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Thursday, August 9, 2012

Big Time Work Done

Stream is up. I want to try to get most, if not all of the transformation changes done today. It'll take some time, and I have other things that I really need to do today, so we'll see how it goes.

Edit: stream is over, but I did get quite a bit done. I forgot how big one of the succubus changes is, so that might get pushed to a later update if it starts taking up too much time. We'll see.

26 comments:

  1. I'm already having a boner

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  2. Not sure if it's been noted before, but the japanese and french maid suits break the description.

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    1. He looked at those during the streams

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  3. Any download links?

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    1. I think his comment about how much work the succubus needs tells us that he does not feel ready to publish his next update yet.

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  4. I'm really looking forward to the catgirl additions. But it kind of sucks that, after 2 weeks of seeing catgirl at 100%, it's probably going to be another 2 weeks before I'll get to see my character inserting nyan after every one of her sentences.

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  5. While it is great to see you updating again and this is very much your game, so you're welcome to take it in whatever direction you want...it kinda feels like you've done nothing but TF work for the last half year or so and have been ignoring the main part of your game and the stuff that made it...interesting for many people, myself included.

    I remember some point, several months ago I believe, when you commented on how interest in the game seemed to be declining and that donations were down. There are probably a lot of complicated reasons for that. Your own activity was down, due to RL stuff and needing a break. You'd just gotten referred to by Fen, probably causing a huge influx of people who binged your game for a while meaning your numbers had to go down a bit when they were done.

    I wonder, though, if that decline might be somewhat attributable to the game expanding in the directions that many of us aren't as fascinated by. Half a year ago (or so), I remember you had new content, new jobs, new encounters, and expanded characters being updated every few days. I--and many like me--would download the new version and spend countless hours making a new character (couldn't transfer characters from previous versions back then) just to see the new content. There was so much new stuff happening. At the rate you were going back then, I thought you would have entire storylines and a cast of supporting characters developed by now, directions we could take our character as they adapt to their brand new identity.

    Now, though, it feels like you're focusing almost exclusively on the TF crowd--which is cool and all, but your project felt like it originally offered something much more deep, interesting, and unique: a text-based roleplaying game about stepping into this character's shoes and living their life. Hell, it felt like (in the very early days at least) the game was as much about rebuilding your life as a woman and seeing where that would take you. The porn-elements were certainly a draw, but it was entirely possible to have a great, fun time developing your character and overcoming obstacles without even focusing all that much on sex/porn. The first mission and early development, such as the fight club, speak to that.

    Then you skewed heavily towards the porn end, working primarily on the hooker-->prostitute job line and the like...which is definitely understandable. If that's where your market is, I can see following it. And it seemed like your personal interest was there too, so why not? It's your game after all. After that, you started courting the furry/TF communities pretty heavily, which was very interesting considering that this side of the the game initially felt like a very small niche.

    While this is certainly your game to develop, I for one found it kind of...saddening that a lot of the initial goals and driving forces behind this project seem to have been cast aside as you've worked pretty exclusively in one direction (porn) and then further for one particular sub-group and their tastes (TF). I--and probably many others like myself--will definitely continue keep an eye on Cursed, ready to jump back in when a future update seems particularly enticing. Also, it is good to see you putting in new stuff again!

    Best o' luck!

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    1. He already said that he'll be focus'ing on storyline stuff next update.

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    2. Which is fine and great. It'll be good to see more storyline. But that doesn't change the fact that out of the last...8 months or so, all of AM's efforts have been focused on TF or porn. And the last 4 months or so have cut out the porn part and gone pretty straight to TF. That's a priority shift, and not an accidental one. And he's welcome to do as he pleases on that front--it is his game. Just reminding that there are some of us who did support the original focus for this game.

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    3. Anon, you said practically everything that was on my mind. I agree with you completely.

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    4. IMHO, it has something to do with the programming character interections (see dates for example) being a big PITA to code. So he has to juggle what to code and avoid falling back to a "ugh, thinking about coding this makes me want to cut my head off".

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    5. Most of what you touched on can be answered with this; RAGS.

      Anonymous man had the misfortune on picking the game engine named RAGS for his first big project, and he is now stuck with it.

      You may think the interface is clunky, and the bugs are annoying. But imagine coding in it. It drains your soul and makes you want to stab your eyes out.

      That's why Anonman is doing so much TF stuff. It's easier and actually makes sense in RAGS.

      In the other hand role-playing with multiple skill/size/trait/location/appearance/time/NPC/save checks and dialogue branches does not, and will not ever be streamlined with RAGS.


      inb4 Anonman thinks I'm insulting him.

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    6. If only he'd started with TADs or something...

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    7. I started playing and following the game for all the positive reasons you mentioned. I even supported the game at it's best. Though after all the TF stuff came up and i'm not into TF (come on so many TF games out there) plus updates got rare I stopped supporting. But i keep an eye on the game and hope for the sake of us all that it will continue. Story, Sidecharacters, Jobs, Events and the freedom to do what you want made me play. Good Job and good luck!

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    8. Transformation was always the primary focus of the game. That being said, it'd be nice to see the plot advanced, but lots of the side stuff (dating, jobs, clothing) seems to have gotten in the way due to paid requests. It seems that now that paid requests have died down, the game is getting back on track. Funny how that works, an unfunded game progresses more than when it's funded...

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    9. It was becoming a woman that was always the primary focus of the game. Equating that to becoming a dragon is completely absurd.

      However, it should be obvious to anon that rebuilding your life as a different sex is going to involve sex. The slutty/pure choices were a major, if not the main, aspect of your character's characterization right at the start. If anything, AM has been neglecting that aspect of the game in favor of feature creep. The assertion that he's been doing nothing, or almost nothing, but porn and TF for the past 6 months isn't true.

