itch.io

Hehe.  I love the stories and insights that come from gaming groups.  My memory is spotty at best after more than a few years but I have lots of anecdotes bouncing around in my head.

I get what you're saying with the mechanics.  I largely agree, too.  The combat system you're cooking up might be pretty good.  To revisit what you said earlier, Tactics is one of those desert island games for me too.  I have been hoping Sony releases it on Steam with mod support.  More of that game would be wonderful.  I liked TA but it felt like they thought it was too simple and threw in that judge system.  No, just give me more fighting and story!  My teleporting double-fister need more adventuring!

If the combat system does get to be addictive like that, you better believe I'll want more x3

TLS had a finite amount of XP to gain, too.  As much as I bluster, I really can't be bothered to track everything down.  I'm not a completionist or a loot goblin.  I get a fair bit frustrated at loot-goblining.  Can't get into Diablo or Borderlands for that reason.  Gun is gun.  Gun doesn't need to have its name in purple.  It's also sort of why I don't care so much for Pathfinder, although I somehow know how to make a character by heart and I love the lower level play.  Once you get high end magic items and high levels, it stops making sense to me.  Maybe I'm just anti-fun.

The games you mentioned sound neat.  I'll have to look into them!  And I didn't realize you made so many games already.  It's nice to know one of my ideas seems to hold merit even if somebody else thought about it first x3

Ooh, evil Arielle.  Yeah, I can sense that being a direction.  She certainly has some bite to her.  I like her~

And yeah, I guess we have been talking a lot.  It's been a lot of fun!  You seem like a really cool person.  If you ever get on SL, I'll introduce you to the family!

My role play partner in the game I'm running, she encountered a slave girl working as a server at a travelers inn.  Being a slave, she was also used for relief for the patrons.  Well, she witnessed her being... "used" in such a way and had some distinctly mixed feelings.  So, she bought the girl.  I hadn't planned on fleshing her out any so I ran the slave girl through my Chaos Engine to randomly generate her stats and traits.  The darn thing spat out a gorgeous bunny girl with almost no flaws.

Well, shucks.  Alright.  Turns out, she paid WAY less than anybody would dare asking for a slave of that quality.  She had intended on setting the girl free but...  They've ended up having sex almost every night since then.  I think she still intends on setting her free but I also wouldn't be surprised if she just kept her forever.

The plot, so far, is that she's is traveling across a semi-lawless Medieval Fantasy region.  This is just to get her setup in the area and to introduce plots to her.  The starting sub-plot is a beastman taurian gambler got in over his head with a local gang run by a troll woman.  To save himself, he agreed to join this caravan and help the troll ambush it.  In the caravan is a flesh sculptor transporting a lot of personal wealth in a HUGE wagon.  The troll would attack and, while the caravan security were distracted, the beastman and his group were supposed to break into the flesh sculptor's wagon and steal her money then hand it off to their Centaur co-conspirator and make off with it.

Not one thing has gone right for them and my partner has stumbled right into the middle of it.  She's had the plot slowly revealed to her in bits and pieces and ended up agreeing to help them.  She is going to help them by luring the troll woman out to kill her.  But...  The same problems that they had trying to ambush the caravan in the first place still persist.  So, now she has to try and get the caravan scout to stop being so good at avoiding their ambushes somehow to ensure they can lure the troll out and arrange the ambush so she doesn't get away and keep the Caravan Master from figuring out what she's doing.

Bunch of other plots on top of that.  One of the tag-alongs joined up with her by blatantly offering to include her in a conspiracy.  But, she didn't want to tell her what the conspiracy was.  In a bit of a twist, this person has been a mooch but also an absolute wingwoman at the same time, saving her from a couple bad situations.  She has eyes on stealing a diminutive slave girl from yet another customer attached to the caravan who has nothing to do with the plot to ambush it.  The flesh sculptor has her eyes on yet ANOTHER member of the caravan because she wants to win them over as a love interest.  Yet another faction arranged the caravan to see the flesh sculptor safely to the city and have an airship shadowing them just in case something goes wrong.  On top of it all, the Caravan Master is a dominant, heroic teifling looking guy who can summon tentacles.  So...  May partner is infatuated with him x3

Already, the centaur managed to get himself strung up by the neck for trying to kill the scout.  The executive officer of the caravan was compromised by the quartermaster who was bought off by the beastman.  When the XO got cold feet and tried to back out, the Q threw her into a tentacle colony to try and get rid of her.  The scout is a skittish, nearly feral fox girl who barely understands Common and has an overriding fear of men.  The XO was rescued by my partner and is being treated for addiction caused by the Quartermaster's meddling and the Quartermaster, after getting away, has met up with the Troll and is now giving them direct aid for a cut of the outcome.

It's been a lot of fun.

But I LIKE filling out my army with only minotaurs!  What does it REALLY mean to break a game x3

No, I get it.  Ensuring that players play a game "the right way" is difficult when players always find a way to put every block through the square hole.  I'm not the biggest fan of "optimal gameplay" but I also accept that some people are either going to be hyper sweaty about it or...  Or, like me, move Heaven and Hell to ensure they get two assassin/healers with Last Breath and the Angel Rings just so I can call them my "Death Angels".

