QSP Jack-o-Nine-Tails [v2.3] [ImperatorAugustusTertius / qwertyu12359]

[awecrwecrqc4rqwecf]

I find one issue I'm having is that awareness doesn't want to go up, and sometimes goes down. Yes I read the tutorial and I'm doing what it says. I'm getting by so far but I'm having to do it almost entirely on habit and fear, because devotion and taming will not go up at all, and awareness is super finicky for some reason.

rewarding slaves increases awareness proportional to intellect, capped by the lower of the slave's intellect and the tier of the reward (eg a date at the beach can only increase awareness by 3 at most, but a slave with C- or D- intelligence will only get 2 or 1 awareness). each type of reward only does this once per day, with following rewards generally only giving 1 point towards awareness... so a slave going to the beach and then getting a delikacia can get 8 awareness rate (3+5) in a day, but a trip to the beach followed by a trip to the restaurant will only give 4 points (3+1), even if she had 5 merit for both rewards. a slave with low intelligence will be much harder to train in this regard, since the amount of awareness they can get from high tier rewards is capped.

some punishments increase awareness more than others too. notably, shaming punishments can instantly grant entire awareness levels if a slave is frightened (note: not if a slave has enough fear, only if the slave's mental state is frightened, indicated by her status being described as "trembling all over" and trying to "curl up in the fetal position"). undeserved shaming punishments usually change a slave's mental state from frightened to depressed though, so she has to feel deserving of them, but if the highest-tier shaming punishments aren't too much for her mental state they can get her an entire level of awareness instantly (even from 4 to 5).

punishments only increase awareness if they are an effective form of torture for the slave, and the awareness increase doesn't depend on the tier of the punishment, only the slave's intelligence. the exact formula is (1+intelligence)/2, so a slave with S+ intelligence will gain 3 awareness rate from an effective punishments while a slave with D- intelligence will only gain 1 awareness rate (and a slave with F- intelligence will gain 0).

other useful punishments:
- threatening to drive the slave out (requires you to actually click the action and then cancel it, not just use the psychological pressure punishment) is a guilt-4 punishment that increases awareness proportional to intelligence (up to 5). threatening to execute the slave through any of the execution methods (also requires you to click and cancel the action) does the same, but is a guilt-5 punishment. note that each of these threats only works if that same threat has not been used on that slave recently (so you can do several execution threats by threatening a different execution method each time, but only one 'drive the slave out' threat)
- if you have a dungeon, the 'sleep in the cells' rule can increase awareness if the slave ends the day with guilt, as sleeping in the cells is a punishment in and of itself (note that ending the day with less than 3 guilt will also increase despair, and ending the day with 0 guilt will not increase awareness). this also removes any penalty from ending the day with unresolved guilt
- starving the slave can increase awareness quickly, by giving a daily increase proportional to the minimum of the slave's intelligence and the number of days the slave has gone without food (so starving a slave with B+ intellect will give +1 awareness rate on the first day of starvation, then +2 on the second, then +3 from then on)
- ending the day while the slave has a calorie deficit will give a flat increase to awareness rate of 1

also, there are some things that drain awareness that you want to look out for:
- sententia veritas drains awareness proportional to intelligence
- promising a reward/gift when you haven't fulfilled a previous promise for a reward or gift will decrease awareness, because the slave will not believe you
- a spoiled slave passively loses awareness rate proportional to their spoil level (eg, a slave with spoil level 2 will lose 2 points of awareness rate per day)
- punishing a slave when they aren't feeling guilt will always decrease awareness
- ending the day while a slave feels merit or guilt without resolving it will decrease awareness

Also spoiling seems to go up even if I reward equal to or less than merit. Is it supposed to do that?

yeah, most rewards always increase spoil rate by some amount no matter what, even when the slave has enough merit to feel deserving of them. free time, any of the dates, any of the gifts and sweets, any of the erotic rewards... the only rewards that give absolutely 0 spoil increase are moral encouragement rewards. so, you have to be careful not to give more rewards than the slave's regular decreases to spoil rate can handle (which should come from fear, devotion, and despair, as well as starvation if you're starving her) or have enough stats that the 'put in place' interaction is effective enough to remove the spoil level when she gains it. additionally, if a slave ends the day with negative mood, their spoil rate is decreased by their empathy.

