courseoftemptation
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Course of Temptation Dev Diary #42
🕑 Added 2024-05-31 19:38:48 +0000 UTC
Hello friends! Welcome to another dev diary, in the midst of early access to 0.5!
I am going to keep us in early access for a bit longer — but not more than another week — because new content is still being added and I want to be sure it, and the rest of the very extensive changes in this update, are as solid as they can be. Scary-looking syntax and runtime errors have pretty much all been caught by now, and most reports are to do with edge case oddness in relationship logic, which I've spent some time addressing.
I spent much of the week catching up on submitted content, and you can add this to the 0.5 changelog:
Gloryholes now become accessible once you have done the gloryhole dare (other ways to discover them will be forthcoming) (contributed by Meat Glacier)
Alternate way for male characters to become suspicious about the quad party milkshakes (contributed by sleepy)
New sex toy site added that players can discover in various ways (contributed by Enigma)
Added some variations to watching adult streams with different skills raised (based on contributions from Shiro)
In addition, I did some quick touch-ups to D/s relationships, expanding the conditions under which they're available and making sure that if an NPC qualifies to become a D/s type relation, that you have that conversation instead of defaulting to becoming a romantic partner.
One of my changes was to add a variation on the goodnight kiss passage that often follows a date, giving an opportunity for a big shift in the control attitude for dominant or submissive NPCs. This should make it much more reliable and less grindy to form these relationships with appropriately inclined NPCs. This is a bit of a placeholder — long-term I would like there to be various events that help to accomplish this attitude shift — but for now, it'll work for helping you to create this relationship type when you want to.
Onto the poll results! Aggregating from both platforms, the ability to approach NPCs at your current location is the big winner, which is not really a huge surprise. Also high up there is advancing the storyline with the roommate and their partner, and simply adding more relationship events.
Second tier priorities look to be the librarian storyline, D/s punishment events, and hangouts with multiple friends or poly partners.
All of the things in the poll will make it in sooner or later, but it's always instructive to see what you all think and make sure I'm not going astray from what really needs to be done. In this case, I fully agree with the poll about what the #1 priority should be — being able to interact with NPCs at your current location whenever you want will help fill in some gaps and leave less to chance when it comes to establishing the relationships you want with the people you want.
This will be my big project today and heading into next week. The first step is refactoring NPC schedules somewhat so that you actually know where to find them.
This is work that would've been necessary sooner or later anyway, as which NPCs hang out at which locations is a bit too random and isn't always consistent with their character. You want to find mostly video game nerds at the arcade, studious types at the library, sporty types at the gym, and so on. I'm accomplishing this with "pull" and "push" conditions. Pull conditions can be an inclination, a style, a skill, or something else that makes a matching NPC more likely to choose a place as their hangout, while push conditions do the opposite and make them less likely to choose that place. This will make who's hanging out where mostly predictable but not completely homogenous.
Once this is done, the next step will be to "bake" NPC schedules — to decide who is where when and then to store that as static data. Then you'll be able to learn an NPC's schedule as you get to know them, see that data displayed on their social card, and go to where they are when you want to interact with them.
After that, it'll be time to code the interaction itself. Luckily, if there's one thing Twine is suited for, it's making a branching dialogue system, so I'll leverage that as much as I can. But I'll talk more about that once I get into doing it.
In the meantime, the early access build has just been updated again with the new content listed above and new fixes. Here's the link again.
Next time you hear from me will probably be on public release day! My goal is to have the new schedule and interaction system in by then, and I think I can probably do it, but it's quite a large undertaking so we'll have to see.
For now, thanks for reading, and as always, thanks so much for your support that makes this project possible!
Comments
Marin Caka
Hey bud, awesome game! It really feels like imagination can be the limit here! I just wanted to ask if, in the future, you could make it so we can choose a few traits to appear more or less in NPCs when we tinker with the world generation settings. Such as have dominant/submissive, voyeur/exhibitionist etc.
Dunan Rayne
Your ambitious project really stimulates my imagination :) Another fascinating aspect of your project is the existence of an internet streaming platform :) In other words, she can become a Niche.TV streamer~! And even a CollegeCams streamer~ I often see her roommate watching Niche.TV in the evening. This means that students in the dorm watch Niche.TV. Someday, I hope that while PC is active as a Niche.TV streamer (or a CollegeCams streamer), more NPCs will notice and interact with her. Right now, it’s just one person, which is a bit disappointing. I’m not sure how far you plan to expand the volume of this project. Is it until she graduates from college in four years? Or do you have plans beyond that? Anyway, it varies by country, but in mine, college students usually start focusing on internships or auditions for employment and career paths from their third year. In your project, it's very interesting that the PC can choose various majors and minors. Among them, I found the acting class the most intriguing. This could make the PC dream of becoming an actor/actress, right? Then she could spend her summer vacation going to movie auditions. Let’s add a bit of spice here. Generally, major film production companies wouldn’t want their new actresses to have a background as a CollegeCams streamer or to have appeared in a “SEX video” (a video where she’s filmed by a guy while having SEX, and he uploads it to the pornhub). If she decides to pursue a career as an actress, having a history as a CollegeCams streamer or an amateur college-made porn actress would be a significant obstacle. She might go to several auditions only to be rejected or humiliated. But there’s always a way. An PORN producer could approach her. While she might not become a major film actress, she could become a star in the adult film industry. Of course, she can refuse the offers from PORN producers and continue to challenge herself with major film studio auditions, even though it will be very difficult due to her history with porn career. If she doesn't give up, she can eventually land small roles in major films. (If she offers sexual favors to movie staff, would that opportunity come sooner? Think of Harvey Weinstein) She might appear mainly in minor roles, such as a woman who plays a WHORE or SEX scene in the movie.
