Maids & Masters v0.6.4 Release

Sorry for the delay on this. Ya'll are here for my game, not my personal life, so I won't get into it, but suffice to say the last few days have been really rough. Because of that, I don't have a lot to say, about Maids & Masters or otherwise.

One thing I do want to talk about is that enemies have been reworked. I noticed that as the new tiers of equipment opened up and levels were gained, if you didn't go through and kill absolutely everything before you moved on, those enemies became overly tedious to fight. It took more than a round of attacks to kill, say, a pack wolf, but they couldn't do more than 100 damage to most characters when they had 1000+ HP. So I tried to fix that.

For the most part, this means that a lot of enemies have less HP. Sometimes it's not significant and enemies have only 10% less HP, but there are plenty of enemies that have about 25% less HP, and a few that have as much as 50% less HP. Enemies will also have much higher attack on average, dealing double or more damage compared to what they used to. Overall, this should make combat should feel much faster but be more dangerous. This is going to be the most noticeable with Servant and Hold enemies, which were intended to have similar stats to party members, but had higher HP and lower stats. That got reversed, so now they have less HP than their equivalent party member, and roughly equal (or slightly higher) stats.

From my own testing, the overall difficulty of the game hasn't changed. It's still possible (if incredibly difficult) to get through the first optional Hold as soon as you gain access to it. You can still clear every mandatory fight without killing absolutely everything along the way. I was still able to play through all available content under-leveled and not using any items. If your experience is different, feel free to let me know - combat seems to be something everyone likes to complain about but has nothing to actually say, so this is me asking you to actually say something. Is this better or worse? Is this harder or easier? Does it need more work or are you bad at games? I don't know. You tell me.

Now for the changelog.

v0.6.4

Reworked the affection tracking system to be more dynamic and provide more interactivity.

Reworked enemy stats - affected enemies have lower hp, but higher stats.

Added the first part of the love shack repair quest (to be completed in a future update).

Added a wolf den to the Deep Wilds, as well as various small changes and updates.

Added an event to give guidance and help set up the next story update.

Added options to Griselda to allow her scenes to be repeated once unlocked.

Added more Contracts to Emily’s Shop, available after completing the current story.

Added encounters to the Deep Wilds that become available after certain progression thresholds.

Added encounters only active during the Haunt to the Deep Wilds.

Added new conversations to some Cumhaill NPCs, available based on progression.

Added a render to Ella’s introduction.

Added a render and made a few minor updates to Quinn’s conversation about Trophy 9.

Added renders to and partially reworked Jenny’s aggressive path introduction.

Added renders and made a few minor updates to Quinn’s introduction.

Added short stories to the collections of statues in Lothario’s first floor gallery.

Added a Hints & Tips section to the readme to attempt to clarify certain mechanics.

Added new interactions to objects that didn’t have them previously.

Added new fast travel options to certain fast travel points and updated names of some options.

Fixed a bug that incorrectly sent the player to the Haunt version of a map outside of the Haunt.

Fixed a dialogue bug for one of Viridius’ Maids that incorrectly detected you were aggressive.

Fixed a bug where a Freeze conversation could trigger out of order and soft-lock progression.

Fixed a bug that prevented collection of two items from Emily’s shop after buying the Contracts.

Fixed a bug where Quinn’s request didn’t appear complete or correctly subtract Scrap Wood.

Fixed a bug where the MC’s Northern Hold would incorrectly react to the Old Writ of Holdings.

Fixed a bug where butterflies would freeze when not moving.

Fixed a bug where sun shafts would allow traversing tiles that shouldn’t be traversable.

Fixed a bug where an image would not correctly erase during one of Beverly’s challenges.

Fixed a bug that placed the player in Haunt maps when recruiting Quinn outside the Haunt.

Fixed a bug that made it possible to traverse the railings in Lothario’s mansion.

Fixed a bug that caused Jenny to have the wrong dialogue during the Freeze in Teely’s presence.

Fixed a bug that prevented the fires in Griselda’s guest houses from functioning as intended.

Fixed a bug that skipped some of the dialogue for v0.6’s finale under certain circumstances.

Fixed several bugs that caused events related to the master bedroom to trigger out of sequence.

Updated some Freeze events to fix potential visual errors and soft-locks.

Updated the surveillance gargoyle to turn according to the player’s position.

Updated various aspects of the love shack maps to accommodate future updates.

Updated Griselda to support the future update for the next story segment.

Updated Emily to address some benefits and drawbacks of being enthralled.

Updated the Silcrow payout to accommodate the new equipment added.

Updated some Deep Wilds encounters to respawn if defeated after progression thresholds.

Updated the Wilds outside Lothario’s Estate and the village of Aimadh to be smaller.

Updated the Cumhaill farm side quest to not allow the same patch to be picked indefinitely.

Updated the wood trader in Ventíre to address trading for more wood than you can carry.

Updated Viridian Warden’s name to Viridian Defender to be consistent with similar enemies.

Updated Viridian Defender’s name to Viridian Warden to avoid confusion with the Hold enemy.

