you are the fourth person to request such an issue. most have solved the issue by uninstalling/deleting aftersoul from their computer, downloading it again, and re-runnin - for the sake of helping me debug, did you ever have a previous version of aftersoul installed?
Act 2 is not out yet. What you are playing is the definitive main story gameplay loop of Act. I am currently working on the finale of the Act 1 story, as well as preparing the epilogue that transitions into Act 2.
I try not to place ratios entirely on things like 'top' or 'bottom' when I personally am not writing to the sate the needs of either role, at the moment. As such, I can't really give a solid answer to this question. Perhaps as the game expands I can give a better guesstimate than 'not a lot of either', but the 'goal' would be to supply a healthy mix of both.
With the introduction of 'breakout scenes', at least two players have highlighted that their game won't load breakout scenes when going into the forest (instead staying blank). These players had older versions of the game downloaded before playing the game. The only known fix that has worked is to delete Aftersoul and redownload again, as this issue might stem from trying to update the game by replacing the newer version of the game into an existing directory. I currently am not sure why this softlock exists - sorry for the inconvenience.
Right now exposed is a debuff that removes a % of the enemy's 'defense' stat, so a single move hits harder. 10 stacks should equate to 100% of the enemy's defense, but i don't remember off the top of my head. it will have a dedicated portion inside of a menu alongside all of the other buffs / debuffs once I've created that. the numbers being used aren't final, and are expected to change! additionally, a lot of early enemies don't have a lot of defense to cut through, so it wont always feel consistently powerful in Act 1.
hiya - this would be the second time this bug is mentioned, and the first who ran into this fixed it with a fresh install after deleting all prior versions they had installed
Hiya - one of the goals I started with when making Aftersoul was to try and create some fleshed out, slow burned party members. It's simply beyond my scope for the game to try and handle all the iterations of scenes w/ any number of party members present or excluded - but I agree that it would be nice to see such a system. Regardless, I hope you understand that a main goal of mine in regards to this game's development is to focus on a cast of characters. Act 1's focus is on Hunter. Act 2 will have a different crew member take the majority of screentime, and so on.
necessary? no - optional? yes. I believe the requirements are flirting with Shade and then taking her up on the offer in the hot springs. i am unsure how else i could have properly gated that content, beyond some sort of content flagging system which I have not yet built. hope you enjoyed the game beyond that!
good news - there is a way to change text speed within the game already - including the ability to skip it going line, by, line altogether! simply click the eye indicator to open up additional controls (infinity icon to speed it up to instant)
double good news - I have just recently implemented a speed-adjustment system for combat that will be in the next major update!
I will consider a long term solution for something like a gallery, but it is not a focus of my development goals right now - thank you for the kind words!
carp's explanation is of production - it's a resource other than ether that builds up with each successful fight you win. you gain more production based on the amount of 'production rank' you have. you also gain more production rank each time you build!
- you dont particularly get to do more with boss than you're already doing, for the time being - yep! offhand, I believe that new training opens up based on your character level - nope, knave can kind of join at any timeframe for a lot of the content you're seeing so far, so he's not that involved. once he's required to progress the story, you'll see a lot more of him.
-boss getting ether is his intended path! he just gets bigger
-arson will not bulk up in his next installment - that will have to wait for a future date
-yeah, there are scenes that don't repeat. I'm still considering a way for people to see existing scenes again, but I have no plans of adding that scope in yet
-i believe wolven guard has more training scenes later on beyond that first intimate scene
yeah, being high enough level to avoid the one shots is important - check the wolven vendor shop to buy a piece of jewelry if you haven't already - then go pay a visit to knave and have a chat! that might help you out a bit.
plantwolf is a tough final fight, and intended to be the 'hardest fight' at this stage of development - nothing more behind him than a teaser for what is to come for folks who do want to challenge him.
each form has an alternate best strat. typically, you need some form of sustain and a looooot of levels to keep up. again - it isn't intended to be beaten by players at this stage of development, so don't feel too pressured!
