Try is what we do. But not everyone is a masochist. Not everyone has the time. Some of us come home to relax, not to get more wound up than a maxi-spring. The first and second installments were perfect for us. The third installment seems to be the polar opposite.
And if he did cheat, feel free to let me know. There's got to be a way to make this game more playable, even if it's as simple as giving one character slightly less shitty stats.
Oh and Jungl3Curr1, can I ask what the bugs are? Can't say I noticed them, otherwise that I needed a shitton of bravery to get in her pants (which sounds weird)
- Fixed a bug where Bikini Vision can be dropped. - Fixed a bug where Larissa's Space Cow Burger generated 0 affection. - Fixed a bug where Hangar and Mall are supposed to be adjacent to each other. - Fixed a bug where clicking on nothing in the bunk view will freeze the game. - Fixed a bug where Smile Staples was missing from the database. - Fixed a bug where Carmen's EP is more than Maximum. - Fixed a bug where the mutiny two lowest calculations were incorrect and the text for it isn't displayed properly. - Fixed a bug in Larissa Story 3 where her choices weren't correctly inputted. - Fixed a bug in Larissa Story 2 where her choices weren't correctly inputted. - Fixed a bug in Elaine Story 7 where her sex scenes weren't showing.
I tried Cheat Engine, to the depths that I am able, in multiple different data searches, in many different and tedious ways. Rather than explain it to you here, I'll simply say that he knows Cheat Engine exists and has put his best foot forward to prevent its use.
The game freezes when you reload with a character who used a free action in the same turn. At first, I thought it was only happening with Isabel`s kill command, but the game also froze when I reloaded with Carmen after using attract mode.
I know you're going about doing the patch now, but I believe there is an issue with the voice acting. Namely, there is none. Now matter how much a click the mute toggles, nothing changes. I think it keeps resetting or something, because I'll tick a box, and when I come back, the box's are all blank again and nothing has changed in game. Am I missing something?
I just started playing this and damn I am getting my ass kicked so hard in combat. After just three/four battles it all just goes to hell. I can't seem to do enough damage and I have to spam all the powers just to survive a fight and then I have no more stamina to survive further
Don't worry, because according to Hentaicook, there are two options for you: The first is to git gud. The second is to pay him more money. There is no third option.
I looked at the balance patch. As far as I'm concerned, it changes so little that it doesn't matter. Your third option is non-existent. Even if we wait for that, we'll need another patch on top of that to make any sort of viable, fun game possible.
You'll get better at planning ahead eventually, and the fights will literally become walk in the park. Read/research everything written in the game.
SPOILER
some basic tips to survive :
Change loadout of characters before night raid to be able to handle multiple scenarios. Use rapid firing pistols to chop off shields Shotguns to knock adjacent enemies back magnum to shoot multiple enemies standing in one straight line sniper to bypass shields assault rifles for louies stun pistol for low hp/rats/zombies Have at least 1 jammer always (either elaine, carmen or olga) At least this is how i did it, you can surely survive at least 20-22 days without totally running out of ammo this way, Slander might have a better way. Problem comes only when you run out of every ammunition, cause you will eventually, ammo income atm is nearly non-existent.
BTW game is addictive as hell, i thought i played the sh!t out of AD2 and AD1, but i already put more hours into this, than the previous 2 together :P
I remember your first post about the game balance and you said assault rifles were shit. I just rolled my eyes and said laughed. Now you're saying always bring a jammer to use assault rifle. You came in here as a useless cub, but you kept fighting and became a lion.
And I just died on said first fight... Say, what's the point to have a revive ability if you go down and have combat immediately end? And what's with the paltry level of hit points? Goddamn.
Revive ability is not that good of an ability. It allows you to raise a downed ally. Combat only ends if the ally takes damage that exceeds half of their total maximum hp. (blatant ripoff of a rule from 4E). You can revive someone to ensure that they can still fight for the rest of the round, but counter to the power, combat is usually nearly done if someone goes down... The revive ability can surely be a very good power, on the last day you're on the station.
Battle 2. Beatrice and Carmen are arguably the best characters in the game, the former for their high damage output special and the latter for high combat potential overall. Kinda intimidated by Isabel's WTF button, as it deals more harm than good.
On an unrelated note, why does the hotel repair Carmen? o.O Did I miss something?
The hotel repairs BP points =(Barricades, and robot health)= that's why. If you go to the hangar then her EP will be recharged daily. That's why i say shes one OP motherf-er.
Battle 3. Didn't bring Carmen. Should've brought Carmen. Two of those T-Roosters at the front, along with two of those super hand healer guys with color inverted palettes. Difficulty Zero seems to be a very high zero. I might just bite the bullet on this one. Even the zombie takes little damage... The regular enemy that's mixed in with them has just proven to take three shots to kill. Isabel's WTF button looking mighty tempting right now.
Well, I survived, at the cost of two barriers and just about all SP aside from Isabel. Have yet to do one story mission.
You're right, it changes pretty well nothing. Difficulty Zero will still be ungodly amounts of hard, and even the harder difficulties don't seem to change much. So why have it in the game at all? A rather trivial system.
It's not at all trivial, I can definitely tell the difference. You can too, lol.
The difficulty of the game starts at around... say, 20. You can increase or decrease that number with the map modifiers. Apart from that, the game gradually increases in difficulty by one point, every day.
and if you're on day 40ish, you'll see like 4 t-roosters, but if you had a -8 modifier, it'd probably be 3 and something small.
Battle 4. Carmen targets the big one, hits the little one all the way over there. Don't think that's supposed to happen... Another weird thing: Stella didn't get her turn near the end there. Only reason I survived was because I moved back to the slums.
Quite honestly, if you cannot muster your spirit to bring yourself past day 5, then I agree with you. It doesn't make a difference. You seem quite detailed in your post though, so I suspect you're missing something that hugely affects your difficulty.
If not, perhaps I'll upload an official run video on xvideos showing you guys everything. It'd be the official easy mode, hehe, you can't lose.
I have a suggestion and I don't want to come across as a rabid fanboy but I think you should possibly patch in an easier mode and keep the difficulty as is. It might be more work but what I'm saying is that you can make it like a difficulty setting like you did in AD2 instead this time it's a legit spike instead of just a day reduction.
This way your hard work doesn't go down the drain, those who really want to go for the challenge will happily go for it and those who just want a chill game will have it. Just an idea that popped in. Seriously, I feel like I'm playing a True Survivor Mode or something and the AI director from Left 4 Dead decided to stop by and decree that I wasn't suffering enough.
Case in point, a night with two waves. Both Louies and T-rexs. I might as well have bitten into the pillow and spread my cheeks right then and there.
New players will find Louies and T-roosters especially difficult because of their battering ram like presence. A T-rooster is rated at 33 difficulty, and a zombie is rated at 4... These values aren't absolute however, because 8 zombies could easily be taken out by Terra's Sprinklers, but if you meet each zombie one at a time, then we find that 9 zombies to be harder than a t-rooster.
New players may not realize that a single t-rooster is easier than 9 zombies spread out over waves, because the powers available to them to counter such threats are not immediately noticeable.
High damage abilities (beam cannon, doctor's orders, kill command, whips, black hole, sys shockwave, high dam guns, sticky blast)... are all very good tools that are much less effective when used on Zombies.
I forgot to mention. This is like night 20+ and I'm out of ammo for all the good guns and my troops are so sad I'm surprised that they're willing to even fight. The difficulty came less from not knowing how to deal with these bastards and more realizing I DIDN'T HAVE THE MEANS TO DEAL WITH THESE BASTARDS XD
Oh well, it was fun while it lasted. And do you mind clarifying something? Little spoilerish but I think everyone here at this point is familiar with it but during the "You Lose" ending, does Larissa shoot you dead or does she let you go?
There are two general "game over you lose" endings. One through mutiny, and one through viewership/less than 4 guards. Both endings result in your death.
It may seem like Larissa is allowing you to leave, but in reality, Larissa has a quirk of being silently passive when it comes to certain types of suggestions. She'll say yes even though she's actually saying no, deep inside. Painfully, this was a real world experience.
Well, the DLC will have 4 characters, but it's up to you guys on who you want to be in.
I don't consider the DLC to be canon, so the more ridiculous the character is in terms of including her into the plot... the less likely I'll make a coherent story out of it (similar to how Olga is just fan-fickin the entire thing).
I'll informally announce the chars for the expansion- Ileana- (the whip/gunslinger chick from Talia from AD2)
Sarah- (My fav char from AD2; kind of a slut which is a nice departure from AD3's affair)
Alice Digknee- Probably one of my craziest ideas for social commentary. Unlike the rest of the cast, you can have sex with her right off the bat, but only once because she feels used (she's a drama princess). The catch is, she's obese. You can starve her by spending her stamina (which, actually gives your team *negative* buffs), and she will eventually become skinny. The faster you starve her, the faster her morale depletes. The story overtly deals with the theme of having a fatter romantic partner. She's also a Digknee Princess, so her story also explores how Digknee movies have brainwashed the female youth into feeling like entitled little princess bitches. To be fair, ad3 has been more critical of men, so I guess I can drop the whole SJW thing and become a uhh... SJT?
Beatrice- I'm super excited for this one! Not exactly the story per se, but the voting process... It's pretty clear that Beatrice is not romanceable in AD3... because Bea just hates the Captain. In fact, she hates the whole TV show premise entirely, and wants nothing to do with you. If Bea was a real character, she'd say "Don't fucking vote for me, or else I'll just kill myself... and then have someone cremate me so you don't get any ideas".
I hope nobody votes for Beatrice. If she's voted for, I won't half-ass making it, hell, I'll probably even love doing it, but I really hope that you guys don't vote for her to be in the expansion. And that's not because I'm saying like "no, please, don't rape my beatrice!"... It's more about... restraint. I want to see if the players can say "You know what. This Beatrice can go on being a prudish bitch, and I will respect that." To have a hot female lead that's a fully developed character, only to never include any scenes with her, and having the players approve of that? Now that's trope breaking.
I thought Beatrice is already in it, but romanceable only when you already have your harem, or later in the main story O.O Bea and Talia was prob the best in AD2, Iliana was gd too, scenes included, shame if you aint putting them in, but if i have to choose between the 4 possibilities ya know i'd go for Sarah >.>
You didnt answer for the Stella question :P Also why does your art look a lot different in some animations (Stella, Terra) ? Have you been experimenting with the Digknee art style?
No, the art was commissioned and done by PinoyToons, although I replaced the faces he drew to ensure that the art was unified, (and the shitty backgrounds if it's even worth mentioning, lol)
I stubbornly refuse to answer your Stella question, as the answer lies within AD3 already.
I bet the Space Horn 7 poster girl would be a funny addition to the cast, hehe.