Updated Ella’s base critical chance to be 2% higher.

Updated the Deep Wilds Hold security system to have an audio cue instead of a text prompt.

Updated some skills to address potential duplicates between old and new classes.

Updated the security system north of Ventire to have an audio cue instead of a text prompt.

Updated a Haunted Wolf encounter to not be a Haunted Wolf when the Haunt is inactive.

Various minor dialogue, item description, map, and event updates.

Maids & Masters (& A Release Date For v0.6.4)

There's one thing left to do for the work I had lined up for v0.6.4, which is something I've had a number of requests for and have been working on in the background for some time - the trophy hint system. One of the biggest reasons it hasn't been put in place yet is because there's something else to it that I've always wanted to include that would act as a prelude to the feature unlocking, but that I couldn't figure out how to get that working without breaking other parts of the game. Given that it's a hint system for an optional part of the game, it never felt worthwhile to put in a feature for some players when breaking things would affect all players. 

 

After some consideration and iteration, I think I've landed on a direction to take it in, but doing it this new way means it might take me more than a few days to get it done, which in turn means that I either need to delay v0.6.4 by a week or drop the feature from the build and wait on it until the v0.7.x updates. I don't really like either option, but I think the better choice for the overall health of the project is for me to continue the in-depth playtesting I've been doing and focus on squishing bugs. 

This means the release date for v0.6.4 for Patrons is going to be this Friday, 5/27. If I manage to finish my playtesting and bug fixing with enough time to implement the hint system and the event that unlocks it, it will be part of v0.6.4. If I don't, it won't be.

A big part of the reason I want to move past implementing the feature if it doesn't fit into this build is that the background work for v0.7 is almost completely done. I still have sprite and face sheets to make, as well as one last map, some battler sprites, and the usual 100+ events per map so you can inspect the chairs to confirm that they are indeed chairs, but that's comparatively little work to the amount that's already been done. I'll talk more about what's coming in the weeks following v0.6.4's release.

The other piece of news is that I've updated my Patreon tiers. After looking over the page, I realized I was pretty terrible about telling you what to actually expect to get if you bought in, and getting closer to v0.7 and the end of Maids & Masters' first act means that I'm much better prepared to shift focus towards things that are smaller in scope and therefore easier to adjust according to things like Patron tier benefits (such as Estate customization and player outfits). If it's been a while since you looked at my Patreon page, I'd appreciate it if you gave it another look. Hopefully the messaging is improved and you'll have a better idea of what your money will get you besides my gratitude and an invite to the private Discord server.

Edit: If you've paid any attention to my Patreon, the release obviously didn't happen yesterday, and unfortunately it isn't happening today, either. Some personal things came up and made work impossible, so the necessary finishing touches aren't done. I'm working to get the release out to my Patrons as quickly as possible to avoid delays.

Maids & Masters (& Work on v0.6.4)

First things first, I want to thank people for the continued bug reports. Ya'll keep finding things that I wouldn't even think to look for, and I greatly appreciate all of you taking the time to bring those things to my attention.

My to-do list for current content is rapidly shrinking, so most of what's being done now is pre-work for v0.7. I've figured out some more complex formulas for damage calculation for the new abilities coming with the new classes, which has been a ton of fun to put together. A bunch of maps are also done, and some things are being put in place for certain trophies to be earned if they were missed the first time around, along with alternate versions for those quests if you already have the trophy you'd earn.

I'm not going to set a release date in stone right now, but I'm expecting it'll be out to Patrons either next weekend (around the 27th), or the weekend after. Depending on how many bugs I find (or are reported) between now and then, that might move closer or farther. I've also got more of my own playtesting to do, which might move things around more. Only time will tell.

Maids & Masters v0.6.3 Public Release

v0.6.3 is now available to the public. Links have been updated on the Downloads page.

For those interested, the changelog is here.

 

As an extra reminder, Lothario's Estate has been totally reworked. Maps are 30-60% smaller, and some have been removed entirely. If your save currently has you in Lothario's Estate, it is strongly advised you leave and save on the region map before loading your save in the newest version. Please check the changelog for full details.

Maids & Masters (& Following Up on v0.6.3)

The big parts of what I wanted to get done for v0.6.3 are finished and part of that build, but as I implied on Friday, there are a few bits I wanted to get done that had to get pushed back because there were some necessary fixing of bugs that needed to happen and get out to people sooner rather than later.

So, what's left? The love shack repair quest was a big thing, but because of the scope of it, the full functionality of that is going to have to wait for the v0.7.x updates. The first wave of repairs (that you need to do in order to unlock the later upgrade option) is now a complete "side quest," but it won't appear in quest tracking.

The rest is a little more subtle. There are some assets I'd like to make to have the gargoyle in the surveillance room move, there are some scenes I'd like to add renders to, there are some updates to the Deep Wilds I'd like to make to make the area worth revisiting every so often, and so on. It's nothing major, but little bits like that which I'm hoping will further improve the overall feel of the game.

