The way I've classified it in my design doc is that the first and third levels are intended to be difficult to control, while the second and fourth levels can easily be held back until the player wants to trigger the corruption. I suppose it could be inconvenient to be wanting to use a particular punisher commander when the corresponding minor vulnerability is already above 1000% effectiveness, but it's still ultimately the player's choice as to whether to pull the trigger and break it.
Regarding orgies specifically, my tentative plan is to make it so that you can lock-in an alternative corruption path before it becomes feasible to hit the team with an orgy, so that by the time orgies become feasible, you aren't breaking anything you don't want to break by initiating them. If it can't be made to work out that way, then I'll certainly be open to reworking the mechanic itself.
That sounds good to me, then; the only thing that I could think of might pose a continuing issue is the niche situation where the player wants to leave a vulnerability completely untouched - but I can't imagine that happening much once there are more forms of corruption introduced, and it strikes me as the sort of thing that
should pose unique challenges.
As for corruption of their broader social circles, I don't intend to introduce specific mechanics surrounding it (since it would take the focus off the Chosen themselves), but once the vignette system is in, a lot of the daily vignettes will put a spotlight on how the corruption of the Chosen is affecting their social lives.
Well, let me preface this by saying that I don't actually have strong feelings about this topic, and I'm just posing an example; in truth, I think the vignettes would probably be a better avenue for it in general since it'll be a less rigid structure.
But... Let's take for example a corruption pathway where you're getting a Chosen hooked on drugs, as an alternate Innocence break. After her first break, she's tried them and
really enjoyed it, but is trying to control herself and her desire for more, with the support of her best friend. After her second break, she's well and truly hooked, secretly seeking out more while her friend helplessly tries to talk her out of it. After her third, she's talked her best friend into doing it (or a highly diluted form, since I'm imagining a special drug that lets the Chosen get high... Though now that I think about it, I don't actually remember if drug immunity is a thing in this setting) with her for the first time, and wonders why they had been so hung up about it. After her fourth, she's even high when she fights, and her best friend has destroyed her career and her life trying to support her own habit.
The idea here isn't to dilute the focus on the Chosen, but to reflect the consequences of their decisions in ways that can't easily be seen in the lives of the Chosen themselves; in the early stages of the example offered, for instance, much of the harm of drug abuse comes in the way that it hurts one's social ties, as they prioritize their habit over their old friends and family. From the perspective of the Chosen, this isn't much of an issue at all, as we don't know or care about their friends, and we don't see the pain they cause; from the perspective of a friend, though, it's sudden, it's alarming, and it's painful. In the third stage, introducing others to the "joy" of drugs doesn't carry much weight at all if it's being given to a complete rando, but it's another thing entirely if it's being given to one who was invested in trying to pull the Chosen out of that life - in that context, it becomes something worthy of being a third-level break. And in the fourth stage, we can't
completely destroy the Chosen's life to the point where she stops functioning as a Chosen - even after, I imagine the idea is that she starts serving the Dark Lady in return for her supply. But we
can show how her friend lost the trust of her subordinates, the favor of her bosses, and blew off so many projects while getting high that her rare sober moments are fixated on trying to get more drugs from her Chosen friend.
This is the kind of thing I'm thinking of when I talk about their friends and social circle - most of it would be better in vignettes, since they don't generally need to be a recurring presence, true. But there are certain circumstances in which they could serve as a better window into a Chosen's fall than they themselves would - an outside perspective that can better conceptualize just how big a mistake they're making.
Yeah with all the talk of ways to monetise games it is important to remember that with so many voices from a supporter base there comes many problems. The most notable of which being that a lot of people give money under the expectation that it will give them a say on the direction of a game, this is despite the fact that most of these people don't have the slightest understanding of how a game is developed or why pushing more of there niche fetish may dilute a games focus.
CSdev has thus far showed a lot more discipline and sound judgement than the typical porn game dev regarding prioritisation of work and actually following a roadmap but this would become infinitely harder if you start having to try to keep a bunch of people who are expecting more content to there taste regularly. Having to constantly please a crowd is part of why so many porn games get stuck in development hell so seeking crowd funding is not a decision to be taken lightly.
I'm also going to have to echo this point - people get really weird around crowd funding, and even if the people giving you money are satisfied, you're going to have plenty of people constantly, vocally judging whether you "really" deserve that money, despite your backers being perfectly happy with what you've done.
To avoid these pitfalls, it might be a better idea to open a Ko-Fi (which emphasizes one-time donations, and doesn't prominently display your monthly donations unlike Patreon or SubscribeStar), or possibly sell the game on Itch (which has a payment option that allows people to pay more than requested amount). This would still allow fans to show their appreciation, without creating an environment where we feel
entitled to your attention, or for others to act like you're Scrooge McDuck because you have a visible source of income.
Though, well, even as I say this, it's not like I'm the one getting the money here. It's easy for me to talk about the drawbacks, but you're the one who knows best about how much the money could benefit you.
