This review is on mod version 0.384.
Degrees of Lewdity Plus puts forth great strides towards making Degrees of a Lewdity a, well, playable game.
Largely, the changes are based around things that should be in the game, but have been either neglected or outright abandoned by the developers, as well as logical additions that again, should be in the game, but aren't due to vision limitations at the expense of a logical and cohesive world.
All that said, Degrees of Lewdity Plus goes a long way towards making Degrees of Lewdity the game it should be...
But at this point it still doesn't do enough to rescue it.
The single most impactful change Degrees of Lewdity Plus makes is in the combat extensions. It gives the player more proper ability to fight in engagements, even going so far as to introduce a "Brawling" skill. However, it still exists within the confines and Degrees of Lewdity's illogical combat system, and as such really only does so much to mitigate it.
Here are the current issues with the combat extensions:
- Countering sucks, regardless of skill levels I found it better 100% of the time to hook punch, kick, and demand. When attempting to use countering, there were far too many times it would simply never trigger.
- This is in-part countered by hook punching disappearing from the menu if there is more than one assailant.
- Enemy countering does not use their hand actions, they are still able to pull off your clothes while countering with both hands.
- Dodging similarly is never worth the feet action, it procs so rarely that it is always better to kick.
- Enemies can still begin engagements with a grapple, completely negating the entire system.
- Enemy actions make no sense in the context of a standing fight. Nobody is trying to bite nipples to win a fist fight.
- In multiple opponent fights, when one is defeated, the options are all deselected.
- Despite being absolutely trounced and pummeled, enemies will basically ignore combat and continue pulling off your clothes. You would expect them to recoil in some fashion, preventing this. It feels moreso like there are two engagements going on.
Basically, the combat extensions are just stat rolls, usually with very, very low chances that don't fit logically into any kind of system. That is not the fault of this mod, that is the result of trying to expand on the terrible assault system Degrees of Lewdity itself contains.
What the combat needs is not an extension, it's an overhaul. Separate encounters into two stages, combat and struggle. Combat actions are limited to things like punching, countering, and dodging for both the player and NPC(s). You know, actually fighting. If defeated, the player goes into "struggle" mode, which is essentially the combat system that exists in Degrees of Lewdity. The combat stage is skipped for events that logically do not include combat, such as having been abducted and bound. Similarly, the struggle stage would be skipped during events that logically do not consist of sexual assault, such as having lost a fight to Bailey and being sent off to wherever they deemed.
A last issue I want to mention, I played the DoLP + BEEESSS version. There are a lot of clothing graphical issues. Not all clothing colors are supported by sprites (my black jeans were shown as light blue), the clothing on the store mannequin doesn't align correctly much of the time, and the mannequin's breasts when set to "female" are placed incorrectly.
In short, if you are actually going to play Degrees of Lewdity, I consider this Plus mod to be essential. However, Degrees of Lewdity is not itself a...let's say "great" game, and while Frostberg has made many fantastic additions to it, there remains a lot of work to be done to make it good.
------------------------------------------------
This latter section consists of suggestions for the mod.
- Obviously, that combat overhaul would be a lot of work, but I truly believe it would be the single greatest thing that could be done for the game.
- Even with just the combat extension, the existence of the "Brawling" skill indicates an increased role of combat. Thus, combat needs to be a bigger presence in the game in general. I'm aware there are plans for a dojo and such to train in combat, that's great, but there are a lot of quest instances that need to be changed to include this as an option. Take for instance Landry's Request. The forest variation features the ability to
, however the moor variation in the same vein features only
- Speaking of combat, I noticed this run that the game of course ends the encounter when the enemy's "health" drops below 0...but that this is checked at the end of a turn, leading to an extra turn where the enemy can have negative health but still have performed actions against you. Change the enemy stat check to be at the beginning of the turn to avoid this.
- The info docs for the mod does seem to be a couple months out of date, but one of the features listed is "School skills increase automatically when it reaches 100%". If this has been removed, all great, but if not then I'll mention it didn't work for me. It also doesn't make much sense since the skill isn't a "skill", it's your grade. It also doesn't make much sense to earn bonuses for your understanding based off grades and not understanding, but that's just another design issue.
