Tuesday, April 5, 2016

Dark Route poll



I’ve recently gotten some feedback that people aren’t satisfied with the dark route, thinking that it has been pulled back too far and made to similar to the light route.  I was not happy with how cruel and irrational it was in version 1 and my goal in version 2 was to have it more focused on callousness, ego and disrespect than outright cruelty, but I may have taken it too far.  The idea was to have it start slowly and over time grow into a harsher route which hopefully you’ll see a bit in 3m2, but I can accelerate the process and have it separate from the light route faster than the initial plan.

Your feedback on the development of the game is extremely important.  While I will not make the dark route work the way that it did in version 1, I do want as many people as possible to enjoy the game.  So I’m making a poll to collect your feedback and help guide me in creating the future content.  While I’ve written most of chapter 4 already, most of the dark route scenes still have to be written and can be crafted as you like.  I am making a poll both on my blog and in the Patreon, please take the time to vote and leave feedback to let me know how you want the dark route to be developed.  This is something that I really want your feedback on.

Taken down due to clear multi-voting

Edit: After 10 days I'll be closing this poll (in my mind at least) and making a new poll.

23 comments:

  1. its been a few years since i last heard of HAREM since i stopped looking at legendo of krystal forum good to know history and game still alive ^^, time to download and restart everything

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  2. To be honest, more than anything else the evil route needs to be different. Not necessarily cruel, but different from the light route.

    I didn't like much that in the first version of the game the route was just based on cruelty. It's pointless. But I noticed that even here, it's still too reliant on, shall we say, "direct strength".

    I would like to see more mental domination, mind games and the like. Also, more devious ways to resolve quests.

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    1. The deviation was always going to increase over time, but if the feedback I get agrees with that (and I think it's likely to) you'll see the gap grow larger in chapter 4.

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  3. Sorry to break this to you but there's no dark route anymore.It's just darkER. I lost interest in the game after seeing the new "dark".

    Also, it doesn't help that this is a remake and the new "dark" can always be compared to the old dark route and the difference is staggering.

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  4. I said this a long time ago about the original version; I actually find the light route kind of creepy for how the protagonist rationalizes what is still honestly pretty awful behavior. I can have fun playing a cartoonish villain, but a bad guy who thinks he's in the right and that his noble motives and occasional non-bad acts justify his numerous crimes just isn't fun for me (perhaps because it's so much more realistic and I'm looking for escapism).

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    1. I've never considered either route to be a 'good' route as I consider them both to be evil. Just different motivations for doing so.

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    2. Perhaps that's why the Dark Path isn't really that much better or worse, it's the same story just tweaked slightly.

      Maybe illuminate the Light Path so it's actually Good and the Dark Path would then cast a more Evil ominous shadow.

      So far the story is the Dumb King screwed you over and cursed the entire nation but on a quest to enslave women for his benefit you shall go with a questionable Angel guiding the way... Maybe a Demon should bestow that ring since it's a very Dark item to begin with. Even with all hope of you returning home seems lost as you've lost every logical venture to stay on the original quest some unfounded loyalty keeps you going. Would be nice if some of that is fleshed out a bit more else one day we'll get to the end of this great adventure and be like meh what side was this suppose to be on again? Some Evil lying Angel enslaving humanity? A Good honest Devil that at least tells you what your options are? A deranged man that's entire ideology would shatter if someone were to steal/break that ring?

      Otherwise you only have so many flavors of Evil before its all a big pot of Soupy Evil. Add some variety so it gets more polarized. At the start you're a Noble with no Riches, Land, Armies, Women, and not much is mentioned about why you are even fond of your old nation... The Women are barren, yet it's believed the Men are still able to get it up, and no one is interested in actually lifting the curse? Just trash the useless women, get some new girls, return to the old status quo, and maybe do it all again later? What's really to stop this curse from spreading? Hell not even sure if Ralph has any potency left since none of the girls get knocked up... Might be funny to have that tested.

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    3. 1. The Angel has her reasons for giving you the ring that will end up justifying her actions in either route. Probably revealed sometime in chapter 8-9. So far your character is taking all that at face value. Which is not correct.
      2. Don't throw too much into the introduction. Backstories exist more to justify the story than be their own story. The women of your homeland can't be uncursed because they can't. You are trying to get new girls, that's why you got in the boat. The curse isn't spreading because it isn't. And the pregnancy thing is actually addressed in the intro.

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  5. I'm still doing a dark run to see how it's changed, so I can't comment on the current version yet, but I would like to say that I never really felt the old dark path was based around cruelty.

    I mean sure, you did cruel things, but that always seemed kind of incidental. You did them to prove a point, or to show that you could; they were a means to an end. Contrast that with the light route, where you still completely brainwash and uproot a steadily growing crowd of people, but consider actually acknowledging the position you're putting people in to be too much.

