Alpha Bug Reports / Feedback

hanako

#7 by hanako - Feb 15 2012

I was wondering if there are any additional activities to achieve other than sports. That seems to be the only one I get but it looks like there are other spots for others

IIRC the weekend activities that have to be unlocked are Sports, Dancing, and Hunting.

I've been wondering if the final product will have a way to look back at the endings you've achieved - in other words, the ability to go through your past completions and read their epilogues.

It's a reasonable idea, not quite sure how best to do it. If you've used the Log function, you've seen we already have a way to dump out most of the game text up until the epilogue. We could give you a log button at the end so that you can pull up the WHOLE story and then resave it wherever you wanted.

Alternately there could be some sort of special autosave maybe? (Spiky will probably hate this idea.

) We could possibly try to automatically save the game when you hit the coronation onto a special list so that you can reload them as you wish. Problem being that it would break the flow to stop and ask the player to name the autosave then, so I'm not sure how we'd differentiate between different plays in a way that would be recognisable.

liz4187

#8 by liz4187 - Feb 15 2012

I also noticed thatwhen i hire the musician as a spy and she tells me of my aunts plot it doesnt matter whether or not i believe her or what punishment I choose as it doesn't effect the plot or my end result why is this?

hanako

#9 by hanako - Feb 15 2012

It should affect your end results; if it's not there's a bug. However, since things are SO busy around the end of the game, you don't actually get the results of what happened with that until the epilogue, usually.

There should be a section in the epilogue dealing with the duchy of Merva where your aunt is from that talks about what happened if you tried to execute or banish them.

What precisely are you seeing that you think definitely should change and isn't?

Aletea

#10 by Aletea - Feb 15 2012

Having a log button at the end would work, although I have to admit that an autosave function that appears right before the epilogue to pull that into a special list does appeal to me. My ideal vision of that would be for it to go into some sort of separate autosave list that is just for the epilogues, and perhaps just be designated by date and time of completion? That way it could be an automatic thing, and the completion of the story wouldn't be disrupted by it. There could always be an option to rename the saves later, I suppose.

In lieu of that, just a log button that would retrieve the whole story would be lovely.

As a more general note, I'm loving the game. It's harder than I had anticipated, but that's actually pretty cool; sometimes there's just a nice sense of accomplishment at managing to survive to the end, which I've found that I don't really get with most games.

Oki

#11 by Oki - Feb 15 2012

Got an error for you. I already did as Selene asked and let her kill my guards in order to get the crystal for me, and now when I click to visit her the game glitches every time and restarts the event as if I just asked my father where it was.

Incidentally I haven't beaten it yet. I refuse to fail checks I really want so XD

I've been here so long even Hanako is sick of me

flwriter124

#12 by flwriter124 - Feb 16 2012

LOVE the game so far.

can you skip already seen text? if so i cant seem to find the button to start the skipping...

hanako

#13 by hanako - Feb 16 2012

You can but it's not been made super-obvious in the existing GUI.

Personally I just hold down tab, but I suppose we should put in something a little friendlier...

(Also, there's a beta patch up which fixes a crash during the civil war, as well as one if Banion gives you a present. Go to Preferences and Check For Updates.)

Spiky Caterpillar

#14 by Spiky Caterpillar - Feb 16 2012

Oki:
Got an error for you. I already did as Selene asked and let her kill my guards in order to get the crystal for me, and now when I click to visit her the game glitches every time and restarts the event as if I just asked my father where it was.

Incidentally I haven't beaten it yet. I refuse to fail checks I really want so XD

0.5.28 or later should fix the glitch with the Selene conversation. (It's an alpha patch for now, pending feedback.)

hanako:
Personally I just hold down tab, but I suppose we should put in something a little friendlier...

The control key also works. And is friendlier.

flwriter124

#15 by flwriter124 - Feb 16 2012

ive tried to download the beta update but it doesnt seem to take hold. any ideas on how to make it work?

Aletea

#16 by Aletea - Feb 16 2012

I just noticed something odd: I chose to have her marry Talarist, the duke of Sedna. I also chose to have her delay in choosing who would control a particular province. In the epilogue, it claimed that she raised someone's status, and than that woman married the Duke of Sedna - and then, on the next page, it said that Ellodie and Talarist had a long courtship, and then married. Polygamy?

hanako

#17 by hanako - Feb 16 2012

Not sure what you mean about it not taking hold. What happens exactly? It should download and then restart (and going to preferences after that will show the new version number). If that's not happening, what is?

I just noticed something odd

Oops! It was meant to cancel the other possibility if he'd gotten married already, looks like that slipped through.

Aletea

#18 by Aletea - Feb 16 2012

That probably would work better than the polgyamy option

or the man that the official marries could be a relative of the Duke's; a lot of political alliances have worked out by marrying siblings of the person in charge

flwriter124

#19 by flwriter124 - Feb 16 2012

2 screens for computer code come up. first one with a small amount of writing, then the security thing on my computer to allow the download, then another with a small paragraph of code that quickly disapears then the game loads. when i look at the preferences it says the version is 0.5.25 and has never been updated.

Oki

#20 by Oki - Feb 16 2012

Alright, here's the endings I've gotten so far, along with some final comments since I've done...so much..

Beat the Lumens in a duel, no civil war. This process took a lot of tries because I had mastered all forms of Lumen and intrigue AND war but not swordplay or reflexes. Married the Duke of Taliblahblah and wasn't particularly notable in much.

Beat the civil war jerks through sheer force and beat the lumens through magic in a duel again. Married some foreign duke.

Married the civil war jerks and beat the lumens in a duel, again, even though I completely maxed out military force, hired criminals, and built war ships.

Finally got the ending where I beat off the invasion with just Naval force, which was extremely satisfying. Married the Duke of whatever land again, simply because his romantic ending sounded far more charming than anyone else.

Oh, and I got an ending where I got the Ixions to marry that noble woman and my skills in speeches were so bad and I was skipping through the entire feast so I accidentally got myself betrothed. Didn't want to see that ending though because I was so mad at my Naval forces not being good enough, but probably going to go back and get that one just because I'm sure the charming noble has a nice ending.

I have like...ten pages of saves. I have done pretty much everything. Congrats Hanako! I literally had Hakuoki, a Japanese Otome game that has just been licensed, sitting by my bed and I didn't want to find the cord to charge it when I had this to play XD

I have to say, I'm going to buy it when it comes out. Solely to see all the pretty art. Seriously, this game is fabulously well drawn. It's really the best drawn Hanako Games video game I've played. I seriously enjoyed sitting around and getting the pretty outfits....When the game is released I'm totally going to screenshot it. It's one of those games I enjoy, but I don't see there being much fandom for it from me. I think the weakest part of the game is after doing so many things and having so many endings I feel that I both cannot place myself as Elodie or give Elodie a personality in my own view. Because of this the game can only exist as it is to me, because the game is about making Elodie successful as a person in so many different ways. You did a wonderful job with it, but that's probably going to be it's biggest downfall. It's the most different from your other games and yet I feel that identity might give you the most to say about it. It's like a much more enjoyable Spirited Heart. Good job!

Now excuse me while I make monocle jokes! Hur hur

I've been here so long even Hanako is sick of me

hanako

#21 by hanako - Feb 16 2012

To give you some idea of whether you've actually done everything, this is what's coming up soon for the event checklist.

been crowned Queen?
transformed into a Lumen?
found a spare Lumen crystal? (You can actually find THREE during the game!)
spoken to Adair's father at the gala? (Actual conversation, not just dancing)
faced a vote of no-confidence?
challenged someone to a duel?
been challenged to a duel?
been sent flowers by a woman?
faced a civil war?
encountered a tentacle monster?
discovered a terrible family secret? (This has to do with Kevan.)
hired a spy?
hired a Lumen Minister?
achieved a naval victory?
sunk a fleet with magic?
broken off an engagement?
forced someone else to get married?
saved the day with the power of music?
made a foreign duke your subject?
become an evil minion?

(That still doesn't cover everything by a long shot, but it should give people some ideas of stuff to search for)

hanako

#22 by hanako - Feb 16 2012

2 screens for computer code come up. first one with a small amount of writing, then the security thing on my computer to allow the download,

Argh, some sort of security problem is blocking it from replacing the program, I expect. (Let me guess, you're running Vista or 7?) Spiky will have to poke it with a stick.

Do you have Magical Diary, and does _it_ let you upgrade properly? If MD works and this doesn't we can look at what's different in the code.

If worst comes to worst you can always get a new full download later when the game is completish.

Spiky Caterpillar

#23 by Spiky Caterpillar - Feb 16 2012

flwriter124:
2 screens for computer code come up. first one with a small amount of writing, then the security thing on my computer to allow the download, then another with a small paragraph of code that quickly disapears then the game loads. when i look at the preferences it says the version is 0.5.25 and has never been updated.

I've got a candidate fix - if you download http://spikycaterpillar.com/long_live_the_queen/updater_admin.bat and replace your existing updater_admin.bat (it will be in the game folder inside the folder where you installed Long Live The Queen), you should be able to update to 0.5.29.

(Do NOT update to anything before 0.5.29, or it will reset your updater_admin to the old broken version.)

Naiomi666

yay

#24 by Naiomi666 - Feb 16 2012

I love this game> I find it hilarious that when I was trying to win this game and become a good ruler I had a couldn't win. But when i played a magic hated, ruthless bitch I owned that play-through.

Also will there be faces for the different men because I can't tell them apart and I don't know who's who. Minor issue though.

hanako

#25 by hanako - Feb 16 2012

Most characters you can talk to will have faces coming. (People who just have titles like 'Maid' won't.)

Oki

#26 by Oki - Feb 16 2012

hanako:
2 screens for computer code come up. first one with a small amount of writing, then the security thing on my computer to allow the download,
Argh, some sort of security problem is blocking it from replacing the program, I expect. (Let me guess, you're running Vista or 7?) Spiky will have to poke it with a stick.

Do you have Magical Diary, and does _it_ let you upgrade properly? If MD works and this doesn't we can look at what's different in the code.

