Redflash
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Dreadlord Ascension survey results
🕑 Added 2023-04-03 22:50:45 +0000 UTCFirst of all, thanks to everyone who took the time to complete the survey! It is still possible to do so if you want to pitch in.
It has now been one week since the survey were made available and before I release the survey to the blog for even more feedback, I wanted to get back to you guys with the results.
Now then, long post ahead!
Question 1:
While I do think Radian was a bit on the weak side for the being the first story and needed to be fast paced to quickly introduce characters and beef up the roster, I'm happy to see you guys enjoyed and I definitely think Dregan manages to be one step above Radian so I hope you guys will enjoy that one too!
Question 2:
This one I was a little scared of to be honest. Strategy based games are not for everyone and I can understand why some people wouldn't like that genre. That's why we're trying to keep the game fairly easy for the main story (more on difficulty down below) which brings us to the next question.
Question 3:
For the majority of it, it looks like we managed to hit the sweet spot with Radian. In terms of difficulty for most stages. The story will get a little harder but it will slowly ramp up which should give players the chance to adapt and use the skill system. We're not going to make the main story that hard and will adjust if need be.
Question 4:
Really happy with this one too even though we could have been more in-depth for this question. Eventually, for the next survey, we're going to split up the question for different kind of art there is in the game (pixel animations, arena animations, portraits, affinity animations, etc.).
Question 5:
Very good numbers on this one too, which means we're now on the right track with Dreadlord Ascension. We do have some little elements we're going to add which, in our opinion, should make the game more enjoyable and those elements will be introduced in Dregan.
Question 6:
I was honestly expecting more people to vote blue but I'm glad the game itself is important for a lot of people!
Question 7:
Without a doubt, the demon takes the win haha. I'm surprised at how well Soren did though, I expected him to be in the least favorite but the votes are fairly balanced which I'm happy with.
Question 8:
Now this one here is a little more indicative that one character in particular stands out and that's Asker. I think part of the reason he's not as liked is because he didn't have as much screen time as the other characters (his time will come for a world we've planned already). To give him a chance, I'm also adding a new random event in the next version between him and Fenris because Fenris suffers from a similar yet slightly different problem in my opinion.
Question 9:
Alastor being in the lead is a little surprising but also not entirely unexpected since he's still a little mysterious. You guys will get a bit more of him soon enough though but even after what we've made, he'll get more time in the spotlight as he is one of the character who will lead to a Dreadlord approval later on.
Question 10:
With Soren and Zel being in the lead, I feel like you guys are trying to tell me that you like when Cervius shows the new guys what their role clearly will be while teasing them in the process about either their new life or new perverted body so I'll try to keep that in mind for some of the next training scenes.
Question 11:
Soren taking the crown for this one. I feel like Cervius being kind to him during the scene along with the setting worked quite well. I do try to have each scene fit the character's preference and I'm glad to see they've been received pretty well.
Question 12:
Kinda hard to determine much out of the small sample of random scenes we had and still have in the game, but since you guys liked the threesome, I hope you'll enjoy the new threesome that was added to the game xP.
Question 13 and 14:
One thing standing out to me from these results are the numbers the Leif and Shade animations did despite being characters not getting as many votes as the others. I think this has to do with the theme of those animations and having multiple characters in a scene.
Another notable observation from the results are the animations with dialogues generally doing a little better. I do think dialogues can add some extra flavor to animations so I'll keep doing it when appropriate.
Question 15 and 16:
Some interesting results from those questions. Celestial Gate stands out as being both the most liked and least liked stage. However, overall, the least liked stages gathered much less votes which can be a good indicator that most people didn't dislike the stages all that much.
With 2-6 and 5-5 being the clear winners for most liked, I do think this tells us players like when the maps have a bit more complexity which we'll try to do for Dregan without overdoing it or making the maps too hard.
Question 17 and 18:
For the random missions, I think it stands to reason that what's being liked best are the simple and not too challenging missions providing a decent reward which can be understandable as those need to be farmed. Missions with chests have been generally more liked so we'll keep it in mind for the next batch of missions and try to put some extra rewards here and there to lessen the need to farm over and over.
Question 19:
Now here's an exciting one and I clearly Sci-Fi is winning and while it will take over a year to get there (maybe 2025? xD) I reaaallly want to do a Sci-Fi world and already have some ideas for it, so I'm glad to see others who want this. The two clear stand out for are Steampunk and Historical though, I wouldn't have expected those to win so I'll have to consider them for the future.
In the current plan that we have (plans can change), it would be:
Dregan -> Smaller world but Modern themed -> Fantasy Warring world -> Smaller fantasy world with a twist, delving more into Cervius's and another character's back story
After this 4th world which is important to the main story, we would arrive at the branching point in the game where new worlds would become available and we can go in whichever way we want.
Question 20 and 21:
In this section, I will pick some of the feedback that was given in those questions and give some additional information about what we're planning to do.
1Q: "Not much, but maybe some kind of threat that seems like an actual problem for Cervius, since he seems to have almost no issue dealing with things when he actual directly intervenes."
1A: I can understand this and Radian was made to be the "easy" world. When Cervius will start going up against other demons, that's when things are going to get rougher for him and this will happen soon. We also have a twist for the world after Dregan that will put him in a different position haha.
2Q: "A balance of the old characters and the new characters. I don't want to leave the old characters behind."
