~ Suggestions & Improvement ~

[Ranielle Limeleaf]

You can train your own little minion.

[Legate of Mineta]

Honestly, though- that kind of has to be one result.

[Schwarzbart]

Maybe the Diffculty for the Workshop Days Event is a bit to high because Incanation Spells 3 and Finesse 2 is still purple and so early in game I dont think a fixed event sould expect more.

(I think of all my games I only managed it once to get ther through with glamour but as fare I remember it was pure luck + old Pasive Block Puzzle)

[Legate of Mineta]

Schwarzbart;

 

It's a fair point- we'll look at this in DLC 2.

[Schwarzbart]

It would be nice if the Familiar Training part of the "Request a Meeting with your Mentor" Adventure realy resoult in a skillpoint increase of your familiar if sucessfull.

[Legate of Mineta]

Schwarzbart;

 

Some do- which Exit are you taking?

[Schwarzbart]

The Athletics training

[Legate of Mineta]

A quick review shows that that Exit Expands your Familiar's Athletics Skill Maximum.

 

I think perhaps that an ordinary Skill Step is what is needed here- we'll look at it in DLC 2.

 

Thanks!

[Draigh]

Just started a game and noticed that I got several things unlocked by Deus Ex Machina?

Why not get it unlocked by Sixt von Rupprecht who is the Regent of Aranaz?

[Legate of Mineta]

Draigh;

 

In this case, it's because it is the System unlocking them, and it is not set up to recognize your College. It's a very elegant way to do it, though.

 

In Year 2 this is handled differently, but I wonder if we can make this change in Year 1...

[Kostas]

Well, firstly i'd like to say how much this game has awed me in the last week since I got it. It is nice to see something so different in the modern world of fast-paced action kill-em-all games.

 

With that aside, I do think this game has a large amount of potential, but I would in no way say its perfect. Of course this thread would likely not exist if it was perfect, so that is sort of moot. The important thing is this thread does exist, amongst others, to try and make this game perfect. So with that said, let me throw some suggestions I had out there. Now I have yet to actually finish a game, i've started several different ones, got around past the mid-terms with a few but not much further. I guarantee I have missed things, so if I end mentioning things that are already in the game, a heads up would be nice. Also, I did not manage to go through every page of this topic, so there is a good chance of me saying something that has already been said.

 

Suggestions

 

1. Teaming up with NPCs.

 

The main thing that irked me was I was going out, making these friends and cliques and all that, and then I want to go invite some of my buddies to cram for an exam or something together, but I can't. Basically, the game offers so many different tasks you can do, from studying, training, bullying, exploring, etc etc. But most of these, you can only do by yourself. Now I know for some of these, you have a chance to raise your relationship with a random person; i've noticed that. But what i'm talking about is why shouldn't I be able to invite my closest friend to double team a session of studying for Astrology or something. After all, 2 > 1. So it would make sense that 2 people studying, or 2 people exploring would have a better chance of success. Game wise, it can combine both the PC's and NPC's stats into it, thus giving you a bigger bonus. Now of course the catch would be that, that person could easilly decline helping you. After all, one NPC might not care about Astrology, so unless I am really close to them, they wouldn't want to waste time studying with me. Likewise, if you want to go with one of your friends to bully somebody you hate, but your friend actually likes the person you want to bully, they can decline you.

 

2. Global Calendar

 

I'm talking about a calendar like this: Calendar. Not in that format in specific, but I find that if I want to go ahead and see when the exams are, I have to keep going forward, then keep going back, and so forth. Since I don't know which week is which in the month, it gets confusing there too. With an easy to click calendar button somewhere, I could see how far I am in the year, when my exams are up, when certain days are coming up. Etc, etc.

 

3. How-To-Unlock

 

Right now, in this saved game I am playing. I have Olivia in my clique (actually she has me in her clique, but that's a different story). Via her profile, I can see her stats, actions, abilities, etc. Now, I scroll down to her actions, click on one, and then it tells me the description of that action. Yet it does not tell me how to unlock it. This may be minor, but one would think my dear old friend Olivia would tell me what I need to do to learn how the spells that she knows, or the actions that she knows.

 

Anywho, i've had more suggestions earlier, but I forgot some, needing sleep can do that to you. So I will return later when I remember them. Regardless, I look forward to further improvements on the game, and the mod tools as well.

[Legate of Mineta]

Kostas;

 

Thanks for the feedback!

 

1) I think you will be happy with Year 2. We are looking at ways to provide more opportunities to combine than just Adventures in Year 1, but I'm not sure we will be able to implement anything here.

 

2) This has been requested by another Academagian, and is already a part of the UI design for Year 2.

