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Hi JustaOneGirl

Thanks again for sharing the bugs you found! I think I got them~ Though the Mikaylis healing to full is a part of his morale skill guardian, so I tried to make that more clear. (His skills ended up being the most annoying to deal with for me fighting against the Crown lol.)

It's interesting to hear your view on the Old Ones Route vs the Crown, I think if you lose the war from either side, you will see a bit more the brutal side of the Old Ones, as they become disappointed with performance of the humans in these bad endings. But I agree that the Crown's side is more of a bittersweet victory, as Ashur will have to pay the price for his deviation from the gods. One could say he did everything for a good cause 'friendship' but he also accepting that he was acting against the rules of the world and so he doesn't harbor ill feeling against the TO for this reason. (not so much because he's above holding a grudge, cuz he can get salty too haha)

So Jonas and Eve admit in their emails in Gacha Date that it was because of the greed of the dragons that disrupted the balance of the world in the first place (their pursuit of power and immortality) they kind of danced around these facts and made them not sound so heavy, but they are in that sense world destroying monsters as the legends say, even though they took measures to try and correct their past mistakes. I will try and clarify this going forward. Tyvm and best wishes~!

Also taking in account this feedback with another post, I lowered the requirements for refining a bit to 3 and added the chance to run into a black market seller with the wander option in this latest build 2.82. good luck 🤞 

Hi sL1u.k,

Thank you for the bug report and for the feedback. I went ahead and fixed the bug you found and also lowered the requirements from 5 to 3 for bits, from 10 to 6 for stones and 3 to 2 for hearts. I also added a 20% chance during wander option to find a black market seller who will let you choose whatever item you want to buy at an inflated price. If you happen to find an egg, you can also level the bond with your pet and eventually farm materials daily from it. Hope all that helps! Happy hunting!

Hi Yui,

to make a token, you must refine a bit first.

Take 5 common drop item ( example 5 scale of water serpent) and use refine option to convert it into a bit of water knight.

Then use craft option to craft 1 token from 1 bit. Ex. bit of water knight crafts into a token of water knight that can be gifted at the tavern to a water knight or  elite Beisel (a water knight). Hope that helps!! (Maybe I should make a refining/crafting guide? I know the menus are kinda clunky >_<;;)

Yay congrats! I hope you enjoy celebrating with your guild mates on your hard won victory :D

Oof thank you for clarifying, it looks like the code for her joining the guild didn't trigger properly. I'm giving out Halloween candy but will check the script when trick or treat is over ty for finding this game breaking buggy 😭 

Oh very strange she shows up for me. Did you manage to have bond convos with her and see her in your guild sheet?

Thanks

Hi yui,

The sewer boss is designed to battle of persistence. If/when you lose for the first time, the dialogue should continue and you can resume exploration of the dungeon. Running into Hydra again is then a random encounter and the damage you inflicted earlier will be kept. The last 10 HP must be defeated in 1 battle or it will heal itself up to 10 HP at the next encounter, so it does require a certain amount of battle composition/bond levels/luck.  In my play testing, it usually takes around 3 times encountering it to defeat it entirely. Let me know if you still have problems with it and I'll consider redesign. Good luck and have blessed RNG! 

Ohh thanks very much! Sorry I don't know what happened to my comments, I wasn't able to find them again myself but I started a forum post and tried to remember what I wrote before XD;; I'll add more to the post when it comes to me~ Thanks again so much!

I'm posting a link to justaonegirl's PDF Arcane Dice Wars Theories! ^^ but since it seems like my attempt to comment on the document itself was unsuccessful I will make some notes here also to share some thoughts. If you have any thoughts please free to chime in! I'm going to try to stay "spoiler" free as far as not revealing anything that is saved for the endings, but there may be some details that I had in mind that I will share here that I never wrote explicitly in the game. Not really strictly canonical stuff, just maybe give a clearer idea of what I was thinking about when I wrote certain things ^^

"For anyone who somehow opened this document, ı should put a spoiler warning because ı will talk  about 3 ADW games at the same time"

Thank you so much for writing all these thoughts! I don't believe there is a wrong way to interpret my story as there is a lot of implicit vs explicit information but it's still really reaffirming to me to know that alot of my intentions were touched upon here! I really didn't see anything that was in constrast with what I was trying for. Whew!

