Reflections on 1.12

The Lifepath is good for building the character, but without a meaningful bridge between that and the Agent part of the game it is completely useless imo.

Instead of roleplaying the lifepath, why not using a character creation system similar the one used in Cybetpunk trpg?

My 2 cents: The Scotland stuff was good. I agree with the person above that said it would be better to keep the stuff you already have, when it works. Maybe work to include it a bit more into the changes you made, overall. But not really sure why you'd change that pretty well-done and pretty much finished part of the story. It may sometimes SEEM like it is a good idea to 'kill your darlings' and start afresh. But that is for writing novels. Creating literature, art. This is... another genre and another format. I'd say: keep the good parts you have, limit the scope of the things that are growing too big, and see if you can use your new design methods/workflow/concepts mostly for the Bangkok content, rather than revisiting the stuff you already wrote with it.

Thinking chronologically is absurd. Books aren't written in chronological order, they're written in sections and then stitched together. Same with TV shows (apart from those filmed live) and movies. Like movies are all just a bunch of scenes shot randomly out of preference of schedules and convenience and then they're stitched together in the end to make a story. The scripts movies are based on are made the same way.

I really enjoy the backstory section of the game and I for one would love to see it fleshed out even more, I’m excited to go to on with the mission but establishing our character should be top priority I think

Based on current writing speed it would take what, about a year to get from 1.11's university to 1.12's mission? So what, that's two years to remake the old 1.6 with no forward progress? Is that really where everyone wants to be in a year's time? Writie a quick link between the two and then go with your plan of working on Bangkok. Perhaps each release pick a small part of the lifepath and flesh it out. You really don't know what the intro to the game should be until you start making it.

Don't change horses in the middle of the stream.

From what you've written about in the past, there are a couple of limiting factors. Last year you did great work attempting to streamline the process, and as a product of that significantly improving the process by which features are added to FA. It seems like, right now, the limiting factor lies somewhere between perfectionism, a lack of standardization, and a lack of writing volume. You have probably gotten to the point where you're doing at or more than your capacity when it comes to writing. That just is how it is. No shame, and I think in your shoes I would feel pride, because creative writing is a skill that requires quite a bit of time in. Right now, I think it would make the most sense to make FA open for other writers. Provide a standardized template (variables, etc.), a story bible as you have it, and parameters for other writers. Allow other writers to come in and submit content. If you like it, it goes in. If you don't like it, it doesn't. That way you can focus on providing the core experience that people are more vocally asking for, while delegating side projects that you seem more enthusiastic about. Once that core experience reaches a terminus, i.e. Bangkok, then maybe do more side things you feel passionate about. You will also have likely found writers who you trust, and like, to continue the core storyline with your guidance.

Honestly, I think it is a terrible decision to deliver tiny pieces of content that you will almost invariably cut out and scrap again to deliver something else that you will also not remain happy with. I don't mean to talk down your work or effort - I can see that you are not stringing people along but rather are bogged down by your own perfectionism; something I can perfectly relate to, especially in the writing department. However, what that leads to is you making this project seem impossible to complete and taking a lot of appeal out of playing around with it. Which is why I suggest the following: For the next release, put ALL the content you have written and coded so far back in. All of it. No, you don't understand: I do mean: Every. Last. Bit of it. It doesn't matter that some parts of it aren't pretty (you'll beautify them eventually). It doesn't matter that not everything makes perfect logical sense with everything else (chalk it up to WIP). It doesn't matter that not everything ties into everything else nicely or connects satisfyingly (throw in a few explanatory sentences to connect events somewhat and worry about the full write-up later). It doesn't matter that not every bit of code from the start affects events later (throw in some temporary code to have all currently ignored variables trigger the same events so they don't obstruct progress). You can do all of that later, add pieces of new content and polish old stuff over time. Just put it out there. Maybe open some of it up to commissions to fill some things out. Hell, if you are so worried about it taking forever to complete side branches, why not let others take care of that for now and, if you want to maintain overall creative control, rewrite it later? Short- and medium-term, it might look something like Frankenstein's monster had sex with another, even uglier Frankenstein's monster and they then messed up the resulting baby even worse, but it would make the game more playable and appealing while you work on it. With commissions and smaller, WIP releases, you would make it more transparent what work you do and show your commitment in a more tangible way AND open up the creative process to more immediate feedback. I know that's easier said than done, being a person myself who only likes to show things when they are absolutely perfectly 110% well and done but the key difference is that I don't currently try to make a living on that and in your position, your current overall approach may just not work - the sheer number of perceived "back to the drawingboard" moments in the last several years has already most likely lowered support and while public opinion is certainly fickle and not (always) something you should rely on for sound decision making, it's also not something to completely ignore.