Edit: BDSM gear seems to work, but this doesn't seem to be following the tutorial whatsoever.

there are a few rules that increase awareness directly, but forcing a slave to follow a rule they don't want to follow also increases awareness. humility and alarm increase awareness when followed in and of themselves, but in addition to that, slave's get a nightly awareness increase based on the lowest of their intelligence and the number of rules they want to break but can't (so, for example, a slave with S+ intelligence being forced to follow 2 rules they don't want to follow will gain 2 points, while a slave with B+ intelligence being forced to follow 4 rules they don't want to follow will gain 3 points).

 

[awecrwecrqc4rqwecf]

I tried my other slaver in my sandbox game and have no issues blazing through taming right away, so what it seems like is that I'm hitting a cap with Johny due to him being bad at something/everything.

taming is very very important, i don't think you were ever actually ignoring it (just raising it without realizing it probably). it's the most important mind stat, since each level of taming grants 2 obedience (while awareness and habit only grant 1 per level). i'm assuming the main way you got taming from your 'powerful' slaver was through punishments, as punishments that are inherently painful or involve deprivation/bondage increase taming proportional to the slaver's aura. the exact formula is clamp(aura, 1, 5) * min(1 + empathy, (1 + punishment level)/2) -- so if your slaver has 3 aura, the slave has B+ empathy, and you punished the slave by flogging them with a cane, taming would increase by 3 * min(1 + 3, (1 + 4) / 2) = 3 * min(4, 2) = 6, which is a lot when you're punishing a slave regularly. but if you have a weak aura, the increase is only going to be 2, which is probably going to be offset by the nightly decrease from having a weak aura.

in general, you want to make sure you're getting at least 1 taming rate per day from your slave's collar. you should be collaring your slave regardless, but that's the bare minimum. you can get more depending on the slave's nature and the slaver's aura -- the exact formula for the cap is max(0, min(6 - nature, max(2, aura/2))), so a slave with A+ nature would have a cap of 2, S+ would have a cap of 1, B+ would have a cap of 2 or 3 (only 3 if the slaver has at least 6 aura), etc. heavy gauge piercings are very helpful, because they can bypass this cap (i've talked about how on earlier posts, the tl;dr is if she has a nose ring and is wearing heavy gauge piercings in every slot she gets +3 taming per night in addition to any 'regular' taming clothing she wears). you can check the wiki for details on more 'regular' clothing that gives taming (off the top of my head, going naked gives +1 taming, but i can't remember any clothes that give taming), just remember it's subject to the cap.

some other things that increase taming:
- rape (the lower the slave's nature, the higher the increase)
- orgasms
- finishing a race
- the 'behave: humility' and 'behave: alarm' rules (only if followed, of course)
- the 'no masturbation rule' (only if the rule is not forced, she wants to masturbate, and is obedient enough that she chooses not to masturbate)
- sleeping in the cells
- sleeping on the floor
- sleeping in the slaver's bed or boudoir (boudoir increases spoilage, especially at 0 devotion)
- eating the slaver's leftovers (increases spoilage, especially when devotion is less than 2)
- the sententia veritas spell (proportional to master mage skill)
- a successful threaten (only if the effect is stronger than the slave's pride)
- a sensual massage reward
- ambrosia

notable things that decrease taming:
- breaking rules (decrease proportional to nature)
- having low aura -- if the slaver's aura is less than 0, displayed by auspex as being fainter than the slave's aura, taming rate decreases by (nature - fear - 2) every day (so if a slave has A+ nature and only 1 level of fear, they will lose 1 point of taming rate every day)
- being spoiled (decrease proportional to spoilage level)
- refusing an order for the first time in the day
- refusing an order while feeling guilty (ie, if she refuses an order and you don't punish her and she refuses a second one)
- ending the day with guilt (decrease proportional to fear)

 

