Getting closer, I think.
1. My current favourite (and why I put it first). Abstract enough that the usual AI weirdness doesn't seem out of place. I think I might change the font colour from gold to silver to make it stand out from the background.
2. Technically the 1st from filenames, but I thought I'd change the order to put the good one first. This one has similar problems to the old pic I posted and is the weakest of the 4 options in my opinion.
3. Okay, but maybe not as good as 1 and 4. I like that she appears to be wearing some kind of bondage mask. Gold again might not the right choice for the font.
4. My second favourite. The colours are nice and vibrant. Has a decent impression of a feminine figure without falling into the uncanny valley problems.
Thoughts?
Personally, I like the first one the most. A few words to each of them:
ReplyDeleteFirst one: The red stuff looks almost like ribbons, which is quite fitting.
Second one: If the title was "a furry for christmas" that would probably a good choice. Can't help it, the head looks like a dog to me...
Third one: Agree with the mask comment, but personally I don't like it much.
Fourth one: The mask here I like more, but her mouth (or that thing that's where her mouth's supposed to be) looks so annoyed that it kills the mood for me.
1: Looks like a one-eyed succubus with one horn is looking down on a bunch of ribbons on a gift.
ReplyDelete2: Looks like an eldritch humanoid abomination wearing a ragged Santa hat is walking down a path while magma falls down behind it and on the sides.
3: Looks like a deformed succubus that has multiple body parts and is wrapped in red and black latex.
4: Looks like a succubus sitting on a chair that’s on top of a raised platform with her wings being made out of red/pink glossy latex.
1 and 4 are the superior Wombo images.
What do you think about a cheerleader succubus for a harlot, Hydra? It could be quite silly. She’s dressed like a slutty cheerleader and when the Madam introduces her, she comes in dancing with her pom-poms, saying goofy things like:
“We put the SUCC in succubus!”
Or
“S is for Stud, C is for Cum, can this stud cum hard for me-e-e!?”
Pom pom cheerleader succubus would be pretty awesome. I feel like I should try and work one in at some point.
DeleteAgreed I prefer the first oe too. It looks like the succubus is peeking from beind something to stare down at a ribbon, possibly on a present.
ReplyDeleteFor the rest... The 2nd picture looks like a vaguely indistinct humanoid form with a Santa hat on top. Doesn't really seem to indicate much of anything of what it's supposed to be.
The third... It looks like the AI took the elements you presumably put in and mashed them together really haphazardly. It's probably the most abstract of the 4 pictures, and really tough to tell what it's supposed to be.
But the 4th photo... Ugh. On the one hand it fits almost everything you've described you wanted these covers to be in general. OTOH, for this one specifically I don't much that's 'Christmassy,' aside from maybe the colors (which also fit the general blood theme common in horror and your exotic horror stories at times.)
I'd picture 1 does fit the best for the Xmas Collection, but that picture could be used for a non-Xmas collection, as the Xmas theme seems faint there at best.
That's where the AI fails unfortunately. I tried adding things like "christmas tree", but that tends to look silly merged together, rather than the building pics I managed to get for HoHH.
DeleteWonder if you are going to do a sophisticated succubi vs feral succubi class. Ntye, Nurse Honey, Elegant Lady, and Verde are like the sophisticated camp and succubi like Rosa and maybe Boobella are in the wild and feral camp.
ReplyDeleteIs this true? I know it's been a while but in a SS 101 chapter, Ntye was telling Phil that she rather people think she was disguised as Verde than Rosa. It seems like Ntye doesn't like Rosa that much. Why does she looks down on Rosa?
One of the expansion plans for HoHH would have a posh succubus faction and a slutty succubus faction that don't like each other. Currently I'm restricting myself to just 5 factions to start with, which means posh/slutty will likely hang together in the same faction until I split them off at a later date.
