Corrupted Kingdoms (NSFW 18+)
WEEKLY RELEASE - v0.19.6!
The weekly update has been released!
Okay, so I'd intended on having the new character introduced in this update but a truly excruciating ear infection laid me out for half the week and I've had to push it to next week. Instead I've pushed forward the start of another event I've been planning, involving Lyx! Also, there's a naughty event with Jessica and a whole HOST of bug fixes! I hope you enjoy! :)
KNOWN ISSUES: Due to the necessity of changing the User Interface some screens (such as the skill, inventory, fighter and crafting screens) haven't had a UI pass and look kinda janky. All this will be fixed in the next few updates, so please bear with me until then. Thank you!
CHANGELOG:
- Lyx: Lyx returns! Conquer the Apartment Block and then sleep in your room at the Manor to meet her again!
- Jessica: New naughty event with Jessica! Just talk to her and select "let's be naughty"!
- Chloe: You can now have naughty fun with Chloe in her Assassin form in her room (this was accidentally blocked before)!
- Lily: In Act Two, you can no longer work as normal when you find Lily drunk and upset at the bar. You now have to talk to her first, you heartless monster
- Chastity: Switched "Eldritch Beauty" title to "Mysterious Beauty" for the early game, as it's potentially a spoiler. A certain event in Act One will change the title back to the Eldritch one (you don't need to restart - people already past that point will have the Eldritch Beauty title)
- Goons: The group of Goons now have their own updated paperdoll, and won't be weirdly bisected when chasing you from the train station or the roadblock in Act Three
- Bug: Lily was sometimes not wearing the right clothes in Act Two until you approached her. She's been asked to stop quick-changing behind the bar
- Bug: Goons will no longer have paperdolls pop up during the Act Two finale. It was distracting and weird!
- Bug: Ami no longer has the weird, bisected paperdoll image when giving you binoculars in Act Three
- Bug: You can no longer visit the dungeon at the start of Act Three before meeting with Pixie again
- Bug: Jessica's paperdoll was hanging around during her naughty bathroom event. She has been told to stop being creepy
- Bug: One of the map icons was wiggling provocatively when moused over, and it was awakening things in people. It has been kink-shamed into stopping
- Bug: Tidied up a little code, preparatory to possibly upgrading the SDK
- Bug: Blinking, Typo Hero surveys the room of the Dread Arc. A small, dimly-lit room, illuminated only by the flickering of a single screen. A hunched figure raises bleary eyes to gaze upon the intruder, and croaks out "You... finally."
Comments
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whenever I talk to Jessica in act 3 and choose to strategise with her the game takes me to the war room but dialog never follows. Is this because this part of the game is not finished or is it a bug
I Have been silent when interacting with this game for TOO LONG! This is an amazing game and Truth be told I am both excited and dreading the ending because I will no longer get the random thought of "Oh yeah Corrupted Kingdoms!" and see a little update again. I am happy to hear your ear is doing better and hope you take a break if you feel the need to.
That being said I have seen a lot of divisiveness regarding the game play in Act 3, And truth be told I do not get.... with one exception. I started the new Rehab update late after I had taken out and recruited the bosses in the old non rehab way. I was happy to see I could switch it to rehab as I constantly aim for the morally good path in this game. Yet whilst I get it would be difficult to add I was kind of weirded out by the sudden shift from "Ah yes I like you" to "I despise you". Whilst "I despise you" makes sense if you go directly there i personally feel as though (Like long down the line its not a big issue for me personally) adding a variant of the therapy focused on the transition from moral bad to moral good choice so to speak would be nice for people (such as myself) Who focus on the rp angle but see conflicts with the week by week updates adding new content to convert them.
TL;DR: Love the game, Hope you are well and in the future a variant text for the rehab events if going from another "conversion" method could be nice.
I'm glad you're enjoying the game, and thank you for the kind words! :)
The way I had to code the rehab system, it couldn't detect what state the girls were in before you sent them to rehab, hence the weird jump in their personalities.
Any Boss Girl you beat after the rehab release, however, has their mental state recorded correctly and they will act accordingly in the first rehab session (which MC uses as a "deprogramming" session).