As an occasional writer, I can totally respect trying to stay true to a vision of a character. That said, Beatrice is a very popular character from the last game, so putting her in the game like this and not doing a hentai scene makes it pretty much irrelevant to even have her. Plus, you say that she doesn't much like the Captain, but I haven't come across any evidence of this so far. Also, the DLC isn't canon, so does it even matter?
If you really dont want us to vote for her, then I wont, but if she is chosen, then I would love to see wha you do with it.
Edit: "no, please, don't rape my beatrice!" Do you mean it would literally be a rape scene 0_0
Wow a whole post dedicated to my apparently masochistic ass, I feel even more special now :) Thanks for creating this game Hentaicook, and thanks to Jungl3Curr1 for being a heroic savior for our beloved creator ;) --- I can give some general tips on how I beat it if people are interested, though I recommend on working out a system yourself. Makes the feeling you get when you finally beat it even better haha
Yes, please give us some pointers. It is a good game but too difficult and frustrating. Sometimes feels like we are not given enough information (date requirements etc)
Ok a few pointers that made my captain's life easier: - ALWAYS select the soldier class. Having good gunmen is crucial, so one extra in the rotation pool is very beneficial. - Don't assign survivors to guard positions when they have weapon stats below 70. Just press the stats button to make sure. - Use assault rifles only when you are being swarmed, otherwise you can easily keep strong enemies at bay by using Larissa with a shotgun (2x with 100 skill will surely knock them back) while pewpew-ing them with normal pistols. Use Isabel for extra damage with her 7 stamina skill. - Use sniper rifles for those heavy armored ones, their health is low compared to their shields and sniper rifles skip shields :) - Spot Louie eggs? SHOOT THEM ASAP! Those fuckers swarm you real easily when they hatch. Zoe's magnum 2x, Terra $captain sniper rifle duo 2x or Carmen & captiain sniper/assault rifle duo 2x works wonders. When they do hatch, use Larissa with her mighty shotgun 2x to push them back. Good luck, I hate them.
Played a good chunk of this weekend. I've gotten to day 20+ several times now, but keep finding myself waxed in a room for what seems like forever - 8 days til I died the first, 10 the second when I gave up, 6 the third when I gave up. I think I'd be doing ok otherwise. Combat is getting tedious, especially when I'm just trying to unwax the hangar to leave, or trying to complete a story mission. Picked Elaine first, completed but didn't have enough points for the scene... ugh.
Played a good chunk of this weekend. I've gotten to day 20+ several times now, but keep finding myself waxed in a room for what seems like forever - 8 days til I died the first, 10 the second when I gave up, 6 the third when I gave up. I think I'd be doing ok otherwise. Combat is getting tedious, especially when I'm just trying to unwax the hangar to leave, or trying to complete a story mission. Picked Elaine first, completed but didn't have enough points for the scene... ugh.
you guys do something? I'm having a much easier time today. Maybe I got good. Pretty smooth sailing on day 19 with 24 affection on Elaine. Here's hoping the world doesn't turn on me!
Why doesn't it show their names and faces on the same screen anywhere? The stat and affections page just shows pictures, and the assignments page has only the names. It makes it hard to learn which character is which.
Is there a bug currently with the end of a... erm... certain robot's story and another... certain robot's story? I believe it should be unlocking a scene but I'm still at 15/17 unlocked.
I checked the coding for ur answer, and apparently there seems to be a bug I fail to miss where the extra scene isn't unlocked properly (the other way around works however). I'll fix that.
As for the last one. You probably have to figure out how or why you don't have it.
... could you maybe make it so the buy all pack is at the top of the buying list, i didn't see you could scroll down and baught them all sepraitely, costs almost 2x as much
That's it. I have to stop. This game is causing me nothing but unnecessary and unhealthy amounts of stress. Even when I'm not playing it, I keep thinking about how difficult it is, and it makes me sick. Good luck in your future endeavours, guys, but this is where I get off.
So anon's getting PTSD of Louies and T-Roosters? It's interesting to see a divided response when it comes to difficulty because people are so different in that aspect. Some people can't take loss or criticism well. Well, I'm done bullying you.
There was this different masochistic game I used to play. People would get on the forums for that game and post "is it me, or is this game too hard, too much rng?" The thread just split everyone up. You had the braggers and the whiners. Interestingly enough, since *that* game was made by a professional team, the players that "whined" suffered from going against a confirmation bias, so they always wanted to know if it was either their own deficiency in skill, or if the game was actually hard.
And then I kinda just sat here for ten minutes thinking about why AD3 is difficult in the first place.
Just beat Stella's story line on day 22. The game is honestly not that hard once you are good at it but it is a bit annoying that you don't know what to expect in terms of stat requirements and affection. My captain got incapacitated by a zombie attack during Stella's storyline because my charisma was too low and I had to restart. That is the kind of blindside stuff that just feels lame when it happens, especially when you have to go back 3 or 4 days.
Also, now I have no idea what to put my points into to start chasing other girls. Not unheard of in dating sims, but when the battle system makes every day a struggle for resource management you don't have a lot of room for error to go back and make changes.
I took Sander's advice and it actually lasted me longer than 7 days before the mutiny; in fact it almost doubled that. xD, I will give my kudos to everyone currently involved in this game's making because even though I came for the Hentai at first, I got hooked on the actual fighting as well. I started playing the Aching Dreams series last year and it's been quite the journey indeed waiting for AD3 to release. Once the nerf comes I have a hunch that we (you) will have an amazing game for players of all creeds.
Longtime fan here, so I've been waiting for this game for a while. I was a little discouraged at how hard it was. Very frustrating game, but it definitely has a lot of potential to be great. I finally managed to beat Elaine's story. I think the main thing that I want is a walkthrough of some kind. Not something that tells you step by step what to do, but just what requirements you need for each girl. The problem I had when I was stuck with Elaine was I didn't know you needed 30 affection. It gets easier when you know what you need. Despite the difficulty, I did enjoy the game and I appreciate the work and thought you guys put into it. It made it so much sweeter when I finally won. Looking forward to the patch.
Can you help me? I am stuck on Elaine story 6. I have the requisite 31 strength (and 33 affection) but I keep failing because I "didn't generate enough affection" Help! Much thanks!
i have played the game everyday for 3-4 hours, and now i want to give my opinion on it!! At first i agreed with the people who complained that its too hard, feels not rewarding etc. But i have to say if u try hard enough u will get the hang on it, i took some hints from the other player in this comment section and it worked wonders. I dont want to say it doesnt need a patch but its playable and u get to the h-sences (if that is ur goal). So i have to say u two did a great job (cause we still have to count in that only two guys are working on that game not a bigshot company with lots of programmers and stuff!!) My only complain is the save system, let us delet specific save spots so we dont have to delete everything (unloked h-scenes included "oh my dear elaine" *sooob*) All in all huge props to u guys great game keep it up :) (sry for bad englando xD)
Does anybody have the numbers on what stats and affection points each girl needs? Pretty peeved that I got farther in Larissa's story than I previously did only to have her freeze in space because my bravery wasn't high enough.
General rule is 25-30 affection for that check, and 15-20 of their preferred stat. For that reason I play as the noble in each run so the farthest I need to play is is around turn 15.
First date/interaction around 5 of their preferred stat. Second date/interaction around 10 of their preferred stat. Third date/interaction around 15 of their preferred stat (and around 30 affection if the third date/interaction is a chance at sex)
Excuse you Anonymous, I wasn't talking to you. Personally I'm on the fence about the difficulty. I got pretty far with the combat. It's difficult but doable, at least in the earlier stages. I'm also in full agreement (unlike some other people) that portions of this game should come with a price tag. I watched Hentaicook struggle with the entire development through this blog and other sites, that effort should be rewarded with monetary value.
I'm simply saying that spending countless hours trying to figure things out and fighting progressively harder enemies could best be used elsewhere.
Anyway, I'll probably just wait for a patch.
Oh, and if you want to chastise me anon, you might want to try and do so with correct grammar and spelling. It would have more of an impact.
I gotta say, after playing this more and getting used to the combat (thanks to tips from Sander and Nan-Yang) I'm actually having a decent amount of fun with the game. Initially it kinda rubbed me the wrong way but the game does take some thought.
At this point it really does just need some quality of life patches and bug fixes then it'll be in really good shape.
since we should try and get a walkthough our selfs, and me not been great at the game, i've been taking note,
for olga all i think i needed was 8 science never got asked again, just don't put point down in case you do need it later, this will get you pass her second story, for her 7th you need 25 affection, giving her the dvds, golden gum and the anti grav brasser helps with that. This is the only one im sure of for now.
Olga is science, yes. You actually only need about 8 for her first scene. Some else in the comments mentioned you actually don't need anymore for her after that, as she only then needs (25) affection by story 7.
Olga is science, yes. You actually only need about 8 for her first scene. Some else in the comments mentioned you actually don't need anymore for her after that, as she only then needs (25) affection by story 7.
As the previous "Anon" replied, Zoe wants agility, but only up to around 20 from what I noticed, and then insight (not sure about minimum - got through with 7, but 5-6 might cover it)
Isabella doesn't seem to care about stats, just as long as you do things her way - didn't manage to finish that story though (need to gain affection through other interactions/story lines).
35 affection needed fo isabella story 5, before that nothing, do things her way (this does make others dislike you) anti grav bra make up, dvds help get her affection up
Hi. I'm one of your Offbeatr backers. I don't want this post about a game I sunk a sizeable chunk of money into to be wholly negative, so let me start by saying that since the first AD came out, I've liked your art style enough that I made my first 18+ purchase to play AD2, and, when I saw one of the backer rewards was to get a custom scene drawn, I signed up as soon as I had some free cash.
This has been said quite a few times before, but since some are now saying otherwise, I'd like to chime in and add my voice to those expressing concerns about the difficulty. As far as specific concerns go, they've all been touched on at one point or another, I think. Overall, there's too much effort for too little reward. With all you have invested into the combat system (and how vociferously you're defending it) I'm guessing there's no chance of you scrapping it or at least making it optional, but in the time I've spent playing it, such a course would be something I'd favor.
Personally, I have at most a few hours of time for recreation each day, and in its current form, there's no way I can reasonably make progress on this game, without, y'know devoting 100% of my time to it. Also, factors like the game (or my browser, or my computer) freezing, losing power or just misclicking on the rosewood games link mean that I suddenly wind up in trouble. Ordinarily, for a game with a save feature, this wouldn't be a big deal, but your restrictions to the save feature are highly detrimental to my (potential, at this point) enjoyment of the game. In fact, it, along with the combat system in general, seem to exist, at least from the perspective of my casual ass, solely to make the game less enjoyable.
As there is a patch coming up, I'll hold back further criticism until I see it.
For some reason I can't buy ammo even though I have andrograde coins. Anyone else having this issue? I can buy them before loading a game, but once a game is loaded it won't let me buy them.
