What’s the point of the girls' level increase or generally their xp-gain? Any plans for this, like more stamina?
Out of curiosity, I picked Neuropeptide Control instead of Stamina+. What the heck does it actually do or suppose to do if it is still in the works?
Some things I'd change:
Remove the stat-limits per season
Sooner or later you are only wasting points, especially during the first two seasons. If players want to give gifts to girls early, let them without regrets.
This can also avoid unnecessary grinds early in the game what seems unnecessary if a player focuses more on Trust than Love to reach the shirk_responsibilities (T400, Laura: T300) threshold to call any girl to any desired location like the classroom. Taking classes together with as many girls as possible as same time is a good strategy to gain xp and bond them together slowly (+1), also not as fast as bringing them all together at the pool (+2).
I’m going to test this on a second playthrough without the many pool grinds I did before when the next major update hits.
Btw, Trust is also very important for polyamory (L250/T600). I recommend to new players not to stress it with grinds reaching the side-quest relationship objectives by force asap. The main-story doesn't give the impression during chapter-1 yet anyway, that Null and the girls are in love with anyone anyway yet. The (good) friend objectives will show later during the seasons. Becoming Best Friends is not required yet for anything afaik. The current stat-limit of 1k during Summer is much better to develop relationships anyway. Take your time, ladies and gentlemen!
Remove the XP-limit
As beginner, I had no idea at first why I couldn’t select some abilities when levelling up to 2. Season Winter answered that later. Maybe I had missed the hint that you can’t level during Fall yet.
During my first playthrough until end of Summer, I hadn’t really focused much on training but rather running after the girls wherever they currently are to interact with them for objective events and such. Taking classrooms with all three girls at same time during morning and midday was my daily routine during weekdays. According to achievements, I studied at least 50 times until the end of Summer, mainly for gaining trust, and easily reached the next season’s level requirement beforehand, so I feel together with the attendance bonus (+20% XP after taking 3 classes), you gain somewhat too much xp. However, if there are actually achievements for level 30, then let the player gain as much xp as they want right from start. That should still leave enough room for future story-abilities besides the sex abilities like stamina and the other ones if they already actually work. Who cares if the player turns into a sex-beast early in the game? That's what these games are about after all!
Fooling around
Shame on me for totally missing the hook-up context option until Winter or later. I thought you had to go on dates for making out at first. No idea anymore if a missed a hint somewhere, as this option can often be shown as locked without context to know what's there otherwise to do.
Fooling around is awkward to do and lacking flow compared to Rogue-like, although the later isn’t perfect either. The automatic undressing of TNH according to actions is still highly appreciated.
In Rogue-like, I actually like the first-time point rewards for every action although this becomes somewhat grindy too with many girls, forcing the player to make notes what was done with which girl. I don’t mind at least. TNH has at least first-time comments.
The idea to give more points according to variety isn’t bad but unfortunately turns this too much into a depressing click-fest just grab as many actions as possible without the idea to actually enjoy anything. The game’s performance is a bit sluggish there when switching actions, so that isn’t helpful either. Let’s see what the next major update of changes brings there.
Add Auto-Text option
Many ren’py games support this what makes it so much more relaxing to enjoy whatever scenes. Clicking through every single bubble text is tiresome and distracting, although ctrl-key helps at least on repetitive tasks. I like how auto-text helps to give scenes more cinematic flow.
I know TNH doesn't use the same text system like other ren'py games, but maybe something similar can be done for auto-flipping the comic bubbles.
Add Disable Auto-Save option
I’ve turned them off in the config.file now, but would be more convenient within the options menu.
The game already does enough copies when manually saving. Auto-saves tend to reduce performance anyway in most games, like during map transitions.
Add Voice or Sound volume bar
I turned off music at beginning to better concentrate on the game. Later during the Juggernaut cutscene, I had turned music on again and was surprised that some short voice lines were played that could only be heard via music volume setting. No idea if there were more voice lines somewhere that I had missed.