Aside from that, I can't really add much more to the rehab system, I'm afraid, as I'm only one person and time spent on adding more and more content to the rehab side of things is 1) more content I need to add in the future whenever I add a new Boss Girl, and 2) time taken away from creating story events.
The weekly updates put me on a very limited schedule, too ;P
That's cool and all, but when do we get to kick some more cute girl ass? I was just getting good at the rpg minigame
Not really soon.
Arc ended up spoiling players by giving them a bossgirl every time on the earlier districts.
There’s a ton of districts, and that’s not counting the ones on the outskirts (and possibly even the mountains) map.
So not every single one will get a bossgirl from now on.
As a side effect, there’s a chance that the bossgirls we already get will have a bit more content than just the dungeon scene.
is ramen the only thing we make or is there more cuz stocked up on meat and idk what to do with it
You only have the recipe for the food you picked all the way back in the prologue.
That and the one you get by investigating hillside.
Robin - that is, the protagonist - doesn’t really know how to cook stuff so he’ll have to stumble on other recipes to learn them.
If only there was some sort of book where recipes were collected for easy access.... :P
Robin is not really the sharpest crayon in the lunchbox.
Plus, you know, game logic.
There are a lot more inconsistencies once you start looking for them.
Started playing this game a few days ago and Im hooked. keep up the great work!!!
I originally wanted to write a short comment as a new player to:
But for the 3rd point, one word led to another and before I knew it, I had crafted a post much longer than I had intended... You don't have to take my ramblings too seriously because in the larger scheme of things I think there are probably other priorities, but since I'd already written it, I'll just post my thoughts on act 3:
I think Act 3 moves this game in a radically different (and interesting) direction. Not only in terms of plot and the characters the player has access to (and also the fact that some locations, characters and scenes are potentially permanently inaccessible after act 2), but also the fact that it introduces an RPG/strategy component to it that feels like sengoku rance (although obviously significantly different).
Putting aside the change in gameplay, the shift from a mostly visual novel to this new game mode brings new challenges, because there is now the consideration of game balance (although I imagine some of us are only here for the plap plap :p). In that regard, I have some comments:
1. Players are currently incentivised to turtle, which makes combat one-dimensional and slow. This is not so obvious against weaker enemies, because they go down quickly with just normal/lust attacks. But against tougher enemies, because the MC's base offensive stats are low, and the MC's starting HP is also low, it makes sense for players to keep blocking attacks until they are sufficiently buffed by Chloe's support passive, then normal/lust attack when the stats are sufficiently buffed. Most of the skills that can be learnt so far provide mediocre stat bonuses that require multiple uses before they provide any real impact, so most of the time the experience is "block,block,block,block,buff,block...", and then unleashing a flurry of attacks after blocking for an extended period of time. The only time I adopted another strategy was against the temptress, because there was no way to effectively block lust damage. imo the depth of combat did not pay tribute to the effort needed to create the game mode, and I think that can be improved by making some game balance changes.
2. The unique mechanism of being able to "read" enemy movements and block their physical attacks made the game a little too easy, which is ironic because I can only imagine this mechanism required additional effort to implement. The confusion state is somewhat ineffective because the enemy's sprite changes based on what they plan to do, and as of now the only tough enemies that can confuse are enemies that only deal physical damage. The only way a player can lose now is if they get hit by lust damage, or if they get hit by an insta-kill that they did not block.
2a. Because Chloe is essential to the turtling strategy, all other supports pale in comparison. The MC's low base offensive stats mean that the fastest, safest and most consistent way to build up his damage is by relying on Chloe's passives.
3. Level ups only increase the MC's health pool, which means the MC's low base offensive stats will remain low (even though in the story you can increase both PHY and ARC by 1 point). The damage dealt by the MC still feels quite weak after clearing all the available bosses. Even though other characters have better stats, because only the MC can learn new skills and use special abilities, it appears that players are incentivised to use the MC as their main frontline unit, in the event that powerful skills become available in the future.
