v0.10 Dev Blog #4 - The PERKS of being Tiffany (Patreon)

Hello all, 

This one is mostly just focusing on the different Perks, nothing too fancy to show off since I'm not really working on new scenes right now, but I've ended a couple of polls as well so we'll go over those results before finishing off with my plans for October & the upcoming ALPHA release as they stand right now. Let's dive right in. Apologies for the inevitable typos! If you have any questions, feel free to comment as always. :)

^ Another shot for the undress mechanic I talked about in Blog #2. 

Perks:

Just to recap. Every time you level Tiffany up in v0.10 on wards, you'll get 3 Stat Points to allocate(See the Blog #1 for Stats), followed by 1 Perk Point. I am designing the game around a total level cap of 35. This cap may change in the future depending on how much content the game ends up with and if balancing calls for that ceiling to be raised/lowered. But essentially what this means, is that Tiffany will end up with a maximum of 34 Perk Points to spend, one for each Level Up (she starts at Level 1). 

As of right, there are currently 28 Perks/Traits to chose from, and more will be added in future versions (perhaps even a few extra before the Full Release of v0.10) Regardless, while I still need to do some internal tests, I doubt it will be possible for anyone to reach above level 15-16 with the prologues current content(unless you cheat or abuse the new Sexual Education perk with a lot of tedious combat sex grinding just to prove a point, but I digress). And ofc, each level requires more exp than the last. So you will have to make choices about how you want to build your Tiffany and refine her for your preferred play/roleplay style.

So when you do level up you'll allocate your Stat Points, then you'll select a new Perk or Trait (The distinction being that a Perk usually just gives a straight advantage in some way, whereas a Trait usually comes with some kind of side effect that may not be a net positive depending on what you are trying to achieve. But ultimately, they function the same.) from the big, scroll-able list of options. You'll be able to see every Perk/Trait that you are able select generated in the list. Some have certain Requirements before you can see them. And Perks or Traits that the player has already acquired will not show in the list. In the future, I'll also add a way for you to view a list of the perks that your Tiffany does not currently meet the requirements for, so that you can find out what you'll need to do to unlock them as choices and read what their effects are. 

Selecting an option from the menu will allow you to view and read the details of that Perk before you confirm the selection. And "Yes" isn't automatically highlighted, so no one should accidentally double click and choose a perk by mistake. You can choose to skip Perk selection (and Stat Allocation) and save the points for later if you wish, though right now you only get access to this selection on Level Up so you'd have to wait to use them. 

One other thing to note, is that while you are in these Level Up menus, the zombies and other events in the game's background will be paused so you can safely take all of the time you want to read the effects of each perk and make your decision. I will also likely be implementing this map pause for some other functions in the game where I feel the player shouldn't have the feel pressured by the approaching zombies while trying to read things. 

The challenge, of course, with designing these perks is coming up with options that add value to all types of players. Some people like to play their Tiffany as a competent fighter, and will want to make use of perks that give her an edge in combat. While many others simply want their Tiffany to fuck everything that moves, and so likely won't care so much about damage buffs or how well she can resist the enemy. I think the list I've come up so far strikes a good balance between these different playstyles and every player should be able to find at least a handful of options that appeal to them. 

As I mentioned, I'm not done adding Perks (in fact, in their current state most perks still aren't fully functional just yet) so feel free to leave you suggestions bellow if you have any ideas for unique yet reasonable ideas. I still have the a list of suggestions from the Heroines and Special Forces tier supporters to draw from for future options. Also, as you can see, I'm also trying to come up with clever names for all of these. So if you have a suggestion for an improved perk name, or just a funny name you like to see a perk based around in the future, be sure to leave those suggestions down below as well. :)

Right, now onto the bulk of the list. What I'll do is go through all of the current 28 perks below, list their effects, and provide any development commentary on them when necessary. Buckle up! 

TRAIT NAME: Barren

EFFECT: Base Fertility is permanently reduced to 0%. +5% damage while at 0% Fertility.

^This is intended for players who wish to more easily avoid the pregnancy content with Tiffany. From v0.10 onward, the Fertility Stat will now be comprised of 3 variables instead of just 1. The existing Fertility Stat (RNG percentage between 0 and 100 that fluctuates daily) + Base Fertility (Permanent Modifiers) + Temporary Fertility (Temporary Modifiers that are cleared daily) = New Actual Fertility.

TRAIT: Bimbastic

EFFECT: +5% damage while Tiffany's "Learning" Skill is Tier 0.

