Nightclaw

New Member
Jan 12, 2018
14
12
Loop 22:

L22 Cities.png

City 1 seems doable enough. One thing I was pondering with these 20 day runs: Should the Undead EE siphon ramp up faster? With so few days, it never gets to scale enough to be noticeable/annoying.

Also, can you ever get 3 of the same elite in campaign mode? 3 Undead wouldn't be so bad, but 3 Animalistic would be a nightmare unless you could sync up at least 2 on the right day early.
 
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SuperSkippy

Member
Oct 25, 2017
236
120
Here's loop 23, lol:
1679892481114.png

That Barrier Jammer looks nice, and its city might be doable, but it's up against 40EE in the early game.

Also Loop 22 is the first time I've let a Chosen escape so far. She was Impregnated so based on the vignette she won't be showing up again.
 
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Nightclaw

New Member
Jan 12, 2018
14
12
I remember passing up the Astrolabe early on in my run, since it didn't seem too useful to me. I buy those upgrades when things have been stabilized and I have a lot of EE from breaks/distortions. Dominance is handy to get Network a little quicker, but the others I've found are 'win-more' upgrades. Maybe I'd think differently if I was using Commanders.

I also passed up the 3 EE tier version, although I'm beginning to regret that decision as it would really help out the early game with cheaper evac/ext increases when EE is tight. Can't remember what the alt item was though, so it may have been unavoidable.

I presume it's intended, but returning chosen seem like a much bigger hindrance in these quick loops. Yes, they're pre-broken which means easier damage but you lose out on a lot of early EE from breaks/rivalries (if you broke cores). I haven't tested with a returning Tempted/Rampaging chosen, so I'm curious if you lose access to the initial 100 EE hit for starting the distortion path.
 
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FantastiX

Newbie
Apr 4, 2018
29
16
Hello. I'm a total noob in this game. So, I have a simple question. What's the purpose of Observe action? Does it influence the Chosens in some way? All I see for now (I'm at 10th day, 1st loop) is that they get some trauma and circumstance damage, but it doesn't seem to be preserved for the next battle. Or maybe I'm wrong and it is? Anyways, would appreciate some clarification.
Or maybe there is some guide I could read? More detailed than text files in the game directory.
 

zargal

Newbie
Aug 5, 2018
33
67
Hello. I'm a total noob in this game. So, I have a simple question. What's the purpose of Observe action? Does it influence the Chosens in some way? All I see for now (I'm at 10th day, 1st loop) is that they get some trauma and circumstance damage, but it doesn't seem to be preserved for the next battle. Or maybe I'm wrong and it is? Anyways, would appreciate some clarification.
Or maybe there is some guide I could read? More detailed than text files in the game directory.
It's just flavour with no mechanical effects. The only gameplay effect those interactions have is if you go for a negotiation distortion. Good luck with learning the game!
 
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SuperSkippy

Member
Oct 25, 2017
236
120
I remember passing up the Astrolabe early on in my run, since it didn't seem too useful to me. I buy those upgrades when things have been stabilized and I have a lot of EE from breaks/distortions. Dominance is handy to get Network a little quicker, but the others I've found are 'win-more' upgrades. Maybe I'd think differently if I was using Commanders.

I also passed up the 3 EE tier version, although I'm beginning to regret that decision as it would really help out the early game with cheaper evac/ext increases when EE is tight. Can't remember what the alt item was though, so it may have been unavoidable.

I presume it's intended, but returning chosen seem like a much bigger hindrance in these quick loops. Yes, they're pre-broken which means easier damage but you lose out on a lot of early EE from breaks/rivalries (if you broke cores). I haven't tested with a returning Tempted/Rampaging chosen, so I'm curious if you lose access to the initial 100 EE hit for starting the distortion path.
For me, the EE from breaks is the only real source of energy in my runs at this level. I need to get Nursery Hives and Human Collaborators to get an 8-10 turn Orgy that breaks at least one Core T3 or my loop stalls out. Then I need to break associated T4s to get Networked Consciousness, Soul Resonance, and Passion Release, and EE for one of my larger Commanders, as soon as possible to get a >15 turn Orgy and break as many more T3s as I can or I'll never be able to afford the basic attack+ I need (usually Threaten+). Last run was the first time I couldn't afford Antipathy, so that's why one of them got away, and I'd have lost right there without Crown's Pantsu (advanced species don't get extra Resolve).

