~ Suggestions & Improvement ~

[Tyr]

I just downloaded (from Impulse) Academagia yesterday (Feb 3, 2011). I will say the game has a great amusement factor. The quests seem well written from what I have seen. I am using the DLC 5 I believe. However, there are some issues that should be considered.

 

1 - The legendary items given from the background choices are listed as having a letter telling you about the item, however, this is NOT in game. I have started about 12 different games to check out all the nifty items & have yet to see the first item I did not have run a Trial & Error action to identify.

 

2 - Half of those legendary items do not work either.

 

3 - "Time Management" (the re-load cycle). Consider adding a script or something the player can opt to activate. Have it give an increased chance of success. Let's face the facts here, we all play games for amusement; be it challenge, entertainment, etc. I do not mind doing a few reloads, but get real, after the 50th reload of the SAME day, the fun is ZERO & frustration is 200% after you kill 6 hours trying to get that 1 success. Kind of makes me want to rip the game from my hard drive & post reviews against it.

 

4 - Luck as a useful attribute would be nice also. I will admit, roughly 95% of the games/ RPGs I have seen that use a "Luck" skill/ stat, the skill is garbage.

That is all I have for now. Looking forward to seeing the coming improvements.

[Legate of Mineta]

Tyr;

 

Thanks for the suggestions!

 

For #1 and #2, we are working steadily on these- #1 is the result of an old issue related to Information and Recipes.

 

#3, unfortunately, is a limitation of the engine and, in some ways, the design: you will not be able to easily achieve success in a wide variety of Events until later in the game, when you have gained experience. There is a cheat that a modder has come up with, however, if that's to your taste.

 

For #4, I don't think that Luck is useless, personally, but it really depends on your Character.

 

Enjoy the game!

[Schwarzbart]

Pray for Calm Days

-33% chance of a event for 1 week (or longer)

unlock via Prayer 1 or 2

Autosuccess

 

(In the starting weeks I always have to many reloads because of the events and with this new prayer some one with the Family: Religious background can reduce this hassle)

 

Edit: Just whant to point out that DLC 5 is still not introduced on the Mainpage.

[Legate of Mineta]

Schwarzbart;

 

That is an excellent suggestion! You are right about the main page- we'll update that soon.

 

Thanks!

[Schwarzbart]

Suggestion about a New Background

 

You arived a bit early in the city so you spend some time exploring Mineta, thats when you got brutaly robbed.

 

- Set starting Money to 0 or if not possible block of all background that give Startmoney

- Vitality

+ Random Location (maybe this is to positiv?)

+ Background Point

 

(I think that by now its are to less points you can spend at the start and I was one of the people who sayed at the survey we haved short after release that the points are enough if no future backgrounds are added what happened in the last DLCs)

[Legate of Mineta]

Schwarzbart;

 

Ha! I like this one. It has some issues, though, related to Money (as you noted) and to a certain degree Vitality. I wonder if we can adapt it, though- we'll see.

[Schwarzbart]

Could you please add a Day Report Message when a deliverey from a catalog order arives?

Edit: I would love if Katja Quinnecht stand out in the Music Exam so how about giving her the Master of Music Abilitie at some point?

(In my curent game she and a other NSC haved "only" scored 103)

[Legate of Mineta]

Schwarzbart;

 

Feedback for Catalog delivery has been requested by another Academagian, and it's something we are looking into- but, no ETA yet.

 

Master of Music (Mistress?) for Katja is a good idea.

[Torolf]

Was going to make an ironic comment about dated graphics (I actually tend to love non-graphical games), when I had a cool, if impractical idea. Why not have (at least the option) of transforming your student's font as calligraphy skill increases? While I like that idea, I'm pretty sure that it's impractical on many levels. Then I was struck by another idea, a refinement on the first.

