What are the rules in this GAME? Are there any rules AT ALL?

[AllSystemsGo]

No, seriously. I've been playing Monster Prom nonstop ever since I bought it (March 28) and so far, even if you do EVERYTHING RIGHT, the odds of you ending up with the partner you want to take to prom are just RANDOM.

I've done every imaginable event possible, even used - ahem - "creative" means to test if the game works - I raised my stats to test the dialog options and see if I still managed to win enough approval of my chosen monster to take him to prom - and guess what? The end result is ALWAYS random.

For example: you can have Creativity 20+; Smart 20+ and some other stat high enough to court Liam and you'll still NOT trigger all the events necessary to make him go to the prom with you.

Not to mention how irritating it is to sit down with the character you want to court at the cafeteria, only to have OTHER characters appear in the subsequent events. I mean, I did a gameplay where I sat ONLY in Liam's table, got EVERY dialog answer correctly (in the sense I NEVER lost any stats when picking choices) and not only did Miranda appear for at least the next 4 events, but also that STILL didn't trigger the yaoi ending or the special ending (where Liam declares he loves you with all the letters), which are two endings that can be considered specific to Liam, meaning you answered the dialogs to his quests correctly and pursued him succesfully throughout the game.

And that's not all. When you have to pick dialog options, there's literally ZERO indication of what stats that option will trigger and HOW MANY POINTS you need to have to avoid losing stats.

What I'm saying is: not only are the game's rules UNCLEAR, but also the events in the game don't build up to suit your choice of monster for the prom. The events happen AT RANDOM.
Simply put, the game has NO RULES. Getting your desired ending doesn't depend on the player AT ALL. The game functions like a lottery. Either you're lucky or you're not. And that's both frustrating and disappointing, especially because a game must have some logic behind the events and reward players for their efforts. Otherwise, what's the point in playing at all?

Thoughts?
And does anyone know if fans have contacted the devs on this issue? Because the game DEFINITELY needs to have this fixed ASAP!


We need:

- Events trigering correctly according to the monster we're pursuing (i.e., quests specific to them MUST appear if we sat with them in the cafeteria and rooted for them, for example)
- Stats and minimum of points to be specified in the dialog options, so the player may make a correct (or at least, an informed) choice.

If these two are implemented, I believe they should make the game feel less chaotic.



PS: If anything in my post sounds weird, I apologise in advance. English isn't my first language. Please be patient with me.

[Tentakeltier🦑]

I've played the game for a few hours and was utterly confused by the "rules". Nothing in the game really explains to you what getting those hearts means or what the purpose of your choices is (Is it to determine who you'll date or to raise your love with the character you chose in the pop quiz?). When exactly are you locked into a character's "route"? I've played tons of dating sims, stat-raising games and also the game this one was inspired by, The Yawhg - but I just couldn't understand how exactly Monster Prom determines if you get a date or not and what it factors into the equation.

So I decided to look at the code and it seems like raising stats to high levels does not matter that much, but your successes matter a lot (as in: you need high stats for a success but not a certain number on one stat to impress a character as far as I've seen)! Whenever there is a skill check you suceed in you gain a certain number of "relationship points" and depending on the character's favourite stats the number of points you gain varies (e.g. when you succeed in a Boldness check for Damien you gain 12 points in a short game and 7 points if you succeed in a Fun skill check, all other skill checks do not give you any relationship points and only raise your stats as shown in game from what I understand.) In a short game you need to aquire 50 of these relationship points to get a date (72 in long).

Then there is also "LovePoints", which you need to earn 7 of in a short game (15 in long). I assume these are the chibi heads with the heart floating up on Cafeteria choices and some other events? There are different types of events:

Standard,
LoveChoice,
Normal,
GoodRelationship,
BigPlotline,
Item,
Cafeteria,
Interactive_A_ChoosePlayer, (Multipayer only)
Special,
Interactive_B_HelpOrHarm, (Multipayer only)
Interactive_C_OtherPlayersStats (Multipayer only)

but I haven't figured all of the connections out yet. Both successes and failures from LoveChoice are added to LoveModifactors though, the sum of which is somehow added/subtracted to your relationship points at the end... or something. I only have some basic understanding of programming thanks to my husband being a programmer, but I mostly assume and deduce from the few scraps of code I understand - all I'm saying here could be completely wrong. ;)

Anyway, secret endings always trigger before normal endings and I just tried a run going for Miranda with those rules in mind (get 7 hearts and acquire 50 points through skill checks - Miranda's values are 9 points for Money, 9 points for Charm and 9 points for LovePoints, though I really don't understand how these work yet..) and sadly I triggered a secret ending so I can't say if those rules apply or not. I'll test my theory further though and report back.

But I feel like part of this info should be explained in game as right now it feels like we all are just randomly trying to explain whatever is happening in the game by guessing without really knowing any of the underlying mechanisms of this game. How are you even able to "compete" if you don't even know the rules and winning conditions of the game if you play this in multiplayer..? XD

I feel like some sort of indication of how many points you get for an answer, like... 3 floating hearts if you get a lot of points, one if you only get some and nothing if you get no points at all because you chose the wrong stat or failed would be extremely helpful. Something similar to how it's done in the Persona 3-5 games for example. I wouldn't even mind a stat bar that fills up as you earn points, so you know for sure how far a long you are with a character.

