Quick Survey on Game Changes

Thank you so much for stopping lurking! You brought up some great points and I'm very glad you took the time to write this. 1. It looks like the current portrait+faceset if going to remain. Which I am glad for, as I think it works fine. The vast majority of people seem to agree. 2. On minor NPCs, you really got me thinking about this, and we are all playing this game from Aylia's perspective (generally speaking). Meaning, I think I'll tackle this with that in mind. Would she take the time to learn peoples' names? I think she probably would, so I doubt I will go the JRPG route of "elderly woman" or "smelly vagrant," etc. I'll end up deciding whether having a default face is necessary for minor characters (we'll see how the poll ends up). But, unique names might be enough. This would actually speed things up, as finding portraits that meet my nitpicky views can be time consuming--even if I am not drawing them. 3. The wind-blown portrait is close, we'll see how things turn out. That said, if I end up doing option 4, I'd probably draw a new neutral portrait anyways. 4. Good points! I think you'll love what I have planned. If I implement the graphic changes, it would not be in a way that detracts from the gameplay bits. That is always my main priority.

YummyTiger Gaming

Just finished the survey, but figured I'd do something more than lurk the pages for once. 1) Changing Faces: I don't find the change disconcerting and voted to keep it as is. 2) Name and Face-plate: A bit more torn on this one. I'm of mind that if there is an important NPC, it'd be nice to have a face-plate, but it isn't necessary in the least. Unless we get bombarded with NPC names of Ashton, Ashley, Ashy, Ash in rapid sequence, they tend to not be easily forgotten. For example, we'll remember NPC "Juan" who gave us eye candy by pulling down the protagonist's top. We want to remember his name in case he will do more later. ;) Of course, I tend to be the type to remember names more than faces in person, so maybe I'm just biased. I'd rather more effort be available for the outstanding NPCs like Aylia or Bogwort to have reactions to these characters. A bubble with some sort of effect like an angry symbol or confused twirl above the NPC in-game would work if it is easy to implement, but I feel words often suffice for conveying NPC mood. 3) I actually like the windswept aspect itself -- how it added a sort of aloof demeanor to Aylia that you can expect from her interaction with commoners. It wasn't large by any means, and I'm certainly not an expert on how to draw things, but I did experience a slight Uncanny Valley feeling with how Aylia's body was positioned, as if she couldn't really relax within that position/perspective. I'm not entirely sure how to pinpoint that, though, so my opinion here is largely moot. :P 4) Hm...sorry in advance for more wordiness. Corruption is really a hard thing to tack because it really depends on the character and the player's predilections. For me, personally, I am attracted to the character's reactions to demands / situations more than a specific portrait for a set corruption and outfit. So if implementing this would cause events or new outfit / expressions to drop, I'd rather you not have to overextend yourself, which I'm sure most people can agree with there. On a more general basis, though, one person might like that Aylia might be wearing the same dress, but have a bit visible "naughty" underwear underneath that dress instead of the pose. Another might want her to let down her top and handle them quarts of love for all to see, so I suppose experimentation / future surveys may or may not be a good idea with that to see what the audience enjoys as far as standing portraits are concerned if it becomes a thing. Oh right, personal opinion to add at least some voice in a direction in case you were to go with this. I tend to be more for subtle changes in most cases than major ones so small changes to a single pose win out over multiple poses for one outfit for me. For example, at max pride, I'd expect Aylia to perfectly maintain a set appearance/standard in her portrait. Purely on the strap based example, it'd be nice for it to be a bit crooked and off to the side, then one flippantly or perhaps purposefully left down. For a more revealing outfit that may or may not be tied in with pride to even wear -- something that'd be great is for Aylia to be visibly uncomfortable or fidgety in it, but gradually get more comfortable / loose with it as she has more experiences (which I think you've mentioned you're going for anyway above). For her peasant dress, though, something as simple as her smile at a villager changing from polite to sultry goes a mile as morality is lowered (alongside that tantalizing strap falling with less pride especially) seems it would fit Aylia from what I've seen of her / know will be down the line. EDIT: trimmed 3 paragraphs to 2 because the third was unneeded

Firstly, thanks for taking the time to put it to the masses about your alpha feedback. Secondly, great questions. It'll be interesting to see what the overall opinion is on these.

InsaneBrain

There are a few issues with migrating all facial expressions to the standing portraits. 1. Workload. Aylia will be able to wear multiple outfits, and that would require around 8 unique facial expressions per outfit. Each outfit uses a new pose, so reusing facial expressions is not possible most of the time. Granted, I can often use parts (like eyes, mouth, etc.) which does speed things up. 2. RPG Maker. It is a pain in the ass to change the standing portrait frequently during conversations. RPG Maker has built in support for facial expressions, which work well, but portraits require either common eventing, manually inputting, or custom scripts. 2b. Additionally, things get complicated as the list of outfits expands. Meaning, I have to account for every outfit possibility in every conversational branch if I use standing portrait expressions. Just doing Normal, Angry, Embarrassed is already a lot. Whereas, if I use a standard faceset in addition to the portrait, the faceset never has to change and applies to all outfits. This is quite nice for me :-). The only reason I change facial expressions on the standard portrait at all is because it would look really strange to have the portrait smiling and Aylia angry. So, I kind of used a system where there were the major emotions (angry, sad, etc.) and then more detailed emotions on the facesets. (If that makes sense). 3. This would essentially eliminate the last option (the corruption clothing) as adding multiple facial expressions and 3 clothing variants would get unwieldy real quick. Overall, this is more for opinions. I want to see what you guys think as I move forward. Even if I don't change anything right now, I will take your thoughts into account. Plus, the more people who think about these things, perhaps there is a much more efficient idea I've not thought of--in fact, I guarantee there is :-).

