (or something along those lines?).
The premise being, two different ways of subduing an opponent sexually; 'Domination' (and I know this is definitely a bottom game, but as Domineering as a girly trap could possibly be) whereby you subdue your enemy to the ground through some type of stability enducing exhaustion (perhaps some type of sexual teasing brought about by hotdogging or some other charisma-centric method (vigorous handjobs? Just ballparking here lol) ) and then proceed to destroy their anus so thoroughly, and fill them up with so much splooge that they can't walk anymore, let alone fight. Maybe it should be tied to the HP bar somehow, or drain the opponent's maximum draw from the stamina bar with each anal bang to the point where they need meander helplessly, trying to regain their strength as you finish them off without fear of retribution.
'Seduction' on the other hand, could just be tied to the current method, whereby you thoroughly drain your opponent's balls by being a good little fat assed trapslut, but instead of them feeling satisfied, and withdrawing, they feel more and more exhausted each time, as you essentially let them have their way with you, finding your rapacious charisma irresistible (reflected by the regenerating arousal meter/etc) to the point where they physically cannot walk away, they cannot stop wanting a piece of that fine ass, even if it means physical exhaustion, and being completely at your mercy when their dick can no longer gain erection, let alone splooge.
At the moment, It just feels odd that you can essentially tug a goblin off for 10 turns, only to have little to no result; they can essentially cover you in semen, and suffer no penalties for it. Maybe each ejaculation could effect stability somehow, so that essentially you could suck them off/jack them off so much to the point where they physically fall to the floor, and then you vigorously have them/let them have their way with you, which is where the effects on actual HP/stamina could come in (just for combat's sake). Because right now, I can't think of a 100% effective method of ending a fight with Charisma alone with every opponent, unlike many of the other stats (probably not magic though, but I'll get to that too).
I hope you take these ideas on that into consideration, because right now that seems like the most glaring faults, especially since I thought that the hottest way to fight your opponent in a sex game would be.. Well.. With sex! And combat sex (actual sex during combat) isn't really done so much in most sex games, so I thought that it was a pity that even though you could in Tales of Androgyny, you cannot win any fights in this manner, essentially making Charisma only builds almost non practical in the current builds.
2. Stats and Balance - So I've already glossed over how Charisma is represented thus far in the game, but what about the other stats? Well, from my recent experiences, I've ranked them with a simple grading system from S down to F. So without further ado, here it is!
STATS:
- STRENGTH : S
- ENDURANCE : C -, (ABOVE 7 or so: E-)
- AGILITY : B
- PERCEPTION : B -
- MAGIC : (BELOW 5 or so: D/C) (OTHERWISE: C +)
- CHARISMA : (Depending upon whether you're interested in combat sex: B/C, If not: D (For various boons from npcs E.g. Food from the Dryad & the Elf with the Tortoise, avoiding combat/resolving combat among certain npcs but with no xp etc..)
Strength.. I've put strength in the top because at the moment it is.. Well.. Broken. Strength is tied to your ability to knockdown/destabilise your opponents and how much damage you inflict, and right now, any decent combat build without Strength as at least one of the highest stats will be suffering in some way in comparison to the strength-centric ones, simply because of how useful Strength is in a fight.
Having the ability to deal high damage and destabilize your opponent ensures that;
- You can end the fight very quickly
- Your opponent has no chance to retaliate, as they've essentially been stun-locked the moment they can't get back up off the ground
- Since there are no other real means of incapacitating **JUST** your opponent bar knocking them down like that, Strength is also the only way to Stun/Incapacitate your opponent in a fight as well
- Strength tied with Agility and Endurance make you pretty much unbeatable in a fight, unless you deviate from the standard Offensive Stance
- Enemies usually only have a maximum of 60 hp (even the Ogre) and about 4/6 points of armor each, and Strength is extremely viable at taking down both very quickly and efficiently, thanks in large part to the factors above
- Some weapons only scale with strength and agility, making strength even MORE useful. When you get that Gladius + 2.. Hoo boy.
- Strength is probably the only stat you could fully max and still win every fight, due to all the above.. The only downside I can think of is getting put off balance, or becoming exhausted.
- With the 'Stronger' perk, you can increase your strength as you level, meaning that you don't even need to start with high strength to get high strength down the line
Endurance.. I wanted to be maining Endurance, I really did, but the fact is it just isn't nearly as viable as strength. The boon of a virtually endless Stamina bar is useful indeed, especially in grapples -- it's pretty much impossible to lose grapples with high enough Endurance, and it also means that your Endurance regenerates quickly on it's own, making Second Wind redundant by itself. BUT, beyond that, it has no other real practical applications.
