Feature Preview: Struggling and Stun (Patreon)

Thank you so much for all of your patience so far! I'm aiming to get the next build out within the next two weeks or so, so it shouldn't be too much longer now!

    The upcoming build will feature a few major changes to the combat system, so I wanted to explain them all here in preparation for its release. First off, all units will now have a stun gauge located under their EN bar. This gauge will be reduced when the unit is attacked and, if it hits zero, they will be forced to spit up all of their prey and become [Stunned].

    While [Stunned], units will not be able to take any actions and have all their stats halved. This effect lasts until the start of their second turn, until they take any damage, or until they are eaten. In other words, it's basically a death sentence. Fortunately, you can always rescue any [Stunned] units by eating them with a friendly carrier or healer or by dealing damage to them.

    Units will recover a large amount of stun at the start of each turn while unburdened, and a small amount while containing other units. This amount will be decreased, possibly to the point where their stun gauge is reduced each turn instead, by the combined struggle power of their prey. If a unit's stun gauge is reduced to 0 this way, they will again be forced to spit up all their prey and become [Stunned].

    Each unit now has their own struggle power which is modified from 0%-100% based on the amount of HP they have remaining. Units will no longer be able to be easily digested when eaten while at high HP, meaning guaranteed vore events such as tripping will be less powerful and giving me more freedom to give units powerful vore attacks.

    Prey's struggles will also weaken over time, as being digested will now reduce their HP by 10%-15% each turn. If their combined struggle power exceeds 40% of their predator's stun gauge, the digestion countdown will be halted until they have taken enough damage to lower it beyond that threshold.

    Units may now also massage their own or adjacent predatory units' stomachs in order to restore a moderate amount of their stun gauge, or choose to use the digestion action to damage all prey without taking any stun damage. If a powerful enemy somehow ends up inside an allies gut while at high HP, it may be worth it to concentrate a few units on quelling her struggles until she can properly be digested.

    The game will also now feature a willing/unwilling prey system. For example, if one ally is fed to another normally, they will be marked as willing prey and will not struggle. However, if they are accidentally eaten or betrayed by an ally, they will do everything they can to escape their predator's stomach. Certain units, like Corn, will always be willing, while other units, like the Wild Lamia, will always be unwilling. In addition, certain attacks like the Dusk Lamia's Dream Eater will mark their targets as willing prey even if they would normally be unwilling.

    Finally, all units will have their max HP increased by 1.5x. The purpose of this is to make stunning and vore more useful, so the player can't just easily incapacitate enemies before eating them any more. Stun has been tuned so that it should take about as much damage to proc as it would to incapacitate the enemy before, so the overall flow of battle shouldn't be greatly different.