courseoftemptation
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Course of Temptation Dev Diary #65
🕑 Added 2024-12-13 21:32:41 +0000 UTC
Hello friends! Happy Friday, and here is today's dev diary.
So, 0.6 is out! Pushing out a major update is always a nerve-wracking time — What if everybody hates this stuff I've been working on for months?? — but I do the best I can to make something I'd like to play and eventually, it just has to come out!
Thanks to everyone who's taken the time to communicate their thoughts about the update. Fortunately, feedback has mostly been positive. But regarding negative feedback, there are two specific issues I've been able to identify.
The first is that many feel that progress through the career is too slow. Part of that is the way I develop — I'd rather start a system out being underpowered and tune it up than start out overpowered and have to nerf it. And the other part is that I, personally, just prefer games like this to be a slow burn, so that ends up being the type of game I make.
But not everybody likes slow burns, or has the time for them for that matter, which is where things like the difficulty settings come in! To help address this, I've made a new options screen for specific storyline options, of which the River Rat is the first and, so far, only entry.
"Vibes" are progress along the Flirtiness/Professionalism axis, while Performance affects how quickly you'll be promoted. If you feel that progress is too slow for you, you can make these numbers change up to four times faster.
These sliders are present starting in v0.6.0g, which is out today.
Another issue affecting progress was a bug where a "days since promotion" counter was erroneously reset when your job title changed rather than when you were actually promoted. So, if you liked to swap jobs, you were unknowingly delaying your promotion. This was already fixed earlier this week, but I'm certain it contributed to the feeling of slow progress.
The second major issue is that bartender events don't feel as varied as server events, or seem to lack the same level of interaction. This tells me I need to brainstorm and write another round of bartender events! Which I will certainly do, probably as part of the February monthly update that, for you, will come at the end of January. Though if I have any great ideas that I can fit in sooner, I will.
In the meantime, as I mentioned last week, in lieu of a January update we'll have a second update this month. It'll be an update that fits the season, and it will add a highly requested feature.
Thanks for the plush human, weirdo.
So yes, gifts are in, making your character's birthday relevant. In addition, you can give gifts to NPCs as well, boosting their positive attitudes about you. This goes through a "gift appeal" algorithm that judges how much an NPC likes an item based on their hobbies and inclinations, your relationship with them, and other factors including, of course, the expense.
Converting myriad types of objects and things into potential gifts is a non-trivial task and it's taken a couple days of coding. Gifts can be both given to and received from NPCs, and in terms of coding these two tasks have less overlap than you might think. But it's coming along, and I'm currently in the process of adding gift-related events for birthdays or just because.
Given what month it is, you can probably guess why gift-giving is being added now and what else is planned! So there will also be some special events and other little changes I'll be adding in, which will be my focus for next week.
I aim to deliver this update by the end of next week, and the week after that will be my holiday. After my week off, I'll start on a lots-of-little-things type update to be delivered at the end of January, and then we'll be on the usual schedule.
Okay, that's all for this week! I'll be getting back to writing events. Thanks for reading, and thanks, as always, for your generous support, without which I couldn't do this. Until next time!
Comments
Steve
Just a suggestion, but if there was a way for high exhibition and disinhibition characters(like 9 or 10) to walk around with unbuttoned clothing or be able to maturbate in the library or such stuff, I'm sure it would be popular.
Gary
Enjoy your Holiday, hope you have a good one
Gamercomander
Love the Update with the gifts and River Rat, i see that this is made with hard work and love. I just wanted to Report a Bug the the two slider for Story Performance dont work seperatly, the second one changes always to what the first one is (i play on android). I also wanted to ask something, i so far have seen no scenes where you get paid for dominant Sex, could you make something like that there is a feat for it and i would like to use it. Also there are to few random scenes where you get paid for Sex or better altogether random Sex scenes, especially before 12 midday, i always have a Problem to find something my character can do to get rid of the hornynes, my char doesn't like to masturbate. But despite that love your work, keep going like that.
Ben S
Has adding elevators been considered? Both the dorm and the apartment complex seem to hold enough people that putting in an elevator could be necessary. Plenty of things can happen in even a short trip or maybe players get stuck in the elevator. Preferably the MC would live on the ground floor of his dorm, don't want unfortunate delays on his way to class, but going or coming from events it could be fun. Plus if there's an elevator, then there has to be a stairwell, another area for events to happen.
