Home
Creators
Search Recent Random
Posts
Search DMs Popular Hash Lookup Tags Random
Importer
Import FAQ
Register Favorites Keys Review DMs Logout
Community
Telegram ThePornDude
Home Creators Posts Import Register Favorites Logout

TLS 0.58.1 Release (Patreon)

Published:
2021-10-01 22:07:23
Edited:
2021-10-05 21:55:42
Imported:
2026-06
Tags:

Content

EDIT: I've uploaded 0.58.2. This is not a critical one, just a collection of fixes and tweaks based on feedback. There's no reason to replay, but for anyone who has been waiting, needs to retry the final challenge, or is working on guides... go wild. I will fix anything necessary, but hope this is close to the public version being released on Friday.

Link: https://mega.nz/file/v5ljxCyL#yqaqsU28TgxyrmhuYfU3pIKQAw4-WrzuC1XUlqULMhc 

ORIGINAL POST

It's rare that I need to take an extra week in the Patreon beta stage, but I decided that this should be one of those times. There's a new version of the game out that, though similar in spirit/content, has had a lot of work put into it.

Link: https://mega.nz/file/mp0FnKgT#QNHih9Il0wD6SCZVlWgyFaNOlXvl273TFaUL4xK1Ek8 

RTP: Since the lack of one didn't seem to trip many people up, I might just wait on these until the public versions.

TLS Update

 - Numerous changes to the balance.

 - New optional easier path.

 - Additional flavor content.

 - Bugs and oversights fixed, including a fix to the boulder puzzle that should allow all solutions.

 - 5 new illustrated scenes: Elleani Library, Gathering Orgy, Orc Council Orgy, Carina + Hilstara, Yarra + Varia

Mostly, this version is a myriad of tweaks. For those who have never played, this is a good time to give it a try! For those who have, there's new commentary from Simon as well as a brand new path meant to make this section easy but not instantaneous.

I do not recommend transitioning saves from the old version, since it might lead to oddities. That's primarily on the gameplay end: anyone who wants to see the new art can do from anywhere.

Anyway, though I intend to continue refining the gameplay as necessary, I did a couple runs of this version and feel it's close to what I intended. Please help me check for odd oversights, and double-check that the new version of the puzzle actually works for all solutions.

The plan is definitely to make this one public in a week.

Comments

WaxerRed

Just jumping into playing the new version! I think I'll give the easy route a try first, and let you know if I find any bugs! Once thing I will say, I think it might not be flagged clearly enough that this route will offer short term power, in exchange for long term rewards down the line. From the looks of it, they've been scattered all over the map and players might check one out, just to see what it is, without realizing what they've just chosen to lock themselves out of. Some more lines like...."Everything in the place feels so hostile, I have to imagine giftwrapped power will come at a later cost. One I shouldn't be willing to accept unless this place proves far to dangerous." In a STRANGER vein, I don't know if you already have some Lore planned for why these super holy items are around, but perhaps instead of the crystals it can be an entity like the Dream angel we find that offers the power to SImon. BUT the Dream angel would offer Simon the items ONLY if he bows his head and begs for them humbly. Publicly repenting for being an Incubus King. A scenario like that would give players a real Pride reason not to accept the free power, at least not until they feel like they really really need it. Plus it would explain why they are not allowed the IK sword, as only a true IK deserves it, not someone who is willing to beg for scraps.

genericname12345

Oooh, time to replay from the start of the IK War since I tend to play this in spurts of content. I'm still sad that we can't save Mestan, though - AVENGE THE LOST PRINCE. My sadness may change contingent on any revelations regarding Lilith however.

WaxerRed

Did a quick playthrough on the full easy branch, and it was as it said on the tin "Easy" So no problems there :) ! A lot of the background changes and improvements you've made were all solid, and helped flesh out the prison space more. A change from the traditional potions, to these new herbs added just another layer of "out of our element" Shame Yarra isn't there to ask Simon to feed his FAT ROOT down her throat. Simon's comments are welcome, and helpful without spoiling the secret to each boss. I loved that he made one deduction based on bear poop. Glad Simon the continent ruler hasn't forgotten the little skills he picked up along the way! No big bugs to be found. I thought the boulder puzzle was broken, but looking deeping it appears it's pre-solved on the shortcuts route. One mana potion was left over in the demon world. Location 023, 064.

Innocuous

Initial Thoughts on the New Version EASY PATH Taking the Sword and doing nothing else is enough to kill the Dream King and get to the second area. I had a few attempts at killing the Dream Spirit without doing anything else, and I think with the right combination of RNG it might be possible, but getting the Ring of Unending Stamina and the Flashfire Armor is enough to consistently kill the spirit. Nyst is still an issue. First I could not run away (not sure if that's intentional) and second I could not find an easy way to kill him without going back and fighting/doing some of the other content for levels and items. I could kill Nyst with a full set of the easy mode items, and could just barely manage with everything but the shield (although it's tedious) but in both cases you need Qum's healing ability or you would get wrecked. Nyst requiring more work to be able to defeat has this compounding problem. If the easy items are there to help people who don't like the content skip it, it would still require them to engage with the content to get past the final barrier (Nyst). And if you use the easy mode items to skip segments, you are likely to miss things like Robin's fire spell and Yarra's sex spell which you would then almost need to get past the demons to get the easy mode shield to beat Nyst. The item in the demon's area and the item in the bear caves are odd choices because both of those maps are long single tile hallways where you can't maneuver around enemies, and the demons are grindy to fight without the right ability and the snakes and bears can absolutely kill a player even if they have the easy mode sword but little else. I think buffing the bands or pure strength to make the Nyst fight inconsequential or moving the armor and shield to more accessible areas that won't require fighting might help (I think the helm in the dark cave and the ring in the unperson area are better locations for these kinds of items). Lastly I noticed that the block towards the Ribbon de Iris was conspicuously missing in the puzzle area, but only if I accepted the 'easy' path. Not sure if that is intentional or not. If people are looking to skip the content then it lets them skip the puzzle, but none of the items you get probably matter to them at all anyway (easy mode items are much better). ADDED STUFF While it's still possible to run away from all the enemies, it is possible to get stuck in a corner with an enemy and have no functional way to get out without winning the fight. The enemies in the area between the second and third area are a good example of this because they are aggressive in their movement. NEW BALANCE I really enjoy the added Simon commentary, I think it adds a lot to the experience of the section. Blinds seems much more consistent now, you get the occasional attack through a blind but nowhere near as many as before. The added money also let me buy both Neranda's Wall and the Golden Armor, which is much appreciated. I think the Soulbound Lamia fight feels much better in this version than it did in the previous one, as the weakening stab is now very consistent. The Nyst fight is better for the same reason, feels very good now. However, I am having trouble with the Heart of Lust fight. It feels like I need the Pink Stone to ward off sexbind and random other items for other immunities, because the Amulet of Chaos doesn't protect against sexbind. If I don't do that I get status'd out of the fight, but the boss does so much damage that healing only just keeps up with it. Not sure if I'm missing something (I beat it in 58.0 but the same strategy does not seem to work any more). It does feel like the amulet of chaos should protect against sexbind, because otherwise I'm not sure where it should really be used. Thanks again for the update, really appreciate it.