I understand your runs work differently since you've got something that helps you get Rampancy and control it, so you can get a steady stream of EE.
 
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Nightclaw

New Member
Jan 12, 2018
14
12
I understand your runs work differently since you've got something that helps you get Rampancy and control it, so you can get a steady stream of EE.
That is definitely true, as it's hard enough to even get above +2 with luxuries.

In other news, I may have hit my limit:
L23 Cities.png
City 2 couldn't have a couple of Undead. No no, it has to have more mitigation.

Edit: It's early days, but I'm more optimistic about City 1 . Neither Superior has a core of either INN or CON, and 1 had a pre-break of CON so I was able to set them both up for Negotiation Day 2 and now everyone has +30 base damage due to angst bombs.
 
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SuperSkippy

Member
Oct 25, 2017
236
120
Loop 24---not sure I can beat either damage mitigation here. Godzilla couldn't break a window in this Tokyo:
1679947170417.png

I'll give Yokohama a shot, but I'm not terribly optimistic. The last time I went up against a damage mitigation close to that (55% in Loop 22), I could just barely limp through after an Orgy broke only a single T3 core. I don't have many tools that are much stronger than loop 22, I've got only one new Forsaken of note and she's a bit weaker than I'd like. We'll see.

Edit: Nope, not doable from my position. Can't even break all T2 Cores with what I have.

Kalloi, here's the udpated Saves.sav.
 
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Nightclaw

New Member
Jan 12, 2018
14
12
Loop 24:
L24 Cities.png
City 1 looks doable, although the layout of vulnerabilities is worse than last loop (where the 57% mitigation wasn't too bad). I think the Superior's Confidence is close to 100, which means almost no circumstance damage. I may have to change Orgy Cat into pure INJ, to get an orgy going, but then I won't have an decent way to do HATE damage so will have an issue setting up a Rampancy.
 
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Nightclaw

New Member
Jan 12, 2018
14
12
Loop 25:
L25 Cities.png
The 3 items for Crystal ball are Silver Collar (+30 min circ damage), Fairy Dust (Half tempt requirements and doesn't clear HATE/INJU) and something I can't remember and am too lazy to load the save to check. Pre-breaks of CON on one Animalistic and DIG on the other. An early Negotiation setup to angst bomb and then the Temptation to get the 100 EE should be doable on Day 4 since that's when the relevant phase is active.

Of course, that's thinking best case scenario. It's also possible I'd stall out trying to do stuff to the Animalistics. In that case, City 1 could be doable with those vulns since the chosen themselves would have much less mitigation.

I only realised a few cities ago how to keep raising Expertise when it "caps out", but Orgy Cat got to a respectable damage level even with minimal Punisher scaling and I didn't have to go pure INJU which was helpful.
Orgy Cat.png
Anyhow, attached is my latest save Kalloi. I may play about and see how Loop 25 turns out but I'm more likely to just wait a few days for the next version to start again.
 
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Kalloi

Member
Mar 20, 2019
458
521
Loop 17, where all the choices are bad...

View attachment 2473185

I was a fair bit luckier with my loop 15 than SuperSkippy- the mitigation was only in the 30's, though I had to pass up a much better item to go there. L16 wasn't dreadful either, 20 day time limit but I could've been done by d14 if I'd been less pedantic about setting up and breaking all the vuln's. I imagine L17 would be possible but I need a break and I think I'd have to leave chosen behind which would ruin my record. This demon lord is satisfied with his work for now.


