Monday, December 7, 2015

Update

Been a busy week personally so I haven't been able to get quite as much done as I was hoping but we've still been making progress on 0.2.

Completed all mapping.  ACE comes with some really nice preloaded maps and I'm using them to get a better world.
Cindy - 2/2 scenes completed.  Turned into a lot of backstory as well as swelled to about 30 pages of text in 4 event sequences.  Fully imaged and coded
Sarah - 5/8 scenes written, 1/8 imaged.  Much more character background and interactions during her capture sequence and I think it's more interesting overall.
Terra - Nothing written/imaged yet but it's fairly well plotted out.  Going to be 5-7 scenes and one dungeon.  Going to follow roughly the plot of v1 but with some significant twisting to have your actions be more logical on the dark route.
Fenja/Bounty hunter quests - Won't be part of 0.2 but we might recode/rewrite them in the future.  For now focused on primary storyline more then anything else.
Coding - Chapter 2 doesn't have any great challenges from a coding perspective.  Both the implementation of the scenes and events should be fairly direct.  It is a lot of writing of which almost all of it demands a rewrite due to low quality in v1. 


With any luck we'll be in testing for it before the end of the month.  I have a few days off coming up which should give me a few days of writing/coding for progress.

Patreon updates-

First THANK YOU.  There's been a lot more support then I was expecting considering the limited content of 0.1.  A few updates specific to that
-If everything goes according to plan the pre-release copy should be ready in the first week of January which coincides very nicely to the pledge times.
-While nobody has gone up to the $25+ tiers I am developing content for it.  There should be anywhere between 2-4 non-canon scenes available to that tier with the release of Chapter 2. 

Questions for everyone -

How important are the sidequests to people?  My own inclination is to work through the primary storyline first but I want to hear feedback on that.
Part of the reason why there was no exp gain is VX is that there wasn't a good way of addressing actors out of party with their exp gain and didn't want a scattering of levels forcing players to use particular slaves in their party and then get punished if I hide away their best characters for a story sequence.  VX ACE seems to address this fairly elegantly and I'm wondering if exp/power gain from combat might make the fighting a bit more enjoyable.  So please let me know what kind of combat you'd like to see in Harem.

43 comments:

  1. Side quests could require you to use set combo's of slaves and reward special gear items.

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  2. I quite liked the "no-exp, everyone levels up at the same" system, actually.

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    1. Agreed! It's nice, not having to worry about XP.

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    2. Main story content will not assume that you've been grinding in terms of balance.

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    3. +1 for having no exp here.

      There's still other ways of giving a sense of progression - I played a great game recently called Claire's Quest (though it's sadly no longer supported) and you progressed by upgrading certain aspects of the PC's personality. Maybe something like that could work here? You can choose to invest in compassion/coercion etc

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  3. I'd prefer to be able to swap out girls as I feel like it and not have to worry about levels. I do like side quests because more stuff and maybe sexy scenes are always good.

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    1. VX ACE lets you distribute exp to all party members, active or not so that won't be an issue. If I rebuild the brothel that might prove to be a challenge but that's not for a while.

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  4. I really liked not having XP in the original. It made the game feel very event-driven, and fit the setting well. It presents enemies as an obstacle to your goals, rather than an opportunity to grind for stat boosts.

    If and when side-quests start to really come in, they could still be great sources of dialogue, scenes, balanced side-grades to existing character abilities, or just good old-fashioned loot. Personally, I'd much rather see work done to push the main plot.

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  5. I would prefer if work was divided equally between side quests and the main plot. Also, I preferred the old way of replaying scenes through the main menu. The new way is interesting, but I liked being able to replay both the unlocked dark path scenes and the light path ones in the same place.

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    1. Ultimately the CG room in game was a event-based work around until I had a script-based solution. NoMoshing/JBurton were kind enough to let me use theirs and that'll appear in chapter 2.

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  6. first glad youre back really engoyed 0.1 a tiny bug in the light path the bartender said hed give us the room and 10g but after we got samanta we still only had 1000g that we got at the cave
    about combat i am all for exp AND gold gain it really makes battling way more sense since even in real life you gain experience in each battle
    about sidequests i really engoy questing in rpgs wether its primary or side means little but i do think that games like that need to have a lot of stuff to do and since its a whole world you get inside in those games its only logical that not all of them are related to the main mission\story
    in v1 i really engoyed fenja and the bounty hunter quests too it gave some more meaning to grind which was really necessary for some parts of the game espacialy if you didnt open the brothel
    are the quest ideas that were in the read me file in v1 0.6b.8 going to appear in v2? i was really looking forward to the pirate treasure and the elemental temples

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    1. Those weren't my parts of the game unfortunately. But I will be looking to reuse leftover material they may end up being used far later.

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  7. while i think that the idea of removing exp is not bad, it come to light a few problem:
    1. the random encounters, if we encounter enemies randomly while keeping the same level, we spend the same amount of time for each battle with next to 0 rewards since our characters remain the same, for example, fighting a lot of random enemies in a story event became very punishing

    2. Grinding, we need ewuipments, potion and hence grinding, level remain thsame will, as above stated, took the same time for each battle, this is souding really tired to me

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    1. That's the issue that exp may solve. Combat in v1 felt very pointless and thus a grind. No exp and very little to spend gold on. Unlikely to address the second issue right now but if you're growing as your fighting maybe the fighting will feel more rewarding.