Tried out Isabel's route before but ended up getting fucked over. Before I try it again what do I need to know going in? i.e. BASICS stat, affection, dialogue choices etc. When I initially went in it said I'd need to go through other girls' routes? What do I need to do?
The go through other routes note is just that if you only play Isabel's story, you won't get enough affection with her(25-30) to actually finish her story. Most of the other routes have choices where you can get Isabel some points, but you can also just get a lot of gifts and keep track of what she likes and only give her those. Isabel has no stat requirements, just an affection check near the end of her stuff.
A way to do gifts I found was play to a permanent save day without giving any gifts, and then give her everything and write down what she hated/liked. Then reload to the start of that day and only give her what she liked.
This has been mentioned before but there really needs to be some message as to if you're succeeding on the dates. I just did Larissa's story #2 and I don't know if this is the way the story is "supposed" to progress or if this is a "bad route."
I mean, usually when I'm unsure about these things, I give the girl a call and ask "is this supposed to happen or am I on a bad route". So I see where you're coming from, it's a bit unrealistic the game doesn't tell you.
joking aside, most of the dating requirement cheatsheets won't be required next patch as they're basically a part of the game.
Usually when I go on dates I don't spoilers a bunch of innocent spoilers either though so.... yay realism?
I'm not sure what you mean by "required." Do you mean implemented? Or are you not planning to make these cheatsheets? I mean, you made a dating sim dude... I don't think it's strange/unheard of to ask for a bit more guidance with the dates, particularly since there's no real retry options aside from wiping the save.
Quick glitch I found: The burger gift for Larissa doesn't increase her affection at all. Despite it being her personal gift, her affection remains exactly the same.
I really don't know how some of you enjoy this. I had another game where all 4 girls shot a shotgun at a dinosaur at point blank range, all 4 missed, and the dinosaur killed someone, white screen. I've been paying attention to the stats, 2 had 80+ for shotguns, 70 for the others. So how the hell do all 4 miss point blank something 3 times the size?
If you are going to do this ridiculous RNG, you may as well have them shoot each other accidentally, since they can't be doing much else (Intentionally) with those shotgun shells.
There's a reason pen and paper doesn't translate perfectly to gaming, and that's because it looks stupid. This game uses a morrowind type RNG. Morrowind had pen and paper type combat where you kept swinging and hope for victory, even though you miss randomly.
Disclaimer: Are you doing it right? Ensure that no characters are under 70 skill when double firing shotties (I see that you did, whoops). Use Maximum Firepower to boost a gun skill if needed. Know the hit % chance. If an enemy has a high dodge rating, or if they're behind badbitt dams that give them +10 dodge each. Remember, you can look at their defense rating by highlighting them, and the next patch even tells you the chance to hit. //disclaimer
-Onwards to realism, fictional realism, gameplay balance, emotional response.
Realistic Q: If a flimsy girl has fired a shotgun a few times, and decides to shoot an animal, that is... Kangaroo sized, pretty big, would she hit it? A: Yes. You got us. From a realistic standpoint, we have a problem. The game is unrealistic.
Fictional Realistic Q: How fast can a genetically modified tyrannosaurus rooster dodge bullets at if they were shot from a mad scientist? A: As fast as I want it to, I made it up.
Not really a Q: But that's not fair! The player would never expect a T-rooster to dodge like that if it existed! A: You're right. The fact that it can dodge this is problematic in that 1. It defies a player's expectations. 2. It's a far stretch from real, even in a fictional universe.
So what could we do? Perhaps you could even suggest this: Add +40 accuracy to shotguns, and -10 for every square that it's farther away from you. (effectively giving you a +40 acc, range 1 shotgun).
Now here are my points as to why we're resistant to such a change. 1. Emotional feedback- Some characters have to suck at using weapons, like Olga. It should be as if she's shooting her shotgun and hitting the ceiling half the time. She just sucks, and this sense of awe is something I really like about this game. 2. Giving our support characters the ability to shoot a shotgun up close circumvents the variable penalty of bringing them into the field. There are ways for support characters to help out during battle; ie Stamina powers, Maximum Firepower, etc. Enabling this suggestion means that all supports will likely carry shotguns and not need isabel's max firepower, disrupting a very delicate balance. 3. RNG doesn't have to be about realism, it can be about strategy, risk, and reward- Consider this, if you shoot a gun in a pen and paper, you roll dice to simulate chance in a fictional world. You named Morrowind, another game that uses RNG for the sake of realism over gameplay. You keep swinging in that game because you don't really have to hope; the more swings you make, the more certain the victory or defeat is. The less certain it is, the more strategic it is when you have a choice.
Morrowind: You can kill a guard by hitting him 50 times with a sword that does 1 damage, and you have a 50/50 chance to hit. If you fail to hit him, he'll probably hit you for 2 damage, idk. AD3: You can kill an alien by shooting it, doing 50 damage, and it has a 50/50 chance to hit. If you fail to shoot it, it will go up to your face and nom nom for 50 damage. You don't have to shoot it however, you can use different powers if you've got them on you to GUARANTEE the attack will hit.
Ridiculous RNG is not ridic if the player can account for success/failure. Claiming that the RNG is ridic is the same thing as calling the "All in" method of Texas Hold'em as ridic. Shotguns, Carmen's Destroy power, and Mutually Assured Destruction are all good examples of high RNG, high accountability.
So uh, preemptive suggestion rejected. There are some *very* valid points saying that these dinos shouldn't be able to dodge PB shotguns, but... C'mon. I think we can agree, if shotguns didn't miss like this, it'd be a pretty glaring exception to the overall vibe.
I feel ya, man. I had three rounds in a row where everyone was at 100 on their gun skills, and I kept missing every single shotgun shot at point blank. Got absolutely bodied. But don't bother providing feedback that will actually benefit the gameplay. They are way too rabid and blinded by their own egos to make the necessary changes so the game is more enjoyable for a wider audience.
I found a bug in the Veronica storyline, I'm not sure where else to post it, but after visiting the hospital for the 2nd time and fleeing from a bot. There is a storyline option about pushing her against a bed when she starts getting suggestive. Choosing that seems to cut straight to the defense stage with no statement about what just happened. If that was supposed to unlock a cut scene or inform you of some outcome. It's not happening.
Can I just say that the difficulty modifier for the rooms doesn't seem to do anything? As far as my (admittedly short) experience goes, you're pretty much as likely to get shafted by getting ~8 Louie Eggs and 2 Roosters on -8 difficulty, and +4. On top of that, I get that you want the player to need to use the skills along with the guns. However, your regeneration rate on stamina, along with bullet amount (even accounting for the fact you said you doubled the initial amount) is ridiculous when compared to the HP of the enemies. Some of the enemies like the rats, the small healers are perfectly reasonable for the first day of the game. 6 Roosters is not. The amount of damage you output relative to the hp of the enemies is not enough. Using skills helps, but at the current difficulty if you try to do it that way you basically have to spend every day on the backfoot. I've never even lasted long enough to find out if there's a built-in end of days, like in the earlier games, because I've only gotten to day 7 once, and that was with almost everyone incapacitated.
Realistically, the game needs some of the following - damage increased by guns; dodge reduced (because holy cow that RNG is absurd, missing on characters with 100 gun skill at point blank? Really?); reduced enemy numbers (because even though the rats aren't too bad, 6 of them in 2 waves with healers and moose bots is just stupid); reduced enemy damage, I get that them hitting you is supposed to be bad. 2 hit round loss is stupid, when you can get 3 of those enemies in tight proximity *on the second encounter in the game*; enemy movement reduced (because 3-4 movement on an enemy that takes 3 hits to kill is kinda unfair when you get that many at once); and/or regeneration values increased. You fall behind way, way too easy as it stands. You don't get back enough HP, Stamina or Morale to recover in under 2-3 days most of the time.
On top of all of that, as soon as you fall behind in the game, you're done. Lose 1 round? You probably won't last 2 days. Why? Because the RNG is so varied that unless you get extremely lucky and get 3 days worth of next to no enemies you can't do anything but die. As a result of this, I've never gotten to the second story of any of the characters. Some people have beaten the game, and gotten quite far, but frankly, this is mostly luck. It's far too often that you end up with a bad combat, and you just lose everything. I feel that even with the fixes, you need to increase the rate of the saving. I get you don't want save scumming, but like, you have next to no chance of beating the game without that as it stands. I've been a big fan of your previous work, but frankly, I don't think a combat RPG was up your alley. Judging from the massive amount of negativity you've gotten about this, you should maybe have stuck with what you know - making a dating sim, not a strategy game. Because the strategy part isn't fun. And I like strategy games.
You say that people beating the game is due to luck, but I can get to day 20 reliably without ever using the Captain or any girl I am pursuing for anything. I honestly don't see what everyone is complaining about, sure the game is difficult but it's also really easy to make it easy, and once you figure out 3 or 4 tricks you can beat any group of enemies, even 4 bots and 3-4 roosters. I've never had more then 1 incapacitated character at any time, and I've never seen the mutiny ending. I've never seen a bad ending period. I took me about 15 days total to learn enough to be able to manage and about two routes to figure out everything I needed to beat the game, and I did on day 30.
The game is very manageable(and just to note, I didn't spend a dime beyond getting it on ofbeatr, and no I don't have the Survivor Pack) and I don't understand why everyone is having such a hard time on it, especially so early on when ammo problems aren't even a thing yet.
So...here's my own 2 cents; generally speaking...yeah, it's hard, but this isn't necessarily going to be another "gaem is too hard, can't git gud" post. I'll preface this by saying I don't mean any offense but I really disagree with a lot of the design choices made by the devs (yeah, yeah, a lot of good that does me). This is gonna be a wall of text here so take any snark as just trying to be funny for my own sake (Seriously this is loooong and might not even be read. I could have completed the game by now).
After playing my strongest impression wasn't that it's too hard but that it was frustrating. I've played hard games before and that's not a problem. But the design choices are frustrating. I can understand wanting to do things a certain way and that devs have their own artistic vision but this being a game it should be considered whether a design point is fun, not just for a select few, but for the general audience who'd play the game. In general it seems like the ideas are much better than the execution.
The mutiny system for example fits the setting and story. But the idea behind it, according to the dev blog, is that there was "no incentive to make other girls happy during each run". But why should the players need to keep every girl happy? There's really no problem with that gameplay-wise is there? I'm pretty sure we don't have incentive to keep the guys happy (I threatened to exile a guy over chocolate and he didn't blast my head off in a mutiny) so it's still not much more ethical. If it's to be realistic then yeah...let's set aside whether it is or is not and let me just point out that realism isn't always fun. This is a dating sim for a reason and the reality of dating is really easy to get to in real life, it's just not what should necessarily be in the game. And if it it is then why don't we at least have a freakin' wingman? In execution this leads to the annoyance of tying it to the dating sim system. Done like this I can't help but see it as just every non-chosen girl going out of their way to cockblock me as much as possible. Technically, we're not even being mean to them, just not trying to date them.