I also feel like (at least in single player!) it would be nice if you could see which stat is required for choices you've already seen before. I doubt the main audience for this game is really playing mostly multiplayer. I've personally played two games with my husband, one game with him and another couple, one game with a friend online (the only other person I know and would ever play the game online with, we both backed the game on Kickstarter) and about 25 times by myself. There's so much reading and our 4 player game lasted about 3 hours (not using the random player order button but discussing the questions asked added A LOT of time to the game) and most of my friends just aren't that much into visual novel dating games either (actually, just that one friend who also backed the game on KS ;>). I'd assume most people are interested in unlocking things in single player and some quality of life features to make things less of a random guessing game would be nice. ;)

[Ellixer]

Okay that's some very useful information. Thank you. So there is a hidden value that you cannot track, and certain characters favor certain stats. Do you happen to know what the favored stat are for each of them? I think I can get a pretty good guess for most of the characters, but since you figured out the a specific number for Damien, I was wondering if you know what it is for the others as well.

I think the intention is that it's a party game, and failure isn't that big a deal. They probably don't want you to "game" the system. I do however agree that more information should be presented. If I succeed every single check for a character and still get a "no" at the end, it may be a bit much.

[Tentakeltier🦑]

Yeah, but when playing with friends you just don't focus on unlocking stuff, you just have fun playing and make use of the multiplayer features like the harm or help event or the discussions when choosing who'll go first next round. You don't care for what ending you get too much.

But like I said, I don't suspect that's how most people will play the game all the time and unlocking everything is more of a single player thing, that's why more info would be nice in SP (I can totally understand why it should be left out of MP though).

After my 4th play through with Miranda I'm somewhat confident that at least some of my theory is correct. All of her favourite stats give her 9 points (Charm & Money, as well as 9 points for love points) so she's easier to keep track off (everyone else has varying point gains). Here's everyone's point gains (short game/long game):

Damien likes Boldness (12/17) & Fun (7/10)
Vera likes Smarts (10/15), Charm (9/11) & Money (8/10)
Liam likes Smarts (12/16) & Creativity (12/16)
Miranda likes Charm (9/13) & Money (9/13)
Polly likes Boldness (7/10) & Fun (10/15)

Scott has no favourite stat. He gains all his points from LovePoints (I'm still not sure what this is though..) I'm pretty sure I didn't have 7 chibi heads with hearts pop up in my last game when I asked Miri successfully out for prom, but I counted at least 5. If I counted correctly I acquired 6x9 = 54 points in my short run and 50 are needed.

LovePoints for everyone are valued like this:

Damien (8/16), Liam (7/14), Miranda (9/18), Polly (10/20), Scott (10/20), Vera (12/22)

If my suspicion that LovePoint values get substracted when you fail a skill check and added if you succeed might explain why Vera might be hard to date (-12/-22 points for a failed skill check would be a lot). But yeah, I have no idea if what I am assuming is really true. It's hard to test it out well with all the randomness in the game. But I hope this might help a little with unlocking more endings. :)

[Ellixer]

I just did a run with Vera, focusing on Smarts, Charm and Creativity (the money option pretty much never came up for me, not that I had the stat for it anyway). I selected the choice that favor her every time (lunch and events), didn't go to the shop or any other side character, chose smart and charm whenever they come up and passed every check. She still said no at the end. That said, the Interdimensional Prince showed up twice (in events where he's trying to court a group of people rather than her specifically), so perhaps I lost out opportunities to gain points those two times. I'll try again and hope he doesn't show up and see what happens. I got Vera's endings before so I'm in no rush, but this feels a bit ridiculous.

[Tentakeltier🦑]

Maybe it's those damn LovePoints I can't really seem to figure out that made her say no? Did you count how many of the heads with the heart you got? With a short run you always get 4 of them for sure if you choose the same person in the pop quiz & cafeteria events every time, that means 3 choices from the 6 non-cafeteria events have to give you the heart icon as well if my intepretation of the code is correct.

Btw these are the values as shown in the code:

public const int TurnsCount_ShortSingle = 9;
public const int LovePointsNeededForGoodRelationship_ShortSingle = 7;
public const int StatsSumPointsNeededForSuccessEndingNone_ShortSingle = 50;

public const int Success_PollyLovePoints_ShortSingle = 10;
public const int Success_PollyFun_ShortSingle = 10;
public const int Success_PollyBoldness_ShortSingle = 7;

public const int Success_VeraLovePoints_ShortSingle = 12;
public const int Success_VeraSmarts_ShortSingle = 10;
public const int Success_VeraCharm_ShortSingle = 9;
public const int Success_VeraMoney_ShortSingle = 8;

public const int Success_LiamLovePoints_ShortSingle = 7;
public const int Success_LiamCreativity_ShortSingle = 12;
public const int Success_LiamSmarts_ShortSingle = 12;

public const int Success_DamienLovePoints_ShortSingle = 8;
public const int Success_DamienBoldness_ShortSingle = 12;
public const int Success_DamienFun_ShortSingle = 7;

public const int Success_ScottLovePoints_ShortSingle = 10;

public const int Success_MirandaLovePoints_ShortSingle = 9;
public const int Success_MirandaMoney_ShortSingle = 9;
public const int Success_MirandaCharm_ShortSingle = 9;

