This blog post was supposed to be released last Friday but various things delayed the work on the monthly art, sorry about that.
November
 |
| Red wyrm |
December
 |
| Merry Skullmas |
Red wyrm (female)
Red wyrm (male)
Merry Skullmas
Effort system
One of the new features related to map movement is the effort system, where the player has two different resources he can gain and use to accomplish things: rest and supplies.These resources are purely binary and don't have numbers attached to them. The player character either has supplies or they don't, they cannot have more than one "supplies". These resources exist to create a more defined day and travel experience where the player character has an incentive to conduct behavior that resembles real traveling and day rhythm.
The resources also factor in to the features that enable earning krats to run the in-game economy. The rest resource especially is designed to limit grinding and chop up the experience so it avoids being mind numbing repetition.
Rest
The player can gain this by just sleeping/resting. If the player has the rest resource point they can use it to do a larger thing that could be considered a more involved task like going fishing or hunting. Not having a point of rest only restricts player from doing these tasks, and it has no other impact on the game.
Supplies
This resource is gained by gathering/buying food and other items that then combine into the resource of "supplies". The supplies resource allows for longer stays in the wilderness. If the player doesn't have this resource he cannot travel over long distances or over rough terrain. This arduous form of travel would use the both resources, the rest and the supplies. This method of traveling isn't like the normal map travel which affects neither of the resources. The resources are used to travel between "areas" of the map instead, like when crossing the coast wall and entering the area beyond it.
Neither of these resources restrict normal gameplay and the player can freely explore, fight and talk to people without a negative impact to them from the missing resources.
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ReplyDeletenice, the next update just sounds better and better with every blog post
ReplyDeleteFrom a realistic sense, why can't the PC just buy a bigger bag and carry extra supplies?
ReplyDeleteTrying to emulate realism isn't really a good way to design games, for example an infinite inventory space isn't realistic but it's definitely less bothersome than fiddling with storing and separate inventories. The supplies are supposed to emulate idealized adventuring that forces the player to interact with things that let them proceed with their journey and not just speed through the map without any stops.
DeleteThe thing is that when I have to wonder "Why doesn't the PC do X when it would easily help with Y problem" it starts to take me out of the game, it's just hard to believe that in a decently large trade town no one is willing to sell or make a larger bag in order for the PC to hold more than a day's worth of supplies.
DeleteI feel like all these extra mechanics just make the game unnecessarily complicated and don't really add anything substantial.
ReplyDeleteRemember: it's a porn game; people play it for the porn.
Do these mechanics add anything to the porn? Nope. So all the time spent on this feature creep is less time for making new porn content (core gameplay).
Being able to customize your character would be way more interesting than all these pointless, generic RPG mechanics.
I disagree. Yes, it's an adult visual novel. People want the porn but the whole game doesn't need to focus on butts, dicks, etc. But it shouldn't be lazy and lifeless. I appreciate more realism and effective game-play. You can yell at me about how unrealistic Teraurge already is from a scientific stand point but I don't care.
DeleteThe core gameplay shouldn't be "go fuck everyone". That sounds uninteresting, boring and lastly uninspired. I want a RPG with intriguing gameplay, I want a erotica visual novel with actual story. I don't want copy-paste shit.
Excuse my lazy attitude of proof reading. to fix that first sentence here:
DeleteYes, it's an adult visual novel. People want the porn but the whole game doesn't need to focus on butts, dicks, etc. It shouldn't be lazy and lifeless. The game is 50% porn sure but I appreciate more realism and effective game-play.
@Jack T. Ripper
Delete"Remember: it's a porn game; people play it for the porn."
Opinion aren't facts and just so happens I'm the living example of why that sentence is wrong. I don't play these games to rub one off, I play them because they're entertaining and I know I'm not the only one who thinks the same way. We may be a minority that doesn't mean we don't exist.
Secondly, this is a niche game for niche players. The alternative you described and shown a preference towards are a dime a dozen, a million fish in the ocean you'll have no problem fishing for and enjoying. Those who prefer games like Teraurge, however, have a really hard time finding anything even remotely similar.
At the end of the day, if you prefer games centered around porn then go to F95Zone and take your pick... but don't try to dilute hidden gems like Teraurge into some crappy catch-all game for all tastes. IMO it should remain as is. If anyone doesn't like it they are entirely free to go play something else... it's not like the market has any shortage of those games nowadays...
>Offers criticism
Delete>People opinionate on said criticism
>Insutls them for no reason
@Jack T. Ripper
DeleteKind of ironic to be calling us crybabies, retarded kids and making assumptions on our "mental health" when you're the one who had an obvious meltdown the moment we gave our (polite) opinion on the matter.
