Course of Temptation Dev Diary #23 (Patreon)

Hello friends! We are now on version 0.4.11, fixing an error that occurred only if you attended a football game at exactly 11:00am (that one was fun to hunt down) plus a few other minor things.

This week I started on the January update, which will be a bunch of little things with an initial focus on storyline characters. The plan is that however much I get to, I'll deliver it around the end of January, then plan for the next major update.

I started with a smaller task that's been much asked for: the ability to change NPC names. Changing things about NPCs mid-game is not all that easy — they are all generated at the beginning of a new game and, except for things like event memories and attitudes toward the player, mostly remain static — but there is always a way around it.

There have also been a lot of requests to be able to change NPC gender. I'm not completely sure if this will be possible to change mid-game, as there's an outside chance it could break some storylines, so it may come as a deeper level of worldgen configuration.

Anyway, after NPC renaming, I got started on coming up with events. I added a handful of events where you can run into classroom storyline characters (the Admirer and Harasser) in other places, including in town, with some short erotic scenes.

Sayonara, Classroom Harasser

By popular demand, I also added an event sequence where you can work against the Harasser and get them in trouble, and eventually get them kicked out of school and removed from the game. Of course, once you've got them where you want them, getting them kicked out is not the only available course of action...

Removing an NPC from a game based around having static NPCs is harder than it might sound. For example, if an NPC is simply deleted, their name will still linger in the PC's memories, which could lead to errors when those are referenced. But, again, there's a way around everything.

Having a general system for removing NPCs from the game will come in handy in the future, too. At the very least, we'll need a system like this for when you can advance in year and seniors start graduating.

Anyway, even if the Harasser is (intentionally) obnoxious, writing their final little scene was still pretty sad! I hope anyone who is cruel enough to kick out the poor Harasser will feel a little twinge in their heart too. ;)

More events!

I'm going to keep going with these storyline character events into next week. I want to add a couple more things with the roommate's partner, and also start involving the roommate in an event or two. This will prep things for where I intend this storyline to go in the future.

I've had a little idea for the Parasocial Fan, too, that will expand their content, and maybe bring in a little extra money for you too!

I also hope to get started on a mini-storyline for town next week. Town events came in #2 in the poll, and the idea I have in mind will give players another thing to check in on there.

Contributions

The contributors have been working hard this week too. Beards are going to be coming in with this update, and it looks like clothes may be getting more flexible still, with options to decide exactly how you wear things — zipped, unzipped, tight, loose, etc.

The downside of deep customization is fiddliness. The ideal is to provide deep options for those who want them, while keeping things simple and requiring minimal clicking for those who don't. We're taking pains to make sure this is the case, that wearing clothing remains as simple as before, but that you can customize things more if you want to.

Next week

The plan is in place, so I keep going! There are lots of events I want to write and several existing characters I want to give some more attention to. Again, my goal is to deliver this at the end of January, so it depends on how much I can actually cram in before that time.

I'll check in next week with another progress report. Thank you all for your support!