I'd apologise for the terrible puns/naming, but I'm not actually sorry.
Excellent work Zargal! :D Sorry for replying sooner, I've been hyper focused on finishing the portrait pack before the end of March, but I did take a look at your save by the time I reacted to your post and just want to say first and foremost that using the suntorn dawn pack is no problem! However you have been disqualified on grounds on the sheer number of puns in your game have been legally classified as a hate crime against comedy. Take solace with the Evil you've put into the world and know the authorities will come for you soon :)

Jokes aside entry is valid and thank you so much for participating in the competition! :D



Items

View attachment 2473199

The 10k items were vital to my strategy and I think I picked up the Exp one L5 so I did well there. Other than the Pants though it was a rather meh haul.
Similiar to superskippy's first run, it was a bit disappointing that you couldn't come across the distortion item for the one distortion you were specializing in the most. I wonder how much the Green Fairy Dust item would have helped in your playthrough.



Forsaken
  • Basically I used a bunch of tempted in various damage configurations which could then switch to tempt as needed. These I upgraded to animalistics as I went and had a variety of costs as well, with my 4EE, Inj/Exp being my mainstay.
  • I also had an undistorted undead who did all injury and cost 1EE, she could usually break inj straight away and get me through the early rounds cheaply. With the 2 10k circ items, that left only pleasure as my weak point and with such a temptation heavy team, I could get that easily enough on day 4. Still, would have liked to have found a day 1 solution.
  • I experimented with an undead rampancy, I just never quite realized her potential I think- I always seemed to have a better choice. Still, I liked having her as an option and tantrums aren't nearly the disaster I thought.
  • My rampant animalistic experiment never quite got off the ground, the theory of an orgy specialist was good but again I don't think I used her properly and could never justify the cost vs a 4circ commander.
  • Because I never got the psychomter (L17 notwithstanding), I ended up going with undead punishers, focusing on damage and motivation increases which I was fairly happy with. I could have min-maxed this better but oh well.
  • In that vein, I was very lazy with training once they had the distributions I wanted, but seeing Superskippy's goons, I see I cheated myself out of about 10% damage. Oh well again.

My last loop I used a good chunk of my roster so I'm happy with how it turned out.
Some thoughts upon looking at your save it's once again fascinating to see the differences in playstyles not only from super skippy, nightclaw, and your playstyles, but seeing the differences in my own as well. Temptation might be the second to last distortion I use in my playthroughs with the last being rampancy (although that placement is due to rampancy's traits leading to more unruly forsaken then I'd like than simply preference) So your strategy outline and save having so many temptation forsaken in play is really awesome to witness! Even the usage of undistorted forsaken in your roster caught my eye (Miss Queef sticks out particularly as that undead forsaken you used for day 1 sodomizing)

My personal opinion is I believe expertise training beyond getting the appropriate fighting style does feel worth it, even if at times I just use it as excuse to continue training a certain forsaken or give my trainer something during breaks. A neat trick I've found for getting some more expertise out of a forsaken is once a trainer distributes all of the expertise to the designated damages, I do a training session with that forsaken and raise the neglected damage types, this typically adds expertise even with the mid-tier training actions instead of redistributing expertise. Once that forsaken has gotten an influx of expertise damage I set them back on their previous training plan so the trainer can distribute the new expertise damage to her proper fighting type, works exceptionally well with aversion forsaken as a result of their naturally low deviancy, with one of my forsaken I've gotten close to 900k expertise with a few of her damage types.

General Strategy

Quickly break the cores using items and specialist forsaken to rake in a bunch of EE. from breaks and rivalries.
Target battle elongation researches and rush network consciousness.
Go for a 10 turn orgy to get the T3's started.
Use either general type forsaken to get a whole lot of moves used or target a specific one with a specialist.
Decide whether a "complete" commander was needed to get a 15 turn orgy going. This was the laggiest part of my runs and so I avoided if possible.
Grab one 100EE + move (taunt+ ended up my favourite) and antipathy (I nearly always rivaled them up).
Use punishers, trying to limit the number of times they'd be needed.
Final battle (remember to save!)
I've always skewed towards friendships if possible but seeing how direct and effective this strategy is, I'm interested in trying a campaign run where I intially focus on building out my roster first and then afterwards go for a scorched earth style just to see how far I can go, two of my most noticable things I have against my own playthroughs is 1. I get too invested in the corruption storyline aspect of a chosen team so I tend to draw things out or go out of my way for specific corruption methods like ensuring a demon commander body is the first one to eve sodomize a chosen, etc. 2. I don't want any of my chosen to kill each other or have a T4 escape ending so the moment I see that as an inevitability I become disinterested in my campaign save. I don't really think these aspects need fixing but I do genuinely want to see if I fully let loose one of these days, maybe before boss chosen are introduced. apologies for the minor tangent lol


