Winter Wolves - Amber's Magic Shop - Amber Full Beta 1.0.1

myoksy Apr 28, 2017

I think we completely misunderstood each other - the auto low quality should work as you described it, with better end quality when the amount is increased. but the game I mailed you does not work this way. see my list above, a quantity of 1 has a _higher_ quality than the result of crafting two items.

pacing:

status on the first day of adult stage, new game with 0.9.0.

http://fs5.directupload.net/images/170428/2pvk3oc2.png" style="max-width:100%">

lower skill levels than the one with my interlude with 0.8.7*, it will take me longer to reach 300 in all skills (though with lots of time to spare, so I think your goal to make the playing less tedious in the end game was reached)

* this one: http://winterwolves.net/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=4001&start=150#p42500

jack1974 Apr 28, 2017

Well about the crafting quality I am not sure either :mrgreen:

Cool about the pacing, I think that way is perfect, also considering you can train your skills in the adventurer's guild, there shouldn't be any problem to win the game in time, but not easier as before

jack1974 Apr 28, 2017

Made another small update, mostly improvements but also fixed some issues with Manuel's secret route

BobTheMob Apr 28, 2017

Just encountered what I guess would be called a bug:

When breaking up w/ Bernard, even if the special item for him had been crafted, Amber says she can't continue working on it.

This is in VN mode. Not sure if it happens in crafting mode.

Also, for some reason I haven't been able to download past 0.8.9. :?:

jack1974 Apr 29, 2017

Haha, I'm thinking to just remove the breakup scenes, and only show the "remove screen", since people don't like them and there are also issues like the one you mentioned

I am not sure why you weren't able to download?

myoksy Apr 29, 2017

For the tool there's no easy way to do what you said, so I will put 1.

still not happy with this, I think this will be frustrating in an altogether not very fun crafting game play*.

would it be easier to remove the amount of tool completely? in the game it is explained that tools are not a consumable and one for each product in the batch is needed.

no numbers would be better than misleading ones.

* quite sure your opinion is not that far away from mine ; )

jack1974 Apr 29, 2017

No because I display the numbers individually. It could be done but at this point I'm not surely going to add more "complex" coding, especially for a very small thing like this. I'm already working on the new RPG, any more time spent on this game for gameplay will be wasted effort, since as you said the crafting gameplay is not fun and it's not like it can become suddenly fun because the amount of tools is correct :lol:

mastro Apr 29, 2017

no numbers would be better than misleading ones.

How it's misleading? example green wood planks. Correctly says you need 1 tool to make it. Indeed, you need one. If quantity is more than 1, you'll simply need to craft more. But it's not wrong at all. It's not like tha job says "you must craft everything in one go".

Haha most times the jobs are so lenient in days. I can finish them all before the deadline!

I'm already working on the new RPG

Curses Lands, right? yes work on that. Much more interesting than this crafting game. Sorry to be blunt.

myoksy Apr 29, 2017

How it's misleading? example green wood planks. Correctly says you need 1 tool to make it.

if the order is something like 3 planks it would say: 3 green wood, 1 tool.

from the consumption pov technically correct*, from a game mechanics pov misleading as it omits the batch size.

another thing: are there more prerequisites to Manuel's quest outside of evening and visiting the adventurers' guild? I learnt about this bonus mission only in the forum** and I cannot trigger it

* the best kind of correct

** or did I miss an in-game hint?

jack1974 Apr 29, 2017

No it's enough to visit the adventurer's guild in adult age during evening, however in the previous versions it could be (randomly) skipped, and it shows up once :oops:

So if you have visited the adventurer's guild once in a past version and you don't have it enabled, it's likely that you could have had bad luck, and it was instantly discarded

the only way would be to resume a save from beginning of adult age. I tried several times now and it always unlock (I made sure this time!!).

To be more clear: you have 30% chances of meeting him (unlocking the route) every time you enter adventurer's guild at evening.

Before, that happened ONCE. So in my playthroughs I was lucky and always got him, while other people missed him and then he won't show up again. Now it works, it's enough to try visiting 3-4 times and it will unlock

myoksy Apr 29, 2017

okay, likely the trigger&no-show thingy < 0.9.1, I played a few in-game weeks with the still buggy version in the adult stage

winter32 Apr 29, 2017

So, my jewelcrafting and potionmaking were at 399 and 366 respectively, right before I got the event where you go and 'exchange notes' about finding the way to craft the McGuffin. I get the '+15 bonus to all skills' notification and go 'yay!'