I could dumb down my complaints about the battle system and survival aspects to "gaem is too hard, can't git gud" but it's more than that. This is more based on opinion so the devs might be quick to dismiss the point but I think it's interesting to consider. The problem isn't that the battle system/survival aspects are too hard but that it's not rewarding. Let's consider the rewards of the game first. I get it, instant gratification has ruined kids these days. Shame on them. But this game really does go out of its way to hold back the rewards. Admit it, this had 2 offbeatr campaigns, people are at least partially (Read: wholly) here for their hentai. This is their reward for playing the game and gitting good at it. Except I've already mentioned how one system cockblocks you. And really all the systems do. There's no incentive outside of getting "muh hentai scenes" than well, getting "muh hentai scenes". Gunning for it generally gets you killed by the other cockblocking girls or by weird animatronic sprite-horrors. As is (I think this is getting a balance patch fix though?) you have to spend a run or two figuring out which girl likes which stats and then figure out how much of each stat is needed at each story point and then how much affection for one goddamn scene. Jesus, I might as well go hit a bar and get the real thing at this rate.
But forget about it. You're 12 and what's this? Hentai? What Hentai? (Suuuure). Playing the game is its own reward right? I'll quote one of the devs; " It's a survival game. In most RPGs, you will walk away from an encounter being a little stronger than last time, on average." See, there's a problem here. That's the fun part of RPGs, you know. You get loot, get xp, lvl up and basically watch your guy grow strong. That's an inherently fun part of the system. Final Fantasy doesn't offer you IG hentai to keep playing because lvling up is it's own reward. Lvling up isn't even that rare, it occurs several times per session and it's fun every damn time. The other problem is that the assumption here is that it's mutually exclusive...you get stronger each run and it's not a survival game. No, not really. Project Zomboid, The Long Dark and This War of Mine are all surival games. They're all really hard too (At least I have more trouble there than with AD3) but that isn't the case with those games. Excluding Zomboid there aren't stats and you don't lvl up but you slowly get better gear to deal with hunger or illness and generally become better able to survive. Survival is still damn tough but you're not necessarily worn away with every encounter. See, AD3 forces you into encounters every single night and what do you get out of it? You live another day, yippee. Not so with most survival games. You choose your fights and if you choose well you can end up with a little more for your troubles. This brings us to the final problem. Now, I really don't mean any offense but let's admit it...the battle system is not game of the year tactical battle system 2015. That's fine, it can still be fun and I admit I was initially having fun doing a few battles. But then I realised two problems; the battle system is unforgiving and static. I actually have no problem with RNGesus screwing you over. Risk and reward, son, and it's easy enough to mitigate even if monster spawn is a bit uninuitive (I have no idea how this works. The words light resistance seem to mean nothing. Heavy resistance also means light resistance. It's all the same). But dear god, no to belittle Sander's achievement, but if he did it in 1 try he's the real thing. I get it; it's designed so you have to try again and test what works and what doesn't ('cause the game certainly doesn't tell you). But you end up losing so much progress each time and the game's already unforgiving. No save scumming so too bad if you're already in a death spiral. Misspent your basic points? Well, too bad, get ready to go again unless you don't care about dating and just wanna win. Didn't go to the right places in time so you're scrounging for whatever supply right when you need it? Game over. So yeah, there's so little leeway everywhere you'll go from the expected 35(?) battles per run to 100+ just to figure out the system and the system's not dynamic enough for that. You don't want to get caught using crappy guards so you'll go for the same few combos against the same few enemies hundreds of times and the rewards will come so late you might just stop caring.
Let's talk about narrative for a bit as well. Honestly...it's good. I read AD2 and it's definitely better. Shakespeare it's not but the ideas are more interesting, the settings more fleshed out and it's just generally better. Now time to crap over the praise. Let's face it, the protag is really everyone's bitch. Half the crew is Maverick and even the other half might as well be. Maybe I'd just played too much Mass Effect where if Shepard said "Jump" everyone replied "How high?" (Unless you were actually saying "Let's commit genocide" or something) so it really felt like you were in-charge and made important decisions. In AD3 I get cases about stealing chocolate and even then people complain about my decision. Does it feel important? No. Am I going to disappoint someone anyway? Yes. It kinda ends up feeling petty where your basic decisions are gonna be about choosing who to piss off because they can't handle people disagreeing one time. I read a blog post about these decisions where you had to make a tough choice about keeping some asshole alive or not cause he's rich(?) and it's pragmatic or letting him die because really he should. That's the stuff you leave in. The inconsequential stuff really doesn't need any choice or any need to make it meaningful by having gameplay effects. Seriously, if you ever read VNs they're basically a novel. The narratives good enough that choices can be sparse and no one cares. Focus on the narrative and leave the El Captain stuff until it's dramatic is my advice.
As for the dating system...I've already mentioned my problems above but I still really question the need to make the dating sim part difficult. The problem is, from a design choice point of view, that it removes the ebb and flow of a game. Truly, I'm not bullshitting, here, it's a thing. In both story writing and in game design there are moments of downtime where, even in the most dire of situations, there is time to unwind before the next dramatic point. I've already pointed out how unforgiving the game is and even in dating sims if you make the wrong choice or didn't have enough point it ends up being annoying or frustrating rather than being the break between battles. Some of the dates aren't as dark though shooting some kids in the head sure was. And then straight after that it's battle tiems and knowing I wasted a whole day basically pissing someone off. True fun for all the family right there.
So...yeah, sorry if that was a (way too) long read. I'm not necessarily asking for straight up difficulty decreases across the board and I can understand why you wouldn't want to. However, ideas aren't always necessarily good or bad. People have made great games off the dumbest ideas and bad games off great ideas. The focus should be on increasing accessibility rather than narrowing it when you can rather than it being dark and hard for the sake of being dark and hard. There is a thing as having too many ideas and this game feels like it's trying to work too much in without caring enough about how it's executed or why. I realise that, more than AD2, the devs are probably trying to get taken more seriously with a more mature plot, setting and systems but it's still a game. People do want to unwind (or really, just fap) and feel like they're making progress even as they get their faces torn apart by the weird petting zoo of AD3 mobs. In fact there are better games (Well, it's true) and more easily accessed porn so really, what does AD3 offer that's better than everything else out there? TLDR: Can't git gud, plz nerf gaem (But not really)
Wow, I can't believe he beaten Larissa Story. I just realized that Larissa Story 3 has a few shameful bugs that I didn't find in time ><
ReplyDeleteDon't worry guys, this will be fixed along with other bugs I'll find in the balance patch.
He probably cheated. Not that there's anything wrong with that, given how broken the game is.
DeletePretty sad how ppl are refusing to think and try.
DeleteY'all are giving up easily.
I assume you didnt grow up on Fallout 1&2.
Try is what we do. But not everyone is a masochist. Not everyone has the time. Some of us come home to relax, not to get more wound up than a maxi-spring. The first and second installments were perfect for us. The third installment seems to be the polar opposite.
DeleteAnd if he did cheat, feel free to let me know. There's got to be a way to make this game more playable, even if it's as simple as giving one character slightly less shitty stats.
CheatEngine probably works.
DeleteWas the plan to make people spend real $ on ammunition? Is that why the game was made to be this hard?
I wish I had cheated, would've saved me a lot of time :P
DeleteOh and Jungl3Curr1, can I ask what the bugs are? Can't say I noticed them, otherwise that I needed a shitton of bravery to get in her pants (which sounds weird)
DeleteI'll list em from the upcoming patch notes:
Delete- Fixed a bug where Bikini Vision can be dropped.
- Fixed a bug where Larissa's Space Cow Burger generated 0 affection.
- Fixed a bug where Hangar and Mall are supposed to be adjacent to each other.
- Fixed a bug where clicking on nothing in the bunk view will freeze the game.
- Fixed a bug where Smile Staples was missing from the database.
- Fixed a bug where Carmen's EP is more than Maximum.
- Fixed a bug where the mutiny two lowest calculations were incorrect and the text for it isn't displayed properly.
- Fixed a bug in Larissa Story 3 where her choices weren't correctly inputted.
- Fixed a bug in Larissa Story 2 where her choices weren't correctly inputted.
- Fixed a bug in Elaine Story 7 where her sex scenes weren't showing.
Whoops, not Larissa Story 2, Zoe Story 2
DeleteJungl3Curr1 really seems to know his stuff.
DeleteI tried Cheat Engine, to the depths that I am able, in multiple different data searches, in many different and tedious ways. Rather than explain it to you here, I'll simply say that he knows Cheat Engine exists and has put his best foot forward to prevent its use.
The game freezes when you reload with a character who used a free action in the same turn. At first, I thought it was only happening with Isabel`s kill command, but the game also froze when I reloaded with Carmen after using attract mode.
Deletehmm. interesting observation. Hopefully this will help me figure out the damn bug.
DeleteTest
ReplyDeleteSomeone said you can't post comments? Weird.
DeleteAdblock is blocking the comments box... But only on this post. o__O
DeleteCongrats to The Man!
ReplyDelete( and thanks for mentioning me! )
I know you're going about doing the patch now, but I believe there is an issue with the voice acting. Namely, there is none. Now matter how much a click the mute toggles, nothing changes. I think it keeps resetting or something, because I'll tick a box, and when I come back, the box's are all blank again and nothing has changed in game. Am I missing something?
ReplyDeleteit's not yet implemented and will be in a later patch after we receive some of the profits.
DeleteOh, I see. Thank you for replying.
DeleteI just started playing this and damn I am getting my ass kicked so hard in combat.
ReplyDeleteAfter just three/four battles it all just goes to hell. I can't seem to do enough damage and I have to spam all the powers just to survive a fight and then I have no more stamina to survive further
Don't worry, because according to Hentaicook, there are two options for you:
DeleteThe first is to git gud.
The second is to pay him more money.
There is no third option.
This, but plz remember that we will make it somewhat easier.
DeleteSooooooooooooooooooo
The first is to git gud.
The second is to pay him more money.
The third option is to wait for the balance patch.
There is no fourth option.
I looked at the balance patch. As far as I'm concerned, it changes so little that it doesn't matter. Your third option is non-existent. Even if we wait for that, we'll need another patch on top of that to make any sort of viable, fun game possible.
DeleteThe balance patch is not entirely documented and is still in a process of design.
DeleteWell that's not right. First fight I get into has a moose bot and a t-rooster. Very first fight. I don't think that's supposed to happen.
ReplyDeleteYou'll get better at planning ahead eventually, and the fights will literally become walk in the park. Read/research everything written in the game.
DeleteSPOILER
some basic tips to survive :
Change loadout of characters before night raid to be able to handle multiple scenarios.