If worst comes to worst you can always get a new full download later when the game is completish.

I was having the same error, and yes, MD does let me do it correctly. But SC's fix worked for me!

I've been here so long even Hanako is sick of me

Aletea

#27 by Aletea - Feb 16 2012

Something else I noticed: I failed to repel the other Lumen militarily, and Elodie's father died. However, in the epilogue, it said something about Elodie's victory over them - is that stat related, maybe? I did keep raising military stats up until the last day.

hanako

#28 by hanako - Feb 16 2012

mmm, do you know what it said exactly?

Since the invaders still leave after killing your father, provided you survive the composure check, it might have been vague. If your father dies you should get some text about Togami's plans for Borealis in the epilogue.

Alternately, if you drove back the Duke of Sedna's little incursion but not the big Shanjia invasion that killed your father you could still get epilogue notes about a victory, it would just be a different one.

We'll check it, I'm just trying to see if what you saw was actually something else. Which is one of the reasons we need to get a log button for the end of the epilogue working, so I can see what you see.

Aletea

#29 by Aletea - Feb 16 2012

Luckily, I had a save file right near it. It talks about Elodie's victory over the Shanjian king raising public opinion of Lumen's, kids playing at being magical, etc. The next paragraph below that talks about Julianna and Selene making an announcment (with encouragement from Elodie), which also didn't really make sense, because in this run-through I was playing an Elodie who imprisoned Julianna until she disappeared from the dungeons; she certainly wouldn't have been encouraging her to do anything.

I do get the text about the Togami's plans, but that's on a later page.

Aletea

#30 by Aletea - Feb 16 2012

Oh, and something else I just realized - someone else mentioned that the aunt's plot never seemed to resolve in the epilogue, with the last heard of it being the spy going to check things out. I've also had that problem, as I've had two run-throughs where I had the spy go to check it out, but nothing at all shows up about it in either the last few days or the epilogue.

Edit: I could give you the log from day 39, if nothing else. When looking back over the log, I noticed that while on day 34 Elodie is informed of the plot, she apparently has completely forgotten it when her aunt shows up on day 38 after her father's death, with just an acceptance of her aunt's guidance. Perhaps that's tied into this particular problem?

hanako

#31 by hanako - Feb 16 2012

If you patch up to 0.5.31 (currently alpha, but I've looked at it enough to be sure it won't totally explode so it should be an improvement over current and it'll be betaed later today) there is an attempt at fixing some problems with Elodie's aunt in the epilogue, as well as adding the beginning of the event checklist. (Also the previously mentioned issue with Selene and the crystal conversation looping should now be fixed.)

Any events you've encountered prior to that patch won't be recorded yet, you'll have to reach them again.

The other epilogue stuff, we'll look at.

The text you described should be the text for winning the Lumen duel, nothing related to military skill, so obviously something went wrong. Will look.

EDIT re EDIT (lol)

If you chose to dismiss your spy's allegations, Elodie does put the whole thing out of her mind. If you chose to have the family executed and then they showed up, that's a bug.

Yes, feel free to email me a log or PM a link to it or something, I'll have a look.

Aletea

#32 by Aletea - Feb 16 2012

I think my purpose in all of this must be to find when the epilogue doesn't match the events

Here's another one for you:

I had Brin, the Duchess of Hellas executed in the interaction with Ixion. Yet in the epilogue, Elodie was noted to have never married and spent a great deal of time with the Duchess, Brin. Oddly enough, when I checked out the log, there was absolutely nothing about that whole confrontation where I had Brin executed - in fact, weeks 5 through 12 showed only that she had taken classes. At the ball, Banion gives his little speech about Brin to try and anger Elodie, however, so it at least recognized those events up to that point.

Edit: Oh, and in that playthrough, weeks 14-16 and 17-19 also were showing only classes and nothing else (not even the afternoon activity).

hanako

#33 by hanako - Feb 17 2012

The occasional blank patches in logs had to do with logging being switched off when you went to the outfit screen and sometimes it didn't get turned back on.

Latest beta fixes a LOT of stuff related to logs and epilogues, and causes the agent to return in Week37 to give a report. Which, depending on various other things, Elodie may not want to hear.

So please patch up to 0.5.35 before reporting any further epilogue troubles. There are probably still going to be a few lurking, but we've definitely fixed some of them!

FantasyFan

#34 by FantasyFan - Feb 17 2012

All right, I was going to wait until I actually FINISHED the game without dying (I've been trying over and over and over) to post here, but I have a bug to report (and yes I upgraded to the lastest version).

If I choose not to go to the party where you get attacked by bandits on the way, the game crashes when the king tells me that the neighboring kingdom has declared civil war.

My game reviewing blog.

Naiomi666

question

#35 by Naiomi666 - Feb 17 2012

I was wondering if there will be a way for the game to be easier?A lot of options in the beginning of the game require court manners and royal decorum but those are the stats that have penalties in the beginning of the game.

It's weird. When I just choose the meanest choices is when i won the game, but when i try and become a good ruler I keep dying!

_________________________
I added cool smileys to this message... if you don't see them go to: (Dead link removed)

hanako

#36 by hanako - Feb 17 2012

If you get to an actual crash, hit the 'upload traceback' button and it'll send the details to Spiky.

(The civil war is in YOUR country, not the neighboring one. We fixed one crash related to it already but there may be others lurking.)

However, are you sure you were updated to the latest version? Because of the bug in the updater in the earliest release, your patches might have been failing...

I was wondering if there will be a way for the game to be easier?A lot of options in the beginning of the game require court manners and royal decorum but those are the stats that have penalties in the beginning of the game.

It's meant to be tricky! But it generally isn't the end of the world if you miss some of the early tests. Since there are logs to track your choices on, people who DO manage to achieve things should be able to give you tips.

For example, it is possible to become a Lumen as early as week 9! But very tricky. (There's also some code in place in case someone is smarter than I am and manages it by week 8. If you somehow pull that off you'll be able to use magic in the battle. I'm not sure it can be done, but I'm covering my bases.)

If a stat is only at -1 you can still raise it, it'll just raise very slowly. Depending on your plans that can sometimes be worth it. If a stat is at -2 then you'll need to force your mood to change.

flwriter124

#37 by flwriter124 - Feb 18 2012

so i downloaded the new file and it worked to download 0.5.27(yay!) but i just tried to download 0.5.34 and it didnt work, so i tried 0.5.35 and it also didnt work..... should i download the new file again then retry?

hanako

#38 by hanako - Feb 18 2012

to quote spiky's post:

I've got a candidate fix - if you download http://spikycaterpillar.com/long_live_the_queen/updater_admin.bat and replace your existing updater_admin.bat (it will be in the game folder inside the folder where you installed Long Live The Queen), you should be able to update to 0.5.29.

(Do NOT update to anything before 0.5.29, or it will reset your updater_admin to the old broken version.)

so if you updated to 0.5.27, then as part of the update, it promptly deleted the fix you'd just installed (because that fix file was part of a later update, so it didn't match the file list for 0.5.27, so it was thrown out).

So yes, you'll need to download the fix again in order to update again. But as long as you update to things later than 0.5.29 it should stay fixed. (And since there aren't any patches older than that still available, it should be okay.)

Spiky Caterpillar

#39 by Spiky Caterpillar - Feb 18 2012

Yes, you should redownload. 0.5.27 has the old version of updater_admin.bat. (Alternatively, you can just open updater_admin.bat in Notepad and change the references to MagicalDiary.exe to LongLiveTheQueen.exe)

junsei7

#40 by junsei7 - Feb 18 2012

Finally made it to a coronation! Yowza - part of me wants it to be easier, but I think I love the difficulty as it means you have so many strategic options open to you and it's really important what you choose to focus on. I like that. I already have a Word document on the go noting all my 'failures' so I have a hint what different paths to try - love those notification bubbles!

I did have a problem in the epilogue - I chose to marry Sedna, but in the epilogue it said that Elodie wasn't the marrying type?

hanako

#41 by hanako - Feb 18 2012

Assuming you're patched up far enough to have a log button at the end of your epilogue, can you send me your log? There are some circumstances in which you don't get to marry the person you indicated you were interested in, so I'd like to check to see if it went wrong or not.

If not patched far enough to have that button, who knows, lots of epilogue stuff has been fixed in patches!

junsei7

#42 by junsei7 - Feb 18 2012

You're right - my mistake - I was one upgrade down. So sorry! Ignore me. Move along. Nothing to see here.

manfromba

#43 by manfromba - Feb 19 2012

Well, many choices and a short length is excellent for me.

Will there be any f/f elements, or just f/m in keeping with the political nature of relationships?

hanako

#44 by hanako - Feb 19 2012

There are some characters who prefer the company of other women, and it is possible to end up in an implied relationship with one, but that doesn't negate your need to marry and produce heirs for the good of the country.

In any case, romance is barely a footnote to the politicking going on.

---

Speaking of, how are those of you in testing doing with filling out your checklists?

liz4187

#45 by liz4187 - Feb 19 2012

So far I have 9 items off of my checklist. I agree with it being very difficult. Every time I try to achieve a new ending I end up dying first because I forgot some stat or another. However I suppose it will be easier when the game is out and people start writing guides. I have so much difficulty with the adventure in the forest I either do not have enough Lumen power, or I die before I get to the party or when I have Lumen power and arrive at the party Brin's mom declares war on me... alas

manfromba

#46 by manfromba - Feb 19 2012

Sweet Heavens, I am aware that every matter of love is trivial in this game before politics, but was wondering, given my interest in yuri and the relative increase in bisexual options in games (including OEVNs) of late.

Is there only one female with whom the PC can end in an implied relationship, or several?

hanako

#47 by hanako - Feb 19 2012

Sorry, I just keep saying that because I don't want people disappointed that they don't get dates and portraits and sweeping romances!

Only one woman that the PC can be clearly involved with at the moment. It may change. There are also two women who are involved with each other (and if you get the right ending results, they have a big lesbian wedding)

I have so much difficulty with the

... that's probably because that encounter is unwinnable.