REQUIREMENTS: "Learning" Skill must be Tier 0.

^ I still need to properly implement the complete framework for Skills. I will detail them more specifically in the following Dev Blog, and more perks tied directly to High Skill Tiers will be added in the future. Skills will have 3 attainable tiers or "stars" (4 if you include Tier 0). Once properly implemented, leveling up a skill will grant access to new dialogue options/quest solutions, new perks/traits & new crafting recipes or gameplay mechanics. 

In the case of the "Learning" Skill. This is a representation of Tiffany's gained intelligence. (Though tier 0 doesn't equal air-headed bimbo mode, there will be a future system for that which will play into maintaining tier 0 "Learning") 

You'll level up Skills by engaging with them. As far as "Learning", goes I plan on adding discoverable books that Tiffany can read. These will give her both Learning exp and General Level exp as well. She won't be able to read these books if she has an addiction, due to a lack of focus.  

PERK: Bimbo Brains

EFFECT: Zombies are immobilized after combat sex scenes for 25% longer.

^ By "immobilized" I am talking about that period after a combat sex scene where the enemy zombie sprite becomes temporarily transparent and won't engage Tiffany. Among role playing, this will also help reduce accidentally getting trapped in a never ending gang-bang loop. :P

PERK: Birth Control

EFFECT: 50% chance to accept or reject both successful & unsuccessful impregnation attempts.

REQUIREMENTS: Has not taken the "Barren" Trait.

^ What I mean by this, is that whenever an attempt is made to impregnate Tiffany. There is a 50% chance that the player will get a popup with the choice to either accept or reject the impregnation. So if your Tiffany wasn't quite fertile enough, this will give her that extra shot at success. Or on the flipside, if your Tiffany was accidentally too fertile and you didn't mean to get pregnant, this will give her the opportunity to deny the fertilization. 

PERK: Booty Hunter

EFFECT: 50% chance of finding 1 additional random item while looting containers.

^ Tiffany's Luck Stat will determine the rarity of the loot found. "Containers" refer to the discoverable loot events on the map, like the obvious sparkles or the hidden caches. They do not include enemy loot drops from combat. Like I mentioned in the previous post, to go along with the random loot rolls, I can now mark there container type. These are the 10 different loot types categories I am currently differentiating between for those interested: 

I've also made it possible for Tiffany to find (if she gets a lucky roll) and use frag Grenades during day 1-2. This includes supported renders for her OG body:

PERK: By A Thread

EFFECT: 20% chance for stripped outfit pieces to still be wearable without repair.

^ This will go well alongside the new Undress/Dress system, now that Tiffany's outfit repair level won't be directly tied to her current state of dress.  

PERK: Clever Girl

EFFECT: Earn +50% exp.

REQUIREMENTS: "Learning" Skill must above Tier 0.

^ Right now, I think this will only be for General Level exp and not Skill exp. But we'll see. 

PERK: Cum Vision Goggles

EFFECT: Every 5L of infected cum digested by Tiffany increases her natural night vision. 

^ Hate using the flashlight to navigate dark areas like the Casino? Then get busy swallowing! >:D  Once she's digested enough zombie cum (quite a lot), dark areas will almost be as bright as regular well lit areas. You'll probably still need to use the flashlight for a while though. Note that this only counts infected cum from zombies, not uninfected humans. 

PERK: Delicate Touch

EFFECT: Crowbars & Lock Picks have twice as many uses before breaking.

^ I plan on adding Lock Picks that will function similarly to Crowbars in that they will grant you access to new areas or locked loot containers in the future. There won't be a mini-game, it will simply open if Tiffany has a Lock Pick available. Though it may be regulated by a skill.

TRAIT: Eggcellent

EFFECT: The chance of conceiving twins(or more) is doubled. Base Fertility +5%.

^ I've mentioned this before, but there won't be any visual differences for Tiffany's pregnant belly regardless of how many babies she's pregnant with or what got her knocked up. And there won't be much gameplay or interaction tied to having twins(or more), aside from meeting late game breeding quotas more quickly. So this is mostly a fertility roleplay option or a tie-in to stack with other similar perks/traits that could benefit from this.

TRAIT: Exhibitionist

EFFECT: +10% damage while naked, but -10% damage while wearing any outfit piece.

PERK: Fully Stacked

EFFECT: Increases every firearm's magazine capacity by 20%.

