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March 28 Update (Patreon)

Published:
2021-03-28 18:02:12
Imported:
2026-06
Tags:

Content

The beginning of 2021 has been surprisingly clear for me, allowing me to focus on work... I'm afraid that time has come to an end, because I'm getting hit from all sides. Nothing unmanageable, just a busier schedule than I'd want and assorted time/energy drains. I'm glad I could mostly finish off a couple side projects, but regret that I didn't get out one more TLS update before getting swamped.

I'm getting offers of various kinds, but mostly turning them down to try to focus on TLS. Some are requests I'm glad I can refuse. I got one publishing offer, but it was a pretty lukewarm one - it's possible that one day I'll regret declining, but I believe I can do better.

Sometimes I feel like I don't give $10 patrons as many rewards as I'd want, but I've been spoiling them lately. An extra large TLS art set, the new polished OEA 0.4.5, and now the art pack updated with a bunch of new stuff! This art pack update was overdue, adding over a hundred new images, for nearly 500 total, 800+ MB.

Over the next several months I hope to have more stuff for $5 patrons, since the TLS build remains my first priority and is occupying an increasing percentage of my time. No estimates on timing: I've finished some final content I really like (such as scenes), but I'm not satisfied by the process of getting to them.

Map-wise, we've moved from beyond style samples to filling out full maps. Finished Overgrown Tale, for example. Check out the other three for Grimmton and feel free to give feedback! Especially let me know which of the two lighting options you prefer: one is less "realistic" but might give the Tale a different feel to the others.

Back next week. If it's not with good news, I will be sad.

Files

Comments

Lamsey

The OEA maps look good to me. Looks like the overgrown tale's been rearranged a little bit, but I can see logical-looking places where the portals could go. Working out which tiles are passable could require a bit of searching, which makes sense given the nature of the Tale. The twisty shadows from the trees in Grimmton look good. The town buildings have an appropriately threatening feel, and it's clear which one is which. I don't see the blocked-up dungeon entrance in the south of the Grim Wasteland map - is that deliberate? I can see places for all the other POIs on that map. I think the gory details show up better on the greyer-shadowed version of the abandoned house, since there's more contrast.

BleBle

Mmm I dont understand what this means, I feel like you are hiding something, dont know.

sierralee

You're welcome to that opinion, but I'm not sure how I can respond. I've tried to be transparent and direct about my current intentions and workload.

sierralee

Thanks for the map feedback! Yes, the Overgrown map was rearranged for aesthetic purposes. The lack of a dungeon entrance is a detail that will hopefully be amended in the full version with events, whereas this image is map layers only.

BleBle

ok I understand, dont stress yourself, have a nice week. Didn't mean to offend.

WaxerRed

It's always amazing to see all the art TLS has been getting, and I'm never going to not laugh when I see the TLS McDonalds meme. OEA maps pretty darn great! I think Grimtown came out really really nicely. (Nice in the horrifying and scare kinda way of course!) But how did a blood splatter get on the gallows, that's not how that works! I don't have too strong feelings on the tints much either way, but I think I prefer the grey tint a bit more. I think it makes Ingird's own color's pop a bit more. Her cheerful red compared to the dark of the world makes it really feel like "You wondered into the wrong tale girl." And lastly I love the "Help" written in blood on the wall that's a great touch!

sierralee

Thanks for the feedback on the maps! And I enjoyed the McDonalds meme too. ^-^

Ben

I have absolutely no complaints about the $10 rewards. Stay healthy and keep being great.

DankPotatoes

As a person who loves how OEA is beginning to look, but is too cheap to upgrade to 10$: What is the plan concerning the final release? I'm guessing 10$ patrons are getting it as part of the package, but are the rest of us paying retail price? Either way, paying or not, I can't wait to see the end result, before we get into the endgame of Arclent.

sierralee

Thank you! I don't think I can ever truly repay patrons who give monthly support, but I try to make the rewards a fun bonus for supporting my work.

sierralee

Though other tiers don't get automatic links, the rule for finished games applies to everyone: your past total contribution counts as credit you can use toward any commercial game. So everyone who has been around for multiple months can just ask for a copy of OEA when it comes out. In your case, you've been a continued patron for several years, so you have far more credit than you need. Heck, do you want a copy of 0.4.5 right now? It could always use more feedback. As for the end result, I'm not sure when it will be. Due to the time that maps require, I intend to focus on TLS, so Arclent will see some pretty major events before OEA releases.

