HoHH ver0.024 Delayed Due to Computer Crash

As I reported to patrons yesterday, I wasn't able to put out my regular monthly release.  My computer crashed while I was in the middle of working on a repeat scenario for Osculia Suffocati.  This managed to corrupt the story file and I wasn't able to retrieve it.

Thankfully I have backups (I backup to an external hard drive at the beginning of every month) and was able to also find a more recent automated backup.

Unfortunately, I still lost the last 3 weeks of work I'd done in Twine.  As I told patrons, this was only the coding work.  All raw texts are in MS .docs, so they were fine.  I also typed the new selection algorithm in notepad first (because the Twine editor runs very slowly now that the project is as big as it is), so I still have that.

I did lose a lot of the QoL changes I made as well as the implementation of the two harlots I was planning to add with v0.024.  This is a massive nuisance as I'll have to redo them, but it is what it is.  No sense crying about it.

I estimate it'll take about a week or two to get caught up again.  Depending on where I am in the month, I'll either put the release out then, or hold it back and treat it as a bumper release for October.

I'm planning for this to be the new public demo as it removes a lot of the repetition on restarts (especially the Barman's intro), moves a few of the dangerous harlots back to later rounds so they're not murdering noobies on Round 1, and a proper demo ending checkpoint rather than the nonsensical "we've run out of harlots" message the Madam currently gives you.

As for guarding against this happening again, now that I know Twine handles hardware crashes very badly, I'll switch my archive policy to after every new feature.

Course Correction for House of Hellish Harlots: Ending vs Checkpoints

Don't be put off by the title.  I'm not going Chaos and veering off in a completely new direction.

Feedback from the public demo and subsequent releases on Patreon has identified some common complaints.

1) Repetition on restarts.

2) A new player getting unlucky RNG and a 1st selection of harlots they cannot survive.

3) Lack of any kind of ending point.

I've been working on tackling 1), and I'm hoping that will be less of a problem with the accelerated restart options (I'm also looking to add The Madam's mulligan token explanation to that as well, as was suggested recently).

When someone raised 3) in an email, I thought about it, and replied with this. 

"Complaints about a lack of an ending point have come up.  I think I probably haven't helped myself with a very non-linear structure to the game.  For other games, there's usually a 1st region, 2nd region, 3rd region, and while it's in progress people know that they're going to get region 1, then region 2 and so on.  For HoHH all the region equivalents (factions, I suppose) run concurrently and the player is supposed to align with one and follow that route to that faction's end boss.  Currently I'm working on completing one faction as a proof-of-concept to get to an ending.  I'm wondering if I might be better off just having checkpoints - fill out to round 5, then round 10.  I might put that to patrons later today.  It might make for a better "endpoint" than a "we've run out of harlots", which probably doesn't make sense when there's about 40 of them! :)"

And this is that 'putting it to patrons' post.  (And also on my blog for additional feedback.)

There are definitely some advantages to getting rid of that "we've run out of harlots" message.  It made sense when there weren't many harlots, but likely provokes a 'huh?' from the player when they know there are nearly 40 harlots in the House and they've only seen 4 or 5 of them.

Having a checkpoint at Round 5 would also let the player feel like they've got somewhere rather than aimlessly trying out harlots until they get a weird message that they can't go on for any longer.

I can put special mid-boss encounters in these checkpoint rounds, which distinguishes them from the other harlots (they will likely have more sex scene options that are more than 'pick the right one or be drained to death').

Until I create the special mid-boss harlots, it gives me somewhere to put Hiru, Tete, Sorpresa, and the other more dangerous harlots, so they aren't murdering unsuspecting new players in the first round.

Currently, if I switch some faction numbers around, I already have enough harlots for 4 rounds + checkpoint.  It would likely require writing some more hint dialogue for the Barman (to forewarn the player) and then a new ending passage.  For that reason it would make sense to push v0.024 back to the end of the month as normal and make this the new, more player-friendly public demo.  I might also try to be a bit more active in putting the word out this time!

There will still be new harlots as well.  I finished writing the 1st draft of a new Doctoress creation this week.  I might also get Volumpula properly ported over as well now I have an idea of how the mini-boss scenarios will work.

Essentially, in the short term, it means there will be a new release as normal at the end of the month, and this will be the one I want to make the new public demo.

Long-term, it's going to be a shift from going 'tall' to going 'broad' again.  Rather than try to build a faction all the way to the end, I will be looking to add new harlots equally across 5 groups to get to the next checkpoint at Round 9, and then finally to the Queens at Round 13.

The work I've done with the smotherbus faction has nicely proof-of-concepted numbers and difficulty ranges.  I know roughly how many I need for each group and can start filling up the other groups as the ideas come to me.  I'll probably still focus factions while the ideas for them are fresh (I have a few queued up for The Doctoress's artificial beings), but I'll also be looking to fit the others in as well so it's not 'all fetish x' for a few months.  I know a few of you have voiced concerns about this.

Anyway, let me know your thoughts below.  It's a change of plans, but not a massive one, I think.

Quick Update on New HOHH Public Demo Release

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.

House of Hellish Harlots ver 0.023 (3 new harlots - Ygolia Campbell, Bebi Ansikt-Sitta, and Pori the Love Sponge)

The new version of "House of Hellish Harlots" is available for patrons and can be found here:
https://www.patreon.com/posts/house-of-harlots-55594242

Here are the details:

QoL - ACCELERATED START
While the intros are fine, they are really annoying to go through again and again, so I added a skip option.  The accelerated start jumps the player right to the first harlot introductions, similar to the early demo versions.

