BBBen
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Update 26
🕑 Added 2015-09-14 02:01:37 +0000 UTCtl;dr - Lots of combat system progress this week, objects and room descriptions, looking ahead to the next alpha.
Today's image:
This one is a new image that will feature in the next alpha. It's one of two
new pictures I created for the opening Masami scene. If you've played
the alpha you'll know when this moment happens.
Combat system:
I've made lots of progress on the combat system this week. The spells are all implemented, the monsters (for the main battles) are all in place, the potions have been included and I've even tested it somewhat for balance. I am sure there will still be some bugs and some balance issues, but when you try it out the system should at least be pretty mechanically functional.
I've designed the potions so that when you give a maid a health potion in combat she'll gain some lust (as a consequence of the magic), and some love from gratitude. Then if you give her a second one the favoritism will make the other maids jealous. Meanwhile giving a maid a focus potion will restore all her MP, but will cost a few lust points. These potions also have some uses outside of combat.
I've done this to overlap the gameplay systems, and integrate them more. Some game designers prefer the opposite approach - not overlapping combat and roleplaying at all. I personally much prefer to be given interesting longer-term choices in battle, so that you need to think about whether to spend a possibly useful health potion now, even though you want it for later and it'll cost a few love points from two of the maids (for example). All this means that items (some of them, at least) have functions outside of combat, just like skills do. I won't spoil too much now, but there may also be some uses in the sex scenes!
The combat system currently looks like crap (graphics wise), so the images for battle scenes still need a fair bit of work.
Lastly, here's a few random thoughts about the monster types from testing the game (quick explanation - the second word of a monster's name is its type, while the first word tells you its special power):
- Don't let a vile knightgor hit you. It hurts.
- Trollish slimes and spikey slimes are a huge pain.
- Eagle-eyed gazors may be the ultimate masters of the eye skill, but I still breath a sigh of relief when I get one, because they won't have any nasty surprises to throw at me.
- Kimiko's bind spell may not be an important one at the start of the game, but it is actually worth using against vile enemies.
I hope that gives you a little taste of what the combat system's got in store for you.
Descriptions and objects:
Just quickly because I know this comes off as a dull topic; I've also been writing up descriptions for rooms and adding objects. This is important to give you a feel of the place, as well as setting up side-puzzles and that sort of thing. I'm going to be making the room text a different, darker colour to the normal text so that your eyes will be able to ignore that text more easily if you've seen that stuff a hundred times before. That was something I did in PAF and forgot to do in Super PAC, but I meant to.
You might recall I have tended to include a lot of jokes and easter eggs in objects before. This time around I might move a lot of those jokes into the actual descriptions so that exploring and examining things is just a little bit more fun. There will still be hidden stuff, but in Super PAC to find the little jokes you had to "read" every object. PAF was largely like that too. I think the player audience for the Pervert Action series is actually broader now than the traditional AIF audience, and the gameplay of PA games doesn't really encourage you to interact with objects anyway, so I feel like it's worth rewarding just the effort to actually examine individual objects.
Next alpha:
I've had a very busy and productive week on the combat system, so I expect the next alpha to not be too far away. I'd like to have the combat system basically feature-complete first, and I think I should probably implement Ai and Masami's flirting systems as well. Then I can put out a new version of the game.
There still won't be any sex scenes included yet in the next alpha, but I kind of expect to start putting those in after the next alpha some time. I still need to include more plot, implement the 'voyeur' system, set up Hiroshi's shop and some other stuff, so there's other things to keep me busy, but I might start setting up the sex scenes gradually as well.
Any thoughts, comments, requests or suggestions? Please let me know in the comments section below. Your opinions are important to me! :)
Comments
BBBen
I responded to this earlier - not sure where that response has gone, sorry. Anyway, you're right that there will be more battles, but you'll be in control of how many and when you do them. You can fight battles to build up Kenji's stats (as a trainer) so it's up to you how much fighting you do. Because the combat's way more diverse than before it should be able to sustain that kind of extra activity (I hope!).
Hank Rillek
That combat system sounds really interesting! By the sound of it, there will be more battles than in PAF, am I right?