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  8. I also would prefer if work was divided equally between side quests and the main plot. And please keep the the actual system of no-XP, or if you choose to implement XP, please limit the amount of random combats to avoid excessive grinding.

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    1. Main story will always be the main focus of the game from my view, but considering that side-quests are usually more grindy and less intensive to make the perspective from your view may be different.

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  9. The only way I could really see XP added to this game without any major issues is if you somehow could make all slaves earn the same amount of XP and the new slaves you get are the same lvl as the old ones... but that would be harder than it needs to be so just go without XP.

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    1. harem collector has an exp script like that it also has a toggle running script that will make training and playing your game much faster and nicer coz you won't have to press shift aall the time

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    2. The shared exp is just a checkbox in ACE so that's not a problem at all. And it's pretty direct to create an event to call so when the new character joins they're leveled to the correct level. I've used it to reset character stats before.

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  11. +1 for no-exp. Less grind and more tactical options.

    While we're at it, random encounters are annoying, even if you know where you're going. If you don't...

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    1. There's not going to be an open world random combat for now. There will be scripted events that occur in the world map via RET. Sidequests will be in large occur in dungeons and yes, they will have random combat.

      And if I go with an exp system main story balance along that story will assume little to no side-questing. It may make the combat trivial if you do side-quests but that's fine.

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  12. About the side quests, I would add them. They don't need to be long, the mini quest about searching for the dead husband could count as a side quest, but think about what would the reward be, maybe a CG scene, maybe a better weapon.
    Side quests are things that give you something that makes the game easier without affecting the main story line, plus they can be long or short but you can use them to develop characters if you want, keep those options open.
    Thanks again for the wonderful game.

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    1. I've thrown in one already. Essentially re-using unused content but I'm going to call it a new quest!

      And yes, it does end in a shiny new weapon and a mouthful of semen for one of your slaves.

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    2. Same guy has before, Thanks. I remember playing you game like 1-2 years ago and loving the split pathway mechanic. As for reusing unused content, Good for you! It will be fun playing when you release the next demo.

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  13. The side quests added to the original game and I was really starting to like it. Will be nice if this game is along the same lines or future events from it.

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  14. side quests are so fun it adds more options and interaction instead of a linear story based way

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  15. I was very happy with the sidequests from the previous versions, as they were intresting and you ended playing them for the story and cgs anyways so it was no problem that they didn´t give any XP

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  16. I would say create some sidequests, particularly if they give the player good rewards for completing them, such as new scenes, potential new harem members not part on the main plot, better equipment, large amounts of gold, new hideouts, etc.

    The exp is harder to say. I'm the type that likes grinding, although that's mostly influenced by some of the games I play. Maybe the levelling system could relate to bosses and mini-bosses on both main and side quests, and you level up when you defeat one.

    I also previously stated this but for other adult forums you could join are Kimochi and Fenoxo. This would allow new people to look at the game and fund your Patreon, as I'm pretty sure a lot of people don't realise you've restarted the game.

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    1. Fenoxo and Kimochi are in the plans, but I not until 0.2.

      But your comment on side quests is interesting. I had introduced the concept of minor slaves near the end of v1 where certain characters would just get one scene and then get shuffled into the background, maybe getting a cameo or two. I will be doing that more in v2 but I'm unsure of how people will react to it.

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  17. BGM music is not running in this version.

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    1. Odd. Make sure you don't have the game muted when you're playing it. If that isn't it, try deleting the game and downloading it again, maybe there's a corruption somewhere.

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  18. Exp/power gain would definitely make combat less annoying in the new versions, rather than a more-or-less arbitrary roadblock or obligatory monetary grindfest.

    And I love me some sidequests. Things like world-building, special items, interesting characters, etc., really make a game worthwhile to me.

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  19. Two things. One, I am very excited to see this project back up and running. The original Harem, well as far as it got, brought me much enjoyment, as I am kind of evil when I play sex games and fully embraced the dark path. I look forward to the remake and wish you the best of luck.

    Second, it's taking me quite a bit of time to figure out how to actually download it and I'm not yet certain of success. Sooo... might want to make that simpler or easier or just, pick a couple reliable sites or the like.

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    1. There's a mega and google drive link on the downloads page.

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  20. where can i download Harem 0.6b.8 or have you deleted it?

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  21. First of all it's great gift from Santa to see you back.
    To answer your questions:
    Personally i don't like going back in games or playing them for 2nd time. So I'd prefere having both main and side quests being developed at the same times, instead of adding some quests later on.
    As for Xp, I liked your old way, importand event triggered lvl up, it lets you keep your party in right level for quests. On the other hand, if battles give enough xp to keep up with game difficulty, then why not. I wouldn't like extra grinding needed for smooth progress though.

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  22. Glad to see you are back Ker.

    As for side quests I do like them if they are well thought out or entertaining as well as a fair reward for finishing them, Exp, cash, items or scenes/Npcs

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  23. You are getting $100 a month on your Patreon. Does that mean weekly updates now?

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