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Hawkey
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Disclaimer: I know this is impossible to add, I just had this idea and wanted to know what you guys think.

 

So this would an alternative spellcasting system that would work the following way:

 

- Each and every pheme would belong to a category (nature, psychology, light, dark, etc....you get the idea) and they would be the building blocks of the spells (the snow, fire and water pheme would belong to the nature category...again, you get the idea)

 

- Every spell would require certain amount and types of phemes (2x nature + 1x dark)

 

- The spell would work if the pheme requirements are met, but (here comes the good part) based on which phemes you put into the spell, you would get different side-effects/bonuses (putting a fire pheme for that nature slot could increase the effect of the spell, while putting water there could increase the duration)

 

This would be cool because

 

- It would really emphasize the whole "build your own spell" theme

 

- It would really emphasize the whole "gotta catch em all" pheme hunting theme

 

- Would fit better with the background of the game (using different phemes on your palette to construct the spells)

 

- By creating a sweet drag and drop spell-crafting interface it would be more than amazing

 

So, what do you guys think?

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That is a total subversion of spell system if I ever saw one.

 

We got access to pheme relatively earlier than spells and always in great number. If we can build our own spells (ie not limited by game artificial limitation on spell introduction) we will build early use early and break the game early. I guarantee that the game can be broken that way.

 

On another note, that spell system smack of amateur experimentation in magic. If such can go along with high level skill requirement(20+), catastrophic result (98% bad), astrological blessing on that event, then yeah, it will not break the game and I will be interested in such.

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Could the review of other students at the end of the day be on another menu? That way people won't have to scroll past tons of information to see the school standings.

 

Alternatively, I'm not sure that it's helpful to know someone attended class. Maybe that could be deleted.

 

Third alternative: Move the school standings above the NPC information (clique members and the occasional random student).

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Okay, here's my 2 cents :lol:

 

1. As the game progresses the amount of actions\abilities\places to visit grows and scrolling throung all of them every time becomes more and more irritating, moreover, lots of them become obsolete at some point. So, why not allow a player to manually distribute amount of actions\abilities\places to visit as he(player) would like to?

Thats how its supposed to work:

- at the start of the game everything looks as it looks now, but every action\ability\place has some sign(as a "+" near skills) allowing to move it to aditional column #1 or #2, call those as you like.

- whenever you need to choose action\ability\place all three columns appear simultaneously containing what you have put there.

- all new actions\abilities\places get to the first, originat column

- all reappearing actions\abilities\places (like those where you train, then they are not available and after some time available again) reappear at the column they were placed before they disappeared

 

If it worked like that I would be extremly happy and I believe that I'm not the only one ;)

 

2. Scholarship

Ithink that Study level should influence the game at least a bit more then achieving grades 2 times a year.

Perhaps adding some additional tests\exams and some associated scholarship(in addition to what your parent approval provides) for doing good (and reprimands for doing bad) would be awesome.

 

3. Reprimands to those that already Mastered?

I find it a bit weird to get reprimands for skipping a class of Negation(for example) while having max Study and base skill level at it... am I the only one?

 

4. It would be awesome to see what you current skill level consists of.

Just add a few lines at the top of skills description:

Current skill level: 16

Base skill level: 8

Spells: 4 (expires in 3 days)

Amulet of Something: 1

Some_passive_skill_name: 1

Firelake(name of location that gives you that bonus): 2

 

5. Additional classes

Once you have mastered some classes, why not allow to take premature exams and take some new classes to study if one desires to? Or free him from attending those classes? Or make it available to study some advanced level of it...

 

6. Reprimands level

It would be awesome to see your current list of reprimands and what you have gained them for as well as some kind of understandinghow much more you can skip before you'll get suspended.

 

 

Hmm... nothing more comes up to mind right now.

Anyway, the game is awesome, so thanks a lot to all who are working at it ;)

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So, I just finished my first game. A couple of points/suggestions about the UI:

 

1: The skill screens are currently laid out like this: (Not actual game text)

 

Needed for next level: 0 of 2

 

The art of war is of vital importance

to the State.

 

It is a matter of life and death, a road either

to safety or to ruin. Hence it is a subject of inquiry

which can on no account be neglected.

 

Dominant attribute: Insight

 

I'd find it much easier if more of the game-pertinent information was visible without scrolling, something like this:

 

Current Skill 6 (0/2)

War subskill (Insight)

 

The art of war is of vital importance

to the State.

