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Decades ago, an Estate was attacked by Servants of an unknown Master. Their only goal seemed to be the deaths of everyone on the grounds. There were no survivors. Our protagonist Master had been kept away from the destruction by his uncle, who raised him. With no one left alive to explain why he had to grow up an orphan, he returns home with a single Servant - his childhood friend - seeking to rebuild his family Estate and take revenge on whoever tried to burn it to the ground. And hopefully build a harem of cute Maids along the way~



https://www.patreon.com/TheMithrilHourglass

Maids & Masters is my first solo development, a retro turn based RPG modeled after older JRPG games, like Final Fantasy and Breath of Fire, and inspired by other adult games like Harem Collector and The Last Sovereign. I started working on it as a way to stay productive while waiting for development on other projects to continue, and it has since grown into a full project in it's own right, featuring more than 20 hours of content. As of v0.10, the game has been remastered in a new engine.



https://themithrilhourglass.blogspot.com/

Important: v0.10 onward is in a new engine. Saves from v0.9.2 or earlier will not load. This does not affect transferring a save from Maids & Masters: Arrival. For instructions on how to transfer a save from the prequel, please consult the README.



https://twitter.com/MithrlHourglass

Note: I am unable to test the Mac build as I do not have access to a Mac environment. Please report any issues.

StatusIn development
PlatformsWindows, macOS
Rating
Rated 4.3 out of 5 stars
(19 total ratings)
AuthorThe Mithril Hourglass
GenreRole Playing, Puzzle
Made withRPG Maker
TagsAdult, Eroge, Fantasy, Male protagonist, NSFW, Porn, Romance, RPG Maker, Story Rich
Average sessionAbout an hour
LanguagesEnglish
InputsKeyboard, Mouse, Gamepad (any)
LinksPatreon, Blog, Twitter

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Maids & Masters v0.14 WIN.rar 1 GB
Maids & Masters v0.14 MAC.rar 2 GB

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There are times there is some freezing. Like that time where Master is celebrating with Bianca then Griselda enter and sometimes stuck on wall. I somewhat solved it by letting the animation of Griselda to finish before continuing.

Those are really hard to find and solve. I try to include a "text skip run" when I do playtesting to make sure that sort of thing doesn't happen, but some of it still slips through anyway. Waiting for movement to finish is always a good fallback if you encounter it, but I appreciate you letting me know so I can go in and add in some fail-safes.

Is there a certain time when you have to start on the love shack?
I found the house pretty early on, but never really revisited. Now im in the second freeze, i can talk about it with Auda, but it always says i have to finish things first. But when i go to the house and interact with the bushes, it always says i need to come alone, not when im with someone. But i cant invite people to go there...

It sounds like you've encountered a remnant of spaghetti code. You're not locked out of it by progressing through the story.

There's a switch that tells the game whether you've found the place and know what it is that needs to be flipped. Once it's flipped, you'll get a bit of dialogue every time you enter the map that'll tell you that you can work on it and roughly what to do. If you're not getting that dialogue and you've already been there, you might've just found the place before you had Phoebe around to tell you what it is. If that's the case, go inside the shack, check the chest (even if it's empty), then leave the grove and come back. That'll flip that switch and let you go about fixing the place up.
If you're getting dialogue that says to come back alone when you can't invite someone yet, that means I need to update the dialogue.

Wow, I did not expect an answer this fast. I found the shack on the very first time i left the estate, so well before Phoebe. Going back and interacting with the empty chest did indeed trigger dialog, though, so i can fix it now.

I do my best. Glad to hear that did it!

do you have a discord? dont want to bother you for every game moment)

I do, but it's a Patreon benefit. I typically don't invite people outside of my Patrons to join it.

I don't mind being bothered, though. I typically only check most things once or twice per day, but I like talking about my work, even if it's just finding and fixing bugs.

The problem is that my government considers Patreon too dangerous for me and blocked it,  so everything is simple, I lost my laptop with the game and it's not scary, the game is worth buying it again, but I can't return dozens of hours in the game, that's why I wanted to ask the guys from the discord save files of the latest version. If you can send it to me, I will be grateful)

Ah. Yeah, that does kinda complicate things.