YummyTiger Gaming

I think the only question that my answer wasn't found in any of the choices was the first one. Is it not possible to just migrate all of the facial expressions to the standing portrait? It would be a bit of work, but significantly less so than where the last question may end up going.

Solar Pants

On your second point, I was never planning on doing custom portraits for every NPC. That would be way too much work for not enough reward. I'd just figured I would at least find some kind of face out there. Now though, I'm thinking it might be best to leave them faceless as the default art could be distracting. I'll be curious to see what people ultimately vote. Yea, your third point is the same mentality as some of the feedback I received. I've been reluctant to change it, cause I like the wind-blown look. Granted, it is far from neutral, it was the first graphic of Aylia that I drew and really liked. Damn you sentimentality! For your last point, the changing standing portrait would be tied to the pride metric, and would be fairly simplistic in the implementation. While the actual corruption in-game, and how it relates to H scenes, is quite complex; this would simply be an extra indicator for the player (and a little eye candy). My hang up is I don't think I would want to simply redraw clothing on the same body template, I'd want to draw new poses. That would mean 2 new poses per outfit, new facial expressions for poses that did not fit with current faces, and planning for how NPCs might react to her changed appearance. It would be a sizable commitment.

YummyTiger Gaming

Me being the devious bastard that I am, I'd still probably have some minor scenes with these minor NPCs. Just to be mean! Haha :-) I am putting a lot of emphasis on other areas. But, I liked the corruption idea and thought I would see how popular it is with everyone. Even if I ultimately decided not to add that workload, if it was extremely popular, I might plan for it in future games.

YummyTiger Gaming

1.) I voted to keep both the face graphic and the standing portrait. I enjoy having the extra facial expression information available, do not find it confusing, and would not like to either lose it, or to cause additional CG work on doing every standing portrait in every expression. That being said, if you don't mind doing extra CG work, having the expressions align between the two windows would only add to the game. 2.) On one hand, it'd be potentially nice to see every single NPC have a face. On the other hand, as a player, it's also not a bad thing to know right away which ones are only map filler / world color and which will have more of an impact on the story (plus giving some of the "background filler" NPCs a minor event or two on occasion could be a good way to keep players on their toes). That being said, this one more or less boils down to how much work each option is for you. Whatever causes less overall work is what I'd go with. For now, I voted "keep status quo", because I assumed that was less work. 3.) I don't mind the wind-blown look, but I will admit it's a little odd when Aylia is indoors. It also conveys something of a breezy, happy-go-lucky persona for Aylia, when she seems a bit more serious, at least here in the beginning (getting rid of the potato sack at long last is grounds for being temporarily happy, but overall, she is the only one of her species awake and possibly alive, in a world that has changed in just about every way from her past, in a decaying village that indicates those changes have not been for the better for all denizens of said world, and is surrounded by pervs...) - having something a bit more suited for the Queen Grumpypants persona might be in order. 4.) I also like the idea of Aylia's corruption level being reflected in her portraits, despite the extra work involved. You have said repeatedly that there is not much in the way of corruption for Chapter One, though I could see it adding some time for CG development as the additional chapters come in - would you lay the groundwork for those portraits now in the Chapter One release, or add them as they become relevant? Also, would this only be based on Pride, or would the Morality stat also affect Aylia's appearance as well?

I actually meant to ask people to write their thoughts here. I'd like to hear the thought process behind your choice, as these are some fairly important gameplay components. Thanks!

YummyTiger Gaming

1: I like the changing faces. I don't find it overly distracting when they have different expressions, and it's typically very obvious when next to the text what she is reacting to. 2: In a perfect world, I would prefer every NPC had a name and faceplate, because I dont like in some RPGs where you can tell exactly who is actually important because they have a proper name. HOWEVER, I also understand that this is a waste of your time that could be devoted to better projects. Therefore I vote to keep the art consistent and remove the name plates of lesser NPCs. 3: I agree that the 'default' stance is a bit too dramatic. But I hope that the default stance doesn't become just a squared-profile. Maybe a walking stance? 4: I like the idea of outfits slightly changing for different levels of corruption. How much work will this actually be? Maybe you could just incorporate it into the neutral stance? EDIT: I just wanted to write these thoughts here because I prefer to explain my rationale.

thswherizat

Oof. This was a tough one for me. Gameplay-wise I'll have to go with no images for minor characters, that way as a player, I know that I won't have to bother too much with them. It's one of those minor things that can help keep a player on track and prevent them from getting lost. And the portrait change with corruption is a really good idea and I'd think that NOT doing it would make people notice under a negative tone, especially if you are putting a lot of effort into other facets.

PhatsM