Hanako Games

Possibility of an 'easy mode?'

#1 by strudelman - Nov 10 2013

I just got the game on steam. It's intriguing in a lot of ways, but after getting murdered or otherwise losing a bunch of times in a variety of ways, I feel like most if not all of the stat checks are tuned considerably higher than a level I would consider reasonable. That, or stats increase too slowly - I suppose the two are more or less interchangeable. There's so many different ways to die, and different stats you have to raise up to pretty significant levels to prevent it, that I hardly feel like I can accomplish much of anything beyond just desperately clinging to the edge of survival. And that's if I'm lucky - I still haven't gotten past the guy that attacks from the sea, since I apparently still lose the battle with 100 naval strategy and 100 wield magic.

I don't imagine there's any chance of a game option to ease things somewhat? Increasing the baseline skill gain per day by 50%, or dropping stat checks by a third or so? I'd probably try to do it myself, if the game files weren't precompiled.

Re: Possibility of an 'easy mode?'

#2 by phoenixgirl - Nov 10 2013

It's not a bad idea to have various levels of difficulty mode although LLTQ is designed to be quite difficult to win. It took me quite a few tries before I finally found a way to do so. XD

With regards to the naval battle, I'll give a hint that should help. If you choose to have Elodie become a lumen, she might need some magical reinforcements. She won't be able to defeat the Shanjians with magic by herself. If you choose to have Elodie not use magic, then she'll need a heads up that there's a naval invasion coming so that she can get additional reinforcements before the battle actually takes place.

If you need more help, I'll post more in spoilers.

Re: Possibility of an 'easy mode?'

#3 by strudelman - Nov 10 2013

Yeah, no, I actually did see something along those lines in another thread, or on the wiki, enough to see what needed to do earlier (and the stats I would have needed to do it). But it's quite a headache. I tend to feel like you shouldn't have to plan out your stats quite so rigorously ahead of time in a game like this to keep from being killed or conquered. For me, it kind of ruins the sense of exploration and experimentation.

Re: Possibility of an 'easy mode?'

#4 by Wisq - Nov 11 2013

Speaking personally, I'm a big fan of (optional) "new game plus" modes or other forms of progressive stat buffs (Rogue Legacy's inheritance, Disgaea's Transmigration, Borderlands 2's "badass rank" system, etc.) because they turn victories into permanent achievements rather than fleeting things, and some can even turn defeats into minor progress (encouraging you to try again rather than reload your save). It makes each game restart feel like you're still making progress, rather than having to start from scratch.

The equivalent here might be something like, "winning" the game (surviving until coronation) gives you skill points (maybe 25?) that you can allocate at the start of subsequent games, while losing/dying gives you a smaller amount (maybe 5 or 10, or maybe more depending on how many weeks you survived). These could be explained as "stuff you learned at boarding school".

And of course, you'd only get only one bonus per new game, so you can't just reload and win/die over and over to boost a ton. (Speaking as a programmer: Easily done via generating a unique key each time you start a game, saving it with the game, and multiple wins/losses with the same key don't count.) And players who don't want to use the points can just choose not to allocate them.

The benefit here is that losses become minor victories, wins become permanent, and the player feels more free to explore other aspects of their character without getting stuck in a rut of "well I know I need this stat by this event in order to survive, but now I don't have very much time to try out other stats". They can give themselves some of that stat, and start focusing on other stats instead.

It also solves the "easy mode" problem by making the game easier the more you play, even if you lose. Or, easy mode could be an extra toggle that gives you extra points if you start a new game with it enabled.

Obviously, I could just pretend this feature exists and do it myself using the developer console, but I feel like it could be a useful feature and add additional replay value. Finishing with a strong queen and suddenly going back to zero stats just feels kinda jarring and Sisyphean to me, when it should feel liberating because I get to do something new and different.

Re: Possibility of an 'easy mode?'

#5 by hanako - Nov 11 2013

I don't intend to do any major rebalancing of this particular game, but I am listening to all the feedback and a lot of these ideas may be taken into consideration for future projects that share similar stat-raising styles.

Re: Possibility of an 'easy mode?'

#6 by strudelman - Nov 11 2013

Mm. In that case, is there any reason the developer console doesn't appear to be working for me, on the steam version? I try entering statname = number or statname_ = number, and either way, there's no effect.

Re: Possibility of an 'easy mode?'

#7 by hanako - Nov 11 2013

Are you remembering to hit enter twice after entering a code, before returning to the game?

Re: Possibility of an 'easy mode?'

#8 by strudelman - Nov 12 2013

Twice? No, I must have missed that. I'll give it a try. Thank you.

Re: Possibility of an 'easy mode?'

#9 by cae - Nov 12 2013

You could have 'easy mode only' endings. Although nothing comes to mind... The sparkly bits of the game are that it's so hard to stay alive until corronation!

Re: Possibility of an 'easy mode?'

#10 by Kisai - Nov 12 2013

hanako:

I don't intend to do any major rebalancing of this particular game, but I am listening to all the feedback and a lot of these ideas may be taken into consideration for future projects that share similar stat-raising styles.

I don't think it needs a rebalance, I think there is not enough opportunity to learn magic early on and not enough opportunity to get out of an unwinnable situation later (Bandits, Assassination by Chocolate, Naval battle and Lumen Battle) without having to restart the game. The game needs like a "Go back to the last opportunity to avoid my demise" button when dead.

The forum ate my last message, but to summarize, the mood bonus/penalty, despite not being random is entirely responsible for getting into the the bad endings, since you can't actually load a previous week savegame and learn something else to overcome the unwinnable situation, because the bonus/penalty doesn't favor it, and in the case of the battle later there's no opportunity to get past it except to restart the game.

It would be interesting to check the Steam stats later and see what percentage of players actually complete the game.

Re: Possibility of an 'easy mode?'

#11 by Hazel - Nov 15 2013

Wisq:

It also solves the "easy mode" problem by making the game easier the more you play, even if you lose. Or, easy mode could be an extra toggle that gives you extra points if you start a new game with it enabled.

Obviously, I could just pretend this feature exists and do it myself using the developer console, but I feel like it could be a useful feature and add additional replay value. Finishing with a strong queen and suddenly going back to zero stats just feels kinda jarring and Sisyphean to me, when it should feel liberating because I get to do something new and different.

I have to admit, this doesn't make any sense to me. The more I play, the better I get. Then it gets easier to get "standard" good outcomes and I have to seek a new challenge by going after the extra-difficult endings. I first won on my third game and it was very satisfying. But now when I've played maybe fifty games, the game is still difficult and challenging. There is still content I haven't unlocked, skill combinations I haven't tried, and certain self-imposed challenges like building only the bare-minimum survival skills and embarrassing my way through endless failed skill checks. Which is inordinately entertaining.