DeleteOh, and with Rosa. I intended her as the maybe comic relief succubus. She's powerful, but a little more chaotic. Nyte likes her but also sees her as that annoying sibling that's always too noisy.
DeleteAcarina was great, but how are you going to do another succubus-like vampire? Maybe you could style one after the vamps from MGQ where they are bascially a succubus/vampire hybrid, drinking the man's blood from his neck while her pussy sucks at his dick to drink his semen.
ReplyDeleteDouble sucked.
The scene of Queen Vampire and Luka was hot, would you do that, ME Hydra?
I planned out a bunch of vamps for a maybe additional faction to add later. I might add some as independents to start with. Mechanically, they wouldn't drain too much semen, but they would take blood, which would debilitate the player in other ways. It's something I'm looking to flesh out fully at a later date.
DeleteI liked both Camilla and Queen Vamp from the original MGQ. Vamps tend to get supplanted by succubus if the horror allows more explicit sex, so I think having their cloaks have special powers as well was an interesting way to differentiate from regular succs (along with the blood drinking).
-Reggie
ReplyDeleteThe Wombo images look freaky dude and much better than the old pics. After all, we are dealing with otherworldly eldritch demons, so I do like how the images convey an mysterious and eldritch feeling.
After reading Mchooligans, I am a bit confused why the daemons even need to hide from mankind; they are pretty powerful and its not just the succubi, you got daemons like Carny around. What's stopping Carny from just going to an army base and tearing through all the soldiers?
If he can tear a guy's arms off faster than he can blink, then what can a group of guys with guns can do? Even if they are armed with silver weapons, it wouldn't matter as they would be dead before they can even blink.
Daemons aren't all allied with each other. The different dominions are all trying to claim Earths. If one shows its hand too much, the others will gang up to stop them.
DeleteCarny is a very powerful daemon. Regular soldiers wouldn't have much of a chance. A powerful warlock with access to powerful magic, maybe...
You probably wont be happy when MEH writes his novel about a college being sacked by different daemons.
ReplyDeleteThere's not a lot humans can do, its like you going to a store to buy some milk and eggs and then all of a sudden, a damn demon dog that can eat souls, move faster than a cheetah, and is stronger than a rhino is dropped right in front of you from a portal. What can you do?
Not only are the daemons much stronger and smarter than humans, they can "drop in, drop out" shift between Earth and Hell at will. And humans dont know anything about the daemons and their lack of knowledge is gonna get them killed.
But you do bring up a good point. Nevermind the succubi, what can a army squad do against Carny? He's more powerful than the succubi so why does he hide? He even serves no human warlock.
As mentioned above, there are other politics at play with the daemons. It's not just them vs humans.
DeleteWhile I haven't fully worked them out yet, there are also other checks and balances. Daemons have to work quite hard to not be popped straight back to their own Dominion. Another thing I'm thinking of playing around with is having magic have similar problems on Earth as human tech does on H-space.
If the barriers separating are thin though... I really need to finish that university invasion novel! :D
They are supposed to be outmatched y'all. Its like Call of Cthulu or Hunter the Vigil. There's not much your average joe that works a 9 to 5 job can do if he suddenly has to fight for his life against Zuul(Demon dog from Ghostbusters).
ReplyDeleteYup. Maybe not quite as bad as in the Cthulhu mythos. Humans can come out on top. The main problem is those stories would involve the character not getting hot sex with the succubus, so I tend not to write them. :D
DeleteI kinda agree with you all on this. With daemons like Carny, Caco, and Mr G around, the succubi/lust daemons don't seem that bad.
ReplyDeleteIf every dude in the bar was replaced by veteran marine armed with silver weapons, the outcome would be the same. Carny has the speed advantage.
Not discounting the succubi being dangerous but at least they just want to give you the best sex that will cost you your life.
Speaking of Carny, he said he was there to "check on" some people when he was speaking to Devin. Was he checking up on some humans he liked or other daemons?