Edward Culham

Okay, played the easy path first time and does feel strange that it is in the form of crystals helping you out. Something like a "gift from goddess" does make more sense from a lore standpoint and could even have it where the gift has negative consequences for taking it down the line. That being said, for those that wouldn't want the challenge. It is possible to easiely beat the enemies with it so that don't have to keep raising back. Especially at times when go to that mineshaft in the beginning. Will attempt the hard path later though everything does look good.

genericname12345

Played through and stopped for the day at the Demon Dungeon, because it's one thing to die while in it. It's another degree of absolute idiocy to find and unlock the exit, double back to grab the last Gem to unlock the last flame, then to die without saving. But god damn do I love this section. It's hard as balls and you're scraping for every inch of advantage, Simon's monologues are great, and reminds me of some of the older Ys games and some ARPG's I play where it's just you, against the world. EDIT: Also. The beginning: Aaaah, Mestan! Ten seconds later: NOOO I CAN'T LOSE YOU AGAIN!

ADragonDreaming

I've started playing through again, though in my case I am going through it *very* slowly, as I've starting work on a walkthrough for the area. I've gotten through to the end of the First Circle, with a good first draft of the walkthrough completed (never fear, I'll update with anything that changes in 58.2). Initial impressions: The ability to Escape every fight resolves about 90% of the problem with the Hard Mode route: you can run in, see what the dilly is, and run away without having to facecheck into a gameover. In my opinion, it is now *entirely* on the player if they hit a game over, even in the endurance sections, so I approve. It does mean it's simpler to hit the Mine early and grab the Carapace Armor before the Prophylactic mushroom, but I did that in 58.0 as well and was just very cautious about not running into the map sprites, so I don't think that's much of a concern. The Heal Circle in the Mine is a welcome addition - it makes it feasible to clear the Mine of all enemies without having to leave and come back (though only after getting Healing Surge, which is fine).

Jeffrey Lebowski

Yayyy the .1 release is here! First, a typo report: Simon uses the phrase "I'm not an (sic) champion anymore" when getting the retreat skill. Just played through the update again on both the easy and hard paths. I agree with above comments regarding the easy path: It is not made clear in dialogue that taking the easy path will result in any negative consequences. Also purely for lore, there is no real explanation for why the easy path items are there in a purely hostile environment (unless we are supposed to assume it is a raccoon trap meant to entice Simon to take a poisoned gift, but since he can use them to escape that still doesn't make much sense at this point). Personally, I think it would be best if either the easy path items were obviously a trap, or if they were items that really should not be in this dungeon at all, thus making their inclusion an oversight on the part of the prison-maker. Weirdly enough, Ouroborous comes to mind with that angle, with items like the Interstitial Blade, and other items that specifically took advantage of the fact that the environment was an imperfectly constructed magical prison. Easy path items work well in my opinion, they make the section much easier. However, I could see how they could also make the section more tedious since you still need to dungeon crawl through easily defeated enemies without any tension. Additionally, the easy path renders one of my favorite lines of the update nonsensical: "Nothing here is a gift, what I find is what I can scrounge from this oppressive environment" or something to that effect. He then literally goes on to call the Holy Items gifts in the grey crystal in the flickering path if you don't take any of them. A lot of QoL improvements were made here, and while I think nearly all of them were necessary, one did make my experience slightly less fun. My early-dungeon strategy in the .0 release was to run around the dungeons grabbing equipment while engaging no enemies whatsoever until I was well equipped. I had some fun having to dance around enemies and it kept the tension high in those early dungeons. Being able to run away from every enemy did away with that tension and my little enemy dodging minigame I made for myself, but I'm pretty sure other sane players wouldn't enjoy that anyway so I think this is still the best solution. Also a couple balance considerations. In both the .0 and .1 updates, I found the Amulet of Chaos to be useless. Undeniably powerful, but by the time I get it, any enemy I need status protection from also casts sexbind, and the only item that protects from sexbind uses the same equipment slot. So I have never used it. Also, I think the Heart of Lust is now impossible to beat. I spent *a lot* of time experimenting trying to figure out a viable strategy (over an hour on that alone I think) and it just wasn't working. It seems likely that the winning strategy involves having immunity to all status effects, and there is only one equipment combination that accomplishes this: Poison Spear, Flashy Shield, Beloved Helm, Flashfire Armor, and Pink Stone. However, this loadout doesn't provide enough protection to survive for long after the first Ethereal Hand (not that swapping out for more powerful armors helped much against that). The strategy that had me survive the longest had me using Superguard against Ethereal Hand and healing every other turn. But that left no room for dealing damage and my healing restored less health than I was damaged for between heals, meaning that I was slowly dying anyway. Unless I'm missing a very specific viable strategy, that one needs to be reworked again. Ok now finally on to the stuff I enjoy talking about: the stuff I love! To start off, I am absolutely enamored with your decision to replace all the potions with edible plants, it really sets the resource-scarce atmosphere up. Also loved having the proto-unsuccubi be the merchants for the true items, it made it both clear and more poignant. They are always watching out for him, even when they aren't real. I loved all the new ambient dialogue, and the one about how filthy Simon is but the water being illusory really brought his misery home. I also liked how he went in cycles of self-pity to grim determination and thinking about how others could be faring worse, back to deep misery. Oh also the Volcano and Spire rebalance seemed to work because those enemies could both deal damage and take hits when I went through them. And blind seemed to work this time around so I'm glad that really weird bug was fixable. I was wondering if you were going to add a memory for Ginasta and whether it would mess with the balance, but I was beginning to think you didn't add it as I got further. I think the way you handled it was really good! Putting it in the Final Lock, which is a path to true power for Simon, assuming having all the Incubus Gear will have a significant impact on events at some point, seemed very thematically appropriate. However, I didn't really get the dialogue itself there. Simon says that this place is trying to kill him (so he is fighting for his life) and that by "overcoming this challenge" he could be following the patterns that Ginasta feared. Ginasta never really seemed to have a problem with self-preservation or overcoming adversity, just with the taking and using of power, especially power related to Incubus Kings. Maybe instead of saying "By overcoming this challenge, I could be following the patterns Ginasta feared," it can say something like "By walking this path to power, which seems so tied to my nature as an Incubus King, I could be following the patterns Ginasta feared." Or something like that. Those are just my thoughts on the matter anyway. I did think it was perfect that he gained nothing but some frustration at her memory, though. I really enjoyed how you decided to write Simon's intuition, like examining the bear scat and noticing the monster spoor. Going back to his wilderness survival skills. It felt much more natural than just an "aha, this is how I believe I can defeat this type of enemy!" Also yay for the second Esthera mention! All in all, a lot of good improvements, but some further tweaking is needed, especially on the new elements, in my opinon.