(Everyone keeps TELLING you that it's too dangerous! They weren't kidding!)

If you bring Briony back to the castle and then have enough Conversation skills to find out why she's so restless, you can get the 'good' resolution to the plot, which doesn't involve ever going to the forest at all.

We were thinking about possibly having an option where you can save Briony from the monster and escape, but hadn't decided whether or not to do it, since there would be hefty negative consequences from having abandoned your responsibilities to go adventuring even if you didn't die in the process. Would you prefer it that way? That also seems like a great way to open up the option of dating Briony. After all, saving a girl from a tentacle monster is romantic!

liz4187

#48 by liz4187 - Feb 19 2012

Haha I already got the good ending to that situation I just figured that there would be a fighting resolution as well. I cannot for the life of me win the naval battle though. I have several skills maxed by that point but I just can't seem to win it.

hanako

#49 by hanako - Feb 19 2012

hint: Forewarned is forearmed!

biscuit

#50 by biscuit - Feb 19 2012

This game is so frustrating!...

The good kind of frustrating, admittedly, but I just did a couple playthroughs and kept dying... so I took some notes in Word (forewarned is forearmed, right?) to help tailor my skills to get different resolutions.

I love how intricate it is, and how so many decisions you make influence things down the line. It seems a bit much for a casual player though, so even though the difficulty/intricacy is part of the charm (for me), it might not be something I'd recommend for everyone, compared to (just a couple examples) Cute Knight Kingdom or Summer in Fairbrook, which are a bit gentler for novices.

Anyways, just my 2 cents based on a very quick first impression.

I forget if anyone mentioned it before in this thread, but having a little gallery of completed scenes/outcomes would be a nice addition to the completed game, sort of like how in CKK you could look at your collected images and review your character's end-game summary.

Edit: Whoops! Just noticed some people mentioned the log function! That scratches that!

manfromba

#51 by manfromba - Feb 19 2012

By all means it would be interesting to date Briony after rescuing her from a monster, even if there are major consequences. Who has not heard stories of rulers abandoning responsibility for battles or love. Of course, if this is too much work, ignore me, but I think that thou art raising a good point, Hanako: It could work but with-game changing repercussions. These remarks intrigue me, and would add another complexity to the game.

Edit: Ah, too much Redwall in my younger days taught me a different spelling of her name.

hanako

#52 by hanako - Feb 19 2012

Considering the potential for confusion with Brin, who is a totally different character, I probably should have spelled it Bryony! Hopefully when we get the art in it'll be a little easier to tell the huge list of minor NPCs apart.

At least I try to give enough context whenever they come up in-game that you can make necessary decisions even if you can't always remember who is related to whom and how and what they're in charge of. _I've_ got pages covered with names and family trees and arrows pointing every which way.

FantasyFan

#53 by FantasyFan - Feb 19 2012

All right, I've been trying OVER AND OVER AND OVER and I KEEP DYING.

(huffs and puffs)

Sorry, but I'm getting really frustrated here. I think I'd like the opportunity to take more than just two classes a week. Three a week could help a lot.

Also, I'd like it if stuff actually happened during some of the weekend activities. Like, you could discover something if you snuck out or explored the castle, or talk to prisoners if you visit the dungeon. It might also be nice if weekend activities raised some skills instead of just changing your mood.

My game reviewing blog.

hanako

#54 by hanako - Feb 19 2012

Would you like me to split a separate forum for the game at this point so that you can more easily talk about how to get past specific obstacles? (EDIT: So I did. This thread was getting long anyway.

)

talk to prisoners if you visit the dungeon

There is at least one you can talk to under some circumstances.

In general, given how insanely complicated the game already is, I think it's a bad idea to give out completely random and unpredictable events and skill gains in weekend events where you'd have no way to know they were there. (And it would have to be random, since there are far too many skills to distribute them evenly amongst those activities.)

At least with skill checks, if you have feedback on, you can see exactly what's happening when and make notes about it so you know what you need to have in order to get past it next time.

Changing the number of classes in a week would totally unbalance the entire game, as well as making a huge mess of the class-choosing interface.

hanako

#55 by hanako - Feb 20 2012

Okay, the new Briony subplot has been added as of 0.5.39 (currently flagged beta) So you can now save her from the tentacled thing, get her back to the castle, and have her as a romance option at the end.

I have tested it to be sure that it is possible to get through all that and still survive to the end of the game, but this is not an easy task. (I saved the log to prove the steps, although I did have to change clothes a few times and that's not recorded. There may be other ways to do it, this was just the first one I came up with.)

biscuit

#56 by biscuit - Feb 21 2012

Typo I noticed, and wasn't sure where to post it. (Misposted it earlier!)

In my ending (repelled the invasion through the power of music, avoided civil war, and more thing I can give the complete log for if it helps) I noticed this:

"She calls upon the gods to deliver peace, wisdom, and propserity to you, and through you, to all of Nova. And then she calls upon you, for your oath of rulership."PROPserity?

manfromba

#57 by manfromba - Feb 21 2012

Thanks for the Briony Romance option! More challenges to deal with, but since when were love and war easy?

hanako

#58 by hanako - Feb 21 2012

(mysterious orphan comment due to thread reorganisation)

(Proving the point, I misread that roman numeral post as IIII, which was sometimes used, rather than IIIII, which is a mistake! working on it.)

Spiky Caterpillar

#59 by Spiky Caterpillar - Feb 22 2012

Note to self:

while i>10:
    ret += 'X'
    i -= 10

does not QUITE do what I'd intended to do.

The Roman numeral bug is fixed in the newest beta.[/code]

FantasyFan

#60 by FantasyFan - Feb 22 2012

(pants) All right, I FINALLY lived to see the coronation!

So finally, my two cents.

The game is certainly addictive and the artwork so far is gorgeous. It also gets really frustrating, especially when you keep seeing that you're lacking in a skill you didn't know you needed.

I like the ability to unlock outfits - I think one of my problems trying to beat the game was trying to fill up one skill and ignore others.

It's probably a bit more difficult than I normally like - it got annoying to just be concentrating on NOT DYING instead of building up the skills I wanted. With most life SIM games, I enjoy being able to build up what skills I want to develop my character the way I want, but in this one I was frantically trying to build up the right skills in order to avoid being killed. But fortunately, the premise is interesting enough to keep me playing even after so many failed attempts. It certainly makes you realize that being a princess is far more of a headache than fairytales make it out to be.

And there's a possible lesbian relationship? COOOL, I'll have to check that out (assuming I can live through the game a second time).

My game reviewing blog.

hanako

#61 by hanako - Feb 22 2012

I definitely wouldn't plan to make LOTS of games this hard, people would run away screaming.

Sorry for the delay on the art, the artist has been having trouble with her internet connection. She's only been able to get on by phone for a while now and therefore can't upload big files.

manfromba

#62 by manfromba - Feb 23 2012

Well, this game may be difficult (I just played through my first playthrough after buying it), but at least it is all turnbased. In addition, it is not random. This is good. I am now aware that there are many ways to play and end it.

It is complex in world and game play - more than standard good country / evil country.

Congratulations, Hanako, on making such a game. It may be risky, but I hope that it can be profitable.

I have rarely been so blown away by a game before.

Yuki

#63 by Yuki - Feb 23 2012

Overall, I think it's good. Some parts of it remind me of a roguelike game I tried to design a few years ago, but later gave up on, as I didn't think it'd work very well.

Some thoughts after a few days worth of play:

*I kind of liked the tension of the game, even if Fantasy Fan didn't.

*It's a shame it isn't longer, with the major events spaced out a little more. Some random events here and there might have been good. Putting it all on the rails does limit its replay value a little.

*I found the internal affairs to be rather convoluted and I kept forgetting who the different people were, especially when there's so many involved, but then again, I'm not very well at the moment and I'm thick anyway.

*Same with the different countries. I think a map might have been helpful, just to get a feel of where different places are.

*There's a way to check how much money you have, but no way of checking how big your army or navy is. I thought this might be helpful.

Aletea

#64 by Aletea - Feb 23 2012

Wanted to put in my two cents

Having a world map that you could look at in-game would be very helpful, just for picturing things. Maybe that could even be used for demonstrating your troops? You know, have how many troops you have at a particular location, if they're patrolling a border, etc.

On the same vein as that, having some kind of genealogy chart that demonstrates how the characters are connected to each other might also be helpful with the internal affairs bit. (Heh, that wouldn't necessarily need to be in game - maybe once the game is further along, someone could make out a chart and post it to the forums)

On the issue of game length, I'm split; with it like it is, every single turn counts. It makes the game more tense, but I kind of like that. The idea of it being longer (maybe without important events everyday, but a few random events sprinkled throughout) is appealing if you wanted a more relaxed gameplay. I like it like it is, though - I've been playing it quite a bit, and the replay value is still going strong because of all the different ways to play it.

flwriter124

#65 by flwriter124 - Feb 23 2012

found a problem in 0.5.41, when talking to the duchess of ursul about the extra lumen crystal, instead of her name it only said ursul, the text suddenly was white and ran in one line that started on the ribbon to the left and finished on the ribbon on the right. the next screen of her talking had the same problem. has this been caught yet?

biscuit

#66 by biscuit - Feb 23 2012

Whoops! I remember that too, but was too immersed in the story to send a proper report. Same issue here.

hanako

#67 by hanako - Feb 23 2012

Randomness is definitely off the table for this game - it would mean playthroughs could become unwinnable through no fault of the player. I don't WANT a longer or more relaxed game. There are different games for that.

(The ursul thing is known about and I think there's a fix in alpha, it just hasn't been pushed forward because I'm hoping that we'll manage to get some art uploaded soon. Still technical problems.)

I do personally have a map and a geneology chart, but I'm currently not sure it's a good idea to put them into the game.

No information on the map is actually meaningful in terms of player decisions. You never have to make choices based on things being closer or further away. I'm worried that if it's put into the game somewhere, people will stress out about trying to learn that information which they don't need and be distracted from the things they do need to think about.