Use rapid firing pistols to chop off shields
Shotguns to knock adjacent enemies back
magnum to shoot multiple enemies standing in one straight line
sniper to bypass shields
assault rifles for louies
stun pistol for low hp/rats/zombies
Have at least 1 jammer always (either elaine, carmen or olga)
At least this is how i did it, you can surely survive at least 20-22 days without totally running out of ammo this way, Slander might have a better way.
Problem comes only when you run out of every ammunition, cause you will eventually, ammo income atm is nearly non-existent.
BTW game is addictive as hell, i thought i played the sh!t out of AD2 and AD1, but i already put more hours into this, than the previous 2 together :P
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Deletelol Nan-yang
DeleteI remember your first post about the game balance and you said assault rifles were shit. I just rolled my eyes and said laughed. Now you're saying always bring a jammer to use assault rifle. You came in here as a useless cub, but you kept fighting and became a lion.
I cross my arms and nod to you.
I guess...
Deletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQ4nTWKW0G8
Thanks for the game, mates!
And I just died on said first fight... Say, what's the point to have a revive ability if you go down and have combat immediately end? And what's with the paltry level of hit points? Goddamn.
ReplyDeleteRevive ability is not that good of an ability. It allows you to raise a downed ally. Combat only ends if the ally takes damage that exceeds half of their total maximum hp. (blatant ripoff of a rule from 4E). You can revive someone to ensure that they can still fight for the rest of the round, but counter to the power, combat is usually nearly done if someone goes down... The revive ability can surely be a very good power, on the last day you're on the station.
DeleteThis assumes you don't have enough to prevent mutiny. If you do, it's a moot point and you may as well let them be incapped for the end.
DeleteBattle 2.
ReplyDeleteBeatrice and Carmen are arguably the best characters in the game, the former for their high damage output special and the latter for high combat potential overall. Kinda intimidated by Isabel's WTF button, as it deals more harm than good.
On an unrelated note, why does the hotel repair Carmen? o.O
Did I miss something?
The hotel repairs BP points =(Barricades, and robot health)= that's why.
DeleteIf you go to the hangar then her EP will be recharged daily.
That's why i say shes one OP motherf-er.
Do you know of any hotel that offers to repair your barricades AND your robots? That's what I was getting at.
DeleteBattle 3.
ReplyDeleteDidn't bring Carmen. Should've brought Carmen. Two of those T-Roosters at the front, along with two of those super hand healer guys with color inverted palettes. Difficulty Zero seems to be a very high zero. I might just bite the bullet on this one. Even the zombie takes little damage... The regular enemy that's mixed in with them has just proven to take three shots to kill. Isabel's WTF button looking mighty tempting right now.
Well, I survived, at the cost of two barriers and just about all SP aside from Isabel. Have yet to do one story mission.
Dont look at the difficulty rating, it changes nearly nothing. Choose room with drops and high dropchance.
DeleteYou're right, it changes pretty well nothing. Difficulty Zero will still be ungodly amounts of hard, and even the harder difficulties don't seem to change much. So why have it in the game at all? A rather trivial system.
DeleteIt's not at all trivial, I can definitely tell the difference. You can too, lol.
DeleteThe difficulty of the game starts at around... say, 20.
You can increase or decrease that number with the map modifiers.
Apart from that, the game gradually increases in difficulty by one point, every day.
and if you're on day 40ish, you'll see like 4 t-roosters, but if you had a -8 modifier, it'd probably be 3 and something small.
Battle 4.
ReplyDeleteCarmen targets the big one, hits the little one all the way over there. Don't think that's supposed to happen...
Another weird thing: Stella didn't get her turn near the end there.
Only reason I survived was because I moved back to the slums.
Battle 5 - The End.
ReplyDeleteStopped caring.
There are five of those stegosaurus type things in front of me, in the slums.
Game is unplayable.
Use sniper rifles when far, shotguns to push them back if needed.
DeleteI know how to use shotguns and sniper rifles. It doesn't make a difference.
DeleteQuite honestly, if you cannot muster your spirit to bring yourself past day 5, then I agree with you. It doesn't make a difference. You seem quite detailed in your post though, so I suspect you're missing something that hugely affects your difficulty.
DeleteIf not, perhaps I'll upload an official run video on xvideos showing you guys everything. It'd be the official easy mode, hehe, you can't lose.
Yes, uploading an official run video would be awesome Get on this ASAP, good sir! ;)
DeleteI have a suggestion and I don't want to come across as a rabid fanboy but I think you should possibly patch in an easier mode and keep the difficulty as is. It might be more work but what I'm saying is that you can make it like a difficulty setting like you did in AD2 instead this time it's a legit spike instead of just a day reduction.
ReplyDeleteThis way your hard work doesn't go down the drain, those who really want to go for the challenge will happily go for it and those who just want a chill game will have it. Just an idea that popped in. Seriously, I feel like I'm playing a True Survivor Mode or something and the AI director from Left 4 Dead decided to stop by and decree that I wasn't suffering enough.
Case in point, a night with two waves. Both Louies and T-rexs. I might as well have bitten into the pillow and spread my cheeks right then and there.
New players will find Louies and T-roosters especially difficult because of their battering ram like presence. A T-rooster is rated at 33 difficulty, and a zombie is rated at 4... These values aren't absolute however, because 8 zombies could easily be taken out by Terra's Sprinklers, but if you meet each zombie one at a time, then we find that 9 zombies to be harder than a t-rooster.
DeleteNew players may not realize that a single t-rooster is easier than 9 zombies spread out over waves, because the powers available to them to counter such threats are not immediately noticeable.
High damage abilities (beam cannon, doctor's orders, kill command, whips, black hole, sys shockwave, high dam guns, sticky blast)... are all very good tools that are much less effective when used on Zombies.
I forgot to mention. This is like night 20+ and I'm out of ammo for all the good guns and my troops are so sad I'm surprised that they're willing to even fight. The difficulty came less from not knowing how to deal with these bastards and more realizing I DIDN'T HAVE THE MEANS TO DEAL WITH THESE BASTARDS XD
DeleteOh well, it was fun while it lasted. And do you mind clarifying something? Little spoilerish but I think everyone here at this point is familiar with it but during the "You Lose" ending, does Larissa shoot you dead or does she let you go?
There are two general "game over you lose" endings. One through mutiny, and one through viewership/less than 4 guards. Both endings result in your death.
DeleteIt may seem like Larissa is allowing you to leave, but in reality, Larissa has a quirk of being silently passive when it comes to certain types of suggestions. She'll say yes even though she's actually saying no, deep inside. Painfully, this was a real world experience.
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DeleteWell, the DLC will have 4 characters, but it's up to you guys on who you want to be in.
DeleteI don't consider the DLC to be canon, so the more ridiculous the character is in terms of including her into the plot... the less likely I'll make a coherent story out of it (similar to how Olga is just fan-fickin the entire thing).
I'll informally announce the chars for the expansion-
Ileana- (the whip/gunslinger chick from Talia from AD2)
Sarah- (My fav char from AD2; kind of a slut which is a nice departure from AD3's affair)
Alice Digknee- Probably one of my craziest ideas for social commentary.
Unlike the rest of the cast, you can have sex with her right off the bat, but only once because she feels used (she's a drama princess). The catch is, she's obese. You can starve her by spending her stamina (which, actually gives your team *negative* buffs), and she will eventually become skinny. The faster you starve her, the faster her morale depletes. The story overtly deals with the theme of having a fatter romantic partner. She's also a Digknee Princess, so her story also explores how Digknee movies have brainwashed the female youth into feeling like entitled little princess bitches. To be fair, ad3 has been more critical of men, so I guess I can drop the whole SJW thing and become a uhh... SJT?
Beatrice- I'm super excited for this one! Not exactly the story per se, but the voting process... It's pretty clear that Beatrice is not romanceable in AD3... because Bea just hates the Captain. In fact, she hates the whole TV show premise entirely, and wants nothing to do with you. If Bea was a real character, she'd say "Don't fucking vote for me, or else I'll just kill myself... and then have someone cremate me so you don't get any ideas".
I hope nobody votes for Beatrice. If she's voted for, I won't half-ass making it, hell, I'll probably even love doing it, but I really hope that you guys don't vote for her to be in the expansion. And that's not because I'm saying like "no, please, don't rape my beatrice!"... It's more about... restraint. I want to see if the players can say "You know what. This Beatrice can go on being a prudish bitch, and I will respect that." To have a hot female lead that's a fully developed character, only to never include any scenes with her, and having the players approve of that? Now that's trope breaking.
We'll see what happens.
I thought Beatrice is already in it, but romanceable only when you already have your harem, or later in the main story O.O
DeleteBea and Talia was prob the best in AD2, Iliana was gd too, scenes included, shame if you aint putting them in, but if i have to choose between the 4 possibilities ya know i'd go for Sarah >.>
You didnt answer for the Stella question :P
Also why does your art look a lot different in some animations (Stella, Terra) ? Have you been experimenting with the Digknee art style?
No, the art was commissioned and done by PinoyToons, although I replaced the faces he drew to ensure that the art was unified, (and the shitty backgrounds if it's even worth mentioning, lol)
DeleteI stubbornly refuse to answer your Stella question, as the answer lies within AD3 already.
I bet the Space Horn 7 poster girl would be a funny addition to the cast, hehe.
(Nan-yang's original post that I deleted for containing spoilers, lol)
DeleteYo Cook, can you answer one thing ?
Also, did you have plans of putting out a Sarah DLC eventually ? :>
Sorry, Lovesworder: You know as well as I do that the public demands Beatrice h-scenes.
DeleteWhat's that saying? Man desire what he cannot have? That seems apt here. :P
Oh yeah sorry for that, will try to refrain from spoilers, but maaaaaaaaaaan...bummer bout Stella.
DeleteYeah, that poster girl would be cool to have, reminds me of a temporary character in AD2 from Talia's story
DeleteAs an occasional writer, I can totally respect trying to stay true to a vision of a character. That said, Beatrice is a very popular character from the last game, so putting her in the game like this and not doing a hentai scene makes it pretty much irrelevant to even have her. Plus, you say that she doesn't much like the Captain, but I haven't come across any evidence of this so far. Also, the DLC isn't canon, so does it even matter?
DeleteIf you really dont want us to vote for her, then I wont, but if she is chosen, then I would love to see wha you do with it.
Edit: "no, please, don't rape my beatrice!"
Do you mean it would literally be a rape scene 0_0
@ Martin Steell
DeleteWe don't do rape scenes, though some girls do experience rape before the events of AD3.
Wait, did you never beat your own game?
ReplyDeleteSay what
DeleteNo he's a player. I'm a developer so I don't count.
DeleteJungl3Curr1 and I have both beaten it lots of times.
Deletefair enough, did you find it as hard as the rest of us? or is it a you got good at it?
DeleteWe pretty much got good at it. Tho admittedly I just look up on affection choices in the dating sim parts.
