sierralee
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August 31 Update
🕑 Added 2025-08-31 17:00:10 +0000 UTCOkay, I'm going to abbreviate the part about what I've been getting done in order to focus on stuff I'll be working on next. Brief reports:
Tons of things are done, like tweaking the first visit to Stineford and making the player visit Withered Mountain. Won't cover them all; see the next update notes for full accounting.
After consulting with optimizers on Discord, I've made a number of changes that make the investment system more forgiving. The math won't change the optimal route, but for those struggling, it will be easier to catch up.
DLC plans are taking steps forward, now I just need to figure out how to make Steam put new files in your folder. You would think this would be easy, but apparently not. =/ I'm going to start by adding an image to the Yarra's Thanks DLC as a test.
Future Tweaks
That said, I mostly want to talk about the stuff that is still under consideration. Just various things that could potentially add a little more polish before new players start experiencing TLS for the first time. Some are likely, some unlikely, and some could use player input.
1) I went to a lot of work to replace the game's music, for all the good it did, but two musical stings never got changed: the victory fanfare and the inn theme. Anyone think they're worth replacing? In theory it could show more attention to detail, but in practice I suspect no one will notice.
2) Another generic aspect is the battle backgrounds, which are mostly straight from the engine. I'm again inclined to think the change wouldn't have much effect, but I'm willing to put time into these if it makes the game more cohesive in a way that players enjoy (for example any of the maps where the options available to me just weren't a very good match). Some players have already offered little edits to make things more consistent, like removing electric lights.
3) Another element I've long considered changing is the balloon icons, since they're default assets seen in every game. Just replacing the icons wouldn't do much, but I've wondered if it would be possible to break open the current system to play animations that are larger than the base type? I'd need coding help on this, though.
4) I don't want to repeat the fetish talk from two weeks ago, but another thing I'd considered to make the game more comfortable for more people is to give Robin terminology options. Now, the core events wouldn't change, but I could potentially use a variable so that Robin doesn't use the word "father" after their decision. I'm willing to go through and change a bunch of lines... but someone would need to find all the instances. There are many normal/previous uses of "father" so it isn't as simple as just searching all the instances. Right now my feeling is that if someone else doesn't take that step upon themselves, it won't happen.
5) Wait, is that it? There are other things I'm doing, but none of those involve questions. So I guess this is an invitation for if people have been holding back on requests or suggestions. No guarantees, but I have time to listen.
I have some longer posts to do eventually (the time investment one, and another about TLS content after TLS), but I have been focused on work for multiple updates now. Work continues!
Comments
Sierra Lee
Thanks for looking into things! You may be right... I have a number of QoL or minor polishing things ready for the upcoming build, but after that I may be out of things to meaningfully change.
Rachnera
The way balloons work seem customizable (cf Sprite_Character#start_balloon and Sprite_Character#update_balloon)... but the fact most people, me included, had a hard time remembering these balloons even existing in the first place suggests it to be a non-optimal investment even at a meager Pron cost. Likewise, I'm not convinced new battle backgrounds would have much of an impact. https://himeworks.com/rmvxa-scripts/ has a few potential cool scripts (like https://himeworks.com/2013/11/battle-sprite-zooming/) but I'm not expecting anything revolutionary there either. In general, law of diminishing returns seems to be in full effect by this point of the dev process. Not sure there are any "easy" changes left that would significantly improve the experience of new or veteran players.
Sierra Lee
You're discussing several things at once here. There are actually players who try "disaster runs" and make things as bad as possible, just to see all the consequences. Indeed, the game doesn't have any true dead ends based on such decisions. What I'm trying to improve is the player experience. Not everyone is as sanguine about the game as you are, and there are plenty of people posting, "Unless you follow a guide you end up with no money and everything is miserable and the game is awful." I don't really agree with this on a fundamental level, but I do think they're correct that some players can put themselves in a bad situation economically. With the changes made, people who made terrible investment choices can now dig themselves out of the hole.
Revy77710
Sorry again for the doublepost, but I have to ask about the whole "...make the investment system more forgiving.". I'm at the start of Chapter 4 and yeah, a bulk of investments are here. But what are the struggles? At first, I was kinda paranoid that I might screw anything up. Needless to say, I screwed up a bunch of stuff at the start of the game and later down the line. But what is the actual fear? What is the worst that can happen? I don't think you let the players play themselves into a wall and it doesn't feel that way... so far. There are consequences, yeah yeah... but the game still goes on. Is the problem that people might get stuck at one point or that they can't please any NPC with their problems? Even if you would lose a specific person (I thankfully didn't), the game goes on. The player might miss out on a bunch of bonus items and what not, but isn't the biggest loss of spending ProN unwise only story related stuff? Like yes, of course there are gameplay elements affected, but even here: the game goes on. I've had the idea about a playthrough with the worst decisions, only to see how beatable the game still is. Or how about this: What is the worst that could happen if you won't spend any ProN and don't use your percentage funds at all? Of course, it's not recommended, but just hypothetical, since this would lead to the worst possible outcome for everything.
