Rogue-Like 10/15 status update

Oni

Well, there are already a lot of little dialogs that happen if you focus on certain aspects of the game, and you can choose to have her act more submissively with higher obedience. I don't know about adding a hard lockout on any major elements though, because I don't want players to unlock everything available and then not be able to do the things they wanted to do. I want there to be more options at the top, not less. That said, playing through multiple times in different ways should provide unique experiences.

shane garrod

Oni, I have a question. I haven't played your builds lately so you may have changed the options around and I am going to look into the game again but why not also add in a subversive style into it as well that would allow the player to break her sense of self so they could date multiple girls too without having negatives happen and that would allow the player to choose if they want to be the romantic hero and have certain options or rewards and then the darker style of player who also gets certain rewards. It would add to the replay value since you would not be able to cover both sides at the same time.

Oni

Not sure, I'd still like to get a version out around the beginning of the month, but I need to tie up some loose ends. One thing I just finished was a shift to the "floating damage numbers" display that makes it so that it tracks the character's position on the screen, which is useful when multiple girls are active at once.

JJATH

So any idea when the next update will be out?

Oni

Right. Picking one makes things simpler at the mid-level of the relationships, but there's no final "pick one" point, and you can break up with one, romance another, get in really good with her, work on the first one again, get them both together, and so on.

Bernard

Well that is fine by me, B) I was just firing from the hip but if you have other ideas that's great. Just hate games that make you say you want one thing or the other, why worry about the grass being greener, when you own both sides right?

Oni

I have avoided having true "bad ends" in the game, there is no point where you should find yourself completely unrecoverable, no choice will permanently block off a future option, because while I think it's fun for people to choose to replay the game to try different routes, I don't want to FORCE players to retry because they've spent their time working forward and made some mistake that makes future progress impossible. It's a part of the irony that Rogue-Like is one of the least "Rogue-like" games out there. ;) So basically, in the worst case scenarios, you can really piss off one or both of the girls, really reduce their useful stats, put some time penalties on being able to seriously get back into their good graces, but you can keep plugging forward and eventually get back to where you were, and hopefully make some better choices.

Oni

A harem "ending" will be possible (there aren't technically any "ends" to the game, but you will be able to reach a point where every available girl is cool with you fucking every other available girl whenever you like), but it comes through convincing each girl to go along with it. I try to avoid sort of "cheap" takeover tactics like hypnosis or outright mind control of the girls, although there are certainly ways to play one off the other to advance both.

Oni

It is an interesting idea, and I'm working out the mechanics for it, but I need to nail down some more basic stuff. It totally makes sense though, that if you can get the girls into a certain range of stats, they would be actively flirting with you and flaunting themselves and maybe squabbling with each other.

Munkyboy

I didn't realize there was any logic to relationships :@ Hmm... Is one of the outcomes a perfect shit-storm? Or maybe it's just my life :( Sounds interesting tho, so I'm looking forward to see how you've worked this out :D

Bernard

I for one would like to work out a harem ending, maybe using the omega protocol with professor x to mold kitty to your whims or, breaking kitty to the point where she uses her powers to break into rogues room at night so you can dominate her at night, using overexposure to your power to create crippling addiction where she can't be apart from you.

TurnipFactory

I would kill for a sequence of events where the girls "compete" for your attention, as mentioned by a person earlier.

Techfire80

I wonder if the characters just need a jealousy score. So certain actions will increase it, and others will decrease it. As long as the girls stay under a certain level of jealousy, they don't care what you do when they aren't around

Trai Nguyen

Don't give up.

Got to say I am loving the thought you are putting into this with the story and how things have the potential to unfold based on the players actions. Makes this entire thing more of a realistic human relationship simulator rather than just some porn thing. Because in life sometimes you fall in love then break up, find someone else, break up.... then end up having a complex on again off again thing with your first ex which might make your second ex jealous enough to try to win you back.

Oni

Yeah, it's definitely a trade-off. It does take some time to nail a functional build together from the workbuild I'm working on, so even if people wanted it, knocking together daily or even weekly releases would waste a lot of time that could be spent actually adding to the game (although I suppose some of that I could streamline), but also I want to make sure that new releases have some real "meat" to them, something new and interesting to play with.

Khalomar

Well, if its any consolation, I'd much rather get a couple smaller updates as this stuff comes together as opposed to waiting for the whole thing. Gives us something to chew on, and we can start sniffing out bugs and such for you. Assuming it doesnt create a bunch of extra work for you! Cause if it'd cause significant delays then waiting is better.

Oni

Hopefully. It all depends when I get this wrapped up. I'm debating whether to release with just Rogue's side of the relationship system and let people test that out, or to wait until I have more of Kitty's options filled out, even though some of them you won't be able to reach yet.

Thanks for the update, I appreciate being kept in the loop. Good luck and I can't wait to get a new build into my hands :)

Khalomar

Do we have an ETA for the next build? Sometime this month? :D

Oni

Not in this build, but not something I'd rule out long term. ;) It wouldn't be a game over though, just a set-back. You could always bring it back around later.

Oni

That'll teach me to post updates late at night. . .

So maybe if you screw up with both of them they'll just start dating each other and it's game over? :-D

Archer

Sounds promising! And SUPER convoluted from a creation point of view, lol. Since it hasn't been asked yet, I'll ask the obvious ETA question (ballpark). Also : uh, "8/15 update" as a title? October might have been the 8th month for the Romans, but it's the 10th for us. :P

Oni

A fair point, and maybe I should think through it a bit more, but currently having high obedience and inhibition makes things slightly easier than if all three are balanced. It's true that a high obedience/zero love character would not be as passionate about it, but she could still feel jealousy that you want to spend more time with this other girl. The thing to always keep in mind is that 100% obedience is not like "robot state," that would be like 300% Obedience, which isn't an option. It just means that she's as willing to listen to what you have to say as she's likely to get. If she's max obedient and also loves you as much as possible, then she's even more likely to listen. If she's max obedient and also maxed Inhibition, shes more likely to listen because she doesn't much care about not listening.

Medicman

What if you make one of them full obedience and no love, would they still be mad if you date the other?