I enjoyed the new content but didn't like that it was unconnected to the previous lifepath. I'd like to see the lifepath choices be meaningful and connected to the agent story before moving forward, otherwise it might as well be two separate games and all the lifepath stuff was just a waste of development time. I am not a programmer or developer so I try not to be judgy about this stuff because I'm aware that I don't understand what all goes into it. That said I don't really see why the old 1.6 material was just abandoned. It would seem to make more sense to port it into the new engine, tie it to the (re-done) lifepath and then move forward. Why keep re-inventing the wheel? To sum up, for me at least, as much as I'd like to finally see Bangkok I'd rather wait for the lifepath to be actually tied into the agent story rather than keep them completely separate. It will be much more meaningful that way. My 2 cents, thanks for listening :-)

I'm pleased to hear 1.13 will move the game to Bangkok. I might have to sub properly again if that happens. Enough of this 'I’m stupid and I don’t listen to advice' rubbish. It makes me cringe. Show a bit of backbone.

I may be controversial in say this, I am not hugely bothered by the avatar stuff. This is ultimately a text based game right? and that is the part least fleshed out, least exciting and least involving.

Crush, go back to Agile, create your heroine and her backstory. Write for your heroine and progress the story. Agile development would suggest creating a minimally viable story and then build on it. Don't worry about writing all the other pathways - as long as the framework exists to include other variables or flags, you should be able flesh it out later. I guess I am basically saying create and code a linear story and move it forward toward some conclusion. You don't necessarily release a linear product but I wonder if that might help you out. It is easy to get overwhelmed by all the character choices/pathways but I bet if you already have one pathway done, the others will come easier. Anyways, I think what you and the team have created is great stuff but you struggle with the development process which I can sympathize with. Think of this as more of a story that you are turning into a game rather than a game that needs to be made into a story. Maybe I'm over-simplifying it but I would hate to see you give up. I've been a Patreon for over a year and I'm certainly not going anywhere.

My hope is that there was some quality under the hood development in 1.12, whether that was in the code or the development process. Hearing "We're getting to the mission" and getting...back to Dubai, but it's Malaysia now? That was a disappointment, particularly since so much of both the Max encounter and the mission outline seemed recycled. At least the lifepath releases have had some choices in them. In 1.12, the only one that seems to exist is "do I want to play the new sexytimes content or just click through to the airport?"

I agree with Jonathan that some life path options should be added as a hold over till the life path is revisited. Just as an idea the easiest way that I see is kind of how you have commando and the other options as just a short description. but all I all I think you guy did a good job on this one and I'm look forward to what you guy have in store for Bangkok

Do it at your pace mate, i'm in no hurry. The content is good.

I agree its kind of time the story moved forward as going through the same things again was getting flat. My one main suggestion though would be to implement a choice of did she go as a operator or analyst as a choice in character building until lifepaths can be worked on again. That way there can be two different skill sets to represent how some people played her the two different ways before. Also it puts in some skills for the character sheet that offer more than one start skill wise for some variance.

I personally like the whole Lifepath course when we build our character...however as Cy said it would be 100 times better to have REAL progress on the story. I've played the same 2 stories like a million times by now on the different "engines" and iterations. It's time we at least get a peek at Bangkok

Personally, I feel there is a disconnect/incompleteness with the heroine when you skip the university intro. That's my personal opinion and you take the route you choose.

