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Premise
Reniat returns to her home village after years away at boarding school to find that the village is nearly deserted. The mine that the village depended on heavily for boosting its economy and tourism has been overrun by monsters and no one has bothered doing anything about it. Having trained as an adventurer, she decides to see what she can do about reviving the town and making a name for herself in the world.

Homework Salesman is a life simulation game with an emphasis on dungeon exploration, completing quests, crafting new equipment and items, and befriending the people in town. The game takes inspiration from the Rune Factory and Atelier series.

Features
  • Befriend each villager by talking to them every day and giving them gifts. Higher friendship levels allow you to learn each NPC's personal story and can also gain you access to new shop items, skills, hidden goodies, and more.

  • Unique items means that each item in the game is treated as a separate object. You can rename equipment, find rare versions of them, upgrade and repair them (weapons have durability), and even enchant them. You can have several iron swords each with different enchantments on them.

  • Six unique crafts: Cooking, Smithing, Tailoring, Enchanting, Alchemy, and Construction.

  • Quests are divided into two categories: story quests that propel your adventure forward, and side quests that are procedurally generated.

  • Features a world encounter system where you can find random events in field maps or dungeons, such as traveling merchants or a bandit who'll offer to spare you for money (or you can kill him)

  • Enemy encounters and (most) treasure chests are randomly placed on maps. You typically won't find the same monster encounter in the same dungeon spot every time. Treasure chest contents are randomly drawn from a pool of items appropriate for the zone you're in. You can also find unique weapons with randomized names, stats, and enchantments.



Check out the official website for the game manual, credits, and more.

Check out the wiki here! http://homeworksalesman.wikia.com/wiki/Homework_Salesman_Wiki

Update Log:
1/27/14 - v1.2
- The last two bosses in the game will now put up an anti-frazzle shield if they get hit successfully by frazzle three times. This shield will dissipate after 2 turns. Note that it doesn't count just frazzling the boss, it will count if you frazzle any boss minions in the fight.
- The Treasure Hunter couple will now appear in the ending cut-scene if you saw their world event.
- Fixed bugs related to Liffely's cooking delivery service.
- Fixed bugs related to the 2nd Colorous Cave quest.
- Fixed a bug where if you somehow manage to defeat the 3rd floor bosses on the same day as defeating Plutonus, the magic shop NPCs would not move into town.
- Added several easter eggs, most of which are references to early testers and other people in the community.
- You now get a quest telling you what to do next if you defeat a certain field boss after defeating the last boss of the Caves for the first time.
- Fixed cut-scene bugs related to the Westerlys move in quest.
- Fixed the Beer recipe so that it tells you that you learned how to make Beer instead of Cheese.
- Fixed the case where using L/R would cause the game to crash when browsing recipes in the library.
- Other miscellaneous bug fixes that I don't recall at the moment.
Show

1/25/14 - v1.1d
- Fixed treasure maps that would have a blank name
- Fixed situation where you were not able to trigger the event with Zathus to turn in the 2nd Colorous Cave quest.
- Fixed Manaleech.
- Fixed several spelling errors in the database.
- Updated the manual to include all equipment and skills.
1/12/14 - v1.1c
- Added Xebec's 2 star event
- Added Treasure Hunters world event
- Added post-chapter 1 optional boss (this boss will be refined/tweaked in the next update as well)
- Nerfed Captain Colorous and Robert slightly
- Fixed the cooking delivery quest bug where turning the quest into Qwilte would cause it to be stuck in the quest log
- Fixed weapon renaming
- Fixed a rare case where Autorevive would cause the game to crash
- Fixed a whole bunch of other bugs

6/18 - v1.0l Fixed the patch system so that it does not rerun patches. Fixed one hole in Colorous Cave F5 that could drop you into a dead end.
6/07 - v1.0k Massive balancing patch. Tweaks to crafting, skills, and more.
5/20 - v1.0j Fixed a bug that would cause Raimur to disappear if you ran away or died.
5/16 - v1.0i Fixed the Monster Hunt: Robert quest so that it can be turned in. Also, fixed the quest so that Robert spawns on save files that were created in version 1.0a. Fixed an issue that could cause the party to spawn with you if you respawn from running out of AP. Fixed an issue that could cause Zathus's character event to not be turned off after completion. Added Battle4 bgm file to the Audio\BGM folder. Life Essence and Ressurect now have animations when used on party members.
5/14 - v1.0h Fixed the Super Grind quest so that it can be turned in now.
5/12 - v1.0g Adjusted the difficulty of the last two bosses and fixed an issue where you could get stuck if you fell down certain holes on the 5th floor.
5/11 - v1.0f Fixed a passability issue on the 4th floor of the cave that occurred after defeating Langian. Fixed an issue that could cause Warp to stop working after seeing a world event on the 3rd floor of the cave.
5/08 - v1.0e Added all RTP audio SEs and a couple other files that the resource checker did not pick up. Fixed an issue that could cause a chapter 2 event to appear.
5/07 - v1.0d Fixed an issue where an npc could be stuck in cave walls. Fixed the skill Templar Strike so that it attacks enemies instead of the party. Added the sound effect Cat.ogg for non-rtp users.
5/06 - v1.0c Fixed an issue where Zathus would stop talking to you during the Plutonus quest.
5/06 - v1.0b Fixed an issue that would cause a boss to appear too early in the game
5/05 - v1.0a Initial Release