DeleteWow a whole post dedicated to my apparently masochistic ass, I feel even more special now :) Thanks for creating this game Hentaicook, and thanks to Jungl3Curr1 for being a heroic savior for our beloved creator ;)
ReplyDelete---
I can give some general tips on how I beat it if people are interested, though I recommend on working out a system yourself. Makes the feeling you get when you finally beat it even better haha
Yes, please give us some pointers. It is a good game but too difficult and frustrating. Sometimes feels like we are not given enough information (date requirements etc)
DeleteOk a few pointers that made my captain's life easier:
Delete- ALWAYS select the soldier class. Having good gunmen is crucial, so one extra in the rotation pool is very beneficial.
- Don't assign survivors to guard positions when they have weapon stats below 70. Just press the stats button to make sure.
- Use assault rifles only when you are being swarmed, otherwise you can easily keep strong enemies at bay by using Larissa with a shotgun (2x with 100 skill will surely knock them back) while pewpew-ing them with normal pistols. Use Isabel for extra damage with her 7 stamina skill.
- Use sniper rifles for those heavy armored ones, their health is low compared to their shields and sniper rifles skip shields :)
- Spot Louie eggs? SHOOT THEM ASAP! Those fuckers swarm you real easily when they hatch. Zoe's magnum 2x, Terra $captain sniper rifle duo 2x or Carmen & captiain sniper/assault rifle duo 2x works wonders. When they do hatch, use Larissa with her mighty shotgun 2x to push them back. Good luck, I hate them.
What do you mean by 2X? Do you mean Maximum Firepower or do you mean double tap?
DeleteThe 2x fire thing.
DeleteSander's def right about the soldier thing for now, especially with "Special Event Early Tricker Treater Ammo Bonus" you'll want to be huah.
DeleteHey, what were the stats and affection you needed to finish Larissa? I'm hesitant to continue her story. I'm at 23 bravery and 10 affection.
DeleteThere's a special event? How to unlock?
ReplyDeleteMaximum Firepower.
DeleteWhere's the debug menu for that? =P
DeletePlayed a good chunk of this weekend. I've gotten to day 20+ several times now, but keep finding myself waxed in a room for what seems like forever - 8 days til I died the first, 10 the second when I gave up, 6 the third when I gave up. I think I'd be doing ok otherwise. Combat is getting tedious, especially when I'm just trying to unwax the hangar to leave, or trying to complete a story mission.
ReplyDeletePicked Elaine first, completed but didn't have enough points for the scene... ugh.
Played a good chunk of this weekend. I've gotten to day 20+ several times now, but keep finding myself waxed in a room for what seems like forever - 8 days til I died the first, 10 the second when I gave up, 6 the third when I gave up. I think I'd be doing ok otherwise. Combat is getting tedious, especially when I'm just trying to unwax the hangar to leave, or trying to complete a story mission.
ReplyDeletePicked Elaine first, completed but didn't have enough points for the scene... ugh.
You need 30 affection points with Elaine. Good luck ;)
DeleteThanks! That will help! Tonight!
Deleteyou guys do something? I'm having a much easier time today. Maybe I got good. Pretty smooth sailing on day 19 with 24 affection on Elaine. Here's hoping the world doesn't turn on me!
DeleteStill working on the patch, but I'm glad that you've gotten better! :')
DeleteWhy doesn't it show their names and faces on the same screen anywhere? The stat and affections page just shows pictures, and the assignments page has only the names. It makes it hard to learn which character is which.
ReplyDeleteYeah we figured that'd be a minor problem, but the names+pix are everywhere else. (shrug) I wonder how many people srsly had a prob w/ this.
DeleteIs there a bug currently with the end of a... erm... certain robot's story and another... certain robot's story? I believe it should be unlocking a scene but I'm still at 15/17 unlocked.
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, gratz on 15/17 Stories.
DeleteI checked the coding for ur answer, and apparently there seems to be a bug I fail to miss where the extra scene isn't unlocked properly (the other way around works however). I'll fix that.
As for the last one. You probably have to figure out how or why you don't have it.
Thanks man! Also thanks you guys for a really fun (and really fucking hard) game!
DeleteI'll wait to try to re-unlock it until you post an update.
Guessing the last scene is related to something post X-mas ^^
Just in case, pm me your current unlocks at jungl3curr1@gmail.com. Just wanna make sure you have everything else correct.
Delete... could you maybe make it so the buy all pack is at the top of the buying list, i didn't see you could scroll down and baught them all sepraitely, costs almost 2x as much
ReplyDeleteThat can be arranged in conjunction with the balance patch.
DeleteI finally figured out how to scroll today. Thankfully I had only bought one story redundantly.
DeleteI finally figured out how to scroll today. Thankfully I had only bought one story redundantly.
DeleteI finally figured out how to scroll today. Thankfully I had only bought one story redundantly.
DeleteI finally figured out how to scroll today. Thankfully I had only bought one story redundantly.
DeleteThat's it. I have to stop. This game is causing me nothing but unnecessary and unhealthy amounts of stress. Even when I'm not playing it, I keep thinking about how difficult it is, and it makes me sick. Good luck in your future endeavours, guys, but this is where I get off.
ReplyDeleteDude, there's literally a patch coming. Just chill out.
Deleteuh hey dude u ok?
DeleteSo anon's getting PTSD of Louies and T-Roosters?
DeleteIt's interesting to see a divided response when it comes to difficulty because people are so different in that aspect. Some people can't take loss or criticism well. Well, I'm done bullying you.
There was this different masochistic game I used to play. People would get on the forums for that game and post "is it me, or is this game too hard, too much rng?" The thread just split everyone up. You had the braggers and the whiners. Interestingly enough, since *that* game was made by a professional team, the players that "whined" suffered from going against a confirmation bias, so they always wanted to know if it was either their own deficiency in skill, or if the game was actually hard.
And then I kinda just sat here for ten minutes thinking about why AD3 is difficult in the first place.
Just beat Stella's story line on day 22. The game is honestly not that hard once you are good at it but it is a bit annoying that you don't know what to expect in terms of stat requirements and affection. My captain got incapacitated by a zombie attack during Stella's storyline because my charisma was too low and I had to restart. That is the kind of blindside stuff that just feels lame when it happens, especially when you have to go back 3 or 4 days.
ReplyDeleteAlso, now I have no idea what to put my points into to start chasing other girls. Not unheard of in dating sims, but when the battle system makes every day a struggle for resource management you don't have a lot of room for error to go back and make changes.
If you go strength, I believe you can get Elaine and Veronica. Fair Warning though, you need 30 affection to get Elaine's scene.
DeleteHow much do you need for Veronica?
Delete30 for Vera
DeleteI took Sander's advice and it actually lasted me longer than 7 days before the mutiny; in fact it almost doubled that. xD, I will give my kudos to everyone currently involved in this game's making because even though I came for the Hentai at first, I got hooked on the actual fighting as well. I started playing the Aching Dreams series last year and it's been quite the journey indeed waiting for AD3 to release. Once the nerf comes I have a hunch that we (you) will have an amazing game for players of all creeds.
ReplyDeleteGood to hear that I was able to help at least one person :)
DeleteLongtime fan here, so I've been waiting for this game for a while. I was a little discouraged at how hard it was. Very frustrating game, but it definitely has a lot of potential to be great. I finally managed to beat Elaine's story. I think the main thing that I want is a walkthrough of some kind. Not something that tells you step by step what to do, but just what requirements you need for each girl. The problem I had when I was stuck with Elaine was I didn't know you needed 30 affection. It gets easier when you know what you need. Despite the difficulty, I did enjoy the game and I appreciate the work and thought you guys put into it. It made it so much sweeter when I finally won. Looking forward to the patch.
ReplyDeleteCan you help me? I am stuck on Elaine story 6. I have the requisite 31 strength (and 33 affection) but I keep failing because I "didn't generate enough affection" Help! Much thanks!
DeleteI wonder if we could do new-game+ Detainment with the basics instead of restarting reapplication on basics
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure if we want to do it anytime soon.
Deletei have played the game everyday for 3-4 hours, and now i want to give my opinion on it!! At first i agreed with the people who complained that its too hard, feels not rewarding etc. But i have to say if u try hard enough u will get the hang on it, i took some hints from the other player in this comment section and it worked wonders. I dont want to say it doesnt need a patch but its playable and u get to the h-sences (if that is ur goal). So i have to say u two did a great job (cause we still have to count in that only two guys are working on that game not a bigshot company with lots of programmers and stuff!!)
ReplyDeleteMy only complain is the save system, let us delet specific save spots so we dont have to delete everything (unloked h-scenes included "oh my dear elaine" *sooob*)
All in all huge props to u guys great game keep it up :)
(sry for bad englando xD)
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ReplyDeleteHey so I've been at my wits send trying to figure out how to get Terra's scene. I got literally 103 affection points, and still nothing.
ReplyDeleteTip for Terra: Affection isn't what she only needs.
DeleteActually that's not really a tip. The game basically tells you what else you needed besides affection.
DeleteIf you're talking about her whole "caveman" speech, and that meaning I need strength, that didn't work.
DeleteIt's the tips at very end narrated by HentaiCook. And if you can't find that for some reason, your on your own then.
DeleteWhat tips? Do you mean the game over screen?
DeleteThe end of the fail scenario of Terra Story 7.
DeleteYeah, actually read what the game tells you when you fail, it specifically states what you need to pass her check to sleep with her.
DeleteDoes anybody have the numbers on what stats and affection points each girl needs? Pretty peeved that I got farther in Larissa's story than I previously did only to have her freeze in space because my bravery wasn't high enough.
ReplyDeleteThis would really help me out as well
DeleteGeneral rule is 25-30 affection for that check, and 15-20 of their preferred stat. For that reason I play as the noble in each run so the farthest I need to play is is around turn 15.
DeleteA brief overview:
DeleteFirst date/interaction around 5 of their preferred stat.
Second date/interaction around 10 of their preferred stat.
Third date/interaction around 15 of their preferred stat (and around 30 affection if the third date/interaction is a chance at sex)
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ReplyDeleteSo no one knows the preferred stats of the girls? I play games to enjoy myself, not cause frustration.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteAt first I want to come in and be the neutral Captain between this Stella/Isabel conflict, and be like "hey calm down kids" but....
DeleteI kind've like the conflict, it's nice when a game can be enjoyed yet have such divided reception (ie Deadly Premonition)
Excuse you Anonymous, I wasn't talking to you. Personally I'm on the fence about the difficulty. I got pretty far with the combat. It's difficult but doable, at least in the earlier stages. I'm also in full agreement (unlike some other people) that portions of this game should come with a price tag. I watched Hentaicook struggle with the entire development through this blog and other sites, that effort should be rewarded with monetary value.
DeleteI'm simply saying that spending countless hours trying to figure things out and fighting progressively harder enemies could best be used elsewhere.
Anyway, I'll probably just wait for a patch.
