THE BIG BETA THREAD!!!

Subtended

#2 by Subtended - May 27 2021

Played through to the end of the available content.
Very cute implementation and art! I like how the responses available to you as Saule allow framing of the past and the setting...all the while Saule may have no more motive than manipulating the young mistress to ensure her own survival. And I'm very amused that the young mistress' default interaction with an item is to bite it...regardless of whether it is food or not.

I feel that more information could be presented on which stats feed into Mind and Body (first four on the list to the left for mind, next four for body? Why would Style improve your stamina?). I know that some level of opacity is usual for these games, but I do appreciate clearer information presentation, such as the contributions for the hunting. Speaking of, I like the variety of ways to attack or entice your target, and the art for this is really cute!

Icons between the money and the Mind, I don't know what these do. Could floating tooltips be used to explain when hovering cursor over them? Similarly to add a blurb when hovering over each attribute/skill as informative/entertaining.

Science and Technology - is there sufficient difference between these to be two separate skills? And if so, can that be clearly conveyed to the player?

Mischief - Sounds more like an attitude than a skill (e.g. Fighting, Etiquette) or a knowledge (e.g. History, Science). A tooltip with a bit of explanation might be helpful to tie it together. Adding to the Sneaky attack type would imply this has a physical stealth component, but the only source for it (that I found in the beta) was the Computer Use class (bite that keyboard!). Just noticed it's in Urban Exploration too, which does make sense.

Shopping - I assume that future builds will have more item variety/an inventory for holding restoratives? Can't wait to see more outfits for the young mistress!

MillaMaxwell

Re: Beta access links sent

#3 by MillaMaxwell - May 27 2021

I like it! I just did two playthroughs of the current build. In the first playthrough, it seemed more difficult to balance classes, jobs, money, and mind/body than I expected, but on my second playthrough, I actually managed to afford a full week of classes once after the first week!

The art is quite nice and the writing made me chuckle a couple times. Several of the teachers seemed like people I'd like to get to know better. (And I have questions about the Lore teacher's book binding...) The only issues I've noticed thus far are that the activity screen seems kinda slow even at the fastest speed and one typo:

Pretty sure it's supposed to be "explode."

But anyway, love the game so far and definitely looking forward to more!

hanako

0.6.1 update

#4 by hanako - May 27 2021

Tweaks to activity speed
Tooltips available for some stuff on the top bar (mouseover to see. due to the way screens interact, won't be visible during activities)

hanako

Re: Backer Beta First Impressions

#5 by hanako - May 27 2021

Sorry, for design reasons I opted not to have an inventory this time around. Items are either bitten right away or not at all, and outfits will only change in special scenes.

I don't want to overdo it with tooltips as too many of them can make things more confusing rather than less, but the latest build adjustment is testing adding a few explanations to the top bar, as those are the hardest things to figure out through play.

hanako

0.6.3 Update

#6 by hanako - Jun 1 2021

New options on options menu, so you can turn off the flash if it bugs you, and so it's more obvious that disabling transitions will kill possibly all animation in the game which will make it look quite different.

Game calendar will now let you play up through late December, which should take you through some special events and give you time to unlock extra jobs and activities. Have you found any jobs beyond your starting set yet?

ThatCrazyChick

Re: 0.6.3 Update

#7 by ThatCrazyChick - Jun 2 2021

I got child model and the filing job (which probably gives you a pretty good idea of the type of lil vamp I'm raising lol)! the model job is singlehandedly saving my bank account

hanako

THE BIG BETA THREAD!!!

#8 by hanako - Jun 18 2021

Trying to merge topics correctly, pardon my dust.

hanako

0.7

#9 by hanako - Jun 18 2021

0.7 build is up - this is the first time people can play all the way through to the end and see what careers they might get. More information available here: https://hanakogames.itch.io/cute-bite/devlog/265063/07-now-with-endings

again I'd love to hear what activities people find, what endings they uncover!

Bloody Vikings

Re: THE BIG BETA THREAD!!!

#10 by Bloody Vikings - Jul 1 2021

So far I've gotten the "not good enough" ending, the "farmer" ending, and the "lost to a hunter" ending. The last one after beating the hunter a dozen times didn't seem to trigger anyhting unusual, so I decided to just activate the bad end.
I'm liking it so far, although it might not hurt to find a way to hint that Temperance is vital for mental stamina, as it's less obvious than Endurance.
Also, would it be possible to draw up your current stats by clicking on the girl, or a mirror, perhaps? Something to let people get a quick stat check before choosing a path.

So, I suppose, NEW BOOBS are a strong draw, but over time, better story wins out. -Hanako

ThatCrazyChick

Re: THE BIG BETA THREAD!!!

#11 by ThatCrazyChick - Jul 1 2021

Slowly gathering career endings - not sure how helpful I'll be for determining difficulty since I was able to get a good building groove up before I was able to start generating endings. I will say I've never once had the girl fail to turn into batgirl (until you asked in that post, I thought it was just a cute event not a check). The biggest advancement obstacle for me is stamina (both mind and body), you can only hunt for so long even if you beat the vampire hunter and after that it's VERY difficult to keep those values up without resting (though my stats are fine even with the rest). It's fairly easy to balance jobs/classes, especially once I realized how lucrative burglary can be (I didn't even unlock the option until my fourth playthrough but boy that office building). I do think the threshold to 'level up' a job is a mite low, I usually get a pay raise for the 'advanced' jobs ~3 weeks in.

ThatCrazyChick

Re: THE BIG BETA THREAD!!!

#12 by ThatCrazyChick - Jul 1 2021

Bloody Vikings:
after beating the hunter a dozen times didn't seem to trigger anyhting unusual

My favorite ending thus far comes after beating the hunter, but you need to have some amount of rebellion and it has to take place after a conversation with saule (I believe those are the requirements at least - haven't done extensive testing but thats when its triggered for me).

Bloody Vikings

Re: THE BIG BETA THREAD!!!

#13 by Bloody Vikings - Jul 1 2021

Ah, good to know. My vampire must have been too obedient to trigger that.