4. Currently, there isn't much incentive to rehabilitate bosses outside of moral roleplay reasons. Shattering an enemy only takes a single fight even if they only take 1 lust damage per hit. Mind-breaking an enemy takes roughly 1-3 in-game days, rehabilitation can take 4-6 in-game days. Even though the outcome for all 3 options is currently the same, rehabilitation takes considerably more effort and involves somewhat less fun than the other two options. Shattering enemies involve strategically bringing an enemy to less than 25% of their HP and WP, catering to players who enjoy combat. Mind-breaking involves NSFW scenes, which is something most of us enjoy even if it is just one scene recycled with different hairstyles and dialogues. Rehabilitation involves sitting through days of the girl telling you how much they hate you, how boring they think you are, and finally culminating in you running to their home, engaging in some backstory flavor text to bring them a trinket. Rehabilitating all the girls got a little tedious near the end, even though the opportunity to learn more about their backstories reduced the tedium somewhat. I'm not sure if this is something you want to invest additional effort on though.
4a. The disparity in effort to bring girls to join you make me wonder if the pay-off can be improved for players who take the effort to sit down, learn more about the girls and actually take care of their concerns. Perhaps shattering a girl increases their base stats, mind-breaking increases the player's corruption, rehabilitation unlocks new recipes/skills/dialogue for the player to unlock. I find the option of rehabilitation interesting because up until now, we've only had Awaken & Shatter; rehabilitation seems to be something of a new 3rd option, although it might also mean more dev work.
4b. However, the whole rehabilitation thing also felt quite weird, because I didn't get the impression that the girls were patients that required therapy, even though the game seemed to treat them as such. The girls were initially portrayed as protectors of their respective areas that you as the player invaded, defeated and captured. It felt very weird that the girls would accept therapy from the guy who physically and/or sexually assaulted them (multiple times), and weirder still that when the player goes back to their hometown, the townsfolk would amicably give the player a trinket and hope that the girl is doing well (even though the very reason why she's captured and incarcerated is... well, you!). To be fair, this is a NSFW game so I'm willing to close two eyes and dive into stories with happy endings. It just seemed uncharacteristic of this game to make this little sense.
I have a few ideas to accompany my critique. I imagine some of these ideas are already on the drawing board. It can be achieved by keeping what is already implemented, and adding newer characters / skills to make the gameplay more interesting etc based on your preference.
1. I think combat can be made more engaging by making fights faster paced, perhaps even making fights more luck based as well, maybe more progression on the difficulty of enemies. There are many ways to achieve this; reducing the effectiveness of blocks, making it harder for players to anticipate the enemy's next move, making enemies randomly alternative between physical and lust damage, making fights end faster by having the player and enemies hit harder, allowing enemies to buff themselves, allowing enemies to attack first, introduce more powerful skills etc, making skills only buff the next attack instead of persistent buff etc, make enemy start with higher morale (e.g. passive skills / 1 use per battle skills) are all possible ways.
2. On the topic of "Chloe is the only useful support", I think if there are supports that are more effective against certain types of enemies, and/or if the turtling strategy is weakened, there might be more incentive to swap off Chloe.
3. I think that levelling up can remain as it is, and that the player can improve his power in other ways (e.g. through more powerful skills that would essentially allow him to hit harder).
Being able to train different stats would allow for more choices.
While you do make some very good points, and I am always up for deeper combat systems ( *cough* in turn-based games... >_> ), I'll just say that, perhaps because I farmed a bit too hard when combat first released, I've only had to use a turtle strategy against one boss. Everyone else, from leaderless goons to rough-and-tumble tomboys ♥ to lust demons, I can easily beat down with an almost exclusively offense-based rotation. I might block on occasion (because I'm clicking too fast and miss the icon I was after <_< ), but mostly I just buff when they block and attack at every other opportunity.
Clearly this is not "better," per se. It's not slow, but it's still mindless. It's still just one strategy against 99% of the opponents. I do get more use out of the other supports, but not because they're good or even really helpful at all, just because I'm not particularly reliant on Chloe's buffs.