Welcome to the Internet (and World in general), but between you and me, just because you have an opinion doesn't mean other people have to accept or agree with it. Constructive criticism is welcome but first you should ask yourself whether this game is really just another soulless smut (as you assume it to be) or something more complex that just so happens to be contain a plethora of sexual content in the mix.
In my humble opinion, if you're just looking for content to beat your meat at then Teraurge isn't a good game for you. There are better alternatives out there; plenty of smut and porn videos for your personal relief and enjoyment.
I agree with you, you guys want to play RPGs or Survival/Exploration Sims - go to Steam, there's plenty of that.
DeleteMany of us came here to fuck monsters, so I think it should remain the main focus of the game.
I'm not saying those mechanics are unimportant and shouldn't be developed, it's just that adding new creatures and CGs is a priority, IMO.
I agree with Jack on this one.
ReplyDeleteWhy does everything need to be remade and redone with extra features that nobody asked for?
There was nothing wrong with the current map or combat system.
And now look at the game, it's been more than half a year since the last update.
I agree that it is disheartening to see the game come to a crawl but at the same time I'm not really surprised since it's more or less on par with other Patreon developers who also make porn games. And unless he lives in a poorer country the 500$ he makes a month isn't not really enough to pay the bills and put food in the table, so I assume he also has to juggle with a real job to make end's meet.
DeleteThen there's the fact he's making the entirety of this game on his own. Coding, writing, troubleshooting, design, etc. I suspect art such as his (good quality, high quantity) is probably what takes the most out of development time. Sadly, progress is way too slow to justify a subscription in good conscience IMO. Unless he set his Patreon to pay-per-upload, at this point it is borderline a milking scheme... even if not necessarily a scam.
I don't mind the RPG features but when a project is barely progressing I can understand why revamping the system can be frustrating to those who are waiting.
Well if he wanted to make more money from his Patreon, a good start would be putting even the most token effort into it. It has no description of Teraurge on it at all (he just says he's making "Code and art"), and only has 2 tiers- $1 for access to creator posts (he does not release creator posts at all) and $4 for the ability to vote in polls (he does not make polls at all). Even if people WANTED to support him, he's not giving them the ability to. Honestly, I'm amazed he's even making $500 at all.
Delete@Arcane Azmadi
DeleteI agree that his Patreon tiers make no sense - there's only two of them and it's 1$ and 4$. What's the reasoning behind that I wonder? Is he too shy to set it higher? Does he think his game and work isn't worth more? For a niche game he has managed to garner a respectable amount of subscribers - even if everyone who pledged chose the lowest value we are still talking about over 500 people.
If he wants to make a living off this game and be able to dedicate more time to it then he needs to facilitate it first. Actually, if memory serves me right I remember suggesting the same thing back when the game was only making 200-300$ a month. Because with these values he will have to keep a real job to sustain himself and that means less time to dedicate to a game that demands a lot of it just to get anything done.
Well this is the most intense comment section thus far. My hot take is I'm on Ivory's side. The current UI and combat system is shit. It's lifeless and static.
ReplyDeleteIt makes me so sad seeing all this unqiue porn content being sacrificed for bullshit RPG features that I can literally find in any other RPG.
ReplyDeleteI enjoy the rpg elements of the game, the porn is just the cherry on top.
ReplyDeleteThere are plenty of souless smut games available on Patreon. Many of such projects failed because except for fancy sex (animation) they had nothing else to offer and took one guy (animator) leaving the team to compromise the development of entire game. (For example the failour of The Cathouse Tale and Shades of Elysium is heading to failour path as well)
ReplyDeleteYou can read and exprience sex encounters for so long before it gets dull and repetitive. The game needs gameplay mechanics that would allow players to have fun experience if sex was taken out from the game. Meandraco is working on that. In the long run Teraurge would be a game that's able to stand on its own and would provide a good mix of RPG, visual novel and sexual themes. It'd not be just a thing to relief your pent up desire.
Going back to the post.
I see Rest and Resource mechanics as a way to slow down pacing of the game a bit and provide sense of challange that comes with crossing the mountain ridge for example. You may spice that up by including description how travelling across such barries went. You may include there things like animals that PC encounter during journey, so players would know that there are new wildlife to explore and discover. You may include description of envirorment, weather etc. Such descriptions can appear when player discovers the are for the first time but later they could be skipped.
>There are plenty of souless smut games available on Patreon
DeleteShow me at least 2 other porn games when you can have sex with bizzare monsters (REAL monsters, not furry or monster girls).
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ReplyDeleteIt seems to me the main problem here is that people perceive Teraurge has a sex game first and foremost so all these RPG mechanics are nothing more than unnecessary extras in their purview; "bloatware" to extend the game's longevity and the amount of time it takes to get a new version.