So, I suppose, NEW BOOBS are a strong draw, but over time, better story wins out. -Hanako

hanako

Re: THE BIG BETA THREAD!!!

#14 by hanako - Jul 1 2021

There is a special ending related to beating the Hunter but it requires certain prerequisites ahead of time. Basically, right now, unless you've raised a certain stat and unlocked a certain scene which makes the vampire curious about the Hunter's origins, she just drains and drops her like she would any other target. Only with a certain threshold met does she stop to go "Wait, I have questions for you." This may be too obscure at the moment, though it is meant to be something you'd eventually stumble across on replays through raising different stats.

(Also yay comments!

Gimme a sec I'll say more. And yes, rebelliousness affects how that post-combat scene plays out, but it's the other stat/conversation you need to get that event to happen.)

Bloody Vikings

Re: THE BIG BETA THREAD!!!

#15 by Bloody Vikings - Jul 1 2021

I'd gotten the scene, but not on a run where I had the stats to fight the Hunter.

So, I suppose, NEW BOOBS are a strong draw, but over time, better story wins out. -Hanako

hanako

Re: THE BIG BETA THREAD!!!

#16 by hanako - Jul 1 2021

Bloody Vikings:
Also, would it be possible to draw up your current stats by clicking on the girl, or a mirror, perhaps? Something to let people get a quick stat check before choosing a path.

Technically possible yes, but I'm not quite sure when and where you're thinking about having the option. Do you mean, like, in conversation scenes where there might be choices? Any scene in particular or just in general? It probably requires slightly different code to have it available during a scene vs during a choice, so if you mostly want to check RIGHT at the moment of making a choice I can look into adding an option on the choice screen.

Bloody Vikings

Re: THE BIG BETA THREAD!!!

#17 by Bloody Vikings - Jul 1 2021

Before a choice would be the most pressing time, of course (schedule setting, conversation between vampire and the caretaker, et cetera,) but in Princess Maker-type games, I often stop to look over my child's stats intermittently, just to verify how things are shaping up.

So, I suppose, NEW BOOBS are a strong draw, but over time, better story wins out. -Hanako

q_3

Re: THE BIG BETA THREAD!!!

#18 by q_3 - Jul 3 2021

I qualified for the Hunter's ending the first time I beat her, FWIW.

Early on the game seems very punishing if you aren't balancing Body and Mind evenly, with the weaker of the two being easily exhausted unless you rest a lot. It makes sense to encourage some degree of balance, but maybe the jobs/classes that focus more on body should consume less mind and vice versa?

Having to pick an activity for the entire week can lead to some frustration. Early on it's often necessary to have one or two rest periods, but having to dedicate the entire week to rest is costly. Later on if a class increases in price mid-week it can cause you to unexpectedly run out of money. If you don't want to allow day-to-day micromanagement, maybe at least have like a "rest one day" option? Or maybe "stay home but don't sleep" activity which would recover less body/mind but provide slight stat boosts instead of penalties?

The event illustrations are very easy to skip. Maybe require an additional click to continue past them?

Burglary seems either too difficult or not rewarding enough. It requires a wide range of skills but rarely yields more money than you can get (much more easily) from arm wrestling. At minimum maybe if you bail on a house early enough you'll have time to try a second?

Bloody Vikings

Re: THE BIG BETA THREAD!!!

#19 by Bloody Vikings - Jul 3 2021

One more small request, when you fast forward, if you aren't careful, you can end up at the "burgle or not" choice for a burglury without seeing which house you are in front of and can't scroll back to check. Possibly add a label so that you can tell?

So, I suppose, NEW BOOBS are a strong draw, but over time, better story wins out. -Hanako

hanako

Re: THE BIG BETA THREAD!!!

#20 by hanako - Jul 3 2021

I don't mind making it more visible, but you should still be able to scroll back from the Break In / Go Home option to see the building description. At least when I'm testing, the scrollwheel and PageUp both still work at that point.

(It's also recorded in History, but that's awkward to get to.)

Being able to pick a different house if you bail early on was in my list of features to consider at some point, so I may bump that up a bit.

q_3

Re: THE BIG BETA THREAD!!!

#21 by q_3 - Jul 4 2021

Suggestion: an activity (Fortune Teller?) that hints about whether vampire is on track to be restored and what ending(s) she is leaning toward.

One of the computer use class scenes ("Ready to talk about basic programming?") seems to be bugged, it doesn't display the background or sprites, just the dialogue over the weekly stat changes screen.

Sometimes during battle the vampire's sprite gets stuck as semi-transparent. I think it happens if you click too rapidly during an animation.

The movie option seems weak compared to other activities. Maybe add some Mind/Body recovery if vampire really likes the movie? Add a chance to bite a moviegoer in the dark? Add popcorn to the list of things you can bite?

One other thing that would be helpful with burglary is when you're choosing what to search for, either displaying your current stats or colorizing each option to reflect chance of success.

The last third or so of the game can feel too easy as long as you did reasonably well up to that point. Would it be feasible to add high-level challenges similar to the Hunter to other activities? I really like what she adds both in terms of building tension as you play and then having a satisfying payoff once you're strong enough to beat her. Like, maybe as you do more burglaries you notice more police activity, and you eventually get caught and have to break out of jail (which plays as a burglary in reverse). If you charm many people at balls you start to hear about an elite secret society and eventually receive an invite to their masquerade ball where you'll be unmasked if you fail. Win too many arm wrestling matches and you're pulled into the dangerous world of illegal underground arm wrestling tournaments (?!).

Alternatively, maybe just have an even tougher fight available toward the end of the game?

hanako

Re: THE BIG BETA THREAD!!!

#22 by hanako - Jul 4 2021

Suggestion: an activity (Fortune Teller?) that hints about whether vampire is on track to be restored and what ending(s) she is leaning toward.

This is currently planned as an event that will trigger in the second half of the game if you take the Lore class, but not written yet. We don't have an extra fortune teller character so this probably has to be something the vampire does herself via Occult skill. I don't know yet if it should become an activity she can do at will after that event or not.

