I'm going to push this back a week or two and put out a mid-month interim v0.024 release. This won't add any new harlots or sexy stuff, but it will fix some of the bugs patrons have pointed out and also add some fixes/features I want in a stable release version.
The features I'd like to add/fix:
Fix singular/plural confusion with gifts. When I wrote the passages it was with one gift in mind, then I expanded that to gift categories. As a result I think there are a few incidences of 'it' and 'them' confusion people have noticed.
Bump some of the tougher harlots back to round 4. Currently, first-time players might end up with a Round 1 choice between Morticia, Tete, and Hiru, which feels a little mean.
As was suggested, I'd also like to add an option to buy a charm of choice for the cost of a mulligan token. This will probably be removed in the final finished game, but feels like a fun option to have for early beta/test versions.
One area I'm on the fence on is with the delayed reaction charms that don't come into effect until the beginning of the next round. The example that's been pointed out is buying the Sandals of Safraz Shah, which imply they improve dancing (They set base AGI to 4), only for Chen to still reject the player for being a poor dancer (because the charm doesn't come into effect until the beginning of the next round).
This is also true for the Eye of Eric Leidorf (see true form of harlot), although that one was enforced because otherwise I'd have to write reaction paragraphs to cover situations where the player is introduced to Anna Boa and sees her as a woman, buys the 'see true form' charm, then, when they return to make their choice, now see Anna Boa as a half-serpent lamia (and likely get freaked out by it).
I could probably solve both problems by moving The Buxom Lolibaba visits to the post-room phase (with the Portly Gentleman), but I don't think it makes much sense from a story perspective. (The player has less time in that segment and can't go running off to find the Nurse/Doctoress/etc, but can chat to the Portly Gentleman on the way back to the bar, and the Elegant Woman, who is already at the bar).
The Eye charm I would like to fix, even if it's awkward, but probably for a future release.
The base-stats-altering charms, I like as they are, to be honest. I want the charms to have a "what does this do?" mystery about them, and there's no mystery if the player immediately sees their AGI stat jump from 2 to 4 the moment they buy the charm. While that does throw up weird scenarios such as the Chen one, I think it's okay for that particular charm type. (And also distinguishes them from the Doctoress's potions, which take effect immediately).
Anyway, that's a bit of a rambly sidetrack. I do want to update the Eye charm, but probably not for the interim release.
Back to the main subject. I'll be looking to put out an interim v0.024 release in a week or so, and this will be the new public demo. I don't have any harlots to implement at the moment, so these changes will fill that slot while I write and type up the next batch.
I'll then look to add the new harlots for a proper v0.025 release at the end of the month (patron-only timed exclusive for a couple of months).
If there any other QoL (that are reasonably quick to fix) improvements you'd like to see added, let me know in the comments below. Same goes for any bugs/typos I might have missed.
I didn't encounter any typos in the scenarios with the Harlots or any of the dialogue with the NPCs, you are good there MEH.
ReplyDeleteUsing the Eye charm on the sheep girl and Morticia will probably leave to a Horror End.
That actually opens up a Pandora's Box there of issues. This will be called a "Refusal Effect" where the PC will be hesitant to pick the girl because of her true form.
The eye charm is actually really serious MEH because now the PC can see through the illusions and tricks in the House.
A few questions:
1. Will you be able to use a Mulligan Token to buy potions later in the game? Especially the "get better" potion you buy when you are suffering from withdrawal?
2. Will there be a drawback to the PC using too much charms at once?
3. Will there be more dialogue from the Barman later in the game when you survived a lot of Harlots?
4. Will there be a bad end if you use the wrong charm on the wrong harlot? Like using the Eye charm on Chibi?
5. Will you keep the devotees dangerous in some way? I don't want them to fall into the "harmless" and "safe" tier. They are still daemons and they need to still have that presence of threat to them.
How will you make the devotees still deadly? Mind break? They lose control and eat the man anyway? Or they fuck the man so good that he has a heart attack?
Eye charm is just a gameplay mechanic. I thought it would be fun to have a charm that sees the more monstrous girls as they are. The Madam doesn't mind because she knows the punter still has to pick a girl every round.
Delete1) No. The token is more a "Get out of Jail" option if the selection algorithm throws up 3 harlots the player knows they won't be able survive. It can be converted to currency through the Portly Gentleman. I am thinking of adding an option for the mulligan token to be used to buy a charm choice, but as with the "select a harlot" option with the Madam, this is mainly for testing and playing around with the beta version. Those options will likely be removed from the final game.
2) Nope. Once I get around to balancing the economy (likely once I've finished a few charms), a player should only really be able to afford a limited amount anyway (without cheating).
3) Yep. He will be the main advice source on what the player needs to do to survive the House. I'll start filling that in once I have a few factions finished and have a better idea of what advice needs to be given.
The Madam will also give some information, but that will mainly be background lore fluff and not as useful.
4) Was going to stick that answer earlier. There is a downside to having every charm. Some charms will protect the player from some harlots, but some harlots will also react badly and Bad End the player if they have the wrong charm.
5) The higher-level devotees will be dangerous. I'm trying to balance the factions to have similar difficulties. The smotherbuses were top-heavy on the late game harlots (Tete, Sorpresa) so I added Bebe and Ygolia in the latest release to give some more early round options (although Ygolia will accidentally kill the player a lot if they don't pay attention!)
The sensuality faction is currently heavy on early-round harlots, so I'll be looking to add a few more dangerous harlots to round out their roster.
They will likely use pleasure to mindbreak the player (over heart attacks - there will another faction that specialises in energetic fucking). They will make the player feel so good they won't want to leave and 'willingly' volunteer themselves up to the harlot.
I was wondering if it should be a corrupt church of pleasure, with the higher level harlots knowing it's a con to get more men to eat, but I think that's a bit too obvious. It will likely be a faction that genuinely wants to cause pleasure, but causes so much pleasure it breaks the human mind.
Its clear that some daemons are there against their will as told by Elegant Lady and Boobella and the snake lady's situation. How is the Madam controlling all the lust daemons in her House without anyone rebelling?
ReplyDeleteIs she a really powerful Demon Lord level succubus or she has help from other daemons?
The Madam is a powerful, high-ranking lust daemon. There are still a lot of gaps I need to work out for the lore.
DeleteI'm trying to give the harlots lots of different personalities. Some are happy to be there because they get to suck fresh semen. Some find the rules annoying because they want to drain every man to empty and The Madam insists some be allowed to escape.