westane
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6.0 - Branching Paths
🕑 Added 2018-10-24 07:00:01 +0000 UTC Greetings everyone!Today's development post will be a rather short one, as I've taken a brief reprieve from writing content so that I could add in a couple features that have been long overdue.
Before that, though, it's probably about time I whip up our patented progress sheet!
The Company - 6.0 Progress - 27%
- Chapter 3 Story Content - 40%
- Chapter 3 Side Content - 10%
- New Features - 80%
- Code Cleanup Initiative - 5%
- Image Cleanup Initiative - 0%
I wasn't sure about adding a total completion percent, as that 27% is a little misleading. The Chapter 3 content makes up the vast majority of the new update, with everything else being minor endeavors to tie the whole thing off.
For now, let's talk about the couple of new features being added in the update!
Chapter Select Screen
Yep, I know. It's a feature that's been asked for since, well, forever, and it's something I've been pushing off for just as long, but when Alpha 6.0 drops players will finally be able to choose their starting chapter!
You'll be able to choose to start the game from Chapter 1, which is the same as skipping the intro currently, or Chapter 2 or 3. Starting from later chapters will allow you to choose how you've dosed Sophie thus far and give you an amount of money and serums based on the chapter you're starting from. All relationship and corruption values, as well as serums given to other characters, will be set in their initial values.
I realize there's a lot of frustration surrounding lost saves between versions, and while that's not a problem I can reasonably address my hope is that this will ease the pain significantly.
Relationship Breakpoints and Dating
This update is less a mechanical update and more a way to generate additional clarity and investment in your relationships with other characters.
Relationship (formerly Love) now scales up to 100, however, there will be a hard stop at 70. As your relationship reaches various 10-point breakpoints (0, 10, 20, 30, etc.) you'll be notified of your change in relationship with that character.
"You and Penny are now best friends"
"You and John now hate each other"
Once you reach and attempt to exceed a Relationship value of 70 with a character, you'll potentially have an opportunity move your relationship with that character into romantic territory. For Penny, Tasha, Chris, and Sophie this will be considered "Dating", for Diana, Dakota, Ava, and John/Chanel, this will be considered "Lovers".
This won't drastically change the way you play the game, though it will add a few more status effects for me to check when writing events and gating character progression. The mechanical implications will affect Ava and Dakota more than other characters, though you can expect a little bit of flavor added in various places from everyone.
Hard Choices
I've mentioned it before but I wanted to talk about it again. There's going to be a focus in Chapter 3 on having to make choices that you won't have the option to take back. These will include optional time-sensitive events, fixed choices made during day involving various characters, or even large events that can play out in multiple ways.
Of course, each of these event branches can play out differently depending on other choices you've made during the game, all in the hopes of incentivizing multiple, different playthroughs of the game. It's something I've definitely been slacking on a little bit, so my goal is to bring back a little player agency moving forward, and I'm hoping you'll all enjoy it as well!
That's it for today. I have some artwork previews IN MY PROVERBIAL HAND that I'll be posting later this week as well as next. These will be patron-only posts due to their saucy nature.
Thank you all for your continued feedback and support!
Comments
David Lupold
I am working on sophie currently but as a dom male , is that why the phone number does nothing for me ? and will there be more chances to dose her and progress the line as a dom?
Blottscrunk
Excellent suggestions - I'm sure many people would agree. However, what you're asking for here is quite a lot of depth added to a mechanic that has only recently been implemented (namely the way dosing Sophie has multiple paths). Westane seems currently to be in the process of expanding the game, adding more story length and gameplay features, rather than focusing on adding more and more content to existing areas. Just saying you may need to be patient.
anon4324
It's been a while since I've played (so I don't really know what's been in the newer alphas), but the Sophie path where you're submissive and she's dominant kinda leaves something to be desired. In a game where you can swap genders as freely as swapping underwear, having another way to swap in the manner of being feminized by Sophie carries little to no weight. You can undo the changes in a night. While the scenes are nice, a transformation element more specific about that route would have been appreciated. Like her and Penny developing a secret serum with you in mind, and getting injected during the times you'd meet her in her office. Just something to make the choice mean something other than a few more submissive scenes.
ChristyMorrigan
Love the work!
I was really disappointed that as a guy, you couldn’t have vaginal sex with the chick in the pit. You could only get fucked in the ass by her, as a sub. I love the game and am ready for more content and less features.
Westane
This specific example is something I plan on addressing at some point. I don't have an ETA on it, but my intention is to add an addition path to Ava's (and other's) dosing route.
I've ran through all the new content and even tried out different paths the past few days to see what would happen. I very much like what you have done to the game so far and with all the new content it makes things a bit more interesting. Keep up the good work and I look forward to trying the next updates & content.
Synn Shadow
Just curious, are you planning to make some of the steps for mind controling people optional? Like I wanna get Ava to the point where she wants to have sex with me, but would rather not make her fuck everyone in town. Or could I choose to make it all men or just women? Nothing earth shattering, but could make multiple playthroughs interesting.