Unfortunately, I don't really have good saves to share at the moment. I've been meaning to do a more thorough playthrough of the entire game and have a series of saves set at different points in the story, but haven't found the time. The only saves I have are test saves that have things missing or broken.

(-2)

Then can you give me a link to the discord?) I promise to leave him as soon as I ask the guys for a save file

alright i need help, ive replayed the game until the second freeze like 20 times now and i still cant get deirlinns birth to trigger. Every run ive gotten her preggo asap after the funeral and it still wont trigger, my brain wont let me keep on playing until i finish kalas extra obj and its a pain. i really dont know why i cant get it all to work out

(+1)

Well, let's try to figure it out. For anyone who doesn't want to see spoilers or how the sausage is made (so to speak), look away.

To get it out of the way, sharing your save will give me a lot of insight into what's happening, if you don't mind doing so (just keep in mind I need both the numbered save and the global.rmmzsave, or I won't be able to load the save). If you don't want to share it publicly, feel free to find me on Twitter (or X or whatever it is now) and DM it to me there. Also, I apologize if I repeat anything I've told you before, I just want to be thorough.
For the mechanical bits, it is possible to get her pregnant before the game phase changes, but you might have to try a few times to get it to happen. Deirlinn has roughly a 28% chance of becoming pregnant every time you try. If you were successful, she'll have an extra line of dialogue every time you repeat the scene while the screen is black. When she gets pregnant, the game checks the current game phase and adds 18 to it. If you have Trophy 0 from Arrival and make Punchinella active, there's an instance of her between Phoebe's house and the elder's house. She'll tell you what the current game phase is, as well as confirm whether Deirlinn is pregnant and what game phase she'll give birth in.
Once the relevant game phase comes up or has passed, the birth event will trigger as soon as you enter the final version of your Estate's yard. That means if you see weeds and your garden and pool look like crap, it will never trigger. Same with if the Freeze is active. If your pool and garden are fixed up and there's no snow on the ground, the event can trigger. So if you did get Deirlinn pregnant in game phase 0, the earliest the event can trigger is game phase 18. If you left Cumhaill after the funeral and returned, the game phase may have been 1 or 2, meaning she'd give birth on (or after) game phase 19 or 20 respectively.  For this particular example, she can't give birth on game phase 19, because the Freeze doesn't end until game phase 20.
There are a few things that could be happening that's causing you to miss the event before the second Freeze. If memory serves, it's possible to go from game phase 18 into the Freeze without going outside, and if you do that, Deirlinn's stuck waiting for the Freeze to end. The second Freeze ends on game phase 20, so if you did end up not getting her pregnant until game phase 1 or 2, that would explain why it isn't triggering. If you want to confirm that, you could try continuing on and seeing if the birth event triggers after you've completed the Freeze.
As an extra bit of information, if you're worried about Kala's bonus Freeze objective (since that requires Deirlinn being in your nursery), you don't need to worry about that locking you out of getting the second Freeze trophy. The trophy doesn't require Quinn or Teely, so if you've completed one (or both) of their extra objectives along with everyone else's, you'll still get the trophy.

I hope this helps.

Thanks for all the info. So i do have trophy 0 but just never used the clown for anything before, but now that you pointed it out i did a couple test runs with the clown and found out that finishing the funeral quest line puts you in game phase 1 and from my understanding u cant get deirlinn preggo without doing that quest line so it makes it kinda hard getting her preggo game phase 0. Also im not doing this for the second freeze thropy as i know u can get it even without kalas extra obj, im doing it cuz i wanna make sure i do all the content in the game no matter how short or long it is thats why its a pain that i cant trigger it

Huh. I swear I had it set up so she could give birth before the second Freeze without jumping through the extra hoops. That'll have to go into my notes so I can look further into it.
If nothing else, it sounds like I should probably put in an alternate way of completing Kala's bonus objective. If it's that finicky, chances are basically no one is able to do it, and that's not how I want that to work. I definitely get it being frustrating if you know content exists and can't get to it despite knowing the steps to find it.