A more diverse, effective, interesting, and fun set of skills to choose from and to fight against would make a world of difference. Both active skills and passive skills to allow a player to truly customize specific thematic builds. Better synergies with your supports and, in general, just more for them to do would help - especially if the player has actual control over the supports; something that right now would be broken and unbalanced because of how the combat works.
Ultimately, though, I struggle to consider any of this worthwhile for a game that is ultimately just dabbling in combat for the final act of a story that never needed it. Especially taking into account the oft-repeated mantra, "single dev, weekly schedule." I support Arc's foray into the world of turn-based combat and hope it serves him well in learning the ropes and developing something better for a future game. It just doesn't take priority for me here. Would I like better combat? Absolutely. Would I still rather get an update featuring an adorable date with Ami? Yes, yes, a thousand times, yes.
Good grief, your post is long.
I was going to leave Arc to answer it, but it seems like it overwhelmed him too… (I know from experience that the more I type, the longer it takes him to answer)
I’ll try to address some of it as brief as possible.
Act 3 is really different from before. It’s the big turning point of the story, cat’s out of the bag, cue other metaphors.
But also the story in terms of storylines it’s going to be shorter than act 2.
Plus, conveying a full-on war and then you taking over the town in just scenes like a regular VN would’ve been difficult and probably taken too much time.
But yes, Arc is a big fan of Sengoku Rance. At this point he’d probably insist that if you play Rance you get the fan translated version. Because the MangaGamer translations were made by someone who clearly didn’t like the series and interpreted the dialogues in a really mean-spirited way.
But yeah, he once said that the combat system as it stands it’s like Sengoku Rance but made by just one guy, so it wouldn’t be as good.
Add to it the fact that the engine isn’t really made for much more than regular Visual Novels… But eh, every tool is a hammer.
Balance is indeed an issue that will have to be addressed at some point. But don’t expect that much depth, after all it’s still just one guy working on it.
But are players incentivised to turtle?
I don’t know about you, but I took Jessica’s advice to heart. That tanks are weak to seduction attacks, so I went with that in mind.
So for the most part I just went in blindly, spamming seduction attacks until I won. No blocking, no heals, didn’t even pay attention to morale.
With the exception of Noelle, since she uses seduction I figured she’d be weak to physical attacks… Which was correct.
Later once I figured out how stats work, I had also learned that Chloe is much better frontliner than the MC (makes sense, MC was out for 3 months and he’s not as much of a fighter as Chloe since she’s an actual ex ORG soldier) I just kept up the same strat but with slightly better results.
Up until the two duelists… I ended up using Hazel as frontline and just followed the simple strat of:
I wonder how much more difficult will enemies get, but probably we’ll either get better characters or the MC will get stat boosts on story events.
Because as you noticed, leveling up characters just raises their HP and WP.
The rehab centre was added way after the dungeon and the shatter win.
It was initially much simpler, considering it just did what the dungeon does but in a less questionable manner.
People complained it was too simple. Arc made it more complex, people complained it was too complex.
And now Arc isn’t going to keep retouching it forever so it’s stuck like this for the time being.
There have been talks of extra scenes for not using the dungeon, but also it’s not the idea to railroad people into certain choices.
At least it’s not a request as ridiculous as that one guy that was asking for a reward for picking the option to execute the girls… yeah…
A summary could be:
Feedback is really appreciated. But don’t expect miracles.
*starts kicking a stone* I'll get blood out of this thing, yet! D:<
Y u kick Emma?
What did the poor girl do to you?
Nooo, not Emma!
Just one of her cousins. The annoying one.
I think Chris and Thindor have covered everything between them, so I won't regurgitate what they've already said :) I just wanted to add a couple little things, myself:
1. Thank you for the kind words and the extremely detailed feedback. Both are always very much appreciated!
2. The battle system has not worked out in the way that I had hoped, sadly. It is proving to be far more divisive, clunky and distracting than I'd wanted, and has given more than one player severe whiplash (sandbox vn for the first twenty hours then BAM! Pixel combat RPG).
Some form of conflict resolution mechanic is definitely required, but its current form just... isn't working. Some people like it a lot, and that's great, but the majority are either neutral, think it has promise but needs a ton of work, or just outright hate it.
