Undeniably Sexy: A Thief's Tale

[Chad Sexington]

Ok I installed the launcher now when I try to launch your game it says RGSS104E.dll could not be found?

This sounds like an RTP error? I think that's the one that pops up when the RTP isn't downloaded and extracted properly, but I'm not sure.

Help, anyone?

 

[elobello]

It is a separate download which appears on his site. Uothiefdotcom

You have to extract it to the game folder I think. He did put instructions there but I remember having to fool with it a bit to get it set up right.

 

[Chad Sexington]

I have recently completed this game.

I found the story to be intriguing, funny, and to have great depth. The gameplay was very complex. At times I thought it might be getting grindy but I soon realized this was just a matter of learning strategy for a particular module. You end up playing as one main character but you also spend alot of time as 5 other characters. I love this about the game. It really forces you to consider all the options (of which there are many) during gameplay. I ended taking 55 hours to complete it. This is just awesome considering it is free. The graphics are old school adventure style of course and Chad seems to extract the best out of this engine. There are a few bugs here and there but they are generally not distracting and seem relatively few compared to the depth of the game.

All in all a great effort on Chad's part and well worth the time if you enjoy the old school RPG adventure.

I am playing again btw and having just as much fun with that.

Kudos Chad!!

Yeah, thanks for playing.

The game definitely isn't perfect. Some of the early transitions are awkward (Minoc & Moonglow) and to this day I'm still fixing spelling and grammar errors constantly. But I'm pretty happy with the final product. One of the things I'm most proud of is actually sticking to my original story and my original outline after so many years of development. Most of the things in the game, even up until the very end of the game, were all part of the original plan. I think when you start the game you kind of wonder when the story is going to pick up and wonder where things are going, but I *hope* at the end, when you look back at the entire game it all kind of makes sense.

Also, I find your 55 hour play time very funny. ^_^

 

[Chad Sexington]

I've just completed all side-quest, New Game+ features, and super-late game content I had planned so long ago. I'm now considering this build of the game Version 3.0. There are still a some minor bugs (clipping bugs) and I'm sure there are still spelling/grammar errors, but all major bugs should be stamped out. I'll still continue to fix little things here and there, but no new major content will be added any time soon.

If you read the FAQ in the OP, I mention that this game features a New Game+ and that it was a planned feature from the start, 6 1/2 years ago. If you're wondering, here's what makes my New Game+ a little different:

Unique New Game+ Detailed & Spoiled, Long Read

Spoiler

There are actually a ton of things that play out differently upon subsequent play-throughs:1) Gold / Banks - Throughout the game, most major towns & cities feature banks. In your initial play-through you'll soon be wondering what they're for because they won't really be doing anything for you. In a New Game+, almost everything resets, but one of the things that is transferred with you is your gold. All the gold on you and any existing gold in your Bank Account will be stashed safely away in your account that you can withdraw once you reach a bank.

2) Blessed Items - At the end of the game you'll have the chance to find an "Item Bless Deed." This item blessed a select few weapons & armor artifacts (12 total) and with the Item Bless Deed, you can bless any one of these artifacts. All blessed items are transferred back with you and you start the game with those items in your inventory. Just remember that you only get 1 Item Bless Deed per play-through.

3) Soulstones - Throughout the game you'll save your progress at Soulstones. One of the semi-rare items you can find are Soulstone Fragments which are 1-time use items which allow you to save anywhere. There is also a unique item called a Portable Soulstone which has unlimied uses. All of your Soulstones will be transferred with you to the beginning of the game.

4) Ultima Skill System - If you've read the OP, you've already read about the Ultima Skill system and how these skill values are independent of any of your characters levels. These skill have a maximum of 1000/1000 skill and some of these skill are harder to gain than others. So instead of having to grind any of these skill (for completionists out there), just know that your skill values won't reset at the end of the game and they'll all remain intact. Zero grinding. And some of these skills are significant, like Magery, where the spells you learn is tied to your Magery skill and not your level. It's entirely possible to start a New Game+ with every spell in the game on each of your mages (but at a very low levels since levels reset).