Latest Blog

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Title Screen
Example of unique weapons (that I generate via script calls). These typically come pre-enchanted.
Archeia_Nessiah made this collage of screenshots of the game
Reniat has eight professions, and you can keep track of her progress in the Professions menu.

Tags

Posts

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Arirmind
129
07/21/2013 11:20 AM
author=Archeia_Nessiah
I never used Lightning in this game :o


What was your strategy vs Robert and 2nd coming of captain without any disables? O.o

Robert double AoE round will cripple your party hard and vs captain it should be pretty tough to heal as much as poison/AoE/dragons deal to you with just lesser healing potions (only consistent healing option as far as i know) while doing some dps unless you disable captain (at least occasionally) or your party is very buff.
edchuy
You the practice of self-promotion
1624
07/21/2013 12:52 PM
author=Arirmind
I crushed him! All I had to do was switch my 2 slotted mage robes from Reniat and Ankaba for unslotted high school girl uniform so my casters reacted first.

I didn't have the benefit of that equipment. Although, I do think speed is a major factor in the last 3 most important fights of the Chapter. The key party member for these battles for me was Ankaba, since the action I choose for her was most of the time was to cast either to Thunderball or Electrostorm.

author=Arirmind
That brings me to one issue with gameplay. Thunder spells are pretty much overpowered becouse they can stun bosses regularly and it feels that whole game is balanced around that mechanic and if you are not using lightning you will be in trouble.

I wouldn't consider them overpowered, since they don't cause that much damage compared to other attacks, since, generally speaking, enemies in Chapter 1 aren't weak to lightning. The statuses that can caused by them ("Frazzled" and "Stunned") are the real reason why they can be useful spells, although since they don't occur reliably, I think of them as being bonuses. Stunning would be useful if you use the Physical skill for your other party members that does more damage if the target has that status (I actually didn't use as a strategy since Frazzled is more reliable). Also, Frazzled is, in a sense, an improved Stunned, since it last more than one turn.

Fire spells are much more powerful in terms of damage, since most monsters in Ch. 1 are weak to fire. Plus, the potential to deal the "Burning" status is helpful. Water and Earth spells I found less useful, although for the Earth the possibility of getting "Blinded" is useful. Regarding, Holy and Dark spells I don't have them in most of my time playing, although I am aware that some of the enemies were weak to Holy. Final, I think "Poison" is a very valuable spell since it has a very low MP cost and produces a negative status reliably.

Regarding bosses, since you don't get the benefit of having their stats beforehand (except for the final fight), you have to experiment a bit to find out which Elemental spells will work. Some sort of skill to help scan the enemy's information would be useful to avoid having to do that.
Arirmind
129
07/21/2013 02:40 PM
I'm just saying that without thunder spells you would need to be so much stronger than without for last few bosses. You could play without sword or bow or any other spell school than thunder and have similar success. But once you drop thunder things get hard and you need much more grinding. Doesnt that sound like whole game is balanced around thunder OR game is hard and thunder is op? Or can you do, lets say 15 day, speedrun without thunder? I think that's close to impossible.

EDIT: My main problems comes from last 2 bosses (robert, 2nd captain). I was playing casually and leveling dagger skills on Reniat and blasting bosses with Jet spray with Ankaba untill i hit Robert. There is no way you can take his attacks everyround and be fine with just lesser healing potions. Same goes for captain. It is easy once you know what to do but isnt this quite a lot asked from casual gamer at chapter 1?
Arirmind
129
07/21/2013 03:36 PM
author=edchuy
author=Arirmind
I crushed him! All I had to do was switch my 2 slotted mage robes from Reniat and Ankaba for unslotted high school girl uniform so my casters reacted first.
I didn't have the benefit of that equipment. Although, I do think speed is a major factor in the last 3 most important fights of the Chapter. The key party member for these battles for me was Ankaba, since the action I choose for her was most of the time was to cast either to Thunderball or Electrostorm.

author=Arirmind
That brings me to one issue with gameplay. Thunder spells are pretty much overpowered becouse they can stun bosses regularly and it feels that whole game is balanced around that mechanic and if you are not using lightning you will be in trouble.

