Bow Nerf

[Savin]

and its map-style interface, which puts many scenes a fair distance away from each other, to be greater failings than anything to do with its fight mechanics (which imho are as reasonable as is possible without different modes, as Savin says), and what people really mean when they say it's "too complicated".

That's also kind of a drag. I think the map interface works just fine in and of itself -- the problem is that each "zone" is usually separate from all the others, and you often have to slog a long ways to get fucking anywhere. TiTS needs better fast travel, basically. This disconnect between zones is also pretty limiting story-wise, and demands players do a lot of backtracking to see old favorites (which is only going to get worse with space encounters coming). But that's another story. 

Anyway. Let's look at Mhen'ga: if I walk my fat ass out of the city (which takes like 10 mindless clicks, based visual map be praised), I can hit east-west on the first 3 tiles and encounter everything in that zone's encounter table (Zil of both sexes, C.Snakes, Kerokoras). If I want to encounter VANAE, though? Fuck it, gotta huff through the ENTIRE PLANET. 

That's one of the reasons I added the Taxi service. It's dumb as bricks, but fuck it, beats clicking 100+ times across 3 zones (plus dealing with random encounters) to get from the DMZ to Taivra's palace again. Now I can just magically get like, 10 squares from the palace gates. The disconnect and slog's getting better over time -- different zones are now clearly demarcated (ie, the light and dark green tiles in Mhen'ga), and hopefully we'll get better fast travel options over time. Smaller zones in the future might help... but at the same time, that risks making the game world seem small and claustrophobic. Hard to find a balance there. 

 

[Enigmatic D]

That's also kind of a drag. I think the map interface works just fine in and of itself -- the problem is that each "zone" is usually separate from all the others, and you often have to slog a long ways to get fucking anywhere. TiTS needs better fast travel, basically. This disconnect between zones is also pretty limiting story-wise, and demands players do a lot of backtracking to see old favorites (which is only going to get worse with space encounters coming). But that's another story. 

Anyway. Let's look at Mhen'ga: if I walk my fat ass out of the city (which takes like 10 mindless clicks, based visual map be praised), I can hit east-west on the first 3 tiles and encounter everything in that zone's encounter table (Zil of both sexes, C.Snakes, Kerokoras). If I want to encounter VANAE, though? Fuck it, gotta huff through the ENTIRE PLANET. 

That's one of the reasons I added the Taxi service. It's dumb as bricks, but fuck it, beats clicking 100+ times across 3 zones (plus dealing with random encounters) to get from the DMZ to Taivra's palace again. Now I can just magically get like, 10 squares from the palace gates. The disconnect and slog's getting better over time -- different zones are now clearly demarcated (ie, the light and dark green tiles in Mhen'ga), and hopefully we'll get better fast travel options over time. Smaller zones in the future might help... but at the same time, that risks making the game world seem small and claustrophobic. Hard to find a balance there. 

Speaking of fast travel, that hoverboard that you get off Tarkus. Does it really do anything ingame or has nothing really been implemented for it?

 

[Savin]

Speaking of fast travel, that hoverboard that you get off Tarkus. Does it really do anything ingame or has nothing really been implemented for it?

It literally makes you travel faster. As in, moving from tile to tile consumes less in-game time. So it doesn't really do anything USEFUL, per se.

 

[Enigmatic D]

It literally makes you travel faster. As in, moving from tile to tile consumes less in-game time. So it doesn't really do anything USEFUL, per se.

I see. Right off the bat,  I can't think of a legitimate reason to keep that in my inventory if it just shaves off a couple of minutes in-game while navigating each planet. Although, having a hoverboard in Myrellion sounds useful because I'd assume it could be used to avoid any landmines down in the caves.

 

[VerySexyGrammar]

THAT is a legitimately decent idea -- have an optional hard or whatever mode -- rather than expecting the majority of people to voluntarily put on Easy Mode (they won't). But that's something that, at best, would have to wait until near or after the game's completion, since what you're asking for (and a legitimate Hard Mode that isn't just tacking on HP to enemies would require) is basically a complete refactoring of the game system. 

