GARAGE'S PROFILE

Thank you for trying my game, Marrend. As always, any feedback is appreciated.
Like on those spelling errors you mentioned.

author=Marrend
So! Gave this game a bit of a whirl. Not sure how long I've played, but, my system map includes the jump back to Sol, Bridgehead, Thera, Ether, and a mission in Zerg. Which is probably still very much the early part of the game.

That really is quite early in the game.

author=Marrend
I noticed a number of spelling and grammar errors as I played, but, sadly, I wasn't keeping track of them. As a strategy/tactics game, I half-expected combat to be on the slow side. However, I could feel the game lag in places (ie: the cursor highlight for the hexes sometimes took a bit to update to the mouse's position) when I was trying to move units.

Can you be a bit more specific on the situation? What kind of computer are you using (OS, CPU, RAM ... that kinda things), do you have a screenshot or mission for me to check (or better yet a save file) for figuring out what's slowing things down?

author=Marrend
I'm not sure if I'm a fan of having a "initiative" stat that determines the order in which units move in a turn, or not being able to see the status of my fleet out-of-combat.

Yeah. I can relate to that feeling ;) I wanted to try writing this kind of game is all.

author=Marrend
That aside, I can't help but to be impressed by how this could have come together. I don't pretend to know all that much about Renpy, but, the engine is certainly more designed for visual novels. Yet, here is a strategy title made with that very engine. Kinda makes me wonder how much work it took to even get to this point?

Thank you ;)

Ren'py is based on python and is rather generous about allowing to extend itself with the use of "pure" python code.

My games are really "python heavy", especially this one.

The whole strategy and battle stuff is hand coded from scratch by me using plain python.

Only dialogs and displaying screens is more-or-less like you'd expect from a ren'py game.

author=flowerthief
Yeah... Without inventing new conversations that weren't in the original game, I have no good solution for this. I could split up conversation stories that normally appear in the school phase into school or phone, or provide both a school and phone version, but implementing either strategy could get ugly.

When in doubt: don't. As I understood your motivation, this project is more or less about translation / porting to HTC and not supposed to be your fanfic or such. So it's probably best to stick to the original as much as possible.

Ikr? It was one of the reasons I selected Shizuka to be in the pack. Those exchanges are fun, especially when the pc starts gaslighting her with double entendres.

Sounds like I should try being a little bolder next time ...

As for general feedback:

They should show more variation in facial expressions during events. The way you did it with the original cast of HTC - these girls felt really like they were ALIVE. Your new characters lack a fair part of this quality. (And yes I do know how much easier this is said than done)

On my first (and up to now only) run I got Mizuho and Miko more-or-less without trying and (with plenty of luck and not before DAY 125) Shizuka. I missed out on Mayumi somewhere and failed to try getting closer to Reiko. (At least I gathered some pointers about where I failed them - I guess)

I consider this "balanced" in the sense that Mizuho (and to a degree) Miko are seemingly meant to be easy and I was concentrating on Shizuka, who's supposed to be hard to get.
So only almost getting her in a normal-length game on the first try is about perfectly paced. (If I went for her again, I'd know what to do better to speed things up).

For my taste there were a few too many panty shots, frankly. But all in all the GC were a nice addition to the game, made things a lot more interesting and relatable.

And I'm a sucker for endings (yeah that's probably just me). The three I watched provided a nice glimpse on how things will play out after the end but they're pretty short.

Minor bug. If you talk with Shizuka about computers you'll get an event in the sick room where the last few sentences of her part of the dialogue are "spoken" by Miko.

"If you can't decide yourself, it's okay to imagine that you're doing it for the sake of a girl. I think you'd best decide soon."

I would be more than happy to test anything you allow me to, since I greatly enjoyed your original content (and this game as a whole).

I probably should warn you that I'm not a native speaker of English, though.