ReplyDeleteThe way I see it though is that this is an RPG game with a rich amount of sexual content and one does not come before the other. If it's sexual relief you want then there are better alternatives for that, I'm sure you'll find something amidst the thousands, maybe millions of soulless smut and porn videos we have at our fingertips nowadays, so if you just want to beat your meat use one of those instead of trying to dilute a game that is just trying to be different.
Meanwhile, the rest of us who like their erotic games with more meat in it can have it as is. I'm not saying Teraurge is perfect but it's different and videogames with explicit xenophilia aren't that common for us to be looking a gift horse in the mouth.
The problem is, there AREN'T "better alternatives" to Teraurge for those who just want "sexual relief", at least not of this type. Teraurge is, to the best of my knowledge, absolutely unique in its representation of absolute xenophilia- the ability to have sex with things that don't even REMOTELY resemble humans. The best other games have to offer are furries (humans with tertiary features like fur, snouts, horns, tails, scales etc) or monstergirls (girls with animal ears or different coloured skin e.g catgirls, succubi, or animals with girl torsos tacked onto them e.g nagas, centaurs). It almost never gets weirder than slime girls, who always generate a pair of tits and a pretty female face anyway. So unfortunately both people who want an engaging story-driven xenophilia RPG with proper mechanics and people who just want to fuck a giant limbless sea serpent are both coming to the same place because it's the only place that offers it, and arguing over what form it should take.
DeleteI can think of plenty of good RPG series that heavily involve xenos (though not in a sexual way), like Xcom, Mass Effect, Dead Space and Metroid.
DeleteAs far as I know Teraurge is the only porn game that focuses on xenos though.
Which is all the more reason why it should focus on increasing the amount of porn content first and once it actually has a good amount of content, then shiny features like better looking UI and stuff like that can be added.
@Arcane Azmadi
DeleteI agree with you there and it is a bit selfish to shut down people who just want some exotic smut, the same way it is selfish to only want porn out of a game like this and not giving two hoots about people who can appreciate it's other details.
I believe it may possible to achieve a happy medium further down he road; provided content is made for both sides the only conundrum is who gets theirs first, and since Teraurge is moving at a snail's pace that is kind of a big deal IMO. I understand the author can't focus on too many things at once or even please everyone so it is a tough choice.
We know that no matter the outcome the game -will- have it's porn, the question is how much influence and impact will these new mechanics have and whether or not they're properly implemented and engaging enough to mitigate some of the complaints. I don't think it's impossible to have both an RPG and a porn game all at once but it has to be done right.
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Delete@Diamechi
DeleteIn the same respect that there aren't any porn only Xeno "games" there also aren't any porn-focused Xeno games.
There are people who enjoy porn games for the fact they have to work to get to the juicy stuff, which allows them to, in many ways, connect with the characters and the environment much more strongly. Making the journey to the porn fun and interesting is just as important as making the destination worth it. So in that respect having a strong RPG system in place in a game such as this can be as important as the lewd scenes themselves.
>If it's sexual relief you want then there are better alternatives for that
DeleteThere nothing that comes even close, and we both know that.
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ReplyDeleteI hate there not being an edit feature on BlogSpot ¦3.
ReplyDeleteHonestly, I'm all for RPGs and the like, and you can be as ambitious as you want with your own game, after all. However I would say that you could ditch the combat engine entirely, and instead just have dilogue tree enounters with creatures based off the core stats that you outlined in one of your previous posts.
Combat could be a dialogue option success or fail depending on whether you are proficient, have a perk/perks, and/or weaponry.
Simplification, streamlining and editting may be difficult especially when you like an idea, but sometimes the bush needs pruning. This idea on travel, for instance, could probably be pared down to a single resource governing both, rolling bother ideas into one.
That red wyrm is cute!
ReplyDeleteComplexity =/= Good game design
ReplyDeleteThe game focus should be on exploring the single events and having fun with those, not adding pointless gimmicks everyone will cheat through anyway.
Slow but Good
ReplyDeleteI have no complaints, I know that the style of the art of the game takes a LOT and understating that you are not putting 100% because Work and life in general is fine for me
Hey Meandraco, if you're reading this I just want you to know that I'm a huge fan of your game. Regardless of my personal take on this debate in the comments, I really just want you to know that your game helped me orient my sexuality a lot, and whatever path it takes I'll always be grateful for it.
ReplyDeleteGlad to hear.
DeleteHaving just recently found the game, I wanted to express thanks for making it and having made such amusing, cute, occasionally terrifying and odd characters.
ReplyDeleteHaving picked it up due to xeno-porn type content, the likeable, fleshed out characters surprised me quite a bit and I am looking forward to seeing the odd world you've constructed come to life in whichever way it forms.