- No good alternative to that which wouldn't end up making sex EASIER to deal with than masturbation
I mean, I would argue that sex *should* be easier to deal with than masturbation (and not just because masturbation is already a bitch to deal with). When looking at it in terms of what sort of content players would want to engage in or avoid, it makes sense that the more extreme examples should be more avoidable than the less extreme ones. And watching the knights masturbate is generally much more palatable than watching them get fucked and not really being able to do anything about it. This is basically what I was getting at with my previous post, about how tricky it is to balance a game where you're expected to lose versus giving the player some control over which types of content they want to engage with.
But it also makes sense from a conceptual standpoint that the girls should be able to break out of sex more easily than masturbation. After all, one is an act of (potential) conflict between them and an enemy, while the other is something they're doing to themselves. Once you've decided to masturbate, it would take an outside force to change your mind. But the knight (with the Inquisitor's encouragement) should be able to choose whether, and how much, to try to resist or go along with an enemy's rape/seduction/whatever. At least to a degree. This is especially true if there's the potential to use sex as a weapon, so that choosing whether to fight back is a tactical decision as well.
This also opens the door for other mechanics to interact and affect the difficulty of the encounter (and the erotic implications of it). For instance, if you're normally able to take measures to break out of sex, but the knight is afflicted with Trance, then they'll be stuck unable to resist until the trance ends. If a monster intiates sex on a knight who's already masturbating, then they'd need to be broken out of the masturbation state before they can break out of the sex. You could also introduce a curse that makes it harder (or impossible at higher levels) to break out of sex without another knight's assistance. Since curses effectively count as "avoidable content", it's not as much of an issue as if that was the case by default.
(Edit: But I do also want to double down on the "masturbation is already a bitch to deal with" thing. Anything where the only way to prevent a corruption break is to pull other knights away from what they're doing is
way too punishing on certain playstyles, including my own. Tying a major mechanic to that is definitely not something I want to see.)
- Opens up the possibility of going slut mode and speccing into corruption specifically to do sex damage?
- Fits with the high risk high reward playstyle that corruption is supposed to have.
- Would probably need some associated corrupt skills or similar things to somewhat mitigate the permanent corruption gain before it could be truly viable in the long term
- Likely a future concern, but something I know some people would enjoy being able to do
Continuing with the idea that sex is largely avoidable/resistable, it could also be a good idea to include some skills that mitigate the corruption received instead of increasing the damage dealt (although maybe make them mutually exclusive). Instead of tempting them into taking bigger risks with a bigger reward, they can feel safer in those riskier situations and are more likely to engage with the content even without a high-risk playstyle. Suppose there was a skill (perhaps something like "Open-Minded") where having a corruption break during sex caused a reduced percentage of Temporary Corruption to be converted to Permanent Corruption. This would then make it a valid strategy to seek out a monster (or another knight!) to have sex with when they have high lust and/or temporary corruption, to reduce the amount of long-term damage. (I feel like I mentioned a similar idea to that before, but I may not have gotten around to posting it.)
Needing to add sex events/cgs for all of those is a pretty big chunk of work to suddenly slap down on my plate on top of everything else, so I may need to introduce generic/placeholder events/CGs? Not ideal.
I've mentioned this before, but I don't think you should be afraid to use generic/repeated content in the game. Especially when the alternative is to add a compounding amount of work to make a unique X for every Y. And enemies that do have unique events will be identifiable through the research log, so you're free to include them whenever or wherever you please while using generic events for the rest, without confusing players or making them feel the need to test every monster.
Also, Tweet time:
Tweet said:
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Please don't represent a dick slapping a face.
(Also, the animation seems kind of... aggressive? Like, moving too fast. Maybe it's more annoying on Twitter than it would be in the game. I also don't even know if it's going to repeat like that in the game.)
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If a knight with this curse kisses another knight, she receives the False Pregnancy debuff.
Are you suuuure you don't want to trust me?
Trust goes both ways, and you need to trust my fashion advice, lady. (Also my treatise on why letting me brainwash you would both be more enjoyable than serving Eschahn while also probably being consistent with her teachings. Nothing says "trust" like a signed consent form for brainwashing.)
(Edit 2: I haven't hashed this out all the way yet, but I did just think of a potential way to make the "avoidable sex encounter" thing work. Maybe you could implement a sort of "control meter" to the sex mechanic, where the knight will naturally fight to gain more control over the encounter, and then you'll be given certain options based on whether the meter is full, or how full it is. This obviously includes the option to break off from the sex, but could maybe include other options to turn the encounter around.
....
Ooooooh, but what if the
knight isn't the one filling up and utilizing the meter? What if this is another instance of the knights entrusting the Inquisitor with control over their minds, overpowering (or twisting) the influence of Eschahn's curse, which would normally drive the knights to submit to the sex, and instead allowing the Inquisitor to control and direct their lust? This would also explain why the player is able to tell them how to deal with the situation instead of deciding for themselves. It would also significantly reduce the sense of cuckoldry inherent in the encounter, and I know you said you didn't want this to be an "NTR" game.)
(I am joking)