Last Username

I'm loving the content! I'm wondering- have you considered creating a discord for your fans/patrons?

ADragonDreaming

Working on Second Circle now and getting a run where Fuzkao exists to test that, and I've found some buggy-style things. First, the Fragment of Rest lets you walk around the exit tiles in the east and west exits. The bottom tile of those two-wide paths don't trigger transitions: https://imgur.com/tJz3wUi The blue box highlights a map appearance issue (hard line cut of trees) rather than a bug. Second thing I found might *not* be a bug? In the Flickering Path, the Penitent Idols are only attacking; they never use their Sexy Aura. Game data indicates that the ability hasn't been removed from them, so the behavior is a little odd. *However* a Lust Stun is something that could lead to a reload to retry the Flickering Path anyway, so from the standpoint of removing RNG pains I personally am fine with Sexy Aura not triggering - I'm just not sure if it's intended behavior.

sierralee

Note to anyone reading: I don't feel like I've made a ton of changes, but I get that people might want the fixed Amulet of Chaos. If you want me to make a new version for further testing, tomorrow or even earlier, let me know. I'm on top of all reports, it's just a question of timing.

Edward Culham

Report that seems to be missed on a bug. In Fazkao Camp, it is possible to walk around the hedge by entering At the beginning. That being said, I have confirmed that the ending sx does end at 2293 for all that can be picked up. If wanting a margin of a couple hundred would need to add a bit more. EDIT: Hard mode is quite more completable than 58.0 though now have been attempting to go get the IK sword and have not beaten the 4th boss.

WaxerRed

Notes as I play through hard mode! Since Carapace armor became a lot easier to get now that the mobs in the mine section can be escaped from, perhaps a re-balance of putting one of the roaming enemies in a fixed position in front of it? That way players can't rush it first thing. Sorry if it's a nitpick, but I still think Dari's potion could use a bit more description to how important it is. Players need not only not use it right away, but also remember it 2 hours later for the final lock fight. The Wendis scroll is obviously important based because of the extra dialogue it gets from Wendis before hand. Maybe when Simon picks up the Dari potion, "This radiates magical power. I'm sure it could cure the common poisons I've encountered, but that'd frankly feel like wasting this potential. I may want to hold onto this until I encounter something truly debilitating." Flavor idea: Having the Holy items fix equip in Simon's hand once he has them. Players won't have a need to change them out, but it'd make them feel bad that they can't use the items sent over by the lovers. And further make it feel like they might have just handcuffed themselves to something they don't fully understand. That's all! Thanks for keeping on top of reports big and small, your continued interaction with the community is always appreciated!