One other thing that would be helpful with burglary is when you're choosing what to search for, either displaying your current stats or colorizing each option to reflect chance of success.

The reason those options aren't colorised is that it's actually WAY more complex than just your skill ranking, so any coloring would give a false impression. The related skill affects whether the vampire is likely to recognise a valuable item if she sees one, but doesn't affect whether there are likely to be any of those items in the house in the first place, or how valuable any individual item hidden in the house is. You could have a huge skill in technology and be really good at spotting valuable tech goodies, but if there aren't any there to begin with, your skill is useless. So I don't want to color the Tech option green based on your skill and falsely suggest 'this is the easy option, pick this one' when it might be the worst option to make money on.

However, the update I'm working on at the moment adds 'View Stats' to the quick menu at the bottom, so you will at least be able to check your skills.

q_3

Re: THE BIG BETA THREAD!!!

#23 by q_3 - Jul 5 2021

Suggestion: Move the Endurance and Temperance stats to the top of the list in their own group to emphasize their importance. It took me way too long to figure out how Mind and Body are calculated...

Somehow these stats got me the "heal the world with vampire vitamins" ending, which didn't really make sense to me. I'd maxed the urban spelunking class and was mostly committing burglaries and expected something more like the crime boss ending.

The final computer class is also missing the background and sprites.

I found the Lore class hard to max, completing it just a few days before the end even when it was my main goal. The stats it trains are the least generally useful, so you're pressured to do multiple other jobs/classes to compensate. Maybe that will change once Occult has more uses? I do think it would make sense for the class to train a mind skill, maybe. (And I really like the relationship with the Lore instructor so far, she might be my favorite. I wonder if the house you can burgle that's protected with runes is hers...)

The antiques trader and content creator jobs seem less lucrative than they should be. Content creator does eventually turn a good profit with very high stats, but it takes so much of a time investment that it seems better to just stick with modeling. And antiques trader never seems to do much better than the other second tier jobs even with high stats. Maybe they could get bonuses for repeated success like the other jobs? Content creator accumulates more followers over time, while antiques trader develops contacts with other buyers and sellers to get even better prices.

hanako

Re: THE BIG BETA THREAD!!!

#24 by hanako - Jul 5 2021

WHOOPS one of the late level debate scenes is missing entirely... Okay looks like there's something else I need to fix before pushing this update!

(I have a lot of fixes coming shortly but was trying to finish a run and ran into that.)

hanako

Re: THE BIG BETA THREAD!!!

#25 by hanako - Jul 5 2021

Patch 0.7.1

This is mostly a feature patch, though a couple of new scenes may have also slipped in here and there. Details, exciting or otherwise:

Rest no longer shows all the down arrows

Because the Rest action was coming across as too daunting to many people, even though you actually lose very little from resting and the main downside to it is that it takes up so much of your schedule. The display now only shows the increase to Mind and Body. Stat decay via Resting still happens (do nothing but rest for all three slots and you'll see all the losses tabulated at the end) but it's no longer emphasized.

Rest distribution slightly tweaked

There were a few stats which never decayed due to resting. This has been fixed. This also slightly adjusts how likely any skill is to decay, given that there are more options now.

House description visible on break-in-or-not screen

Not very important but if you were skipping wildly ahead you can now more easily see what you're doing when you start.

History accessible directly from right-click menu

This is mostly useful if you've accidentally skipped through a scene and can't roll back. 'History' is now an option on the central menu from escape/right-click/whatever so that you can more quickly get to that screen and see what you missed.

When choosing a house to rob, you can now hunt for a different target if you don't like the look of the place from outside

At the moment this only works before you start breaking into a building at all. If you really didn't want to go for a store, you can hunt for a different target instead, but the alarm level will increase.

View/Hide stats added to quick menu

In dialog scenes when you can normally see fast forward / quicksave / etc, there's now an option to bring up your list of stats. Also works during choices. Click it again to make the stat panel go away.

Slight adjustment to when jobs get a pay increase

Jobs whose base pay is more than 10/day now take longer to get a raise, with the actual delay affected by how much the job pays.

Fixed some missing bite_intros on Computer Class scenes

(this is why the stat screens weren't being hidden so you couldn't see the characters)

In combat, fighters resetting position for a new round should also now reset transparency

It's still possible to get weird animation if you are clicking and skipping furiously, but it will at least try to correct itself.

Debate level 3 scene now appears properly

This scene was accidentally missing and would roll over into an intro psychology scene instead, oops. Now appears as designed.

Income calculations for Antiques Trader job adjusted

This should result in an overall income boost for the job and steadier progression as skills increase. Max income for this job is now 50/day.

Divination now available if unlocked in Lore class after New Years

This is a paid weekend activity which provides some feedback about whether you're powerful enough to avoid the bad ending and what career you're likely to get. Because this only unlocks after New Years, it can be missed if you max Lore entirely before that date.

Divination allows ending the game early in some circumstances

If you've passed the spring equinox and your skills are past a certain threshold you can choose to go adult and end the game immediately.

Bloody Vikings

Re: THE BIG BETA THREAD!!!

#26 by Bloody Vikings - Jul 5 2021

This update looks great. Thank you, Hanako.

So, I suppose, NEW BOOBS are a strong draw, but over time, better story wins out. -Hanako

q_3

Re: THE BIG BETA THREAD!!!

#27 by q_3 - Jul 5 2021

I like the debate instructor, she's fun. Probably my favorite of the non-romanceable characters. Galaxy brain idea: she should have two romance routes, one for each class. And a secret harem route where you complete both classes and learn she's actually identical twins.

(Speaking of which, I'm curious how Ms. Vampire will choose between multiple brides. I know it's possible to complete both dancing and spelunking in a single run, and possibly even have time for a third. Maybe she picks based on who's most compatible with her ending?)