"after seeing her ı checked Ashur and his acts were… tense? ı guess he was on edge due to those mafia  South diversion."

If you try to talk to Ashur again after having rejected him but before accepting the Queen, you should get a note from the Southern Division offering you 500 gold and asking for any information as to Ashur's whereabouts. So yeah he might be in trouble with them LOL.

"Hydra boss was very difficult as ıt was having amazingly big numbers on dices and also attacked my  team with elements. while kraken was more likely to try to kill the boat by ''playing around''. Except  that ıt wasn't super duper strong"

Hydra is scaled to be very hard but also you will never die from it. You can keep hunting it and attacking it to gradually whittle down it's health vs. Kraken is scaled down to be winnable with good RNG with a party bond total of 8-10 but it's also one of the very few permadeath/game over if you lose. Not sure if you want to keep that in mind when comparing them Jonas and Eve.

"Of course ıt feels like small details but for some reason the crown’s side feels ‘’right’’ since in this  route you follow the developers that are trying to make the world better while on the other side…. Well it's  not like you support a complete disaster but ıt will probably have a bad impact on the world ^^;.  

in the other hand, Old one’s side actually feels ‘’relatable’’ with how Jonas and Eve living among  others like normal people and despite being so strong and old they are still patient towards everyone  and accepts spending time with guild members (well ı know Jonas find my guild members’ invite cute  so ı guess that would same for Eve too)."

I'm very glad that you had these impressions of the two routes as I feel my intentions were successfully conveyed! I think because the Crown side is comprised of very "tribal" minded people who have strict adherence to their ideals and conditional to accepting the TO, they are less friendly. However, their vulnerability and desire to shape their surroundings/destiny, I think are very human. 

In contrast, the openess and acceptance of the Old Ones, is very friendly and warm. It's when they distantly muse about how small and futile the humans are to them that they feel less relatable.

"ıf ı don't remember wrong, jeth was from house solunas? İn his bond talking he says little information  about political marriage, and how one assassin survived from house solunas because that assasin  spared a life… ı feel like that assassin was jeth? ıts also creepy how he knew that servant was the king's  secret mistress when even Miyetta’s uncle didn't know. "

Some of this may have been written in the story or may just be in my head but I'll lay it out here. I might go back when I revise ADWVH to make it a bit clearer.

King Solwel's younger brother was married to House Solunas to create a political alliance. Unfortunately for him, Lady Solunas encouraged the younger brother to betray his brother to claim the throne that was "stolen" from him simply because he was born after his brother. Miyetta was the only one saved because she was a baby at the time and was able to be "swapped". Mikaylis and Jeth were both young children when Jeth was involved in the assassinations, as his status as a child allowed him work without the suspicions an adult would raise. He had no love for the people who raised him this way though, and helped Mikaylis' mother escape with the siblings because he wanted to see if the gods would support the mother's desire for justice/vengance. It would be his own form of revenge for himself as well.  Growing up in hiding Miyetta was treated as the heir to the throne by Mikaylis' mother and Mikaylis was expected to fall in line and treat his younger half sibling like his master. Miyetta was always taught about her house and birthright all throughout her childhood and why she should avenge her righteous late father. Mikaylis is always outwardly compliant and supportive of House Solwel, but there is a simmering resentment for a father that never acknowledged him and a half sibling whose existence seemed to fuel his mother with obssession. The Crown side are basically three people who were all groomed from early age and denied a proper childhood or time to freely explore themselves. In my mind that is what seperates them from the other cast who all have their own traumas and make them more easily consumed by quest for power and think in more rigid, black and white world view.