 

It is a matter of life and death, a road either

to safety or to ruin. Hence it is a subject of inquiry

which can on no account be neglected.

 

2: If I pick an exotic familiar, I'm asked to name it without being told what type of familiar it is. This is kind of irritating; I might want a hedgehog named Commodore Prickles, but it's a silly name for an Iguana. Could the "Name your familiar" dialog mention the breed of familiar being named?

 

3: Since "Inform on a student" pops up as a study perk on a couple of occasions, it's possible to get some fairly random selection of student information at the end of each day. Would it be possible to seperate your clique members in some way, so they're not lost in the random selection of students?

 

4: With the content patch adding many more active locations, would it be possible to have seperate "Use Ability" and "Visit Location" options when deciding on the day's activities?

 

5: On a similar point to the previous one, there's a lot of locations. When we have to choose a location, would it be organised by explore location (Academagia, Academagia Grounds, Imperial Reserve, etc), as the training selection is organised by parent skill?

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You can select Adventure with your Mentor morning, afternoon and evening on a weekend. The game runs you through the same spot in the adventure three times (probably because the game doesn't record a character completing an adventure until the day is completed).

 

Would it be possible to gray out the adventure choice after it's been selected once for the day?

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Mumbles;

 

Thanks! One of the Reporting improvements we are working on is a system which will allow you to break the report up into sections. That should solve that issue.

 

laclongguan;

 

That's a good suggestion, we'll see what we can do.

 

oneman;

 

Thank you for the suggestions, there are some good ones here.

 

1. We are considering a number of ways to better organize these fields, but player configurable options offer their own challenges. We'll see what we can do, but this is more likely for Year 2.

 

2. Your examination results have a great deal more impact in Year 2. Year 1 final results occur at the end of the game, and have few immediate repercussions.

 

3. Attendance is mandatory. ;) In Year 2, there will be more options for those that are doing scholastically well and have decent Relationships with their Instructors, however.

 

4. We plan to implement a roll over for Skills which would allow you to see your temporary bonuses. I am not sure we'll be able to reach that level of detail, at least not initially, but we are moving in that direction.

 

5. As #3. :lol:

 

6. This is an excellent suggestion, and we'll find a way to report it. Thanks!

 

Random Logician;

 

Thank you for the suggestions.

 

1: We'll see if we can arrange it similar to this for DLC 1, but probably Content Patch 2. This is a good suggestion.

 

2: This has been requested by another Academagian, and we plan to implement it. No ETA, yet, however.

 

3: We intend to give the Player the Ability to break up the Feedback report, which would include a separate section for Clique. This should address this particular issue.

 

4: I am not quite sure I understand- Use Ability and Visit Location are already separated, unless you mean Locations which has no Passive Ability vs. those that do?

 

5: We are considering ways to allow the Locations in the game to be sorted. We will start first by filtering out Locations without a Passive Ability, and then consider ways to organize those that remain.

 

Thanks again, and keep the suggestions coming.

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Hmm.. a few more thoughts:

 

1. A bit variety in games genre

Well, I do not know if its actually possible, but I think that any game that has a set of some mini-games included in it is a lot more enjoyable that the one that has'nt. I dont mean some arcase installments, but some logical quests would be awesome.

 

2. Guide

Some in-game guide of game mechanics would be awesome. There are some thing that become obvious once you complete your mentors main quest, but some remain a guess throug all the game unless you go and search through the forums ;) I wonder if thats supposed like that.

Some examples:

- spells\activities often have some "roll" indicating its difficulty. If thats a "roll" then it means some dice, but I do not have what kind of a dice that is or is there any at all. Since we are talking about numbers like 5-10-15 it differs a lot if a dice is d2, d5 or d10. Or again if there is a dice at all. But if there isnt, why isnt it called "check".

- you have "research" lines in the bottom of your left menu from the start of the game. Its empty at start and starts to fill later, but hence I still wouldnt know how its supposed to work unless I've checked forums for this info.

- knowing that half of your pets attributes adds to your characters attributes is a big deal of understanding how it works, but again it could be found only outside of the game.