I don't mind putting a map on the forums, though, for people to see as a supplemental thing. My existing map is quite ugly and I don't think people would like it, but I may be able to get a nicer one made eventually.

Displaying troop movements on a domain map would be interesting but to use that really well I think we would have needed to design more specific troop locations from the beginning. Most of the time 'available military' is just kept in a giant lump - they're only sent off to special places if you choose to send them, and if you do that you can't get them back so it doesn't really matter where they are.

As for the geneology, again I do have a hand-drawn chart but it's MADLY complicated with lines and arrows everywhere; it would be difficult to formulate it into a clear thing to look at inside the game. I am trying to provide background information whenever it's useful in-game to a decision that you make so it shouldn't matter too much if you-the-player can't keep all the relations straight. Are there any points you've encountered where not being able to remember the relationships was an actual problem for the decisions you needed to make?

Once we have all the pictures I can make some nice interlinked HTML family charts to post to the forums.

manfromba

#68 by manfromba - Feb 24 2012

Maybe the game could have a genealogical chart that grows and reflects the princess's knowledge of her family? It would be a lot of work, I am aware, but it would allow players to keep track of the characters in such a way as to reflect what the character knows without spoiling anything.

hanako

#69 by hanako - Feb 24 2012

It is assumed that the princess already knows the basic family relationships of the major nobles, although she may not remember the details of people who died more than ten years ago. This is her world, after all.

The stuff that comes up in classes is generally adding specific details and juicy gossip to her knowledge of people she already vaguely knows.

Elodie always knows who her father's brother is and what his position is. It may be news to the player, but not to her.

The difficulty is not in representing what the character knows, because the character has pretty-much full geneological knowledge from the very beginning. The difficulty is that the family trees are very tangled and hard to get across in a clear visual manner within the game that would not leave a player more confused than they were when they started.

Arisse has been married three times. She was the second wife of her first husband, who already had a son at that time. Between her first and second husbands, she gave birth to six children. She then married her third husband, who already had five children of his own. Many of these people are now adults with families of their own. Many of these people are not important enough to ever come up in the game! And those twelve children include the ex Duke of Mead (deceased) the current Duchess of Mead, the Duchess-Consort of Kigal, the Earl of Io, and the future Duke of Elath. IT'S COMPLICATED.

manfromba

#70 by manfromba - Feb 24 2012

Well then, how about a family tree that merely reflects the gossip that she learns?

and a political chart to cover what she knows about dukes' relationships with each other and other countries (to say nothing of other countries' relations with her country)?

Yuki

#71 by Yuki - Feb 24 2012

Are there any points you've encountered where not being able to remember the relationships was an actual problem for the decisions you needed to make?

Bear in mind that i'm stil not 100% in control of my faculties at the moment, so sorry if this sounds stupid.

When you're talking to the old guy, who dies shortly after the celebration, he tells you about who he wants the kid to go with when he's gone and he goes through a lot of his family and I couldn't remember who he actually wanted him to go with when I was given the choice.

Also, I don't get why the other guy (Kevin?) wanted to kill me during the tournament. He was complaining about his family's blood being on my hands (Elodie doesn't seem to know anything about this), so I thought it had something to do with the civil war, but this event seems to occur whether the civil war happens or not. Is this right?

IT'S COMPLICATED.

But did it really need to be? It's hard to know if you're making the right choice without being able to see the big picture, and the more complicated it is, the harder it is to see.

a political chart to cover what she knows about dukes' relationships with each other and other countries (to say nothing of other countries' relations with her country)?

That would be a bit of a nuissance to program considering how many there are, not to mention the problem of laying it out.

hanako

#72 by hanako - Feb 24 2012

When you're talking to the old guy, who dies shortly after the celebration, he tells you about who he wants the kid to go with when he's gone and he goes through a lot of his family and I couldn't remember who he actually wanted him to go with when I was given the choice.

Ah, okay, that needs an extra reminder when the time comes.

As for making the 'right' choice, there's a lot more that goes into it than just who's related to whom.

Also, I don't get why the other guy (Kevin?) wanted to kill me during the tournament. He was complaining about his family's blood being on my hands (Elodie doesn't seem to know anything about this), so I thought it had something to do with the civil war, but this event seems to occur whether the civil war happens or not. Is this right?

He's related to a lot of people and there are two different ways that can trigger. One of them is the civil war, but when that's the case Elodie knows what he's talking about and will remind the player that you executed his mother Arisse after winning the civil war.

When Elodie has no idea what he's talking about, that's because he's upset about Briony (his niece) having run off and gotten herself killed. If you didn't get involved in her subplot Elodie may have had no clue that Briony was dead. SHE is completely confused about what he's talking about, and HE'S too upset to explain. (Kevan is... Unstable.) In the case where you're supposed to know what he's talking about, Elodie adds a line to remind the player that Briony was his niece.

manfromba

#73 by manfromba - Feb 24 2012

Yuki:

That would be a bit of a nuissance to program considering how many there are, not to mention the problem of laying it out.

Not necessarily.

Say we have a list like so:
Character Deeds Relationship Status
Duke A I insulted him at a ball, Maternal Uncle Wary

Duke B I barely know him Father's Friend Neutral

Etc.

hanako

#74 by hanako - Feb 25 2012

Beta 5.42 adds extra reminders for the Elath situation if you talked to the guy at the gala.

LateWhiteRabbit

#75 by LateWhiteRabbit - Feb 25 2012

I haven't managed to reach a coronation yet, but I love the DANGER in the game.

I think the game desperately needs a map in-game. Picturing fake geography in my head AND keeping up with what is happening where and why is a little overwhelming.

It would be nice if the player could pull up a map at any time, especially when a country or province is mentioned and be able to see where it is. It would be even better if the player could click on each location and see what the Crown Princess knows about each one - i.e. what she learned in history classes, and to be able to see what NPCs come from which location.

I also second (third, or fourth?) that NPCs need more information given, especially considering the focus of the game is intrigue and politics. I'm sure it will be a lot easier to keep NPCs straight once the graphics are added, but it would be great to be able to click on the NPCs portrait (once it is there) and be given a summary of that person along with pertinent details.

My final feedback for the moment is that I wish it was more clear what classes and skills each Mood affected. More feedback from the game on which Weekend Activities affected what Moods would also be good for making informed decisions. Even after hours of gameplay and multiple playthroughs I often forget which Activity does precisely what. I.e. "Does Attending Court increase Yielding by 2, or Pressure by 2? What was that other Mood it affected again?" A mouse-over would be appreciated, or something to that affect.

hanako

#76 by hanako - Feb 25 2012

A mouseover works for the simple ones, but is going to have trouble with

If Lonely > 0, + 1 Pressure +1 Cheerful
Else if Pressure > 0, +1 Pressure +1 Depressed 
Else +1 Pressure

which would be the correct result for the ballroom event.

Or do you mean displaying what the visible effects would be if you chose that event at that particular time? (so that it would only show +1 Pressure +1 Cheerful, if applicable, and not mention the rest) That's doable.

It would be nice if the player could pull up a map at any time, especially when a country or province is mentioned and be able to see where it is.

If you see the map I've posted, you will notice that there are multiple named locations that aren't even on it because they're too far away to be displayed properly. Even *I* don't have a map of Shanjia.

It would not be impossible to have a map of Nova *only* that is automatically displayed when a location is referenced in dialogue (not classes) and highlights the relevant provinces.

OTOH no one has shown much interest in the map I do have now that I've posted it, which isn't really making me agree that it's necessary.

Does looking at that map make any difference to your calculations?

---

Unrelated question - Has anyone actually encountered the commoner riots at the end of the game? I worry I may have made that one too easy to avoid!

flwriter124

#77 by flwriter124 - Feb 25 2012

oh i've run into it! i was like "what did i do to deserve that?!" luckily a little lumen magic put them in their place

hanako

#78 by hanako - Feb 25 2012

Ah good, just making sure SOMEONE found it.

LateWhiteRabbit

#79 by LateWhiteRabbit - Feb 25 2012

hanako:
Or do you mean displaying what the visible effects would be if you chose that event at that particular time? (so that it would only show +1 Pressure +1 Cheerful, if applicable, and not mention the rest) That's doable.

Yes, that. So that if I hover over "Attend Court" on Weekend Activities it will show what effects I would gain by choosing that activity at that moment. For instance, +2 Yielding, +1 Pressure, +1 Depression, etc.

Particularly activities like the Attend Services, where the affect can change from week to week. One week it reduces Anger, the next Cheerfulness (I suspect it pulls Moods back towards baseline?)

hanako:
If you see the map I've posted, you will notice that there are multiple named locations that aren't even on it because they're too far away to be displayed properly. Even *I* don't have a map of Shanjia.

It would not be impossible to have a map of Nova *only* that is automatically displayed when a location is referenced in dialogue (not classes) and highlights the relevant provinces.

I understand, the info on the map would be a lot to put in, and I would never want a map to "automatically" open up. But I do think having an option to look at a map SOMEWHERE in the game would be nice for people that care about it. (Even if it is just a static image.)

hanako:
OTOH no one has shown much interest in the map I do have now that I've posted it, which isn't really making me agree that it's necessary. Does looking at that map make any difference to your calculations?

I've been quite interested in the map you posted, I just haven't commented on it yet. I've actually referred to it while playing. I don't know if your Beta group is large enough tell who cares about maps and who doesn't yet. Most of us are focusing on other bugs or the game at the moment in our feedback. Besides "map love" is a huge part of fantasy!

Incidentally, where is the Princess's palace located on the map you posted?

hanako:
Unrelated question - Has anyone actually encountered the commoner riots at the end of the game? I worry I may have made that one too easy to avoid!

I'll let you know once I reach the end of the game. So far death has been too hard to avoid!

hanako

#80 by hanako - Feb 25 2012

Incidentally, where is the Princess's palace located on the map you posted?

The capital city is on Lampsi Island, between Mazomba and Caloris.