There's a lot more to it, but these are the values I'm talking about.. just for some clarification. Would be cool if one of the programmer's of the game could step in and explain it all to us though. ;)

[Ellixer]

It was a full run. I didn't exactly count, but I'm guessing it's 8 or 9. 6 for lunch encounters, and another 2 or 3 for events before they stop popping up (I seem to recall the prince showed up on the second morning, so it's probably 8).

[Tentakeltier🦑]

Ah okay, for a long game you need 15 LovePoints and the point gains are a little higher:

public const int TurnsCount_RegularSingle = 18;
public const int LovePointsNeededForGoodRelationship_RegularSingle = 15;
public const int StatsSumPointsNeededForSuccessEndingNone_RegularSingle = 72;

public const int Success_PollyLovePoints_RegularSingle = 20;
public const int Success_PollyFun_RegularSingle = 15;
public const int Success_PollyBoldness_RegularSingle = 10;

public const int Success_VeraLovePoints_RegularSingle = 22;
public const int Success_VeraSmarts_RegularSingle = 15;
public const int Success_VeraCharm_RegularSingle = 11;
public const int Success_VeraMoney_RegularSingle = 10;

public const int Success_LiamLovePoints_RegularSingle = 14;
public const int Success_LiamCreativity_RegularSingle = 16;
public const int Success_LiamSmarts_RegularSingle = 16;

public const int Success_DamienLovePoints_RegularSingle = 16;
public const int Success_DamienBoldness_RegularSingle = 17;
public const int Success_DamienFun_RegularSingle = 10;

public const int Success_ScottLovePoints_RegularSingle = 20;

public const int Success_MirandaLovePoints_RegularSingle = 18;
public const int Success_MirandaMoney_RegularSingle = 13;
public const int Success_MirandaCharm_RegularSingle = 13;

[Sulicius]

Hot damn, finally some proof that Vera's the hardest!

[Sulicius]

So yeah, as long as you get the right answer on the third question of the quiz, pick your prom fav choice during every lunch break, get every(?) encounter right and end up with the stats written above, you will be able to get the prom right. Turns out I actually already had Vera already, but she was swayed when I hit everything right. Darn, now I only still need that blood ritual thing which may or may not be a random encounter thing.

[Tentakeltier🦑]

I had the Blood Ritual trigger often if I went to the shop once (usually during first lunch break on a long run) without buying anything and it NEVER triggered if I bought the tampon before Vera asks for it.

Vera has 3 stats she likes though, which should make her easier? She's hard if you fail too much, I guess... Would make sense for her personality-wise too, as she likes perfection.. ;)

[Ellixer]

Originally posted by Sulicius:

So yeah, as long as you get the right answer on the third question of the quiz, pick your prom fav choice during every lunch break, get every(?) encounter right and end up with the stats written above, you will be able to get the prom right. Turns out I actually already had Vera already, but she was swayed when I hit everything right. Darn, now I only still need that blood ritual thing which may or may not be a random encounter thing.

I can only guess it would succeed if the bloody interdimensional prince doesn't come in and hijack two events, depriving you of two opportunities to earn points with her. Cause other than that I did everything right and she still said no.

[Tentakeltier🦑]

Yeah, those random events make testing super hard. I had Damien's hair stylist event chain hi-jack 2 of my 4 short Miranda play throughs, of course Miranda rejected me on those 2 play throughs. On my 4th play through all events went well, I'm just not sure if I really had 7 hearts or just 6, but Miranda said yes anyway. I will do some more testing later (and keep better track of how many hearts I get) but I need to do something else for change for a while. ;)

[Anzulia Plushy]

If you want a meta it success rate question tests is based of which week and morning or evening your on. lunchs are free hearts or skills on extra's, Characters like criten skills, Vera like money but Polly like fun if your stats in skills the like are high at the end it likely they will go with you to prom.

[Sulicius]

Originally posted by Ellixer:

Originally posted by Sulicius:

So yeah, as long as you get the right answer on the third question of the quiz, pick your prom fav choice during every lunch break, get every(?) encounter right and end up with the stats written above, you will be able to get the prom right. Turns out I actually already had Vera already, but she was swayed when I hit everything right. Darn, now I only still need that blood ritual thing which may or may not be a random encounter thing.

I can only guess it would succeed if the bloody interdimensional prince doesn't come in and hijack two events, depriving you of two opportunities to earn points with her. Cause other than that I did everything right and she still said no.

Yeah, I had no Prince, so that probably helped. I had 10+ smarts, charm and money and knocked out any encounter with her in her favour.

[GUY]

ALL