ADragonDreaming

I have *finally* finished the Second Circle. Playthroughs take incredibly longer when you're documenting every little thing for a walkthrough. Inbound thoughts and commentary: The Second Circle feels like less of a wall this time around, though I am also not playing this blind. Again, the ability to Escape from fights gives players the ability to test things out and find out what works without facechecking into a game-over. The Twisty Tunnels force you into combat via single-tile corridor, which is good! Players shouldn't be trying to sneak past everything anyway; and if they do manage to get themselves sandwiched between two map sprites, the new Retreat skill (ah, Greencloak Simon, thou art so nostalgic) means they aren't forced into a reload. I expect that players will get the point to come back once they have a way to deal with the bears and the snakes. The Unpeople in the Dry Hollow still stress me out. On the first visit there to get the Icy Book you're very focused not getting caught by them after knowing what they can do, and their dialed up movement speed is distressing, even though I know I can escape, so in my estimation there's no real tension loss here. On the subject of Fuzkao: Him being alive or dead really changes the face of the Second Circle. Him being alive means a much longer path for players to take, since they won't get an upgrade to the Carapace Armor until they get the Ashen Spear and can stack enough DEF to survive the two Mana Shards that guard the Winter Cloak in the Dreamlike Spire. If they skip the Pickaxe Charm and didn't kill Fuzkao before the Prison, they're in for a rough time. From my own playthrough and impressions, 5000 EXP is a poor substitute for the Flashfire Armor; I'd almost prefer no EXP and that he drop said armor when he dies. Fuzkao also gates Poison Dart, which makes dealing with the Ogre and the bears a lot harder; however, Fuzkao becomes doable somewhere around level 10 or 11, and after acquiring the Spire items, the Ashen Spear, and importantly the Scroll of Sarai. Meaning a player can go take him down, get Poison Dart, and make their lives easier with the Ogre, so that's good! In a blind playthrough, though, players may be overly cautious with Fuzkao and not realize the utility of Poison Dart, since they don't know that it's there. Players who never picked up Altina are out of luck, of course; however, the Ogre just becomes *tedious* as opposed to frustrating, since Blind just Works. Of course, all of this is the penalty for ignoring Fuzkao in the last section, so maybe it's appropriate! Additionally, the Ogre's item isn't critical to completing the section. On the subject of Tynaburg: I *love* the inclusion of the unsuccubus to sell Neranda's Wall. It's an excellent way of making that one stand out as important, and Simon's little spot of hope was excellent. Also, I now have a greater appreciation of the inclusion of the Tower Shield to fill the role of Neranda's Wall, since there's players that might not have that item available. If nothing else, it makes getting the Scroll of Sarai from the spike tent possible, in conjunction with the Mana Chalice (buffing that from +75 MP to +100 MP is also appreciated!); though getting back out did require the use of a Mana Leaves. Using one there feels appropriate; it's a conscious choice to enable getting a significant advantage as early as possible. I would potentially suggest making the Spike Tent slightly more noticeable, however. I know of at least one player who skipped right over it because of the other buildings all being empty voids. Then tent is, of course, the only tent in the city, but that on its own may not be quite enough (we've seen tents in cities in Stineford and Zirantia, after all). It doesn't have to be hug - a subtle extra to catch the eye could help. Maybe a little animated pennant...? Overall conclusion: I like this version of the Second circle better. In the course of writing the walkthrough, I've also tested the weakest position for a player to be entering the run from (Mestan died early:no Black Gloves, Fuzkao not killed: no Flashfire Armor, Eustrin not finalized: no Neranda's Wall, Altina not rescued: no Poison Dart) by simply not using those items/abilities, and I can confirm that the content can be conquered without those items. It just takes a little more of a circuitous route. Third Circle whenever I find the time, and after I get sleep.

Desertopa

More of a lore question than a practical one, but I was just wondering, did Simon absorb Nyst's shard after defeating him? I can see where doing so might be more of a liability in the prison than an asset, but if not I'm wondering what actually happens to it.

Trevor

Been playing 58.1 to compare to 58.0. I haven't been accepting any help and have been trying hardmode. Many of the bugs and balance issues I noticed have been smoothed out. Experimentation is much easier which makes finding solutions to encounters much less tedious. Simon's 'talking to myself' routine makes sense and is helpful in guiding players. I do think something could be added to each of the 'Easy Mode Crystals' to let players know that they're foregoing greater rewards if they accept. Something like "Simon - Another one. . . do I really want to accept this. . ." or something. Just to avoid players accidentally accepting via not connecting the crystals they find later to the one with the warning at the start. I wasn't able to beat the whole section in a single sitting, had to break once I started trying the 'Black Castle' that holds the stronger bosses. I could tackle them in 58.0 but my strategies no longer worked in 58.1. -The first boss wasn't being completely affected by weakening strike, only an agi debuff was being applied. Had to alternate healing and attacking to power through, feel like I brute forced it rather than 'solving' it like in 58.0. -Third boss was a wall for me. Again, weakening strike didn't effect it and I couldn't find a solution to last long enough against it. I might see if I can power through with potions but it doesn't feel like a 'solution'. More experimentation is needed. All in all I enjoyed this update quite a bit.

Sesquame

-The first boss wasn't being completely affected by weakening strike, only an agi debuff was being applied. Had to alternate healing and attacking to power through, feel like I brute forced it rather than 'solving' it like in 58.0. I'm pretty sure that alternating healing and attacking IS the intended solution. It alternates between an HP to 1 attack and a normal attack that's just a bit weaker than an endgame Simon's healing spell. Using Weakening Strike in the previous build was the "brute forcing it rather than solving it" route, which is why it got removed.

Sion

Hello, happy to be here again. A lot of what I liked in this original update is still present so my list of positives will look smaller than how I feel. Positives: -The added flavor text was great to see, feels much more like a constant, grinding experience for Simon -I think difficulty seemed more balanced overall given the added tools to escape fights and Simon’s Retreat ability. Although not being a blind tester anymore I can’t say how long it would have taken to fully adapt to each fight (since I already know most of them) -Merchants seemed good but I found that if I purchased anything at all during the playthrough I couldn’t get the Neranda shield + Megail armor. I saw in another reply you mentioned wanting there to be a few hundred Sx of leeway and I think that would be nice. It would be a shame if I can’t even check out the “unique” potions because I don’t wanna waste money -I forgot to thoroughly test the Lady Luck fight but it did feel like there was more umph this time -The save point before the third boulder puzzle was a great QoL addition Negatives: -The explanation for the crystal to access the shortcut felt confusing. I’m guessing that’s intended, and I think my insider knowledge that this was being added probably made it harder for me to buy into the concept, but nonetheless I wasn’t sure what to take away. This isn’t a coherent criticism because I’m unsure how to word my experience -The Heart of Lust fight has some problems. I saw you say you never intended for Trin’s amulet to not protect against sexbind, and it’s worth noting that in my playthrough of 0.58.0 it did not protect against it then either, I always just thought that was intentional. Furthermore, I think the reason many are struggling with this fight is that Weakening Strike no longer seems to debuff the boss anymore. My strategy in my first playthrough was to combine weaken and carina’s defense to lower the damage enough to handle it from there, but that’s no longer an option. I’ve been trying some other strategies, like using Hilstara’s guard against the stronger attack, but nothing has worked for me so far. -This may be purely my experience, but the fight against Fuzkao felt more deadly than the fight against Nyst, despite Nyst always feeling like a much bigger threat. I recognize that it’s a result of having less gear/stats against Fuzkao. I think for me there was no “oh shit” moment during the Nyst fight, whereas Fuzkao kinda nuked me when I first tried to face him. Again I think this may be a me thing so take it with a grain of salt. I’m planning on doing another playthrough on the easy route but I wanted to give my thoughts sooner than later. I also did not experience any bugs but I’ll look a little more diligently on this next one.

