Update Preview for v0.4 (Patreon)

Version 0.4.0 of Succubus Stories, Homestead, will be arriving in the patron edition of the game on November 5, 2020. It will arrive in the free edition one week later on November 12th. This update is heavily focused on the story, specifically in closing out chapter 1. You could think of this as something of a finale for the first chapter, but I'd caution against expecting the same sort of major resolution like what a season finale in a TV show might provide. This game is "episodic" more by necessity than on purpose. Still, I think the end of chapter 1 has some interesting revelations and turns. And don't worry, there's still plenty of lewd stuff going on too, even with the focus on story content.

Because most images would probably be just the interface as you're already familiar with it or, worse, include spoilers, I've decided not to release images for this update, and this preview will continue that trend. (Images aren't gone for good; the December Update should be back to "normal" in this respect.) 

The End of Chapter 1

The rest of chapter 1 includes a playable flashback in addition to other story content. The flashback is the focus of this leg of the story though, and once it starts, you basically have to complete it to return to the sandbox. While I recognize that some players may not like the idea of an extended period of time away from their sandbox activities, I think in general, players will find this change of pace interesting and fun, and not too terribly long. This is the first of a few planned places in the story where the sandbox will be unavailable for a brief period, or where the player must act in a smaller, dedicated sandbox until they finish a few goals. I'll be interested to see how players react to this, so if you have strong opinions, feel free to reach out.

The end of chapter 1 is also a bit more serious in places than the story normally is. Some more serious stuff has been hinted at, this part of the story actually shows a bit of that. I don't think it'll give you mood whiplash or anything, but I'm interested to see reactions to that, too.

The Guard Barracks

A new major location has been added, the guard barracks. This area doesn't have much yet, but it will be a major location with tons of stuff to do as updates roll out. A new character introduced in this update also tends to hang around here.

As you gain the trust of the guards by completing requests for them, and later, by performing certain activities at the barracks, you'll gain some special advantages. Does this sound vague? It's because I'm still working on this part and I will be working on this until release, getting as much of this done as possible. This is in accordance with my new strategy of having slightly looser goals where I get done what I can in certain areas of the game rather than setting arbitrary goals. You can read about that here. I don't want to overpromise, here, so I'll just say that I expect the barracks to be roughly similar to the tavern in terms of content once it's done.

Balance Changes

The details are listed in this post: How I'm incorporating your feedback. Tons of balance adjustments are incoming, particularly to the economy and alchemy.

Other New Stuff

New events are being added to several playlists across the game. New potions and traits are being added, plus special traits for the new requests in this version. As far as requests go, there will be a couple added in this version. I cannot say how many, because I'm working on adding a few related to the barracks and gaining the trust of the guards, but there will be at least two new requests.

There are no new perks in this version.