5) Gate Travel / Barter Town - This is the big one. One of the last Magery spells your mages will learn is a spell called Gate Travel. Gate Travel allows you to teleport your entire party to pre-determined destinations marked by Runes. And the last town in the game before reaching the final dungeon happens to have a Rune Library which has runes marked at previous locations and brand new locations. This final hub town will give you access to 12+ locations and will bust the game wide open in what is an extremely linear game otherwise. (One of the last "puzzles" in the game is figuring out where the final dungeon is at.) Once you begin a New Game+ and if either of your mages can cast this spell, you'll realize that this game isn't nearly as linear as you thought it was:

-During your initial play-through, you would have seen these magical Runes scattered in various towns & dungeons from time-to-time. There is no explanation as to what these are until the end of the game. But what you now know is that you can Gate Travel off any of these Runes at any time. This means that you can gain access to most of the super-late game content very early in the game. Some of that super-late game content will be in areas with monsters that are way to strong for you to handle and others will not.

-When you find one of these Runes, you can travel to the hub town, figure out what you're strong enough to fetch, shop around with your massive bank roll, play some mini-games, and see what you're strong enough to handle. And when you're done, you can Gate Travel back and continue on with the linear story.

-You can't actually beat the game early... for various reasons.

All-in-all, I really like how this feature turned out. And because of the variety of things you can do at the end, if you enjoyed the game the first time around, I think it's almost mandatory to give it a second play-through. The experience that you'll have will be very different from the first. I list this game as ~30 hours of game play, but for people who enjoy it, it really turns out to be 50+ hours.

3+ Play-throughs might only be for the fanatics and/or masochists out there, but if you want to, you'll still be able to continue to mass gold, bless 1 artifact per cycle, and max out all your Ultima Skills. What I like most about it is how it completely hoodwinks you on exactly how non-linear this linear game can turn out to be.

Like I said, I've now completed all the optional late-game content I had planned on doing. This is now Version 3.0, but I'll continue to polish the little things. And besides, it's about to be New Years and I need to get some non-RPG Maker stuff done in my life.

I declared "Version 2.0" when I finished the Final Dungeon & Final Boss, where you could play the game from start to finish, but Version 3.0 is really the game I intended on making. There is so much more stuff to do at the end of the game with this build.

edit: I'm officially changing the estimated play time to ~35. I won't know exactly how many more hours I've added since Version 2.0 until I play through it from start to finish again. Most of the content that I added is optional end-game content and there is a ton of it in this game. It may be as high as ~40 depending on how much time you sink into some of these new areas that are designed to be time sinks.

 

[Gargomaxthalus]

Hmmm... I've actually been unable to get out of the dungeon right at the start of the game. I found the key and the rest of the loot, but I can't get the door open.

 

[Chad Sexington]

Hmmm... I've actually been unable to get out of the dungeon right at the start of the game. I found the key and the rest of the loot, but I can't get the door open.

Every once in a while someone always gets stuck.

Spoiler

The clue is in the book that's inside your cell. There are actually 2 keys in this area. The 1st key is on the dead body that let's you get into the room with the Soulstone (save point). The 2nd key you have to steal from the guard that's walking around. If you follow what the book says, you have to talk to the guard from one direction then move around to his back with 5 seconds and act on him again. If you do it right, you'll pop open his backpack and take his key. This key will get you out.

It's a very odd mechanic. I intentionally keep the first area small with very few things to interact with to make sure players get the hang of it before continuing.

I'll add another clue somewhere.

Thanks for playing. <3

 

[Chibi Kyo]

im only an hour into the game and i  must say, i love it. good job! i wish my game is as polished as this... ! i really hope you do make more games, i am slightly addicted 

 

[Chad Sexington]

im only an hour into the game and i  must say, i love it. good job! i wish my game is as polished as this... ! i really hope you do make more games, i am slightly addicted 

I hope you keep playing.


It's hard to tell how many people actually finish the game. I'd make more games if I could, but it just takes too much damn time to do it and I'm not getting paid. ^_^


Thanks for playing. <3

 

[Simplestchaos]

I haven't played it yet, but I feel like commenting on that last post of yours.