Ooh that would be great! Since it is your thoughts, it would be best if you could make a fixed version to be shared. I was thinking as I was commenting that it would be nice to invite others to comment if they want and it would be less messy to do that in the forums I think. Even if it's just you and me with comments to share, XD the comments are kinda too easy to accidently delete on the google doc for me.

ooh thank you so much! It was such a good read for me, that I read it a couple times and wrote some my own thoughts as comments. (so that I also wouldn't clog up a bunch of space here haha~) If anyone else want to comment please feel free. Maybe I can make a forum post with your document so that all this convo doesn't get lost?

Hi JustaOneGirl!

I am super interested to read your PDF to get your thoughts on the world, story and characters seeing it from both sides of the war so far. Also I'm glad that you see both beauty and flaws on both sides. Do you still have a personal preference for one side over the other? Also, ack! I am sorry for the bugs you encountered. Can you please enable sharing for the PDF file so that I can read it for the comments and for the bugs? I think I sent an access request, but let me also ask for "anyone with a link" can view sharing option in case anyone else would like to read it ^^ Thank you again as always for sharing your thoughts with me and I can't wait to read your theories and analysis~

Hi HirayaManwar1, 

Ah...yes that's definitely a bug!! Sorry for that! I will investigate and most likely patch when i go back with copy edits. Thanks for the report and please let me know if you find anything else suspicious.

Hi Ruda,

did you try to 'gift' the pendant of earth rogue to him at the tavern with the gifting option? If he accepted then he should be waiting at the flower field. (unless you already did a bond 6 event for that day, then you have to rest before you can do another 'date'). If you didn't flirt with him enough on the bond 4+5 convos, he will reject the pendant but will accept a friendship ring. Let me know if that helps or if you have any more details or maybe screen shot that I can see if there's something bugging out.

Hi there,

Firstly thank you so much for trying out my games and I'm glad you are enjoying the characters stories so far! As far as your current progress in ADW, it sounds like you've reached the end of mission 08 and unfortunately you will have to wait until the next update to talk to the Queen or Ashur to progress. (At GF 10 you should be on track for Ashur's route)

 In the meantime, you have enough bond level, story progression and loyalty (110+) to max bond your elite units. This requires first refining a 'heart' and then crafting to either a ring or a pendant that matches their typing (ex. Katnir would require an oath ring or eternal pendant of earth rogue made with materials from an earth vermin) Please be aware of how much you "flirted" with them bond convos 4+5, as a general rule if you flirted 3+ times they will be open to a romantic gesture (eternal pendant) and if you didn't flirt so much, they will be open to friendship route (oath ring) trying to gift them the wrong type of gift will give them mixed signals and possibly lock you out from bond 6 depending on the stubborness of the character. entering the tavern with a ring or pendant in your inventory will unlock the tutorial for relationship gifting. you can also see this devlog for details. https://coffeedripstudios.itch.io/arcane-dice-wars/devlog/774585/version-251-bon...

If you're uncertain if you flirted, I reccommend making a ring for Katnir as he will accept friendship regardless of the amount of flirting and his Ultimate bond lvl6 skill is "pilfer" which lets you steal the rare material against beasts to refine hearts. Also open minded and forgiving, Samuel will accept either romance or friendship regardless. His ultimate will be useful in the upcoming chapter on Ashur's route.

Hope this helps and let me know if you have any other questions or issues! Happy bonding~

<3 Jen

Hi Jelliace!

Thanks for taking the time to try my game and share your thoughts! I'm glad that you enjoyed Jeth's route and picked up on a lot of the hints he drops, as he's actually quite straight forward/honest with his words (misdirects more by omission/tone).

I do plan on revisiting this game and updating it after I finish ADW with some of the improvements I made in the remake of the main ADW game. I will probably make some revision to the dialogues, tighten the story and add some more artwork. Knowing that it was your introduction to the ADW games and reading your feedback gives me a little more motivation to follow through!