Carny is a very powerful Wrath daemon. That was the main hint I dropped with the lesser wrath daemon in SS 201. Phil misinterpreted the response and thought it was something else. (This is one of the central themes of Succubus Summoning - the story is told through the eyes of Phil, who is very naive in his understanding of things and is somewhat 'unreliable').
DeleteCarny also 'serves' various warlocks (the other central theme of Succubus Summoning is 'serve' does not necessarily mean what humans think it does). "Asked to do a favour" = was summoned specifically to take revenge. Them being at that pub was no accident (as even Phil figured out at the end).
If you're putting in the primitive leech daemon creature, who's going to ride it? Will it be a weak succubus that's using the leech to get stronger?
ReplyDeleteLikely a corrupted witch. Was human once, but corrupted into some form of symbiotic relationship.
DeleteThey're not a succubus or lust daemon, but have been corrupted into something that can no longer be classed as human.
Is there going to be disdain between the vampires and succubi? Listening from Elegant Lady, the succubi seem to detest the vampires.
ReplyDeleteThere will be rivalries. I have plans for separate leech (big semen suck) and vampire (suck blood) faction. The full factions will come later, but there are already some individuals of both present (Acarina for the vamps, Suka and Hiru for the leeches).
DeleteThe vamps think highly of themselves but are regarded as primitive by other lust daemons because they primarily seduce to drink blood rather than semen. The leech daemons suck a little too hard and are regarded as lacking finesse by most of the other succubi. Essentially the vamps and leeches have a rivalry while most of the other succubi think they're both too far below them to care about. Which isn't the same as not powerful, as some of the vamps and leeches are very powerful, but they don't behave like a "proper" succubus should, so are sort of the outcasts.
Are you going to introduce any incubi characters? I've noticed that you don't have any and i know you wont use them for sex but maybe introduce an incubus in SS 101 to befriend Phil or an incubus that's in the House but isn't a harlot and is just there speaking with the succubi and laughing at the doomed men.
ReplyDeleteThey exist and have cropped up in the background of stories (Nyte is the one that sets an incubus on one of the students as revenge, although it's only hinted at in SS201).
DeleteThis is where the restrictions of focusing on a certain sort of erotica come in. Most readers are here for sexy succubi. A sexy incubus would be an uncomfortable turn-off for most. (It wouldn't be a turn-on for me either, so I'd struggle to be able to write it well).
Even a "friendly" incubus would be quite keen on getting "in" Phil, and that would probably annoy more readers than turn on. (And I wouldn't have the first clue how to write it.)
They exist in the universe, but I'll leave it for others to write those stories.
This might sound dark Me Hydra but I wonder if the Ukraine vs Russia conflict is giving you ideas. Like a Russian tank is driving through a city and it gets swept away by a strange pink mist and the Russian troops find themselves in a location teeming with succubi.
ReplyDeleteI try to avoid referencing current politics if I can. Too many creators do that nowadays and I think most people are fed up of sanctimonious pontificating.
DeleteI think if I was going to use it as a backdrop, the obvious idea would be Russian soldiers "capturing" one of those succubus brothels that show up in my stories and finding the girls a little too hot to handle.
I think that could work as a story, but maybe some years from now when it's not happening right now and raw. It would also be a little difficult to write for me. I've never been to Ukraine and while I could maybe be a little broadbrush with the soldier depictions (as I am with the H-space stories), they'd probably come across as cardboard US movie stereotypes.
When a succubus is in human form, is their power restrained and weakened? I've noticed that your succubi characters aren't fully into the sex in till they transform. Is it true that their feeding and pleasure they are causing is amplified in till they reveal their true nature.
ReplyDeleteI also hope you're doing fine after what's going on in Europe.
I think it's more that they know the prey is helpless at that point and they don't feel the need to hide any longer. Their power isn't restrained, but I guess they have to devote some concentration to maintaining an illusion, so there's probably a relief in letting that lift and just focusing purely on the fun stuff.
Delete