Goodness, I don't know how to balance that.  I like the ideas you're talking about but I don't know if any kind of system that encourages freedom with the builds will come into its own within thirty missions.  Like you said, jobs or skill trees or whatever will be a lot of work for the short time you have access to them.

Then again, why not make an anthology of games to experiment on different systems?  Keep it short and sweet while you test out features?  Or, maybe an anthology of demos?  Set it up as a different characters around the world and short stories attached to them so you can try out your ideas while fleshing things out.  I think something infinity did something that with alternative timelines in the demos.  Or scratch the story elements and make combat demos to see what resonates?  I tend to use an iterative process myself because I'm awful at planning things.

I'm even more excited to see what you end up doing x3

Biblically accurate angels.  That's a horror story in itself.  I always enjoy the idea of function deciding form and the nuance behind the angels becoming fallen in the first place is, I find, often greatly overlooked.  It's nice to hear you considering it!  Gets my mind thinking about how a watcher living among humans would become a sex deviant after being cut off from Heaven.  If they are considered bystanders in this fight to the point that they're being press-ganged into service, that indicates the fallen angels are not a united front.  Could be that the main Adversary (the Light Bringer himself - or your equivalent) has his cadre of conspirators.  When God closed off Heaven to the fallen, He could have left behind a lot of angels who were largely in the wrong place at the wrong time.  If interacting with humans caused the problem, then any angels with direct contact to humans are potential traitors.  That includes the watchers.

I wish my mind wasn't so scattered and I could remember all of this stuff more clearly.  Sorry if it's a bit of a mess.  I do enjoy speculating x3

Hehe.  I'm no stranger to temptation.  I like to joke that I'm not the snake; I'm the fruit.  That kind of thing plays a big part in my games, too.  I just love seeing what people consider important enough to risk themselves over.  That goes for physical and spiritual risks.  What will make you compromise on your principals or betray yourself and others?  But I also love seeing how the relationships form and grow over time and how decisions impact the world around people.  I'm not a purely sadistic person... but I also believe that every aspect of one's self is important.  This includes the more destructive, devious or disruptive aspects.  The more a person gets to visit those aspects, the better they are able to define themselves and grow.

You could treat Ynna like an out of combat asset that has to be protected while in combat.  I mean, that implies you could ever progress without her, I guess.  Like, she can help make situations easier to overcome or gather intel in her own special way or other things.  That could be the offset for her being a bit shit in a fight.  You want her there for what she can get you outside of fights but that is weighed against the risk she poses in a fight.

I do like Arielle.  She would be a really fun character to have for an "evil" playthrough.  Lots of vulnerabilities to exploit.  But I really like what you mentioned about her wanting to live up to her hero.  That's a really cool dynamic.  I would abuse it x.x

My NPCs run the gauntlet, from snuggly and innocent with no will of their own to sadistic, authoritarian megalomaniacs.  But they usually always have a reason for being the way they are and some redeeming qualities about them.  Think of... finding a weird balance to them.  Like, maybe somebody is ruthless and power hungry but values their reputation and integrity.  They want the world but are held in check by their own self image and sense of propriety.  Or, a person who gets along easily with everybody but will absolutely screw them over for personal gain and struggles because of it.

Some of my favorite NPCs are the throwaway ones like the ubiquitous bandits.  I had a small encounter where the town offered food and free lodging to save some of their people from a bandit group.  Then, you find out the bandits were mercenaries that the town refused to pay for services.  During the negotiation, some people panicked, some people got killed and a few of the mercs took hostages out of desperation to get out of the fight alive.

I think I may have strayed off topic >.<

I like girls, too x3

And best boobies are the ones you get to play with, hehe.  Agreed!

A pretty face trumps the rest of the body.  Yes.  A good personality is the best.  But I'm not going to pretend I'm here for ugly faces and bodies.  Ynna is gorgeous.  She has a youthfulness to her that is fun and is very pretty but still inviting, I guess?  Like, some girls are so pretty that it's kind of intimidating.  She feels inviting.

The awkwardness with Arielle did come through a little bit.  Mostly, to me, the self doubt but absent a victim mentality.  Like...  A drive to do better but starting from such a low point that it's hard to gauge her successes.  In the fights, this comes through to me with the massively reduced movement range.  I saw her as a capable fighter but literally falling behind the main character (please forgive me I am bad at remembering names >.<).  Like, the body armor is quite literally enough to make her viable as a front liner because, well, plate armor is really sturdy.  If I could give her something more akin to medium armor, I felt like that would be perfect.

Ynna would be equally perfect, to me, with some spells that let her enjoy her mobility advantage.  Nothing too crazy.  Causing infighting or debuffing from arousal or just generally messing with people.  Something like a combat enabler.  Then again, I'm also pretty happy accepting, from a narrative perspective, that she's just not cut out for fighting.