I noticed you only used Yanfly's and Victor's scripts. They both allow you to use their scripts in commercial games, which, using this game as a resume, you could easily make. (In the case of Victor, it's like a 2$ fee or something to use his lesser scripts? it's real cheap either way though)

If your game is as good as everyone is saying (And I'm on my way to finding this out for myself btw), and you open up a blog or some other such thing to build up public knowledge, you could sell your game for a small price and you'd get some payback for your game. :3 Maybe not much, but it all depends on who liked your game that's in this thread, and how much attention you can obtain.

I personally think you should go for it if it's what you want to do! You clearly enjoyed making this other game, despite how long it took. :3 (I'll leave a review of the game once I finish it, btw)

 

[Chad Sexington]

I haven't played it yet, but I feel like commenting on that last post of yours.


I noticed you only used Yanfly's and Victor's scripts. They both allow you to use their scripts in commercial games, which, using this game as a resume, you could easily make. (In the case of Victor, it's like a 2$ fee or something to use his lesser scripts? it's real cheap either way though)


If your game is as good as everyone is saying (And I'm on my way to finding this out for myself btw), and you open up a blog or some other such thing to build up public knowledge, you could sell your game for a small price and you'd get some payback for your game. :3 Maybe not much, but it all depends on who liked your game that's in this thread, and how much attention you can obtain.


I personally think you should go for it if it's what you want to do! You clearly enjoyed making this other game, despite how long it took. :3 (I'll leave a review of the game once I finish it, btw)

Hm...


I'm not sure what you mean about the scripts. I've heard of Yanfly and I think I've heard of Victor, but I only used a few scripts (and some simple edits) for the game:

• Advanced Message Script AMS R4 - This was credited towards "edited, fixed and enhanced by: Dubealex, original script core by: XRXS Scripter, HTML hexadecimal color feature from: Phylomorphis" from the Creation Asylum way back in 2006 when it seemed like there were at least a hundred people online at any given time.
• Battle Arena Script - Which is just a very basic side view battle script that has no additional animations (by ForeverZero).
• Level Up Box Script - Simple text box that tells you which stats increased after a level up (by Akxiv).
• Tsuno Bars Script - Simple HP and mana bars in the status screen & in battle (by Tsunokiette).

There is also zero chance of this ever being a commercial game because so much of it is ripped straight from Ultima Online (thousands of tiles, hundreds of sound FX, BGM, monster sprites & animations, proper names, etc.) I doubt Electronic Arts would be happy with me if I ever sold this game for money. ^_^
But thanks for showing interest and thanks for playing. Like I said to the poster above, I can never really tell how many people actually complete the game. I was hoping they would post again (maybe at the end of Act I, the end of Act II, and after they beat the game), but they never did.

 

[Roboblue]

This game's got me interested. I'll give it a play, but just don't expect a review for awhile, I'm a slow player (and can only ever play a game for a few hours at a time) and like to explore everything. However, when I do finally finish it, expect a LONG review.

 

[Chad Sexington]

This game's got me interested. I'll give it a play, but just don't expect a review for awhile, I'm a slow player (and can only ever play a game for a few hours at a time) and like to explore everything. However, when I do finally finish it, expect a LONG review.

I look forward to your review (good or bad).


If you have any questions (or run into any game ending bugs), feel free to post here or on my forums.


<3


edit: I also updated the FAQ in the OP. I don't think the following Q&A was worded quite correctly:


Q: Are there really 35 hours of gameplay?


A: Actually, there are potentially hundreds of hours of gameplay. There is a New Game+ feature that will allow you to replay the game as many times as you want. The majority of differences occur between the 1st and 2nd play-throughs. And even though small changes continue to occur in your 3rd play-through and beyond, the game is really designed to be played twice. The 1st time through should take your roughly 35 hours to complete. The 2nd time through should take you roughly 25 hours. This means that the full intended game play experience is roughly 60 hours in length. (New Game+ was a planned feature from the very beginning when I first began designing & writing the game. It all fits mechanically and within the lore. New Game+ was not just shoe-horned as a last minute addition to pad the game with more fat.)


Like I said, a lot of people either post here or on my forums when they begin the game, but very few actually come back and tell me they finished. I never know if they finish the game at all. In fact, there is only 1 person that I know for certain that has played through it 6 times.