LateWhiteRabbit

#81 by LateWhiteRabbit - Feb 26 2012

hanako:
Incidentally, where is the Princess's palace located on the map you posted?
The capital city is on Lampsi Island, between Mazomba and Caloris.

Thanks. That's one of the things that wasn't clear without a map! It lets me know why Shanjia got troops overland so quickly and the importance of a navy!

EDIT: Does the ocean have a name?

hanako

#82 by hanako - Feb 26 2012

I don't think I've ever given it one officially, no. Since there aren't multiple oceans being talked about it didn't need one.

iselwin

#83 by iselwin - Feb 26 2012

Having just beaten the game, I must say... WOW. Now that is what I call a damn good game. When it's out, I'll be gifting it to my friends left and right.

Still, IMHO, there are some weaker parts of it.

1) Winning the magic duel requiring the Sword skill has "What?" written all over it. For a game with branching so rich, I expected better than that. Perhaps there could be a way to squeeze more use for some underutilized skills? E. g. achieve extremely focused state through the Meditation. Or apply some Strategy to your actions. Or even (would take some careful writing) actually make sensible use of the Poison skill.

2) Wield magic affecting the naval battle definitely should be explained somewhere in-game.

3) There should be more than two outcomes to the naval battle rather than just "you win" and "you lose". It would be extremely satisfying if your high skills or careful preparations could help save at least some lives - better fleet being not crushed entirely but merely forced to retreat, bearing huge\severe casualties.

4) There should be in-game description of what moods are better for what skills.

5) Is deciphering entirely useless?..

6) It'd make lots of sense if you could utilize your Lumen skills for the bandit ambush.

7) Is there a non-magic, non-music, non-Godly-naval way of actually winning the game? If not, there should be. Perfect manners should allow you to attract some allies to fend off the threat. Ultimate intrigue should allow to send assassins to the enemy leader.

It would make perfect gameplay sense to merge Athletics into a single skill (as all its' subskills are hardly ever used) and replace nearly useless Polearms skill with it. Probably some renames would be needed then: e. g. "Combat" skill with Archery, Fencing and Athletics subskills.

All in all, can't wait for the final version - the game is just too good already! I hope to see similar games from you in the future .

hanako

#84 by hanako - Feb 26 2012

1) Winning the magic duel requiring the Sword skill has "What?" written all over it.

Logically there's no way you should be able to win that fight via pure magic. You have at best been a Lumen for a couple of months. He's a guy plotting to take over the world who has been playing a long game for YEARS, and intentionally set you up to be a weak target before invading your country. He knows way more about this than you do, and especially about the formal constraints of the duel he's set up (have you found the plot threads about crystal resonances?) Your magic allowing you to create a sword of light is also spelled out in the fluff text when you hit Wield Magic 50. So IMO it's not _that_ out of the blue.

3) There should be more than two outcomes to the naval battle rather than just "you win" and "you lose". It would be extremely satisfying if your high skills or careful preparations could help save at least some lives - better fleet being not crushed entirely but merely forced to retreat, bearing huge\severe casualties.

Fluffing the outcome of the naval battle more descriptively is in my list of things to get to; especially because it'll help people see how close they're getting to having enough strength to win it.

5) Is deciphering entirely useless?

Ciphering is not the most useless skill in the game (my current bet for 'most useless skill' is probably Falcons. It had to be there for meta-reasons, but the only thing it can ever do for you in the entire game you're much, much better off using something else for instead).

However, the only events it comes up in are rare ones, and you only get extra information out of them, so it's really only fun for completionists.

Might at some point add an option to learn a particular bit of actually-useful information via ciphering for people who didn't hire a spy.

6) It'd make lots of sense if you could utilize your Lumen skills for the bandit ambush.

It all happens too fast. If you survive the initial assault you could use your Lumen skills to drive them off, but if you survived the initial assault you don't need to because they get driven off anyway.

7) Is there a non-magic, non-music, non-Godly-naval way of actually winning the game?

Let someone else fight the duel for you.

Or go for the evil ending, if you count that as winning the game.

(We may need to tone down the difficulty of the evil ending, I'm not sure anyone has managed to achieve it yet.)

The athletics skills don't have a lot of uses at the moment (Climbing is in the competition for most useless skill. It does something, but Not Much.), but Polearms actually has more checks on it than Archery does. Polearms, like Falcons, is also required for secret meta-reasons.

LateWhiteRabbit

#85 by LateWhiteRabbit - Feb 26 2012

iselwin:
1) Winning the magic duel requiring the Sword skill has "What?" written all over it.

I just encountered this, and I have to agree. It should be possible to win with Lumen alone, right? I had maxed out all Lumen skills to 100, so I expected to wipe the floor during the duel. Instead I lost because I didn't know how to use a sword? I went "WHAT?!" as well.

hanako

#86 by hanako - Feb 26 2012

I do not believe it is logical to beat him in a fair fight via Lumen skills alone. Even if you max them, SO DID HE. He is the Big Bad after all.

If you want to take him down using Lumen magic alone, you need to use the conjunction effect to sink the fleet with magic.

If I think of a cool option using some other skill I might add it, but you're always going to need more than magic to handle that one. The magic just keeps you alive long enough to think of something else. (An Athletics roll for *tackling* him in the middle of spellcasting, maybe?)

LateWhiteRabbit

#87 by LateWhiteRabbit - Feb 26 2012

hanako:
I do not believe it is logical to beat him in a fair fight via Lumen skills alone. Even if you max them, SO DID HE. He is the Big Bad after all.

If you want to take him down using Lumen magic alone, you need to use the conjunction effect to sink the fleet with magic.

If I think of a cool option using some other skill I might add it, but you're always going to need more than magic to handle that one. The magic just keeps you alive long enough to think of something else. (An Athletics roll for *tackling* him in the middle of spellcasting, maybe?)

I like the idea of more options, but I think the main problem everyone is expressing is that we had no idea HOW powerful this guy is. We had no indication that max Lumen skills were not going to be sufficient, because apparently in this case max skills for the player do not equal the max skill level possible in that skill for an NPC. Because at best, if he is maxed on Lumen and we are maxed on Lumen, a draw should happen.

I think if you made it more clear in the lead up to the duel that his Lumen is more powerful that yours it would keep the fight from feeling so cheap to some of us.

Because we are told it is specifically a Lumen duel, those of us who maxed Lumen feel cheated, because we based our decision to enter the duel on the fact our Lumen skills could be no higher, thus assuring us victory unless HE cheated.

It just feels a little like being challenged to a pistol duel and losing because you aren't good with a knife.

hanako

#88 by hanako - Feb 26 2012

Fair enough, a high Sense Magic skill should probably warn you more clearly before the duel that you're in trouble.

Latest beta now adds a display of mood changes to the map for selecting weekend activities. Let me know how it goes.

(Special events will not reveal all their secrets, but standard ones will.)

LateWhiteRabbit

#89 by LateWhiteRabbit - Feb 26 2012

hanako:
Latest beta now adds a display of mood changes to the map for selecting weekend activities. Let me know how it goes.

(Special events will not reveal all their secrets, but standard ones will.)

That is so much better. The mouse-over works great, and it really allows me to make informed decisions about what the Princess's weekend activities.

It seems to be updating fine week to week as well.

iselwin

#90 by iselwin - Feb 26 2012

hanako:
Logically there's no way you should be able to win that fight via pure magic.
...but it's still not too much to ask for an option to win via magic + something other than sword .

(have you found the plot threads about crystal resonances?)
Yay, more stuff to do!

Your magic allowing you to create a sword of light is also spelled out in the fluff text when you hit Wield Magic 50.
I thought it was just a fluff . Could you also add some additional fluff text to the 100 Wield Magic to emphasise that Magic Sword is your ultimate combat technique?

6) It'd make lots of sense if you could utilize your Lumen skills for the bandit ambush.

It all happens too fast.
One problem I have with your approach is that you take plausibility over gameplay . Frustration "OMG, my bui;ld is useless here" is much more angering one over "Hm, I wonder if that could happen in real world" (yeah, 'cos Lumen happen everywhere).

If you survive the initial assault you could use your Lumen skills to drive them off
A compromise suggestion - if you fail reflex+archery roll, attempt Reflex+Wield Magic roll for Matrixesque "Drop arrows" magic defense .

7) Is there a non-magic, non-music, non-Godly-naval way of actually winning the game?

Let someone else fight the duel for you.
Not an option if you've already started the Lumen path .

Or go for the evil ending, if you count that as winning the game. (We may need to tone down the difficulty of the evil ending, I'm not sure anyone has managed to achieve it yet.)

Would be nice

.

One more question - if naval battle uses a way too difficult roll to be displayed, is it possible at least to display a message like "Failed complex check", or are all messages strictly skill-related?

hanako

#91 by hanako - Feb 26 2012

Frustration "OMG, my bui;ld is useless here" is much more angering one over "Hm, I wonder if that could happen in real world" (yeah, 'cos Lumen happen everywhere).

True, but if you know who's trying to kill you (THAT time), it shouldn't be a surprise that it's designed to be able to catch a Lumen unawares! You're going to have to rely on something else here.

Or else stop the assassination attempt from happening in the first place.

Some more options in the final duel are coming, I'm working on it.

fictionalfemme

#92 by fictionalfemme - Feb 26 2012

Would it be possible to have an option to make the game 'easier' by allowing a single skill out of a group to be raised higher than 50 (maybe 75?) before the other two need to be raised to 25? I know that properly building up your character is all part of the game but it'd be nice to have an easy/normal/hard option with that as a basis IMO.

hanako

#93 by hanako - Feb 26 2012

Allowing that much mastery without requiring at least some experience in related skills first would still quite heavily unbalance gameplay (because it would mean you could frantically cram something in a short period of time), and not make sense for fluff reasons.

If I were going to test out a secret easy mode it would probably be something like lowering the threshold to 20 instead of 25.

But at the moment, I would rather have people outright cheat. (Which is slightly difficult as we haven't leaked any cheat codes yet!)