DankPotatoes

Gee, thanks. I'll happilly take a look at 0.4.5 Might be a short while before I can play through all of it, due to time concerns, but I could eventually provide some feedback.

sierralee

Let me know when you have time and I'll message you the most recent link. The current one is reasonably polished, but I've also received some heavy feedback emails I'll work through to improve things.

Desertopa

So, I'm jumping on board kind of late, since I didn't start playing OEA until the 0.4.5 release, and I haven't finished exploring the game, but I just ran into what seems like a fairly substantial bug. I just recently got Ulfina's final training in Hoodton, which supposedly powered up her Wolf's Bite skill... but now it seems to actually be unusable in battle. https://imgur.com/NpuU6RF I'm wondering if maybe it was "upgraded" to a version with a different targeting scheme rather than an enemy target, like maybe a fallen ally by accident? So it's not recognizing any targets in the battles I've tried it in. Edit: Actually, the bug has an easier fix than I thought, although it's probably still something you'd want to fix for the final release. It seems like the real reason is, when the skill was upgraded, the old version was removed from her skill list, but not her active pool, so in order to use it again I just had to unequip and re-equip the skill.

sierralee

The issue is that to upgrade the skill, I have to replace it with another one, and I don't have the capability to control which skills the player has equipped. It's definitely not ideal, but I haven't thought of a solution that doesn't sacrifice something else.

Desertopa

New bug report: I've attempted fighting the Former Urchin in the arena twice now, and both times, my party has countered the djinn, inflicted status effects on it, and gotten it stuck in an apparently infinite loop of "the djinn is regenerating its mighty powers." edit: I've tried a few more times, and it seems like it's having some sort of status effect inflicted on it every time it hits a certain level of HP, and it gets stuck in the same loop every time.

sierralee

I tried to make an improvement to this fight and it seems I screwed it up. =/ This is my bad, but regrettably I can't promise an immediate fix. If you were to temporarily switch to version 0.4.4, the fight won't lock up there.

Desertopa

So, I'm definitely enjoying the game enough to make it worth doing this, but I'm not actually sure how to. If I copy save files from 0.4.5 to 0.4.4 like I would if I were transferring over a save file of TLS, it doesn't seem to recognize it. I'm guessing there's still a way to do this, but I'm not sure what it is.

sierralee

To be completely honest with you, I haven't done this in a long time. What I recall is that you can't move individual save files in MV, you have to move everything, including the global and config files.

WaxerRed

Minor OEA bug. This is for the trigger for the Hood/Fenris/Ingrid boobjob scene, In the isolated clearing house, when checking the blue flame. It has different dialogues for whether or not Ingrid has already passed the crucible, but they are swapped.

sierralee

Whoops, yeah. Fortunately it's just the flavor text, so that's an easy fix.

