itch.io

Yeah, sounds like you grabbed one of the Maids & Re-Masters.

I didn't want to maintain separate pages for the April Fool's builds, so I stuck all the "spin-off" stuff on the same page.

Gotta make sure you grab the download that says "Maids & Masters: Arrival.rar" or you'll either get an April Fool's build or the original VX Ace version of Arrival (which is very different and doesn't transfer forward).

Yeah, Arrival provides a bit more context about what happened to start the events of the game. It takes place immediately before the main game starts, and is about 20 minutes long (and should only take about 45 minutes if you want to take the time to turn everything over and find all the secrets).

That's by design.

The .txt it opens is the README, which tells you how to use the cancel mechanic to get past the age gate. The mechanic used to get past the age gate is used in almost every choice presented to you, and is required to get past one other part in the game that people tend to get tripped up on because they forget about that mechanic.

There's also some other useful info in there besides the usual changelog/contact/generic README stuff that I'd recommend giving a look, including info on how to transfer a save from the short prequel, Arrival.

Maids & Masters was my main project, but it just recently hit v1.0 in early access, so outside of some polish, that's completely done and should keep you occupied for 70 hours or so.

Looks like you already found that, though. =P

You can get support/help just about anywhere you can find me - here, Patreon, Twitter, etc.

I do have a Discord server, but it's currently private and only available to Patrons/Subscribers.

And Redemption Harem is currently just a demo/prototype. I want to turn it into a full game eventually, but I'm just one dude, and I can only develop so much so fast.
At the time of writing this, I have public polls on Patreon running and will be starting a Patron-only poll soon to determine what exactly I'll be working on next. If you want to weigh in on that, voting/commenting there is the best way for me to keep track of everything.

Better is subjective, but the earliest consequence of either choice is during the second Haunt, so I'd suggest making a choice by then.
The canon choice would be to repair the Headstone and send the supplies to the Nithercott Estate, but that does mean giving up the Adhauga Accord entirely.

You're not getting any more tasks because that's the end of the game. You can keep playing after the credits roll for the sake of things like going back and getting trophies and doing side content.

Iris you either have to get before the end of Archibald's segment, or you have to give up enough to make Archibald not hate you (which is what that Writ is for from the beginning of the game - it serves no other purpose) so you can still get into the mansion. You can make that easier on yourself over the course of the game by doing things that improve your reputation, the most repeatable of which is doing things at Big Dick's Estate.

The Servant of Nature is pretty straightforward, you just have to manage the adds. I'd suggest using AoE attacks to clear them out quickly, but you could probably also get by with modifying your equipment so you resist status ailments.

With the Servant of Air, Melissa will tell you when to block, but if you level enough, you can just damage race the fight.

There isn't, but it's not especially deep, either.

ATK is attack and affects physical damage, and is reduced by DEF, which is defense.
MAT and MDF are magic attack and magic defense, and have the same relationship.
AGI is agility and affects the order characters take actions in combat.
LUK is luck and has minor effects on things like evade rate, hit rate, and crit rate.

The only Theurgy that's kinda weird is Treatment, which takes into account the MDF of the user and the target instead of only the user's MAT. Everything else works pretty much how you'd expect it to, though there's more specific info on things like how buffs work in the README.

There's no way to change that outcome.

Hey! Sorry for the trouble with the bundle. 

I was able to find your purchase in the payment history, and what happened is you contributed the default suggestion, which is less than the $20 needed to receive everything in the bundle. So, for Dragon of Calon Valley, you'd have the demo, but not the full version. 

Your payment can't be modified, but I am able to refund you if you'd like.

The README tells you what to do in order to get the README to not show.

You just have to, y'know, read it.

I can't stop you, but I wouldn't advise it. 

Since it looks like you're using a mobile emulator, you may need to close the app and relaunch the game to get it to close. I'm not familiar with the emulated environment, so I'm not sure there's a way to close out of the README without relaunching the app.

You'll also need to keep the mobile controls enabled, and make sure you read the Hints & Tips section.

It do.

Only when the story progresses.

I'm glad you like it! I won't give away all my secrets, but:

1 - Clear all the fights with more Maids.
2 - Yes; short answer, visit Big Dick's more often.
3 - The pond is just outside the south exit; go west.
4 - Yup. Do that, then talk to the bald elder.
5 - I'm considering making a full guide, but it'd be a huge undertaking. More on that after v1.0.
6 - No. After v0.23.4, the next update is v1.0. Updates after that will just be bug fixes.

Don't feel too bad, a lot of people get tripped up on that.

The directions always come in pairs, and might be written as something like "left of west" or "west of left," both of which would indicate the button on the left side of the left pedestal. Every button is only used once, and the sequence resets if you make a mistake.

There's also a "just the important stuff" option after you read the story for the first time that might help. You can check that at any point while solving the puzzle - it won't reset unless you leave the room or push an incorrect button.

Yes and no.

While my current main project is nearly done, once it is, my next project will be up to a vote on my Patreon/Subscribestar. Love/Loss will definitely be one of the options, but it won't be the only option. Whether or not I'll work on it more depends on if it wins the poll.