I'm really happy to hear that you plan on exploring the characters more in the other ADW games (including Lor's route). The tone of the main story is more of an adventureous romp and ADW: Gacha Date is more of a cozy, slice of life. I hope to hear your thoughts again in the future!

Hi JustaOneGirl,

Yay~ Thanks for your feedback as always! I look forward and enjoy reading your thoughts! I'm really glad to hear that you found Samuel's ultimate useful! (TBH I was afraid of it being underpowered/unnecessary but I also have devpower of max bond+system knowledge) It was incredibly satisfying this one playtest I was fighting frenzied chiropteras and they blew themselves up in one hit charm :D

I was also curious if you would spend time with Jonas, as you can completely skip that 'date' if you choose to. I'm glad you liked getting to know him a little more before you have to choose sides. As I am hoping the player will have some empathy for both sides in the final conflict.

As for your thoughts on the Crown, I won't say too much to let you form your own opinion but it does make me wonder if the player would be shocked to see their dark side if they ended up playing this game from start to finish before Villain's Heart. The order in which I made these games is kinda messed up but it is what it is LOL. In the simulation where there was no anamoly/outsider, their quest for assertion ended up making an enemy of their fellow human instead. They were basically emboldened by the possibility that the TO possessed and let their ambitions rule. 

I ended up adding more dialogue and activity than I originally thought, such as beast war, jonas date, and even the random bickering in front of the carriage was added because I felt like the main cast was getting side lined a little with everything happening with the Crown and the Old Ones. Your comment about seeing the characters interactions being chaotic but fun, made me think it was really good I added that extra 100 lines of the carriage scene LOL. Hopefully it won't seem too rushed or like a 'filler' episode. I always want the game to feel good to spend time with the characters as priority. <3 

Aaaah I think I have a feeling what happened with that menu issue too! I have a few more things to investigate O_o. Thank you so much and best wishes~!!

Hi Yeonjunney! I'm so glad that you enjoyed playing the ADW games so far. I personally never got passed 21 clicks myself but some of us got higher than 30! (with the use of a controller) *eyes Ekkoberry *o* Here's a guide for achievements I whipped up, but please let me know if there's any issues or if I should make any more clarifications. ADW: Gacha Date! Achievement Guide 1.1 And Thank you for giving Ruwin love <3!!

Hi Chocolatefries,

Thank you so much for trying out my game!

Ah I'm sorry for the confusion but since ADW is an RPG with combat and has a lot of animations that is a bit different from standard RenPY games, the rollback and skip functions were disabled on purpose. (Rollback and Forward can make things get desynched and janky) Due to the amount of player clicking necessary to intereact with menus and screens, there usually isn't a ton of long dialogue  dumps but I apologize for the inconvience. And I'm sorry that I probably forgot to make note of that in the default controls menu. I'll make a note to check for the next update.

Ah, and I'm wondering who you are planning on giving rings to? As Lor, Samuel and Katnir should still accept it even if you flirted excessively. Hope that helps!

Ahh~ TOchan! She's so adorable ha ha! I can imagine her asking for her Queen's dress to match the fabric of the Advisor's.  And thinking of the whole story of the original ADW through Jeth-colored glasses is pretty interesting to consider! I can only imagine how things would derail if TOchan just repeatedly threw herself at Jeth from the very start LOL. Also if they had an on-going secret mailing exchange.... It could work in the context of chapter 8... Not to get too spoilerly. These comics are so funny and great. I love how shameless and dedicated TOchan is... And that huge sack of soulstones in the last panel that looks like enough for all 30 days... all the details are so good! 

 I honestly didn't know that fluffy-haired murderers was a 'type' but I'm thankful that Jeth roped you in because it's was so much fun working on ADW:GD with you! I'm so honored that you gave this a game a shot despite not usually preferring self-inserts and very glad that you found it to be fun! I wonder if you'll ever consider writing a project with a self-insert protagionist in the future?

