Black Closet - Alpha Testing

[hanako]

Preliminary report on Miakoda's updater problem - On test machines this seems to only happen when the game is installed to "C:\\Program Files (x86)\" - I didn't notice it earlier because I *always* install games to a different location. So it's probably some kind of permissions issue. We'll be doing more work on fixing that soon but for the moment you can probably make it work by installing to a custom directory like C:\games\ instead.

[Spiky Caterpillar]

Patch 0.8.5 is up. This includes the following changes:

Fixed crashes when hugging Mallory, when using the visible keyboard to enter license keys, and when saving a game with a blank name.
Load/save interface should be a little clearer. Manual saving works on the first week.
%(slacker)s now correctly interpolated on failed harassment in struggling student cases.
Rowan's special case should now save all fields. Loading the pot of honey case should no longer give warnings.
A couple typo fixes.
The end of Spring Break now sets all minions available. That fixes Franka's bug where Althea was unavailable. (If you have a save that's glitched, you can manually make Althea available by hitting shift-O and entering

Code: Select all

althea_.available=True

The updater interface has been cleaned up a bit.
Now uploads the whole save game when you get an error on load. (This will make bug reports take a lot longer to upload, but it'll be a lot easier to fix the bugs.)

Not fixed yet, but we're working on them: Miakoda's updater bug (took us a while to figure out where to start poking), Wendy's crash in the pre-festival scene.

[Oki]

Can I just say I'm addicted to this game? Addicted and TERRIBLE at it! I can't stop until I do well fdghlfhjgdlk

[Franka]

With the latest patch, I was at least able to reach the end.

[Oki]

THERE ARE SO MANY THINGS TO DO AT ONCE HOW DO I DO THEM ALL?!?!234/3YNJTLKGHBEIR

[Franka]

I think this epilogue was supposed to be in a different frame.

[hanako]

Yep, thanks!


(For those who manage to play, please do tell tales of interesting, silly, or embarrassing things that happen! Who do you meet, who do you hang out with, how does your love life go, if you crashed and burned what did you in? You can spoiler stuff to hide it although playthroughs will tend to be different anyway - It's useful for us to know what caught your eye as you went along.)

[Miakoda]

Preliminary report on Miakoda's updater problem - On test machines this seems to only happen when the game is installed to "C:\\Program Files (x86)\" - I didn't notice it earlier because I *always* install games to a different location. So it's probably some kind of permissions issue. We'll be doing more work on fixing that soon but for the moment you can probably make it work by installing to a custom directory like C:\games\ instead.

Not fixed yet, but we're working on them: Miakoda's updater bug (took us a while to figure out where to start poking), Wendy's crash in the pre-festival scene.

Just a minor note, if you change it to just C:\\Program Files\ it generated a bug report as well (instead of including the (x86)).

However, installing outside of those two worked, and updated just fine.

If you're able to, I do recommend fixing that little bug since some people just let games install automatically, and may run into that problem in the future ;)

[hanako]

We are still working on it! Just wanted to let you be able to keep playing.

(For that matter I can change the installer to default to a directory outside of program files, which would stop most people from seeing it, but I'd rather solve the actual problem. Also running the game as administrator seems to make the updater work even in program files but Spiky really really hates that so we're not proposing it as an official solution.)

[Oki]

The difficulty can be really insane. I tend to reload weeks several times just to make it through! And then I'll still get caught off guard. Love the lemonade thing! Wondering, is the 'traitor' always the same person?

[hanako]

There is an option to lower the difficulty if you're having a really hard time.

The traitor is randomly selected at the start of each game - you need to pay attention to their actions to figure out who's against you.

[Franka]

Well, I managed two endings now.


It took a while to figure out proper responses to various situations, decode the different tells, to sometimes just charge ahead and harass people off the bat. Never mind the occasional karma loss, I've never been in danger of losing due to lack of karma. Karma is easily restocked, reputation is not.

First game was just testing the waters and ended miserably when I failed to convince the traitor to change her evil ways in time.

Second game I was overwhelmed by drugs, alcohol and gambling rings. Those can seriously mess you up, especially that spreading drug ring that just kept growing and eating my reputation till it was all gone.

Third game I banished the traitor, then struggled through with four girls, beat the "final boss" with 9 reputation left, but was unable to complete a romance.

Fourth game I was on top of things throughout most of the game, save scummed my way out of a few drug rings (I hate those), attempted to romance the traitor, but ended up in the friend zone, again. I tried ending both by beating the "boss" and not doing so, but that just changed epilogue stuff.

I'm very confused by how to reach a romance ending, and there're too many weeks and conversations, and too little feedback to just go at it again. I'll have to wait for spoilers. And motivational CGs.

There's a certain point, not all that far into the game, where you will break under the load or struggle through. After that, if your reputation is holding up, it gets a lot easier, as the case load lightens a bit. The second time you get some pressure, you just need a buffer to take the losses.

Rowan has been my most trained and used minion, with at least 60/60 Observation/Stealth. Everybody else can cover for each other, but she'd be hard to replace.

[hanako]

Minor comments on romances:

There are CGs available for three routes, none of which are the ones you've done so far.
One girl has two completely separate routes.
One girl is straight, sorry. (Yes, even in a yuri game. Consider what I do to my players in supposedly otome games...)
Two girls are very easy to romance. They're... not the ones you've been going after.
At least one romance option is super-secret and is only going to be stumbled across by accident.

(But yes, more people playing and discussing what they've seen and done will hopefully make it easier to crack the more difficult scenes.)

[Franka]

Ok, so I was going for the minors, not that I knew until it was too late. They would have been legal here anyway.

Considering the feedback I got from some of the girls, I can probably tell who'd be easy.

[wendymarlowe]

I've spent several hours on this game now, but have yet to get past November. In part, I think I'm still floundering with what's an appropriate punishment when a girl is caught having done something - when do I expel her, when do I suspend her, and when is detention (or just intimidation) enough? I keep suspending someone, hoping they'll apologize, but then they come back and steal (or whatever) again and I keep taking reputation hits for it.

Also - does the traitor just flub die rolls, or is there more to it? I had one playthrough where it was really obvious, because one minion kept rolling low all the time, but my last playthrough they were all rolling 15+ the majority of the time and I wasn't doubling them up on missions, either.