Oh, and if you want to chastise me anon, you might want to try and do so with correct grammar and spelling. It would have more of an impact.
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ReplyDeleteI gotta say, after playing this more and getting used to the combat (thanks to tips from Sander and Nan-Yang) I'm actually having a decent amount of fun with the game. Initially it kinda rubbed me the wrong way but the game does take some thought.
ReplyDeleteAt this point it really does just need some quality of life patches and bug fixes then it'll be in really good shape.
since we should try and get a walkthough our selfs, and me not been great at the game, i've been taking note,
ReplyDeletefor olga all i think i needed was 8 science never got asked again, just don't put point down in case you do need it later, this will get you pass her second story, for her 7th you need 25 affection, giving her the dvds, golden gum and the anti grav brasser helps with that. This is the only one im sure of for now.
So what are the stats for the girls? So far I have:
ReplyDeleteBravery - Larissa
Agility - ?
Strength - Veronica, Elaine
Insight - ?
Charisma - Stella
Science - ?
I assume Carmen and Olga are science? What about the rest?
Olga is science, yes. You actually only need about 8 for her first scene. Some else in the comments mentioned you actually don't need anymore for her after that, as she only then needs (25) affection by story 7.
Deletezoe wanted agility
DeleteOlga is science, yes. You actually only need about 8 for her first scene. Some else in the comments mentioned you actually don't need anymore for her after that, as she only then needs (25) affection by story 7.
DeleteAs the previous "Anon" replied, Zoe wants agility, but only up to around 20 from what I noticed, and then insight (not sure about minimum - got through with 7, but 5-6 might cover it)
DeleteIsabella doesn't seem to care about stats, just as long as you do things her way - didn't manage to finish that story though (need to gain affection through other interactions/story lines).
/eh
Carmen also doesn't need any stats or any affection. Her story is kinda a ministory compared to the others honestly.
Delete35 affection needed fo isabella story 5, before that nothing, do things her way (this does make others dislike you) anti grav bra make up, dvds help get her affection up
DeleteCharisma for Terra
Deleteon zoe story #6 says 30 insight basic check
DeleteHi. I'm one of your Offbeatr backers. I don't want this post about a game I sunk a sizeable chunk of money into to be wholly negative, so let me start by saying that since the first AD came out, I've liked your art style enough that I made my first 18+ purchase to play AD2, and, when I saw one of the backer rewards was to get a custom scene drawn, I signed up as soon as I had some free cash.
ReplyDeleteThis has been said quite a few times before, but since some are now saying otherwise, I'd like to chime in and add my voice to those expressing concerns about the difficulty. As far as specific concerns go, they've all been touched on at one point or another, I think. Overall, there's too much effort for too little reward. With all you have invested into the combat system (and how vociferously you're defending it) I'm guessing there's no chance of you scrapping it or at least making it optional, but in the time I've spent playing it, such a course would be something I'd favor.
Personally, I have at most a few hours of time for recreation each day, and in its current form, there's no way I can reasonably make progress on this game, without, y'know devoting 100% of my time to it. Also, factors like the game (or my browser, or my computer) freezing, losing power or just misclicking on the rosewood games link mean that I suddenly wind up in trouble. Ordinarily, for a game with a save feature, this wouldn't be a big deal, but your restrictions to the save feature are highly detrimental to my (potential, at this point) enjoyment of the game. In fact, it, along with the combat system in general, seem to exist, at least from the perspective of my casual ass, solely to make the game less enjoyable.
As there is a patch coming up, I'll hold back further criticism until I see it.
What is Veronica's VIP item? Have some coins and I want to make up for the affection I lost trying to guess at her gifts.
ReplyDeleteThe ale
DeleteFor some reason I can't buy ammo even though I have andrograde coins. Anyone else having this issue? I can buy them before loading a game, but once a game is loaded it won't let me buy them.
ReplyDeleteTried out Isabel's route before but ended up getting fucked over. Before I try it again what do I need to know going in? i.e. BASICS stat, affection, dialogue choices etc. When I initially went in it said I'd need to go through other girls' routes? What do I need to do?
ReplyDeleteThe go through other routes note is just that if you only play Isabel's story, you won't get enough affection with her(25-30) to actually finish her story. Most of the other routes have choices where you can get Isabel some points, but you can also just get a lot of gifts and keep track of what she likes and only give her those. Isabel has no stat requirements, just an affection check near the end of her stuff.
DeleteA way to do gifts I found was play to a permanent save day without giving any gifts, and then give her everything and write down what she hated/liked. Then reload to the start of that day and only give her what she liked.
anyone know how to unlock all of stellas scenes? i can only get the condom commercial
ReplyDeleteThis has been mentioned before but there really needs to be some message as to if you're succeeding on the dates. I just did Larissa's story #2 and I don't know if this is the way the story is "supposed" to progress or if this is a "bad route."
ReplyDeleteWhy?
DeleteI mean, usually when I'm unsure about these things, I give the girl a call and ask "is this supposed to happen or am I on a bad route". So I see where you're coming from, it's a bit unrealistic the game doesn't tell you.
joking aside, most of the dating requirement cheatsheets won't be required next patch as they're basically a part of the game.
Usually when I go on dates I don't spoilers a bunch of innocent spoilers either though so.... yay realism?
DeleteI'm not sure what you mean by "required." Do you mean implemented? Or are you not planning to make these cheatsheets? I mean, you made a dating sim dude... I don't think it's strange/unheard of to ask for a bit more guidance with the dates, particularly since there's no real retry options aside from wiping the save.
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ReplyDeleteQuick glitch I found: The burger gift for Larissa doesn't increase her affection at all. Despite it being her personal gift, her affection remains exactly the same.
ReplyDeleteThat glitch will be gone in the next patch! ;)
DeleteI really don't know how some of you enjoy this. I had another game where all 4 girls shot a shotgun at a dinosaur at point blank range, all 4 missed, and the dinosaur killed someone, white screen. I've been paying attention to the stats, 2 had 80+ for shotguns, 70 for the others. So how the hell do all 4 miss point blank something 3 times the size?
ReplyDeleteIf you are going to do this ridiculous RNG, you may as well have them shoot each other accidentally, since they can't be doing much else (Intentionally) with those shotgun shells.
There's a reason pen and paper doesn't translate perfectly to gaming, and that's because it looks stupid. This game uses a morrowind type RNG. Morrowind had pen and paper type combat where you kept swinging and hope for victory, even though you miss randomly.
Disclaimer: Are you doing it right?
DeleteEnsure that no characters are under 70 skill when double firing shotties (I see that you did, whoops). Use Maximum Firepower to boost a gun skill if needed. Know the hit % chance. If an enemy has a high dodge rating, or if they're behind badbitt dams that give them +10 dodge each. Remember, you can look at their defense rating by highlighting them, and the next patch even tells you the chance to hit.
//disclaimer
-Onwards to realism, fictional realism, gameplay balance, emotional response.
Realistic Q: If a flimsy girl has fired a shotgun a few times, and decides to shoot an animal, that is... Kangaroo sized, pretty big, would she hit it?
A: Yes. You got us. From a realistic standpoint, we have a problem. The game is unrealistic.
Fictional Realistic Q: How fast can a genetically modified tyrannosaurus rooster dodge bullets at if they were shot from a mad scientist?
A: As fast as I want it to, I made it up.
Not really a Q: But that's not fair! The player would never expect a T-rooster to dodge like that if it existed!
A: You're right. The fact that it can dodge this is problematic in that
1. It defies a player's expectations.
2. It's a far stretch from real, even in a fictional universe.
So what could we do?
Perhaps you could even suggest this: Add +40 accuracy to shotguns, and -10 for every square that it's farther away from you. (effectively giving you a +40 acc, range 1 shotgun).
Now here are my points as to why we're resistant to such a change.
1. Emotional feedback- Some characters have to suck at using weapons, like Olga. It should be as if she's shooting her shotgun and hitting the ceiling half the time. She just sucks, and this sense of awe is something I really like about this game.
2. Giving our support characters the ability to shoot a shotgun up close circumvents the variable penalty of bringing them into the field. There are ways for support characters to help out during battle; ie Stamina powers, Maximum Firepower, etc. Enabling this suggestion means that all supports will likely carry shotguns and not need isabel's max firepower, disrupting a very delicate balance.
3. RNG doesn't have to be about realism, it can be about strategy, risk, and reward- Consider this, if you shoot a gun in a pen and paper, you roll dice to simulate chance in a fictional world. You named Morrowind, another game that uses RNG for the sake of realism over gameplay. You keep swinging in that game because you don't really have to hope; the more swings you make, the more certain the victory or defeat is. The less certain it is, the more strategic it is when you have a choice.
Morrowind: You can kill a guard by hitting him 50 times with a sword that does 1 damage, and you have a 50/50 chance to hit. If you fail to hit him, he'll probably hit you for 2 damage, idk.
AD3: You can kill an alien by shooting it, doing 50 damage, and it has a 50/50 chance to hit. If you fail to shoot it, it will go up to your face and nom nom for 50 damage. You don't have to shoot it however, you can use different powers if you've got them on you to GUARANTEE the attack will hit.
Ridiculous RNG is not ridic if the player can account for success/failure. Claiming that the RNG is ridic is the same thing as calling the "All in" method of Texas Hold'em as ridic. Shotguns, Carmen's Destroy power, and Mutually Assured Destruction are all good examples of high RNG, high accountability.
So uh, preemptive suggestion rejected. There are some *very* valid points saying that these dinos shouldn't be able to dodge PB shotguns, but... C'mon. I think we can agree, if shotguns didn't miss like this, it'd be a pretty glaring exception to the overall vibe.
Hey lovesworder just a quick question, is there an eta for the patch release?
DeleteI feel ya, man. I had three rounds in a row where everyone was at 100 on their gun skills, and I kept missing every single shotgun shot at point blank. Got absolutely bodied. But don't bother providing feedback that will actually benefit the gameplay. They are way too rabid and blinded by their own egos to make the necessary changes so the game is more enjoyable for a wider audience.
DeleteWe're working on the patch as quickly as possible.
DeleteI found a bug in the Veronica storyline, I'm not sure where else to post it, but after visiting the hospital for the 2nd time and fleeing from a bot. There is a storyline option about pushing her against a bed when she starts getting suggestive. Choosing that seems to cut straight to the defense stage with no statement about what just happened. If that was supposed to unlock a cut scene or inform you of some outcome. It's not happening.
ReplyDeleteJust to clarify for you, there is no sex scene in Veronica 5. And that bug will be fixed in the next patch.