Desertopa

So, I just finished the game. It seems really great overall, and I'm definitely interested to see how this one performs with wider audiences (aside from stuff like how they react to the maps and character sprites, I'm also curious to see how people will respond to things like the sex scenes where you can actually see Wilhelm and Fenris's faces.) Balance-wise, as of 0.4.5, things mostly seem pretty smooth and polished to me, but I think the random encounters in the Crucible of the Abstract might be a bit OP. Although the fights didn't take as long, I found the encounters with larger numbers of enemies there harder to actually win than the fight with the Hand of Violence. I think it might also be a good idea to tweak the stats on the Bloody Basket so it gives a magic bonus on par with the Lava Basket. Since Ingrid's contributions as a healer are harder to replace than her contributions as a damage dealer, I ended up deciding against the tradeoff in magic power and continued using the Lava Basket after beating the Hand of Violence. Considering how little there is left to challenge the player after they've beaten it, I don't think making the Bloody Basket a bit stronger should cause balance problems. There is one major enemy I never fought though. The giant wolf which appeared along with the Hand of Violence, I was never actually able to find. I don't know if there was some kind of bug which kept it from showing up where it was supposed to, or I just didn't look in the right place, but I ended up giving up and just finishing the game instead. I was also never able to read the magic books in Frieda's house. I thought I'd be able to read them when I got the Grandmother archetype, but although I was able to read the ones in the library, Ingrid still said she'd need specific magical training to read the ones in Frieda's house. I thought for a while that there was still some other archetype I was missing, maybe one which would allow Ingrid to apply her magical abilities to damage like Hood, but since I did my best to explore everything and never found anything like that by the end of the game, I've come around to suspecting that it's more likely a bug or a misleading piece of text. I think there might also have been some sort of bug with the pale wolves, since Brunhilde suggested I'd be able to use their pelts to make a weapon which would be effective against them. I collected three of them while the gate to the barricaded section was still shut, and then gained access to crafting in Bangville, and... at some point in the process the pelts seem to have disappeared from my inventory without my getting an item from them that I can remember. When I killed a couple others in the barricaded section later, I don't seem to have gotten any pelts from them. I ended up handicapping myself a bit by doing almost all the postgame content *before* getting the True Slut archetype, and wandering around like a dumbass wondering what I had to do to unlock Ingrid's Essence Mastery like the other three, trying to do that before approaching the final confrontation. I only got it after I finally gave up looking and decided to go finish the game. I don't know if there's any good way to give players a hint that'd keep them from doing that which wouldn't be a bit spoilery, but it might be an issue with other players who tend to try to do every possible sidequest before getting on with the main plot.

sierralee

Hey, I'm glad to hear you finished the game and enjoyed it! If you wanted to give thoughts on the story or characters, I wouldn't mind that either. ^-^ I have no idea what general audiences will think of this. I've had one player say that Ingrid's bimbo-style content was so at odds with the heavy story/gameplay that they worry the game won't work for anyone, and I can only hope that isn't the case. As I'm sure you observed, Ingrid's arc is intentionally circling back around and embracing her nature, a different kind of reconstruction to what I've done with other tropes. I thought the Crucible of the Abstract was about right, but most people seem to disagree, so I'll take a second look when I do my next big playthrough. You make a good point about the Bloody Basket, I'll buff it. The giant wolf superboss... ugh, I don't know, it's possible that its appearance is bugged again because of changes I made. You may also need to do certain Wilhelm events to trigger it. Many players didn't find that chain of events as intuitive as I'd hoped. It's impossible to read Frieda's books, but enough people have made similar comments that I intend to put something there, probably an Intelligence boost. Pale Wolves: The weapon Brunhilde mentions is for her, not the party. The reward for those is a Wilhelm training, which I suspect is how yours disappeared. Your point about Ingrid's Mastery is worth thinking about, but I'm not sure how I'd act on it. Hmm.

Desertopa

The story and characters seemed really good to me. Honestly though, since I think I'm one of the most central possible audience members for the whole extended joke of Bangville, it's hard to say how much my enjoyment would generalize to other players. That said, I did check out the F95Zone thread for the game, which I suspect you probably haven't looked at (I didn't check it on purpose, what I was actually *trying* to do was find, for research purposes, a Japanese H-RPG which is not a hybrid VN like Rance with a male protagonist,) and I found some interesting discussion there. Sometimes depressing, of course, with some players who would have liked an unironically Bangville-ish game, but others were quite enthusiastic, and one compared a member who complained about not getting where the game was coming from to "Karens not understanding jokes about Karens." So, even if it's not for everyone, I think there is a wider audience for a game of this type. If I have any complaints in terms of the writing/characterization, it'd be that I don't feel like we get any clear sense prior to his accepting Ulfina's advances what Wilhelm really wants from a partner or a relationship, and whether Ulfina might actually be right for him, and that I don't feel like there's really a strong setup for Ingrid's sense of admiration for Other Ingrid in the true ending. I can see how Ingrid might have gone through a character arc which would have led her to where Other Ingrid is, but since we don't actually see the blanks filled in, most of our basis for sympathy comes from knowing that she started out the same as Ingrid, with an apparently pointless eternal existence inside a depressing tale to deal with. Thinking about it a bit, I think a section near the end where the protagonists, or at least Ingrid, see a portion of the Other Ingrid's journey while traveling through the Crucible of the Abstract might be appropriate pacing-wise, if you still feel like there's room to add something like that in.