I wouldn't consider them overpowered, since they don't cause that much damage compared to other attacks, since, generally speaking, enemies in Chapter 1 aren't weak to lightning. The statuses that can caused by them ("Frazzled" and "Stunned") are the real reason why they can be useful spells, although since they don't occur reliably, I think of them as being bonuses. Stunning would be useful if you use the Physical skill for your other party members that does more damage if the target has that status (I actually didn't use as a strategy since Frazzled is more reliable). Also, Frazzled is, in a sense, an improved Stunned, since it last more than one turn.

Fire spells are much more powerful in terms of damage, since most monsters in Ch. 1 are weak to fire. Plus, the potential to deal the "Burning" status is helpful. Water and Earth spells I found less useful, although for the Earth the possibility of getting "Blinded" is useful. Regarding, Holy and Dark spells I don't have them in most of my time playing, although I am aware that some of the enemies were weak to Holy. Final, I think "Poison" is a very valuable spell since it has a very low MP cost and produces a negative status reliably.

Regarding bosses, since you don't get the benefit of having their stats beforehand (except for the final fight), you have to experiment a bit to find out which Elemental spells will work. Some sort of skill to help scan the enemy's information would be useful to avoid having to do that.

All this may change in future but what you do with damage or some negative statuses if you cannot stay alive? All you need is nice heal all and things get creative once again but at later stages of chapter 1 I feel that game forces you to play certain way. I didnt and i had to change if i wanted to proggress without unreasonable amount of grinding.

EDIT: "enemies at chapter 1 arent weak to lighting" and still it is arguably the most useful spell school at chapter 1. I still stand my believe that either:

a) End part of chapter 1 is balanced around the fact that you try to Frazzle the hardest bosses since you cannot reasonably take hits round after round and heal back up with resources available.
b) Game is meant to be very hard and Lighting school is overpowered and making game easier than intended.
edchuy
You the practice of self-promotion
1624
07/21/2013 05:05 PM
So, would it have been better if you could just get away with using the strategies you made before and won that way? By no means are the lightning spells overpowered, IMHO. They just provided us with a way to achieve victory. You overlook the fact that having the right equipment enchantments as well as upgraded items improves your chances of victory as well. Would you say that say that school uniforms are overpowered if they allow you to act consistently before your enemies? Just because something works in your favor doesn't mean its overpowered.

Whether there are other ways to defeat them, I don't know, since I only found out what worked for me. I still needed to make the right choices for most turn. In the end, it's a matter of developing strategies that maximize the damage you give, while reducing what you receive using the resources available and within the framework of the game parameters. The fact that you seem to be frustrated by those two final fights probably means that you were unwilling to try new strategies or maybe are just too casual a player. Perhaps, the developers need to implement an Easy mode, to handhold the casual gamer. :P

If you try fighting the 3 star monster in Lunarea Plains, you'll find out what overpowered really is! :O
Arirmind
129
07/21/2013 05:26 PM
Well i was having great time battling those out. Figuring that Acolyte staff is more needed than dagger in these fights and that agi is important. I was having a blast but just voicing my concerns that challenge spike might be too much for some players since game is just starting and there is so much to learn about mechanics and already your no-brainer "you 2 heal, you 2 attack" becomes useless before you have digested all the new possibilities with crafting/enchant/etc.

This is the most promising RPGmaker game I have ever played and it deserves to be played by "masses". Nice balance of a little easier quest dungeons/bosses and some insane optional ones would work for everyone.
Arirmind
129
07/21/2013 05:29 PM
Haha yeah that beholder. I have tried battling it out but no success. Cant get my agi high enough to be first and that would make it possible. I made like 1 million by crafting enchants and sunk it to my team but no hope. (you get black orb recipe after beating captain).

Any knowledge about how high bohelder agi count is? If you manage to beat him let me know! :D
edchuy
You the practice of self-promotion
1624
07/21/2013 06:04 PM
author=Arirmind
Well i was having great time battling those out. Figuring that Acolyte staff is more needed than dagger in these fights and that agi is important. I was having a blast but just voicing my concerns that challenge spike might be too much for some players since game is just starting and there is so much to learn about mechanics and already your no-brainer "you 2 heal, you 2 attack" becomes useless before you have digested all the new possibilities with crafting/enchant/etc.

