Others Shadow over Meridia [v0.6a] [GratuitousLove]

[GratuitousLove]

So yeah I would say your usage of AI art seems to be above average for sure.

Thank you, I usualy try to get a decent first generated character, then I modify everything that doesn't look good with GIMP and inpaint it in stable diffusion so the AI try to add my change to the image and fix geometry. It takes lots of iteration and thus a lot of time, but it allows you to have somewhat decent result even if you're not good at drawing.
Idealy I'd have someone draw for me but I'm not even close to being able to afford someone to do it.

 

[Aerisetta]

Well it's really hard to get consistency with AI, I usualy manage to keep consistency of every character with themselves by spending lots of time on GIMP but having a consistent style accross all characters is more than I can handle. I'm not a good artist and doing my best with my limited skills. The first image is the banner and is constantly updated so it doesn't have as much love as would like to give it as I'd rather focus on the game rather than that.

What are you using? Stable Diffusion?
Try using LORAs if you haven't already
btw im not here to talk shit, just sharing some experiences as a fellow dev

 

[GratuitousLove]

What are you using? Stable Diffusion?
Try using LORAs if you haven't already
btw im not here to talk shit, just sharing some experiences as a fellow dev

Well LORAs allow easy consistency if you want to draw a character that exists, like if you're doing a parody of Naruto or w/e it will work super fine cause you will have lots of image to train on w/e char you want to make, but it's not very usefull if you want to make an original character.
If I was a good artist I could probably produce couple dozen render of a character and train the AI to make a LORA out of it, but the thing is I'm unable to do that.
And I really want to make an original story with original characters, might not be the easiest way to do a first game, but that's the game I want to make.

 

[Benblueblade]

Chapter 7 is way too big a difficulty spike. You go from relatively easy going, to the enemy spamming you with units that you can only really reliably damage with archers or the assassin that: If they die you game over. And neither of those options are capable of taking many hits from those enemies in return. The best I got was pumping out a wall of scout flesh to hide behind, but that did nothing to help my even smaller forces down in the south who have to fully rely on enemy conversions to replace units, and might I add they ALSO get hit with those same enemies, except they only get one archer. And on top of all that the map boss will hit you with a super every few turns and severely limit your movement. Even if it is possible the only methods I could think of were tedious wall grinding slogs that could be screwed over at any moment if you accidentally double click and an enemy waits instead of attacking, or even worse, the enemy you were supposed to kill, potentially even convert to help with the mass outnumbering, suddenly decides to live on not 1, but 0 HP. Sorry I just spent a long time on that chapter and had to get this rant out.

 

[GratuitousLove]

Chapter 7 is way too big a difficulty spike. You go from relatively easy going, to the enemy spamming you with units that you can only really reliably damage with archers or the assassin that: If they die you game over. And neither of those options are capable of taking many hits from those enemies in return. The best I got was pumping out a wall of scout flesh to hide behind, but that did nothing to help my even smaller forces down in the south who have to fully rely on enemy conversions to replace units, and might I add they ALSO get hit with those same enemies, except they only get one archer. And on top of all that the map boss will hit you with a super every few turns and severely limit your movement. Even if it is possible the only methods I could think of were tedious wall grinding slogs that could be screwed over at any moment if you accidentally double click and an enemy waits instead of attacking, or even worse, the enemy you were supposed to kill, potentially even convert to help with the mass outnumbering, suddenly decides to live on not 1, but 0 HP. Sorry I just spent a long time on that chapter and had to get this rant out.

Well sorry if you think it's too hard, I think I'll add some "easy mode" either in the next update or the one after the next.

Spoiler: Walkthrough

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Edit: the 0hp shouldn't happen, I think I did a mistake when rounding number in the UI and a 0.4 HP unit is rounded down instead of rounded up, I'll investigate this.

 

[Tomoushie]

I notice the use of AI for image generation, don't you?

 

[bassrass]

Played a little bit so far it's great.
I like the mechanic of the hero having to fire of an attack first to convert an enemy to your cause. It adds a good layer of stratergy.
The dialogue is all perfectly fine, not bogging down the game too much and giving enougth of a reason to keep wanting to go foward.
The influence of the Demon? Is well done. SHe keeps reasning why Chloe needs to use just a little more power. First to save her own life than just to ensure she's safe, than to ensure her she won't be betrayed etc. Bit by bit Chloe is becoming more reliant on her.

Very strong first release!