 

3) An interesting thought- we'll see what we can do.

 

Thanks again, and keep them coming.

[laclongquan]

And talking about Calendar remind me: The days of the week is a bit too vague. There's a need for each day has its date display just so we know when we are. Like after New Years for example. I can never remember the Finals are 3 months away or just one month.

 

And a way to easy scrolling through different Result of Day reports. If you are in Day 3 report for example and you just want to see Day 2's, you have to get out of it then click on Day 2's icon. Why not make a button inside the Day Report so we could move from one to another?

[Legate of Mineta]

laclongguan;

 

The ability to navigate History is an excellent idea- we'll see what we can do.

 

For the Calendar, I am not sure if we can make any changes for Year 1- Year 2 will certainly be clearer.

 

Thanks!

[Xandran]

It would be nice if there were more chances to get some use out of Gates or Mastery. I think I've seen...two places where I could actually use either of them in a couple playthroughs, and one of those is just a random event related to having Gates.

Revision and Negation are possibly too useful. Not that I am complaining. If the value of Gates and Mastery increases in later years, though, I can understand that dabbling in the Forbidden Arts might not be that valuable compared to someone with more than a year of school. I saw somewhere mentioned that people were scoring ridiculously well on finals compared to what you had expected, but I'd like if normal high scores still had beneficial effects in future years, because not everyone is an expert at min-maxing their finals. Like me. I'm terrible at it.

[Legate of Mineta]

Quelan;

 

Don't worry- there will be a generous range over which high scores matter.

 

In Year 2 there will be a general broadening of use of (especially) Mastery. Gates, which takes some preparation to cast, will remain somewhat sidelined in Adventures, however.

[Schwarzbart]

I hope the Import in Year 2 will recalcualte the Stats because some things were added in later Patches (like Skills gained from the School Survival SS) and also there are some bugs (like Clique Abilitys, missing Reciepts, Vitality max ect.). I know this will need some time to processe the Data but I think its bether then to start year 2 with a buged char.

[Legate of Mineta]

Schwarzbart;

 

Good thought.

 

Some recalculation will be done, but not everything- Skills Informed in later Patches by other Skills (such as with School Survival) almost certainly will not be, for instance.

[rideword]

These are some of the things that pop into my mind while playing with my third chararcter:

 

- (maximize/minimize info) expand/contract option on the different sections of the Results of the Day especially when you have a large clique (aside from her, my char has 12), it will be easier to scroll down the wall of text

 

- successful Befriend actions initiated by an NPC should be explicitly stated in the Results of the Day (ex. <NPC Name> has been added to your Clique, <Your Clique Name>)

 

- add in the Subskill's description its Parent skill, it really does get confusing after you acquired lots of skills

 

- game currency: Pims, Quiple? Malin? err... currency breakdown please if you will

 

- probably a free book item available after character creation (or a new icon in the GUI like a HELP icon) that discusses in brief the background story for the game, some general info (common knowledge) about the game world, and an in-game help documentation

[Schwarzbart]

Can you please use the Hand Graphic for items that belongs to the Hand slot?

I just deleted a Message where I whanted to complained that some items dont work that I thought should work in the knapsack but in reality where Hand items!

(The items I thought are knapsack items are Lucky Sprite's Coin and Unicorn Tears)

I still think it would be good to add 1-2 misc/pocket slots where such items then belong instead putting all this items to the hand slots that are already filled with weapons and wands, I even would agree to have Instuments as Hand items but not small things that you only need to have in a pocket on your body.

[Legate of Mineta]

Rideword:

 

Most of these have been suggested by Academagians (and we plan to phase them in over time!) but I did want to comment on the currency breakdown: this is good information to provide. I also really like the concept of book to provide in-game help topics, but we'll have to look at the best way to implement that.

 

Schwarzbart;

 

I agree: there should be a clear indication of where Items go, and maybe that should be a visual indicator- we'll see, though, thanks!

[OrangeKnickers]

I think there are way too many social actions that are way too similar and/or easy. Most social actions improve your relationship with 1 student by 1 point, externalized desire, flirt, befriend (whether successful or not), encourage a fellow student, set example or brag on friend come immediately to my mind (the latter ones have advantages for the other student, but not for you). Those actions could be a bit more varied, maybe even with some downturns or a slight chance that something positive(negative alongside will happen.

[Legate of Mineta]

OK;

 

More diversity is always a good suggestion- we'll review these for DLC 2.

[Torolf]

I notice that the Library of Longshade does not always improve a random skill by one step, even early in the year, when no skills are maxed yet.

[Legate of Mineta]

Torolf;

 

Hmmm.

 

I'll see if we can't find out what is going on there. Thanks!