This is the most promising RPGmaker game I have ever played and it deserves to be played by "masses".


So you actually figured out a few things along the way, as I suspected (perhaps you're not a casual a gamer as you think, since this game requires quite a bit of commitment). I understand your concern about the difficulty spike, but that's no excuse to "dumb down" things, especially when getting help is one click away, in this day and age. Also, I think you might be underestimating the "masses". The most probably reason I see they might quit is that it might take them too long to play for their taste (the first four days are a bit slow, compared to what comes afterwards).

How long did it take you to finish Chapter 1 and what level where your characters?

author=Arirmind
Haha yeah that beholder. I have tried battling it out but no success. Cant get my agi high enough to be first and that would make it possible. I made like 1 million by crafting enchants and sunk it to my team but no hope. (you get black orb recipe after beating captain).

Any knowledge about how high bohelder agi count is? If you manage to beat him let me know! :D


I think it's one those things you are not meant to be beat yet! I figured out something new: if you run away from battle, the new monsters you meet will be added to the Bestiary. You'll see how scary it is! :OOO
Arirmind
129
07/21/2013 06:27 PM
I was level 12. 120 days played but i spend a buttload of days maxing crafts and giving gifts to people and such. I was test feeling the game without hurry.

BUT about beholder: As long as your inventory spaces is enough i think you might be able to beat it. Switched to other apartment and now game is crashing again but these are my observations about beholder:

1) It will always react first
2) It strikes only one with physical attack
3) On my current party there is no character that gets 1 hit KO by it and my team is far from maxed potential
4) It takes painfully little punishments at least without any buffs/debuffs

So my plan would be something like this:

1) Have a good banquet of meals before fighting and then fill up inventories with potions/Life essences/portaple anvils (if they are usable during fights, if not then just spare weapons).

2) Max out on gear as much as possible (repair lvl 1 for gold and quick save / load for more elunium at places where you know it spawns). Good enchants will be Dodge and/or Bolster (attack% and dodge%). Not sure which one i would prefer as 6%. Beholder attacks are physical so if you mass up dodge enchants you should get many free rounds while evading its attacks but on the other hand you also need to get as much dps as possible before your weapons break down.

3) Everytime you get hit you wont die, but everytime one gets hit one should try to heal him/herself so there wont be wasted potions/turns if beholder strikes twice on same hero.

4) Egen / Xepec are main dps. Reniot / Ankaba lower its defence first and then try to fish up as many frazzles as possible. If possible arrange agilities so that they act last so egen/xebec wont cancel frazzle before next round. If dodge works like wonders you might consider maxing out on dps with Reniot / Ankaba as well.

Then its just a matter of endurance. Will inventory space offer enough weapons/anvils and potions/life essences. I`m not familiar with that "poison" spell you were talking about but if it gives poison state and you manage to hit that on beholder it could do massive amount of dps.
edchuy
You the practice of self-promotion
1624
07/21/2013 06:46 PM
120 days and only at level 12? You certainly took your time ...

Yeah, poison is very useful since I think it damages a certain % of HP per turn and never fails to be inflicted. Another thing to try would be to try to inflict "Burning" by using a fire skill, which does something similar to poison. Also, could try using the Earth spells try to inflicts "Blind" to make his attacks more likely to miss. Anyway, I don't think I'll deal with it until Chapter 2 is released. Let me know how it goes for you.
Diedrupo
StarCadet
2637
07/21/2013 07:32 PM
On a different subject, I am going to do some wiki updates later today. If anyone has suggestions for content they'd like to see, I could work on that first.
edchuy
You the practice of self-promotion
1624
07/21/2013 07:52 PM
I personally would like to see something about special encounters and events triggered by achieving new friendship levels. I'm curious to see how many I have yet to experience. I wouldn't be surprised if Arirmind has experienced them all already.
Diedrupo
StarCadet
2637
07/21/2013 08:50 PM
I have the special encounters for Merrill and Blackbird Forest already up. I'll add the Colorous Cave ones later today.
Arirmind
129
07/21/2013 11:19 PM
author=edchuy
I personally would like to see something about special encounters and events triggered by achieving new friendship levels. I'm curious to see how many I have yet to experience. I wouldn't be surprised if Arirmind has experienced them all already.

haha propaply not all (there are missable ones i now understand) since i managed to miss welcoming Thorton/Connie family first time around. Now i started again and have kept reasonable pace. Killed big slimy thing first time around going 2nd level and still now day5 going deeper to the mines. We¨ll see I end here today. Had to buy some gear early and now trying to save up 10k for day10 so I can buy maid to craft me as early as possible. She will craft me the best bases for lategame gear and i dont need to spend days leveling up blacksmith at all.