I obviously want to work on it and finish it (along with all my other projects) eventually, but funding is my biggest obstacle right now.

Not many. There are only three that you only have one chance at, but the others you can either get at any time, or can get as long as the season is active, or you can get at Big Dick's Estate once it's unlocked.

There's more specific details in the FAQ on the blog.

Strange. I've heard people report issues with the Ventire Folk that have been moved into the Beauregard Estate, which should hopefully finally be fixed in the next early access update (though the bad news there is that the bug is mostly that everyone there should be dead and the bug is showing them alive). I've never gotten any reports of there being a similar issue with the Nithercott Estate, though; I'll have to look into that. Thanks for the additional details!

Anne's quiz for the trophy is started by interacting with a book in Master's old classroom rather than by talking with her directly.
Trophy 34 involves you going to multiple Estates in basically all of the regions in western Commorance, it's not contained to  a specific region.

That's a new one. 

Having looked into it, the most likely cause seems to be something being out of date. Updating graphics drivers seems to be the most common fix, but I also found at least one instance of someone needing to roll back to legacy drivers to fix the issue, so what the exact issue is and how to fix it will depend on your specific hardware setup, which I can't really help with. Sorry. =/

Sorry for taking so long to get back to you! I've been extremely busy.

Also, sorry if I don't give you the answers you're looking for, I'm not 100% sure I understand what you're asking.

For the bug you ran into with the war - do you mean all the Estates and villages ended up destroyed after you'd gone through their "saved" events, or a specific village and/or Estate? Each one behaves a little differently, and some events involve you destroying the location yourself depending on other actions you took earlier in the game, so what happens where could be on purpose depending on specific events. I can't help you or identify any bugs based on what I can figure out from your post.

For the trophies - 28 is the only one you can lock yourself out of among those you mentioned. The others you can get at any time.
28 is the smoking pipe, which you get after a secret scene with Willow during the cult meetings. It is possible to miss and be locked out of, but you have more opportunities to get it than there are unique bits of information to find during the meetings.
30 is the pickaxe, which you should get automatically after a specific challenge fight. If you haven't found the area where that is, there's a Folk nomad camp that has a secret exit only while you're in the mountains.
31 is the dog collar, which is a reward for passing Anne's quiz in Uncle Gil's Estate.
34 is the golden blade, which is another cult-related thing, but doesn't have anything to do with the meetings.

I'm glad you like the game!

Sorry, but I'm not totally sure I understand the question.

If you're asking if it's possible to get past him because that's what the quest log is telling you to do - yes, but not yet. That fight isn't available until v0.22, which is the current early access version.

If you're asking something else, I'd be happy to answer if you can clarify.

You just have to go north far enough.

The Dense Wilds and the Deep Wilds are two different locations.

Man does it feel weird to think I've been developing this game for that long. Glad to hear you're enjoying it, though!

There's one in each forest region, not counting the one off by herself, with the one in the Dense Wilds being the one for the West Forest and the one on the beach being the one for the North Forest. Sounds like you're missing the one in the South Forest.

I've made a couple attempts at it, but so far none have been successful. I might try again once I hit v1.0, but it might also not be possible due to the plugin environment.

Some people have gotten emulators like JoiPlay to get the game working on mobile, though. Obviously that's not officially supported, so I can't really help with that, but it might be worth a shot.

If only I could afford to hire anybody. I definitely appreciate the help you're giving me, though!

It figures I missed a bunch of things related to the war. -.- That is a deeply complicated segment of the game.
There's another switch that tracks whether you tried to visit Viridius after making him mad by outing him to Griselda. I think I got everything that'd stop you from getting her to him if that other switch is on, but it's kinda difficult to make a patch for it because there are a bunch of maps, so that'll have to wait until v0.23. The timing doesn't matter on when you complete it, though. You're meant to complete it during the war, but there's no negative consequences to doing it afterward.

The Folk reappearing sounds like the switch that marks the Estate as having been destroyed rather than saved (which is a separate check from the Estate being liberated) didn't get flipped correctly, which... I can't say I'm surprised at, given everything else you've found, and that should now also be fixed for v0.23, but unfortunately I don't have an easy way to have that be fixed retroactively for existing saves. There is and event that should fix it retroactively anyway, but that same event is the one that determines if the Maid there has sacrificed herself for the Folk, and that obviously isn't working how it's intended either (though I have adjusted it a bit, so maybe that's also fixed?), so it's hard to tell if I'm missing something that's still broken or I've fixed it at this point or if it's correct and there's some other factor that's re-breaking things that I'm not seeing.

Though yes, the idea with the Estate is that if you get there fast enough, you can save everybody. The turn count on it is pretty tight, but having the Folk moved there already buys you a couple extra turns, and having the Maid still be alive buys you another couple extra turns (which is why I keep talking about her sacrificing herself; there should be a small window where she'll be dead and the Folk won't be).

That last issue with the Nithercott Estate sounds like the switch was flipped, but the transfer isn't sending you to the correct version of the maps. Which, looking at a few things, I see a couple situations where that might not happen correctly, and another thing where I just missed putting in the conditional. So that should be fixed for v0.23 as well.
You might be able to double check that by entering the wilds near the Estate and going back to the Estate from there.