[slandy]

taming is very very important, i don't think you were ever actually ignoring it (just raising it without realizing it probably). it's the most important mind stat, since each level of taming grants 2 obedience (while awareness and habit only grant 1 per level). i'm assuming the main way you got taming from your 'powerful' slaver was through punishments, as punishments that are inherently painful or involve deprivation/bondage increase taming proportional to the slaver's aura. the exact formula is clamp(aura, 1, 5) * min(1 + empathy, (1 + punishment level)/2) -- so if your slaver has 3 aura, the slave has B+ empathy, and you punished the slave by flogging them with a cane, taming would increase by 3 * min(1 + 3, (1 + 4) / 2) = 3 * min(4, 2) = 6, which is a lot when you're punishing a slave regularly. but if you have a weak aura, the increase is only going to be 2, which is probably going to be offset by the nightly decrease from having a weak aura.

in general, you want to make sure you're getting at least 1 taming rate per day from your slave's collar. you should be collaring your slave regardless, but that's the bare minimum. you can get more depending on the slave's nature and the slaver's aura -- the exact formula for the cap is max(0, min(6 - nature, max(2, aura/2))), so a slave with A+ nature would have a cap of 2, S+ would have a cap of 1, B+ would have a cap of 2 or 3 (only 3 if the slaver has at least 6 aura), etc. heavy gauge piercings are very helpful, because they can bypass this cap (i've talked about how on earlier posts, the tl;dr is if she has a nose ring and is wearing heavy gauge piercings in every slot she gets +3 taming per night in addition to any 'regular' taming clothing she wears). you can check the wiki for details on more 'regular' clothing that gives taming (off the top of my head, going naked gives +1 taming, but i can't remember any clothes that give taming), just remember it's subject to the cap.

some other things that increase taming:
- rape (the lower the slave's nature, the higher the increase)
- orgasms
- finishing a race
- the 'behave: humility' and 'behave: alarm' rules (only if followed, of course)
- the 'no masturbation rule' (only if the rule is not forced, she wants to masturbate, and is obedient enough that she chooses not to masturbate)
- sleeping in the cells
- sleeping on the floor
- sleeping in the slaver's bed or boudoir (boudoir increases spoilage, especially at 0 devotion)
- eating the slaver's leftovers (increases spoilage, especially when devotion is less than 2)
- the sententia veritas spell (proportional to master mage skill)
- a successful threaten (only if the effect is stronger than the slave's pride)
- a sensual massage reward
- ambrosia

notable things that decrease taming:
- breaking rules (decrease proportional to nature)
- having low aura -- if the slaver's aura is less than 0, displayed by auspex as being fainter than the slave's aura, taming rate decreases by (nature - fear - 2) every day (so if a slave has A+ nature and only 1 level of fear, they will lose 1 point of taming rate every day)
- being spoiled (decrease proportional to spoilage level)
- refusing an order for the first time in the day
- refusing an order while feeling guilty (ie, if she refuses an order and you don't punish her and she refuses a second one)
- ending the day with guilt (decrease proportional to fear)

Thanks for the help, that's amazing. And yeah I was ignoring taming with Johny. I had more than one slave which I turned in with actual zero taming when I looked with auspex. I did have a slave that got one level of taming from having a collar, but I didn't collar the other slaves. They were just easy because they had low stats.

 

[awecrwecrqc4rqwecf]

Thanks for the help, that's amazing. And yeah I was ignoring taming with Johny. I had more than one slave which I turned in with actual zero taming when I looked with auspex. I did have a slave that got one level of taming from having a collar, but I didn't collar the other slaves. They were just easy because they had low stats.

i’d definitely recommend at least having a leather collar on every slave. they’re only 3 sparks, so it’s well worth the investment. honestly, early game i think it’s worth investing the ~$50 on gauge piercings too, because they make early training so much faster when you otherwise have very few resources.

 

[slandy]

i’d definitely recommend at least having a leather collar on every slave. they’re only 3 sparks, so it’s well worth the investment. honestly, early game i think it’s worth investing the ~$50 on gauge piercings too, because they make early training so much faster when you otherwise have very few resources.

I'm not finding gauge piercings. Is that in dev version?

