courseoftemptation
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Course of Temptation Dev Diary #54
🕑 Added 2024-09-20 19:58:12 +0000 UTC
Hello friends! The weekend is almost here! Or... already here, depending on where you live.
This week has involved even more writing! I got to where I wanted to be and then some, writing all of the events I had staged for this round of development.
The file for the server job is, I'm pretty sure, larger than all of the QuickieBurger files combined, mostly because the events are generally more involved. As a job, it can go in a few different directions and includes lots of skillraises for Dominance and Submission which, up until this update, haven't gotten nearly as many reliable raises as Disinhibition and Exhibitionism.
One of my major goals was to have River Rat be the place to go for players looking to get a start on their D/s skills, and it looks like that mission will be accomplished. With reliable skillraises at lower levels, that paves the way for future content that uses these skills at higher levels.
Having gotten done with these events, I moved onto some playtesting yesterday. Playtesting a brand new major system with a whole bunch of hot code is funny, because initially it will just absolutely not work at all, and the issue is usually just like a tiny typo inside some new method somewhere that's simply never been executed before. So for a while you're bashing into errors left and right, but they're all very low-hanging fruit, then it gets smoothed out and starts to work, and then gradually you're no longer getting errors but instead looking more at logic problems and eventually at balance.
Anyway, the server job is fully working now. Some specific events may still have issues, but those will be uncovered in further playtesting. I do still need to write the "get a coworker to do this for you" dom options for some of the events, and I'll try to knock those out this afternoon. But other than that, I'm about ready to move on to the final major chunk of this update, which will be the bartender and manager event sets.
It does also need a balance pass. Some things are too fast, like changing the character of the place through your actions — with a little deliberate effort, you can take it from basic sports bar to the Sex Cauldron in about three days. Progression should be a bit slower than that, to make sure you see all the events along the way if nothing else.
Other things are too slow... namely, earning money! Tips are pretty low unless you get into certain events that specifically give you big tips. This is partly by design, because you do want there to be a sense of progression: experience events with lower tips, use them to steer the bar in a more flirty or more professional direction, and by doing that, unlock events that involve higher tips. But it's a bit too low to start out with, and it should certainly pay better than QuickieBurger considering it's a higher effort job for the player. So that's something I'll be looking at.
Having events in a high flirtiness environment that lead to higher tips isn't so hard to imagine, but I do need to brainstorm some stuff that will lead to higher tips in a high professionalism environment. I do have some ideas... I didn't watch three seasons of The Bear for nothing, after all. Still, I imagine this will be the direction less taken for most players anyway.
In any case, some solid work on the River Rat has gotten done this month and it's really beginning to come together. For the rest of the month, I'll be focused on content for the October update. Switching from working on a very big roadmap update to checking off a whole bunch of small tasks in quick succession always feels refreshing.
I've got a lot of miscellaneous stuff on my list: more encounter work, some changes to cosmetics, possibly expanding description options, some miscellaneous events, all mostly based on player suggestions. But hopefully some surprises too! As always, I'll get to as much as I can and also roll in work from contributors that's come in this month.
I'll return with another progress report next week, but for now, I leave you to enjoy your weekend! As always, I'm very thankful for your support!
Comments
marc
I can't wait for this server job gonna be fun
feelingoofy
I love how intentionally you keep us in the loop on your creative and developmental processes!
BLADErayW
Glad you're keeping us informed unlike some creators out there. {-.-}
atha
Your game is great! Thank you so much for the constant updates. It would be really nice to connect the mechanics of appearance when the MC is covered in c** on body or face with the photos sending via the phone to random people or even a boyfriend/girlfriend. Thanks again keep up the good work!
Benjamen EightySix
You mentioned that the professional route will be less taken, but my favorite playstyle (for most nsfw games tbh) is a character that starts more "pure" and slowly becomes more corrupted or slutty over time. So having both options is great for that!
Potato Lord
Good to hear. Games come a long way since the beginning. It weather impressive. Ironically to me at least this has become one of the highest quality games I play. It's truly impressive work that has been done. Of the only suggestion I have is the ability to have more customization for the Special Character pre the game staring. Names, base fashion, if there an ass or not, if the virgins, etc stuff like that. That's unimportant though, mostly if just wanted to compliment the fantastic work that has been done.
Feyd
Superb. Thank you.
Hurmannn
Looking and sounding good! A bit of grind to get things off the ground is to be expected imo. Though I use the term grind very loosely. Somebody might interject that it shouldn't feel like grind at all and that's fair. Just sayin' that having to put some work in your work in the game before things can take of is fine by me. Speaking of player suggestions and misc. events ... I tried skimming and keyword searching around a bit but I didn't seem to find any previous mention. Not without opening all the comment sections anyway, apologies anyway for the (almost) inevitable duplicate. Been feeling like there's a harassment event missing from sitting at the bar. Given that you have the option of sitting on a barstool in a skirt, potentially bottomless, it really feels like sooner or later somebody could/would/should try to cop a feel. Not in the least the person you're talking to if you get flirty with them or they're otherwise lusting after you. Would add a layer to the decision whether to sit at a table or at the bar. One let's you build your relationship with somebody more directly but opens you up to harassment, etc. etc. Adult encounters on barstools are a fairly established trope in general. So if you have the disinhibition to match... Anyway Thanks for taking the time to write these updates and for reading the comments. Saw in a previous one that you mentioned you try to read them all even if you don't reply. Looking forward to the next update, have a good one!
n
As far as cosmetics/clothes descriptions, where you started was great. What I thought might be a good idea was to have a tailor in town where for a fee you could create a custom descriptor on an item. Creates a bit of a money sink + increases user customization. You could also go further and add that as a college course for the PC to learn to do it themselves.
Borkus
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Matt Black
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Ludociel
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