Given the constraints TiTS (and its ilk) operate under, I think its game system IS good. It could be better, though, and it will get better as the alpha goes on. But refining the game's mechanics are nowhere near a top priority (especially now, when swatches of mechanics are simply non-existent), and if that's what you came here for, you'd do right by yourself to avoid further disappointment. Come back in 3 or 4 years when the game's actually done, or at least past release, and maybe things will suit you a little more. 

Yeah, at this point I'm not really hoping for anything. I know development takes a long time and that even if (and yes, I realize that that's impossible) you all decided to make it a priority to rebalance the core system, even just a little, it would take a very long time to see significant results. If there's a proper game here in four years, awesome, but I have no expectations anymore.

Indeed, I've been on enough game forums to know that people will almost invariably pick higher difficulty levels and then complain that it's too hard. I don't understand why, but it's a thing and it's real. As you already figured out, if you do make a Porn Mode and a Gamer Mode, you'll have to be real smart as to what you're going to call them. Perhaps make it more of a decision with options kinda like this:

1. "I didn't come here to do math. Give me the tits already!"

2. "I want to play an RPG, but if it happens to be full of tits, I'm OK with that."

It literally makes you travel faster. As in, moving from tile to tile consumes less in-game time. So it doesn't really do anything USEFUL, per se.

I see. Right off the bat,  I can't think of a legitimate reason to keep that in my inventory if it just shaves off a couple of minutes in-game while navigating each planet. Although, having a hoverboard in Myrellion sounds useful because I'd assume it could be used to avoid any landmines down in the caves.

Haven't tried it, but... if you have high Libido, it would probably reduce your Lust gains from ground travel by a ton. If it makes you go twice as fast, for example, it would cut those Lust gains in half. With 170 max Lust (normalizing at 128 over time), it would take a lot longer to go from 10 to 128.

 

[Decanter]

If I want to encounter VANAE, though? Fuck it, gotta huff through the ENTIRE PLANET. That's one of the reasons I added the Taxi service. It's dumb as bricks, but fuck it, beats clicking 100+ times across 3 zones (plus dealing with random encounters) to get from the DMZ to Taivra's palace again. Now I can just magically get like, 10 squares from the palace gates.

It's a start, but since it costs money, there's a certain range of people who won't use it, or will underuse it. Y'know, where I'm from, you can buy not only a day pass for public transit, but a week, month, and year pass too. Why doesn't Steele Sr. just leave such a long-term pass as one of his parting gifts? It's got to be less expensive than renting a giant hangar indefinitely.

I see. Right off the bat,  I can't think of a legitimate reason to keep that in my inventory if it just shaves off a couple of minutes in-game while navigating each planet. Although, having a hoverboard in Myrellion sounds useful because I'd assume it could be used to avoid any landmines down in the caves.

Not only is this not a documented feature, I don't think it's a feature at all. But perhaps it should be.

 

[Savin]

It's a start, but since it costs money, there's a certain range of people who won't use it, or will underuse it. Y'know, where I'm from, you can buy not only a day pass for public transit, but a week, month, and year pass too. Why doesn't Steele Sr. just leave such a long-term pass as one of his parting gifts? It's got to be less expensive than renting a giant hangar indefinitely.

Not only is this not a documented feature, I don't think it's a feature at all. But perhaps it should be.

A). I will absolute suggest just being able to buy life passes to the UGC Taxis to Fen. Why didn't I think of that?

B). Not a feature. Something something repulsorlifts push down and trigger the mines something. Throw it in a bug report and pretend it should be; maybe Gedtron or Fen will change it. Or not. 

 

[Magic Ted]

A). I will absolute suggest just being able to buy life passes to the UGC Taxis to Fen. Why didn't I think of that?

sounds like a side quest reward

 

[Ormael]

Ohh quite a lot stuff that I could wave with tl;dr but I do read all that (nice read too). Yeah seems I weird person that finds both smut and rpg parts of game same interesting so well would be always been picking option to have both parts present. Well current easy mode could be hmmm....attempted to remaded into that meantioned Porn Mode (well maybe with some more adjustment to make it really feel like you come and smash almost instantly all while you gain lust at hyperspeed so after each fight you're ready to fuck) and current one keep (well think trying to make it slight harder won't be good for game) and call it then Gamer Mode.