Suggestion: have Content Creator use Technology instead of Science, and Fact Checker use Science instead of Technology. I think that would make sense for both jobs (scientific literacy is important for reporters!), and it would improve balance a bit. Content Creator would be easier to train for due to more synergy with the Computer class, while the Lore class would become more practical with more synergy with the Fact Checker job.

The Psychic job could probably use a buff too, given that the Endurance penalty can be a hassle long-term and it only pays around average for a second tier job. I kind of think it should be another variable wage job, it's weird to think of "psychic" as an hourly wage position.

These stats got the farmer ending (via divination), which seemed weird because I hadn't done any animal or horticulture jobs/classes. I'd maxed debate and psychology, got partway through Lore, and worked most as file clerk and psychic. I was on track for the politician ending but used alchemy to reduce my etiquette and law stats. Then some more tweaking got the vampire queen ending, which made sense. (Is that ending supposed to only be one page of text? It does seem a little bit like a bad ending.)

Bloody Vikings

Re: THE BIG BETA THREAD!!!

#28 by Bloody Vikings - Jul 5 2021

I'm not sure about the twin harem, since that's a little creepy, but the twin thing would help explain how you can interact with one, and even attack her and have prices affected, without the other class actually being afffected.

So, I suppose, NEW BOOBS are a strong draw, but over time, better story wins out. -Hanako

hanako

Re: THE BIG BETA THREAD!!!

#29 by hanako - Jul 5 2021

how you can interact with one, and even attack her and have prices affected, without the other class actually being afffected.

Are you speaking theoretically? Because that shouldn't be possible, in MULTIPLE ways.

You can't actually bite the debate/psych teacher - she sees your mood and pre-emptively cancels the class on the grounds that you're clearly too tired to concentrate. You don't actually bite her and the class price shouldn't actually increase. And it DOES cancel both Debate and Psych classes for the week.

Really, you can't bite her, there's not even art for that.

Then some more tweaking got the vampire queen ending, which made sense. (Is that ending supposed to only be one page of text? It does seem a little bit like a bad ending.)

At the time that I was writing them I couldn't think of enough interesting variations for that ending so I left it there. (Most of the time, later pages are for variants based on the stats other than the stats which triggered the ending in the first place. Not all endings have variants at the moment, though most do, and more may be added later as I come up with ideas.)

Bloody Vikings

Re: THE BIG BETA THREAD!!!

#30 by Bloody Vikings - Jul 5 2021

Uh, I thought I'd done that in a run. I can try running again to see if I misread it. I was under the influence of allergy meds during that run, but I could have sworn that the price spiked.

So, I suppose, NEW BOOBS are a strong draw, but over time, better story wins out. -Hanako

hanako

Re: THE BIG BETA THREAD!!!

#31 by hanako - Jul 5 2021

Just double-checked it - both classes canceled, no price change.

Though speaking of biting teachers, I do have chibi art for biting the Lore teacher which may never be used in the game. When I commissioned it I thought it might be part of the romance route, but due to the way classes and endings have eventually worked out, I don't think there's any way to fit it in.

Bloody Vikings

Re: THE BIG BETA THREAD!!!

#32 by Bloody Vikings - Jul 5 2021

Secret hidden concept bonus art!

So, I suppose, NEW BOOBS are a strong draw, but over time, better story wins out. -Hanako

q_3

Re: THE BIG BETA THREAD!!!

#33 by q_3 - Jul 6 2021

Make her a super rare encounter while hunting?

Will the finalized gallery include ending texts? That would be nice. I don't know if it's feasible, but it would be especially neat if it tracked which variants you've seen and showed whether you've missed any.

hanako

Re: THE BIG BETA THREAD!!!

#34 by hanako - Jul 6 2021

Will the finalized gallery include ending texts? That would be nice. I don't know if it's feasible, but it would be especially neat if it tracked which variants you've seen and showed whether you've missed any.

I'd really rather not as that kind of extra bookkeeping discourages me from adding more options instead of feeling free to add more ideas when I come up with them. But I don't know for certain until I actually tinker with the final versions. I have in previous games of this nature allowed players to manually save their ending text so they can at least remember and compare.

GremlinWrangler

Re: THE BIG BETA THREAD!!!

#35 by GremlinWrangler - Jul 7 2021

Have got hacker with a side order of burglary to add to the collection.

Certainly with vaguely sensible activity you get a dead patch at the back end of the game once you can clear out the hunter. Only real difficulty seemed to be people hiding away when out trying to feed.

Does offering people the choice to end a couple of months early break any internal game or story logic? Maybe as part of the closing out a maxed class offer an option to skip to the endgame and maybe only for players who have ended at least once already). This might mean more players would see the less optimal end games, and give a speed run option for those that like that sort of thing.

I'm not sure what the solution for those playing out the endgame with one good set of feeding stats without making the hunting minigame more complex/buggy. Possibly once people start hiding out there are burglary style stat checks to find someone alone or tempt them away from safety to drive adding back in some of your dumped stats, akin to how burglery drives some interesting choices to deal with dogs etc.

GW

hanako

Re: THE BIG BETA THREAD!!!

#36 by hanako - Jul 7 2021

As of 0.7.1 there is now the option to end slightly early (March) via divination, since that's how she can find out "yeah, you're strong enough to do this now"

Some things I'm considering at the moment:
- an option to sneak into the movies without paying (Mischief)
- stripping the Temperance boost from the Model job. However, this may only affect newly started games because of where the stats are set.

q_3

Re: THE BIG BETA THREAD!!!

#37 by q_3 - Jul 7 2021

Once hunting dries up for me, unless I have the Ball activity unlocked I usually just buy lots of blood popsicles every few weeks. It's inefficient - especially if one stat has a significantly higher maximum than the other - but money usually isn't too hard to come by at that point, especially if you burglarize the office building.

Additionally, there's a couple full free heals on festival days in the latter part of the game, though if you're not prepared for them you might not get much benefit (e.g. going hunting or buying popsicles the weekend immediately before). Maybe have Saule mention that something really nice is coming up in the next week?

hanako:
Some things I'm considering at the moment:
- an option to sneak into the movies without paying (Mischief)
- stripping the Temperance boost from the Model job. However, this may only affect newly started games because of where the stats are set.

