Summers are Bad, Yo

So, summers apparently suck for HC.

Second summer in a row where Real Life butted it’s ugly, ugly head into my development cycle in a big way. At least it won’t be as awful as last summer’s accident- our roof has been gutted and replaced, the leaky wall has been repaired. and the testers are busy hunting for bugs like a hungry primate. Now if only I had a functional kitchen….

No matter. Just rest assured- the update is on the way!

27 Replies to “Summers are Bad, Yo”

  1. I thought id leave this here I enjoy reading your blogs because I almost never get a chance to Hear the developer problem outside of programming and your experiences Has taught me lots oh and I love your posts you would make a good comedian.

    1. Thanks. I don’t know about being a comedian though, I’m okay at public speaking but when I fall apart in front of a crowd I fall apart pretty hard. Also, not great at thinking on the fly, so a heckler could just destroy me.

  2. Thanks for keeping it free, even for people like me.
    I dont mind real life getting in the way since you are very active about letting everyone know the reasons.

    *one note* Can’t you let us grind a little bit? It is starting to feel like every single day has to be laid out perfectly in order to be able to get all quests/scenes/party members/ affections?

    1. I don’t mind having the game free. Honestly, if I can make enough off crowdsourcing to keep ll my games free forever, that would be a dream, but it’s also a lot to ask from the fanbase.

      I’ve been toying with a solution for grinding, stay tuned.

      1. Maybe just add an NPC somewhere (in the guild, mayhap, or potentially one that is recruitable, be it a girl or something like Healbot), that you could talk to in order to start something that is similar to the daily quest, but you don’t get money for it, the monsters drop no money or very little of it, and the same about the drop rates.

        Just add some lines about how the money goes to them because “blah blah, it’s their expenses and they have to pay for it for some reason, blah blah” and it should be fine.

    2. …or simply allow us some mechanism to end days whenever we want, like every other game ever in this genre? I honestly was a bit shocked to learn that in HC that was something “special” that you had to go into the dev mode to do!

      1. A lot of people have begged for this, but for balance reasons I can’t do that without having to remove or overhaul the whole investment system. Part of the experience of Harem Collector is the power fantasy- you’re a dominant guy who also has a huge pile of lovers (sometimes in a literal pile) AND you’re a skilled warrior AND you’re a rich merchant prince- so I’m reluctant to fuck with that.
        What will probably happen in v1 (when we get there), is that once the main plotline is complete, you’ll be able to advance days at will so you can pick up those last handful of love quests and have functionally infinite money for 100% completionists. Until now, you can replicate that by only using the Timeturner in one of the Hero’s bedrooms- that way, you can Timeturner (mostly, probably) safely, without fucking up your game.

  3. Skipping day without any kind of penalty ( fail a certain quest after X days, for example ) would be pretty bad, as this would give player an easy and fast way to gain money.

    One thing i would love to have in the future patch would be the ability to gift your follower directly from the menu. At the beginning, it was fun going to each and every girls to gift her, but now, especially when the girls you could give spread out into several bases, it become such a chore. Usually, at the beginning of a day, i would go to gift them all first, before starting to do anything else, and it kind of unnecessary time-consuming.

    Anyway, first time i comment on this kind of game, i just wanna say , you did a great work here. The game is fun, with ( IMO) exactly right amount of challenge, and i especially like your sense of humor . Thank you for your effort 🙂

  4. How about a house with a gated area?
    A sign outside “grinding area”
    Put level appropriate monsters inside.

    Put a npc there explaining that this *could* mess up the continuity of the game.

    I dont want to be able to end days and make banks profits. I want to be able to afford the things I need without a turn sensitive walkthrough telling me exactly what I have to do on each day just to be able to complete the stories.

    I want to GRIND

  5. There is no practical purpose for grinding in HC except for monetary reasons. If the quests are completed in the recommended level order the you are more then strong enough to make your way through the dungeons; grinding would just remove the challenge. Also being able to grind, depending on how it was done (specifically enemy drops) MAY make it possible to farm gifting items such as the “Pocket Tome”. Finally is a matter of perspective while it seems difficult to get the money to do everything you need this is only a very small fragment of the game by the time all 151 girls are in the game there will more then likely to be enough day advancing encounters that you’ll be able to get the money.