Rachnera

Okay, update (re)done. The whole adventure feels smoother, with the overall difficulty fairer even in hard mode and the final gauntlet more puzzle-like due to Aka's move not being the solution to everything. Good job. Likely already reported bug that I badly take note of: You might be able to circumvent the monster defending Dari's potion (the tile below it can be pass through). As for nitpicks: Maybe a better/repeated warning that _all_ shiny crystals permanently activate easy mode? Riala's CG pops up when receiving her boon, something that does not happen for any other boon. Because the appropriate CGs have yet to be drawn? I'm not sure what the hint about the plant being vulnerable to silence is for, since by the time the player will have access to the silence spell, Simon will likely be strong enough to punch the plants to death. Foreshadowing for the elemental dungeon? Also, it triggers on a specific plant, that might not be the first the player will fight. Not a big fan of the spiky tent. Lot of repetitive red flashes and menuing, it gets old quickly. You're unlikely to remap it as this point, but were you to reuse the idea, maybe more damaging, less numerous spikes? The Fire Shield is likely designed for the fire dungeon (it does not protect against fire, but it does increase DEF), and maybe for Fuzako's fight (?). However, I feel like having it guarded by a dangerous enemy like an unpeople, even a mook one, will encourage people to only try to get it quite late, at a point where they will already have use shields of a similar power level (like the Tower one if they cannot pay for Neranda's) to deal with these issues. I'm still not sure what the strategy against the fourth enemy of the gauntlet is supposed to be except for Trin + Carina + a couple of life potions (two big ones are generally enough) + Ginasta's completely imba please nerf boon. Also, using that strategy, it seems to forget to use its hollow move half the time.

Fulminato

I played both the 'normal' and the 'easy' mode. The improvement from the *. 0 are massive and all in the right direction, the experience is now massively better, most of my feedback will be only a repetition of thing said by other, so I will skip it, sadly I cannot be considered a blind player anymore, so that part is impossible for me to test. I only have just one (very minor) thing to report, I found the ogre to have a too high resistance to poison (status), I fight him 5 times, poison never land before the third try and once only at the 7th, a normal player will assume it's doesn't work at the second/third try. But barring this trivial thing the update now is very enjoyable to play.

logan80

Did Qum somehow reach Simon? She is the only harem member with some dialogue (I don't count Wendis because it was more like a recorded message) - if it's not some spoiler, of course

DukeLeto7

Very minor 0.58.1 bug report from me for once.. In Tynaburg, the unsuccubus selling Neranda's Wall is buggy. For whatever reason, the conditional evaluating whether or nor Neranda's Wall is in your inventory didn't fire for me. This means that you don't see the monologue and picture of Neranda, the self switch isn't set, and you can in theory buy it again. I initially assumed that it was because the two shop processing items with different prices also led to two different versions of the Neranda's Wall item, a la the various clothes of Iris, but it appears 580 is the ONLY Neranda's Wall, so I dunno what's going on there. I'd try having the unsuccubus event trigger a switch that causes another map event to be triggered that checks the inventory, gives the acquisition text if applicable and sets a self switch onto itself so it won't fire again, and then sets another switch that makes the unsuccubus vanish. ALTERNATELY, if you are that desperate to conserve switches, you could try setting a temp variable equal to the player's gold at the start of the conversation, than see if it player's gold is less than that number after the shop processing events. If neither of them work... dunno. You might consider giving up the idea of a price differential... no wait, I'm an idiot, just make two versions of the unsuccubus with two price levels for the item and put one on the 2nd code page behind the Eustrin Final switch.

