Spankers, Spankees, and Switches of All Ages (18 and above),
I’ve uploaded the latest version of Potion Wars, which fixes the bug that kept you from being able to select clothing past number 10. Hilariously, I then decided that it was silly to make dresses available when selecting pants, because they end up replacing the shirt you selected previously. So I shifted the dresses into the shirts menu, and now all the clothing has less than 10 items again! After all that work creating logic to select clothing item 11 too…
Anyway, you can get the most recent version over in the Downloads.
One other thing, Bonemouth has pointed me to a library of free to use (so long as I give credit) songs. They are quite good, and there’s more variety than I have access to through the place I got my original music (Play On Loop). Unfortunately, the two styles are radically different. So I’m thinking about replacing the current music completely. As a sampler, here are some of the tracts I have in mind:
1. To replace the Church theme (plays during the game’s opening crawl):
2. To replace the title theme (plays when the title picture shows up):
3. Not sure sure yet which I want to replace the generic combat theme. Here are a few options:
And finally, something a bit slower. This would replace the theme that’s played when the first girl you fight in episode 1 is dragged off by the city guards:
Does anyone have any strong opinions one way or the other? These would show up in the same version of the game that introduces the first level of the episode 2 dungeon.
I would be fine with most of these in the game, but I would have to recommend against the church one. While it does make sense for it to be used as the church theme, it gives off a sinister vibe, and unless there’s a difficult fight going on, it doesn’t really seem like the right approach. That being said, it’s your game, so do whatever you want.
But it would make sense for use during the opening crawl (forgot to mention that part).
Thanks for the feedback! As for the Church theme, It might also be a good choice for the defeat tone, i.e. the music that plays when you lose. In addition to the opening crawl.
Here are a few other possibilities for the Church:
https://soundcloud.com/aaron-anderson-11/149-serenity-loop
https://soundcloud.com/aaron-anderson-11/291-never-forget-ogg-320kbps
I think all these would fit really well. Why not have both of those battle songs on the game? One could be generic and the other for bosses or aa specific boss. As for the church theme, I think Splinter of the Mind is best.
I had some issues, I don’t know why, but when I tried to start the second dungeon, your author insert popped up and said that there was no more content unless I didn’t go to the tavern, however, when I didn’t go to the tavern, I always had to sleep at the guild and my game ended as soon as roland and Cat’s visit. I don’t understand what I did wrong.
Also, I tried getting around that, and couldn’t, so how about a scene where the PC attempts to kick the reality warper in the nuts/taco? I’d be all for it.
… And I expect to fail it… I relised a little later that that could be seen as hating on you and I don’t want to come across as that, I’ve spent… an unhealthy amount of time on your game already to say the least.
You want me to write content in which you kick me in the nuts?
😐
😐
😐
😀
No harm done. And I’m glad to hear you’re enjoying it! I’m going to ask you the same questions I ask everyone else who takes the time to give me feedback:
1. What do you like most about the game so far?
2. What do you like the least?
And a few additional questions that just occurred to me:
3. What do you want to see most in upcoming episodes?
4. Of what you’ve seen so far, what has the lowest priority for you? In other words, is there anything currently in the game (or planned that you’re aware of) that you really don’t care about and would rather I didn’t spend a lot of time on?
Sorry, that had been a joke, and I guess I didn’t really clarify in my comment after that that I had intended to fail and get yet another ass whooping, though this time from what is the equivilent of GOD of this universe… well, technically higher…
Don’t apologize. I recognized it was a joke, and I thought it was funny. Giving the player the opportunity to try to kick me in the nuts never occurred to me, and I think it would be hilarious. I can think of a perfect stopping point to put it too…
Do you mean second dungeon, or second episode? You’re not supposed to able to visit the second dungeon, because it hasn’t been implemented yet!
Your game shouldn’t be ending after sleeping at the guild at the end of episode 1 when you haven’t gone to the tavern. There’s probably something wrong in the decision tree that checks that case. I really need to get better about actually testing things…
Anyway, could you send me a savefile from just before you go to sleep at the end of episode 1 when you don’t go to the tavern? That would really help me with debugging.
… I think the problem was something different, when I went back specifically to that save, it started going through the new content, like it should have before. I think the problem was that I had reached the point where the author insert came in on a different file, and then came back to the eariler load to mess with stuff, it’s probably just a bigger version of the bug that I found where sometimes when you reverse time with loads conversation trees will already have triggered, Before though it was just the backround and the flavour text that was already triggered. Peter and Carol specifically that I can remember.
And I’m so far loving the game, though I’m not getting spanked as much because I keep finding it hard to just be a complete asshole to some people
So far, my favorite part is the first mission in the guild. I spent hours in just that area trying to find every scene I could… And then I went back to your blog and found out that you got a new site and a much better build already running and I spent about twenty minutes just on that first fight trying to lose.(Which when I accidentily won with the spectral spanking spell I somehow got a big statboost in.) And then was pretty disappointed that there wasn’t a scene where the rookie gleefully whooped you. And besides that my favorite part was triggering the magical cane trap.
I don’t really have any critisism, but my sugjestion is to make the diverging paths not go too wide that you end up writing twenty two scenes that are all the of the the current branches just to update your story, and again, that’s just a sugjestion from another amature writer to you.(And if you planed to make sure that didn’t happen already don’t be mad.)