 

Why not (for future years; I know it couldn't happen for year 1) transform the inventory screen into a dorm room screen that changes as the level of differing parent skills increase? This would provide some immediate feedback and a further sense of accomplishment as one progresses through the years. Some skills would be fairly easy. (such as Forge, Music, Calligraphy, Athletics, History, Research). Familiar could be included with a nesting area. A spot for trophies earned from previous accomplishments. (Perfect attendance, Top academic honors, certain adventures, Winning the house cup from the last year. oops, wrong game )

 

I am a little worried that such a feature might run counter to the Academagia design specs, but I figure it couldn't hurt to ask, right?

[Nyaa]

^Already suggested that.

 

So it's basically like those Achievement unlocked badge thing that unlock/cause nice things.

 

Like having a background image change by maxing forge will change the background to a forge or you can set it in option, maxing music unlock more classier music, etc.

 

Calligraphy font change should be easy since it just tell the system to load another set of font if it's implanted.

 

Edit: Found Legate's answer

[Legate of Mineta]

To affirm: we'd love to do this, but I think this will be more for Year 2 than 1. Dorms, by the way, are coming in Year 2 and you will be able to decorate them.

[Klldarkness]

I just wanted to say, that this is easily the best game in the world. Not only is every single play through different, with each DLC, and patch, it gets better, and adds things to the game.

 

Plus, this game is literally built from the ground up, by the fans. I have not once seen a game actually take forum suggestions, and add them into a game the next month. You just don't see that. Ever. EA literally spends more time messing the sims up, then adding what the fans would like to see in the game. But here, at Academagia, i can see that it's different.

 

So, without further blathering from me, i would like to say thank you. This game, forum, and actual user friendly forum/game, is literally a pc gamers dream.

 

 

Suggestions:

 

WARNING!!! There are spoilers below here!!

 

 

Wands and Staffs:

 

In one of my games, i managed to find a Dragon-Bone Wand. My first thought was "HELL YEAH! This thing is going to cause some damage!!!"....Yet i later found out that it didn't really do anything, which was more surprising then anything.

 

 

So, my suggestions is, to take the wands in the game that aren't just normal wands(Like the aforementioned Dragon-Bone Wand), and perhaps add extra effects to them? Like:

 

Dragon-Bone Wand

+1 to agility

+1 to all Fire related spells.

+1 to 3 Random subskills under Gates(Or Mastery)

Breath Of Fire spell learned.

 

 

 

These would of course be equip bonus's. Meaning, as long as you have it in your hand, it gives these bonus's. My reasoning behind it is, is that Dragons are clearly feared in the world of Academagia, so having a wand made from a Magical Creatures Bones would naturally give some sort of bonus to a persons magic. Being evil Dragons, well, i naturally think the bonus's should be geared towards dark spells and such.

 

-----------------------------

 

 

A quest to get a Wand/Stave. Seeing as how their are clearly alot of magical creatures out there in the world, i would think that an Adventure to make a wand would be fun, and interesting. I'm not very good at writing adventures and stuff yet, as i am still working out the whole exit thing, but i will have one for this idea in a day or so, once i feel that it sounds appropriate.

[Legate of Mineta]

Klldarkness;

 

Thanks! We have a lot of fun with player suggestions- and we're gamers too, so we know how it is.

 

I'll pass your suggestion of the Dragon-Bone Wand over to the content team- it sounds reasonable.

 

A Wand/Stave Adventure is a great idea- but I think that will have to be a subject for an entire DLC, if we do that- there would have to be a good variety you could choose/acquire.

 

Thanks!

[Klldarkness]

Seeing as how most adventures have 3 to 5 choices, would 3 adventure lines, with 3 to 5 different choices/wands, be sufficient?

 

That would be 9 to 15 Wands and Stave's.

 

Say, 7 special ones(not counting current ones already in game), and 2 to 8 normal wands/Stave's, but made from different woods thus giving them different abilities?

 

If this is sufficient, then i would gladly write the entire adventure line for all of them(Perhaps with a bit of help from some other people? ). I would think that with the new wands and stuff, and the adventures, that would be enough content for a DLC, right? Let me know what you think, and i shall get to writing asap.