    That's not to say that I didn't like the old light route, or old dark route - I enjoyed them both, but they had very different things to offer. It was never about being cruel, it was about using cruel things as tools to further your goals.

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    1. There was a level of arbitrariness to the cruelty that made little sense when I was writing it.

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  6. *sigh* Why do people have to spam these things? 18 votes in 10 minutes and you think I wouldn't notice it?

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  7. I like to have a choice to be menan or nice. But if the dark path isn't as cruel as in the old version there is no real choice. I like the idea that your evilness is developing, but this development should be a bit faster. I love that the actions of the women depend on how you treat them. I loved, that your decisions had influence on the whole society. Whether you supported the Nahumistst or the other people, influenced who would be destroyed (if i remember correctly). I hope this will be in the new version to, because i liked this very much.

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    1. That part of the game will absolutely continue, and I will be trying to increase the deviation between light and dark in chapter 4. It still won't be dramatic until chapter 6, but it the two routes should start to feel significantly different.

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  8. I always liked the polling attached to my PHPBB forum. It was tied to your forum account, but that's not always feasible I guess. I only voted once. I played by the rules. Sorry no one else did. :(

    -Sural Argonus

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    1. Haven't really seen enough feedback in the forums I use myself to justify creating one of my own.

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  9. For me, it's sort of hard to compare. Most scenes feel about the same, or at least very roughly equatable.

    Terra's scenes feel less dark so far, but most of the dark stuff happens to her after Corsix. The big difference is the scene right after going into her mind. Which quite frankly never really fit well with everything that came after, given you supposedly control her mind enough to drive her into seemingly enjoying a weird betrayal threesome with the Priest, then functionally have no real control over her mind at all for the rest of the game. The newer explanation works much better there, at least in my opinion.

    Angelica's feel less dark, but only because of the removal of the scene where you dress her up like she was with the orcs for the alternate infirmary scene, which, to be fair, is a bit of a letdown given that it feels like she acts up earlier in the current version, but it doesn't feel like too big change.

    The only real thing that sorta felt like a let-down was Cecilia's dark scene, which was actually much the same as the original. It just felt less dark because, unlike the original version (At least, I think), it came specifically because you heard her trying to convince Samantha to run off with her. ...Which seems like it would warrant a bit darker response.

    And I think some of the feel that it's less dark is because much of the dark stuff in the original version isn't in yet. It really starts to ramp up starting at Corsix, and continues increasing after. Most of the early dark scenes that aren't in the new version are the scenes at the one spa place, which I think are about to get added back in?

    That said, I haven't actually finished the dark path for the current release, so I haven't seen the second Phoebe scene or the dark scene for Fenja.

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    1. I'm overall happy with the way that Terra is working in v2. You'll see significantly more divergence in c3m2 and 4m2, ultimately building up to the complete divergence in chapter 5.

      Angelica's getting punished in Chapter 4 for her outbursts, don't worry.

      Your comment about Cecilia confuses me a bit. Her blowjob scenes are very similar but happen before you overhear her talking to Samantha (or at least that is my intended order, I might have to check the sequencing). After you overhear, the second fuck scenes are very divergent as a result.

      But if you can trigger the Ceci/Sam talk before the blowjob I'd understand. I'll take a look at the code, it should not be happening in that sequence.

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    2. hmm, looking at code it seems to be right. How it should work

      1. You capture her in Eowen and she submits readily enough.
      2. You have her blowjob scene. Mindset for that is that she has been avoiding you, but you buy her explanation that she's just nervous around men. You're a bit rough but that mostly because you aren't satisfied with the quality of her service, but nothing more.
      3. You need to through progress Sam punishing Sarah.
      4. Cecilia's next talk is you overhearing her and Sam, Ceci trying to get Sam to run.
      5. You have Sam bring Ceci to you, and the fucking is fairly rough on the dark route. Ralph is thinking that her will might be stronger than initially thought. You bind her so she knows her position and then try to use your power to make her obey again.

      Did it not feel that way when you played through?

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    3. Ah, yeah, that was actually my mistake. I got scenes mixed up. It had been a bit since I played through when I made the comment and I was comparing apples-to-apples scenes at first, so I somehow got the new Cecilia scene and the new versions of the old scene mixed up in my head. Whoops!

      Sorry my mix-up got you confused that things might not have been ordered right, and glad to hear about Angelica.

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  10. While I think that having a dark path is a good idea, we should beware of making the character hold the villain ball. A good villain doesn't do things that are evil for no reason. That just creates a situation that could turn on him. Only do evil for a good reason.

    Tetra is the perfect example. Dark version of controlling her is perfect, as it has a good reason for taking that route.

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    1. That is the goal in v2, thanks for the feedback!

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  11. I personally enjoyed dark path more than light path in v1. Although I fully understand that you have your reasons to alter it and I respect your right to do whatever you like with your game.

    Just 2 cents from an old fan. Thank you for great game the v1 was, and I'm sure v2 will be!

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