Hopefully its and easy fix for you when it comes to kalas extra obj, but just to make sure could you check with ppl in ur discord if anyone has managed to make it all work out ? dont wanna give u extra work if its somehow from my side and me failing something. also on the save im playing on right now deirlinn is gonna give birth game phase 19 and i know its gonna be 20 instead cuz 19 is freeze, but i found out that making the ventire chick preggo as soon as ur able to changed deirlinns birth phase from 19 to 24 so thats another bug i think

(+1)

For Deirlinn's phase moving after Vendra - Apparently the wrong variable got specified somewhere. Found and fixed. Good catch!

For Kala's extra objective - nah, it's not that big of a deal. It's just copying it elsewhere and changing a bit of dialogue to match the situation.

I'm stuck at the mind maze. I figured out that i need to please the red and blue torch but i don't know how. I interacted with all blue flames that i can reach until each said to never leave but the closest i got to advancing was "i'm not pleased" "it was close". Interacting with the chests only makes them change places. There are two regions that aren't accessable but have blue flames. Can someone give me a tip?

The "I was close" thing is actually evidence you're making progress towards the trophy there. While the trophy isn't required, getting it does let you skip doing the normal puzzle. That's definitely the hard way, though.

For the regular way, remember the hidden choice cancel mechanic. There's more info on it in the Hints & Tips section of the README.

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here's the save,
https://mega.nz/file/V3wllK6I#wwEzQhYa8AUNfYA99scqzqv2UkXOfHDOquCQx8sissc

I need help for something
What should I do now?
Someone could help?


There's a hidden tunnel elsewhere in the Deep Wilds that you need to find. It's in the western half of the middle bit.
Iris will start giving you hints if you go the wrong way when you're close to it.

And where exactly is this one?


 because I can't find it

Just like the other one, a Maid's Dress is an equipment item. You have at least one either in your inventory or equipped to a party member. You can get more in several ways, including (but not limited to) finding them in chests and as a regular shipment by purchasing the appropriate Contract from Emily.

And where exactly is this one?


 because I can't find it

Just like the other one, a Maid's Dress is an equipment item. You have at least one either in your inventory or equipped to a party member. You can get more in several ways, including (but not limited to) finding them in chests and as a regular shipment by purchasing the appropriate Contract from Emily.

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And where exactly is this one?


 
 because I can't find it


Assuming you mean the ring, it's in Fekhacht. You don't have access to it right away, and it's entirely optional in terms of completing the quest. If you still want to complete the objective, you still can after completing the move.

Is there a writ for the north hold in the north forest?

Every Hold that needs one has a Writ somewhere.

There might be two different Holds you're referring to, and both are locked behind progression. One opens up after Viridius (though you can open it early if you do a certain thing) and the other has a Writ that's given to you as part of the interlude between Act 1 and Act 2.

Got it but for the love of everything please how do you get the mind maze trophy

I'll give you the same hint I give everyone - if you start getting extra dialogue, you're on the right track.

hmm gotcha let the testing begin

Is there anything you can do to help the girl you freed from the lalitah estate?

Do you mean Iris? If so, you don't really free her so much as help her help you, but no, there's nothing more for her. Yet.

Found this bug, there was a spider on the rock infront of me and i attacked it. Master jumped back from attacking the spider and now im stuck in the walls

(+1)

Thanks for the report! Good news: it's already been fixed in v0.12.

Bad news: You'll have to use the Homing Stone to get out of there.

(+1)

Awesome! had my save right outside the cave so it was all good

(+1)

When does Deirlinn and Vendra give birth ? Deirlinn have been pregnant from the first time i was in her town and now im at the second freeze, and from what i understand kalas extra objective have something to do with Deirlinn and her birt

18 game phases (or supply cycles, to use the in-game term) after they get pregnant. The earliest it's possible for Deirlinn to give birth is immediately before the second Freeze. There's also a few points where the game phase can jump forward earlier than you think it would at the start of the game, so it's possible it was 1 or 2, meaning she wouldn't give birth until after the second Freeze since the event that triggers the birth event only happens from the final non-Freeze version of your Estate yard.