^ "Magazine capacity" is just a general blanket term here. This will include shotguns and revolvers, etc. This will be especially helpful with the Double Barrel shotgun I plan on adding (maybe in v0.10) that cam only hold 2 shells by default, but deal more damage per shot. You will also be able to fire both shells (or 3 with this perk) at the same time without any END or Level requirements. But there will be an accuracy debuff and ofc you will then need to reload mid-combat if it doesn't finish the job.

PERK: Gold Digger

EFFECT: Find twice as much currency while looting containers.

TRAIT: HIGH Heels

EFFECT: The effects of all drugs & alcohol, along with their addiction rates, are doubled.

^ I will be adding more drugs/pharmaceuticals as well as alcoholic beverages in later versions that will bestow various effects. Of course, Tiffany will be able to become addicted to these just like she can with her sexual fetishes.

TRAIT: Impregnable Defense

EFFECT: Increase MAX END by 3, DEF by 50, Guard effectiveness +100% & Base Fertility +5%.

PERK: Mommy Milkers

EFFECT: Every 5L of milk produced by Tiffany increases her Base Fertility by +1%.

PERK: Motherly Instincts

EFFECT: +1% damage (MAX +100%) for every child that Tiffany births. Base Fertility +5%.

TRAIT: Pregnable Offense

EFFECT: +5% damage while Fertility is over 75% or while Pregnant. Base Fertility +5%.

^ The "75%+ Fertility" here refers to the new "Actual Fertility" combined stat described above. 

PERK: Sexual Education

EFFECT: Earn 20% of an opponent's combat exp reward by having sex with them.

^ I mentioned this in the previous post, but this one will be very important for players who don't intend on engaging with the combat system unless forced to. As this will finally allow them to start leveling up via sex instead of just by winning combats. And as I mentioned above, this is technically rife for exploitation. I may put a (very reasonable) cap on the total daily amount of exp you can earn from fucking to combat this. But honestly, if you really want to spend hours of your life grinding and skipping through combat sex scenes just to level up artificially even slower than if you just killed the damn zombies in the first place, who am I to stop you?  :P 

TRAIT: Size Queen

EFFECT: “Regular” foes cost 1 less END point to resist. But “Larger” foes cost 1 more. 

^ "Regular" is ofc a very subjective term considering what game we are playing here. :) Right now, "Larger" includes Alpha Zombies, Bestial Zombies, Sewer Zombies, Zorses & Zobert, Ziana, Andre/Zandre and Zomeo.

PERK: Statistical Advantage

EFFECT: Immediately gain 10 additional Stat Points to allocate. 

PERK: Statistically Gifted

EFFECT: Gain 1 additional Stat Point to allocate per level.

^ Doesn't apply retroactively, so best taken early to gain the most out of it, if you care about Tiffany's stats.  

TRAIT: Sticky Loads

EFFECT: Guns are auto-reloaded the turn they are emptied, but have a chance to jam after.

^ Useful if you forget to reload or when paired with a weapon with low capacity like the upcoming double barrel described above. The chance to jam is tbd, I don't want it to be too annoying. It will only have that chance to jam in the same combat that it was auto-reloaded. And if it jams when firing, Tiffany will then spend that turn performing a manual reload instead so a "jam" turn won't be a completely wasted one. The jam chance will be reset when entering a new combat, regardless of if Tiffany attempted to fire the auto-loaded gun yet.

PERK: Submissive Tendencies

EFFECT: Each combat submission replenishes 50 HP & 1 END.

PERK: Taking Head

EFFECT: Increase critical hit chance with the 9mm pistol by 10%.

PERK: Top Heavy

EFFECT: Melee damage is increased by 10% for each stage of Tiffany's body growth.

^ This does distinguish between her OG base body from Day 1-2 and her enhanced base body from Day 3 on wards. So it will be a net positive when taking this from Day 3 regardless of whether your Tiffany gets even bigger from pregnancies or Lactivate.

PERK: Tough Titties

EFFECT: While END remains full, the first "Resist" attempt of each combat is free.

PERK: Wanker

EFFECT: Tiffany's 2nd daily masturbation also fully replenishes her END.

^ Forgot if I mentioned it already, but the new masturbation feature will allow Tiffany to fully replenish her END the first time that she does it each day. This perk will let her gain that benefit twice per day.

Okay. That took a little longer than I thought... But at least it should give you all a lot to think about! As you can see, there will now be a lot more ways to play this game and build your Tiffany. Hopefully these overhauled rpg mechanic, when combined with the existing story/sexual fetish choices, will add a lot more replay value to TD in the long run.