    As such it is not really necessary to make grinding possible, such a thing MAY detract in the long run to make the financial aspect more achievable (for those who don’t just open the chest outside the mansion and for end game) having the monsters drop “Vendor trash” more often (or every encounter) would provide the player with more money to make investments with. Just a thought.

    1. Most monsters that drop vendor trash do drop it 100% of the time, except for a handful of exceptions (such as Glitterfangs only dropping a second Chimaera Head 50% of the time). All enemies that (for whatever reason) wouldn’t conceivably carry around Middle Kingdom coinage instead drop trash.

  6. Glad to hear everything is working out, and that another update is coming. Honestly when I first saw HC it was like a beacon to me (my harem fetish runs strong) And was all I wanted out of this type of game. I agree it would be nice to have some way for days to continue freely, like maybe a repeatable quest that rises in difficulty each time or something, but overall the game is really solid.
    Things I’d like to see in future updates:
    -the above mentioned time passing quest/grind bait
    -more areas to explore
    -some monstergirls
    -a few more quests that are there just to be quests.

    I also thank you, because of your game I was inspired to start my on Harem game, and though I have little clue on what I am doing, I hope seeing your great work progress continues to inspire me.

  7. By the way, I should have mentioned this before, but you REALLY need to fix the daily quests. They’ve been fucking HORRIBLE ever since you changed them from setting you against a random group of story mission enemies to a random group of high-level unique enemies. They’re APPALLINGLY badly balanced and harder than any of the actual story content (the goddamn Crimson Wisps who can wipe out 3/4 of your entire party’s HP in 1 turn -and will, because they spam that goddamn 500+ damage burn attack like there’s no tomorrow- are particularly bullshit, especially when they’re accompanied by those goddamn Dancing Puppets) and, to make matters worse, they don’t drop loot any more. The daily miniquest has gone from a perhaps excessively simple but moderately rewarding chore, to an infuriating and unbalanced ordeal that doesn’t even give you NEARLY enough to compensate you for your efforts.

    1. actually, they do drop loot, there is a special monster in each random qhich can drop nice, useable gear, and all monsters have a chance to drop heart tokens, and they also drop vendor trash.

  8. I am very disappointed if real life problems are and understandably so getting in the way of new version releases then thats fine real life is more important so take your time getting it straightened out. However there SHOULD have been no release on the 22nd at all and a public release on the 29th and the next backer version should of been next month this just screams that you consider non backers to be less than the mud on your boots. Again its now the delays due to real life i’m bitching about its the flat out broken promises and lack of care/respect of the publics and preferential treatment of the backers thought bother me and maker me wonder if me become a backer will make things slightly even more so worse on the public peeps.

    No real offence intended but i like this game enough to offer my 2 cents on the mater.

    1. so you`re complaining that he gives away his game to backers (A.K.A. people who give him money) a week sooner than he gives it to people like us who give him nothing? You do realize that there are worse games than HC that you need to pay for right?

      1. That’s not what my complains are about my gripe is that at the last second the free realize date was pushed back a week and the backers got the slot for another update even they were already playing what more or less was the version we were supposed to get that day. I for one don’t care about 1 week I’ve got other games to play while I wait it’s just the principle of the matter that’s all.

        1. No? The backer release was ALSO pushed back a week.

          So, we weren’t “already playing what more or less was the version we were supposed to get that day.” The only ones who had that version of the game would be the bug testers.

          Now, that’s not saying that the bug testers couldn’t also be backers, but the release for the non-tester backers wasn’t given out until the 22nd.

  9. If you said that you were going to do the same job for two different people, but found yourself only able to do it for one, would you not do it for the one who paid you and just apologize to the other?

  10. Wasn’t there a release back like 12th or 15th for backers or am I getting mistaken and confused? If it was just a bug tester release thingy majiger then I admit I was wrong and apologize with hopes of forgiveness.

    1. that would be for testers, to find bugs etc.

      every release is tester release, then a week later backer release, then a week later public release.

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