Grim8P

Alright, I finally did it. Feedback: - I took notes on my playthrough again. ADragonDreaming is working on an actual wiki walkthrough which I know they mentioned to you. I took point form notes on how to complete 0.58.1. You're welcome to check it out if skimming it would be beneficial but it is obviously long even in point form. Post 35 here: https://thelastsovereign.flarum.cloud/d/78-the-incubus-prison-0580/35. - I managed to not spend any Sx outside of the Final Lock which I'm going to test to see if I can actually win against the Heart of Lust. I used the Golden Armor for that fight only. I managed to not use any consumables outside of the Final Lock which I think is impossible without. I also didn't use any items or abilities some players might not have due to choices made: Poison Dart (no Altina), Flashfire Armor (didn't kill Fuzkao, my understanding is that he doesn't drop it if you have to fight him), and the Amulet of Chaos (if Trin dies). Even still I was able to do everything although things were quite hard at times. - The two 2x Thug 1x Cockatrice fights in the first area's Dreamlike Mine (?) are still the last two fights I did on the hardmode. I need the extra level from fighting the Dream King to beat them. Not sure if I'm just missing something although I did try a few different strategies. - The 2x Bear fight was much more manageable with the change to Blind even without Poison Dart. - The Ogre battle was awful without Poison Dart but I managed to do it before leaving the second area. - The Heart of Lust seems significantly harder. I ended up using the Scroll of Wendis in this fight instead which might have hurt my next fight. - The Forgotten Shard felt like an awful slog of a fight where I wasn't doing a lot of damage and it had a ton of health. The first part of this fight was definitely a fight to stay alive. This is potentially negated by using some items I was intentionally not using. I did do it first try though. - The Pseudodemonia section feels a lot better. As long as you realize the enemies target MDF, I think it'd be easy to go through the entire area on your first run. You could probably have the wrong equipment and still do it with the healing points you added. - I feel like a lot of the tweaks you made must be working out. I didn't do nearly as much jumping around as I did on my first attempt. I went to an area I could handle and usually completed it or enough of it to make a meaningful difference. - I really liked the added Simon dialogue. I'm not sure how much save point dialogue you added but I was still seeing it into the third area which is awesome. - While I really like the item descriptions throughout TLS and in this update, I had a thought while discussing how depressing/alone Simon feels throughout it. It is basically conveyed in multiple ways throughout the entire update. I wonder if having more mundane or even depressing item descriptions would add to this. I don't think it'd be out of the realm of possibility for someone to read a few of these and think "man even the item descriptions are depressing". Not to say it is required since this is sold so well throughout the rest. Just a thought I had. - I liked Ginasta's addition to the Final Lock. I thought you might have taken someone's suggestion to give a mana potion so you even got to troll me a bit. - I didn't use the following items: Prophylactic Mushroom, Tower Shield, Neranda's Wall, Edible Root, Nullshroom - I also didn't use the following items but they would have been useful: Flashfire Armor, Black Gloves, Amulet of Chaos - Final save count: ~173 - In game playtime: ~3h:15. Shouldn't include note taking since TLS pauses when you click off RPGM. That's it!

Lamsey

I'm kinda late to the party here, so I don't have much to add that hasn't already been covered by others. You can definitely count me in the "I like the setting but the gameplay isn't fun" camp for the .0 version, and in the "holy shit, this is much better on both fronts" camp for the .1 version. I haven't tried easy mode yet, but I've beaten everything in hard mode except the final boss for the IK sword (will retry when things like Trin's amulet have been fixed). The main music track for this section (Manipulation.ogg) seems a little on the quiet side to me, but I haven't seen anyone else mention it. If desired, I could look into making it a bit louder. Typos etc: quandries -> quandaries: https://www.dropbox.com/s/17cmxfp5v49vm2g/Screenshot%202021-10-02%2012.55.01.png?dl=0 experienced ghostly sensations brush -> experienced ghostly sensations brushing: https://www.dropbox.com/s/es67yh4btm5tfa3/Screenshot%202021-10-02%2017.00.21.png?dl=0 "If I had my mages" seems very impersonal and possessive. Maybe something like "If my mage allies were here" or similar would be better. https://www.dropbox.com/s/20uf133uzdolmyy/Screenshot%202021-10-03%2018.08.36.png?dl=0 completing -> completely: https://www.dropbox.com/s/bagwz7xx6hy0co9/Screenshot%202021-10-03%2019.19.49.png?dl=0 The Heart Of Lust appears to be able to inflict Blind twice somehow, which is weird. Not sure if related to me using the Wendis scroll (I didn't realise that the Hollowness status was a one-time thing to be cured by Dari's potion). https://www.dropbox.com/s/d6kkl0cq3n0csaz/Screenshot%202021-10-04%2018.42.04.png?dl=0 Is this intended to be "Flamelin" and not "Flameling"? https://www.dropbox.com/s/9c1u0h4owf655aq/Screenshot%202021-09-29%2019.19.57.png?dl=0