 

[dw817]

I'm the guy with the silver glasses that asks all the obvious questions. No really, I do that (just got my glasses yesterday and I love 'em).

Why does the logo show a black background face with white ink for the edges ? The colors appear inverted or something ?

 

[hugdealer]

this looks really neat, i was a huge fan of UO and some of the early ultima pc games.

played UO for years, mainly pre trammel was when i enjoyed it the most.

stealing from other players in a game is lacking these days.

that game was so far ahead of it's time.

you did a great job of paying homage to ultima at the very least.

and, holy crap is that map big!!!

 

[Chad Sexington]

I'm the guy with the silver glasses that asks all the obvious questions. No really, I do that (just got my glasses yesterday and I love 'em).


Why does the logo show a black background face with white ink for the edges ? The colors appear inverted or something ?

Yeah, the colors are inverted. I originally did this because if you look at the main index of my site (www.uothief.com), the original sketch for that pic was already being used on another project. I liked the sketch and wanted to use it for my title screen and I didn't want it to look exactly the same, so I inverted the colors. (I found a way to make it work within the lore of the game because about 40% into the game, there is an entire map mechanic for a particular dungeon where I used entire inverted tilesets, sprites, battlebacks, etc. And then it comes up again later in the final dungeon.)

this looks really neat, i was a huge fan of UO and some of the early ultima pc games.


played UO for years, mainly pre trammel was when i enjoyed it the most.


stealing from other players in a game is lacking these days.


that game was so far ahead of it's time.


you did a great job of paying homage to ultima at the very least.


and, holy crap is that map big!!!

There just to be many more in-jokes in references to Ultima Online in the first version of the game. But over the years I kept taking more and more of that stuff out so that non-UO players will be able to jump right into the game and never even know it's a "fan game."

 

[Chad Sexington]

Every once in a while there are players that message me (either here or on my forums) saying they can't get past the first area. It saddens me that there are probably a good amount of people who downloaded the game, had this same problem, turned off the game and never played it again after never contacting me. It also confuses me why it took me so long to fix this problem. It's such an easy fix. I just added an extra clue.


I'm just going to spell it out here. It's not really a spoiler because it's literally the first area of the game where you can't continue without mastering this skill.


You can steal both in and out of battle.


To steal in battle, simply use the 'Steal' skill from the skill menu and target an enemy.


To steal out of battle (on the map), you have to talk to an NPC and then move around to their back and 'talk' to them again. You never use the 'Steal' skill from the menu. This is all done on the map. Keep in mind that you have 5 seconds after talking to the NPC the first time to then steal from them after.


In Version 3.08, if you talk to the prisoner in the other cell, he now explicitly states this. The original clue is in the book inside your cell. But I guess it was a little cryptic and unclear. The book is still there, but now the prisoner just tells you exactly what to do.

 

[Roboblue]

I personally didn't have a problem figuring out how stealing works. I think it's a unique feature, and encourages talking to every single person, which also helps to figure out what you're supposed to do. By the way, I'm still not done with the game even though it's been almost four weeks now. I haven't quit, I just haven't had much time to be at the computer for awhile now. I promise I'll get back to it as soon as I can.

 

[Chad Sexington]

I added the following maps to the OP in spoiler tags. Do not keep reading unless you want to see some mild spoilers (in map form!). I'm adding this just to demystify what I mean when I always say, "the game is extremely linear..." and then follow it up with, "until the very end of the game where you'll find several tiers of optional content suddenly available to you."


First, let's take a look at some labeled maps:

Spoiler

 

Next, let's look at the path of your journey:

Spoiler

You can see how linear the game is from the following maps, broken down by Act...​

...But notice at the end of Act III, you end up in Barter Town. Also notice that the Ant Hole, Barter Town Rune Locations, Soulforge Gate System, and Open Sea Dock Locations are all connected to Barter Town? The map, the world, and the game are busted completely open and the linear nature of the game is shattered right at the end.


In New Game+, not only are you more powerful with better gear, but now that you know the structure of flow of the game, you have opportunities to take a few shortcuts. The game may not have been as linear as you first thought the first time through the game.