Yuki

#94 by Yuki - Feb 26 2012

hanako:
He's related to a lot of people and there are two different ways that can trigger. One of them is the civil war, but when that's the case Elodie knows what he's talking about and will remind the player that you executed his mother Arisse after winning the civil war.

That's fair enough.

When Elodie has no idea what he's talking about, that's because he's upset about Briony (his niece) having run off and gotten herself killed. If you didn't get involved in her subplot Elodie may have had no clue that Briony was dead.

Unless the player took part in the civil war or Briony's subplot, in which she presumably gets killed (I haven't been there yet), I'd leave this out, as I can't see any plausable reason why Kevan would blame Elodie (of all people) for Briony's death when she wasn't even remotely involved.

SHE is completely confused about what he's talking about, and HE'S too upset to explain. (Kevan is... Unstable.) In the case where you're supposed to know what he's talking about, Elodie adds a line to remind the player that Briony was his niece.

I'm not surprised he doesn't explain - Elodie doesn't even ask. I think it's unlikely that after someone has accused you of being responsible for someone's death and then challenges you to duel, you wouldn't at least ask them to explain why (or even who) first.

I think a choice over whether or not to use magic in the sea battle would be good too, because I don't think you're actually given one; the use of magic automatically overrides the possibility of a conventional battle.

iselwin:
I thought it was just a fluff . Could you also add some additional fluff text to the 100 Wield Magic to emphasise that Magic Sword is your ultimate combat technique?

I think the text gives enough clues as to what your capabilities are already. Same with the other skills.

hanako

#95 by hanako - Feb 26 2012

Yuki:

When Elodie has no idea what he's talking about, that's because he's upset about Briony (his niece) having run off and gotten herself killed. If you didn't get involved in her subplot Elodie may have had no clue that Briony was dead.
Unless the player took part in the civil war or Briony's subplot, in which she presumably gets killed (I haven't been there yet), I'd leave this out, as I can't see any plausable reason why Kevan would blame Elodie (of all people) for Briony's death when she wasn't even remotely involved.

Because when they try to track what happened to her, the clues point in Elodie's direction. You have seen the scene with Briony's mother coming looking for her right? Briony did leave evidence that implicates Elodie in her disappearance, that's why she's asking you. Briony's mother believes you if you say you have no idea; Briony's uncle, however, sees his sister hysterically upset and blames you.

When you've actually done that subplot you may have slightly more idea of what's going on.

I'm not surprised he doesn't explain - Elodie doesn't even ask. I think it's unlikely that after someone has accused you of being responsible for someone's death and then challenges you to duel, you wouldn't at least ask them to explain why (or even who) first.

Possible, but I'm pretty sure the conversation will go along the lines of
'What did I do???'
'You know what you did!' *attacks*

I think a choice over whether or not to use magic in the sea battle would be good too, because I don't think you're actually given one; the use of magic automatically overrides the possibility of a conventional battle.

I am reasonably sure that if you have the people necessary to do the conjoined magical thing you ARE asked if you want to take the risk and have the option to say no, it's just that it's the week before the battle when that decision is made.

Or are you saying that you did not do the conjunction but still didn't get the flag for a naval victory? I'll have to check the code.

Yuki

#96 by Yuki - Feb 27 2012

hanako:
When you've actually done that subplot you may have slightly more idea of what's going on.

I'll check it out.

I am reasonably sure that if you have the people necessary to do the conjoined magical thing you ARE asked if you want to take the risk and have the option to say no, it's just that it's the week before the battle when that decision is made.

Or are you saying that you did not do the conjunction but still didn't get the flag for a naval victory? I'll have to check the code.

I've just checked the transcript and the only choices I'm offered is to either recruit more soldiers (or not) and to either join the fleet or stay at the castle.

But this is where it gets strange: If I choose to join the fleet, the magic victory triggers (as expected), but if I stay at the castle, I do actually win the naval battle despite not leading it myself, which I didn't think could be done (looking at the other thread).

hanako

#97 by hanako - Feb 27 2012

Can you send me a log? Either I'm misunderstanding what you're saying or something went wrong somewhere.

LateWhiteRabbit

#98 by LateWhiteRabbit - Feb 27 2012

Ever since I started keeping a log of when things happen (too both follow the intrigue better and maybe, for once, survive to the end) I've found it very inconvenient that the Week number is only displayed on the class results pop-up. It would be very helpful if it was always visible in the corner somewhere when you are in Elodie's room.

Also, not sure if this qualifies as a bug or not, but it's feedback - I can't understand how to read the calendar clock in the upper right corner of the screen. The Roman numerals in the center don't correspond to the week - maybe the day? But I've seen it go up to numbers like 8 and 11. Also, there are 13 (Chinese?) symbols around the circle edge. Since there are 13, that they can't represent months or days or even weeks . . . .

I guess what I'm asking is, "What is it there for?" and "How do I use it?"

EDIT: Also, I asked the Duchess of Ursul about 'Drastic Action' and she said if I tried to get into the Treasury and failed to come back and see her. I tried and failed (0.0 Presence and 0.0 Accounting) but the Duchess never re-appeared on the Weekend Activities screen until Week 18, which is WEEKS after I tried to get into the Treasury. When I took a class in Presence, the Duchess reappeared on the Weekend activities screen, but WITHOUT me trying to get into the Treasury again. It seems if the player tries to enter the Treasury with no skill at all something breaks, only triggering later when the player puts points into one of the two skills.

hanako

#99 by hanako - Feb 27 2012

The calendar marks the month (yes, there are 13), the day of the month, and the phase of the moon. At one point some of that information was going to matter, but it got dropped from plans, so it's mostly just decoration now.

I agree that a week display would be useful, I'm just not sure where to put it. I could remove the day-of-the-month calculation since it's not useful for anything and put a week stamp there instead?

Drastic Action doesn't become an option until well into the game. It's not likely that you'll be able to get into the treasury when she first suggests it to you, so it gives you some time to try and figure it out. Only after time has passed and you still haven't done it does your mentor come back and suggest trying it the other way. It's just coincidence that the scheduled reappearance happened after you took a Presence class.

Yuki

#100 by Yuki - Feb 27 2012

hanako:
Can you send me a log? Either I'm misunderstanding what you're saying or something went wrong somewhere.

PM sent.

Also, I ought to mention that if you achieve a magic victory, something unusual happens on Week 37: After you've done your classes, the window that tells you your stats have increased and by how much etc. stays on the screen (with the bedroom in the background) while your father is telling you about the Kraken; it doesn't go back to the castle background as it usually does.

hanako

#101 by hanako - Feb 27 2012

Ahhh, okay, I see what happened now. You didn't get a choice because you had all four Lumens signed up. You do get to choose whether or not to go through with it if you have only three.

It's less dangerous your way, so the person describing the plan to you wasn't doing the 'are you sure about this?' (well, that and I think I figured anyone who'd assembled that much power was TRYING to go this route

) But it's probably reasonable to add a choice anyway just in case.

(the other's a bug, will fix)

Yuki

#102 by Yuki - Feb 27 2012

hanako:
It's less dangerous your way, so the person describing the plan to you wasn't doing the 'are you sure about this?' (well, that and I think I figured anyone who'd assembled that much power was TRYING to go this route ) But it's probably reasonable to add a choice anyway just in case.

I found it as easy to get four as to get three, because if your stats are high enough for you to get the crystal off the convict, they should be high enough for you to find out that your Aunt is a Lumen too. I wasn't specifically going for that ending, but I went down that route mainly because I was curious as to what the convict's secret was more than anything else. The rest just followed on from that.

hanako

#103 by hanako - Feb 27 2012

Getting the crystal off the convict is not what's needed to have four. You can't use that crystal at all, as was mentioned in the epilogue.

You pick up the fourth when you do any number of activities in a certain location while having a high Sense Magic skill and then go and talk to Julianna about it afterwards (Week 18 in your playthrough).

Admittedly if you have enough skills to detect your aunt then it's fairly likely you will detect Selene at some point, unless you're on a path where you banished Julianna at the beginning and have been working with Selene all the time. On that route it's impossible to get four. It's also quite possible to pick up Selene but miss Lucille.

LateWhiteRabbit

#104 by LateWhiteRabbit - Feb 27 2012

hanako:
The calendar marks the month (yes, there are 13), the day of the month, and the phase of the moon. At one point some of that information was going to matter, but it got dropped from plans, so it's mostly just decoration now.

Ah, okay. Yeah, I should have figured out the Roman numerals were jumping by 7.

hanako:
I agree that a week display would be useful, I'm just not sure where to put it. I could remove the day-of-the-month calculation since it's not useful for anything and put a week stamp there instead?

I think that would be a good place for it, yes. Just put "Week 1" etc. were the days were, since the Week is very important for the player, but the day of the month is not. Labeling the number in the center "Week" will also make it more obvious to players.

hanako:
Drastic Action doesn't become an option until well into the game. It's not likely that you'll be able to get into the treasury when she first suggests it to you, so it gives you some time to try and figure it out. Only after time has passed and you still haven't done it does your mentor come back and suggest trying it the other way. It's just coincidence that the scheduled reappearance happened after you took a Presence class.

Okay. That wasn't obvious. The player is told "Try and get in, and if you fail, come back to see me." The player can try and fail the next week. In the player's mind all conditions have been met at that point, so they expect the Duchess to be available again the next week.

I understand the time delay for balance reasons, so the player can't just grab the crystal with no skills in Week 4, but I don't think the Duchess should even mention "Drastic Action" until it is actually an option. It would be less confusing that way.

----------

Finally, I'm still having trouble understanding what skill penalties and bonuses are being caused by what moods (or events). Would it be possible to have the ability to mouse-over or click on the penalties or bonuses and be told what is affecting them?

For example, -3.00 penalty could display "Caused By: Yielding Mood. Event." etc.

I think the game needs a little more transparency in that area. It took me a long time to realize that certain game actions (and not just moods) where affecting my skill bonuses and penalties. And even after playing the game a lot, it is still difficult to correlate which combination of moods is affecting which skill.

hanako

#105 by hanako - Feb 27 2012

For example, -3.00 penalty could display "Caused By: Yielding Mood. Event." etc.