 

[GratuitousLove]

Played a little bit so far it's great.
I like the mechanic of the hero having to fire of an attack first to convert an enemy to your cause. It adds a good layer of stratergy.
The dialogue is all perfectly fine, not bogging down the game too much and giving enougth of a reason to keep wanting to go foward.
The influence of the Demon? Is well done. SHe keeps reasning why Chloe needs to use just a little more power. First to save her own life than just to ensure she's safe, than to ensure her she won't be betrayed etc. Bit by bit Chloe is becoming more reliant on her.
Very strong first release!

Thank you, this is one of the reason I didn't want to post the game too early here, so I had time to polish it during the 8 first updates.
There is still work to do, bugs to fix, adding easy mode for ppl who want to play it casualy etc, but I think the game is now in a state I'm happy with. I have been wanting to make this game for a loooong time so I'm really happy to see that there are people that enjoy it.

 

[Mikedazz1]

Avaron1974

 

[Artemissu]

You should post some gameplay screenshots in the first post. I know some user up above posted some sample screens (thank you btw), but you should have them up in the main post

 

[LightningNexus]

Well during the human campaign there will be mostly lesbian content (there will be a male character but most of them will be females), during the second campaign the main protag will be a male, but there are several chapter remaining before we reach this point.

Oh, that's kind of a shame. There's not many works on this site with a focus on primarily lesbian content, I'd been hoping for a long-term work focusing on it.

 

[GratuitousLove]

You should post some gameplay screenshots in the first post. I know some user up above posted some sample screens (thank you btw), but you should have them up in the main post

Yeah I'll do that, I'm a bit busy right now but it will be done for sure.

Oh, that's kind of a shame. There's not many works on this site with a focus on primarily lesbian content, I'd been hoping for a long-term work focusing on it.

Well I'm mostly really into lesbian content too, but that's kinda how the story I imagined was done at the time, when this game wasn't supposed to have sexual content. Maybe I'll find some workaround, but I don't want to make any promise, as for me story consistency is more important than anything else. I spent a lot of time thinking about it and I really want to see it take shape.
I'd say that best case scenario, I allow somehow the play to choose the gender for the chapter, worst case scenario, the second campaign will have less scenes so I'll be able to reach the 3rd one faster.
80%+ of the time I spend on a chapter is making illustration and writing scenes, so that and the fact that the second campaign is the shortest mean that if I don't manage to find an elegant solution, I'll always be able to spend less time on it.

 

[LightningNexus]

Well I'm mostly really into lesbian content too, but that's kinda how the story I imagined was done at the time, when this game wasn't supposed to have sexual content. Maybe I'll find some workaround, but I don't want to make any promise, as for me story consistency is more important than anything else. I spent a lot of time thinking about it and I really want to see it take shape.
I'd say that best case scenario, I allow somehow the play to choose the gender for the chapter, worst case scenario, the second campaign will have less scenes so I'll be able to reach the 3rd one faster.
80%+ of the time I spend on a chapter is making illustration and writing scenes, so that and the fact that the second campaign is the shortest mean that if I don't manage to find an elegant solution, I'll always be able to spend less time on it.

Artistic integrity is more important than almost anything when making something, so I get it and respect even if it doesn't fit my personal preferences.

 

[88Michele88]

Evering I trying it useless. How the heck we could possible win this fight we can't even level up it useless without level up fron the begining neighter use save editor online.
So is ther a way to edite save, gold and mana? Becous like this even with walktrogut is usless.

 

[GratuitousLove]

Evering I trying it useless. How the heck we could possible win this fight we can't even level up it useless without level up fron the begining neighter use save editor online.
So is ther a way to edite save, gold and mana? Becous like this even with walktrogut is usless.

Hey sorry, I know this chapter is hard and maybe I should focus more on an easy mode, if this helps, I uploaded a youtube video in which I beat it so you have an example of how you can beat this mission.

You must be registered to see the links

It has no sound but it should give you an idea of what you can do.
You can probably make it easier by purchasing an extra archer on the east side earlier and delay the scout on the south side. It would probably also take an extra turn, but allow you to do more mistakes before being punished.
Edit : Corrected my message talking about chapter 5 instead of 7.
Edit 2: I should be able to make an easy mode in the next update I think, if I don't try to make something too fancy I should be able to do it fast enough.

 

[88Michele88]

Hey sorry, I know this chapter is hard and maybe I should focus more on an easy mode, if this helps, I uploaded a youtube video in which I beat it so you have an example of how you can beat this mission.