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    10. I'm rather fond of the TF stuff personally, as I feel it has more depth to it here than other games. That said, once this update is finished I hope he's done with TF stuff for a while and works on the plot, jobs and whatnot for a few updates at least.

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    11. Don't get me wrong i'm not against TF and i do understand that some players do like it, for whatever reasons. Though for me (and maybe others) the main part of the game was/is the story, the alternate life you build based on the jobs you take and the choices you make. For me TF is only one option you can choose! So i'm really sad that the development of the "main" part stands still for so long. I really enjoy the game and so i do hope the focus will switch again^^

      In the end we are all glad about every development.^^

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    12. The more I think about it, the more I think a lot of these problems are complicated the $$ system--or rather lack thereof.

      In open-ended, sandboxy games you HAVE to be working towards something. Otherwise, there's no reason to play. You have to have a goal that requires your skills and the resources you've built up. With the game in its current state, it takes very little time (perhaps a month or so) in-game for your character to reach any human fitness/shape. Furthermore, you reach this comfortable point right after the first mission (that's what, 1.5 or 2 months in?) where money stops being an issue and you essentially have infinite funds. At that same point, you stop needing skills for anything important or immediate.

      At this point in the game, there are really only two avenues to pursue with your character: tranformations and total debauchery. Acquiring all the sex traits, being a completionist about all the dirty scenes...THAT is a goal. Sex with Gen (though this one's a bit complicated can't really get lumped with the others), THAT is a goal. Turning into a dragon, THAT'S a goal.

      So basically, the game currently ends after the first mission (1.5 months iirc?) for many people. Sure, you can keep going to work...but why? At this point, the game's tasks become more chore-like and the 5 work-week stops becoming an essential vehicle for earning stuff you need/want...and more just a series of tiresome button presses.

      I suspect that many of my peers and fellow players, like me, develop their characters normally up until this point and then turn their characters into giant slutbombs afterwards because that's the only way we can keep playing and accessing content. You have to be working towards something. And if you've got $5k just sitting around because money becomes meaningless at this point...then it has to be TFs or sex traits.

      I guess what I'm saying is that each participants brings their own set of goals when playing a sandbox game. And to enjoy your time playing, you HAVE to be pursuing a goal. And after thinking for a while about this game and going through another run, I realized a major cause for my earlier...musings: non-slut, non-tf players(henceforth known as "vanilla players") run out of goals and therefore content at around the 1.5 to 2 month point, which is only a couple of hours of play. But we still really like the game, so we keep trying to play, meaning we have a degrading experience after that point as we try to shoehorn ourselves and our goals into paths with a bit more longevity--and even those are limited. So while the slut-path and the TF path may be able to sustain themselves for...months and months and months, the vanilla or vanilla-with-some-sluttiness paths feels like they have the same amount of content and playtime as it did a year ago (and yes, I went through the ENTIRE history, was tre nostalgic). And the easiest fix for that, funnily enough, would be just to toss in a money sink or two so that going to work everyday isn't completely meaningless.

      Anywho, just a few musings I had overnight and as I tried another runthrough. And AM, please don't take any of this as excessively critical-I still do love the game.

      -Shin (quoting and referencing "anon" all the time was just getting ridiculous--I wrote that first one up there)

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    13. citizenkaneclap.jpg

      Summed up everything. Absolutely love the game too.

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    14. Shin, how about you play as a slutbomb, and then tell me about all that sexy content that will keep you playing for more than two months. Because, frankly, I can't find it.

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    15. Two months of in-game time? That's...pretty easy to find. You have to go from Waitress-->Dancer-->Promoted Dancer-->Promoted Dancer w/ special scenes-->Hooker. I think there's more after that, but I honestly haven't felt the need to whip up a new character to get there.

      That's essentially four different jobs since each one has unique encounters and scenes. Going from private dancer to hooker alone could take a month or more of in-game time since it depends on taking money (getting the semi-random encounters for that) a certain amount of times. One of those jobs (hooker) has a wardrobe requirement, meaning you've got an extra money sink right there.

      Plus once you get the hooker job, you have easy access to almost every sex trait, allowing you to alter your character's nature again if that's your goal.

      I'm not here to argue the pros or cons of the "slutbomb" path, but it seems pretty evident that it has months and months of in-game time associated with that path. If your goal is something like..."changing your character into the dirtiest uberslut ever", you have a LOT of playing in front of you. I'd guesstimate a half-year of goal-oriented in-game time with a set of encounters that change completely every month or so. Guesstimating times, that'll last players 10-20 hours, a stark contrast from the "vanilla"-esque paths where you burn out in closer to 2-3 hours.

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    16. As long as you don't skip work, you get the promoted dancer w/ special scenes job shortly after the 2nd month is over (fyi Dancer and Promoted Dancer have exactly the same scenes). That's about 2-3 hours by your estimates. And if you're actually playing as a slutbomb, then you can easily have all of the sexual traits by then. While we could debate whether or not the 4-8 hours of clicking just to get the last two jobs constitutes a "stark contrast," I'm not going to. It still doesn't mean that "out of the last...8 months or so, all of AM's efforts have been focused on TF or porn."

      I really wouldn't care, but, as an anon pointed out to you, AM was planning on actually getting some of the main story complete. It's been, what, a year since we last had Maria updated? THAT'S what this game needs, not more feature-creep.

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  6. RAGS updated. Is it safe to use the new version, or might it cause problems?

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    1. Not much of a difference.

      I it won't cause nay more trouble then RAGS normally does.

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    2. Which is to say that it'll render your game completely unplayable.

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