Hugo Trainor
I, too, frequently forget to attend the Library Meeting on Saturday evening. I would love a reminder for this. I admire your idea for further interactions with the club!
Hugo Trainor
I hope we will be able to gift clothes to others, and see them wear them! Getting the Religious Girl to wear the sheer blouse I bought her would be marvelous!
Mena R.
I also love the River Rat update. It was well worth the wait. Looking forward to the next update.
Avendros
Well, that explains why the promotion never came in when the "Job Performance" bar was full for me, i was swapping often between Server and Bar. I'm happy to see how well you handle especially negative feedback, i know the internet can be quite harsh at times, but you seem quite capable of dealing rationally with it instead of taking it personally. So far, been enjoying the big update, it's great work! Edit: There are two things that come to mind, first is a phone reminder when it is Saturday or the day before for the weekly library basement gathering would be nice and secondly an expansion on the content. The entire thing has great potential that can be used for a lot of variety. The pool of possible events seems quite small and also rolls the very early encounters which can feel like a step back. A fun thing for the submissive path would be to include 'obligations' to its members that occur outside of the gathering. Either by shortterm requests send to the PC's phone or at previously established dates. This is a great place to collect all kinds of kinky scene ideas, with the dom path offering the opposite, requesting the service of one of your subs via the phone or doing a scene with them.
Steve
I would love it if that were included without an announcement for the first month. Let us risky fuckers find out...
Anarchothaumaturgist
I'm debating how much should be "remembered" about gifts given — ideally everything, of course, but also you have to be really careful with savefile bloat in browser games
WanderingWeeb
day 1 of asking for pregnancy...
imiopon
If it's dorm inventory-type items, will it show when we visit their dorm or room? Like, will it be in the description of the room we're visiting in?
Walter C Dornez
I like the slow burn too, happy with the direction of adding options for increased speeds for those who want it as well instead of speeding up the base game.
Charlovesa
I am very happy to see sliders to tweak River Rat progress speed! As someone who likes to start new saves a bunch this will be great if I ever want to return to the River Rat on another character.
Anarchothaumaturgist
Currently it's plushies, books, rocks, and a bunch of "dorm inventory" type items. I've made a start on adding clothes to the possibilities (accessories, at least) but I'm not quite finished with coding that just yet. Also I'm planning on adding some items specifically to be gifts... flowers and the like.
Anarchothaumaturgist
Ahh, classic reference
Anarchothaumaturgist
I do have some ideas for a character like that, yes!
Anarchothaumaturgist
Sure, putting it on my list now
Dave
I love the update, and everything in the game in general. Thank you for putting in the effort to make it so much fun and varied to play. Keep up the good work.
imiopon
I really like the gifts update. For the gifts, is it only limited to plushies, or will you be able to gifts npc clothes as well?
Michael Carlson
I love the update and looking forward to the gift of gift giving. :)
Ysabella Reynolds
Request to add dialogue for the NPC explaining "I blue myself" if they give you a blue plush human. But seriously, thanks for the slider! I feel like I can test out the features faster rather than grinding and grinding. Can't wait for things like weird anonymous gifts being left on your dorm bed or whatever clever things your brain came up with!
Mary
Loving all the new content! Been nonstop playing since the early access release! Have you ever considered having a sugar daddy/mommy relationship? The thought came to mind during the river rat release with there being a focus on making it shift to an elite clientele
Ragnar
Nice gift giving will be a great addition! Also if birthdays are a thing now, shouldn't the exact age of people we know be displayed? Maybe it could also be a new smalltalk action, like we can ask them their age.
Kerkko
The new update has been great and so is your game in general, but I have one request. Can 'admirer's admirer' be added to the 'Set Special Character Gendres' list? I've found them to be an easy/consistent way to create a hatefuck relationship but if their gender isn't exactly the one I'd like, it feels like a bummer.
Anarchothaumaturgist
I hope so! I forgot to mention it, but giving a well-liked gift is also a new relationship milestone.
Hugo Trainor
Gift giving will add a whole new layer to building trust and lust and love! I am looking forward to it.
