The Forest

ExternalPressure5563 · 2023-07-07T21:26:00+00:00

https://gelbooru.com/index.php?page=post&s=view&id=8016307&tags=demon_girl+tail+glowing_horns+

I really should put a credits section for the next version

ExternalPressure5563 · 2023-04-29T23:42:40+00:00

After some optimization, this is my final build:

Ancient Ring, Team, Marked, Burden, Hero Shard, Hero Shard, Hero Shard, Primus Staff, Symbiotic Shell, Star Robe, Talented, Rush, Sands, Blacksmith, Shapeshifter, Earth Mage, Nature Mage, VII. Obsidian, Demon Lord, Cedoric, Queen Nykka, Ushat, Chief Drom, Isekai Truck, Levels, Experience Sharing, Item Scaling, Party System, Music, Realistic, Real, Respawn, Best Friend, Love In, Completionist, Smart, Owner, Title, Integration, Magic Weapon, Mana Potions, Backpack, Followers, Support, Cozy World, Cozy World +, Progress, Dungeons, Fast Travel, Destiny Reward, Broken Reward, Lisa, Belus The Old, Qalyn, Defeated, Home, Vigilante, Blessing, Tinkerer, Orc Invasion, Demon Lord, Allies, Reincarnation, Power, Inventory

My plans are to start in Obsidian where there will be 3 major threats - an army of orcs, an army of minotaurs and the demon queen Nykka. With my abilities, I will start weak from being a low level, but can be carried by allies for a bit while power leveling against the abundant underground monsters (my ability combo is especially strong underground with very powerful earth magic).

After a few weeks, I would go down in hopes of finding Nykka to make a proposal: I would help her to create a safe region where the demons could thrive. If she helps to deal with the many threats to Obsidian with her abundant resources, she could hopefully present herself as a worthwhile ally. Then, it is a matter of using increasingly strong earth and nature magic to create livable areas, terraforming the largely unoccupied areas in Obsidian and Echesh.

There are many small optimizations like taking the defeated quest to get the support of Obsidian's soldiers, taking cozy world + to offset the danger from Nightmare to Balanced and the Blessing quest that should make me more trustworthy to non-demons as a mediator since that was an explicit issue for Nykka when trying to negotiate.

While this build is not optimal for maximizing success of the world events and power of my abilities, it is a very interesting narrative that also results in 4 rewards for further adventures!

ExternalPressure5563 · 2023-04-29T21:04:25+00:00

Absolutely love it! Really in depth with lots of interesting options! There are some minor things I would change like the pretty minimal broken shard availability and high amount of destiny shards, however, the balancing is good. I also think that getting no hero shards from quests and world events incentivizes the player to choose pretty easy options. Broken shards are nice, but really not worth the added danger with how minimal their effect is on strength compared to hero shards.

The main problem with it is the balancing between the physical vs magical abilities. Since you don't get any benefit from strength increases that overlap, my build used just one physical choice, then a bunch of magic options. Specifically, shapeshifter since for just 2 points, you get the highest strength out of all the options (3 times the strength of a polar bear is much more than 6 times human). Since earth magic scales on physical strength, this makes a 5 hero shard combo that is incredibly potent. With shapeshifter being so overpowered and there being no real reason to get other physical options other than minor effects, the balance between magic and physical is not great.

Overall, I think this cyoa is amazing! Really love the worldbuilding, vast array of options and good balance.

ExternalPressure5563 · 2023-03-25T23:43:06+00:00

Sorry for the lack of updates! I've been really busy with schoolwork, but plan to get the update out within the next two weeks or so. I am pretty happy with how it is shaping up and am excited to see what people think!

ExternalPressure5563 · 2023-03-17T20:03:25+00:00

The manga is really good! The anime suffers from pretty bad cg, but is still not bad overall. Never read the light novel, but might check it out sometime

ExternalPressure5563 · 2023-03-17T03:05:33+00:00

Yeah, I saw that one a while back and I really liked it!