Stray Thoughts
  • I think SuperSkippy and I have different strategies and they were both viable, so that's the mark of good design. Nice work CSdev! The items are also a big factor in how you'll play, but as seen, even a mediocre acquisition can be worked with.
  • On that note, I'm none the wiser as to what influence actually indicates. Is it how much influence you gain from that city or is it the cost of the item? Could there be a running total on the item page?
  • I found Undead much easier to deal with than animalistics, probably more on par with superiors. The EE drain isn't bad unless you let the loop drag on and while their T3 abilities are nasty, they can be dealt with. I'm really looking forward to the "exhausted" change to stop a broken undead just spamming enervation though!
  • On the flipside, animalistic forsaken seem to have more utility after you fill the low cost slots of the roster.
  • Is it possible to have the Forsaken page as a spreadsheet style thing? It would be great to have cost, damage type, training plan all on the one page. Having "unassign all" and and a button to implement everyone's planned training would also be great.
  • Level 5 sacrifice fired on 42 when it says the threshold is 60.
  • PSA: You don't need to buy the punisher research (eg. hypnosis) to get the associated T4 training after winning the final battle. They unlock automatically in the "offseason". Saved myself so much time from this.
  • I think a grid style page to view all your forsaken's deployment costs, training, and damage would be really helpful as well, especially for rosters with a large amount of forsaken available. I would love for an unassign all button as well. Additionally, for training plans that increase disgrace, I think next to the report of the associated forsaken, showing the EE cost next to it would be fantastic in finetuning deployment costs, would be great for hostility and obedience too but I want it for disgrace more than anything else
  • For some reason re-reading your post now made me realize I should probably replicate this sacrifice bug on my end for confirmation and report it to CSDev, don't know why I didn't think of this until now, maybe the puns broke my brain earlier before lmao, anyways ty for reporting it, I'll let CSDev know with a message
  • Seeing this PSA along with the question about the release ability superior chosen and beyond have reminds me that most of things I believe to be common knowledge about the game is actually really obscure since the average player hasn't been playing every release and reading the changelog like the psycho that I am, I wonder if I should compile these minor things into a document for people to see so they won't have to find these things out through stumbling across this in a forum or after scouring through changelogs
Either way it was fun seeing your invasion trail demon lord, I hope you feel proud of your work! And if you decide to make another full campaign run I hope it goes even better than this one! :D
 
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Kalloi

Member
Mar 20, 2019
458
521
Loop 24---not sure I can beat either damage mitigation here. Godzilla couldn't break a window in this Tokyo:
View attachment 2499395

I'll give Yokohama a shot, but I'm not terribly optimistic. The last time I went up against a damage mitigation close to that (55% in Loop 22), I could just barely limp through after an Orgy broke only a single T3 core. I don't have many tools that are much stronger than loop 22, I've got only one new Forsaken of note and she's a bit weaker than I'd like. We'll see.

Edit: Nope, not doable from my position. Can't even break all T2 Cores with what I have.

Kalloi, here's the udpated Saves.sav.
Congratulations on your second run! You went even farther beyond your last, it was really exciting to see the back and forth between you and nightclaw, it almost feels like you two spurred each other on even farther than you both may have normally would've gone from your posts but I could always be wrong, either way reaching the 20s of a loop is something I've never done myself or seen anyone else besides you and night claw, its really impressive!
Some additonal thoughts is it feels like the item pool was far more kind to you than your last run. Was interesting to see the change! :D


And one last thing about the bugs you mentioned, aside the achievement one, the negotiation bugs were checked by CSDev and in the current build of the game, it seems like the bug won't occur anymore so you don't need to worry about that, I meant to reply to you saying this earlier but I've been really busy, sorry about that.
 