Things I’m looking foreward to or would enjoy, traps. magical or mechanical devices that the PC or others trigger that give them a beating that’s impossible to talk their way out of or even try. That stuff is awesome. A ‘No-one can hear you scream’ Sort of thing.
Things I didn’t really enjoy… Nearly nothing. IT’s all interesting and every new scene I found, felt like a little prize… Except in that new scene with Maria forbidding you from looking for Cat, I just didn’t enjoy that one but that is simply my opinion.
Ah yes, that stupid conversation bug. Spent like 12 hours trying to figure what the hell was going on with that stupid thing. Finally, I realized it was because I knew even less of what I was doing when I wrote that code than I do now. Unfortunately, fixing it would require a massive overhaul of the first episode. Since I’m already working on translating the first episode into LaTeX, so that I can use my LaTeX -> Python translator (whose generated code does not have the same bug), that’s not going to get fixed until I’ve finished translating episode 1.
Can you think of any dialogue choices in particular that were “complete asshole?” I’ve never liked the angel or saint dichotomy that permeates so many RPGs and I’ve been working really hard to avoid it as much as possible. That doesn’t mean there aren’t _some_ complete asshole choices (some people like that), but I want to make sure that only the choices that are intended as “complete asshole” are “complete asshole.”
One thing to be aware of: If a combat has a scene for losing, “Optional” will be displayed along the lower third of the screen, right above the commands. So if you don’t see the word “Optional” anywhere when combat begins, don’t bother trying to lose.
I really need to include an (optional!!!!!) tutorial at some point, maybe a short prologue with Nana where all this stuff is pointed out. Maybe that will be my big project for episode 4.
Furthermore, I’m going to work really hard to make sure the “Optional” fights are especially difficult. I hate it when a porn game has scenes for losing, but then the combat is so painfully simple that you literally have to stand there and wave at your opponent for fifteen minutes to lose.
I’m not surprised you got a big stat boost. You gain stat points in various stats for every action you take in combat (including defending), and every time an enemy attacks you. And considering how weak your first opponent is, I imagine that fight went for a long time, with lots of defending, grappling and grapple breaking.
Yeah, I’ve had that problem with wildly diverging scenes. In fact, one thing I’m wrestling with now is whether it’s better to have a small number (like 2) dialogue choices with wildly diverging paths, or whether it’s better to give the player more dialogue choices, but do the standard “one or two lines of difference, the rest is identical” that other RPGs do. Pillars of Eternity takes the latter approach, and I’m really enjoying the tremendous opportunities for roleplaying that provides, even if the various choices have minimal impact. How many games let you play a Stoic, Honest, Rational hero with a deep simmering passion beneath the facade that only slips free in very specific situations? Maybe I could go for a balance of the two approaches?
You’re a writer? Care to help with Potion Wars? I’m always looking for help.
I will keep the traps idea in mind. However, there won’t be many of them. One of the conceits of this world is that it is just on the cusp of learning how to create complex tools that simulate spells (like potions, or magical traps). At this stage, only exceptionally skilled spellslingers (like Airell) can create magical traps. And exceptionally skilled spellslingers are naturally quite rare. Of course that doesn’t mean we can’t have more mundane traps (like snares) but those traps won’t be the ones doing the spanking.
Anyway, I’m really glad that you’re enjoying the game as much as you are. If you ever have any other feedback, don’t hesitate to post it.
I think I found a bug, its not game breaking, but if you choose to not follow Maria to the clinic in episode 2. They default your name and gender to juliana and female. should be a quick fix since your using pygame, just thought I’d let you know. Love the series can’t wait for the 2nd dungeon.
–BRich
Thanks for the report! It’ll be fixed in the next release. Also, I’m glad you’re enjoying the game so far. I’m working hard on the next dungeon, don’t you worry.
I found a few bugs near the beginning. At the very end of that first conversation with Maria, when Adrian (I think that’s his name, the guy in charge of the guild) comes up, you have the option to make a dirty joke or accuse her of trying to prank you. I selected the prank option, but Maria responded as if I had made the dirty joke.
I reloaded my save, to make sure I had selected the option I thought I had, but when I got to that part of the conversation, the option to talk about Adrian and the guild wasn’t there at all. I selected the option to talk about a place to live instead, went through that dialogue, and reloaded again. This time, neither talking about the guild nor a place to live was available, and the only option was to say that I had nothing else to talk about.
I shut the game down and relaunched it, and all of the dialogue options were back (and I was able to confirm that asking if she was pranking me DID give me the response to the ‘dirty joke’ option). So it looks like if a dialogue option can’t be repeated after going through it once, reloading a save doesn’t reset that like it should (if that makes any sense).
First, thank you so much for taking the time to report these. Your first bug will be fixed in my next release. As for the second bug, it’s a known problem. I tried to fix it when it was first reported, and all my “fixes” just ended up making it worse.
Basically, in order to fix that bug I would have to seriously overhaul the structure of the conversation nodes in the first episode.
I’m all ready doing that, by working on translating episode 1 into LaTeX, so that I can use my Python -> LaTeX translator. The code that the translator translates shouldn’t have that problem.
In short, that bug will be fixed when I finish translating episode 1. Unfortunately, I can’t give an ETA for that. I am, alas one man, and there are only so many hours in the day.
Aside from those issues, I hope you’re enjoying the game.