ADragonDreaming

I stalled out on the Third Circle due to it not being the weekend (8 hour shift eats time and energy), and due to struggling to document Pseudodemonia. Since 58.2 just dropped, I switched tactics - I've aimed at just playing the content for now so I can give feedback over writing the walkthrough. -Impressions of Third Circle: Overall, a thorough player coming into it after fully clearing that which is possible to clear from the Second Circle will not have any issues. The extra Sx strikes *just* the right balance on Hard mode, bringing the total to 2393 *if Fuzkao is dead.* So in optimal conditions, if Eustrin Final is on, you can afford both the Wall and the Golden Armor, and get exactly one extra item (Dream Potion or Stamina Charm are the likely picks), but if Eustrin Final isn't on, you still can't get both. -Demon Dungeon The ability to Escape and the healing circles in Pseudodemonia will give players who take it on early the opportunity to figure out what's going on without face-checking into a fight they can't handle and having to walk through the whole thing all over again. I can confirm that with a properly magical build you can easily go through it without actually needing to heal, while killing everything; this becomes easier if you do it after getting the heretic's robes, of course. Overall, I think the super frustrating aspects of it are alleviated without removing endurance run aspects of it. The earlier a player does it, of course, the more difficult it will be, which makes sense. (Not relevant to gameplay feedback, this place is a headache to keep straight for walkthrough documentation purposes). A minor note for verisimilitude: Simons' retreat is not disabled in the Demonic Entrance, which makes sense ... except when he's teleported behind the barrier, and has not yet flipped the switch. It's a very minor value add, but if you were able to trigger disabling it conditionally based on Simon having walked through the teleporter the first time, but not having flipped the switch to lower the walls at least once, it could bring a smile to the faces of players who like to try sneaky things to see if the Dev Team Thought of Everything. This *is* incredibly minor, though. -Lady Luck: Simon's comment on Lady Luck should, in combination with the name of her attack and her name, give enough of a clue to what to do for those who aren't quick on the uptake. I can say that I had no trouble figuring out the trick in 58.0 on my blind run. Her new combat sequence also incentivizes the use of Defending Wall: if you stack to at least 180 LUK (doable immediately on access to Third Circle if you've done everything in Second Circle, even without the Black Gloves or Neranda's Wall) then Defending Wall will fully block the damage from Test Your Luck; nice to see Hilstara coming in the clincher. At the higher end I was able to get over 260 LUK by stacking Wall, Gloves, Knight Helm, and Winter Cloak. Test your Luck was doing around 900 damage with the 180 build and 450 with the 260 build. With Unlucky Break debuffing ATK and MAG, I didn't have any success brute-forcing my way through without the use of Defensive Wall. In my opinion, this combat now works as good puzzle boss, and again, makes Defensive Wall no longer a one-and-done ability, which I think makes for a better experience. If there's anything negative to say, Simon's hint is a little flat in character, but that's a minor quibble. -Numbermaster: Simon's hint is a big help, but the strategy here is still a little obscure. The wording of the hint successfully points players to staff offense and health and ignore defenses, but the *silence* tactic could easily be missed out on. On 58.0 I just waited until I could brute-force him; I did think to *try* Silent Shard at the very end, but by that point Silent Shard was the killing blow. Since I'm not playing this blind, I can't accurately speak to how much of a clue this will be, and there are some concerns I have with how the feedback works out regarding Silence in the battle itself. Problematically, the first turn you apply silence to him, he is still going to use the [500] cast, because the triggering of the attack is based on his condition at the start of the turn, whether he moves first or not. This could lead to some confusion in terms of connection [250] with the silence state. It is conceivable that someone will try it, get hit by [500], or try it on [1000] turn that kills them off, and then assume it does nothing (especially since Silence usually just shuts down casting entirely, which it isn't doing here). Additionally, if you ever let silence expire, he's going to get at least one [500] off on you, unless it expires on a turn he'd use [1000] anyway. A second, different hint on a second escape could help alleviate this possibility, perhaps, though I'm blanking on sufficiently coy wording. In terms of the fight itself, I can confirm that if you know the trick, you can also take this on immediately on access to the Third Circle, even if the player has not bought either the Wall or the Golden Armor, though I did go grab the Ribbon de Iris first. -Outskirts: You trolling us with the line of eight mosquitoes that guard the Shockwave strike is still amusingly cruel. Don't change this - shockwave strike might well be someone's last acquisition, but my reaction was an "oh goddammit" with a smile the first time around, which I think is intended. The Ravenous Mosquito now works much more predictably - though I do think you're still going to see players potentially not realizing that stun is the key by dint of not trying it. I can't say for certain since I certainly decided to give that a shot on 58.0 myself, before it was made more reliable. With the right physical build (Big Axe) it's simple enough to kill the mozzie with two Stunning Strikes, provided the Stun goes off. If the player catches onto the DEF / MDF balance the Mozzies want, then this whole area can be done immediately after Castle Vera, and I've figured out two eminently feasible strategies for dealing with the Mimic that early (MDF stack so the Mana Mozzies can't do anything, or ATK stack so you can kill them off in one shot with Shockwave Strike). Not being able to escape from the Mimic is very fitting for what monster is, and if a player is being overly incautious and not realizing that a chest with no boss (the mozzies are not exactly a huge threat) should not be trusted has likely earned their Game Over on that one (though I was able to neutral attack my way through the Mimic despite the surprise on one test). Side note: I do see that the Mana mozzies change behavior if you Blind them, but I've never had any reason to take advantage of that. Also, thank you for moving the Key. -Gentle Path: Speaking of not being able to Escape, the Gentle Path enemies being inescapable is rather a rude discovery. If a player is paying attention and realizes that the Flickering Path enemies are more dangerous versions of what they faced in the First Circle, they may be wise enough to put on the Feather, but if they aren't the Penitent Snake could very easily lead to a game over. I also found myself beating my head against the Penitent Flamefly x2 and Penitent Shard x2 fight for a while before figuring out some workable builds to kill it off, both with and without the Poison Spear. Having the Wall makes it much simpler, but for those who aren't getting the wall and who are using the Flashy Shield instead, it's rather fraught because the four enemies can easily outpace player healing - the Pickaxe Charm is necessary, and either the Ashen Spear or Poison Spear must be used. -Fragile Killer: I've determined that it's possible to take him on as fourth thing you do in the third circle. 