- It doesn't effect HP in any way, so it doesn't make you any more of a tank in actuality, as much as you might want it to.. You'll usually have 60 hp and 6 armor points by default, as far as I'm aware.
- Since there is no Heavy armor in the game as of yet, the premise that it will make Heavy Armor wearable/more effective remains to be seen, thus I can't consider it as a reason to go for Endurance in the current builds
- Shrugging off light attacks seems pretty meek, when dangerous enemies such as the Orc will always do heavy damage against you.
- Shrugging off light attacks would only be useful in the long run perhaps, when fighting many low damaging opponents in quick succession. I'm not sure if/how this actually works, but I personally haven't noticed much difference with or without the high endurance when it comes to shrugging off light attacks, in any account.
- Having a regenerating/extremely viable source of stamina is probably the only redeeming feature, but even then it makes Endurance only really useful as a support for other stats, it's by no means viable by itself, which may have been the intention, but what I'm trying to say is that raising it past perhaps 6 or so (excluding the various checks) is probably a waste, especially when a point in strength would cost the same or so
- With the 'Harder' perk, you can increase your endurance as you
level, but because Endurance by itself isn't really sufficient in most combat situations in the current builds, you'll most likely need to supplement it with something, and definitely don't make it your main stat unless you enjoy a challenge.
Agility.. Agility is nice.. Really nice. It affects stability and dodging among other things. I haven't 'mained agility in a build yet, so I don't really know all of it's ins and outs, but it's vital as a supplemental ability and seemingly as a main, so I never really saw a downside to putting points in it. Maybe too many points would be unnecessary, but since some weapons scale with Agility too, that statement is probably nullified by that fact. That, and you could essentially have infinite stability, allowing you to perform even the most destabilizing movements without losing any real composure, even if being attacked at the time.
Perception.. I don't think perception on it's own would be substitute for a high strength or something similar, but there's no dispute that it is indeed useful; as a means of path-finding, avoiding danger and detecting your opponents next move. You certainly suffer enough from having a low Perception, that not having a moderate level of perception is a detriment in and of itself, so, there's that. It affects if you can see your opponents stamina bar, their stability, what their next attack may be, etc. I imagine that past a certain point though, it must become redundant. You also need at least 3 perception to fight the ogre.. Wierd I know, but Trust me. He creeps up on you.. Somehow.. lol
Magic.. I'm not going to beat around the bush. Low magic sucks. Combat Heal and Titans Strength are undoubtedly useful, but when Magic really shines is when you have Combat Fire and High Magic. I tried it not long ago, Magic 9 and Combat Fire, and it did 10 damage a piece avoiding the armor entirely. Not only that, High Magic does indeed affect how high your magic bar is, and that combination alone makes high magic fairly viable it would seem. I'm not sure how you'd cope if your spirit meter ran out though, and ideally you'd want to supplement it with agility/endurance seeing as how otherwise, you're probably gonna be getting toppled, although I don't think it negatively effects stability by itself.
More spells would be cool to have down the line, such as perhaps a dedicated stun or something like that. Right now Spamming combat fire is just pretty dull.
Charisma.. Oh Charisma.. I could really talk about this at longer length, but my back hurts and I've probably been ranting long enough now, so I'm actually trying to wrap this up now.. lol. Adding to what I said before, a mained Charisma build doesn't seem combat viable in the current state of the game, I'm not sure if this was the intention in the first place, but either way it makes the enchanter build practically worthless unless you want to tick your social interactions box.
Maybe you could also have a move whose effectiveness is tied directly to charisma, similar to taunt, One that temporarily stuns/arouses your opponent? That would be a nice step to making Charisma a more viable stat in my book as well.
And I think that about wraps up my feedback.. One last thing though (don't worry, I should be done soon!) I love the writing and tone in this, it's great, but sometimes I feel like the writing is.. Err.. A little bit too long in some areas, and too short/vague in others. I fully understand it's a WIP, but the interaction with the drow character.. That felt way too drawn out IMO (I know it's ironic me talking about length of writing when I've been writing huge walls of text for a while now, but when trying to provide feedback and constructive critique, I think it's important to provide as many relevant details as possible). I hate to skip the written scenes, sheerly because of how much obvious effort had been put into them, but when they're as long winded as that, it sometimes becomes a bit of an effort to go through them in the first place.
I think that's it! The animation, the approach you've done to making this game, everything else feels great so far! Keep up the good work, your game shows so much promise, I can't wait to see how it turns out! And I really hope at least one person reads all of this just so it wasn't in vain! Thank you!