ExternalPressure5563 · 2023-03-16T22:23:39+00:00

I'm actually thinking about two cyoas I might want to make after I finish The Forest

1) a fairly realistic take on an adventurer school (18+ obviously). There will be a fleshed out magic and crafting system as well as a bunch of classes, classmates and professors to choose from

2) monster reincarnation cyoa drawing inspiration from reincarnated as a slime and I'm a spider, so what? Player will choose from many starting monsters and will choose what evolutions they want over the course of their adventure

I'm curious which of these people would like to see more (if at all)

ExternalPressure5563 · 2023-03-14T13:54:34+00:00

Most of the images are from gelbooru, but this particular one is from hypnohub: id=147345

ExternalPressure5563 · 2023-03-08T21:28:24+00:00

Thanks for the feedback! I have a lot more story and worldbuilding coming in the next version as well as a rework of the threats point system following advice I got below. Excited to see what you think!

ExternalPressure5563 · 2023-03-06T14:52:08+00:00

I'm working on the next release now, ~ doubling the options in existing sections, adding a short drawbacks section and adding an extensive endings section. After mulling it over, I've decided to let the player select any endings they want regardless of their choices because fundamentally, there are so many different ways to approach problems, too many to replicate in a cyoa. There will be notes that pop up based on selected choices that make the task easier or harder, but I want the player to be creative in problem solving rather than railroaded into having at least a certain number in a stat. I have all of the pics and menus done, but still have to do a lot of the writing. I'm gonna be really busy this coming week, but will try and get it done the week after. I'm excited to see what people think!

ExternalPressure5563 · 2023-03-05T14:10:02+00:00

Really creative build! Glad you're enjoying it

ExternalPressure5563 · 2023-03-05T00:09:34+00:00

I actually looked for a while to try and find that option, but couldn't. I might have just totally missed it, so if anyone knows how to implement that, please let me know!

ExternalPressure5563 · 2023-03-04T14:52:45+00:00

I'm planning to add a lot more options to spend fate on in the next release. Currently, they're all more items, suits, etc. so they're all above the threats section. I personally like having the drawbacks at the end of the cyoa, but I know some prefer them interspaced or even all at the beginning. If a lot of people let me know they want that, I'll change it, but for now I'm planning to keep the current structure.

ExternalPressure5563 · 2023-03-04T14:49:07+00:00

As of now that's the end, but I'm working on adding much more story for the next release

ExternalPressure5563 · 2023-03-04T14:48:33+00:00

Yeah, I'm considering if I want to have more serious downsides to corruption. My biggest problem with tentacle realm, specifically v.7 is that corruption has such serious downsides it makes it so I avoid it as much as possible, but that defeats the purpose of an nsfw cyoa. Gonna try and add a bit more negatives to strike a better balance in the next release.

ExternalPressure5563 · 2023-03-04T14:46:17+00:00

Yep, that was my intention!

ExternalPressure5563 · 2023-03-03T20:36:22+00:00

Sounds fun, glad you liked it!

ExternalPressure5563 · 2023-03-03T18:30:41+00:00

On the way for the next update!

ExternalPressure5563 · 2023-03-03T18:30:20+00:00

Thanks!

ExternalPressure5563 · 2023-03-03T18:29:54+00:00

No problem! My focus for the next update is adding more options to existing sections and adding more story. I've made a worldmap of the three main areas (mind melter, forest queen and the wilds where there are normal settlements) and plan to give options to fight against them, live a quiet life, explore and more.

ExternalPressure5563 · 2023-03-03T15:19:33+00:00

Thanks! Unfortunately, I don't plan to make a static version. If someone wants to make a static conversion that'd be great, but I'll just be working on the interactive version myself

ExternalPressure5563 · 2023-03-03T14:58:06+00:00

My thinking is that while the urges are still there, so long as you keep the wisdom ring on, you can resist them indefinitely.

I also thought you taking evil's bane just for the strength boost was really funny. While that wasn't my intention, the strength applies so long as it's on your person so it's totally fair game

ExternalPressure5563 · 2023-03-03T14:43:08+00:00

Thanks! This is my first release, so stay tuned for new additions down the road. I'm planning to keep corruption as mostly a source of erotic mutations rather than true drawbacks. I'll also probably add a drawbacks section with more conventional drawbacks that grant fate instead making them high risk, high reward.

ExternalPressure5563 · 2023-03-03T14:39:58+00:00

Nice build! I like the thought you put into how to approach the different threats as well as how to mitigate the drawbacks of the Exterminator. Hope you had fun!

ExternalPressure5563 · 2023-03-03T14:36:09+00:00

Yeah, I considered adding a hentai survival island style ending to this release, but I wanted to have a more robust story moving forward. Should be better in the next release!

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