Hi JustaOneGirl,

Thank you so much letting us know about your MC! I'm glad that Samuel's comment about the MC dietary preferences was meaningful for you, as I think he's the only one who really asks the MC about this. As a very religious person himself, he's considerate of such things. I can't say it was intentional on my part tbh, but I'm glad that you felt the  freedom to include this aspect of your character by your own choice. 

I give a few teasing or blunt options but I don't think I bother with flat our mean or malicious options, as that would be too story breaking imo. I don't think the cast of ADW would follow and protect the MC as much as they do if the MC was an abusive tyrant. Like if the MC called them a dog, I think they'd probably leave the guild. These are all adult characters, so they are mostly mature enough to work through differences but there's a limit to when it comes to flat out disrespect. For this reason, I'm not sure that I like games that have good vs evil paths, as they are just too polarized/extreme for my tastes. I'd be making two different games, and that's a lot of work. Plus I just have a heard time writing pure evil characters as even my 'villain' characters are not so stark imo.

It's interesting that you mentioned the comments about the MC seeming calm. In my mind I picture the player sitting at a computer looking at cute sprites and dice, rather than jumping up and down shouting excitedly as someone might if they were in the midst of a life and death battle. I wasn't intended to say the MC is a stoic personality but rather they were unusual in their perception of battle. But perhaps some players are able to immerse themselves more fully than I thought. I'll try to keep that in mind. I was suprised that some people find losing harsh, even though there is not a game over penality like there is in a lot of RPGs. I hope losing doesn't feel too bad, as the companions do show some discontent but they are also accepting that battle is not always ideal. They are tenacious enough to handle the occasional defeat, so feel free to let them toughen up a bit LOL. I do have a list of randomized losing battle dialogue in every dungeon for that purpose anyway~

Again, I love your drawing of Lor with your MC reading together all cute and cozy in ADW:GD~ I hope the two can cheer each other on!

Hi Star!

Thank you so much for taking the time to share your thoughts and take on the MC.  I was hoping that the player had enough choices to self-insert without feeling too frustrated so I'm really glad to hear it worked for you. I'm not sure why there seems to be a slight stigma around "self-insert" in some circles? but I actually find it really whimsical and endearing to think of someone being able to directly immerse themselves into a story as I think most people read stories/play games to escape reality a bit. Maybe the whole premise of isekai has a stigma for being too self indulgent, with certain themes being somewhat over reiterated in some animes/manga/light novels as of late. However, I remember 'isekai' stories before I even knew the term for it (like Escaflowne,  Fushigi Yuugi, Peter Pan) and I just think there's something really fascinating about the premise. Perhaps as a transracial adoptee, who has always felt a bit out of place and thrown into this world, it connects with me on a deep, subconscious level.

My copy editor sometimes makes notes in the margins that I sometimes give options to "kick" the companions (I think of it more like being blunt, opinionated or teasing? LOL) Like maybe no one would take those options (I'm a recovering people pleaser myself) because they don't want to read a potentially upset response from the character, but I wanted to make sure there were options that weren't all centered around telling the characters what the player would think they'd like to hear. I think it also opens up to revealing more about the character when you can listen to their disgruntled side or coping sides as well. Also I don't want to condition people (even if it's just a game) into thinking you need to agree with people all the time or they won't love or like you LOL.

I'm actually someone who tends to over empathize with characters to the point of 'dreaming' of hovering over other people's shoulders and observing them rather than being the 'main character', so if I were to try and self-insert, I'd probably make an OC instead. I hope I'm not being too noisy, but I'm very curious, do you prefer to self insert over a defined protagonist when possible? What are your opinions on the isekai genre in general?