- I personally recommend altering the event which
, it's very poorly implemented. Decreasing Whitney's dominance requires winning fights against them,
requires passing out in town. Passing out in town is most common from fights. If you can win fights, you're unlikely to pass out, thus unlikely to naturally encounter this event. Instead, it'd make more sense if they simply attempted to get the jump on you in an alley. This would trigger a combat (not struggle, they aren't here for sex, they're here to beat your ass) engagement where they have enhanced stats. Losing plays the scene as it is now, winning plays the scene with Whitney on the ground.
- One of the things that makes Degrees of Lewdity lack depth is how the player is rarely the aggressor. I understand they're going for a victim game, but once you mash that with simulation it seriously decreases its quality. I'm aware the Plus mod has added certain aspects to the game where the player can be dominate, and one I'd like to see has to do with Robin. At night while they're asleep, have a skullduggery check to pick the lock on their door, followed by an encounter where you can assault them while they sleep. A sleep meter can be shown at the top of the screen to facilitate this, and actions would gradually wake them up. Waking them up during this would then seriously lower their love and induce trauma.
- When attending a class early, have an option to wait for class to begin. Currently you can either study at the expense of increased stress, or leave and have to waste time somewhere.
- A settings slider for a multiplier to clothing durability. Clothes in Degrees of Lewdity have the tear-resistance of one-ply toilet paper, it's kind of stupid.
- Revise the lockpicking sets. I do find the vanilla game's skulduggery grind to be a bit much, but they're basically just a shortcut to max skulduggery at the moment and are extremely easy to obtain. They also don't make much sense, skulduggery is more than just picking locks. Raising the stat naturally requires not just lockpicking, but a fair amount of deception. While I do find the Lockpicking Lawyer nod to be somewhat amusing, it doesn't fit in the world well and is a bit too much of a meme in my personal opinion. Perhaps at a low level it could be lockpicking sets from Landry, then psychology books from the hospital to better understand deception, then puzzle cubes from the lake ruins to understand complex mechanisms, etc. Regardless, it's currently far too easy to obtain and completely removes all skill progression.
Degrees of Lewdity Plus puts forth great strides towards making Degrees of a Lewdity a, well, playable game.
Largely, the changes are based around things that should be in the game, but have been either neglected or outright abandoned by the developers, as well as logical additions that again, should be in the game, but aren't due to vision limitations at the expense of a logical and cohesive world.
All that said, Degrees of Lewdity Plus goes a long way towards making Degrees of Lewdity the game it should be...
But at this point it still doesn't do enough to rescue it.
The single most impactful change Degrees of Lewdity Plus makes is in the combat extensions. It gives the player more proper ability to fight in engagements, even going so far as to introduce a "Brawling" skill. However, it still exists within the confines and Degrees of Lewdity's illogical combat system, and as such really only does so much to mitigate it.
Here are the current issues with the combat extensions:
- Countering sucks, regardless of skill levels I found it better 100% of the time to hook punch, kick, and demand. When attempting to use countering, there were far too many times it would simply never trigger.
- This is in-part countered by hook punching disappearing from the menu if there is more than one assailant.
- Enemy countering does not use their hand actions, they are still able to pull off your clothes while countering with both hands.
- Dodging similarly is never worth the feet action, it procs so rarely that it is always better to kick.
- Enemies can still begin engagements with a grapple, completely negating the entire system.
- Enemy actions make no sense in the context of a standing fight. Nobody is trying to bite nipples to win a fist fight.
- In multiple opponent fights, when one is defeated, the options are all deselected.
- Despite being absolutely trounced and pummeled, enemies will basically ignore combat and continue pulling off your clothes. You would expect them to recoil in some fashion, preventing this. It feels moreso like there are two engagements going on.
