manyeyedhydra
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Update 21st Mar '21
🕑 Added 2021-03-22 00:13:11 +0000 UTCProgress is still of the slow and steady type, with this week being a little on the torturous side.
The Madam's tour and the fleshing out passages are all typed up. I've been through them with a couple of editing sweeps. Will likely need to give them a couple more before implementing them next week to make sure the tone is correct (will get to that later).
The Barman's pieces were a sticking point for a while. He's supposed to explain the rules the Madam 'forgets' to mention and give the introductions for the other NPCs. It was a little fiddlier than I was anticipating, but most of the passages have been written. Again it will likely take multiple edits to get the tone right.
About the tone. This is the thing giving me fits at the moment. Before the first room visit the player character (as in them, not the player controlling them) has to know that the harlot is a non-human succubus, will give them a sexual experience beyond their wildest dreams, but may also kill them. At the moment I feel like I'm writing in circles around that.
One problem is that the Madam's tour is a little too coy. The PC gets the impression something is off with the brothel, but not enough. Which means the first time he sees a succubus be confirmed as non-human he should freak out. I don't want to write that first 'freak out' scene for every harlot, so I need to add a little section during the tour where he realises the harlots are not human.
The next is to drop the horror tone a little. The Barman's pieces are a little too heavy on the "if you go through her door, you will die". It's so doomy, the PC would likely be crumpling up in a nervous wreck outside the harlot's door rather than go inside. This doesn't fit the tone of the individual scenarios, which mostly have the PC enjoying sexual bliss even if it tips into a Bad End.
I have the raw blocks for these segments, I just need to bash them into the right shape so the Madam's tour flows into the Barman's intro, and then into the first harlot room visit, with a PC that seems internally consistent throughout.
We're getting near the end of the month, so I started typing up Hookah Caterpillar girl and I'm about a thousand words in there. Whatever happens I want to have her scenario in the March release. Ideally I want the rest (the intro, the Madam's tour, fleshing out internal game loop passages, and the Barman) as well, but I might need to push some of it to April if I don't think it's right and feel it needs more polish.
Thanks for the continued support!
- manyeyedhydra
Comments
Many-Eyed Hydra
It is her. Boobella has also shown up in one of my short stories. There will be others - either named characters from stories, or monster girl types from H-space, so long as there's a reasonable explanation for them to be there. There is a placeholder named Nicole, but she won't appear. It would break a lot of backstory to force her in there (unlike Nurse Honey, who goes where she damn well pleases). I do have plans for a suspiciously similar expy that I hope will soften people's disappointment on that.
Many-Eyed Hydra
Might be a possibility for repeat visit scenarios. I've cut back on those as they add a lot of work, but they're something I'll add later. A harlot that gets more and more dangerous (as well as more and more seductive and pleasurable) as the player visits them would make a good side-quest and alternate ending.
Hey! I'm fan of yours on literotic but just find here so have some question as a freshman. Is Nurse Honey precisely the one in "Succbus Summoning" series ? If yes, does other NPCs has some background can be found in your past works?
Petronio Valença
I wonder if it would also be interesting to put a form of regret after the Human gave up leaving the room? When the human leaves the room and catches a glimpse of the monster girl seducing him, he will stop giving up and return to her even though there is a great risk that she will consume his life?!?!
Many-Eyed Hydra
He does that to some extent. Main problem is he definitely doesn't have the player's best interests at heart. This can be seen in the feedback to some harlots where he asks the player to try out different things next time, where those things (anal with Suka, the bed with Pix) will kill the player. It would be out of character for him to scare the player too much.
Many-Eyed Hydra
That would definitely solve the mood consistency problem. It would be an extra round before the player gets the 3 choices, so it does maybe delay getting to the meat of the game too much. Lobotomy Corp does this as the first oddity is always the same. Another option would be to always start with the same first trio of "gentle" succubi. It still has the choice-of-three, but the experience is always pleasant, and then the player gets the warning from the Barman. I'm loathe to change things now, as it would torpedo March's release, but it's something I might brainstorm and maybe change if feedback calls for it or I switch to a 2.0 version in something like Unity. The other thing I was thinking is to introduce the NPCs more gradually, so the player isn't overwhelmed at the start. Darkest Dungeon does this with the various hamlet buildings being unlocked one-by-one after runs. The downside is that HoHH is possibly too short for that. I'm anticipating maybe around 13 rounds of harlots, and not being able to access the Charm Seller until after round 3 feels like missing out on a lot of fun.
Civil
Maybe you can use the past protagonist trope and have a few individuals who allegedly escaped or who later worked at the harem. It'd provide a little hope to offset the bleakness. Whatever you decide, I'm sure it will work!
Tiber Septim
With regard to options to work in a warning to the player character, Maybe the portly gentleman is tailor maid for such a task. He sits in the bar, already has a habbit of waving you down and is already set up to have reasons to discuss such matter with you. An initial warning from him about the true nature of the girls wouldn't feel at all out of place.
Tempered_Turtle
Yeah. Plus if you decide to do a round 0 harlot, you wouldn't need to edit the barman much I'd assume. Basically just toss something like "Oh, you had fun with her did you? Well let me tell you more about these gals"
Many-Eyed Hydra
That might be a good backup option. I have an alternate "fix" I'm working on, but that could be a possibility. The drawback is the player would be going through that scenario every time they restarted, so it would need to be skippable, or fairly short and simple. I'll persist with what I'm trying for now, at least for the ver0.017 release, but a "Round 0" harlot might be something to consider. It would give the internal consistency as the PC would have already have a nice experience to counterbalance the "You're gonna die" narrative from the Barman. I think I might be able to get the same by having the player bump into one of the harlots during the tour, be intensely attracted to her, then realise she isn't human, and then be told by The Madam that this is a "special establishment". (Plus I can always give that harlot her own 'special' scenario later.)
Tempered_Turtle
If you are having issues with how you want to reveal the harlots, why not make that one Harlot (I forget her name, she is gentler and wants to take your virginity) a kind of starting scenario? Like, shes the introductory harlot you meet, which plays into her theme of she only likes virgins, iirc? Player can choose yes or no, and she seems the type to understand eitherway, and warns, if you say no, that the others won't give you much option, you have to play by the rules, etc.