Does that mean i wont be able to finish kalas extra obj thus not  getting trophy 21 ?

Sorry for the double reply, but if i wait until masters first time is with melissa and then make deirlinn preg is that too late for her to give birth right before second freeze ?

(+1)

No worries. To answer both:

It's still possible to get Trophy 21 if you have both optional Maids and complete their extra objectives. If you've also completed everyone else's and got the trophy for the first Freeze, that leaves you when an extra 'point' towards the trophy to replace the lost 'point' from Kala.

And yes. If memory serves, the game phase is 2 at that point, so Deirlinn wouldn't give birth until game phase 20, which I believe is the game phase the second Freeze ends on.

one last thing then im done, i found out there is a quest called sex makes babies or something like that how do i get that quest ?

(+1)

I might need to put in more triggers for it. It's supposed to be added as soon as you realize one of the potential mothers is pregnant.

There's not much to it, though. It just establishes a bit of lore.

How do I get trophy 13? I've been doing all the events during the freeze. Am I missing something?

Most likely. The trophy is for completing a certain amount of optional extra events. The extra events can't be completed until after their original event is completed. If you've done a Maid's extra event, it'll have an "Extra Event Completed" gold star when you check their Character Task in the Completed page of the Task List. You don't need to do all of these events, since two Maids are optional and you may not have them, but they do still have their own events which count towards the trophy and at least one event for another Maid involves one of them, so you do need to get at least one or the other.

Thanks for that. I did manage to get it. It took awhile. The only other one I can't seem to get is the Griselda 16 one. Pretty sure I did the diplomacy correctly (more than once) but I never got any trophy for it. I just worry if I'm missing out on a benefit, like a manor upgrade, an interaction like with the demon one or party benefit like the holy headpat one.

Yeah, that one is definitely pretty tricky. It's possible to lock yourself out of it all the way up to and through the final negotiations. I may put in an alternate way to earn it in Act 2, but it's difficult to find a good place for it that makes sense.

It's nothing too big, though. It'll affect some dialogue during Act 2, and it might change how a future event happens (I don't have that fully planned out yet), but that's pretty much it.

Well skipped. Although I would have thought making a truce rather than being a thrall would have influenced it. Must have been something else.

Trying the mind maze and that is confusing. I did the everything you mentioned to an earlier questioner but that doesn't seem to activate the chest/trophy or even unlock the route. My inner completionist both loves and hates this.

And was there equipment I missed to chop down the shack tress and remove the fireplace? Or does that appear after the Lalita content so I shouldn't worry yet?

And thanks for being a good replier.

I try my best. I like talking about my work and I like feedback, so it feels like it's a good idea to interact when I can.

I don't blame you. Both are deliberately difficult. Griselda is supposed to be the best negotiator on the continent, and I wanted to try to give this feeling of barely scraping by when you get to the end of the segment. The mind maze is also supposed to be novel, and built to play you against yourself. Bad news about that is that it's hard to convey those things without making it hard on you as a player. Good news is that nothing else in the game is likely to be that difficult until very near the end.

Though if you're still stuck on the mind maze, the key is that 'choice cancel' mechanic. That won't help you get the trophy, though. The only hint I'll ever give for the trophy is that you need to keep going until you start getting extra dialogue. That'll let you know you're on the right path.

For the hidden shack - sorta but not really. You can't fully complete repairs there until after Lalita's segment, but the thing you need to chop down the trees is the Cumhaill Accord. You should be prompted to do that after you've gotten everything else done (which does require some equipment and Scrap Stone, but that's not for the trees) and the rest will happen automatically.

(+1)

Lets GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO mithril hourglass you legend Thanks

In my task list i have the quest The Color Green and the last part is to return to the mansion ive done that but it just does not register as ive finished the quest, but i do have the next part already drain the swamp. will the quest the color green not being completed ruin anything for me ?

Weird. It should've completed as part of the same event that gave you the next quest. Sorry for the trouble.

Thankfully no, it'll only be a visual bug.