sierralee

I read a number of pages of the F95 thread before I decided to stop, as that's generally not good for my productivity. I'm glad there were some people who embraced the premise, and with any luck there will be similar people on Steam. Thoughtful points about potential weaknesses in the characterization, thank you. I hadn't reflected on Wilhelm's issues due to how I framed his characterization around his past. As for Ingrid, I intended the fragments of memories on the way to Qum to hint at this, but the game could be stronger with more writing to emphasize that point.

WaxerRed

The wolfblight sprite is just every so slightly not lined up when walking left to right. Leaving a spare pixel at the back. UNACCEPTABLE UNISNTALLING THE GAME! Also just another lore clarification question- during the endgame fight, after refusing to fight Other Ingrid we have the exchange Blue Dreamer- And so, the four friends defeated the power of violence, once and for all…” Ingrid- Don’t be silly. We didn't defeat the power of violence, we just used violence to win. There's no moral to this story.” That is a badass line from Ingrid simply pointing out the hypocrisy of the blue dreamer, however given the context that we just specifically DIDNT use violence to win it seemed a bit odd.

sierralee

Yeah, the Wolfblight wolf has a few errors when moving, so I'm going to just make him stationary. I agree that Ingrid's line does seem a bit odd right after the one battle you don't fight, so I've shifted it slightly to emphasize that they've used violence the entire game.

sierralee

There's no need to apologize for length! I was glad to read your thoughts. ^-^ Even more so, I appreciate criticism, and though I haven't committed to any specific changes on the final section with Bloody Ingrid, this will be something I think about as I move the game forward. I'm glad you appreciated the branching dialogue for Ingrid. No need to spend extra time on this, but I'd like to add even more, so if you're ever poking around and think a line seems particularly smart (or open to funny low Int branches), feel free to mention it to me. The Snow Queen is a Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Snow_Queen) instead of Brothers Grimm, so it doesn't always appear in the same stories. The "dickfungus" name is... sort of an inside joke between Crescentia and I. That's what we called it during the art phase, for various reasons. Originally Wilhelm was going to acquire his condition via one of those Phallic Mushrooms, so... Your minor suggestions to increase reactivity are very welcome. Those kinds of little things do help the world feel more alive. Look forward to seeing some of those in future versions! Listing all the status effects wasn't something I'd really thought about, but... sure, doesn't do any harm. One thing I intentionally tried to do with this game was have a bit more of a focus on male bodies, since Crescentia does like to draw those. The focus is still on the female characters, and the men did get their heads out of frame often, but I'm glad some of the exceptions worked for you. It's true that this entire game passed without any real tentacle or monster content. I considered throwing in one at the end, when I was figuring out final scenes, but decided against it, since it would just be a token scene. This way the game is more focused on its core content... though if I ever do a Beauty and the Beast themed OEA game, you'd see plenty there. ^-^

WaxerRed

Makes sense thank you!

WaxerRed

Thank you for so quickly taking the time to read and reply! I'm glad you liked my comments, complaints, and suggestions, happy to help! And thank you for answering the questions on the matter of Snow Queen and DIck Fungus. I'll keep an eye out for Ingrid Int dialogue and send any ideas I think of!

Decanter

Many insightful comments but > WHERE WERE THE TENTACLES? HOW IS THIS A SL GAME WITHOUT TENTACLES? Waxer I have bad news for you about Crimson Gray. :P

WaxerRed

I'm still holding out hope for Crimson Gray 1.5 the secret tentacle tales!

Decanter

Waxer I have bad news for you about Crimson Gray 1.5: Dusk and Dawn

WaxerRed

:( Tentacle DLC! It'll happen I know it!

sierralee

I actually considered doing a DLC for Crimson Gray covering fantasy scenarios with the characters, entitled Crimson Gray: Just Feet.

WaxerRed

That's some next level Yandere thinking. Boy's might escape sex dungeon murder basements, but just use feet to step on his dick and he won't be able to run away! And if that doesn't work bind him with tentacles, he'll never leave!