It's hard to say how much will actually make it into the next build, because I also want to start getting some work done for the next story segment. A map preview is already part of v0.6.3, and instructions on how to get to it in-game has been sent to my Patrons, but it's not a lot of work so far and I'm still experimenting with some new features. I've got a better idea of what to do with certain story specifics now, but I still want to get a head start on things. I would really like to avoid what happened with v0.6 happening with v0.7. These updates are certainly larger in scope, but not so large that they take me upwards of three or four months to complete.

Maids & Masters v0.6.3 Release

It feels a little rushed to be pushing this out the same day as putting out the public release for the previous version, but now that I've finally had some time to put into a more in-depth playtest... Hoo boy, v0.6.2 was way buggier than I intended it to be.

Most of the bugs should be squashed now, at least through all the content I've been re-working for the last two builds. Speaking of, this build includes the Lothario rework. As with the previous build, it is strongly recommended that if you have a save currently inside of Lothario's maps, save elsewhere in the old version before you load in the new version.

Pushing this out as quickly as I did does mean there will be a v0.6.4 update, but I'll likely take my time with that one. More on that on Tuesday. For now, here's your changelog. Download links will be up on the Patron-only Discord server as they finish uploading.

v0.6.3

Reworked Lothario’s Estate; maps are smaller and some events may have moved or reset.

- Lothario’s hidden attic has been updated with new events and a new reward.

- Hints on how to find the hidden attic have been added.

- The main attic has been completely reworked and provides more exploration rewards.

- Asking about the secret attic after finding it now has a bigger impact on negotiations.

- Added three new introduction renders for Alice.

- The Servant’s quarters have been removed from the grounds and absorbed into the mansion.

- The “south wing” rooms have been removed, with the NPCs there being moved elsewhere.

- The bookshelves on the Estate have been updated to correctly count towards Trophy 9.

- Updated the dialogue for all of Lothario’s Maids.

- The western attic has been completely reworked and provides more exploration rewards.

- Updated the dancing Blondie’s behavior if you accept Lothario’s offer for her to entertain you.

Added events to Lothario to react to events happening at the Amaira Estate.

Added an instance of Bianca to the guest room in Lothario’s mansion.

Added missing Escort options to later instances of Teely.

Added fast travel options to the exit of Cumhaill.

Fixed a bug where the bonus for 10+ wolf pelts in Cumhaill sometimes wouldn’t trigger correctly.

Fixed a bug where some Scrap Wood objects would still delete with 99 in the inventory.

Fixed a bug where trees at the Augalamh pond wouldn’t add Scrap Wood to the inventory.

Fixed a bug where some Scrap Stone objects incorrectly gave Scrap Wood.

Fixed a bug where repairing the Master Bedroom could start earlier than intended.

Fixed a bug where entering the uncle’s Estate for the first time could cause the game to lock up.

Fixed a bug where a stair transfer in the uncle’s Estate would put the player in an invalid space.

Fixed a bug where Teely may transport the player to the wrong instance of the Master Bedroom.

Updated some tileset elements to better fit the tiles they occupy.

Updated gathering Scrap Wood to be a sound rather than a text notification for most objects.

Updated gathering Scrap Stone to be a sound rather than a text notification for most objects.

Updated “unlocking” sound effects to be a more appropriate sound.

Updated Emily’s shop so that purchasing more item Contracts (potions, etc.) gives more items.

Various other minor map, event, and dialogue updates and bug fixes.

Maids & Masters v0.6.2 Public Release

v0.6.2 is now available to the public. Links have been updated on the Downloads page.

For those interested, the changelog is here.

 

As an extra reminder, the uncle's Estate has been totally reworked. Maps are 30-60% smaller, and some have been removed entirely. If your save currently has you in the uncle's Estate, it is strongly advised you leave and save on the region map before loading your save in the newest version. Please check the changelog for full details.

Maids & Masters (& Progress on v0.6.3)

Oh, hey, a Tuesday update that's actually on Tuesday! Turns out I haven't forgotten which day of the week is which.

Lothario's rework has gone surprisingly smoothly. It's still taken me the entirety of the last 5 days to get everything done, but I'm down to just filling in the new things with new events, a playtest pass, fixing any bugs I find in there, and then it should be ready for the next build. I expected Lothario to be more complicated than the uncle's Estate because of the story content and event complexity, but so far it's been much easier. A surprise, to be sure, but a welcome one.

Once that's done, most of my effort is going to be on experimenting with possible solutions to reduce some of the tedium. I think I've landed on a solution I like, but actually implementing it is going to be a very tedious process, so I have no idea how long that's going to take. Hopefully it works out, because there are other places I'd also like to implement similar things to reduce tedium. After that, it's finishing up some of the newer stuff (like the rest of the love shack) and trying to give some attention to smaller things, but I can't say how much of that is going to fit in this next build.

 

Hopefully most of it, because while reworking and updating all this old content is necessary, it's not the most creatively fulfilling, and I'm starting to burn myself out a little.