- I still have no idea why some of the names in "relations" section are purple while the rest are black

 

On the other side I understand that some "unknoweness" could be meant by the idea of the game... well, I understand that, but secrets in game mechanics still annoy sometimes ;)

 

3. Everyone become addicted to their characters ;)

Making it possible to transfer your character from Year1 to Year2 would be extremely logical and awesome. \\Btw.. are there any estimations on when it is going to happen?

 

4. Character main stats description

Well, I believe that they are incorrect in some way.

For example Finesse. Its description talks about being agile and influence associated skills. As a result my first character creation was a boy with Incantation focus and 1 Finesse which leaded to an immediate restart once I've read the Incantation description.

Probably adding a list of dependant skills would solve the problem, though its obviously not the most elegant way.

 

5. Abilities and actions section

I believe that it could be improved a bit:

- Put "emotions" at the very top

- Put "actions" second

- Put "abilities" third

- Put "passive abilites" last and no need to make them grey(and unreadable unless you hover your mouse over)

 

6. Better solution

Probably we might just have tabs where it is needed?

Probably not since we dont have that functionality at all and there should be a reason, but still I thought its worth mentioning ;)

 

7. Scrolling weeks

Perhaps it should be placed in some bugs thread.. sorry for that, but I'll incude it here ;)

Scrolling weeks to see how it was in the past and what awaits you in the future(oh, I bet everyone like those 4-weekend weeks ;)) is awesome, but it produces an ubnormal amount of bugs(music disappearing, game crushes, week schedule disappearing, game becoming laggy overall, etc) associated with it.

Also I have a constant bug: loading a save from a previous wekk makes my schedule list "look" like the one from the last wekk I've played, while "working" like it should be(I mean performed actions are those that were in the saved game). This is bug always solved with game restarting.

 

 

Yet again, I'm glad to be able enjoying such an awesome game ;)

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I personal must disgree to the 1. point of oneman because from my view point is that more then a vew games messed up just because they added "minigames "that didnt follow the main game theme (like action in turnbased games) and force the player through them.

For point 3 yes the you will be able to import your chars to the next year when it is released.

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Hold on Schwarzbart, I see your point, but your point also points out how these games should be;

 

1) not forced upon, but rather chosen.

2) in agreement with the setting and content off the game.

 

Now take for example a little game of dueling. Why not make it a "minigame"? For instance every saturday there are practice duel lessons for which the user could subscribe anytime they wanted. Would that be an idea?

 

Perhaps even add a ranking list with the other students and let the user rise to the top?

 

Would that be a minigame you could agree to?

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oneman;

 

Thanks again!

 

1. Mini-games are great, and serve to break up the pace of the game. We've considered them, but first we implement the main game. If we can do a mini-game in concert, we'll do it.

 

2. Over time the UI will be improved to give more information about difficulties and to provide more explanation for what goes on. That said, we prefer surprise and mystery. ;)

 

3. The primary design of Year 2 is in fact to allow you to transfer your Year 1 Character, fully and completely, to the next game. Right now, we are working on the first draft of the design document for Year 2- I expect it will take 1-2 years to complete the game and have it ready for play.

 

4. This is a fair point, and one we will have to update the Manual with. Thanks!

 

5. This is a good way to organize things- but see #6.

 

6. Although we won't use tabs per se, we plan to allow you to focus on specific categories as our UI improvements continue.

 

7. We have never experienced the bugs you mention related to scrolling through weeks. Can you clarify for me- when does this occur?

 

Thanks!

 

Vegejor;

 

Although it won't be a separate mini-game, the concept of 'clubs' exists in Year 2- and has a similar kind of ranking system. :)

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Hmm... The display bug after loading a save from a previous week also occures every time I do it.

Every time that I use scrolling of the weeks the game starts to work slower and the music starts to disappear for a second from time to time. By working slower I mean that lists of actions to choose start to take as long as it sometimes take "validate actions" button to take action. Which is times slower then it is before using weeks scrolling.

 

All of that is the same on another different computer.

And I'm using consolidated patch 3 and content patch 1.

And on both computers restarting the game fixes(hopefully :)) the problems.

 

P.S.

Since this is an offtopic, probably it should be deleted once its read? I wouldnt mind ;)

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I too think think it would be pretty cool to gain the ability to do a repeatable once a weekend practice duel against another student (or even just on the sly with a clique member). Mostly because, while dueling is super fun and a lot of work was put into the system, it's pretty hard for one of my characters to get enough hate in a year to actually have to duel.

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