Both of those sound good to me. Model has definitely been one of the best jobs by a lot, maybe too much so. If you're adjusting things downward, Security Guard could also probably stand to be debuffed a little bit.

MillaMaxwell

Re: THE BIG BETA THREAD!!!

#38 by MillaMaxwell - Jul 7 2021

Okay, I finally had some free time to dive into this! I got three endings: losing to the Hunter, becoming a Hacker, and just kinda hanging out reclusively in the manor. The tech-savvy route was way easier (aside from learning to run from the Hunter, haha) because the IT Help Desk job paid very well and raised my Etiquette passively so that when I ran out of Computer classes and switched to Ballroom Dancing on a whim, I could unlock the dancing minigame almost immediately, which raised a ton of other stats while also keeping my Mind and Body up.

On my next route, I tried more of a physical build and never really got a good rhythm down -- my jobs (Library Shelver and then Store Stocker) didn't pay enough to be able to afford classes without weeks of saving up and the classes used up my tiny Mind stat so fast I had to rest way more than it felt like I should. And the only extra thing I unlocked was Arm Wrestling, which I failed at every time.

I think I know what I did wrong though: I should have picked just one particular class early on, taken that whenever I had money, and then hoped it unlocked a better job before trying to diversify my activities. But I still made it to the ending, so it was a fine experience anyway. I'm looking forward to poking around more and finding more endings!

Oh, and thank you so much for making that change to the Resting UI! Resting felt way better without all those down arrows and so I am way more comfortable using that option now.

q_3

Re: THE BIG BETA THREAD!!!

#39 by q_3 - Jul 8 2021

I did a run as a modern, business and tech savvy vampire and noticed I wasn't unlocking any weekend activities without going out of my way to get unrelated stats; my main stats (awareness, insight, technology, etiquette, business, law, and history) never unlocked anything on their own. Maybe add an extra activity for them? I could see technology getting an MMO, or business plus technology getting Day Trading (sure it's nighttime in Europe, but it's a global economy! Though that would probably need alternate dialogue for the Estate class where she hasn't learned about Wall Street yet). Or history gets a museum that happens to be open late at night?

Accounting's insight penalty feels like too much for a job that pays less, especially when it's a stat you probably want if you're built for that job. If you have the relevant stats you'll probably also qualify for File Clerk or Fact Checker which have more pay and no penalty. Maybe remove the Insight penalty and increase the Grace penalty instead? That would make more sense to me, and right now the Grace penalty is so small it doesn't seem worth including. Or give Accounting a pay raise, that would make sense too.

hanako

Re: THE BIG BETA THREAD!!!

#40 by hanako - Jul 8 2021

my main stats (awareness, insight, technology, etiquette, business, law, and history) never unlocked anything on their own

They definitely unlocked things.

q_3

Re: THE BIG BETA THREAD!!!

#41 by q_3 - Jul 8 2021

Maybe I missed something, but the only weekend activities I ever unlocked were Divination and Alchemy, both of which come from Occult, right?

hanako

Re: THE BIG BETA THREAD!!!

#42 by hanako - Jul 8 2021

They didn't unlock weekend activities, they unlocked other things. Though one of them would unlock a weekend activity, but you have to meet the dance teacher once first before you can decide to dress up as a prince and go to balls. It is Etiquette based though, not any other stat.

q_3

Re: THE BIG BETA THREAD!!!

#43 by q_3 - Jul 8 2021

Fair enough! I was just used to quickly unlocking multiple weekend activities on prior runs, so this time around the options seemed sparse. And modern vampires don't attend ballroom dancing classes because they don't want to learn hoity toity "Classical Arts."

MillaMaxwell

Re: THE BIG BETA THREAD!!!

#44 by MillaMaxwell - Jul 10 2021

I've gotten nine endings now, including the bad ending (deliberately tried for that by having Buttercup sleep all day every day) and the special defeat the hunter ending, which took a lot of tries to get right because Buttercup kept being either not rebellious enough, not strong enough to consistently beat the hunter, or I failed to unlock the scene where she asks Saule about the hunter a second time. Not sure what the conditions are to unlock that scene, but when I made Buttercup a rebellious warrior, everything finally fell into place. (Oh, and there was a typo in the conversation with the hunter. I didn't get a screenshot, but she said "you you" in one sentence.)

One weird combination of stats + ending that I got was when I maxed out Horticulture and then switched to Horseback Riding, but somehow ended up with the fashion designer ending. I had been going to a bunch of balls on weekends to refill my mind/body and had high Style, but it still wasn't what I was expecting for my outdoorsy vampire...

Now my current challenge is trying to max out the Urban Spelunking class. I keep having trouble affording it when it gets to the higher levels, even with Burglary to supplement my income. I had better luck when I maxed out Martial Arts first and was consistently working as a security guard in addition to burgling, but by that point, there wasn't enough time left to max it out. Probably just an issue of needing better time/resource management on my end.

q_3

Re: THE BIG BETA THREAD!!!

#45 by q_3 - Jul 10 2021

If you have View Stats enabled when you reach the ending, the stats will continue to display during the credits and can't be turned off.

These stats got me a bad ending, which was surprising given they're overall higher than other successful runs I've had. Divination on the last weekend said "you might be able to regain your adult form already, though it's too soon to try." I had been going out of my way to increase rebellion and otherwise just make vampire mad by choosing classes she disliked and giving bad answers to her questions, so is that the cause? I was curious if there was an ending where, like, she's restored but hates Saule so much she doesn't offer her blood or something. (I'm at 17/21 endings so I'm trying to think creatively about what I might be missing!)

I did notice that after defeating the hunter with max rebellion, vampire went with her without even an option to say no. Had to reload and spend the rest of the game avoiding hunting.

hanako

Re: THE BIG BETA THREAD!!!