Yeah, this is something I'm still investigating. The same bug was happening with a different door and apparently I missed it.

The Maid there still being up is another bug that I'm still investigating - she's supposed to sacrifice herself to give the Folk a few more turns to wait for you, but I keep getting reports that she's standing when the Folk aren't, so something isn't triggering correctly.
It's most likely enough turns have passed that everyone should be down, but I'm having trouble recreating the bug, so it hasn't been fixed yet. Hopefully for v0.23, but it's done an alarmingly good job of dodging me so far.

The other part of it - not being able to sleep in the beds and the location seeming incomplete - is because it is incomplete. It wasn't until I was looking at it today that I realized there are some other operations that should happen based on other actions (and some player direction you should get if one of those actions wasn't taken) that it looks like never got added in, so I'll have to fix that for v0.23.

Typical Griselda.
I'm glad it worked, though!

I'd rather get bug reports so I can address things, even if it ends up being something I've already fixed or that I'd have found anyway. It's actually the main way I fix most bugs. As much as I do my best to playtest and bug hunt on my own, I'm just one dude, and this game is way bigger than I ever intended for it to be.

And yeah, there's some automated event dialogue (as well as an early challenge fight) that could happen when it wasn't supposed to that was related to taking the aggressive path over the diplomatic path when you first go to Viridius' Estate. That got fixed along with the doors checking if they're supposed to be locked or if you're there for the summit.

Well, that's a problem. One I never anticipated on top of that. Thanks for calling this out!

What you need to do to progress is go into the main mansion's west wing and talk with Jeannie, who is in front of the conference room. You're being stopped from doing that because a switch is active from something you did earlier to make Viridius mad at you.

It's a simple enough problem to fix - I just added some conditional checks for the summit being active - so that's done for v0.23, but unfortunately I don't see a way for you to continue without the bug being fixed. So, I put a patch into the latest change log. There's instructions on how to apply it there as well.

Let me know if it works (or doesn't work) for you.
(and sorry for taking so long to get back to you, this past week has been very hectic)

Nope. Sorry.

The closest thing there is to a time limit that would apply would start when you push new game, and would end when you sit down for dinner with Melissa. That's the one day's worth of time that she could potentially be saved in.

Well, I'm stumped. Everything I've heard from people doesn't point at a specific cause, and I can't find any flaws in the scripting or recreate the issue on my end.

To double check a few things:
You may be able to move your squads anyway if you go all the way up into the top left hand corner. If you can move them (or if you have moved them away from the corner), make sure they're exactly in the corner and try ending the turn with all three up there.
If you can't get all the way up there because Melissa stops you, you may just not be quite to that point yet and you need to visit Lothario first. Your squads should appear properly after that point.
Make sure the patch is properly applied. When you extract it inside the main game folder, you should have received a prompt to overwrite a file named "Map673.json" in the data folder. If you weren't prompted, make sure that file is in the correct folder.

As an alternate solution, if you got the Clown Nose from Arrival and carried your save forward, it gives you access to a debug feature. The debug feature summons Punchinella, who does the same thing the patch does, but on demand. The patch can only be applied to the Windows version of the game, so if you're on MacOS or are trying to run the game through an emulator on mobile like JOIPlay, that may be the source of the issue. In those cases, the debug feature on Punchinella will still work.

And as a last resort, you can try loading your save into an online save editor and fixing the squad location variables manually. I don't recommend trying this, because editing your save can result in bugs like this one and make the save unusable, but if you know what you're doing, it can fix an otherwise unsalvageable save.

It might fix itself if you close the war map and open it back up. If it doesn't, I just edited the v0.20 changelog with a patch that should fix the issue.

Sorry for the trouble with that. I've been looking into it for a while now and still have no idea what causes that to happen. Glad to hear you're enjoying the game, though!

I'm glad you like it!

There's a Trowel hidden in Fekhacht if you want to get one earlier than normal, but otherwise it'll unlock in Emily's shop. I forget exactly when, but it isn't much longer after you gain access to the swamps.

I did, in fact, see this.

Thanks for the well-wishes. Best of luck to you, too!

I'm glad you like the game!

Sorry for the trouble with that. I've had it reported before and couldn't find the cause for it. What should be the cause is the location variables not being set, but those are all given default values the first time the map is opened. I haven't had any luck in replicating the issue, either. I'll have to make a safeguard bugfix feature for it.

To get those positions fixed, if you have the Clown Nose from playing Arrival, turn that on and Punchinella can reset their positions for you. If you don't have it, you can send your save to me and I can fix it (I'll need both your numbered save file and your global.rmmzsave file), or you can use an online save editor and set the following variables to these values (just be careful not to change anything else and use specifically these values, or something else might break or your Maids might end up in the ocean):

Variable 0361 = 11
Variable 0362 = 34
Variable 0363 = 12
Variable 0364 = 34
Variable 0365 = 13
Variable 0366 = 34

Not in the traditional sense, though nearly every scene can be replayed at any time by talking to the relevant character again.

Ah, geez. That thing needs some consistency and formatting updates, too.

Thanks for calling that out!