MorningStar

[squark]

I was using patch version 9 at the time. So I decided to see what would happen if I got the release version 9. I haven't seen any errors yet, so here's hoping it's all good ^^v

[elmedir]

I finally unlocked the character sketches last night (great game by the way) and I've been wondering, how come only Natsuki doesn't have one?

[Jake]

I finally unlocked the character sketches last night (great game by the way) and I've been wondering, how come only Natsuki doesn't have one?

If you're talking about the sketches I think you are, the answer is simply that most of the sketches were idle doodlings done while trying to round out the characters in question, and we had a pretty good idea of how we wanted Natsuki to behave from the beginning. In a sense, because she's more directly part of the plot than the other girls and more directly a reference to one of the series we were pastiching/parodying (not really sure which anymore ) her character was more decided by the setting than anything else.

[Guest]

Hey!
I love your game, it's so interesting and original!
I hate to not say more (such an odd thing for me to be so brief...) but I have a...question...
...I probably sound like a total idiot for asking this, but, ummm...how do you save?
This is my first dating sim game, so sorry if this should be obvious...
Thanks in advance! (Otherwise I'll just have to leave the computer on all night...it's already 1:23, haha!)

[Jake]

Hey!
I love your game, it's so interesting and original!

Glad you like it!

I hate to not say more (such an odd thing for me to be so brief...) but I have a...question...
...I probably sound like a total idiot for asking this, but, ummm...how do you save?
This is my first dating sim game, so sorry if this should be obvious...

Well, it's a custom engine, so it's not necessarily the same as any other game anyway. If memory serves, you right-click in the game window, and 'Save' is one of the options on the context menu.

[Guest]

Thanks so much!

But now I can't decide whether to get with Miyako or Sakura...

[Jake]

But now I can't decide whether to get with Miyako or Sakura...

Well, myself I always preferred Miyako. But that's at least partly 'cause the original character sketch for Sakura was based on a good friend of mine, and going for her would feel kind of creepy.

Plus, Miyako clearly has better hair!

[Showsni]

Awesome game! I really got into the role playing side, too... For the first week or so, I'd be thinking "Oh no, it's Friday. I'm going to get beaten up again." Then I nearly won a match, and finally won one after that - and then battle days didn't seem so bad. (I don't think I lost one after that... Except in the end boss fight once.) Miyako asking to swap pendants kind of floored me for a little... In real life, I'd probably have asked for time to think. But I went with her, and then I felt guilty about Sachiko, and had to try and let her down gently...
Akemi's party never materialised. And she was very friendly with me throughout. And after meeting the dolls for the third time or so with Miyako in the evening, it's a bit odd to hear the protagonist saying "What are they?" rather then "Oh, these again..."
And yes, the high YP spells do seem pretty useless.

[Hakura0]

...Whenever I try to play this game, about 3 minutes in, if that, my computer freezes up and the screen gets glitchy, and I have to restart. I got the latest version off of the site, so I'm guessing it's a problem on my end. The game looks good from the little I saw though.

[Jake]

...Whenever I try to play this game, about 3 minutes in, if that, my computer freezes up and the screen gets glitchy, and I have to restart.

Hmm. It could be a lot of things, but the first thing I'd check if I were you would be your video card drivers. Are they up to date?

[Hakura0]

...Whenever I try to play this game, about 3 minutes in, if that, my computer freezes up and the screen gets glitchy, and I have to restart.

Hmm. It could be a lot of things, but the first thing I'd check if I were you would be your video card drivers. Are they up to date?

I believe so, though I know I need a new videocard. I haven't had problems with any other Ren'Py games though, and I played about a dozen in the past two days.

[Jake]

I believe so, though I know I need a new videocard. I haven't had problems with any other Ren'Py games though, and I played about a dozen in the past two days.

If by 'need a new video card' you mean to say your old one is broken, that could explain it - I had similar problems with some 3D games when a video card overheated and partially died on me, and while MorningStar isn't 3D it does use OpenGL for all its display.

However, it doesn't run on Ren'Py, it's a custom engine, so unfortunately being able to run Ren'Py games has little bearing. :/ PyTom has stated many times he's sticking to regular non-accelerated graphics for Ren'Py in order to run on the largest number of computers.

[Hakura0]

If by 'need a new video card' you mean to say your old one is broken, that could explain it - I had similar problems with some 3D games when a video card overheated and partially died on me, and while MorningStar isn't 3D it does use OpenGL for all its display.

However, it doesn't run on Ren'Py, it's a custom engine, so unfortunately being able to run Ren'Py games has little bearing. :/ PyTom has stated many times he's sticking to regular non-accelerated graphics for Ren'Py in order to run on the largest number of computers.

By 'need a new one' I more or less mean that the newest driver is about 10 years old.

Thanks anyway, next time I'm able to kidnap my laptop I'll see how it runs on there.

[Ivlivs]

Well, I played MorningStar...or rather, attempted MorningStar...

I had to use another computer to play it --- my own simply wouldn't run it. It took me a while to figure out the battle system, which really looks like it is little more than an elaborate game of Rock-Paper-Scissors. Do your opponents just do things randomly?

Perhaps you could make the battle interface smoother? I will admit though, part of it is "sour grapes," namely...

...the fact that I can't get past the Puppets at the Student Council building! I lost to them.

Nonetheless, I definitely enjoyed the game and its premise. Makes me want to do my own thing like that.

[Jake]

I had to use another computer to play it --- my own simply wouldn't run it.

What kind of problem did it have? Particularly, the game won't run without the .NET2 runtime, did you have that installed?

It took me a while to figure out the battle system, which really looks like it is little more than an elaborate game of Rock-Paper-Scissors. Do your opponents just do things randomly?

Yes, the battle system is pretty RPS-based; each element is weak against one other and strong against one other. The tactics really exists in choosing when to shield and when to attack.

The opponents do things semi-randomly; the battle scripts basically comprise a set of conditions for each action, and if met, that action will be performed - so if they're low on HP or don't have a shield up, they're more likely to choose to cast a shield than to use an attack, for example. But there's still a random element so that they're not entirely predictable.

Perhaps you could make the battle interface smoother?

Certainly my main regret with MorningStar is not spending more time balancing combat and working out the experience/spell cost/damage ratios so that combat was more 'fun' than 'chore'. Unfortunately, the battle engine didn't get finished 'til quite late in development thanks to the writing part taking a lot longer than we expected, so given that it was a NaNoRenO title we wanted to get it out rather than spend ages polishing it.

Unfortunately, I couldn't really do much to battles without Fice's help, and he was busy with other stuff for a long time almost immediately after NaNo finished last year. I'm still kind of tempted to edit the scripts so that battles can optionally be globally turned off entirely, or rather replaced by scripted events instead.