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Kalloi

Member
Mar 20, 2019
458
521
I was in the middle of writing my thoughts on Nightclaw’s campaign run when I sort of crashed after work and fell asleep hahaha

I will make that post after work, but right now I need to say that , meaning the Competition is over!!!

There will be an better post announcing everything when I’m back from work today but for now here’s the winners of the competition and their Placements!

1st Place- Nightclaw

2nd Place- SuperSkippy

3rd Place- zargal


Congratulations!!! And thank you so much for participating in the competition, I didn’t know how many people would take part and am surprised that even one person would be interested in it. It was so awesome to see your saves as well as your respective thoughts and progress in your runs.
I’m still half asleep if I’m being quite honest so the rest of my praise will be reserved for my next post later haha

One other thing I’ll say now though is there actually an additional prize for each of the winners, something that will be explained in the latpost also :D

Next post will also be showcase the new release of my portrait pack, for now though here’s the link to the folder, I still need to make the full version that has the file split up into smaller chunks for people, but the normal full version and lite version are up for people to try!


There was quite a bit of things added to the pack, even the expansion of other aspects which I’ll tell you all later ;)



Now! . . . I will sleep a bit more before getting up to work haha
 

Belgaz

Newbie
Jul 18, 2021
72
22
MILF TIME!

(uh... anyone else get a warning from their anti-virus from dl'ing the new version from the blog? lemme know if it's just me, cause that's real odd.)
 
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dekeche

Member
Aug 5, 2018
140
56
Hmmm... Pregnancy is nice, more families are nice, but what I'm interested in is the T3 changes - Taking a peak behind the covers for a second - It's a stepping modifier that drops the effective circumstancial LV. by 1 if the chosen is ready to break (based on acheivements), and by 2 if they've been broken. So quite the nice debuff that should make breaking other chosen easier.
 

Nightclaw

New Member
Jan 12, 2018
14
12
I saw no warnings when I downloaded.

I think with the changes in this version it's the perfect time to focus on a story aspect for my run/s, building up more forsaken and testing out the relationship system more.

The fact that the body-shift feature is now a per-chosen toggle is very much appreciated. I'm looking forward to when MOR T2 doesn't automatically mean loss of virginity, since that is something that steers me away from going Rampancy and Aversion more.

Some more thoughts on the competition/my run:
- I can confirm that I definitely only got as far as I did because of SuperSkippy. The later loops felt more like a math puzzle to solve than anything else, which is totally understandable as it's not expected to get that far but I remember constantly thinking of things to mix up the difficulty as I was going through loops.
- A part of me was actually thinking of restarting at Loop 11 when my item choices were Unicorn Lard and Orgasm in a Can. The latter of which seemed very limited at the time, as using it would add a lot of extra mitigation on the other circumstances and I had no issues getting PLEA to 10k anyway, whilst also setting the fight up for better things. When I got the item that ignored levels of PLEA for other damage, it become a useful item for triggering an initial Rampage. But I mostly just wasted it without much thought.
- The Trainer position stops a forsaken from throwing a tantrum, because they're busy planning.

Oh, something I only just remembered now: Relatively early on in my run, I found out that a Forsaken using the 'Penetrate' defiler action wouldn't change the chosen's virginity on the stat page: It would still say they were a virgin who had never been vaginally penetrated despite having a broken T2 MOR and everything. I only ever tested with 1 forsaken, so it might have just been an issue with them, but I could presumably go and replicate it easy enough when I have a spare moment.
 
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Belgaz

Newbie
Jul 18, 2021
72
22
I saw no warnings when I downloaded.
the rar did set off windows when i went to the drive that i had it on (as little as that means, but i didn't wanna get side-swiped for not double-checking over here at least, but it's probably way too soon to ask other people about this)
 
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