Yeah, no character customization - MC is a fixed perspective. I'm mainly sticking to dudes n' gayness, and attempting to tell a story from a fixed character background. Additionally there's only one female character right now. Audio will come along as I continue to develop - looking forward to when I get to tackle that! I'll be keeping my eye out on how to streamline 'explore' prompts to be less grindy.
Major character customization isn't a high priority for this game, to help limit scope. I look forward to future projects where more of my time can be put into that. For now, our MC primarily has one trajectory, with a handful of 'flavors' - none of which are incorporated as of yet!
Agreed that it needs some help smoothing over - too many things need to occur in specific order without wiggle room. I will attempt to smooth this over in time!
yep yep! combat speed button is scheduled for the overhaul to the combat UI (which is sorely lacking). the overall speed of combat currently slows down with each active party member added, though it doesnt feel like a fully polished implementation yet. additionally, there are two active defensive layers in the game that have yet to be added. health potions should increase your viability to stay in the fight for longer, acting as single target heals/resurrections within combat and full heals outside of combat - as well as a manual defend button that blocks all incoming damage for a few seconds. both should dramatically increase the time you can spend away from a sigil, and reward 'active play'
- Balancing narrative pacing is a challenge for sure! The ability to make all text propagate at once helps with fatigue a bit, but I have no intention of removing the two-factor button presses to progress to the next block of text.
- Skills will be earned at pathway rank thresholds in a future update to better guarantee early skill power without needing a trainer. These skills will be unique to each pathway. This should better 'buff' the value of rank ups.
- Early feedback was to speed up the pace of combat because it felt too slow. 'Fast and hectic' shouldn't be the baseline, for sure, and it should never feel like raw RNG or grinding events you've already exhausted are your only pathways forward. This boils down to two things: 1. better balancing and 2. more content for your current power level.
- Locke's difficulty jump between questlines is too steep. Either I put a level requirement lock between quest steps, or I lower the requirement. Either way, the end of his questline will still be locked behind Act 2 (same as plantwolf).
- Shade's currently overtuned. Better balancing will take place with playtesting of the other narratives - each taking place concurrently w/ the Den story (estate + cultist questlines). I'm also just not satisfied with the complexity of the fights boiling down to 'rush her hp down before she rushes yours down'. It should have another layer of play to it.
- Plantwolf's final stage isn't intended to be beatable at current power levels. Victory against the foe will only have importance after Act 1 concludes (for the same reason Locke's is gated). Having early narrative threads like these with stark challenges should act as motivations to get stronger. The problem ultimately lies in there not being enough new content to do in the meantime.
Ancient Woods & the Estate are my next primary objectives up until v0.4.0. Hopefully your existing issues with combat pacing feel smoothed over by future releases!
I aim for much higher overall HP stats for higher level enemies, and also to add a penalization to repeated healing from skills. Mana refilling every round is something I'm considering removing to also make it more of a valued stat. Potions and a way to 'shield' attacks with spacebar are two active forms of mitigation and resource management I'm working on, to make active and engaged play feel like it can take on 'tougher' foes. Additionally, Damage Resistance vs Physical or Magical is indeed coming to enemy design to add some complexity - it just doesn't feel that fun until you have more options later down the game's lifespan. Trigger skills are also valuable, but not readily stackable (only one On Hit trigger should be randomly chosen if you have more than one on). I'm excited to get to the point where people can put one move on auto and have the other three trigger skills be unique conditionals (on skill use, on mana use, when struck, etc). Ultimately, I want the feeling of a growth game to lean into feeling like you're 'breaking the game' with synergies. Things should feel strong with enough fixation/investment - it's okay to outscale, as long as there is a bigger HP bar on the horizon to eventually tackle.
Pathways will have unique skills unlock at certain level thresholds to guarantee some form of scaling. Incentives to mix and match come down to build ingenuity - especially to those that want to min/max substats. I'm not against overleveling, but I plan on having unique scenes occur upon reaching certain thresholds of pathway ranks - things that will ultimately change how your character develops/grows/looks. These developments (such as scenes and unique forms) will also be locked behind story act structure.
