Course of Temptation Dev Diary #31 (Patreon)

Hello friends! It's dev diary time!

As you're likely aware, the March update was just released yesterday. I'm working on a minor patch for later today or tomorrow, fixing some issues and, with majou's help, we'll be addressing some incompatibilities between the SugarCube update and the itch app.

The April update is also already underway! Drakon, who recently refactored the shop UI, is back at it and taking a look at the phone this time.

And yes, that search bar actually works...

Drakon does some good work!

For my part, I spent the first part of the week finishing things up with the March update that's now in your hands. I spread emoji across the world, and removed some from some places they didn't belong. I'm sure I've still missed some places, so this work will be ongoing.

I also addressed our content options, expanding the categories and adding multiple levels of early warning for those who prefer not to be surprised. While adding new categories, I added the long-awaited Foot Stuff as well.

Now, while foot stuff has been a common request, I have to admit it's not exactly a thing for me. It's unlikely I'll be writing much prose about it, but adding some sex acts related to it wasn't too much trouble. And if a contributor wants to add scenes about it, well, now the category is there!

The relationships update

The latter part of the week has seen the March release and fielding the inevitable bug reports, but aside from that, I've been picking up where I left off with the relationships update.

First, I refactored inclinations a little bit. NPCs are getting more inclinations as the game expands, and more of these inclinations are opposites of each other... we don't want NPCs having both Loyal and Cheater! So I worked on improving the logic when giving inclinations to NPCs, and I improved this for players as well. You'll no longer be able to reject an inclination that's a prereq for another you've embraced, and you won't be able to simultaneously embrace opposite inclinations.

After that, I worked on adding some preexisting relationships to the game at world generation time. Preexisting relationships didn't score very highly on the poll, but cheating dynamics did, so we'll need a few of these relationships as fodder for that.

My task of the moment is handling the "discuss your relationship" event logic. If you've gone on some dates with somebody and things are going well, it'll become time for the "So, what are we?" conversation. This is where you can decide together if you're official and exclusive... but, since we're also accommodating open and poly relationships, that does complicate the logic!

Whether they prefer open, poly, or exclusive, NPCs won't really like compromising on their values, but they might if they like you enough. By experimenting with different types of relationships, you can pick up these inclinations for yourself. Of course, determining exactly where these thresholds should lie isn't easy. Applying quantitative values to human relationships is very tricky!

I'll be getting back to this right after this dev diary, and I'll probably finish it over the weekend or by early next week.

After that, I'd like to work on a different type of relationship... rivalries! I have a number of these types of relationships defined, where somebody might be your bully, your victim, or simply your enemy. These should be ongoing relationships like any other, and I'm looking forward to writing some events all about making each other's lives harder. It should be fun!

I also want to start on the crush system that I mentioned in a previous dev diary, where you can define some of your own turnons and turnoffs, which might lead to (not always convenient) crushes on semi-random NPCs. You'll be able to choose to act on these or just ignore them until they go away... but I think it could add some fun and narrative flair to a playthrough. Imagine getting an inconvenient crush on your worst enemy, who's unfortunately also pretty hot...

That's all for now! Relationship stuff will be my primary focus for next week and I'm hoping I can get quite a lot done on it. I'll see you again next week for another progress report! As always, thanks so much for your support, it really means a lot!