Dunan Rayne
I just realized... is this a 7-month year? Could you extend the year to 12 months in the future? Seven months feels too short. It actually feels almost the same as six months. It's like the year has been cut in half. And if possible, it would be great if PC could engage in activities during the vacation period, such as leaving school to visit their hometown, going on trips, doing internships at companies, and other such activities. Especially since college summer vacations are very long, about 2-3 months. After seeing that one of the minor subjects PC can choose is acting classes, I thought it would be nice if PC could audition to become actors during the summer vacation or get cast in supporting roles in movies and participate in filming. And the parts of your ambitious project that interest me the most are the smartphone and ElkBook. In my previous comment, I mentioned that it would be nice if PC or NPCs used smartphones more often (especially in SEX scenes :). Looking at the direction your project is heading with updates, it seems like that will eventually happen, and I’m looking forward to it. Also, I found it really interesting that PC post on ElkBook and NPCs comment on it. However, it’s a bit disappointing that I can’t see the NPCs’ ElkBook. I wish PC could comment on their posts someday.
Alexander
Hi mate, first I´d like to give u congratulations for this amazing game. I was pretty reluctant before playing it, because personally I don´t like rpg´s with just texts without images (what I do miss in this game). Then I decided to give it a try to find out how amazing it is, one of the best I have played so far: very creative, intelligent constructions of the interaction with NPC´s, and opens many possibilities for people´s imagination. However, I´d also like to give some suggestions for the future, if you don´t mind: 1) about cheating mechanics - you have a game that allows the gamers to explore their own fantasies what are very intrinsic to their personalities. Therefore, it should be allowed the possibility of the main character to explore other options without causing troubles in his/her/them relationship (maybe even having 3somes with the partner, specially after this one is already characterized as soul mate). I feel pretty comfortable with my relationship (exclusive) in the game but after a while there are still not many options available to explore it, what generates very repetitive actions with him/her/them: 2) open the following possibilities: after having sex with the partner, or even inviting him/her/them before, to sleep in his/her/their dorm and vice-versa; the option, during sex, date, or chat, to include the saying "I love you" (saying or hearing it); every time the main character buys something, he/she/they has also the choice to buy the same as a gift to his/her/their partner(s) or friend(s) as gifts or vice-versa - getting gifts from them; and the use in partner(s) a remote control vibrator (with future funny interactions reporting what happened during the use); 3) open the possibility to make a trip together (to the beach, mountains, lakes etc.) with your partner and/or friends - it is a text based game, the possibilities are infinite to the imagination; 4) rent an apartment together with your partner; 5) buying a car (and having sex in it) and; 6) last but not least, inviting your partner (and other closest friends) to make adult sessions online and also inviting them (depending on their individual abilities) to sessions like gaming, workout, dancing etc.. One question please: is there any way to have sex with the prof. Cohen? I have tried many times and had no success. Sorry for the large text. I´m just giving some constructive suggestions for the future.
Anarchothaumaturgist
Not precisely. The next roadmap item will probably be a new job or location of some kind (probably a relatively easy add, at least compared to relationships...) and then perhaps another major new system after that, which could be pregnancy. It'll depend partly on polling of supporters too.
travis faul
Any idea when pregnacy will be implemented
Touiten
You can forfeit if they ask for oral and you end the encounter early, but you still need to reach $150 AND they need to ask for it, which can still need a few tries... Being able to forfeit when you want would be nice ^^ (Or even, being able to "work" at the VR glory hole for a few bucks? =D)
alteredlight
I'm really enjoying the updates, but can you make it so any amount of arcade side bets that are rolled over can be forfeited for gloryhole scene or make NPCs more likely to accept rolling over bets? Right now it's really tedious to save scum, waiting till the next day, and hoping they accept you rolling over the side bet. Seems like no one will go past $150
Anarchothaumaturgist
Thank you, that's so kind!
Potato
Genuinely best writing and replayability of its kind
Feyd
You did a marvelous job. Thank you.