Then after coming back home I discover these two skills are now firmly at 300 (the others did get the bonus)

I can't help but feel that supposedly enlightening exchange made me dumber

(I guess this is cap in the code, but it shouldn't be too hard to make the check allow for skill + bonus to break it instead of the current approach... even if it doesn't make any actual difference, but just for the bragging rights ;o

edit: on another note, the 'remove from the shops the items you're asked to craft' thing seems to work, but only for one day. On the next day the shops restock normally and you can buy the items and make the mint from guild orders, like before

jack1974 Apr 30, 2017

But you had such values because you played part of the game with a previous version? I didn't think in current one you could increase the skills so fast. Anyways doesn't matter since I'm not doing tweaks anymore, just found it funny.

And yes actually it shouldn't allow people to go over 300 anytime in the game, so maybe I'll add a check like that (it should be safe to add).

Or maybe I'll just leave as it is

The items are removed, but then when there's the new vendors refresh (which might happen the next day or in 3 days) there's the chance that they're back there too. I could try to make them stay removed for longer maybe.

Madance Apr 30, 2017

Hum... Jack, I think there still are some things to look for to correct, even if some of them is just some details.

Like, when Ruby appear for the first time to protect Amber from the "two hand holding drunkards"(yes, they are positioned in a way they are almost holding hands, they are my new crackship just for that :lol:

), she still is "Mystery Girl", but in the written dialog box appear as "Ruby" even if she never mentioned her name at the time.

The DARK+ path of Ruby's romance made me both happy and confused. I got that Amber was enthralled by her, but shouldn't this happen AFTER she bit her? I mean, I get that vampires have all that seduction power and all, but I haven't understand at all what the potion did. She mentioned that she got powerful, but it was very confusing. If the potion increases her power, shouldn't have more control over what she can do to her servants(by the way, this reminds me so much of the tabletop RPG game, Vampire the Masquerade... I LOVED THE REFERENCES!). Oh, vampires can walk around during the day? I always thought they were using some magic cloak to do this, since it would lose some of their awesomeness if they were walking around like that. Oh well...

Ruby's path have a scene where Amber feels compelled to be more bold in how she look, so she might get more of Ruby's attention, but not only this is completely ignored in the romance path(Ruby doesn't mention the change of look at all), but also forgets that Ruby not necessarily will praise Amber's body, only if the player took the option to not warn the vampires of the Adventure Guild's attack(making her and Thomas to appear together in the future to remark about Amber's habit of sleeping without clothes, while if the player warned the vampires about the attack, only Thomas will appear).

Speaking of which, during the scene where Thomas warns Amber about the upcoming Ruby's birthday and the need for her to buy a present, no matter what option the player chooses, the only option that has any sort of a impact on Ruby is the one where Amber ask for Thomas suggestion, in which he will tell that she likes jewelry. Why have different options if the character doesn't offer no reaction at all?

And the adventures guilds... Why they need/have so much money? I was waiting for all kinds of plot twists when I put Amber to pursue Bernard(love the guy, I don't know why, he's awesome to me, only Reed is better then him to me :roll:

), but... Nothing was said?

During the end of the Cosmina scene where Amber and her had to deal with the Direwolf in the forest, Amber mentioned that Lynn knew her herbs but it was nice to have "Cosa" around, but in that moment, Amber still haven't knew Lynn's name(the scene where Amber was pulled in the middle of the discussion between Lynn and her mother was after this scene, not before.

Some characters keep talking that Amber's color is pink, even herself says that, but her underwear is purple/violet, not pink at all. Was there a reason? A I seeing things? I'm confused...

After all, why is amber purple all over and not blue like the others dark elves? Is just a tone variation or there is a reason? *____________*(I really wanna know!)

Now, Lynn's father is still a big mystery and why Lynn's is treated as a elf when she clearly looks like a half elf... Or a half SNOW elf(Those hair and ears won't fool me! :twisted:

). When I put Amber to pursue Lynn I expected to be a little more open about this, since Amber was her bestfriend/sorta girlfriend, but still got nothing. If nothing was planed, I will indulge my imagination and believe she is an half snow elf/human.