On taxi system. It does good thing to speed up moving around map (even with not so low cost) and I just feel there should be like 2 maybe 3 times more taxi spots on maps to make it really easier to get to places of interest or just make moving on each planet faster. Plus now we got per day (500) or lifetime (10k) pass for gym so same way going for taxi services lifetime pass shouldn't cost think more than 10k (or well make it like with Bess paid per week some small fee if not giving chance for gain pernament pass - and temporal pass was meantioned above too thou rather as Vic gift) but idea it's something I want see ingame however way we get it (yeah probably complaining but to get Taivra waifu weekly income if I not wanna run throu literally whole Myrellion but use taxi it cuts 500 credits from each two way trip this way to make it at best merely 300 neat gain (well technically even 200 *cough Bess weekly paycheck cough*)).

 

[Tacocat]

hoverboard is good, for dumbfuck pills/ lets u get more combat in less time)

 

[Galgano]

do you have any approximation of the numbers of people wanting the challenge to be kept, numbers of people wanting it very easy, numbers of people only wanting porn, ratio of (people that visit these forums or comment on a new build) to people supporting the game on Patreon/WifeBeatr.

Were there a lot of posts/threads on the old forum asking for an easier game?

 

[Nik_van_Rijn]

It literally makes you travel faster. As in, moving from tile to tile consumes less in-game time. So it doesn't really do anything USEFUL, per se.

Dem buffs though. Right now, you don't really need any of those, but if the difficulty will be up, either by default or in a separate game mod (which btw is an awesome idea), having them for longer can be essential.

That reminds me, has Cargo Bot been fixed in the recent patches? Was it even a known bug encountered by anyone else?

 

[Nik_van_Rijn]

• Even if you have all the powers, you only have one action per turn.  Even if Steele could learn both Power Strike and Overcharge at the same time, they can't do both at once.  At present you only have two moves worth using: your damage multiplier attack, and your healing skill.  If you're a Tech Specialist then you only have one move worth using because your shield-restoring skills are actively a waste of time and trade a nonrenewable resource you have in scarcity for a renewable resource you already have more of than anyone else.  If you have both a strong melee attack and a stunning ranged attack, then you can choose freely between them to give yourself a sense of variety, even though the actual damage per round from that isn't going to be any better than if you'd just spammed one or the other half a dozen times.

Status-effect-applying moves are the most useful ones IMO, not to mention essential for Smugglers. 

Myr/Zil Honey is an easy way of recharging your character's batteries, while restoring one's shields prevents losing HP, which are much harder to restore in the field. High level Tech Specs being untouchable as a result of enemies not having any effective ways to punch through their shields is another issue entirely. From what I can tell, it's a well known one too.

 

[VantagePoint]

Status-effect-applying moves are the most useful ones IMO, not to mention essential for Smugglers. 

Myr/Zil Honey is an easy way of recharging your character's batteries, while restoring one's shields prevents losing HP, which are much harder to restore in the field. High level Tech Specs being untouchable as a result of enemies not having any effective ways to punch through their shields is another issue entirely. From what I can tell, it's a well known one too.

And then, enemies that can rip through their shields would just make them a neutered Mercenary. 

If nobody's rallying for enemies to have more resistance to Smuggler's Flashbang so that they aren't hitting 200 damage a turn regularly, then I don't see why this is a serious concern. Game balance isn't really a high priority right now, as said by Savin, and won't be until this game is completed, which will take years.

 

[Galgano]

Game balance isn't a thing that happens with just one pass though. You can't just expect every balance change to be spot on when it comes out. That's why games like Starcraft and League of Legends are constantly balancing the game even now. Also, I see the game as being further along than Fen says it is. It's my understanding that Alpha stage of a game is synonymous with First Playable. First Playable would be the concept of having a single level in the game and demonstration of the game's hook. For this game, the hook would probably be the transformations and what not like CoC, but also the better text parser and part identifier (I could be wrong, I was just picking that up in passing). As for the first level part, since this game focuses more on the sex and what not, Mhenga wouldn't be the first level; Tavros would fit that bill. I see the game as already having completed the alpha stage of the game and are progressing towards completing the Beta milestone.