1) Mystery house, 2) Castle Vera, buy golden armor and deal with Lady Luck and Numbermaster, 3) go kill Mana Demon (Big Axe, Tower Shield, Knight Helm, Golden Armor, Pickaxe Charm, and you have just enough health and ATK to win with Sexual Strike), the use Sabitha scroll, 4) swap Tower Shield with Offensive Rod, and you have enough ATK for Furious Strike to one-shot Fragile Killer. I've not yet figured out the exact point at which it's possible to do this without the Golden Armor. Nothing to change here, really, just thought you'd like to know where it can fall in the process. -Elemental Vortex: The rock-paper-scissors element of this place still works very well, and the ability to escape from the monsters again allows for figuring this out without face-checking into a game over. The yellow button no longer breaks. I've confirmed that the Pornucopia is eminently doable with the proper anti-status effect build. Shielded Stance in particular makes this fight and the Elite fight completely manageable. Question regarding that fight: does Blind affect the accuracy of magical attacks as well? -Nyst: I had no issues applying debuffs this time around, so this has been fixed in terms of RNG, at least in my opinion. In fact a rotation of Weakening Slash -> Shielded Stance -> Trascendent Strike is probably all that is required to deal with Nyst, though of course throwing in Ice, Sex, or Fire attacks helps. -Final Lock: There is still the difficulty of having to do five fights in a row with no way to save between, but since this is the actual optional part, I'd say it's okay to leave as is. Some people will skip it even if going through on Hard Mode, but it's an especially difficult optional dungeon. I did *not* do what Grim did, and probably won't; there's enough Sx that every player should have either the Wall or the Golden Armor. I will at some point take on the Heart of Lust without the Amulet, to see how that works out, but the feedback here reflects my experience going into everything with builds that are as closed to optimal as possible. +Ancient Guardian works just fine. I can say that I lit upon the intended strategy of Silent Shard -> healing Surge ad nauseum until he dies in the 58.0 run after observing that he swaps between the standard attack and the HP-to-1 attack. I see no issues with players figuring this out. +The Soulbound Lamia may block a few players until they figure out that Healing Surge fires first, even though the Lamia is faster. I know Grim stated he was able to take her with just attacks and no healing, but I did not test that myself as of yet. I can foresee players failing to realize this to the point they give up figuring it out on their own (but that's what wikis are for). +The Primordial Pool works fine - again, I suspect first-time players will game over at him a few times before figuring out the tricks, and I predict that by this point the players will be sorted into the three groups of Give Up, Look It Up, or Fuck You, You Won't Beat Me. Used two Fire Leaves and one Fat Root after this guy. +The Heart of Lust has been an odd experience for me. In 58.0, with the Amulet not protecting against Sexbind, it was made possible only by the buff/debuff strategies, which to be honest felt like a perfectly reasonable *but still challenging* fight. In 58.2, with the fixed Amulet of Chaos and full gear, he was something of a joke. Shielded Stance x2 combined with Scepter/Wall/Beloved Helm/Heretic/Chaos reduced max damage to a little over 700; I remember in 58.0 getting hit for similar damage despite double-debuffs on him and double-stat buffs on me, and also not being able to hit his Weakness because Sexbind was a factor (and I was using the exact same gear). Somehow it felt like he was ramping up as the fight went on, despite the debuffs I had applied to him. Sexual Impact in 58.2 took him down in sub-10 rounds. I don't know all the details of what was changed, but those are my impressions. Used another Fire Leaves to heal up after this fight - I was not hurting for consumables. ==Regarding Hollow Hand: I've noticed at least one comment saying it didn't seem to use Hollow Hand, but I have a suspicion that that's not quite accurate. In my testing, I found that in 3 out of 3 fights, the Heart used Hollow Hand just after I'd done 50% of damage to it. *However* in 2 out of those 3 fights, the Hollowness condition just wasn't applied despite the attack hitting. This seems to be similar to how the Lamia's Profound Silence will sometimes just fail, which might be based on the LUK stat? One of those 2 fights where Hollow Hand hit but Hollowness didn't was the first one, so I did at first assume that he simply hadn't used it, but I did remember seeing the words "hollow hand" come up in the battle. Thus, I think that the other person who reported similar instead experienced what I experienced. +The Forgotten Shard is fairly unchanged, from what I can tell, and is still the same workable fight. Compared to the fights before him, he's not difficult to figure out (though the early advantage that can be gained by Blinding him might be missed). Evidently he's doable without the Scroll of Wendis based on Grim's run, but it certainly helps. I went in with a slightly sub-optimal build: equipped the Scepter instead of the Empress sword, which is a better option because the workhorse attacks you want (Weakening Slash, Transcendent Strike, and Sexual Strike [to conserve mana]) are all ATK based. Transcendent Strike applies debuffs the shard does not mitigate, but I don't think that's a problem. He's enough of a problem for those who are in a suboptimal situation (cracked amulet) already. One thing I noticed: I got a rare Crit with the post-Last Gasp attack. I haven't tested to see if that happens again, but I was wondering if Crit chance on that final attack is perhaps elevated? I wound up using the Givini Potion while fighting the to recover from a "5 mp left" situation, but otherwise didn't need to use any consumables in this fight. Outside of the Final Lock, the only place I used a consumable was in the Tent of Stabbiness to enable getting the Scroll of Sarai as early as possible. Items not used in any fight so far: Nullshrooms, Thick Helm (I went into demon dungeon late, though), Edible Roots, Fire Shield (the Unwoman guarding it makes it unappealing to grab; I will experiment as I work on the walkthrough to see if it helps out in some builds where the Wall is not available), anything the Robed Merchants sell. One last note on Tynaburg: The north city exit from the Mana Demon still only has one confirm prompt, similar to the entrances and exits to and from the Paths. What I've noticed, though, and what I think is responsible for me fucking up the menu prompt back in 58.0 is that the menu options are *swapped* in the city exit. The path triggers have "Advance | Retreat" with the option to move forward on top and pre-selected. Thus, a player gets trained to push Down and then confirm to back out. The city exit, meanwhile, has "Retreat | Proceed" with the option to *not* move forward on top and pre-selected. Muscle memory by now is to push Down and then confirm, which instead makes you exit the city and vanish it into nothingness. Standardizing this with the Path prompts would probably be best - especially since players might not have purchased the Wall yet, but want to. All-in-All, I approve of all the changes made here. I will say again that I *especially* like the expanded Simon dialogues (in particular the "I'm talking to myself" dialogue).

WaxerRed

I played through 58.2 and I can say I have no more complaints or even nitpicks!

Jeffrey Lebowski

Feels very well balanced now, it maintains the challenge and tension while having no parts feeling super frustrating or tedious (though I might be influenced by my knowledge of the section). Holy items now feel appropriately menacing and I aesthetically enjoy the final hit after Last Grasp being a crit, especially in this section. No suggestions for improvement. Though I also encountered the same situation mentioned earlier where Hollow Hand simply does not apply the Hollow status, just FYI.

Andrei Bucur

Hi Devs, I've Enjoyed playing trough this update a second time. Had to backtrack in the Incubus Prison to have access to the Dark Castle. BTW, Looking forward to see what consequences I'd have if choosing to take Holy power and progressing without it. Thank you for fixing the Boulder Puzzle! I'd like to ask: Why at the end of the update when talking to Yarra, Mithin is not listed in the harem? In regards to the next update I'm looking forward to, without really expecting an answer, I'd still like to ask: What will be the consequences of taking and not taking Holy Power?

Andrei Bucur

.....For the current update :-D I noticed that. I should have asked for "future consequences" but no matter. I see that you try not to spoil anything ;-) Thank you.