I'm not sure how it happened, since The Color Green should only be active if you never started Green With Rage (the aggressive path). The only time it wouldn't be active but still in your quest log is if you failed the first step and were forced to switch paths, but then it'd be failed, not active. I'll have to dig into that more to try to figure out what happened.

Forgot to mention that the Wait for viridius part of the quest never counted as finished either but i was able to keep on going anyways. glad its just a visual bug tho

Well, I am just stuck at the mind maze inside the tower. I dont under how the locks work to open more paths. Just not figuring out the connection.

I already answered you on the other game page, but tl;dr, you have to use the "choice cancel" mechanic. There's more info on that in the Hints & Tips section of the README.

how to get to the swamps, i cant directly enter from north forest

There's a step missing from the Task List (that's been added in v0.11); you just need to return to your mansion to trigger a short event with Jenny, and then you can go through that entrance to the swamps in the north forest.

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oh, I was having this same problem, I think. Let see if talking to Jenny works.

So I went to talk to Jenny. And She tells me the room is cozy if messy and she'll get back to work soon.

The event is built to trigger as soon as you want into the mansion. It starts with her saying "So... This is it, huh?" Phoebe will also bother you about sealing her Pact if you haven't already.

After the event finishes, a switch is turned on that allows you to get into the swamps.

Interesting. So I got impatience and got the 0.11 release and manage to go collect wood.

But I manage to skip the sequence where I seal a pact with Phoebe.

Interesting indeed. I'm wondering if you aren't at a different part of the game.

I'm happy to help troubleshoot if you're stuck, though. What's the Main Story task you have in the Task List, what what's the most recent incomplete objective?

Hey so another problem. I'm at the green hair master's mansion and I'm at the part where he comes back from the bath to his romm. He speaks to Jenn and then they move right and left as she's bloking him but them the game frezes. I can't move nor open any menus

That one I'm unfortunately not totally sure how to fix. It's been reported before, and it's most likely related to movement misbehaving, but if that were the case, you should still be able to open the menu. I've played through that section multiple times myself and never encountered it, and calculating the movement doesn't show any incorrect collisions with the walls. It's a bug I thought I squashed multiple times.

This might break the movement, so for anyone else reading this, don't apply the patch unless you encounter this specific issue, but this patch should fix it if movement is what's causing the freeze. Same as the last one, extract into the game folder and overwrite.

(1 edit) (+1)

The patch didn't work but reloading a previous save solved my problem

Hey i've finished floor repairs ( I tried doig it on my own but bave up and asked ella to finhish it alone) and talked to phoebe and got all 3 girls in my party.

the questbook is telling me to go to south wood to chop trees but whenever I try to leave the manor I get a text from Elle saying that we should wait till all girls are in the party and can?t leave


Can you help?

I can help! Sorry for the trouble.

Unfortunately that's a rather complex bug. It's fixed for v0.11, but it can be tricky to fix for a save that's already encountered it. If you're lucky, you can apply this patch (extract it into the game folder, overwrite files) and it should work. If that doesn't work, send your save to me (I'll need both the numbered save and your global.rmmzsave files) and I can fix it manually for you.

(+1)

The patch worked.

Thank you. Off to playing the game now

hey um i can not  download  Mac version (maids&master v0.10.1MAC.rar it does not have the zip at the end instead it has rar 

.rar is just a different type of archive. If you don't want to (or can't) use Winrar, you can also use 7zip to extract it. I'm sure there are other options as well, but those are the two I'm familiar with off the top of my head.

android?

does anyone have a save for the previous version please? I don't want to go through everything all over again on a new device

Saves from v0.9.2 and earlier won't work at all, sadly. They're from a different version of the engine.

Saves from v0.10 and newer should carry forward fine, though.

Ah..i see, can I then get a save from version 10 please?

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does we have any guide or walkthrough guy , cuz i'm stuck  

The Task List will always list your next general objective. If you're lost and not sure where to go, there are maps with location names in the Locations section of Estate Info, though you might need to scroll down past the text to see them. Past that, there's a few hints and tips in the README and on the dev blog.

If you're still stuck after looking through all of that, don't be afraid to ask me specific questions. I like feedback and want to be able to help if you've encountered a bug.