[Legate of Mineta]

Klldarkness;

 

Wow! Well, if you want to attempt it and publish it here, we'll adapt it for certain.

 

Can't wait to see what you come up with!

[Klldarkness]

I might not be able to create the mod itself, but i can surely write it, and then get someone else to make it, and publish it. My computer is single core, and after ten hours, was still only at 45%. And that was a simple cheat mod. Dx

[Legate of Mineta]

Klldarkness;

 

Sure- and if you want to post it here, under the Modder's forum, we'll adapt it, too.

[Klldarkness]

Awesome. I'll get right on to writing it. I'll try and get it to be as equal as possible, without making them all the same. EXPECT ME BACK IN A WEEK!

[Legate of Mineta]

Klldarkness;

 

Break a leg!

[Beefeater]

Attributes are critically important. There should be some way to make the following very prominent in character creation, especially the very first time a player loads the game (if you could keep the Passa Calle playing through character creation that would be a plus as well ) :

 

• 
   
  
• Attributes determine how fast you learn other skills; the higher the attribute, the faster you learn.
  
• Don't choose classes that correspond to low attributes until you're familiar with the game. You will advance slowly, score poorly in class and discover that many of the adventures and random events test the class skills at which you now suck, so you can't complete those either.
  
• Attributes can be improved by spells. I'd mention a few simple ones and the skill that unlocks them e.g. 'The very pious can cast 'cleanse and remake' to improve their attributes across the board'.)
  
• Even if you don't spend one point to buy a familiar, you don't have to go through school alone...
  
• Once you've mastered a skill, that's not the end. You can research a skills you are very good at to advance further, for a special bonus.
  
• Mention the paramaters for variables somewhere prominent - maybe as a popup before page 2 of the character creation screen, where players are choosing their backgrounds. e.g. "Most variables range from 1 (poor) to 10 (as good as a first year student can hope to get), but [x, y, z] variables range from 1-[whatever. I think parental approval is 100?]. In very special circumstances, some skills can be turned up to 11...
  

[Legate of Mineta]

Beefeater;

 

Ah, you enjoy the Passa Calle too, eh?

 

These are excellent suggestions for more and relevant information for the Player. I think these and other suggestions will be incorporated into the new Character Creation screen for Year 2, but I am not sure yet if we will be able to extend this retroactively to Year 1. Still, it's very useful information to have, and noting specifics is always helpful.

 

Thanks!

[Harlander]

Hi there! I grabbed the game after reading about it on RPS and playing the 30 minute Spoon demo. Just let me say: congratulations on a wonderful, compelling game.

 

Anyway, I've a suggestion, and hopefully it hasn't been already made (I got about 20 pages through this thread before I ran out of energy ):

 

Would it be possible to have an updating display of spell difficulty on the spellcasting action - showing the difficulty taking into account any Phemes you may have added, and possibly colour-coded by chance of success?

 

Another thing I had trouble finding was the colour-coding itself. Is the order of the colours explicitly described anywhere? It doesn't seem obvious to me, for example, where black comes on a continuum from green to red.

 

Thanks!

[Legate of Mineta]

Harlander;

 

Thanks!

 

It's a great suggestion, and one which has already been made. We're hoping actually that you will see it in game very soon.

 

Color coding goes from: Green (least difficulty) - Blue - Black - Orange - Red - Purple (practically impossible.)

[kazooka]

This has almost certainly been mentioned before, but I'm not reading 45 pages of this.

 

Instead of making you "sacrifice" a member of your clique if you can't continue on an adventure, let them use one of their skills. That would go a long ways towards making your cliques feel like an integral part of your character's life, and not just an arbitrary selection of names.

[Schwarzbart]

You already automatic use the best Roll of your Clique in Adventures and the Color coding only shows the best roll of the Clique, at last if I know it correct.

(I.e. in my RPG my Char didn't have Enchant but one of my Clique haved it at a good level so automatic the Atribute+Skill of the NPC was used)

So sacrifice is no good thing to do because you abuse your clique member!