I still think there is some weird things in terms of continuity... Like, I play with ALL the romance options activated(I just feel like it, since Amber is Bi, so I like to keep it that way. I'm eccentric like that :oops:

)and to see Lair acting attracted to Amber and them acting as he never felt anything towards her when Lynn's path is pursued; or when the "who is going to be heartbroken window" appears out of the blue and you chose a romance to end when Amber still haven't had nothing like a relationship with the said character... It's confusing. I know it was made so the player might have a better control of who he/she was pursuing romantically, but is so against the story continuity that it breaks immersion. That must be some way to deal with this, at least as far as my suggestions go, but I might be in the minority here and others might not feel as I do with such things.

Sorry for the HUGE spoiler tag an things, just my weird sense acting... I hope I'm not being annoying, it's just strange to me all of this.

BUT I LOVE THIS GAME. That's why I ask so much questions.

jack1974 Apr 30, 2017

OK let's go in order:

1) Ruby's name: where you see Ruby instead of Mysterious Girl? the variable is set in the next scene, so it's impossible you see Ruby in the hoodlum scene. I just played it, and I always see "Mysterious Girl". if you can tell me exactly where it shows Ruby would be good

2)

well it's not clearly explained in the text, but the potion basically made Ruby a sort of "super vampire". She could hypnotize Amber and submit her

. And yes in my world, vampires can walk out in the sun. I mean they don't like it but it's not like they turn instantly to ashes if they do (they would be too weak IMHO!)

3)

About the gifts: there's also the red leather ball gag, if you buy that and go spend the night at the inn in the next scene... :twisted:

4) Regarding Lynn's name, thanks, I will simply move Lynn's scene where Amber gets to know her name before that scene with Cosa

5) Regarding pink, I guess it's more violet than pink. I'll change that. As for the skin, no special reason, dark elves can be blue-ish like Mesphit but also other similar color like violet, dark blue, etc. It just didn't happen to have many other dark elves characters before. But it's normal for them

6) As for breaking/stopping the romances, I think it's the only way to do it, I need to tweak some breakup scenes (since they mention stuff that didn't happen yet like Bernard's amulet) but I'll probably keep them, I wouldn't know how to change that right now, sorry!

Madance Apr 30, 2017

Oh, that fine Jack, as I said, I'm sometimes very eccentric :lol:

Well, the drunkards scene have the description(not the top name in the dialog box, but the name mentioned in the description box) of Ruby instead of Mystery Girl. I want to send you the printscreen I've took from the scene, if you could tell me how...

AND THE BLOOD? IS THERE AN REACTION FOR IT? *___________*

jack1974 Apr 30, 2017

Ah yes I found the line where it says Ruby indeed! Thanks

winter32 Apr 30, 2017

But you had such values because you played part of the game with a previous version? I didn't think in current one you could increase the skills so fast.

I started the game with version 0.8.6, and had these skills at 166 & 156 on the final day before the exam, which I think is still quite possible (i did a lot of crafting in the 'teen' part to raise the money) Version 0.8.8+ gives 50+ bonus on graduation, so at the start of adult game the skills were at 216 & 206. I got the remaining 150-200 points per skill simply crafting ~1 thing a day, with versions 0.8.8 and later ones. I wasn't even focusing on these two skills because by the time the quest to craft the McGuffin popped, i already had them at 300+ You may be underestimating just how quick these things go up ;>

(on this note, things are possibly somewhat off in the opposite direction with the house library upgrade -- the first one you buy for 500 or so gold already gives a handful of tier 6 recipes... when at the start of the adult part i had few if any tier 3 recipes unlocked. Probably because i neglected the studying in favour of crafting -- the latter seems much more sensible given it gains you both skillups *and* money, reputation, xp etc, and since the town folk only ask for items that you have recipes for, there's no real incentive to try and unlock the later ones, for which the studying is useful)

jack1974 Apr 30, 2017

Ah OK good, so you played a good amount with the "cheat mode" version :lol:

Then I can understand those values!

Yes studying is more if you don't want to bother crafting every day (like I was when I was testing) to get some XP+skill+maybe a new recipe.

myoksy Apr 30, 2017

But you had such values because you played part of the game with a previous version? I didn't think in current one you could increase the skills so fast.

to the best of my knowledge* only 0.9.0 and 0.9.1, a couple of days before the cut-off of all skills to 300.

http://fs5.directupload.net/images/170430/6wyffhlf.png" style="max-width:100%">

* it is unlikely but not impossible that I started by mistake an older version. but it would have been really bad luck.