On the topic of armor, I'm a big fan of personal customization.  But, I also see the benefit in restricting player choice when you want to keep a certain narrative tone.  Being able to turn Agrias into a Dancer or Ramza into a Monk with Double-Attack is immensely fun but might cause some narrative disconnects.

You could go with a progress tree, maybe, giving people who really need to  go the extra distance the option to grind it out.  Maybe the main character is far enough along the paladin tree to gain something like a buff to wearing heavy armor so his movement isn't so reduced and help with leadership or whatever.  Arielle could have a focus on... toughness, maybe, to offset being physically more smaller at the expense of equipment specialization?

Naturally, the simple option is a linear progression for each character.  That would be fine, too, and probably easier to plan around.  It worked pretty well for TLS.

I do some light game mastering stuff on the side and enjoy diving into mechanics like this.  I toy around with a system my friend made.  It emphasizes ease of resolution so there aren't any complicated calculations.  Lets me focus on world building and character development.  I take a lot of pride in my NPCs but I also can't put as much into each of them as I like.  So, I do tend to pick out favorites.  Also, they're all aspects of me since I'm really not THAT creative.  I'm just expressive with my writing.

Ah, a fellow nerd~

I'm not an armorer by any means.  And, I think, most people aren't.  It's amazing just how much effort was needed to get through such thin armor plates.  Not only that but if you have a huge bugger-all AoE attack like she does, you can probably get away with wearing anything you want!

Arielle is great.  I love her design.  I have a fondness for the slender athletic types and I'm one of those weird people who likes smaller breasts in general.  Plus, it makes sense for a soldier to be fit.  She looks like she would be better served with lighter armor, which I suspect might be something that happens in the game.  I also have  soft spot for the earnest, straight-forward and kind-of awkward types who are always too formal.

The succubus was really fun, too.  She was enjoying herself and playful but never came across as annoying.  In general, I did enjoy the writing and the decisions by the characters made a lot of sense.  It also made sense that she folded like a piece of paper if anybody got to her.  Satin slip makes for good mobility but poor protection.

I may be a silly person but I enjoy more serious narratives with people making the best of their situation.  It makes the quiet, funny or tender moments feel much more impactful...  You know, in my porn games x3

Given the "Pre-Alpha" state of it, I assume there will be plenty of changes to the systems.  What you have now is intriguing enough that I am eager to see what you do next.  I imagine the RPG Maker engine has its own quirks.  So, none of that is really a concern to me at this point.

My hangup is pedantic and nerdy.  Basically, the armor geometry.  Boob plate creates... not really "shock traps".  In plate armor design, deflection is a big consideration.  Slapping somebody in the center of the chest with boob plate ends up more easily transferring a lot of energy to the target.  That's why you end up seeing a lot of later armor pieces ending in more of a point.

I realize I run the risk of insulting your intelligence here and that is not my desire.  Like I mentioned, it's pedantic and nerdy in the context of a sexy game.

Boobs seem massive on the succubus and the angel lady.  I imagine I'll lose that fight so it's not something I'm going to really hassle anybody on.  Boobs are quite nice.  The elf woman is gorgeous, though.  I mean, all of the models are well made and a feast for the eyes.  I just feel my back hurt in sympathy for the really big ones.

Big boobies and boob plate isn't going to turn me away by any means.

This is charming.  I'll be following this for sure.

I have some stylistic issues with it, however, it's nothing serious.

Keep it up!

Glad the chat bot stuff isn't going to be free.

Parroting hearsay it is.

I have to wonder if you've even looked into what Ned Ludd is or you're just parroting hearsay.

It's a game?!  Oh, thank God.  I thought it was a ham pie.

Looks like another lazy cash grab copycat.

Generally, I don't know why people think zombies are sexy.  That's just not sanitary.  But I cannot understand why they think people will pay *for each release*.

Sounds like somebody has been cheated on before.

I would rather have more of this game.

I really like this concept.  I also really wish there was a lot more to it.  I will be following this game's development!

"The world is based on a medieval fantasy framework, which may contain elements of social injustice that are disturbing to some players"

I don't know how any of you survived history class.

More expressions would be nice.  I kind-of like the rough line art.

This reminds me of Cortex Command...

What the heck is "poc"?

I really like the tone and aesthetic of this game.  I hope you continue to work on it.  There is nothing like it that I know of right now.

But we already have fire.  We've had fire for thousands of years.

Oh, okay.  You're just trying to pick a fight for some reason.

Well, carry on.

Why are you talking about magic?

Saw this coming.

Oh, it lives!

Oh yes.  Nothing says LGBQ quite like a "Medieval" fantasy.

It's got almost five stars out of five from ninety reviews.  Just what do you think "underrated" means?

I get to pay for EACH UPDATE?  Sign me up for something else.

I cannot imagine how this is a good idea o.O

I wouldn't have thought customizing skin color was a big selling point.

Judging your kinks is my kink.