i read a lot about slippers and sundress, but normally i never use them. i don't really understand the appeal when they don't give any boosts to training.
they're both 'always liked', so they both grant the pos_clothes mood buff for +1 mood (looking at the code, it looks like it doesn't actually stack, so you only need one... oops, learn something new every day). the sundress also neutralizes the nakedness debuff, but anything will do that. if a slave has an affinity, of course it's more cost effective to give them liked clothes relevant to that affinity, but unless you savescum you're not gonna find out until you start training them (which requires them to already be obeying orders, a few days in... so it's especially not cost effective).
typically i go for sneakers for athletics spam and w/e uniform i plan to make them specialize in; maybe gladiator as an example since that's my first goal for isabella.
the problem is most of the useful main clothes are revealing, which causes a negative moodlet until they get their first exhibitionism level. sneakers is almost certainly a good strategy though, thinking about it. i should try sneakers+sundress next time. or maybe even just sundress and no shoes at all, to save $5
then the ornamental collar
why? it has the same effect as the leather collar except it gives extra style and exoticism. even if the slave has the hidden trait that makes it grant a positive moodlet, i don't think it's worth the extra $17. it's worth it for when you start selling slaves at auction or to consumers (because then style has an effect, since it's one of the only ways to max out style), but not for the guild contracts at all, especially not when every spark counts.
i often will also pick up the rubber gloves and headband for the +1 to maid, cook and nurse. finally i'll grab the high boots for the passive +1 temperament per day that will replace the sneaker after they finish getting their endurance to A or S.
this also makes sense for higher level slave training, but definitely not the first two slaves. you shouldn't be getting their endurance above B+ anyway, there's not nearly enough time for that and higher endurance = higher food costs. the gloves and headband are also, in my opinion, not worth the cost with the early game margins.
oh and the vaginal beads at the start though those seem hard to get a random slave to use, however isabella will use them immediately and she doesn't seem to have as negative a response as having her nipples pierced for the nipple chain day 1.
the reason i use heavy rings instead of the nipple chain is that they bypass the clothing taming cap. the nipple chain is just an item that has +taming as an attribute (so it's subject to the cap, which is almost certainly going to be 2 at the start of the game since you have no aura), but the heavy rings add taming after the cap is applied, so with them you can get +5 taming per day (though i usually just get +4, since any +taming other than the collar and heavy rings have too big a negative impact on mood for their price).
also, the reason i dont buy the vaginal beads at first is you need the chastity belt to force the rule. that's why i usually buy them together for the second slave, after selling the first.
in the beginning i often try to pickup the aramid suit armor for slave gladiators and the aketon plus whip and katana for myself to grind strength, combat, and whip experience. in extreme though i can't afford $150 for the whip and katana so instead grabbed the knife and 9 tails for $25. all in this comes to right at $250. would love to be able to add the gag and deprivation suit to this but that's really pushing it.
i'd recommend just doing the net and trident option for slave gladiators, that way you don't have to buy armor. i've never had difficulty winning the fights, the net is just really strong with the debuffs it inflicts. also, the lash/cat-o-nine-tails allows you to grind whip experience too, for a whole $40 less, so get that instead (but i only get the lash after my first slave, i get the dagger first to grind regular combat experience -- maybe i should try just doing the lash instead one day). come to think of it, i probably shouldn't be getting the dagger at all -- you can get combat experience up to D- even from losing, so i should just throw myself at the arena until i get there.
my general plan for economy was to try to not get a slave and instead just me and isabella focus on boosting her nonsex stuff including endurance as a main goal and get her into gladiator and pony matches to stay afloat. once she can win gladiator and pony matches i figure if we're bringing in a small profit i can afford to add a slave and throw isabella into assistant role while she helps me train the slave and i get time to work on building strength, combat, and whip skills up. when fight or race day roll around though i plan to stow the slave in a cryo-capsule so i can then put isabella back into the slave slot to use her for the competition. after i use a spa message to lower the amount of negative stamina and i think this also helps speed recovery from injuries? finally can just grab the slave back outa the capsule once i swap isabella back to assistant and i think it only costs $1 plus the two trips to serpentine as well as the half star of slave stamina to go in and outa the capsule (not 100% this works as i laid out)
this type of thing works after the first three slaves, but before then you can't really hope to train up an assistant like that without going broke. isabella is never a factor for me in this routing since you only get her after you move out of the slums. also, it only really works temporarily -- once the moneylender starts charging you slum rent, it's way less effective so you have to refocus slave training again.