2A: This is a valid concern. That's why we have the random events, but also, in each world, I will try to bring in some of the characters from the previous worlds. Also, with the game's regular progression, you could usually do the affinity/training of characters while also making progress on a new world.
3Q: "I'd like to add different costumes for the heroes, just like palestra."
3A: This will happen, however, I want to give the costume some reason to be there, but like I said, it will happen.
4Q: "Exploration and lore of the devil world as well confronting other dreadlord(the world have literal portal networks the hub castle is too bland). External conflict like an inter-dimensional war. A branching path a certian world might take depending on combat/choice. Grim dark false paradise as a world setting and exploring Cervius relationship with forming pact with human."
4A: Branching paths is most likely not something we'll do due to the huge amount of work this entails. We're now putting multiple choice which can give hints to future events, little extra scenes (Sol being fondled by Cervius in the Dregan update) or fluff but that's probably the extent of it.
5Q: "I would like to see more of the demon world with a map and missions like the other worlds"
5A: As for Daemonheim, it will be explored later on when the story delves deeper into the Dreadlord approvals and the main story. For now, we're keeping it to smaller stuff but it's not impossible we'll add a faction with extra missions to do to get rewards or something like that to tide over the desire to explore that world Cervius is in.
6Q: "Could you port dreadlord ascension into android port?"
6A: This is still in our goals and I would love to have it on Android too because I think the game would be perfect for it (especially since we've made it in a way where only the mouse can be used to play)
7Q: "I'd like to know more about Cervius past, and the connection between White Blade and Dreadlord Ascension."
7A: There will definitely be a connection to it, however, at the current pace, I think the first connection will not come from those two games haha.
8Q: "I like to see the twink heroes resist at first but become submissive as they are trained - maybe expand upon prisminds and what they do to mind-break them?"
8A: Prisminds are playing an important part in how Cervius wants to raise his servants and they will be used later on too. Especially when Cervius moves on to making pacts with his servants.
9Q: "DDC corrupting his slaves (turning them into incubi)."
9A: This will happen when the pacts are introduced (should be in the last world I mentioned up above)
10Q: "I wish there was a bigger variety of kinks for the sex scenes"
10A: Honestly, after looking at them, I can agree with this and will try to expand upon it in later scenes. You still won't see some of the fetish I don't cover here, but I'm open to making a lot of kinks.
11Q: "I want to have a system to skip the day to the next day. because I play the character storyline but had to wait for the event to come, which had to play a certain level first, which was a long time It was a bit difficult for me to focus on reading the story of the characters."
11A: This is most likely something we'll add when Cervius's bedroom is added to the list of buildings you can make. However, there will be a certain limit for how much time you can pass before having to do a battle.
12Q: "the combat system is a little bit janky sometimes."
12A: We're aware, that's why we ask players to report this kind of stuff and with the addition of fast forward in the player phase, we hope it won't cause too many issues. We'll make changes where needed when we get feedback on it.
13Q: "Ad more sex scenes and porn :) Maybe make combat more porn oriented, like instead of sex being only a support action, make sex scenes when enemies or allies are deafeated? Like no one's getting killed, just beaten into (sex) submission?"
13A: I've had some requests like this, but unfortunately, due to the amount of characters + enemies in the game, it's simply not possible to do this in a timely manner. The arena was added to fill in some of that purpose but even then it's still limited to 1 character + 1 enemy (even if the quality of the animation there makes up for the limited options.)
While only Zel can fight in the arena for now, other characters will be added later. The arena animations are something to be done when there's some downtime (like when we're preparing to add a new world something like that)
14Q: "A place to look up sources of resources would be nice but isn't needed. Or perhaps a more clear reminder from Fenris on where to get materials? It would be good if the upgrades for the castle said what type of resources they will produce?"
14A: Thanks to this feedback, we're most likely going to add something similar to what's been asked in the next update if it's ready in time!
15Q: "This might be milking it but I feel like if your a returning player having to go through combat again and again can be a bit frustrating. I was wondering if a cheat win battle option would be available in the future"
15A: No cheat button is being planned but since you can now reuse save between versions, restarting should no longer be needed.
16Q: "Nope, just happy the difficulty increases as it gets higher, at least it feels like it does to me."
16A: This is what we were aiming for, and for those who would like the extra challenge, we are planning to add some sort of challenge tower later on which is completely optional but will provide harder maps for those who want to have a challenge (probably with some rewards like materials and the likes to lessen further the need to farm or maybe get skills of your choice).
This about completes the review for the surveys! I'm super glad with all the feedback with got and while I couldn't get through every question and feedback given, know that every bit helps at improving the game!
Thank you all and I hope you keep enjoying Dreadlord Ascension!
Comments
Redflash
You're getting a bit of Fenris in the next update (and he'll be there in the world after Dregan xP)
Tofu
Gimme Fenrissss ;-;
Redflash
this is because when you checked the "other" option, you could suggest one of your own ;)
NoxVentus
Thank you for answering all the questions! Also though I think question 19 broke on the poll. I didn't see any options other than those four red? I didn't hear any of those other responses until I saw your graphic which shows a single vote to the other options
Redflash
We tried making a hard mode but it caused some issues, so we resorted to making one difficulty but those who want a harder experience will get it eventually with the optional maps
Murderofhawks
I don’t know if it be easier to make a hard mode where enemy stats are increased instead of trying to balance the entire game for everyone.
Redflash
loll I didn't notice haha
Rocketman
Question 10 (Sex training) and 11 (affinity) both having exactly 69 answers is amazing.