How can i play the new version on joiplay? 

It's not officially supported, so unfortunately I can't really help much. You should be able to look up a guide and go from there, but I've seen some people that use Joiplay report errors that I can't fix due to the plugins that make the game work, so be aware of that as well.

I'm hoping to have an official mobile version at some point in the future, but getting it working is more complex than I currently have the knowledge for, so there's no ETA on that.

(+2)

This game is the tits!

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Can you manually add Maids to your party, or is it only story locked?  I just got Ella but nobody else is in my party... 

Having only one party member to use is kind of... annoying.


Oh, and that Lothario's Estate.

How do I get there exactly?

It just says walk the North Road, but the only section n9rth won't let me pass. Melissa just says the village is to the west and that it leads to your uncle's place... Been looking all over but I can't find where to go...

Ella should only be the only Maid in your party during the first part of floor repairs. After you complete the first part, you go to Phoebe and she and Melissa are added back into your party. If you got past floor repairs and still only have Ella, I have to ask if you've modified your save to add extra Scrap Wood to your inventory, as that's the only cause for that I've been able to pinpoint. Doing so breaks the sequence and skips the part where your other Maids are added back in.

If that's not the case, I'd appreciate additional information so I can try to figure out what happened that let you get past that sequence without needing to go to Phoebe and getting the other two back.


The issue with taking the road north to leave for Lothario's may be related, as the transfer there is checking for whether or not Phoebe is in your party. Unless you can get to the road but can't leave north from it - that's checking if Extermination is done (which you do from Melissa back at your Estate). Though Melissa shouldn't be giving you directions to Lothario if you haven't completed Extermination yet.


And to provide an alternate answer to your first question, I can add them back to your party manually using the dev build if I have your save, but there isn't a bugfix feature or anything like that to add Maids to your party. 

Please mark the download with platform tags (I’m assuming just Windows for this one…), so it can be downloaded/updated using the Itch.io desktop app.

If it’s not clear what I mean, “Maids & Masters: Arrival” has the tags I’m talking about, the others don’t. I don’t know what that looks like from the developer’s side though.

(+1)

Yup, I know what you're referring to. I didn't know what to do with it at the time and figured it out more recently, so things like that get added as I update things. Once the next update becomes available, I'll update this to include those as well.

And to answer the implied question, yes, this is (currently) Windows only.

Fair ‘nuff. I hadn’t realised you couldn’t change it after-the-fact; that seems like an annoying limitation.

Contain pregnancy?

(+2)

Yes.
There are currently two characters you can have kids with and more planned.

can i get the names of those characters?

Deirlinn (in Cumhaill) and Vendra (in Ventíre).

Deleted 1 year ago

There's more than one target.

How does the mind maze work?

You need to satisfy the two larger flames. There's two ways to get past them. One is with the trophy you can find there (though getting that is more difficult - if you start getting extra lines of dialogue, you're on the right track). The other, you need to use cancel to make a hidden choice (when choices are presented, hit X or Num0), but you need to take a step with each before the hidden choice works.

How do i get the trophy?

Now that would be telling. =P

The only hint I'll give (aside from the extra dialogue being evidence of progress towards it, and letting you know that leaving the maze resets that progress) is that you have to do everything.

Deleted 1 year ago

Assuming you mean the hedge maze on the right side of Griselda's mansion, there's not a lot to it. It opens up as a way to get behind the mansion after you go back to your guest house and sleep for the first time. If you're looking for the thing Bianca is telling you to do there, interact with the gargoyles - it's triggered by one of them.

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Thanks for the help i got lost

(+1)

Hey so is this game safe? I don't see any comments and I don't want to download a virus.

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I can promise I'm not trying to give you anything except the game.
RPG Maker VX Ace (the engine this is made in) produces a self-extracting archive when the game is compressed. Running it is the same basic process as extracting a .rar or .zip file., you just can't preview the files before extracting.

Edit: This only applies to v0.9.2 and earlier. v0.10 onward is made in RPG Maker MZ and files are compressed into a .rar archive.

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ok thanks just wanted to check