You must be registered to see the links

It has no sound but it should give you an idea of what you can do.
You can probably make it easier by purchasing an extra archer on the east side earlier and delay the scout on the south side. It would probably also take an extra turn, but allow you to do more mistakes before being punished.
Edit : Corrected my message talking about chapter 5 instead of 7.
Edit 2: I should be able to make an easy mode in the next update I think, if I don't try to make something too fancy I should be able to do it fast enough.

I prefere if there were possibility to gain more gold to buy moere army force, like more side missiion we do the more gold we get to those difficlut missione where it is demn nightmer, a option to be able to rescue and move some iece to a startegic position on our licking like an horseman who tak new recruit and put him a new place or more just more gold and option to gain level up and become much higst resistend to damege in mission like chapter 7.
I would love level up system expireicne gold gain with a bunch of side mission, to be able to see live of our army go up and more we got strong the longer we can keep fighting. BUt right now I see no option like that.

 

[GratuitousLove]

I prefere if there were possibility to gain more gold to buy moere army force, like more side missiion we do the more gold we get to those difficlut missione where it is demn nightmer, a option to be able to rescue and move some iece to a startegic position on our licking like an horseman who tak new recruit and put him a new place or more just more gold and option to gain level up and become much higst resistend to damege in mission like chapter 7.
I would love level up system expireicne gold gain with a bunch of side mission, to be able to see live of our army go up and more we got strong the longer we can keep fighting. BUt right now I see no option like that.

Well I get it but it takes time, so I'll just make an easy mode for now.
I'll also add the ability to heal on building, which should make this mission much easier as it will allow you to take your time because you won't have to worry about super slowly killing you.
Later in the game I intend to add a perk system, but you won't have access to them the first time you beat chapter 7, so I want it to be balanced without it. The perk system will be unlocked later and you will also be able to use it to re-do previous chapters to complete hidden objectives, as it will mater when there are different routes open to you, but this isn't anytime soon, I have to advance the story first.

 

[GratuitousLove]

I added some screenshot to the OP so people can see what the gameplay looks like, but I don't manage to get them all "together", when you click on the first, only 3 can be viewed full screen with the arrow and the other one has to be clicked individualy, does anyone knows how to fix it?

 

[88Michele88]

Well I get it but it takes time, so I'll just make an easy mode for now.
I'll also add the ability to heal on building, which should make this mission much easier as it will allow you to take your time because you won't have to worry about super slowly killing you.
Later in the game I intend to add a perk system, but you won't have access to them the first time you beat chapter 7, so I want it to be balanced without it. The perk system will be unlocked later and you will also be able to use it to re-do previous chapters to complete hidden objectives, as it will mater when there are different routes open to you, but this isn't anytime soon, I have to advance the story first.

Both Archer rcruited in previous chapter I manageg to keep both elive in chapter 6. And I wanna do the same in this onve without losing losing them And by the way that Alice an the other archer who manageg to get on of them had male sprite as archer sprit not female one, the one we enoctored them when the first time whe mindcontrolled them. It mus be a bug if the got killed in next chaper the sprite apper as male instead of their own you gave them.

I want take them till the very end of the game I like the blondy andthe brunette one.

 

[GratuitousLove]

Both Archer rcruited in previous chapter I manageg to keep both elive in chapter 6. And I wanna do the same in this onve without losing losing them And by the way that Alice an the other archer who manageg to get on of them had male sprite as archer sprit not female one, the one we enoctored them when the first time whe mindcontrolled them. It mus be a bug if the got killed in next chaper the sprite apper as male instead of their own you gave them.

I want take them till the very end of the game I like the blondy andthe brunette one.

First, thank you for your bug report, I'll try to fix the sprite error ASAP.
In the youtube video I sent I keep both of them alive, I think the game is deterministic and has no luck, which mean if you reproduce the same move I did you'll get same result. That being said, it would probably be easier to just copy my first 2 turn, and play a bit more passive approach, buying a second archer on the right side so you can one shot any paladin attacking your villager, and take your time on the south side. The most important thing is to not attack the turn before Brigite's super, she does it every 5 turn I think, you can check the enemy side mana to know when it will be casted.

Edit : Hmm I can't find the sprite bug you're mentioning, I think you have the wrong version of the game. For like an hour, the version I uploaded on F95 had a bug, I tried to fix it ASAP but maybe you're one of the people who got a bugged version.