State of the Game - Design Preview (Patreon)

Evening all, it seems that our official launch has gone fairly smoothly, so it's finally time to start talking a bit about the sequel to Carnal Coup - working title, 'Carnal Voyages'! I'll start off by saying that while CV will still be a text-heavy experience (I have developed some skills over the past few years, but not artistic ones), it will not simply be 'Carnal Coup but with new scenes'. Not only will the setting and cast be somewhat new, but I'm currently planning enough new game mechanics systems that I'd say Voyages will fall into a different genre of game - much more of a Management Sim sort of style. I'll go ahead and give the usual disclaimer here that everything is still not written in stone and may be changed, but a fair bit of these are ideas I've been considering for over a year already, so there has been some thought put into this. So with that said, let's look at what's been planned!

Setting: Carnal Voyages will take place in the same galaxy as Carnal Coup, but following a 2 decade+ timeskip. Events coincided to indefinitely delay the feared revenge of the GPU, giving Figura and its new allies time to build their resources and culminating in the first Figuran FTL spaceships. In Voyages you will not be the Overseer of a space station, but the captain of a starship, exploring the galaxy and engaging the GPU on their own turf.

You will also not be the Overseer, period. The player will take on the role of a member of Generation V, a cohort of individuals grown in Vessian gestation vats before the program was discontinued. Having grown up and recently graduated from the new Academy, it will fall to this new generation to defend Figura and its unique way of life. The new player character will be far more customizable, with the option of six different player species (current plans: Terran, Figura, and four of the other original Expedition races) and finer control over their gender presentation. Your new second in command will also be much more customizable, to the extent of being able to choose the form of your relationship (including the option to have a second in command who hates your guts).

There will be a mix of new and old species in the game, and I'm currently aiming for four new species which I will likely do a poll on in the near future. I will say though that I've been wanting to do an AI/robotic species for a long time, so you can mark that one down as confirmed. You will have the opportunity to visit the homeworlds of numerous species, for both new and old races.

Mechanics: There's going to be so many mechanics in this baby. To be honest I have some concerns whether I'll be able to implement everything I currently have planned, but I don't believe any of it is unachievable. To give a rundown of the systems I am planning:

• Ship/Crew Management: The player will need to manage their spaceship, assigning specific crew to specific positions in a hierarchy not dissimilar from a Star Trek Federation ship. There will be different ship departments and roles and crew members will have their own traits and ranks. As the game proceeds you will have the ability to transfer to larger ships and acquire upgrades offering new options. In addition to being assigned to job slots, ship 'tasks' will pop up which will need to have various crew assigned to them in order to acquire new resources and skills.
• Bridge Crew/Away Team Combat: This system in particular may need some development and testing to nail down the specifics, but you can expect encounters to be far more dynamic than in Coup's Exploration Missions. I am currently looking to implement something of a card game system, where your 'deck' of cards is made up of the skills of your assigned team, with factors such as ship or personal equipment playing a part as well. Teams in Voyages will not be limited to 'Specialist' type characters, but can be built using any member of your crew.
• Team Seductions: Similar to above, the team encounter system will not be limited to solely combat. Sexual encounters utilizing an entirely different set of skills are also planned, and yes, you can train your crew in new skills.
• Sex Scenes: I am currently planning for most of the game's sex scenes to be far more dynamic and interactive than previously, where you might be limited to a position selection at most. The drawback to this is that these scenes may feel less...artistically crafted than most Coup scenes, but I do intend to do more in-depth scenes with important characters as well. While Carnal Coup was was built along the Fenoxo games model for scenes, Strive For Power 1 was more of the inspiration here. As a single writer I'll never be able to match the option variety of a CoC/TiTS, but I would like for the scenes to be more engaging.

Now, what things won't be changing from Carnal Coup? For starters, allowing for player gender preference flexibility is still a major priority of mine. Players will have some control over the crew they recruit, and sex scenes for fixed-gender characters will be optional. Second, I am still planning for a cast of 'Specialist' type characters with unique plotlines and insights to their relevant cultures, although most of this cast is not yet developed in any detail. As far as development goes, I am still planning to keep a regular and short update cycle once the project hits that point, as I find it useful for keeping myself on schedule with tasks as much as for any other reason. 

I'm not prepared yet to say when that may be, however - one aspect of all of the mechanics systems I mentioned above is that they will all be introduced in the game's starting sequence, meaning a significant amount of code work will need to be done before a player can even reach the 'daily routine' part of the gameplay loop. This is quite a departure from how I developed Coup, where the major mechanical system (Missions) wasn't added until well into development, and to be honest I did perhaps shortcut my original plans for it a bit to keep the updates coming quickly. I think this will work out better in the long run, as it will allow me to make sure the gameplay feels engaging before releasing it to the world, but there will definitely not be anything playable in 2021.

And I think that about covers everything I'm prepared to discuss tonight! As mentioned I will be doing polls soon on future content ideas, so look forward to that, and I am also open to suggestions on what sort of new aliens you'd like to encounter in the next game (both in terms of physical form and what kinks you might want to see them embody). Feel free to leave comments below or swing by the Discord if you have thoughts on the topic. In the meanwhile don't forget to pick up a copy of Carnal Coup at your favorite digital storefront if you haven't already, the launch discount is still good for a few more days! Thanks for your support!