DeleteCan I just say that the difficulty modifier for the rooms doesn't seem to do anything? As far as my (admittedly short) experience goes, you're pretty much as likely to get shafted by getting ~8 Louie Eggs and 2 Roosters on -8 difficulty, and +4. On top of that, I get that you want the player to need to use the skills along with the guns. However, your regeneration rate on stamina, along with bullet amount (even accounting for the fact you said you doubled the initial amount) is ridiculous when compared to the HP of the enemies. Some of the enemies like the rats, the small healers are perfectly reasonable for the first day of the game. 6 Roosters is not. The amount of damage you output relative to the hp of the enemies is not enough. Using skills helps, but at the current difficulty if you try to do it that way you basically have to spend every day on the backfoot. I've never even lasted long enough to find out if there's a built-in end of days, like in the earlier games, because I've only gotten to day 7 once, and that was with almost everyone incapacitated.
ReplyDeleteRealistically, the game needs some of the following - damage increased by guns; dodge reduced (because holy cow that RNG is absurd, missing on characters with 100 gun skill at point blank? Really?); reduced enemy numbers (because even though the rats aren't too bad, 6 of them in 2 waves with healers and moose bots is just stupid); reduced enemy damage, I get that them hitting you is supposed to be bad. 2 hit round loss is stupid, when you can get 3 of those enemies in tight proximity *on the second encounter in the game*; enemy movement reduced (because 3-4 movement on an enemy that takes 3 hits to kill is kinda unfair when you get that many at once); and/or regeneration values increased. You fall behind way, way too easy as it stands. You don't get back enough HP, Stamina or Morale to recover in under 2-3 days most of the time.
On top of all of that, as soon as you fall behind in the game, you're done. Lose 1 round? You probably won't last 2 days. Why? Because the RNG is so varied that unless you get extremely lucky and get 3 days worth of next to no enemies you can't do anything but die.
As a result of this, I've never gotten to the second story of any of the characters. Some people have beaten the game, and gotten quite far, but frankly, this is mostly luck. It's far too often that you end up with a bad combat, and you just lose everything. I feel that even with the fixes, you need to increase the rate of the saving. I get you don't want save scumming, but like, you have next to no chance of beating the game without that as it stands.
I've been a big fan of your previous work, but frankly, I don't think a combat RPG was up your alley. Judging from the massive amount of negativity you've gotten about this, you should maybe have stuck with what you know - making a dating sim, not a strategy game. Because the strategy part isn't fun. And I like strategy games.
You say that people beating the game is due to luck, but I can get to day 20 reliably without ever using the Captain or any girl I am pursuing for anything. I honestly don't see what everyone is complaining about, sure the game is difficult but it's also really easy to make it easy, and once you figure out 3 or 4 tricks you can beat any group of enemies, even 4 bots and 3-4 roosters. I've never had more then 1 incapacitated character at any time, and I've never seen the mutiny ending. I've never seen a bad ending period. I took me about 15 days total to learn enough to be able to manage and about two routes to figure out everything I needed to beat the game, and I did on day 30.
DeleteThe game is very manageable(and just to note, I didn't spend a dime beyond getting it on ofbeatr, and no I don't have the Survivor Pack) and I don't understand why everyone is having such a hard time on it, especially so early on when ammo problems aren't even a thing yet.
So...here's my own 2 cents; generally speaking...yeah, it's hard, but this isn't necessarily going to be another "gaem is too hard, can't git gud" post. I'll preface this by saying I don't mean any offense but I really disagree with a lot of the design choices made by the devs (yeah, yeah, a lot of good that does me). This is gonna be a wall of text here so take any snark as just trying to be funny for my own sake (Seriously this is loooong and might not even be read. I could have completed the game by now).
ReplyDeleteAfter playing my strongest impression wasn't that it's too hard but that it was frustrating. I've played hard games before and that's not a problem. But the design choices are frustrating. I can understand wanting to do things a certain way and that devs have their own artistic vision but this being a game it should be considered whether a design point is fun, not just for a select few, but for the general audience who'd play the game. In general it seems like the ideas are much better than the execution.
The mutiny system for example fits the setting and story. But the idea behind it, according to the dev blog, is that there was "no incentive to make other girls happy during each run". But why should the players need to keep every girl happy? There's really no problem with that gameplay-wise is there? I'm pretty sure we don't have incentive to keep the guys happy (I threatened to exile a guy over chocolate and he didn't blast my head off in a mutiny) so it's still not much more ethical. If it's to be realistic then yeah...let's set aside whether it is or is not and let me just point out that realism isn't always fun. This is a dating sim for a reason and the reality of dating is really easy to get to in real life, it's just not what should necessarily be in the game. And if it it is then why don't we at least have a freakin' wingman? In execution this leads to the annoyance of tying it to the dating sim system. Done like this I can't help but see it as just every non-chosen girl going out of their way to cockblock me as much as possible. Technically, we're not even being mean to them, just not trying to date them.
I could dumb down my complaints about the battle system and survival aspects to "gaem is too hard, can't git gud" but it's more than that. This is more based on opinion so the devs might be quick to dismiss the point but I think it's interesting to consider. The problem isn't that the battle system/survival aspects are too hard but that it's not rewarding.
Let's consider the rewards of the game first. I get it, instant gratification has ruined kids these days. Shame on them. But this game really does go out of its way to hold back the rewards. Admit it, this had 2 offbeatr campaigns, people are at least partially (Read: wholly) here for their hentai. This is their reward for playing the game and gitting good at it. Except I've already mentioned how one system cockblocks you. And really all the systems do. There's no incentive outside of getting "muh hentai scenes" than well, getting "muh hentai scenes". Gunning for it generally gets you killed by the other cockblocking girls or by weird animatronic sprite-horrors. As is (I think this is getting a balance patch fix though?) you have to spend a run or two figuring out which girl likes which stats and then figure out how much of each stat is needed at each story point and then how much affection for one goddamn scene. Jesus, I might as well go hit a bar and get the real thing at this rate.
But forget about it. You're 12 and what's this? Hentai? What Hentai? (Suuuure). Playing the game is its own reward right? I'll quote one of the devs; " It's a survival game. In most RPGs, you will walk away from an encounter being a little stronger than last time, on average." See, there's a problem here. That's the fun part of RPGs, you know. You get loot, get xp, lvl up and basically watch your guy grow strong. That's an inherently fun part of the system. Final Fantasy doesn't offer you IG hentai to keep playing because lvling up is it's own reward. Lvling up isn't even that rare, it occurs several times per session and it's fun every damn time. The other problem is that the assumption here is that it's mutually exclusive...you get stronger each run and it's not a survival game. No, not really. Project Zomboid, The Long Dark and This War of Mine are all surival games. They're all really hard too (At least I have more trouble there than with AD3) but that isn't the case with those games. Excluding Zomboid there aren't stats and you don't lvl up but you slowly get better gear to deal with hunger or illness and generally become better able to survive. Survival is still damn tough but you're not necessarily worn away with every encounter. See, AD3 forces you into encounters every single night and what do you get out of it? You live another day, yippee. Not so with most survival games. You choose your fights and if you choose well you can end up with a little more for your troubles.
DeleteThis brings us to the final problem. Now, I really don't mean any offense but let's admit it...the battle system is not game of the year tactical battle system 2015. That's fine, it can still be fun and I admit I was initially having fun doing a few battles. But then I realised two problems; the battle system is unforgiving and static. I actually have no problem with RNGesus screwing you over. Risk and reward, son, and it's easy enough to mitigate even if monster spawn is a bit uninuitive (I have no idea how this works. The words light resistance seem to mean nothing. Heavy resistance also means light resistance. It's all the same). But dear god, no to belittle Sander's achievement, but if he did it in 1 try he's the real thing. I get it; it's designed so you have to try again and test what works and what doesn't ('cause the game certainly doesn't tell you). But you end up losing so much progress each time and the game's already unforgiving. No save scumming so too bad if you're already in a death spiral. Misspent your basic points? Well, too bad, get ready to go again unless you don't care about dating and just wanna win. Didn't go to the right places in time so you're scrounging for whatever supply right when you need it? Game over. So yeah, there's so little leeway everywhere you'll go from the expected 35(?) battles per run to 100+ just to figure out the system and the system's not dynamic enough for that. You don't want to get caught using crappy guards so you'll go for the same few combos against the same few enemies hundreds of times and the rewards will come so late you might just stop caring.
Let's talk about narrative for a bit as well. Honestly...it's good. I read AD2 and it's definitely better. Shakespeare it's not but the ideas are more interesting, the settings more fleshed out and it's just generally better. Now time to crap over the praise. Let's face it, the protag is really everyone's bitch. Half the crew is Maverick and even the other half might as well be. Maybe I'd just played too much Mass Effect where if Shepard said "Jump" everyone replied "How high?" (Unless you were actually saying "Let's commit genocide" or something) so it really felt like you were in-charge and made important decisions. In AD3 I get cases about stealing chocolate and even then people complain about my decision. Does it feel important? No. Am I going to disappoint someone anyway? Yes. It kinda ends up feeling petty where your basic decisions are gonna be about choosing who to piss off because they can't handle people disagreeing one time. I read a blog post about these decisions where you had to make a tough choice about keeping some asshole alive or not cause he's rich(?) and it's pragmatic or letting him die because really he should. That's the stuff you leave in. The inconsequential stuff really doesn't need any choice or any need to make it meaningful by having gameplay effects. Seriously, if you ever read VNs they're basically a novel. The narratives good enough that choices can be sparse and no one cares. Focus on the narrative and leave the El Captain stuff until it's dramatic is my advice.
DeleteAs for the dating system...I've already mentioned my problems above but I still really question the need to make the dating sim part difficult. The problem is, from a design choice point of view, that it removes the ebb and flow of a game. Truly, I'm not bullshitting, here, it's a thing. In both story writing and in game design there are moments of downtime where, even in the most dire of situations, there is time to unwind before the next dramatic point. I've already pointed out how unforgiving the game is and even in dating sims if you make the wrong choice or didn't have enough point it ends up being annoying or frustrating rather than being the break between battles. Some of the dates aren't as dark though shooting some kids in the head sure was. And then straight after that it's battle tiems and knowing I wasted a whole day basically pissing someone off. True fun for all the family right there.
So...yeah, sorry if that was a (way too) long read. I'm not necessarily asking for straight up difficulty decreases across the board and I can understand why you wouldn't want to. However, ideas aren't always necessarily good or bad. People have made great games off the dumbest ideas and bad games off great ideas. The focus should be on increasing accessibility rather than narrowing it when you can rather than it being dark and hard for the sake of being dark and hard. There is a thing as having too many ideas and this game feels like it's trying to work too much in without caring enough about how it's executed or why. I realise that, more than AD2, the devs are probably trying to get taken more seriously with a more mature plot, setting and systems but it's still a game. People do want to unwind (or really, just fap) and feel like they're making progress even as they get their faces torn apart by the weird petting zoo of AD3 mobs. In fact there are better games (Well, it's true) and more easily accessed porn so really, what does AD3 offer that's better than everything else out there?
TLDR: Can't git gud, plz nerf gaem (But not really)