understood, I didn’t get much in the way of playtime for playtesting. The next update will seek to address the rough start. I already increased how much control and defense guard posts provide (it’s been doubled). Working on fixing the statues requirements and iron cost, restaurants not producing the stats they are supposed to, the mislabeled menu for assigning cooks, restaurants are now required for offering dinner etc.
I’ll think about making an alternate system for the opinion penalties instead of the coups as an option for those that really don’t like the system too.
If anyone just wants to mess around without the difficulty, I noticed I forgot to remove the debug resource code from the release. Just type in “00000001” at the start and you will get infinite resources.
after trying (and failing after discovering that you NEED to build the wall, about 30 months into a game, dont ask how) i do have a couple suggestions to help with the feel of the game… if you want of course, i wont tell an artist how to paint
Of course, go ahead, I’m all ears. I know this came out a bit more rough than I had intended.
Sorry about the wall, I meant to mention something about it in the intro, but it was one of the last things I did and I was running out of time, so I forgot.
am trying to increase my defense(build the wall and build the castle) build some guard posts assigned workers there have over 70 control and have iron at disposal. but it didn’t increase def by +1 when i checked the journal.
love the game though
i’ve got a bit of an encompassing review as a casual horny gamer
Gold gens a bit too slow, which isnt… TOO too bad since dragonlings can shake out some cash and that’s a good interaction, but since the town also gens gold really slow it’s more of a bandage on an amputation
Happiness V Control is a neat dynamic, but currently a difficult one to establish and maintain in a way that isnt frustrating (was struggling even with both abilities that boost happiness and control)
Weight gain is pretty damn quick for how slow-paced the game currently is (for us idiots lmao), a couple buffer stages would rectify this between visual stages
The opinions mechanic is good, that’s a fun take, but maybe just restrict their passive buffs or active abilities if they dont care for you, instead of wrestling control away (though this is a thematic thing for them to do)
Also definitely definitely definitely please add an option to deconstruct and redesignate buildings and zones, would hate to be super deep into a save and realize i made a horrible terrible mistake while being an idiot 100 months ago
the framework? stupendous my boy, this is just what i would change, being someone who enjoys much more lax simulation games
High. Likely will be a side project I go back to when I need a break from Heroes on a Budget. The main thing I would want to work is the court system since that didn’t make it, more events for gifts (another feature that was bugged and will be fixed in the next update. The gold gift actually did nothing, never noticed it because I always had a debug code turned on), balancing the early game since it wasn’t meant to be so brutal, and have more of a focus on individual characters (mostly the main cast, but others as well).
Sounds excellent. Overall, I’d consider this the best project I’ve seen in months, and very much look forward to seeing where you take it.
Edit: I should note I’m rating this based on concept, setting, and writing. I can’t help myself but to hack any RPGM game I see (I loathe no-win scenarios), so can’t really comment on balancing.
There is one more bug I have found when building stuff. In particular, it seems the statue eats up wood, even though it plays no part whatsoever in the creation of that building. I would suggest a careful look through the resources consumed by each building, just to make sure nothing unintended has slipped.
Otherwise, I should mention that I really enjoy the game. I have struggled by trying to play with Malin, but I found that playing with the blonde & red dragoness (I forgot her name just now) much more enjoyable. Perhaps a bit of tweaking with regards to their passive bonuses might be in order, to help stabilise your game plan. Either that, or I should just plan for an inevitable betrayal.
Just fatten up your two second in command girls, making sure they are always one or two weight levels higher than yours and you should have no problem beating them when the times comes.
Yep, I saw that as I was fixing the gold costs. I have no idea what I was doing when I was making those. I already fixed it. I’ll probably release a patch for the non submission version of the game in a day or so. If you see anything else, please bring it to my attention
This is the main way to hedge your bets against coups if you can’t make them happy. Of course, the drawback to this is a lower defense score for your town when the humans attack.
I’ve found this game highly engrossing, albeit a bit difficult and perhaps overly complicated at times. It’s definitely a very a fun city management sim with one of my favorite ways of approaching weight in a game - having positives and negatives alike to getting fat. Really keeps it as an actual game and not “push button to fat”.
Praise aside, some major bugs I’ve noticed so far:
The desert people gift doesn’t actually happen. They say they’re giving you 25 gold and it never actually appears in your coffers.
The feast with the village doesn’t seem to do everything intended - I never once saw the town weight go up as a result of the feast despite “both parties get +10 weight” am I misinterpreting here or is it a bug?
The restaurant currently works in reverse - you can only send the other dragonesses to a restaurant if one hasn’t been built! I had no issues sending them to eat for dozens of months, then I finally build my restaurant and “She has no restaurant to go to!”.
Some real great stuff here. I’d even go so far as to call it my favorite game of this year’s Gain Jam.
Though one thing I’d definitely recommend adding in a future release is giving the option to turn off the speed penalty the Dragons gain from getting fat enough. It’s novel, sure, but at higher weight levels it just takes forever to move from one room to another, much less going to the other side of the map. At that point, the game just becomes a complete drag to play.
Then a question: There are supposed to be 3 endings, right? Is there a trick to them or something, since I’ve only found 2. The one where the Dragons essentially become blob tourist attractions and the one where the fat Dragons get sealed in the cave.
That’s about the long and short of it. Like I said, two of the endings are very similar. There are two versions of getting sealed in the cave, one if you lose the game from an invasion and another if you reach month 99. The reason why they are so similar, is that all roads lead to them needing to be in that situation for Heroes on a Budget’s future chapter. It’s why the former scenario doesn’t give you most the codes (though it does have a unique code that can’t be unlocked from the “canon” outcomes). The two endings will be more distinct once I get to that chapter of Heroes on a Budget, as the circumstantial differences between how those endings were achieved will be able to be expanded on.
As I work on this game more, the reason I decided to go with a speed penalty will become more apparent. There are a few npcs in the game that show a very basic version what I have in mind so far. If you have a high happiness, high opulence or you activate the temple when it has an exclamantion bubble over it (I’ll get to that), it activates npcs that will try to feed you if they bump into you. The movement speed penalty is there to make that more difficult to avoid (though not impossible, since the AI’s pathing is a little dumb). I might add an option to remove it in areas where it has no gameplay effect though, since yeah it does make it a bit of a slog to get through.
That is for an undercooked feature that I just added to get it in the game (apparently I forgot to actually make it possible to activate). If you have 100 Happiness and 100 control you have a special interaction in the temple. I’ll leave it a secret for now though, I want it to be a special reward for doing very well at the game.
All of the dragons are supposed to be at that feast. The weight gain effect is there, but it’s just a visual bug that the other dragons aren’t present. I already fixed it for the next update
I still haven’t posted the main update yet, Bugfix 1 only fixed an issue where you couldn’t use Malin for any job unless she was morbidly obese or blob (not immobile). It was a last minute patch I could manage only 20 minutes before the jam was over
Also, any thoughts on the spitework for the main cast of dragons? I made them from scratch (after using the basic character gen from MV of course. The immobile ones were also edits from a template in the sprite donation channel)