#46 by hanako - Jul 10 2021

Yes, looks like you got that bad ending because of how high your rebellion was - it does play into the final calculations. It also starts skewing all your success/fail rolls and generally making the game more difficult, though I don't know if that was noticeable or not since it happens slowly over time. I'm considering adding a few more color levels to that indicator for people really pushing it.

(I'm at 17/21 endings so I'm trying to think creatively about what I might be missing!)

I'm not sure at what point I should list off endings or give any hints about what triggers them.

I'd be curious to see your gallery to see which ones are being elusive though.

q_3

Re: THE BIG BETA THREAD!!!

#47 by q_3 - Jul 10 2021

I went back and did notice the flapping bat animation during the ending. And yes, I was noticing some unexpected job failures, though not until rebellion was really high. Maybe also show the bat animation when rebellion causes a failure? And a couple extra levels for the icon would work, too, maybe make it turn red; I know I've gotten the icon to max before without any noticeable effect (other than making the hunter ending available).

Here's my gallery. FWIW, doctor, teacher, and vampire vitamins I've only ever gotten by accident. Business lady was a bit tricky, too, as I needed to alchemize my law stat to avoid the politician ending. Strange masters also seems hard to avoid once you qualify for it, as there's no way to alchemize Occult.

MillaMaxwell

Re: THE BIG BETA THREAD!!!

#48 by MillaMaxwell - Jul 11 2021

I'm missing six endings now. Here's my gallery: https://imgur.com/cuzdS15

I've been trying to get doctor and whatever that vitamins one is by focusing on science-related classes, but I haven't had any luck thus far. I keep ending up with farmer, socialite, or secret masters instead. I did finally manage to finish the Urban Exploration classes, but I had to build up Technology to get jobs that made it sustainable and so I ended up with the hacker ending again.

Edit: I got the idol ending and noticed a typo in the technology variant: https://imgur.com/lBJRxo3

hanako

Re: THE BIG BETA THREAD!!!

#49 by hanako - Jul 11 2021

It's not a science ending (the vitamins thing was a science variant of it) and it's currently being rewritten as it wasn't covering the scope it was originally intended to. Which won't affect how you get it, but will affect how it reads when you do.

(The medical one is science-related in how you get it.)

Still not sure when I should start giving more information on how endings are unlocked. Also not sure how frequently I should patch up - do you guys want smaller changes faster or would you rather I hang on until all the romances are in, since you'll need to start new games to follow those plotlines?

Bloody Vikings

Re: THE BIG BETA THREAD!!!

#50 by Bloody Vikings - Jul 11 2021

I'd say hold off since you already did a batch of UI/convenience fixes unless something is found that needed fixed quickly. I like the updates, but that's time and stress capacity you could apply elsewhere.

So, I suppose, NEW BOOBS are a strong draw, but over time, better story wins out. -Hanako

q_3

Re: THE BIG BETA THREAD!!!

#51 by q_3 - Jul 11 2021

I think you should release patches only when there's new or different content you want tested.

The scene where vampire gets teased about having a crush on the horticulture teacher is cute! But now I have to see if there are any other rare scene variants like that.

Suggestion: have Arm Wrestling give a couple points of strength whether you win or lose, which would make it a bit more useful early on when you're unlikely to win very often. Or maybe a different stat based on whether you win or lose? Dominance if you win, awareness if you lose, something like that.

MillaMaxwell

Re: THE BIG BETA THREAD!!!

#52 by MillaMaxwell - Jul 11 2021

I agree that you should wait until the romance plot lines are ready before you do the next update.

hanako

Re: THE BIG BETA THREAD!!!

#53 by hanako - Aug 7 2021

Version 0.8 available!

This is not a full final beta but it does include relationships, bonus scenes in all classes, and several other changes. I have been having a TERRIBLE week including big internet outages (and leaking roof) and have struggled to get this uploaded so even just saying that you managed to download it would be a blessing for me

Make sure you're selecting the 0.8 version from the game manager!

What's obviously not done yet: credits, gallery stuff, achievements

CHANGED:

Removed Temperance gains from modeling - This will only show up on NEW games.
Auto-hid the stat display when going into the epilogues.
New butler storyline scenes implemented (may require a new game in order to set flags)
Big changes to the "heal the world" ending variants.
Some typos fixed
Added a science variant to fashion designer ending
New icons for high rebellion
Relationships available! May require restarting to unlock more smoothly.
New options at the cinema - sneaking in without paying, picking pockets, and playing video games (requires separate unlock)
Removed epilogue from history display
New option to view your final character details at the end of the game
Character names corrected in History mode
If an activity was canceled so that you have a 'None' in the list, you should now be blocked from starting the next week until you set a replacement activity.
All classes should now have at least one unlockable scene

Character relationships are NOT EXCLUSIVE. While it's difficult to complete more than one per playthrough, it can be done, I'm not stopping you. Vampires often have harems!
How this works is that, if you do manage to unlock the special end-game scene for each route, your career epilogue will have an addition for that character. Yes, EVERY career epilogue has options for EVERY possible character, even if it's highly unlikely that you'll ever achieve that outcome. (My brain melted a little doing this.) In particular I'm pretty sure it's impossible to get most of those endings with the Lore teacher without cheating like crazy. But they're there! In case you do cheat, or in case new features make it possible to reach that ending later!

It is not necessarily obvious HOW to unlock endings with each character. I'm happy to provide more details if asked but I thought some of you might like to try blind first.

Bloody Vikings

Re: THE BIG BETA THREAD!!!

#54 by Bloody Vikings - Aug 7 2021

Thank you for the update. I look forward to checking out all of the new things.

I assume a KS update is on its way for those not on the forums. When you feel up to it, of course.

So, I suppose, NEW BOOBS are a strong draw, but over time, better story wins out. -Hanako

hanako

Re: THE BIG BETA THREAD!!!

#55 by hanako - Aug 7 2021

yeah, probably tomorrow after some sleep. assuming my net connection works enough to post! (we laugh so we don't cry...)

q_3

Re: THE BIG BETA THREAD!!!