 

[awecrwecrqc4rqwecf]

I'm not finding gauge piercings. Is that in dev version?

no, it’s sold at the jeweler’s (ashura’s treasury i think? i forget the shop name), not steel rose.

edit: just checked, the shop calls them "thick steel rings". sorry if that was confusing, the internal name in the code is heavy_gauge_rings so i use the names interchangeably because if you've used the item before it's usually pretty intuitive that the two names refer to the same thing, but in game only the item's description refers to it as 'heavy gauge steel', with the actual printed name being 'thick steel rings'.

the total cost is $55 at first -- $30 for the gauge rings and $25 for the piercings ($5 for the nose ring and $20 for the piercings that you put the gauge rings in). the amortized cost is actually around $46.4, because the rings come in a set of 7 and you only need to use 5 (because you don't need to put them in the ears), so it's basically a buy-5-get-2-free deal.

 

[slandy]

Huh, that's weird. I had a slave refuse to wear a collar.... two days after I already put it on her. It wasn't a problem to force it but why the delay lol

I think I'm going to have to only use a collar and piercings on difficult slaves because putting them on easy slaves only makes them upset and taming still doesn't go up, which actually makes it take longer to train them.

I've had my current slave for five days and she's already at 0 obedience so all I have to do is raise any one thing or drop pride by a level to start having positive obedience. It feels excessive and counterproductive to torment her.

 

[aumhs]

Huh, that's weird. I had a slave refuse to wear a collar.... two days after I already put it on her. It wasn't a problem to force it but why the delay lol

I think I'm going to have to only use a collar and piercings on difficult slaves because putting them on easy slaves only makes them upset and taming still doesn't go up, which actually makes it take longer to train them.

I've had my current slave for five days and she's already at 0 obedience so all I have to do is raise any one thing or drop pride by a level to start having positive obedience. It feels excessive and counterproductive to torment her.

Always keep a collar on your slave. If they are unhappy, you can try fixing it by praising them, letting them wear comfortable clothing (sundress or slippers for everyone, some other clothing if they have specific traits), or visiting the spa.

I recommend reading the slave page on the wiki, it lists all slave stats and how they are changed, including mood.

You must be registered to see the links

EDIT: After double checking on the wiki myself, the spa isn't listed as something affecting mood actually. Not sure if I am wrong, or if the wiki isn't complete.

 

[slandy]

Always keep a collar on your slave. If they are unhappy, you can try fixing it by praising them, letting them wear comfortable clothing (sundress or slippers for everyone, some other clothing if they have specific traits), or visiting the spa.

I recommend reading the slave page on the wiki, it lists all slave stats and how they are changed, including mood.

You must be registered to see the links

EDIT: After double checking on the wiki myself, the spa isn't listed as something affecting mood actually. Not sure if I am wrong, or if the wiki isn't complete.

Spa definitely effects mood, it's one of my main tools.

I'm taming a more difficult slave and it's working. She has way too many thorns to reach D- easily so in this case I might as well tame her since I can't do much else to her (and hope she doesn't kill me)

 

[ebemise42069]

Huh, that's weird. I had a slave refuse to wear a collar.... two days after I already put it on her. It wasn't a problem to force it but why the delay lol

When you put a collar on a slave at first, if she agrees to it without a struggle it means her stats/obedience permitted her to it. The reason why she refused to wear it later and had you force it on her was likely, because her mood fell or she got spoiled, something that affected your position over her.

 

[ebemise42069]

I might as well tame her since I can't do much else to her (and hope she doesn't kill me)

Haha, the amount of times I've had this happen to me when I was playing all F stats is too much to count. I don't know if it is a valid strategy, but early game I usually take on mindbroken or near mindbroken girls from the shop, and break them through level 5 shaming if needed.

That way I can increase my stats with the slave while she'll never do anything against me and then I can sell her for cheap to the sub-purchaser at the Slavers Guild.

 

[slandy]

Haha, the amount of times I've had this happen to me when I was playing all F stats is too much to count. I don't know if it is a valid strategy, but early game I usually take on mindbroken or near mindbroken girls from the shop, and break them through level 5 shaming if needed.

That way I can increase my stats with the slave while she'll never do anything against me and then I can sell her for cheap to the sub-purchaser at the Slavers Guild.

Yeah I got in a fistfight with a girl and she beat me up and my slaver ran to the guild and got shot with a poison dart by Angelika. That was pretty hilarious. I've mostly been picking weak slaves that just end up with bruises, though one of them got brave enough to attack in my sleep but I was able to beat her unconscious with a stool.