every time i tried to use the additional taming items like the nipple chain or the thick rings you mentioned they didn't seem to have any effect on passive stat gain. even the steel collar which says +2 to taming only did 1 per day. thought this was weird but read somewhere else there was a taming per day limit though i duno why it would be limited to only 1.
that's because of the daily limit on taming (the exact formula is
dynslave_rate['instinct'] += max(0, min(6 - slave['ego'], max(2, master_supermacy/2), daily_bonus['instinct']))), but like i said, the thick rings should bypass that. the code looks like this:
Code:
! Heavy rings instinct bonus and mood penalty
tmp = 0
!if $dynslave['earrings'] = 'heavy_gauge_rings': tmp += 0
if $dynslave['tongue'] = 'heavy_gauge_rings': tmp += 2 &! no effect alone; combine with navel, clit or nose ring for +1 instinct
if $dynslave['nipplerings'] = 'heavy_gauge_rings': tmp += 3 &! +1 instinct alone; inferior to nipple chain which gives +1; slot uses 2 rings (slightly cheaper than nipple chain)
if $dynslave['navel'] = 'heavy_gauge_rings': tmp += 1 &! no effect alone; combine with tongue or clit for +1 instinct
if $dynslave['clitring'] = 'heavy_gauge_rings': tmp += 2 &! no effect alone; combine with navel, tongue or nose ring for +1 instinct
if dynslave['nose_piercing'] = 1: tmp += 1 &! no effect alone; combine with tongue or clit for +1 instinct
dynslave_rate['instinct'] += tmp / 3 &! up to +3 instinct rate if 5 rings are worn in tongue, nipples, navel, clitoris and slave has a nose ring
dynslave_rate['mood'] -= tmp &! at most -0.9 mood (at most -0.8 without nose piercing)
killvar 'tmp'
note that the code increases instinct rate directly, instead of contributing to daily_bonus['instinct']. instinct is the in-code internal variable name for taming.
included an image of the stat distribution i was considering. i'm on 2.3 btw. the fetishism one is a left over 5 points. alternatively could drop the strength and fetishism to f and get back the 100 to bring up the starting capital to 400 but that won't make a big difference if i can't break even or better with those fights and races. would be interested to see what you think of my strategy. always nice to have someone point out holes in your strategy so you can tighten it up.
oh, shoot, i didn't realize you were starting with stats -- all my routing is around a 0-stat 200-spark start. starting with 400 sparks instead of 200 is huge, so i'd prioritize that. gives you way more wiggle room with the first two slaves, or maybe even lets you get away with just training a D+ gladiatrix for bullhorn from the very start. i don't think you should start in any of the great houses, it's not hard to build up reputation and join a house once you move out of the slums. slummaxxing is an extremely powerful strategy for the first 200 days, because the moneylender doesn't charge you slum rent until day 200. don't invest anything in libido, you'll lose it from not having sex and being pent up gives you a mood penalty. i'd probably invest in B+ strength and B+ dominance first and foremost, you can maintain B+ strength with $5 pub food and B+ dominance would be huge for early-game aura. A+ magic seems pointless to me, spells are way too expensive early game and it's one of the easiest skills to grind. getting from F- to D- just costs $30 once you can afford it (15 failed auspex casts), and after that magna magnifika will let you grind mage experience over time. i don't think i'd invest in torture skill either, it's not too hard to grind and having low torture skill doesn't really have any major detriments if you're careful with bruising. i'd probably keep B+ teaching, B+ stewardship, and B+ artistry -- that's a lot of skill training you wouldn't otherwise have access to, and it lets you train the assistant and artist specializations even from the slums. there's 3 minor residents looking for a D+ assistant, which would be massive early game (and possibly easier than training a gladiatrix, since there's no requirements on temperament or nature for the specialization). i might even bump medic skill from A+ to S+ -- it seems really powerful to just have that from the start, since you could get away with not healing slave wounds at the medical center, and you could use calculated portions from the start to save on food. if there's any points left you could get B+ hand skill, for the synergy that allows you to heal bruises by medic skill through the sensual massage reward (though that doesn't really impact D- slave training, since slaves only accept massages as a reward when they have enough obedience to reach D+)
edit: i decided to play around with the custom start to see how many points there actually were, and i think i'd distribute them like this:
instead of increasing medic skill to S+, i decided it would be better to increase dominance and teaching to A+, since that would have much more early-game impact. i might try a run like this, just to see how it compares to a 0-stat start.