I think the game needs a little more transparency in that area. It took me a long time to realize that certain game actions (and not just moods) where affecting my skill bonuses and penalties. And even after playing the game a lot, it is still difficult to correlate which combination of moods is affecting which skill.

The only things that are affecting your bonuses and penalties is your 'Current Mood' status and the related skills you've studied. I have no idea what you mean by events and actions.

(There are some rare circumstances where a game event can leave you in a special mood called 'Injured', but in that case the mood screen will still display your current mood as Injured.)

It's all a matter of math. A fractional amount of the learned skills in each subset gets added to the subset bonus. An even smaller fractional amount of the learned skills in each category gets added to the category bonus. Any time that the numbers don't match up, there's a mood effect in place.

There could be a marker by them indicating that they're being affected by a mood at the moment, but there's nothing else to breakdown! The problem isn't that it's not transparent, the problem is that it's a lot of data and people's minds have trouble dealing with it. Making the display more complicated might make that problem worse.

LateWhiteRabbit

#106 by LateWhiteRabbit - Feb 27 2012

hanako:
The only things that are affecting your bonuses and penalties is your 'Current Mood' status and the related skills you've studied. I have no idea what you mean by events and actions.

Wait, really?! Because I could have sworn certain events always gave penalties. For instance, across multiple games, if I try to enter the Treasury and fail both checks, my Royal Decorum and Economics skills take a major penalty hit. I guess it's possible that my mood is always the exact same at that point in each game, but I wouldn't think so.

Is the last mood point gained what affects skill bonuses and penalties rather than where the heart is on each spectrum?

hanako:
(There are some rare circumstances where a game event can leave you in a special mood called 'Injured', but in that case the mood screen will still display your current mood as Injured.)

Yeah, I've encountered that. In that case it was actually pretty clear what was going on, i.e. Elodie stating she wouldn't be able to do anything "strenuous" for a while, then seeing the -3.00 penalties in all the Physical skills.

hanako:
It's all a matter of math. A fractional amount of the learned skills in each subset gets added to the subset bonus. An even smaller fractional amount of the learned skills in each category gets added to the category bonus. Any time that the numbers don't match up, there's a mood effect in place.

I understand all that. I just don't know WHAT mood effect is in place. Like should I make Elodie more Cheerful to remove this penalty, or does she need to be more Willful?

And sometimes it seems the penalties or bonuses just reset for a category after certain events - like the Treasury event I mentioned above. If I fail that event, the penalty to Royal Decorum and Economics is ALWAYS -2.00, regardless of what it was before.

hanako:
There could be a marker by them indicating that they're being affected by a mood at the moment, but there's nothing else to breakdown! The problem isn't that it's not transparent, the problem is that it's a lot of data and people's minds have trouble dealing with it. Making the display more complicated might make that problem worse.

Well, something in game to tell me what mood Elodie is being affected by at the moment (on the skills screen) would be great.

The amount of data people have to keep up with in their head is indeed the trouble. There are so many skills, and so many moods, that even if you figure out which relates to which, it is still very difficult to remember that information.

Making that information easier to see in game - even if it is just telling us which Skill Category is affected by which Mood Spectrum would be a big help. If I could just see on the Skills Screen that the Conversation category of skills is affected by the Cheerful/Depressed Mood spectrum, I could tell by the penalty or bonus in place which direction I would need to take that mood to remove or gain the bonus or penalty.

Or simply have the mouse-over say "+1.0 from Cheerful" or "-1.0 from Depressed". That would tell the player very quickly what part of the bonus is from fractional skill gains and what part is from the mood AND what that mood is.

I think icons would indeed complicate the display too much, and with 8 moods that would mean 8 symbols or icons to keep straight on top of everything else. I do think one way to do it might be to have an "information" icon on each skill category that gave the information I suggested above when moused-over or clicked.

EDIT: I think because Skill gains and Mood Manipulation are the "core" of the gameplay, this really needs to be as user-friendly as possible.

hanako

#107 by hanako - Feb 27 2012

LateWhiteRabbit:
Wait, really?! Because I could have sworn certain events always gave penalties. For instance, across multiple games, if I try to enter the Treasury and fail both checks, my Royal Decorum and Economics skills take a major penalty hit. I guess it's possible that my mood is always the exact same at that point in each game, but I wouldn't think so.

Is the last mood point gained what affects skill bonuses and penalties rather than where the heart is on each spectrum?

No, it's the 'current mood' and nothing else. It doesn't matter what the last mood point gained was, the last mood point gained might not affect your current mood at all, depending on the status of everything beforehand. If your Economics skill tanked, you probably got pushed into a Willful mood by your failed attempt.

Check the Mood screen.

hanako:
It's all a matter of math. A fractional amount of the learned skills in each subset gets added to the subset bonus. An even smaller fractional amount of the learned skills in each category gets added to the category bonus. Any time that the numbers don't match up, there's a mood effect in place.
I understand all that. I just don't know WHAT mood effect is in place. Like should I make Elodie more Cheerful to remove this penalty, or does she need to be more Willful?

I'm not sure I follow. You'd need to change her current mood. How to change her mood depends on what her mood is and what all the mood bars are set to.

If everything is set to 0 except for 1 point of yielding, then you're in a Yielding mood. Gaining 1 point of willful would bring you into Neutral mood, which has no bonuses or penalties at all. Gaining 1 point of Cheerful, however, would bring you into Cheerful mood (because bars further to the left take precedence in a tie) and give you a different set of bonuses and penalties.

Check the mood screen, that's why it's there! You need to look at the whole picture to see how a change is going to affect her mood.

Well, something in game to tell me what mood Elodie is being affected by at the moment (on the skills screen) would be great.

Check the mood screen, that's why it's there!

You can also (in most cases) tell what her current mood is as soon as you enter Elodie's bedroom, because her facial expression will tell you.

Making that information easier to see in game - even if it is just telling us which Skill Category is affected by which Mood Spectrum would be a big help. If I could just see on the Skills Screen that the Conversation category of skills is affected by the Cheerful/Depressed Mood spectrum

But that's not how it works, so displaying that would definitely mislead people.

A bonus on one end doesn't necessarily equate to a penalty on the other, many skills are affected by multiple moods, and so on.

Or simply have the mouse-over say "+1.0 from Cheerful" or "-1.0 from Depressed". That would tell the player very quickly what part of the bonus is from fractional skill gains and what part is from the mood AND what that mood is.

I really don't want to print any more numbers on that screen. Numbers scare people, and that screen already has so many. Mouseover data wouldn't make things clearer, it would make things more jumbled.

Wasn't thinking of 8+ icons, though, was thinking of just up and down arrows so you could see at a glance which skills were currently being altered.

LateWhiteRabbit

#108 by LateWhiteRabbit - Feb 27 2012

hanako:
*snip*

Hmm. Okay. Apparently I'm just over-thinking everything.

Question 1: Does the Current Mood give different penalties or bonus amounts to different skill categories? For instance, right now in my current game Elodie's mood is Cheerful, and her Weapons are -1.00 and her Military is -2.00. Are both the result of the Cheerful mood, or is something else also affecting Military?

Question 2: Currently in my game Elodie's Cheerful and Yielding mood meters are maxed, yet her current mood is Cheerful. Do certain moods take precedence over others? And if so, how do I tell which one will? Is the only way to make Elodie's mood "Yielding" in this case to drop Cheerful by 1?

hanako

#109 by hanako - Feb 27 2012

LateWhiteRabbit:
Question 1: Does the Current Mood give different penalties or bonus amounts to different skill categories? For instance, right now in my current game Elodie's mood is Cheerful, and her Weapons are -1.00 and her Military is -2.00. Are both the result of the Cheerful mood, or is something else also affecting Military?

Both resulting from Cheerful.

Question 2: Currently in my game Elodie's Cheerful and Yielding mood meters are maxed, yet her current mood is Cheerful. Do certain moods take precedence over others? And if so, how do I tell which one will? Is the only way to make Elodie's mood "Yielding" in this case to drop Cheerful by 1?

Bars further to the left take precedence in a tie - I tried to order them in terms of emotional importance. Fight-or-flight drowns out everything else, so Fear/Anger is furthest left.

So yes, you need to drop Cheerful down a point to go into Yielding mood.

Yuki

#110 by Yuki - Feb 28 2012

hanako:
Getting the crystal off the convict is not what's needed to have four. You can't use that crystal at all, as was mentioned in the epilogue.

Of course not. I even read it before sending you the transcript. Why did I actually write that?

Just...give me a week or so...

hanako

#111 by hanako - Feb 29 2012

Things now available in Beta -

Some better feedback on what's happening during the naval battle.
A new secret way to get more ships for the naval battle, which no one will use because it requires you to do something stupid near the beginning of the game

Another way to win the duel with Togami.
An adjustment to the amount of evil needed for the super evil ending
Week display
Joslyn now has a head

This beta is not as well tested as usual because as you may have seen in the announcement section I have been having a pretty rough day! I'm borrowing someone else's net connection but I don't know how stable that will be.

hanako

#112 by hanako - Mar 1 2012

Some more character heads have been added to the latest beta.

We are discussing the possibility of letting you click on a character you're currently talking to to get a brief refresher of who they are and who they're related to, but NOT to let you wander through the whole set of relationships (which would be distracting). Would this be something people want, or is it not enough to make a difference?

Any feedback on the duel changes?

We have a really cool new map courtesy of LateWhiteRabbit but my internet woes at the moment make it impossible for me to build and distribute new installers right now. I'll be linking it up on the forum when I can.

Aletea

#113 by Aletea - Mar 1 2012

I love the idea of being able to click on the character and get a refresher! There have been times where I'm talking to someone, and I'm suddenly thinking, "Wait...who is this? I know their name. I've seen them in other events. But who are they?"

I definitely like how you can now choose how to make your final move in the duel, now. It makes it feel more interactive, which is always a plus.