#56 by q_3 - Aug 8 2021

Yay! Downloaded and played! I did a quick playthrough and got the Politician ending with Spelunker romance, enjoyed the new scenes. I also completed the Lore class but didn't get her ending or notice any new scenes. I did see a few new scenes with Computers that were pretty cute - she's not a love interest is she? Too bad.

Divination doesn't tell you if you're going to get a romance ending, maybe it should?

I'm not sure if Launch Character Report is working or if it's a problem on my end. It opens my default browser but doesn't seem to load anything. (On Mac, default browser is Firefox.)

MillaMaxwell

Re: THE BIG BETA THREAD!!!

#57 by MillaMaxwell - Aug 8 2021

Awesome! I just updated and played through the Rosalie (computer teacher) romance route. Super cute! I ended up getting the farmer ending and loved that the romantic partner is included.

hanako

Re: THE BIG BETA THREAD!!!

#58 by hanako - Aug 8 2021

q_3:
Yay! Downloaded and played! I did a quick playthrough and got the Politician ending with Spelunker romance, enjoyed the new scenes. I also completed the Lore class but didn't get her ending or notice any new scenes. I did see a few new scenes with Computers that were pretty cute - she's not a love interest is she? Too bad.

Rosalie the computer teacher IS an option.

Divination doesn't tell you if you're going to get a romance ending, maybe it should?

I'm not sure if Launch Character Report is working or if it's a problem on my end. It opens my default browser but doesn't seem to load anything. (On Mac, default browser is Firefox.)

Ooo, a mac user, the one platform I didn't have handy for tests. What it's trying to do (and appeared to do on PC and linux) is to open a text file. On windows this pops Notepad. On spiky's linux it popped some text editor that I can't remember what it was, but it did work. But it's doing this through an OpenURL command so it may try to go to a browser first before the browser says "no, this is a text file, send it to this other program". Is there any filename shown in the address bar? What normally happens if you try to open a txt file in Firefox?

To see if the file is being written correctly at all, look in your savegame directory (which I think should be ~/Library/RenPy/(cute bite something) ) and look for a CharacterReport.txt file. If you can find the directory and it's full of saves but no txt, then that suggests it didn't write correctly, but if the file's there then it didn't launch right, so it's useful to know which way that went.

q_3

Re: THE BIG BETA THREAD!!!

#59 by q_3 - Aug 8 2021

Opening a text file in Firefox just displays the text. I think I may have found the problem, though. I do have a Library/Renpy/CuteBite-[numbers] folder, but the text file is located not in that folder but in the Library/Renpy folder with the name "CuteBite-[numbers]\CharacterReport.txt". So it tried to write to the folder but something went haywire. Maybe the backslash?

hanako

Re: THE BIG BETA THREAD!!!

#60 by hanako - Aug 8 2021

Ah, that's helpful, thanks! I do have a a Mac friend (but he was busy this week) so I may be able to get some quick fixes tested later.

q_3

Re: THE BIG BETA THREAD!!!

#61 by q_3 - Aug 8 2021

Aw, Rosalie's ending is super cute. I do feel a bit bad for her in the Secret Masters ending though. Then getting Akari and Dimitria at the same time was pretty easy, ended with the socialite ending as a result.

Lore teacher is still proving to be elusive, on both of those runs I completed her class without getting any new scenes. Not asking for any hints yet, though!

Lathtal

Re: THE BIG BETA THREAD!!!

#62 by Lathtal - Aug 9 2021

Got the hospital/Rosalie ending, and noticed a minor typo on the second textbox. "Clininal" instead of "clinical". Still playing with the other new things.

Bloody Vikings

Re: THE BIG BETA THREAD!!!

#63 by Bloody Vikings - Aug 9 2021

Downloaded and trying to play, but thunderstorms are making my power flicker, so stopping for now. Loving what I've seen so far.

So, I suppose, NEW BOOBS are a strong draw, but over time, better story wins out. -Hanako

hanako

Re: THE BIG BETA THREAD!!!

#64 by hanako - Aug 10 2021

Prospective achievement list:

fed while hunting (that is, won a combat)
won an arm-wrestling match
robbed a house
bit a teacher
kissed someone's hand at a ball
performed divination
performed alchemy
the six romance unlocks
regained your adult form
defeated the Hunter
lost to the Hunter
ran away with the fairies
failed to save the butler
one for each career ending
completed the ending gallery

Are there any other specific things you can do that you think are noteworthy enough to deserve acheivement status?

q_3

Re: THE BIG BETA THREAD!!!

#65 by q_3 - Aug 10 2021

Started a harem (completed three romances in a single game)
Do you even know where that's been?! (bit something (each of the things?) found while hunting)
Mystery solved (learned who killed the Old Master)
They'll rot your brain (played arcade games (and lost?))
Who's a good girl? (successfully tamed a dog during burglary)
Open Sesame (passed an Occult check during burglary)
Sticky fingers (picked a pocket)

ran away with the fairies must be one of the endings I missed... I'm speculating it's related to the lore teacher (no hints!). I did finally get her ending, and I can see what you meant about the various romances being mutually incompatible. Is Dimitria the only one who is compatible with all vampire personality types?

Trying to get the butler ending now.

hanako

Re: THE BIG BETA THREAD!!!

#66 by hanako - Aug 10 2021

actually the fairies was me referencing what happens if you leave with the Hunter

hanako

Re: THE BIG BETA THREAD!!!

#67 by hanako - Aug 11 2021

Friendly mac tester says changing the slash put the file in the right directory but nothing launched at all when he clicked the button, so I may have to change that to just notifying the player that the file has been saved instead of trying to launch it, I don't know.

hanako

Re: THE BIG BETA THREAD!!!

#68 by hanako - Aug 14 2021

SPOILERS AHOY!

So at this point I'm going to start talking about a few how-to-get-endings hints so that testers can more easily poke around. These are generally not full instructions, just general directions, but if you don't want to know, don't look!