Basically, the combat extensions are just stat rolls, usually with very, very low chances that don't fit logically into any kind of system. That is not the fault of this mod, that is the result of trying to expand on the terrible assault system Degrees of Lewdity itself contains.
What the combat needs is not an extension, it's an overhaul. Separate encounters into two stages, combat and struggle. Combat actions are limited to things like punching, countering, and dodging for both the player and NPC(s). You know, actually fighting. If defeated, the player goes into "struggle" mode, which is essentially the combat system that exists in Degrees of Lewdity. The combat stage is skipped for events that logically do not include combat, such as having been abducted and bound. Similarly, the struggle stage would be skipped during events that logically do not consist of sexual assault, such as having lost a fight to Bailey and being sent off to wherever they deemed.
A last issue I want to mention, I played the DoLP + BEEESSS version. There are a lot of clothing graphical issues. Not all clothing colors are supported by sprites (my black jeans were shown as light blue), the clothing on the store mannequin doesn't align correctly much of the time, and the mannequin's breasts when set to "female" are placed incorrectly.
In short, if you are actually going to play Degrees of Lewdity, I consider this Plus mod to be essential. However, Degrees of Lewdity is not itself a...let's say "great" game, and while Frostberg has made many fantastic additions to it, there remains a lot of work to be done to make it good.
------------------------------------------------
This latter section consists of suggestions for the mod.
- Obviously, that combat overhaul would be a lot of work, but I truly believe it would be the single greatest thing that could be done for the game.
- Even with just the combat extension, the existence of the "Brawling" skill indicates an increased role of combat. Thus, combat needs to be a bigger presence in the game in general. I'm aware there are plans for a dojo and such to train in combat, that's great, but there are a lot of quest instances that need to be changed to include this as an option. Take for instance Landry's Request. The forest variation features the ability to
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- Speaking of combat, I noticed this run that the game of course ends the encounter when the enemy's "health" drops below 0...but that this is checked at the end of a turn, leading to an extra turn where the enemy can have negative health but still have performed actions against you. Change the enemy stat check to be at the beginning of the turn to avoid this.
- The info docs for the mod does seem to be a couple months out of date, but one of the features listed is "School skills increase automatically when it reaches 100%". If this has been removed, all great, but if not then I'll mention it didn't work for me. It also doesn't make much sense since the skill isn't a "skill", it's your grade. It also doesn't make much sense to earn bonuses for your understanding based off grades and not understanding, but that's just another design issue.
- I personally recommend altering the event which
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Log in or register now.
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Log in or register now.
- One of the things that makes Degrees of Lewdity lack depth is how the player is rarely the aggressor. I understand they're going for a victim game, but once you mash that with simulation it seriously decreases its quality. I'm aware the Plus mod has added certain aspects to the game where the player can be dominate, and one I'd like to see has to do with Robin. At night while they're asleep, have a skullduggery check to pick the lock on their door, followed by an encounter where you can assault them while they sleep. A sleep meter can be shown at the top of the screen to facilitate this, and actions would gradually wake them up. Waking them up during this would then seriously lower their love and induce trauma.
- When attending a class early, have an option to wait for class to begin. Currently you can either study at the expense of increased stress, or leave and have to waste time somewhere.
- A settings slider for a multiplier to clothing durability. Clothes in Degrees of Lewdity have the tear-resistance of one-ply toilet paper, it's kind of stupid.
- Revise the lockpicking sets. I do find the vanilla game's skulduggery grind to be a bit much, but they're basically just a shortcut to max skulduggery at the moment and are extremely easy to obtain. They also don't make much sense, skulduggery is more than just picking locks. Raising the stat naturally requires not just lockpicking, but a fair amount of deception. While I do find the Lockpicking Lawyer nod to be somewhat amusing, it doesn't fit in the world well and is a bit too much of a meme in my personal opinion. Perhaps at a low level it could be lockpicking sets from Landry, then psychology books from the hospital to better understand deception, then puzzle cubes from the lake ruins to understand complex mechanisms, etc. Regardless, it's currently far too easy to obtain and completely removes all skill progression.