Right now, if you want to check which perks you've acquired, and re-read their effects, you can do so at any time from the Pause Menu (ignore the spelling mistake :} and any other mistakes I've made in this long post):

The colors are used differently here just to help you tell that you are looking at a different menu from the Perk Selection list. Since they'll look quite similar when equally filled otherwise and reading is hard. :P

Polls:

Just gonna rush through these following two sections quickly to get this post out the door... 

I the following 5 polls have ended:

• https://www.patreon.com/posts/53028189 
• https://www.patreon.com/posts/53027989 
• https://www.patreon.com/posts/53026852 
• https://www.patreon.com/posts/53051579 
• https://www.patreon.com/posts/53024083 

As for the results, the priest will be named Father Samuel & the Nun will be named Sister Angelica. And Sister Angelica will keep her current outfit for her final design. 

Meanwhile, Hitomi will be the next character to get a voice. I'll see what I can do about getting her casted along with some lines in for v0.10's full release, but I won't delay the release for it or work on getting that all sorted until I have the BETA released.

And finally, this will be the design of Daniel Hadden, a 31 year old Special Forces operative from Ali's Squad. (Will first appear in v0.12)

The easiest way to describe him, is that he is to Ali what Terry is to Tiffany. Except in this case, Ali is his squad leader of course. Daniel is the squad's tech & demo specialist. He virtually performs the same role that Terry used to, back when he was with the Special Forces himself. (Though Terry has no relation to Ali's squad or any of the Spec Ops who found themselves in Ashton Lake)

He recently received a shot of Fertility Enhancement Serum while in Ashton Lake, but before the Outbreak started. (This will be elaborated on at a later date) Though with everything that's been happening, he hasn't really had a chance to put his new package to the test just yet... Outside of a couple "test wanks" before shit hit the fan.

Hopefully the people who are sick of me making too many old/fat/gross guys will be happier about this design. :) By the way, he'll usually have his cock stuffed down his pants like Terry does, but I figured some people would want to see it now.

Goals for October:

October will be a busy month of me working towards the ALPHA release. I don't know yet if the Alpha will be out in October, as there is still a lot of work to polish up. But if it isn't, then It should be out early November. There are a lot of big ticket items left to take care of before I can release. Some the major ones include:

• Skills. Including Skill Proficiency choices during the game's intro.
• Making all the sex scenes appear and work correctly inside the Gallery. 
• A way for Players to track all the Pregnancy information.
• An overhaul of how shops work so that they have limited stock.
• Redesigned Sewer & East Town Maps.
• Autosave & Quicksave features.
• Back-end support for future systems so that save files don't break later. (Like Achievements)
• And making sure everything else I've added works across the entire game and doesn't cause crashes/soft locks 

There are other minor things that are missing from this, and ofc some big things that I may intentionally leave for the BETA or Full Release if I deem them not entirely necessary for the ALPHA test. Some of these may not make it either for the same reason. We'll see. But I'll keep you up to date. Expect another Dev Blog in October focusing on Skills and the rest of my progress leading into the ALPHA. I'll let people know well in advance of when it releases. It won't surprise anyone. Due to actually needing testers for this one (I anticipate a lot of bugs) I will likely release it for all tiers at the same time. A reminder that ALPHA & BETA saves won't be compatible, and there won't be any new sex scenes added until the BETA.   

Closing Words:

I'll wrap this post up now and leave you with the final screenshot of Tiffany's undress sequence. It was certainly fun to make these and now that I have them implemented, I can't imagine the game without them. A long overdue feature to be honest. ;)

She'll be able to undress voluntarily at any time after the first encounter with the zombies, since I don't plan on re-rendering that scene which has her start fully "dressed". :P

Not sure if I will add dialogue for them like this, I think I will save that for the future "Self Strip" combat sex taunt move and keep this as more of a utility feature. I suppose I probably should also make a set for when she is getting dressed rather than undressing, but I'll worry about that later when there is less important work that needs doing...

Thank you as always for your Patience and Support! We are certainly getting there. Slowly but surely. Even if you disagree with where I've chosen to allocate my time on implementing things like these perks, I hope you can at least see the benefits they and rpg features like them will bring to the experience of actually playing Terminal Desires. Even if you'd rather just be fucking more things faster with a bare bones back-end experience.

~ Jim