 

[bargian]

I found out that my fighter skill is going down ... is it how it should be? What is lowering it? How can i counter it?

 

[awecrwecrqc4rqwecf]

I found out that my fighter skill is going down ... is it how it should be? What is lowering it? How can i counter it?

if you're playing on normal mode (or custom mode without the 'ignore story' box checked), characters that don't have 'aptitude' for certain skills will have them decay above certain thresholds. the only way to 'counter' this is to gain experience every day, faster than you lose it. the wiki lists them all:

You must be registered to see the links

the dev version changed this, so characters who lack aptitude in a skill just need significantly more experience to level them up, rather than having the skills decay.

 

[bargian]

Ah, ok, im playing Johny so yeah... i think ill check dev version. Thanks

i dont like that decay

 

[awecrwecrqc4rqwecf]

Huh, that's weird. I had a slave refuse to wear a collar.... two days after I already put it on her. It wasn't a problem to force it but why the delay lol

I think I'm going to have to only use a collar and piercings on difficult slaves because putting them on easy slaves only makes them upset and taming still doesn't go up, which actually makes it take longer to train them.

I've had my current slave for five days and she's already at 0 obedience so all I have to do is raise any one thing or drop pride by a level to start having positive obedience. It feels excessive and counterproductive to torment her.

slaves should only refuse to wear a collar if they're disobedient and they've never been beaten... if the 'beaten_ever' flag for the slave is set, they won't refuse to wear a collar, and this flag gets set the first time you beat them in a fight or you use force to make them wear a clothing item or undergo a punishment. you might just be being too soft with your slaves. usually, when i'm in the early game, my slaves get to despair level 2 before becoming obedient, and i just spend some extra time to get their despair back down before selling them. i think being as soft as you are is how your characters keep getting killed and why your slaves keep escaping. for what it's worth, slaves with a brand and a collar will never successfully escape. in fact, slaves can only fight back if they have D- gladiatrix skill or greater, so maybe the slaves you're picking aren't as soft as you think...

 

[slandy]

slaves should only refuse to wear a collar if they're disobedient and they've never been beaten... if the 'beaten_ever' flag for the slave is set, they won't refuse to wear a collar, and this flag gets set the first time you beat them in a fight or you use force to make them wear a clothing item or undergo a punishment. you might just be being too soft with your slaves. usually, when i'm in the early game, my slaves get to despair level 2 before becoming obedient, and i just spend some extra time to get their despair back down before selling them. i think being as soft as you are is how your characters keep getting killed and why your slaves keep escaping. for what it's worth, slaves with a brand and a collar will never successfully escape. in fact, slaves can only fight back if they have D- gladiatrix skill or greater, so maybe the slaves you're picking aren't as soft as you think...

I get killed when I'm not soft lol. I got a slave to 2 despair, which did get a lot of obedience... but then she tried to kill me in my sleep and I had to knock her out with a stool. Then she tried to do it again as soon as she regained consciousness and ended up with 4 despair, and they just spiral out of control like this once it starts. Or they escape and get dragged back and keep tanking my guild rep.

This slave has F- gladiatrix by the way.

 

[awecrwecrqc4rqwecf]

I get killed when I'm not soft lol. I got a slave to 2 despair, which did get a lot of obedience... but then she tried to kill me in my sleep and I had to knock her out with a stool. Then she tried to do it again as soon as she regained consciousness and ended up with 4 despair, and they just spiral out of control like this once it starts. Or they escape and get dragged back and keep tanking my guild rep.

This slave has F- gladiatrix by the way.

oh, strange... maybe this is just a change in the dev version, but every call that i can see to slave_fights_back only triggers if the slave's gladiatrix skill is greater than 0 and greater than aura-allure. what version are you playing on?

 

[slandy]

oh, strange... maybe this is just a change in the dev version, but every call that i can see to slave_fights_back only triggers if the slave's gladiatrix skill is greater than 0 and greater than aura-allure. what version are you playing on?

2.3 the latest not-dev version.

This is the one that tried to kill me in my sleep just now (currently unconscious from getting beaten with a chair)
The wounds from this are also costing me medical bills because Johny can die days later from a wound.

 

[slandy]

I went back in time and reworked the same slave with my "soft" method and made nearly the same progress without her having despair or trying to kill me.