Best wishes and sincerely,

Jen

Hi JustaOnegirl,

Thank for again for your feedback as always! I'm glad to hear you didn't run into any other bugs. The other guild members do tend to have some strong opinions on Lor, (especially since he's the TO self-appointed personal assistant) LOL. I thank you for the compliment that you find the characters to feel realistic. I doubt that you will stumble on the dialogues that the characters can reject the MC if they propose the wrong item (ex. giving a ring if you flirted with them a lot) but these vary depending on the character, as some characters are more tolerant forgiving of the mixed signals and also more open to friendship or romance and vice versa. I think a lot about the characters behaving true to themselves from their dialogue to their battle skills and I hope that it helps with immersion. Best wishes~

Sorry it took me so long to fix, but I think I got it! Thank you so much for letting me know~

Hi Everyone,

I wanted to start by saying ADW is my first attempt at a "blank/insert" protagonist. I come from a comics/graphic novel background so it was never an option to me when I was writing for that format. For a long time playing jrpgs, I didn't care much for "blank/insert" protagonists as many of them had an established name, history, gender and visual appearance but were "silent" so in my mind they just seemed like lazy writing. I gained more appreciation for the concept when I started playing DnD and some other games like the Dragon's Age series. For those who know me, I always like to try new things when I'm creating, so when I was preparing ADW, I thought I would challenge myself. It's opened my eyes firsthand to the unique and interesting writing/visual presentation challenges around this concept.

 And most importantly, I create games to connect with others and I love seeing/learning about players interpretation of the protagonist! From a creator's standpoint, it feels like I get to "collaborate" with the player to some extent when I saw fanarts with the player's OC and I absolutely love it.

Please share your thoughts, interpretation of the MC and any suggestion or related experiences. Along with any instances of both poor/jarring execution on my part (I'm always trying to improve and thinking about whether I will do another "blank/insert" protagionist in future works.)

Thanks so much and I hope your MC is having a good journey~

Thank you for your help with the testing <3<3<3. Whew that was a close one LOL

Hi JustaOneGirl, Ooh thank you for pointing this out and reporting quickly, as that could be a terrible bug for anyone who can't get the Samuel's tutorial. It's an oversight that can happen with some pre-existing save files that I didn't take into consideration. I believe I fixed in 2.51 Hotfix now. Sorry for that oversight!

Hi SoluneMoon!

Glad you had a chance to try out the game and share some of your thoughts! We always appreciate reading it. Also glad you enjoyed the character interactions and the ad clicker mini game. What's your top score? Hope you see you back in ADW~ best wishes to you too!

Hi Star,

That's a pretty fun chart! TY for putting that together! I like the color coding especially.

Just adding another instance in here of Ruwin's height being mentions, as  you may not not triggered it being that it's very RNG based. Ruwin's turn serving the MC in the morning at the forest hideout after the Battle for Brookhaven.

n "The door swings open and Ruwin appears with full tray of various dishes."
show ruwin smile at heroskill with dissolve
ruw "My [hero.title]-! Good, you're awake!"
ruw "I remembered to-"
hide ruwin with dissolve
play sound "audio/thud_wood.mp3"
n "The low entrance catches the tall man off guard. He hits the top of his head trying to enter."
n "Cursing profusely under his breath, he still manages to keep the contents of the tray from spilling."
show ruwin sigh at heroskill with dissolve
ruw "..."
hide ruwin with dissolve
n "Taking a deep breath, he sets your breakfast gingerly down at your bedside."
n "He leaves without saying another word, carefully ducking through the door on his way out."

Hi Star!

Oooh this is a really interesting question! Tbh I didn't make any standard "profile" type sheets for these characters, other than figuring out their traits, combat stats, and backstories.  I know their sprites are not accurate to actual size. Ruwin's height is pretty much the only one that's commented on because he's abnormally tall, like probably if you saw him walking down the street in a crowd of people you'd notice that he was really tall. I don't really have a specific number in mind only that he's sort of like a pro basketball player height, getting closer to 7ft. Deita is the shortest character, closer to 5 ft.  I'll list them how I envision them in order from tallest to shortest rather than coming up with arbitrary numbers on the spot right now XD;;

Ruwin, Mikaylis, Beileph, Jonas, Ashur, Beisel, Jeth, Katnir, Eve, Lor, Miyetta, Samuel, Deita