This also has the bugfix for the rare event where talking to the Elegant Woman at the wrong time about Sgriosar would not produce a Continue option and leave the player stuck there.  I've also fixed a ton of typos people have helpfully pointed out.  There is still a plural/singular grammar problem with some gifts and passages.  I've added that to the Todo list for a future release.

NEW HARLOTS
I'm still focusing on the 'smother' faction.  I've nearly completed their roster now.  This faction is heavy on late-game harlots.  To balance that out, the new pair aren't so lethal.  I'm quite happy with how their personalities turned out as they are a little goofier than my usual killers, but are also more than capable of being dominant.  I hope people have fun with them.

Ygolia Campbell
She's a sleek femme fatale type.  This is because she's obsessed with human spy movies and insists the player play a sexy little roleplay game with her.

Bebi Ansikt-Sitta
She's a new harlot in the House and eager to please her human visitors.  While she's a little naive on some matters, when it comes to facesitting she leaves men gasping for air beneath her pussy.

As with the last release, I have a harlot from another faction to add a little variety.

Pori, the Love Sponge
Another artificial being.  She's soft and lovably scrunchy, and loves men to give her a nice squeeze.  She also has an absorption scene and a fairly nasty horror end if the wrong conditions are met.  You are warned!

Funnily enough, this one was already in progress when I received that lovely Nurse Honey artwork.  While Pori is no Nurse Honey, she'll hopefully hit the spot for people that liked the absorption aspect of that art.  Her horror end is a little nasty, though.  Horror head escaped the cage on that one.

The public demo is at https://houseofhellishharlots.com/.  It's still a couple of releases behind.  As version 0.023 includes the fairly necessary accelerated restart QoL changes (Yep, I know it's a pain going through the Barman's intro every new game - that was an error on my part!) I'll be looking to update it later this week and will post here when it's done.

Art of Nurse Honey being... absorbing.

A couple of weeks ago I was contacted on email by someone asking if they could borrow one of my characters for an art commission.  I'm nearly always okay with this as long as the artist/commissioner leaves a note detailing where the character came from.  It's a very nice feeling as a writer to create a character people like enough to make/commission art of!

After seeing the results, I asked for permission to share the results here.  That was kindly granted, so here we are.

Warning: Sex with Nurse Honey can be very absorbing!

The art was commissioned by Mark45.  They have a userpage on Eka's Portal here:

https://aryion.com/g4/user/Mark45

If you like Monmusu Quest's vore-ier monster girls, you can find some other nice pieces in their galleries.

The art was created by TheBigBrap.  You can find their Eka's Portal page here:
https://aryion.com/g4/user/thebigbrap

And their Patreon here should you wish to commission your own pieces:
https://www.patreon.com/TheBigBrap

House of Hellish Harlots ver 0.022 (3 new harlots - Soffocaria Gattagrandi, Chén, and Osculia Suffocati)

The new version of "House of Hellish Harlots" is available for patrons and can be found here:

https://www.patreon.com/posts/house-of-hellish-54450922

Here are the details:

QoL

Fast Barman Intro
There is now a speedier option to get through the Barman's introductory dialogue.  That should make repeat playthroughs less annoying.

NEW HARLOTS

Soffocaria Gattagrandi
The 'pussy smotherer'.  She likes cunnilingus, but only from men that know what they're doing.

Chén
Not a smotherbus.  This is the glass mannequin doll I couldn't quite finish last month.  She likes dancing and is very elegant... until she opens her mouth.

Osculia Suffocati
The 'kiss smotherer'.  There is a little bit of mind control and hypnosis here, but her full effects won't be seen until I add more lip specialists and give her a repeat visit.  She's still quite dangerous.

There is a public demo version at https://houseofhellishharlots.com/, but this is still a couple of releases behind.  This is intentional as I want paying patrons to have perks.  However, there are some much needed QoL changes that need to be added to reduce the boring repetition at the beginning of each new game (which I suspect is contributing to the demo not picking up much interest at the moment).  One QoL change is already in v0.022.  I'm hoping to add a proper fast restart option for v0.023, and will likely update the public release at the same time.

House of Hellish Harlots ver 0.021 (2 new harlots - Suffocatrix Tete Khantu and Nooru)

The new version of "House of Hellish Harlots" is available for patrons and can be found here:

https://www.patreon.com/posts/house-of-hellish-53140420

This adds 2 new harlots to the House:

Suffocatrix Tete Khantu
She's a much more lethal boob smotherer than Suffocatrix Mamilla.  I see her as a mid- to late-round harlot.  Her scenario is fairly straightforward, but difficult to survive as the player will need a specific piece of protection.

Nooru
Nooru is another import from my H-space bestiary stories.  She's a nuru nuru girl and specialises in slippery body-to-body massages.  She's intended as a starter harlot for the first couple of rounds as it's very easy to avoid her Bad End condition.  Her Bad End path is worth checking out as she gets a lot wetter and raunchier when she's free to have fun with her prey.

While there is a public demo version (at https://houseofhellishharlots.com/), I'll be keeping this two to three months behind the Patreon releases (got to raise money for artists somehow!).