FantasyFan

#114 by FantasyFan - Mar 1 2012

I am definitely in favor of the click-on-character-to-get-info idea. It will be a great way to get more involved with the characters.

My game reviewing blog.

LateWhiteRabbit

#115 by LateWhiteRabbit - Mar 1 2012

hanako:
We are discussing the possibility of letting you click on a character you're currently talking to to get a brief refresher of who they are and who they're related to, but NOT to let you wander through the whole set of relationships (which would be distracting). Would this be something people want, or is it not enough to make a difference?

I'm definitely in favor of this. The cast of characters is quite large, and some aren't interacted with but a few times, so I think being able to get a refresher on who they are when you are talking to them is a great idea.

EDIT: Though playing with the additional portraits is already making this a little easier.

Spiky Caterpillar

New version in beta

#116 by Spiky Caterpillar - Mar 11 2012

There are new dialogue sprites for characters, and some partial dossiers so you can research characters a bit more in-game. Click the '?' button next to a character to bring their dossier up. (Not every character has a dossier; if there is a character you think should have one who doesn't yet, let us know.). The dossier layout is still under construction (we already know the text wrapping is wrong in the dossiers, f'rinstance).

Also, we've built an Android test version. We're not sure how well it will work, though - the keyboard is completely messed up in the emulator, and the UI was originally designed for desktop computers rather than touchscreens - I expect it probably won't be comfortable on a phone, but a tablet will work. If you want to try the Android version, PM me a copy of your receipt and I'll send you the download links.

LateWhiteRabbit

#117 by LateWhiteRabbit - Mar 11 2012

It feels a little awkward to have to click on the dossier at the top of the screen to close it. In fact it took me a moment to figure out how to close it at all. It just seems like it makes the player take an extra step or mouse movement while reading.

It seems much more intuitive to click on the '?' a second time to close the dossier, like a toggle switch. It also means one less movement on the part of a reading player.

Aside from that, the dossier system is a big improvement and so far seems to show just the right amount of information on each character.

Yuki

#118 by Yuki - Mar 14 2012

I think I've just encountered a stange phenomenon.

I've just played the game again with all of the new character portraits and it's surprised me a bit. With the exception of Togami, some of these characters look very different to how I imagined they'd look when all I had was the text.

I suppose it's like what happens when you read a book and then see a movie adaptation later on.

Is it just me, or has anyone else felt this?

FantasyFan

#119 by FantasyFan - Mar 14 2012

Well, I was expecting the king to look a bit older, so I understand what you're talking about. I like the new potraits, though. I'm hoping the final version of the game will have some event CGs and possibly a gallery.

My game reviewing blog.

hanako

#120 by hanako - Mar 14 2012

Since I had to write it all long before getting any art, much of it is a surprise to me too.

But no, there is not going to be a bunch of cgs and gallery in this release. While I haven't been able to look at the game lately because of my connection woes, afaik most of what's missing at the moment is the new map, the coronation scene, the title screen, and finishing up the designs of the dossiers.

(They were supposed to hook up our new broadband today. Supposed to. Which of course meant we sat around all day, nobody shows, called at the very end of the scheduled slot and were told they were 'on their way', still nobody shows, call again and be told the transfer hasn't gone through yet so they can't come out after all, call them again tomorrow to book a new appointment... Sigh.)

Naturally, if it sells well and if the artist is available there might be a deluxe edition/expansion later with some new plot branches and CGs and such, but one never knows about these things.

iselwin

#121 by iselwin - Mar 14 2012

hanako:
Naturally, if it sells well and if the artist is available there might be a deluxe edition/expansion later with some new plot branches and CGs and such, but one never knows about these things.

So you are mostly gradually switching to a new project, then? Any preliminary details?..

hanako

#122 by hanako - Mar 14 2012

I'm spending a lot of time playing other games, twiddling my thumbs, and being extremely irrritated about the trouble this internet thing is causing me, really.

Mostly Icewind Dale, along with Monster Tale on the DS today because I was staying off the computer because we were expecting people to come poke at things...

Also doing a fair bit of plot writing for a project that's been vaguely mentioned in the secrets forum but which I can't properly announce because I can't upload anything (grumble grumble grumble). When I have a net connection again, there will be information.

I expect to start the Magical Diary sequel sometime in the next couple of months if nothing else goes wrong.

FantasyFan

#123 by FantasyFan - Mar 14 2012

Start the Magical Diary sequel? WOOOO-HOOOOOO!!!!!

My game reviewing blog.

Yuki

#124 by Yuki - Mar 19 2012

Good. I'm glad I'm not the only one.

Oki

#125 by Oki - Mar 19 2012

Hooray Magical Diary woo!!!!!

Cough.

Out of curiosity, when the game is released would you be opposed to me uploading a fandub of the super awesome magical good ending and the evil minion ending? Cause...I really need to dub this whole thing.

hanako

#126 by hanako - Mar 19 2012

heh. sure, fandubs are fine.

Oki

#127 by Oki - Mar 19 2012

Cool. If all goes well it might add some views for the project! And give me and my friends something cool to do. XD

Muse

#128 by Muse - Mar 26 2012

Do we leave bugs we find here? I found a bit of an awkward sentence, when studying Internal Affairs. It says your mother "created" a duke, but I think something along the lines of "appointed" or "crowned" would be better. Otherwise I feel like it sounds as if your mother made a man out of thin air. I'm also not positive if it means your mother's brother, or Countess Nix's.
Version: 0.5.57
Here is a picture of the screen that I believe has awkward dialogue.
[Could not load http://i942.photobucket.com/albums/ad267/MoonstruckMuse/picture.jpg]

I love the game so much, Hanako and Spiky! I wasn't sure what to expect as I began testing, but it's gorgeous. I'm a huge Princess Maker fan, but I was curious to see how this panned out; if it would feel similar or different. I am happy to say it has a very unique feel to it! All the stats and events take getting used to, but I love the theme and feel of it so far. The music, artwork, and writing is gorgeous as well.

hanako

#129 by hanako - Mar 26 2012

While there may be nuances I'm not quite getting as this isn't a phrasing I generally use, 'created' is valid terminology - google the phrase "created a duke". One of the meanings of 'create' in a dictionary is to invest with a new title, office, or rank, and it's often used in the royal context.

Basically, it's me being intentionally highfalutin' in my language.

Muse

#130 by Muse - Mar 26 2012

hanako:
While there may be nuances I'm not quite getting as this isn't a phrasing I generally use, 'created' is valid terminology - google the phrase "created a duke". One of the meanings of 'create' in a dictionary is to invest with a new title, office, or rank, and it's often used in the royal context.

Basically, it's me being intentionally highfalutin' in my language.

Oh dear! My mistake then!

Yuki

#131 by Yuki - Mar 28 2012

Hm. I've just had a look at Oki's 'missing simple stuff' thread and had a look at my own checklist, just to see what I've missed. I remember fighting (and winning) a civil war in about three of my games, averting it by diplomacy twice, but 'faced a civil war?' is not listed as being achieved on my checklist.

In case it matters, I did this on a much earlier version of the game (on about February 21st). I'll try and have another go later this week and see if I can get it to appear.

Yuki

#132 by Yuki - Mar 31 2012

Okay, I think this is a bug.

I found one of my early save states (week 26) and proceeded to fight and win the civil war, but the 'faced a civil war' achievement flag didn't appear.

I then tried again from the beginning and deliberately triggered a civil war, but it still hasn't come up.

Oki

#133 by Oki - Mar 31 2012

Having the same problem Yuki is. It worked when I went back and retroactively did anything else, but I did a brand new evil minion play through and still couldn't trigger the actual checklist item.

I've been here so long even Hanako is sick of me

Spiky Caterpillar

#134 by Spiky Caterpillar - Apr 1 2012

I've fixed the civil war so it'll set the checklist entry properly in the newest beta (0.5.63). (The checklist entry will be set when Elodie first learns about the civil war.)

hanako

#135 by hanako - Apr 14 2012

Working on a possible logo design: any feedback?

http://img651.imageshack.us/img651/9246/logodemo.png

(Coronation will be coming soon, I'll post an update when it's in. Title screen is still in limbo ATM.)

FantasyFan

#136 by FantasyFan - Apr 14 2012

It's okay, but it's kind of simple. I don't know why the exclaimation point is there either.

My game reviewing blog.

Oki

#137 by Oki - Apr 14 2012

I think for the type of game it is the shape of pink and cartoony level are a little much. A deeper pink and a more vibrant shadow in the middle might work.

I've been here so long even Hanako is sick of me

hanako

#138 by hanako - Apr 14 2012

(Dead link removed) now with extra sparkles! ... but yeah, I'm not very good at this.

Most of the pink in the game is matching Elodie's hair, which is a pretty light pink. The title screen, if and when we ever get it, is intended to be an interesting mix of cute and sinister. Hopefully. Eventually.

Yuki

#139 by Yuki - Apr 14 2012

I agree with Oki: It looks a little cartoony.

hanako

#140 by hanako - Apr 14 2012

Yeah, I agree it's more cartoony than the general game feel. On the other hand it does seem to be catching some eyes and raising interest among people who haven't played it yet, which is good. I'll sit on it for now until we get a title screen and see whether they can work together.

Oki

#141 by Oki - Apr 15 2012

I like this one more, it's still cartoony but it's definitely better. I think we should sit on it like you said and wait for the title screen. I am so ready for the game to be officially out!

I've been here so long even Hanako is sick of me

hanako

Graphical Update

#142 by hanako - Apr 16 2012

The latest beta (5.69.3) makes a number of changes:

1. The coronation scene (but not the title screen) now has a CG.

2. All the ribbon buttons have been replaced with sharper edges and better shading.

3. Big changes to the way class results are handled. I think it's an improvement and makes things look less dull (since staring at these screens takes up so much of the game, it seems best to try not to make them too static). Also, it shows you whether you have a mood bonus or penalty to the class you're currently taking, which may help people who haven't quite gotten the hang of those yet.

However, if you absolutely hate it and can explain why, I might listen.

And obviously, if you encounter any bugs with these things, please tell us!