Romances:
Butler - Must choose to see her as a friend, not mother/servant. Must find out in conversation that the vampire tried to steal "a person" from the Old Master, boost Sensitivity enough to have a conversation about who that person was, and boost Insight enough to find out what happened to the Master.
Vasilisa - Prefer the past. Study both Lore and Art History.
Akari - Avoid the personality combo that hates dance classes (Present + Fit In). Study Ballroom Dance. Attend balls on the weekends and succeed at biting people. Boost Dominance.
Adelia - Prefer to stand out. Study Urban Spelunking. Boost Law. Do Burglary.
Dimitria - Avoid the combination of Prefer Force and high Fighting skill. Study Horticulture. Boost Occult.
Rosalie - Prefer the present. Don't do a lot of Modeling. Study Computers. Boost Science.

Career endings:
Careers are determined solely by your stats at the end of the game, not how often you did activities or what personality type you have or anything like that. Every possible career is linked to a unique combination of two stats - the Politician ending, for example, is linked to History + Law. Each of these groups of two stats is collected, along with one default ending (the one where you stay in your estate and mostly ignore the world) which has a starting score of 220. The results are then sorted and whatever has the highest total is your career. Getting the 'default' ending therefore tends to mean that you had one highish stat, high enough to avoid the bad ending, but all your other stats were kind of bad, or at least nothing paired with that one high stat to link to another career.

I'm not going to say just yet which stats link to which endings. I will say that at least from earlier the ending that many people seemed to be having trouble getting involves running a nightclub. What stats do you think might get you there?

q_3

Re: THE BIG BETA THREAD!!!

#69 by q_3 - Aug 15 2021

Woo hoo, harem acquired! And only a moderate amount of savescumming required. Mostly reloading when hunting starts to dry up, or retrying burglary to get a good couple office building runs. Is it just me, or do doctors and nurses stop appearing midway through the game? Maybe I've just bitten them all, doctors are excellent early game sources of mind, and nurses are just excellent early targets period.

Also I have yet to figure out what is worth stealing in the warehouse.

I'm not sure if I would have figured out how to get Butler on my own, at least not without a lot of experimenting. Requiring two stats plus the right dialogue combinations is tough, though in hindsight I can see how the game suggested the extra scenes and you can infer the stats that'd get them. Maybe having achievements for the two conversations could provide clearer guidance. Or maybe there could be an alternate way to get her ending with lower requirements if you take the estates class? I kept spending so much time on it; on the other hand, knowing that it's unnecessary is what made me aspire for the maximum harem.

Also for me at least it seems like the businesswoman and debutante endings should maybe have like a lower priority or higher stat requirement or something, those are the two I most often get by default (i.e. when going for romances instead of trying for particular endings).

hanako

Re: THE BIG BETA THREAD!!!

#70 by hanako - Aug 16 2021

Maybe I've just bitten them all

There are limited numbers of targets, yes. If you eat all the doctors you'll eventually stop finding any.

a lower priority or higher stat requirement or something, those are the two I most often get by default

As it says in the notes about career endings, it's all about stat combos - clearly the jobs and classes you're taking in your 'default' strategy are boosting the relevant stats. Try a different approach? There is no prioritization or specific 'requirement' for any of those endings, it's only about which combination of stats is highest.

... Okay, technically, I suppose that there is a tiny amount of prioritization since if you somehow managed to have identical numbers for two entries in the list, then they'd come out in the reverse of the way they were input into the list for sorting in the first place. However, this shouldn't happen in real play, since the stat numbers are not stored internally in the nice little round numbers you see onscreen, but in long complex fractions, so it's highly unlikely to have identical scores. If you used cheats to manually set every single stat to 200, though, it looks like the Farming ending would be what you ended up with, because it's the last one entered into the list for sorting purposes and therefore the first one that would come back out after the list is sorted and reversed.

Bloody Vikings

Re: THE BIG BETA THREAD!!!

#71 by Bloody Vikings - Aug 16 2021

Hanako in the pocket of Big Agribusiness confirmed!

(It's very interesting to get this insight into how it judges priorities, thank you.)

So, I suppose, NEW BOOBS are a strong draw, but over time, better story wins out. -Hanako

hanako

Re: THE BIG BETA THREAD!!!

#72 by hanako - Aug 20 2021

0.9 Patch

This is getting very close to launch-ready, though the credits have not been done yet. The next KS announcement will be reminding people it's their last chance to get their names in.

Major features/changes:

Character report now saves and displays the file location but doesn't try to launch
Divination should now tell you if you've unlocked a romance outcome
Put teacher names in the bite list for ending display (Only affects people bitten since the change)
Added achievements/checklist (Most of them you'll need to do again)
Currently selected options now brighter text
Gallery moved from ending, Extras added to main menu after completing game
Second gallery (non-ending CGs) added

Now is the time to bring up any random thing that's been bugging you! While there's no guarantee of me actually doing it, I'll certainly ponder it, and this is the last good chance for tweaks. (Like that brighter text thing, which I really didn't care about but Spiky said was confusing. So okay sure.)

q_3

Re: THE BIG BETA THREAD!!!

#73 by q_3 - Aug 21 2021

The butler ending CG isn't unlocking for me (at least I assume that's what's missing - between her regular ending CG and Adelia's). All the others unlocked as soon as I started 0.9, but even viewing the scene (on an existing save) won't unlock it.

Maybe too much to ask, but it would be neat if there were a short extra ending scene if you have more than one romance. Like they all meet at the castle and each have a comment about the situation.

hanako

Re: THE BIG BETA THREAD!!!

#74 by hanako - Aug 21 2021

Oh, I see why that would happen... (Technical answer being that the butler romance graphic is set up a little differently from the others, and I had a separate one intended for the CG gallery rather than the version you actually get in-game, which means that the code is saying "Well you've never seen this version before so it's not unlocked!" whereas I've seen both in testing, so... I was thinking I needed to make sure that worked when doing the gallery but then got distracted by the need to do DIFFERENT kinds of trickery for the images that have transparent backgrounds, and forgot to double-check

)