This is one of the things that I'm really happy how it turned out and I think many people never really get to the end of the game and discover it all on their own. This what I mean when I say, "New Game+ was a planned feature from the very beginning when I first designed the game."


On your first play through, the game kind of takes you by the hand and pulls you along from dungeon to dungeon, from scene to scene. And then at the end, if you dig deep enough, you are finally able to see just how much you're able to crisscross the world, revisiting old locations and discovering brand new ones. While you do this, you should also start to see the cracks in the linear nature of the game. And if you choose to continue playing and restart the game from the beginning (with perks), you'll be able to see those same cracks, exploit them, and finally see just how "linear" the game really is.


(This is my hope anyway. )

 

[Chad Sexington]

I personally didn't have a problem figuring out how stealing works. I think it's a unique feature, and encourages talking to every single person, which also helps to figure out what you're supposed to do. By the way, I'm still not done with the game even though it's been almost four weeks now. I haven't quit, I just haven't had much time to be at the computer for awhile now. I promise I'll get back to it as soon as I can.

I don't know how far you are in the game, but someone just posted on my forums that there is a game ending bug in Act II where there was an NPC standing too close to a wall and you were unable to steal from him.

I'm uploading a fixed version now (Version 3.09b).

(Just download the new version and copy/paste your save files to the new folder.)

 

[Chad Sexington]

Something new...

~ Undeniably Sexy: A Paladin's Quest ~​

This idea is in the earliest stages of development. I don't know if I want to take on another project and I don't know if this will ever be made. I always said that this was "my first, last, and only RPG Maker game." But I'm tempted to cheat that statement with this project. If you've ever read Ender's Game, you've probably also read Ender's Shadow. In short, A Paladin's Quest would be a parallel game to A Thief's Tale in the same way Ender's Shadow is a parallel novel to Ender's Game.

Spoiler

Endrick


(a.k.a. The Exile)

• Gender: Male
• Class: Paladin
• Ultima Skills: Chivalry, Focus, and Taming
• Pure of heart and noble to a fault.
• Values everything holy and spits on everything evil.
• Wide-eyed, eager to learn, and enjoys making new friends.
• Master Paladin and Amateur Tamer
• Problems with sleepwalking.
• Preferred Weapons: Halberds, Swords, and Maces.
• Favorite Foods: Bird, Bird legs, and Ale

Endrick has always been my favorite character in A Thief's Tale. He's one of my favorite characters to play, he was my favorite character to write, and he probably makes me laugh the most whenever I replay the game. If you've beaten the game, you'll also notice that he ended up being the least developed character when it comes to his back story, his dungeon comes and goes very abruptly, and how he fits into the overall story is never fleshed out very well. This always bugged me. And if I go ahead with A Paladin's Quest, this will give me the opportunity to fix a lot what I think I missed. (And if you've beaten the game, you'll notice that Endrick is truly the only pure playable character. He never really fit with the rest of the bunch.)
There are plenty of parts in the story where Endrick isn't in the main party and this gives me a lot of room to make this his own story. There is plenty of design space to begin the game before he meets Chad, bits and pieces I can make up whenever he leaves the main party, and lots of space to end his story away from Chad.


Like Ender's Shadow, I could make up Endrick's own antagonist that never appears in the first game. "A Thief's Tale" is definitely a "tale" of Chad fumbling and bumbling his way to victory. "A Paladin's Quest" could be an actual "quest" with a clear goal in mind from start to finish. Given that the protagonist is Endrick, I'm leaning towards making the goal as cliché as "save the princess."

Anyway, if I make this parallel game, I would be able to use all the same scripts, resources, and systems, and I can probably even reuse more than a few maps (with secrets/story bits that only Endrick can access). This would save me a ton of development time. But like I said, this new project is in the very earliest stages of development and I'm not even sure if enough people have played the original game to make the effort in making this new game worth while.


And here's the Early Project Thread I started for this new game: A Paladin's Quest


***Also, I've just uploaded a new version of A Thief's Tale (version 3.13). A few people were having problems in the Tower of Lies, sometimes due to lag or other external issues that were outside of the game's design. I added a little helper cheat to easily pass through that area.***