My thoughts are the same as they've been for the past year: you need to stop redoing older stuff and move on with the game. Not everything needs to be perfect. In fact, nothing is perfect and you will always find stuff you hate if you keep going over the stuff you've already done. You need to pick a vision and stick with it. Delegate. Have freelancers or other writers work on fleshing out the lifepath stuff while you work on the main story. Hire people to write side quests in Bangkok based off outlines you write. This works great for games like Trials in Tainted Space and Corruption of Champions 2 and I think it can work here too. Listen to your team when they tell you something isn't working. Because you're freely admitting you're not listening to them, and your patrons are all saying different things so you're not listening to all of us either, and the decisions you make yourself, by your own admission, aren't always the best.

Despite what most people have said so far, I really think that this experiment has been a major success. Yes, the lack of a lifepath makes experiencing story events less meaningful and interesting, in one sense, but I don't think it's realistic or sensible to develop the game in such a way that each advancement of the story takes into account all the possibilities created in the lifepath. A simple calculation makes this pretty clear, if the lifepath introduces 10 choices, and each progression of the plotline adds roughly 2 meaningful choices (in 1.12 being whether or not to do the side mission, and whether or not you have sex with the mark and get caught) then by five updates roughly the size of the 1.12 update, you would be trying to account for around 150 different possibilities (10 *2^5) and yes, you would probably manage to collapse some of them, but each update would take an enormous amount of time to develop and advance the story extremely incrementally. I'm not sure how long the main plotline of FA is meant to be -- maybe other than the sexy gameplay loop it will be pretty short, but I get the sense that you have at least a rough idea of a story you want to tell, and imo that story is the most interesting part of Female Agent. The various outcomes of the mission, how the heroine gets there, and the characters she meets along the way make the sexy bits much more interesting, and we still haven't even come close to the basic gameplay loop yet, if there is still going to be a gameplay loop. In short, I think a reasonable development model is to try and push forward with every update as a primary objective, while filling in different options in terms of choices, including the lifepath, as a secondary objective. Yes, some people will be disappointed that the specific choices they prefer didn't make it into the most recent update, but nobody can really complain if the game is moving forward. Much better to make it to the main gameplay loop, and then the ending, so that people can actually have fun playing the game, and go back and flesh out options to add more and more replay-ability as time goes on. Also, unrelated, but I think the discord invite is broken. TL;DR please get to Bangkok in 1.13. Don't cut the lifepath, it is great, but aim to gradually incorporate (and expand) it over a series of updates which progress the story and implement the main gameplay loop as a priority.

Shorter version, "No Bangkok this year".

Moving forward to actual spy stuff was a massive improvement. The game is called Female Agent, not Female Student, so I felt relief and finally some hope that the game development is moving forward! I've removed my patronage earlier due to how much the project was treading water in the Lifepath, but not it feels like it's moving in the right direction. With that being said, I hope that the Lifepath is being worked on behind the scenes since a fully-fledged Lifepath together with a complete main story will make the final product much better. I think that it's something freelancers and volunteers should work on, since it needs a very wide amount of content to be worth it. The earlier Lifepath felt quite railroaded even though there was a lot of work put into it. That, together with the fact that there was no main story to follow turned the backstory into a bore for me. All together I see 1.12 as a success, even though I think it took too much time. But considering that your original plan had you rewriting the prequel missions instead of moving forward to the espionage - with Bangkok to come next version - I won't complain about it!

Life path and those choices is what got me hooked and more interested. Without it just feels generic and you loose the connection with your character. I almost felt that it wasn’t customize the character because whiteout the backstory it’s just so un personal. Nothing to connect with.

I enjoyed the 1.12 story mission, but I really loved and missed the life path. It was something more unique to the game and it was a lot of fun to customize your agent with the interactive backstory.

To my surprise, I'm one of those who couldn't find any interest in or connection to the heroine without the backstory. I plodded though 1.12, but my interest was gone. My impulse was to quickly find a bad end.

Sign me up for cadet getting shagged by half of her platoon scenes. I loved and miss the life path.