I have been giving the whole thing a lot of thought over the last month, and it's something I will very likely be discussing with the community over the next few weeks. So thank you for adding your voice to the conversation :)
Hope your ear feel better soon! Got an ear infection once before and it was pretty painful and annoying! Anyways thanks for the update!🙏🙏🙏
Well thank you for playing, and for the kind words! :)
My ear is feeling much better now - almost back to normal!
For some reason, when you do "look for a way out" at the outskirts, after goons' paper doll when MC says "Uh-oh!" Jessica's paper doll appears. Can you fix that?
Also, stay healthy!
Already fixed for the next update, thanks! :)
i can already tell that those implied explosives will be used later down in the story
It's Lyx - the day she decides not to blow something up, or set it on fire, is the day you know she's been replaced by bodysnatchers ;)
can you add some footjobs? (I'm in act 3 and I remember those at the club) thanks
They're not popular (in fact, I got complaints about the club date ones :P ) but I will add a few more in future updates, yes.
Yo, don't forget to prioritize your health first! Having a healthy working body is damn priceless!
Anyhow, thank you for the update and your hardwork!
I appreciate that! I'll be taking my once-every-two-months-or-so break next month, but I feel guilty if I break too often or for too long, given all the amazing support that wonderful players give me :P
I personally don't mind if you decide to take a rest, and I am sure the others as well. It's not like having a health problem is one's fault. So, you don't have to feel guilty about it.
Moreover, the game can't continue if something bad happens to you, and I believe everyone doesn't want something bad happens both to you and the game.
My point is, you've work hard (and great one too), I am sure everyone will understand your circumstances.
Take good care of your ears mate! And all who see this!.
I already have tinnitus from working in a metallurgical workshop using grinders without protection, now i regret it greatly xd...
<3
Thanks! I do actually have tinnitus in my left ear, which is permanent, so I definitely feel your pain. We will struggle on together!
*is talking about Lyx*
"Next time she pops up I need to have a serious talk with her."
*IS TALKING ABOUT LYX* >:|
Did he hit his head? >_>
Err... did SHE hit his head??? <_<
Yes to both questions.
Bug Report: While I was allowed to have naughty fun with Chloe-Assassin "in [her] room", the background didn't change, so it was just the animation in the War Room still.
Already reported and looking into it.
Forgot to change the background for that interaction…
Fixed for the next update, thanks! :)
Unrelated but today's GMTK video and this post suddenly made me wonder why devs like you don't participate in game jams. I haven't seen any devs I follow participating. Surely 2 days can't do much harm and in my eyes it might even do some good.
Just a random thought...
From an outsider's perspective like yours or mine, I see it as two things.
1. Arc has so hyperspecialized into story-rich h-games (a category I've personally never seen a jam for) that it would be relatively pointless to try.
2. Even if it's two days, things like the ear infection mentioned above and other unforeseen circumstances can delay progress on CK updates, thus leaving a different and likely lesser amount of time than allotted for making a game for a jam, either lowering quality of the jam game or of the CK update. Weekly updates are a hard thing to keep up with...
I can't speak for any other devs you follow, or even Arc for that matter, but this is my take on why.
Not sure why you're being downvoted - it's a reasonable question. EzraYugi covered the answer very thoroughly, but just so there's an official response:
1. Time spent on game jams is time not spent on working on the game I'm being paid by amazing supporters to make.
2. There are no game jams for my specific field, at least not ones that would provide anywhere near the necessary number of interested players that would make it worthwhile.
3. I'm on a weekly update schedule, which already kicks my ass (I get maybe part of Sunday off) so I'm not looking to add more work to my plate.
Those are the main reasons, though there are other, smaller ones. A good rule of thumb, when wondering why nobody does something, is to assume there's a good reason for it ;)
Hope you're ear is doing better now, I know first hand how nasty some ear infections can get.
Thanks, I appreciate it! Almost back to 100%, just a little tightness and the occasional (very mild) loss of hearing :)
Die beste Hexe ist hier.
Ja!
Sie wird uns alle töten. Mit WISSENSCHAFT!
Lookin' good, boss.
Thanks! I hope you enjoy it :)