Shady Deals v0.14 Progress Report

Sup!

Quick tldr about release status: update isn't close to completion, and i won't be able to finish it this weekend, sorry.

So, what about the update itself?

This time the whole thing is centered around naughty stuff. Let's begin from depravity and a new mechanic tied to it: arousal. Arousal is quite a self-descriptive word, yeah?

Depravity won’t just change a few descriptions anymore. It now directly affects how arousal works. The gist is simple:

• Low Depravity - almost no arousal at all.

• High Depravity - arousal builds up quickly, but i’m balancing it so you can hit max only twice per full day. Also, some things will arouse the depraved Boss, such as ass slaps on the street and dirty comments from crewmembers.

Arousal comes in three stages:

• Stage 1 gives small charm buffs.

• Stage 2 - bigger buffs to charm but starts hurting combat.

• Stage 3 - even more charm but adds a cunning penalty on top of that.

Also, there's no way to reach stage 3 unless depravity is high enough.

Arousal is a hidden stat, but it's possible to see approximate arousal thanks to pink gradient and dirty little "thoughts" that pop up on screen (both can be toggled off). Still working on style of text though. Also-also, the aphrodisiac is now a consumable and can be used to quickly raise arousal.

Well, i think it's obvious how to lower arousal. But if there's no chance to lower it during the day - there'll be a quick message/vid at night about helping yourself out, and depravity will drop a little. Later, in v0.15, i'm planning to add spontaneous events that depend on district and other conditions (like Distributor’s lewdness status) if Boss is walking around at max arousal.

To make this system feel natural, i've rebalanced all depravity gains and added more where it makes sense. Player agenda still matters a lot, so there'll be an option in endeavor settings to set the attitude toward rough or kinky actions. That way, every time they happen, depravity gain will be either reduced or increased, depending on set attitude. Still, in most cases it's gonna be net positive if kinky options are chosen.

Another main change in v0.14 is about random-generated NPCs. Well, only male NPCs - girls are in a somewhat okay state already.

Here's the issue that annoys me: giving drugs and hanging out with NPCs suddenly makes them more active in bed. I don’t know what i was thinking when i made NPC depravity a universal stat... well, i know - i wanted it be more "gamified" and simple. But the end result is meh.

So yeah, all male NPCs will now have a dedicated sex-related stat. It'll depend on their depravity and traits at generation, and can only be changed through sex itself. (I might later add something to affect it outside of sex, but not sure yet.) This stat will be called "dominance".

Dominance determines how active NPCs are during sex and what they’re gonna do. A lot has changed in the sex system, but most of it is under-the-hood - i basically rewrote everything so now i can add stuff without breaking either the system or my head. The biggest change is that there are no more NPC turns, only reactions that trigger if they’re dominant enough. And overall, the whole act will be quicker - though it depends on Boss's depravity and the NPC's dominance. More dominant NPCs will last longer.

Post is already kinda long, so i'll wrap it up. Arousal system is ready, sex rework is almost ready, but i still want to add something more to it (at least more actions, new poses prolly will wait until v0.15). There's A LOT of writing to be done both for the main sex system and random descriptions for various events, and i still haven't added any extra content yet (and there are plenty of ideas).

So yeah, i wrote at the start of this post that i won't be able to finish it in time. To be honest, i just misjudged how much i needed to rewrite and add to make arousal and the new sex system work. Should've split them into two separate updates. And if i release it on weekends with only one new feature and one rework of a system that was already kinda working, it's gonna feel lackluster. So, i’ll keep working on this update for a bit more...