Yeah 120 days is a lot but most of that time was spend by: gift gift gift craft craft craft sleep - repeat for next couple months.

I dont think Beholder is no way near unbeatable unless he starts throwing some insane AoE spells later. The thing is that he will be having insanely hard time killing me and that is usually good recipe for succesfull fight. He will not 1 shot anyone and with very good gear many heroes may even survive 2 hits is my guess. Add there 12 slots of +6% dodge enchants for every single character and he wont even hit me very often (rolling lvl 2 recipe untill i get that). Only thing that concerns me is that he will take many hits before falls and my question here is will repair lvl 2 help that? Will it restore health on weapons between rounds or between encounters? If it works between rounds my resource problem is somewhat solved. Poison could speed up nicely but this all takes many days before I`ll be there with my new game (+ dont have as much time to play during week than during weekend).
edchuy
You the practice of self-promotion
1624
07/21/2013 11:28 PM
So how many actual gameplay hours were those 120 days? Yeah, every day, you need to check all areas in town plus outdoors at least twice: at the beginning and end of the day. Regarding the third mine level, if you get there too early, you might not be able to find Ankaba yet ... take advantage to go down the dead ends toward the end of the day.
Arirmind
129
07/21/2013 11:32 PM
Ah cant remember.. maybe +10 hours..? That save is on my laptop and cant check it. That is excatly the reason i cant check how repair enchants work please someone tell or check for me! TT

EDIT: also interested if portaple anvils are usable during combats.
shun
0
07/21/2013 11:32 PM
The game is cool but stressed at having to stay evolving professions. Would be a thousand times struggle to have to keep repeating the same actions. Already I'm getting terrified of cave. kkkk
edchuy
You the practice of self-promotion
1624
07/22/2013 12:23 AM
author=Arirmind
Ah cant remember.. maybe +10 hours..? That save is on my laptop and cant check it. That is excatly the reason i cant check how repair enchants work please someone tell or check for me! TT

EDIT: also interested if portaple anvils are usable during combats.

Are you serious? My 11 days took me just under 12 hours to play. What do you mean by saying you can't check you laptop and repair enchatments?

I have never crafted portable anvils since I never have been close to having the Smithing level (10) to craft the steel ingots which are needed to craft them. Instead, I decided to carry enough weapons to get me through the day.

author=shun
The game is cool but stressed at having to stay evolving professions. Would be a thousand times struggle to have to keep repeating the same actions. Already I'm getting terrified of cave. kkkk

Crafting is a bit of a necessary evil. The mine is not that scary ... unless you forgot to bring a torch.
Arirmind
129
07/22/2013 01:46 AM
I remember seeing 1XX at time so maybe its closer to 19 hours then! :P
But dunno.. lets say I crafted 100 days it doesnt take that long in game timer. My enchanter was over lvl50 so that much I crafted (had my own enchanter so didnt even have to leave the house untill storage of 150+25 orbs/essences were crafted).

Laptop is at my parents house and i see it next time maybe in 2 weeks. It`s ok i think i have my crafts up by then to test myself.

author=edchuy
I have never crafted portable anvils since I never have been close to having the Smithing level (10) to craft the steel ingots which are needed to craft them. Instead, I decided to carry enough weapons to get me through the day.

Thats how you normally do but against Beholder it is hard (if not impossible) to stack up equally good weapons so thats were anvils could help. Best would be if repair enchants would save up the space all along becouse fight will be long and i need as many potions/life essences as possible.
edchuy
You the practice of self-promotion
1624
07/22/2013 05:51 AM
I took at the World Events entry at the wiki and it seems I have experienced everything except Reniat's choice. Regarding Pitiful Slime, if you spare its life, I should note that the game deals with it as if you fled from the battle (10 AP cost) and it remains on the screen for you to bump into again. Otherwise, to me the other entries sound right to me.

Regarding the Characters, the Westerleys, Milinter, Yeardley and Jarrel are missing. Regarding the Easter Eggs, I missed the campsite one.

So Diedrupo, you seem to be doing the wiki on your own (under your alteralias) ... are there any particular things I could help you with?
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